Sunday Morning Reading Material Fourth Sunday in August 2011- Irate Irene Edition
The girlfriend insisted I share this with you.
It’s Sunday Morning. Sundays are for waffles. Sundays are for assessing the damage. Sundays might be for playing games and seeing demos of new ones. Possibly, Sundays are for a tarot convention. Sundays are occasionally for hiding in the mountains. And mayhaps– but only mayhaps, Sunday Mornings are for trying not to freak out.
This week: an earthquake hit the East Coast of the US- where there ought not be any active fault lines. A hurricane hit the East Coast of the US- where hurricanes ought not be. This week the War in Libya took a sudden turn for the better when the capitol city of Tripoli rose up against it’s dictator. And Steve Jobs announced his retirement as CEO of Apple inc.
Making copies of digital things is really easy. In fact, without the ability to make copies of digital things, computers and computer networks simply wouldn’t be able to function. In a universe of digital media, piracy becomes very, very easy. The only way to really combat piracy is to give paying customers something that pirates cannot. Fox tried to do it the other way around. And ended up much worse for it.
Gas prices are a function of corporate greed in much the same way that cat food prices are. There is robust enough competition in the petroleum extracting industries that prices do follow basic laws of supply and demand. Gas prices are so high because demand is incredibly high. Stricter American fuel efficient laws would see prices fall. A huge gas tax increase coupled with investment in mass transit alternatives would see gas prices plummet. And, of course, freedom from traffic jams would see quality of life skyrocket.
America’s electoral college system really is fine the way it is. It’s only been different from the popular vote 3 times in over 200 years of operation. Arrow’s Theorem tells us that it’s impossible to eliminate all odd results from a voting system, and so tinkering with the College seems like a waste of energy. The Senate, though. Oh my yes does the Senate need radical change. The “cooling saucer of American Democracy” has caused the system to freeze to uselessness. The usual remedy of “throw[ing] the rascals out” paradoxically allows them even more power. Utterly changing the way States borders are drawn would be of enormous help in that regard.
Data presentation is as- or more- important to shaping opinion than the underlying data. This can cause a major problem- data doesn’t stop being true just because people are wrong about it. Funny thing about the way my brain works: when I saw that puzzle my first instinct was to count the squares. I simply don’t trust my own lyin’ eyes.
In my religion, names are among the most powerful tools. A name- a true name- is identity. The power to name something is to claim ownership over at least some small part of it. Google’s stated aim “is to organize the worldâs information”; this is their bid to be the world’s most powerful entity.
You’ve never wondered what cows sound like in Europe. You should have.
The fact that AT&T thinks they can get away with overcharging every consumer by 10,000,000 Percent should be taken as proof that they do not believe themselves to be in a competition with anyone. If consumers could and did routinely change mobile carriers, we’d either see much better service, much lower prices, or both. Congress or the FCC could simply outlaw long cellphone contracts. Oddly that consumer-focused bit of market restoration is called “interfering with the workings of the free market”.
And then I saw this post. And now I’m a romantic. I couldn’t be (un)manic if I tried.
There is most definitely a brand of feminism that would seek to replace the patriarchy with a matriarchy. I’ve studied under people who held that this would create a more-just society. For the longest time, I thought that this was all there was to Feminism. As someone who actively hates systems of arbitrary distributions of power, I simply couldn’t get behind that vision of Feminism. Sometime in college, I started reading Pandagon, and the amazing work of Amanda Marcotte. I was introduced to a world of Feminism as equality. Yes. Sign me up as an ally in that struggle. In fact, I’ll do it Chicago style, and sign up twice.
Remember way back earlier this week when the East Coast was hit by a huge earthquake? Well. Turns out that we humans are faster than the Earth. That’s a sort of frightening thought, isn’t it?
Apple paid a lot of money and gave up a great deal of power to secure an agreement with the giant record labels over cloud storage. Apple must be gnashing it’s teeth over a recent decision which would allow other companies the right to do what Apple paid dearly for. The record labels’ basic position seems to be that they own the rights to music forever. Apple seems to agree. Google, Amazon, and the US legal system seem to be arguing that consumers purchase some rights when they gain legal access to music. Good news for consumers.
We Americans like to consider ourselves the torchbearers of justice and democracy. Key to our self conception is the idea that whenever people struggle to breath free, we’ll be there with a oxygen tank. Without dwelling on the oppressive side of our history, we actually have had some successes– Europe (1944), China (1945), Mexico (1866), Cuba (1898), and Libya (?) (2011)- among others. It is therefore both awe inspiring and in keeping with the best traditions of American history that the Syrian rebels are chanting “Freedom!” and cheering for the American diplomat. And yet the Republican Party would like to see that diplomat dismissed. I wonder what their problem is.
Beat cops are an wonderfully fantastic tool for crime prevention. They let officers get a real feel for a neighborhood’s dynamics, understand who the “players” are, and become known to the community they are meant to “protect and serve”. When police hide, and do their work in secret, and only peer into “certain” neighborhoods– you know the ones– they create an alienating fear that makes every cop’s job harder.
No one ever questions their own integrity or competence. When Hoover when against Martin Luther King Jr., he must have honestly believed that he was working in the best interests of America. We today recognize that he was committing a terrible injustice. Along those same lines, when police try to shut down important communications infrastructure, they’re granting themselves extra-ordinary power. Our great grandparents understood the danger of police granting themselves power, and sharply limited their ability to do so- in language which every power-seeking mad person ought to find chilling.
You say “consequence-free fucking” like it’s a bad thing.
America has a big fucking problem. Stagnant wages caused Americans to borrow ever-increasing amounts of money just to stay even. Funky accounting by lenders allowed American households to borrow 100% of 2011′s GDP. The solution to this problem would be a 4% target annual inflation rate (we’re currently at ~1%), and a significant round of government spending. Instead we’re seeing the opposite.
Superman represents Truth, Justice, and the American way. He is also a journalist. As someone who fights for truth and justice, Superman must make a decision about which is the side of truth and justice. Modern American journalists aren’t supposed to do that. For the past 30-40 years, journalists have been telling the world that their duty is to present truth and lies in a balanced manner, giving no preference for either. Perhaps this movie will show superman beating up on his arch-nemesis: Lex Pundit.
Sadly, this headline is pure metaphor.
Someone has come out of his mountain hiding place long enough to insist this link be shared. It’s a late addition, so I’ve got nothing clever to say.
If you click just one link:
Here’s the thing about “those kids today” stories. People have been telling them since the dawn of time. That’s what the word “conservative” means.
This week’s theme has been anecdata. In the comments section, tell us your favorite word that starts with a small N.
Like Marry Ell-EN Carter:
