{"id":19750,"date":"2011-01-02T16:30:33","date_gmt":"2011-01-02T23:30:33","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/2011\/01\/02\/unblogged-bits-sun-2-jan-11-1630.html"},"modified":"2011-01-02T16:30:33","modified_gmt":"2011-01-02T23:30:33","slug":"unblogged-bits-sun-2-jan-11-1630","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/2011\/01\/02\/unblogged-bits-sun-2-jan-11-1630.html","title":{"rendered":"Unblogged Bits (Sun. 2-Jan-11 1630)"},"content":{"rendered":"
Links (most recent first) that caught my eye, but did not warrant full-blown blog entries …. <\/p>\n
    \n
  1. Dear Friends Of Religious Freedom: A Timely Letter From Thomas Jefferson<\/a> – “We have experienced the quiet as well as the comfort which results from leaving every one to profess freely and openly those principles of religion which are the inductions of his own reason, and the serious convictions of his own inquiries.” Indeed.<\/li>\n
  2. What George Will says (and doesn’t say) about science<\/a> – “America has been consuming its seed corn: From 1970 to 1995, federal support for research in the physical sciences, as a fraction of gross domestic product, declined 54 percent; in engineering, 51 percent. On a per-student basis, state support of public universities has declined for more than two decades and was at the lowest level in a quarter-century before the current economic unpleasantness. Annual federal spending on mathematics, the physical sciences and engineering now equals only the increase in health-care costs every nine weeks. Republicans are rightly determined to be economizers. They must, however, make distinctions.” Alas, (a) it’s easier to have as a talking point “taxes bad, spending cuts good!” than “we need to spend wisely, and here’s what we propose to do so regarding,” as the latter is nuanced and encourages discussion whereas the latter is something you can get people to chant, and (b) the encouragement of anti-science whackos by the GOP (mostly) makes it easy to denegrate any sort of federal support of long-term science and engineering and education because, dadgummit, all we need is the BIBLE to remain the greatest darned country on Earth, by cracky!<\/li>\n
  3. The occasionally relevant metric<\/a> – I’m sure, if they choose to take it back up as a talking point, that the Right will take credit for it in anticipation of their regaining (partial) power this next year or something like that. That said, yes, the stock market is a crappy indicator of economic health, let alone social well-being. It’s a moderately good indicator of wealth generation for those who can afford to play in it or for those with retirement investments in it.<\/li>\n
  4. Social Networking is a wonderful new technology that will unleash human potential : Greg Laden’s Blog<\/a> – “It’s an amplifier and a new venue. Social networking is a place where technology can facilitate additional opportunities for people to be morons in a very public and spectacular way.” Like any amplifier (literaly), social networking allows messages to go further. There is some intrinsic good in that (more communication is better than less communication, as a general rule), but the particulars of individual messages may not be very pleasant. The answer is educating the morons, not curtailing the medium, but society hasn’t always been very good about choosing that answer.<\/li>\n
  5. Global Population: Approaching 7 Billion<\/a> – Some of the current problems are more distribution and economic than actual shortages of supply. What we’re seeing in countries like China and India, though, is that for countries like that to industrialize and become wealthy in line with the West will require massive amounts of energy and water — something that is not in unlimited supply.<\/li>\n
  6. George Will Calls GOP Opposition To Raising Debt Ceiling \u2018Suicidal\u2019: Andrea Nill<\/a><\/li>\n
  7. The Best Reviewed Movies of 2010<\/a> – I’d really like to see more movies this year. It’s a shame that of the two lists, I’ve only seen one of the films, and that was on the RT list.<\/li>\n
  8. 15 Hilarious Pictures of Sh*t Ruined by Kids – Oddee.com<\/a><\/li>\n
  9. Detroit in ruins | Art and design | The Observer<\/a> – Horrifying and fascinating. Though it makes my gut wrench, beyond the buildings, to see shelves and shelves of books (not to mention police files) in mouldering disarray.<\/li>\n
  10. Reading the Godless Constitution<\/a> – “The religious right is still convinced that if they are not allowed to establish their religion, then some other sect will get to establish theirs instead. And the religious right is still wracked by fears of saucy blacks, Jews and beggars.”<\/li>\n<\/ol>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

