Ending the Decade

Happy New Year, everyone! It's good to be back, after a long period of rest, relaxation, and a general lack of motivation:



Yo La Tengo - Nowhere Near

So, what's been happening lately? Too much. If I want to get back into the swing of this, I suppose the best way to go about it is to just pick a few random things I've noticed over the past few days. I'm going to take it slow.

First, this struck me as interesting. A San Francisco appeals court upheld a previous ruling that Apple iPod earbuds cannot be held responsible for hearing loss. Just turn it down, people.

This came almost completely out of nowhere: niacINsight reports that the Obama administration is pursuing targeted sanctions against Iran's government rather than the "crippling" (love that word) sanctions that would affect innocent Iranians. That's a good resolution for the new year--don't directly screw over the people you say you're trying to help. How ironic that up to now, the US sanctions have pretty much only affected the Iranians getting beaten and murdered in protests while crying for various reforms, one of which is a normalization of relations with the US.

What exactly are "targeted" sanctions? Gee, I'm not sure. Everyone is being pretty vague about it (could it be because they have very few ideas?). Apparently, there are ways to force certain elements of the Iranian government to the negotiating table without punishing the Iranian population at large. A major contractor that channels millions of dollars into the Revolutionary Guard Corps might be a target, for example. Or maybe phone companies that give the Iranian government the means to cut off communication and spy on people? The other problem is making sure the Iranians understand that their isolation is the result of the government's actions, and not the US (which of course is the view that the Iranian government will be pushing). I'm sure somebody from marketing will get right on that.

Oh, them, denying my visa request and making me all cynical and stuff. What will that zany bunch do next?

One of my favorite blogs about gender issues, The Sexist, has two interesting posts you should check out:

The Decade in Femininity

The Decade in Masculinity

I had totally forgotten that boy bands were big in 2000.

I promise I'll start doing this daily again.