Back to work today - 24-26 October 2009
Oct. 26th, 2009 07:19 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
silveradeptMorning, all you people of great power. Enjoy stories of giant sharks while you brew your coffee. If you prefer something less frightening, have a look at this notice, where permission is demanded for quoting published work, even in matters of scholarly criticism or evaluation, and with possible fees assessed, depending on adaptation or quotation media, in an attempt to basically discourage any scholar from doing any work on the person(s) in question. If, however, the giant sharks and coffee are not enoguh to get your adrenaline going for the day, try some dark parodies of the Disney Princesses, perhaps reflecting what their natures would be were they part of the Heartless or the Nobodies?
Internationally, however, more people makes for more hungry people, and food people worry the hungry people trend will continue to increase.
Iran condemned five men to death, four of which took part in the election protests of a few months ago, which only raises the world's opinion of the country, no doubt. Messrs. Feith and Weiss continue to demand the Obama Administration do something to officially support the protestors, instead of widening the focus of the Democracy fund and denying requests from organizations interested in democracy in Iran. While they remind us that there are still protests going on, we remind them that as far as we know, the election of one candidate or another would probably be more akin to the rearrangement of deck chairs on the Titanic, for as much fundamental change it would do. If/when the opposition starts to indicate they'd rather install a different governmental system, then we can start thinking about getting involved.
The Taliban of Afghanistan is threatening citizens away from voting in a runoff election, which seems to be fairly standard fare. Of course, in a place like Afghanistan, they can probably make decent on those threats, which is a bad thing.
Clases in Jerusalem around the holy site between Israeli police and protesters, which still confirms that people will spill a lot of blood around supposedly consecrated and sacred sites. To whom, I guess, is the next question. (And then that bit in the Torah about the being represented by the Tetragrammaton liking blood sacrifices and demanding them...)
And, of course, Iraq had a big bombing with more than 150 dead, continuing to throw doubts on whether or not the Iraqi security forces will be able to handle themselves if/when the Americans leave.
Domestically, in Chicago, protests erupt at a conference of bankers, agitating for banks to be about actually serving their customers, instead of screwing them for profit. Like certain other industries. What's scarier is that if the people snap and go on a rampage, in some places, the Army gets called out, in violation of the Posse Comitatus Act, thus setting up the perception that the Army is at the call of the corporations, even if the intent was to be good-natured and help the police. The worst part of that article, though, is the systematic way in which the corporate oligarchs destroy towns in Alabama and make essential city services too expensive to afford.
Bath and Body Works is being sued for a manager allegedly terminating a worker for being a Wiccan after the worker took vacation days to celebrate Samhain. The boss allegedly called the worker a devil-worshiper before dismissing her, thus prompting the discrimination claim. Elsewhere with the religious tint, a slew of anti-abortion merchandise may be available on eBay to raise funds for the legal defense of the person charged with killing Dr. George Tiller.
More accusations about L. Ron Hubbard's creation, this time of leaders abusing subordinates nonconsensually.
Switching from religion to race, a new hotel owner laid down some rules - no Spanish while in his presence, and some workers must Anglicize their names and pronunciations so that the guests don't have to think about how it is done. Some workers were fired for what he called insubordination and laying down slurs against him. From the article, though, it seems like a light went on, either that, or his denial and defense mechanisms kciked in, as he was claiming that he had no racist intent.
Because of the success of the Cash for Clunkers program, junk yards are requesting more time to do proper destruction of the vehicles turned in.
In opinions, isn't it very difficult to claim you're not promoting hate while selling Klan merchandise?
A Freeper says "Health Care? No! The Baucus Bill is a secret plot to discriminate against gun owners!", and it passed without actually having been written!
Mr. Baker asks a sensible and sane question - why aren't AIG's contracts more like the UAW's? What is it about the bankrupted financial institution that mandates it still pay big bonuses out to top executives?
A BoingBoing reader opines that if we privatize the Intarwebs and let them not become neutral, we risk National Security problems by letting private enterprise determine which packets are important.
