{"id":16378,"date":"2009-12-09T17:00:31","date_gmt":"2009-12-10T00:00:31","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/2009\/12\/09\/unblogged-bits-for-wednesday-09-december-2009.html"},"modified":"2009-12-09T17:00:31","modified_gmt":"2009-12-10T00:00:31","slug":"unblogged-bits-for-wednesday-09-december-2009","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/2009\/12\/09\/unblogged-bits-for-wednesday-09-december-2009.html","title":{"rendered":"Unblogged Bits for Wednesday, 09 December 2009"},"content":{"rendered":"<div>Links (most recent first) that caught my eye, but did not warrant full-blown blog entries &#8230;. <\/p>\n<ul>\n<li><a href=\"http:\/\/feedproxy.google.com\/~r\/Doobybrain\/~3\/a8xKeJsAPs4\/\">Photos of Amazon.com fulfillment center<\/a> &#8211; Hey, I think I see my order over there!<\/li>\n<li><a href=\"http:\/\/andfaraway.net\/blog\/2009\/12\/08\/the-beauty-of-arabic-calligraphy\/\">The Beauty of Arabic Calligraphy<\/a> &#8211; Arabic calligraphy is often gorgeous.  These are some lovely examples.<\/li>\n<li><a href=\"http:\/\/michiganmessenger.com\/31510\/hiv-as-terrorism-case-draws-national-protests\">HIV-as-terrorism case draws national protests<\/a> &#8211; Goofiness on the part of the prosecutor here. If nothing else, it doesn&#8217;t fit any definition of terrorism I&#8217;ve heard of.<\/li>\n<li><a href=\"http:\/\/feedproxy.google.com\/~r\/Americablog\/~3\/3Os7LCCxyg4\/senate-dems-drop-public-option-from.html\">UPDATED: Senate Dems. drop &#8220;alter&#8221; public option<\/a> &#8211; Problem #1: The Democrats (unlike the ideologically purist GOP) have a wide array of ideological positions, including folks who could just as easily run as (R). So the 60-vote super-majority has never eally existed. #2: Democratic party discipline has never matched that of the GOP.  #3: The GOP has managed to game Senate rules, after years of decrying the whole &#8220;filibuster&#8221; thing as evil and undemocratic, to make the threat of filibuster require anything controversial in the Senate require a 60-40 super-majority.  The result?  The GOP (with their Dem fellow travelers) coerce a health care reform bill that favors Big Insurance and, despite some positive provisions, will end up costing everyone more for less service &#8212; which the GOP will be quick to reap political bennies from.<\/li>\n<li><a href=\"http:\/\/stupidevilbastard.com\/2009\/12\/the-tsa-incompetently-posts-its-secrets-on-the-internet\/\">The TSA incompetently posts its secrets on the Internet.<\/a> &#8211; Dave Hill, International Man of Mystery, shakes his head in disgust.<\/li>\n<li><a href=\"http:\/\/thereifixedit.com\/2009\/12\/08\/see-honey-we-dont-need-a-new-entertainment-center\/\">See Honey? We Don\u2019t Need A New Entertainment Center.<\/a> &#8211; I&#8217;d laugh at this, save that it was a potential solution to our own entertainment center size problem.<\/li>\n<li><a href=\"http:\/\/thinkprogress.org\/2009\/12\/08\/huckabee-big-tent\/\">Huckabee: A \u2018Big Tent\u2019 Will \u2018Kill The Conservative Movement\u2019<\/a> &#8211; It seems to me that slicing people away from your party is, per se, reducing its size and influence. Go for it, GOP!<\/li>\n<li><a href=\"http:\/\/thinkprogress.org\/2009\/12\/08\/copenhagen-a-to-z\/\">The Consequences Of Global Warming \u2014 From A To Z: Brad<\/a><\/li>\n<li><a href=\"http:\/\/feedproxy.google.com\/~r\/boingboing\/iBag\/~3\/DaVF2dlIc5o\/judge-orders-makeup.html\">Judge orders makeup artist to cover suspected killer&#8217;s swastika tattoos<\/a> &#8211; Um &#8230; if he chose to get Nazi tattoos, why should that fact be suppressed?<\/li>\n<li><a href=\"http:\/\/feedproxy.google.com\/~r\/boingboing\/iBag\/~3\/yrlgQk_sFmU\/hulk-smash-puny-plac.html\">Hulk smash puny placebo effect!<\/a> &#8211; Interesting. How much of &#8220;manliness&#8221; is determined and how much is culture?<\/li>\n<li><a href=\"http:\/\/friendlyatheist.com\/2009\/12\/08\/best-preacher-baiting-photo\/\">Best Preacher-Baiting Photo<\/a> &#8211; &#8220;Obama Voters&#8221;?!?!  Yeesh.<\/li>\n<li><a href=\"http:\/\/thechapel.wordpress.com\/2009\/12\/06\/gold-platinum-rule\/\">Gold + Platinum Rule<\/a> &#8211; An interesting examination of the Golden Rule.  I tend toward a positive formulation, just because I dislike &#8220;do nots&#8221; as moral imperatives, and because I think communal concern for others (acknowledging the possible problems) has positive merit in and of itself.<\/li>\n<li><a href=\"http:\/\/www.atheistrev.com\/2009\/12\/rapture-ready-christians.html\">The Rapture Ready Christians<\/a> &#8211; You can decide to bring them up later?  