John Jonathon John Sean Hodgcoultroderelson

The men in the following pictures will all be in Seattle, in the same venue, next week.

Can you tell them apart?









They're just a mish-mash of hair, glasses, white skin, and the occasional beard.

I would love to be there but I probably can't. Details here. • 8:26 AM 0 comments

Oh, sure

So I wait until the next-to-last day to sign up for this year's NaNoWriMo... and they're down for server maintenance?!

It may be working when you read this, but as of right now, when I'm typing these words, clicking that link shows me an apology and no word on when they'll be back up. OK, I lied, one word: "jiffy".

As in, they'll be back up in a.

Their Twitter feed has a little bit more information:

Sam and Russ are working on one of our database servers right now. Thanks for your patience!

...from about 3 hours ago.

And their latest (as I type this) tweet:

And no, this is not our attempt to make you think about your novel instead of surfing the forums. :)

Harrumph. • 10:01 PM 1 comments

Undecided voters? Here's the change you need

What? You're still on the fence on the presidential election? What are you; nuts?

Here, cribbed from the Willy Week's blog, which in turn cribbed them from Barack Obama's campaign book "Change We Can Believe In", are a list of positive reasons to vote for the man who will very likely be our next President:

• Automatic workplace retirement plans: Require employers who do not currently offer a retirement plan to enroll their employees in a government direct-deposit IRA. Employees keep the plan even when they change jobs. If they want, they can opt out.
  
• Mid-East: Begin planning a responsible withdrawal of troops from Iraq. Instead, focus on fighting terrorists in Afghanistan. Launch a "diplomatic surge" in the Mid-East: train & deploy civilian diplomats to Syria, Iran, etc..
  
• Minimum wage: Raise it to $9.50 by 2011. Afterward, index it to inflation.
  
• Universal health insurance coverage: Offer an opt-in low-cost government insurance plan to every American—even those with pre-existing conditions.
  
• Education: Further fund zero-to-five education programs & after-school enrichment. Pay teachers more; hold them more accountable. Offer a $4000 college tax credit to students willing to contribute 100 hours of public service, annually. Expand Pell Grants.
  
• Tax policy: Lower or maintain tax rates for families making less than $250k/year. Raise tax rates for those making over $250k/year. Remove tax penalties on married families. Reward parents who pay child support with an EITC tax credit.
  
• Cars: Double fuel economy standards within 18 years. Get one million plug-in electric vehicles on the road by 2015. Cut taxes for Americans who buy fuel-efficient vehicles.
  
• "Green" jobs: Create five million enviro-forward government jobs in clean energy, biofuels, hybrid automobiles, fuel infrastructure, low-emissions coal plants and a digital electricity grid.
  
• Clean air: Reduce carbon emissions 80% by 2050. Institute a market-based cap-and-trade system to reduce emissions. Invest in low-carbon nonpetroleum fuels.
  
• Veterans: Fullly fund veterans’ medical care. Increase the number of centers treating Traumatic Brain Injury (TBI), Post-traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD), and other specialized injuries. Work to end homelessness among veterans.
  
• Nuclear nonproliferation: At all costs, prevent Iran from developing and testing nuclear weapons. Eliminate North Korea’s nuclear weapons program (seems unrealistic). Phase out Highly Enriched Uranium (HEU) from the civil sector. Provide additional funding ($16m) to the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA). Reduce US and Russian nuclear stockpiles. Ratify the Comprehensive Test Ban Treaty.
  
• Global warming: Reduce carbon emissions 80% by 2050. Spend $150bn over 10 years to develop and deploy climate-friendly energy sources.
  
• Foreign aid: Double foreign financial assistance to $50bn by 2012. Double the size of the peace corps to 16,000.
  
• Lobbying: Employ no registered lobbyists in an Obama administration. Ban gifts to executive branch employees. End no-bid contracts over $25,000. Create a "Google for Government" so that regular citizens can track federal grants, contracts, earmarks & loans.
  
• Civil rights: Overturn the Supreme Court ruling that makes it harder for women to file pay-discrimination claims. Preserve women’s rights as elaborated by Roe v. Wade. Support civil unions with equal rights for same-sex couples. End the "don't ask, don't tell" policy in the US military.

