Month: January 2014

OK, I Did Not Expect this from Pope Francis

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Francis’ Message to The Culture Warrior Bishops

I know about outreach and all, but he just called for outreach to the children of LGBT and divorced parents:

Pope Francis has called for a rethink in the way the Catholic Church deals with the children of gay couples and divorced parents, warning against “administering a vaccine against faith.”

 “On an educational level, gay unions raise challenges for us today which for us are sometimes difficult to understand,” Francis said in a speech to the Catholic Union of Superiors General in November, extracts of which were published on Italian media websites on Saturday.

 ………

 The pontiff said educational leaders should ask themselves “how can we proclaim Christ to a generation that is changing?”

 “We must be careful not to administer a vaccine against faith to them,” the 77-year-old added.

 Though the Church has often been in conflict with the lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender community over its opposition to same-sex marriage and to homosexuality, Francis has drawn praise for attempts to be inclusive.

I think that is equal parts pragmatism (the current crop of Catholics are not getting any younger) and a new focus on ministry as a duty, but nonetheless I am impressed.

Linkage

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This is genius. You need to watch the whole minute thirteen.

This guy owes me a screen wipe.

This is an Affront to Human Decency

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For anyone who has followed the conservative movement, it comes as no surprise when they alter reality to match their own conclusions.

However, the recent actions of dead eyed Canadian PM Stephen Harper go far beyond this. He is aggressively destroying historical documents in an attempt to prevent to double down on Canada’s fossil fuel economy:

Back in 2012, when Canada’s Harper government announced that it would close down national archive sites around the country, they promised that anything that was discarded or sold would be digitized first. But only an insignificant fraction of the archives got scanned, and much of it was simply sent to landfill or burned.
Unsurprisingly, given the Canadian Conservatives’ war on the environment, the worst-faring archives were those that related to climate research. The legendary environmental research resources of the St. Andrews Biological Station in St. Andrews, New Brunswick are gone. The Freshwater Institute library in Winnipeg and the Northwest Atlantic Fisheries Centre in St. John’s, Newfoundland: gone. Both collections were world-class.

An irreplaceable, 50-volume collection of logs from HMS Challenger’s 19th century expedition went to the landfill, taking with them the crucial observations of marine life, fish stocks and fisheries of the age. Update: a copy of these logs survives overseas.

The destruction of these publicly owned collections was undertaken in haste. No records were kept of what was thrown away, what was sold, and what was simply lost. Some of the books were burned.

The news source The Tyee has what I think is the money quote on all of this:

“It must be about ideology. Nothing else fits,” said [Dalhousie University biologist Jeff] Hutchings. “What that ideology is, is not clear. Does it reflect that part of the Harper government that doesn’t think government should be involved in the very things that affect our lives? Or is it that the role of government is not to collect books or fund science? Or is it the idea that a good government is stripped down government? “

Hutchings saw the library closures fitting a larger pattern of “fear and insecurity” within the Harper government, “about how to deal with science and knowledge.”

That pattern includes the gutting of the Fisheries Act, the muzzling of scientists, the abandonment of climate change research and the dismantling of countless research programs, including the world famous Experimental Lakes Area. All these examples indicate that the Harper government strongly regards environmental science as a threat to unfettered resource exploitation.

“There is a group of people who don’t know how to deal with science and evidence. They see it as a problem and the best way to deal with it is to cut it off at the knees and make it ineffective,” explained Hutchings.

They are now literally book burning fascist barbarians, and they are destroying our heritage (all of us, not just Canadians) to pursue an agenda of greed and spoil.

This is unalloyed evil.

Unsustainable, Dangerous, and a Threat to the American Way of Life

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I am referring, of course to the F-35 Joint Strike Fighter, whose price is twice what we are being told:

The massive government and industry lobbying and PR efforts behind the troubled F-35 Joint Strike Fighter are starting to pay off for JSF-maker Lockheed Martin and the military users of the radar-evading jet.

In recent weeks several news outlets have repeated the pro-JSF camp’s assertion that the F-35—planned to be the main warplane for the Air Force and Marines and half the Navy’s future fighter fleet—will soon cost just $85 million a copy or less in near-future dollars, thanks to an increasingly efficient production line.

The “good news” helps bolster the $400-billion weapons program, the most expensive ever.

