• Menu
  • Skip to primary navigation
  • Skip to main content
  • Skip to primary sidebar

Before Header

  • About Us
  • Lexicon
  • Contact Us
  • Our Store
  • ↑
  • ↓
  • ←
  • →

Balloon Juice

Come for the politics, stay for the snark.

There are more Russians standing up to Putin than Republicans.

I’m pretty sure there’s only one Jack Smith.

Come on, man.

Conservatism: there are people the law protects but does not bind and others who the law binds but does not protect.

It’s easy to sit in safety and prescribe what other people should be doing.

“Can i answer the question? No you can not!”

Consistently wrong since 2002

Is it negotiation when the other party actually wants to shoot the hostage?

I’m more Christian than these people and I’m an atheist.

The gop couldn’t organize an orgy in a whorehouse with a fist full of 50s.

People are weird.

Fight them, without becoming them!

Republicans want to make it harder to vote and easier for them to cheat.

The revolution will be supervised.

There is one struggling party in US right now, and it’s not the Democrats.

Let me file that under fuck it.

Stamping your little feets and demanding that they see how important you are? Not working anymore.

Something needs to be done about our bogus SCOTUS.

Let’s finish the job.

Historically it was a little unusual for the president to be an incoherent babbling moron.

This must be what justice looks like, not vengeful, just peaceful exuberance.

Republican speaker of the house Mike Johnson is the bland and smiling face of evil.

… pundit janitors mopping up after the gop

We’ll be taking my thoughts and prayers to the ballot box.

Mobile Menu

  • Four Directions Montana
  • Donate with Venmo, Zelle & PayPal
  • Site Feedback
  • War in Ukraine
  • Submit Photos to On the Road
  • Politics
  • On The Road
  • Open Threads
  • Topics
  • COVID-19 Coronavirus
  • Authors
  • About Us
  • Contact Us
  • Lexicon
  • Our Store
  • Politics
  • Open Threads
  • 2024 Elections
  • Garden Chats
  • On The Road
  • Targeted Fundraising!
You are here: Home / Open Threads / Early Morning Open Thread: John Oliver Yells at TechNerds

Early Morning Open Thread: John Oliver Yells at TechNerds

by Anne Laurie|  February 12, 20145:20 am| 106 Comments

This post is in: Open Threads, Readership Capture, Science & Technology

FacebookTweetEmail

.

Via Andrew Leonard at Salon, who seems to take this rather more seriously than it deserves. Wikipedia says “The Crunchies is an award ceremony, run by TechCrunch, which celebrates the most compelling startups, internet and technology innovations of the year“. Apart from a strong whiff of the stuff I use in my tomato planters, I don’t pretend to understand that… but then, neither does John Oliver, and he takes their money anyway. Since I know Mr. Oliver has fans among our commentariat, here’s his performance, for your enjoyment / edification.

Possibly related, four-page story by Kevin Roose in NYMag:

… There are a lot of power pretenders in tech right now, but [Shervin] Pishevar is not one of them. He has become the Valley’s official information broker, a fist-bumping, name-dropping super-connector who seems to be everywhere simultaneously. He’s a tagalong on the Hollywood party circuit, where he’s taken private jets with Justin Bieber and brought Ashton Kutcher in on start-up investments. And he’s gotten close with White House adviser Valerie Jarrett through a series of tech CEO round-tables he spearheaded that brought Silicon Valley bigwigs to Washington to talk shop with the president…

Lately, Pishevar’s passion, and that of a few like-minded technologists, is to translate Silicon Valley’s ethos of innovation and disruption into a political force, a coalition that can bring new ideas to staid industries and energize depressed regional economies. Bending Washington’s ear should be ­simple—after all, politicians love money, as Hollywood and Wall Street have long known. But merging the interests of a bureaucracy-choked public sector with a tech industry that until now has largely ignored the political realm has turned out to be a tough sell for both camps. The government has been slow to embrace the idealistic mind-set of the Valley, and a large swath of the tech elite still believes it doesn’t really need Washington in order to thrive…

FacebookTweetEmail
Previous Post: « And the Conversation Picked Up Where It Dropped Off
Next Post: A Scout is Brave »

Reader Interactions

106Comments

  1. 1.

    Skerry

    February 12, 2014 at 5:32 am

    Rough night at our house. Loss a cherished cat, Roxie, yesterday. Beloved daughter had to sleep alone for first time in her 16 years. Lots of tears.

  2. 2.

    Ian

    February 12, 2014 at 6:09 am

    Super duper high tech is awesome! It doesn’t need government, government needs it! Their mind set is ideal, so we should all do exactly like they do!

    Being a bigwig in silicon valley does not mean they understand everything. Chrysler, Gm, and Ford thought this 60 years ago, and Kodak and HP thought it 20 years ago. This too shall pass.

    @Skerry: Sorry for your loss :(

  3. 3.

    SiubhanDuinne

    February 12, 2014 at 6:11 am

    @Skerry:

    I’m so sorry. It’s never easy! and I know she left a big Roxie-sized hole in your hearts. {{{Hugs}}} to you and especially to your daughter.

  4. 4.

    RSA

    February 12, 2014 at 6:11 am

    I’m sorry to hear about your cat, Skerry. This happened to us some years ago, when our aged cat (nearly 20) died. It was traumatic.

