Norwegianity has put out a request to design an appropriate logo for all of us godless heathen bloggers. There’s a certain religious deathcult that uses an instrument of torture as its immediately recognizable logo—it’s very simple, clean, easy to draw, and they’ve made it their own. You see one of those things on a website or on a necklace and you instantly know to a very rough approximation the predilections of the owner. Why can’t we have something like that?
My take on this, amplifying some stuff in comments as well as some thoughts of my own:
♫ = earth (for earthling: sorry about the cross). ☉ = sun, also apropos. ☼ = sun (a variant)
â—¯ = large circle.
㊷ – no comment ☄ = where did we come from anyway?
I wondered if there was a good overview of what progressives have done to improve society: Doghouse Riley does a nice job here.
It’s an article of faith on the right the Right that the Left hates inequality. On its face, it seems like a fine thing to believe in but in what passes for thinking over there, they don’t see anyone benefiting from these improvements. They only see the poor businessman being forced to change his ways to suit some do-gooders’ agenda. Take a look at the results:
[M]uch of the improvement of life for the poor, or Lucky Duckies, if you will, is a result of political action, the sort of political action your lot opposed at every turn until it comes time to pat yourself on the back for it. 40 hour, 5 day work weeks. The end of child labor and unsafe working conditions. Rural electrification. Programs to end smallpox, rickets, and many other disease and nutritional deficiencies in poor children. Unleaded gasoline is a government mandate, not a technological breakthrough, and as a result (and the mandated elimination of lead in paint) there’s much less lead poisoning in children than fifty years ago. And, of course, the New Deal and Great Society programs which have reduced poverty and provided access to medical care for the poor. Of course we still have an abysmal child mortality rate, and poor nutrition, and the least cost-efficient healthcare, and the most overpriced prescription drugs, and a shameful discrepancy in public education between rich and poor, but the last twenty-five years of retrenchment have given you the opportunity to blame all that on the children who suffer it.
This is part of constantly reappearing meme about how everything is better today through the application of technology, a sort of Star Trek philosophy. No matter what problems come up, some guy in a white coat will figure out a solution, so we need never worry about the future.
I was reminded of a quote by Einstein — “We can’t solve problems by using the same kind of thinking we used when we created them” — that seemed applicable. But I also saw this one, a little more pointed — “Technological progress is like an axe in the hands of a pathological criminal.”
In fact, a lot of the quotes listed there speak directly to that kind of mindless faith in technology, which is interesting when one considers that gulf between the intellects of the proponents and the skeptics.
I read this quote and immediately flashed to the end of Raider of the Lost Ark when Jones demands to know who is researching the Ark: “Top men.” “Who?” “Top. Men.”
risk management: where does the responsibility for it lie? in individuals (build a house in combustible grasslands, it burns, firemen die) or with the state (permit such actions, firemen die)?
[A user calling themselves] WSDOT Alaskan Way Viaduct Project made some extensive changes to the Wikipedia article, which may very well have been changed again by the time you read this, but you can see all the changes they made here. You may notice a theme: most of the changes argue a pro-tunnel POV.
Was someone in the WSDOT office bored this afternoon, is editing Wikipedia to drum up support for the tunnel option a new WSDOT mandate, or is a tunnel fan naming themselves after the government agency?
This could work to discredit or somewhat neutralize Wikipedia’s effectiveness. Even its proponents disclaim that it’s authoritative, but to be so easily abused is unfortunate.
I doubt this little campaign will be very effective, for all that. Wikipedia is not (yet) a first-line research tool/resoure for most people, so few will be taken in by this.
so much for spreading democracy: more like exporting incompetence. those we hoped to inspire are now discredited and forced to give up their hopes of reform. is *anyone* better off today than 6 years ago?
They’re not trying to win skeptics over to their side, they’re trying to refuel the deep well of denial that keeps their true believers from jumping ship.
From 700,000 to 1 million Americans have Parkinson’s disease, according to the New England Journal of Medicine. […] I hope that Limbaugh hears from every one of them.
‘These kind of “training” exercises could provide perfect cover for the final preparations and fleet movements needed to get ready for war. We’ll know soon enough.’
Photos by Harley Soltes Aaron Goss of Seattle is riding high on a custom tower bike along the 33 mile Chilly Hilly bike course on Bainbridge Island. The 34th Annual Chilly Hilly bicycle ride on Bainbridge Island is a 33 mile route with 2,675 feet of hilly climbing.
Hey, lookit, it’s a guy on a tallbike without a helmet. But that’s not all I see. I also see a guy on a Cascade ride without a bib number. That means he didn’t pay the fee for the ride[1], freeloading off those who did pay and the volunteers who set up the logistics (the ferry rides and various amenities)[2].