But it’s not true. Not by a long shot. The much-maligned, single-engine F-35—which suffers from a complex design and a lack of maneuverability—currently costs twice what its proponents are projecting. And don’t buy the argument that the jet’s sticker price will substantially drop in coming years. Lockheed’s been making that claim for a long time now, and it hasn’t happened yet.

………

To put the F-35-boosters’ claims in context, Winslow Wheeler, an analyst at the Project on Government Oversight in Washington, D.C., has calculated the true current cost of an F-35. It’s way more than anyone in official circles likes to admit.

Sticker shock

Forget the $85-million or $60-million figure being bandied about in the press. Each of the 29 F-35s the Pentagon is purchasing from Lockheed in 2014 costs between $182 million and $299 million. And that’s leaving out research and development spending since the late 1990s, which could soon exceed $50 billion and add $16 million to true long-term acquisition cost of each F-35.

No, Wheeler calculated only the per-plane production cost, which includes advance funding for long-lead parts, the main funding in the year of authorization plus modification funds to fix design flaws on the planes shortly after they roll out of the factory.

By that measure, one Air Force F-35A—the simplest of the three JSF models—currently costs $182 million. A vertical-landing Marine F-35B sets taxpayers back $252 million. The Navy’s carrier-compatible F-35C, still mired in serious development problems, comes in at a whopping $299 million per plane.

Bear in mind that in 2010, Lockheed predicted an F-35 would soon cost just $60 million. “Actual F-35 unit costs are today multiples of what Lockheed says they will be,” Wheeler points out.

This is insane.

We are living the Arthur C. Clarke story Superiority, (story here, read it, it is a hoot) which depicts a war lost by a superior power because of its superior scientific achievements, and its continual grasping for a technological leap forward.

Why We Can’t Have Nice Stuff

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Because our definition of “Nice Stuff” includes aircraft that require 4 years of repair work after an engine fire:

Almost four years after the Air Force said a B-2 sustained “minor damage,” the aircraft returned to the fleet at Whiteman Air Force Base, Mo., on Dec. 16, according to the service.

An engine fire grounded the “Spirit of Washington” in 2010. Since then, Air Force maintainers and engineers have worked to get one of the 20 B-2 stealth bombers remaining in the Air Force fleet back in the air.

The fact there are only 20 B-2s in the Air Force’s fleet increased the urgency of the repair and helped Air Force officials to make the decision not to scrap the project even though it took three years and nine months to complete.

………

Maintaining the B-2’s stealth qualities added to the challenge, according to officials. A particular challenge was removing the charcoal created by the fire from the aircraft’s skin.

Maintainers created a process in which they used dry ice pellets to remove charcoal from the skin.

The increasingly exotic technology upon which The Pentagon relies have become unsustainable.

It’s Nice to Know that Someone Has a More F%$#ed Up Defense Procurement Process than the United States Does

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I am referring, of course, to the Republic of India, which has a long history of incompetent weapons development programs (Arjun tank, Kaveri engine, etc.) and corrupt foreign purchases.

We have one of the latter right now, with the India Ministry of Defense cancelling a helicopter purchase in response to a bribery scandal:

India has reacted to the scandal surrounding its purchase of 12 VVIP-roled AgustaWestland AW101 helicopters with the apparent cancellation of the €556 million ($776 million) deal.

In a statement posted late on 1 January on the Indian ministry of defence website, it says it has “terminated with immediate effect the agreement that was signed with AgustaWestland on 8 February 2010 for the supply of 12 VVIP/VIP helicopters on grounds of breach of the pre-contract integrity pact”.

Although the Anglo-Italian manufacturer had been pressing for arbitration talks to resolve the stalled deal, New Delhi has seemingly rejected this.

“Based on the opinion received earlier from the attorney general of India, it has been the view of the government that integrity-related issues are not subject to arbitration,” it says.

Nonetheless, there appears to be some ambiguity about its position until the country’s attorney general offers a fresh opinion. “However, [AgustaWestland] has since pressed for arbitration and appointed an arbitrator from its side. In view of this [the ministry of defence] sought afresh the opinion of the attorney general. With a view to safeguard the interests of the Government, [it has] nominated Mr Justice BP Jeevan Reddy as its arbitrator.”

………

A total of €51 million is alleged to have been paid as kickbacks by AgustaWestland to secure the order, an accusation strenuously denied by the company.

