Good bye, 2009 - 31 December 2009
Dec. 31st, 2009 05:58 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
silveradeptTo start your final news for this year - The Baby-Sitter's Club will be returning to try and capture a new generation of readers. That said, one wonders whether the practice of baby-sitting is sufficiently popular these days as to make the books' premise believable. Then again, when confronted with adverts that make the "for girls" versions of science tools have less power, I realize just how far people have to go to get acceptance for women in science and math. Thus, we must promote "Shopping is hard - Let's do math."
Hip, hip, huzzah! Hip, hip, huzzah! Hip, hip, huzzah! Sir Patrick Stewart and Sir Peter Jackson, each awarded knighthoods in England and New Zealand, respectively.
Prime Minister Harper has asked for and been granted a request to shut the Parliament of Canada down until March, which is beginning to sound like a tradition for him.
For those people waiting eagerly for next year to be better... or at least to get some revenge on the people who dominated the news working against them, we have three units of interest. From tamest to most wild - Karl Rove is gettign dicorced, which means not that much, because he was never much of a marriage culture warrior. Then, Rick Warren's megachruch is about $900,000 USD in the hole and needs donations, which you could take some schadenfreude in because of the Saddleback church's stance on homosexual marriage and other social issues, and then Boss Limbaugh is admitetd to the hospital with chest pains for a possibly heart-related condition, for which more people than there probably should be are hoping that it's a scary experience for him and that he comes out a little kinder and nicer and less of a blowhard liar. We choose not to acknowledge the faction that wishes he doesn't come out of the hospital.
Something mroe sobering, as we begin the international section - the latest Afghan bomber, responsible for the death of at least seven CIA officers, was wearing an Afghan Army uniform, underscoring the difficulty one has in telling friend from for when they're wearing the right clothes to pass undetected. More information on the attack from Fox.
Domestically, the response from Republicans on the current administrator's three-day wait before commenting on the underpants bombing is markedly different from their lack of response when the previous administrator took six days to comment on the shoe bomber. Not that hypocrisy is new among politicians, but this is particularly embarrassing for the party that claims it's always tough on national security and wants to start yet another land war in Asia to stop the terrorists from bringing the fight here. Yeah, it's Joe Lieberman, but I doubt the Republican Party disagrees with him. Besides, the 101st Fighting Keyboarders will give Obama an F on protecting America unprompted, because he's not seeming to take anything seriously and this incident is clearly His Administration's Fault.
In opinions, we criticize because we love. No, really. People on the left criticizing the President for being a sellout center-rightist continuer of and apologist for Bush practices, willing to sacrifice any sort of real reform to appease the members of his own party that should be part of the opposition are doing it because they want the country to succeed, not because they want the party or the President to fail.
Mr. Coughlin opines about the vulnerability of Iran's leaders as the WSJ editorial board says it's time to learn the names of the democracy dissidents in Iran, further pushing the idea that the demonstrators are agitating for real Western-style democracy instead of wanting the election to be fairly arbitrated and the system to be relatively undisturbed.
Mr. Wallison continues to blame the government-backed Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac and their buying decisions for why the financial crisis happened, believing HUD's guarantees and requirements to lend to lower-income borrowers started and continue to drive the dangerous practice.
Mr. Fund decries persons registering to vote in the counties of their second homes as a nakedly political attempt to upset the balance of power. To me, this sounds like the opposite of gerrymandering - people crossing lines and coting in certain places to get their candidates elected.
Ms. Finley has fun with the Lies, Damned Lies, and Statistics Department by carefully not saying high taxes are the only reason people are unhappy, according to a new study, but they definitely contribute, even displaying the conclusion of "high taxes without the perception of corresponding high levels of service makes people unhappy" without hiding or obfuscating it. It's a well-crafted opinion that admits to the possibility that other things also contribute, while making sure to find the thing that she wants to highlight as a root cause.
Mr. Jenkins, Jr. tut-tuts the Chicken Littles saying airport security is a woefully dismal failure, by pointing out what airplane attacks have looked like in the last eight years - small, ineffective whatevers blown out of proportion with ineffective reactionary responses. Ye gods, two sane opinions in the same issue? Happy New Year!
