User:	rigel
		Date:	2008-10-07 05:31
		Subject:	Tweets for Today
		Security:	Public

My Twitter tweets for the day.

Read them or not at your leisure. There may be some new stuff in there, so if interested, check ( behind the LJ cut. )

User:	languagelog
Date:	2008-10-07 09:27
Subject:	Both support as well as being ready
Security:	Public

http://languagelog.ldc.upenn.edu/nll/?p=686

"It's essential that we take action to both support the banking system as a whole — as well as being ready to intervene in particular cases when it's necessary to do so", said the UK Chancellor of the Exchequer Alistair Darling to reporters yesterday. Ungrammatically, I think.

Forget the fact that to both support is an instance of the so-called "split infinitive": modifiers have been placed between to and the verb in an infinitival clause, by good writers, throughout the history of English. (Those who jump on them as "errors" don't know as much about English grammar as they would like you to think they do.) No, it's the fact that the both never gets its correlated and. For me, the construction both X as well as Y (for any phrases X and Y), though common in unplanned speech, is not syntactically well formed. Particularly not when X is a plain-form (bare infinitive) verb phrase and Y is a gerund-participial verb phrase. That is (to invent a shorter case of the same sort), *to both survive as well as flourishing seems to me like an error of sentence planning, where what was intended was to both survive and flourish.

Of course, there could be people who differ, and see no slip in the Chancellor's remark. (Recall the surprising number of commenters on this post of mine who judged my ungrammatical example to be grammatical — though in that case I was able to determined that the original writer of the sentence agreed with me.) Not every expert user of Standard English has exactly the same judgments of grammaticality as every other user. But even a man who finds both support … as well as being ready ungrammatical may blurt it out when speaking under conditions of extreme stress.

(The Chancellor — UK counterpart of the US Treasury Secretary — was speaking on a day when the main UK stock index fell 7.8%, losing about $165,000,000,000 of asset value, and the Royal Bank of Scotland lost 20% of its value — a day that finally made our own Melvyn Quince realize that his assignment to the supposed Financial Good News desk here at Language Log had been merely a hoax perpetrated by fun-loving co-workers.)

		User:	ailbhe
		Date:	2008-10-07 10:20
		Subject:	Sue
		Security:	Public

Sue doesn't know what shows are on our telly, and she doesn't know which dressing-gown is Linnea's, and she doesn't know where the toaster is and she doesn't know how the radio works and she doesn't know what a bike helmet is and she doesn't know where to find a pair of pants and she doesn't know anything.

This is beginning to feel a bit eerie. I miss Linnea already.

		User:	erynn999
		Date:	2008-10-07 02:18
		Subject:	Rolling Stone on John McCain
		Security:	Public
		Mood:	irritated

There's been a lot of justifiable publicity about the sheer bugfuckery of Sarah Palin, but John McCain doesn't seem any better at all. Violent temper, instability, direct involvement in the Keating savings and loan scandal... the list goes on. Not somebody I'd want for president, thanks. Even the leadership of his own party don't really want him elected, from what they're saying publicly.

Sure, Obama's not a thrill-ride, but he's not like this.

		User:	aquaeri
		Date:	2008-10-07 18:06
		Subject:	More connected
		Security:	Public

Our computing re-assembling is proceeding, which means I now have a more reliable machine I can access regularly, unless it decides to also turn belly-up as soon as I become its primary user. However, it's (in laptop terms) ancient so we have to excavate some older software before I can read newsgroups again, I'm not sure when I'll have a better mail interface than webmail (sigh) and I don't think we've decided what to do about photos yet either. But I can read and post to LJ more or less when I want now. Yay!

This Sunday, I'm a volunteer on the 100K challenge and I hope to meet up with CQ friends and make some more. There's a rumour that the person in charge of the premier's peloton has put in a request for some cheerleading when they finish, so I may get to jump and scream in front of the premier! (I didn't tell LJ about that aspect of CQ, did I? Oops, better get my CQ report written, now.)

		User:	erynn999
		Date:	2008-10-07 00:10
		Subject:	A pretty good day
		Security:	Public
		Mood:	good

I got out early this afternoon with alfrecht to head down to Seattle. Our first stop was Emerald City Gardens, where we stopped to chat with greenshadows for a bit and I bought some bulbs to pot for next spring. I got two varieties of species tulips and a fascinating-looking double snowdrop that should go smashingly well together in the pot. Now I just have to google to see how deep a pot I should put them in.

After our pleasant plant interlude, we headed for the Suzzallo. Many books were rescued from the stacks that will help me work up my research for the geilt book. I got the life of St. Kentigern that contains the Lailoken story and a couple of sources on Merlin. I also picked up a few other things that should be interesting, if peripheral, to the thread.

Pho was had after our library raid, and then we were on to the steampunk meetup. wingedelf was there and we had a great chat with him. He will probably be at the CR schmooze next Monday. We also discussed the idea of doing a Burns supper with the CR group. As he's a piper, he could possibly provide us with the whole traditional piping in the haggis thing. We would, of course, need a place to do the supper, and things other than haggis to eat, but I think a creative and capable group such as ours should be able to come up with all the various bells and whistles. I know that joyful_storm is likely to be able to choose some appropriate scotch whiskys for the evening! I have collection of Burns poetry. alfrecht knows the songs one is supposed to sing. Should be fun. But the priority for this month's schmooze will, of course, be our Samhain celebration and vigil. Being as Samhain falls on a Friday night this year, we should be able to do the overnight with most of the crew, and I think that'll be a lot of fun.

alfrecht went over my CR and animism essay yesterday and offered some comments and corrections, so I'll be sending off a revised draft of the article to lupabitch later this week for her editorial suggestions on expanding the text a bit. One thing alfrecht suggested was a mention of the dindsenechas, so we talked about that a bit this afternoon as we were heading from the library to the restaurant. He had some good points and some that didn't really work for what I'm doing with the article. Really the topic deserves a much longer treatment than I'd be able to give in in an essay of this nature, but I think that a good article could come out of it with a different purpose at a later date.