I have no clue why much smaller nations, like Israel and Sweden, manage to create sophisticated and effective weapons systems.

You Have to be F%$#ing Terrified to F%$#ing Threaten the F%$#ing Pope

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It appears that Pope Francis has spooked the 1%, because they are threatening the Pope and the Church:

If anyone wonders whether Pope Francis has irritated wealthy conservatives with his courage and idealism, the latest outburst from Kenneth Langone left little doubt. Sounding both aggressive and whiny, the billionaire investor warned that he and his overprivileged friends might withhold their millions from church and charity unless the pontiff stops preaching against the excesses and cruelty of unleashed capitalism.

According to Langone, such criticism from the Holy See could ultimately hurt the sensitive feelings of the rich so badly that they become “incapable of feeling compassion for the poor.” He also said rich donors are already losing their enthusiasm for the restoration of St. Patrick’s Cathedral in Manhattan – a very specific threat that he mentioned directly to Cardinal Timothy Dolan of New York.

Langone is not only a leading fundraiser for church projects but a generous donor to hospitals, universities, and cancer charities (often for programs and buildings named after him, in the style of today’s self-promoting philanthropists). Among the super-rich, he has many friends and associates who may share his excitable temperament.

While his ultimatum seems senseless – would a person of true faith stiff the church and the poor? – it may well be sincere. And Langone spends freely to promote his political and economic views, in the company of the Koch brothers and other Republican plutocrats.

Still, a Pope brave enough to face down the Mafia over his financial reform of the murky Vatican Bank shouldn’t be much fazed by the likes of Langone.

Langone, a co-founder of Home Depot, is also known for Dick Grasso’s obscene golden handshake when he left his chairmanship of the NYSE.

I have an affection for this guy; he certainly has the right enemies.

Why They are Protesting Against Democracy in Thailand

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Per capita GDP


Thai vs. Australian per capita GDP


Government Debt


Social (health) spending

Look at the graphs on economic statistics for Thailand.

Why is anyone complaining about results like this?

Anti government forces Bangkok have vowed to rid Thailand of all vestiges of Thaksin — including Thaksinomics. So let’s pause to cast a medium-term eye over the country’s economic performance during the period (2001 to the present) that has been dominated by Thaksin-esque policies.

 ………

 I’m sure there are plenty of other indicators and comparisons – good, not-so-good and bad – that could be used to plot Thailand’s economic performance since 2001 (comments on other indicators would be very welcome). But the overall point is that Thailand’s voters have some sound economic reasons to keep on electing Thaksin and his allies.

 Strong economic growth, and increasing government spending on health, welfare and rural development, didn’t start with Thaksin, but he and his allies have been able to effectively place growing prosperity at the heart of their political success.

What the protesters are objecting to is not economic growth, but rather they are objecting to the fact that there are benefits accruing to the rural peasants.

So the hoi polloi are doing better.

There are new roads, new bridges, new rural clinics, and the position of the rural poor has improved.

It has improved a lot, and their lot relative to the urban elites has also improved.

So the protestors are upset that poor rural families are no longer forced to sell their daughters into prostitution in the big cities, and this is why they want to remove any vestige of Thaksin and Yingluck Shinawatra while insisting that there be no elections.

When I say that, “The Thai protesters are revolting,” I am using the last word as an adjective, not a verb.

The First Uber Death

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30 Miles, 40 Min, over the Bay Bridge, a toll road.
View Larger Map

Yesterday, I posted about the Libertarian delusional dream that is Uber.

Today, I read about an Uber driver hitting 3 pedestrians, killing a 6-year old girl
:

Update, 11:35 a.m.: Uber confirmed that Muzzafar was, indeed a contractor with the company. It’s since deactivated his account. An Uber spokesman stressed, again, that Muzzafar was not “providing services through the Uber system” at the time he struck and killed a 6 year-old girl at Polk and Ellis Streets.

Update, 9:46 a.m.: Police release name and photo of the self-identified Uber driver (See bottom).

 It’s been a rough year for Uber thus far. Just four hours before the car-hire startup planned to ring in 2014 — ideally with an onslaught of high-priced trips through San Francisco’s bustling downtown corridor — one of its contracted drivers allegedly hit a family in a Tenderloin crosswalk, killing a 6-year-old girl and critically injuring her mother and brother.