• 9:48 AM 0 comments

Beware

You might want to stay away - far, far away - from anyone with this bumper sticker on their car, for, oh, about the next 4-8 years:

• 6:59 PM 0 comments

Geek

Catching up with my friend Ken this morning (I haven't seen him since he dropped me off at home eaaaaaaaarly Sunday morning from a Hallowe'en party), he mentioned (among many other things) that scientists had discovered a potential habitable solar system not far away.

Ken couldn't remember all the details, so he dug up the article he remembered, from the Huffington Post.

As soon as I saw that the system was Epsilon Eridani, I pointed out, ironically, that that's where the planet Vulcan, from the "Star Trek" universe, is located, home to Mr. Spock and others.

And now, googling around, I realize, I'm not the only one to make that connection:

[Astronomer Massimo] Marengo [of the Harvard-Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics] adds, "Of course there is disagreement among Star Trek fans about whether the planet of Mr. Spock could be at Epsilon Eridani, because it is such a young star and Vulcans are supposed to be an advanced civilization."

Geeks are everywhere. • 8:07 AM 0 comments

True

Remember "Wassup"?



Hard to believe that was 8 years ago.

Wonder what they're up to now?



Note: I'm not endorsing Bud Lite - weak pisswater, ugh.

(But vote Obama!) • 7:55 PM 0 comments

Conversational gambits

It's not Talk Like A Pirate Day, but since I'm going to a costume party tonight dressed as a pirate, I thought I'd share with you some random pirate Zen:



Mmmm... manatee. • 6:53 PM 0 comments

Parrot rhymes with pirate... sometimes

I have the coolest (fake) parrot for my pirate costume this year! • 6:11 PM 2 comments

Compliments work

Out of breath, I had just finished a fast-ish almost-four-mile run in my neighborhood. I walked back from the finish line, cooling down in the autumn evening air. My time and speed wasn't great. Not bad, but not great. I gave myself a mental "C" for at least doing the run, but not surpassing my personal standards.

I hadn't taken more than ten steps when I saw my neighbor, Peggy, out walking her boxer, Lucy. I waved from the other side of the street, hoping that would forestall any actual conversation for two reasons. First, I was out of breath and could hardly speak. Second, I was feeling non-friendly in general. Peggy is a nice lady, but I'm a bit of a grump, especially lately.

"Hello!" she called. Apparently my tactic of pre-emptive non-verbal communication did not work.

"Hi," I tried to project.

"Do you run every night?" Peggy asked.

"Every other day," I answered, still walking.

"Oh." She paused while Lucy sniffed a tree. "How far do you run?"

"Between 3 and 8 miles, depending." I answered.

"Oh! That's pretty good." Lucy finished sniffing and continued on, pulling Peggy along. "That's damned impressive, actually!"

"Thanks!" I called back. I still needed to cool down, but the compliment sank in and I felt a little bit better about my run.

There's many folk who can run faster or farther than me - but there are many more folk who can't do what I do at all. I'm probably on the right-hand side of the bell curve, and that feels good. • 7:25 AM 0 comments

Enough?

I was in bed before 9 PM last night.

I woke up around 4:30 AM and, blissfully, was able to go back to sleep.

I didn't get out of bed until nearly 6 AM. And I didn't have that "groggy, shaken out of sleep" feeling. It felt... odd.

It felt like that was exactly the right amount of sleep to get. • 7:18 AM 0 comments

This

Grace's writing is perfect. I mean, the words she chooses and the way she thinks about her internal states matches some of the metaphors and words that I use inside my head about my internal states. Go read her as soon as you have time.

Especially this part:

They gave me a test to take to see if I was depressed. I filled it out with great suspicion. Doesn't everyone have "persistant feelings of emptiness or worthless", "cry for no reason" and "feel they are hurting or bothering others just by being around"? That seemed pretty normal. That was life as I knew it, had known it, for almost as far back as I could think. If other people were filling this test out differently, they were kidding themselves. Who doesn't "think the world would be better off it they were dead"? Nobody can be that happy.

The therapist as Student Health Services said I should think about medication, but I was unequivocal. So instead we talked about my childhood, everything I'd ever felt shit about. It might have helped. I didn't kill myself. I turned down anti-depressants repeatedly from doctors at the Student Center, and later at the People's Clinic. I didn't want to kill myself, but I thought pills were weak. I didn't want to medicate the darkness in me, I wanted to kill it. Pin it down and choke the life right out of it. Beat it to a bloody shit with my fists. Then I would know that I did, in fact, deserve to keep living.

It matches just as Cary Tennis' words and metaphors matches.