The concert we attended last night was a lot of fun. alfrecht gave a lengthy account in his own LJ and so I shall direct you there for that. I enjoyed the music, the venue, and the folks in attendance. Definitely worth the price of admission.

Tomorrow will be a little grocery shopping and some writing. Other than that it should pretty much be an at-home day. I'm feeling really tired and my arms and wrists are aching pretty badly from the weather lately, so I'm wanting to take it easy. Perhaps we'll also watch Night Watch, a Russian SF film I got from Netflix last week.

Tired.

User:	m_matisse
Date:	2008-10-07 02:01
Subject:
Security:	Public

http://mistressmatisse.blogspot.com/2008/10/im-having-lovely-time-in-las-vegas.html

		User:	erynn999
		Date:	2008-10-06 23:46
		Subject:	The continuing story of the murders of military women
		Security:	Public
		Mood:	distressed

Families who attempt to investigate are treated horribly. Not only have their daughters been murdered or declared suicides under extremely suspicious circumstances, but they can't even get the military to do an active and effective investigation. An excerpt from the article on Common Dreams about a hispanic family's attempts to get information shows that the Air Force didn't even want to allow a translator to accompany the stricken parents, whose command of English is low and who do not trust military translators for obvious reasons:

When Mrs. Barrios and friends arrived on the Air Base they were greeted by five Air Force officials. Mrs. Barrios requested that her support group be allowed to join her in an Air Force conducted bus tour of the facilities where her daughter went to school and the lodging facility where she was found dead, but the request was denied. Mrs. Barrios then asked that her friend and translator Magda Castaneda and retired US Army Colonel Ann Wright be allowed to go on the bus and attend the meeting with the base commander and investigators.

After consultation with the base public affairs officer, the deputy Wing Commander Colonel Norsworthy decreed that only Mrs. Barrios' sister and Mr. Torres could accompany her. Neither Mrs. Barrios, her sister or Mr. Torres is fluent in English. Mrs. Barrios told the Air Force officers she did not feel comfortable with having translators provided by the Air Force and again asked that Mrs. Castaneda be allowed to translate for her as Mrs. Castaneda had done numerous times during Air Force briefings at her home. She asked that retired US Army Colonel Ann Wright be allowed to go as she knew the military bureaucracy.

In front of the support group, the Air Force public affairs officer George Woodward advised Colonel Norsworthy not to allow Mrs.Casteneda and Colonel Wright to come on the base and attend the meetings as both were "outspoken in the media and their presence would jeopardize the integrity of the meeting with the family."

And further, even more egregious:

While Colonel Wright (the author of this article) has written numerous articles concerning the rape and murder of women in the military, she reminded the officers that she holds a valid military ID card as a retired Colonel, that she had not violated any laws or military regulations by writing and speaking about issues of violence against women in the military and that most families of military members who have been killed are at a disadvantage in dealing with the military bureaucracy in finding answers to the questions they have about the deaths of their loved ones. She reminded the officials that the parents of NFL football player Pat Tillman, who after three Congressional hearings on the death of their son in Afghanistan in 2002, still don't have the answers to the questions of who killed their son and why hasn't the perpetrator of the crime been brought to justice. Families of "ordinary" service members, and particularly families limited knowledge of the military and with limited financial means find themselves at the mercy of the military for information.

The base Catholic Chaplain and the Staff Judge Advocate, both colonels, were silent during the exchange. One would have thought that perhaps a chaplain who watched as Mrs. Barrios, a single mother whose only daughter had been killed and whose English was minimal, broke down in tears and sat sobbing on the curb as the public affairs officer described her friends as "outspoken and a threat to the integrity of the meetings" would have been sensitive to a grieving mother's need for a family friend who had translated in all the previous meetings with the Air Force investigators-but he was silent. Likewise, the senior lawyer on the base who no doubt had handled many criminal cases, would have recognized that a distraught mother would need someone who could take notes and understand the nuances of the discussion in English during the very stressful discussions with the investigators-but he was silent. Instead, the colonels bowed to the civilian public affairs officer's advice that "outspoken" women were a threat to the "integrity of the meeting."

The military has a long history of abuse and cover-ups. These are particularly frightening in regard to women who are abused, raped, and/or murdered while in service. There must be accountability. There must be transparency. There must be justice. The current military system is not set up to provide any of these and, in fact, is designed to be as opaque and difficult as possible. Human rights are a joke in the military and this goes doubly so for women in service.

Of course, if we can't expect the monetary movers and shakers to be held accountable, how much less the men with guns? Especially when the government has moved in troops to be used against civilians in cases of "civic unrest".

		User:	lisaquestions
		Date:	2008-10-06 23:48
		Subject:	Appropriation of Transgender Day of Remembrance
		Security:	Public
		Mood:	angry

Every year, on November 20, many people - cis people as well as trans people - observe the Transgender Day of Remembrance. Trans people are 16 times more likely to be murdered than the general population, and 1-2 trans people are murdered every month. So far, the TDOR website lists 18 names: ( Read more... )

		User:	lupabitch
		Date:	2025-10-06 23:42
		Subject:	Book reviews!
		Security:	Public

As always, click the links to read the full reviews:

Ecopsychology: Restoring the Earth, Healing the Mind edited by Roszak, Gomes and Kanner - now you can see what it is I've been obsessing over as of late

Yokai Attack! by Hiroko Yoda and Matt Alt - anyone with any interest in Japanese mythos (especially mythological beings) needs this book

		User:	elisem
		Date:	2008-10-07 00:46
		Subject:	hey, knitters?
		Security:	Public

This? Looks pretty brilliant to me.

