Another post - 21-25 September 02011
Sep. 26th, 2011 12:04 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
silveradeptGreetings, everyone. What happens when two thousand protestors peacably occupy Wall Street? And many others send support? Yahoo blocked e-mails for a bit, but claimed that it was a mistake in the spam seeker and quickly unblocked them.) Well, if you're Occupy Wall Street, you get...squat for media coverage. Even though the same amount of Tea Partiers would have had the Beltway media flocking to them. You also get arrested and beaten by the police for your nonviolent actions.
Yet, a candidate for the Republican presidential nomination says that he will reinstate the requirements that gay and lesbian soldiers hid who they are to serve in the military, and perhaps add on an extra requirement for celibacy for the straight soldiers, and there's plenty of news coverage for that. And the crowd boos the soldier asking the question. And none of the other candidates, including the frontrunners, seem to take issue with any of this. Despite the fact that while they can serve openly, the benefits extended to straight couples are still denied to gay and lesbian couples. Judging by the presence of essays and columns suggesting the very same things that the candidate suggested, with additional helpings of the "gays want special rights all to themselves" argument that was in favor a few years ago...
Actually, let's try that again. The media will cover a student getting an infraction for expressing his religious belief in class, but will not take a peep to look at people peacefully protesting Wall Street.
International companies can get you great things for cheap... but you may also want to think about how Amazon treats its line workers, or how UPS treats its line workers, or how Apple treats its line workers and its sales force. It's not just Wal-Mart that squeezes the line, abuses the workforce, and then passes the savings on to consumers that are usually oblivious to it.
And last out of the headlines, we are reminded that Jim Henson left us far too early. We wish we could have seen what he would have done, having seen the Fraggle Rock was able to express his ideas wonderfully.
Internationally, Palestine requested that the United Nations consider thm as an official member state, a request likely to be denied by the Security Council by United States veto. If you ask conservative columnists, it's another step toward the destruction of Israel by the Arab forces around it.
It's been a busy week at the United Nations, with the annual walking-out on Iran's President as he addressed the General Assembly in addiion.
Russian Prime Minister Vladimir Putin has indicated he will seek the Russian Presidency in the next election, confirming the suspicions of many that Putin was only taking the cycle off because he was constitutionally mandated to do so.
Domestically, Troy Davis was cilled after the Supreme Court of the United States refused to grant a stay of execution, despite the preponderance of reasons why a stay should have been granted and the matter reinvestigated.
Even so, Texas executed a man convicted of a very brutal hate crime, so that you can get the nice contrast of Georgia killing a person who has reasons for innocence with Texas killing a man who is most likely guilty of the crimes he was accused of. And people who are in favor of the death penalty hope that paralysis keeps people arguing for a good long time.
The Park51 cultural center opened quietly, hoping to avoid the firestorm that surrounded it while it was being constructed. Possibly hoping to do things the same way, the Attorney General insisted the closure of Guantanamo Bay will continue on schedule, despite the very public flak the administration took when they were public about trying to shut the place down.
Last out, another debate, another analysis and shuffling of who might be a good frontrunner, who's getting better and who's getting worse. Also, another round of handicapping the debates.
In science and technology, a recent paper using CERN's particle smasher recorded a curious result - neutrinos may have exceeded the speed of light. [PDF]. If that is the case, well, Einsteinian physics could very well require a new model to explain this. (And if they can explain it, does that open the door to FTL?)
Elsewhere, scientists have managed a method of reconstructing the pictures that the brain processes, albeit currently at a low resolution. With sufficient oomph behind the system, one could reconstruct dreams and other pictures of the unconscious state, and then record them for playback later on.
In opinions, Mr. Taranto suggests that Mr. Nader could be a major spoiler for the Democrats, in pulling votes away from the Democrat for someone farther left than him. Only if the Republicans can present a united front, and can hold together their coalition long enough to squelch any Tea Party candidates. They're not getting any help when columnists suggest that the Tea Party are the natural antibodies to the alien policies of the Democrats, and so the Tea Partiers should be encouraged as the grass roots organization (funded in secret by anonymous donors that do not have to be disclosed) that they are.
Heritage continues to indicate the green light given to start making scandal rumors about the Administration, so as to build enough time in the public mind for them to develop fully.
And last out, Mr. Stossel says charter schools for everyone, because charters don't have those pesky unions that stop bad teachers from being fired like they should be, and oh they might also have greater creative freedom, smaller class sizes, and a whole host of other advantages the public school system doesn't have. Maybe if you gave the public schools the same sorts of benefits, you'd find they did pretty well, too, even with those unions.
