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silveradeptI've almost got the computer battle licked. Everything has moved, at least, to somewhere where it will be accessible. Now, all I need to do is rediscover where all that free space I had at the beginning of the venture has gone, so that I can return everything back to the way it was. One perk to Linux installations - be it ever so humble, if you've got an intact /home, it's like you never left. Trying to do that on Windows would be fraught with peril.
Of use to us at the beginning of our journeys, if one is interested in finding someone who is attractive and can tell you that not only did Han shoot first, but understands that really, it's sort of a timey-wimey ball, then consult how to meet and woo a nerdy girl, which means that your gamer skills will need to be up to snuff, among other things, including book learning and NPR as a radio preset.
On other matters involving consenting adults of various gender identities, The Question Photo Project wants people and to show people of various gender identities holding transphobic or other gender power-imbalance type questions they've been asked. For a sample of the people and the questions, JPG mag offers a selection of what's been done. the project is okay with repeated questions - e-mail them for details.
Out in the world today, be aware - drivers are usually the cause of a car-bike accident. SMIDSY doesn't work all that well for an excuse any more.
Regarding the big blast in Baghdad, bribery shows up in the investigations, which helps to explain how the bombers got so close without premature death.
On Afghanistan, the United States monitor consideres the recent election fair, but not particularly free, especially in Taliban-heavy areas, which have a slew of horror stories. From the Washington Times, evidence that Afghanistan and Pakistan will stay on the radar for a while, with General Petraeus opening an intelligence training school that will focus specifically on those two countries.
Domestically, Michael Jackson just became a homicide case, with at least manslaughter overtones. And, we find out, on a much lighter note, Ah-nold has the Conan sword in his office.
And that's all the celebrity stuff. Now we get serious.
The Inspector General's report on the torture going on in America's name at American places with American interrogators, under the direction of the CIA, written in 2004, has been released in a 50-50 redacted-unredacted form. [Link is a PDF]. Before getting into the consequences, or if you want the summary version, Mr. Greenwald provides excepts from the report to show us what was done in our name, including death threats, both to the detainees and to their families, rape threats, pressure points on the carotid, waterboarding, and other torture methods. And that's just what's laid out in the document. The analysis is yet to come. Mr. Horton suggests the worst is yet to come, among seven salient points he gathers from the document. The Attorney General is investigating this, but still on a very limited scope, and certainly not on the scope that he should be. As embarrassing as this may be to the country, someone needs to open up a human rights investigation on the United States, just so someone will find out the extent of the malfeasance and try those involved in it. That the WSJ suggests that any special prosecution is demoralizing to the CIA, invites a host of other problems, and should be conducted only in that limited scope earns them the Worst Persons in the World award, no other candidates considered.
Rolling Stone runs a story of a child who became one of the best, and most dangerous, phreakers in the country, who started blind in a bad family, but developed excellent hearing that he could then leverage to do all sorts of phone pranks and attacks, including calling down the police on just about whomever he wanted to harrass, using available technology to mask his identity. That was, of course, until he turned 18, and then got busted and sent to prison for 11 years.
Ye gods, not again. Namely, a teenager ran away from her Muslim family in Ohio after a Christian pastor in Florida convinced her to convert and flee. The problem? Now the pastor is using her to advance his own dominionist agenda, using her Muslim family as his demons. According to the pastor, the Muslim family has threatened to kill her for her coversion, to make her into an honor killing... the family says they want her back and love her very much. The daughter is a cheerlearder, the article notes, and there aren't markers from the family that they subscribe to the type of fundamentalism that would result in honor killing. We also note that if her father supposedly did discover her conversion, if he were the honor killing type, he probably would have already done it, not just threatened it of her. Not to mention, the church people accuse Columbus, Ohio, of having radical Muslims with ties to al-Qaeda cells, and speak openly of their belief in the great struggle between Christians and Muslims. Why can't we just have people claiming to be married to Jesus Christ so they can try to pass off bad checks?
On health care reform, Senator Lieberman says now isn't the right time for comprehensive plans. Instead, says he, we should pass what we can agree on and save the controversial stuff for when the economy rebounds. He also remarked that he would gladly pay us on Tuesday for a hamburger today. The longer things delay and stall, the worse the approval numbers look, which is the public telling them it's time to get it in gear and pass something, not to scrap the plan entirely.
And on the economy, the obvious - foreclosures and bad housing is bad for your mental health.
In the opinions, for all your gun-toting, teabagging needs, the 10 manliest firearms, at least one of which, apparently, is feared by liberals. Yes, The General was involved, considering his 11 on the scale of absolute manly gender.
More seriously, and on politics, Mr. Ajami believes the magic of Mr. Obama has passed on, and that the populace now is talking back to him and opposing his grand plans through their still-not-at-all-industry-backed grass roots movement, and take offense at being called that, regardless of its truth value. He also spends much columns space saying how much President Obama is not other great leaders, no matter how many comparisons are made.
