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POPSBombing the Moon Gives A New Meaning to Lunatics So how much does a metaphor weigh? A lot more than NASA thinks. The first man on the moon wasn't an American or a Russian, it was The Man in the Moon we all saw when we were kids, and somebody older showed him to us. That's the first man on the moon, her permanent resident, and now he's got a NASA rocket at his backside... They used to call the mentally ill lunatics. But now I wonder who the real lunatics are. And if there is water on the moon, what are we going to do with it? Grow moon-corn for ethanol until we kill the Earth? Such a great article it touched something, it really touched something more beautiful than finding water on the moon.
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POPSOn ableist language More: If you think you should use a word because no other has the same impact, well, you’re right about the impact. Your usage has such an impact because it draws its power from disability=bad. You are forming a powerful sentence from disablism, our deep-set pain. It’s so much easier and better to just change your words. If you still insist on such usage, that’s lazy and cruel. If you’re not sure if your use of a word is offensive, err on the side of caution. Another message to take away is this. 1. If you are calling yourself progressive 2. and you are harming people with disabilities 3. you are not, in fact, progressive.
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POPSWill Obama Sign A Bill Denying Federal Funds For ACORN? Let’s not forget his campaign gave over $800,000 to an ACORN front group. There’s enough there there we can question whether Obama would sign a bill denying this group funds or veto it. Given the swiftness of the Census Bureau, the House and the Senate to respond to the scandal, I don’t see how Obama could survive politically by vetoing a bill that denied federal funds to ACORN. For Obama to balk at refusing federal funds for ACORN would give that much more fuel for the Tea Party movement, and force Democrats to run away from him… and with 2010 already looking to be a bad year for the Democrats, Obama would be wise to not give his critics more fodder. I, for one, don’t believe he’d veto a bill denying ACORN federal funding… but then again, he’s disappointed me enough times that it is easier to assume he won’t do the right thing. Posted 09-18-2009 6:20 PM by Matt Margolis
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POPSWrong Way Wilson Gets Bad Mark
This article is full of the excuses and made-up criticisms typical of Republican rants these days. But near the end it mentions the mild action in the House....Wilson got an "F," for failure to obey the rules. The thing that makes him a real JERK, imo, is that he got his fact wrong or was just trash talking without any facts: the health care reforms have no "Death Panels," - the health care reform specifically mentioned it doesn't apply to Every Person in the World (just citizens), so you're a real jerk to be a liar yourself and trying to smear someone else. As the House said, "reprehensible conduct." - Congress can't function if idiots scream and yell insults at each other all day, thus, there are rules of behavior. You wanna call the President a liar, do it on your own time, not while he's speaking to a Joint session of Congress. Like you don't win at sports by insulting the refs... But lies, fear, smear, no fact, bullies, this is all the Republicans have to offer t
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POPSWhy Humans Can't Navigate Out of a Paper Bag That these skills are so easily lost could explain why the average westerner struggles to navigate without help. Most people now live in a world that has been made navigable by maps, street signs, transport networks and GPS. There is no need to understand the environment to get around. Losing our relationship with physical space, coupled with the unique human ability to imagine ourselves in another location, may have given us the freedom to create a reality of our own. What other species could comprehend the World Wide Web or contemplate exploring new worlds? And while we may struggle to find our way back to the car after a shopping trip, we can take heart in the knowledge that, as a species, we have managed to find our way to the moon and back, and have sent satellites to just the right orbit so that we no longer need to think about where we are going. Show me a hamster that can do that.
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POPSAnother Power Grab? "Clinton, of the Internet Security Alliance, praised President Obama's May science policy review, which he said would take cybersecurity in the right direction by promoting incentives to get the private industry to improve its own security measures. But he faulted the Senate bill, which he said would centralize regulations for an industry that is too varied to fall under the control of a single set of rules without endangering the economy and security. "We think a lot of things need to be done to enhance cybersecurity," he told FOXNews.com, but this bill is "not something that we could support." " Here's my simple thought: At what point do we say 'stop'? At what point is the government taking things a step too far? When will Americans wake up?
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POPSObama Faces 'Scare Tactics' Head-On The right wing extremists remind me of the slaves that was brought to America. They were conditioned to hate themselves and reject anyone who said anything against their (corporate giants) slave master. If someone went to a slave and said "hey, you got it bad. these people are treating you like dirt, you don't have to take this". In return, they would lash out at the very people that was trying to help them.
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POPSThe American Way of War
(3) Explain the invasion to the American public in simple moral terms suitable for middle-school children at an evangelical summer camp: We are bombing cities to bring the gift of democracy and American values, or to defeat some vague but frightening evil, perhaps lurking under the bed, or to get rid of a bad dictator no longer of service to us, or to bring freedom and prosperity to any survivors. (This doesn’t work in Europe, which is honestly imperialistic.) The public can then feel a sense of unappreciated virtue when the primitives resist. Sententious moralism should always trump reason. (4) A misunderstanding of military reality helps. Besides, comprehension would only lead to depression. As Napoleon said, or may have, in war the moral is to the material as three is to one, which implies that unpleasant facts should be played down in favor of cultivating a cheerful attitude. Most especially, it should not be noted that a few tens of thousands of determined, probably genetically
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POPSFunny typos Grammar geeks will delight in Funny Typos, a site devoted to ridiculing the language-challenged among us. Why people cant menage to reed there writhing batter is simpy a misery to me.
