In a world full of heart breaking stories these days this one is tough. A young girl, victim of the Chinese earthquake, is alive and conscious, knowing the only way she can be freed from under rubble is to have her legs amputated.
Via MSBNC
Bob Herbert in the New York Times has a great editorial on Education in America and how we continue to neglect this very crucial aspect of our future. It is well worth a read.
Watching the Presidential Follies play out, it is both surprising, yet not so surprising that we are not hearing more about education in the discussion. But then I guess talking about all of the really important stuff like who's staffer said what to whom is infinitely more important.
Or as Bob Herbert analogizes this is one of those issues like the country's infrastructure or search for better energy solutions, that we don't put on the front burner until the bridge collapses or gas prices skyrocket. Of course with the education of our young, the downward spiral is a much more gradual collapse than a bridge falling down.
Black/White
Love/Hate
Mac/PC
Male/Female
Clinton/Obama
Christianity/Islam
XP/Vista
Catholic/Protestant
Democrat/Republican
Google/Microsoft
O'Reilly/Olbermann
Fat/Non-Fat
Separate/Equal
Caucus/Primary
Rich/Poor
North/South
Red State/Blue State
Pro-Choice/Pro-Life
War/Anti-War
Less Filling/Tastes Great
So many divisions, so much the same.
We'll come to violence (one way or the other) over most of them.
Obama gives a major speech.
Being billed as make or break.
It won't make.
Or break.
Hearts will be opened.
Hearts will be hardened.
Gushing will ensue.
Criticism too.
Battle lines will remain the same.
Battle lines will shift and change.
Friction. Fractures. Fact. Fiction.
Ratings. Rantings. Polling. Posturing.
Voting. Vetting. Vexing. Victory.
Counting votes. Counting coup.
“The race is not to the swift, nor the battle to the strong. (Ecclesiastes 9:11)”
“The race is not always to the swift, nor the battle to the strong, but that's the way to bet.” (Damon Runyon)
The race on Race changes with a speech on race. Or does it?
So someone, somewhere commissioned a study on spanking. Their results? It might lead to aggression and possible sexual problems when the spanked grow into adults. Good grief. I can just see the rash of lawsuits and an entire new line of defense for those accused of sexual abuse. Who funds this stuff?
By the way, I'm linking to this on Newsweek, which officially now ranks as one of my Sites That Suck for insisting on running stupid video ads, mostly in a size that couldn't possibly do any good and that you don't see unless you scroll down, and that are just damn annoying. I'm not sure who is more stupid, Newsweek for running the ad, or the advertisers who fall for the pitch in the first place.
Well, actually I don't want it to snow. It is just too disruptive for work here. But I'd kill for an actual day where I didn't have to work, or rather, a day with snow, where I didn't have to come in and work harder because it had snowed.
Our area goes nuts with even the hint of weather. If on a Tuesday they say in might snow on Saturday, our customers for the theatre begin calling to move their tickets to another night. Then they run out to Wal-Mart and by all the milk and bread to make milk sandwiches I guess. I never quite figured that one out.
And then there folks I work with, who sometimes use snow and or icy weather to stay home, when the circumstances aren't that bad. That doesn't happen often, but it happens occasionally.
And of course there are the weather weenies on TV and the radio. We haven't had a drop of precipitation here for 6 hours or so. The roads are dry. But yet the weather weenies are still telling folks to stay in and don't go out unless you have to. I guess for milk and bread.
But the upshot is, I feel like my father who was a US postmaster. Snow means work, and a little more of it.
I think I hate snow.
Ah, politics. Always so entertaining, always so disgusting. Yesterday a bunch of right wing hardliners in Congress came out for McCain. Then word came out that John McCain changed his tune on waterboarding. After spending most of the campaign bravely challenging the administration's gyrations on the legality and linguistics of waterboarding/torture and taking a principled stand on the matter, McCain decided to vote against legislation that would have legitimized the Army Field Manual regulations on torture. I don't think, I may be wrong here, that the AFM had entered into the debate until McCain brought it there, so the fact that he's now for what he was against just goes to show that principals only matter until you get way ahead in the delegate count. Or when you need some right wing war dogs to come to your aid to help shut up Rush Limbaugh and the radio talk heads.
