New Month, New News - 2 August 2009
Aug. 2nd, 2009 11:35 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
silveradeptUp top, because it keeps getting all sorts of play across the Intarwebs, perhaps because it reinforces, breaks, or both, the sexy librarian stereotype, or because it blows people’s minds to think this, The Texas Library Association is putting together a pin-up calendar of some of their librarians with ink. Support your libraries, says I. If this interests you, buy one. If not, check out a study that suggests how overconfident a student is might relate to how well they can read - someone who thinks too highly of themselves may bite off more than they can chew and then let it sit and not improve, because “it’s too hard”, whereas someone who can more accurately assess themselves might shelve that book , go get an easier one, and work their way back up to the tougher one later, resulting in better reading skill in life.
Remember the whitewashing of Avatar: The Last Airbender? Think that’s an isolated incident? Think agaaaaaain. Meet Justine Larbalestier, whose main character in her novel is black, with short nappy hair that she wears straight, absolutely none of which is reflected in the while, long-haired girl on the cover of her book. As many of my author friends have noted, authors do not have control over what appears on their covers, and the white-washing phenomenon is widespread. That, and the publishing house is defending their choices based on what they think will sell. They realize that covers can often make or break a book, but then they insist on making their covers like everyone else’s. I’d be less inclined to read that story if it looks like one of a hundred other teen pop trash novels out there - if you sell me a good cover, I’m more inclined to read it.
In the world today, residents of the Philippines mourn the passing of the leader who brough them to democracy from dictatorship, the remains of the first pilot lost in the 1991 invasion of Iraq have been discovered, violence against Christians by Muslims in Indonesia, supposedly in retaliation for a defacement of a Koran, and Hungarian authorities detained four people on suspicion they were carrying out unlicensed experiments with stem cells.
Inside the borders of the U.S., newly declassified documentation indicates the presence of a military informant in a group of anarchists in the Olympia-Tacoma, Washington area. This is not shocking or surprising, and I know it should be, but it almost seems a given these days that the government is always spying on someone who holds views against them or is against their wars. I don’t think they can make any sort of Posse Comitatus violation stick, but it would be nice to try, to get people on the record about what they think he government can and can’t do with organizations.
Over the August recess, members of Congress are planning on heading home and holding meetings to talk with their constituents about the stuff they’re voting on in Washington. Palling, but perhaps not able to execute, because the town hall meetings are increasingly becoming centers of wild shouting, mobs and picketers, and conspiracy wingnuttery, preventing the intelligent discourse that a town hall meeting is supposed to be. What’s worse? These disruptions are not random events, but a planned campaign to rattle Democrats and make them think their constituency is turning against them because of the way they are voting so far, with the intended effect that the demoralized Dems go back and change their votes on things like health care. To that effect, they may even be bringing in ringers from outside the constituency of those Congresscritters to disrupt their attempts to provide actual information.
In opinions, a suggestion that there may be good Christian values in films, despite bad language, and that when Clint Eastwood directs, he provides positive Christian role models, even if he makes them into superheroes with a largely absent church and a lack of people to support and work with the religious superhero.
Mr. Cline opines about how the Gates arrest is indicative of the growing police state we have, where an officer can basically arrest someone for talking to them in a way they don&aops;t like or for suggesting that police are servants of the public, not their masters. Racism aside (or as part of it), he even notes the people who are supposed to be for more individual freedom are not making a whole lot of noise about how this was an act of abuse, instead choosing to focus on the mirage that the President called the officer stupid, when he called the action stupid.
J. Justin Wilson suggests unions want EFCA so they can create more chapters to prop up their pensions from the dues of the new members. Hrm. Wonder how much of that pension money invested has lost value in the economic crash, creating the shortfall. Mr. Wilson also runs a red herring with talk of how union officer pensions are different than the rank-and-file’s, trying for a “some animals are more equal than others” line.
The WSJ takes a run at obesity rates, suggesting the end to agricultural subsidies and requiring people put a stake in their own health, perhaps with lower premiums for the healthy, instead of prohibiting insurers from drafting policies that scale their rates up or down depedning on the health of the person being insured.
Mr. Harsayani feels no hope from the up-and-coming generation, no desire to have things bigger than their forefathers, concentrating on using less and being happy with it. Because they have no optimism about the future, apparently, and have bought into the claim that if we continue the eay we’re going, there won’t be much left when we get done. Mr. Harsayani thinks we’ll shake it off eventually and make our lives better than our parents, in all the ways they made theirs better than the ones before them.
