The Continuing Decline Of Western Civilization

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I am lazy, part Friday

Welcome back to the part of the program where I have no useful contribution. That's right, lists of links.

The Greenland ice shelf is begining to melt faster. As a admendum to this, there's this tasty tidbit.

A hotel worker's union has, in a bit of skillful manuvering, managed to make 2006 the year they make it happen. All the contracts across the nation expire in a couple of months, and the union, UNITE HERE, has 60,000 workers who could walk off the job.

Are you worried that with universal health care your care will be rationed? Well good news, it already is. More precisely, it's auctioned off to the highest bidder. Money quote: "You think the waits for some elective procedures is bad in some parts of Canada? Try getting a colonoscopy at County Hospital in Los Angeles if you have no insurance."

Rumsfeld and Bush want government to take control of newsrooms. No lie: "The US must fight back by operating a more effective, 24-hour propaganda machine, or risk a "dangerous deficiency," he said. Government communications planning must be "a central component of every aspect of this struggle", he added." The truth is just as dangerous to these people overseas as it is here.

That's it for now.

posted by tcdowc - 10:11 pm - 02.17.06

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We're lulling them into a sense of security

This should go under the heading of making the world safer for terrorists and rogue states. A Knight-Ridder article from Teusday details the exodus of top-level weapons experts from the State Department as a result of a reorganization to ensure that yes-men and toadies are well employed:

State Department officials appointed by President Bush have sidelined key career weapons experts and replaced them with less experienced political operatives who share the White House and Pentagon's distrust of international negotiations and treaties.

The reorganization of the department's arms control and international security bureaus was intended to help it better deal with 21st-century threats. Instead, it's thrown the agency into turmoil and produced an exodus of experts with decades of experience in nuclear arms, chemical weapons and related matters, according to 11 current and former officials and documents obtained by Knight Ridder.

It's really true, I'm not blowing this out of proportion. Check it out:

Thomas Lehrman, a political appointee who heads the new office of Weapons of Mass Destruction Terrorism, advertised outside the State Department to fill jobs in his office. In an e-mail to universities and research centers, a copy of which was obtained by Knight Ridder, he listed loyalty to Bush and Rice's priorities as a qualification.

Because we really need people who like to kiss Bush's ass more than people who know what they're doing. It's not like nonproliferation is all that important.

posted by tcdowc - 9:32 pm - 02.17.06

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Indescribably sexy

Okay, this is by far the coolest thing that I've seen since the slug sex (which was super sweet). Multi-Touch Interaction Research. 'Yawn' you are thinking. Well, you can fuck right off. Go watch the video here, and you can read about it here.

posted by tcdowc - 8:56 pm - 02.17.06

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