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silveradeptGreetings, all. We start with a request. Listen to the zombies. They have good ideas.. At least in this case - zombies like libraries. Well-used and knowledge-stuffed brains taste better.
We also mention a costumed crusader dressed as Deadpool, the fourth-wall-aware comic hero. Considering Deadpool is a trope unto himself, I'm not sure if this is inversion, playing it straight, aversion, or something else entirely.
There's also a look into a success story of transitioning and then doing quite well with one's life - and it all started with an environment that was at least partially supportive and a family that was also at least partially supportive. But the story has turned out quite well - it did get better...it's too bad that for most people, It Gets Better, Assuming You Survive is what we think of as progress.
Out in the world today, a prisoner in China indicates the guards use the inmates as forced labor for gold farming, which they then become rich off of in the trading of virtual currencies. There's a certain...something about reading articles about how the trading of one fiat currency affectes tha value of another fiat currency, but clearly our virtual economies are just as important as our real ones. I wonder how the introduction of new gold sinks affects the economy of money that's traded on currency markets.
A cardinal helping the Bishop of Rome on priest pedophilia was arrested on charged of pedophilia. This, as a report that reuses data and is funded almost entirely with conflict-of-interest funds comes out claiming that the priests really weren't being pedophiles, based on an arbitrarily moved goalpost for what counts. It's likely to be repeated uncritically, but the data and the study itself are worthless, based on methodology and the tortured logic they use to come to the desired conclusion of their backers.
followers of Muqtada al-Sadr marched in Baghdad in a show of opposition to the idea of U.S. troops remaining past their scheduled drawdown date.
Militant attacks in Pakistan continued, with groups claiming responsibility as revenge for the killing of Osama bin Laden and demanding that the United States withdraw its presence from Pakistan. The increased raids and attacks have begun speculation as to whether Pakistan can protect its nuclear arsenal against terrorists and militias.
The commander of the United States Marine Corps understands the need for perpetual war, and suggests that once again we send troops into Eastasia, now that we're wrapping up the wars with Eurasia.
Finally, Egypt announced that it will be opening its border point with the Gaza Strip, prompting columns saying this is just more confirmation that Egypt has been taken over by The Bloodthirsty Religion and is looking forward to the day when they and Palestinians can attack Israel, and claiming that only Israel are truly interested in peace, only Israel has granted real freedom to its citizens, Jews and Arabs alike, and that only Israel will stand with the United States against their war against The Bloothirsty Religion, while chiding the Prime Minister of Israel for making a distinction between the religion of peace that is obviously only a smokescreen for the real religion, The Bloodthirsty Religion. When there's evidence a-plenty that what is said and what is done somewhere are not aligned, who's the one blinkered by propaganda to uncritically repeat what the propagandist said?
Domestically, the honest and problematic truth - the Democratic Party, and its leader, are no longer the working-class liberal advocates they may have started as, but have united with the Republicans in service to the Corporatists - that should be apparent to everyone who voted for the man thinking they would get progress and instead getting More Of The Same, Or Even More Of The Worse. But, the problem with saying such a thing is that when you do, the Establishment comes down on you and does their very best to dismiss you as a fringe lunatic.
Congressman Eric Cantor is willing to hold disaster relief for storm victims hostage so that he can get budget cuts that he wants elsewhere. Some of those cuts might be to NOAA, who have the technology to predict the presence of these large storms in time to get people out of their way. The Republicans have repeatedly signaled their willingness to use people as bargaining chips to get their way. They will willingnly let people die so as to feed the belly of the Corporations. For being the supposedly moral party, they are lacking in basic ethics. This next time around, instead of just voting for The Other Guys, though, can we do some research and actually elect candidates with a conscience that will try to do good?
In Arizona, the legislature wants to make poor people even more poor by fining them if they are overweight, smokers, or diabetics, and they don't show appropriate results from a strict regimen imposed on them by their Medicaid providers. So, if you're not slimming down at the government's approved rate, prepare to have to shell out more money that you probably don't already have, being on Medicaid and all. The overweight due to medical conditions and those with children are exempted from he fine, but if you're poor, fat and childless, Arizona would like to make sure that you feel shame for being all of those things, and have to pay money every month you're not properly shamed.
Have an example of Headline Spin - Senate Report Finds Billions in Waste on Science Foundation Studies! Those scientists are wasting your taxpayer dollars!...except, that if you actually read the article, the report is actually more about how the NSF is really good at finding those cases of waste and fraud and forcing the researchers involved to give back the grant money they received. So yes, the report details billions in waste, but most of that waste was recovered.
The Second Amendment Fear Department will be very interested in indications that the current administration is still looking into ways of doing gun control despite the hostile Congress.
