Work achieved. - 16 September 2009
Sep. 17th, 2009 12:38 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
silveradeptHello, hello, to all who read these words. Today’s offerings include an argument as to why downloading content is better for the environment than physical media, perhaps one of the best versions of The Talk on record, and proof that our imaginations can freak us out really well, making scary music scarier when we have our eyes closed.
Oh, and the value of beer and social events as a way of getting people to tell you what you really need to know about your services.
Out in the world today, the United States is making good on a promise to remvoe military personnel from Iraq - but is replacing them with contractors, so as to withdraw without withdrawing, says the raw story. And at greater expense than just keeping the troops there.
Also, secretary by day, royalty by night: an embassy worker is now the king of a town.
Domestically, let’s start with pro-homosexual billboards that cite Biblical versus, asking “Would Jesus Discriminate?” The responses highlighted from the opposition? “How dare you use the Bible to justify yourselves!” and “That’s not in the Bible.” And while I hear Bender slapping a bunch of people and saying “That’s not ironic!”, I do believe the response to the criticisms against these billboards can be accurately summed up by said robot: “Bite my shiny metal ass.”
Moving onward, an excerpt from a new book detailing one person's upbringing as a superfundie and the descent into madness that followed from it - it has all the hallmarks, including restricted worlds, raids by pastors and parents to ensure compliance, cult conditioning, and then what happened when the spring unwound all at once in complete reaction to the upbringing and further conditioning. Here’s a hint - people died. For further reading, the son of one of the people who helped construct this nightmare parallel world gives an insider's background on who these people are and how they achieve their results.
Continuing in the theme, anti-abortion, possibly involved in the death of Dr. George Tiller in some way, not tax-exempt organization Operation Rescue may be closing down due to lack of funds. I suspect there are more than a few people, including the Unabashed Feminism Department, that would spit and or defecate on the grave of such an organization were it to die. Good riddance if it should go, even if you know others will spring up after it dies.
Finally, the General comments on how the next Values Voters summit will be held on Rosh Hashanah, supposedly ensuring that no Jews will be there to corrupt the pure Christians.
Oh, and a bill introduced to repeal the Defense of Marriage Act. Do wonder how many times this bill has been attempted.
Just as important than the above, former President Jimmy Carter, of Georgia, probably just touched off a powder keg by saying a significant amount of the opposition to President Obama is based on racism and not other factors, like the actual policies he is proposing. Both the Republican Party and the White House said that this was not true. Really? You’re going to claim policy differences when a significant number of the things being shouted about or down or at persons aren’t actually in the bill? And all of those race-based remarks, like “The Great White Hope”, and the Obama food stamps with watermelon on them, and all the rest of that, doesn’t indicate there’s a segment of the populace that feels the black man shouldn’t be allowed to lead the country? You’re both deluding yourselves if you think there’s not some sort of racial animosity in the opposition to President Obama. That Jimmy Carter is saying it indicates that you can’t sweep it under the rug any more. That “frank conversation” we were supposed to have on race? Hasn’t happened, because both sides of the political spectrum here in America are pointedly ignoring it and hoping it will go away.
The last Senate committee has their version of the health care reform - lacking a public option but requiring all persons get coverage or face fines - in other words, shoveling more money at insurance companies without really setting up any mechanism that would prevent them from charging rapacious rates to their newest customers and profiting more off of them. The alternative proposed is expanding non-profit cooperatives as a way of supposedly keeping costs competitive. Predictably, Republicans denounced it. This is the part where we find out that no matter what is presented, no Republican will vote for it. Why is no public option bad? families coverage $13,375 USD/year on premiums for their coverage right now, with about $3,000 of that paid by families and $9,000 of that paid by employers. That can only get worse - perhaps even with that public option, we can free up all of that money to be put to other work.
Perhaps the first shot fired in a debtor's revolt, where a woman refuses to pay her credit card bill because Bank of America has rewarded her regular payments with steadily increasing interest rates, up to 30 percent, and wouldn't negotiate a lower rate when she lost her job. So she took her money and went elsewhere, and refuses to pay the debt until she gets a lower rate, at least.
In opinions, the Rebel Yell comments on a misleading article blaming only accountants for why things went sour in the economy, when regulation clearly took a nap at the wheel, and made things that the accountants then had to do.
Technology begins with a caramel made from jellyfish powder and other ingredients - offered to astronauts, also possibly a way of fighting giant jellyfish. From there, we go to a dog cloning service shutting its doors, a poem asking about the alive-and-dead cat, and the response, equally poetic, and exposure to surrealistic literature and other things that make no sense help to build your pattern-recognition.
