In Other News...

This is the thread for posting something that warrants a post in the Newsroom but not a full thread. If a subject that comes up in this thread generates enough discussion we may split the posts out and make a thread for the subject.

Anyway, I recently saw this video and just had to post it for the wtf-ness.

Apparently he's running for Florida's eighth district's spot in the house of representatives.

[Villerar]

Racial profiler and supporter of racist detention, I'm not going to like that bloke.

Anyway, such clearly racist ads should be banned from being aired. Freedom of speech does not mean freedom of discrimination.

[shiny stone]

Hate speech is and should be protected, and this isn't even that bad. Racist detention is what happened in WWII, and by modern standards goes over the line. But racist inconveniencing may be worth it if we're at war with a group who's mostly the same race. It is worth considering. The real problem is that once such standards get put in place, they can be exploited. Al-Qaeda would find some non-Arab jihadists to hijack our planes. Better to randomly select people for questioning or apply stronger screening to all passengers.

[Villerar]

Hate speech is and should be protected, and this isn't even that bad. Racist detention is what happened in WWII, and by modern standards goes over the line. But racist inconveniencing may be worth it if we're at war with a group who's mostly the same race. It is worth considering. The real problem is that once such standards get put in place, they can be exploited. Al-Qaeda would find some non-Arab jihadists to hijack our planes. Better to randomly select people for questioning or apply stronger screening to all passengers.

I never said that hate speech should not be protected, I said that those ads should be banned from being aired (though I later realised they were obviously on commercial television, I know NPR is very small in the US and I wouldn't ban them from commercial channels anyway) and that there are limits to freedom of speech. I deem this worthy of a legal indiction and a ban from any public broadcasting company, but I'm not saying that people shouldn't be allowed to write essays about it in newspapers. In short: way to go for a straw man.

Regardless, I really hope an investigation will soon follow suit, because such ads are just too disgusting for words.

Racial inconveniencing is downright racism. It's not worth considering at all, since it disadvantages innocents because you're at war with people who are of the same race. That's the definition of racism and using such methods will generally result in an increase in racism amongst that particular group, too, look at Arab-Americans and Arabs in the United States, who can get in trouble just for being (of) Arab (descent). It is just a neoconservative wet dream that's actually very wrong in the worst sense, because it clearly disadvantages people because of others and thus violates several essential principles of a Rechtsstaat.

Okay, now for something else:
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/africa/8676758.stm

[Villerar]

It seems that an election of a Muslim to Miss USA has led to a neo-conservative hurricane of paranoia.

http://www.arabdetroit.com/news.php?id=960

http://www.allvoices.com/contributed...h-islamic-plot

She does come from Southern Lebanon, a region where Hezbollah (Arabic for Party of God) is strong, but she doesn't seem to be even a parsec close to the extremist neo-cons claim she is.

In other news, it seems the neo-conservatives have launched their defamation campaign. They also claim she is a moral threat to society and such (kind of ironic to hear that from Fox).

[Villerar]

This article is better in my eyes, but hey, views differ.

http://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisf...010-rima-fakih

[Villerar]

High expenses for the G8/G20 Summit, ditching providing abortions to women in developing countries despite claims to increase maternal health...

Stephen Harper gets quite some flak.

http://www.undispatch.com/node/9990

Oh and some people claim some riots have been perpetrated by the government to justify crushing peaceful protests.

http://www.prisonplanet.com/peaceful...eft-alone.html

Here can you see some activists causing mayhem as claimed by these media... oh wait.

[Rad]

This may or may not count as "news", but my city here in South Texas is flooding in the aftermath of Hurricane Alex that hasn't made itself known until today. Many of us received calls from our local law enforcements for mandatory evacuations and I'm currently in the middle of doing so since the water level at our rivers has risen at an . . . alarming rate. As I type, I'm almost done packing since the streets outside my window are filled with vehicles on their way to shelter, be it government-provided or otherwise. Considering I may not have a home within 24-48 hours and I'm surprised I actually ~have~ a working internet connection, I wanted to spread the word in case there are others from South Texas in this forum going through the same thing.