User:	youaredumb_net
Date:	2008-10-06 21:34
Subject:	Putting The Inedible Into Incredible
Security:	Public

http://www.youaredumb.net/node/1168

Video Games, 7 October 2008

Memo to BioSilo Foods: YOU ARE DUMB.

As a general rule, I hate to tread, over the course of a dozen paragraphs, ground that Penny Arcade covered over the course of three panels. We have a pretty big demographic overlap, plus their audience is about a bajillion times larger than mine. But dammit, Gamer Grub is idiotic, and I don't care if they said so first. It deserves saying again.

Gamer Grub is a plastic canister of snack food. Snack food that has been sprayed with a thin layer of vitamins and nutritional supplements. Nutritional supplements that, if you believe the makers of a product called "Gamer Grub", will help you win against the hordes of thirteen-year-old homophobes constantly headshotting you in Halo. Which would be great if it worked, I suppose, but does it have to be snack food? It's just that I usually prefer my bogus health science to come in convenient, wearable foot-pad form.

This is some serious fucking quackery. I'm supposed to believe that pita chips and nuts, sprayed with four vitamins, one mineral, and two vaguely conceptualized supplements are going to... well, why settle for a paraphrasing of quackery when you can have the real thing? ACTUAL QUACKERY TIME!

"Gamer Grub is a great tasting snack that boosts your core gaming systems, such as visual input, cognitive processing, signal transmission and muscle reflexes for maximum gaming performance."

Here's the thing. I've been playing video games for a long time. Going on three decades now. And during all those decades, there's one thing I managed to do with great, and possibly excessive, efficiency. FEED MYSELF. I didn't need an ergonomic container. I didn't need to chug the food from a cup. I didn't need graphics that energy-drink-can painters rejected as "too garish". And I didn't need the four most tone-deaf flavor names in the history of modern food production:

• Action Pizza
• Racing Wasabi
• Strategy Chocolate
• Sports PB&J

I was trying to remember the last time I'd heard something as stupid as "Strategy Chocolate" in a video game context, and then it hit me. There, on the Gamer Grub website, is the logo of the World Cyber Games. The "professional" "gaming" "event" for which Gamer Grub is now the official snack food. And I remembered that when the World Cyber Games launched, they had a theme song, "Beyond The Game". And that theme song had lyrics. Lyrics that would SEAR THE SOUL:

"You and I, We have met before / Through the magic of a moment in Cyberspace / Driven by a passion to win / Playin' heart to heart, face to face / The challenge of a life time / Stands before us now."

And that challenge of a lifetime is now full of pizza-dusted pita chips. I swear to fuck, the World Cyber Games must be a front for an international espionage operation. Because there are only two groups of people in this world this clueless about video games as an art form, a hobby, or a business operation: local TV news anchors, and the government.

Now that I think of it, I bet Gamer Grub isn't just full of pita chips and chocolate chips. It's probably full of RFID chips. That way, the government, who suspects terrorists are meeting in online games, can track gamers and listen in, hoping to catch them hating us for our freedoms. Of course, if I worked for the CIA, and my new assignment was to spend 8 hours a day listening in on World of Warcraft raid planning, I'd be on my knees every night praying for Robert Novak to blow my cover.

I have to believe it's a government conspiracy, because I cannot believe, even in these tough economic times, that the most jaded of marketing whores wouldn't quit their job and join the Peace Corps after being told to write copy like "Buckle up Dorothy, it's a zesty blend of wasabi goodness!" or "Wow! Peanut butter and jelly sandwiches, In a can!" No, to write that shit with a straight face, you have to believe that the freedom of the American people depends on it.

		User:	lupabitch
		Date:	2025-10-06 22:39
		Subject:
		Security:	Public

ysabetwordsmith posted this chilling bit of news: nearly a quarter of the world's mammals face extinction

		User:	botmo (posted by elisem)
		Date:	2008-10-07 00:31
		Subject:	the ammonites in the October MOAM packages....
		Security:	Public

Remember how I have been babbling about those ammonites for the October Beads of the Month, in the Mother Of All Magpies packages? Yeah. This is why. And also this.

Deadline is the 10th.

		User:	elisem
		Date:	2008-10-07 00:28
		Subject:	ArtLog: about those ammonites....
		Security:	Public

Remember how I have been babbling about those ammonites for the October Beads of the Month, in the Mother Of All Magpies packages? Yeah. This is why. And also this.

Oh, and I put up photos of most of the rest of the current shinies.

User:	joegandelman
Date:	2008-10-07 04:40
Subject:	This Just In!!
Security:	Public

http://feeds.feedburner.com/~r/themoderatevoice/~3/413461251/

http://themoderatevoice.com/politics/john-mccain/23261/this-just-in-50/

This just in from investigative reporter Andrew Borowitz:

Palin Blasts Obama’s Ties to Weather Channel
‘Palling Around with Meteorologists,’ Guv Claims

Alaska governor Sarah Palin went on the attack today, claiming that Democratic presidential nominee Barack Obama had longstanding ties to The Weather Channel.

“What does it say about our opponent that he thinks this nation’s weather is so imperfect that he needs to be allied with The Weather Channel?” she asked a crowd in Tampa, Florida. “There’s a fine line between hating America’s weather and hating America herself.”

Gov. Palin said that she learned about Sen. Obama’s ties to The Weather Channel last week “when I was trying hard to read The New York Times.”

“They said that Sen. Obama was hanging out with weathermen,” she said. “Do we really want to elect someone who has been palling around with meteorologists?”

There’s more so click on the link above and read the whole thing.