Mr. Scott encourages young people to join the world of politics and get involved in political careers, using Reagan and Barack Obama both as examples (sort of - he praises Mr. Obama’s recognition that Reagan was an influential person in his time) as to why young people need to get involved, not feel afraid, and help shape the next generation. Even his conservative push deserves applause, because the current Republican Party needs an infusion of fresh ideas and faces.
In competition for worst honors, A morning guest host on MSNBC, Donny Deutsch, brought back an old meme, suggesting that Sarah Palin's popularity was based on her sex appeal, instead of her base-pleasing stances. I can’t say that sex doesn’t sell, and that there may be plenty of people who would say “I‘d hit that“, but by now, I think many of them would add the caveat ”so long as she doesn’t say anything.“ Mrs. Palin has made her policies clear, and I think more people are interested in preventing or pursuing those rather than whether or not Mrs. Palin qualifies as a MILF.
Speaking of sex, the obverse of the bronze quiche coin goes to Colleen Raezler, who complains about how much ABC features sex, gender identity, and sexual activity in their stories, and of course, of uncritically showcasing and giving tacit or explicit approval to all the perversions that go on, like ”suggar daddies“, the economic benefits of taxing brothels, websites that help married people have affairs, people who feel attraction to inanimate objects, et cetera. I’m surprised there wasn’t a complaint about furries, myself. ”ABC is just airing propaganda for progressive sexual mores, and abnormal sexual predilections and relationships.“ she says, because they aren’t apparently devoting enough airtime to people who feel all of this is sick, wrong, and should be stopped, or at least closeted again. Because it’s better to have gumnen killing children at a homosexual-friendly youth center than openly homosexual people being nominated for clergy positions.
A runner-up to the worst person in the world tonight, Steven Metalitz says that it's silly for people to think their DRM'd music will last forever, and that if your authentication servers should be taken down, you should have to re-buy the music, rather than have the right to strip the DRM out of it and keep the music that you bought. The cabals would rather force you to have to keep rebuying a new license to their property than to actually let you own it.
But, because someone’s life was lost, tonight’s worst person in the world is the father who substituted prayer for medicine and let his daughter die from a treatable condition. The part about ”putting the doctor before God“ is odd - one would think doctors are doing God’s work when they heal the sick.
In technology, Mount Rushmore is getting a laser scan, to create an incredibly detailed map of the monument preservable for future generations, PingWire, which aggregates the various pictures beingn posted to the photo services favored by Twitterites and displays them, devoid of context, someone attempted to fool a bunch of hackers with a fake ATM, and Bobby McFerrin performing some brain hacking utilizing the pentatonic scale.
Last for tonight, Na naaaaaa, na-na-na na na na na, Katmari Wedding-cy!. Hooray for people getting hitched the way they want to!
Remember the whitewashing of Avatar: The Last Airbender? Think that’s an isolated incident? Think agaaaaaain. Meet Justine Larbalestier, whose main character in her novel is black, with short nappy hair that she wears straight, absolutely none of which is reflected in the while, long-haired girl on the cover of her book. As many of my author friends have noted, authors do not have control over what appears on their covers, and the white-washing phenomenon is widespread. That, and the publishing house is defending their choices based on what they think will sell. They realize that covers can often make or break a book, but then they insist on making their covers like everyone else’s. I’d be less inclined to read that story if it looks like one of a hundred other teen pop trash novels out there - if you sell me a good cover, I’m more inclined to read it.
In the world today, residents of the Philippines mourn the passing of the leader who brough them to democracy from dictatorship, the remains of the first pilot lost in the 1991 invasion of Iraq have been discovered, violence against Christians by Muslims in Indonesia, supposedly in retaliation for a defacement of a Koran, and Hungarian authorities detained four people on suspicion they were carrying out unlicensed experiments with stem cells.
Inside the borders of the U.S., newly declassified documentation indicates the presence of a military informant in a group of anarchists in the Olympia-Tacoma, Washington area. This is not shocking or surprising, and I know it should be, but it almost seems a given these days that the government is always spying on someone who holds views against them or is against their wars. I don’t think they can make any sort of Posse Comitatus violation stick, but it would be nice to try, to get people on the record about what they think he government can and can’t do with organizations.
Over the August recess, members of Congress are planning on heading home and holding meetings to talk with their constituents about the stuff they’re voting on in Washington. Palling, but perhaps not able to execute, because the town hall meetings are increasingly becoming centers of wild shouting, mobs and picketers, and conspiracy wingnuttery, preventing the intelligent discourse that a town hall meeting is supposed to be. What’s worse? These disruptions are not random events, but a planned campaign to rattle Democrats and make them think their constituency is turning against them because of the way they are voting so far, with the intended effect that the demoralized Dems go back and change their votes on things like health care. To that effect, they may even be bringing in ringers from outside the constituency of those Congresscritters to disrupt their attempts to provide actual information.