I am no expert, but I think that killing oneself in order to relieve one's pain is a special kind of murder. It is a murder of which we might be said to be innocent by reason of self-defense: There is a person inside us who is torturing us and we want to kill that person. We have split into two. There is the torturer and the victim, and the victim buys a gun. Unfortunately for both, they are in the same body.

If we think about it in this speculative way, we might say that suicide is not really aggression toward ourselves, but aggression toward the person who has invaded us and is torturing us, the murderous, sadistic imbecile who is calling us names, belittling us, bludgeoning us.

The problem is not that we want to murder this person within us in order to stop our torture. The problem is that we confuse physical action with symbolic action.

We must murder our torturer symbolically.

See?

I think Grace and Cary should talk. And I'd like to sit in and maybe listen a while. I'd learn a lot.

But Grace is in Texas and Cary is in California and I'm up here in Portland. So it probably won't happen. • 10:17 AM 0 comments

Dreaming

This morning, as I struggled to wake up and emerge from the warm cocoon of my bed into the cold cave that is my house, my brain started composing a letter. The letter was one asking for advice, as from an advice columnist, about the difficulty in waking up, and the near-constant desire for sleep, and if that was a problem, and also what if I really just like dreaming. In fact, I like it so much that most of the time, I'd rather be dreaming than anything else in the whole wide world. And I realized that was, if not an actual, full-blown problem, it is at least an indicator of a problem or a precursor to a problem. Or maybe it's just seasonal depression.

Anyway, I thought further: maybe I should explore that as a character for my NaNoWriMo novel this year? A main character who just wants to sleep a lot, is avoiding something, and (because a novel that was just a series of dreams interspersed with scenes where the character was just going through the motions until he can sleep again would be, y'know, boring) is forced to stay awake for some reason.

I think the character would be interesting, and funny, and probably grouchy. Kinda like Dr. House, from the teevee.

Then I thought: "But I already have an idea for my NaNoWriMo novel - tell a story backwards!" (even though I haven't blogged about it yet, yes, I've been working on this idea for this year) And I thought further: "I don't really know how to combine those two ideas - I have no idea where my sleepy-but-not-narcoleptic character would end up."

And yet, I'm going to intersect those two ideas. Even though I have NO IDEA how it's going to actually "start" (and by "start", I mean "end", because I'm beginning at the end and ending at the beginning).

So that's what I was thinking this morning. • 9:29 AM 2 comments

Narrative dreams

Does anyone else have dreams with narrative structure, incorporating mythic or religious symbolism and mult-layered storytelling techniques?

Like, do you ever dream that you're living with your friends in a pre-post-apocalyptic city, when suddenly Kali, Hindu goddess of death appears, hundreds of feet tall, and before she unveils her face, delivers a message of doom for yourself and six other friends.

Oh, and you notice that there are several other Hindu gods watching, and you and your six friends are going to be new incarnations of those deities, after the destruction.

But your closest friend isn't part of the seven, and everyone else is doomed to die, or something. Something bad.

And you get attacked by people who don't know that you're to incarnate a new deity, attacked because of something written on your t-shirt, and get to use your new-found divine powers to deflect the attack without harming them.

Anyone else have dreams like that?

Yeah... me, either. • 7:22 PM 0 comments

In other news, water is still wet

I stopped by the Apple Store on my way home last night, and I can report that the new laptops are, indeed, sexy. Duh. Water's still wet.

They feel as solid as... well, as a brick. There's no "flex" or "give" to them at all, and in spite of that, the 15" MacBook Pro feels about half as heavy as my MBP, it's definitely thinner than my current one, and the curves are all nicely rounded (completely subjective measure - in reality, the new one weighs 5.5 lbs and is .95 inches thick and mine weighs 5.6 lbs and is 1.0 inch thick, according to the tech specs for for each. Not sure I can actually feel a tenth of a pound or a 0.05 inch difference. Must be the sexay getting to me).

In the store, the glossy screen isn't as distracting as I thought it would be, but I'm still skeptical that glossy is the right choice for all lighting conditions. And me and two of the sales folk had our doubts that the trackpad was, in fact, glass. If it's glass, it's painted or coated with something because it looks and feels just like the trackpad on mine.

And the clicky pad is... odd. It would take some getting used to. I'm used to touching or tapping the trackpad to do my clicking; the pressure required to click the entire pad feels like too much to me. Luckily, I still have the option to enable tap-clicking in System Preferences.

