links

[mindstalk]

government in the daily life of an American
http://www.governmentisgood.com/articles.php?aid=1

Ayn Rand took Medicare
http://www.boingboing.net/2011/01/28/ayn-rand-took-govern.html

Republican debt limit hypocrisy
http://www.nytimes.com/2011/02/01/opinion/01tue1.html
"They have passed new budget rules that allow taxes to be cut without
offsets to replace the lost revenue. The new rules also forbid raising
taxes to pay for major new spending, like Medicare expansions, requiring
instead that any such spending be offset by cutting other programs. That
is a recipe for fiscal irresponsibility. "

single payer moves forward in Vermont
http://socialistworker.org/2011/01/31/single-payer-in-vermont
http://www.wcax.com/Global/story.asp?S=13893471
http://www.singlepayeraction.org/blog/?p=2694


Wikileaks cables document extent of Egyptian torture
http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2011/jan/28/egypt-police-brutality-torture-wikileaks

Israel on Mubarak. "time is not right for democracy"
http://www.time.com/time/world/article/0,8599,2044929,00.html#ixzz1CMOOYyXS
http://www.haaretz.com/print-edition/news/israel-urges-world-to-curb-criticism-of-egypt-s-mubarak-1.340238

shutting down Internet as Mubarak's fatal mistake in Egypt?
http://cheeptalk.wordpress.com/2011/01/28/cutting-off-communications-in-egypt/
{sends a common knowledge signal to everyone, that protest is lively
enough to be a real threat, hence worth joining}

in defense of book piracy
http://www.tobiasbuckell.com/2011/01/27/writing-on-the-high-seas/

GOP plan to redefine rape
http://motherjones.com/politics/2011/01/republican-plan-redefine-rape-abortion

Palin thinks Soviets won space race
http://tpmdc.talkingpointsmemo.com/2011/01/wtf-sarah-palin-thinks-the-ussr-won-the-space-race-video.php?ref=fpblg

evidence of Palestinian peace offers
http://www.haaretz.com/opinion/the-palestine-papers-al-jazeera-trumps-wikileaks-1.338875

Wikileaks on US and Egypt; aid as bribe for Israel peace and Suez
priority and airspace
http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2011/jan/28/wikileaks-cairo-cables-egypt-president

Egyptian protest pamphlet
http://www.theatlantic.com/international/archive/2011/01/egyptian-activists-action-plan-translated/70388/

babies perceive social preferences, plus something about symbol
preference predicting racism
http://www.boston.com/news/health/blog/2011/01/babies_tune_int.html

Wikileaks and Haiti
http://bcholmes.livejournal.com/634920.html
Duvalier and Aristide
http://bcholmes.livejournal.com/634708.html
http://bcholmes.livejournal.com/633434.html

male dominance of wikipedia
http://www.nytimes.com/2011/01/31/business/media/31link.html?_r=1

Darkseid Chick tract
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v337/skandha/darkseid-03.jpg

Ebert on rice cookers
http://blogs.suntimes.com/ebert/2008/11/the_pot_and_how_to_use_it.html

http://minnesotaindependent.com/77014/minnesota-republicans-repeal-of-fair-pay-laws-for-women

Illinois recognizes civil unions
http://news.pinkpaper.com/NewsStory/4752/1/02/2011/-illinois-civil-union-bill-signed-into-law.aspx
George Bush's daughter supports gay marriage
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2011/01/31/barbara-bush-endorses-marriage-equality_n_816696.html

Iran rushes to execute political prisoners
http://www.foreignpolicy.com/articles/2011/01/31/iran_cracks_down_while_egypt_cracks_up?page=0,0
now is highest in world in per capita executions, second only to China
in absolute numbers.

Haikasoru review
http://groups.google.com/group/rec.arts.sf.written/msg/a6c15541dd9a57f3?hl=en

new uncontacted tribe found in Amazon
http://www.wired.com/wiredscience/2011/02/uncontacted-tribe/

Yucatan jungles feral Mayan gardens
http://www.wired.com/wiredscience/2007/10/yucatan-jungles/

more lost farms of the Amazon
http://www.wired.com/wiredscience/2010/04/lost-amazon-farms/

new Amazon urbanism
http://www.wired.com/wiredscience/2008/08/anthropologists/

China censoring Egypt news
http://www.csmonitor.com/World/Asia-Pacific/2011/0201/Why-a-nervous-China-aims-to-shield-citizens-from-Egypt-news

AT&T sued over fraudulent iPhone charges
http://redtape.msnbc.com/2011/02/lawsuit-iphone-users-systematially-overcharged-1.html

Facebook gets https
http://lifehacker.com/5748697/how-to-keep-your-facebook-secure-by-enabling-https

Comments

[richardthinks.livejournal.com]

Huge amounts to chew on here, I'm going for the low-hanging fruit:
On rape: Other types of rapes that would no longer be covered by the exemption include rapes in which the woman was drugged or given excessive amounts of alcohol, rapes of women with limited mental capacity, and many date rapes.

Jesus. I understand that the abortion warriors just don't care about anything else in the world, but really, reducing legal protections for rape? Is that your strategy? Way to make friends and influence people. Makes me wonder what the other hand is doing.

Re Palin and the space race, well, who did win? How would we measure that? I didn't see the SOTU speech but my wife did and she came back saying Obama was making all sorts of sense about education and that he invoked the space race as a primary driver of innovation and my immediate reaction was "you say space race, I say cold war." Is this whole mess not just a bunch of problems caused by not calling things by their proper name? I know Americans have uncomplicated warm fuzzy feelings for the space race and not quite the same recollection of the cold war, but historically the latter's a much more accurate description of the force driving university expansion et al (even if it, too, has problems in terms of analytical terms).

[mindstalk.livejournal.com]

My impression was that Palin was talking about Sputnik, which is Russia *starting* the space race. Or just making technological progress, depending on your POV; satellites have been very useful. Lots of people think the US won the race, what with putting people on the moon first. Though I'd note the Russians did better with long-term stations like Mir and cheap reliable access like Soyuz, so in practical terms it's open for debate. But I doubt was getting that detailed.

You make a good point about the cold war. Shame we can't educate people for its own sake, or even for productivity.