Choice is bad.

Not that kind of choice; that's wonderful, magical, and life-saving. Bad choice is me with Blogger templates. So many choices; so many of them terrible.

So how much oil is actually spilling into the Gulf Coast?

Reading the most scientific reports that use the latest satellite data, it appears to be somewhere between 20,000 and 25,000 gal/day. That's a lot. The 5,000 gal/day number being knocked around the media appears to be BP spin--I'm guessing its the first shot across the bow of the American public to make us pay for this total screw-up by a company that should have known so much better.

But the Bush regime thought self-regulation was the way to go. BP self-regulated themselves to 11 people dead and unspeakable environmental damage. Who's going to pay for that damage? You and I, the American public, that's who. Anti-regulation really means privatizing the profits (they go to the company) and socializing the losses (that's us, the American people, who get stuck with the bill of cleaning up this mess.

And this mess could get much worse.

Finally, A "Journalist" Asks Some Real Questions

Too bad it had to be a comedian who dared to ask the Swiss Ambassador genuinely tough questions! John Oliver from the Daily Show does a fantastic job revealing what a lame excuse it is to fall back on "That's just our policy" when justifying their "neutrality" during WWII. (Unfortunately this clip begins with a commercial, but then you can skip ahead to around t=5:00 for Oliver's bit, or t=7:50 if you are really in a hurry and only want to see the most heated part of the exchange. Happy viewing!

The Daily Show With Jon Stewart	Mon - Thurs 11p / 10c
Oliver's Travels - Switzerland
www.thedailyshow.com
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Don't Get Me This For Christmas

This is for people who want to run outside, but are frustrated that their treadmills are indoors and stationary! Hmmmmm, how could a person manage to run outside?

Ta-dah!



I could be wrong, but it seems like the whole thing is filmed on a piece of road that is running very slightly downhill. Can you imagine the embarrassment of being stranded halfway through the workout, unable to muster the force necessary to get this heavy machine back up the hill?

In one important respect though, the actual product performs better than in the advertisement------the runner would not be subjected to the incredibly insipid music. (Have they done studies? Does this kind of upbeat music really make people want to buy crud? The answer must be yes; after all, they use it in virtually all infomercials.

What a Costume!

(Left click on pics for greater clarity.)


Last year when we were visiting Antwerp, I really liked the sculpture depicting the "ongoing" work of finishing the Cathedral there. When the church was originally built (starting in the late 1400's), they ran out of funds, and one tower remains incomplete. In the 1800's, a sculptor fashioned these figures which stand alongside the church, continuing to "work" on what is now considered a permanently unfinished building.

When I first saw them, it was too late and dark to take pictures, but since it was not far from our hotel, I decided to double back the next morning, and take advantage of better lighting. When I arrived, I saw that a street performer was puttering about amongst the figures, putting on the finishing touches of a costume to make him blend in .

In vain, I struggled to get shots that did not include him. I felt too shy to ask him to get out of the way for a few moments, but now what I like best about these pictures is the fact that he was getting ready. You can also see the mirror (top pic) that he used to apply his make-up, and of course, his tip-jar.


All he needs now are his gloves.

Anti-Spanking Article Rebuked Sharply

This is really just a comment that was too long so I decided that it would make a better post.

The article that djinn cites includes the graph on the left. Notice that the bottom axis of the graph is labeled "number of times spanked". They include once, twice, or 3+ as studied categories, but they do not specify over what time period they are referring. Is it once a week, once a year, or once ever?

The text of the article suggests that they are referring to weekly occurrences.

First, corporal punishment is extremely stressful and can become a chronic stressor for young children, who typically experience corporal punishment three or more times a week.

Frankly, I find the omission of the time period from the graph very suspect. It makes the author appear willing to mislead the readers because he, himself, disapproves of spanking. The article maintains:

IQs of children ages 2 to 4 who were not spanked were 5 points higher four years later than the IQs of those who were spanked.