The thing of it is - yes, they're beautiful machines, and yes, my laptop is getting older, but there isn't really any compelling new features (beyond better battery life, more storage space, and a faster overall machine) that would make me want to upgrade right now. My laptop already does more than I need.

So I'll wait until after the January Macworld Expo before I consider upgrading. • 1:20 PM 0 comments

The more you know

Speaking of Joe the Plumber, did you know:

1. He's registered as a Republican in Ohio?
   
2. He's a convicted tax cheat?
   
3. He's not licensed to be a plumber in Ohio? (Same link as A, above)
   
4. He's apparently related to Sen. McCain's good friends, the Keating family? (Yes, that Keating family!)

Hmmm... Republican, tax scofflaw, practices without a license, family friend of McCain... Wonder what he was doing at an Obama Q&A right before the debate? • 1:29 PM 3 comments

Befuddled

Sen. John McCain looks... stunned... in this exchange from tonight's debate:



Stunned! Flummoxed! Befuddled! Aghast!

I just play this over and over and over again.

(No, I didn't actually watch the debate. My mind's made up already. I hope all y'all out there still trying to figure out that you need to vote for the Democrat this time, for the good of us all, of the economy, the Constitution, and our standing in the world community watch this clip and remember that the economy always does better under Democratic presidents - always.)

Update: I've found a video that gives a bit more context to the question Sen. Obama is responding to and changed it. And, seriously, I can't stop watching McCain blink. He just blinks and blinks and blinks. I try very hard to only ever refer to politicians by their formal title. I'd have to go back and check, but I don't think I've ever even slipped and referred to our current President by anything other than "President Bush" or "George W. Bush". If I have, I apologize for letting anger and frustration cloud my debating skills.

But, man... watching that video of Sen. McCain... so hard not to poke a little fun at that expression on his face. Wow. He's, just... wow.

And Sen. Obama is one cool cat. Hot damn, it's gonna be good having him in the White House. • 9:36 PM 2 comments

The best part

The best part of this video is finally (finally!) hearing Hayden Pantatrooper pronounce her own last name, settling a bet between Ken and me.



The second-best part is hearing Hayden use the word "fucked". Several times.

PS: It's a political video. Just warning all y'all.

(h/t to Atrios) • 8:49 PM 0 comments

Patience, my ass

more animals • 3:38 PM 0 comments

Voter registration deadline for Oregon

If you're living in Oregon and you're not registered to vote by 5PM today, you're a dummy. Yeah, I said it. Get out there and register! Here's the Oregon Secretary of State page that has all the info and links you need.

Starsky says "G'wan... do it."



I know, living in Oregon, it may feel like voting is a forgone conclusion - despite the traditional media thinking Oregon is a "battleground state" or "leaning Democratic" (ha, ha!) it's almost a lock that Oregon will go for Sen. Obama. Yes, it's important to vote for President... but there's other, downticket races that are much closer than the Presidential race. I would urge my friends to vote Jeff Merkley, Democrat, against the Bush rubber-stamp incumbent Gordon Smith. Merkley spoke out against the $700 billion bailout package (Gordon Smith voted for it; Oregon's other US Senator, Ron Wyden, voted against), and Merkley also was strongly opposed to the FISA rewrite that gave the telecom companies retroactive immunity and gave Bush cover to continue his up-until-then-illegal surveillance of American citizens on American soil.

My friends living in Darlene Hooley's old district (OR-05, map of the district found here) would be well-advised to vote for Kurt Schrader against Republican Mike Erickson. Schrader is a veterinarian and state senator from Canby. He seems like a regular joe and he says his priorities are bringing the troops home from Iraq (but apparently, not Afghanistan) and health care for all Americans.

Having larger majorities in Senate and the House will help keep Barack Obama on the progressive side of the political spectrum and will ensure that legislation is passed that will help all Americans - not just the super-rich.

Electing more Democrats to the local legislature will position Oregon nicely for the upcoming census - which means it's redistricting time. Again, an important goal is making sure that district lines are drawn fairly and evenly, and the chances of that are better with more Democrats in the state house. It's also better, I should add, when more voters and citizens participate in the process and keep up pressure on our representatives. Don't just vote once every four years and consider your duty done; get involved year-round. • 7:16 AM 0 comments

To my Republican co-workers in the next cube over

Dear Republican co-workers in the next cube over, please stop pushing the lie that the current economic collapse was caused by Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac giving out too many loans to "low income" Americans. It's not true, and as McClatchy points out, both the Federal Reserve Board data and the President's Working Group on Financial Markets disprove that lie pretty conclusively.

