Category Archives: Interests

Pssst … right-wing protesters are not the most important thing : Damned Pundit :: Las Vegas CityLife

This needed said. Too much is being said about fringe psychopaths trying to ruin our nation because they lost an election. Yes, the Secret Service should pay a visit to the most extreme of them, but there is a certain truth that they would likely just go home and fume quietly if we quit giving them air time.

So rather than getting nervous about slipping (yet still strong) approval ratings for Obama and his policies or fretting because Beltway pundits have now changed their minds and decided that it may be possible after all for a Republican to win an election outside of rural Mississippi, Democratic politicians should focus on governing. Moreover, they should govern not so as to placate the often-irrational fears of the right or in a play-it-safe manner calculated to offend the fewest number of ill-informed independent voters. They should govern to secure and promote social and economic justice. Because they are Democrats. That is what they were elected to do. They can’t control the media. But they can control their policy agenda. Besides, the old adage bears repeating: Good policy is good politics.

Celebrate Your Freedom During Banned Books Week | GeekDad | Wired.com

GeekDad has a nice article concerning Banned Book Week, which runs from September 26−October 3 this year.

It galls me that we live in a society where people go out of their way to stop people from reading things that may be controversial. I personally can’t see me reading a Glenn Beck book, but I’m not going to stop anyone from reading one. Oh sure, I’ll probably consider them an idiot for doing so, but no more than I’d judge someone a douchebag for wearing a Yankees ballcap.

Instead we have these flag-waving (and -wearing) pseudo-patriot Talibangelical types who can’t stand kids reading about non-whites, or happy homosexual families, or, well, anything that isn’t the Bible apparently. If you follow this link and see how the list of books most banned have trended over the years, you’ll see an increasing amount of those books have themes that don’t fit into the narrow world view of most conservatives.

Look, everything these idiots do is wrong. Their attitudes towards women, race, sex ed, civil rights, war and peace, all have been proven wrong-headed, dangerous, and oftentimes lethal to those they purport to protect.

Ask any girl who escaped from an FLDS “marriage” or the average Iraqi, or one of the many “abstinence only” educated kid who either got knocked up or caught a STD because they weren’t properly educated. As a battered wife who can’t get help, or the family of some guy drug across East Texas because of the color of his skin.

Conservatives live in fear. They bask in it and want you in the pot with them. When you censor what people can read or watch or hear, you shut them off from free thinking. If people can’t think, they can’t create a challenge to the things that are wrong in a society. And whether they mean to or not, pro-censorship fools create conditions where Enron can rip off consumers, and Halliburton and pals can give our troops water that is ice melt from a truck hauling cadavers. A world where George Bush can con five Supreme Court justices and be president and to hell with how the people voted.

Censorship equals stupidity and stupidity leads directly towards a whole world of abuse.

We’re supposed to be better than this.

Old American Dams Quietly Become a Multibillion-Dollar Threat | Wired Science | Wired.com

We’ve got infrastructure problems across the board and while it is nice that we are looking into new roads and schools, what about our dams?

I mean, I love going over to Hoover Dam every so often, but really, it was built in the 1930s folks. And much of our nation’s big projects aren’t that much newer.

As a case if point referenced in the story, here are pics of the Russian dam disaster back on August 17th.

SPORTSbyBROOKS » L.A. Douses Adenhart Jersey In Celebratory Booze

Yes, as this article points out there is something slightly unseemly about pouring booze of a jersey of a fallen teammate who died in a drunk driving incident, but I’m damn sure that’s not what was on the minds of the Angels as they celebrated winning their division.

They wanted to share their success with Nick Adenhart, wishing he’d lived long enough to enjoy the moment with them.

The Angels are one of those few AL teams I have no problems with – maybe because they used to own the atrocity now known as the Quad City Swing or whatever there name now is. So, it is nice to see them have some success. Now, of course, it is probably on their shoulders to make sure the Yankees never see the World Series.

Good luck guys!

Titus’ star rising as Ensign struggles – Sunday, Sept. 27, 2009 | 2 a.m. – Las Vegas Sun

Here’s hoping this is a trend that will continue.

Ensign has to go. He won’t, but it is nice to see his influence diminished.

Titus needs to gain more clout. Harry Reid is spineless. Shelley Berkley’s anti-Obama speil during the primaries last year really turned me off to anything she has to say anymore. Honestly that goes for the whole damn crowd who went beyond being for Hillary and into character assassination just for laughs.

This means nothing for you outside of Nevada, but just liked the article.

BBC NEWS | Africa | SA pigeon ‘faster than broadband’

I’m spoiled. I know it. We basically have a T1 at home that only gets shared with a couple offices. So life is good.

However, traveling around the country for the past few years, I’ve seem how painfully slow internet access is in some places. And out in the Caribbean? Forget it.

So I found this story about a pigeon with a flash drive traveling faster than a “broadband” packet hilarious. And kind of sad too.

Information is the only way a lot of places are going to have to make a better life. And this planet is woefully unprepared to deliver.