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Category: Space

Unblogged Bits (Thu. 28-Apr-11 2330)

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

  1. Video Chat on Your Android Phone – Which would be cool, if the camera and the screen on my Android phone pointed in the same direction.
  2. Are Trump and the birthers hypocrites? Racists? – Nice …
  3. Letter from George Washington to an annual meeting of Quakers – Particularly given the persecution of Quakers in most of the colonies, I see nothing here that doesn’t sound like Washington would apply it to any religious faith.
  4. David Barton on Thomas Jefferson – Did Jefferson approve church in the Capitol? – Sounds like an exercise in fellowship more than ministry to my eyes.
  5. John Yoo Discusses Limits to Executive Power – The guilty man flees where no one pursueth.
  6. Too cute Disney Duck Picture (Not Donald) – TEH CUTE! (And I know exactly where that is.)
  7. Wingnut Mob Now Boycotting Superman, Because He Hates America – Yeah, there’s no surprise. No actual examination of the storyline, nor even consideration of what the statement might be about. Yeah, cause that’s “nuance.”
  8. Oh look. The Birthers are already playing with the new toy President Obama gave them. – I think it was probably a reasonable timing to convince Hawaii to make an exception to provide the long form birth certificate. But the point was not so much to shut up the birthers (who are so deranged that they’ll come up with new conspiracy theories) as to finally put paid to the “why doesn’t he show his birth certificate?” crap. Which, one would hope, would further discredit (to the rest of the nation) the whole right-wing zaniness that is birtherism.
  9. Facebook shoots first, ignores questions later; account lock-out attack works (Update X) – Ah, the joys of active management of an Internet monoculture.
  10. Rick Santorum: U.S. Shirking Its Responsibility To Fight “Militant Socialism” – The Red Menace is back!
  11. Ayn Rand and the Conservative Contradiction – “Any politician or media figure who claims to be an admirer of both Rand and Jesus is either hopelessly confused or an out-and-out liar.”
  12. Oklahoma GOPer: It’s A Fact That ‘Blacks’ Don’t Work As Hard | TPMDC – Stay classy, Oklahoma GOP!
  13. Letter from Mark Twain to a snake oil peddler – Lovely.
  14. The Only Thing You Can Do Legally If You’re on the Terror Watch List Is Buy a Gun [Gun Control] – The only rights the Right wouldn’t be willing to take from even terrorists.
  15. The Ancient Japanese Tsunami Stones Kept Villagers Alive [Japan] – It’s fashionable to poke fun at tradition and ancient community wisdom. And there’s sometimes reason for that. But it’s worth at least considering they might know what the heck they were talking about …
  16. Facebook Games Could Be Responsible For Demise Of Soap Operas – Innnteresting. Not quite sure whether that’s a good thing (interaction!) or a bad thing (Facebook Games!).
  17. Watching Shows On DVR Might Save Them From Being Canceled – This is good news. Especially since I rarely watch TV shows any other way.
  18. E.T. call waiting – SETI just costs $2.5MM? Damn, I’ll bet I could find that money in about 15 minutes in the federal budget.
  19. Sarah Palin Mocks Katie Couric For Leaving CBS – Stay classy, Ms. Sarah!

Unblogged Bits (Thu. 21-Apr-11 2330)

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

  1. Beck Calls Huck “Progressive,” Huck Calls Beck An Idiot – See, it’s moments like these when I say, “Hey, Huckabee is actually a pretty rational, all-right king of guy.” Then he turns around and pals up with (also-Beck-friend) David Barton.
  2. David Barton Refuses To Debate His Bogus History – Ah, how wonderful it must be to be so certain of your truth that you refuse to discuss it with anyone who might disagree …
  3. Have a happy Zombie Weekend – Heh. Yeah, I noticed that passage whilst doing the Passion reading on Palm Sunday. That particular aspect of the Crucifixion doesn’t usually make it into the movies.
  4. Gruber: iOS location storing is a bug, getting fixed in future iOS update – That’s certainly possible (I’ve seen crazier bugs), but Apple’s silence on the matter is not doing it any favors.
  5. Raising The Sunken Swifboats – Anyone who’d pay any attention to something coming out of WorldNutDaily is beyond cognitive redemption anyway. Yeesh.
  6. GIF: Platypus on the Prowl – Oh, there you are, Perry …
  7. Why Are Tech Founders Such Assholes? [Startups] – “What is it about computers and money that instills villainy?” Computers have nothing to do with it. Power (and money) corrupt … and, really, the folks most likely to strive to achieve either are most likely to be corrupted by them (or by their pursuit). I mean, really, is Gates any worse than Carnegie, or Zuckerberg than Rockefeller?
  8. Hubble Comes of Age With Dramatic New Image [Space Porn] – Oh, come on –that’s gotta be fake. It’s too gorgeous. (Plus, the Hubble is 21 years old! Eek!)
  9. The thing I don’t understand is why so often one hears discussion of the fruits of human labor as if it’s all the creation of some alien race – Lovely. Islamic art, usually eschewing depictions of objects and people, makes up for it with remarkable patterns.
  10. Maundy Thursday – Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia – There are times that it is so cool to belong to an Anglican denomination.
  11. Super Google Reader Converts All Partial RSS Feeds into Full Feeds [Downloads] – Sweet. Now if only GReader on Chrome weren’t having a Note in Reader problem with YouTube, it would be perfect.
  12. Small Screw Encyclopedia
  13. Senator questions Apple over iPhone tracking – Good questions all. Thanks, Sen Franken.
  14. Wonkette Thinks It’s Okay To Mock Trig Palin. Bulletin: It’s Not – Making an ass of yourself in the name of snark knows no political boundaries, unfortunately. This kind of humor (even its marginally weaker form that Wonkette is so infamous for) is one reason why I don’t read her.
  15. Paul Ryan Collected Social Security Entitlements Until Age 18 – I’m sure Ayn Rand would approve — take what you can get away with, then make sure nobody else can take more.
  16. Astoundingly Detailed LEGO Serenity – Shiny!
  17. The Post Office Railway (Mail Rail) | Silent UK – Urban & Underground Photography – Awesome. A modern-day dungeon-crawl.

Flute! In! SPAAAAAAAAAACE!