The financial collapse was triggered by lax lending practices by private lending institutions; only one of the top 25 sub-prime lenders was subject to Federal guidelines against discrimination. It's pretty simple, really. And if I'm using too many big words, when I say "lax lending practices" I mean that the private lenders weren't being regulated, nor were the regulations being enforced. Hmmm... deregulation... who pushed for that? Oh, right, that was a Republican thing. And who enforced (or didn't) the regulations? Oh, right, that would be the President.

Since the Federal Reserve Board data shows that the primary timeframe for private sub-prime loans was 2001-2007, when the Republicans ran both houses of Congress, and President Bush sat in the White House.

Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac don't loan money themselves, either, my fine Republican co-workers. They purchase loans that were pre-qualified by those private lending institutions. You know, the ones that were giving away loans to anyone and everyone, then passing the shitpile on to others. If those private institutions are lying to Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, and there are no penalties for lying, clearly the moral responsibility lies on those institutions, right? And if poor people who, under normal circumstances, would not qualify for home loans were given those loans anyway, again, the blame lies with the lenders.

But the lenders are still escaping the consequences for their actions in creating the bubble. Must be nice to be rich these days. I mean, the people who were given loans they couldn't afford are still on the hook for paying those loans off. And taxpayers get another hit by paying for the $700 billion bailout on top of that.

Don't get me wrong, I have no love for the current Congressional leadership pushing through the bailout. But that's a whole 'nother issue.

Oh giggling Republican co-workers, whispering conspiratorially in the next cube over as you watch some YouTube mash-up that, in your mind, implicates Speaker Pelosi and Rep. Barney Frank in causing the current crisis... you are so wrong. So sadly wrong.

So stop trying to blame the current crisis on Democratic Congresscritters who had no power in the last 8 years, stop trying to push the blame back onto President Clinton, and, honestly, seriously, stop trying to blame this on poor people. It just sounds... well, ignorant... when you do that. • 1:46 PM 3 comments

About now, I could use it

To anyone still on the fence between electing Sen. McCain or Sen. Obama, here's a comparison of their tax plans.

I don't know about you, but I could use an extra $1042.00/year. That's nearly a whole extra paycheck for me.

And before you scream that now's not the time to be reducing taxes, notice how Sen. Obama's tax plan increases taxes on the upper class rather dramatically. That will actually bring in more revenue to the government. The Bush tax "cuts" simply shifted the tax burden down on the middle and lower class (that's you and me, bub) - and McCain has pledged to continue those tax "cuts".

Oh, but, hey, McCain supporters and surrogates say: look - scary Muslims over there! Don't think about the economy!

Ha. Like those of us who work for a living can ever really ignore the economy. • 9:10 AM 0 comments

Monday the 13th

I'm a little bit on edge today. Not a superstitious sort, but since almost everyone else is, I'm afraid people will realize it's Monday the 13th and that it will become a self-fulfilling prophecy. With me as the target.

I need music this morning. So far, I've heard:

1. Cheap Trick, "Just What I Needed"
   
2. Queens of the Stone Age, "Go With The Flow"
   
3. The Offspring, "Denial, Revisited" (about which I've blogged before)
   
4. Eddie Money, "Take A Little Bit"
   
5. AC/DC, "Shake A Leg"
   
6. The Killers, "Change Your Mind"

I'm just playing whatever's on my iPhone all shuffle-like. It's a tonic for a crappy morning. My Republican co-worker (about whom I've blogged before), who normally rants to Ken, was poking around my cube because Ken isn't here on Mondays. But since I have, in fact, laughed in my Republican co-workers' face when he's tried to spout his bullshit at me, he's much more cautious. He just saw me in my scarf and asked me if I was cold.

"Uh-huh" I mumbled without making eye contact. He got the message.

I spent maybe 15 minutes hunting down a spare set of speakers that I could plug my iPhone into. Luckily there's metric tons of unused computer crap around here, because my team is the one that collects all the unused computer crap around here. The only speakers I could find had a mini-plug that wouldn't fit into the recessed iPhone jack, which is to say it had a perfectly normal mini-plug just like 99.9% of all mini-plugs made. Silly Apple! Making their iPhone so damned sexy that it only takes a special "standard mini-plug". So I had to carve off some plastic on the plug. Then I was missing my power cord, so I had to borrow Ken's. He's not here on Mondays (smart boy). Then I spent a few minutes making sure the cords were wrapped and put away nicely (I keep all my cords neatly bundled for aesthetics).