    (So I have an appointment in a few hours this morning. I usually wake up around 7:00, but last night I told myself, “Don’t oversleep.” Naturally, I wake up at 5:30 and can’t get back to sleep. Stupid brain.)

  5. 5.

    OzarkHillbilly

    February 12, 2014 at 6:14 am

    How are our southern brethren doing this morn? The NOAA map still looks awfully colorful.

    @Skerry: a child’s heartbreak is the worse.

  6. 6.

    raven

    February 12, 2014 at 6:21 am

    @OzarkHillbilly: It looks like just a light cover of snow right now here in the classic city.

  7. 7.

    Mustang Bobby

    February 12, 2014 at 6:22 am

    @Skerry: Aw, I’m so sorry for you and your child.

    Is there supposed to be a link to the John Oliver segment, or is my firewall blanking it out?

  8. 8.

    Schlemizel

    February 12, 2014 at 6:26 am

    UGH! I found out yesterday that the latest contractor we brought in is a nutter. He has dropped a couple of clues but went full libtard yesterday. He said he was trying to get the company to pay him more & not get health insurance because nobody was going to tell him he had to have insurance! He went on to say he was sure he could get a much better deal on his own, particularly since he would get “some sort of cost sharing deal”.

    So many things I wanted to say at that moment but I settled on “My radiation alone cost $80,000 then there was the surgery and the hospitalization. I really would not have wanted any share of those expenses.” He dropped the subject but I’m sure he thinks the cancer was all my fault & I’d be a better man if I had paid for it out of my own pocket.

  9. 9.

    Ian

    February 12, 2014 at 6:28 am

    But merging the interests of a bureaucracy-choked public sector with a tech industry that until now has largely ignored the political realm

    Just… too… much… bullshit… to… unpack…

  10. 10.

    Schlemizel

    February 12, 2014 at 6:29 am

    @Skerry:
    We were very lucky the kids were all grown before our Ripper died. Even then it was very painful, I can’t imagine how tough it would be for a 16YO who knew your beautiful cat all her life. Hopefully the pain will lessen and you all will just be left with the happy memories.

  11. 11.

    Anne Laurie

    February 12, 2014 at 6:32 am

    @Mustang Bobby: There’s an embed in my post, but you reminded me to add Salon‘s link, which has more description…

  12. 12.

    Cervantes

    February 12, 2014 at 6:46 am

    a tech industry that until now has largely ignored the political realm

    Nice fiction. We did it all ourselves.

    Meanwhile, in Reality World, we have a century-long history of catering to the demands of “the tech industry,” from Ted Vail’s AT&T inaugurating decades of a government-granted monopoly — to the way we’ve given away the broadcast spectrum — to regulatory capture at the FCC — not to mention tax breaks extorted out of hundreds of state and local authorities.

    If this is how they have hitherto “ignored the political realm,” I dread to think what’s coming.

  13. 13.

    Mustang Bobby

    February 12, 2014 at 6:48 am

    @Anne Laurie: Thanks.

  14. 14.

    Keith G

    February 12, 2014 at 6:59 am

    A bit of John Oliver in the morning is very welcome, indeed.

  15. 15.

    Comrade Jake

    February 12, 2014 at 7:00 am

    If you have not read this NYT piece on Michael Sam (the gay NFL prospect who came out), then make the time today. Trust me, it’s well worth your time. Watch the video too if you can – my wife is sobbing having just watched it.

  16. 16.

    OzarkHillbilly

    February 12, 2014 at 7:02 am

    @Schlemizel: They seem to have a different definition of “freedom” than the rest of us. That’s why I find the new “freedumb” to be a more accurate spelling.

  17. 17.

    raven

    February 12, 2014 at 7:03 am

    Snotty little bitch Nicole is having a screaming match with Chuckie!

  18. 18.

    OzarkHillbilly

    February 12, 2014 at 7:05 am

    @raven: Glad you are well. Hope JPL is too.

  19. 19.

    raven

    February 12, 2014 at 7:07 am

    @OzarkHillbilly: Yea, we’ll be fine whatever goes down. It’s the folks in the country that are at much more risk. Like I said, I can see the substation out my back window.

  20. 20.

    the Conster

    February 12, 2014 at 7:13 am

    @raven:

    I changed the channel when I heard them welcome Ron Fournier.

  21. 21.

    raven

    February 12, 2014 at 7:14 am

    @the Conster: Women’s hockey is coming right up!

  22. 22.

    Phylllis

    February 12, 2014 at 7:16 am

    @OzarkHillbilly: Ice and more ice. School closed today & most likely tomorrow as well. But we’re warm & the Internets are still coming through the tubes, so things are good for now.

  23. 23.

    Baud

    February 12, 2014 at 7:22 am

    @the Conster:

    Even the liberal Ron Fournier can’t defend Obamacare!

  24. 24.

    JPL

    February 12, 2014 at 7:23 am

    @OzarkHillbilly: There are power outages already in the county north of me. The streets are totally iced over but the trees look okay. Since I lost trees during a strong storm last summer, I’m hoping not to lose more. It’s going to be a long day. My SIL lives in the mountains and I’m concerned about her because her location is so remote.

  25. 25.

    Baud

    February 12, 2014 at 7:26 am

    TPM is reporting that Rand Paul is going to file his NSA lawsuit today! Glad to see he didn’t spend all the donations he received on hookers and blow.