Hopefully, my fellow South Texans, there's no need for you to evacuate unlike myself and many others and you'll all be alright. I hope I have a home to actually return to since a thing like this (due to my complex not actually having any flood insurance since it's located in an alleged "non-flooding area" for quite a long time. I really hope things work out alright and that the rest of my family and I make it through this okay. My parents and little brother have already evacuated towards my grandmother's house (surprisingly, it's only raining, but no signs of flooding yet) and are waiting on me to follow them.

I ~may~ come back later of sharing an optional update or not. If there's already a topic on this board about it (I didn't have time to check nor do I have much time now), I apologize for putting this unnecessarily here, but seeing as how I actually fear for my life and several others at this moment, I can't help but panic.

This isn't exactly what I wanted as a comeback post, but considering I may not have a home and, in the worst-case scenario, a life, I just had to get this out since mandatory evacuations are currently in progress.

Thank you very much for taking the time to read this, knowing you didn't have to. Hopefully, I'll be able to return later on via someone else's connection, but I felt like telling you all since the people of this board have become a second family of sorts, slightly-dysfunctional though it may be. Here's hoping I have a home to return to once this . . . situation clears away.

I mentioned this in the IRC chat a few days ago, but I sincerely missed you all and I still do.

[Villerar]

Wow, I hope you'll get out all right. The same goes for your complex and your belongings. You don't live on the ground floor, do you?

I suppose everybody understands that a situation like this leads to a rather strange comeback post. Let's just hope you'll be able to make a more regular one after evacuating and finding some connection.

Yeah, that is a really terrible situation Rad.

Hope it turns out alright.

[AuraKnight]

Hurricane or no Hurricane, I'm kinda confused on how it floods in texas in the middle of summer, but I don't think this is really the time for that.

I don't really know you that well Rad, but good luck all the same. Seems like you'll need it.

[Rad]

The worst is over. The good news is that my home and my family's home were both left untouched. Yes, my place is at ground level, but the water didn't reach it, apparently. While some homes weren't so lucky and a park is currently submerged, my family and I were well off during our time away.

As far as South Texas getting floods during the summer goes, Aura, I know what you're saying. Frankly, I'm surprised too. However, since my city lives extremely close to the rivers (especially the Rio Grande), it wasn't all that surprising. None of us that Hurricane Alex, along with the constant on and off rain we've had lately, would affect the water level so much.

As I said earlier, though, the worst is over. Thank you very much for your well wishes. I certainly did appreciate them, indeed.

[Villerar]

Great to hear you're all right and that you don't have property damage. But how is the infrastructure? Can you get around decently with the flooding?

[Rad]

Surprisingly, yes. I can still go to work without having to deal with flooded streets since the water has been steadily decreasing as of two days ago. I was only recently notified of this yesterday, so I decided to unpack this morning and get settled in again. My family is able to traverse where they need to without any impediments.

[ksheep]

Not quite breaking news, but…

It would appear that President Obama has cut back on funding for NASA's Constellation project, which was scheduled to be the successor for the Shuttle program, which is due to be retired in 2011. He has since proposed to redesign the Orion capsule, which was designed to be the crew capsule for the Constellation project, into an emergency lifeboat for the International Space Station. This decision means that, once the shuttle is retired, the only way to get a man into space in the foreseeable future would be on a Russian rocket. He is also pumping money into NASA… but it is for developing a manned Mars mission. Several Apollo-era astronauts, including Neil Armstrong, Jim Lovell, and Eugene Cernan, have openly criticized this decision. Discuss.

http://www.fastcompany.com/1615708/o...ckets-moonshot
http://www.fastcompany.com/1616120/n...-lovell-cernan

[Villerar]

I'm in general in favour of cutting spending on NASA, though, but I'd prefer cutting on SETI before anything else. I'm not very knowledgable about NASA, though, only a little about the ulterior motives of the space race (which were not at all about national prestige).

In other news, David Cameron shows plans for cuts on social spending...

