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February 27, 2007
How an American Dies
For Want of a Dentist - washingtonpost.com
This is a national disgrace. We were unwilling to spend US$80 when it would help save his life. We were willing to spend US$250,000 to help him die. Everyone who, in the last 5 years, has opposed changes in our health care system bears some responsibility for this boy's death. With proper medical treatment, proper dental care, proper education-- all things we can easily afford in this richest of all nations-- who knows what kind of man that boy might have grown into. Doctor, Lawyer, garbageman; all of whom pay more taxes than the dead. But we'll never know. His life was too short to do experience the advantages that money can buy; his society was too callous to care...
Posted by Andrew at 11:57 PM | Comments (0) | TrackBack
February 25, 2007
Weird, weird, weird
How do you discover something like this about your cat? What odd circumstances lead you to try this once? The cat is obviously enjoying himself; I can't help but wonder if he was abused as a kitten. Or there's lot of catnip involved...
Posted by Andrew at 05:27 PM | Comments (0)
February 21, 2007
Wii Wii Wii all the way home...
Nintendo back on top as Wii named best-selling console - Business
See, I've got this idea that what makes games fun is interface. Nintendo revolutionized their interface, and are reaping the rewards for that. I almost feel bad for Sony and Microsoft...
Posted by Andrew at 10:29 AM | Comments (0) | TrackBack
February 16, 2007
Good thing the passengers didn't have any liquid with them...
Mauritanian hijacker gets in hot water - Yahoo! News
Once the penalty for being on a hijacked plane became death, the age of Terror was over. Terrorists may still blow up planes, but they will not hijack them first. It has been 6 long years and our Government-- the governments of the whole world-- haven't learned that...
Posted by Andrew at 12:30 PM | Comments (0) | TrackBack
Roll of Honor
Every year, Slate Magazine puts together a list of the 60 most charitable people of the previous year. Humanity is better off for having these people. Slate is to be thanked for letting us know who they are...
Here is the introduction to the list. I highly recommend taking at least a cursory look at the list...
Posted by Andrew at 10:38 AM | Comments (0)
February 15, 2007
bubblicious
So, apparently a group of students in Montgomery County (Georgia? Who knows) were taught about the dangers of STDS by passing a piece of chewing gum around. After it had been, you know, chewed...
The thing is, a piece of gum loses its flavor after it's been chewed by 1 person. Pretty much any contact with a human mouth is going to make gum less flavorful and interesting to even the same person 20 minutes later...
This, then, is what children are being taught about sex: After you've broken the freshness seal, it's no longer any fun. Think about the damage that does to these children's future sexual activity. They are being taught that after losing their virginity, they themselves become sexually worthless in less time than it takes to watch a sitcom. Unless they are not supposed to see themselves as the gum, but rather their partners. And if they're being taught to objectify their partners, that's an even graver sin...
Posted by Andrew at 11:29 AM | Comments (0) | TrackBack
Help Desk Blues
Posted by Andrew at 09:25 AM | Comments (0)
February 10, 2007
President nearly kills press corps...
Just in case you hadn't heard: George W. Bush doesn't like the press. I think his "frat boy" image has gone too far...
Posted by Andrew at 10:48 AM | Comments (0) | TrackBack
February 09, 2007
Forced Disappearances are bad...
Even without reference to the holocaust, we know that the NAZIs were bad because they "disappeared" people...
Even without reference to the Ukraine famine, we know the Soviets were bad because they "disappeared" people...
The hallmark of a modern society gone wrong, the thing that tells us absolutely that a nation is in serious trouble, is when that nation starts taking its citizens into custody and not admitting to it...
Signing a treaty that we won't do that ought to be a no brainer-- the sort of pro forma exercise we do to once again affirm our commitment to basic human rights...
When we refuse to sign such a treaty, it's a chilling sign...
