(via Distinguished Baloney)
Changing media
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How to survive a robot uprising
This could come in handy once the Singularity hits.
(via IEEE Spectrum)
The more things change…
…the more they remain the same. Obama spoke out in favor of allowing same-sex marriage. At the same time, a woman in Lincoln, Nebraska, offered this rather incoherent ramble in opposition to a proposed LGBT anti-discrimination ordinance there:
(via Towelroad)
Icons don’t change when technology does
Scott Hanselman has a great overview of the increasing ambiguity of many icons we take for granted. For example, many applications use an icon of a floppy disk for the “Save” function. Since floppies expired some time ago, how long will it be that a floppy disk icon makes sense to someone learning software? He calls these icons “Old People Icons.” It is a fun read.
Mitt Romney at Cranbrook
Cranbrook School, in Bloomfield Hills, Michigan, is, and long has been, a popular private college prep boarding school for the wealthy. So it is no surprise that Mitt Romney, son of auto-magnate and Michigan Governor George Romney, attended Cranbrook.
What may be surprising is that, while Mitt Romney attended the school, he and other students bullied a classmate for appearing different.
So I guess we shouldn’t be surprised that to this day Romney does not support full equality for gay people. In fact, the incident was so insignificant to Romney that he says he does not remember it. His “apology” is that standard political non-apology: if I hurt anyone, I apologize.
And when Romney was governor of Massachusetts, he actively fought against anti-bullying efforts:
Mitt Romney clashed with a state commission tasked with helping LGBT youth at risk for bullying and suicide throughout his term as Massachusetts governor over funding and its participation in a pride parade. He eventually abolished the group altogether.
“We remember well what Romney tried to do as governor of Massachusetts and we now we have more info on some of his own attitudes that may have led to his policy actions,” Eliza Byard, executive director of LGBT anti-bullying organization GLSEN, told TPM, drawing a connection with reports that Romney cornered a youth in high school and cut his hair. “If he’s willing to dismiss that incident as ‘hijinks,’ I could understand that he wouldn’t understand at all why this program was so critical.”
Related articles
- Mitt Romney was a homophobic bully in high school, say former classmates (boingboing.net)
- Inside Mitt Romney’s Prep School (abcnews.go.com)
- Cranbrook School And The Lord Of The Flies (blogs.the-american-interest.com)
Obama hits Romney on same-sex marriage
Great ad from the Obama campaign:
By the way, when Romney mentions 3,000 years of history, apparently he forgets his great-grandfather’s polygamist marriage 100 years ago. That was not a marriage between one man and one woman.
Political quote of the day
At a certain point, I’ve just concluded that for me personally it is important for me to go ahead and affirm that I think same-sex couples should be able to get married.
Meanwhile, Mitt Romney has pledged to support an amendment to the United States Constitution defining marriage as the union of one man and one woman. And yesterday, Romney said that he even opposes civil unions:
My view is the same as it’s been from the beginning. I don’t favor civil unions if it’s identical to marriage, and I don’t favor marriage between people of the same gender. If a civil union is identical to marriage other than with the name, why, I don’t support that.
TSA quote of the day
So finally an actual plot has been foiled, a real-live bomb has been kept off a plane, and what role was played by the TSA? None.
In fact, the Christian Science Monitor reports that, “It was not clear whether new body scanners used in many airports would have detected” the Underwear Bomb 2.0. And speculation has been revived that al-Qaeda is working on bombs implanted in the wannabe martyrs’ bodies.
In other words, the next (as Janet Napolitano calls it) “little ping” on your privates will be completely pointless. The terrorists have already beaten the system.
But that’s been the problem from the beginning: You can’t beat the terrorists by playing defense. Forget the fact that the TSA didn’t stop this bombing. Can you name a bomb plot they have foiled?
* * *
So why do we treat every passenger like an al-Qaeda suspect? Why do we as citizens put up with it?
I love how the reaction to this new, undetectable bomb from TSA supporters has been “This proves we should be abusing passengers even more!” The answer for their uselessness and stupidity is more useless stupidity.
– Michael Graham, countering the TSA calls for even more offensive, ineffective airport security in the face of the fact that TSA had no part whatsoever in the undercover work that turned up the plot.
