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News Flash
Apr. 21st, 2010 10:22 amNews Flash: Tony Abbot single-handedly loses next election.
The stupid, it burns.
Jan. 7th, 2010 06:38 pmCar went on half-hour white-knuckle ride from Greensborough to Frankston after Cruise Control locks speed at 100kph.
Police investigation overwhelms world with the knowledge that they spent all this time looking for a mechanical cause to an electronic problem. And in the process disconnected the battery and nuked any useful state which might have helped.
FFS, how many decades has it been since Cruise Controls were mechanical? If ever? It's like going to a heart surgeon after a heart attack, being given a thorough once-over, and told there is nothing wrong, because your liver is in perfect working order.
It... I... gah! It burns!
Police investigation overwhelms world with the knowledge that they spent all this time looking for a mechanical cause to an electronic problem. And in the process disconnected the battery and nuked any useful state which might have helped.
FFS, how many decades has it been since Cruise Controls were mechanical? If ever? It's like going to a heart surgeon after a heart attack, being given a thorough once-over, and told there is nothing wrong, because your liver is in perfect working order.
It... I... gah! It burns!
When Bush II won his second term, there was a certain consternation amongst the Left. There were blog posts, ranging from the weary to the hysterical. There were citizen-based initiatives, monitoring, recording, seeking out. There were strikes, and meetings over coffee or beer, and even the more violent people at protests. (Although the repression against peaceful protest the threat of people being allowed to express their thoughts and feelings were usually completely OTT, and probably provoked more violence than they prevented.)
But what we did not see from the Left was anyone gathering the information and materials to build a dirty bomb.
But what we did not see from the Left was anyone gathering the information and materials to build a dirty bomb.
"Amber (Cummings) indicated James was very upset with Barack Obama being elected President," reported the Washington Regional Threat and Analysis Center (PDF link). "She indicated James had been in contact with 'white supremacist group(s).' Amber also indicated James mixed chemicals in the kitchen sink at their residence and had mentioned 'dirty bombs.'"
"Also found was literature on how to build 'dirty bombs' and information about cesium-137, strontium-90 and cobalt-60, radioactive materials," said the Bangor Daily. "The FBI report also stated there was evidence linking James Cummings to white supremacist groups.
...
In the report, an unnamed source noted, "state authorities detected radiation emissions in four small jars in the residence labeled 'uranium metal', as well as one jar labeled 'thorium.' The four jars of uranium carried the label of an identified US company."
"Further preliminary analysis on 30 December 2008 indicated an unlabeled jar to be a second jar of thorium. Each bottle of uranium contained depleted uranium 238. Analysis also indicated the two jars of thorium held thorium 232."
It gets worse. As if it wasn't bad enough.
Mar. 7th, 2009 04:03 pmThe President of Brazil is not a complete failure as a human being. As opposed to the aforementioned Archbishop.
The man who raped and impregnated his nine year old stepdaughter has explicitly not been excommunicated, and his abominable act is explicitly not held to be as bad as the acts of those who saved her life.
It's not really possible to comment without dropping into a string of obscenities. And that gets boring after the first three or four pages. If you want to supply your own, go nuts.
Platitude of the Day has some choice words as well.
The man who raped and impregnated his nine year old stepdaughter has explicitly not been excommunicated, and his abominable act is explicitly not held to be as bad as the acts of those who saved her life.
It's not really possible to comment without dropping into a string of obscenities. And that gets boring after the first three or four pages. If you want to supply your own, go nuts.
Platitude of the Day has some choice words as well.
Outrage seems insufficient.
Mar. 6th, 2009 06:02 pmBrazilian Archbishop declares that anyone involved in giving a particular abortion would be excommunicated.
The abortion in question is of the twins being carried by a nine year old girl who had been raped by her stepfather since she was six, and which pregnancy was practically guaranteed to kill her.
Christian love and charity, suck it up.
Note also that there is no mention of the stepfather being excommunicated, making the priorities involved quite clear.
It has also been pointed out that there is a ‘loophole’ in Dogma, to the effect that an abortion may only be carried out if not doing so would soon result in the death of the mother. I dunno, you think a nine year old girl with twins might qualify? Because the report says that the Holy and Compassionate Mother Church didn't think so, attempting to block the abortion anyway.