Really? Can you give us a few Bible cites on that, Terry James?<\/li>\n<li><a href=\"http:\/\/feedproxy.google.com\/~r\/Americablog\/~3\/xOPTkMfUMVc\/on-liebermans-ego-driven-faulty.html\">On Lieberman&#8217;s ego-driven, faulty position on public option: &#8220;No one&#8217;s called him on anything.&#8221;<\/a> &#8211; So, what&#8217;s the opposite to &#8220;Profiles in Courage&#8221; That&#8217;d have a picture of Lieberman in the definition.<\/li>\n<li><a href=\"http:\/\/feedproxy.google.com\/~r\/Americablog\/~3\/cXOAk2uK5zc\/palin-will-consider-third-party.html\">Palin will consider third party<\/a> &#8211; Palin continues to demonstrate what a joke she is. What&#8217;s amazing is how many people continue to lionize her.<\/li>\n<li><a href=\"http:\/\/feeds.gawker.com\/~r\/lifehacker\/full\/~3\/SrhPKJviPKw\/thunderbird-3-officially-released-with-new-features-improved-look\">Thunderbird 3 Officially Released with New Features, Improved Look  [Downloads]<\/a> &#8211; I remain a GMail user, but for those looking for a localized client, it looks like Thunderbird is the current winner.<\/li>\n<li><a href=\"http:\/\/crooksandliars.com\/david-neiwert\/if-tea-party-candidates-really-are-p\">If &#8216;Tea Party&#8217; candidates really are the preferred choice on the Right, then  we&#8217;re in serious trouble<\/a> &#8211; The GOP has sown the wind, but we will all reap the whirlwind.<\/li>\n<li><a href=\"http:\/\/hackaday.com\/2009\/12\/08\/fully-automatic-crossbow\/\">Fully-automatic crossbow<\/a> &#8211; As many D&amp;D players drool &#8230;<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Links (most recent first) that caught my eye, but did not warrant full-blown blog entries &#8230;. Photos of Amazon.com fulfillment center &#8211; Hey, I think I see my order over there! The Beauty of Arabic Calligraphy &#8211; Arabic calligraphy is often gorgeous. These are some lovely examples. HIV-as-terrorism case draws national protests &#8211; Goofiness on &hellip; <a href=\"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/2009\/12\/09\/unblogged-bits-for-wednesday-09-december-2009.html\" class=\"more-link\">Continue reading<span class=\"screen-reader-text\"> &#8220;Unblogged Bits for Wednesday, 09 December 2009&#8221;<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_seopress_titles_title":"","_seopress_titles_desc":"","_seopress_robots_index":"","_seopress_robots_follow":"","_seopress_robots_imageindex":"","_seopress_robots_snippet":"","_seopress_robots_primary_cat":"","_seopress_robots_breadcrumbs":"","_seopress_robots_freeze_modified_date":"","_seopress_robots_custom_modified_date":"","_seopress_robots_canonical":"","_seopress_social_fb_title":"","_seopress_social_fb_desc":"","_seopress_social_fb_img":"","_seopress_social_fb_img_attachment_id":0,"_seopress_social_fb_img_width":0,"_seopress_social_fb_img_height":0,"_seopress_social_twitter_title":"","_seopress_social_twitter_desc":"","_seopress_social_twitter_img":"","_seopress_social_twitter_img_attachment_id":0,"_seopress_social_twitter_img_width":0,"_seopress_social_twitter_img_height":0,"_seopress_redirections_value":"","_seopress_redirections_enabled":"","_seopress_redirections_enabled_regex":"","_seopress_redirections_logged_status":"","_seopress_redirections_param":"","_seopress_redirections_type":0,"_seopress_analysis_target_kw":"","_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":false,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[16],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-16378","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-potpourri"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":16904,"url":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/2010\/03\/14\/unblogged-bits-for-sun-14-mar-2010-800pm.html","url_meta":{"origin":16378,"position":0},"title":"Unblogged Bits for Sun, 14 Mar 2010,  8:00PM","author":"***Dave","date":"Sun 14-Mar-10 5:00pm","format":false,"excerpt":"Links (most recent first) that caught my eye, but did not warrant full-blown blog entries .... Instilling some caucus discipline - While the Dems getting a bit more partisan backbone has some attraction, adding more knee-jerk partisanship also has some disadvantages. Two speeds: slow and stop - It's easy to\u2026","rel":"","context":"In &quot;Potpourri&quot;","block_context":{"text":"Potpourri","link":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/category\/potpourri"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":129179,"url":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/2015\/12\/18\/parents-protest-muslim-indoctrination-via-black-magic-calligraphy-lesson-at-school.html","url_meta":{"origin":16378,"position":1},"title":"Parents