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Sabotage

This came up in passing in the SEPodcast yesterday — the question Republican obstructionism in Congress not just to oppose Democratic/White House initiatives, but actually beyond that to keep things going poorly so as to affect the 2012 elections.

It seems to defy belief that such a cynical strategy could be pursued. Sure, there's always politics, and there can be political opposition that is principled and based on a different view of what's good for the nation. But to intentionally, and for a lengthy period, strive to keep the nation struggling and in pain, simply as an electoral strategy, is, frankly, evil.

And yet, more and more people are, in fact, recognizing this as the GOP strategy (it coming from the Republican leadership's very lips helps, I suppose). The question is, will that translate into a rejection of the GOP in a year? #ddtb

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The growing acceptance of the ‘sabotage’ question
The New York Times editorial board had a piece today on the importance of unemployment benefits, and made an observation in passing that stood out for me. “Tragically,” the editorial…

Looking down, down, down

If this (http://youtu.be/kCbTe9jBwB4) is God’s perspective, it’s terribly isolated and dissociative.

Regardless, it’s fascinating to see. #ddtb

Custom textbooks save money, but are a potentially ideological minefields

I can see locally sourced (or even multi-district-sourced) texts for things like — well, math and statistics are probably the best examples, easily and objectively aligned with state testing (and curriculum) standards.

When you get into less objective areas, though, I can easily see problems crop up. Imagine the battles over the Texas social studies curriculum, only now multiplied over each district's individually crafted (or generously donated from a third party) online social studies texts. Ditto for biology texts, or other sciences that have ideological battles raging over them.

As the commenter to the article noted, anything that kicks textbook publishers in the teeth is an attractive idea, but there are potential risks to this kind of idea as well. #ddtb

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Anoka-Hennepin teachers write their own online textbook, save district $175,000 | The Republic
MINNEAPOLIS – The new textbooks in Michael Engelhaupt's statistics class at Blaine High School are kind of cheap and won't last long, but he doesn't mind. After all, he wrote them.

That Mississippi, she is a mystery, she's just a-waitin' there to be explored…

That Mississippi, she is a mystery, she's just a-waitin' there to be explored …

Making a note of this for my next trip to Disneyland. #ddtb

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Ahoy! Earn Your Pilot’s License on Disneyland’s Mark Twain Riverboat | The Disney Blog

Muslim kids permitted by law to bully Christian kids

That's not what the Michigan GOP expects their new anti-bullying bill to allow — clearly it's simply about allowing Christian bullies to continue to pick on gays and Muslims and others, as they feel the Bible commands them to do.

But their "sincerely held religious belief or moral conviction" loophole in the bill would allow that sort of outcome. At which point the Christian Right can claim to be "victims" whether bullying is committed against their kids, or if their kids are somehow prevented from bullying others. It's a win-win (or lose-lose) for everyone! #ddtb

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Michigan's Anti-Bullying Bill: Protecting Religious Tormenters? | Swampland | TIME.com
On Wednesday, the Republican-controlled state senate passed an anti-bullying bill that manages to protect school bullies instead of those they victimize. It accomplishes this impressive feat by allowi…

Herman Cain is looking for some action!

Yeah, I know I'm the last one in America to link to this (http://youtu.be/qhm-22Q0PuM), but I just finished watching it. Crikey. I don't know if the blow-smoke-into-their-faces is the best part, or the (as George put it) Evil Bond Villain grin that Cain gives at the very end. But … a real hoot-and-a-half of a campaign ad. #ddtb

I like Password, but

I love Password, the classic and the home game. Caught reruns of this show on Game Show Network the other night and … yuck. It's all Bright Lights Thrilling Music Millionaire-Style, with Escalating Prizes (again, Millionaire-Style) … but, worse, it's all about timed competitions. In Password terms, it's all Lightning Round, and none of the "normal" Password where things are tensely quiet and contemplative. Yuck.

(Margie noted, correctly, that it made it a lot more like "X Dollar Pyramid". But still not as charming.)

That said, I saw the episode that this article mentions, and, yes, Rosie O'Donnell was damned good at it. #ddtb

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"Million Dollar Password" just can't give Regis the energy he needs
8 p.m. Sundays on CBS Episode: June 8 Poor Regis. No matter how hard Regis Philbin tries, "Millionaire Password" won't make anyone think of the success he had hosting "Who Wants To Be A Millionaire." …

Breasts, an Infographic

A subject I take a keen, some would say obsessive, interest in.

