Results tagged “Random” from Bill's Words
Things are really getting out of hand in Mexico. Hope it doesn’t wander north somehow… you know, across our border… which remains unprotected.
This article on CNN.com tells that one-fifth of Pakistan is flooded.
But… so what? Pakistan is, you know, like, tiny, right?
Nope. Its area is somewhere between that of Texas and Alaska—actually, about 15% bigger than Texas, our second-largest state. (Alaska is twice Pakistan’s size.)
So how much of Pakistan is flooded? Lest than Wisconsin, but more than Georgia, 62,080 square miles. Nearly two South Carolinas. A little more than Washington, DC, plus Rhode Island, Delaware, Connecticut, New Jersey, Vermont, Massachusetts, and Hawaii. Or Kentucky plus West Virginia. Get a map. See how big that is?
It’s big.
For a country which is totally above sea-level, that’s a mind-boggling figure.
Donate to the relief efforts here, remembering that not all of the people of any country hate us. Some are just stuck there, and in this case, are very, very wet.
Does anybody else find it ironic that the distracted driver crackdown is being promoted using the state’s electronic highway signs?
Simulated here for your irony-laden viewing pleasure:
(If the text above is not blinking, congratulations! You’re using at least a somewhat-modern browser! Simulate it by blinking your eyes. Thanks!)
The full text of the article, found here, essentially says that Representative Maxine Waters* is going to be investigated for ethics violations. That’s the gist of the story. But in the story, I found this sentence:
Both Waters and [Representative Charles] Rangel are prominent members of the Congressional Black Caucus.
I ask you, What does this declaration have to do with anything? It is the only mention of race in the story, and, other than the fact that it’s true, it’s totally irrelevant. Is the AP trying to imply that only members of the CBC are being investigated? Well, let’s see some evidence. Is the AP implying that only members of the CBC are unethical? Again, let’s see some evidence. If, for some reason, the story had to do something with race or racism, then this otherwise-superfluous sentence might have a place in the story.
But it doesn’t belong here, and it is representative of the type of misuse of media which promotes racism instead of bridging the racial divide.
* Interestingly (to me, anyway), when I initially wrote this entry, I had written “Democratic Representative Maxine Waters” and “New York Democratic Representative Charles Rangel” when referring to the two representatives under (or potentially) under investigation. I went back and edited out the unnecessarily-divisive reference to their parties, as it has no bearing on my point. It is, of course, relevant to the AP story because the article is making a point that the Democrats are going to have a harder time keeping the majority in the Congress with problems like these.
For most of you, this is going to be a, “Huh?” post. But if you are in Surry Hills, 02, Australia (What’s the “02” mean?) and you use a feed reader called Fever, would you mind turning it down just a touch? For starters, it looks like you have two different versions of Fever running side-by-side (1.15 and 1.11). Since they’re looking at this site twice an hour each, the bandwidth is adding up. (It’s surprising how much 44K+44K+44K+44K… ends up being.)
If you could make one of them check only, say, two or three times a day, and maybe turn the other one off entirely, I’d greatly appreciate it. I guarantee you won’t miss any exciting, breaking news if you don’t check quite as often because… well, because I never post anything that “breaks,” exactly. (I’ll leave the determination of “exciting” up to you.)
To the others of you who use Fever, thank you for keeping the pinging to a minimum as well. Like I said, I don’t publish any more than about 2-3 posts a day… heck, sometimes even per week… so you won’t miss anything hot of you don’t update but one or two times a day.
And, as those old guys used to say, Thank yew fer your support.
The gist of the case related in this article is that a guy was pulled over, was suspected of DUI, and was informed of the rule requiring him to take an alcohol breath test or he’d lose his license. The problem? He didn’t understand the rule in either English or Spanish, so he lost his license because he refused the test.
The court overturned the license suspension because the guy wasn’t informed in a language he could understand.
This is so wrong on so many levels.