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POPSWhy the #$%! Do We Swear? For Pain Relief There is a catch, though: The more we swear, the less emotionally potent the words become, Stephens cautions. And without emotion, all that is left of a swearword is the word itself, unlikely to soothe anyone's pain.
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POPSBlog on Cat Health Solutions and Training Tips How to strengthening your relationship with your cat by knowing cat health solutions and nutrition, all of which goes a long way towards deepening a fun time with your feline. Most all aspects of cat ownership are revealed in real detail. Get valuable data on how to fix virtually any cat problem. You know there are over twenty-five cat behavioral problems, from urine-marking to nocturnal disturbances to aggression. How about a real-life case study for each problem or challenge. Interpreting cat’s body language and vocals. Then use that knowledge to understand what he or she’s thinking and how to communicate with them. General knowledge on things like choosing the right cat, understanding both “good” and “bad” feline behaviors, how to help your cat adapt to your lifestyle and home. And wouldn't it be nice to toilet-train your cat? And . . . well there's a lot more
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POPSGeorge Orwell's Birthday Today is George Orwell's Birthday. Eric Arthur Blair was born on 25 June 1903. Nearly everybody in the English-speaking world has at least heard of, if not read, the iconic books 1984 and Animal Farm , or has at least heard of Big Brother. Less familiar is his work as journalist, essayist, poet and critic. Our language has acquired the adjective orwellian to describe a situation nobody wants to be facing. When I taught writing, my students' first assignment was to write an in-class essay, then read Orwell's essay Politics and the English Language , which is the source of the material in the clip above, then rework their own essay using the rules Orwell recommended. It usually improved their work. However, rereading Politics and the English Language finds me thinking that in the sixty-three years since it was first published, that, firstly, in all this time, few people have taken its advice to heart; (continued in comments)
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POPSBorderline Bigots
There is a series of photos that shows what immigrants have to face to get across Mexico. If we didn’t know it we would think the photos were taken in the U.S. Anonymous comment (therefore unverifiable) lists some of Mexico’s immigration laws: - There will be no special bilingual programs in the schools, no special ballots for elections, and all government business will be conducted in our language. - Foreigners will NOT have the right to vote, no matter how long they are here. - Foreigners will not be a burden to the taxpayers. No welfare, no food stamps, no health care, nor any other government assistance programs. - You are not allowed to own waterfront property. That property is reserved for citizens naturally born into this country. - Foreigners may not protest; no demonstrations, no waving a foreign flag, no political organizing, no "bad-mouthing" our president or his policies. - If you do come to this country illegally, you will be hunted down and sent straight to jail.
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POPSThe 7 Most Bizarrely Unlucky People Who Ever Lived (Warning: language) We're not saying these are the unluckiest people in history; we realize the world is full of starving children and cancer victims. But sometimes you see people who have weird, one-in-a-million instances of bad luck, often over and over again, and you can't help but wonder if they didn't piss off a Gypsy at some point.
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POPSGreen Day Attack Walmart Over Censorship While Walmart has the right to sell or not to sell whatever they want, I have to applaud Green Day for not bowing to the pressure to alter their artistry. I love Aidan Williamson’s comment: “It's a fair policy though, there's nothing like a bit of bad language to really push you over the edge when you're in Wal-Mart queueing for your pack of 50 handgun bullets, firearms accessory bag, copy of Grand Theft Auto and the A-Z of the local high schools.”
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POPSLegalized Prejudice I would suggest that legislating bigotry is not the way to go here.I understand that this is not a clear cut issue with some who wish to hold on to their religious dogma that discriminates against gays. Too bad! Find another line of "work". Perhaps consider snake oil salesman.
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POPSInstead of laughing at Arod, maybe we should feel bad for him. If the way he's described below is true, then i honestly don't think there is anything to laugh about. Despite being a great ballplayer, he obviously has very low self-esteem and confidence. What's funny about this? Believe me, i've poked fun at A-rod for years, seeing through his odd body language and facial expressions...seeming to exist on a frequency all to himself. But, at the end of the day, he's human. And if what causes him to act so weird is a deep insecurity about himself, than i feel bad for him like i would anyone else who suffers from that feeling.
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POPSZochrot: a group of Israeli citizens raising awareness of Nakba For ALL the very bad aspects of Zionism - racism, apartheid, theft of lands, human rights violations, the segregation Wall, IDF murderers, corruption, etcetera - REMEMBER there is at least one organisation of really GOOD 'self-hating' Jews making huge sacrifices to counteract Zionist vileness.
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POPSThe Vulgar Parrot Fearing that he'd hurt the parrot, John quickly opened the door to the freezer. The parrot calmly stepped out onto John's outstretched arms and said, "I believe I may have offended you with my rude language and actions. I'm sincerely remorseful for my inappropriate transgressions and I fully intend to do everything I can to correct my rude and unforgivable behavior." John was stunned at the change in the bird's attitude. As he was about to ask the parrot what had made such a dramatic change in his behavior, the bird continued, "May I ask what the turkey did?"
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