China, your price for keeping N. Korea as your personal kept woman 韩国妓女 just doubled. Again: the cost of maintaining a dictatorship, whether yours or someone else's, is not sustainable. It's now cheaper to just hire border guards along the northern N. Korea border. That's also cheaper than continuing to build brand new metro complexes that nobody's moving into.
UPDATE December 21: Jim Hightower passes along the following as a means of rallying people against the TPP. I've noticed that there's a certain entity putting a lot of anti-TPP vids on YouTube, too--Acronym TV. Something that makes me go "hmmm!"
The biggest issue is the secrecy, and given the current distrust of corporations, I can see how stuff like this can raise a rally. But this is an area of the world where the affected parties are the likes of Russia, China, and N. Korea, and with the nuclear/militarization ramp-ups regarding those nations, I can see where confidentiality, rather than secrecy, would be a benefit under the circumstances.
With the Sochi Olympics, I don't see Russia being interested in turning down western money even though he's trying, at the same time, to make Russia into some sort of alternative to western systems even though all he's managed to do is attempt to re-invent the wheel when it comes to economics. He's on an unsustainable path. With its alliance to N. Korea, so is China, and Russia and China are still rivals. But so are S. Korea and Japan. The TPP remains the only way to resolve rivalries between western allies, something Russia, China, and N. Korea don't have. It may very well be the most effective countermeasure to N. Korea belligerence out there. Dennis Rodman sure as hell ain't one.
Thom Hartmann was on BookTV discussing his book "The Crash of 2016" in November and although he was spot on regarding his understanding of the history and current situation of the stock market, I have to disagree with him about being against the TPP and supporting unions. As a former union member, I have to say that unions are going to have to substantially change before they're supportable. They are unsustainable in current form, and the TPP is so much more than just a labor issue.
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As for the Camping part, that is in reference to the passing away of Harold Camping, formerly the powerhouse behind WYFR on shortwave radio and whose facilities have been sold to Jeff White (dang, I still remember him when he was just a kid, ha) of Radio Miami International. Jeff has become quite the shortwave radio mogul with this purchase, and apparently is letting us Earthlings all know in that in his station identifications, he's employed some very well known radio names (vintage, of course) to make those announcements--not the least of which is one of my most favorite people who ranks right up there with Tom Meijer and Leo Van der Walt: Rudy Espinal (Rodolfo Espinal) of the Dominican Republic, formerly of Radio Clarin...whose transmitter Jeff White purchased much earlier. Hey Rudy, you still have a fan over here! DAMN it's good to hear your voice again!
(I've tried to find online archives regarding Radio Clarin and Rudy, but none of them are user-friendly, the bulk of which contains info on a lot of other items and info about Radio Clarin is heavily buried in them, not easy to find without a lot of reading first. I found a PDF form of the now-defunct Monitoring Times which contains an article about Jeff White et al. Sorry. I did manage a copy of the photo of Rudy and Jeff from that same issue, though. The fellow on the left is Rudy, not Jeff. Jeff's on the right.)
UPDATE via Glenn Hauser's World of Radio:
"Glenn Hauser"
[dxld] WRMI wants reports
12.20.13 01:24 AM
Glenn: Could you mention that we would be interested in reports from North America about the reception quality of the following transmissions?
7570 kHz (355 degrees) - 0200-0600 UTC
9690 kHz (285 degrees) - 1100-1500 UTC
9955 kHz (315 degrees) - 1400-2200 UTC
11730 kHz (285 degrees) - 2200-0600 UTC
Many thanks (Jeff White, WRMI, Dec 19, DX LISTENING DIGEST)
Report to info@wrmi.net
These are all Overcomers (except 14-15 on 9955), so should be easy to spot. All provide generally strong to very strong signals here in Oklahoma. 9690 has QRM from All India Radio in English at 1330-1500, and I wish WRMI would go somewhere else for this broadcast (Glenn)"
Usually when recent developments occur regarding an old topic, I'll just post an update to the topic in question instead of writing a new post, or amending a new post...but...this situation is a little different because of the age of the post which cited "Blurred Lines" by Robin Thicke via Late Night with Jimmy Fallon (Roots version).
My position on the new spat over that is reflected by this Slate article, which also goes to which version of that song I chose to post. There are a number of versions out there. With the years I've spent in a non-traditional career, I know where the lines are drawn, legal and otherwise--believe you me that in this line of work, knowing that is a necessity for all parties concerned.