Looking at the graph, this statement is not even true. Four years later, the young children (age 2-4) who were not spanked had IQs 5 points higher than only the very most spanked category. (3+ per week, or more than 150 time per year! Anyone spanking their child that often must be an idiot, so no wonder their kids don't fair well on IQ tests. ) The difference between the unspanked and the rarely spanked (once a week) was more like two points. And frankly, if "rarely" spanked is 52 times a year, that is not very rare.

They did not even include a category, it would seem, for parents who truly only use an occasional moderate swat-----about a handful of times over the course of the early years. Furthermore, the steeply sloping curve on the graph creates the false impression (at first glance for the inexperienced graph reader) that IQs plunge significantly if you spank your child once or twice or three times ever. How many people understand what the zero level in this graph means for the 'thrice spanked'? I think it is wrong to scare parents about rare swats with misleading graphs and studies.


I am completely against spanking by which I mean the highly ritualized punishment ("Just wait till your father gets home!") used with children lain, for example, across parent's laps for a specified number of blows or lashings (in the olden days with pants down! No wonder the sexual dysfunction.... ) in punishment for badness (messy room, sassing, poor grades, fibbing, meanness....). And I am against all slaps or blows dealt in anger.

But sometimes with toddlers who are too young to understand explanations of danger, and who will not desist from dashing into the parking lot (or street, swimming pool area.....) a parent needs a way to communicate that they are not kidding. Many toddlers love being chased, and when they notice that parents always chase them if they head towards parking lots, they think they know how to force a fun game. When stern words have failed to work, caregivers need a way to communicate right then that the parking lot is OFF LIMITS. A rebuking tone accompanied by a theatrical 'firm tap' and then pointing at the forbidden zone may be the most effective way of communicating this idea to a toddler with very limited language.

This kind of lesson may need to be given several times in one day, or over a period of a week while the child checks out the new limit. But parents will not find that this translates into a regular campaign of spanking that needs to be maintained for years. The behavior should disappear very quickly, especially if swatting has been reserved exclusively for dangerous conditions. And as the child grows older and develops more language and the concepts necessary for understanding danger, the explanations about why parking lots are dangerous should be repeated.

Even if such rare, mild swats lowered IQ scores by two points, I suspect that most parents would rather have a slightly dumber child than a dead one.

By and large, I agree with djinn's mother that spanking is not well suited to teaching children not to hit.

My mother stopped spanking when she came to the realization that "you can't teach a child not to hit by hitting them."

But I did once have a situation where I needed to teach a toddler not to bite other children. I was a home daycare provider, and one of the six toddlers I was watching over started to bite other children out of aggression. I had an obligation to the other children and their parents to protect everyone's well being, and so I discussed with the biter's parents a strategy to curtail this new behavior.

His parents decided that I should say "No!" and immediately 'tap' him right next to his mouth so he would know exactly what he was doing that was forbidden. (I watched him like a hawk so I could catch him right as he was about to bite. Such communication with the very young transgressor must be immediate!) After that I would set him down far from the child he had just tried to bite and offer him a different toy. This worked surprisingly well. After three or four attempted bites over the course of two or three days, he stopped biting.

Older children who understand language and who can make the connections between their misbehavior and delayed punishments (losing desert, having a toy confiscated, not being allowed to watch TV or play with friends) need never be spanked. Striking them really does send the wrong message.

A long time ago, before they invented the inserts that protect young children from electrical outlets, and when parents had many more children typically and could not watch their every single move, it was more obvious that children needed to know how to be obedient. Nowadays we put up child gates to keep kids out of kitchens, staircases, laundry rooms etc,and we dread visiting homes that are not "child friendly". The onus has shifted to grownups to anticipate and prevent all problems. The inserts, the gates, the latches.....these are all good, but they are ways to increase a young child's safety. They do not supplant the basic safety that comes from a child knowing to stop when their parent says so. After all, not every dangerous situation can be anticipated.

