politics
I feel dumb posting about my own life…
StandardWhen things are so awful in Japan. There’s not much I have to say on the subject, since I’ve had Mac Freedom on most of the day and have missed much of the news. Still, if you want to do something to help, check this out.
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Is anyone even remotely surprised that James O’Keefe’s gotcha video that caused the firing of an NPR fundraiser and the forced resignation of their CEO was in fact dishonestly edited to be a hit piece? No? Of course not. That’s what this guy does.
Credit where it’s due: it was Glenn Beck’s people who did the investigating. Good work, folks.
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Finally, personal stuff. Guess who just failed her saving throw against The Shiny? My wife. We bought an iPad for her yesterday.
Most of the people reading this won’t know her and won’t know how honestly astounding this is. She has no patience or interest in online digital culture (beyond a few basic things like TED Talks and emails from friends). She doesn’t like the way computers operate–she’s always asking where is this and where is that, how do you…Nothing is ever straightforward enough for her.
Also, she’s severely dyslexic and dysgraphic–reading is a slow process and writing legibly can be very stressful. This means that, except for a couple areas of personal expertise, she has a way of talking around the things she wants done and can be vague at times, relying on the listener to interpret what she wants. Computers don’t do that, of course. You can’t tell it to put the thing away and you can’t mix up one word for another. You have to accommodate it, not the other way around. And her eyesight, never very good (like you’re surprised?), is getting worse.
But she liked the iPad. It’s portable for in the home, the fonts can be set quite large and the screen can be made white text on black. Also, it turns out the ereader features were less interesting to her than the idea that she could take all of her addresses and phone numbers off the random scraps of paper they’re on and save them for herself.
What’s more, some of the apps are tempting as hell. I’m buying Sketchbook Pro for her soon and Animation Creator HD, too. The hard thing will be to keep the boy from loading it up with games he wants to play. He’s already pressing me to buy Fruit Ninjas or whatever that is (and I confess that I spent much of the time in the store playing Angry Birds and Cut The Rope).
Anyway, this will give me a reason to use iTunes now, which I’ve been avoiding like crazy, since the iPad has no file structure. We’ll see how it goes.
Randomness for 3/6
Standard1) A smart way to promote science education. Also.
2) At no point does this stop being awesome: Sheen Family Circus.
3) Frank Herbert writes a children’s book: Goodnight Dune
4) Baby laughs at ripping paper. Video. Watching this is good for your soul.
6) Please do not submit my name here.
7) Those amazing personal stories you hear on radio call-in shows? They might be actors reading a script.
Randomness for 2/19
Standard1) Become a Jedi in 10 easy steps.
2) The Magic of a Good Manuscript Title.
3) The Great Gatsby, as an NES video game.
4) Stonehenge directions via IKEA.
5) Some of you guys like Firefly, right?
6) “Bread Goes In, Toast Comes Out” The Bill O’Reilly meme.
7) This is an important one: Is your favorite Borders closing? Check this list for a nearby indie alternative. via Genreville.
Breitbart soils himself by proxy once again
StandardSeveral folks have righteously mocked the post at serial liar Andrew Breitbart’s website “Big Hollywood”. It was written by one Leo Grin and here’s the link, with a “rel=nofollow” tag added: The Bankrupt Nihilism of Our Fallen Fantasists.
Omnivoracious responds sensibly and links to several other comments, (also: Nick Mamatas) so there isn’t much for me to add. Still, I want to do a little examination of the original post:
Here’s a list of the authors Grin mentions in his post:
J.R.R. Tolkien
Robert E. Howard
Robert Jordan
Joe Abercrombie
Matthew Woodring Stover
Steven Erikson
Michael Swanwick
Robert Bloch
Hmm. I wonder if something is missing from that list. Hmm. Something about the fantasy that’s been written in the last century. Hmmmmm.
Nope! Not seeing anything!
In all seriousness, someone should aim Grin at Holly (“I riff on the idiocy of the global warming theory” “… I dare you to find a white male on Sesame Street now that anyone could point to as a role model for a son.“) Lisle’s work. Of course, he’d probably have to put on a dress before he read it.
Quote of the day
Standard“My fellow citizens. In this difficult time that the country is going through, President Mohamed Hosni Mubarak has decided to relieve himself of his position as president and the Supreme military council has taken control of the state’s affairs. May God protect us.” — Omar Suleiman
The Egyptian people have managed a (mostly) peaceful revolution. The path ahead will be difficult for them, but this is a moment for celebration. Good luck.
That health care post going around LiveJournal
StandardYou can read the original here, but many of the folks reposting it are adding their own thoughts. In fact, I want to add so many thoughts that I’m just going to link to it rather than repost.
Yes, the GOP are being infuriating about health care reform. The Obama plan is, after all, largely drawn from the GOP plan offered as an alternative to ClintonCare and from Mitt Romney’s state plan. The individual mandate, which everyone on the right is so freaked about, was originally suggested by The Heritage Foundation.
Obama expected that offering a conservative health plan would get bi-partisan support, but no. The Republicans are much farther to the right than they were 18 years ago. Also in our system, cooperation and compromise from the minority party won’t get them back into the majority; GOP leaders believe that the only way back to the majority is to oppose and obstruct everything. (Thank you, The Onion) And it’s not like the voters punished them last November.
The post also takes slams at the insurance industry, which is understandable. Their business model is based on only doing business with people who don’t need their services, and finding ways to give the boot to expensively sick people.
Can I also point out this: Americans Do Not Want Repeal?
But there’s an unacknowledged problem in the post which prevents me from reposting it. A huge part of the problem here is that all that health care spending we can’t afford? That’s someone’s paycheck. Not just the doctors and nurses, not just the drug company CEOs, but also the small medical suppliers, the people who build imaging devices, the physical therapists, the lab techs.
All that out-of-control spending that keeps people from going to the doctor? It’s someone’s salary, and that’s what makes it so tough to reign in the spending. Without spending controls, universal coverage won’t work (for the record: yes, the ACA does contain spending controls). Without universal coverage, spending controls won’t work (because if you tell doctors that Medicare will pay them less, they’ll stop seeing those patients).
It won’t be easy or fun, but we need to end the current system, which costs 20,000 lives a year (conservatively estimated), spends much more than we can afford, and suppresses the entrepreneurial instinct of so many people afraid to quit their corporate jobs.
Now I’m going back to my WIP. I’ll be skipping the Super Bowl today, unless my son remembers that he wanted to go out to a sports bar to watch.
Quote of the day
Standard— Paul Mason, writing about the revolutionary movements in the Middle East.
Five things make a post
Standard1) My wife just finished making an animation station for my son, and she’s currently working on a tall, narrow “standing desk” for me to use at home. She rocks.
2) If I owe you an email, please be patient. I’m having issues with it for the moment.
3) There’s fantastic news going on that I can’t really talk about. Not until some things are finalized. ::crosses fingers::
4) There’s some other news I can’t quite talk about yet that is only partially good. Again, I need to clarify some stuff before I’m ready to share, but share I will. Watch this space.
5) As of 2006 in the U.S.A. less than two percent of households earned above $250,000. That’s less than two percent of all households, not individuals. If your home brings in a quarter million dollars a year, you qualify as upper class. You’re wealthy. Embrace this truth.
Quote of the day, Geography edition
Standard“What a pity the people of Africa do not have the guts of the people of Egypt.”
— A caller to BBC World, comparing the demonstrations in Egypt to the rule of Laurent Gbagbo in Cote d’Ivoire.