February 2008 Archive
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February 20, 2008
Test
test - are we still bwoken?Update: I seem to have lost all comments after early January. Sigh. Will try to hunt them down, but the may be gone for good... :-/
3 Comments --
Doesn't wook wike it.
Posted by: Glen on February 20, 2008
Except that older comments seem to have gone poof. D'oh!
Posted by: Medley on February 20, 2008
February 17, 2008
Lyrics of the Day
Two lyrics of the day, today, off the new Joe Jackson album "Rain." The first is from the song "King Pleasure Time":King Pleasure - is on a missionThe second is from the last song on the album "A Place in the Rain":
To take the power from the Pope and politicians
He's come to party - and he shows it
He rules the world but not everybody knows it
[...]
King Pleasure - is gonna get you
He don't give a damn about who wants to let you
They try to nag him - they try to scold him
They build cages but no one can ever hold him
He knows your secret - he's got your number
He'll stop you working but he'll stop you getting dumber
You wanna hold him - you wanna kiss him
You can deny it but it's futile to resist him
[...]
King Pleasure - will live forever
You can't control him though you think you're pretty clever
And after every computer crashes
He'll be laughing as he's dancing on your ashes
In King Pleasure Time
Burn all the papers and burn all the wood
Burn what we can't understand
Run up a flag for the old neighbourhood
Sit back and then take my hand
It's amazing what lovers can do
With just a kiss and a glass of champagne
When the rivers run dry
We can go to our place in the rain
Pay off the piper and pay all the bills
Pay for the getaway car
Blow out the candles and head for the hills
Pray that we make it that far
Run from the poison and run from the flames
Run from the maddening crowd
Laugh at the whispers of who'll take the blame
And sing all the sinners out loud
February 14, 2008
New Boy In My Life
Happy Valentine's Day - I figure this is a good time as any to disclose that there's a new boy in my life, now.Mr. Medley and I discovered last fall that I am building a small human. In January, we were told that he's a he. We expect he'll be moving on out of his current abode and into the house sometime in June.
As you can imagine, I have loads of thoughts and opinions about this experience and transition that I expect I'll write about here from time-to-time.
Update: See also: TheGuy's perspective.
February 12, 2008
The Intellectual Quality is Staggering
Atrios just pointed to a classic of the form -- conservative thought processes on display for all to see!Erick Erickson, editor of the popular conservative megablog RedState, conceded that progressives currently enjoy an advantage over conservatives online-though he attributed it to an asymmetry in free time, since conservatives "have families because we don't abort our kids, and we have jobs because we believe in capitalism."The sheer intellectual depth and brilliance -- it is truly, truly staggering! Are these the great "ideas" that the conservative movement is said to have produced in such immense quantity over liberals and other such terrorist sympathizers? I mean... cuz I could never have come up with ideas quite like those, it is true. My wee brain just doesn't work that way. Poor, poor me! Bereft of "ideas", I am!
<=> | in: Republicans
February 11, 2008
Primary in Old Dominion Tomorrow
The presidential primary for Virginia, Maryland, and D.C. is tomorrow. (Some are calling it the "Potomac primary" and I've also seen the "Chesapeake primary.") I don't think I've ever voted in a primary where the nominee wasn't already "decided." And, just my luck, I'm truly undecided on this one. In a perfect world, I have serious reservations about both Clinton and Obama. In this world, they are both stellar candidates against anything the Republicans have to offer. I could still vote for Edwards, as I believe he's still on the ballot. Or, since I'm so torn, I could just not vote at all. Or, since Virgina has open primaries, I could go vote in the Republican primary - but that's not a particularly palatable option, either. I suspect either I won't go, or I'll decide while staring at the little touch screen.On, and just to wander into the political junkie weeds for a moment: on this whole super-delegate question -- yo, people, the rules are the rules. If anyone thought this was a horrible way for the party to determine its nominee, where was the big protest and screeching earlier? Besides, I truly don't think it'll come to that, but even if it does, I'm with Digby, and, heaven help me, Kevin Drum:
[Drum:] Who decides what the popular will is anyway? Is it number of pledged delegates from the state contests? Total popular vote? Total number of states won? What about uncommitted delegates from primary states? Or caucus states, in which there's no popular vote to consult and delegates are selected in a decidedly nondemocratic fashion to begin with? And what about all the independent and crossover voters? Personally, I'd just as soon they didn't have a say in selecting the nominee of my party at all, but the rules say otherwise. If I'm a superdelegate, do I count their votes, or do I pore over exit polls to try to tease out how Democratic Party voters voted? And how do I take into account the obviously disproportionate influence of Iowa and New Hampshire, two tiny states that have far more power than any truly democratic process would ever give them?This is related to another thing I find pretty puzzling -- all the anxiousness over the fact that the primary selection process is taking awhile and is actually competitive for more than 2 states' worth of voting. Why is this a bad thing? I know the media will do their usual "Dems in disarray" bullshit, but I truly fail to see the problem. I wish most primaries worked like this--remained competitive, that is--and I'm fairly amused at the fact that after a bunch of states jockeyed to move their primaries as early as possible, this thing might play out all the way into April (at least on the Dem side). It's not disarray, it's, as I overheard someone on the elevator at work say today, an overabundance of riches. Two strong candidates, an engaged and participating Democratic electorate--where's the bad, again? By the way, one of my sources in Maine says that my hometown's Democratic caucus turnout was huge this year - in 2004 something like a dozen people showed up; this time it was almost 200.
[... back to Digby:] I am all for insisting that the decision be based upon the will of the people. But the system is so weird that I don't think anyone can tell what that really will be if the party remains polarized.
So while I am certainly sympathetic to the notion that the elite fat cats shouldn't decide for us, I think somebody needs to set forth some detailed criteria about how they should go about determining a more democratic way to decide this thing if there is a tie.
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testing
Posted by: med on February 20, 2008