(via Onlineschools.org) #ddtb

This is a test … this is only a test

If this had been an actual emergency, then we'd have all been in a lot of trouble

I'm kind of surprised that we haven't seen a nation-wide test of the system before, but not, I suppose, that there's a mish-mosh of technical levels of support for it across the nation.

I am amused by the folks screaming in various places that this is all a cunning final step in the Takeover of the National Media by the Obamanation, and that we're all in Horrible Danger. Though if it turns out they are right, I guess they will have the last laugh on me. #ddtb

At last! It all makes sense now!

(via https://plus.google.com/117242040716806453518/posts/DApHVWqxCY3) #ddtb

Ever notice how "government-as-a-business" types never treat Defense that…

Ever notice how "government-as-a-business" types never treat Defense that way?

I mean, any executive who had such horrifically sloppy business practices would be fired by the board in a heartbeat.

Or, conversely, imagine any other branch of government saying that it couldn't account for its spending without plowing in a huge amount more money. The GOP would be all over them like a cheap suit, demanding the ouster of all those responsible and a drastic cut in the department's budget.

Meanwhile, Defense spending stays sacrosanct. #ddtb

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Pentagon Says It Will Cost Another $1 Billion to Figure Out How Much It Spends
The Pentagon, which previously warned that reliable military spending figures could not be produced until 2017, has discovered that financial ledgers are in worse shape than expected and it may need t…

Mt. Rushmore

I have to confess this is a place I've always wanted to visit, just for its iconic nature. Some folks (esp. ones who were dragged there multiple times as kids) may pooh-pooh it, but one of these days … #ddtb

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The Making of Mount Rushmore
The 70th anniversary of the completion of the South Dakota monument prompts a look back at what it took to create it

Well, that'll get 'em back to work!

I mean, we all know that unemployed people are just lazing around, enjoying life on the public dole, sitting on their butts because of all that wildly generous unemployment they get. Right?

I mean, that's what Cantor and Limbaugh and Boehner and their ilk keep telling us, right?

And even though there are five unemployed for each job out there, clearly if people continue to fall off of unemployment because Congressional GOPers refuse to extend it, that'll get them to magically find jobs (through more prayer!) and stop sucking at the public teat and become productive members of society, right? Right?

Oh, sure, they can get food stamps and Medicaid and other social safety net programs as they slip into chronically unemployed poverty. So next we'll need to cut those off, too, so that these parasites will conjure jobs up and stop being so poor and happily indolent. #ddtb

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Most of America's unemployed no long receiving benefits – The Denver Post
WASHINGTON — The jobs crisis has left so many people out of work for so long that most of Americas unemployed are no longer receiving unemployment benefits.

When the Catholic Bishops aren't behind your anti-abortion measure …

Granted, part of their motivation is that it possibly makes their own anti-abortion measures look bad, but in part it's because … well, it's a crappy, overreaching, hubristic, theologically dubious, constitutionally questionable proposal. #ddtb

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Mississippi Catholic Bishop, Religious Leaders Denounce Personhood Anti-Abortion Bill
This Tuesday, Mississippians will vote on Initiative 26, a “personhood” amendment to the state constitution that defines a person as “every human being from the moment of fertilization, cloning, or th…

Sex happens

I am not sanguine about my daughter becoming sexually active. I presume (well, expect — indeed, ultimately, hope) it will happen sooner or later, but I'm sure I will be less enthused about it than she is.

On the other hand, the same is true of alcohol. And, for that matter, of driving. In each case, I know it will happen, and the best I can hope for is to teach her good decision-making skills to assist when she does do it, and keep communicating about it so that when it does happen (or is going to happen), we know about it and can assist, support, advise, or whatever.

What I do know is that trying to FORBID it, trying to keep it from situationally being possible, trying to use shame and anger and threats and subterfuge to convince her to avoid it, will not only be futile, but will cause their own problems for her and for us.

So, yeah, I'll make jokes about my shotgun collection and all, but that's what they are, jokes.

But … um … not for a few more years, Kitten, okay? #ddtb

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Solving America’s teen sex problem
The Dutch have dramatically reduced adolescent pregnancies, abortions and STDs. What do they know that we don't?