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-10680062

David Cameron has launched his "big society" drive to empower communities, describing it as his "great passion".

... which is conveniently called big society and people power.

Yes, I'm cynical about this one. Volunteers will always be needed, but to make some public resources run on volunteers?

[ksheep]

I'm in general in favour of cutting spending on NASA, though, but I'd prefer cutting on SETI before anything else. I'm not very knowledgable about NASA, though, only a little about the ulterior motives of the space race (which were not at all about national prestige).

The thing is, they are pumping MORE money into Nasa, but at the same time they are cutting one of the main projects they've been working on for the past 5 years, effectively wasting $10 billion dollars by scrapping it. Looking into it further, one of the things the Constellation project was planing on doing was to return to the moon. Instead, Obama decided to scrap this plan and jump straight on toward Mars. However, revisiting the moon could have acted as a proving ground for new technologies, provided new scientific insights, and even possibly provided raw materials (and a forward base) for use in missions to Mars.

[Villerar]

Then that sounds like an awful move from a tactical perspective. Though I'm taking the lunar base with a grain of salt, experimenting new technology on the Moon seems more prudent to me than going to Mars straight away. Of course, there is more marginal knowledge on Mars... but I think the reason is more one of national prestige.

[ksheep]

It would appear that a homeless man broke into a bar last weekend in California…*and started serving drinks. The bar had been closed for some time, as it's liquor license had expired and the former owners had fallen on hard times. The man opened it back up again, starting with nothing more than a 6-pack of beer from a nearby store, eventually buying more beverages after getting money from serving his drinks. By the end of the weekend, business was booming for him, and the local newspaper though that they bar had actually reopened and ran a story about it, which tipped off the police. The cops questioned him about it, found that he did not own the bar and did not have a license, so they arrested him with charges of burglary and selling beer without a license, confiscating his money and beer. They later let him go with a single misdemeanor charge. Discuss.

http://edition.cnn.com/2010/CRIME/07...id=vlv74gvXv6p

[Villerar]

Quite a creative crime. In my view, the morally least integre part was breaking in. Well, it doesn't mention the method by which he got in... actually breaking stuff aside forcing a lock would in my eyes be the worst, but it isn't really clear on it.

Threspassing would seem fairer to me than burglary, to be honest.

[ksheep]

One question that comes to mind… would he be the only one guilty of trespassing, or would all of his "patrons" also be guilty?

[Villerar]

Good point. Technically they would be guilty, but it is not clear that they should know he was the proprietor, so they shouldn't be convicted for that in my eyes.

In udder news...

http://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisf...ma-immigration

The US immigration debate provides an opportunity for a new relationship between Obama and the evangelical community

I can hear the Objectivists rage. [insert something witty here]

Anyway, I think it is presumptuous to suggest only evangelicalsm is the reason for reform (I don't think the author does); for instance the UFW also has an action for immigration reform for farm workers. But since evangelicalism is so powerful in the US, this type of political support is vital and in my eyes a good thing.

[YamiGekusu]

There happened to be an oil spill in a town in the eastern part of the county in Michigan where I live and it is going down the river and it smells really bad here. The governor is pissed because she doesn't believe that the Canadian company that is running the pipeline or whatever is handling the situation correctly.

And when I say it smells bad, it smells REALLY bad. I live less than a couple of miles from the river and a bunch of people in my area can smell the oil.

[Villerar]

http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2010...te-mothers-law

World centre of 'surrogacy tourism' will introduce radical legislation to regulate £1.5bn industry

Hopefully conditions will improve.

[ksheep]

It would appear that it is now legal to rip DVDs and jailbreak phones in the US. Granted, you still aren't allowed to burn illegal copies of DVDs to sell for profit, but you are allowed to rip movies for educational, non-commercial, or documentary purposes. Phone jailbreaking is also now allowed under this new set of rules, although some carriers such as Apple say that jailbreaking the phone will void the warranty.

http://itgrunts.com/2010/07/26/rippi...gal-in-the-us/