A bit of publicity fluff around the Yuri Gagarin anniversary and the international space station and all of that, but …

… how incredibly COOL is it that we can have someone in orbit playing the flute along with someone on the ground? I mean, on the one hand, it seems trivial, but all that’s necessary to make it happen is AWESOME.

Really.

Btw, that’s NASA Astronaut Cady Coleman on the ISS, and Ian Anderson, founder of the rock band Jethro Tull.

(via NASA and Mary)

Unblogged Bits (Tue. 12-Apr-11 1730)

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

  1. Newly-released FBI memo from 1950 confirms “flying saucers” crashing in New Mexico [Mysteries] – Well, the memo confirms something — now, who’s confirming the memo (and its writer, and his sources)?
  2. Rand And The Conservatism Of Doubt – Ah, Ayn Rand — is there anything more you can get wrong with your crazy philosophy?
  3. Stop Being The “Annoying Phone Guy” During Meetings With BusyMe for Android – Seriously checking this out.
  4. Senator To Propose New Internet Sales Tax – Certainly people (cough) are more likely in many circumstances to purchase something tax-free through Amazon than taxed from their local bricks-and-mortar store (unless they want it in their hands RIGHT NOW). On the other hand, the taxpayer “impact” of Amazon, vs. Best Buy, is much lower. So the only issue is the “fairness” of states getting or not getting money for what I buy. Let’s not make it any more noble than that.
  5. 150 Years Later, Tea Partiers Still Aren’t Over The Civil War: Travis Waldron
  6. Religious Right Ramps Up Attacks on Judicial Nominee Goodwin Liu – Thanks goodness — we’d almost forgotten all about the GOP zaniness in the Senate …
  7. Fischer Likens Boehner To Pontius Pilate Over Planned Parenthood Compromise – Dolt.
  8. Liberty U Blocks Access To Local Paper – Liberty? You keep using that word. I don’t think it means what you think it means …
  9. Robertson On Burqa Ban: Don’t Like It? Go Back To Africa – Religious freedom for me, but not for thee.
  10. Scientist accidentally experiments on himself, wife – Not now, honey — you’re not out of quarantine yet!
  11. Kindle now available for $114 — with on-screen ads – And now we know why Kindle hasn’t offered folks (since very early days) the easy ability to load their own screen savers. Ugh.
  12. $39bn budget cuts also target safe drinking water and heating subsidies. So where are cuts to GOP programs? – What did the Republicans want that got cut? The amount of budget money they (eventually) said wanted cut. “We really wanted $100B!” they claim, “And that got cut to only $40B! So, see? We’re cutting, too!” Yeesh.
  13. Huckabee/Trump 2012? Former Gov. Open To Sharing Ticket With Birther Mogul – I’m trying to figure out if Huckabee is following the McCain “I’ll say anything to get a vote” course, or if he’s always been as flaky as he’s seemed of late.
  14. Why Does it Take so Much Less Milk to Lighten Iced Coffee? [Giz Explains] – And knowing’s half the battle!
  15. Private Records of 3.5 Million Texans Were Mistakenly Leaked by the State [Wtf] – Okay, let’s just assume, from now on, that any record kept about you, whether governmental or private, can and will, eventually, be leaked. How do we, as a society, mitigate that?
  16. If a Byte Were a Gram a Floppy Disk Would Weigh 10 Cats [Factoid] – A pint’s a pound the world around!
  17. Meet the Man Who Invented the Digital Camera [Video] – It’s amazing to think of how much photography has changed with the advent of digital — for the vast part the better, I think.
  18. Why Everyone Loves Yuri Gagarin, the First Human to Reach Space [Video] – “The Earth is blue. How wonderful. It is amazing.” Lovely. There are times when I wish spending time in orbit was a requirement for every one of our Congresscritters.
  19. Peter Jackson Explains Why He’s Shooting ‘The Hobbit’ at 48 Frames Per Second – An interesting technological push — and, to my mind, probably a bigger difference than 3D (though it goes hand-in-hand with it).

Unblogged Bits (Tue. 22-Mar-11 2330)

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

  1. Quote of the Day – I would ask why anyone still cares about anything McCain says, except that he remains a regular on political talk shows and the press.
  2. South Dakota’s odious new anti-abortion law – Thank goodness the GOP stands for Personal Freedom against Intrusive Government!
  3. Shermer Spam Scammers Scam – I want one of those certificates. Maybe it will help me past US passport control.
  4. Smithsonian. Historically Hardcore. | davaidavai.com – Fun. If only it were a real campaign.
  5. BBC News – Academics to ’embrace Wikipedia’ – There’s nothing particularly wrong with Wikipedia that awareness of its weaknesses and strengths can’t deal with. It’s a fabulously useful source of information — so long as you drill down appropriately into the source data.
  6. GeekMom » Open Letter to David E. Kelley, Re: Wonder Woman FAIL
  7. Badass of the Week: Hideaki Akaiwa – Bravo, sir.
  8. Alternatives Have Begun in Bid to Hear from Spirit – NASA Jet Propulsion Laboratory – Awwwww …
  9. Medical marijuana: Donor complaints lead food bank to abandon dispensary pot-for-food drive – Denver News – The Latest Word – Yes, and we can’t accept any roadside help from those Samaritans — I mean, what would Jesus say?!
  10. The Tokyo Joe’s Story – Love my TJ lunch!
  11. Yglesias » Arab Autocrats Think Fighting Gaddafi Will Help Them Maintain Power – “There’s an obvious question as to what, in reality, American policy in the Arab world is. Is this part of a policy of boosting democratic change in the region, or is it part of a policy of bolstering the position of the Persian Gulf dictators who are important clients of American arms manufacturers?”
  12. David Barton’s Anti-Islam Expert Is Disgraced Former FBI Agent – “Apparently, the Muslim Brotherhood is so powerful that it managed to get Guandolo to sleep with the key government witness he was supposed to be protecting in order to discredit him and stop him from exposing their plot to take over the United States.”
  13. The Founding Fathers Had a National Motto: E Pluribus Unum – Yes, but we aren’t interested in the “Many” any more — just the folks who believe in our “God”!
  14. IRD: How Dare Methodists Include Buddhist and Shinto Groups in Japan Memorial Service – Because of you’re not praying to Jesus, YOU’RE EEEEVIIILLLLL!!!!!
  15. CWA: Gay “Bullies” Too Powerful In Government – Then why do you keep opposing anti-bullying legislation? Dolts.
  16. Communication Is Key – Yes!
  17. Cool World Control Panel for budding evil geniuses – Boing Boing – Sweet!