Last out, Linda McMahon, of WWE fame, is running for the Senate in Connecticut, hoping to follow, sort of, in the path of Jesse “The Body” Ventura, who became governor of Minnesota. No, that is not some sort of optick trick. Check out the collection of optic tricks here, so you can be sure.
Oh, and the value of beer and social events as a way of getting people to tell you what you really need to know about your services.
Out in the world today, the United States is making good on a promise to remvoe military personnel from Iraq - but is replacing them with contractors, so as to withdraw without withdrawing, says the raw story. And at greater expense than just keeping the troops there.
Also, secretary by day, royalty by night: an embassy worker is now the king of a town.
Domestically, let’s start with pro-homosexual billboards that cite Biblical versus, asking “Would Jesus Discriminate?” The responses highlighted from the opposition? “How dare you use the Bible to justify yourselves!” and “That’s not in the Bible.” And while I hear Bender slapping a bunch of people and saying “That’s not ironic!”, I do believe the response to the criticisms against these billboards can be accurately summed up by said robot: “Bite my shiny metal ass.”
Moving onward, an excerpt from a new book detailing one person's upbringing as a superfundie and the descent into madness that followed from it - it has all the hallmarks, including restricted worlds, raids by pastors and parents to ensure compliance, cult conditioning, and then what happened when the spring unwound all at once in complete reaction to the upbringing and further conditioning. Here’s a hint - people died. For further reading, the son of one of the people who helped construct this nightmare parallel world gives an insider's background on who these people are and how they achieve their results.
Continuing in the theme, anti-abortion, possibly involved in the death of Dr. George Tiller in some way, not tax-exempt organization Operation Rescue may be closing down due to lack of funds. I suspect there are more than a few people, including the Unabashed Feminism Department, that would spit and or defecate on the grave of such an organization were it to die. Good riddance if it should go, even if you know others will spring up after it dies.
Finally, the General comments on how the next Values Voters summit will be held on Rosh Hashanah, supposedly ensuring that no Jews will be there to corrupt the pure Christians.
Oh, and a bill introduced to repeal the Defense of Marriage Act. Do wonder how many times this bill has been attempted.
Just as important than the above, former President Jimmy Carter, of Georgia, probably just touched off a powder keg by saying a significant amount of the opposition to President Obama is based on racism and not other factors, like the actual policies he is proposing. Both the Republican Party and the White House said that this was not true. Really? You’re going to claim policy differences when a significant number of the things being shouted about or down or at persons aren’t actually in the bill? And all of those race-based remarks, like “The Great White Hope”, and the Obama food stamps with watermelon on them, and all the rest of that, doesn’t indicate there’s a segment of the populace that feels the black man shouldn’t be allowed to lead the country? You’re both deluding yourselves if you think there’s not some sort of racial animosity in the opposition to President Obama. That Jimmy Carter is saying it indicates that you can’t sweep it under the rug any more. That “frank conversation” we were supposed to have on race? Hasn’t happened, because both sides of the political spectrum here in America are pointedly ignoring it and hoping it will go away.
The last Senate committee has their version of the health care reform - lacking a public option but requiring all persons get coverage or face fines - in other words, shoveling more money at insurance companies without really setting up any mechanism that would prevent them from charging rapacious rates to their newest customers and profiting more off of them. The alternative proposed is expanding non-profit cooperatives as a way of supposedly keeping costs competitive. Predictably, Republicans denounced it. This is the part where we find out that no matter what is presented, no Republican will vote for it. Why is no public option bad? families coverage $13,375 USD/year on premiums for their coverage right now, with about $3,000 of that paid by families and $9,000 of that paid by employers. That can only get worse - perhaps even with that public option, we can free up all of that money to be put to other work.
Perhaps the first shot fired in a debtor's revolt, where a woman refuses to pay her credit card bill because Bank of America has rewarded her regular payments with steadily increasing interest rates, up to 30 percent, and wouldn't negotiate a lower rate when she lost her job. So she took her money and went elsewhere, and refuses to pay the debt until she gets a lower rate, at least.
In opinions, the Rebel Yell comments on a misleading article blaming only accountants for why things went sour in the economy, when regulation clearly took a nap at the wheel, and made things that the accountants then had to do.
Technology begins with a caramel made from jellyfish powder and other ingredients - offered to astronauts, also possibly a way of fighting giant jellyfish. From there, we go to a dog cloning service shutting its doors, a poem asking about the alive-and-dead cat, and the response, equally poetic, and exposure to surrealistic literature and other things that make no sense help to build your pattern-recognition.
Last out, Linda McMahon, of WWE fame, is running for the Senate in Connecticut, hoping to follow, sort of, in the path of Jesse “The Body” Ventura, who became governor of Minnesota. No, that is not some sort of optick trick. Check out the collection of optic tricks here, so you can be sure.
