When all else fails... linkspam.
Feb. 25th, 2011 01:50 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
matt_doyleTried to write a couple book reviews this morning and found that my current mindset about literature was uncritical and full of squee, which makes for dissatisfying one-note reviews about how awesome Scott Westerfeld's books are, go buy them right now.
I do love the books, but I'd like to discuss them intelligently. So, in the meantime, here's my slightly more critical review of the real world.
Goldman Sachs has an analysis of how and why the current budget cuts will hurt economic recovery. I'm not a fan of Goldman Sachs, but it seems like it's in their best interests to be honest about what would or wouldn't help make money.
Meanwhile, while Goldman Sachs rates it as a low probability, here's some speculation on the likelihood of a government shutdown.
Of course, I'm not sure whether anyone is worrying about that, but that's because I'm not sure if they're paying attention -- only half of Americans know that the health care reform bill has not, in fact, been repealed. Hopefully the half that wants it gone is the half that thinks it already is and we can just move on to the next set of big issues.
Like, for example, Obama's decision to stop defending part of DOMA. This does not mean the law is repealed, or that it will not be enforced, but only that court cases challenging whether one clause of it is Constitutional will not be defended by the DOJ. That doesn't mean, however, that this isn't a significant decision in a lot of ways. Nor, as critics suggest, is an administration making a decision like this in any way unprecedented. In slightly related news, some people think that permitting gay marriage is a step toward Sharia law. This makes even less sense to me than stabbing someone who took your Girl Scout cookies.
Wanting to secede from Arizona is a little more reasonable, but only a little. Everyone needs some space sometimes to just get away from politics they dislike. I, in a clever editorial segue, even feel the need to do so in the middle of a post about the news, which is why I link to things like cookie-related stabbings, or, in better news, this cool piece about a blind man who beats video games by listening to them.
Returning to politics, however, the US military in Afghanistan has been employing PsyOp techniques on Congressional delegations in an attempt to get funding. Is that both illegal and unethical? You bet it is!
The TSA is still pulling the same crap, and people are still not putting up with it.
And it's a short sentence, but I can't find a longer one that's more compelling..Save Americorps!
I'm not going to talk about or link to everything I have read in the last few days about the ongoing protests in Wisconsin, or the amazing wave of democratic revolution sweeping North Africa and the Middle East (and meeting deadly resistance), because those topics deserve their own posts, and because the subjects overwhelm me. In parting, though, I will give you one link to the renewed legislative assault on abortion and women's rights. This is also a subject that deserves deeper treatment, but I'm not sure I'm the one to give it.
I was raised in a deeply pro-life household, and while in every argument I have had in the past three years I have stood against any measure that would overturn Roe v. Wade, I am deeply ambivalent about identifying strongly with either side of the debate. All I can say with certainty is that I am deeply disgusted and disillusioned with the hypocrisy of the so-called pro-life movement. Anyone who opposes abortion but supports the death penalty or the wars in Iraq or Afghanistan is not pro-life. Anyone who opposes social welfare programs that help poor families and single mothers is not pro-life: they are causing abortions. Anyone who opposes free access to contraceptives or comprehensive sex ed. for children is promoting abortions. Anyone attempts to defund organizations such as Planned Parenthood, is assaulting the underlying framework of a support structure that attempts to make the momentous decision to be a mother easier. If someone seeks to stop abortions, but their other views contribute to a world in which motherhood is more difficult and unwanted pregnancy more likely, they are not pro-life. And they are ignoring the real problem. Everyone wishes that there were fewer abortions. But the pro-life movement spends its time trying to punish women and score ideological points rather than considering that their other political views drive women into situations where they may see abortion as their only viable alternative.
Anyway. This has been another instance of livejournalism. Hope it was useful to you.
I do love the books, but I'd like to discuss them intelligently. So, in the meantime, here's my slightly more critical review of the real world.
Goldman Sachs has an analysis of how and why the current budget cuts will hurt economic recovery. I'm not a fan of Goldman Sachs, but it seems like it's in their best interests to be honest about what would or wouldn't help make money.
Meanwhile, while Goldman Sachs rates it as a low probability, here's some speculation on the likelihood of a government shutdown.
Of course, I'm not sure whether anyone is worrying about that, but that's because I'm not sure if they're paying attention -- only half of Americans know that the health care reform bill has not, in fact, been repealed. Hopefully the half that wants it gone is the half that thinks it already is and we can just move on to the next set of big issues.
Like, for example, Obama's decision to stop defending part of DOMA. This does not mean the law is repealed, or that it will not be enforced, but only that court cases challenging whether one clause of it is Constitutional will not be defended by the DOJ. That doesn't mean, however, that this isn't a significant decision in a lot of ways. Nor, as critics suggest, is an administration making a decision like this in any way unprecedented. In slightly related news, some people think that permitting gay marriage is a step toward Sharia law. This makes even less sense to me than stabbing someone who took your Girl Scout cookies.
Wanting to secede from Arizona is a little more reasonable, but only a little. Everyone needs some space sometimes to just get away from politics they dislike. I, in a clever editorial segue, even feel the need to do so in the middle of a post about the news, which is why I link to things like cookie-related stabbings, or, in better news, this cool piece about a blind man who beats video games by listening to them.
Returning to politics, however, the US military in Afghanistan has been employing PsyOp techniques on Congressional delegations in an attempt to get funding. Is that both illegal and unethical? You bet it is!
The TSA is still pulling the same crap, and people are still not putting up with it.
And it's a short sentence, but I can't find a longer one that's more compelling..Save Americorps!
I'm not going to talk about or link to everything I have read in the last few days about the ongoing protests in Wisconsin, or the amazing wave of democratic revolution sweeping North Africa and the Middle East (and meeting deadly resistance), because those topics deserve their own posts, and because the subjects overwhelm me. In parting, though, I will give you one link to the renewed legislative assault on abortion and women's rights. This is also a subject that deserves deeper treatment, but I'm not sure I'm the one to give it.
I was raised in a deeply pro-life household, and while in every argument I have had in the past three years I have stood against any measure that would overturn Roe v. Wade, I am deeply ambivalent about identifying strongly with either side of the debate. All I can say with certainty is that I am deeply disgusted and disillusioned with the hypocrisy of the so-called pro-life movement. Anyone who opposes abortion but supports the death penalty or the wars in Iraq or Afghanistan is not pro-life. Anyone who opposes social welfare programs that help poor families and single mothers is not pro-life: they are causing abortions. Anyone who opposes free access to contraceptives or comprehensive sex ed. for children is promoting abortions. Anyone attempts to defund organizations such as Planned Parenthood, is assaulting the underlying framework of a support structure that attempts to make the momentous decision to be a mother easier. If someone seeks to stop abortions, but their other views contribute to a world in which motherhood is more difficult and unwanted pregnancy more likely, they are not pro-life. And they are ignoring the real problem. Everyone wishes that there were fewer abortions. But the pro-life movement spends its time trying to punish women and score ideological points rather than considering that their other political views drive women into situations where they may see abortion as their only viable alternative.
Anyway. This has been another instance of livejournalism. Hope it was useful to you.