Ms. Noonan kicks it up a notch with an editorial about the need to let the current health care thing die off, with an apology that mistakes were made, and to come back later with a better and simpler plan the people will understand, with the twin benefits of improved popularity from a president that can apologize and show modesty, and that the people won't be confused by the language of government and automatically think the government is attempting to put one over on them. Simple is good, but at some point, you either have to treat the populace like they're children (which they will resent), or you expect them to improve themselves to a minimum level of discourse and understanding to have a civilized debate (which, based on the teabaggers, the birthers, the Death Eaters, the astroturfers, those convinced the President intends socialism for the country, and the rest of the wacko elements of a particular party that are being encouraged by that party's elected leaders, isn't going to happen). Given the options, maybe the next plan, assuming this one doesn't suddenly snap back into being what we need, can be delivered to the Congress properly skribbled in crayon.
Mr. McGurn goes one step further, explicitly saying that Barack Obama has to tack hard to the right if he wants to save his presidency, saying Mr. Obama has to ditch the liberal wing of his party if he wants to get anything done. Which would make Mr. Obama much like the other Democrats in his party, and more likely to be voted out, because the populace prefers their conservatives to identify as such, rather than pretending to be liberals. It would be nicer if the supposedly liberal party and President acted like it through the entirety of their terms.
Messrs. Berman and May demand that we implement missile defense umbrellas, instead of cutting their costs, because not having overwhelming deterrence ability means that rogue nations will attack us and be able to overwhelm us. Because someone is fanatically stupid enough to launch anything at all, knowing full well the retaliation will prevent them from enjoying their victory for more than the time it takes for the return salvo.
Mr. Peaslee is wary of implementing zero-tolerance rules towards people making tax mistakes as a way of improving revenue, with stories of people ruined ebcause they accidentally didn't file the right forms and are paying penalties. He has a point, but the broader one to make would be something like "Why do we have such a byzantine system where one might need a tax consultant just to be sure there were no errors made?"
In science and tech, this is what a volcano eruption loos like from spaaaaace, a robot that is constructed sing the human skeletal frame as its own frame, and thus moves much like we do, research which indicates the appendix may not be vestigial after all, after finding it in a lot more places that previously thought,
On the end, hacking crosswalk signs to display messages more appropriate or humourous, beautiful lakes with extraordinary properties, jeans that utilize your butt muscles to make them "wink", and how Texts From Last Night might pay for the creators' law school, proving that even in short form, jokes broadcast to the world are funny.
Of use to us at the beginning of our journeys, if one is interested in finding someone who is attractive and can tell you that not only did Han shoot first, but understands that really, it's sort of a timey-wimey ball, then consult how to meet and woo a nerdy girl, which means that your gamer skills will need to be up to snuff, among other things, including book learning and NPR as a radio preset.
On other matters involving consenting adults of various gender identities, The Question Photo Project wants people and to show people of various gender identities holding transphobic or other gender power-imbalance type questions they've been asked. For a sample of the people and the questions, JPG mag offers a selection of what's been done. the project is okay with repeated questions - e-mail them for details.
Out in the world today, be aware - drivers are usually the cause of a car-bike accident. SMIDSY doesn't work all that well for an excuse any more.
Regarding the big blast in Baghdad, bribery shows up in the investigations, which helps to explain how the bombers got so close without premature death.
On Afghanistan, the United States monitor consideres the recent election fair, but not particularly free, especially in Taliban-heavy areas, which have a slew of horror stories. From the Washington Times, evidence that Afghanistan and Pakistan will stay on the radar for a while, with General Petraeus opening an intelligence training school that will focus specifically on those two countries.
Domestically, Michael Jackson just became a homicide case, with at least manslaughter overtones. And, we find out, on a much lighter note, Ah-nold has the Conan sword in his office.
And that's all the celebrity stuff. Now we get serious.
The Inspector General's report on the torture going on in America's name at American places with American interrogators, under the direction of the CIA, written in 2004, has been released in a 50-50 redacted-unredacted form. [Link is a PDF]. Before getting into the consequences, or if you want the summary version, Mr. Greenwald provides excepts from the report to show us what was done in our name, including death threats, both to the detainees and to their families, rape threats, pressure points on the carotid, waterboarding, and other torture methods. And that's just what's laid out in the document. The analysis is yet to come. Mr. Horton suggests the worst is yet to come, among seven salient points he gathers from the document. The Attorney General is investigating this, but still on a very limited scope, and certainly not on the scope that he should be. As embarrassing as this may be to the country, someone needs to open up a human rights investigation on the United States, just so someone will find out the extent of the malfeasance and try those involved in it. That the WSJ suggests that any special prosecution is demoralizing to the CIA, invites a host of other problems, and should be conducted only in that limited scope earns them the Worst Persons in the World award, no other candidates considered.
Rolling Stone runs a story of a child who became one of the best, and most dangerous, phreakers in the country, who started blind in a bad family, but developed excellent hearing that he could then leverage to do all sorts of phone pranks and attacks, including calling down the police on just about whomever he wanted to harrass, using available technology to mask his identity. That was, of course, until he turned 18, and then got busted and sent to prison for 11 years.
