Festive - 23 December 2010
Dec. 24th, 2010 07:51 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
silveradeptGreetings, again, of the VEWPRFs to all of you. Have some photographs of the solstice, some including the red moon that happened during the shortest day of the year. And one of a snow plow that lit on fire while clearing snow in Minnesota.
Bang your head against the desk as you read the United Kingdom government is axing funding for its programme to put books in the hands of children at birth, at primary school's start, and at 7 years of age. Stupid, stupid rat creatures! Giving people books at birth is one of the most effective ways of ensuring that literacy happens. Supplementing that gift with more books at early ages means development of literacy. For people who can't afford books, those donated ones may be the only books they ever have in their houses. Exposure to books, reading, and literacy is critical for development. Surely there are other programmes that can be reduced or cut that will have less effect on the people than this. Getting rid of some CCTV, perhaps. If you've got MPs to write to or to see, let them know how much you think this is a wrong move, and how much it would be a bad idea to be the Government that Fosters Ignorance.
Elsewhere, a hospital in Arizona was stripped of its Catholic status after making the difficult decision to save a mother's life by ending that of the 11 week-old fetus. The bishop of the diocese declared the procedure to be an abortion and the hospital to be in violation of its Catholic ethics and guidelines for doing so. The hospital, in return, indicated that the mother's chance of death was all but certain if the situation was allowed to continue on its present course, with an end result of the death of both mother and fetus. Hippocrates takes Bishop. I suggest that the Bishop spend time in the hospital and see what other types of decisions have to be made about life and death before making another statement about how unethical the hospital is - perhaps in seeing what goes on, he will come to a fuller appreciation of the difficulty of making both Hippocrates and God happy with them.
If you're a puzzle-solver, a game-player, or someone who enjoys competing for athlons, All of the United States' government departments are authorized to hold contests with prizes to solve difficult problems. Based on the successes of prizes like the X Prizes, and research indicating that we do great work in learning and solving problems when presented in a competition, game, or prize-winning format, I think we're going to get some really good solutions out of contests, should they be held.
Out in the world today, 25,000 new troops will be sent out to Afghanistan in the year 2011 to rotate out the troops that are currently there. Those troops will not likely be coming home any time soon, due to revised timetables that will end up breaking the promises of the current administration.
Inside the United States, Newt Ginrich thinks he can make a successful run at the United States presidency, running on the platform of "unemployed people are lazy and don't deserve unemployment insurance, and that the Democrats have become the "party of food stamps". Specifically, "I'm opposed to giving people money for doing nothing", he says, to applause, proving both he and his audience have no idea what the requirements are to keep one's unemployment insurance, nor do they understand how vital the food stamps program is to keeping people, especially children, alive. If this is his platform, I hope it goes down in flames long before he gets anywhere near a primary. I don't even want it to survive long enough to receive any sort of national platform. Partially because I think there are a lot of people who are just as ignorant and will vote that in, or understand it all to well and will vote to screw their neighbors, and partially because, well, there are a lot of unemployed people and food stamp people, so it should be poltiical suicide to engage in this. But with Citizens United, they may be able to drown out the voices of the people with paid advertisements that lie and Fox News spots to confuse. That's scary. And worse, Newt is not alone in claiming the unemployed are just lazy.
The U.S. military denies that PFC Bradley Manning is being mistreated. Which is not the actual point of the complaint about his treatment - it is the treatment itself that is the complaint, not that he is somehow being mistreated within the context of that imprisonment. The United Nations will investigate the conditions of PFC Manning's imprisonment with an eye as to whether it is torture or not. Solitary confinement of this severity, on someone who has not been shown to need it, is torture as surely as waterboarding is, and it's all the more repulsive because the person being confined is a whistleblower, not a terrorist.
In response to the cables released by PFC Manning and Mr. Assange, the CIA has created the Wikileaks Task Force. W.T.F. Which is pretty much how the intelligence community and the United States government has reacted to the cables so far.
On politics, all Democratic Senators returning for the next session, exceptiong Mr. Dodd, have signed a letter to Majority Leader Reid indicating their support for new rules that will make it easier to overcome filibuster objections and move legislation through the chamber.
In technology, more Kinect hacking, in this case, to allow surgeons and others to manipulate and interpret radiological images without having to touch anything.
Japanese scientists have engineered a mouse that tweets like a bird through mutation of particular mice that are prose to miscopying their DNA. They still ahve a long way to go before they generate a platypus, which still appears to be the combination of several different traits found more prominently across different animal kingdoms.
Scientists have discovered that at least in one instance, the placebo effect still works, even when the people taking the placebo know its a placebo.
Into the opinions, where if you really want to combat Muslim extremism, you have to lean heavily on Saudi Arabia, a rich country that has no worries about exporting its own fundamentalist interpretations everywhere else. You also have to make an envrionment where attempted honor killings are taken seriously, and women threatened in that manner feel safe about giving testimony.