Sarah Palin is a Dolt (Sputnik Edition)

OMG.

And WTF.

Sarah weighs in on … um … something incoherent, in chatting about the State of the Union on Fox with Greta Van Susteren:

GRETA: Governor, last night there was a lot of discussion about the Sputnik Moment the President wants us to have. Do you agree with him? Is this our moment?

PALIN: That was another one of those WTF moments, when he has so often repeated, the Sputnik Moment, that he would aspire Americans to celebrate, he needs to remember that what happened back then with the former communist USSR and their victory and that race to space, yeah, they won, but they also incured so much debt at the time that it resulted in the inevitable collapse of the Soviet Union so I listen to that Sputnik Moment talk over and over again and I think, no we don’t need one of those.

Does the woman have any idea what she’s actually saying? Or talking about?

Does she know what Sputnik was?

Does she know what the US did in response to Sputnik?

Did she ever watch The Right Stuff?

Is she trying to say that the American space program (you know, one of those Big, Grand, Exciting, Flag-Waving, Patriotic Things that Americans once felt really good and proud about) was a mistake because it … well, because the Soviet space program bankrupted the USSR?

Does she actually believe the their space program was what bankrupted the Soviet Union?

Does the Divine Ms. Half-Term Governor actually know what “WTF” means, even?

One wonders.

Remember, this is the woman who wanted to be a heartbeat away from the Presidency … and who lots of people seem  to want to be our next President.  Crikey.

Unblogged Bits (Thu. 27-Jan-11 0430)

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

  1. Rep. Paul Broun To Obama: “You Don’t Believe In The Constitution. You Believe In Socialism” – Rep. Paul Broun is also a dolt.
  2. Arkansas Supermarket Covers Up Magazine with Photo of Gay Family – Yeesh.
  3. First Look at the Anime-style Thundercats UPDATED: New Image! – Fairly cool looking — though Cheetara looks way to wimpy-elfin, and I’m very sorry to hear that the Kits and Snarf are included in the package.
  4. Mom Convicted of Felony, Jailed for Fraudulently Sending Kids to Safer School – Well, we certainly can’t have have-nots hobnobbing with the haves, can we? What else is the law there to do but protect us from such a state?
  5. The original Battlestar Galactica series bible is Ron Moore’s rebuke to Star Trek – Avoiding “the usual stories about parallel universes, time-travel, mind-control, evil twins, God-like powers and all the other cliches.” But we will have prophecies and flashbacks and future histories, humans who turn out to be programmed robots compelled to do things, multiple versions of the same people with different personalities, and some divine spirit who’s pulling the strings of destiny somewhere. I’m not quite sure where the vision here went off the rails. (I speak half in jest — BSG did some remarkable and stunning things, esp. toward the beginning of the series — but half in truth.)
  6. Is It An Underage Sex Slave Ring, Or A Hoax? Either Way, Planned Parenthood Calls The FBI – As presented, I vote sleazy, video-trolling, ACORN-bashing-style hoax.
  7. Barton: “I Guarantee You They Are Getting Homosexual Indoctrination” in Public Schools – The crazy! It burns!
  8. Rep. Peter King: ‘80 Percent Of Mosques In This Country Are Controlled By Radical Imams’ – Rep. Peter King is a dolt.
  9. House GOP wants to monitor what you are doing online – Not that the Dems have been all that impressive with privacy issues, but the GOP’s willingness to go all Big Brother Police State with information gathering on the off chance that it will protect Law & Order is a lovely juxtaposition to the quasi-libertarianism of the Tea Parties that brought them to power.
  10. Facebook Turns Friend Activity Into New Ad Format – Yet another reason to minimize Facebook usage.
  11. Voyager and the Will to Explore – “Long-term projects are guided by the decisions and the will of those who conceive and nurture them. The question now is whether we have the will to keep pushing, Voyager style, into the dark.”
  12. Bush Aides Violated Federal Law – I wouldn’t hold my breath as to any criminal charges being filed.
  13. Michele Bachmann Erroneously Gives Our Founders Credit For Ending Slavery – … for certain broad values of “Founders” …
  14. Turn of fortune for NASA as solar sail successfully deploys – Cool!
  15. Congress.org – News : More troops lost to suicide – “The belief in the possibility of a short decisive war appears to be one of the most ancient and dangerous of human illusions.” — Robert Wilson Lynd

Unblogged Bits (Thu. 13-Jan-11 2230)

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

  1. Life Without Left Turns | Surprising Science – Um, wouldn’t roundabouts be another way to address this?
  2. Harry Potter villain FINALLY allowed to tan after 10-year ban | Blastr – The down side of being in an wildly successful film franchise.
  3. Stingray Nebula
  4. AFA Blog: It’s Not Genocide If God Tells You To Do It – Well at least they’ve chosen a refreshingly open way to address some of the horrors in the Old Testament. Yeesh.
  5. Wiley Drake Focuses His Imprecatory Prayers On Fred Phelps – Man, I hate it when I don’t know who to root for …
  6. Conservative Blogs Unleash More Animosity in Reaction to Obama’s Speech – Stay classy, Lunatic Right!
  7. U.S. income distribution (2010 edition) – “Most people imagine that the rich are in heaven, but, as a rule, it is only a gilded hell. There is not a man in the city of New York with genius enough, with brains enough, to own five millions of dollars. Why? The money will own him. He becomes the key to a safe. That money will get him up at daylight; that money will separate him from his friends; that money will fill his heart with fear; that money will rob his days of sunshine and his nights of pleasant dreams. He cannot own it. He becomes the property of that money. And he goes right on making more. What for? He does not know. It becomes a kind of insanity. No one is happier in a palace than in a cabin.” — Robert Green Ingersoll
  8. Individual Responsibility And Sarah Palin – Does Ms Palin speak at public and private events and on TV shows and in her never-ending chain of books because she thinks her words have no influence? That they might not change, or guide, or have an effect on the minds of her listeners? Of course not. Does she take credit when her vocal support of a candidate assists in their victory? Of course she does. There is, of course, a difference between who actually pulled the trigger and who offered up suggestions and targets and stoking up as to which direction the gun should be pointed. But that doesn’t mean the latter is absolved of any responsibility, moral if not legal. Ms Palin’s refusal to accept that is yet another indication of why she should never be elected to public office again.
  9. 1023 2011 – Homeopathy is one of those quack sciences I’ve never understood otherwise intelligent people being devotees of. Craziness.
  10. Climate change has guided 2,500 years of European history
  11. The new Zodiac – Wait … I’m a Sagittarius now? Aw, man, now I’m going to have to change my whole personality.

