9/21/11

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Good stuff here.
Global Online Privacy

Sad but true

Sprawl World: "There’s likely a connection between the lack of empathy and the suburban nature of the conservative base."

'
Global Online Privacy

Ann Coulter apparently thinks she is a comedian as well as a pathetic dunce

Ann Coulter (AnnCoulter) on Twitter: "AnnCoulter Ann Coulter
HOLD THE PICKLE, HOLD THE LETTUCE. FRYING KILLERS WON'T UPSET US. bit.ly/qPQnV7"

From her horrendous Twitter page.

Global Online Privacy

No one has indicated when the Supreme Court will reach a decision on Troy Davis

Troy Davis asks Supreme Court to stop execution - Yahoo! News: "The U.S. Supreme Court gave Davis an unusual opportunity to prove his innocence in a lower court last year, though the high court itself did not hear the merits of the case."

You would think news media would at least raise the question.

Global Online Privacy

Troy Davis Latest

Troy Davis execution delayed – USATODAY.com: "Anneliese MacPhail, the mother of slain Savannah, Ga., police officer Mark MacPhail, said she had been told the execution was being delayed as the U.S. Supreme Court reviewed a last-minute plea for stay, CNN reported."

'via Blog this'

Global Online Privacy

Chaplaincy, teaching and abandonment

The Grass Roots Church: "During the course of this book, I shall use three terms to indicate what I believe are the functions of the Church. The traditional description of the Church's threefold ministry is summed up in the Greek words diakonia, koininia, and kerygma. Diakonia refers to the obligation of the Church to be a servant people, but we have made the deacons in our local congregations into what is, at best, an internal service organization. Koininia signifies the imperative that the Church be a community of love, but it implies nothing about the structure of this community. Kerygma refers to the central task of the Church, which is the proclamation or preaching of the Good News of the Gospel. However, the very notion of kerygma has been subverted by the Church's inability to provide a context in which genuine preaching is possible. There may be a time when we can revive these terms without doing offense to their meaning. But, for the moment, I propose to develop three alternative concepts to describe the functions of a renewed Church. They are chaplaincy, teaching, and abandonment."

'via Blog this'

Global Online Privacy

As Century 19 Waned (Memoir Fiction)

The Complete History of Adam Panflick: "Martin, unlike his bachelor brother, aspired to make a good match with a woman who possessed beauty at least equal to that of his esteemed mother. There was a family in the western suburb of Lakewood named Anderson, whose forbears included the first non-Native Americans to inhabit the Western Reserve. The daughter of this family captured Martin’s heart at first sight."



Global Online Privacy

Homogenized Society

Sprawl World: "Suburbs are known for breeding social homogeneity that does shelter people from humanizing those who are a little different than them. Beyond that, suburbs make it harder to develop a well-connected social life altogether. "

We could cure this in a heartbeat if divisive forces were not abroad. We could create car free cyber-communities of people who are tired of polarization and a gridlock design of society.

Cut to Arion of Methymna who rides a dolphin into Tainaronis. And thereby hangs a tale.

Herodotus meets Ellroy: Herodotus manages several war-free paragraphs:

"Cut to Arion of Methymna who rides a dolphin into Tainaronis. And thereby hangs a tale."

'via Blog this'

Global Online Privacy

Mark Penn is perhaps the worst adviser Obama could have

This is the man who helped ruin Hillary Clinton's campaign
Advising him to be a Bill Clinton is like advising him to follow Phil Gramm 
For once Chris Matthews is right
If Obama makes this a fairness issue he wins 

Global Online Privacy

Elvis speaks words we should have heeded for the past 60 or so years (Video)

Elvis speaks, in never-heard early interview - CBS News:

I doubt any commentators will note what is actually a reasonably insightful observation that should shame our testosterone Presidents who never can avoid a death-dealing fight. Like these commentators they will turn it into the usual fluff.


Global Online Privacy

Yanks are in post season

Baseball and bloggng go hand in hand here 
Overlooking Macys
I can almost see the stadium from here
This has been a banner year for the team
And there will be more to come 
I hope

Global Online Privacy

The full Veblen Reference for The Higher Learning in America

"The Higher Learning In America: A Memorandum On the Conduct of Universities By Business Men by Thorstein Veblen
1918"

Veblen saw the future and nailed it. There are numerous ways to attain this online, none of them wholly satisfactory. So I have included no link, but the full title which enables a copious search. Veblen's work is prophetic regarding the marriage of business and the university or college. My own college seemed transparently to be an assembly line leading to various corporations and government agencies including the CIA .

