Tuesday, November 4, 2014

SAR #14307



Adaptation to a world 4°C warmer is "less than certain".

Being Prepared: Google's CEO says the company has outgrown its “don't be evil” motto and from now on will simply drop the pretense and be vile.

Politically Incorrect: Islam has always been mainly spread by the sword. Believe or die. Or be sold into a whorehouse. Whatever. ISIS is certainly not a religious movement, nor a political one in any but the loosest sense. It is a bunch of guys who can't get a job and can't get laid, acting out. To the outsider, this seems the essence of Islam.

100% False: It looks like McConnell will win. He shouldn't. 
 
Our Gang: While the US proclaims its “unequivocal” opposition to Israel's continuing encroachment on Palestinian East Jerusalem, Israel goes forward, adding another 500 units to the 1,600 it is currently building. Somewhere in the exchange is lost the simple fact that without US funding, Israel would not and cannot exist. They're ours. Sadly. 
 
Final Exam: Motivated by the IPCC informing us that fossil fuel use must decrease rapidly and be totally eliminated by 2100 means that: a) we won't do anything.

Secret Ballot: Over 50 countries have declared that banking secrecy is 'obsolete' and should end. Missing: Austria, Switzerland, Luxembourg, and the Bahamas. Signing, with fingers crossed behind their backs: the Caymans, Virgin Islands and Lichtenstein.

Guilt by Association: The giant iPhone that Russia erected to honor Steve Jobs has been removed because his successor is gay. Should have been for the i6.
 
Embarrassment: A judge has ruled that the federal government's claim that defending the constitutionality of the no-fly list would expose TSA to ridicule was not sufficient reason. Nor was the claim that national security would be harmed if the country found out that the list was based mostly on hearsay, illegal communications intercepts and Facebook.

Democracy Now Nah: In Egypt, eight people have been convicted of taking part in a same-sex wedding. Either that, or they were atheists. It's part of a government crackdown on those who thought the pro-democracy movement had accomplished anything. Seems like spring has sprung.

Line in Der Sand: Sure, Britain's PM says they'll ignore the EU demand for another 2.1 billion euros that's due December 1 – but that's not what Chancellor Merkel is upset about. It's the silly insistence the Brits have on curbing immigration. EU rules say citizens of EU nations have the right to live and work in any EU state they wish. Merkel says Germany would rather see the UK leave the EU than let it get away with breaking that covenant. Which is a brier patch many in the UK would prefer.

Location, Location: If patients really could shop around, everyone from Monterey Park, CA who needed a hip replacement ($223,000) would go to Ada, OK for the procedure ($5,300, including bus fare). 
 
Descriptors: Reports from people on the ground in Sierra Leone characterize the spread of Ebola there as “vastly under-reported”, “catastrophic” and spreading “frighteningly quickly”, with entire villages dead and the rural healthcare systems overwhelmed. If there is but one trained nurse for 10,000 people and ten or twelve nurses die... the math works, even if nothing else does.

Dictionary: According to an AZ school board member, redacting information is not the same as censoring it...


4 comments:

mistah charley, ph.d. said...

re Our Gang: without disagreeing with the sentiment of your comment on the regrettable intertwining of israeli and u.s. destinies, i don't think "they're ours" is any more accurate than the reverse would be - "we're theirs"

in mid-20th century there was a joke told on american playgrounds - briefly, the lone ranger and tonto discover that bands of indians on the warpath are coming toward them from every direction - the lone ranger says, "it looks like we're surrounded, tonto"

tonto replies, "what you mean 'we', white man?"

analogize the indians to the indigenous inhabitants of the middle east and the situation has interesting similarities and differences

but perhaps the biggest question is "what you mean 'we'?"

may the creative forces of the universe have mercy on our souls, if any

Charles Kingsley Michaelson, III said...

The 'we' I had in mind was most of Washington's Democrats and a fair number of the Other Guys - who seem to think they represent Israel first and their voters second.

I think that Mr. N. is trying to see just how far he can push before capital C consequenses set it. A lot more, I suspect, if only because so many conservative Christians think Israel is the place mentioned in the Bible.

Tulsatime said...

Yes, israel the post ww2 state directly connects hillbillies with moses and jesus and yawhe, oh my.... and i will be really pissed off if their chickenshit leader kicks off number 3 by attacking iran, just to keep his poll numbers up

the japanese government has lit a fuze to something very ugly with the qe-godzillia, if there was a race to the bottom before now, they can claim the prize

is there anything the state department has touched in the last 20 years that has NOT blown up in their faces? to even pretend that there might be moderate rebels in that hell they call syria just exceeds imagination

Charles Kingsley Michaelson, III said...

TT - Why in the world would you pick 20 years? Is there a statue of limitations on stupidity?