Links (most recent first) that caught my eye, but did not warrant full-blown blog entries ….
- Bad idea department: tax doctors to pay for health care for the poor [White Coat Underground]: PalMD none@example.com
- Happy Blasphemy Day! – The consequences of blasphemy should be, at most, social approbation, the same as any other action that might be considered as rude or insulting. Speaking ill of the God I worship is no more suited to criminal prosecution than speaking ill of my mother; it’s all about my reaction, not what the insults can actually “do,” and both God and my Mom can take care of themselves.
- Texas has state-sanctioned murder : Pharyngula – Capital punishment is a power we dare not allow the state to use when it’s wielded by cretins like this (who are then supported in their cretinitude by others for purely ideological reasons).
- The Roman Polanski Drama: “Then” vs. “Now” effects. : Greg Laden’s Blog – I’ve been paying minimal attention to this, But GL’s points seem well taken. To my mind, bottom line is that we have a conviction and a flight from justice. Seeking extradition of Polanski is not only proper, it’s required.
- The oldest living things in the world, photographed – What’s old is new again … literally.
- Op-Ed Columnist – Where Did ‘We’ Go? – NYTimes.com – The irony that so much of this is being done by self-styled “patriots” is even more sickening.
- Trying out Microsoft Security Essentials. – The best thing about this is that it should put more AV out there to defeat the black hats. It may mean more of an AV mono-culture, which gives them a target to circumvent, but net-net it’s a good thing. (It’s even better if it means that PC companies no longer feel obliged to include trial copies of McAfee or Norton AV on their PCs.)
- More Liberal Fascism – Balloon Juice – Yeah, can’t wait to hear this meme hit the Right Wing (even though offered here in jest).
- Government Should Run Like a Business? | Quiche Moraine – No, it shouldn’t. As the article notes, quite cogently, government isn’t about making a profit. In fact, it’s specifically about providing services that cannot be provided for efficiently, fairly, or with sufficient transparency by individuals or by private enterprise. Plus, most businesses fail.
- tallguywrites: Schizophrenia – Very moving, for a variety of reasons.
- Aquacalypse Now [Guilty Planet] – Okay, so I can stop eating sea-food without feeling guilty.
- RIM launches TiVo for BlackBerry – If I had a TiVo, I’d be pretty jazzed by this. You can’t view, but you can program from anywhere.
- Watch: Maddow Interviews Iglesias On GOP’s Anti-ACORN Campaign – And this time they got the Dems to go along with it. Great job, guys!
- The Bible is too liberal – Wow. I love the self-contradictions in the mission statement — “We want concise authenticity, but we also want to make sure it says the ‘right’ thing. And we don’t want liberal terms added, we’d rather have conservative terms. And, yeah, we’ve bitched about the Jesus Project, but we don’t have any problems questioning canonical passages that don’t fit with our preconceptions.” Besides, I thought the Conservative Bible meme was that God delivered the King James Version on stone tablets as the one, true, translation.
- Taxpayer-Funded Destruction – Wow. Just think — $10bn a year could pay for a lot of alternative fuel R&D (and implementation). Or, heck, a nice chunk of health care reform. Hell, even tax rebates.
- AMC’s Prisoner Reboot Sets A Date [The Prisoner] – The trailer looks pretty good — though vaguely pedestrian in its Grand Conspiracy. Not only has this sort of scenario become a bit old hat since the 60s, but the original was much more surreal to boot.
- Eric Boehlert: Right-wing blogger wonders if murdered census worker was a pedophile – Um, blaming the victim is a standard tactic of the Right as well. This is a particularly despicable example, but nothing new in general.
- Eric Boehlert: So much for conservative “journalism” – But that’s the hallmark of conservative journalism — it’s out to destroy, not illuminate, and it doesn’t care (paradoxically) whether it’s acting legally or not.
- Terry Krepel: Newsmax columnist: Military coup “to resolve the ‘Obama problem’ ” is not “unrealistic” – I love the obligatory “Describing what may be afoot is not to advocate it” disclaimer, followed by loving, longing desire for some sort of beneficent bloodless military coup that would somehow be supportive of and strengthen the Constitution. Let me just say now, for the record, that these guys are nucking futs — and that for all the blowhard hyperbole from the Left during the Dubya years, I never heard anyone in what claims to be a mainstream publication (being charitable to Newsmax here) suggest that a military coup might be a desirable outcome and solution. So … who are the real patriots?
- PRELUDIUM: FOCA NA? Rounding up the Cattle. – This is only of interest to folks with obsessive concerns over things going on in Anglican-land, but it’s a nice round-up of the next series of “Those Dirty Stinking Episcopalian” attacks.
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