Silver Adept (![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png)
silveradept) wrote2009-04-04 09:48 am
silveradept) wrote2009-04-04 09:48 am
Feeling a bit more upright - 3 April 2009
Hail, Fools! (Note the capital F. You’re different than the regular fools - like the woman who called 911 because she could not get out of her locked car when the power failed.) Which one of you is responsible for changing the number for a conference call to the Secretary of State so that a phone sex line picked up? Because that was clearly Foolish. And somebody managed to hoodwink someone so that child Predator hands went on sale without anyone noticing the juxtaposition.
Welcome to, once again, the future (as seen by the past). It is a place where some people want to see underagers sending nude pictures of each other curbed by allowing them to be branded as sex offenders and child pornographers and others want those people to chill out, as nudie pictures are certainly not the worst thing someone can do as a teenager, in addition to the forbidden fruit aspects that one might be creating by making such exhibitionism illegal.
Those fighting for equality of relationships, regardless of the gender of the two (or more) in the relationship have had two victories - Sweden voted to legalize marriage betweeen homosexuals, and Iowa's highest state court ruled that equal protection trumps discriminatory laws.
Internationally, Canadian airport security is lax, as two politicians went through restricted areas and chatted with workers on the tarmac without being challenged as to who they were or what they were doing there.
Brazil is legalizing artistic graffiti, as opposed to tagging or other uglier material that serves no greater artistic purpose. So Banksy would probably be legal there, but the train-taggers, probably not.
Looks like more troops for Afghanistan...as soon as we can get them out of Iraq, that is. The bit about never fighting a land war in Asia? When you’re fighting two, it only gets worse. President Obama urged his NATO counterparts to pick up some troop slack so that he’s not the only one sending people over. To some, Afghanistan troop levels might be the straw that breaks NATO's back. The Washington Times says the G-20 trip shifted needed supplies and required the hiring of more contractors to keep the troops supplied - saying without saying that Barack Obama hates the troops as he jets around on political missions.
Non-profits on-line could collect more if they had a clear statement of what they were about and disclose what they use their donations for, according to research conducted by the Nielsen Norman group, not to be confused with the other Nielsen most people are familiar with.
Domestically, The Census Bureau is working with community organizations to try and count all of the illegal immigrants inside the U.S. for the 2010 Census - which means I can start hearing the cries that illegal immigrants will be shifting the balance of power in the House and Senate and sparking off a new round of “deport them all, now, before they affect us!”
a shooting and hostage situation at a New York immigration center has killed at least 12, including the shooter.
in the midst of economic recession, here are ten cities that people are moving to, which is encouraging, and in the recession, some people are simply not declaring the income they really have, which isn’t quite as encouraging.
Speaking of economics, and jumping into our opinion section.![[livejournal.com profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/external/lj-userinfo.gif)
bradhicks thinks the not-really breach of royal protocol was probably the most newsworthy event coming out of the G-20 summit, because the document and things sure as hell weren’t news. The WSJ agrees, calling the summit a reality check on what the leaders were thinking global governance could do.
Mr. Hillyer sees uncomfortable parallels between the current Obama administration policy and the rise of Fascist Italy, Mr. Gerecht is convinced that the Obama strategy toward Iran will produce the opposite effect of what he wants, galvanizing the Iranians and Khameni to develop a nuke bomb and use it, Mr. Hanson believes Europe will soon regret President Obama, a person farther to the left than themselves and someone who isn't interested in taking care of them, Mr. Boskin sees $6.5 trillion of new debt, rather than a reduction, which translates to hard tax increases on each family of four below the stated no-taxes threshold, Mr. Will sees another Congressional protectionist grab in the name of environmentalism, using CFL requirements, cap-and trade (although he’s probably happy that any cap and trade bill will have to get 60 votes to succeed), possible border purchases of carbon offsets, and other items as his worry (he also believes that because global warming hasn’t happened for 11 years now, that it’s all just hype, too), Ms. Strassel thinks the Dems aren't as interested in change as they are in power, running avalanche campaigns against any Republican who looks to lead the opposition, and it looks like the party in power is just going to ruin the country, doesn’t it?
The WSJ complains about more unintended consequences of CPSIA, this time sacking the child-size motorcycle industry.
Mr. Feith, one of the Republicans named in possible a Spanish indictment on war crimes, discusses how he shouldn't have to worry that another country will prosecute him for advice he gave to the president. And he shouldn’t. I just wonder whether the international nature of the torture allegations makes him culpable even for just his advice because the things took place outside the United States. At that point, then, all bets are off. “I was only offering advice” isn’t too far awy from “I was only following orders”, and that one didn’t work.