Global Online Privacy

Scientists, scholars, savants, clerks, priests, shamans, medicinemen

" In any known civilization there will be found something in
the way of esoteric knowledge. This body of knowledge will vary characteristically from one culture to another, differing both in content and in respect of the canons of truth and reality relied on by its adepts. But there is this common trait running through all civilizations, as touches this range of esoteric knowledge, that it is in all cases held, more or less closely, in the keeping of a select body of adepts or specialists -- scientists, scholars, savants, clerks, priests, shamans, medicinemen -- whatever designation may best fit the given case."

The immortal Veblen. When sanity is in scarce supply.

'via Blog this'


Global Online Privacy

College debt equals a trillion (Video)

Global Online Privacy

Higher education cesspool

The Shame of College Sports - Magazine - The Atlantic: "But the real scandal is the very structure of college sports, wherein student-athletes generate billions of dollars for universities and private companies while earning nothing for themselves. "

This is merely one of the problems that plague higher education. Try professors who don't teach. Try tenure that creates costly sinecures. Try continually rising costs. Try the actual value to students.  I give universities about ten years before they go the way of newspapers. Unless of course sports pulls them through, which would cause Dr. Swift to chortle in his grave.


Global Online Privacy

Liberian prisons reveal shocking government neglect

Appalling prison conditions in Liberia must be improved | Amnesty International:

"Some prison conditions in Liberia are so poor that they violate basic human rights with inmates crowded into dirty cells without adequate food, water or healthcare, Amnesty International said in a new report released today."

Global Online Privacy

The Bridge That Kills

Upcoming Obama bridge visit highlights swing Ohio - US news - msnbc.com:

"Fox said the bridge has blind spots and lanes too tight for the heavy truck traffic. Traffic from two interstates — 75 and 71 — is funneled across the bridge, with complex choices for motorists on either end seeking to exit or merge. It also lacks emergency lanes, adding even more danger after a breakdown or an accident — a Cincinnati man was knocked into the river and died after a traffic accident on the bridge in June."

Noxious Oil: Big oil has been on welfare all along


This is what we need to know about the big oil industry. 
It's a welfare case. 
It operates on subsidies. 
It will fall to renewable energy as people wake up.

Global Online Privacy

The Reverend is in no mood to talk just now

Markman: A Film About Jesus:

" EXTERIOR. JAIL.

Kelly walks briskly up the path to the prison.

INTERIOR. JAIL.

Kelly approaches the laconic reception CLERK.

KELLY: I am here to see the Rev. John Watters.

Clerk punches keys on the computer.

CLERK: Sorry, miss. You can't see the Reverend.

KELLY: Who says?

Tiger comes up behind Kelly.

TIGER: I says.

KELLY: You can't keep a lid on this story.

TIGER: What story, Ms. Swift?

KELLY: My, my.

TIGER: The Reverend is in no mood to talk just now. (Beat) Have a nice day."

Global Online Privacy

Herodotus meets Ellroy: Herodotus manages several war-free paragraphs

Herodotus meets Ellroy: Herodotus manages several war-free paragraphs:

"All that's left now is a bronze of a man on a dolphin.

But Herodotus has written several paragraphs with reference to cleverness, music and dolphins with no mention of war."

Story at link above.


What do sprawl and bigotry have in common?

Sprawl World: You Want To Know Why I Hate Sprawl?:

Finally the connection is being made. It is at least 50 years old, maybe centuries old. The sociology of polarization in a nutshell.

You Want To Know Why I Hate Sprawl?

What Awful Reality TV and Suburban Living Have to Do With the Tea Party's Lack of Empathy | Tea Party and the Right | AlterNet: "There’s likely a connection between the lack of empathy and the suburban nature of the conservative base. Research shows people tend to be more bigoted toward gays and those of different races when they have no personal connection with those people. Suburbs are known for breeding social homogeneity that does shelter people from humanizing those who are a little different than them. Beyond that, suburbs make it harder to develop a well-connected social life altogether. "

'via Blog this'


Global Online Privacy

Do you see yourself in this Infographic

The Games People Play [INFOGRAPHIC]:

I do and I am not alone. I am glad to see that the most common pursuits are mine.

Wanna buy a 40k accessory for the iPad?

Video: Padzilla Case Turns Your iPad Into An iCoffeeTable | TechCrunch:

They say they will rent to non hedge fund managers.

