Retailer told to stay mum about radiation level in tea | Kyodo News

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This is the sort of thing I’m talking about.  The reflexive ass-covering motion of any organization is not very actively resisted in Japan, as it threatens “harmony”.

A prefectural official told Radishbo-ya Co., after the retailer made a query to the local government Monday, not to disclose the finding for a while on fears that the message could cause unwarranted harm to Shizuoka tea growers, adding that the prefecture would confirm it on its own, the firm said.

via Retailer told to stay mum about radiation level in tea | Kyodo News.

Look at how flimsy the justification for the requested silence is.   This is the approach of an organization whose pro forma justification are typically accepted–no real effort required, nothing unusual about being asked to … Continue reading →

Inequality In Equality

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The DoD briefs that it will not create a new data category for sexual orientation, that it will not require personnel to identify sexual preference.

Fine, but then where does that leave all the bean-counting for race, sex, religion, and “ethnicity”?  Either data categories are necessary to ensure fairness or not.

Conversely, either a some behavior is protected just like immutable characteristics or not.  I understand that the DoD is complying with requirements handed down from above, but this implementation seems to carve out a zone of preferential treatment for homosexuals.

If the argument is that the behavior connected with sexual orientation rises to the same level of protection as genuinely immutable characteristics such as sex and race, and constitutionally protected behavior such as religion, then all of … Continue reading →

An Experiment in Text and Graphics

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Not just yet, but soon. I ran across a blog post which could use some correction. I do not see a way to comment at the blog, however, so I figured I would do so over here. But then I would need to bring over the graphic, which is no sweat–I’ll give attribution and link to the source, and if there is an objection, take it down. But I would also need to grab most or all of the text from that short post. At that point, with the graphic and the text, I am just re-publishing another person’s work, and while I am not courtroom-secure in my observation of copyrights, I do try to stay where I should in that phase space.

More on that later. Meanwhile, … Continue reading →

Weinergate Explosive: It's Raining Women!

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Oh, man, when it rains, it pours. Breitbart was actually contacted BEFORE the now-famous #Weinergate picture went public.

BigGovernment.com and BigJournalism.com were approached regarding this information more than a week prior to the separate, independent event of Friday, May 27, 2011, when a link to the now-infamous “gray underwear” photograph appeared publicly on Rep. Weiner’s Twitter feed.

via Weinergate Bombshell: New Woman Comes Forward Claiming Cache of Intimate Photos and Online Communications with Beleaguered Congressman – Big Journalism.

 
Look, all y’all who tried various means to explain away the obvious did some pretty stout work. But Breitbart has the goods. Follow up over there as the news unfolds.

The implications are not good for the soon-to-be-former-Representative Weiner, but fantastic for conservatives. Breitbart is on top … Continue reading →

PulseAudio Still Broken, Developers Still Smug

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I cannot play audio worth listening to on my Ubuntu box.  All I want to do is play music from MP3s, video from YouTube, iTunes content, and so forth.   I can play all of these, but the audio crackles as if through extremely blown speakers.  Volume level, output hardware (speakers, headphones, front or rear audio jack) makes no difference–it’s all broken.

It turns out that the developers of a nasty little piece of work called PulseAudio are to blame.  Oh, they blame everybody else, but the fact is audio works on Ubuntu when you are allowed to use ALSA or OSS, and it does not when you are forced to use PulseAudio.  For more on the developers’ crappy attitude toward their willful continued breaking of millions of … Continue reading →

A Dark Horse Approaches

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I’m just thinking out loud.

The appalling awfulness of King Obama’s rule is settling in as a fact among a growing percentage of a formerly free people.  The Republican field is not bad, but nobody has gotten the base past a threshold of both queasiness and numbers, although several have beaten one metric or the other.

One reason I feel so free to thump on candidates currently running is the suspicion that the only way to get more into the game is to not accept the current slate.  So you’re darned right I don’t like Romney, Newt or any of the rest of them.  I can’t even keep straight who has declared yet and who has not (without taking a refresher).

So this is completely non-scientific.  I just … Continue reading →

Sarah Palin: Media Nemesis (3 of 3)

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Part 1
Part 2

I think I know what Palin is doing: I’ll never know for sure until proven wrong or the post-game reports starting in mid-November 2012.

[pullquote]she is going to draw the media out, to give the conservative candidates a series of shots to take[/pullquote]

I think that she is going to draw the media out, to make them keep going over the top in their hatred and bias, to give the conservative candidates a series of shots to take at the media.  Along the way, she will be more than happy to sideswipe RINOs, and I like it.

Her mere existence is … Continue reading →

Sarah Palin: Media Nemesis (2 of 2, er, 2 of 3)

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Part 1

Fox on the run

Things are developing even as I write.  Sarah Palin’s bus tour has taken off, with that fox leading a pack of ten to fifteen barking cars of the mainstream media.  MSNBC’s Martin Bashir demands to know what she’s doing, and charges her with violation of federal law for having a flag motif painted on the bus.  CBS’s Ryan Caruso insists that the situation is unsafe, and blames Palin for not telling the media where she’s going.  She rode in front at Rolling Thunder, to which CBS dutifully records the irritation of a few RT office-holders, and this demonstrates the essential divide: CBS is talking to the “national legislative director” for an organization’s … Continue reading →

Fukushima Cover-Up Also Leaking

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The broad strokes are known, while the details are sketchy.  The cover-up consists of TEPCO and the government issuing a steady stream of tut-tuts and there-theres trying to reassure a populace being poisoned that there’s nothing wrong, or not much, or it’s getting better, or whatever the feel-good phrase of the day is.

The government has been honest in some refreshing ways, but don’t expect cheerleading for only lying part of the time.  There’s a certain amount of half-full, half-empty debate as to how lucky we are that certain aspects of this disaster may have prevented or limited certain other aspects.  That’s great, but with how difficult it is to get straight facts from TEPCO and the government of Japan (which our acronym-loving government refers to as GOJ), … Continue reading →

Robert Fisk: The Unbearable Uselessness of Obama

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Infamous columnist Robert Fisk has an interesting piece on the uselessness of Obama:

Amid all these vast and epic events – Yemen itself may yet prove to be the biggest bloodbath of all, while the number of Syria’s “martyrs” have now exceeded the victims of Mubarak’s death squads five months ago – is it any surprise that the frolics of Messrs Netanyahu and Obama appear so irrelevant? Indeed, Obama’s policy towards the Middle East – whatever it is – sometimes appears so muddled that it is scarcely worthy of study

all quotes in this post via Who cares in the Middle East what Obama says? – Robert Fisk, Commentators – The Independent

He is right and wrong.  He rightfully points out that the US position has been … Continue reading →