Mr. Sensenbrenner says that the only way to beat climate change is through the development of better technology, not through carbon taxes, and not least because the countries that need to do the most reductions of emissions aren’t going to do any, so less on the foreign aid and more on the domestic development, please, says he.
The bronze in “making something out of nothing” is the media conference declaring that their wall-to-wall of the President is totally justified because he's making so many big decisions so quickly. I think the 24-hour constant news cycle is broken by nature, because it leads to articles and situations like these or the ones covering royal protocol breaches.
Our runners up in “making something out of nothing” are those who complain that distributing tickets to the Easter Egg Roll on-line are shutting out the poor and disadvantaged... while the major commentary from the article is that the servers were slammed and couldn’t handle the demand. On-line distribution is, indeed, potentially making the digital divide a problem, but how many people would stand in line for hours to get said tickets at the White House. Isn’t that just as “discriminatory” against the poor, who likely would have to work instead of being able to stand in line? I would also hope that those who wanted them who were poor know about the Internet access at their public or school libraries so as to sign on and get tickets. That people then scalped their tickets on-line is poor behavior, and I wouldn’t be surprised if they got investigated.
Winning tonight in the “making a big something out of nothing” department, someone wants to paint Barack Obama as bowing, in some sort of fealty-like gesture, to the King of Saudi Arabia, and then checking himself. The writer says repeatedly “I‘m not part of the Barack Obama is a Muslim crowd, but I do wonder whether he’s hiding that he’s a Muslim or some other Manchurian-style candidate“, and manages to work in the ”breach of royal protocol“ as well as the apparent second insult of giving the Queen an iPod filled with music she likes. Hot Air continues on the theme, believing the deep bow to be that Barack Obama is showing more respect to the Saudi King that Queen Elizabeth II.
The opinion columns have been so fruitful, hwoever, that we have another running for demerits tonight (what’s the lunar cycle?). Ann Acoulter's screed about how the government, now in control of everything, should be pruning away everyone she doesn&apost like - liberal academics, with an in-depth view on a Princeton professor she’s sure will make most people feel ill about, school superintendents and the Department of Education, who are clearly turning out inferior products to private schools, despite government spending plenty more on public schools than on private ones, Gavin Newsom, illegal immigrants, clearly the biggest drain on our social services, et cetera - does not actually make the list. Comparatively speaking, she’s tame.
Taking broze dishonors in the quiche competition tonight is Gary Andres, who fingers Comedy Central, Jon Stewart, and other humorists as the reason why people had significantly more negative opinions of the Republican Party during 2004. The skewering was apparently heavily focused on Republican missteps, with dark humor, while the Demcorats got off lightly. Rather than blaming the humorists for finding their material where it was easily available, what does that say about the people they were making fun of?
The silver medal in the quiche competition goes to Floyd and Mary Beth Brown, for their accusation that the mainstream media censors their stories to advance a liberal agenda, and declaration that this censorship is the cause of newspaper demise. Which really isn’t anything new, at least for the first part, but this is the first time I’ve seen the connection drawn between the Liberal Agenda that everyone in the MSM has and the death of newspapers. The Browns conclude that nobody trusts the news anymore, based on their blatant censorship, and all flock to Fox News because Fox gives them right-of-center voices and stories to listen to, and tells them about the things they want to hear.
Taking hot pastry doom, however, is Evan Sayet, who speaks his most naked hatred of liberals, declaring that only when Republican presidents persevered in the face of the rabid anti-war faction did good things come out of military conflicts, with the latest example being a Valentine’s Day celebration in Iraq, a freedom granted solely because Real Americans supported the war against the anti-American defeatists, liars, and underminers of the Great Commander-In-Chief, George W. Bush.
Technologically, a robot has generated a hypothesis and experiments to test it without intervention or prompting from the humans observing it, NEC is turning reducing one's carbon footprint into a game, online novels in China skirt censors and reach millions - it’s awful tough to close off yourselves from the world, especially if you want to keep up with their innovations, wanting to add mobile network capacity to just about everything, discovering that heart cells do regenerate some, cheaper catalysts for fuel cells, so that platinum doesn’t have to shoulder the load, A Conficker bust for 1 April, but it could bubble up later, the possibly-infected but definitely vaccinated ebola scientist seems to be fine, and using viruses and other nanotech to build lithium-ion batteries.