  26. 26.

    JPL

    February 12, 2014 at 7:37 am

    @Skerry: Hugs to you and your daughter.

  27. 27.

    OzarkHillbilly

    February 12, 2014 at 7:39 am

    @Phylllis: @JPL: Stay home, stay warm, stay safe. A few years back a guy I worked with who lived just a few miles away from me lost it on an icy patch of well used road when coming home from work. Unfortunately nobody saw him go over the edge and it was 3 days before they found him, miraculously but unmercifully alive.

  28. 28.

    C.V. Danes

    February 12, 2014 at 7:40 am

    The Silicone Valley tech industry is like Logan’s Run, where the youngs have all the answers, and they put you out to pasture when you grow up enough to realize that you really don’t know a damn thing.

    I remember the days when our youngest and brightest minds yearned for more than cashing out on some useless “app”…

  29. 29.

    Schlemizel

    February 12, 2014 at 7:43 am

    @raven:
    Probably the best game of the Olympics. They are not as fast as the men but they will be physical and skilled and plenty fast enough. I have mixed emotions, I want the US to win because they have many women I have seen play college hockey here OTOH Canada has no North Dakotans on their team so thats a positive for them.

    As I type that one of the thugs from NoDak takes a needless penalty!

  30. 30.

    WereBear

    February 12, 2014 at 7:43 am

    @Skerry: I’m so sorry. Sounds like so much of her life was bound up in that cat!

  31. 31.

    PurpleGirl

    February 12, 2014 at 7:45 am

    The tech sector doesn’t need the government…

    I guess those nerds never heard of DARPA and they don’t use the Internet.

    If they believe they don’t need the government, I have a bridge I can sell them.

  32. 32.

    raven

    February 12, 2014 at 7:45 am

    @Schlemizel: The twins?

  33. 33.

    C.V. Danes

    February 12, 2014 at 7:48 am

    @Skerry: Sorry for your loss. My wife and I have a 22 year old cat that we’ve had since she was 3, and who’s starting to run out of gas. I don’t think she’s going to make it to 2015, but at least she’s had a good run at it. Our vet just told us that she’s the oldest cat they’ve ever seen, and that she’s about 150 years old in human years :-)

  34. 34.

    Schlemizel

    February 12, 2014 at 7:51 am

    @raven:
    Yeah, they play unnecessarily rough – the Canadians have decided that they like to play that way too. I do not like a lot of the crap that goes on in the mens game. Not just the fighting but the cheap shots, elbows/fists up in the face hits and slashing. Sadly this is becoming Canada’s stock in trade & the twins are fully on board with that.

    One of the big tells in this game is what the refs allow them to get away with. Officiating in these games has been horrible! If they let the crap go it could get really ugly & that will help the Canadians. If they call it close the speed & skill of the US will benefit

  35. 35.

    raven

    February 12, 2014 at 7:53 am

    @Schlemizel: So it looks like the rough play is the order of the day?

  36. 36.

    JPL

    February 12, 2014 at 7:53 am

    @raven: I just went out to clip some thyme for a chowder that I’m going to make later. Within the last half hour, the trees, especially the pines, started to ice over and the thyme was frozen.

  37. 37.

    Nutella

    February 12, 2014 at 8:00 am

    idealistic mind-set of the Valley

    Ha ha ha ha ha ha!!!! Right. If “idealistic” means “will do anything for a buck”.

    Lots of info on the way Silicon Valley started is here. Summary: It is 100% a product of the military-industrial complex.

    One thing I wish they could coordinate, though: Modern software development methods can produce tested and useful systems at least 10 times cheaper (and almost certainly better quality) than the old-fashioned, bureaucratic government procurement systems.

  38. 38.

    raven

    February 12, 2014 at 8:01 am

    @JPL: You got a 12 gauge?

  39. 39.

    Dead Ernest (Thought Wrangler)

    February 12, 2014 at 8:04 am

    @Skerry:

    Skerry, Aw Jeez, that is sad.
    Sad for all of you but specially for your child.

    The dearest one of mine (from among nearly 60 years of treasured cat companions) died nearly 20 years ago. That, after nearly 20 years of sharing the bed.
    I still ‘talk’ to him often.

    Of course I don’t know your child, but if you think it could help her – if we close our eyes, delve into the memory (in this case memories of Roxie) of how it felt to touch them, of hearing their purr, of any of the sensory stuff that came into our brains as we touched, heard, felt them curled up next to us, the way our brains work, re-experiencing that does provide the opportunity to re-live their ‘presence.’
    This isn’t a technique appropriate for every grieving person (or easy enough for some), but for some folks it does provide a useful alternative to experiencing a sudden, total feeling of loss.
    (I hope I was able to describe that bit of brain science and coping with loss & grief well enough, on-the-fly and before the jet fuel of this morning’s coffee has kicked in)

    Wishing you and yours the greatest comfort during such a rough time?

  40. 40.

    raven

    February 12, 2014 at 8:04 am

    Here’s the Georgia Power Outage Map. 20.000+ already.

  41. 41.