“There are no words to express the deep sadness and grief felt for young San Francisco resident, Sophia Liu,” Supervisor Jane Kim wrote in a statement issued shortly after the young girl’s death.

Kim added that the accident would have been “100 percent avoidable” had the driver followed basic traffic laws. She considered the incident a harbinger for app-based car-hire startups, indicating that it raises questions about driver training and compliance.

Notice the non denial denial?

In their blog, they said that, “This tragedy did not involve a vehicle or provider doing a trip on the Uber system.

Notice what they did not say?  They did not say that he wasn’t logged in, and that he wasn’t waiting for some of those lucrative,  “Onslaughts of high-priced trips.”

Why else would he be driving around San Francisco on New Years Eve?

Driving?  In San Francisco?  On New Years Eve?  That is nucking futs!  ……… Unless, of course, you are there to make some bank by getting dispatches from a certain Techno-Randian transportation company.

Then, it makes lots of sense.

It is telling that Uber has deliberately chosen a model which is structured largely to evade any responsibility, or liability, for the misdeeds of its drivers.

H/t Crooks & Liars.

It is Called Price Gouging, You Moronic Free Market Mousketeer!

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The latest poster boys for techno-Libertarians is the taxi service Uber, which is a smartphone based car hire service.

At the core of their business model is the idea that there is no need for any pesky regulations, because ……… Internet.

Ignoring for the moment supply restrictions like New York City’s Medallion* system, there is a reason that cabs, and cabbies, are regulated.

There is a need to ensure that the cars are safe, that the cabbies are properly trained,† and that pricing is consistent and transparent, so, for example, we do not see price gouging, on New Year’s eve, or during a rain storm.

So, what does Uber do?  It triples rates for New Year’s Eve, and Randroid morons like Rob Leathern, the Chief Product Officer of Brand Networks, has this is not like price gouging at all, because ……… Internet:

Uber’s pricing isn’t price gouging. It’s just in an area we are deeply conflicted about, and missing some transparency that would increase consumer trust. They could certainly give all or some more of their excess surge profits to the drivers, or show us more of the extensive data their Math Team produces but doesn’t yet share– if their algorithms are as sophisticated as they claim then the benefit they get from sharing information with customers will outweigh any competitive concerns.

Bullsh%$.

This is price gouging, and it has been defined as such throughout the developed world for something over 80 years.

One of the reasons that we as a society make laws against this is because it is unethical, and dishonest.

I really hope that if he ever has a heart attack, that Mr. Leathern does not find an ambulance driver who jacks up the rate to take him to the hospital.

*Apart from that Mrs. Lincoln, how was the play? The medallion system sucks.
†Uber has already had at least 1 rape allegation attached to its service so far, and it turns out that rape by gypsy cab drivers is endemic.

While I Do Not Think that Netanyahu is Operating In Good Faith, This Demand Should Not be a Deal Killer

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For some reason, it appears that the Palestinians feel unable to recognize Israel as a Jewish state.

The transaction here is at its core to be “Land for Peace”, but if the Palestinians are unwilling to acknowledge Israel, the “peace” part becomes pretty iffy:

As Middle East peace talks churn on, Israel has catapulted to the fore an issue that may be even more intractable than old ones like security and settlements: a demand that the Palestinians recognize Israel as a Jewish state.

 Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has made such recognition the pillar of his public statements in recent weeks, calling it “the real key to peace,” “the minimal requirement” and “an essential condition.” Israeli, American and Palestinian officials all say it has become a core issue in the negotiations that started last summer.

 But Mr. Netanyahu’s argument that this single issue underpins all others is exactly what makes it unacceptable to Palestinians. At its heart, it is a dispute over a historical narrative that each side sees as fundamental to its existence.

 Critics skeptical of Mr. Netanyahu’s commitment to a two-state solution to the long-running conflict say that recognition of a Jewish state is a poison pill that he is raising only to scuttle the talks. The Palestinian president, Mahmoud Abbas, has repeatedly said that the Palestinians will never agree to it, most recently in a letter to President Obama last month.

 The Palestinians cite both pragmatic and philosophical reasons: They contend that recognizing Israel as a Jewish state would disenfranchise its 1.6 million Arab citizens, undercut the right of return for millions of Palestinian refugees and, most important, require a psychological rewriting of the story they hold dear about their longtime presence in the land.