What is the point exactly? The freeloading aspect isn’t acknowledged here so I can’t tell. I have to assume from what I have seen and read that there is an effort to disrupt organized rides with a message of misguided individuality and “personal freedom.” When personal freedom extends to “pirating” or freeloading on the efforts of others, what message does that send?
The rest of the thread goes on about “hyper skilled” riding ability, whatever that means. I’m not sure how much we progress as cyclists from the day the training wheels come off, other than in endurance and strength. Either you stay up or you don’t: I realize some people can execute turns and maneuvers better than others, but so what? In a crowded field like a Chilly Hilly, there isn’t a lot of room for fancy maneuvers or demonstrations of skill. And that’s the very experience I think recommends wearing a helmet. Consider: I don’t wear my seatbelt because I think I’m going to hit someone. I wear it because I might be hit by someone else. Likewise the helmet: for all my experience, I have seen plenty of “skilled” riders do stupid things in crowded situations. I lost two teeth last year as a result of some riders being unable to maintain safe riding distance. Without a helmet, who knows what might have happened?
There’s way too much ego and outright self-centered attitude here for me to understand. There’s a whole of baggage about lifestyle and personal freedom that I can’t unpack. It seems to boil down to “I do what I want and if you don’t like it, you’re a Nazi!” As long as everyone who decides laws are for other people has a notarized document that assumes all risk and expenses, perhaps that would work. As I mentioned earlier, a friend came up with the idea of a license, not as a test of skill but as an acknowledgment of the responsibilities that come with riding. After all, if you wreck, the State will roll an ambulance for you. But perhaps for helmetless radicals we should just send a guy with a bucket and shovel.
There was also a conversation on the Cascade boards about this picture. There’s definitely an “us vs them” atmosphere, to the point where the word “Cascade” on one of the more freethinking community boards gets replaced by “Training Wheels.” Institutionalized insults . . . nice.
2. Apparently, the folks who jumped into the Chilly Hilly were on Bainbridge for one of their own events, so they paid their own way out there. Interesting that it would be the same day, though.
Harold Ford should film a response to the GOP’s racist attack ad. He should look into the camera and say this:
The Republicans have accused me of being a heterosexual man. They’re implying that I have an interest in women. It would seem that today’s Republican Party is more comfortable with elected officials—male elected officials—who take an interest in teenage boys. Mark Foley is acceptable to Ken Mehlman’s GOP. Heterosexual men, it seems, are not.
Mr. Ford told his audience here, and elsewhere in recent days, that the attacks were simply a sign of desperation, a sign the Republicans have nothing else to say. He added, “You know your opponent is scared when his main opposition against you is, ‘My opponent likes girls.’ ” The audience erupted in laughter.
Think any teevee stations in Tennessee will run it?
"The problem with all his logic and evidence and rationality is that he just doesn't understand how good nonsense feels.
Anyway, Bertrand Russell did it first."
He couldn’t think of a single person who had switched from opposition to support for the war in Iraq — instead, all he saw were people flowing in the opposite direction. Maybe, he added, those folks aren’t cowards or traitors. “Maybe they just realize th
I didn’t know any of my stuff had made the Flickr Explore page.
Chuffed, indeed.
I’ll take this as an admonishment to shoot more B&W, since no color stuff has been considered notable.
And to make matters more interesting, the one on the left was taken with a wooden box with a brass hole in one end — much like this one, by the same maker — and the other on a $20 piece of mass-produced Chinese junk. Draw from that what you will.
The Stranger gags its way through a plate of cold crow . . . but perhaps it’s not that simple. At the time, it felt right(eous) and I never would have guessed things would look as hopeful as they do now.
[T]he Urban Archipelago piece was a response—a quick-turn, reflexive, emotional response—to how shitty and rejected we, as urban voters, felt after the election. If we feel positive and positively welcome now, I’m glad that UA is looking quaint. But that doesn’t change the fact that urban values are real.
A confluence of factors — the undeniable stench of corruption, Howard Dean’s 50 state strategy (oh, how they laughed at his folly), and the administration’s refusal to face reality — has gotten us to this pass: some might call it luck, but you can make your own luck.
And reading through the arguments made by the UA, they may be shrill, even nasty, but there is a kernel of truth to the love of science and history versus unreasoning faith, to be willing to tolerate flag-burning instead of burning the Constitution dichotomy.
I’m glad Dr Dean is running the Democratic Party under a policy of “concede nothing, run to win everywhere.” In the words of Dave “Mudcat” Saunders:
They can’t […] count. That’s the Democrats’ problem. You don’t get in the football game and punt on first down. You concede nothing. We conceded 20 states at first and then six more by Labor Day. That’s 227 electoral votes. Bush only needed 18 percent of the remaining electoral votes to win.