And now, I'm set for some boring ass work. Yay. Mondays. • 7:36 AM 0 comments

Small things

Kevin called me this morning just minutes after I had woken up and asked if I wanted to join him and his boys for breakfast at the 24-Hour Hotcake House.

I did (want to join him and his boys for breakfast at the 24-Hour Hotcake House). So I did (join them for breakfast etc., etc., yadda yadda).

The strawberry hotcakes were delicious. The bacon was delicious. The single scrambled eggs were delicious. Wait! Did I mention the strawberries on the hotcakes? I did? OK. How about the whip cream? I didn't? The whip cream was delicious, too. And the boys were cute and Kevin was funny and it was all good.

Then we went to the LEGO Store out and Washington Square. Whoa. LEGOs everywhere.

Then Kevin dropped me back at home. Thanks, Kevin!

Now I'm surfing around, trying to get the motivation to go for a long run. I found this silly wallpaper and set my desktop to that. Yeah. Crazy. I

I watched Britney's "Womanizer" video and, y'know, she's kinda hot again. How'd that happen? The song is typical repetitive synth-pop but I'm sure I'll be hearing it in dance clubs and strip clubs for years to come.

And that's what I'm doing today. • 1:36 PM 0 comments

Long week

Sorry I've been un-bloggy. Another long week.

I'm tired. Will likely hide all weekend. Right now I'm curled up on the couch, with Alex Trebek hosting another round of "Jeopardy" in the background. I had a simple sandwich for dinner. Tomorrow I will likely get up early and go for a nice long run, and then eat something, and then hide some more.

Maybe I'll watch teevee. Maybe I'll go see a movie. Maybe I'll read a book, or books.

But I'm betting I won't be doing anything very productive.

It's a hide-y weekend. • 7:08 PM 0 comments

The trick to filibustering

I got a fundraising letter from the Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee, which is dedicated to the goal of electing more Democratic Senators to U. S. Congress. The letter was signed by Sen. Harry Reid, the Majority Leader for the Democratic Caucus in the Senate.

The very first sentence nearly made me fall out of my chair:

Dear Friend,

Contribute today!

The difference between real change and more of the same is a filibuster-proof Senate. Without it, Barack Obama's hands will be tied.

(Emphasis in the original)

Did they think I was stupid, or simply unaware? Obviously I'm getting their form letters because I have donated to them in the past. Obviously I've donated to them (and other Democratic and political candidates and organizations) because I pay attention.

And because I pay attention, I know well the reasons the filibuster has been so effective in the last two sessions of Congress.

Like Sen. Joe Biden said in the recent Vice-Presidential debate, I am not questioning their motives, but rather, their judgment.

So I sent them the following letter:

I know Sen. Reid is unlikely to actually read my reply, but I could not let this email pass without comment. So to the probably-unpaid intern who gets my reply, here's my thoughts, for what it's worth.

I only got as far as the very first sentence of Sen. Reid's plea for donations before I did a spit-take. He's hoping for a "fillibuster-proof Senate"?

The Senate of the 110th Congress has seen an unprecedented number of filibusters by the supposedly-minority party, yes, that much is true. A quick Google search finds an article (link to PDF) stating that 94 cloture votes were taken by July 22, 2008 in the 2nd Session of the 110th Congress alone. It points out that because of the painless filibuster, issues like energy credits for alternative energy, "cap-and-trade" on limiting greenhouse gases, lower prescription prices for seniors, and assistance for victims of pay discrimination and, most tragically, an end to the needless deployment of troops in Iraq, were all blocked by the minority party. All issues supported by the majority in Congress, as well as the majority of America.

But one of the major reasons the Republicans have succeeded in using the filibuster to such great effect is because Senate leadership under Sen. Reid have allowed Republicans to have painless filibusters - filibusters where all Republican leadership needs to do is signal their intentions, and the Majority party rolls over and moves on to the next issue.

Imagine if Republicans were forced to, y'know, actually filibuster - stand on the Senate floor and defend their blocking strategy, preventing passage of legislation supported by the majority of voters, as well as a majority of Congress. Imagine that. That, alone, would limit the number of cloture votes needed by the minority party. And that, alone, would allow more beneficial and needed issues to be addressed.

