Vaccines: Myth and Reality
Leave a reply
Tag Archives: politics
New language
From War By Any Other Name: Obama’s new terminology has started a trend
The Obama administration has come under intense criticism for replacing the term “war on terror” with the emaciated euphemism “overseas contingency operations,” and for referring to individual acts of terror as “man-caused disasters.”
….
Yet, if the intention of the Obama administration is to tone down the confrontational rhetoric being used by our enemies, the effort is already reaping results. This week, in a pronounced shift from its usual theatrical style, the Taliban announced that it will no longer refer to its favorite method of murder as “beheadings,” but will henceforth employ the expression “cephalic attrition.”
….
In Darfur….the archaic term “genocide” — so broad and vague as to be meaningless — has now been supplanted by “maximum-intensity racial profiling.”
Via Ann Althouse
Home State Stupidity
Illinois plutocrats are frakkin’ goofy
The government of Illinois, an an obvious attempt to distract America from Blagojevich’s hair, has declared that Pluto is a planet.
[snip]
That’s OK though, Illinois congresscritters. I’m sure there’s nothing else for you to do with all your spare time. But y’know, I hear those pesky Hoosiers next door want to make π equal to 3! Hurry! You can still beat them to it!
City of the big shoulders — and 20,000 eyes that never sleep
Surveillance cams help fight crime, city says: Goal is to have them on every corner.
Via A Surveillance Camera On Every Chicago Street Corner?
[The figure of 20,000 is my own SWAG, based on Chicago geography,]
I can understand the civil libertarian objections to this plan. However, having had much too close personal acquaintance with crime on a few of those corners, I suspect Mayor Daley has plenty of local support for implementing it.
As good as it gets!
A note on Tuesday, especially for English majors and lawyers
Ann Althouse links to Oaf of Office
She then adds her own perspective from the legal world:
But let’s remember that Barack Obama was the president of the Harvard Law Review — that is, the editor-in-chief — while John Roberts was the managing editor. For those of you who know law reviews, that means a lot. The managing editor is typically the person with the most intense interest in the details of grammar and usage. It would be cool if we could know that when Barack Obama paused after John Roberts moved the “faithfully” that he was thinking: I can see what you’re up to, you old managing editor, and I know you are wrong.
Race relations elsewhere
Another new thing about this inauguration
If social networking servers crash during inauguration, fine by me
There is a fear that when Barack Obama is sworn in as the 44th American president on Tuesday, our population’s addiction to instant communication will cripple the networks we use for messaging.
To prepare for Inauguration Day, wireless carriers have beefed up their networks. Twitter has added servers and so has Facebook, as it hopes the increased bandwidth will prevent a crash if too many people watch and chat at the same time on its social network.
From Hilbert Space to Dilbert Space, and beyond 