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Feb. 17th, 2012 01:08 am* Not content to demand that all employers should be allowed to deny women in their employ access to contraception, the Blunt amendment is moving through the Senate to allow employers to deny employees access to all health insurance and thus health care. I couldn't make this shit up up. It's like the Republicans want a full on nightmarish Dystopia straight out of 1970's and '80's SF.
* The Maine Republican Party has given in to pressure from all the Republicans who's votes they refused to count and is recalculating results.
* Rep. Darrell Issa is barring women from being on his panal and is rufusing women to testify about things like other medically neccessary uses for birth control pills. After all, why should even a single woman be allowed to participate in a meeting deciding policy about women's health. After all the current Republican position is that only male politicians should be allowed to make medical decisions for women rather than those women and their doctors. No women or medical fact need apply. Too bad if the pill is not just used for birth control, but to treat a number of other conditions, all women should be denied access because elderly male bishops and politicians say so.
* It is being incorrectly reported that Megadeth is endorsing santorum. David Mustaine announced a correction that he would like a Republican president, but has not picked a candidate. As someone who likes his music, but is not a fan of whole swaths of his personal life, it's sad that despite the environmentally friendly lyrics, he is right wing, but it's not that surprising. I normally wouldn't mention this at all, but I'm seeing it misreported in sources like CNN and the late night talk show hosts have picked it up, so I thought a clarification is in order.
* Eeeew! Eeew, eeew, eeew!: http://www.thetakeaway.org/2012/feb/15/troubling-twitter-trend/
* Newt Gingrich's bus broke down in West Hollywood and none of the locals were willing to help. Why am I not surprised?
* Brave reporter Anthony Shadid died of an apparent asthma attack at 43 in Syria. A photographer carried him over the border into Turkey. His reporting on the Arab Spring was memorable and he had been shot on a previous occupation in the West Bank. The sort of work these folks do is incredibly dangerous and utterly neccessary. My thoughts are with his family.
* Bank sorted and cheese acquired. Tomorrow there are things I ought to do, but I might just rest. We'll see. One of the things that's exciting about having a car again is, I don't have to rush home if errands run long. Get this: I was out after dark! Two nights in a row!
* I don't know if I made clear, but all that horrible stuff in season 4 of the Wire about the demoralizing and harmful effects of the Children Left Behind Act? Yeah, that's exactly what happens most places. It's slightly different in Washington State because we had a system already in place, so got a waver. I have a WASL rant too, but it's specialized. Suffice to say, the WASL is a mess in some of the same ways and some different ones. Anyway, the thing John Stewart was saying about all the well meaning retoric with Children Left Behind and Race to the Top covering up forcing and constraining teachers to teach to the test instead of do what's best for the students is what you can hear with some variation in every public school faculty room in the country. What these "reforms" are about is punishing students for being born poor in poor districts and therefore having greater need and fewer resources than the rich districts with the better off kids. It's about punishing the teachers who do the hardest and most dangerous work for not working an upper middle class district. It's infuriating and the policies have nothing to do with statistics as to what works or experience out in the field actually teaching. The folks pushing these policies generally fundamentally misunderstand how education works, why teachers do what they do, and conditions in actual schools in the real world.
* This is about Glee (and so contains spoilers), but what it's saying about masks/constumes, monsters, and power is fascinating. "We’re all monsters here:" http://lettersfromtitan.com/2012/02/16/glee-were-all-monsters-here/
* So true: http://www.asofterworld.com/index.php?id=772
* My fruity partials, one day left: http://www.ebay.com/itm/300661523834?ssPageName=STRK:MESELX:IT&_trksid=p3984.m1555.l2649
* The Maine Republican Party has given in to pressure from all the Republicans who's votes they refused to count and is recalculating results.
* Rep. Darrell Issa is barring women from being on his panal and is rufusing women to testify about things like other medically neccessary uses for birth control pills. After all, why should even a single woman be allowed to participate in a meeting deciding policy about women's health. After all the current Republican position is that only male politicians should be allowed to make medical decisions for women rather than those women and their doctors. No women or medical fact need apply. Too bad if the pill is not just used for birth control, but to treat a number of other conditions, all women should be denied access because elderly male bishops and politicians say so.
* It is being incorrectly reported that Megadeth is endorsing santorum. David Mustaine announced a correction that he would like a Republican president, but has not picked a candidate. As someone who likes his music, but is not a fan of whole swaths of his personal life, it's sad that despite the environmentally friendly lyrics, he is right wing, but it's not that surprising. I normally wouldn't mention this at all, but I'm seeing it misreported in sources like CNN and the late night talk show hosts have picked it up, so I thought a clarification is in order.
* Eeeew! Eeew, eeew, eeew!: http://www.thetakeaway.org/2012/feb/15/troubling-twitter-trend/
* Newt Gingrich's bus broke down in West Hollywood and none of the locals were willing to help. Why am I not surprised?
* Brave reporter Anthony Shadid died of an apparent asthma attack at 43 in Syria. A photographer carried him over the border into Turkey. His reporting on the Arab Spring was memorable and he had been shot on a previous occupation in the West Bank. The sort of work these folks do is incredibly dangerous and utterly neccessary. My thoughts are with his family.
* Bank sorted and cheese acquired. Tomorrow there are things I ought to do, but I might just rest. We'll see. One of the things that's exciting about having a car again is, I don't have to rush home if errands run long. Get this: I was out after dark! Two nights in a row!
* I don't know if I made clear, but all that horrible stuff in season 4 of the Wire about the demoralizing and harmful effects of the Children Left Behind Act? Yeah, that's exactly what happens most places. It's slightly different in Washington State because we had a system already in place, so got a waver. I have a WASL rant too, but it's specialized. Suffice to say, the WASL is a mess in some of the same ways and some different ones. Anyway, the thing John Stewart was saying about all the well meaning retoric with Children Left Behind and Race to the Top covering up forcing and constraining teachers to teach to the test instead of do what's best for the students is what you can hear with some variation in every public school faculty room in the country. What these "reforms" are about is punishing students for being born poor in poor districts and therefore having greater need and fewer resources than the rich districts with the better off kids. It's about punishing the teachers who do the hardest and most dangerous work for not working an upper middle class district. It's infuriating and the policies have nothing to do with statistics as to what works or experience out in the field actually teaching. The folks pushing these policies generally fundamentally misunderstand how education works, why teachers do what they do, and conditions in actual schools in the real world.
* This is about Glee (and so contains spoilers), but what it's saying about masks/constumes, monsters, and power is fascinating. "We’re all monsters here:" http://lettersfromtitan.com/2012/02/16/glee-were-all-monsters-here/
* So true: http://www.asofterworld.com/index.php?id=772
* My fruity partials, one day left: http://www.ebay.com/itm/300661523834?ssPageName=STRK:MESELX:IT&_trksid=p3984.m1555.l2649