Last for tonight, a letter from Marge Simpson to Barbara Bush about family values. And an exemplar of sportsmanship who carried an opponent who had been spiked for a half-mile back to his coaches, then finished the race.
Yet, a candidate for the Republican presidential nomination says that he will reinstate the requirements that gay and lesbian soldiers hid who they are to serve in the military, and perhaps add on an extra requirement for celibacy for the straight soldiers, and there's plenty of news coverage for that. And the crowd boos the soldier asking the question. And none of the other candidates, including the frontrunners, seem to take issue with any of this. Despite the fact that while they can serve openly, the benefits extended to straight couples are still denied to gay and lesbian couples. Judging by the presence of essays and columns suggesting the very same things that the candidate suggested, with additional helpings of the "gays want special rights all to themselves" argument that was in favor a few years ago...
Actually, let's try that again. The media will cover a student getting an infraction for expressing his religious belief in class, but will not take a peep to look at people peacefully protesting Wall Street.
International companies can get you great things for cheap... but you may also want to think about how Amazon treats its line workers, or how UPS treats its line workers, or how Apple treats its line workers and its sales force. It's not just Wal-Mart that squeezes the line, abuses the workforce, and then passes the savings on to consumers that are usually oblivious to it.
And last out of the headlines, we are reminded that Jim Henson left us far too early. We wish we could have seen what he would have done, having seen the Fraggle Rock was able to express his ideas wonderfully.
Internationally, Palestine requested that the United Nations consider thm as an official member state, a request likely to be denied by the Security Council by United States veto. If you ask conservative columnists, it's another step toward the destruction of Israel by the Arab forces around it.
It's been a busy week at the United Nations, with the annual walking-out on Iran's President as he addressed the General Assembly in addiion.
Russian Prime Minister Vladimir Putin has indicated he will seek the Russian Presidency in the next election, confirming the suspicions of many that Putin was only taking the cycle off because he was constitutionally mandated to do so.
Domestically, Troy Davis was cilled after the Supreme Court of the United States refused to grant a stay of execution, despite the preponderance of reasons why a stay should have been granted and the matter reinvestigated.
Even so, Texas executed a man convicted of a very brutal hate crime, so that you can get the nice contrast of Georgia killing a person who has reasons for innocence with Texas killing a man who is most likely guilty of the crimes he was accused of. And people who are in favor of the death penalty hope that paralysis keeps people arguing for a good long time.
The Park51 cultural center opened quietly, hoping to avoid the firestorm that surrounded it while it was being constructed. Possibly hoping to do things the same way, the Attorney General insisted the closure of Guantanamo Bay will continue on schedule, despite the very public flak the administration took when they were public about trying to shut the place down.
Last out, another debate, another analysis and shuffling of who might be a good frontrunner, who's getting better and who's getting worse. Also, another round of handicapping the debates.
In science and technology, a recent paper using CERN's particle smasher recorded a curious result - neutrinos may have exceeded the speed of light. [PDF]. If that is the case, well, Einsteinian physics could very well require a new model to explain this. (And if they can explain it, does that open the door to FTL?)
Elsewhere, scientists have managed a method of reconstructing the pictures that the brain processes, albeit currently at a low resolution. With sufficient oomph behind the system, one could reconstruct dreams and other pictures of the unconscious state, and then record them for playback later on.
In opinions, Mr. Taranto suggests that Mr. Nader could be a major spoiler for the Democrats, in pulling votes away from the Democrat for someone farther left than him. Only if the Republicans can present a united front, and can hold together their coalition long enough to squelch any Tea Party candidates. They're not getting any help when columnists suggest that the Tea Party are the natural antibodies to the alien policies of the Democrats, and so the Tea Partiers should be encouraged as the grass roots organization (funded in secret by anonymous donors that do not have to be disclosed) that they are.
Heritage continues to indicate the green light given to start making scandal rumors about the Administration, so as to build enough time in the public mind for them to develop fully.
And last out, Mr. Stossel says charter schools for everyone, because charters don't have those pesky unions that stop bad teachers from being fired like they should be, and oh they might also have greater creative freedom, smaller class sizes, and a whole host of other advantages the public school system doesn't have. Maybe if you gave the public schools the same sorts of benefits, you'd find they did pretty well, too, even with those unions.
Last for tonight, a letter from Marge Simpson to Barbara Bush about family values. And an exemplar of sportsmanship who carried an opponent who had been spiked for a half-mile back to his coaches, then finished the race.