Last for tonight - 10 reasons why your company shouldn't be on Twitter, most of which are ”If you want to use Twitter for a purpose other than the intended one, don’t.“ You can decide whether broadcasting deaths in Iraq qualifies as one or the other.
Welcome to, once again, the future (as seen by the past). It is a place where some people want to see underagers sending nude pictures of each other curbed by allowing them to be branded as sex offenders and child pornographers and others want those people to chill out, as nudie pictures are certainly not the worst thing someone can do as a teenager, in addition to the forbidden fruit aspects that one might be creating by making such exhibitionism illegal.
Those fighting for equality of relationships, regardless of the gender of the two (or more) in the relationship have had two victories - Sweden voted to legalize marriage betweeen homosexuals, and Iowa's highest state court ruled that equal protection trumps discriminatory laws.
Internationally, Canadian airport security is lax, as two politicians went through restricted areas and chatted with workers on the tarmac without being challenged as to who they were or what they were doing there.
Brazil is legalizing artistic graffiti, as opposed to tagging or other uglier material that serves no greater artistic purpose. So Banksy would probably be legal there, but the train-taggers, probably not.
Looks like more troops for Afghanistan...as soon as we can get them out of Iraq, that is. The bit about never fighting a land war in Asia? When you’re fighting two, it only gets worse. President Obama urged his NATO counterparts to pick up some troop slack so that he’s not the only one sending people over. To some, Afghanistan troop levels might be the straw that breaks NATO's back. The Washington Times says the G-20 trip shifted needed supplies and required the hiring of more contractors to keep the troops supplied - saying without saying that Barack Obama hates the troops as he jets around on political missions.
Non-profits on-line could collect more if they had a clear statement of what they were about and disclose what they use their donations for, according to research conducted by the Nielsen Norman group, not to be confused with the other Nielsen most people are familiar with.
Domestically, The Census Bureau is working with community organizations to try and count all of the illegal immigrants inside the U.S. for the 2010 Census - which means I can start hearing the cries that illegal immigrants will be shifting the balance of power in the House and Senate and sparking off a new round of “deport them all, now, before they affect us!”
a shooting and hostage situation at a New York immigration center has killed at least 12, including the shooter.
in the midst of economic recession, here are ten cities that people are moving to, which is encouraging, and in the recession, some people are simply not declaring the income they really have, which isn’t quite as encouraging.
Speaking of economics, and jumping into our opinion section.
bradhicks thinks the not-really breach of royal protocol was probably the most newsworthy event coming out of the G-20 summit, because the document and things sure as hell weren’t news. The WSJ agrees, calling the summit a reality check on what the leaders were thinking global governance could do.Mr. Hillyer sees uncomfortable parallels between the current Obama administration policy and the rise of Fascist Italy, Mr. Gerecht is convinced that the Obama strategy toward Iran will produce the opposite effect of what he wants, galvanizing the Iranians and Khameni to develop a nuke bomb and use it, Mr. Hanson believes Europe will soon regret President Obama, a person farther to the left than themselves and someone who isn't interested in taking care of them, Mr. Boskin sees $6.5 trillion of new debt, rather than a reduction, which translates to hard tax increases on each family of four below the stated no-taxes threshold, Mr. Will sees another Congressional protectionist grab in the name of environmentalism, using CFL requirements, cap-and trade (although he’s probably happy that any cap and trade bill will have to get 60 votes to succeed), possible border purchases of carbon offsets, and other items as his worry (he also believes that because global warming hasn’t happened for 11 years now, that it’s all just hype, too), Ms. Strassel thinks the Dems aren't as interested in change as they are in power, running avalanche campaigns against any Republican who looks to lead the opposition, and it looks like the party in power is just going to ruin the country, doesn’t it?
The WSJ complains about more unintended consequences of CPSIA, this time sacking the child-size motorcycle industry.
Mr. Feith, one of the Republicans named in possible a Spanish indictment on war crimes, discusses how he shouldn't have to worry that another country will prosecute him for advice he gave to the president. And he shouldn’t. I just wonder whether the international nature of the torture allegations makes him culpable even for just his advice because the things took place outside the United States. At that point, then, all bets are off. “I was only offering advice” isn’t too far awy from “I was only following orders”, and that one didn’t work.
