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President Obama’s ‘private remarks’ go public
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What was supposed to be a private conversation with campaign donors in Chicago last night became public when an audio feed was accidentally left open.
Obama on Rep. Paul Ryan, R-Wisc:
“When Paul Ryan says his priority is to make sure, he’s just being America’s accountant … This is the same guy that voted for two wars that were unpaid for, voted for the Bush tax cuts that were unpaid for, voted for the prescription drug bill that cost as much as my health care bill — but wasn’t paid for. So it’s not on the level.”Obama on Speaker Boehner’s Attempt to Repeal the Health Care Law:
“I said, ‘You want to repeal health care? Go at it. We’ll have that debate. You’re not going to be able to do that by nickel-and-diming me in the budget. You think we’re stupid?’”Obama on GOP Efforts to De-Fund Planned Parenthood:
“Put it in a separate bill. We’ll call it up. And if you think you can overturn my veto, try it. But don’t try to sneak this through.”
Psychedelic drug cuts brain blood flow and connections
[Quote]:
Psychedelic drug users throughout the ages have described their experiences as mind-expanding. They might be surprised, therefore, to hear that psilocybin – the active ingredient in magic mushrooms – actually decreases blood flow as well as connectivity between important areas of the brain that control perception and cognition.
The same areas can be overactive in people who suffer from depression, making the drug a potential treatment option for the condition.
The study is the first time that psilocybin’s effects have been measured with fMRI, and the first experiment involving a hallucinogenic drug and human participants in the UK for decades.
Robin Carhart-Harris at Imperial College London and colleagues recruited 30 volunteers who agreed to be injected with psilocybin and have their brain scanned using two types of fMRI.
Half of the volunteers had their blood flow measured during the resulting trip; the rest underwent a scan that measured connectivity between different regions of the brain.
”Wouldn’t you like to see a positive LSD story on the news? To base your decision on information rather than scare tactics and superstition? Perhaps? Wouldn’t that be interesting? Just for once?”
“Today, a young man on acid realized that all matter is merely energy condensed to a slow vibration – that we are all one consciousness experiencing itself subjectively.
There’s no such thing as death, life is only a dream, and we’re the imagination of ourselves. Here’s Tom with the weather.”
~Bill Hicks
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YouTube Launches Myth Perpetuating ‘Copyright School’; Dismisses Remixes As ‘Not Original’
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I know that YouTube/Google are in a big legal fight with Viacom over infringing works on YouTube, and that YouTube has been bending over backwards to help copyright holders either takedown or monetize infringing works, but I’m both surprised and disappointed by YouTube’s new "copyright school." You can see the video below:
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New Study Shows Many Artists Think File Sharing Helps, Not Hurts
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With the Dutch government introducing draconian anti-copyright policies, the government also decided to survey musicians, and the results were somewhat surprising. Many, many artists did not think that file sharing harms them, with plenty believing it helped. It appears there was a big age factor in the results — with younger artists being much less concerned about file sharing than older artists. Only 28% of artists asked believed that file sharing hurt them financially. And slightly over half of artists surveyed claimed that file sharing helps them build an audience by getting their work more widely known.
You would think, then, that this would push back against the government’s new copyright policies, but apparently, it does not.
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Who’s Serious Now?
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“Last week, Mr. Ryan unveiled his budget proposal[..]
Then people who actually understand budget numbers went to work, and it became clear that the proposal wasn’t serious at all. In fact, it was a sick joke. The only real things in it were savage cuts in aid to the needy and the uninsured, huge tax cuts for corporations and the rich, and Medicare privatization. All the alleged cost savings were pure fantasy. On Wednesday, as I said, the president called Mr. Ryan’s bluff: after offering a spirited (and reassuring) defense of social insurance, he declared, “There’s nothing serious about a plan that claims to reduce the deficit by spending a trillion dollars on tax cuts for millionaires and billionaires. And I don’t think there’s anything courageous about asking for sacrifice from those who can least afford it and don’t have any clout on Capitol Hill.” Actually, the Ryan plan calls for $2.9 trillion in tax cuts, but who’s counting?”
And then Mr. Obama laid out a budget plan that really is serious.
[..]
And the hissy fit — I mean, criticism — the Obama plan provoked from Mr. Ryan was deeply revealing, as the man who proposes using budget deficits as an excuse to cut taxes on the rich accused the president of being “partisan.” Mr. Ryan also accused the president of being “dramatically inaccurate” — this from someone whose plan included a $200 billion error in its calculation of interest costs and appears to have made an even bigger error on Medicaid costs. He didn’t say what the inaccuracies were.”
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The Word – Buy and Cellulite
| The Colbert Report | Mon – Thurs 11:30pm / 10:30c | |||
| The Word – Buy and Cellulite | ||||
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It Gets Better: Apple Employees
UPDATE
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YouTube has pulled a video made by Apple employees for the “It Gets Better” project, replacing it with a still image that said the video violated “YouTube’s policy on depiction of harmful activities.”
Youtube, you’re a bunch of fucking pricks.
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Very Special Forces
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U.S. probing possible bank collusion on Libor
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U.S. law-enforcement officials have launched an investigation into possible collusion among U.S. and European banks to fix the London interbank offered rate, or Libor, according to a Wall Street Journal report citing unidentified people familiar with the situation.
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Name these brands / plants
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I think this is all a little too neat, too on-message, and too convenient. I’m not at all sure this was “accidental.”
Look at the advantages. Obama gets to pretend it was a mistake, while directly talking to a lot of his original supporters who feel disillusioned. Disadvantage is that he’s “outed” to his opponents as knowing they’re being disingenuous and being political double-speakers. They already knew that he knows. Now it’s just in the open. He can still disavow it as “off the cuff” remarks that don’t reflect official policy. The damage is small. But it’s preaching to his choir — and especially the members of his choir who have had wavering faith.
Too on-message? Remember, this isn’t Obama chillin’ with his friends; this is Obama talking to campaign donors. If anything, it goes to show that the message is what he really thinks. The thing is that Obama has this conciliatory persona he uses as president, not that it does much good, but when in campaign mode he can actually talk shit about the Republicans. I don’t think criticizing Paul Ryan’s previous votes or asking if the Republicans think he’s stupid are good things to say in public as a president who is the leader of the entire country. (Whether he should pick fights with Republicans about their idiocy is another matter, but it appears that he’s decided against it, anyway.)