I had actually admired, though I disagree with, McCain's lonely stance on the surge during the campaign. At least he stuck to his guns there. Now I wonder how much value to place on any of his statements. I bet I'm not the only one.
I'm just wondering how much water his fellow Repubs had to pour over his snout before he relented.
Via Think Progress
While I'm traveling here are a few things that annoy the heck out of me.
Ok, hotel designers and toilet paper manufacturers listen up. If you can't design the toilet paper dispenser large enough to hold a roll of toilet paper without ripping it out a sheet at a time, or simply removing it, don't you think you should get a clue.
Internet access that is well, just about anything except accessible. Hotels need to get over the idea of the Internet access as a profit center. The machinations they go through these days to allow you to hook in do nothing but cause grief and aggravation for their customers. You'd think after they lost money on the ridiculous rates they charged for phone calls led more and more folks to use their cell phones, they would have learned a lesson.
And speaking of Internet access, I'd love to see a little truth in advertising when it comes to 3G Broadband. We've experienced everything from good to great signals and bandwidth. All from the exact same location. Yeah, yeah, I know, other users, atmospherics, yada, yada, yada. But I bet Rob wants to see his Verizon Team members about now, given just how poor that service has been.
I don't care what business you are in, if you are going to jack up the price because you are dealing with travelers and you know they'll pay, then you better juice up the service just a touch. Don't cha think? C'mon at least give me a smile when you're screwing me from behind here.
Cab Drivers. Ok, I love passenger bill of rights things in cabs. Can we amend and add one more. Let me be able to politely tell you to shut up and not talk, and you have to honor that. I'm not here for your entertainment.
Some Sunday morning reading to share.
The AP's Top News Stories of the year.
Top Business Buzzwords of 2007. Meatball sundae?
The New York Times list of words we created in 2007.
And you thought you were worried about battery life?Villagers walk 20 kilometers to charge up their cell phones.
The NCAA comes up with new rules for live blogging a game. Almost as arcane as the NCAA's rules about amateur athletics and compensating athletes.
Dave Winer on his long bet with The New York Times regarding blogging vs big media.
Mathew Ingram on Will the Strike Change Hollywood? Here's hoping.
Is there really a dramatic comeback for the play? Ben Brantley in The New York Times thinks what we've seen this year in New York says yes. I hope he's correct.
Paul Szep sums up America's news coverage of world events and what's important. Brilliantly.
Calling Jacob Marley.
The NFL is trying to have its cake and eat it too. After it baked it and found out the icing was all smeared. The controversy of the NFL Network Games not being picked up by Time Warner, Comcast, and other cable outlets is bubbling to a head now that a couple of Congress persons have gotten involved. The Cable companies, greedy goblins themselves, are refusing the NFL's offer of arbitration. Of course the NFL is trying to make themselves look here by claiming they want the games on basic cable, and of course the cable companies would like a pay for play thing. Basically everybody is a Scrooge in this one. Football fans are the losers here.
Microsoft's Patent Won't Let You Skip Ads
I guess if you're going to base your future on advertising, you better have a way to force people to watch it. Microsoft has a patent for a DRM scheme that will prevent you from skipping ads when watching video on your computer. I'm just asking here, but isn't the whole DRM thing starting to sound more like slavery every day?
The first two are just greed for greed's sake. This last one may have killed a young girl.
Cigna Refuses Liver Transplant Until It Is Too Late. Girl Dies.
Cigna Insurance company refused to authorize a liver transplant for a young girl. Until it was too late. Then they approved it. She died. Someone should burn in hell for this. Including the news talking head, who I heard say that Cigna has a right to make and review its business decisions. Someone should burn in hell for this one. Preferably on Christmas morning.
One of those days where the hoops you have to jump through seem too high off the ground.
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