User:	apod
Date:	2008-10-07 04:43
Subject:	Layers of Cliffs in Northern Mars
Security:	Public

http://antwrp.gsfc.nasa.gov/apod/ap081006.html

How did these layers of red cliffs form on Mars?

User:	joegandelman
Date:	2008-10-07 04:06
Subject:	Press Now Barred From Talking To Palin Supporters
Security:	Public

http://feeds.feedburner.com/~r/themoderatevoice/~3/413441004/

http://themoderatevoice.com/media/freedom-of-the-press/23264/press-now-barred-from-talking-to-palin-supporters/

Yet another bar has been lowered in the 2008 Presidential political campaign — or, in this case, the Vice Presidential campaign which in this case is controlled by a Presidential campaign:

Constantly under the watchful eyes of security, the media wasn’t permitted to wander around inside Coachman Park to talk to Sarah Palin supporters. When reporters tried to leave the designated press area and head toward the bleachers where the crowd was seated, an escort would dart out of nowhere and confront him or her and say, “Can I help you?” and turn the person around.

When one reporter asked an escort, who would not give her name, why the press wasn’t allowed to mingle, she said that in the past, negative things had been written. The campaign wanted to avoid that possibility Monday.

This item from the St. Petersburg Times should be troubling to all Americans. Since when is the press barred from talking to a candidate’s SUPPORTERS? So now Palin is kept under tight wraps by the McCain campaign, giving interviews to a few select mainstream media reporters plus softball p.r. type interviews for Fox News’ mega-partisan talker Sean Hannity…while the press is barred from talking to her supporters.

This is how new standard operating procedure is created. In 2004 the press had lots of stories about how people were screened to enter and in some cases kicked out of George Bush’s political events. Now it’s come down to the press being barred from talking to a candidate’s supporters. And the irony is that speeches at these events will talk about defending freedom….

The Atlantic’s Andrew Sullivan writes:“This is not America. And it’s a chilling preview of how Putin-like a Palin-McCain administration would be.”

User:	joegandelman
Date:	2008-10-07 04:00
Subject:	FINANCIAL TURMOIL and the NOBEL PRIZE
Security:	Public

http://feeds.feedburner.com/~r/themoderatevoice/~3/413441005/

http://themoderatevoice.com/at-tmv/cartoon-commentary/23263/financial-turmoil-and-the-nobel-prize/

Patrick Chappatte, Le Temps, Switzerland

		User:	silmarian
		Date:	2008-10-06 21:02
		Subject:	Today's tweets
		Security:	Public

( You are about to view content that may not be appropriate for minors. )

User:	languagelog
Date:	2008-10-07 03:31
Subject:	The grammar of forms and the Ohio Supreme Court
Security:	Public

http://languagelog.ldc.upenn.edu/nll/?p=685

One of the several controversies that have recently arisen over voting procedures in Ohio concerns applications for absentee ballots. Although an official Absentee Ballot Request Form is available from the office of the Ohio Secretary of State, the law does not require this form to be used. For some reason, the McCain campaign created its own inferior form, which among other things omits instructions, the warning that false statements are a felony, and space for the requestor's telephone number and email address. The McCain campaign form has a checkbox next to the statement: "I am a qualified elector and would like to receive an Absentee Ballot for the November 4, 2008 General Election". Ohio Secretary of State Jennifer Brunner, a Democrat, ruled that applications in which the checkbox was not checked would be rejected. In spite of her offer to allow rejected applicants to correct the omission, a lawsuit was filed, resulting in a decision by the Ohio Supreme Court, which ordered [pdf] that absentee ballot requests should be honored even if the checkbox was not checked. (The Court's order contains a photograph of the form in question.)

Although in general I am wary of the use of technicalities to prevent eligible voters from voting (even Republicans), I find the reasoning of the Ohio Supreme Court to be deficient in linguistic terms. The Court correctly observed that the governing law, Ohio Revised Code §3509, merely requires that the application contain several components.

The application, subscribed and sworn to by the applicant, shall contain all of the following:

 ⋮

(2) A statement that such person is a qualified elector in the county;

 ⋮

The Court took the position that since the statute says nothing about checkboxes and that the McCain campaign form contains "a statement that such person is a qualified elector in the county", the form satisfies the legal requirements whether or not the checkbox is checked. I disagree with the Court's conclusion that the form contains the requisite statement.

Now obviously I do not dispute that the words "I am a qualified elector" are printed on the form. Rather, I deny that a person who has not checked the box can be considered to have uttered these words. The Court considered the check box to be an extraneous decoration, when in fact it is just as much a communicative element of the form as the text. There is a grammar of forms just as there is a grammar of sentences. A check box means "ignore the associated text unless I am checked". A form containing a section associated with an unchecked check box must be construed without that section.

The Court argues further that the only reason to fill out the form is to request an absentee ballot, and that this somehow carries with it the affirmation that the requestor is qualified to vote. This ignores the fact that it is perfectly possible for someone who is not qualified to vote to attempt to obtain an absentee ballot, and that the legislature, in its wisdom, expressly required an affirmation that the requestor is a qualified voter in the hope that this would deter fraud. By failing to recognize that checkboxes are meaningful, the Court has undermined the intent of the legislature.

User:	drug_war_rant
Date:	2008-10-07 03:25
Subject:	Will Crime Policy Show Up in Tomorrow's Debate?
Security:	Public

http://blogs.salon.com/0002762/2008/10/06.html#a3060

2. Obama's record on crime. "Far outside the mainstream." Crime record -- far outside the mainstram...issues like gang violence and crack/powder retroactivity (which even the Bush admin supports but is not popular)... Are they skating close to the race line here? The McCain camp turns it around: since when is a black candidate given a free pass on these issues?