First, this country has not bothered to take the time to establish English as its official language. Why not, I don’t know. All of our legislation takes place in English. The laws are published in English. English is the primary language spoken by the vast majority of the population. And yet we’re too lazy or sensitive to make it our official language. As Andrew Dice Clay once said…
Second, I do not understand the necessity to stoop to the lowest common denominator when arrest or restriction of freedoms (driving on public roads is not a right, you know) is involved. Why do we have to “Mirandize” a suspect? Why does the suspect of DUI have to be informed of “implied consent?” Yes, I understand there’s a difference between breaking the law and, you know, breaking the law, but if I screw up on my taxes, it’s my fault for not knowing the all the law, not the Congress’ fault, not President Obama’s fault—nobody’s fault but my own for not knowing it all. I don’t get informed of all the intricacies of whatever it is I screwed up—that’s my responsibility to know. If I’m out driving at 45mph in the left lane on the NJTP, it’s my responsibility to know that I’m breaking the law. I must also know that it is illegal to wear a bullet-proof vest while committing a murder in New Jersey.
Bottom line, it’s our job to know our laws. And yet if we can’t somehow communicate one or two pieces of the law which, if they were taught in public schools and immigration classes as being the most important bits of the law that everybody should know (They must be… they’re said during every arrest, right?), every police officer wouldn’t need to know every language spoken in Parsippany, NJ.
There are about 150 languages spoken in NJ. That presents a bit of a problem.
Finally, the ruling says that the suspect must be read the rule in a language that he understands. Hoo, boy! I can’t wait for the first application of the Google Translate defense (as it will be known) because Google doesn’t quite speak perfect Azerbaijani. It’s a no wonder why the New Jersey Association of Criminal Defense Lawyers filed a brief in support of the ruling. Yay, billable hours!
Again, the majority finds itself kowtowing to the few. And because we haven’t decided that all public business will be conducted in English or American Sign Language, it’s our own fault.
Interesting tactic. While they are saying—on the surface, anyway—that it’s a bad suit because it will make getting Democrats into office in the West more difficult, I wonder if they wouldn’t rather say, “It sure would have been a lot better if you’d actually done something about immigration as you promised instead of getting mixed up in state politics.”
The complete text of her response is reported by the Three Sonorans.
I am sorry that the US is wasting my Federal tax money on suing Arizona, and I’m especially sorry that it’s a double waste for Arizonans whose State tax money is being wasted in defense of this frivolous suit, too. When Arizona wins, I hope it sues for legal fees.
While the Obama administration is fighting this one based largely on hype and on the theoretical, Constitutional level, her response makes it clear that it’s the practical that matters here, and that Arizona is doing its damnedest to be fair, open and transparent in its implementation.
So whether this theoretical argument holds water or not, bully for her, and Yay! for Arizona. You’ve got a governor with brass ovaries, and there are a lot of states who’d do well to have a governor as good as the one you’ve got.
It doesn’t matter the source of the news. When it’s this stupid, it deserves recognition.
Nancy Pelosi believes that unemployment checks are creating jobs. To save you the clickthrough, I’ll summarize: if the US Government gives you unemployment benefits, you will spend the money on things which will create demand which will create jobs.
Sounds pretty good. Except…
She ignored a pretty important fact: unemployment benefits don’t generally cover much more than rent, food, gas, etc. There isn’t much room for discretionary spending. So, while unemployment benefits are good for keeping your landlord off your back and a roof over your head, they aren’t likely to cause you to rush out and buy the latest iPhone or a new car or, well, much more than you need. You would, in fact, be better off with a job which would give you the ability to spend beyond your needs.
I expect Pelosi and Obama to team up shortly to explain her new math to the American public. They’ll give it a fancy acronym and then blame the Republicans for not supporting it, which of course will cause the failure of Western civilization.
According to this CNN report, the ACLU has issued a “travel alert” to people who might be going to Arizona for the Fourth of July weekend.
The money quote:
“Although the law is not scheduled to go into effect until July 29, the ACLU is concerned that some law enforcement officers are already beginning to act on provisions of the law,” the ACLU said on its website.
Nothing like a little fear, uncertainty and doubt to really help make your case. Where possible, eschew logic and even observance of the space/time continuum.
Article here.