    Links (most recent first) that caught my eye, but did not warrant full-blown blog entries …. Dear Friends Of Religious Freedom: A Timely Letter From Thomas Jefferson – “We have experienced the quiet as well as the comfort which results from leaving every one to profess freely and openly those principles of religion which are … Continue reading “Unblogged Bits (Sun. 2-Jan-11 1630)”<\/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-19750","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":133770,"url":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/2017\/07\/01\/the-clenched-fist-of-truth.html","url_meta":{"origin":19750,"position":0},"title":"The "Clenched Fist of Truth"","author":"***Dave","date":"Sat 1-Jul-17 10:53am","format":false,"excerpt":"So, the NRA's short message (delivered with an angry sneer): \"THEY 'assassinate' the Truth, everyone in the media is lying to you, and mob violence is about to set you on fire. The police can't help you, so use your 'clenched fist' (or, y'know, those things the NRA is associated\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "~PlusPosts"","block_context":{"text":"~PlusPosts","link":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/category\/blogging\/plusposts"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":131765,"url":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/2016\/10\/10\/ryan-wont-support-trump-but-wont-un-endorse-him-either.html","url_meta":{"origin":19750,"position":1},"title":"Ryan won't support Trump — but won't un-endorse him, either","author":"***Dave","date":"Mon 10-Oct-16 2:20pm","format":false,"excerpt":"Part of me wants to sympathize with Paul Ryan, a guy who has been saddled with an awful candidate for President, but apparently feeling very strongly the need to be loyal to the party and support its unity.In the aftermath of a recording of Trump from several years ago bragging\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "~PlusPosts"","block_context":{"text":"~PlusPosts","link":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/category\/blogging\/plusposts"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":10194,"url":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/2006\/08\/14\/ignorance_is_ig.html","url_meta":{"origin":19750,"position":2},"title":"Ignorance is … ignorant","author":"***Dave","date":"Mon 14-Aug-06 3:22pm","format":false,"excerpt":"I know this will come as no huge shock to some, but I still find it appalling. Surveys by a Michigan State University researcher find that about one-third of the...","rel":"","context":"In "Religion"","block_context":{"text":"Religion","link":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/category\/religion"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":11806,"url":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/2008\/01\/30\/it_makes_a_fellow_proud_t.html","url_meta":{"origin":19750,"position":3},"title":"“It makes a fellow proud to be a solider …”","author":"***Dave","date":"Wed 30-Jan-08 10:05am","format":false,"excerpt":"If you can't get enough recruits to meet your standards ... well, lower your standards. The latest statistics\u2014compiled by the Defense Department. and obtained through the Freedom of Information Act...","rel":"","context":"In "Geopolitical Brouhaha"","block_context":{"text":"Geopolitical Brouhaha","link":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/category\/geopolitical-brouhaha"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":51036,"url":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/2015\/05\/12\/americas-religious-face-is-changing-like-it-or-not.html","url_meta":{"origin":19750,"position":4},"title":"America's religious face is changing, like it or not","author":"***Dave","date":"Tue 12-May-15 10:18am","format":false,"excerpt":"Pew Research Center's most recent major survey of religion in America has some remarkable results. In just the last several years, Christianity as a whole in the US has declined as a percent of the population. Most of that loss has been among Catholic and mainline Protestant churches, who now\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "~PlusPosts"","block_context":{"text":"~PlusPosts","link":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/category\/blogging\/plusposts"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":6017,"url":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/2004\/06\/06\/party_time.html","url_meta":{"origin":19750,"position":5},"title":"Party time","author":"***Dave","date":"Sun 6-Jun-04 11:02pm","format":false,"excerpt":"A rather depressing NYT Op-Ed from David Brooks about how partisanship blinds everyone, regardless of party. Moreover, Green, Palmquist and Schickler continue, people do not choose parties by comparing platforms...","rel":"","context":"In "Politics & Law"","block_context":{"text":"Politics & Law","link":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/category\/politics-law"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]}],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/19750","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=19750"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/19750\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=19750"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=19750"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=19750"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}