But I don't want to live in Paraguay

Some involving reminiscences of a Peace Corps stint in Paraguay, and why the life and economy he saw there illustrates the problems with growing wealth disparity in the US.

This is why I support the 99% & Occupy movements. At long last they’ve gotten Americans talking about our nascent Aristocracy. I love Paraguay, but if I wanted to live in that sort of system I’d rather move back there than grow a banana republic at home.

It sounds radical. It's not. #ddtb

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Why I support the 99% movement – MYRMECOS – Insect Photography – Insect Pictures
Why I support the 99% movement. Oct 30th, 2011. by myrmecos. Paraguay is the second poorest country in South America. You'd never know it from visiting some neighborhoods in the capital city of As…

I can bully, this I know, 'cause the Bible tells me so

Because, yes, "The Devil Made Me Do It" — or, for non-Satanists, "Jesus Made Me Do It" — should be a great exception to any law. I mean, if we're going to put in a "sincerely held religious belief or moral conviction" clause in one law, why not all of them? Assault? Rape? Income Tax Evasion? Drug Poessession?

That this insane out is part of a GOP law purporting to prevent bullying, and named after a kid who committed suicide after being bullied — is fetid icing on the cake.

Bottom line, if kids can say they're bullying gays (or girls, or Muslims, or Jews, or blacks, or fat kids, or people who talk funny) because that's what the Bible, their Preacher, and Jesus Christ Himself say they should be doing … then they will, "sincere or not."

And y'know what? Even if they are sincere … it's not an excuse. #ddtb

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Michigan GOP Approves Bullying Gay Kids As Long As It’s ‘Moral’
Certainly our Lord and Savior has a special place in His heart for the rowdy youngsters who enjoy passing recess yelling vicious slurs at their gay school fellows, so Senate Republicans in the Michiga…

Is that a Left Mitten or a Right Mitten?

The only reason that Mitt Romney is at all attractive as a candidate is (a) he's polling relatively well (i.e., it's not crazy as a GOPer to throw your support behind him as it would be for anyone else except Perry or Cain), and (b) he's not a lunatic (like Perry and Cain, and 9 out of 10 of the other GOP candidates out there).

But once you get past that, and the idea that he's got some business acumen, I guess, or that he was a moderate governor in Massachusetts, then you don't have much else. Because there isn't a single significant issue that he hasn't pirouetted like a lunatic over in the last decade — if not the last year — as he's attempted to portray himself as a moderate to the Dems and a hard-liner to the GOP.

And any who thinks that, suddenly, in the White House, he'll be able to "be himself" again and be more like he used to be … a man like Romney will be immediately looking to he 2016 election, and not burning any bridges he might have built with the Far Right.

I don't think Romney would be as bad as Perry, or Cain, or Santorum, or Bachmann — but, given his willingness to say whatever he thinks his current audience of choice wants to hear, how can I know that? #ddtb

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At the intersection of ambition and dishonor
If there are lingering doubts about the validity of the “no core” criticisms against Mitt Romney, one need look no further than what he communicated to Massachusetts voters before becoming…

People spend 1.2 billion hours a year playing Angry Birds

Crikey.

That's an order of magnitude more than has been spent on building Wikipedia since its inception. In just one year.

I don't begrudge the creative team here their success, or the folks who played it their enjoyment, or even begin to think that, if only folks weren't playing Angry Birds they would be doing something socially constructive (proof: they didn't before Angry Birds).

But, imagine if that effort could be turned to something socially constructive.

Oh, yeah, the article has some interesting notes about why the game has been so successful, from a user experience analysis standpoint. Interesting. #ddtb

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Why Angry Birds is so successful and popular: a cognitive teardown of the user experience
Analysis and Commentary on High Technology User Experience Research and Design

Going Solo at Disneyland

For me, part of the joy of the parks is doing things with the family. But if you're stuck at a Disney park on your lonesome for some reason (as I was down in Florida a couple of weeks back), here's some good advice — specifically for Anaheim, but the basic principles remain the same: take your time, do things you wouldn't do with the family (esp. things the kids aren't always as hep on doing), and look for interesting nooks and crannies that you normally go dashing past to make it to the E-ticket attractions. #ddtb

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Going Solo at Disneyland – Just Do It! | The Disney Blog