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So, I should be really happy and excited: tomorrow I start as a pharmacy technician at a fairly prestigious institute in Madison, Wi. No, not going to tell you where. I've wanted to do this for so, so long, and really--considering I can look at a molecule and give you at least a decent approximation of what effects it will have, this is an excellent fit. But I'm still nervous, if only because so many horrible things have happened to me and the idea of stability and a long-term career seems alien, like something I'm not "allowed" to have if that makes sense. So I'm afraid it'll be taken away from me like so many other things have been.

Wish me luck. I want to get PTCB certified as soon as possible and make a lifelong career out of this, slowly working my way up the ladder and making a positive contribution to the lives of many people. Maybe, though I don't dare to dream, this could even include going back to school and getting involved in the drug-discovery process, especially for new antibiotics or non-addictive painkillers. Other interests include changing hospital spaces to reduce infection and increase patient well-being--think "copper alloy railings, enclosed UVC-light air pumps, and lots and lots of sunlight" and so on--and nutrition, though I fear my low-carb lifestyle is sufficiently against current medical orthodoxy to make this a non-starter and even politically dangerous.

But whatever happens, for the first time in ages, it feels like time has begun to flow for me again. That feeling of being a sort of solid ghost is disappearing. And that can only be a good thing, right? I just hope it doesn't all go to hell...

She lost her school job after refusing to sign a pro-Israel pledge. Now, she’s filing a lawsuit. (archive)

Bahia Amawi, a speech pathologist who has worked as a contractor in a Texas school district for nine years, received a new contract agreement to sign in September for the upcoming school year. The agreement asked her to affirm that she did not boycott Israel and assert that she would not while working for the school. She declined to sign it. Amawi, an American citizen of Palestinian descent who was born in Austria, said the statements infringed on her principles: her stance on Israel’s treatment of Palestinians and her belief in the First Amendment. So she was forced to stop working with the district.

The contract, which stems from a 2017 law passed by the state’s Republican-held legislature and governor that prohibited state agencies from contracting with companies boycotting Israel, is the subject of a lawsuit filed this week by Amawi in federal district court in Austin.

Amawi says the state’s enforcement of the law violates her right to free speech. “My first reaction was shock,” Amawi told reporters Monday. “Why is the government restricting me from boycotting a certain entity?”

Amawi started working for the Pflugerville Independent School District outside Austin in 2009. Her work entails doing evaluations of Arabic-speaking children, according to the complaint she filed. Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton and the school district are named in the lawsuit. [...] Glenn Greenwald, a columnist and co-founding editor of the Intercept who writes frequently about Israeli politics as they intersect with those of the United States, wrote harshly of the contract. “The language of the affirmation Amawi was told she must sign reads like Orwellian — or McCarthyite — self-parody, the classic political loyalty oath that every American should instinctively shudder upon reading,” he wrote. “In order to continue to work, Amawi would be perfectly free to engage in any political activism against her own country, participate in an economic boycott of any state or city within the U.S., or work against the policies of any other government in the world — except Israel.”

Also at The Hill and The Daily Beast.

Meanwhile, Congresstards are trying to add Israel anti-boycott legislation into a spending bill that prevents a government shutdown:

A bipartisan group of lawmakers is scrambling at the eleventh hour to include controversial language in a year-end spending bill prohibiting U.S. companies from joining boycotts of Israel launched by the United Nations or similar groups.

Sen. Ben Cardin (D-Md.) and other members are pressing congressional leaders to attach his Israel anti-boycott legislation to a sweeping omnibus spending package — a move that could complicate efforts to prevent a government shutdown.

“There is bipartisan interest in this issue, but everything is still being negotiated and nothing has been decided,” said one senior House Republican aide.

[...] “This bill sets a precedent for penalizing First Amendment actions because they’re unpopular or because the government doesn’t agree with them,” said Manar Waheed, senior legislative and advocacy counsel at the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU). “This is a step on a road to the erosion of First Amendment rights in a way that will impact movements and viewpoints for the future.”

See also: How Democrats are helping the right stifle debate on Israel

Just got back from a very "moving" visit to Arlington National Cemetary. Not an easy trip for me to make. Because it was poring rain. But I went because today is the very special day when they put the wreaths. Otherwise known as Wreaths Across America Day. Great job with the wreaths -- so beautiful.

They have a big problem, folks -- they're running out of space for the bodies of my great, and very brave soldiers. Need to expand that one very badly. So my wonderful military can keep fighting MAGNIFICENTLY!!! breitbart.com/politics/2018/12/15/donald-trump-visits-wreaths-across-america-volunteers-at-arlington-cemetery

@RyanZinke of Whitefish, and from Whitefish, YOU'RE FIRED!! You can stay untill the end of the month. And then I'm bringing in someone much better. Who will work much harder to protect and strengthen our precious endangered Coal, Oil & Gas, Logging, Ranching and Mining Industries. The industries that made our Country Great. Thank you for your service, you can start packing on Monday. Or even today!!!