On more pedestrian politics, Mr. Morris and Ms. McGann attemtp to marshal forces to stab Republicans from the front for their cooperation with Democrats on the New START treaty. This is characteristic of the attitude that has been choking off any chance of cooperation, "bipartisanship", or even mere moderation in the Republican Party.
Mr. Stossel blames the government for creating inflated asset values of alpacas, because they offer tax assistance on livestock breeding. Nothing, of course, about the people who are bidding up the value of those livestock and trying to make quick profits by selling them for overinflated values. That, I suspect, is The Market (A.P.T.I.N.) at work, and Mr. Stossel has always said that The Market (A.P.T.I.N.) is Inherently Superior and unregulated, unvarnished capitalism is always Good, regardless of what results it actually produces.
Staying on the theme, Mr. Trzupek considers the redistribution of Congressional seats to be a confirmation that the American people love "free-market" states that have less regulation and government interference, lower taxes, and are anti-union, and are moving there in support of that. Which would be nice, if it were actually true and he supported that position with facts. What he actually says in the column, however, is "States that have low income taxes, low corporate taxes, and laws on the books that prevent corporations from having to deal with unions are attracting companies, who move there so they can profit. Because those corporations are taking their jobs with them, people following the jobs move to these states as well." If there's an ideology, it's a corporate one, not one of "the people" - I don't believe a lot of people are moving because "I hate the government of my state and how much it taxes me, and I'm going to move to a state where I keep more of my money." I believe they're moving because "there are jobs there, there are no jobs here, so that's where I have to go." Where they will work for lower wages, I suspect, than they would had they found a job in their current state, and possibly less benefits (if they get any at all), so even though they will have less taxes, they will not see an improvement in their standard of living. Mr. Trzupek wants to manufacture a populist movement where there is none, merely the grind of trying to attract corporations and their jobs by offering them the sweetest deals.
And last for tonight, enjoy your winter festivals. We'll have more material for you at some other point.
Bang your head against the desk as you read the United Kingdom government is axing funding for its programme to put books in the hands of children at birth, at primary school's start, and at 7 years of age. Stupid, stupid rat creatures! Giving people books at birth is one of the most effective ways of ensuring that literacy happens. Supplementing that gift with more books at early ages means development of literacy. For people who can't afford books, those donated ones may be the only books they ever have in their houses. Exposure to books, reading, and literacy is critical for development. Surely there are other programmes that can be reduced or cut that will have less effect on the people than this. Getting rid of some CCTV, perhaps. If you've got MPs to write to or to see, let them know how much you think this is a wrong move, and how much it would be a bad idea to be the Government that Fosters Ignorance.
From the foldings of its robe, it brought two children; wretched, abject, frightful, hideous, miserable. They knelt down at its feet, and clung upon the outside of its garment...."They are Man's," said the Spirit, looking down upon them. "And they cling to me, appealing from their fathers. This boy is Ignorance. This girl is Want. Beware them both, and all of their degree, but most of all beware this boy, for on his brow I see that written which is Doom, unless the writing be erased...."Have they no refuge or resource?" cried Scrooge. "Are there no prisons?" said the Spirit, turning on him for the last time with his own words. "Are there no workhouses?"
Elsewhere, a hospital in Arizona was stripped of its Catholic status after making the difficult decision to save a mother's life by ending that of the 11 week-old fetus. The bishop of the diocese declared the procedure to be an abortion and the hospital to be in violation of its Catholic ethics and guidelines for doing so. The hospital, in return, indicated that the mother's chance of death was all but certain if the situation was allowed to continue on its present course, with an end result of the death of both mother and fetus. Hippocrates takes Bishop. I suggest that the Bishop spend time in the hospital and see what other types of decisions have to be made about life and death before making another statement about how unethical the hospital is - perhaps in seeing what goes on, he will come to a fuller appreciation of the difficulty of making both Hippocrates and God happy with them.
If you're a puzzle-solver, a game-player, or someone who enjoys competing for athlons, All of the United States' government departments are authorized to hold contests with prizes to solve difficult problems. Based on the successes of prizes like the X Prizes, and research indicating that we do great work in learning and solving problems when presented in a competition, game, or prize-winning format, I think we're going to get some really good solutions out of contests, should they be held.
Out in the world today, 25,000 new troops will be sent out to Afghanistan in the year 2011 to rotate out the troops that are currently there. Those troops will not likely be coming home any time soon, due to revised timetables that will end up breaking the promises of the current administration.