    Schlemizel

    February 12, 2014 at 8:05 am

    @PurpleGirl:

    The whole home PC market is an outgrowth of NASA and the drive to miniaturize to get to the moon. So yeah, Silicon Valley owes its very existence to the big, bad, evil government

  42. 42.

    beth

    February 12, 2014 at 8:06 am

    A sign of the times – last night my kid found out her school was closed by watching her teachers’ Twitter accounts. Apparently waiting for an email notification is so old school.

  43. 43.

    OzarkHillbilly

    February 12, 2014 at 8:07 am

    @raven: Genius!

  44. 44.

    Biscuits

    February 12, 2014 at 8:07 am

    @Skerry:
    That’s tough for the young one. Loss of a furry beloved friend. So sorry.

  45. 45.

    JPL

    February 12, 2014 at 8:08 am

    @raven: My land line, yes I still have one, is kaput. The power is on.

  46. 46.

    raven

    February 12, 2014 at 8:10 am

    @JPL: I heard popping a few rounds might loosen the ice!

  47. 47.

    JPL

    February 12, 2014 at 8:11 am

    @raven: I have uverse and the internet is on battery backup but not my cordless phone. I figure I have an hour before the internet goes.

    edit.. does it make sense that the land line would be kaput but not the internet.. I can tell that the battery kicked in

  48. 48.

    skerry

    February 12, 2014 at 8:17 am

    Thanks to everyone for the hugs and well wishes. Daughter decided to try school. I told her she could call and I’d come get her if she needed it. So sad. I was hoping Roxie would be able to last until Daughter was away at college (18 months). But life has other plans. We are having her cremated and plan to bury her remains under a new flowering bush this spring.

  49. 49.

    satby

    February 12, 2014 at 8:18 am

    @Skerry: Skerry, so sorry for your family’s loss. I hope you all take comfort in how many happy years you had together, so many animals never get to experience that love.

  50. 50.

    Schlemizel

    February 12, 2014 at 8:18 am

    @raven:

    I’ll be nice & call the officiating so far in these games as ‘iffy’. They screwed Japan out of a goal by ignoring the puck being in the net and shouts and signals from the scorers table that the play needed to be reviewed. Instead of a 2-2 tie Japan lost 2-1. They have called phantom penalties and ignored blatant ones, they are just a mystery. The Swiss/Finland game was a total mess, they might have been better without refs.

  51. 51.

    raven

    February 12, 2014 at 8:19 am

    @JPL: Yea, line the same but source is different.

  52. 52.

    rikyrah

    February 12, 2014 at 8:21 am

    21 Things You Can’t Do While Black

    In the US, sometimes your skin color is evidence enough against you.
    By Lauren Williams | Wed Feb. 12, 2014 3:00 AM GMT

    Florida’s second sensational, race-tinged murder trial in less than a year is underway. Michael Dunn, a white, 47-year-old software developer, shot and killed Jordan Davis, a 17-year-old African American, as the teen sat in an SUV with three friends. Charged with first-degree murder, Dunn is pleading self defense under Florida’s controversial Stand Your Ground law. He contends that he argued with the teens (over what a witness says he called their “thug music”) and fired on them after he claims he saw Davis brandish a shotgun. Police found no gun at the scene, and witnesses say Davis never had one.

    http://www.motherjones.com/politics/2014/02/21-things-you-cant-do-while-black

  53. 53.

    rikyrah

    February 12, 2014 at 8:23 am

    @Skerry:

    Sorry for your loss.

  54. 54.

    Enhanced Voting Techniques

    February 12, 2014 at 8:24 am

    Reading the article Pishevar sounds more like a VC than a tech CEO. Wallstreet west, so small wonder the libertarian talk.

  55. 55.

    raven

    February 12, 2014 at 8:26 am

    @Schlemizel: Ha, that was the rationale that led me to end the men’s flag football program I ran. It was ex-big ten and high level high school players. They constantly bitched and whined about the refs. During the finals a former D-lineman went after a ref and I got between them. He said “we play each other on the weekends and we never have any problems. When theses refs are here it sucks”. I quoted him to the rec board and that was it for the program.

  56. 56.

    rikyrah

    February 12, 2014 at 8:27 am

    Michelle Obama lifts up U.S. designers, elegantly around her shoulders

    By Robin Givhan

    ————————————–

    First lady Michelle Obama eschewed Chanel, bypassed Dior and said no to the allure of Balenciaga. Instead, as she stood alongside her tuxedo-clad husband to greet French President François Hollande, she celebrated American style at Tuesday night’s state dinner in honor of fashion’s heartland.

    She selected a ballgown by the New York-based designer Carolina Herrera. The bodice of the dress, which was sewn by hand in Herrera’s New York atelier, was crafted of black lace — beaded, embroidered and appliqued. It formed a delicate scrim over a corset in a pale, dusty blue that the designer described as “liberty blue.” The elegant skirt, with its inverted pleats, flowed into a modest train.

    ——————————————

    (INCLUDES PHOTO GALLERY AND VIDEO)

    http://www.washingtonpost.com/lifestyle/style/michelle-obama-lifts-up-us-designers-elegantly-around-her-shoulders/2014/02/11/2cb3c560-9390-11e3-b46a-5a3d0d2130da_story.html

  57. 57.

    raven

    February 12, 2014 at 8:27 am

    @Enhanced Voting Techniques: VC or NVA?

  58. 58.

    MomSense

    February 12, 2014 at 8:39 am

    @Skerry:

    I’m so sorry, Skerry. Sending hugs to you and your daughter.