Unblogged Bits (Sun. 26-Dec-10 1631)

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

  1. Pickup Lines – December 25, 2010
  2. Flickr .Net Screensaver – Oooh … looks like this works with Win7. Excellent.
  3. The 6 Most Terrifying Work Commutes in the World | Cracked.com – Okay, this might make even my brother feel a bit better …
  4. What WikiLeaks revealed to the world in 2010 – Well worth reading, especially Greenwald’s commentary on the story of the reaction to WikiLeaks being as important as the information revealed. The only caveat (as we saw with the Cuba/Moore tale): diplomatic cables are not objective truth, and at least some fraction of what was “revealed” was what folks were reporting on to their bosses, or rumors that were being passed on, not necessarily smoking guns (cf. your own company’s email system).
  5. Badass Quote of the Day [Dispatches from the Culture Wars] – The problem is, it’s not a binary thing. There is a lot of good the US has done. There’s a lot of good ideas we’ve shared, too. I hold no truck with the “America is TEH EVILLL!” croud. But by the same token, the idea that God has mysteriously favored this country to be the moral (if not economic and political) arbiter for the world, or that this somehow gilds all of our actions into some sort of exceptionalism (i.e., that we are an exception to … what, the forces of history and the nature of humanity?) is equally ludicrous, and just as dangerous.
  6. Congress Should End Ethanol Subsidies : Dispatches from the Culture Wars – Imagine spending $6 billion / year, not on subsidizing net-fossil-neutral ethanol subsidies for major agribusinesses (don’t fool yourself it’s all for Mom-n-Pop farmers), but on some actual renewable energy sources — heck, wouldn’t it be nice to be able to recycle all those Amazon boxes from gift-giving into fuel?
  7. South Carolina Holds Secession Ball [Dispatches from the Culture Wars] – “But we do celebrate the courage and the integrity of 170 men who signed their signatures to the Article of Secession – the courage of men to do what they think is right.” But doesn’t WHAT they thought was right play into the question of whether it deserves celebration?
  8. Listening – Dilbert for December 24, 2010
  9. Porn site: publicizing takedown notices is copyright infringement – Yes, by slapping a copyrighted image in your takedown notice (so you can notify someone in the notice of what you say they are violating), you are now making it a copyrighted document in and of itself, which means it has to be kept hidden. Brilliantly evil!
  10. Guns for Christmas – All I can think of here is that Zombies for the Holidays video …
  11. Newly Discovered Molecule Will Make Rocket Fuel Super Efficient [Rockets] – Cool.
  12. More ISS photos from space poet & NASA astronaut Wheelock | triggerpit.com – Lovely.
  13. Economy Forces Big Budget Cuts for Science Fairs – FoxNews.com – Who needs Science Fairs?! We can just have Bible Memorization Bees!
  14. I love – HA!
  15. My Christmas Tree – I want.
  16. Tomes 2010: Harry Potter Mania Edition – Nicely written. And, yes, setting the movies aside (though they do have something to recommend them, esp. later on), these are books that a lot of adults would get a lot of entertainment (and thrills) from. I’ll probably be ready to reread the series again after the next (last) movie comes out.
  17. Reading as inclination leads – I think it’s good to push oneself (or to be pushed a bit), but I’m also very much (obviously) a believer in Reading What You Like, and then encouraging yourself to like more.

Unblogged Bits (Tue. 21-Dec-10 1631)

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

  1. Al Qaeda threat involving hotels buffets ‘credible,’ report says – USATODAY.com – See, there’s an effective idea. There’s lots of nefarious things that could be done in this way, restricting services, eroding public trust … and, even better, even if nothing is actually done, it just ramps up the fear, esp. if a real food poisoning outbreak occurs. That’s why it’s called terrorism.
  2. Senator Tom Coburn Vows To Hold Up 9-11 Health Care Bill – “You can only help these people if you hurt those other people over there.” Stay classy, Sen. Coburn!
  3. A subway spelunker’s guide to Paris’ abandoned Métro stations [Mad Urbanism] – Kids, don’t try this in your home town.
  4. The Associated Press: Ariz. hospital loses Catholic status over surgery – Sounds like the hospital (and its patients) will be better off without them, though it’s a shame they’ll no longer be able to have Mass at the chapel.
  5. SpyTalk – WikiLeaks “no threat,” top German official says – A remarkably sane and calm response.
  6. What High Maintenance Girlfriends Want for Christmas This Year
  7. Apple Bans Wikileaks App from iPhones
  8. How do I force Windows to assign a drive letter to an external hard drive when attached? | Microsoft Windows | TechRepublic.com – Noting this for future (re)reference.
  9. Nasa captures stunning images of the far side of the moon – Cool …
  10. The rare Thor movie poster that only the cast and crew got to keep | Blastr – That is pretty darned awesome. And the others in the gallery are cool, too.
  11. AOL acquires About.me – Holy Kaw! – Huh. Well, so much for About.me.
  12. Total Lunar Eclipse, The View From Palmer, Alaska – Cool.
  13. Quote of the Day – Stay classy, Sen. McConnell!
  14. Ignorance comes with consequences – And those are the people most loudly proclaiming American divine exceptionalism, because they’re too tied to their comforting ignorance to actually make this country exceptional.

