{"id":21671,"date":"2011-07-20T23:30:41","date_gmt":"2011-07-21T05:30:41","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/2011\/07\/20\/unblogged-bits-wed-20-jul-11-2330.html"},"modified":"2014-06-13T17:05:11","modified_gmt":"2014-06-13T23:05:11","slug":"unblogged-bits-wed-20-jul-11-2330","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/2011\/07\/20\/unblogged-bits-wed-20-jul-11-2330.html","title":{"rendered":"Unblogged Bits (Wed. 20-Jul-11 2330)"},"content":{"rendered":"
Links (most recent first) that caught my eye, but did not warrant full-blown blog entries ….<\/p>\n
    \n
  1. States negotiating immunity for banks over foreclosures – Yahoo! News<\/a> – “If you let us pay a little fine, we promise never to do it again, even though, really, we kind of are still.” Why are states “negotiating” with banks over their malfeasance? (Besides the obvious answers, of course.)<\/li>\n
  2. Vermont Lesbian Couple Sues Reception Venue For Discriminating Due To \u2018Personal Feelings\u2019<\/a> – “Personal feelings” (even if religiously based) can be used to try and justify discrimination based on race, national origin, gender, politics, weight, age, and, yes, religion. The actions of the inn in question were clearly illegal under Vermont law — a law that already allows a number of exemptions, none of which the inn qualifies for. The idea that the law is somehow discrimination against religion, as dolts like Bryan Fischer claim, is true only to the degree that it means that my personal religious views don’t grant me exemptions from whatever laws I don’t care for.<\/li>\n
  3. \n
    \u202aStephen Colbert – It Gets Better\u202c\u200f – YouTube<\/div>\n

    – Go, Stephen, go!<\/li>\n

  4. Al Sharpton Will Be Your Next MSNBC Host<\/a> – Oh, Lord. The chances I’ll turn on MSNBC just dropped from low to near-non-existent.<\/li>\n
  5. Behave on Google Plus or Your Gmail Gets It<\/a> – Something worth considering if you think your behavior might violate Google’s ToS.<\/li>\n
  6. 10 Fantasy Book Series That Could Replace Harry Potter at the Movies<\/a> – While I’d love any of these (in theory), I don’t think any of them could do the Potter bit again, especially if you consider the role that kids had in making HP a success. Now, if you want the next “Lord of the Rings,” there are some definite contenders here, though some of the others are a bit on the weird side to appeal to the mass audience.<\/li>\n
  7. Ghana News :: Minister orders arrest of all homosexuals ::: Breaking News | News in Ghana | news<\/a> – Why do I suspect there are smiling American evangelists toasting each other over this news?<\/li>\n
  8. New York Bishop Orders Gay Clergy to Marry – Christian News<\/a> – Makes perfect sense, if you realize it’s an Episcopal bishop. The Episcopal Church, by and large, has given gay, partnered clergy something of a pass in formalizing a “committed, monogamous, faithful relationship” because the opportunity to marry their partner wasn’t available. As that changes, it’s reasonable for the Church to hold gays to the same rules as they hold straights.<\/li>\n
  9. Pawlenty suggests Bachmann\u2019s migraines could disqualify her from presidency | ThinkProgress<\/a> – Of all the things to criticize Bachmann for, that Pawlenty focused on this says more about him than about Bachmann.<\/li>\n
  10. The TSA Blog: TSA Takes Further Steps to Enhance Passenger Privacy on Millimeter Wave Machines Nationwide<\/a> – Well, better late than never, esp. since this technology has been available for some time. Of course, this doesn’t address concerns over the safety of these boxes, nor their accuracy, nor the “enhanced” pat-downs.<\/li>\n
  11. Rewriting the history of the supermarriage by rewriting the history of the supermarriage<\/a> – “But as much as I dislike the marriage being dumped, I really don\u2019t like when DC rewrites the history of the comic book marriage as a ‘stunt.'”<\/li>\n
  12. Florida GOP Rejects Money To Fight Child Abuse And Neglect<\/a> – Well, we all know that compassion is a dirty word in some circles.<\/li>\n
  13. Reproductive freedom: Opting out on religious grounds | The Economist<\/a> – “Being part of America means having some level of tolerance for people’s different preferences without constantly demanding to secede. Once you start down the road of demanding monetary exceptions for your private moral convictions, there’s nowhere to stop.”<\/li>\n
  14. Marine to receive Medal of Honor for Afghan valor – The Denver Post<\/a> – Waiting for Bryan Fischer to lament once again about the feminization of the Medal of Honor.<\/li>\n
