(no subject)
Sep. 28th, 2012 03:11 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
gwydion* Kenyan and Somali troops have entered the Al Shabaab stronghold of Kismayu in Somalia. As I was writing this new reports were coming in so stuff may already be out of date when you read this. There are some conflicting reports, but it sounds like the headquarters of the Al Qaeda affiliate may have fallen and about half the city may be taken. Al Shabaab still holds the center and the south and are good at guerrilla warfare, so taking their last city isn't close to the end. This is still a pretty big deal and worth watching.
* LIBOR Update: The UK has finally realized that letting the banking industry regulate itself rewards dishonesty. I am still not sure why this is a revelation, as I'm pretty sure I could have told them this when I was seven. Anyway, it's looking like they are actually planning to learn from experience and you know, start regulating. I will remain sceptical until I see it actually in action for a while. As the very rich have the money to buy off politicians and regulators as well as hire bright people to look for loopholes, it's possible to undermine these things. I wish them luck though and I think it's a shame that the US refuses to follow suit and the Republicans keep arguing that as deregulation leads to massive corruption and global financial crisis, doubling down on that will somehow produce the opposite effect and that using facts, evidence, and learning from experience counts as "politicizing" a catastrophe so we should absolutely ignore common sense and reality whenever possible. Sigh.
* John Stewart on Republican and FOX "News" food policy hypocrisy:
* I know I've said this before, but providing healthier school lunches doesn't infringe on anyone's freedom, because parents can simply send children with sack lunches if they are ideologically opposed to lower fat and more fruit and vegetables. No one ever forces you to eat school food. Healthier lunches is important for the children of the poor, particularly in food deserts as fresh vegetables in many places are expensive and require a lot of travel to purchase. (Hence "food desert.") I call bullshit on wealthy folk demanding the children of the poor be fed only fatty unhealthy food in the name of freedom. It's not about freedom (see sack lunches); it's about punishing the children of the poor for the accident of their birth.
* The Daily Show does a round up of amusing UN stuff:
* "Want Fries With That Transphobic Hate Crime?:" http://transgriot.blogspot.com/2012/09/want-fries-with-that-transphobic-hate.html
* Dexter Season 5 thoughts, I don't think anything here counts as spoilers: 1. Joe Quinn is like a bunch of red flags decided to dress up in a man suit. The character is definitely the sort of guy it is a really bad idea to get involved with. Also, the actor is not my type at all physically. (This is not a crime or anything). So why is it that there is something mesmerizing and bizarrely sexy about his body language? 2. Does Joe Quinn count as the rare male cypher, like Mr. Darcy? Boy that is a discussion I'd love to have. 3. I guessed all the twists on the Dexter personally life plotline. Despite seeing it all coming, the actors (including the young lady playing Aster) really sold it. Boy the season four and five serial killer plots were both really well done compared to the first three seasons. I am terribly happy they opted to diverge so far from the books, despite my missing book Cody now and then.
* LIBOR Update: The UK has finally realized that letting the banking industry regulate itself rewards dishonesty. I am still not sure why this is a revelation, as I'm pretty sure I could have told them this when I was seven. Anyway, it's looking like they are actually planning to learn from experience and you know, start regulating. I will remain sceptical until I see it actually in action for a while. As the very rich have the money to buy off politicians and regulators as well as hire bright people to look for loopholes, it's possible to undermine these things. I wish them luck though and I think it's a shame that the US refuses to follow suit and the Republicans keep arguing that as deregulation leads to massive corruption and global financial crisis, doubling down on that will somehow produce the opposite effect and that using facts, evidence, and learning from experience counts as "politicizing" a catastrophe so we should absolutely ignore common sense and reality whenever possible. Sigh.
* John Stewart on Republican and FOX "News" food policy hypocrisy:
* I know I've said this before, but providing healthier school lunches doesn't infringe on anyone's freedom, because parents can simply send children with sack lunches if they are ideologically opposed to lower fat and more fruit and vegetables. No one ever forces you to eat school food. Healthier lunches is important for the children of the poor, particularly in food deserts as fresh vegetables in many places are expensive and require a lot of travel to purchase. (Hence "food desert.") I call bullshit on wealthy folk demanding the children of the poor be fed only fatty unhealthy food in the name of freedom. It's not about freedom (see sack lunches); it's about punishing the children of the poor for the accident of their birth.
* The Daily Show does a round up of amusing UN stuff:
* "Want Fries With That Transphobic Hate Crime?:" http://transgriot.blogspot.com/2012/09/want-fries-with-that-transphobic-hate.html
* Dexter Season 5 thoughts, I don't think anything here counts as spoilers: 1. Joe Quinn is like a bunch of red flags decided to dress up in a man suit. The character is definitely the sort of guy it is a really bad idea to get involved with. Also, the actor is not my type at all physically. (This is not a crime or anything). So why is it that there is something mesmerizing and bizarrely sexy about his body language? 2. Does Joe Quinn count as the rare male cypher, like Mr. Darcy? Boy that is a discussion I'd love to have. 3. I guessed all the twists on the Dexter personally life plotline. Despite seeing it all coming, the actors (including the young lady playing Aster) really sold it. Boy the season four and five serial killer plots were both really well done compared to the first three seasons. I am terribly happy they opted to diverge so far from the books, despite my missing book Cody now and then.
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(no subject)
Date: 2012-09-28 05:38 pm (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 2012-09-29 01:28 am (UTC)I loved the first two Dexter books. The third was so bad it cast doubt on the first two. I got talked into trying the later books and they are okay, but the TV series is better. Watching it makes it easier to pretend book three never happened. If you do read the books, I suggest reading the first two and if you want to go on, skipping the third. You get the important data from Four without the bits that I wish I could unsee. Seriously, Three is like Episode I: the Phantom Menace bad or maybe worse.
Book Cody is like Dexter, so Dexter is trying to be his Harry. It's a really different direction.
(no subject)
Date: 2012-09-29 06:25 am (UTC)Yeah I have the first two books around, but I couldn't get into them. I just liked the TV show a lot more.