Monday Miscellany!

• Media darling Malala Yousafzai met with President Obama, and explained to him the simple truth about drone strikes: that they're causing terrorism. Good for her.


• Fixes to Healthcare.gov could take up to two months. Keep in mind that two months from now is December 14. The deadline to sign up for insurance that starts January 1 is December 15. In other words, critical fixes for the site may go right up to the last possible minute, or beyond. It's just one more data point to my contention that the Healthcare.gov rollout the biggest clusterfuck of the Obama administration. In fact, if it weren't for the Republicans repeatedly stabbing themselves in the dick with this shutdown and possible default, the failure of Healthcare.gov's rollout would be a huge boon for the Republicans. But because of the shutdown, almost everyone is ignoring it. Bravo, Tea Party, bravo.


• Speaking of which, Tim O'Reilly points us to his favorite write-up of the Healthcare.gov clusterfuck here. Slashdot also has a discussion here.


• Did gun control activist Mark Kelly commit a felony at a New York gun show? And if he did, will he ever see prosecution for it? (That's a rhetorical question - of course he won't. He's in the privileged class that gets a pass from such nuisances as federal law.)


• Macy's is open on Thanksgiving day. In other news, I'm officially calling Thanksgiving "be kind to your broke-ass retail employee friends day."


• As Research In Motion, the company behind the Blackberry, scrambles for relevance after resting on its laurels for too long, businesses are preparing for the post-Blackberry era. I can't help but feel a twinge of sentiment at the demise of the Blackberry. I bought my first Blackberry in 2006; I blogged on it quite a bit on this very LJ. Since then, my job adopted the Blackberry, then I retired my personal Blackberry for an Android. Tomorrow, my work Blackberry will be replaced with a work iPhone. Thus, my long, fruitful relationship with Blackberry will come to an end.


• Yes, the Cubs are cursed. No, goats, Barton Balls, and other such miscellany have nothing to do with it. The Cubs, you see, have been cursed with a shit management culture for a century, and the fans have suffered for it. More here.