Unblogged Bits (Mon. 13-Dec-10 2230)

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

  1. SmartCo’s costly failure pushed owner to shut down Colorado stores early – The Denver Post – Sounds like the whole thing was planned really poorly.
  2. Microsoft storefronts aren’t yet as sweet a lure to customers as Apple – The Denver Post – Summed up as: “Everything sold here can be bought somewhere else, likely for a lower price,” Smits said. “There is no exclusive product here to pull me in. But at the Apple Store, there’s all kinds of stuff I can’t get anywhere else.”
  3. Q: Why Has the ACLU Been Silent About TSA Abuses? A: Because You Haven’t Been Listening – Hit & Run : Reason Magazine – Conservative punditry slamming the ACLU for something they didn’t do (or for not doing something which they did)? Inconceivable!
  4. Amelia Earhart May Have Survived Months as Castaway : Discovery News – Hrm. I almost wish she’d died on impact. The idea of surviving but declining, or being caught by some accident or infection she couldn’t recover from, is not a happy end.
  5. Study: No one cares about your tweets – Holy Kaw! – Okay, all the play here is over folks actually reading their Twitter feeds. The actually study indicates 1/3 of Twitter users check the site regularly, and 1/3 check it once every couple of weeks. That’s hardly surprising.
  6. Guest Blogger Starling: Schrödinger’s Rapist: or a guy’s guide to approaching strange women without being maced « Shapely Prose – While the author’s concerns seem overblown … I’m not really in a position (gender or environmentally) to pass that judgment. And, regardless (a) being right doesn’t actually justify doing something that’s going to scare someone else, no matter how (ir)rational that person seems, and (b) I’m SO glad I’m not in the dating game …
  7. NASA tables plan to expose monkeys to gamma radiation – What could possibly go wrong?
  8. The indignation of the persecuted hegemon: An illustration – “It’s a sad thing. The sadness of it is qualified somewhat by the harm it does to others, but it remains sad enough that one wishes there was something one could do to help those trapped inside this self-inflicted misery.”
  9. Even Greater Moments – Glad to see this is back, and looking forward to attending next time we’re at Disneyland.
  10. Anti-drug groups protest RTD bus ads for marijuana convention – The Denver Post – So a legal organization, promoting a legal gathering at the Convention Center, related to something that (with stringent limits) is legal … is a Grave Danger to Our Society, according to law enforcement. “You keep using that word ‘law’ — I do not think it means what you think it means.”
  11. Cheering a victory over their own idea – “In case there are any doubts on this, Republicans are cheering today’s ruling, but it’s not because they have a problem with the mandate. It’s not even because they have a substantive problem with the Affordable Care Act itself. This is about cheap politics.”
  12. Right Hails Health Care Ruling As Victory For the Constitution – “Amazing, isn’t it, how when a judge rules in a way the Religious Right dislikes, it is unadulterated judicial activism but when a judge rules in their favor, it is a heroic stand for the Constitution?”
  13. Texas Airport Security Insults India After Wrongfully Demanding To Search UN Envoy’s Turban – How to lose friends and negatively influence people. Of course, I’ve little doubt that there are some who think that insulting “rag-heads” is a good thing …
  14. On Day Of Tax Cut Vote, Sen. Mark Kirk Wants Constituents To E-Mail Him What He Should Do – Political hack.
  15. Dear Abby offers poor advice to insulted maker – Heh …

Unblogged Bits (Wed. 8-Dec-10 1630)

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

  1. Arizona Transplant Patients Plead With Jan Brewer To Reverse Life-Threatening Medicaid Cuts: Zaid Jilani
  2. Prosthetic Tentacle – That’s … disturbing. And cool.
  3. First Private Spacecraft In Orbit After Perfect Launch (Updated) – Congratulations, SpaceX! D.D. Harriman would be proud!
  4. The Reaction of Governments to Wikileaks Should Scare the Hell Out of You
  5. “They Can’t Kill Human Creativity” – Am I awful because I don’t think of John Lennon as all that fabulous an artist? I mean, sure, talented, but not ALL that. Matter of taste, certainly, but the utter devotion and near-sainthood with which he is treated just raises my hackles a bit.
  6. Aaron Sorkin: In Her Defense, I’m Sure the Moose Had It Coming
  7. In Saudi Arabia, U.S. Movies and TV Shows Are Doing More to Prevent Jihad Than U.S. Propaganda – They really like our ideas and our freedoms — when we given them the opportunity.
  8. Traffic Camera Enters Drivers Who Obey Speed Limit Into Lottery – Very clever.
  9. Scientists figure out structure of enzyme that causes plaque to stick to teeth – Cool!
  10. This is your brain undergoing cognitive dissonance – We have funny brains, and so little understanding of how they work.
  11. We’re Number … Uh, Nowhere Close to 1 – Have no fear — those who tout American exceptionalism will always handwave such results away as being caused by poor ghetto children, crack babies, teachers unions, lack of prayer in the school, lack of public funding for church schools, immigrants (illegal and otherwise), liberals, high taxes, homosexuality, and whatever other pet anti-cause they can think of.

Unblogged Bits (Mon. 15-Nov-10 1630)

