All the news that shouldn’t be news for July 23, 2010
Moving On?
BREAKING NEWS: Iraq Not Connected To 9/11
Ted Haggard Is Back! Oh, Good.
America’s Wacky Third Party
More Family Values From The House Of Gibson
Whose Life Is It Anyway?
Aliens Relieved: Jobs Admits Being Human
Non-Story Continues To Grip America
Oh, To Be Brought Down By A Craigslist Ad.
BP Can’t Stop Shooting Itself In The Foot
…and much, much more!
All the news that shouldn’t be news for Jult 16, 2010
Time For A Career Change?
Michael Steele Still Has A Job
Robert Schuller Retiring
Alleged Wife-Beater, Anti-Semite. What\\’s Not To Love?
Last Airbender = FAIL
Corporate Spin Control
A Less-Than-Stellar Showing
Girl Taken In By Douche-Bag, Dumped. This is news?
Adulteress Gone To Dogs, Claims Cousin
Vuvuzelas Silenced. Permanently? One can only hope!
All the news that shouldn’t be news for June 4, 2010, including:
The BP Oil Disaster
Thunderstorm Disrupts Memorial Day for Obama
Pope’s Pointless Visit to Cyprus
Al and Tipper Gore
Gary Coleman is Dead.
OpposingViewpoints: The Gaza Flotilla Clash
Google Dumps Windows, Har-Har.
Ray Stevens
Nude Maids, but that’s not the weird part.
BP: Burping Petroleum
I bought a Sony Dash. I gave it a chance. I worked my way through the tedious process of setting it up, particularly getting it to pick up photos from my own web server… Tried out some widgets… cursed the clock, because, out of nowhere, it decided I lived in California, but not in any setting I had access to… I realized that I couldn’t listen to my in-home Icecast-based “Internet Radio Station”, and finally gave up. The Dash went back to Best Buy.
What was wrong with the Dash?
Touch screen… I can’t speak for anyone else… I mean.. Maybe I’m not “capacitive” enough to make the capacitive touch screen work with a light touch, but… I found I had to kind of mash the thing to get it to work… This is a problem, because the “easel-stand-angle-thing” doesn’t lend the Dash to being pushed around. Press on screen hard enough to get a reaction, and the thing falls over. Grr.
Touch screen again… this may, actually be a software issue, but when I press a button, I want to know, right now, that you know I pressed the button, even if it’ll take you a second or two to actually do what I want done. If I can’t have tactile feedback, I need something else… an audible click, or a simple animation or something… something that acknowledges the command.
The “Sony Layer”… The Sony Dash is basically a Chumby One, running in a “container” under the supervision of a layer of Sony software. The Sony layer has a look and feel somewhat similar to what one finds on the PSP, and the PS3… but there’s something lacking on the Dash… I don’t know if it’s that the hardware can’t live up to the dreams of the software people, or if the software was rushed out… Dunno… but this reminds me of when Sony first introduced the “VAIO” line of PCs… It was essentially an attempt to “lock in” customers, and it failed. The Dash seems to try to take something open and simple (the Chumby), slather on a gooey opaque coating of piano-black, and call it a Sony.
Oh, and no battery. Duh. Here’s a giant pallet of stupid. Sony, one of the pioneers of Lithium-ion battery technology… didn’t think to put a battery in this thing.
For $200, I’m not impressed. I’d just as soon get another iPod touch and a cheap speaker-dock. … or a real Chumby for half the price.
This fascinating TED talk discusses an idea I posted on this very blog nearly two years ago.
My rough notes from President Obama’s 2010 State of the Union Address:
Obama takes his time getting to the podium.
People are obviously fatigued with clapping.
10 minutes in, still applauding.
gavel, introduction, standing ovation. crap.
Sit the fuck down.
stop clapping. really.
OK, here, we go.
The economy is in shambles. OK, got that.. what now?
Nice shot of Uncle Joe’s nodding chin.
“I have never been more hopeful about America’s future than I am tonight”… because, hopefully, we’ve hit rock bottom.
Call for decent, strong government… good luck with that.
Obama equates Bank Bailout to root canal. Bad. A root canal has benefits.
Obama treads in minefield, asking banks to get onboard with fees. Good luck with THAT!
Nancy Pelosi is obviously Obama’s applause-whore. — Not even Biden clapped as much.
Call for “Jobs Bill” … whatever that is.
Slashing tax breaks for shipping jobs overseas? Good luck with that!
“How Long Should We Wait?” How much longer CAN we wait?
“I do not accept second place for the United States of America” … wow…
Makes a good case for clean energy… even for the dirty energy people. Well done!
Export more goods? Isn’t that China’s job?!
How did we end up with such a smart president?
Math? Science? Didn’t Jesus invent those?!
Revitalize community colleges? What is wrong with him?!
$10,000 tax credit and increased Pell grants?! College debt forgiveness?! Whoa.
“Health Insurance Reform”?! What’s that?!
“I will not walk away from these Americans, and neither should the people in this chamber.” — is it his speech writers… or is it him?
“All this was before I walked in the door.” Sweet.
“If I have to enforce this discipline by veto, I will.” Balls.
“I refuse to pass this problem on to another generation of Americans.” Is he for real?