In opinions, a suggestion that there may be good Christian values in films, despite bad language, and that when Clint Eastwood directs, he provides positive Christian role models, even if he makes them into superheroes with a largely absent church and a lack of people to support and work with the religious superhero.
Mr. Cline opines about how the Gates arrest is indicative of the growing police state we have, where an officer can basically arrest someone for talking to them in a way they don&aops;t like or for suggesting that police are servants of the public, not their masters. Racism aside (or as part of it), he even notes the people who are supposed to be for more individual freedom are not making a whole lot of noise about how this was an act of abuse, instead choosing to focus on the mirage that the President called the officer stupid, when he called the action stupid.
J. Justin Wilson suggests unions want EFCA so they can create more chapters to prop up their pensions from the dues of the new members. Hrm. Wonder how much of that pension money invested has lost value in the economic crash, creating the shortfall. Mr. Wilson also runs a red herring with talk of how union officer pensions are different than the rank-and-file’s, trying for a “some animals are more equal than others” line.
The WSJ takes a run at obesity rates, suggesting the end to agricultural subsidies and requiring people put a stake in their own health, perhaps with lower premiums for the healthy, instead of prohibiting insurers from drafting policies that scale their rates up or down depedning on the health of the person being insured.
Mr. Harsayani feels no hope from the up-and-coming generation, no desire to have things bigger than their forefathers, concentrating on using less and being happy with it. Because they have no optimism about the future, apparently, and have bought into the claim that if we continue the eay we’re going, there won’t be much left when we get done. Mr. Harsayani thinks we’ll shake it off eventually and make our lives better than our parents, in all the ways they made theirs better than the ones before them.
Mr. Scott encourages young people to join the world of politics and get involved in political careers, using Reagan and Barack Obama both as examples (sort of - he praises Mr. Obama’s recognition that Reagan was an influential person in his time) as to why young people need to get involved, not feel afraid, and help shape the next generation. Even his conservative push deserves applause, because the current Republican Party needs an infusion of fresh ideas and faces.
In competition for worst honors, A morning guest host on MSNBC, Donny Deutsch, brought back an old meme, suggesting that Sarah Palin's popularity was based on her sex appeal, instead of her base-pleasing stances. I can’t say that sex doesn’t sell, and that there may be plenty of people who would say “I‘d hit that“, but by now, I think many of them would add the caveat ”so long as she doesn’t say anything.“ Mrs. Palin has made her policies clear, and I think more people are interested in preventing or pursuing those rather than whether or not Mrs. Palin qualifies as a MILF.
Speaking of sex, the obverse of the bronze quiche coin goes to Colleen Raezler, who complains about how much ABC features sex, gender identity, and sexual activity in their stories, and of course, of uncritically showcasing and giving tacit or explicit approval to all the perversions that go on, like ”suggar daddies“, the economic benefits of taxing brothels, websites that help married people have affairs, people who feel attraction to inanimate objects, et cetera. I’m surprised there wasn’t a complaint about furries, myself. ”ABC is just airing propaganda for progressive sexual mores, and abnormal sexual predilections and relationships.“ she says, because they aren’t apparently devoting enough airtime to people who feel all of this is sick, wrong, and should be stopped, or at least closeted again. Because it’s better to have gumnen killing children at a homosexual-friendly youth center than openly homosexual people being nominated for clergy positions.
A runner-up to the worst person in the world tonight, Steven Metalitz says that it's silly for people to think their DRM'd music will last forever, and that if your authentication servers should be taken down, you should have to re-buy the music, rather than have the right to strip the DRM out of it and keep the music that you bought. The cabals would rather force you to have to keep rebuying a new license to their property than to actually let you own it.
But, because someone’s life was lost, tonight’s worst person in the world is the father who substituted prayer for medicine and let his daughter die from a treatable condition. The part about ”putting the doctor before God“ is odd - one would think doctors are doing God’s work when they heal the sick.
In technology, Mount Rushmore is getting a laser scan, to create an incredibly detailed map of the monument preservable for future generations, PingWire, which aggregates the various pictures beingn posted to the photo services favored by Twitterites and displays them, devoid of context, someone attempted to fool a bunch of hackers with a fake ATM, and Bobby McFerrin performing some brain hacking utilizing the pentatonic scale.
Last for tonight, Na naaaaaa, na-na-na na na na na, Katmari Wedding-cy!. Hooray for people getting hitched the way they want to!