Finally, Senator Wyden of Oregon uses his Senate hold powers to arrest the Protect IP Act and prevent it from reaching the open Senate floor. Thus, we continue to see the scary poewr of the SEnatorial hold, whether used for things you like or things you don't.
In technology, because of the structure of transmitting voice data over the Internet, it is possible to reconstruct what is being said despite the heavy encyrption used by by programs like Skype, without having to break the encryption. Sounds like there needs to be some more form manipulation before encryption.
In opinions, the reason why moving to Canada when things get tough is a cop-out for the people that want to make things better so that the U.S. can be just as good.
Some of that making things better might start with the country actually listening when someone other than a white dude talks about how to combat racism, and even better, doing something about the privilege that those white dudes enjoy. A very basic part of that is not letting birthers with no clue about the Constitution and its requirement run unchecked on broadcast television. Unfortunately, whenever race and color gets mentioned, thera are also a lot of people whose instinct is to say that we're already beyond it, and any person mentioning it in this day and age is only doing so to increase their own personal standing (and/or tar conservatives who have risen beyond such petty concerns), or does so strictly to make their own political candidacy look good, even if the actual record of that politician is far worse than their mythic image.
In politics, Mr. Brownfield rails against the Senate that defeated all budget proposals brought before it, claiming the Senate's no vote on the Ryan budget is just more evidents that the Democrats don't want to fix problems like Medicare, and the Ryan budget was a serious proposal put forward by Republicans that deserved to be passed. The Ryan budget was not serious, but it will probably provide a little bit of cover against the accusations that the Republicans don't want to do serious reform. However, the "kills Medicare" attack against it will probably do much more harm than the cover against "do-nothing" it provides. The other prong of the attack vector, the claim that the health care bill already passed as similar cuts and problems in store for Medicare, is probably going to be the best defense musterable until someone decides to listen seriously about a budget that both raises revenues and cuts spending.
Finally, Mr. Stossel is disappointed that none of the plans solicited by a foundation for dealing with the debt problem came out with plans to delete entire swaths of government - Heritage gets lukewarm praise for actually balancing the budget, and anything left of that is treated with increasing strains of scorn the further it goes from there. Mr. Stossel is more than free to believe in the philosophy of John Galt, but we do wish that he would take a note of the historical record of the country and of Western Europe before it that ran on a Galt model, and contrast that with what kind of living most people enjoy today.
And last for tonight, more letters from celebrities to their sixteen year-old selves. Well-illustrated, many of them, some short, some longer. And correspondence from one Mr. Vincent Price, about how much age and his degenerating body irritates him.
We also mention a costumed crusader dressed as Deadpool, the fourth-wall-aware comic hero. Considering Deadpool is a trope unto himself, I'm not sure if this is inversion, playing it straight, aversion, or something else entirely.
There's also a look into a success story of transitioning and then doing quite well with one's life - and it all started with an environment that was at least partially supportive and a family that was also at least partially supportive. But the story has turned out quite well - it did get better...it's too bad that for most people, It Gets Better, Assuming You Survive is what we think of as progress.
Out in the world today, a prisoner in China indicates the guards use the inmates as forced labor for gold farming, which they then become rich off of in the trading of virtual currencies. There's a certain...something about reading articles about how the trading of one fiat currency affectes tha value of another fiat currency, but clearly our virtual economies are just as important as our real ones. I wonder how the introduction of new gold sinks affects the economy of money that's traded on currency markets.
A cardinal helping the Bishop of Rome on priest pedophilia was arrested on charged of pedophilia. This, as a report that reuses data and is funded almost entirely with conflict-of-interest funds comes out claiming that the priests really weren't being pedophiles, based on an arbitrarily moved goalpost for what counts. It's likely to be repeated uncritically, but the data and the study itself are worthless, based on methodology and the tortured logic they use to come to the desired conclusion of their backers.
followers of Muqtada al-Sadr marched in Baghdad in a show of opposition to the idea of U.S. troops remaining past their scheduled drawdown date.
Militant attacks in Pakistan continued, with groups claiming responsibility as revenge for the killing of Osama bin Laden and demanding that the United States withdraw its presence from Pakistan. The increased raids and attacks have begun speculation as to whether Pakistan can protect its nuclear arsenal against terrorists and militias.
The commander of the United States Marine Corps understands the need for perpetual war, and suggests that once again we send troops into Eastasia, now that we're wrapping up the wars with Eurasia.
Finally, Egypt announced that it will be opening its border point with the Gaza Strip, prompting columns saying this is just more confirmation that Egypt has been taken over by The Bloodthirsty Religion and is looking forward to the day when they and Palestinians can attack Israel, and claiming that only Israel are truly interested in peace, only Israel has granted real freedom to its citizens, Jews and Arabs alike, and that only Israel will stand with the United States against their war against The Bloothirsty Religion, while chiding the Prime Minister of Israel for making a distinction between the religion of peace that is obviously only a smokescreen for the real religion, The Bloodthirsty Religion. When there's evidence a-plenty that what is said and what is done somewhere are not aligned, who's the one blinkered by propaganda to uncritically repeat what the propagandist said?
