Politics
ddobbs | December 16, 2008I don't play no stinkin' video games, but this is odd enough to be interesting Boing Boing reports, in two different posts, that
a) Some employers are apparently discriminating against World of Warcraft players on the grounds that their heads are always within the WoW and not fully in this one (a stance that some WoW players agree with),
but
b) Obama is apparently NOT one of those employers, as he hired at least one WoW player -- Kevin Werbach (aka Supernovan Jenkins to WoWers -- to head his FCC transition team.
I'm not brave enough to speculate on what this means.
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evolvingthoughts | December 15, 2008Here's an excellent discussion by Lawrence Lessig on the creeping nature of regulation through copyright. Quite apart from anything else it's an amazing use of presentation software. Sure, it's 2002, but things have only got worse...
pharyngula | December 15, 2008In these times of economic crisis, war, and uncertainty, it is reassurring to know that our diligent representatives are hard at work in congress to make the country a better place.
Behold, House Resolution 847.
H. Res. 847
In the House of Representatives, U. S.,
December 11, 2007.
Whereas Christmas, a holiday of great significance to Americans and many other cultures and nationalities, is celebrated annually by Christians throughout the United States and the world;
Whereas there are approximately 225,000,000 Christians in the United States, making Christianity the religion of over three-…
ddobbs | December 15, 2008It appears Obama is going to make a health-care system overhaul a top priority in his first year.
from the Tribune:
"The time is now to solve this problem," Obama said at a Chicago news conference where he announced that former Senate Majority Leader Tom Daschle would head his health-care team. "It's not something that we can sort of put off because we're in an emergency. This is part of the emergency."
And as many have pointed out, his selection of Tom Daschle as Secretary of Health and Human Services shows serious intent as well.
This should be quite interesting to watch. As Obama…
oracknows | December 15, 2008Several months ago, I wrote a post about the experimentation with acupuncture by an Air Force physician, Col. Robert Niemtzow. In the post, I started with an admittedly exaggerated vignette--a story, if you will--of a soldier whose leg was shredded by a mortar in battle. When the medic came to treat his wounds and get him ready for transport, this soldier was in for a surprise, because after applying a tourniquet to his leg, this medic offered him not morphine for his pain but acupuncture. At the time, the military acupuncture program spearheaded by Col. Niemtzow was not proposing anything…
evolvingthoughts | December 14, 2008Here's an article, by MSN no less, that explains the problems with broad filtering. A fellow named Herman Libshitz can't get an email account from Verizon because his name contains "shit". Residents of Scunthorpe in the UK apparently have similar problems. God only knows what the residents of Testiclebreastpenisvaginaville can do...
evolvingthoughts | December 14, 2008I received this from GetUp today. I wonder if the politicians recognise that no amount of economic manoeuvring or political RealPolitik will avoid the laws of nature? If we do too little, then our children - not even our grandchildren but the very next generation - will suffer and badly. The ALP (sorry, the Clean Feed Censorship Party) is starting to look like More of the Very Same... again.
I'm writing from Canberra with an urgent message. I've just finished reading an advance copy of the Government's White Paper on climate change. They aim to reduce carbon pollution by only 5% by 2020,…
razib | December 14, 2008Check out the 1860 vs. 2008 election maps for president on a county-by-county level.
pharyngula | December 14, 2008Our president, the wretched villain who threw away our economy and our people's lives in a wasteful, failed war, skulked into Iraq and tried to pretend he was a hero. Nobody was fooled, and he got a rude surprise.
Bush had just finished his prepared remarks in which he said the security agreement was made possible by the U.S. surge of troops earlier this year, when the journalist, Muthathar al Zaidi pulled his shoes off and hurled them at the president. "This is a goodbye kiss, you dog," Zaidi shouted.
Bush dodged the shoes and was not struck. Bodyguards quickly wrestled Zaidi to the…
gregladen | December 14, 2008OMG!!!! ... I have new respect for Bush. He's really good at ducking, it turns out.
Yes, yes, indeed. In Arab culture (which may or may not pertain to Iraq, depending on ethnicity) the sole of the FOOT is very very dirty. I don't know so much about the sole of the shoe. But I'm thinking that you don't throw your shoe at someone because you like them. (As is done in certain cultures, of course.)
oracknows | December 14, 2008The other day, I mentioned how the ever-warped and evil Westboro Baptist Church wanted in on the Washington State melee in which every religious and antireligion group out there is trying to get a display at the capitol after the state allowed a Christian Nativity scene. Included were the lyrics to a lovely jingle these twisted idiots came up with called Santa Claus Will Take You To Hell.
