Speaks For Itself
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So, um… A Public Policy Polling nationwide survey of 1,151 registered voters Jan. 18-19 found that 49 percent of Americans trusted Fox News, 10 percentage points more than any other network. …I believe the appropriate response here is: “WTF??!!?” Seriously? Fox News is not only considered news–shocking enough–by a significant number of Yanks, but it’s [...]
Looking at politics here, and in our neighbour to the south, I am starting to think that there’s maybe something to the depressive realism proposition. I am too rage-fatigued to post about today’s particular stories, but as usual Ferocious J has it covered, saying what I would probably say if I had the energy left to rant.
(2 Comments)OK, the latest round of crazy TSA rules had solidified my resolve to not fly into America again (at least not until there are substantial changes in the way border and airport security are run)–not that this is a big deal, since my basic hatred of airports has had me driving to Boston and such locales rather than flying for well over a decade now. But now I have to see my own country make even more STUPID security theatre rules than the Americans? Argh. No books or magazines on the plane? Seriously? The directive is specific to “US-bound” planes, and as I said, I wasn’t planning to get on any of those, but still this kind of stupidity actually makes my cranium ache.
(1 Comments)Over the last decade I’ve become increasingly cynical about, and frankly afraid of Americans. Not all of them–I know they’re not all the same, and there are lots of them I love–but Americans in the aggregate. I had some hope that things were changing there last year, but when I read statistics like 58% of US voters favour the use of torture in gathering information–specifically in a case where there is no ticking bomb–I am more scared than ever. Factor in that the rate is even higher for younger people and I’m left wondering if there will be anyone left who understands that this isn’t how things should be. Those numbers about how many people think the US legal system is too worried about individual rights make me despair for humanity, and for the American voting public’s ability to read.
(3 Comments)I should mention, as a very long aside, that I almost couldn’t scan those picture for that last post. When I left my old job I had to return all the corporate hardware–which meant all the machines that were even vaguely current in my house. Part of what I’ve been doing over the last few [...]
“Thou hadst a whore’s forehead”. I have to admit I haven’t heard that one before. That’s part of a Bible quote that crazy old Fred Phelps pulled out this week as part of his ever-expanding GOD HATES X empire. This week X has been expanded to include Lady Gaga. I’m sure she’s proud to be [...]
I’ve been very busy the last few days, with a combination of post-moving stuff (hey, look, we’re close to family now, and it’s the holidays), and with some important changes at work (on which I shall write a very journal-y entry shortly). Which explains why I haven’t already written about an utterly unacceptable, and miserably [...]
Cuddles and Mr. Mushroom illustrate the dangers of unthinking conformance to societal norms of civility.
(0 Comments)I will have more to say about this when I’m not about to start a 24-hour flight around more than half the world, but I just want to nail down this quote from Clay Shirky talking about Iran/Twitter/etc: Absolutely. I’ve been saying this for a while — as a medium gets faster, it gets more [...]
Um… this is not a story in the Onion. This is actual news. Everyone please take a moment to breathe and settle yourselves down–we’re beyond farce at this point: Afghanistan’s only pig quarantined in flu fear
(1 Comments)OK, so… April. Yeah, that wasn’t a party. First there were the two weeks in a four week period that I was on the road for work–that’s more being away from home than I like. Then there was the massive and literally stunning workload–I don’t want to go into detail about my job here, but [...]
The Texas Board of Education will vote this week on a new science curriculum designed to challenge the guiding principle of evolution, a step that could influence what is taught in biology classes across the nation. The proposed curriculum change would prompt teachers to raise doubts that all life on Earth is descended from common [...]
You know, if I posted every time Harper’s government took and action, or announced a policy direction, that I disagreed with or found repugnant, this blog would be one long bile-laden rant. So I mostly take the “ignore them and hope they go away” strategy, coupled with the occasional rant when something particularly ludicrous or [...]
You’ve probably seen the story by now: Hersh replied, “After 9/11, I haven’t written about this yet, but the Central Intelligence Agency was very deeply involved in domestic activities against people they thought to be enemies of the state. Without any legal authority for it. They haven’t been called on it yet.” Hersh then went [...]