It's not that more Democratic Senators are needed to prevent filibusters.

It's obvious that what is needed is Democratic leadership to act like leaders.

I thought that Sen. Reid was a fighter. It appears he's lost his nerve, at least to me.

I have donated to the DSCC in the past, but now I donate my time, money and energy to specific Senatorial candidates who show the determination to fight for the betterment of all and the preservation of our Constitution.

DSCC gets not one more dime from me until the Democratic caucus learns to fight.

• 10:11 AM 0 comments

Sign of the times

(Sorry for the horrible pun - I couldn't resist)



(h/t John Cole) • 8:44 PM 0 comments

Rules of food

Is it breaking a rule to put bacon on a Veggie burger? I do it every time I eat a Veggie burger, but every time it just feels... wrong... like I should be watching out for attacks from vegetarians or something.

Speaking of bacon, how about the maple bar bacon wrapped hot dog:

You take one maple bar donut, split it like a hot dog bun, and add a bacon-wrapped hot dog. The guy who took the photo claims that he topped it with "creme fraiche whisked with a dribble of bacon grease." That's taking junk food to a different level. We're talking Paula Deen-style cooking.

On a personal note, I'm fairly certain that I'm going to wake up any second now and completely forget that this dish could exist.

That's from Spanno at the Al Dente blog (h/t Cheryl Jones).

• 8:35 PM 0 comments

Formerly known as Burma

Somehow, I was in space, high above the planet Earth. I was dressed in regular street clothes, shorts and a t-shirt and my trusty Chucks, which is to say, I was not dressed for space. And yet, I was fine. Breathing did not seem to be a problem, despite the lack of air.

The planet filled my vision, a blue and green and white and sometimes tan marble. Behind me deep space. In front of me the birthplace and homeworld of my species.

I was fine. Other than the falling. Imperceptibly at first, but with a steady build up of acceleration, I was pulled back to mother Earth.

I brushed past the thin layers of the upper atmosphere, cold. I noted without alarm the fact of my not heating up due to friction. The air simply slowed my fall, gently blowing around me and preventing my combustion. It was completely unlike skydiving - that wind was a onrushing jet engine, 120+ miles per hour, a column of air. This was simply like flying, only in one direction, down.

As the sea and land grew closer and larger in my sight, I realized I had some small control over my descent, and thought that an ocean landing would be better. I angled my body, which was feet-first, to a spot just off the coast of... Myanmar. I was over the Indian Ocean, I could see, above south east Asia, on the other side of the world from Portland.

And suddenly, I plunged into warm blue water, in the middle of a bright warm day. I held my arms above my head, and tilted my head back to prevent the impact from slamming my jaw upward, preventing water from jetting into my sinuses. It was as if I had done this before. And, of course, it all worked perfectly.

Just like in a dream.

I plunged deep, deep enough for the water to turn dark, and then pulled towards the surface. I feared predators, sharks or other beasts. I had to get back to the surface. Again, as at the top of my fall, here I had no fear of suffocating. Just a fear of being eaten. As I neared the mirror of the interface between water and air, I saw a menacing torpedo shape and swam away.

My head popped up above the water, my sight clouded by the salt water. I wiped my eyes, and looked for shore; behind me rose green jungle and hills. And as I gradually regained my senses, I felt, then heard, the rumble of engines, and saw boats of various types, small and large and gianormous. This was a busy port! They all must have seen my fall. I had to get out of sight.

I flagged down a small 15 foot boat, shouting "help!" They turned towards me, approached, and helped me up. I could almost understand them. They were speaking German. There were about six or seven of them, adults and two children, a family. I told them "Ich sprache bitte Deutsche" - pidgin German, forgotten since high school, to communicate that I knew very little of their language. "English?" I asked but they shook their heads.

They consulted, and then turned their outboard motor to angle back to shore. I huddled under a blanket, now cold. Day became evening, faster than I would have guessed. I could smell the salt air and the rich, almost rotting, odor of the jungle.

The boat docked at a long, low, white-washed building with red tile roof. People in casual clothes and flip flops, sunglasses and caps, among other brown-skinned people in white uniforms. A resort of some kind. I realized now that I had no identification on me, and that my first goal would be to find the closest American embassy, where I could attempt to get a passport and return home, perhaps to find answers to my strange journey. I found the front desk, asked the staff (who, strangely, spoke only their native language and Spanish, and very little English). I had the odd feeling that I had a room here, though I did not know how that was possible. After stumbling through the inter-language barrier (my Spanish is not much better than my German, and I have no idea what the native language of Myanmar is), the staff finally directed me to find room A-72.

