And look at the name of the image: "they-dont-care-about-bending-you-over-a-b
For me it's almost reflexive to reject the notion that "they're all the same" except that the past year has shown me that they ARE all the same.
* * *
I'll say it again: Iran is developing nuclear weapons.
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NYT says that violent Occupati are "exception".
Now, back when the TEA Parties were in the news, whenever there was the occasional bad story coming out it was because all the TEA Partiers were bad people.
But the numerous stories about sexual assaults, rapes, theft, riots, vandalism, etc from the "Occupy" protests--why, that's just the result of a fringe element!
Even though there are many, many times the number of stories from the OWS folks than there ever were from the TEA folks.
Sure, it's wrong to tar the whole movement with the actions of a bare minority...but the proportions are different. We're not seeing a single misdeed from one person at a single protest (such as the alleged "they spit on me!" thing, which was proven false) but mass numbers of these stories are coming out from all over the place. It's not just New York; it's Oakland and Seattle and Chicago and-and-and.
That's the big difference. The TEA events were single occurrences, magnified by the media trying to portray the movement as evil and violent. The OWS events are legion, and the media's trying to downplay them as much as it can.
And the media wouldn't be doing it if the OWS folks weren't all leftists.
NYT can't have it both ways. If the TEA folks are responsible for everything that happens at their protests, then the OWS folks are responsible for everything that happens at theirs...and that means a huge difference in the kind of misbehavior and the frequency of it. There is just more bad stuff going on at OWS protests than there ever was at TEA protests.
For example, there were no sexual assaults at TEA protests, and if there had been the TEA folks would not have suggested that the victims just shut up about it....
* * *
NASA wants to keep people away from the Apollo landing sites. That makes sense, I suppose, but the Moon is not US territory and NASA doesn't have any jurisdiction.
The other thing is that the article says "NASA owns its artifacts" but really, it doesn't. Under commonly-accepted maritime law, most of the stuff NASA left on the moon is legally "salvage", as it's been abandoned. NASA certainly has no way of going there and retrieving it. A good lawyer, well-funded, could convincingly argue A) that maritime law can reasonably be extended to operations in outer space; and B) that NASA's present inability and lack of a plan to retrieve the objects it left on the Moon constitutes "abandonment" of the property in question, thus leaving it open for salvage under those self-same maritime rules.
The only thing NASA could really do about any of this is to wind up its cops and arrest people who tried to buy or sell salvaged equipment in the United States.
So, Salvage 1, that movie where Andy Griffith plays a junk man who goes to the Moon won't actually be able to play out in fact. More's the pity. But if you think the Chinese would give a rat's ass about NASA's "guidelines" you're fooling yourself.
* * *
DOOM!
In the past week we've been given a respite from the noisy square wave signature of the Dow over the past month--at least, the amplitude has lessened, anyway. But I think it's the calm before the storm; even as Greece appears to be settling down Italy now looms on the horizon.
Exactly as my fellow DOOM!sayers predicted. Well, we had four others to choose from: Italy, Ireland, Portugal, and Spain--one of 'em was going to be next.
The problem is, there isn't enough money in the developed world to fix all of them, and even if there were it would mean leaving the world's de facto reserve currency--the dollar--exposed to collapse, because the US isn't doing anything different than Europe is doing. We're just not as far along the curve as they are, not that it really matters considering the magnitude of our own stupidity.
I said "even as Greece appears to be settling down" but Greece isn't fixed, either. Just because they're going to change governments and accept the "haircut" without a referendum does not mean that the people are going to accept the end of the bread and circuses. So there'll still be riots and protests and stuff, and it's going to be messy; one way or another the decades of fraud and overspending will have to be paid for, and the people are not going to quietly accept anything that makes them uncomfortable.
The next time that happens it'll be the first.
* * *
Panic attack last night; nightmare around 5 AM despite the Xanax. *sigh* I'm batting a thousand, here.
The nightmare was another "you're about to get et" scenario, only this time it was with a veneer of Hollywood-style H.P. Lovecraft. Kid turns into big spooty amorphous glob of stuff and I get ensnared in it. First I was carrying its eyestalks around so it could see farther than a few feet, but then it decided it didn't need that and started reeling me in.
It wasn't quite as bad as the last one but it was still bad enough to make me glad the sun was coming up.
* * *
So the anime playlist has changed once again:
30-sai no Hoken Taiiku...only I didn't watch Fairy Tail last night because it was after midnight when Index2 ended and I just wanted to go to bed, especially since I have things I want to get accomplished this week.
Nichijou
Softenni
Hanasaku Iroha
To Aru Majutsu no Index II
Fairy Tail
Of course, though I went to bed around 12:30 I ended up tossing and turning for 1.5 hours before I realized that I needed the Xanax yet again. I think I managed about 3 hours of sleep before the nightmare woke me up; and then after feeding the cats and having a bagel I tossed and turned for another 1.5 hours before falling asleep again.
Nichijou is pretty weird, but it made me laugh, so I probably won't hate it.
30Sai is ending pretty soon. Here's a list of replacement candidates:
A ChannelThere are a few more on El-Hazard that I can't access right now, because the power failed around 10 AM; it shut down and I haven't switched it back on yet. But I think you can see why I'm doing more anime right now than WoW; these are all complete series I downloaded, and several of them I haven't even started yet.
Ano hi Mita Hana no Namae o Bokutachi wa Mada Shiranai
Kore wa Zombie desu Ka
Hoshizora e Kakaru Hashi
Shuffle!
Usagi Drop
Incidentally, this business of giving anime series long convoluted sentences for titles has got to stop. It's getting ridiculous.
Oh, here we go:
Aoi Hana...the latter two at least when there are uncensored versions available.
Saint Seiya
Yuru Yuri
Mayo Chiki
R-15
(Note to self: I really do need to keep an eye out for an inexpensive UPS for El-Hazard.)
Anyway, that's an assload, and that's why.
* * *
So it's Tuesday, and I've gotten nothing accomplished again. It's raining and I feel crummy. At least there's Bible class tonight, so hopefully I can go to that and feel a little better about everything. And I have choir practice to look forward to on Thursday, too!
