There's battle lines being drawn.
Nobody's right if everybody's wrong.
Young people speaking their minds
getting so much resistance from behind

Sunday, July 14, 2013

Weekend Linkee-poo, but don't touch my bags if you please, Mr. Customs Man

Dr. Doyle with some good advice about good writing advice.

Eric has a followup to his post about Ender's Game, in which he works through the suspect morals of the book. Two of the thoughts I had as I read Eric's piece was the kids in the car that try to run down Guy Montag in Fahrenheit 451, and the critique of the new Superman movie and the death toll that the man of steel doesn't seem to care about. Also from Eric, "Must be nice, living inside a tautology."

JK Rowling publishing under a pseudonym is outed. (Grokked from Joe Hill, which is also a pseudonym)

Apparently, the editor in previous question (sexual harassment) is no longer with the house he was working for.

Oh, the rising of the sun and the running of the deer, the playing of the merry organ, sweet singing in the choir. Teri Windling with a good post relating many of the stories about humans becoming deer. Like they do.

"They found that the high-entropy terms in what the manuscript's illustrations would suggest are the pharmaceutical and herbal sections of the book were more likely to be related to each other than to terms in sections apparently about astrology, biology and recipes." A new analysis of the Voynich manuscript concludes it may be an actual text (instead of an elaborate hoax). (Grokked from Jay Lake)

"Be ignorant, be silent, and be thick." The commencement address of Melissa Harris-Perry. (Grokked from Jennifer Cruise)

"After all, who was responsible for initiating the tragic chain of events? Who was following whom? Who was carrying a gun? Who ignored the police urging that he stay in his car? Who thought that the other was one of 'them,' someone about to get a away with something?" From the press statement from the Southern Poverty Law Center, which outlines how the prosecution should have proceeded. (Grokked from Justine Larbalestier)

Ta-Nahesi Coates on the Zimmerman verdict. (Grokked from Ferret Steinmetz)

"Stand your ground is a horrible application of law and justice. End of story." Tobias Buckell on what the Trayvon Martin shooting trial was all about. It's about defending a crappy law (actually a series of laws that start with concealed carry). And it's why I think the state prosecution didn't put on the A-Team for a case with such national attention.

"The Curious Incident at Wickford Harbor" An NPR story that references HP Lovecraft in a non-literary, non-ironic fashion, describing how on June 13th, the Atlantic Ocean decided to punk the East Coast.

"The amendment to the criminal code, which will go into effect on July 1, 2014, makes it a misdemeanor, punishable by up to 180 days in jail and a fine of $1,000 for clergy 'solemnize' a marriage of two men or two women." The Indiana GOP wants to make sure you know that your government doesn't want to get into your personal lives and really doesn't want to "force" religious leaders to do anything against their beliefs. "While it is not widely known, numerous mainstream American religions permit gay nuptials. The faiths include reform Judaism, Evangelical Lutherans, Episcopalians, and the United Church of Christ, among others." (Grokked from Jay Lake)

The story you may have missed as all the news networks decided to sit and watch for the jury, "This past week, controversy erupted at the proposed mine after photos and videos emerged of security guards armed with assault rifles patrolling at sites where drilling has begun (in Wisconsin). Those guards have been linked to an Arizona-based contractor, Bulletproof Securities. A spokesperson… has said the guards were necessary because protesters have 'attacked' the site. On June 11, a woman was arrested after an incident a local radio station described as a 'raid' against Gogebic Taonite that reportedly involved 'about 15 people' who threatened workers and damaged equipment."

"Even assuming we can fix the damage inflicted on our democratic party system by the growth of the fourth party, how can we hope to elect governments that can engage constructively with actual social problems when the myths believed by the electorate deviate so wildly from the real picture?" While Charlie Stross is talking about England's political problems, most of the statistics he sites are roughly comparable to the popular beliefs in the US. (Grokked from Jay Lake)

"Coal plants are shutting down because of a lack of cooling water. Hydropower dams are struggling to generate electricity because reservoir levels are dropping." Wow, the extremes to which the lunatic progressives are willing to take this whole global warming hoax to. You know how some conservatives like to talk about how "the earth will balance out"? Here it is. (Grokked from the Slactavist)

"My lingering suspicion has long been that the House… will never be able to actually pass any legislation that removes the need for government-wide furloughs, program cancellations, and other drastic measures. They'll just go through the entire roster of government duties one-by-one, refunding each and every thing a week after the cut to that thing resulted in either a minor fiasco or an outright disaster, and only when the fiascos or outright disasters are things they can personally see out their office windows." Now that it's hurricane season again, many southern conservatives are starting to realize that the sequestration may affect them personally and they're none too happy about that. Kinda sucks when that happens, doesn't it. But hey, I'm sure if you don't like what your elected government is doing you can just take your little red ball and go home. Say, remember when conservatives said that elections have consequences? Tough medicine again, ain't it. (Grokked from Jay Lake)

Why can't Johnny go to church? (Grokked from the Slactivist)

Tweet of my heart @alexirvine So, Florida: a black woman gets 20 years for firing warning shots. Zimmerman stalks and kills a black teenager and walks. #postracial

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