John McCain Will Appoint Judges Who Follow The Constitution Rather Than Those Who Engage In Judicial Activism. In doing so, John McCain will provide law enforcement with the certainty and confidence required to make critical decisions knowing that their actions will be judged fairly by the courts in the context of recognized precedent and accepted principles of law.

John McCain Recognizes That The Men And Women Of Our Law Enforcement Community Serve On The Front Lines Of America's Struggle Against Crime. The federal government has the responsibility to support state and local law enforcement by handling those responsibilities that federal law enforcement is uniquely qualified to address, by providing the tools and technology that law enforcement need to be effective in the 21st century, and through consistency in the law by appointing federal judges who will follow the Constitution.

If all McCain has to attack Obama with are the votes in the linked item, stick a fork in the GOP nominee, he's done. Crime is declining and that's just not what the public cares about right now. We're in "it's the economy, stupid," mode. I do think the blogger correctly outlines McCain's likely attacks, I just don't think they'll resonate.

State law enforcement officials who worked with the senator at the time were hesitant to criticize Obama, saying only that while he sometimes voted for "individual rights" rather than for facilitating law enforcement, in other areas he was very supportive and was "always" open to discussion.

User:	drug_war_rant
Date:	2008-10-07 02:40
Subject:	Why nobody turns to the cops for help anymore
Security:	Public

http://blogs.salon.com/0002762/2008/10/06.html#a3059

		User:	polyboston (posted by alan7388)
		Date:	2008-10-06 23:32
		Subject:	Report on Poly Pride Weekend in New York
		Security:	Public

I've put up my report on Poly Pride Weekend in New York that just ended yesterday. I hope to add more later.

I've also posted a wrapup of the associated media coverage.

Cheers!

Alan M.

-------------------------------------------
Keep up with Polyamory in the News!
-------------------------------------------

		User:	bipolypagangeek (posted by alan7388)
		Date:	2008-10-06 23:32
		Subject:	Report on Poly Pride Weekend in New York
		Security:	Public

I've put up my report on Poly Pride Weekend in New York that just ended yesterday. I hope to add more later.

I've also posted a wrapup of the associated media coverage.

Cheers!

Alan M.

-------------------------------------------
Keep up with Polyamory in the News!
-------------------------------------------

		User:	rosefox
		Date:	2008-10-06 23:26
		Subject:	"Bitch moan bunny puppy"
		Security:	Public
		Mood:	exhausted

( You are about to view content that may not be appropriate for minors. )

		User:	elisem
		Date:	2008-10-06 22:02
		Subject:	ArtLog: unexpected Monday Current Shinies!
		Security:	Public

( in progress... last few photos on the way tomorrow.... )

		User:	jducoeur
		Date:	2008-10-06 22:53
		Subject:	As "reasons for a traffic jam" go...
		Security:	Public

... I would say that "stuck behind circus elephants" is a pretty good one. (But man, I am not used to steering around gigantic elephant turds on the science bridge...)

		User:	redbird
		Date:	2008-10-06 22:48
		Subject:	Update on Soren
		Security:	Public

Reposting from coyotegoth's journal:

[Coyotegoth is] just back from the hospital. baldanders is intermittently conscious-- he was resting when [Coyotegoth] left. roadnotes is bearing up as well as one could hope for at such a time. Apparently, they're setting up a bed for Soren in the ICU; he didn't seem to be able to speak, but [Coyotegoth] saw him nod in response to questions; he seems somewhat cognizant. He's resting now; will update when I know more.

User:	joegandelman
Date:	2008-10-07 02:10
Subject:	Can’t Wait for More Debates (Guest Cartoonist)
Security:	Public

http://feeds.feedburner.com/~r/themoderatevoice/~3/413360097/

http://themoderatevoice.com/politics/barack-obama/23260/cant-wait-for-more-debates-guest-cartoonist/

This is a Guest Cartoon by moderate cartoonist Tom Briscoe who will be joining TMV soon as a coblogger.

User:	joegandelman
Date:	2008-10-07 02:02
Subject:	Malcolm Gladwell on Juries and Race
Security:	Public

http://feeds.feedburner.com/~r/themoderatevoice/~3/413360098/

http://themoderatevoice.com/society/law-enforcement/23258/malcolm-gladwell-on-juries-and-race/

Over the past couple days we’ve had some compelling posts about the “race card” and “racism without racists” here at TMV. Those posts have drawn very vibrant comment threads; the kind of discussion that makes blogging vital. I hope I might add to and continue that discussion with this re-posting of a piece I wrote about a SXSW keynote address Malcolm Gladwell gave back in March 2005.

In it Gladwell recounts this story [video] from his book, Blink…

It seems the great conductors of the world once innocently believed that men were innately better musicians than women and orchestras were male bastions. When one day, through a set of fortuitous circumstances, a male maestro auditioned a woman he thought was a man (she auditioned from behind a screen) he hired her. And when screens were broadly adopted it became clear to everyone that women were every bit as talented musicians as men.

What once was “obvious,” that men were better musicians, is now obviously not.

His story is to illustrate the power and peril of subliminal snap judgments. Says Gladwell [@48:38 The “clip” feature is no longer supported]:

There are certain things about somebody that all of us are really really good at knowing right away, and certain things that we may think we’re good at knowing that we are profoundly not…

Sexual attractiveness, you can do like that…

When we have real experience with something we are good at making profoundly good snap judgments, but in almost every other situation where we do not have that level of expertise our snap judgments are bad. And as a society I feel we are way too cavalier about the products of our snap judgments.

