Links (most recent first) that caught my eye, but did not warrant full-blown blog entries ….
- Reagan Admin. Economist: ‘Just Wait Until You See Medicare and Medicaid Done…By the Government’: Zaid Jilani
- Obama’s Political Operation Directly Confronting Tea Party “Mobs”: Greg Sargent
- Monster Manual Comix: Peryton – I’m not sure if the strip is funnier or the suggestion of a Greyhawk DSM IV.
- Imaginary Friends – Yeah, I remember having this “problem” once upon a time … alas.
- Capability, Credibility, and the Problem of Mistakes – Some interesting thoughts here. “To know all is to forgive all” makes it difficult sometimes to judge a character’s actions objectively.
- Another mass murder – Faith without works is dead. In this case, unfortunately, not dead soon enough.
- The Faith of the Atheist: Hemant Mehta
- It just won’t stop: grandfather, pregnant woman tased at baptism in Virginia – Remember the good old days when tasers were touted solely as a non-lethal alternative for the most intransigent PCP users? Not surprisingly, if a tool can be abused, it will be. We never do seem to learn that lesson.
- Von Davidicus, RHJunior Forums – Disturbingly, there are plenty of folks who think this is perfectly fine, even desirable.
- Apple Censors iPhone Dictionary App – Wow. More and more reasons not to go with an iPhone.
- The 7 Greatest Butlers in Nerd-Dom – “YOU RANG?”
- Twilight’s Stephanie Meyer Sued for Plagiarism by 15-Year-Old Girl
- Adam West Puts the Cowl Back On – Fun! (And, I’ll note, with some canonical validity.)
- Oh Afghanistan, Went Too Far Again, Crashed Our Car in the Rain: Eric Martin
- D.C. to Offer STD Tests to All High School Students – See! If you test for it you legitimate and spread it! Abstinance! No Socialist Big Government Atheist Undocumented meddling with our STDs! Eek!
- Small steps that reverberate – Some good (and hopeful) overview of the (eek!) Gay Issue and the Episcopal Church and the Church of England.
- Note To Seniors: Proposed Medicare Reform Does Not Include Plans To Kill You [Stop Scaring My Grandma] – Money quote: “Betsy McCaughey is either stupid like a farm chicken or a very mean person …”
- Liasson: ‘Cash for Clunkers’ program ‘is like a mini-Katrina.’ – The hell …?
- Tennant’s Hamlet comes to PBS – Okay, I’m looking forward to this indeed.
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Couple of thoughts:
Read to La Fitness shooters diary, and although I do not in anyway condone his actions, his writings seem to show that he was suffering from depression and/or other major mental illnesses. And the many comments that “he’s just a whiner” make clear how little people understand mental illness, which makes it all the sadder. And though it seems he had a good job, it’s likely that mental health visits would not be covered unless he was an in patient.
Regarding the redacted dictionary app – Though it’s a really stupid thing for Apple to do, the American Heritage Dictionary is historically one of the ten most often banned books in the United States (for the slang definition of words like ‘bed’, ‘knocker’ and ‘balls’). It was most rectenly challenged in 1993 in Nevada. Would you be able to find the words that Apple removed in the library in your neighborhood? Maybe yes, maybe no Books of all types continue to be banned and challenged (mostly in school libraries, but not only) every day in this county in the name of ‘local standards.’
Just a reminder – Banned Books Week is Sept. 26 – Oct 3rd.
As a kid who diligently went through and found all the “dirty words” in his family unabridged dictonary during his misspent youth (or, like, one day during it), I think there’s probably less harm in having them show up in the dictionary than in “banning them” and pretending that therefore kids won’t know them, understand them, or misspell them.