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

Sunday, December 15, 2013

Weekend Linkee-poo is going to Wichita, leave this opera for ever more

Fifty narrative devices for non-fiction storytellers.

Delilah Dawson on leveling up your writing. Lots of good advice in there. (Grokked from Kelly Swails who will remind you to "gather as much writing advice as you can. Learn it by applying it. But never, ever let advice kill your mojo.")

In the War on Xmas, good thing Santa is actually Odin. Not really, but it's good enough. Hahahaha. (Grokked from Jay Lake)

"We have gone from a war on poverty in this country to a war on the poor, in which poor people are routinely demonized and scapegoated and attacked, and conservatives have led the charge." Charles Blow on one of the many reasons I no longer am a Republican. (Grokked from the Slactivist)

"Could your electric blanket be spying on you?" Or running a spambot network? Charlie Stross with some interesting thoughts as we move toward "smart" devices and your electric kettle runs it's own server software which seeks out open wifi networks. Say, did you know most of the stuff sold through Wal-Mart is made in China. This article is so chock full of story bones, I don't even know where to start. (Grokked from Jay Lake)

Imaging snowflakes as they fall. Cool. (Grokked from Jim Hines)

The rich are just like you and… Okay, well, the rich are out of touch and they have no obvious touch points with the people they hire to do the work that makes them rich. McDonald's is back at it with financial advice to their employees. Like how much to tip their au pair this Christmas. Really, I don't think even the shift managers would be able to afford au pairs, personal fitness trainers and pool cleaners.

Speaking of being rich and out of touch, the affluenza defense. It's basically the "insanity" defense, that the person who did the crime didn't have a concept of the right or wrong of their actions. But, and it's a big but, there is a main difference. For the insanity defense the person who was insane was incapable of knowing right from wrong at the moment the crime occurred For the affluenza defense, the person was simply ignorant of right and wrong. Ignorance, as it is said, is no excuse for the law. I'll accept the argument that in this country children of affluence believe they are different and out of contact with reality. I'll give you that because for large minority of them, their adults and media consumption reinforce that perception that they are apart and above (and isn't that another crime). But there is a difference between "bubble" living and being in the world. In this case, this kid has learned that his actions have consequences. Welcome to growing up. Now you go to jail. This really is a travesty of justice and is something that ignites revolutions. What we are saying here is that the rich are really capable of getting away with murder. (Grokked from Jay Lake)

You know back at the beginning of the Tea Party movement, I had a number of friends who talked me off my initial positions of just what the Tea Party was, and for them, I think they were correct. For them it was a disciplined and ethical stand. But I don't think they realized just how easy their movement was going to be subverted by the criminally insane. I mean, the freeze-dried whackaloon brigades. It was a short trip, folks. (Grokked from the Slactivist)

When the idiots, like those mentioned above, like to spout off about how "charity should be the Churches' job, government should get out of the social safety net," they don't fully comprehend the magnitude and extent of the problem. There's a lot more poor people out there than you think. (Grokked from the Slactivist)

TheWashington Doomsday Prophecy. The budget agreement is about the lowest common denominator, not some grand master stroke of diplomacy. Has it really been that long, or has our politics become so poisoned that we've forgotten this used to be an every day event? (Grokked from Jay Lake)

"These provisions have put an end to the days when insurance companies could raise health insurance premiums by double digit percentages with little oversight. Because of rate review, the report released today shows that consumers have saved approximately $1.2 billion over the past year in the individual and small group markets." Given all the blathering about how some people will be paying more for their insurance (most of which have turned out to be exaggerations, people retelling "things they heard", and people not understanding real insurance), it's important to note that Obamacare has been saving us money for the past two years. Also, with all the blathering about how the website doesn't work, look at that somewhat normal adoption curve. (Grokked from the Slactivist)

Chuck Wendig gives us his own experience navigating Obamacare.

“What goes on here is not some occasional violations where most companies are in compliance and a few are not. You have across-the-board systematic, willful noncompliance with straightforward labor law by a large margin in a way that’s very destructive to workers.” Yea, we don't need no stinking regulations because companies always act responsibly and ethically. (Grokked form Jay Lake)

Dear Megyn Kelly, if that was a joke, you really don't know how to tell one. Or, let me just call bullshit on your excuse and save us all the trouble of the next two weeks of this.n You aren't that smart, nor are you that subtle. Although, contrary wise, it does make a whole lot more sense if you think of Fox News as performance art or one long improve comedy sketch. May be that is actually the way to think of the whole Roger Ailes empire. One, long, drawn out bad joke delivered poorly. Maybe a laugh track would help. (Grokked from Jay Lake)

And because, animals with stuffed animals. (Grokked from Jim Hines)

2 comments:

Jay Lake said...

The Tea Party never was anything but racist-driven Republican astroturf. If they'd really cared about the deficit in a non-partisan way (the original, nominal position as I recall it), where the hell were any single one of them during the Bush administration? In the years since the Tea Party has burst on the scene, that non-partisan narrative has somehow always about supporting the whitest, most conservative Republicans. I had a number of Libertarian and self-described politically independent friends who were irritated me at the time for calling out the Tea Party as GOP astroturf. Don't hear so much about it from them anymore.

Steve Buchheit said...

Hey Jay, I think some people who joined the movement had purer motives and ignored the over all disgruntled, white supremacy, former militia undertones being driving by certain corporate/political interests. And i still think a lot of the local organizers didn't see both the manipulation by the corporate interests and the impending usurpation by the social conservative movement coming.

But just like you, I haven't heard push-back from them in the past year or two.