Meritocraty for the Ruling Class

More on class mobility in the US, from someone in the trenches. Precis: If you're born into the upper classes, 'meritocracy' means your parent's friends getting you really totally groovy jobs. Fer reals. Those of us that don't have prominent parents, it's obviously our own fault.

I remember back in the late '90s when Ira Katznelson, an eminent political scientist at Columbia, came to deliver a guest lecture to an economic philosophy class I was taking. It was a great lecture, made more so by the fact that the class was only about ten or twelve students and we got got ask all kinds of questions and got a lot of great, provocative answers. Anyhow, Prof. Katznelson described a lunch he had with Irving Kristol back either during the first Bush administration. The talk turned to William Kristol, then Dan Quayle's chief of staff, and how he got his start in politics. Irving recalled how he talked to his friend Harvey Mansfield at Harvard, who secured William a place there as both an undergrad and graduate student; how he talked to Pat Moynihan, then Nixon's domestic policy adviser, and got William an internship at The White House; how he talked to friends at the RNC and secured a job for William after he got his Harvard Ph.D.; and how he arranged with still more friends for William to teach at UPenn and the Kennedy School of Government. With that, Prof. Katznelson recalled, he then asked Irving what he thought of affirmative action. "I oppose it", Irving replied. "It subverts meritocracy."

I found this here, after being sent by Glenn Greenwalds's commenter macgupta, here.

You see? In America, land of the free and home of the brave, it's not about how hard you work or how smart you are, it's just about who your daddy was. But as a bonus, you then get to pretend that, yes, work and smarts matter. But we know the truth.

PZ Meyers to Visit Creation Science Museum

According to the Secular Students Alliance website,

.....10:00am on Friday, August 7, in conjunction with the 2009 SSA Conference, the Secular Student Alliance will be sponsoring PZ Myers to take a one day, in-person tour of the Creation Museum! We've even invited Ken Ham himself to give PZ a tour of the place.

Over a hundred people (scientists and their sympathizers) have signed up to take the tour along with him in Nowheresville, Kentucky, and there are other events planned. It is too late to register, but skeptical people are encouraged to show up and chortle along.
For those of you unfamiliar with PZ Meyers, enjoy this rant from a post of his last year about desecrating communion wafers. (One of many...)

I think if I were truly evil, I would have to demand that all of my acolytes be celibate, but would turn a blind eye to any sexual depravities they might commit. If I wanted to be an evil hypocrite, I'd drape myself in expensive jeweled robes and live in an ornate palace while telling all my followers that poverty is a virtue. If I wanted to commit world-class evil, I'd undermine efforts at family planning by the poor, especially if I could simultaneously enable the spread of deadly diseases. And if I wanted to be so evil that I would commit a devastating crime against the whole of the human race, twisting the minds of children into ignorance and hatred, I would be promoting the indoctrination of religion in children's upbringing, and fomenting hatred against anyone who dared speak out in defiance.

I'm sorry to say that I only aspire to be a teeny-tiny bit evil, and my target is a handful of virtually inedible crackers in my possession. It's not much, and all I can say in my defense is…it's a start. A very small start. I'm going to need lots and lots of people to rise up and follow suit, subjecting old, dishonest institutions of hardened dogma to our chief weapon of ridicule and deris…our two weapons of ridicule, derision and laughter…no, three weapons of ridicule, derision, laughter, and skeptici…oh, never mind. You know what I mean. Get to work.

I don't plan to attend the proceedings in Kentucky, but look forward to reading about the fun.

Irish blasphemy, begorrah.

Do you suppose the following stories would get one introduced to the Bloody Mary if published in Ireland? They do speak ill of the clergy, after all.

Back in May, the Irish Commision published random uncurdable substance-curling stories of abuse suffered by Irish children that were wards of the state by the (I just took a break to encase my Irony Meter in lead) Catholic priests "Christian Brothers" and the Catholic nuns "Sisters of Mercy."

