Category: Potpourri

Links (most recent first) that caught my eye, but did not warrant full-blown blog entries ….

1. Senate Republicans Block Criminal Justice Reform Commission – Of course they did.
2. CDC Advisory Committee: All males starting at age 11 should receive the HPV vaccine – Good.
3. One of the best logo designs ever made – Well done.

Links (most recent first) that caught my eye, but did not warrant full-blown blog entries ….

1. TOM THE DANCING BUG: In Which Lucky Ducky and the Houndsville 99% Declare Class Warfare!! – Boing Boing – Man down!
2. Credit Unions Seeing Surge In New Accounts – Good to hear.
3. Moral Dilemma: Matt Bors
4. Public High School Principal: WallBuilders Speaker Not Appropriate For School Assembly – It’s always nice to hear a positive story, and a constructive and pleasant engagement with a school administrator, like this.
5. Rick Perry: Obama is an American citizen | Florida politics blog: The Buzz | tampabay.com & St. Petersburg Times – So what we’ve learned is that Perry is a political hack who’s more than happy to jolly the Birthers and other anti-Obamans … until it gets him into some negative publicity, at which point he breaks out the “Just kidding!” excuse. Got it.
6. Backblaze Blog » Backblaze 2.0: Unlimiting unlimited – Coolness. I love Backblaze, as it provides a critical services (backups, offsite) with near-zero effort on my part.
7. Things we used to say: “If you can’t stand the heat…” « Decrepit Old Fool – Good stuff.
8. New Vatican Document Good News for Poor, Bad News for Tea Party | Religion Dispatches – “Nowhere did Jesus say, ‘by this shall people know you are my disciples, that you do not contracept!’ No he said, if you love justice and peace as I do, if you are good news to the poor as I am, ‘then all will know that you are my disciples’ (John 13:35).”

Links (most recent first) that caught my eye, but did not warrant full-blown blog entries ….

1. GeekMom » The Tipping Point: Geek Girls, Superheroes, and the DC Comics Reboot – “Superheroes are a mythic fantasy about taking control to do the right thing. There’s nothing inherently male about that.” Very true.
2. The World Is Surprisingly Angry About the End of Google Reader – Technology – The Atlantic Wire – Of all the folks who’ve complained about this, I think the Iranians have the most legitimate gripe (and I’ve read a bucketload of their comments about it).
3. Halloween Candy Conundrum – Heh.
4. GOP Congressman Claims Large Jesus Statue Is Not ‘Religious’ – I may be a bit rusty on my Catholicism, but I’m pretty sure that a big statue of Jesus put up by the Knights of Columbus is probably meant to be a religious statement.
5. Victory in Florida: No Illegal Drug Testing For Welfare » Blog of Rights: Official Blog of the American Civil Liberties Union – Good.
6. Harvey Insists LGBT Christians And Allies Should Leave Christianity – Linda, with all due respect, bugger off. Your understanding of what the Creator “would do,” and what Christians who accept gay, etc., individuals lovingly into the church and as themselves, is pitiful.
7. “the Doctor’s Eleven” by Steven Thibaudeau | RedBubble – Fantastic!
8. Running Out the Clock on Government Regulations – “It’s obvious who stands to gain: REINS is supported by big businesses with a stake in undermining public protections so they can increase their profits.” Are there unnecessary regulations? Sure. But do you solve that by hamstringing the regulatory mechanisms of the US government? Of course not.
9. A Good Day for Vices: Coffee Is Healthy and Hot Dogs Aren’t As Bad As You Thought – Hot Dogs and Coffee FTW!

Links (most recent first) that caught my eye, but did not warrant full-blown blog entries ….