 But Israeli leaders say that the refugee question can be resolved separately and that the status of Israel’s Arab minority can be protected. Without acceptance by the Palestinians that their neighbor is and will be, in Israel’s favored formulation, “the nation-state of the Jewish people,” Israelis argue that they can never be convinced that an agreement truly spells the end of the conflict.

 “The core of this conflict has never been borders and settlements — it’s about one thing: the persistent refusal to accept the Jewish state in any border,” Mr. Netanyahu said last month in a video statement to the Saban Forum in Washington.

 He added: “We recognize that in peace there will be a nation-state for the Palestinian people. Surely we’re entitled to expect them to do the same.”

Netanyahu probably isn’t mooting this in good faith.  He has made a career of putting road-blocks in front of the peace process, but even a stopped clock is right twice a day.

It’s why 73% of the famously fractious Israeli Jews support the idea.

Israeli thought has changed over the past 66 years, Golda Mier denied the existence of a Palestinian people, and this has not been relegated to the frothing at the mouth lunatics of Israel’s body politic. 

No one in Israel with any political power is claiming that they are Jordanians, or “Southern Syrians” any more.  (Though to be fair there are a bunch of profoundly stupid reactionaries in the United State, both Jewish and Evangelical Christians who do.)

The Palestinians, on the other hand, are unwilling to go much beyond a statement that Israel exists, and that this (currently) is a fact on the ground that they (grudgingly) accept.

Both sides need to acknowledge their respective personhoods and nationhoods in order for negotiations to be fruitful.

It’s not an end point, it’s a start point.

For F%$#’s Sake, Why?

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It appears that France is more evil than I had been believed.

Some scientists in Bordeaux have found a way to block the euphoric effects of marijuana:

Leave it to science to find a way to harsh the mellow of marijuana.

A French research team has discovered a natural chemical brake that can tamp down the effects of THC, the main intoxicant in marijuana. They believe it could lead to ways to protect against memory loss, torpor and other side-effects better known as being stoned.

“We have this built-in negative feedback mechanism, a brake” on cannabis intoxication, said University of Bordeaux neurobiologist Dr. Pier Vincenzo Piazza, principal author of a study published Thursday in the journal Science.

The researchers were investigating the role of neurosteroids in addiction. These are a class of hormones produced in the brain, and they have been implicated in regulating mood and cognitive activities.

After getting rats and mice high on the active ingredients of cocaine, morphine, nicotine, alcohol and marijuana, the researchers measured the increase in pregnenolone, a precursor to all steroid hormones that was thought to be otherwise inactive.

Getting mice stoned is not as easy as you think. They tend to Bogart that joint.

But more seriously, marijuana is not physiologically addictive, so why are harshing our buzz?

What the f%$# is wrong with you guys?

A joke in a related vein after the break:


Dr. Calvin Rickson, a scientist from Ohio State University, has invented a bra that keeps women’s breasts from jiggling and prevents the nipples from pushing through the fabric when cold weather sets in.

At a news conference, after announcing the invention, a large group of men took Dr. Rickson outside and beat the sh%$ out of him.

Who Hit the Democrats with a Clue Stick?

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It seems that Democrats are looking to stop running away from Obamacare, (a good idea, the Dems own it whether they like it or not) and instead want to push for a minimum wage increase as their signature issue for 2014:

Democratic Party leaders, bruised by months of attacks on the new health care program, have found an issue they believe can lift their fortunes both locally and nationally in 2014: an increase in the minimum wage.

The effort to take advantage of growing populism among voters in both parties is being coordinated by officials from the White House, labor unions and liberal advocacy groups.

In a series of strategy meetings and conference calls among them in recent weeks, they have focused on two levels: an effort to raise the federal minimum wage, which will be pushed by President Obama and congressional leaders, and a campaign to place state-level minimum wage proposals on the ballot in states with hotly contested congressional races.

With polls showing widespread support for an increase in the $7.25-per-hour federal minimum wage among both Republican and Democratic voters, top Democrats see not only a wedge issue that they hope will place Republican candidates in a difficult position, but also a tool with which to enlarge the electorate in a nonpresidential election, when turnout among minorities and youths typically drops off.