Balance must be maintained, however, and thus, the WSJ devotes time and column space to how overblown the commentary against Jim DeMint is, because unions really are the greater threat to security, because they entrench bad workers and make it impossible to get rid of them, and Yemen is to be blamed and scrutinized for the attack and attacker, not the TSA.
And then we get Mr. Hanson, repeating old lies about the socialist President, who wants bureaucratic control of our health, misrepresented himself as a moderate so as to implement a radically Leftist agenda, and continues to do his thing against the will of a clear majority that opposes him (for their own separate reasons, of course, but that is never really made mention of...) and doesn't want the elites doing what they think is best for us all (excepting for the people that do want to elect smart people so they can rule us intelligently). Mr. Shelby Steele returns to the "empty suit" argument with more, erm, sophistication, considering the election of Barack Obama to have been an "Emperor's New Clothes" style of illusion on racism that let a person who concealed who he really was ascend to the Presidency without anyone trying to uncover him, without taking stands that defined him for who he was, and relying wholly on the collective guilt of white America to vote for the black man without investigating him so they wouldn't be seen as racists.
And to close out, Mr. Sowell says the health care bill is not about health care, but about Barack Obama's ego and desire to impose his will on the people, just like the stimulus bill was about his ego and his appointment of "czars" was about imposing himself and the liberal elite on the people, who are now too dumb to question liberal ideology because their schools didn't educate them enough and their colleges are all unflinchingly liberal, so there's no way they could have truly learned conservatism so as to dedice it is the true philosophy and slavishly follow it instead. And thus, we end where we began, a whole year gone by and no real changes to the arguments against the President, despite all he's done, said, and had done to him by those seeking to make him "compromise".
Last for tonight, Happy New Year with postcards from the past detailing a flight from Japan to London, and a way of possibly stopping the spread of resistant superbugs - stop giving so many antibiotics.
Hip, hip, huzzah! Hip, hip, huzzah! Hip, hip, huzzah! Sir Patrick Stewart and Sir Peter Jackson, each awarded knighthoods in England and New Zealand, respectively.
Prime Minister Harper has asked for and been granted a request to shut the Parliament of Canada down until March, which is beginning to sound like a tradition for him.
For those people waiting eagerly for next year to be better... or at least to get some revenge on the people who dominated the news working against them, we have three units of interest. From tamest to most wild - Karl Rove is gettign dicorced, which means not that much, because he was never much of a marriage culture warrior. Then, Rick Warren's megachruch is about $900,000 USD in the hole and needs donations, which you could take some schadenfreude in because of the Saddleback church's stance on homosexual marriage and other social issues, and then Boss Limbaugh is admitetd to the hospital with chest pains for a possibly heart-related condition, for which more people than there probably should be are hoping that it's a scary experience for him and that he comes out a little kinder and nicer and less of a blowhard liar. We choose not to acknowledge the faction that wishes he doesn't come out of the hospital.
Something mroe sobering, as we begin the international section - the latest Afghan bomber, responsible for the death of at least seven CIA officers, was wearing an Afghan Army uniform, underscoring the difficulty one has in telling friend from for when they're wearing the right clothes to pass undetected. More information on the attack from Fox.
Domestically, the response from Republicans on the current administrator's three-day wait before commenting on the underpants bombing is markedly different from their lack of response when the previous administrator took six days to comment on the shoe bomber. Not that hypocrisy is new among politicians, but this is particularly embarrassing for the party that claims it's always tough on national security and wants to start yet another land war in Asia to stop the terrorists from bringing the fight here. Yeah, it's Joe Lieberman, but I doubt the Republican Party disagrees with him. Besides, the 101st Fighting Keyboarders will give Obama an F on protecting America unprompted, because he's not seeming to take anything seriously and this incident is clearly His Administration's Fault.
In opinions, we criticize because we love. No, really. People on the left criticizing the President for being a sellout center-rightist continuer of and apologist for Bush practices, willing to sacrifice any sort of real reform to appease the members of his own party that should be part of the opposition are doing it because they want the country to succeed, not because they want the party or the President to fail.
