I watch the ripples change their size
But never leave the stream
Of warm impermanence
And so the days float through my eyes
But still the days seem the same
And these children that you spit on
As they try to change their worlds
Are immune to your consultations
They're quite aware of what they're goin' through

Tuesday, August 26, 2014

Linkee-poo is telling us this and telling us that, says it doesn't matter

A pastor in Texas wants books that "have creatures that aren't human" (among other things) banned from the local library. Let's see; Seraphim, Cherubim, Elohim… Yep, got one right here. (Grokked from Vince)

PSA, warning signs someone is in an unhealthy relationship. :: points :: As an added bonus, some tips on things you can do once you (and your friend) realize it.

"Stanford anthropologist Tanya Luhrmann found that voice-hearing experiences of people with serious psychotic disorders are shaped by local culture – in the United States, the voices are harsh and threatening; in Africa and India, they are more benign and playful. This may have clinical implications for how to treat people with schizophrenia, she suggests." Just in case you're ever prevaricating when asked if the US has a culture of violence, the voices in your head may disagree. (Grokked from the Slactivist)

Water ATMs in India. Still question if we're living in a dystopian future? The Water ATM is an improvement in the situation. The opening scene in that story could pretty much be the opening scene in any post-apocalyptic movie. (Grokked from Paolo Bacigalupi)

Well, at least they didn't blame an intern. And I guess that statement sums up the difference between American Politics and the rest of the world. Frankly, I think people are only upset about the British Embassy's tweet concerning burning the White House (although the joke was, "we only brought sparklers this time") is because Americans don't know their history to realize the British burned the White House in the War of 1812. (Grokked from Matt Staggs)

In Ohio we have these great ads to re-elect Gov. Kasich which start with a statement of, "Well, sure, he was an ideologue bastard, but then he got better." Not sure that's a way to victory, John. But just in car you started to believe the shit Kasich is slinging, another clinic which provided abortion services in Cincinnati shuts down, and the two others in the area may also close. The problem? "Last year, Ohio Governor John Kasich (R) signed into law new state rules prohibiting publicly funded hospitals from having patient transfer agreements with abortion clinics, while at the same time upholding an existing Ohio law that requires clinics to have patient transfer agreements." So, not only an asshole Catch-22 law to end safe and legal abortion in Ohio, but this is also the guy who is using over-regulation to kill it. Seriously, this is no conservatism I know of, except the social conservatism that wants to return to an idealized world which never existed outside of their bubble. (Grokked from Tobias Buckell)

The Koch brothers spin up another "grass-roots" movement, this time to stop net neutrality. This kind of thing is becoming a cottage industry for Koch Industries. However, lately, whenever I see the Koch name applied to a position this song goes through my head:

(Story Grokked from Dan)

Texas Supreme Court rules it's okay to lie to employees in schemes to get rid of them. In this case they were told a subsidiary was a good job choice, transferred a lot of employees there, then sold off the subsidiary that was then closed by the buyer. They employer was telling people it was a great job to get even as they were negotiating the sale. (Grokked from Matt Staggs)

Say, in all the brouhaha, whatever happened to Benghazi? Oh, yea, that. To paraphrase Jim, after all this intense looking you'd think they'd have found at least one blow job in there. Instead, nothing. It's like the administration isn't corrupt at all.

Well, I haven't seen this story come up in the whole immigration debate. ICE isn't supposed to detain pregnant immigrants, but have been with the obvious result of the poor conditions of the detainment centers. And I would suspect that we would hear this from the Pro-Life crowd. Instead it's the "feminists" who are bringing it into the open. So, bad on our government, and two, shows the true colors of the Pro-Life crowd. (Grokked from the Slactivist)

"But that honor begins to seem much less honorable once we make the fateful decision to look."

3 comments:

Gristle McThornbody said...

Hiya Steve - Good finds, as always. The only one that threw me was the water ATMs in India. At first I was horrified, but then I realized we have much the same thing here, just on a larger scale. I can see my city water tower from my porch (snicker, not really, but it's not far away). The concept is the same - paid water usage. The only difference is the lack of infrastructure for home delivery.

Steve Buchheit said...

It was the opening scene that got me. That and the "they must pay now" concept (water was previously free, but rarer and getting it a whole lot crazier). It was shades of Bremer talking about one of his proudest accomplishments in Iraq being instituting copays for health care (previously free). And while the cost isn't great for us, these are in areas of desperate poverty where people live on dollars per month. In that case, the cost is comparable to our US water system.

Just as a side note, as a former councilman I was the water board's liaison to council when we restructured water rates. You have not truly lived until you have to go through that. Paying for water is highly emotional and any adjustment, even downward, is fraught with high drama. Also note the recent water main break in LA and the discovery that at current rates they'll be able to replace infrastructure every 300 years (actually a lot of water is subsidized by federal grants and loan guarantees). This is true of almost every water system.

Steve Buchheit said...

I guess I didn't conclude my point there.

There's a big push to make water, which most people consider "free" even if they pay for it now, a commercial venture. In Ohio we have several private water systems (I don't know one that hasn't been sued multiple times and that isn't embroiled in controversy). I think it was the CEO of Pepsico who recently came out saying people don't have a right to clean, potable water. There's a heavy drive to have people pay for the most basic of Maslow's hierarchy.

Wars have been fought over rights to water (you could frame the Israel conflict in such terms). In the US it was the instigation of the range wars in the West. There are just so many troubles world wide when it comes to water that it's difficult to sum everything up (also mix in the recent survey that finds our aquifers and ground water reserves have been seriously depleted).

So adding more people to the list that have to pay for their water just seems a crime to me.