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

  1. The “pro-Constitution=pro-terrorist” canard – Glenn Greenwald – Salon.com – You can defend someone’s Constitutional rights without supporting or believing in what they do. In fact, you almost always have to.
  2. 5 Ways Stores Use Science to Trick You Into Buying Crap | Cracked.com – “Dopamine. Sweet, sweet dopamine.”
  3. Amidst National Islamophobic Upheaval, Arizonans Protest Mosque That’s Actually A Church – OMG! MUSLIMS ARE TAKING OVER OUR CHURCH ARCHITECTURE, TOO! EEK!
  4. Random Book Blogging: Harry Potter, Pokémon, And The Danger of Psychics – Apparently anything that isn’t stamped with JESUS on it in bright shiny letters is, to Ms Jacobs’ lights, Satanic. That includes Pokémon, throwing a penny in a wishing well, Harry Potter (of course) and, probably comic books.
  5. A Futuristic Nightmare Ideology of Computerized Greed and Unchecked Financial Violence – Scary. Disgusting. Appalling. The problem, as described, is not solely about people being unjustly hurt, and hurt maliciously for gain, but with the disassembling of a whole system of trust — trust that property deeds and loan papers and the entire financial system can, in fact, be relied upon, accounted for, proven to be real. That destruction of trust will, in the long run, do the banks more harm than the toxic loans they were so eager to buy and flip.
  6. Facebook’s Social Inbox Wants to Take Over Your Email – That’s all very nice, but why would I want to tie all of my communication and social interaction into a single company’s offering? Even if it’s free?
  7. It’s all about priorities: Steve Benen
  8. Cantor’s unpersuasive walk-back: Steve Benen
  9. Latino Republicans Warn House GOP That Anti-Immigrant Members As Committee Chairs Will Hurt GOP – Don’t hold your breaths, Somos Republicans.
  10. Schools ban bracelets promoting cancer awareness – USATODAY.com – Because breasts can only be consider sexual objects, even just by reference, and even if in the context of breast cancer awareness. Right? Therefore it is lascivious and/or shameful to refer to them as “boobies.” (Would it be okay if the bracelets said “breasts” instead? How about “bosoms”? Or “mammary organs”?)
  11. Napolitano: Scanners are safe, pat-downs discreet – USATODAY.com – Short version: “Trust us. Bend over and be quiet, or else the terrorists win.”
  12. Napolitano asks fliers for ‘patience’ on body scanners – USATODAY.com – What is “patience” going to get us, ma’am?
  13. Ancient ice, wet and dry, from deep inside a comet – Very cool.
  14. Anti-Union O’Keefe Video Smears Teacher Who Jumped In Front Of Van To Save Students, Gets Her Suspended – It’s very hard sometimes not to wish violence upon people who do this sort of thing.
  15. Antisemitism still thrives – “I’m not a fan of Israel’s policies — they’re becoming what they oppose — but there’s clearly no possibility that they could simply stop fighting for their existence and live in peace and tolerance with neighbors who promote the kind of hate shown above.”
  16. An ethical dilemma! – Do unto others as you would have them do unto you.
  17. The End of In-Flight Wi-Fi? – Apparently, any security threat you can imagine has to Dealt With Immediately and Promptly and Definitively.
  18. Iconic obelisk presents a monumental security issue – An interesting article on security and the Washington Monument.
  19. Airport security reaches new levels of absurdity – Ask the Pilot – Salon.com – This time, it’s taking off belts. With some extra silly twists in this particular instance.

Unblogged Bits (Fri. 29-Oct-10 1130)

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

  1. Barber Wants Obama Investigated for “High Crimes and Misdemeanors” – And if the GOP takes one or both houses of Congress next week, I’m sure there will be just enough Republicans to go along with Mr Barber’s suggestion.
  2. Barton: God Will Hold You Accountable For How You Vote – “For Christians, voting is not a right, it’s a duty. It’s a stewardship that we owe to God and it’s a stewardship for which we’ll answer directly to him. One day we’ll stand before him and he’ll say ‘what did you do with that vote I gave you?’ And we’ll have to answer.” Actually, I agree with him fully on that one. Voting is an act of engagement with the people around us, and we are called to the touchstones of loving God and loving our neighbors through voting as much as with any other action. Of course, I suspect my conclusions of how my religious values guides me to vote will be a bit different from Barton’s.
  3. Ohio McDonald’s Tells Employees To Vote Republican If They Want To Continue Receiving Raises And Benefits: Tanya Somanader
  4. Relatives Says Man Arrested For Threatening Democratic Senator Was ‘Under The Spell That Glenn Beck Cast’ – Is Beck legally culpable? No, and I’d defend him against any such charge. Is he ethically culpable, though? That’s another question.
  5. What Conservatives Have Taught Me This Election Season: James Frye
  6. Stranded, Stubborn Mars Rover Actually Makes a Big Discovery [MarsRover] – Go, Spirit, go! (In a metaphorical, “do great stuff” sense, of course.)
  7. Southwest Airlines $5 Bucks for WiFi onboard Flights – A price I would very seriously consider indulging in on some flights.
  8. Watch Five Minutes of ‘The Walking Dead’ and the Real Opening Title Sequence – Everything I’ve seen and heard about this indicates it’s going to be awesome.
  9. The boiling, erupting Sun – “… The mornin’ sun is shinin’ like a red rubber ball …”
  10. Drug Wars – While there’s certainly cocaine involved, note the several pictures of hundreds of metric TONS of marijuana. That’s a huge cash crop for the drug lords, reason enough for all the violence, and it’s something we could trivially deprive them of if US drug policy were rationally administered.
  11. Indiana suggests leaving disabled family members at homeless shelters – “Are there no workhouses …?” Welcome to yet another face of cheap-labor conservatism and taxed-enough-already partygoing. Is this the America the electorate is looking for? Because it’s where we’re headed.
  12. Karl Rove And Sarah Palin Going To War? – Given the number of comments Rove has had to dial back in the past months, I don’t see him standing up to much criticism if Palin and her variety of supporters decide to fire back.
  13. Dean Kamen unveils revamped bionic arm and water machine, LED light bulb powered by Cree – Many levels of coolness here.
  14. Government Withholds Records on Need for Expanded Surveillance Law – “A mandate requiring an easy-to-open ‘back door’ to electronic communications is an idea that was proposed and rejected over fifteen years ago because it would be ineffective, cause security vulnerabilities, and hurt American business — on top of the damage it would do to Americans’ privacy and free speech rights. Any attempt to require the same mandate today should start with a concrete and realistic evaluation of how often the government investigations are stymied by the lack of a ‘back door.’ Anything less than that is asking the public to blindly rubber stamp a flawed plan at a very high cost to Americans and American business.”
  15. The Message of Firesheep: “Baaaad Websites, Implement Sitewide HTTPS Now!” – Unfortunately, per EFF’s efforts, there’s not a trivial way to do this for IE or Chrome. I have implemented this on my various machine this week (esp. ones I travel with) with, so far, no harm.
  16. Climate change facts, for what that’s worth – “But do not always expect facts to convince. Someone who has arrived at their current stance due to something other than facts will not likely be persuaded to budge from it due to the facts. Some small percentage, some few, are honestly misinformed, and for them facts and information will be persuasive and liberating. They will be grateful for the link. But for most the problem is not simply one of a lack of accurate information. For them, finding their way back to the truth will require retracing the steps that led them away from it — a path that had little to do with information or facts.”