Related articles
- U.S. BOMB EXPERTS are trying to figure out if Al Qaeda’s upgraded and recently seized underwear bo… (pjmedia.com)
- Screening machines to detect nonmetallic bombs not tested (washingtontimes.com)
- TSA saves America from 16yo diabetic, breaks $10K insulin pump which totally could have been a bomb (boingboing.net)
The new American Dream
The new American Dream is to get to be very rich and still be regarded as a victim.
– Charles Simic, The Monster Loves His Labyrinth: Notebooks (via James Wolcott)
Dinosaurs are SCARY
Political quote of the day (updated)
Romney said that he was responsible for the auto bailout? I’d have to look at the context of his remarks. I know that if the auto companies had gone into bankruptcy like thousands of small businesses had to do across America, they could’ve emerged without the sweetheart deal for the unions like was orchestrated by the Obama administration.
– John McCain, who admits he cannot explain Mitt Romney’s claim that he deserves credit for saving the US auto industry.
Update: This is what President Obama said on Thursday regarding Romney’s attempt to claim credit:
I think this is one of his Etch A Sketch moments. I don’t think anybody takes that seriously.
Bigot of the day
So your little son starts to act a little girlish when he is four years old and instead of squashing that like a cockroach and saying, “Man up, son, get that dress off you and get outside and dig a ditch, because that is what boys do,” you get out the camera and you start taking pictures of Johnny acting like a female and then you upload it to YouTube and everybody laughs about it and the next thing you know, this dude, this kid is acting out childhood fantasies that should have been squashed.
Can I make it any clearer? Dads, the second you see your son dropping the limp wrist, you walk over there and crack that wrist. Man up. Give him a good punch. Ok? You are not going to act like that. You were made by God to be a male and you are going to be a male. And when your daughter starts acting to Butch you reign her in. And you say, “Oh, no, sweetheart. You can play sports. Play them to the glory of God. But sometimes you are going to act like a girl and walk like a girl and talk like a girl and smell like a girl and that means you are going to be beautiful. You are going to be attractive. You are going to dress yourself up.”
You say, “Can I take charge like that as a parent?”
Yeah, you can. You are authorized. I just gave you a special dispensation this morning to do that.
– South Carolina pastor Sean Harris. You can listen to the audio here.
Related articles
- “So your little son starts to act a little girlish when he is four years old and instead of squashing that like a cockroach…” (althouse.blogspot.com)
- Remember, Kids… (slog.thestranger.com)
Buddhism quote of the day
Tenzin Gyatso, the fourteenth and current Dalai Lama. (Photo credit: Wikipedia)
It is quite strange – as non-believers, totally non-believers, atheists – showing interest about reincarnation. I jokingly tell them: In order to be involved in my reincarnation, firstly, they should accept Buddhism. Or religion. Or Buddhism. Then they should recognize Chairman Mao Zedong’s reincarnation. Deng Xiaopeng’s reincarnation. Then, they have reason to show some interest about the Dalai Lama’s reincarnation. Otherwise, nonsense!
– the14th Dalai Lama, Tenzin Gyatso, noting the folly of the Chinese government’s claim that it will identify his reincarnation. (via Boing Boing)
Service monkeys
The use of service monkeys for the disabled is a totally new concept to me. Here is one terribly moving story.
Sports quote of the day
In more than 20 years I’ve spent studying the issue, I have yet to hear a convincing argument that college football has anything do with what is presumably the primary purpose of higher education: academics.
That’s because college football has no academic purpose. Which is why it needs to be banned. A radical solution, yes. But necessary in today’s times.
Football only provides the thickest layer of distraction in an atmosphere in which colleges and universities these days are all about distraction, nursing an obsession with the social well-being of students as opposed to the obsession that they are there for the vital and single purpose of learning as much as they can to compete in the brutal realities of the global economy.
Who truly benefits from college football? Alumni who absurdly judge the quality of their alma mater based on the quality of the football team. Coaches such as Nick Saban of the University of Alabama and Bob Stoops of Oklahoma University who make obscene millions. The players themselves don’t benefit, exploited by a system in which they don’t receive a dime of compensation. The average student doesn’t benefit, particularly when football programs remain sacrosanct while tuition costs show no signs of abating as many governors are slashing budgets to the bone.
– Buzz Bissinger, author of Friday Night Lights.