1. More trouble for Android, Apple granted Slide to Unlock patent – Really? That’s a patentable item? Crikey …
2. How to Survive the Switch from Google Reader to Google+ – Will probably start playing around with this, in prep for. Feels fairly kludgy, but it’s not clear there’s any better game in town. And Reader will still be RSS aggregating a lot of info for me — just not what other people are trying to share.
3. Genius Fruit Label Turns into Soap When Wet [Desired] – Nice idea.
4. Monumental Mistake: A Statue Of Jesus In A National Forest Violates Church-State Separation « The Wall of Separation
5. Rick Perry: Obama’s Birth Certificate is a “Good Issue to Keep Alive” – Political hack.
6. Denver H&M announces opening day of Nov. 10 – The Denver Post – Never been to one, and not much interest in it — except it’s good to see that retail space filled.
7. Rep. Ted Poe: Obama Administration Is “Anti-Religious” – Because preventing people from imposing their religion on others is a violation of their freedom of religion, is that it, Ted? Dolt.
8. 4 Out Of 5 Metropolitan Areas Lack Competitive Health Insurance Markets – But … but … Free Market! Invisible Hand! Death Panels!
9. If you know what this is, you’re an old gamer – Whoa. That brings back memories …
10. Crowdsourced Happiness: A Short, Good Story About The Internet — For A Change – Noted for future reference.
11. NOM Steals Obama Rally Photos To Lie About Their Own Failed Events – HA! (Cue Carol Kane: “LIARS!”)
12. Ten years of Windows XP: how longevity became a curse – Still running it, though when I get a chance to upgrade (i.e., can afford a day without my computer), I will.
13. Perry Ditches Idea That Social Security Is Unconstitutional, Adopts Privatization Plan The Public Already Rejected | ThinkProgress – I think folks with their own 401(k) plans can tell Gov. Perry how unstable “personal retirement accounts” can be. Privatizing Social Security flies directly in the face of the reason it was put together in the first place.
14. mental_floss Blog » The President’s Secret New York City Train Station – Cool.
15. ELCA Pastor: “Love Trumps Chromosomes” | Religion Dispatches
16. GOP Candidates Declare War on Judicial Branch | People For the American Way Blog – It’s not that they don’t like judicial power — they just want it to be ruling on their ideological side.
17. The Shari’ah Spring: Media Gets It Backwards | Politics | Religion Dispatches – An interesting analogy between the prospect of Islamic democracies in the Middle East and Christian democracies (particularly the US) in the West. I don’t believe that Islam requires authoritarianism (and certainly we’ve seen a lot of secular authoritarianism in the Middle East), though I remain more comfortable with a secular government in a multi-religious society … so it will be interesting to see how this develops.
18. Constitutional Emergency: Hospital Merger In Louisville Could Mean Church Control Of Health Care « The Wall of Separation – I really don’t see how this sort of joint running of things, with religious dictates as to allowable services, can be legally defended.
19. How the Rich Subverted the Legal System and Occupy Wall Street Swept the Land | The Nation – The issue is not that there are rich and poor. The issue is the perception of corruption and a special class. People are willing to see inequality of wealth, if there’s still the undertanding that everyone is an American and is equal before the law. When that breaks down, and when the inequality of wealth become seen more as exploitative than an opportunity that all may take a chance at, then the social order that supports that inequality starts to break down, too. Which doesn’t help rich or poor. Indeed, the rich have more to lose ..
20. Perry On Whether His Tax Plan Gives Millions In Tax Breaks To The Rich: ‘I Don’t Care About That’ | ThinkProgress – Best tax reform plan money can buy.

Links (most recent first) that caught my eye, but did not warrant full-blown blog entries ….

1. Climate denialism: ‘It’s about ideology, not facts’ – “Muller’s study isn’t likely to change the minds of deniers, because more facts don’t matter to people whose position never had anything to do with the facts in the first place.”

Links (most recent first) that caught my eye, but did not warrant full-blown blog entries ….

1. More states limiting Medicaid hospital stays – USATODAY.com – Why, yes, let’s attempt to cut costs (or push those costs onto others) by arbitrarily capping hospital days. That will get those malingering poor people to get better more quickly, I’ll bet.
2. Bachmann: Uninsured Americans Can Rely On ‘Charitable Organizations’ For Health Care | ThinkProgress – Yeah. Because that’s been working so well. There’s nobody out there who really needs any health care costs covered, which is why there’s nobody on Medicare on Medicaid or going to the Emergency Room as indigents to get desperately needed care.
3. A turn of the page of history: “When will Arabs awaken?” – A remarkable photo, in retrospect.