Ye gods, not again. Namely, a teenager ran away from her Muslim family in Ohio after a Christian pastor in Florida convinced her to convert and flee. The problem? Now the pastor is using her to advance his own dominionist agenda, using her Muslim family as his demons. According to the pastor, the Muslim family has threatened to kill her for her coversion, to make her into an honor killing... the family says they want her back and love her very much. The daughter is a cheerlearder, the article notes, and there aren't markers from the family that they subscribe to the type of fundamentalism that would result in honor killing. We also note that if her father supposedly did discover her conversion, if he were the honor killing type, he probably would have already done it, not just threatened it of her. Not to mention, the church people accuse Columbus, Ohio, of having radical Muslims with ties to al-Qaeda cells, and speak openly of their belief in the great struggle between Christians and Muslims. Why can't we just have people claiming to be married to Jesus Christ so they can try to pass off bad checks?
On health care reform, Senator Lieberman says now isn't the right time for comprehensive plans. Instead, says he, we should pass what we can agree on and save the controversial stuff for when the economy rebounds. He also remarked that he would gladly pay us on Tuesday for a hamburger today. The longer things delay and stall, the worse the approval numbers look, which is the public telling them it's time to get it in gear and pass something, not to scrap the plan entirely.
And on the economy, the obvious - foreclosures and bad housing is bad for your mental health.
In the opinions, for all your gun-toting, teabagging needs, the 10 manliest firearms, at least one of which, apparently, is feared by liberals. Yes, The General was involved, considering his 11 on the scale of absolute manly gender.
More seriously, and on politics, Mr. Ajami believes the magic of Mr. Obama has passed on, and that the populace now is talking back to him and opposing his grand plans through their still-not-at-all-industry-backed grass roots movement, and take offense at being called that, regardless of its truth value. He also spends much columns space saying how much President Obama is not other great leaders, no matter how many comparisons are made.
Ms. Noonan kicks it up a notch with an editorial about the need to let the current health care thing die off, with an apology that mistakes were made, and to come back later with a better and simpler plan the people will understand, with the twin benefits of improved popularity from a president that can apologize and show modesty, and that the people won't be confused by the language of government and automatically think the government is attempting to put one over on them. Simple is good, but at some point, you either have to treat the populace like they're children (which they will resent), or you expect them to improve themselves to a minimum level of discourse and understanding to have a civilized debate (which, based on the teabaggers, the birthers, the Death Eaters, the astroturfers, those convinced the President intends socialism for the country, and the rest of the wacko elements of a particular party that are being encouraged by that party's elected leaders, isn't going to happen). Given the options, maybe the next plan, assuming this one doesn't suddenly snap back into being what we need, can be delivered to the Congress properly skribbled in crayon.
Mr. McGurn goes one step further, explicitly saying that Barack Obama has to tack hard to the right if he wants to save his presidency, saying Mr. Obama has to ditch the liberal wing of his party if he wants to get anything done. Which would make Mr. Obama much like the other Democrats in his party, and more likely to be voted out, because the populace prefers their conservatives to identify as such, rather than pretending to be liberals. It would be nicer if the supposedly liberal party and President acted like it through the entirety of their terms.
Messrs. Berman and May demand that we implement missile defense umbrellas, instead of cutting their costs, because not having overwhelming deterrence ability means that rogue nations will attack us and be able to overwhelm us. Because someone is fanatically stupid enough to launch anything at all, knowing full well the retaliation will prevent them from enjoying their victory for more than the time it takes for the return salvo.
Mr. Peaslee is wary of implementing zero-tolerance rules towards people making tax mistakes as a way of improving revenue, with stories of people ruined ebcause they accidentally didn't file the right forms and are paying penalties. He has a point, but the broader one to make would be something like "Why do we have such a byzantine system where one might need a tax consultant just to be sure there were no errors made?"
In science and tech, this is what a volcano eruption loos like from spaaaaace, a robot that is constructed sing the human skeletal frame as its own frame, and thus moves much like we do, research which indicates the appendix may not be vestigial after all, after finding it in a lot more places that previously thought,
On the end, hacking crosswalk signs to display messages more appropriate or humourous, beautiful lakes with extraordinary properties, jeans that utilize your butt muscles to make them "wink", and how Texts From Last Night might pay for the creators' law school, proving that even in short form, jokes broadcast to the world are funny.
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no subject
Date: 2009-08-26 06:16 pm (UTC)actually, i edited /etc/passwd to reflect the "new" /home directory location and the whole thing blew up. i had to manually move the stuff from the old /home directory to the new one...
but i'm up and running with a brand new, shiny computer and a brand new, shiny kubuntu jaunty installation... 8)
no subject
Date: 2009-08-26 06:31 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2009-08-26 06:39 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2009-08-26 06:42 pm (UTC)