It has yet further been said that the excommunications were of the sort that merely participating in the procedure was sufficient, and that a properly delegated priest or higher could reverse it. In which case: if it was determined that the procedure wasn't excommunication-worthy ex post facto, then surely the un-excommunication must be retroactive? But regardless, the Archbishop is talking about it in the future tense. To him, this is not something which is a legalistic formalism, this is something which is yet to be done, and it will be done, and he is going to make sure that it is done. But not for the man who raped a nine year old girl and got her pregnant. This is not, obviously, nearly as bad a crime against God and Man as is saving a little girl's life.
You want me to believe that the Holy Catholic Church of Rome is worth pissing on? Show me the evidence that this Archbishop has been even told off for being such an egregious putz.
The abortion in question is of the twins being carried by a nine year old girl who had been raped by her stepfather since she was six, and which pregnancy was practically guaranteed to kill her.
Christian love and charity, suck it up.
Note also that there is no mention of the stepfather being excommunicated, making the priorities involved quite clear.
It has also been pointed out that there is a ‘loophole’ in Dogma, to the effect that an abortion may only be carried out if not doing so would soon result in the death of the mother. I dunno, you think a nine year old girl with twins might qualify? Because the report says that the Holy and Compassionate Mother Church didn't think so, attempting to block the abortion anyway.
It has yet further been said that the excommunications were of the sort that merely participating in the procedure was sufficient, and that a properly delegated priest or higher could reverse it. In which case: if it was determined that the procedure wasn't excommunication-worthy ex post facto, then surely the un-excommunication must be retroactive? But regardless, the Archbishop is talking about it in the future tense. To him, this is not something which is a legalistic formalism, this is something which is yet to be done, and it will be done, and he is going to make sure that it is done. But not for the man who raped a nine year old girl and got her pregnant. This is not, obviously, nearly as bad a crime against God and Man as is saving a little girl's life.
You want me to believe that the Holy Catholic Church of Rome is worth pissing on? Show me the evidence that this Archbishop has been even told off for being such an egregious putz.
The only solution...
Nov. 26th, 2008 12:05 pmThe only solution to the Economic Crisis is to give literally unimaginable amounts of money to precisely those people and organisations who have proved that they will piss it up against a wall.
Bailout costs more than Marshall Plan, Louisiana Purchase, moonshot, S&L bailout, Korean War, New Deal, Iraq war, Vietnam war, and NASA's lifetime budget -- combined!
We must keep going with the Money Hole... It's the only possible solution our highly trained economists have come up with.
But there's nothing fundamentally wrong with neo-liberal economics, as has been running the place for forty years or so...
As far as I can tell,
liberal economic theory is that governments should regulate the market as little as is needed (which amounts to “everyone is responsible for their own screw-ups, but crooks are crooks and need stomping in a timeframe which the market can't always keep to”), and
socialist economics (as opposed to Marxist or any other strawman) is that government regulation and programs are a vital part of the market, in order to prevent the impersonal nature of the market from crushing people beneath it for no fault of their own, then
neo-liberal economic theory seems to be that the government should not interfere in the market at all, ever. Except to keep unions in their place, and wages low, and tariffs favourable, and subsidise industries and near monopoly corporations for the very inefficiencies and bureaucratic stupidity which the neo-liberals keep accusing governments of, and generally bail out rich people when they fuck up, but otherwise keep poor muck firmly at the bottom, with the chimerical hope that they too can make billions of dollars by emulating the sociopaths* at the golf club sufficiently well.
[*] I remember an article, not long ago, about how Bear Stearns employees were making fun of Bank of America employees for not wearing as expensive suits as they do, even though it was BoA who saved BS' arse from abject bankruptcy, demonstrating that arrogance will not be slowed by demonstrations of incompetence. Damned if I can find it now.
Bailout costs more than Marshall Plan, Louisiana Purchase, moonshot, S&L bailout, Korean War, New Deal, Iraq war, Vietnam war, and NASA's lifetime budget -- combined!
We must keep going with the Money Hole... It's the only possible solution our highly trained economists have come up with.
But there's nothing fundamentally wrong with neo-liberal economics, as has been running the place for forty years or so...