Links (most recent first) that caught my eye, but did not warrant full-blown blog entries ….

1. Wine Crash Makes Liquor Store See Red [Video] – Yes, my basement wine cellar did that (in miniature). I’d be curious to learn how many of the 7K bottles here actually broke.
2. American Libertarianism: Stupid, Selfish and Mean | MadMikesAmerica – I know I had my libertarian period, because libertarian thought seems so freeing from unreasonable demands on your resources, time, and commitments (which is why it’s not uncommon among teens and young adults). And there are truths about it that still speak to me today, even as I realize that “no man is an island” and libertarianism, taken to an extreme (like any other political ideology) is ultimately destructive.
3. Women Are More Likely To Be Injured In Car Crashes – I’ve yet to meet a woman who didn’t have a complaint about shoulder belts. Interesting info.
4. Visualization of the Week: Occupy George – Cool.

Links (most recent first) that caught my eye, but did not warrant full-blown blog entries ….

1. Florida Republican Rep. Calls For ‘Hispanic-Speaking’ Voters To Prove They Are American – No, that doesn’t seem “negative or demeaning or detrimental” at all …
2. Hispanic Alabama Schoolchildren Face Bullying In The Wake Of Anti-Immigrant Law – Stay classy, Alabama.
3. If Obama Looks to Sen. Bennet for Winning Strategy, He Needs to Make a Major Issue of Global Warming and Clean Energy – It would also help him if the GOP nominate someone as screwy as Ken Buck. Which, sadly, would not be very difficult to find in the current GOP candidates.
4. Is Utah Mormonism really this messed up? – What strikes me, reading this, is that Mormonism is the societal norm in Utah, especially in the smaller towns. But there’s a parallel to how non-Mormon Christianity is in much of the rest of the country, and how the what more conservative Christians consider to be the “norm” is equally uncomfortable and isolating to those who don’t follow their faith. And, further, as that Christian norm begins to evolve and/or fade, the result is as much bewilderment and fear at the loss of that norm as any other emotion — and that fear drives much of the culture wars we see in the US today.
5. The “War On Pot” And The Religious Right – We spend incredible amounts of money in the War on Pot. It is, without a doubt, one of the most irrational public policies we have on the books today (and I say that as someone who’s never taken a toke).
6. Watts wrote a check he couldn’t cash – Hey, Tony — your approach isn’t science, it’s ideology. Learn the difference.
7. Mom This is How Twitter Works – Just in case you were curious, Mom.
8. Scientology investigates South Park – Boing Boing – Yeah, because Stone & Parker seem to be so very concerned about their public behavior or what people think of them.

Links (most recent first) that caught my eye, but did not warrant full-blown blog entries ….

1. Religious Right Erupts Following Herman Cain’s Incoherent Position On Abortion – What’s remarkable here is that the Right is unable to distinguish, even among their own, between pro-choice and pro-abortion. You can argue that abortion is wrong but not something the government should be making decisions about, while still not being a shill of the abortion industry (to use another term the Right loves to use). That they can’t see that says more about them than about Cain. Of course, it’s also true that Cain may be incoherent on this issue, but it’s remarkable the knee-jerk furor he’s managed to stir up.
2. World’s Most Expensive Campervan Up For Sale – Cool. Not sure, if I had $3MM to burn on this kind of thing that this is the sort of thing I’d burn it on, but …
3. Get a Free One-Hour Email Address with Guerrilla Mail [Email] – Not a bad little tool to use for privacy with vendors who insist on knowing your email address, but from whom you really don’t want any more email.
4. Rick Perry Goes Birther: After Meeting With Trump, ‘I Don’t Know’ If Obama’s Birth Certificate Is Real | ThinkProgress – Desperation time!

Links (most recent first) that caught my eye, but did not warrant full-blown blog entries ….