“It puts Republicans on the wrong side of an important value issue when it comes to fairness,” said Dan Pfeiffer, the president’s senior adviser. “You can make a very strong case that this will be a helpful issue for Democrats in 2014. But the goal here is to actually get it done. That’s why the president put it on the agenda.”

This is good politics, and good policy, though having your hired guns run to the press (I’m talking to you, Mr. Pfeiffer) crowing about how this is such good politics does not serve to reinforce their message.

The minimum wage fight is an opportunity to create a space for the discussion about political values on a terrain that favors Democrats, it’s not about allowing self important political consultants crow about their genius.

Your Bit of Religious Archeology Geek of the Day

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It appears that archaeologists have found a fabric fragment containing traces of Techelet, the blue dye mentioned in Torah:

In a rare discovery, scientists have confirmed that an almost 2,000-year-old piece of fabric found near the Dead Sea contains remnants of the Biblical blue color known as tekhelet.

It is only the third piece of fabric ever found to contain this precious blue dye derived from snail glands. In accordance with a Torah commandment, tekhelet was used in ancient times to dye the tassels, or tzitzit, attached to the four-cornered garment traditionally worn by men, as well as the clothing worn by the High Priest during the days of the temple.

The finding was revealed on Monday at a special conference held in Jerusalem to mark the 100th anniversary of the publication of the doctorate of Rabbi Yitzchak Halevi Herzog, the former chief rabbi of Israel, on the subject of tekhelet. In attendance were many of the former chief rabbi’s grandchildren, including the keynote speaker, Isaac Herzog, the new chairman of the Labor Party.

Announcing the discovery, Dr. Na’ama Sukenik, a curator at the Israel Antiquities Authority, said the tiny piece of fabric had been discovered in the 1950s in a cave at Wadi Murba’at, where Jewish fighters hid during the Bar Kokhba revolt in the second century. As part of her doctoral dissertation at Bar Ilan University, Sukenik recently tested the color found in the fabric and was able to determine that it was derived from the Murex trunchular, a mollusk widely believed to be the marine animal known as the khilazon in the Talmud — the source of the rare blue dye.

To this day, scientists and scholars have not reached a consensus on whether tekhelet was a light sky-blue color, as most modern day experts on the subject now believe, or a darker, more purple-hued blue. The shade discovered on the piece of fabric tested by Sukenik was sky blue. The tassels on the fragment were spun in a way that was common in Israel in ancient times, she said, demonstrating that the dye was locally produced.

The dye color varies with exposure to sunlight during the dyeing process, so it is unclear what color was actually applied in ancient times.

Kewl.

H/t Failed Messiah.

Linkage

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H/T Distractify

So Not a Surprise………

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The special master for the the Apple/Amazon e-book is claiming that Apple is obstructing his investigation:

A feud between Apple Inc. and a lawyer appointed by a federal court judge to monitor the company’s e-book pricing reform became even more acrimonious Monday.

Michael Bromwich, the lawyer picked as Apple’s monitor, said in court documents filed Monday that Apple’s characterization of his team’s activities as a “roving investigation” in fact “bear no relation whatsoever to the activities we have attempted to conduct.”

In an 11-page document accompanied by hundreds of pages of emails, Mr. Bromwich described repeated alleged efforts by Apple to block interviews between him and senior executives, as well as the company’s failure to turn over relevant documents.

………

In December, Apple asked Manhattan U.S. District Judge Denise Cote to halt Mr. Bromwich’s oversight of the company pending the company’s appeal of Judge Cote’s antitrust judgment against the company. Judge Cote ruled in July that Apple colluded with five major U.S. publishers to drive up the prices of e-books, a verdict Apple has said it planned to appeal.

The Justice Department, which reviewed Mr. Bromwich’s proposal for the monitoring position, said in court papers filed in December that halting Mr. Bromwich’s work would go against the “public’s interested in preventing further antitrust violations by Apple.”

On Monday, Mr. Bromwich said he routinely met with top management at the three organizations he previously monitored and had “never before had a request for a meeting or interview in a monitoring assignment rejected or even deferred.”

“This is far less access than I have ever received during a comparable period of time in the three other monitorships I have conducted,” Mr. Bromwich said.

Considering Apple’s heritage of psychopathic arrogance, (OK, Steve Jobs’ heritage of psychopathic arrogance) it is unsurprising that they would feel put upon for having to actually change their behavior for their behavior.

Hoocoodanode?