DADT down, DOMA to go

The Demise of DADT » Blog of Rights: Official Blog of the American Civil Liberties Union:

"The good news is that with DADT's demise, there remains only one federal law that overtly discriminates against people based on their sexual orientation – the misnamed Defense of Marriage Act (DOMA). Like DADT, DOMA too will eventually be remembered as an unfortunate, discriminatory historical footnote on the long march to equal citizenship for gay men and lesbians."

Global Online Privacy

Significant doubt does not count in Georgia

ACLU Lens: Georgia Board of Pardons and Parole Denies Clemency to Troy Davis Despite Serious Doubts About his Guilt » Blog of Rights: Official Blog of the American Civil Liberties Union: "The execution of Troy Davis is, to use Justice Stevens' words, "perilously close to simple murder." His conviction is forever tainted by significant doubt. Stranger eyewitness testimony is notoriously unreliable, and the eyewitnesses in this case — most of whom have recanted — say they were pressured by law enforcement, eager to close the murder of a police officer. The Georgia Bureau of Investigations itself says the jury was misled into believing that the gun used in the killing matched Troy's. "

No cloture for anyone in this situation.

Global Online Privacy

What Does Google Have in Common With The Vicar of Bray

True-blue Google wraps itself in red - Mike Zapler - POLITICO.com: "In 2012, the search giant headquartered in bright blue Silicon Valley has wrapped itself in red, hiring a string of Republicans and even hosting a GOP presidential debate Thursday night with Fox News."

Read the lyric here

Global Online Privacy

And 1,470 paid no federal income tax at all

Obama’s Tax on Millionaires - NYTimes.com:

"Recent Treasury Department data gives a more detailed look at the group of taxpayers the administration is aiming at. In 2009, 238,000 households filed returns with adjusted gross incomes of at least $1 million. One-quarter of them paid an effective federal income tax rate of less than 15 percent, the data shows, and 1,470 paid no federal income tax at all."

'via Blog this'

Global Online Privacy

GOP could care less about driving off a cliff

Dodd-Frank Act Is a Target on G.O.P. Campaign Trail - NYTimes.com: "“Dodd-Frank is adding safety margins to the banking system,” said Douglas J. Elliott, an economic studies fellow at the Brookings Institution. “That may mean somewhat fewer jobs in normal years, in exchange for the benefit of avoiding something like what we just went through in the financial crisis, which was an immense job killer.”"

The GOP is hapless, foolish and most likely suicidal.

Global Online Privacy

Netanyahu keeping bad company

House G.O.P. Finds a Growing Bond With Netanyahu - NYTimes.com: "WASHINGTON — When the Obama administration wanted to be certain that Congress would not block $50 million in new aid to the Palestinian Authority last month, it turned to a singularly influential lobbyist: Israel’s prime minister, Benjamin Netanyahu."

Bibi you should run the other way. These guys are headed for a cliff. Sad syllogisms come to mind. Obama is your best friend. Fortunately he is tolerant of you. But he has prepared a substantial cliff for the GOP. Pay attention.

Atheists shoot themselves in the foot

Atheist group to rip Bible pages in H.B. Saturday - Orange County Register:

"Group members will rip out verses in the Bible such as Deuteronomy 22: 14-31, which says if a man finds his wife not to be a virgin, the community can stone her; or a later verse in the same chapter the Backyard Skeptics say can be interpreted to say that virgins who are raped will be forced to marry their rapist."

Assuming that we value adult behavior regardless of belief or absence of same. This behavior puts atheists in the same boat with Christians who also manifest intolerance and act out.

'via Blog this'

Global Online Privacy

The good news is that Abba is with us

Abba's Way: 60 On The Good News:

"The good news is that Abba is with us,
And Abba’s power in us redeems the world.
The good news is that Abba is for us.
I came precisely to make this truth clear;
In hopes the world would see and understand,
Instead, religion turned truth into fear.
The good news is connection has been made,
Between Abba and us—it is that close.
Yes, Abba’s nigh, present, available,
Protector, guardian, guide and loving friend.
"

'via Blog this'

Global Online Privacy

Is curation the new normal?

Digg launches new algorithm with 'Newsrooms' | Digital Media - CNET News:

"Here's how it works:

• Sourcing: We locate great content for each topic and display in a real-time feed called "Newswire."

• Signals: Stories are ranked automatically by an algorithm that looks at recency and popularity including Likes on Facebook, Tweets and LinkedIn sharing, to name a few.

• Curation: The news is then filtered by the Diggs and Comments of passionate users who have gained reputation as top influencers in each Newsroom topic."

I love the way we create new functions for old words. I have one: hifaluting for curation. Sometime I will do something on how the computer became the new car.

Global Online Privacy

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