Domestically, the honest and problematic truth - the Democratic Party, and its leader, are no longer the working-class liberal advocates they may have started as, but have united with the Republicans in service to the Corporatists - that should be apparent to everyone who voted for the man thinking they would get progress and instead getting More Of The Same, Or Even More Of The Worse. But, the problem with saying such a thing is that when you do, the Establishment comes down on you and does their very best to dismiss you as a fringe lunatic.
Congressman Eric Cantor is willing to hold disaster relief for storm victims hostage so that he can get budget cuts that he wants elsewhere. Some of those cuts might be to NOAA, who have the technology to predict the presence of these large storms in time to get people out of their way. The Republicans have repeatedly signaled their willingness to use people as bargaining chips to get their way. They will willingnly let people die so as to feed the belly of the Corporations. For being the supposedly moral party, they are lacking in basic ethics. This next time around, instead of just voting for The Other Guys, though, can we do some research and actually elect candidates with a conscience that will try to do good?
In Arizona, the legislature wants to make poor people even more poor by fining them if they are overweight, smokers, or diabetics, and they don't show appropriate results from a strict regimen imposed on them by their Medicaid providers. So, if you're not slimming down at the government's approved rate, prepare to have to shell out more money that you probably don't already have, being on Medicaid and all. The overweight due to medical conditions and those with children are exempted from he fine, but if you're poor, fat and childless, Arizona would like to make sure that you feel shame for being all of those things, and have to pay money every month you're not properly shamed.
Have an example of Headline Spin - Senate Report Finds Billions in Waste on Science Foundation Studies! Those scientists are wasting your taxpayer dollars!...except, that if you actually read the article, the report is actually more about how the NSF is really good at finding those cases of waste and fraud and forcing the researchers involved to give back the grant money they received. So yes, the report details billions in waste, but most of that waste was recovered.
The Second Amendment Fear Department will be very interested in indications that the current administration is still looking into ways of doing gun control despite the hostile Congress.
Finally, Senator Wyden of Oregon uses his Senate hold powers to arrest the Protect IP Act and prevent it from reaching the open Senate floor. Thus, we continue to see the scary poewr of the SEnatorial hold, whether used for things you like or things you don't.
In technology, because of the structure of transmitting voice data over the Internet, it is possible to reconstruct what is being said despite the heavy encyrption used by by programs like Skype, without having to break the encryption. Sounds like there needs to be some more form manipulation before encryption.
In opinions, the reason why moving to Canada when things get tough is a cop-out for the people that want to make things better so that the U.S. can be just as good.
Some of that making things better might start with the country actually listening when someone other than a white dude talks about how to combat racism, and even better, doing something about the privilege that those white dudes enjoy. A very basic part of that is not letting birthers with no clue about the Constitution and its requirement run unchecked on broadcast television. Unfortunately, whenever race and color gets mentioned, thera are also a lot of people whose instinct is to say that we're already beyond it, and any person mentioning it in this day and age is only doing so to increase their own personal standing (and/or tar conservatives who have risen beyond such petty concerns), or does so strictly to make their own political candidacy look good, even if the actual record of that politician is far worse than their mythic image.
In politics, Mr. Brownfield rails against the Senate that defeated all budget proposals brought before it, claiming the Senate's no vote on the Ryan budget is just more evidents that the Democrats don't want to fix problems like Medicare, and the Ryan budget was a serious proposal put forward by Republicans that deserved to be passed. The Ryan budget was not serious, but it will probably provide a little bit of cover against the accusations that the Republicans don't want to do serious reform. However, the "kills Medicare" attack against it will probably do much more harm than the cover against "do-nothing" it provides. The other prong of the attack vector, the claim that the health care bill already passed as similar cuts and problems in store for Medicare, is probably going to be the best defense musterable until someone decides to listen seriously about a budget that both raises revenues and cuts spending.
Finally, Mr. Stossel is disappointed that none of the plans solicited by a foundation for dealing with the debt problem came out with plans to delete entire swaths of government - Heritage gets lukewarm praise for actually balancing the budget, and anything left of that is treated with increasing strains of scorn the further it goes from there. Mr. Stossel is more than free to believe in the philosophy of John Galt, but we do wish that he would take a note of the historical record of the country and of Western Europe before it that ran on a Galt model, and contrast that with what kind of living most people enjoy today.
And last for tonight, more letters from celebrities to their sixteen year-old selves. Well-illustrated, many of them, some short, some longer. And correspondence from one Mr. Vincent Price, about how much age and his degenerating body irritates him.