Inside the United States, Newt Ginrich thinks he can make a successful run at the United States presidency, running on the platform of "unemployed people are lazy and don't deserve unemployment insurance, and that the Democrats have become the "party of food stamps". Specifically, "I'm opposed to giving people money for doing nothing", he says, to applause, proving both he and his audience have no idea what the requirements are to keep one's unemployment insurance, nor do they understand how vital the food stamps program is to keeping people, especially children, alive. If this is his platform, I hope it goes down in flames long before he gets anywhere near a primary. I don't even want it to survive long enough to receive any sort of national platform. Partially because I think there are a lot of people who are just as ignorant and will vote that in, or understand it all to well and will vote to screw their neighbors, and partially because, well, there are a lot of unemployed people and food stamp people, so it should be poltiical suicide to engage in this. But with Citizens United, they may be able to drown out the voices of the people with paid advertisements that lie and Fox News spots to confuse. That's scary. And worse, Newt is not alone in claiming the unemployed are just lazy.
The U.S. military denies that PFC Bradley Manning is being mistreated. Which is not the actual point of the complaint about his treatment - it is the treatment itself that is the complaint, not that he is somehow being mistreated within the context of that imprisonment. The United Nations will investigate the conditions of PFC Manning's imprisonment with an eye as to whether it is torture or not. Solitary confinement of this severity, on someone who has not been shown to need it, is torture as surely as waterboarding is, and it's all the more repulsive because the person being confined is a whistleblower, not a terrorist.
In response to the cables released by PFC Manning and Mr. Assange, the CIA has created the Wikileaks Task Force. W.T.F. Which is pretty much how the intelligence community and the United States government has reacted to the cables so far.
On politics, all Democratic Senators returning for the next session, exceptiong Mr. Dodd, have signed a letter to Majority Leader Reid indicating their support for new rules that will make it easier to overcome filibuster objections and move legislation through the chamber.
In technology, more Kinect hacking, in this case, to allow surgeons and others to manipulate and interpret radiological images without having to touch anything.
Japanese scientists have engineered a mouse that tweets like a bird through mutation of particular mice that are prose to miscopying their DNA. They still ahve a long way to go before they generate a platypus, which still appears to be the combination of several different traits found more prominently across different animal kingdoms.
Scientists have discovered that at least in one instance, the placebo effect still works, even when the people taking the placebo know its a placebo.
Into the opinions, where if you really want to combat Muslim extremism, you have to lean heavily on Saudi Arabia, a rich country that has no worries about exporting its own fundamentalist interpretations everywhere else. You also have to make an envrionment where attempted honor killings are taken seriously, and women threatened in that manner feel safe about giving testimony.
On more pedestrian politics, Mr. Morris and Ms. McGann attemtp to marshal forces to stab Republicans from the front for their cooperation with Democrats on the New START treaty. This is characteristic of the attitude that has been choking off any chance of cooperation, "bipartisanship", or even mere moderation in the Republican Party.
Mr. Stossel blames the government for creating inflated asset values of alpacas, because they offer tax assistance on livestock breeding. Nothing, of course, about the people who are bidding up the value of those livestock and trying to make quick profits by selling them for overinflated values. That, I suspect, is The Market (A.P.T.I.N.) at work, and Mr. Stossel has always said that The Market (A.P.T.I.N.) is Inherently Superior and unregulated, unvarnished capitalism is always Good, regardless of what results it actually produces.
Staying on the theme, Mr. Trzupek considers the redistribution of Congressional seats to be a confirmation that the American people love "free-market" states that have less regulation and government interference, lower taxes, and are anti-union, and are moving there in support of that. Which would be nice, if it were actually true and he supported that position with facts. What he actually says in the column, however, is "States that have low income taxes, low corporate taxes, and laws on the books that prevent corporations from having to deal with unions are attracting companies, who move there so they can profit. Because those corporations are taking their jobs with them, people following the jobs move to these states as well." If there's an ideology, it's a corporate one, not one of "the people" - I don't believe a lot of people are moving because "I hate the government of my state and how much it taxes me, and I'm going to move to a state where I keep more of my money." I believe they're moving because "there are jobs there, there are no jobs here, so that's where I have to go." Where they will work for lower wages, I suspect, than they would had they found a job in their current state, and possibly less benefits (if they get any at all), so even though they will have less taxes, they will not see an improvement in their standard of living. Mr. Trzupek wants to manufacture a populist movement where there is none, merely the grind of trying to attract corporations and their jobs by offering them the sweetest deals.
And last for tonight, enjoy your winter festivals. We'll have more material for you at some other point.
![[identity profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/openid.png){kind=small}
no subject
Date: 2010-12-26 12:36 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2010-12-27 07:53 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2010-12-24 05:01 pm (UTC)The Google just gave me a bunch of foreigners. =P
~M~
no subject
Date: 2010-12-24 09:35 pm (UTC)All Praise To Its Name
Date: 2010-12-24 09:42 pm (UTC)~M~