Posted by Andrew at 07:45 PM | Comments (0)
February 07, 2007
L’Affair D’ Marcotte:
Every now and then, I’d tell Amanda that she ought to run for office. Every time I suggested as much, she’d tell me that she can’t: she’d get crucified. I always thought she was kind of a coward, overstating the obstacles to excuse herself from doing an unpleasant duty. Boy, was I wrong...
Amanda Marcotte is exactly the sort of smart, passionate person this country needs. She and I disagree on many issues. Religion, yes. Space travel, yes. Her views on abortion are (somewhat) to the left of mine. But arguing with her, conversing with her, reading her... She’s a smart woman; John Edwards did well for himself when he picked a blogmaster...
The Far Right has been throwing shit up against the wall ever since the news broke. First, there was the simple shock of it all. Bloviating about nothing at all. Next came the Case of the Missing Posts (server malfunction), then Michelle Malkin started reading random passages of Pandagon—ones where Amanda accused the Bush Administration of letting New Orleans die. Now the claim is being made that she’s anti-Catholic...
None of this has anything to do with how she has handled her responsibilities with the Edwards Campaign. You may agree with her opinions. You may not. Agreement or disagreement has nothing to do with her ability to do her job. That job is to say the sorts of things about John Edwards that John Edwards thinks will get John Edwards elected President...
Is she capable of doing that? There is probably no one better capable of doing it. Should she be fired from her current job for things she has said before taking that job? Not if John Edwards believes in Free Speech. Free, in this case, meaning—yes—consequence free...
So there it is. If John Edwards fires Amanda Marcotte, he won’t be getting my vote. I cannot possible vote for anyone who holds such a low opinion of free expression...
Posted by Andrew at 04:09 PM | Comments (0)
February 06, 2007
Apple Screws up
Apple warns iPod users against Vista | Breaking News | News | Telegraph
But Apple is still warning PC users not to use Vista until it can release a completely new version of the iTunes software.
Apple’s website states: “Apple recommends that customers wait to upgrade Windows until after the next release of iTunes which will be available in the next few weeks.”
So, Apple had how many months to make a version of iTunes that was compatible with Vista? It doesn't seem to have done so. Just about every other software maker was able to, but not Apple. By shear coincidence, Apple also benefits from a slow Vista launch. Hmm...
Posted by Andrew at 04:16 PM | Comments (0) | TrackBack
The perfect video game?
Certainly the best idea for an exercise game I've heard
Instead of using the pedal for locomotion we use the pedals for replenishing health.At the start of the game, enemies do very slight damage. The player can fill it back up by pedaling very slowly for a nice, gentle experience.
But read the whole thing...
Posted by Andrew at 10:17 AM | Comments (0)
February 05, 2007
Chris Matthews is an ass...
Why does Chris Matthews think that he's being brave by calling for the Edwards' marriage to be less equal?
Posted by Andrew at 03:12 PM | Comments (0) | TrackBack
This spot made me a Coke fan for life
Why? Because they spent millions of dollars during the superbowl to remind America that it's black history month...
That's Awesome...
(anyone have any idea why "especially today"?)
Posted by Andrew at 01:06 PM | Comments (0)
February 02, 2007
Meet the new boss, same as the old boss...
George Orwell once wrote an essay about being an occupation officer in Burma.
I perceived in this moment that when the white man turns tyrant it is his own freedom that he destroys. He becomes a sort of hollow, posing dummy, the conventionalized figure of a sahib. For it is the condition of his rule that he shall spend his life in trying to impress the "natives," and so in every crisis he has got to do what the "natives" expect of him. He wears a mask, and his face grows to fit it.
Saddam Husein famously had rape rooms, rooms into which men would be forced to watch their loved ones raped. We have kept Abu Ghraib open. We ought not be shocked to read that rape is commonplace among the soldiers stationed there...
I pray that this is a hoax. But people are people. If the bad guys are capable of being inhuman, so are we. Their inhumanity was a monstrous evil. Our is causing us to lose this war. For the sake of the Terror War, we need to leave Iraq...
Posted by Andrew at 09:54 AM | Comments (0)
More Molly
Posted by Andrew at 09:47 AM | Comments (0)