protest Muslim Indoctrination via Black Magic Calligraphy lesson at school","author":"***Dave","date":"Fri 18-Dec-15 5:24pm","format":false,"excerpt":"A 9th grade geography class in Virginia is looking at world religions, and one lesson involved the use of calligraphy as art in Islam (due to injunctions against graven images). As part of that lesson, kids were instructed to try drawing out for themselves the Shahada, a common decorative calligraphy\u2026","rel":"","context":"In &quot;~PlusPosts&quot;","block_context":{"text":"~PlusPosts","link":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/category\/blogging\/plusposts"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":44895,"url":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/2014\/09\/03\/free-speech-vs-terrorist-support.html","url_meta":{"origin":16378,"position":2},"title":"Free Speech vs Terrorist Support","author":"***Dave","date":"Wed 3-Sep-14 3:51pm","format":false,"excerpt":"What are the boundaries of Constitutional protection of Free Speech (esp. regarding political topics), vs incitement of and coordination with Evil Terrorists Who Want To Kill Us? And, no, you can't cop out with a \"I'll know it when I see it?\" excuse.(And, no, I don't have a clear answer.\u2026","rel":"","context":"In &quot;~PlusPosts&quot;","block_context":{"text":"~PlusPosts","link":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/category\/blogging\/plusposts"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":41369,"url":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/2014\/03\/07\/eek-appropriation-eek.html","url_meta":{"origin":16378,"position":3},"title":"Eek! Appropriation! Eek!","author":"***Dave","date":"Fri 7-Mar-14 8:14pm","format":false,"excerpt":"Randa Jarar writes about the horror, the horror, of non-Arabic women doing belly dancing, especially when they wear Arabic-style (\"Orientalist\") clothing and make-up when doing so.This, she says, is simple \"appropriation\" of Arabic women's culture, somehow stealing something that doesn't belong to them.Um ....First off, I sincerely doubt that belly\u2026","rel":"","context":"In &quot;~PlusPosts&quot;","block_context":{"text":"~PlusPosts","link":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/category\/blogging\/plusposts"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":41985,"url":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/2014\/05\/15\/maybe-kay-should-learn-german.html","url_meta":{"origin":16378,"position":4},"title":"Maybe Kay should learn German","author":"***Dave","date":"Thu 15-May-14 5:59am","format":false,"excerpt":"My daughter plans on taking Mandarin Chinese in high school next year, but looking at this map, German might be a better alternative if she plans on sticking around in Colorado.Reshared post from +Yonatan ZungerThis is a great little dive into US Census data: What's the most commonly spoken language\u2026","rel":"","context":"In &quot;~PlusPosts&quot;","block_context":{"text":"~PlusPosts","link":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/category\/blogging\/plusposts"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":51811,"url":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/2015\/07\/22\/the-not-history-of-numbers.html","url_meta":{"origin":16378,"position":5},"title":"The Not-History of Numbers","author":"***Dave","date":"Wed 22-Jul-15 8:59am","format":false,"excerpt":"No, the original Arabic numbers didn't use the \"number of angles \/ corners\" in the figure to determine their values. They also didn't look like that. (Read the article for some real history, however.)(h\/t +Les Jenkins) No, This Viral Image Does Not Explain the History of Arabic Numerals Your cousin\u2019s\u2026","rel":"","context":"In &quot;~PlusPosts&quot;","block_context":{"text":"~PlusPosts","link":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/category\/blogging\/plusposts"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]}],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/16378","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=16378"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/16378\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=16378"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=16378"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=16378"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}