General conclusions:

There were 474 reports of physical abuse involving 26 Schools given in evidence by 403 male witnesses (98%), some of whom were admitted to more than one School. While many witnesses reported that the abuse was pervasive, they particularly wished to report extraordinary incidents from their experience. Other witnesses reported multiple episodes of physical abuse. Witnesses reported being physically abused by religious and lay staff and others including: visiting clergy, members of the general public and men in work and holiday placements. Witnesses also reported being physically abused by co-residents.

There were 383 reports of physical abuse given in evidence to the Committee by 374 witnesses (99%) involving 39 Schools. Witnesses reported being physically abused by religious and lay staff and other adults who were associated with the Schools. Witnesses also reported being physically abused by co-residents. The number of witness reports heard in relation to physical abuse in different Schools diverged widely:

The Catholic Church horribly and harshly abused the minors in its care. I'm not even going to quote specific instances, they're too horrible. Do you suppose this report counts as blasphemy? I suspect so. OK. One story concerns a girl who befriended a kitten. She got found out. Kitten + pot on stove = I leave it to the reader to look away.

If you dare, the full report can be read here.

Did someone mention book burning *cough*Amazon*cough.

Not to be outdone by Ireland, the New York Times reports that Amazon has deleted copies, yes, of George Orwell's 1984 and Animal Farm from the Kindles of people who had, in good faith, purchased them. Says the NYT: Some Ebooks are more equal than others. Read about it here.

Yes, you, an innocent consumer could have purchased, say, 1984, only to have it magically erased from your kindle. Your recourse? None, it appears. Perhaps the headline should have been "Blasphemy, not only for the Irish."

Thanks for the pig pic to http://2.bp.blogspot.com.

Terrorists come in more than one flavor.

By now, everyone has heard that Dr. George Tiller--one of only two doctors in the country to perform medically-necessary late term abortions--was gunned down at his church. Women whose pregnancies went terribly, terribly wrong documented the kindness, competence, and compassionate care they received at Dr Tiller's clinic here. As an aside, it is illegal to perform late-term abortions unless medically necessary. Dr. Tiller spent quite a bit of time in court proving that each and every abortion was medically necessary. You can read the legal documents here, if you like.

If the anti-abortion movement were really serious about preventing abortions, they'd ensure that women had access to contraception, the real preventer of abortions. Instead, there is a very large overlap between the anti-abortion and the abstinence-only crowd. There's an obvious problem with this. Making abortion illegal doesn't reduce, but rather, increases the number of abortions. So, I don't see any scenario where the ostensibly "pro-life" people really are. Pro-life, that is. Making abortions more difficult doesn't decrease the number of abortions, but rather, counter-intuitively, seems to increase them. Read about it here.

Some excerpts:

ROME, Oct. 11 — A comprehensive global study of abortion has concluded that abortion rates are similar in countries where it is legal and those where it is not, suggesting that outlawing the procedure does little to deter women seeking it.

Moreover, the researchers found that abortion was safe in countries where it was legal, but dangerous in countries where it was outlawed and performed clandestinely. Globally, abortion accounts for 13 percent of women’s deaths during pregnancy and childbirth, and there are 31 abortions for every 100 live births, the study said.

...

In Uganda, where abortion is illegal and sex education programs focus only on abstinence, the estimated abortion rate was 54 per 1,000 women in 2003, more than twice the rate in the United States, 21 per 1,000 in that year. The lowest rate, 12 per 1,000, was in Western Europe, with legal abortion and widely available contraception.

Also, the anti-abortion culture produces women who have more abortions than the pro-choice culture. How do I know? Women at private religious colleges have more--not less--abortions than women at public schools. So, yeah. Everything the anti-abortion fools do increases the abortion rate. You can find the report here.

Aside from all the women they're harming by not allowing access to safe medically necessary procedures, christian terrorists have now attempted murder 25 times, with 8 successes (four doctors, four clinic workers). Pro-murder equals pro-life? Not seeing it.