After his talk, during the questions, Gladwell made this observation that I have seen made no place else [@50:29]:

I have become convinced since writing this book that juries should never be able to see the defendants in a jury trial; that that is just crazy. Why? Because the kind of snap judgments a jury is likely to make about a defendant from seeing the defendant are all irrelevant…

Every year someone stands up and points out that there are huge differentials in the conviction rates and sentences for blacks and whites convicted of the same crime. And yet we make that observation and kind of shrug and say, “Well, that’s America.”

We don’t have to live with that. Why don’t we do something about it?

I would bet every dollar I own that if we put the defendant in a backroom and had the defendant answer all questions by email that the gap between black and white defendants, the sentences and conviction rates would shrink.

I absolutely believe that.

I do too. But, I wonder, what do you all think?

User:	joegandelman
Date:	2008-10-07 01:55
Subject:	McCain’s Death Throes
Security:	Public

http://feeds.feedburner.com/~r/themoderatevoice/~3/413360099/

http://themoderatevoice.com/at-tmv/newsweek-blogitics/23259/mccains-death-throes/

It’s always sad to see a venerated figure descend into self-parody. Like Michael Richards - Kramer from Seinfeld - who circled around the toilet bowl in a fit of racist rage in a stand-up comedy show, the McCain brand is quickly turning an election defeat into a humiliating rout. Yes, the economy is the fundamental factor here. But McCain’s decision to turn the last month into a hate-fest looks desperate.

There is a time and place for character attacks in politics: August. Every successful character attack in prior elections took place in August and early September - never October. The point is simple: destroy the opponent just when people start tuning in. But when it comes time for the homestretch, pivot back to unifying and positive themes. Bush did this in 2004 as did his father in 1988.

McCain seemed poised to do the same thing this year. He went hard negative in late July with the Britney Spears meme. The attacks helped consolidate Republican support behind McCain, even though many never liked him. But then, at the RNC, John McCain delivered one of the more underrated speeches of the whole cycle. With a record audience watching John McCain summoned the old 2000 version filled with high-minded idealism, independence, likability and reform. It was the happy warrior that captivated so many people in 2000.

Sarah Palin certainly helped McCain solidify the base and allow him to pivot to the center. But McCain may have been able to do it on his own.

The polls at the time validated McCain’s strategy. In early September, after the RNC, McCain had attained a small but measurable lead in all polls.

But then Black Monday happened. The stock market crashed. Major investment banks collapsed. And the government was called upon to bail out the financial services industry.

From that point on Obama simply took over the race. This happened for three reasons:
1) The general public always blames the party in power for economic woes. That’s the Republicans (despite the Dems holding Congress since 2006).
2) McCain has admitted all along that economics is not his strong suit. And his top economic adviser over the years - Phil Gramm - made a perfect symbol for Wall Street excess
3) McCain responded, yes, erratically to the crisis. He said the fundamentals of the economy are strong, and then later in the day said they were in crisis; he called for a Blue Ribbon commission and then rejected it the next day; he called for the SEC Chairman to be fired, and then pulled that back; he suspended his campaign and called for a postponement of the debate…and then went ahead to the debate without a deal; he showed up in Washington ready to get things done and then sat silently in the White House meeting. By contrast, Obama was calm, cool and collected through the whole crisis. Yes, he was hands-off with the negotiations. But that may have been the right call, considering that Obama did not sit on the banking and finance committee.

Every tack the McCain camp took - accusing Obama of “cheerleading the crisis,” sitting on the sidelines, vacillating, etc. - seemed to backfire.

So John McCain made a fateful decision this weekend. It’s time to “turn the page” on the economy and start slinging mud.

Barack Obama stood ready for the assault, launching a pre-emptive ad mocking McCain for thinking he can turn the page on the economy. Once McCain - and Palin particularly - pushed the Ayers issue, Obama greenlighted the Keating Five issue. While I wish Obama had not brought up the Keating Five, I understand that Obama would have appeared Dukakis-like if he failed to respond forcefully.

So here we are, with McCain descending further and further into Michelle Malkin-land, invoking far-right conspiracy theories just to rile the base. As Peggy Noonan pointed out today, McCain and Palin just aren’t big enough for this moment. Going to the base in October is a sign of weakness. Having a uniformed sheriff from Lee County, FL say “Barack Hussein Obama” is a sign of desperation, not strength. And accusing Obama of “palling around with terrorists,” while the financial crisis instills real terror into people’s hearts is a sign of how out of touch the McCain has become.

There are really only two questions at this point:

1) Did McCain go this route out of personal frustration? Is this recklessness on his part simply a reflection of desperation in McCain’s camp?

2) Or is this a well-thought-out strategy meant to pull voters away from Obama?

The key here is timing. If McCain piled this stuff on in July and August then I would say it was the latter. But in October, with voters already voting in many states and polls consolidating behind Obama, these attacks look like mere flailing more than anything else. It’s as if the McCain campaign has nothing but the Bradley Effect to bail itself out. And I doubt that will work.

This is the sign of a campaign in its death throes. Its charges don’t stick. Its rhetoric is mocked far and wide. And the center turns away in revulsion. McCain has been reduced to literally reading viral (and debunked) emails at rallies. This happened to Dole down the stretch in 1996 and to Bush in 1992. Only a national security crisis or massive revelation from Obama can save John McCain now. Barring that, this campaign is essentially over.

		User:	miz_evolution
		Date:	2008-10-06 22:29
		Subject:	yeah, so, being pissed and all...
		Security:	Public

( You are about to view content that may only be appropriate for adults. )

		User:	james_nicoll
		Date:	2008-10-06 22:28
		Subject:	A universal
		Security:	Public

Nothing unites a group of usenetters like the need to make poor people stop having babies.

Actually, it's poor people in other countries, which I think gets double the points.

