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

Thursday, August 31, 2017

Linkee-poo well there's floodin' down in Texas, all of the telephone lines are down

"Burn my manuscripts"? How quaint. "Renowned fantasy novelist Terry Pratchett’s was to have his uncompleted books destroyed by a steamroller, and that finally happened at a fair last week." Vintage steamroller. At a fair with a crowd and live streamed. (Grokked from John)

"So was the $50 billion bill (for Sandy Disaster Relief) filled with pork — two-thirds of which was unrelated to Sandy?… No." So, Sen. Cruz, please stick those 3 Pinocchios where the sun don't shine.

"Guy who says God sends natural disasters to punish gays has his home destroyed in a natural disaster." And then God and Karma high-fived. (Grokked from Ken McConnell)

"'Japan is now employing military surveillance to watch Sea Shepherd ship movements in real time by satellite and if they know where our ships are at any given moment, they can easily avoid us,' (Sea Shepherd founder Captain Paul) Watson said in a statement."

Why do we need regulations and the EPA? "'Yesterday as these large retention ponds filled up, eight feet deep in places, kids were swimming in them, and that’s not good,' said Highfield, a scientist at Texas A&M University’s Galveston campus. The Brio Refining toxic Superfund site, where ethylbenzene, chlorinated hydrocarbons and other chemical compounds were once pooled in pits before the Environmental Protection Agency removed them, sits 'just up the road, and it drains into our watershed,' he said." And it's not an isolated problem in Texas. (Grokked from Paolo Bacigalupi)

"Chemicals have been released into the atmosphere from a flood-damaged plant near the storm-hit US city of Houston, local officials say." It goes boom.

"Video from a police car's dash camera shows an officer attempting to calm a nervous driver during a DUI stop by telling her 'We only kill black people.'" I can see this being said in an attempt to reassure someone that you're not going to shoot them (when elderly patients say "don't drop me" while we're moving them I often respond with "I haven't dropped anyone today, yet" or "that causes us too much paperwork so we're not going to do that", something that they're not expecting so it breaks them out of their conditioned responses), and my guess is that's how this will play out. But, really, damn that's the wrong fucking thing to say.

"A Republican lawmaker has put forth an amendment that would stop funding for the special counsel’s Russia investigation 180 days after it becomes law… The amendment from Rep. Ron DeSantis (R-Fla.) would also prevent special counsel Robert Mueller from probing 'matters occurring before June 2015,' which is the month Trump announced his presidential bid." People propose a lot of things. Hell, there's something like 4 bills calling for Trump's impeachment. But I think this article lets you know just how far those bills of impeachment will go. (Grokked from Michele)

That Erik Prince is anywhere close to giving advice about military maters is a moral failing of the US. That he's a self-serving asshole is not new news.

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