People like Dr. Tiller's killer are terrorists, and they have pretty much succeeded in terrorizing the entire abortion-providing population. Now there is only one doctor (in Colorado) who has the guts and integrity to protect the lives of women whose pregnancies have gone horribly, horribly wrong past 21 weeks. Oh, and could the "pro-life" people please call themselves something not quite so painfully ironic?

Prior to Roe v. Wade, women could get abortions only if they were really, really, really near death. What were things like for woman who had terrible complications but weren't near enough death back 1n 1971? Here's a personal story from here at comment 30.

I have known quite a few women who have faced the choice of abortion, all for health issues and including my mother, who was denied a life-saving late-term abortion in 1971 because she was not "close enough to death" for the judge who heard her case. Instead she bled out for 18 hours until the doctors could assemble enough pieces of the fetus to prove she was no longer pregnant. They were able to save her life but she was unable to ever have more children; she was 32 at the time. Needless to say, she was vehemently pro-choice.

Here's another testimonial, this time about Dr. Tiller here.

My x-wife worked in his office as an assistant. Few know he provided abortions for Middle Eastern girls who would have been stoned to death as a "mercy killing."

These girls would fly in from Saudi Arabia, Iran, and various other locations to have services they needed but could not safely get at home. Usually they had been hidden away until they could not be hidden anymore. Frequently money was raised by various sources to help these girls get out of their countries. He saved many girls lives this way.

Did you know that if you live in California (and many, many other states) and the fetus dies after 15 weeks, you cannot get a Dialation and Extraction (now known as partial birth abortion) even though the fetus is dead? So what do you do? I guess your only choice is to wait until sepsis sets in. Here's one woman's story.
Here's the story of a woman who had the good luck to have her pregnancy emergency prior to the "partial birth abortion" ban.

I was lucky. Are you surprised that I would say that? I was lucky because the partial-birth abortion ban was not yet in effect in October of 2004. If it had been, I would have been forced to undergo labor and delivery, no matter the risks to my health, and I might right now be either dead or so brain damaged I would be unable to type this. I was additionally lucky because even though I live in Philadelphia, one of the largest cities in the country--a city, Mr. Obama and Ms. Clinton, you two will be visiting a great deal in the next month--my doctor happened to be only one of two doctors in this entire city that was willing and able to perform this life-saving medical procedure....

Here's a story of a woman whose fetus died in the third trimester and she began to spontaneously abort: even if the baby is dead, it's almost impossible to find a doctor to do a D&E (which now falls under the non-medical rubric 'partial birth abortion.')

Don’t come in, they told me again and again. “Go to your emergency room if you are hemorrhaging to avoid bleeding to death. No one here can do a D&E today, and unless you’re really in active labor you’re safer to wait.”

Thanks to many commenters on the Tiller threads at scienceblogs.com/pharyngula for various links and ideas.

What did the FBI do with their top Arabic speaking counterintelligence agent after 9-11?

Nothing.

The FBI has 6 (that's SIX) Arabic speakers. One of them, Bassem Youssef, had previously spotted the al-Quaeda threat; waaay ahead of the curve. So, of course, the FBI let him cool his heels till, well, now.

Read about it here. The article is only two pages long. I highly recommend it.

Just For Fun (Or 25 Random Things One At A Time; This Is The First)

I found this at the Daily Dish. It gets much better in the middle (t=1.21) when Kouric has her duet with......whoever made this. (Does everyone but me know who these artists are?)

Surprise, Surprise......

It turns out you don't have to be a slender, gorgeous, young blonde to be able to sing.
I'm glad the audience was willing to change their minds and give this talented woman her due after their initial sniggering reception of her onstage. Check out the derisive expressions of some of the audience members right before her number. The embed was disabled, so you will have to click here!

I Think I'm In Love!

And not with the bald idiot.

Stewart does an absolutely bloodthirsty evisceration of this buffoon after a week of built up anticipation. (Notice how much Kramer's voice gets higher and tenser as he sees his career going down the toilet just like Tucker Someone-or-Other's {John Stewart did him in too, a long time ago.}. Hee hee!)

