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silveradeptGreetings. Up top, stories of captured miniature UFOs, Yellow-Yellow, who is smarter than the average bear and can break into supposedly bear-proof food containers, and comics about housepets with libertarian viewpoints.
In the world, Kurdish opposition parties gained in elections, but not enough to unseat the ruling powers in the Kurdish areas of Iraq. Compared to their neighbors, Iraq is calm and quiet. Iran, on the other hand, braces for more protestors mourning the death of Neda Agha-Soltan, even though many more may be staying home in fear of Basij and the Revolutionary Guard.
Domestically, let’s play with the health care thing, where the Republicans and the health care industry have teamed up to stop or water down health care reform, with support from the very rich, who will only be mildly inconvenienced, if that, should surtaxes pass, intent on focusing the debate on teh least consequential part, the short-term cost and utilizing the media to make sure that the real reformers are shut out or marginalized.
After all that, the military is planning on teams to assist civilian authorities in case of an H1N1 outbreak.
And, because the “Stupid, Supid Congresscritters” file isn’t already full enough, Representative Pete Sessions, who hates earmarks, earmarked money to a corporation to do dirigible research - something they had never done before - claiming they were in Dallas when they were really headquartered in Chicago. Admittedly, the anti-earmark stance happened after this particular one went through, but you really can’t make this stuff up.
In the opinions, Ms. Walsh gives us an explanation why the United States hasn't hit the social-democratic stride - there are too many people willing and able to exploit the cultural and racial differences between subgroups of the populace to prevent those subgroups from uniting under one banner for their causes - and that extends to the racial attacks and the birther claims against Barack Obama.
Amanada Marcotte may have the best opinion written today on the Gates matter - a reminder that we shouldn't have to make the same calculations about the police that we would with armed criminals, which she quoted from Digsby, making the point initially and talking about some of the racial components, as well as the authoritarian trend in police actions and the justifications for those actions. Despite the reports that keep coming out where the police are behaving exactly like that and then hiding behind their badge, gun, and authority, to make sure they don’t get punished for it, because you were clearly asking for it. Like women are asking for it when they get raped. Or how Job's friends must have felt like he was asking for the big smiting from God.
If you want to track the trend of the Obama opinion, Gallup offers a Flash utility to see all the positive and negative from day to day.
Elsewhere, Mr. Bihde says that the Fed should be broken up, because it hasn't been doing the job it was tasked to do, or any of the additional tasks given to it over time. The Fed was in another opinion, one where the WSJ says the Fed should listen to the Chinese when they make noises about currency worries.
The WSJ is keeping an eye on a suit in Pennsylvania that will decide whether the government can hire law firms to prosecute for them if those firms have made significant financial contributions to re-election campaigns and organizations.
The current president of Honduras defends the decision and the method of removing Mr. Zelaya, the previous president.
On health care, "Mr. Dalrymple" says that universal health care is bad - Britain is the perfect example, both of having universal health care and of the incompetence and stupidity of government running such. He also says anyone saying that there’s a right to health care is mistaken. The WSJ repeats a conservative talking point that the flexibility of doctor decisions for treatment will soon be replaced by inflexible bureaucratic decisions. Mr. Frank, to round us out, suggests that the Gates comment is the perfect trap to draw the people's attention away from forcing through excellent health care reform. Always nice to have a sane voice, although his commentary on how “elitism” always works against liberals seems sketchy - mostly because at some point, the people do want “elites” in charge.
Playing for quiche, Mr. Bolton is still declaring that Israel is going to attack Iran, and that nobody should be surprised when it happens, because the United States has adopted the weak and ineffective strategy toward dissuading Iran’s nuclear interests.
In the middle, I have to say I predicted this in my head, said it aloud to nobody in particular, but may not have blogged about it, but I’m so not surprised that American beer manufacturers are nonplussed that the beer summit at the White House features precisely zero beer that is owned by an American company. It’s one of those things you saw coming, and wished wouldn’t happen, but it did anyway. *sigh*
On top, The WSJ swings for the fences, trying to tie together the corruption of one Democrat evading his taxes as an indication as to why people should vote against higher taxes. Unfortunately, much like Casey, while presenting their case, the WSJ strikes out on the bigger issue - there’s more than just the Congresscritters evading their taxes. After all, by their own admission, the higher taxes are, the more rich people will cheat on them to avoid paying their full value. So, while it is scandalous that the Congresscritter would dodge paying his fair share, too, you cannot then turn around and not be scandalized by all the other people, liberals and conservatives alike, that are also dodging paying theirs. Who else isn’t paying up, WSJ? Can you compile a nice list of all the rich people who should be paying massive taxes but manage to pay pennies, if any at all?
In technology, AI assistants intending to be less irritating than Clippy, the possibility that an ice age helped Hume brain size grow, trying to figure out the story behind 51 headless and naked Vikings buried in England,
Last for tonight, good-looking animals in good-looking photographs. The lizard mohawk is excellent. If you would like something more abstract, try Chapter 1: The Discovery.