  59. 59.

    lol

    February 12, 2014 at 8:41 am

    Whenever I think of Silicon Valley hotshots, I think about how Harper Reed will never work in Democratic politics again because he shit the bed so badly with the Obama re-elect.

  60. 60.

    polyorchnid octopunch

    February 12, 2014 at 8:51 am

    @Ian: Pretty much. I was getting ready to rant, but I got flooded out instead.

  61. 61.

    Schlemizel

    February 12, 2014 at 8:55 am

    @raven:
    The US just scored on a power play they got from very weak call.

    I played softball with a bunch of guys who had been HS athletes & had to quit because they just HAD to win. Part of that was to be relentless on the umpires – who were not bad. But I have played hockey & the worst is a reff who is inconsistent. I understand they can’t see everything but when every call is a mystery it would be better if they just went away.

    1-0 US end of 2

  62. 62.

    polyorchnid octopunch

    February 12, 2014 at 8:56 am

    @Schlemizel: Interesting data point: one of the fastest growing summer team games in Canada right now is roller derby.

  63. 63.

    raven

    February 12, 2014 at 8:58 am

    @Schlemizel: Crap, I went out to walk the dogs and put the dvr on, now I know what happened. Gotta BLACKOUT!

  64. 64.

    polyorchnid octopunch

    February 12, 2014 at 8:59 am

    @Nutella: I suspect that a large part of the state procurement process involves throwing the work to ‘friendly’ consultants, who then lowball the dev so they can collect more money, leading to bad software.

    As the saying in dev goes, “Fast, good, cheap: pick two.”

    There’s probably a lot of state sofware systems that would benefit from being open-sourced, both from a security and a quality perspective.

  65. 65.

    Amir Khalid

    February 12, 2014 at 9:01 am

    This is a roast, not a knives-out evisceration. TechCrunch even calls it a roast on its own front page. Andrew Leonard is being silly or disingenuous if he pretends it’s anything else.

  66. 66.

    raven

    February 12, 2014 at 9:01 am

    @Schlemizel: I ran a softball program with 150 teams, mostly bar teams. I enjoyed it but it tool me a while to learn that I needed to make THEM set the rules and enforce them with a discipline committee made up of the participants. It was the kids programs that finally led me to find another way to make a living.

  67. 67.

    Schlemizel

    February 12, 2014 at 9:02 am

    @raven: OH MAN, I’M SORRY! I thought I was the only hockey nut here (well JMN but he’s not here now). I would have not said that had I known.

    OTOH – why are you walking the dog during a period?!? Thats what the break is for! :)

  68. 68.

    different-church-lady

    February 12, 2014 at 9:06 am

    @Baud: The NSA? I thought yesterday’s e-mail writing campaign destroyed that!

  69. 69.

    polyorchnid octopunch

    February 12, 2014 at 9:06 am

    @JPL: Yes. COs (Central Offices) have battery backups as well, and tend to be tied very close to power sources in the electricity distribution network. If your modem has power and there’s power at the other end, the connection will work; in between’s just wire and it shouldn’t be broken.

  70. 70.

    OzarkHillbilly

    February 12, 2014 at 9:11 am

    Today’s evidence of the bankruptcy of the GOP:

    “You’ve all known that our members are not crazy about voting to increase the debt ceiling,” Boehner later told reporters, according to Politico. He added: “We’ll let the Democrats put the votes up; we’ll put a minimum number of votes up to get it passed.”

  71. 71.

    Cervantes

    February 12, 2014 at 9:11 am

    @Amir Khalid: Hey, Amir, given your experience in the business, do you have any insight into the following?

    Malaysia’s press freedom index plunged to a historic low of 147 out of 180 countries in the 2014 World Press Freedom Index released yesterday.

    The result was described as “a shame and the worst setback to Prime Minister Datuk Seri Najib Razak’s ‘best democracy in the world’ claim” by DAP adviser Lim Kit Siang.

    Malaysia’s ranking was two spots below that of Myanmar’s in the annual index compiled by Reporters Without Borders. Last year, Malaysia was ranked 145 out of 179 countries, dropping 23 spots from the previous year.

    I don’t know much about the “press freedom index” in question but I have to say, I am amazed that Lim Kit Siang is (1) still alive; and (2) not in jail at the moment (or at every other moment).

  72. 72.

    Schlemizel

    February 12, 2014 at 9:12 am

    @raven:
    I like the idea of a player committee. I just played for fun & it was hard to find a team and a league where that was OK. The worst was the church league I played on. I finally gave up trying.

    I tried to talk my kids little league to not have set teams, just have group practices and then on game days randomly put together teams. I got laughed out & they stacked teams so there were two that killed the other 4 & games ended by mercy in the 3rd inning so nobody got to play much. It made them fell special but didn’t do much to develop players.

  73. 73.

    ericblair

    February 12, 2014 at 9:15 am

    @polyorchnid octopunch:

    I suspect that a large part of the state procurement process involves throwing the work to ‘friendly’ consultants, who then lowball the dev so they can collect more money, leading to bad software.

    As far as the feds go, the procurement standard these days is called Lowest Cost Technically Acceptable, since we gotta save money doncha know. So of course a bunch of contractors lowball the government and expect to get mods later. There is a lot of cost pressure now, so having some do-nothing money-skimming prime in the middle doesn’t happen much. There used to be a lot more emphasis on the technical quality of the proposals, but now a lot of it is just pass/fail.