		User:	syndramise
		Date:	2008-10-06 21:07
		Subject:
		Security:	Public

You Should Call Your Boobs

Death & Taxes

User:	joegandelman
Date:	2008-10-07 01:13
Subject:	McCain Palin Campaign Rallies: Calls To “Kill” That “Terrorist” Obama
Security:	Public

http://feeds.feedburner.com/~r/themoderatevoice/~3/413314847/

http://themoderatevoice.com/at-tmv/newsweek-blogitics/23255/mccain-palin-campaign-rallies-calls-to-kill-that-terrorist-obama/

Independent voters and many thoughtful Republicans and Democrats have over the past 8 years decried the deterioration of American national election rhetoric. Now the campaign of Republican Presidential candidate Sen. John McCain and Vice Presidential candidate Sarah Palin seems to be sparking ominous reactions from some supporters.

The two incidents have gotten some press and blog play. What’s troubling is if it reflects an unleashing of passions that might be the kind better left leashed and unprovoked by rhetoric taken by some partisans to mean Obama is dangerous to the United States.

Despite stories and posts characterizing the political scene, the national political context of these incidents remains murky and often contradictory — despite the up or down poll-influenced perspectives of partisans and pundits.

On one hand, there are signs that independent voters are moving towards Obama in greater numbers than before due to the economic crisis and the debates. On the other, a new CBS News poll, taking into account the impact of the Vice Presidential debate, shows Obama’s lead has shrunk from 9 points Wednesday to 3 points.

Yet, Gallup still has Obama ahead by 8 points in its daily tracking poll and CNN finds Obama is widening his lead overall. The bottom line: a lot can still change.

One shift: there are signs the campaign has now moved into truly ugly — and potentially dangerous - territory.

At a campaign rally, McCain asked who “is the real Barack Obama” and a follower shouted out “terrorist” — which elicits a facial response from McCain but no comment from McCain about how Obama is not a terrorist. Here’s the You Tube:

And at Florida Palin rally, a supporter shouts out a suggestion about what to do to Obama: kill him. No apparent response from Palin:

It was time to revive the allegation, made over the weekend, that Obama “pals around” with terrorists, in this case Bill Ayers, late of the Weather Underground. Many independent observers say Palin’s allegations are a stretch; Obama served on a Chicago charitable board with Ayers, now an education professor, and has condemned his past activities.

“Now it turns out, one of his earliest supporters is a man named Bill Ayers,” Palin said.

“Boooo!” said the crowd.

“And, according to the New York Times, he was a domestic terrorist and part of a group that, quote, ‘launched a campaign of bombings that would target the Pentagon and our U.S. Capitol,’” she continued.

“Boooo!” the crowd repeated.

“Kill him!” proposed one man in the audience.

Palin went on to say that “Obama held one of the first meetings of his political career in Bill Ayers’s living room, and they’ve worked together on various projects in Chicago.” Here, Palin began to connect the dots. “These are the same guys who think that patriotism is paying higher taxes — remember that’s what Joe Biden had said. “And” — she paused and sighed — “I am just so fearful that this is not a man who sees America the way you and I see America, as the greatest force for good in the world. I’m afraid this is someone who sees America as ‘imperfect enough’ to work with a former domestic terrorist who had targeted his own country.”

No one seriously believes McCain really thinks Obama is a terrorist. And no one would seriously believe Palin really wants Obama physically harmed. But in both instances if they heard such rhetoric they could have stopped and tried to push it back a bit.

It’s not illegal. It’s not ethical. But it will likely be a reason why some people who might agree with them on policies will vote against them — particularly if these voters had hoped that in January the U.S. might move into a new era where opponents were no longer labeled dangerous to the Republic. And that the new era would be prefaced by a spirited campaign debate based on critical national issues.

Meanwhile, a new poll finds independent voters are now shifting towards Obama. Will these new attacks on Obama and press coverage of not just the attacks but the apparent strategy behind them — McCain officials quoted as saying they wanted to turn a page on the economy and get the discussion back to Obama — spur on a shift even more? Or will independents be persuaded by the attacks? Will polls tighten even more because negative campaigning works? The poll:

Independent voters are starting to swing behind Barack Obama and Joe Biden, who continue to benefit from economic turmoil and the public response to their debate performances, according to a new Wall Street Journal/NBC News poll.

The survey, conducted over the weekend, was full of good news for the Democratic presidential ticket. Sen. Obama increased his advantage over Republican rival John McCain when voters were asked which candidate they prefer to handle economic issues at a time when a growing percentage of voters said that was their top concern heading into the election. More voters said they are “more reassured” by how Sen. Obama was responding to the financial crisis than by Sen. McCain.

Sens. Obama and Biden have a six-point lead, with 49% of registered voters saying they would vote for them, compared with 43% for Sen. McCain and Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin. That is up from a two-point advantage in the previous Journal poll, two weeks ago, and parallels other recent national polls. The survey has a margin of error of plus or minus 3.8 percentage points.

“McCain has absorbed a very tough one-two punch — the financial crisis, then the debates,” said Neil Newhouse, a Republican pollster who conducts the survey with Democratic pollster Peter D. Hart. “These two things have clearly led to a momentum shift in this campaign where Obama has started to slowly stretch his lead.”

Independent voters are among the most important voting blocs because many of them would consider voting for either candidate. In the Journal/NBC poll two weeks ago, independents favored Sen. McCain by 13 points. The new survey finds Sen. Obama leading by four points.

But, the Journal notes, the campaign is hardly over: Obama could still make a major mistake and the polls — polls that have shifted so much this campaign season — could shift once again. For instance, the mainstream media is now finding some bogus Obama campaign donors.