Ed Brayton may have posted an image of the actual poster that the WBC wanted to display and reported that the State of Washington, deluged with requests for displays, has declared a moratorium on new…
gregladen | December 13, 2008Secretary of State Mark Ritchie discusses the Recount of the 2008 Senate Race in Minnesota between Norm Coleman and Al Franken. These remarks are part of a forum held on "The Minnesota Tradition of Fair Elections" hosted by the Center for the Study of Politics and Governance at the Hubert H Humphrey Center, UMN.
I find it interesting that he grew up with an electron microscope in his house. What's that all about?
Lifted from the Facebook Account of my friend, who really exists despite rumors to the contrary, Ana Blogless.
gregladen | December 13, 2008But he's going down fighting.
First, the going down part:
This concerns Paul McKim, who is the former CEO of a Houston company, Deep Marine Technologies Inc.. He has filed a lawsuit in district court in Harris County, Texas that alleges that a majority shareholder, Minneapolis based Nasser Kazeminy, used corporate funds to help Minnesota Senator Norm Coleman.
Accoring to the suit, Kazeminy...
...directed $75,000 to an insurance company that contracted with Coleman's wife, Laurie Coleman, under the guise that the payments were for services.
McKim also alleges that Kazeminy and another co…
pharyngula | December 13, 2008That's a good question. After all, how can someone get seriously upset when they're wished "Happy Holidays" instead of "Merry Christmas"? It's been ridiculous from the get-go. Well, Max Blumenthal has traced the meme back in an article on who started the War on Christmas, and you probably won't be too surprised: it originated in racist kooks who blamed foreigners and Jews for all of the nation's ills. Notice that when people talk about the War on Christmas, they rarely mention who's waging it. It's unspoken but understood on the far right that this is a war with Jews and immigrants.
This is…
clock | December 12, 2008"In the summer, I will begin an appointment at the Harvard Law School, while directing the Safra Center."
More details here.
gregladen | December 12, 2008 ... because it is hard to be a Senator from Prison. The latest from Fox News:
The FBI is reportedly investigating allegations that a Minnesota businessman tried to funnel $75,000 in campaign contributions to Sen. Norm Coleman through the senator's wife, Laurie, at the same time Coleman was going into debt because of extensive home renovations.
According to a report from MyFOXTwinCities.com, two lawsuits allege that in the spring of 2007, Nasser Kazeminy began making $25,000 payments from Deep Marine Technology, a Texas company he controls, to Laurie Coleman's employer, insurer Hayes…
clock | December 12, 2008Melissa puts the whole auto-makers non-bailout non-deal most succinctly and correctly of them all:
In short, the GOP demanded that the bailout be contingent upon busting unions, and, when their demand wasn't met, they tanked the deal.
With each such stunt, over the years, Republicans lost another segment of the voting population and this one is no different - all the people employed by or dependent on the car industry will remember this for a generation.
The craziest thing that Shakes notes, though, is this silly quote by Dick Cheney:
"If we don't do this, we will be known as the party of…
gregladen | December 12, 2008
"The actions today by the Canvassing Board can only be described as confusing to us."
Coleman's chief lawyer, Fritz Knaak, has filed papers to stop 133 votes in a Franken-leaning section of Minneapolis ... mainly college students ... from being counted. Why? Because he is too stupid to understand the not so complicated situation...
"While advocates for the Franken Campaign stood outside with signs reminiscent of Florida in 2000, what we now have before us is a situation in which there now exist essentially, more than 87 different standards for how ballots will be included in the so-…
oracknows | December 12, 2008I detest Fred Phelps and the Westboro Baptist Church. Few religious loonies bring the hate home in a more concentrated fashion than Phelps and his not-so-merry band of homophobic nutcases. Whether it be threatening to picket the funerals of Amish girls killed in a school shooting, showing up on TV to spew hate against homosexuals and anyone who doesn't agree with their particularly twisted brand of fundamentalist Christianity, planning pickets at the memorial for the passengers and crew of Flight 93, or praising God for the tsunami four years ago, few people can bring the religious crazy to…
gregladen | December 12, 2008Something very interesting just happened in Minnesota.
You know about the recount, and you know that today the canvassing board is deciding what to do about a number of possibly improperly rejected absentee ballots.
At least 630, and possibly as many as 1,500, absentee ballots have been improperly rejected in the Minnesota Senate race. If they are included in the recount to determine if Al Franken or Norm Coleman should be senator, there is a pretty good chance that these will favor Franken. I would estimate that the consideration of Absentee ballots could shift the numbers by between 80…