If, instead, you are looking for a laugh, e-mails (and more) from Crazy People will probably hit the sweet spot.
In the world, Kurdish opposition parties gained in elections, but not enough to unseat the ruling powers in the Kurdish areas of Iraq. Compared to their neighbors, Iraq is calm and quiet. Iran, on the other hand, braces for more protestors mourning the death of Neda Agha-Soltan, even though many more may be staying home in fear of Basij and the Revolutionary Guard.
Domestically, let’s play with the health care thing, where the Republicans and the health care industry have teamed up to stop or water down health care reform, with support from the very rich, who will only be mildly inconvenienced, if that, should surtaxes pass, intent on focusing the debate on teh least consequential part, the short-term cost and utilizing the media to make sure that the real reformers are shut out or marginalized.
After all that, the military is planning on teams to assist civilian authorities in case of an H1N1 outbreak.
And, because the “Stupid, Supid Congresscritters” file isn’t already full enough, Representative Pete Sessions, who hates earmarks, earmarked money to a corporation to do dirigible research - something they had never done before - claiming they were in Dallas when they were really headquartered in Chicago. Admittedly, the anti-earmark stance happened after this particular one went through, but you really can’t make this stuff up.
In the opinions, Ms. Walsh gives us an explanation why the United States hasn't hit the social-democratic stride - there are too many people willing and able to exploit the cultural and racial differences between subgroups of the populace to prevent those subgroups from uniting under one banner for their causes - and that extends to the racial attacks and the birther claims against Barack Obama.
Amanada Marcotte may have the best opinion written today on the Gates matter - a reminder that we shouldn't have to make the same calculations about the police that we would with armed criminals, which she quoted from Digsby, making the point initially and talking about some of the racial components, as well as the authoritarian trend in police actions and the justifications for those actions. Despite the reports that keep coming out where the police are behaving exactly like that and then hiding behind their badge, gun, and authority, to make sure they don’t get punished for it, because you were clearly asking for it. Like women are asking for it when they get raped. Or how Job's friends must have felt like he was asking for the big smiting from God.
If you want to track the trend of the Obama opinion, Gallup offers a Flash utility to see all the positive and negative from day to day.
Elsewhere, Mr. Bihde says that the Fed should be broken up, because it hasn't been doing the job it was tasked to do, or any of the additional tasks given to it over time. The Fed was in another opinion, one where the WSJ says the Fed should listen to the Chinese when they make noises about currency worries.
The WSJ is keeping an eye on a suit in Pennsylvania that will decide whether the government can hire law firms to prosecute for them if those firms have made significant financial contributions to re-election campaigns and organizations.
The current president of Honduras defends the decision and the method of removing Mr. Zelaya, the previous president.
On health care, "Mr. Dalrymple" says that universal health care is bad - Britain is the perfect example, both of having universal health care and of the incompetence and stupidity of government running such. He also says anyone saying that there’s a right to health care is mistaken. The WSJ repeats a conservative talking point that the flexibility of doctor decisions for treatment will soon be replaced by inflexible bureaucratic decisions. Mr. Frank, to round us out, suggests that the Gates comment is the perfect trap to draw the people's attention away from forcing through excellent health care reform. Always nice to have a sane voice, although his commentary on how “elitism” always works against liberals seems sketchy - mostly because at some point, the people do want “elites” in charge.
Playing for quiche, Mr. Bolton is still declaring that Israel is going to attack Iran, and that nobody should be surprised when it happens, because the United States has adopted the weak and ineffective strategy toward dissuading Iran’s nuclear interests.
In the middle, I have to say I predicted this in my head, said it aloud to nobody in particular, but may not have blogged about it, but I’m so not surprised that American beer manufacturers are nonplussed that the beer summit at the White House features precisely zero beer that is owned by an American company. It’s one of those things you saw coming, and wished wouldn’t happen, but it did anyway. *sigh*
On top, The WSJ swings for the fences, trying to tie together the corruption of one Democrat evading his taxes as an indication as to why people should vote against higher taxes. Unfortunately, much like Casey, while presenting their case, the WSJ strikes out on the bigger issue - there’s more than just the Congresscritters evading their taxes. After all, by their own admission, the higher taxes are, the more rich people will cheat on them to avoid paying their full value. So, while it is scandalous that the Congresscritter would dodge paying his fair share, too, you cannot then turn around and not be scandalized by all the other people, liberals and conservatives alike, that are also dodging paying theirs. Who else isn’t paying up, WSJ? Can you compile a nice list of all the rich people who should be paying massive taxes but manage to pay pennies, if any at all?
In technology, AI assistants intending to be less irritating than Clippy, the possibility that an ice age helped Hume brain size grow, trying to figure out the story behind 51 headless and naked Vikings buried in England,
Last for tonight, good-looking animals in good-looking photographs. The lizard mohawk is excellent. If you would like something more abstract, try Chapter 1: The Discovery.
If, instead, you are looking for a laugh, e-mails (and more) from Crazy People will probably hit the sweet spot.