User:	joegandelman
Date:	2008-10-07 01:03
Subject:	Half Of Australia Is “Virgin”
Security:	Public

http://feeds.feedburner.com/~r/themoderatevoice/~3/413314848/

http://themoderatevoice.com/science/environment/nature/22590/half-of-australia-is-virgin/

The ‘outback’ and the ‘bush’ have an iconic status in Australian life. A recent report for the Pew Environment Group and Nature Conservancy said that Australia had the highest number of endemic mammal and reptile species in the world.

“Three million square kilometres (1.1 million sq miles) — an area 12 times the size of mainland Britain — have been left pristine. We were pleasantly surprised that there were still so many areas which came up in such good condition after 200 years of European settlement. The other two great remaining wilderness areas in the world are the Sahara and the northern Boreal forest in Canada.

“Australia has a total land mass of 2,988,902 sq miles (7.7 million sq km) and a population of about 21 million, most of whom live in the capital cities around the coast.

“The areas of the Outback highlighted in the report were in central Australia and at the top of Queensland, regions that are predominantly unsettled or under the control of Aboriginal communities. Nearly a quarter of Australia is indigenous freehold land.

“The Wild Australia programme, a collaborative project between the Pew Environment Group, which is based in Washington DC in the US, and the Nature Conservancy, would invest $A12 million (£6 million) — raised over three years from private, conservation-minded donors in the US — in maintaining the wilderness areas. ”

More here…

User:	joegandelman
Date:	2008-10-07 00:57
Subject:	No Decision on Troy Anthony Davis Appeal
Security:	Public

http://feeds.feedburner.com/~r/themoderatevoice/~3/413314849/

http://themoderatevoice.com/society/law-legal-matters/legal-matters/23257/no-decision-on-troy-anthony-davis-appeal/

A decision on whether or not the Supreme Court would grant cert in the case of Troy Anthony Davis had been widely-expected today. The Court apparently needs more time:

The high court issued orders Monday addressing the appeals of numerous cases, but none as to whether it will accept or reject Davis’ appeal. Instead, the court, in a listing on its docket, said it will meet in a private conference on Friday to consider Davis’ appeal.

On Sept. 23, the court halted Davis’ execution less than two hours before it was to be carried out. The court’s nine justices then met in conference on Sept. 29 to decide whether to accept the appeal. Now, they will meet once more to discuss the case.

The court did not say when it will issue a decision.

Earlier the CBS affiliate in Atlanta reported that the court decided not to intervene. Citing CNN; CNN has nothing on the case today.

SCOTUS has Davis on the docket for Friday.

		User:	montrealais
		Date:	2008-10-06 21:51
		Subject:
		Security:	Public

Coffee, which makes the Politician wise,
And see through all things with his half-shut eyes.

		User:	miz_evolution
		Date:	2008-10-06 21:40
		Subject:	You...
		Security:	Public
		Mood:	enraged

( You are about to view content that may only be appropriate for adults. )

User:	joegandelman
Date:	2008-10-06 23:52
Subject:	Does John McCain Suffer from the “S” Syndrome?”
Security:	Public

http://feeds.feedburner.com/~r/themoderatevoice/~3/413274039/

http://themoderatevoice.com/media/tv-news/cnn/23254/does-john-mccain-suffer-from-the-s-syndrome/

Do you repeatedly confuse words that begin with S? Such as, for example, do you say salt instead of sugar, or—to your wife, or husband—sweaty instead of sweetie? If so, you may be afflicted by the very same ailment that McCain may be suffering from.

In his Sunday New York Times column, “Pitbull Palin Mauls McCain,” Frank Rich is quite concerned about McCain’s physical and mental health.

He writes:

The second bit of predebate news, percolating under the radar, involved the still-unanswered questions about McCain’s health. Back in May, you will recall, the McCain campaign allowed a select group of 20 reporters to spend a mere three hours examining (but not photocopying) 1,173 pages of the candidate’s health records on the Friday of Memorial Day weekend. Conspicuously uninvited was Lawrence Altman, a doctor who covers medicine for The New York Times. Altman instead canvassed melanoma experts to evaluate the sketchy data that did emerge. They found the information too “unclear” to determine McCain’s cancer prognosis.

There was, however, at least one doctor-journalist among those 20 reporters in May, the CNN correspondent Sanjay Gupta. At the time, Gupta told Katie Couric on CBS that the medical records were “pretty comprehensive” and wrote on his CNN blog that he was “pretty convinced there was no ‘smoking gun’ about the senator’s health.” (Physical health, that is; Gupta wrote there was hardly any information on McCain’s mental health.)

That was then. Now McCain is looking increasingly shaky, whether he’s repeating his “Miss Congeniality” joke twice in the same debate or speaking from notecards even when reciting a line for (literally) the 17th time (“The fundamentals of our economy are strong”) or repeatedly confusing proper nouns that begin with S (Sunni, Shia, Sudan, Somalia, Spain). McCain’s “dismaying temperament,” as George Will labeled it, only thickens the concerns. His kamikaze mission into Washington during the bailout crisis seemed crazed. His seething, hostile debate countenance — a replay of Al Gore’s sarcastic sighing in 2000 — didn’t make the deferential Obama look weak (as many Democrats feared) but elevated him into looking like the sole presidential grown-up.

[Italics and emphasis mine]

I am no medical expert, but Frank Rich may be on to something here. The “S syndrome” may also explain why John McCain repeatedly confuses spin with substance, skullduggery with straighttalk, sleaze with statesmanship, surge with success and Sarah with Superwoman.

And, talking about Superwoman, whatever the final diagnosis is, I hope that McCain’s ailment is not contagious, or we’ll soon hear Sarah Palin confuse superstition with science, shtick with savvy and swiftboating with sense (of right, and wrong). On second thought, it may already be too late for the pitbull with (s)lipstick…

		User:	rivka
		Date:	2008-10-06 21:10
		Subject:	Size Acceptance/HAES people, critique my letter!
		Security:	Public

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