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| yitz is an agnoster 20 most recent entries |
Apparently, two wrongs do make a right. I hate rap music and French, and yet I can't stop listening to this:
Europe, suffering from the crippling effects of universal health care and high, progressive taxes, overtakes the US as world's #1 economy
Brainless moron botches marriage proposal to materialistic bitch
CNN estimates that Obama leads Clinton by less than 100 delegates, 1,553 to 1,438.-- CNN (a bit less than halfway down the article) *facepalm* EDIT: They fixed it, but not before I grabbed a screenshot Ryo has a point - doesn't journalistic integrity require visible corrections? I want it to be like "track changes" or Wikipedia. Guess I'll just have to start my own news organization... hmm... 5 comments | post a comment
I made a New Year's resolution. I mean, not really. I don't make New Year's resolutions, but I did more or less make a decision for this year: I'm leaving the USA.
You know, two weeks after Bloody Sunday, when the march finally reached Montgomery, Martin Luther King Jr. spoke to the crowd of thousands and said "The arc of the moral universe is long, but it bends towards justice." He's right, but you know what? It doesn't bend on its own. It bends because we help it bend that way. Because people like John Lewis and Hosea Williams and Martin Luther King and Coretta Scott King and Rosa Parks and thousands of ordinary Americans with extraordinary courage have helped bend it that way. And as their examples call out to us from across the generations, we continue to progress as a people because they inspire us to take our own two hands and bend that arc.-- US Senate Speech by Barack Obama Gave some more money to Obama. It's possible that you can, too! And anyway, if you're not voting for Obama, we should talk. Maybe we can learn something from each other! The problem I find with trying to make my case for Obama is that there are so many reasons for it, so where do I start? Do I talk about how he stands a much better chance of winning the general election than Clinton? Or how he's more likely to get stuff done because he knows how to work together with politicians on both sides of the aisle? What about his staunch opposition to the Iraq War from the beginning? Maybe the symbolism, both to America and the world, of having a black President named Barack Hussein Obama? The way he has inspired a grass-roots movement and given hope to people that our political system isn't broken beyond our ability to repair if we try? His commitment to open and transparent government? The simple fact that his rhetoric is an exhortation to us all to be a part of government that bends the arc back into the right direction? His academic manner of finding the right solution by listening to all sides of an issue, with a compass that is moral but not ideological? How he won't shy away from calling the economic argument against immigration scapegoating, or addressing anti-semitism and homophobia in African-American communities? His ability to unite Democrats, Republicans, and Independents as part of one America? I think what it comes down to is - yes, there are many reasons to like Barack Obama, and why he would be a fine president - but it's not just about the individual, it's about the movement. Obama knows that it will take more than a change of personnel in the White House to right the wrongs in America. Obama is getting new people involved in droves - new voters, first-time contributors, new political organizers, and this is just the beginning. A democracy cannot function without an engaged populace, and that is, I think, the great hope of the Obama campaign - that we can once again become inspired and involved. It is our responsibility to bend the arc of the moral universe, and yes, we can. post a comment
Thanks to reddit for reminding me of some of my favorite jokes, including: At a world brewing convention in the States, the CEOs of various Brewing organizations retired to the bar at the end of each day's conference.post a comment
Yeah, I've been posting a lot. Don't worry, this probably doesn't interest you - I just wanted to muse out loud.
So, the Graduate/Alumni ScavHunt team has a facebook app.
For many reasons - none of which, I must emphasize, is the way the residents of Snell-Hitchcock smell - I have decided to scav with the Grad/Alumni team. Dearly as I will miss my brothers and sisters in arms at Snitchcock, it is time to move on, into the future, which is obviously the Grad/Alumni team.