Mr. Coughlin opines about the vulnerability of Iran's leaders as the WSJ editorial board says it's time to learn the names of the democracy dissidents in Iran, further pushing the idea that the demonstrators are agitating for real Western-style democracy instead of wanting the election to be fairly arbitrated and the system to be relatively undisturbed.
Mr. Wallison continues to blame the government-backed Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac and their buying decisions for why the financial crisis happened, believing HUD's guarantees and requirements to lend to lower-income borrowers started and continue to drive the dangerous practice.
Mr. Fund decries persons registering to vote in the counties of their second homes as a nakedly political attempt to upset the balance of power. To me, this sounds like the opposite of gerrymandering - people crossing lines and coting in certain places to get their candidates elected.
Ms. Finley has fun with the Lies, Damned Lies, and Statistics Department by carefully not saying high taxes are the only reason people are unhappy, according to a new study, but they definitely contribute, even displaying the conclusion of "high taxes without the perception of corresponding high levels of service makes people unhappy" without hiding or obfuscating it. It's a well-crafted opinion that admits to the possibility that other things also contribute, while making sure to find the thing that she wants to highlight as a root cause.
Mr. Jenkins, Jr. tut-tuts the Chicken Littles saying airport security is a woefully dismal failure, by pointing out what airplane attacks have looked like in the last eight years - small, ineffective whatevers blown out of proportion with ineffective reactionary responses. Ye gods, two sane opinions in the same issue? Happy New Year!
Balance must be maintained, however, and thus, the WSJ devotes time and column space to how overblown the commentary against Jim DeMint is, because unions really are the greater threat to security, because they entrench bad workers and make it impossible to get rid of them, and Yemen is to be blamed and scrutinized for the attack and attacker, not the TSA.
And then we get Mr. Hanson, repeating old lies about the socialist President, who wants bureaucratic control of our health, misrepresented himself as a moderate so as to implement a radically Leftist agenda, and continues to do his thing against the will of a clear majority that opposes him (for their own separate reasons, of course, but that is never really made mention of...) and doesn't want the elites doing what they think is best for us all (excepting for the people that do want to elect smart people so they can rule us intelligently). Mr. Shelby Steele returns to the "empty suit" argument with more, erm, sophistication, considering the election of Barack Obama to have been an "Emperor's New Clothes" style of illusion on racism that let a person who concealed who he really was ascend to the Presidency without anyone trying to uncover him, without taking stands that defined him for who he was, and relying wholly on the collective guilt of white America to vote for the black man without investigating him so they wouldn't be seen as racists.
And to close out, Mr. Sowell says the health care bill is not about health care, but about Barack Obama's ego and desire to impose his will on the people, just like the stimulus bill was about his ego and his appointment of "czars" was about imposing himself and the liberal elite on the people, who are now too dumb to question liberal ideology because their schools didn't educate them enough and their colleges are all unflinchingly liberal, so there's no way they could have truly learned conservatism so as to dedice it is the true philosophy and slavishly follow it instead. And thus, we end where we began, a whole year gone by and no real changes to the arguments against the President, despite all he's done, said, and had done to him by those seeking to make him "compromise".
Last for tonight, Happy New Year with postcards from the past detailing a flight from Japan to London, and a way of possibly stopping the spread of resistant superbugs - stop giving so many antibiotics.
![[identity profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/openid.png){kind=small}
no subject
Date: 2010-01-01 09:42 am (UTC)The babysitting aspect is woven into the story as an aspect of what the story's narrator is dealing with. When the reader follows the narrator (or one of her friends) on a babysitting job, it's to help further the plot and not just something for fluff. (Well, the 'summer vacation' books are fluff. But the main series ins't.)
Sadly, like many other things in life, I just outgrew the series. So, as it approached book 65, I kinda took a different path in life and stopped collecting/reading the series. (Don't worry, all the books got a nice new home where they'd be read for years to come. *NEVER* waste a good book!)
So yeah, I'd fully support the notion that the Babysitters' Club books are still good for this generation and many more to come.
no subject
Date: 2010-01-01 10:17 am (UTC)