Unblogged Bits (Fri. 8-Oct-10 1731)

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

  1. Oliver Willis: Beck blames his medical problems on “drinking that poison” of progressives he’s been studying – Behold the Lamb of Glenn, Who Taketh Away the Spiritual-Poison of the World …
  2. WV GOP Congressional Candidate Appeals To Anti-Arab Sentiment – Spooky Music! And … ARABS! Eek!
  3. WV GOP Congressional Candidate Appeals To Anti-Arab Sentiment – Spooky Music! And … ARABS! Eek!
  4. Picture Books Languish as Parents Push ‘Big-Kid Books’ – NYTimes.com – While I’m sure there’s an element of academic paranoia on the part of parents (ignoring the difference between reading a “chapter book” to a kid and buying one for them to read), I’d say that at least as large a factor is that picture books are freaking expensive, almost prohibitively so.
  5. Open Left:: Leading GOP Radio Host Pushes Terrorist Attack on Any Islamic Center Built In Lower Manhattan – Well, that’s certainly … disgusting.
  6. Inside The Soviet’s Secret Failed Moon Program – Wow. Very cool.
  7. Gropec*** Lane – “Warning: This post contains repeated uses of words that many people will find offensive.” Though it’s interesting from the perspective of how acceptable language changes over time.
  8. BlogPost – Sharron Angle, David Vitter’s illegal aliens not quite illegal, photographer says – But don’t let reality (or, for that matter, copyright) get in the way of some really obnoxious advertising, right?
  9. Harry Reid’s Republican support – That is fairly remarkable.
  10. How The Controversial Foreclosure Bill Made It Through Congress With No Public Debate: Arthur Delaney
  11. Terry J. Allen: In Vermont, Shades of McCarthy – Johnny Islin had a conveniently bogus list, too.
  12. They Hate Us For Our Freedom? : Dispatches from the Culture Wars – “I know that many Americans believe in ‘American exceptionalism’ but we are not granted exceptions from the most basic laws of behavior, and one of those iron laws is that when you oppress a people and commit massive violence against them, you radicalize them. And this counts for both sides. Just look at how much more radicalized we are in response to 9/11 than we were before, how we reacted with such a massive and violent retaliation — even against a country that had nothing to do with that event. But we somehow cannot bring ourselves to acknowledge that the same thing is true of other people.”
  13. LOL: Star Wars Jedi Bath Robe – Tempting … except there would be dire mocking from house guests.
  14. Just How Stupid Is Fox News? The Jet Pack Edition : Mike the Mad Biologist – Next up on Fox & Friends: Bat Boy is really a SECRET MUSLIM! They report, we deride!
  15. Recipes from Valabar’s in Colorado – De notes the recipes from our Big Fancy Dragaeran Dinner the other weekend. It was great food, and good company. Even the trout (not something I’d normally leap at) was fabulous. Thanks, De!

Unblogged Bits (Thu. 2-Sep-10 2331)

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

  1. Wonder of Wonders – Star-Spangled Panties: The Startlingly Bold New Direction Eras of Wonder Woman! – For all that Superman and Batman get occasional reboots, Wonder Woman seems to suffer far worse.
  2. Top Five Characters From the 1993 Marvel Annuals – Man, there were a LOT of ugly costumes in 1993. All of which seem to suffer from wanting to out-Image Image. Yuck.
  3. Chrome reaches second birthday, version 6 goes stable – I’ve been playing (again) with Chrome as my primary browser at home the past few weeks. Better and more stable performance than Firefox, but poorer tab handling and a more limited plugin ecosystem. Still pondering.
  4. Not ready for primetime – Wow. And this is the chief executive of the state? (Notably, Brewer was required, by law, to participate in a single debate. I suspect she will duck any others.)
  5. Brewer’s painfully long pauses – There’s having a brain fart, and then there’s … well, this ought to give Arizonan voters “pause.”
  6. Rick Joyner Very Concerned that Obama Might Be a Treasonous Muslim – He’s a Muslim! Maybe! Except he acts like a Christian! Unless he’s lying! No, he’s definitely a Muslim! Probably! Except God told me he’s searching for Jesus! But until then he’s clearly a Muslim! Maybe! But if so, that would be really bad! (Jeez, do these folks ever listen to themselves and the crazytalk they engage in?)
  7. Gingrich Wants Ground Zero Declared a National Battlefiled Memorial to Stop Park 51 – What makes Gingrich think that declaring Ground Zero a “National Battlefield” would affect the Park51 debate? Even if that magically made it possible to rule one way or the other about any new construction in the zone (yeah, that’s not a new bureaucratic nightmare for the entire WTC neighborhood), discriminating against the center would STILL fail any 1st Amendment test. And would it mean that the various strip clubs and OTB parlors in the area would somehow magically vanish, too?
  8. Risk of marijuana’s ‘gateway effect’ overblown, new research shows – There’s a shocker.
  9. Could We Still Put a Man on the Moon? : Mike the Mad Biologist – It’s not clear we could, for a variety of reasons. Certainly not without spending a lot of money — an amount that will continue to grow the more we shut down and mothball and discard and abandon what little space program we still have. “Maybe instead of worrying about Musselmen taking over the country and other ersatz notions of honor, the Tea Buggerers could worry about losing technological know-how. But that would cost money. Which is totally Hitler.”
  10. Leaked German Military Report on Peak Oil [Casaubon’s Book] – Unfortunately, too many people are interested in short-term convenience and comfort, and short-term profit, to proactively change the huge role that petroleum plays in our economy.
  11. Robin D. Laws – Protecting Your Hero – That’s a very interesting distinction (iconic vs. dramatic heroes), both literary and from a gaming perspective. And there are times when I’ve enjoyed both, but as Doyce notes, having conflicting expectations between Player and GM as to what a particular game is going to be like is a great recipe for frustration, at the very least.
  12. Kablam! – Ooooh … explodey …
  13. Sentences to ponder – Yes and no. There can be big difference between various individual candidates within parties, esp. in executive, vs. legislative races. Even there, are Dennis Kucinich and Ben Nelson really indistinguishable? On the other hand, people tend to vote on party lines (at least by default), and personalized differences can serve to swing folks one way or another (or to donate more or less to the cause).
  14. ‘I Had A Dream’ : Picture Stephen Colbert, Speaking To The Nation At ‘Restoring Truthiness’ Rally – I would seriously consider going …
  15. 60% Of Apps In Android Market Are Free (Vs. 30% Or Less In Other App Stores) – Some interesting stats. Having free apps isn’t the highest priority with a phone (and some free apps are pretty crappy, of course), but it’s still kind of nice to see.