We are going to need a word to describe Kramer's abject devastation-----like "Borked" (for what happened to Bork). Too bad his name is too common.

The Daily Show With Jon StewartM - Th 11p / 10c

Jim Cramer Pt. 2

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Important Things w/ Demetri Martin

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For people who want more, you're in luck. But there's even more, the beginning of the kerfuffle from earlier in the week. Boy, this really is right up my alley!

The Daily Show With Jon StewartM - Th 11p / 10c

Basic Cable Personality Clash Skirmish '09

Daily Show Full Episodes
Important Things w/ Demetri Martin

Political Humor
Jim Cramer

Pete Doherty has excellent taste in hats

And a huge pile of a house somewhere in the countryside. And, with a bit of looking, can find his mail, in a super secret location in front of his mail slot. After some work, he also discovers his bedroom. However, electricity, hot water, not so much.



This post is much more entertaining than, I'm afraid, my precis indicates.

On being stupid.

I have a very curious disease. Officially, it's called either "inner ear concussion" or "Post-traumatic vertigo."

How does this affect me? The smarter I feel, the stupider I am.

I am much more likely to spuriously match patterns stupid than smart; that is, I see correlations where none exist. For example,I somehow figure that George is acting mean to me when he's just trying to get coffee and wake up.

I'm also, I belive, not as nice when stupid , but feel more justified in my meanness.

This this totally uncalled for, but my inadvertant experiment has proven to me that being intelligent is really stupid. That is all.

The Banks are Insolvent, Duh.

If those banks out there swallowed up $350 billion with nary a burp, what insane brain-dead rich important stupid-head thinks another $350 billion will have some magical effect? It will be delivered by Unicorns, perhaps? Really? Really?

How did Obama put the people responsible for this mess in positions of responsibility to get us out? Will it work? No. And why is Tim Geitner being quizzed about a paultry $35,000 in back taxes?

Notice, no links. The analysis can be performed as a thought experiment.

H/T Bosch plus this site for the pic., The Unicorn of Earthly Delights, or something.

Why aren't we all outraged at the banks being given, willy-nilly, all our money?

They don't pay taxes; they're barely American companies.

They are not using this money to, uh, lend to you, me, or the condo developer down the street,

They're, rather, using the money to buy up other banks, right and left. Ok, mostly right. Fun for all!

While that’s admittedly removing the smaller, weaker banks from the market – a possible benefit to consumers and taxpayers alike – this trend is also having a detrimental effect: It’s reducing the competition that’s benefited consumers and kept the explosion in banking fees from being far worse than it already is.

(From link, just above.) In normal-speak; the banks are busily figuring out how to screw us over even more efficiently, using our very own tax dollars! Awesome leverage. Stunning. Mattresses are looking better all the time.

For example, Bank of America is using some of that sweet, sweet TARP money to buy up a Chinese Bank. Yuan for all!

How much money have you and I given Bank of America? Why, about 45 Billion. Fun for them, not so much for me, or thee.

This is what we get for putting the very people who created the crisis in charge of fixing it. See a problem there, just a little?

Oh, and Hi everyone, it's Djinn. I've been spinning rather more rapidly than usual and so have been unable to blog, or do much of anything. I was actually too sick to get my first dizziness treatment, because my Dr. forbad me from taking my old nausea medication while failing to prescribe me a substitute anti-emetic. Got one now.

Thanks to Calculated Risk and Stu Rees Cartoons for the pic.

Love your mother, eat breakfast, have sex later. For reals.

Some things that look difficult (at least in Japan) may be simple. Daughters who like their mothers and who eat breakfast start sexual activity 3 years later (19) than those that have antagonistic relationships with their mothers and don't eat breakfast (16). Love you, Calla Lilly, Apricot Blossom, and Snapdragon.

Look, it's in an article, all sciency and everything! So, all, be loving, accepting, and stock up on instant oatmeal.

Here's the cite. See? All together now. "Love you, sweetheart; of course I trust you to be home by midnight."