1) Glenn Beck “doesn’t think the race thing works anymore.”
2) The Facebook Song. I know, you’ve probably already seen it, but I’m kinda new to Facebook, so I’m just catching up.
3) Animals with lightsabers. via matt_ruff
politics
8 Questions
StandardEight Questions about health-care reform answered. For those who might not be following the political process closely.
Randomness for 9/5/09
Standard1) People, I ask you: if we’re going to promote AIDS prevention, should we really be turning to Adolf Hitler pron?
2) How content aggregation explains that the upside of contracting AIDS is “The Spanish Civil War.” seen via tnh’s Particles.
3) New Japanese prime minister’s wife once flew on a space ship to Venus. I’m just going to assume the sex is fantastic.
Randomness for 9/4/09
Standard1) Man builds houses for low-income citizens using mostly recycled material. My wife would love this.
2) Arkansas fire chief shot in court room after criticizing local police. Apparently, while criticizing cops who do nothing but write speeding tickets, there was a “scuffle.” The fire chief was unarmed.
It’s interesting that the town where this took place has 147 residents and seven officers. According to the article, they spend their time manning speed traps, but the county sheriff dept. is investigating where all that money went, since the police cars are about to be repossessed.
As yet, no one has been charged in the shooting.
3) The GOP released a press release listing doctors who oppose the current health care reform bills. Unfortunately, the doctors on the list didn’t know a thing about it.
4) Fire ants build a life raft from their own bodies. I understand that it’s almost certainly staged to some degree, but it’s still fascinating.
5) The Coen Brothers make a short film about a man entering an art house theater. It’s simple and wonderful. “A Human Comedy of Sorts.”
A meme I’m happy to pass on to you:
Standard“No one should die because they cannot afford health care, and no one should go broke because they get sick.”
Randomness
StandardI’m going to compile a bunch of random things into this post and publish them all at once.
1) via geniusofevil: Heat Wave: Richard Castle is a real writer!
2) I’ve been going back and forth on some common euphamisms. Yesterday, in a comment, I used the term “godsend.” Is that a word an atheist should use? I think not, obviously, since it bothers me. In the few stolen moments I had to type out the comment, I couldn’t come up with an alternative that said the same thing.
Except there’s “ghu” or “ghod” but I think of that as an SF fandom thing, and I’m not part of that community, either. Sometimes I write “Thank Pikachu” or whatever as a joke, even though at this point I’m the only member of my household who thinks Pikachu is cool.
I don’t really have a point. This is just something I’m thinking about.
3) Nicholas Kristof on the myth that government can’t do health care. And yeah, I spent way too much time yesterday arguing health care on John Scalzi’s blog.
3a) Arguing about health care on the web makes me hate the universe!
4) PW’s newly focused blog, Genreville (verdict: interesting so far) offers Lev Grossman the opportunity to knock over some straw men. He accepts.
6) Man builds house out of Legos.
7) Work on Man Bites World continues slowly, but this is a really difficult section. Very different from what I’ve been doing before, and I’m going to have to revise it significantly once I straighten out in my mind how the protagonist would react to extremely strange events.
Offered without comment
StandardSchool recalls band T-shirts, stating they promoted evolution.
…
Senior Drum Major Mike Howard said he was disappointed when he had to return the shirt.
“I liked the shirt because it was unique,” Howard said. “The theory of evolution never even crossed my mind.”
The GOP’s Misplaced Rage
StandardBruce Bartlett, one of the people who developed the theory of supply-side economics and a long-time conservative economist, on why the current economic difficulties–deficit included–should be laid at the feet of President Bush, not President Obama.
He also touches on a topic that isn’t often mentioned: how much better the economy does under Democratic administrations than Republican ones, for rich and poor.
via: tnh’s Particles.
I’m probably preaching to the choir here, but…
StandardGovernment out of Medicare!
StandardAlso, many Americans believe false allegations about the health care reform bill.
“Repeat a lie a thousand times and it becomes the truth.”