Mr. Neubauer believes that if Barack Obama continues on his path unchecked, the nation of the United States will become a nation of wimps, slaves that must live on the dole provided by the government, and will thus never oppose them for fear of having their life lines cut off. Dr. Devine exhorts the old conservative coalition to reform, to set aside their differences to bring themselves back to power, and then rule toward the ends that the social conservatives want, using the methods the libertarians favor. That may be difficult, though, if darling former governor Palin's trend of endorsing candidates not picked by the Republican Party takes off and continues, drawing in more notable names to rally behind non-R candidates.
Mr. Lakely feels the Obama administration is continually insulting Great Britain, one of our staunchest allies, and that this disrespectful behavior must stop, or, "We owe the UK lots because they stuck with us through the last few years, so they should have instant access to the President."
The very bottom of the barrel comes from Mr. O'Reilly, who suggests that he be hired as Chief of staff, so that he and the President can unquestioningly send more troops to Afghanistan, declare a truce against Fox News, advise his advisers to not mention left-leaning people like Mao, and then drop the public option and push being able to purchase insurance across state lines and reform medical malpractice lawsuits. After all of that gets done, he says, things will be fantastic and the President will be both popular and able to effectively govern. Because he will have turned into a clone of the previous administrator, a person who had stellar approval ratings across the ideological spectrum. Mr. Krauthammer also wants the war on Fox to stop, because he feels it makes the President look childish, also referencing the "staffer admires Mao" talking point. I also find it interesting how much conservatives like to paint Fox as the sole conservative viewpoint in a sea of superliberal media, the only people raising questions while everyone else is in lockstep with the administration. Must be fun to finally be able to throw those accusations around, instead of having to suffer them. It's not like the message changed, it's just that now they have to say "We're truly fair and balanced" instead of "the President agrees with us."
Technologically, DataSF, a mashup that puts publicly-available data spreads to maps of the city of San Francisco, utililzing Second Life as post-traumatic stress therapy, the Tele Scouter device that aims to provide translation and other visual material directly to the retina (Yes, you may start with the "It's over 9000" material), old, sunken submarines from the World War I era brought back to the surface, and exploring the secrets of a sunken city off the coast of Greece.
Last for tonight, say goodbye to GeoCities accounts, and any data on them.
Internationally, however, more people makes for more hungry people, and food people worry the hungry people trend will continue to increase.
Iran condemned five men to death, four of which took part in the election protests of a few months ago, which only raises the world's opinion of the country, no doubt. Messrs. Feith and Weiss continue to demand the Obama Administration do something to officially support the protestors, instead of widening the focus of the Democracy fund and denying requests from organizations interested in democracy in Iran. While they remind us that there are still protests going on, we remind them that as far as we know, the election of one candidate or another would probably be more akin to the rearrangement of deck chairs on the Titanic, for as much fundamental change it would do. If/when the opposition starts to indicate they'd rather install a different governmental system, then we can start thinking about getting involved.
The Taliban of Afghanistan is threatening citizens away from voting in a runoff election, which seems to be fairly standard fare. Of course, in a place like Afghanistan, they can probably make decent on those threats, which is a bad thing.
Clases in Jerusalem around the holy site between Israeli police and protesters, which still confirms that people will spill a lot of blood around supposedly consecrated and sacred sites. To whom, I guess, is the next question. (And then that bit in the Torah about the being represented by the Tetragrammaton liking blood sacrifices and demanding them...)
And, of course, Iraq had a big bombing with more than 150 dead, continuing to throw doubts on whether or not the Iraqi security forces will be able to handle themselves if/when the Americans leave.
Domestically, in Chicago, protests erupt at a conference of bankers, agitating for banks to be about actually serving their customers, instead of screwing them for profit. Like certain other industries. What's scarier is that if the people snap and go on a rampage, in some places, the Army gets called out, in violation of the Posse Comitatus Act, thus setting up the perception that the Army is at the call of the corporations, even if the intent was to be good-natured and help the police. The worst part of that article, though, is the systematic way in which the corporate oligarchs destroy towns in Alabama and make essential city services too expensive to afford.