Unblogged Bits (Wed. 30-Jun-10 0202)

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

  1. New financial unit of measure: the “TDJ” – Big, inspirational art, cathedrals, stuff like that, do serve a purpose, so I can’t immediately hop on DOF’s bandwagon here (since obviously SOME Philistines out there were inspired by TDJ). But I’d suggest that before investing a quarter mil into rebuilding this eye-sore (and handwaving away any suggestion that, well, MAYBE THEY SHOULD CATCH A CLUE ABOUT WHAT THE ALMIGHTY THINKS ABOUT THIS MONSTROSITY), the church in question ought to very, very seriously think about what Jesus would actually suggest in this circumstance, and how much of this is to glorify themselves, not to do God’s work (whited sepulchres can be Jesus-shaped, too).
  2. Gohmert Cracks the Case [Dispatches from the Culture Wars] – Next up, Gohmert claims that Obama was a dry run … or was he simply the FIRST OF MANY??!!
  3. Do not apply for jobs with “TTJ Property Management” as it’s just a scam. – Bravo, Les. Great research. I suspect others will find it useful, too.
  4. London cops enforce imaginary law against brave, principled teenaged photographer – For people we trust to go armed and use physical force against miscreants, way too many police seem to be shy of public oversight.
  5. Four Great Reasons Your Facebook Profile Should NEVER Be Public | Facebook blog and news
  6. YouTube – NASA Satellite Time Lapse Images of Gulf of Mexico Oil Spill – Amazing, and disturbing.
  7. Gorilla psychologists: Weird stuff in plain sight – opinion – 28 June 2010 – New Scientist – We can only focus on so much at a time. Which is one reason why “multi-tasking” is not nearly as effective as folks deceive themselves in to thinking it is.
  8. YouTube – Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows – Part 1 & 2 Official Teaser (2010) – Okay, some of the screen text is a weeeee hyperbolic — but, damn, that does look exciting.
  9. Do we play Farmville because we’re polite? – Boing Boing – I very much suspect this is true. And, yes, it’s a reason I never accept those sorts of invites (nor do I often get onto FB).
  10. Bumpology: Fed up of the booze and cigs police – health – 29 June 2010 – New Scientist
  11. Kirkman’s ‘Walking Dead’ conquers comics. Is TV next? – USATODAY.com – If played true to the comics, this could be a real hit.
  12. Tor.com / Johnny Depp Starring in Big Screen Doctor Who Adaptation? – Um … I really hope this turns out to be about 98.6% Not True.
  13. YouTube – Bistro Bordeaux – No Need For A Corkscrew – Not quite as funny as the guy on the street in an earlier video, but interesting to see. I would not do this with a good bottle, for a variety of reasons.

Poo! In! Spaaaaaaaaace!

Live and direct from NASA, it’s the Mysteries of How the Facilities Work on the Space Shuttle.

Best two lines:

  1. “Alignment is important.”
  2. “For men we do not want them docking with the funnel.”

(via BoingBoing)

Unblogged Bits (Tue. 11-May-10 2000)

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

  1. USDA Tightens Chicken Rules – Damn bunch of socialists, interfering with the consumer’s right to buy tainted chicken! What would the Founding Fathers say?
  2. Humble Indie Bundle hits $1m, goes open-source, gets 4 day extension – I made a donation — worthy causes and some cool games.
  3. Going to Mars—sort of – I will definitely be keeping an eye out for information on contacting these people.
  4. Heavy rain may flood Front Range with 1.8 inches of precipitation tonight – The Denver Post – Thar’s a storm a-brewin’, boys!
  5. Perversely stupid (cont’d.) – “Constantly arguing in bad faith leads to thinking in bad faith and to living in bad faith, until bad faith is all you’ve got left. Calculation becomes habit, that habit supplants thought and one winds up in the perverse circumstance of earnestly arguing for the goodness of oil spills.”
  6. Palestinian Official: I Call Palestine ‘The New Philippines’ – Without disputing the damage that the Palestinians have done to their own cause, there’s little doubt that the Israeli government, through its support of ever-expanding settlements, is dealing in extremely bad faith (so to speak).
  7. Republicans And Right-Wing Media Push Myth That Kagan ‘Banned’ Military Recruiters From Harvard Law School – Let’s not let the truth get in the way of our talking points!
  8. Telecoms’ Secret Plan To Attack Net Neutrality: Target Video Gamers And Stoke Fear Of Chinese Censorship – Isn’t claiming that Net Neutrality is a government takeover of the Internet sort of like claiming the Civil Rights Act of 1964 was a government takeover of the hotel industry?
  9. Kagan and military recruiters, redux – “The problem, of course, is that the criticism is factually wrong, a detail her detractors either don’t realize or choose to ignore.”
  10. Pew pew! For science! Lasers map ancient Mayan temples – Very cool.
  11. The Evolution of Privacy on Facebook – But heaven help you if you try to pull data out of Facebook.
  12. Cool collection of optical illusions – Flipper? I hardly know’er!
  13. You’re an asshole, not a genius – Queue jumpers are among the lowest forms of life. Turning your signal on doesn’t change that.
  14. Alabama, evolution, and the 21st century – Alabama is pretty far down on the list of places I’d be willing to visit, let alone live.
  15. Ending the ‘war on drugs’ – There’s certainly a role for law enforcement regarding drugs, but treating it as a “war” — complete with getting overly involved in military exploits overseas as well as spending zillions at home with little effect and filling our prisons without actually much impacting drug use or profits … well, that’s been a war we weren’t winning and can’t afford to keep fighting. If you can’t impact the supply, though, you can certainly try to impact the demand.
  16. Lowest taxes in more than a half-century – Money graf: “Looking ahead, tax rates more in line with the recent norm — say, tax rates of the 1990s, when the economy was strong and the budget was balanced — would do wonders to reduce the deficit the right pretends to care about.”
  17. King: If Gays Don’t Want To Be Discriminated Against, They Should Stay In the Closet – People only keep quiet about things they feel ashamed or fearful about. While I don’t expect my gay acquaintances to be going into graphic detail about their sexual escapades (I don’t expect my straight acquaintances to do so, either), I also don’t think they should have to hide the fact of their personal relationships.
  18. Schlafly: Obama Must Apologize to America For His “Poor Moral Tone” – As soon as she apologizes for being a pushing, judgmental, blithering ignoramus.

Unblogged Bits for Monday, 23 November 2009

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