Mr. Sensenbrenner says that the only way to beat climate change is through the development of better technology, not through carbon taxes, and not least because the countries that need to do the most reductions of emissions aren’t going to do any, so less on the foreign aid and more on the domestic development, please, says he.
The bronze in “making something out of nothing” is the media conference declaring that their wall-to-wall of the President is totally justified because he's making so many big decisions so quickly. I think the 24-hour constant news cycle is broken by nature, because it leads to articles and situations like these or the ones covering royal protocol breaches.
Our runners up in “making something out of nothing” are those who complain that distributing tickets to the Easter Egg Roll on-line are shutting out the poor and disadvantaged... while the major commentary from the article is that the servers were slammed and couldn’t handle the demand. On-line distribution is, indeed, potentially making the digital divide a problem, but how many people would stand in line for hours to get said tickets at the White House. Isn’t that just as “discriminatory” against the poor, who likely would have to work instead of being able to stand in line? I would also hope that those who wanted them who were poor know about the Internet access at their public or school libraries so as to sign on and get tickets. That people then scalped their tickets on-line is poor behavior, and I wouldn’t be surprised if they got investigated.
Winning tonight in the “making a big something out of nothing” department, someone wants to paint Barack Obama as bowing, in some sort of fealty-like gesture, to the King of Saudi Arabia, and then checking himself. The writer says repeatedly “I‘m not part of the Barack Obama is a Muslim crowd, but I do wonder whether he’s hiding that he’s a Muslim or some other Manchurian-style candidate“, and manages to work in the ”breach of royal protocol“ as well as the apparent second insult of giving the Queen an iPod filled with music she likes. Hot Air continues on the theme, believing the deep bow to be that Barack Obama is showing more respect to the Saudi King that Queen Elizabeth II.
The opinion columns have been so fruitful, hwoever, that we have another running for demerits tonight (what’s the lunar cycle?). Ann Acoulter's screed about how the government, now in control of everything, should be pruning away everyone she doesn&apost like - liberal academics, with an in-depth view on a Princeton professor she’s sure will make most people feel ill about, school superintendents and the Department of Education, who are clearly turning out inferior products to private schools, despite government spending plenty more on public schools than on private ones, Gavin Newsom, illegal immigrants, clearly the biggest drain on our social services, et cetera - does not actually make the list. Comparatively speaking, she’s tame.
Taking broze dishonors in the quiche competition tonight is Gary Andres, who fingers Comedy Central, Jon Stewart, and other humorists as the reason why people had significantly more negative opinions of the Republican Party during 2004. The skewering was apparently heavily focused on Republican missteps, with dark humor, while the Demcorats got off lightly. Rather than blaming the humorists for finding their material where it was easily available, what does that say about the people they were making fun of?
The silver medal in the quiche competition goes to Floyd and Mary Beth Brown, for their accusation that the mainstream media censors their stories to advance a liberal agenda, and declaration that this censorship is the cause of newspaper demise. Which really isn’t anything new, at least for the first part, but this is the first time I’ve seen the connection drawn between the Liberal Agenda that everyone in the MSM has and the death of newspapers. The Browns conclude that nobody trusts the news anymore, based on their blatant censorship, and all flock to Fox News because Fox gives them right-of-center voices and stories to listen to, and tells them about the things they want to hear.
Taking hot pastry doom, however, is Evan Sayet, who speaks his most naked hatred of liberals, declaring that only when Republican presidents persevered in the face of the rabid anti-war faction did good things come out of military conflicts, with the latest example being a Valentine’s Day celebration in Iraq, a freedom granted solely because Real Americans supported the war against the anti-American defeatists, liars, and underminers of the Great Commander-In-Chief, George W. Bush.
Technologically, a robot has generated a hypothesis and experiments to test it without intervention or prompting from the humans observing it, NEC is turning reducing one's carbon footprint into a game, online novels in China skirt censors and reach millions - it’s awful tough to close off yourselves from the world, especially if you want to keep up with their innovations, wanting to add mobile network capacity to just about everything, discovering that heart cells do regenerate some, cheaper catalysts for fuel cells, so that platinum doesn’t have to shoulder the load, A Conficker bust for 1 April, but it could bubble up later, the possibly-infected but definitely vaccinated ebola scientist seems to be fine, and using viruses and other nanotech to build lithium-ion batteries.
Last for tonight - 10 reasons why your company shouldn't be on Twitter, most of which are ”If you want to use Twitter for a purpose other than the intended one, don’t.“ You can decide whether broadcasting deaths in Iraq qualifies as one or the other.