The Donald J. Trump Administration will be announcing the new Secretary of the Interior next week.

World's First 'Performance Enhancing Gaming Glove' Funded on Kickstarter

As gaming becomes increasingly mainstream through the younger generations, entirely new lines of accessories are being designed and produced for this ever-growing audience.

The latest one is the Flashe Gaming Glove, which according to the makers will enhance your gaming performance on PC. It will also reduce your potential for injuries and increase your comfort while generally using a mouse. Oskar "Dodde" Ödmark came with the original concept, after suffering a shoulder injury in 2014. Being a mechanical engineer, he eventually came up with a solution that has been patented in Sweden earlier this year.

The Flashe gaming glove is now on a Kickstarter campaign for crowdfunding. With thirteen days to go, it already got over four times the minimum goal. The estimated delivery for backers is February 2019.

I say: remove the arms. Then you won't feel arm discomfort during gameplay.

We won't be needing your services anymore. Or anylonger. Nice way of saying, you're fired. You have until the end of the month to clean out your desk. And hopefully show Mick Mulvaney the Ropes. Thanks a BUNCH!!!!

I'll tell you, it's not so merry in France. Where they had another very bad terror attack. With so many people hurt & dieing. Blood everywhere, big mess. Because they have Open Boarders. They let in a crazy guy from Strasbourg. He brought a gun and just started shooting.

I'll tell you, it won't happen here. I'm very proud of my Military. Who have caught 10 - 12 Radical Islamic Terrorists trying to come in from Mexico. And we are going to strengthen our boarders even more. Chuck and Nancy must give us the votes to get additional Boarder Security. To FINISH THE WALL. Which, I've said many times, Mexico will pay for. Thank you, Mexico!!!

Uuuuugh. Just a small mini-rant today. I got bounced from a social circle online elsewhere earlier today because, *apparently,* having a genital preference is transmisogyny. It's not enough that I support transwomen through their struggles and transition and suffering; no, the fact that I am a strict vagitarian and flatly refuse to date or have sex with a transwoman who still has male equipment makes me A Bad Person (TM).

This is how you get TERFs. I wish these people understood how much it reeks of male privilege--yes, MALE privilege, even though they were always women mentally and are on their way physically--to demand that a gay but cisgender women open herself, in the most literal, intimate, and deep sense, to the body parts she is not attracted to because the mind matches.

Look, I'm not going to date Buck Angel or another FtM who still has a vagina either: I'm a lesbian. I like women. I don't demand they be "womyn-born-womyn," but boy bits are verboten. What is unreasonable about this?! Isn't the entire point of someone going MtF to get a woman's exterior to match her interior?

I'm never going to become a TERF, but stuff like this is almost guaranteed to create more of them. I am having less and less sympathy for transwomen the older I get, and that worries me, because we're still all humans at the end of the day. I just wish some of them would pull their heads out of their asses about this.

America's perfect blonde überwaifu for the Trump Age:

Miss USA accused of mocking Asian contestants' English: 'Miss Universe should not be an ambassador of bullying'

In a now-expired Instagram Live video, Miss USA Sarah Rose Summers can be heard joking to Miss Australia and Miss Colombia about how Miss Vietnam speaks.

“What do you think about Miss Vietnam?” she asks her friends, before laughing, “… and she pretends to know so much English, and you ask her a question after having a whole conversation with her and she … [smiles and nods].”

Popular Instagram page Diet Prada posted the footage with another two videos of Miss USA, this time speaking about Miss Cambodia.

In the first she showers her fellow contestant with praise while thanking her own Cambodian fans for their support.

But in the second, she’s seen pitying Miss Cambodia to the same two friends.

“Miss Cambodia is here and doesn’t speak any English, and not a single other person speaks her language,” she says, adding, “Poor Cambodia.”

Y u no speak American tho?

Also at People.com.

I have nothing against capitalism: what we seem to have nowadays is Corruptism.

Corruptism is the collecting of wealth no matter who or what.
Need another dollar? Bribe a politician to make the laws favour corporations over people.
Need ANOTHER dollar? Cut wages and hours.
Need ANOTHER dollar? Layoffs.

It use to be that employers made, what, 400X what their employees made? Now an employee has to work 2-3 jobs just to live while the 'boss' feeds the pork to make ONE MORE DOLLAR!

A little more kindness would see us in a better world.
I'd like to see politicians start thinking of the people who voted for them.

Lets get back to basic Capitalism: Corruptism is not working.