  15. Love, disdain, indifference await grand opening of Centennial IKEA – The Denver Post<\/a> – So I’m looking forward to it … in about 2-3 weeks, after things die down a bit.<\/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 …. States negotiating immunity for banks over foreclosures – Yahoo! News – “If you let us pay a little fine, we promise never to do it again, even though, really, we kind of are still.” Why are states “negotiating” with … Continue reading “Unblogged Bits (Wed. 20-Jul-11 2330)”<\/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":[35,3,109,11,99,64,12,527,134,17,25,382,349,374,41,16,110,26,348],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-21671","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-big-business","category-blogging","category-church-state","category-media-comics","category-elections-2012","category-religion-episcopal-church","category-fourth-estate","category-harry-potter","category-health-care","category-homeland-security","category-gay-stuff","category-lord-of-the-rings","category-military","category-money-politics","category-media-movies","category-potpourri","category-religious-zanies","category-travel","category-women"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":1681,"url":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/2001\/11\/26\/giving_away_a_p.html","url_meta":{"origin":21671,"position":0},"title":"Giving Away a Piece of the Rock","author":"***Dave","date":"Mon 26-Nov-01 1:11pm","format":false,"excerpt":"The UK and Spain are negotiating over the future of Gibralter, which the Britain won from Spain in the early 18th Century, and Spain has wanted back ever since. Trouble...","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":132486,"url":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/2017\/01\/02\/the-catholic-church-in-china.html","url_meta":{"origin":21671,"position":1},"title":"The Catholic Church in China","author":"***Dave","date":"Mon 2-Jan-17 11:28pm","format":false,"excerpt":"The Vatican will be willing to accommodate and be flexible with a temporal government, but I cannot imagine their \"breaking\" the episcopacy as China wants. It's as fundamental to the Catholic Church as a \"One China\" policy is for the PRC. From a Roman Catholic standpoint, the \"holy catholic church\"\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":12688,"url":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/2008\/02\/25\/nixon_nukes_and_brinkmans.html","url_meta":{"origin":21671,"position":2},"title":"Nixon, Nukes, and Brinkmanship","author":"***Dave","date":"Mon 25-Feb-08 7:36pm","format":false,"excerpt":"Operation: Giant Lance (hmmmmm, compensating much?) and how Nixon and Kissinger tried to make the President look crazy enough to\u00a0start a nuclear war if North Vietnam didn't start negotiating in...","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":32706,"url":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/2013\/03\/03\/obamas-gotta-get-serious-about-negotiating.html","url_meta":{"origin":21671,"position":3},"title":""Obama's gotta get serious about negotiating"","author":"***Dave","date":"Sun 3-Mar-13 11:08pm","format":false,"excerpt":"Except, of course, Obama has been, at the very least, serious about negotiating. Or, if not that, then in conceding. He has, just as he did his first four years, offer concession after compromise after cave after offer. \u00a0The result?'This had led to a lot of Republicans fanning out to\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":38440,"url":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/2013\/08\/10\/if-banks-are-too-big-to-fail.html","url_meta":{"origin":21671,"position":4},"title":"If banks are too big to fail","author":"***Dave","date":"Sat 10-Aug-13 10:37am","format":false,"excerpt":"The problem is that banks as presently constituted serve two distinct, and conflicting purposes:1. They serve as safe storage and utilization for liquid assets -- checking and savings deposits (personal and business), which are traditionally leveraged for relatively low-risk loan activity for homes, cars, business expansion, etc. \u00a0That's called retail\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":41912,"url":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/2014\/05\/02\/amazing-how-absolute-secrecy-spawns-ignorance-and-conspiracy-theories.html","url_meta":{"origin":21671,"position":5},"title":"Amazing how absolute secrecy spawns ignorance and conspiracy theories","author":"***Dave","date":"Fri 2-May-14 1:28pm","format":false,"excerpt":"Who'd've thunk?Reshared post from +Alex ScrivenerUm. You know why those complaining may \"lack knowledge of what is going on in the negotiations\"? Perhaps it's because the USTR -- a part of the Obama White House -- has insisted that the entire negotiations take place in complete secrecy with no transparency\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":[]}],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/21671","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=21671"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/21671\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":40700,"href":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/21671\/revisions\/40700"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=21671"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=21671"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=21671"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}