As far as I can tell,
liberal economic theory is that governments should regulate the market as little as is needed (which amounts to “everyone is responsible for their own screw-ups, but crooks are crooks and need stomping in a timeframe which the market can't always keep to”), and
socialist economics (as opposed to Marxist or any other strawman) is that government regulation and programs are a vital part of the market, in order to prevent the impersonal nature of the market from crushing people beneath it for no fault of their own, then
neo-liberal economic theory seems to be that the government should not interfere in the market at all, ever. Except to keep unions in their place, and wages low, and tariffs favourable, and subsidise industries and near monopoly corporations for the very inefficiencies and bureaucratic stupidity which the neo-liberals keep accusing governments of, and generally bail out rich people when they fuck up, but otherwise keep poor muck firmly at the bottom, with the chimerical hope that they too can make billions of dollars by emulating the sociopaths* at the golf club sufficiently well.
[*] I remember an article, not long ago, about how Bear Stearns employees were making fun of Bank of America employees for not wearing as expensive suits as they do, even though it was BoA who saved BS' arse from abject bankruptcy, demonstrating that arrogance will not be slowed by demonstrations of incompetence. Damned if I can find it now.
Is Randroid Libertarianism in the DSM-V?
Nov. 20th, 2008 10:28 pmThe next time a US Republican/conservative/randroid libertarian tells you that Teh Left are all hysterical, superstitious lunatics who hate their fellow humans and only show a façade of concern to look virtuous while they fear those with whom they disagree and substitute group panic for thought... Point them at things like this.
Jim Jones was a Leftist, and all Leftists -- all of them -- are enablers of people like Jones, and Jones was but a harbinger of the Eeeevil Muslim apocalypse and Obama Totalitarian Fascist Police State Which Is Coming Oh My Fucking God these people really believe that the world is going to end because a comparatively progressive black man with an Islamic middle name was elected president.
I really don't trust what else I might say. So I won't.
Jim Jones was a Leftist, and all Leftists -- all of them -- are enablers of people like Jones, and Jones was but a harbinger of the Eeeevil Muslim apocalypse and Obama Totalitarian Fascist Police State Which Is Coming Oh My Fucking God these people really believe that the world is going to end because a comparatively progressive black man with an Islamic middle name was elected president.
I really don't trust what else I might say. So I won't.
And Obama's mother was Leon Trotsky!
Oct. 31st, 2008 06:54 pmYou can only sit back and applaud the sheer volume of detail which has been put into this obvious parody of the most insane frothings of the paranoid wingnut right conspiracy theorists: Barak HUSSEIN Obama is actually the lovechild of Malcolm X.
It's a beautiful, absurdist parody which draws you in to this dysfunctional, semi-literate world of fear, hate, and st00pid, until you almost believe that the author is serious.
What do you mean “They really are serious”?
(h/t Greg Saunders at This Modern World.)
It's a beautiful, absurdist parody which draws you in to this dysfunctional, semi-literate world of fear, hate, and st00pid, until you almost believe that the author is serious.
What do you mean “They really are serious”?
(h/t Greg Saunders at This Modern World.)
The University's Grand United Computer System — on which is done trivial paperwork like receipting, leave requests, training applications, publications recording, that sort of inconsequential nonsense — is shortly to receive an upgrade. From very soon, those who need to do super-sekrit special financial stuff will no longer need to have JInitiator installed on their machines, but will require Sun's JRE.
And there was much rejoicing, not least because this is already in many departments' SOEs, and we thought that this would be a cakewalk: for most people the job was done before they started.
Then the instructions arrive:
*headdesk*headdesk*headdesk*
Luckily, everyone I personally work with also saw the minor flaw in this plan immediately.
But still, WTF were the twerps in Central IT development thinking??!??!!?
On second thoughts, don't answer that.
And there was much rejoicing, not least because this is already in many departments' SOEs, and we thought that this would be a cakewalk: for most people the job was done before they started.
Then the instructions arrive:
- uninstall any existing installation of the JRE.
- install this particular, obsolete, version of the JRE (and we're talking more than a major revision old, here)
- turn off the JRE autoupdate function
*headdesk*headdesk*headdesk*
Luckily, everyone I personally work with also saw the minor flaw in this plan immediately.
But still, WTF were the twerps in Central IT development thinking??!??!!?
On second thoughts, don't answer that.
