Posts from — April 2007

Boris Nikolayevich Yeltsin [Борис Николаевич Ельцин], first President of the Russian Federation [1991-1999] has died, apparently from heart problems.

He was what he was, a hard drinking construction worker who made it big in politics of the same Communist Party that had thrown his father into the gulag for anti-Communist views.

The BBC obituary is polite about it.

Saint George is the patron saint of England, Georgia [the country], Bulgaria, Portugal, Catalonia, and the city of Moscow. Orthodox countries tend to celebrate George on November 23^rd.

PETA condemns George for his senseless slaughter of dragons. The YWCA condemns the condemnation and wants to know when PETA is going to volunteer to be DragonChow™

Mustang Bobby reminded me that it is also the birth and death day of Billy the Bard, who was a great writer in desperate need of a spell checker.

Master Shakespeare gave all of the best lines to villains supplying low humor to those who have read the Folio, e.g. Arlen Specter quoting Iago, reputedly in support of Clarence Thomas.

Via ‘Noz a clear case of recycling while brown.

Keep in mind that ROTC is “Reserve Officer Training Corps.”

Okay, for those people who are not fond of pets and don’t understand the problem, does calling it “animal feed” help?

Melamine found at California pig farm, because out of date pet food is sold to hog farms as animal feed.

Mad Cow Disease is spread by animal feed that contains parts from other diseased animals especially sheep with scrapie.

E. coli O157:H7, as in “[t]wo beef producers, one in California and the other in Pennsylvania, have recalled a total of close to 400,000 pounds of beef stemming from fears of E. Coli contamination,” is a result of raising on grain, rather than allowing them to graze. The cows’ digestive system destroys this virulent form of E. coli when they digest grass.

This is why it is important to inspect pet food/animal feed. This stuff can enter the human food market.

Vista is been such a success that CNet reports that Dell is bringing XP back. In response to customer demand, Dell is going to make Windows XP available on its home machines, as it still is on its business machines.

The Dell was running a customer survey when Vista was introduced, and an extremely large number of people don’t want to switch. Apparently other people have stocks of XP machines, if you ask.

This is good news for people who would rather wait that switch. As Dell goes, so goes a large part of the computer market, so other companies will see the light.

She’s the only planet we have, if we blow it, we can’t pack up and move.

Wikipedia has a brief Earth Day entry, but links to other sites.

USGS Sea Level Rise animation if global warming continues.

Florida License Plates

Beneficiary

A weekend feature of Why Now.

By now everyone should have heard that chocolate is actually good for you, in moderation. Both dark chocolate and milk chocolate have health benefits.

Now we learn that the strawberry daiquiri is a health food. Apparently alcohol increases the natural benefits of berries, but in moderation.

There are reports that one of the F/A-18s of the Blue Angels has crashed during an air show in South Carolina. The local coroner has said that the pilot died in the crash.

The Blue Angels are stationed at NAS Pensacola, 35 miles West of me.

There have been a couple of major clashes between public and private space and for what it’s worth these are my thoughts.

I am a supporter of the Second Amendment right to own weapons, but there is a very big difference between having those weapons in private space and having them in public space. You have a right to have them on your own property, but you have to accommodate the wishes of society if you want have them on public property. It isn’t your decision to make on public property, it is the public’s decision. In addition to the discussion around what happened at Virginia Tech, the Florida legislature is playing with “take your gun to work” laws. As far as I’m concerned if the business owner doesn’t want guns on the property, the public has no right to overrule that decision.

It works the same with free speech – your right to be heard doesn’t override my right to be left alone. Your exercise of freedom of religion can’t trump my right to be free from your religion. Just because you’re free to print newspapers, doesn’t mean I have to buy one.

That brings me to another big story, the Supreme Court decision on a medical procedure. I don’t see why this is anyone’s business but those directly involved. I see people talking about “society’s interest,” but I don’t see what society’s interest is. If the claim is that society has an interest in “unborn children”, that’s a lie on it’s face. If society actually had such an interest, society would be providing pre-natal care for pregnant women, and contraceptives so that women who don’t want to have a child don’t get pregnant. Without those two minimum efforts, the whole concept is a lie. The US has a rotten infant mortality rate for a first world country, so obviously society has no interest in “unborn children.”

I’m getting really tired with these big deficit, big government Republans sticking the Federal nose into everyone’s private lives. They can’t do their job, but they want to tell you how to live your life.

Update: This is why businesses don’t want guns on their property.

Culture Ghost wonders about this decision regarding Limbo by the Catholic Church, and most people just missed it. If you have never discussed the abortion issue in a group that included pro-Choice Catholics, you might not understand the importance of this: the Church leaders are plugging a major vulnerability in their justification for their stance on abortion.

Limbo has been a very hurtful thing for centuries for the parents of children who died before baptism. The Church held they were not going to Heaven because they had not been cleansed of their “original sin,” therefore they could not be buried in consecrated ground nor have the last rites performed. Such children were consigned to Limbo.

Many convents got around this policy by creating a “garden of innocents” on their grounds, which lead to major misunderstandings when convents were sold and the remains of multiple newborns were found buried on the premises during construction work. Sympathetic priests often “overlooked the technicalities” and baptisms were given to “unusually well behaved newborns.”

The fact remained that the Church was saying you were not a member until you had been baptized, but you were a human being at conception. The question was simple, if the unborn were valued, why weren’t they eligible for the Sacraments until after they were born and had been baptized. If they were children of G-d, why did G-d’s Church reject them?

Couples have left the Church over this issue, so it isn’t as insignificant as it seems to outsiders. The Church needed to “fix” this gap in its argument, and they are doing it. I hope they will forgive those of us who believe this has more to do with politics than theology.

The problems are apparently: guns, Asian immigrants, loners.

Okay, explain Ted Bundy:

• Admitted to 30 murders, but is suspected of many others, and strangled or beat his victims to death
• Good looking, well educated, native born white American
• Very personable, well-liked, out-going

Ted Bundy is the poster boy for the FBI’s profile of serial killers.

As Chris Regan notes April 19^th was the anniversary of Waco and Oklahoma City, two all American disasters.

It’s a rare incident indeed when you can go from the specific to the general.

There should be a requirement that before being eligible for any Federal appointment the applicant must show proof that they have successfully managed a nationally franchised fast-food restaurant for three consecutive months, and the owners are still willing to hire them as managers.

No exceptions should be granted, as being the CEO of a succession of failed corporations is not the same as being the manager of one successful business.

This requirement must be met before any specialized requirements for education and other training or experience are even looked at.

Via Scorpio at Eccentricity I located Teresa Nielsen Hayden’s Moderation Certificate Program at Making Light.