Yahoo! News - Scientist Lauded After Gov't Fires Her
When Bushy won 3.5 years ago, I knew we were in for hell. I just didn't know how bad it'd really be. The boldness, the uninhibited gall... it's just amazing.
I happen to know (never mind how) that scientists working with the NIH were quietly asked a couple of years ago about their political leanings. Now we know why...
Hitting the Yahoo News science page, hardly a 'deep' source, just from the headlines today:
Global Extinction? Hogwash!
Space Cadet Bush Reporting for Duty - Bush proposes Mars trip with no funding, forcing NASA to abandon Hubble
Even the Pentagon wants to study Stem Cells, does end-run around Bushy
Global Warming? Pshaw!
This is just one small snapshot. On each of these, PhDs are at odds with the C Student In Chief...
I just need to blow off some steam here...
This morning, I recieved an email from a family friend which, in much the same vein as all her other emails, was critical of left-leaning ideas.
It read, in part:
------------------ start email
Subject: Fw: ACLU Upset At Marines
...
If you look closely at the picture above, you will note that all the Marines pictured are bowing their heads. That's because they're praying.
This incident took place at a recent ceremony honoring the birthday of the corps, and it has the ACLU up in arms. "These are federal employees," says Lucius Traveler, a spokesman for the ACLU, "on federal property and on federal time. For them to pray is clearly an establishment of religion, and we must nip this in the bud immediately."
When asked about the ACLU's charges, Colonel Jack Fessender, speaking for the Commandant of the Corps said (cleaned up a bit), "Screw the ACLU."
...
------------------ end email
Well, having just finished my 45 minute commute, I was feeling less than chipper, so I immediately wrote a response. Wisely (I think), I waited before sending it. Now that I've calmed down, I realize it is a waste of time to argue with people like this. Instead, I'll just post what I was about to respond with:
"I imagine the American hindis, muslims, atheists, buddhists, deists (do a web search for famous American deists, you'll find some suprises), jews, ad infinitum, might have an issue with state-enforced religion. Just a thought.
I think the ACLU has bigger fish to fry, and should be focusing their efforts elsewhere, but as a frequent witness of religious bigotry (Bush Sr doesn't consider people who share my beliefs to even be citizens) I find myself siding with them...
Carlos
ps. Did you know that, if it weren't for the ACLU, California would be allowed to have a law prohibiting emails like yours, without express permission from the State (Georgia had one, which was struck down thanks to the ACLU)? I know they're a favorite target amongst conservatives, but the truth is we've all benefited from their efforts."
There. I feel better now. :)
I was just simply amazed that every media outlet (every. media. outlet. all of 'em) painted the results of Spain's latest elections as a HUGE WIN for TERRORISTS! Run, RUN for your LIVES, AIIIIIEEEE!
Gimme a fvcking break.
That the two parties were neck and neck in the polls never got mentioned. That 91% of spanish citizens were against the Iraq were never got mentioned. That the spanish government had lied egregiously about the recent bombings was apparently not considered a factor.
So what happens come this October, when the president is down by 10% in the polls? Are the cons going to start claiming we're handing a HUGE VICTORY to AL-QAEDA? RUN in CIRCLES, SCREAM and SHOUT!!!! AEEEEEIIIEEEEEE!
About 47% of America has its collective head shoved up so far its collective ass that colonoscopies are no longer necessary.
12 year old released from Guantanamo : sf-imc
Reading shit like this just... just.... ARRRRRRRGGGGHHHHHH!!!!!
I'm at a complete loss for words. I mean, what could I possibly say? That I'm deeply ashamed to be even remotely responsible for my goverments actions? That there is nothing we could do, ever, at all, to give this kid his two years back? I mean... GAH! ARRRRGH!
Years from now, we'll look back on this episode with deep regret and shame. It will stand beside slavery, the internment of american-japanese, and all the other atrocities America has accrued over the centuries.
I've been working on getting my home theater up to date. I've been into HT since back in 92, when I hooked up a stereo to a VCR and stunned all present. Before this latest 'revision', I'd been working with my trusty HK AVR80 (a nice, robust, clean reciever, no digital anything, though it had 5 channels with direct inputs) and an outboard AC3 decoder (AC3 was what dolby digital was called back in the day).
Recently, I upgraded the reciever to a Harman Kardon AVR7200, and the difference has been stunning. The degree to which I can tweak this guy is amazing (it allows me to control the bass crossovers for each speaker, which I sorely needed), and it supports just about every feature/mode/gimmick under the sun. One of my favorites is the auto-setup: the remote has a sound pressure meter, and it sets up the speaker levels on automatically. Eerie.
Another interesting thing it supports is HDCD - I've actually gone out and bought a couple of HDCDs, and the sound quality is outstanding (either because of the technology, or because of the extra care the label probably puts into producing these CDs). The receiver also supports upsampled bitstreams, so I've finally been able to use my DVD player's upsampling capability to play normal CD's at higher bitrates.
This weekend, in preparation for my latest toy, I had to run some more wires, and decided to bite the bullet and run the DVD-audio wires too (DVD-A plays only over analog wires, to avoid digital copies). Naturally, I had to go out and buy a couple of DVD-A discs, and they sound great too.
I've also added an XM radio to the mix - the decoder is portable, so my wife can take it along in her car when she wants. The sound quality is OK, I guess, but definitely not the 'cd-quality' they advertise. I'd put it somewhere around FM quality, to be honest. Still, it's nice to have 60+ channels of pure, often good, music.
This weekend's addition was the coupe d'grace, though. I got DirecTv to install an HD STB for me. Woohoo! HD, baby. The programming sucks, though (5 channels, barely) but the quality is amazing.
Yeah. A good weekend for toys.
... though, the speakers *are* beginning to show their age... :)