Note to all potential security watchdogs/hackers: in the real world, if you break and enter and then steal, it’s still illegal unless you were invited to do so, no matter how good your intentions might have been.
Think of it this way: nearly everything you can do in cyberspace has a real parallel in the physical world. If doing it in the real world would creep you out/give you the heebie-jeebies/scare the pants off you/get you arrested, likelihood is it will do the same in the cyber-world.
Oh, and in the real world, possession of drugs isn’t such a great idea, either. Keep it clean, kids.
I, too, miss Waiter Rant. But Movin’ Meat has filled that void. It’s not as crass as Waiter Rant. No, it’s a behind-the-scenes look at the life of an ER doc, so the cast of characters is significantly different. It has similar poignancy, emotion, and humanity, all while describing the tragic, the insane, the unusual, and broken toes.
Give it a try. Tell Dr. Y. that Bill sent cha’.
Oh, for Pete’s sake…
Article here
Am I the only one who sees it? No, I’m sure I’m not, because it’s as plain as day. What the hell is Adobe thinking?
They already have a captive audience in people who own and use their Creative Suite. All they have to do is make it the best damned HTML5 development tool there is and they’re in like Flynn. What if it could just pump out HTML5 instead of Flash with a checkbox? Same tool, same lock-in, same developer community familiar with their tools. And, oh-by-the-way, nobody said that making Flash-like things with HTML5 is easy, au contraire. So if they do it and do it right, they will gain those customers who refuse to use Flash but find developing in HTML5 to be hard.
They should shut up, quit whining about the death of Flash (whether it is dead or not) and move on to creating the first pro-quality HTML5 tool to market instead of an also-ran. And they’d be right back in the game.
Yeah, it costs money to do that. But… hear me out.
All of the browsers in the world now support or will support HTML5 and all the goodies therein—not just the desktop browsers, not just the mobile browsers. All of the browsers.
Some of the browsers in the world will not support Flash, and never will. Never. Never. Never. Period.
So, funny thing: if asked whether I would develop a creative tool which has as its potential audience all browsers or just some browsers, which do you think I’d put my time and money into?
Flash is dead, but long live Fl.
As a footnote, I tried to find out what the name, or names, of the Adobe Flash-generating products are called. After five minutes, I gave up. Too many SPODs, too much crap, not enough information. The Adobe website is a clear example of the technology’s getting in the way of the content.
(inspired by Daring Fireball Linked List: Jeff Croft on Adobe’s Android Flash Demo at FlashCamp Seattle.)
I think Hillary has bigger balls than her husband, but I don’t think the administration has the guts to live up to her warning.
Or is this administration finally realizing that Hope and Change aren’t necessarily the best foreign policy?
After all, “hope and change” don’t work quite as well as “shock and awe” when it comes to killing your enemy.
Seriously? It’s come to this? We have to be respectful of a holiday which is barely celebrated in Mexico?!
Here’s the money quote:
“He said ‘If you wear [the flag T-shirt] on any other day, it’s fine; but just because it’s today you can’t wear it,’” [Daniel] Galli said. “His exact words.”
Galli said he was told it was inappropriate to wear the shirt because “it’s supposed to be a Mexican Day and we were supposed to honor them.”
Here’s a link to the school’s official dress code.
Gang colors? Don’t wear them. Glove on one hand? Don’t do that. Showing cleavage? Don’t. American flag? Don’t wear them on May 5th or March 17th.
Oh, wait, that’s not in the school’s dress code. I just made it up, as did the idiot administrator(s) at Live Oak High…
[via Blonde Sagacity]
Film at elevennow.
(via EpicWinFTW)
This article bitches and moans because Palin and others aren’t trying to make political hay from the oil spill in the Gulf.
The question is, does everything demand that somebody speak about it? For God’s sake, isn’t there enough noise already that we don’t need to complain about the lack of it? Does everybody need to make political hay from everything? Or isn’t silence OK anymore?
If they said anything, they’d just be lambasted for trying to rationalize the deaths of eleven workers.
Shut up, already. Let silence be OK for once.
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