Bath and Body Works is being sued for a manager allegedly terminating a worker for being a Wiccan after the worker took vacation days to celebrate Samhain. The boss allegedly called the worker a devil-worshiper before dismissing her, thus prompting the discrimination claim. Elsewhere with the religious tint, a slew of anti-abortion merchandise may be available on eBay to raise funds for the legal defense of the person charged with killing Dr. George Tiller.
More accusations about L. Ron Hubbard's creation, this time of leaders abusing subordinates nonconsensually.
Switching from religion to race, a new hotel owner laid down some rules - no Spanish while in his presence, and some workers must Anglicize their names and pronunciations so that the guests don't have to think about how it is done. Some workers were fired for what he called insubordination and laying down slurs against him. From the article, though, it seems like a light went on, either that, or his denial and defense mechanisms kciked in, as he was claiming that he had no racist intent.
Because of the success of the Cash for Clunkers program, junk yards are requesting more time to do proper destruction of the vehicles turned in.
In opinions, isn't it very difficult to claim you're not promoting hate while selling Klan merchandise?
A Freeper says "Health Care? No! The Baucus Bill is a secret plot to discriminate against gun owners!", and it passed without actually having been written!
Mr. Baker asks a sensible and sane question - why aren't AIG's contracts more like the UAW's? What is it about the bankrupted financial institution that mandates it still pay big bonuses out to top executives?
A BoingBoing reader opines that if we privatize the Intarwebs and let them not become neutral, we risk National Security problems by letting private enterprise determine which packets are important.
Mr. Neubauer believes that if Barack Obama continues on his path unchecked, the nation of the United States will become a nation of wimps, slaves that must live on the dole provided by the government, and will thus never oppose them for fear of having their life lines cut off. Dr. Devine exhorts the old conservative coalition to reform, to set aside their differences to bring themselves back to power, and then rule toward the ends that the social conservatives want, using the methods the libertarians favor. That may be difficult, though, if darling former governor Palin's trend of endorsing candidates not picked by the Republican Party takes off and continues, drawing in more notable names to rally behind non-R candidates.
Mr. Lakely feels the Obama administration is continually insulting Great Britain, one of our staunchest allies, and that this disrespectful behavior must stop, or, "We owe the UK lots because they stuck with us through the last few years, so they should have instant access to the President."
The very bottom of the barrel comes from Mr. O'Reilly, who suggests that he be hired as Chief of staff, so that he and the President can unquestioningly send more troops to Afghanistan, declare a truce against Fox News, advise his advisers to not mention left-leaning people like Mao, and then drop the public option and push being able to purchase insurance across state lines and reform medical malpractice lawsuits. After all of that gets done, he says, things will be fantastic and the President will be both popular and able to effectively govern. Because he will have turned into a clone of the previous administrator, a person who had stellar approval ratings across the ideological spectrum. Mr. Krauthammer also wants the war on Fox to stop, because he feels it makes the President look childish, also referencing the "staffer admires Mao" talking point. I also find it interesting how much conservatives like to paint Fox as the sole conservative viewpoint in a sea of superliberal media, the only people raising questions while everyone else is in lockstep with the administration. Must be fun to finally be able to throw those accusations around, instead of having to suffer them. It's not like the message changed, it's just that now they have to say "We're truly fair and balanced" instead of "the President agrees with us."
Technologically, DataSF, a mashup that puts publicly-available data spreads to maps of the city of San Francisco, utililzing Second Life as post-traumatic stress therapy, the Tele Scouter device that aims to provide translation and other visual material directly to the retina (Yes, you may start with the "It's over 9000" material), old, sunken submarines from the World War I era brought back to the surface, and exploring the secrets of a sunken city off the coast of Greece.
Last for tonight, say goodbye to GeoCities accounts, and any data on them.