A-72 was off in a dusty, unused corridor of the resort. A small, tiled waiting room fitted with a burgundy leather couch with no windows before a simple wooden door. Set in the door, a frosted glass window. The waiting room was lit only by the light from the intersection behind me, and the faint gleam of light from behind that little frosted window.

I knocked. No answer. I tried the door. It was locked. I sat down on the couch. Soon enough, the door opened, and a giant dark-haired woman, also in the white linen dress uniform of the resort, ducked under the lintel and stepped out, nearly folding herself in half to do so. I noticed that the ceiling was nearly three stories up, so that once in the waiting room she could stand normally. I looked up at her, her face hidden in the darkness up there, but I could tell she smiled.

"Brian Moon?" she asked, in a European accent. French? Spanish, again? I could not tell.

I nodded, almost afraid to speak. She took my hand and led me into the room behind the door. I went in first, and she folded herself in behind me.

She hugged me. The skin of her thigh felt warm against my cheek.

She sat behind a desk, reached into a drawer, and pulled out a manila envelope, pushed it across the desk. I opened it and pulled out a passport, and my iPhone. I knew the iPhone was mine because of the dent on the back, and it was full of my own personal information, the numbers and addresses of my friends and family. I would need this to get back home. Who remembers phone numbers anymore? They were all in my phone.

The passport, though it had my picture, was not mine. But the name looked familiar to me. It was... difficult to read. The letters swam and moved, changed shapes, switched positions on me. I was afflicted with a type of dyslexia that only affected this one document. And yet, the name was familiar. It was...

A bell rang. It was my iPhone.

I woke up. The bell was an incoming text from Tracy.

Man, what a weird dream. • 9:49 AM 1 comments

Maybe next year

Maybe next year I will have worked my miles up to where I could finish a marathon.

Maybe next year I'll have a training partner to share the moment with.

Maybe next year there will be someone special waiting at the end.

Maybe next year, even if I'm not ready to run it, I'll have it together enough to volunteer to help.

Maybe next year it won't be pouring down rain during the Portland Marathon.

Maybe next year.

Good luck to all the participants in today's marathon, though! • 11:20 AM 0 comments

My thoughts on the debate

Sen. Joe Biden appeared to avoid the perception of attacking Gov. Sarah Palin by focusing his attacks on the top of the opposition ticket. He continually pushed the differences between Sen. Barack Obama and himself, and Sen. John McCain.

But Gov. Palin kept trotting out her scripted attacks, to the point where it became obvious that Sen. Biden was being forceful about policy, and gentle on motives. And finally, near the end, he spelled it out with an anecdote about Sen. Jesse Helms, a man whom anyone paying attention to politics would consider a fucking racist son of a bitch (including me - yes, Helms is dead, so what?) but Sen. Biden treated publicly with a sense of collegiality.

Biden kept returning to the "kitchen table" topics that regular Americans are dealing with: health care and taxes. He choked up when mentioning his own personal tragedy - Gov. Palin had no reaction to that brief show of emotion; she just launched into her prepared talking points.

Palin's schtick is easy to see - pivot into the talking points at the earliest possibility. Carri Bugbee pointed out on Twitter during the debate that the only actual policy that Palin pointed out was her stand on gay marriage (no way - duh, she's playing to the gay-hating Republican base), and... and... nothing else.

I'm sure Palin's performance tonight will play well to the base. That's all she seems capable of. Her coded messages of "white flag of surrender!" and "income redistribution" and "maverick, maverick, maverick!" will read loud and clear to the twenty-five-percenters who already love her (to those who don't have the secret decoder ring, those code phrases mean "coward!", "Communist!" and "Bush is NOT A REAL REPUBLICAN", respectively).

C'mon, though. Her connection to the "heartland" of America? When did Alaska become the "heartland"? Oh, neat, she's got a quirky gay friend, just like on a sitcom! And just try to wrap your head around the concept of "a team of mavericks". Can one actually join a "team of mavericks"? Isn't that like joining an anarchists club?

On the merits and the substance, Biden won the debate. On style and class, Biden won the debate.

Gov. Palin's stock responses may win her merits back in Juneau. My prediction is that she didn't win many undecided voters. • 9:46 PM 0 comments

Poor Homer

Voting is hard. • 8:41 AM 0 comments