1. Clever bags – Clever.
2. Santorum says contraception is “not okay” – Rick is free to believe that, and even free to persuade others to follow his belief. I disagree profoundly that it’s okay for him to gain power in government so as to enforce such an opinion by force of law.
3. ACLU: FBI practicing racial profiling on an “industrial scale” – Apparently, the FBI pays way too much attention to Bryan Fischer and Rush Limbaugh.
4. Denver zombies will try to take bite out of Guinness record – The Denver Post
5. “We Don’t Need a Warrant, We’re ICE” » Blog of Rights: Official Blog of the American Civil Liberties Union – Um .. yes, yes you do.

Links (most recent first) that caught my eye, but did not warrant full-blown blog entries ….

1. Petition to Google: don’t kill Google Reader – I like that the petition is being done through Google Docs.
2. Wherein I try to explain why Google Reader is the best social network created so far « Here is a thing. – The writer isn’t completely accurate about some of the limits of Plus, and is certainly more vested in their Reader community than I am … but the point that not all communities need or want to interact in the same way, or that folks may belong to more than one community — or that bouncing between two Google sites might be less convenient than staying in the one that does the job for you. I can conceive of ways that the Reader / Plus link might more seamless (similar to how Reader comments and Buzz and email have become), but I don’t see that happening from the start, if at all.
3. The Unsocial Network: Why Google Is Wrong to Kill Off Google Reader – Forbes – Note: Google Reader is not being “killed off.” It will still (for the nonce) remain as a fine RSS reader. But it is getting a large chunk of its utility amputated in favor of a less-perfect prosthetic. I will still be able to read the wide array of sites I do now — but I won’t be able to share the things I think are worth sharing, nor see what others I follow deem worthy of sharing. I’ll be able to do so, maybe, in Plus, but much less conveniently (a page of partial-text/illustrated Plus posts is a lot less convenient than a lengthy title list of posts that I can skim through quickly. Plus is certainly prettier, and even arguably better for casual browsing, but not for a full-blown information exchange. As things stand, I’ll still be using Reader, but it will be less convenient and less informative than it is now.
4. Western Digital buys Hitachi, Seagate buys Samsung – “Will having only two major makers of hard drives make it easier to raise prices?” Um … duh?

Links (most recent first) that caught my eye, but did not warrant full-blown blog entries ….

1. Photo ID Laws Disenfranchise Tennessee Voters | People For the American Way Blog – Amongst those passing such laws, that’s a feature, not a bug.

Links (most recent first) that caught my eye, but did not warrant full-blown blog entries ….

1. Expired patent of the day: Lego – Boing Boing
2. Joe. My. God.: President’s Citizens Medal Awarded To Lesbian Denied Hospital Visitation
3. ‘The Punisher’ Being Developed as Procedural Cop Show – Pretty clearly just borrowing the name (and possibly some iconography).
4. Bank of America Trying To Stick Taxpayers With A $74 Trillion Bill By Moving Derivatives Into FDIC-Insured Accounts – That’s … just … swell.
5. Why Content Navigation Links Matter More Than Menus – I suspect landing and content navigation pages are most useful and attractive for newer visitors to a site, to engage them. Folks who are familiar with the site will (I suspect) start using menus more.
6. No Women Allowed

Links (most recent first) that caught my eye, but did not warrant full-blown blog entries ….

1. Decades Old Calvin and Hobbes Strip Succinctly Explains Occupy Wall Street Movement
2. Sen. Sessions Wants To Cut Food Stamp Program, Claiming It Has ‘Surged Out Of Control’ – “Well look, do you think there are four times as many people who need food stamps today as in 2001. That answers itself. […] We cannot do this. We do not have the money. Congress doesn’t understand that we can’t afford to double the program every three years.” Yes, if we just cut food stamp funding, that will make people not be poor and hungry any more. Problem solved!
3. Stop Confusing Democracy and Liberty – The Tyranny of the Majority is a perfect expression of democracy. As is mob rule. Promoting democracy over autocracy is a good thing, overall — but just as liberty means the freedom to do stupid things, democracy in and of itself is not a panacea.