If you want to build a ship, don't drum up the men to gather wood, divide the work and give orders. Instead, teach them to yearn for the vast and endless sea.-- Antoine de Saint-Exupéry People say Obama may be an inspiring figure, but that he doesn't have the political savvy to get things done. I disagree, of course - his bipartisan record in the Illinois legislature is, I think, just a preview of what an inspiring, unifying politician can achieve. But perhaps it's also because I come from a family in which words matter. Words have inspired humanity to great achievements and horrible failures, terrible atrocities and acts of courage and kindness alike. Don't tell me words don't matter - and don't tell me we wouldn't be better off with a President who can speak to the people and remind them that they matter, that we can resolve our differences with words, and that we can believe in a better world if we are willing to work for it. 1 comment | post a comment
Okay. So you all know, presumably, that I live and breathe ScavHunt. If you don't, you don't know me.
POP QUIZ Men in Hats is the gripping story of 6 guys who stand around in the desert... talking... sometimes they have breakfast.Bitterly clever, it illustrates all the cruelty and heartlessness of the human condition in a way that you can't help but laugh at. 3) Dresden Codak is one of my current favorites - the new storyline is engaging and poignant, in a post-morality purpose kind of way - but it seems to update on a geological time scale. But, philosophy role-playing game! 4) New webcomic (new to me, that is), and the reason I wrote this entry: Templar, Arizona. If you're not familiar with it, read the archives - it'll be one of the stranger and more delicious hours you'll spend. Or, I think it was an hour... but I may have lost track of time. It's culture fiction about a place in an alternate history, delightfully and exuberantly portrayed. So, what have you got for me? Don't adhere to strictly to the questions. Change 'em if it makes for better answers. 4 comments | post a comment
I got to Berlin. Mind you, I left a good 40 hours before I got here, but that's a story for another time. The moral is "don't ever fly through Heathrow before Christmas - or under any other circumstances, for that matter." 2 comments | post a comment
I'm really torn about this. It does, however, call to mind the Lazarus Long quote: Stupidity cannot be cured with money, or through education, or by legislation. Stupidity is not a sin, the victim can't help being stupid. But stupidity is the only universal capital crime; the sentence is death, there is no appeal, and execution is carried out automatically and without pity.Of course, in this case something might have been done about it, and I do believe medical care should be provided when it is needed. Still... it is a little poetic. I mean, I admire faith as much as... well, okay, probably a little less than the next guy. But people like this give everyone with real faith a bad name, because that's not faith, it's stupidity. God helps those who help themselves. Place your faith in Allah - but tie your camel first. Or, of course, the old joke, which I'll reproduce for shiggles: A very religious man hears a broadcast on the radio - a huge flood is coming. He says, "well, I've been a devout man all my life, prayed every day, God will save me." The water rises, a neighbor comes by in a row boat and tells him to hop in. "Go on without me, I've been a devout man all my life, prayed every day, God will save me." The boat leaves, the water rises so the man moves onto the roof. A helicopter comes by crying out on the bullhorn for the guy to climb the ladder. "Go on without me, I've been a devout man all my life, prayed every day, God will save me." Helicopter gives up and, needless to say, the guy drowns. He comes face to face with God and says, "Lord, I've been a devout man all my life, prayed every day, why didn't you save me." And God just rolls his eyes and says "I sent you a radio message, a boat, even a freakin' helicopter - what more did you want from me?" Long story short, I never can feel too bad for anyone who enters themselves for a Darwin award. Maybe... I'm a bad person? 2 comments | post a comment
Somehow, I don't think I would want my epitaph to read like this. (Yes, technically not an epitaph. You get my meaning, though.) 3 comments | post a comment
We have recursion: yitzhak@hiawatha::lisp $ ./lisp
> ((label fib (lambda (n) (cond ((eq n 0) 0) ((eq n 1) 1) ('t (+ (fib (- n 1)) (fib (- n 2))))))) 10)
55(also, integer arithmetic) 2 comments | post a comment
yitzhak@hiawatha::lisp $ wc *
8 17 86 Makefile
154 419 3378 lisp.c
34 60 552 lisp.h
102 263 2069 parser.c
28 49 550 parser.h
326 808 6635 total
I swear I didn't even try to make it short. It's just... LISP. post a comment
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