2011 archive
Supermoon 0
The moon sure was pretty last night. For once, when an astronomical show was scheduled, we did not get rain.
The term “supermoon” dates to the 1970s, when it was coined by an astrologer. So what, one may ask?
The “what” is the astrological sales pitch.
Living in the Dream 0
David Sirota traces today’s conventional wisdom to yesterday’s fiction.
I’d think his argument silly except for this: so many persons in power seem to believe and act on stuff that just ain’t so, such as that wars can end wars, killing people makes evil disappear, crushing the poor is virtuous and wise.
It’s called “suspension of disbelief” and is a key factor in the ability to believe that characters on a stage mouthing prepared words are represent real people doing real things.
An excerpt:
What contributed to the change? A steady ’80s diet of Alex P. Keaton on “Family Ties,” Ricky Stratton on “Silver Spoons” and a larger “greed is good” ethos that equated the American Dream with following “The Secret of My Success.”
Likewise, at the beginning of the 1980s, Gallup polling found just 50 percent of Americans — still carrying the scars of Vietnam — expressing confidence in the military. But that number jumped to 85 percent by the end of the decade and has remained high.
Why hasn’t it dipped back down to early-’80s levels in the face of bloated defense budgets and controversial wars? Because even as militarism received a short-term boost among adults in the 1980s via Reagan’s martial cheerleading, it was solidified for the long haul among ’80s kids through war-glorifying films and video games — not to mention combat-themed toys, which hit their highest sales levels since World War II.
Twits on Twitter 0
Dick Destiny explains.
“An Armed Society Is a Polite Society” 0
Nuns with guns?
Daniel Ruth comments in the St. Petersburg Times:
There are reasons why Hammer regards the Legislature as her personal bonbon box of happily willing factotums. Law and order sells. Crime sells. And fear never goes out of fashion. So it is understandable that Hammer’s compliant charm bracelet of pols are ready to accommodate the NRA’s desire to allow anyone who possesses a concealed weapons permit to openly carry firearms in public.
The gun nut dream: Every town is Dodge and every high noon has a shoot out.
Wars and Rumors of War 0
Dick Destiny lists the top ten reasons for yet another war.
Here’s number 10. Follow the links for the rest:
All the serious people in DC and northern Virginia, plus the oil companies, are for bombing Moe.
The Internet Is a Public Place 0
The Chicago Tribune recites an object lesson.
Cutlass Rate Sale 0
Inventory sale:
The pirates are reportedly looking for quicker deals, and seem willing to accept lower ransoms, if it means the ships can be moved on.
VIa Wait! Wait!
Where’s the Love? 0
Not at 15th and JFK.
Officers stood guard at the entrances, telling passers-by not to enter the park. The park was shut down from 4:30 to 8:30 p.m., said Lt. D.F. Pace, of Center City’s 9th Police District.
QOTD 0
Upton Sinclair, via the BooMan:
It is difficult to get a man to understand something when his salary depends upon his not understanding it.
“An Armed Society Is a Polite Society” 0
Clearly, the increase in guns has increased politeness in the cartel wars.
(snip)
Since “Project Gunrunner” began in 2008, over 30,000 cartel-related deaths have been recorded in Mexico. Thus far, the only reported successes from these operations appear to be the arrest of 20 arms traffickers by the ATF this January. Given the immeasurable damage that these operations are likely to have caused, and the little information available on them so far, both governments still have a lot of explaining to do – and soon.
In between the two excerpts, the story explores the PR aspects of the story. The American and Mexican governments said different things about who knew how much and when. Both governments agree that, although the Mexican government was briefed on the sting, they were not informed that it involved releasing more guns into the Mexican killing zones.
Meanwhile, Body Counts 0
In Viet Nam, they were inflated.
Now, it might be the other way around. Asia Times reports:
The report also failed to apply the same humanitarian law standard for defining a civilian to its reporting on SOF raids that it applied to its accounting for Taliban assassinations.
Multiculturalism in Action 0
Bagels and pimento cheese.
Yums.
Facebook Frolics 0
Eben Moglin, speaking at a meeting of the Internet Society’s New York branch on Feb 5, 2010, on the internet, the erosion of privacy, and the cloud (whatever that is):
He has done more harm to the human race that anybody else his age.
Because he harnessed . . . Friday night, that is, everybody needs to get laid, and he turned it into a structure for degenerating the integrity of human personality and he has, to a remarkable extent, succeeded, with a very poor deal, namely, I will give you free webhosting and some PHP doo-dads and you get spying for free all the time–and, it works.
Follow the link for video, audio, and links for more information.
God Spake in Elizabethan English 0
Literalist Christians are their own worst advertisement.
In fact, words fail them. Or they fail words. Or something.
Frankly, I think literalists should be required to learn Greek, Aramaic, and Hebrew, so they could be literature literalists. Maybe then will they get a clue (emphasis added):
(snip)
Before the new translation even hit stores, it drew opposition from the Council on Biblical Manhood and Womanhood, an organization that believes women should submit to their husbands in the home and only men can hold some leadership roles in the church.
(snip)
At issue is how to translate pronouns that apply to both genders in the ancient Greek and Hebrew texts but have traditionally been translated using masculine forms in English.
(The “Council on Biblical Manhood and Womanhood” could probably better be described as the “keep ’em in the kitchen and bedroom” party.)
Follow the link to see some samples from the text. Some of them are, indeed, awkward, but, really, this is much ado about not much of anything, for God did not spake in Elizabethan English in the first place.