I've said in a previous post that especially in my current surroundings, I'm more at ease talking with the guys than the gals but let it be understood that I mainly talk shop. The guys around here by and large figure I'm not capable of talking shop because of my gender, and they'll get all huffy because they're not showing off as some kind of expert. The guys I get along with best are the guys (and gals, for that matter) that can talk shop without involving that goddamn ego, and both genders have an overabundance of that 'round here. No single human being can possibly ever be a know-all expert on anything--it's just not humanly possible. We all just walk different paths, we exchange ideas and notes, and that's all there is to it. Vive la difference. It's called diversity. Get used to it. You too, ladies. We're all different, distinct individuals.
I have an agreement with G+ to keep this blog non-adult-rated and so I won't post the Blurred Lines Rebuttal here--so if you insist on a Fairness Doctrine sort of thing, use the link I provided, with the warning in advance that it contains adult language and suggestive images. Sure, I know that it's posted on a Google entity, as are all the videos I post on this blog; the distinction is indeed a fine one. Thank you.
For the record, I think that the nation needs to not just have a serious frank discussion about race relations, but on gender relations, too. Things have gotten entirely too Talibanish, IMHO, and I'll be damned if I expect women to wear beekeeper suits and bow to some damn Saud-style morality police.
As I am a language geek, you may correctly presume that I have no problem with the use of anglo-saxonisms. People around here call it cursing, swearing, profanity, and what-have-you. They just never call it what it really is: the anglo-saxon part of the English language. I would add that it's a legitimate part of the English language. And no, I am not gay; I have no problems with gays, though, either. I support equal rights for LGBT folks because I support equal rights for everybody who hasn't been convicted of a felony--and even then, I am, well, liberal.
DUCK DYNASTY UPDATE: All in all, I think what happened to the guy who got fired is ironic, and that's from a legal point of view given that the people coming to his defense verbally are the same people who saw to it that Right to Work laws were passed in their states. Right to Work means the Employment At Will Doctrine rules, and an employer can fire anybody even for no reason provided that the firing doesn't violate federal discrimination laws. Sorry, but no employee has a right to any job, especially in a Right to Work state. It's why these same people hate unions--unions means a contract for work and being required to uphold their end of the contract. Oh gee, I'm looking like an expert on labor law, huh. Well, a person learns stuff when one is a union member...and does extra reading on the subject. Okay, I admit that I know my way around a law library. And a sharia court. I feel like I can take on any number of kangaroos.
The term "politically correct" was given recent birth thanks to laws governing employment, in that an employee cannot represent himself with his speech as long as he's on the payroll--he's to represent his employer and if the employee shows discourtesy via bigotry, an employer has proper cause to dismiss that employee...not that an employer even needs cause to dismiss an employee in a Right to Work state. This extends the sense of irony further, because the people who bastardized the meaning of "political correctness" are the same people who assert an employer's absolute right over his employees. Guess why the formal title of "labor law", in the eyes of legal eagles, is "Master-Servant Law".
Now, with regard to the copyright infringement lawsuit by the late Marvin Gaye's people, look up the term "derivative work" in U. S. copyright law. M. C. Hammer never lost to a suit like that when he sampled "Superfreak" for his "Can't Touch This". Nobody else who sampled previous works to produce new content ever lost, either. The one thing that "Blurred Lines" is not, is an exact copy of Gaye's "Got to Give it Up". It just isn't.
Further, the "look and feel" argument in copyright doesn't hold up because that would outlaw parodies and lampoons. The "look and feel" argument is a trademark argument, not a copyright argument. And how do I know all this? From doing patent research back at Arizona State University, where the patent repository covers trademarks and copyrights too. I'm not claiming to be an expert; it's just that I wasn't born yesterday knowing absolutely nothing. I learned a few things here n there.
Here's the biggest difference between me and an expert: an expert lectures--me, I ask questions. I never stop learning; I always manage to find a new avenue I haven't explored yet--and I welcome that. The expert takes pride in perfecting the same ole thing done year in and year out; me, I take pride in learning something I didn't know how to do just yesterday.
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| This tee shirt was purchased from the ASU Black Engineers Association at one of their fundraisers. A li'l factoid not commonly known by the general public is how the Wayans Brothers contributed funds, fundraising materials for the advancement of the sciences in black communities. |
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