    There’s probably a lot of state sofware systems that would benefit from being open-sourced, both from a security and a quality perspective.

    There is a lot of open source development now, and there’s a big push to share code across government agencies to stop reinventing the wheel. Also a lot of Agile development, since that’s what the cool kids are doing these days, for good and bad. So, in IT anyways, the days of multi-year waterfall development are long gone, but the sort of very quick turnaround engineering can be a problem if you need to do Something Very Specific instead of Something Cool (that is, the requirements development and vetting processes get rushed and tossed aside).

  74. 74.

    Paul in KY

    February 12, 2014 at 9:17 am

    @Skerry: Sorry to hear of Roxie’s passing. She had a good, long life. Celebrate her memory!

  75. 75.

    Amir Khalid

    February 12, 2014 at 9:17 am

    I am amazed that any legislature would propose such a reckless law. Let alone that the state governor — even if it is this person, not known for her genius — would support it.

  76. 76.

    Omnes Omnibus

    February 12, 2014 at 9:18 am

    @Baud: IIRC Rand Paul is a member of the US Senate. Much of the authority for NSA surveillance comes from the Patriot Act, a law passed by both Houses of Congress. I wonder if Sen. Paul has considered introducing legislation repealing the Patriot Act entirely? (I know he has introduced legislation with Wyden and Udall to curtail things a bit.) I mean, ffs, he is a sitting senator with the actual power to do something about a problem, yet he chooses the publicity stunt of this class action suit. I wonder what he is really trying to accomplish (rhetorical).

  77. 77.

    Paul in KY

    February 12, 2014 at 9:19 am

    @Schlemizel: You’d be a poorer man if you had paid for that out of your own pocket. Wouldn’t have enough money to hire a contractor.

  78. 78.

    Suffern ACE

    February 12, 2014 at 9:27 am

    @Omnes Omnibus: he’s trying to grab voters as a protector of liberty without changing anything. And if he does grab those voters, well Harry Reid could have introduced that repeal bill, too. My guess is that it will grab more than a few dem voters, but not many, but it’s been kind of clear for awhile that the Dems have decided to leave those voters up for grabs.

  79. 79.

    Paul in KY

    February 12, 2014 at 9:29 am

    @Comrade Jake: Excellent story, thanks for link.

  80. 80.

    Paul in KY

    February 12, 2014 at 9:32 am

    @C.V. Danes: In our extended family we had one go 24. That was 35 years ago. 22 is amazing.

  81. 81.

    Omnes Omnibus

    February 12, 2014 at 9:34 am

    @Suffern ACE: I really don’t think there are many Dem voters who will switch to Paul over the issue. He is too appalling on every other issue and, on civil liberties, he is only decent on the surface. He is more likely to cause a few left leaning voters to stay home because they feel that every candidate is flawed. Paul and his folks would probably consider that a win.

  82. 82.

    polyorchnid octopunch

    February 12, 2014 at 9:35 am

    @ericblair: Aye. When I say state, I mean “the state”, not US states.

    And, of course, there’s what happens at the municipal level… which is still the state.

  83. 83.

    NotMax

    February 12, 2014 at 9:36 am

    Please try to refrain from embedding anything from Comedy Central and provide a link instead.

    There are few things from major media sources which can screw up a site more than an embed from there.

  84. 84.

    OzarkHillbilly

    February 12, 2014 at 9:39 am

    @Amir Khalid: Regular right wing nut job? Meet Amir. Amir? Meet our regular right wing nut job. The inmates are in control of the asylum.

  85. 85.

    raven

    February 12, 2014 at 9:41 am

    @Schlemizel: We’re on the same page. When I moved down here I went to work for a rec department that was mostly church league. They made bar teams look like choirboys.

  86. 86.

    NotMax

    February 12, 2014 at 9:49 am

    People be tres stupid.

    German polar bear dies of severe intestinal injuries after apparently eating fabric dropped into enclosure

  87. 87.

    C.V. Danes

    February 12, 2014 at 9:53 am

    @Paul in KY: That’s the thing about cats. It’s not unusual to get 20+ years out of them if you keep them healthy :-)

  88. 88.

    Amir Khalid

    February 12, 2014 at 9:58 am

    @Cervantes:
    Sigh. Najib is a piss-poor national leader. He’s only PM because he’s a product and beneficiary of UMNO’s feudal political culture (His dad was our second PM, his uncle was our third.) He’s doing things that the Barisan government got away with in Tun Razak’s time and indeed right through Mahathir’s time. And a big part of that was dressing the country up to look like a democracy, but keeping any real power away from institutions like the press, the courts and even the royal houses, that would provide any sort of check or balance on the ruling coalition. Our “vibrant, free” press is in reality strictly confined by regulation and by owners who are corporate proxies of UMNO and other Barisan parties. Newspapers in Malaysia need a publication licence, revocable by the Home Ministry, without appeal, for any reason it wants to make up. It’s all par for the damn course out here. I was at The Star when we got our licence pulled for six months in 1987.

    But who is going to believe this kind of bullshit denial in the 21st century? Malaysia’s politics has undergone a great deal of change since the turn of the millennium. There’s no longer the sense that Barisan, and particularly UMNO, knows best, that it will rule always and forever. For the first time since Merdeka, Barisan lost the total popular vote in the last general election to Pakatan Rakyat.

    And yeah, I’m sure he’d love to lock up Lim Kit Siang yet again; but even he must know detention under the Internal Security Act has never weakened Kit Siang before and it won’t this time. Dr M had Anwar Ibrahim put in jail on them bogus charges back in ’98, and look where Anwar is now: opposition leader, with a shot at becoming the first non-Barisan PM.

  89. 89.

    Bjacques

    February 12, 2014 at 10:13 am

    @Amir Khalid: I remember that. Bogus sodomy charges when it looked like might actually win the election. I’m glad he’s got another shot at PM, probably at better odds.

  90. 90.

    Cervantes

    February 12, 2014 at 10:22 am

    @Omnes Omnibus:

    I mean, ffs, he is a sitting senator with the actual power to do something about a problem, yet he chooses the publicity stunt of this class action suit.

    Leaving both Rand Paul’s self-aggrandizement and the NSA’s behavior aside for a moment, it seems to me reasonable that a Senator might resort to the courts as part of a wider strategy to effect change, especially if his or her colleagues in the Senate are less than enthusiastic about the desired change.

    (Needless to say, but still … I am not here commenting on the merits, if any, of Paul’s lawsuit.)

  91. 91.

    Omnes Omnibus

    February 12, 2014 at 10:30 am

    @Cervantes: I can see that point, but, since I see little effort on Paul’s part to effect change using the powers that he has as a senator, I have little faith in the sincerity of his convictions.

  92. 92.

    Cervantes

    February 12, 2014 at 10:32 am

    @Amir Khalid:

    Dr M had Anwar Ibrahim put in jail on them bogus charges back in ’98, and look where Anwar is now: opposition leader, with a shot at becoming the first non-Barisan PM.

    We can hope.

    Meanwhile, yesterday:

    “Malaysia’s authorities are opening themselves up to international ridicule for prolonging their political case against opposition leader Anwar Ibrahim. Anwar’s trial would be farcical were the penalties not so severe and the trial’s message to Malaysia’s Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, and Transgender community not so grave.”

    — Phil Robertson, Deputy Director for Asia, Human Rights Watch

    I know the High Court acquitted Anwar two years ago. Wasn’t the government’s appeal of that decision heard today? Did anything significant happen in court?

  93. 93.

    Cervantes

    February 12, 2014 at 10:38 am

    @Amir Khalid:

    I was at The Star when we got our licence pulled for six months in 1987.

    What were the causes? (I mean both unofficial and official.)

    Malaysia’s politics has undergone a great deal of change since the turn of the millennium. There’s no longer the sense that Barisan, and particularly UMNO, knows best, that it will rule always and forever.

    Change, maybe. Me, I’m still stunned that Najib and company have been able to get away with so much, including, for example, the murder of that Mongolian woman, the framing of those police officers for her death (and destruction by explosives), and then the release of said police officers after a decent [sic] interval.

    Stunning.

  94. 94.

    Cervantes

    February 12, 2014 at 10:43 am

    @Omnes Omnibus: Sure, I don’t trust him as far as I can throw him, either.

  95. 95.

    Paul in KY

    February 12, 2014 at 10:52 am

    @C.V. Danes: In my immediate family, 18 is oldest (good ole Muffy). I have one right now that is 17. She seems to be in pretty good health, just doesn’t jump around like she used to.

  96. 96.

    Amir Khalid

    February 12, 2014 at 11:26 am

    @Cervantes:
    The appeal is still in a housekeeping phase. The appeal has been postponed to the end of the month for administrative reasons i.e. the judges refused the defence permission to recall a witness, and Anwar’s lawyer Karpal Singh asked for a stay pending appeal of the refusal.

    1987 was a very fraught time politically. There was this minor fuss about the Ministry of Education appointing principals to Chinese-medium schools who hadn’t themselves been educated in Chinese medium schools. This grew into a barroom brawl between Chinese and Malay ethnic partisans and whoever else wanted a fight. There were even some idiots calling for a reprise of the May 13 (1969, in the wake of general elections) race riots which had damn near torn the country apart. Najib, as deputy leader of UMNO Youth (i.e. its racist hothead) wing, was involved in organising what would have been a very provocative anti-Chinese march had God not cancelled it by sending down a rainstorm. (Think Orangemen marching through a Catholic neighbourhood in Northern Ireland).

    Then in late October a soldier named Adam Jaafar shot up the Chow Kit Road bazaar with his army-issue M-16, killing five people. (I mentioned him yesterday in another thread.) Everybody was already on edge, and as you can guess this unrelated incident did not help.

    At the end of the month, came Operation Lallang: over 100 people weredetained without charge under the ISA, The Star and several other newspapers had their publication licences pulled (The notification said we had provocatively printed the headline on our front-page lead story, reporting the detentions, reversed white-on-black). People who feared they’d be detained next went into hiding.

    A few months later the government started releasng detainees and we got our publication licence back. Since becoming PM, Najib has talked about repealing the ISA, which dates back to the Emergency when we were under British rule, and which everyone (else) hates, but nobody really believes him.

  97. 97.

    Central Planning

    February 12, 2014 at 11:55 am

    As an FYI for the other BJers in Rochester (or anyone that wants to travel), John Oliver will be performing at RIT on Saturday, February 22: click for tix

  98. 98.

    Cervantes

    February 12, 2014 at 12:01 pm

    @Amir Khalid:

    Anwar’s lawyer Karpal Singh asked for a stay pending appeal of the refusal.

    You’ve really got to hand it to these DAP types. Each of them has stamina enough for ten men.

    Thanks for the explanation re 1987. Re “Operation Lallang”: 100 detained without charge? Lo these many years later has anyone said why?

  99. 99.

    Amir Khalid

    February 12, 2014 at 12:22 pm

    @Cervantes:
    Has anyone said why? Not that I remember. Internal Security Act detentions are entirely at the discretion of the Home Minister. (In 1987, that was Dr M himself.) They must have put down some cause on the detention order, I guess, being civil-service pukes. But they could have written “because we don’t like his face”, for all anyone knows. These documents are not typically published. You can challenge a detention in the courts and get a judge to set you free, but that takes months — during which you’re still detained.

  100. 100.

    JustRuss

    February 12, 2014 at 12:24 pm

    translate Silicon Valley’s ethos of innovation and disruption into a political force,

    Yeah, we need more disruption courtesy of an industry largely run by smart, one-dimensional, egotistical assholes. This will end well.

  101. 101.

    Cervantes

    February 12, 2014 at 12:49 pm

    @Amir Khalid: I found a parliamentary White Paper (Towards Preserving National Security, March, 1988) that explains the whole thing in the … usual way.

    Thanks again.

  102. 102.

    Amir Khalid

    February 12, 2014 at 1:13 pm

    @Cervantes:
    Yeah. I presume you wanted a real explanation, rather than the pfficial one.

  103. 103.

    Cervantes

    February 12, 2014 at 1:20 pm

    @Amir Khalid: Well, I think that here, as in many similar situations, the official version, by lying according to the usual formula, reveals the truth that we knew we would find.

  104. 104.

    StringOnAStick

    February 12, 2014 at 2:30 pm

    Damn, I miss John Oliver now that he’s not on TDS. I don’t have cable either, so I can’t see his new show. I guess the web will have to do the heavy lifting for me.

  105. 105.

    Anne Laurie

    February 12, 2014 at 4:56 pm

    @NotMax: Was that Comedy Central? It came from the TechCrunch website?

  106. 106.

    jomike

    February 12, 2014 at 6:25 pm

    Agata Pyzik writes in The Guardian that Poland is experiencing a sexual revolution in reverse due to the confluence of (conservative) church and state. Rod Dreher of The American Conservative sneers:

    The horror. The horror. As soon as we finish setting Russia straight, America must dispatch more of its top celebrities to lecture these Polish counterrevolutionaries out of their backwardness, and how good they had it under communism, when sex was freer.

Comments are closed.

Primary Sidebar

Recent Comments

  • WaterGirl on Take the Fucking Win (Apr 15, 2024 @ 12:09pm)
  • sdhays on Take the Fucking Win (Apr 15, 2024 @ 12:09pm)
  • John S. on Take the Fucking Win (Apr 15, 2024 @ 12:08pm)
  • JaneE on Monday Morning Open Thread: The Tariff We Pay for Civilization (Apr 15, 2024 @ 12:08pm)
  • wjca on Monday Morning Open Thread: The Tariff We Pay for Civilization (Apr 15, 2024 @ 12:08pm)

🎈Keep Balloon Juice Ad Free

Become a Balloon Juice Patreon
Donate with Venmo, Zelle or PayPal

Balloon Juice Posts

View by Topic
View by Author
View by Month & Year
View by Past Author

Balloon Juice Meetups!

All Meetups
Talk of Meetups – Meetup Planning
Proposed BJ meetups list from frosty

Fundraising 2023-24

Wis*Dems Supreme Court + SD-8
Virginia House Races
Four Directions – Montana
Worker Power AZ
Four Directions – Arizona
Four Directions – Nevada

Featuring

Medium Cool
Artists in Our Midst
Authors in Our Midst
Positive Climate News
War in Ukraine
Cole’s “Stories from the Road”
Classified Documents Primer

Calling All Jackals

Site Feedback
Nominate a Rotating Tag
Submit Photos to On the Road
Balloon Juice Mailing List Signup
Balloon Juice Anniversary (All Links)
Balloon Juice Anniversary (All Posts)

Fix Nyms with Apostrophes

Balloon Juice for Ukraine

Donate

Twitter / Spoutible

Balloon Juice (Spoutible)
WaterGirl (Spoutible)
TaMara (Spoutible)
John Cole
DougJ (aka NYT Pitchbot)
Betty Cracker
Tom Levenson
David Anderson
Major Major Major Major
ActualCitizensUnited

Political Action 2024

Postcard Writing Information

Balloon Juice for Four Directions AZ

Donate

Balloon Juice for Four Directions NV

Donate

Site Footer

Come for the politics, stay for the snark.

  • Facebook
  • RSS
  • Twitter
  • YouTube
  • Comment Policy
  • Our Authors
  • Blogroll
  • Our Artists
  • Privacy Policy

Copyright © 2024 Dev Balloon Juice · All Rights Reserved · Powered by BizBudding Inc

Share this ArticleLike this article? Email it to a friend!

Email sent!