gaming the system

Today's Japanese midterm was pretty comical, rather like I anticipated it would be; the grammar half was no problem, of course, but anything that involved actually having a good handle on meanings was right out, so the conversational parts were just kind of, well, um, yeah. So I threw every bit of test-gaming I had at it - and that was fun - so this'll be a good test of exactly how much I can gain on a language exam knowing grammar and gaming but not vocabulary.

Seriously, I'm really looking forward to getting it back. I hope we can see it on Monday. There's no reason I couldn't get an A on it, and there's no reason I couldn't get a D! It'll come down to a question of how good a job I did taking meaning out of grammar instead of vocabulary. On the section that was multiple-choice, I could usually eliminate half the possible answers on grammar alone, taking my odds from 1:5 or 1:4 (depending) up to 1:2.

And yes, I did study my ass off for this exam. I spent almost eight hours studying and working Japanese language stuff on Thursday alone - almost nine if you count class. So at least nobody can accuse me of slacking!


What Remaining Fire
Anyway, sorry for the no updating. I had a CWU about ready to go on Monday when I screwed up and, um, it went away. @_@; So I'll be recreating that, now that I've given that second midterm my best shot. There'll be one tonight, and another later this weekend, which I hope will get me caught up.

It's better than nothing, ね?

Assloads of miles over the last several days: 20.5
Miles out of Hobbiton: 1512.8
Miles out of Rivendell: 1055.8
Miles out of Lothlórien: 600.8
Miles past Rauros Falls: 182.9
Miles to Isengard: 283.8

Here, this is wacky - the magazine I've been writing for lately has an edition in the FSU, so now my little articles have Russian translations.

I wonder how my accent sounds? Am I unknowingly the Jerry Lewis of technical writers in Russia? Christ, I hope so. That would rule.

Okay, time for links:

Here, this is amusingly devolved, if you're into things like that.

From ysabel. Former Coalition Provisional Authority financial advisor retired Admiral David Oliver:

Bremer's financial adviser, retired Admiral David Oliver, is even more direct. The memorandum quotes an interview with the BBC World Service. Asked what had happened to the $8.8bn he replied: "I have no idea. I can't tell you whether or not the money went to the right things or didn't - nor do I actually think it's important."

Q: "But the fact is billions of dollars have disappeared without trace."

Oliver: "Of their money. Billions of dollars of their money, yeah I understand. I'm saying what difference does it make?"

Sometimes I kinda think that, aside from control over oil fields, half the point of the Iraq war was the looting and profiteering.

( Time for Memage )

Today's Cultural Warfare Update

Finally, another CWU; there will be another this weekend, as well. Sorry for the late; excuses are in the previous post, if you care. There isn't too much new in this one; I've got more in tomorrow's that has some jucier bits, particularly a nice spot of crankiness with fundamentalists complaining about how the UN pressures countries to decriminalise lesbians.

But for now, I'll stop wasting time and get to the news!

Woman arrested after reporting rape for an unpaid juvenile-theft fine; while in prison, they denied her emergency birth control on religious grounds. God damn, Florida's a piece of work, but keep in mind: this kind of control over the woman's birth control choices is exactly what the theocon movement is demanding. (Courtesy rmd);

I'm mostly reporting this because it got reported badly by CBS; the Snickers ad that created the controversy wasn't so much the one aired - I've had it described to me, it seemed kinda funny with the chest-hair and all that - but the versions on the web that people were voting for next, one of which included double-suicide by drinking motor oil and antifreeze, and another of which featured the two men brutally attacking each other with car parts and wrenches; there were also clips of NFL players talking about queers are disgusting and "ain't right" and such;

"Evangelicals Wage Anti-Evolution War" - in Kenya. I reported an earlier story on this; they're trying to get natural history museums there not to display fossil artifacts;

Islamists get in on the Creationism movement, in France;

Polls show majority support allowing gay and lesbian people to serve in the military;

Focus on the Family article condemning attempts to remove 10 commandments postings from government courthouses;

FotF: man who attacked a woman and caused a miscarrage ("killed her preborn child" - she was three months pregnant) gets a murder conviction and the death sentence; I'm fine with increased penalties for attacks which cause miscarriage, but the real (and stated) point here is moving towards abortion bans;

Anti-gay activist gets comment "that amounted to a death threat" on a blog comment; omg t3h int4rw3bz!;

Focus on the Family roundup on anti-abortion state legislation;

"Tonia and David Parker" sue a Lexington, Massachusetts school after it "equated same-sex unions with traditional marriage" - note that same-sex marriage is legal in Massachusetts, so in the eyes of state law, they are equal; they want that stopped and pre-notification if "homosexuality was to be discussed";

FotF: "Liberals Protect Chickens Over Children";

University of Georgia changes rules in response to lawsuit, allows clubs to engage in religious discrimination - while receiving state funds; the club claimed that if they couldn't discriminate on the basis of religion that they were being discriminated against, and by the way, we demand funding from the university and state. We have two versions of this story:

Focus on the Family's, "University of Georgia Affirms Christian Group," and;

The Augusta Chronicle, which talks about the state funding and religious discrimination.

This pair of stories is mostly notable because of the "if we can't discriminate against people and get government funding, we're being oppressed" line they've been building; OH WAIT - look below; this same story happened a few days before in Missouri. Interesting;

FotF pleased that Mr. Bush's budget proposal "flatlines" comprehensive sex ed education funding while boosting "abstinence education" funding;

FotF loves reporting on Episcopalian churches splitting off, because of their female US leadership and their generally pro-GBLT policies;

FotF happy about "chilling effect" on speech of increased "indecency" fines;

FotF promotes abortion "waiting period," at the end of which women would be required to sign a document saying they weren't coerced into having an abortion;

FotF reports on anti-abortion-rights legislation in Virginia;

GOP to continue to push theocon-friendly judicial nominee confirmations;

Hm, this is neat; the same organisation that sued the University of Georgia to get a club which explicitly discriminates on religious grounds recognised and state funded also has this same shtick succeed in Missouri;

Court: Michigan State University cannot offer employees' same-sex partners health insurance under their new anti-marriage constitutional amendment; this was, of course, part of the goal;

Focus on the Family condemns including HPV vaccine in the mandatory school vaccination regimen in Texas;

Focus on the Family news report on anti-marriage amendment under consideration in the Indiana legislature; the American Family Association of Indiana says "the amendment would stop those who want to make marriage meaningless" - by participating in it as GBLT couples;

Faith and Freedom Network launches its new Washington State legislative strategy.

( Articles and excerpts below )