“Pay as you go”? What does that mean?
“The problem is: That’s what we did for eight years” …nice.
“Let’s meet the responsibility of the people who sent us here.” Damn.
Condemned Supreme Court cutting of election funding,
Suggests the permanent campaign is faulty. Wow.
“We were sent here to serve our citizens, not our ambitions.” I love this man.
Repeal DADT, Equal pay for women… holy cow…
“Change we can believe in.” revisiting campaign slogan and what it meant… very nice.
“We don’t quit. I don’t quit.” Nice ending. I could have done without the “god bless” tho…
Wow!
I’ve been invited to join the panel on a local radio show, called Freethought Rhode Island (again - this time Wednesday, February 6 at 9:00 PM). The weekly show is put on by members of the Rhode Island Atheist Society and the Rhode Island Skeptics’ Society.
You can listen live on radio in the Providence, RI market on 88.1 WELH-FM
You can listen live on the Interwebs at http://bsrlive.com/
…and you can download the podcast after the fact at http://www.freethoughtri.com/
The live broadcast and stream starts at 9:00 PM EST
It’s a call-in show, so… listen, and call in!
Is it just me, or does the Christian Right in this country just seem to go further and further out into the weeds with their “Oh, we’re so oppressed!” chicken dance? It really is sickening. With all the deference Christians get in this country, and it’s not enough? Christians already get their two biggest holidays as Federal holidays. Do the Jews? No. Is Kwanzaa a Federal Holiday? No.
Let’s look at the supposed battlefield, shall we?
Fans of such weed-eaters as Glenn Beck and Pat Robertson are out there complaining about how businesses and other people, who may or may not be Christian, wish people “Happy Holidays” in stead of “Merry Christmas”. Is that fair? While, statistically, you stand a better chance that the person you’re passing your season’s greetings to is Christian, as opposed to anything else, that margin of certainty is shrinking. Unless you know someone is a Christian, isn’t it sensible to refrain from assuming he or she is Christian, just because it’s the majority position?
If we’re going to “put the Christ back in Christmas”, shouldn’t we also put the “Democrat” back in “Democracy”? If you’re a Democrat, why not just automatically assume everyone else is a Democrat, and make some blanket statement about how cool it is to be a Democrat to everyone you meet around election time, as if they’re part of your club, and then gasp and recoil in horror, when they say that just because the White House, Senate and House of Representatives all have Democratic leadership doesn’t mean we’re all Democrats.
If Wal*Mart wants to alienate followers of other religions and the unaffiliated (over 20% of Americans, according to a Pew poll) that’s their choice. If you as a Christian (assuming you are one) choose to assume I’m a Christian (a big mistake, and you’ll hear about it, long form, in short order) that’s your business. It’s not the job of the US Government to proselytize for any faith. If the Federal Government of the United States of America is to offer any greetings making reference to religiously significant observances (and I think even that is going too far), it is Constitutionally bound to show no preference to any one religion. “Happy Holidays” and/or “Season’s Greetings” is as far as the US Government can go. For a Congressman or Senator to attempt to legislate anything else is an obvious breach of their Oath of Office, and, I think, grounds for impeachment and removal from office.
As far as what an individual says to another, I think it’s a matter of personal choice. If you are a Christian, It’s up to you whether you want to take the one in five chance of alienating a stranger by wishing them a Merry Christmas. If you’re not a Christian, it seems patently hypocritical to wish someone else Merry Christmas.
This group-offense-taking, which seems to have started in earnest with the Danish Mohammad cartoon lunacy is reaching new heights of idiocy. This “War on Christmas” thing has taken a totalitarian turn, with the notion that the Christians are entitled to force me to think a certain way about their religious observances, and, as a consequence, feel (or at least ape) reverence for their faith above others.
If then-Vice President Richard B. Cheney could tell US Senator from Vermont Patrick J. Leahy on the floor of the US Senate to “fuck himself” without any official retribution, reprisal, or censure, that response is obviously acceptable for use in civilized discourse among decent respectable people. As such, I offer it to these “War on Christmas” crybabies who insist that I, and you, and everyone else, use the phrase “Merry Christmas” as a greeting, irrespective of audience.
I think what I’m going to do from here on out is simply reject the notion that December is any more significant than, say, June, and just greet everyone with a, “Hi,” or, “Hello.”, leave them with a “See ya,” or “Fare well,” and reply to offerings of “Merry Christmas,” “Happy Holidays,” or “Season’s Greetings” with a firm, but polite, “No, Thanks.”
Wow!
I’ve been invited to join the panel on a local radio show, called Freethought Rhode Island (again). The weekly show is put on by members of the Rhode Island Atheist Society and the Rhode Island Skeptics’ Society.
You can listen live on radio in the Providence, RI market on 88.1 WELH-FM
You can listen live on the Interwebs at http://bsrlive.com/
…and you can download the podcast after the fact at http://www.freethoughtri.com/
The live broadcast and stream starts at 9:00 PM EST
It’s a call-in show, so… listen, and call in!
This is the next-to-last show of 2009! Wow!
Have you voted for your favorite Shows, Stories and Bits?
The Best-Of DVD is on its way! Don’t be left out! Vote today!
In this week’s show: