Monday, February 28, 2005
Silly Observation
I keep pointing out that Sadie will be five months old on February 29th.
Doh!
Spring now, please.
Your Daily Sadie
Carnival of the Capitalists
The February 28 edition of Carnival of the Capitalists is up at Coyote Blog.
Next week CotC will be at Blogcritics.org. Send entries to cotcmail -at- gmail -dot- com, or use the Gongol.com submission form, or use the new universal carnival submission form, which covers CotC, as well as some you might never have heard of. It’s worth knowing about, hosted by Conservative Cat.
I’m not sure I would call CotC a “spinoff” of Carnival of the Vanities, but it did serve as part of the inspiration for the idea and an almost tongue in cheek source of the name.
As always, the list of future hosts can be found at the Carnival of the Capitalists page, and there is also a page for past locations.
Sunday, February 27, 2005
Quiet Today
Sorry for the lack of posts.
It’s something of a “lazy day” atmosphere around these parts to begin with, and I am not feeling that inspired. Something yesterday disagreed with Deb’s stomach. My theory is it was the salad, and it hit her harder than me, though it hit me slightly too. Or perhaps it was the dressing. She had catalina. I had ranch. My mother and grandmother are notorious for having dressing that is out of date, sometimes as much as a year and more, so I checked the date on the ranch before I used it. But more likely it was the salad itself.
Lazy or not, I am trying to do some work on a program we have in beta. I need to add a handler for PDF files to it. I didn’t write the original, so it makes things interesting. Speaking of making things interesting, Sadie is making it so even to compose this post, nevermind to examine the workings of a program and figure out what to do with it. All for free. Adding a major new feature to a beta program being tested for me by a client that is making demands as if they were financing its development and making any weighing of working on a long-term, longshot versus work that pays money now lean undeniably in their favor.
We had a fantastic visit with my brother and his kids and my mother and grandmother yesterday. There will probably be pictures at some point, either worked into the dailies, as their own post(s), or both. The comedy team of Michelle and Billy had fun dissing their older sister, who was too good to join the others. Sounds like she has oldest child syndrome in spades, combined with being well into her teens, combined with having learned early how to work the system (her mother, that is). Still, I was impressed with the scope and vociferousness of their gripes. At times they sounded like they belonged on Saturday Night Live. Sadie latched right onto Michelle, as she does with some people.
Anyway, back to work or something…
Your Daily Sadie
Saturday, February 26, 2005
Today
My brother is here from Ohio, on one of his few times a year visits with his kids. Or the ones who will actually go see him, since the oldest is being, well, a 16 year old (okay, 15, but she’ll be 16 in early June), not to mention being the one with the most to gain by pleasing psycho mom by dissing dad. Today we’ll be heading over to my grandmother’s, where my brother and the four kids, one of whom I last saw four or five years ago, will be late this afternoon.
Neither my brother nor any of his kids have met Sadie in person yet, and the same niece I haven’t seen in so long hasn’t met Deb. That’s the bigger reason to be sure to meet up with them. That’ll leave only five of her sixteen first cousins unmet, and three of them are relatively easy; just have to make a point of it.
Anyway, due to all this, my father is down from Vermont, so we were planning to have him drive the van and look at it to see what he thinks might be wrong. He called and will drop by about 1:00. It’ll be interesting to see what he thinks.
In other words, we’ll be indisposed for a good chunk of the day, so there will be a posting void then. Aw, darn.
Speaking of being indisposed, who else gets annoyed by phone stalkers? Ring goes the cell. Beep goes the cell with a message. Ring goes the home phone. After all, you should always call the phone that will cost the callee 30 cents a minute to talk to you on, and leave a message that will cost the calle a buck, then call the free phone and leave a message on the free answering machine. Then you should make sure to call again at the edge of what was formerly too late, which is now firmly too late with the baby’s bedtime having moved, to her great stay awake and cry until the previous bedtime dismay. All just to chat, and to point out something mildly embarrassing that I already knew. And then harp on the mildly embarrassing thing until I am pissed off. But I digress.
What A Relief!
I forgot to buy a Mega Millions ticket for last night’s drawing. Luckily nobody won. More for us to win Tuesday.
State of Fear
I finished State of Fear, which I enjoyed tremendously. It’s not like it’s the world’s greatest literature, but it’s an excellent idea for a story, vivid, and says things that needed to be said.
In general, at some times more than others, you can just see it unfolding before you on the big screen. It reads like a movie. To me, anyway. Which is not necessarily a bad thing or a good thing; it just is what it is, and I don’t usually notice that in a book. I’d go see the movie, but I can’t imagine anyone making it.
I’m surprised there was that much uproar over it. The guy is more of an environmentalist than I am. Ultimately he is railing against bad science that is overly influenced by its funding sources, institutions that grow old, stodgy, fixed in their views, and come to exist more to perpetuate themselves than anything, at our tendency toward hubris when we don’t really know diddly, and against the use of fear to control and influence the population.
After finishing it, I find claims that he is anti-science to be all the more laughable. That is people caricaturing themselves and helping to make his points for him.
There weren’t as many footnotes as the buzz had led me to expect. Nor was there was much factual lecture stuff as knowing about the footnotes might have made me fear.
I don’t think I am giving too much away to say that I tremendously enjoyed Ted Bradley’s fate.
A major point one character (our favorite) made, even if it is not a viewpoint Crichton himself is fully behind, was a rather libertarian perspective. Governments control population through keeping them in a state of fear. It was the Cold War for decades. This is in keeping with the notion that there are so many laws and regulations that nobody can fail to break some of them, and it is the guilt and fear of being in violation and being potentially punishable that helps keep the populace firmly in control. Fear leads to firmer power.
Anyway, it’s an excellent read I highly recommend.
Your Daily Sadie
Friday, February 25, 2005
Rob Sounds Like Rob
I downloaded this podcast and listened to the discussion with Rob. It’s a huge download if you’re not on broadband, but some of you might find it interesting if you are.
Afterward I told Deb, “Rob sounds like Rob!”
Which is to say he sounds about as I would have expected. She knew exactly what I meant by the above nonsense statement, naturally.
Blogiversary Retrospective: The First Two Weeks
So right, I was going to do to retrospectiving for my second blogiversary. Got so caught up in other things I haven’t gotten around to it yet.
For instance, my first expression of support for Condi as President was on March 1, 2003, during my first week of blogging. I still feel the same way, if not more so.
I also covered some of the standard this or that gal debate; Ginger or Mary Ann, Lana or Chloe, Buffy or Willow, Rory or Lorelei, and, in a followup, Betty or Veronica, which I completely forgot. This was before Lois came along to make the Smallville choice a threesome.
That first week I took a lot of goofy quizzes, starting a long-term trend that only diminished when I found Quizzilla to be a source of malware.
Speaking of tech stuff, I wasted no time doing some tech blogging, including getting in “the zone” for programming and other types of work, and modem troubleshooting, which is still a big favorite. Not. These days I do less tech blogging here and most of it elsewhere. Which reminds me I need to write about XP SP2 and htmlarq.ocx from Office 97.
There was lots of good stuff the second week, but of special interest to Deb might be the boyfriend quiz. The result:
Here I go again, taking those silly online quizes. I took “what kind of boyfriend are you” and got:
You’re Prince Charming, A Knight In Shining Armor,
Etc… You are sensitive, caring,
compassionate, chivalrous, affectionate, &
would be a lucky catch for any girl.
Congratulations on being one of the few good
guys out there! Now maybe you could give all
your friends lessons?
Okay, maybe more later. What’d like to do is find some of my Best Posts Ever, but damn, that’s a lot of work.
Teleflip
This sounds like a nifty service. I’m thinking perhaps I’ll test it on my brother, who is in the area today, and whose number but not e-mail address I have for his cell. Plus it sounds fun.
Will The Supremes And Bad Lawyering Perpetrate A Constitutional Travesty?
The Kelo attorney has absolutely no chance as long as even he claims Berman was a correct ruling. It was a different court. It was a different time.
If one Court could never bring itself to find that a previous Court had its head up its ass - segregation anyone? - we’d be in big trouble.
Then again, we’re in big trouble anyway. The Court is acting as The Government in this case, naturally siding with The Government. They just don’t get it.
The attorney starts out okay:
Scott G. Bullock represents the homeowners, and his first words to the court strike terror in the heart of anyone who looks into their backyard and sees the ghostly outline of the Target housewares section looming over the trees: “Every home, church, and corner store would produce more tax revenue if it was turned into a shopping mall,” he says. There can be no limit to what the state can condemn if the only requirement is that the proposed project improve the tax base.
Exactly. They are effectively going to allow any taking for any reason at any time from anyone. Oh, it may sound like there has to be a good reason, but we all know how these things go. And once this Court decides the 5th Amendment is void in that respect, how many decades before anyone has the gumption to revisit it before a new nine?
Then a scary exchange that makes one wonder why these people are Justices:
Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg points out that the city is depressed; what’s wrong with efforts to “build it up and get more jobs?” Bullock says the condemned land in Berman was “blighted,” but this land is merely depressed. O’Connor, never one to tip her hand too early at argument, asks Bullock “What standard should we use to second-guess the legislature?” Bullock insists that once condemned land is passed off to private developers, it’s no longer going to “public use.” Justice Anthony Kennedy interrupts to observe that “everybody knew private developers were the beneficiaries” when slums were condemned in Berman.
Berman was wrong. There is no government right to take property for that reason. It doesn’t exist. A previous Court having said it does only hands the state a license to bring out the guns and violate the Constitution with impunity. It’s just one more “anybody who can read and doesn’t believe a vested interest in state power give a wink and a nod to creeping (soon to be galloping, at this rate) statism could come up with the correct ruling” decision.
Bullock, by supporting the erroneous Berman decision, undermines his own argument. What is “blighted”? Who decides? He has rendered the argument against private developers being the beneficiaries moot by supporting the Berman decision and treating Kelo as different.
Ginsburg’s question may be diabolical advocacy, but otherwise it makes her sound like any idiot off the street who will say “there otta be a law” in response to anything that sounds good to them, regardless of the larger consequences or Constitutional issues.
O’Connor is worried about second-guessing the legislature? Oh please. That’s the job of the Court. If other branches or levels of government step on the Constitution, stopping it is what the Court is there to do. If they aren’t violating anything, fine, of course you don’t second-guess anyone.
It’s a fascinating read, but it’s true that the outcome does not sound promising. It will become entirely a matter of sufficient localized political pressure on a case by case basis to prevent eminent domain abuses.
Or perhaps a new Amendment that is more specific. Apaprently the founders were too vague to prevent a sick statist impulse from taking hold. If you thought the Second Amendment was the only one suffering from lack of reading comprehension, the popular impulse to exert control on the each other, and educational institutions designed to keep people from realizing what’s being lost as the grip tightens, you were mistaken.
Kelo-related posts:
Will The Supremes And Bad Lawyering Perpetrate A Constitutional Travesty?
United States Constitution, 1788 - 2005: Promise Unkept
Bad Precedent
Additional Kelo Fallout Thoughts
Will the Money Be Followed?
Kelo and Raich: The Root of the Supreme Court Problem?
Olek V. New London Case
Kelo and "Fair" Value
Boycotting Can Be Hard
Becker and Posner on Kelo and Eminent Domain
Kelo, IOLTA and Drugs - Oh My
Sama on Kelo, Disney, and Boston's West End Tragedy
Was Kelo The Lost Battle That Won The War?
You Thought The Kelo Outcome Couldn't Be Worse?
Freakin’ Meathead
I thought that was what the son of a bitch was up to with his sudden interest a few years back in using cigarette taxes for early childhood education:
California voters are in favor of another actor to face actor-turned-governor Arnold Schwarzenegger in the 2006 election, according to a new statewide poll.
Actor-director Rob Reiner leads a Democratic field that also includes Attorney General Bill Lockyer, state Treasurer Phil Angelides and Controller Steve Westly, the Field Poll said Friday.
Oh, and just in case you were wondering how liberal Mr. Reiner is, he endorsed Howard Dean in the last presidential race.
Apologies for being too lazy to find that first story somewhere that doesn’t have registration, but you can do what I did and go to bugmenot.com. (Or read it in SFGate here with a fun bit of spin. Yeah, I changed my mind and found it elsewhere, but I’m too lazy to rework the post.) And as long as we’re in the Fresno area, Charles has more Central Valley news. You know, I miss the place sometimes anyway.
Smoking and the Cult of Health
Smoking or not smoking isn’t the issue. It never really was, since as every non-smoking New Yorker knows, he inhales the equivalent of two packs a day just by breathing. What concerns me is the picture of who we perceive ourselves to be: self-involved children pretending that we can escape death by playing God the Doctor and Personal Trainer.
He’s got more on smoking and the cult of health; I recommend reading the thing. I think this is complicated by a growing embrace of the totalitarian impulse...we are no longer content to live our lives as we see fit, but feel compelled to force everyone into our version of the ideal life. I suspect that this has as much to do with the failure to forcefully reject socialism as anything. We’ve always had busybodies, but it does seem like they’re legislating a bit more lately, with the excuse of misuse of public monies as an impetus.
But I’m wandering far afield from the sweet lament offered up by Mr. Blecher for a time I was lucky enough to see before it ended. It isn’t purely an ode to the days of smoke-filled bars...it is, I think, a remembrance of a culture that lived more much more in the present rather than being obessed to the point of sickness with the length of its future.
Via Jaboobie, who misses smoking sometimes, too.
History Carnival
If you’re tired of looking at recipes and would like something meatier, there’s a new History Carnival up today. It’s hosted by a blog named Detrimental Postulation. Don’t you love those funky blog names made up of a couple of long words that might not normally be seen together?
Carnival of the Recipes Is Up
Rocket Jones has done a stellar job of hosting this week’s Carnival of the Recipes, propelling it to new heights.
We’re in it with Deb’s spicy baked mac and cheese, which is definitely not my father’s baked mac and cheese (that is, noodles, milk, cheese - the sharper the better, period).
Your Daily Sadie
Another Blogiversary Today
This was a truly auspicious day for me to have started blogging two years ago, as discussed in the previous post. Susanna Cornett shares my blogiversary, but started a year ahead of me. Congratulations!
I think it says something about blogging that I see it’s her third, and based on my perception, I’d have thought she was one of those four of fivers, around relatively forever. You become an “old-timer” quickly in this particular addiction.
Noticed via Dean.
Once Upon A Time…
It was February 25, 2003, at 12:57 AM, and I wrote:
This is a lame, largely content-free first post for the sake of testing. I am known as verbose by some, but it’s late and I am at a loss for something clever to say.
For now this blog has no particular theme; just whatever I feel like musing or commenting upon. Later it may become clear whether I can be called a thinker, a linker, or an unclassified mongrel.
Which when I ported it to the “new” blog I titled:
First Post Ever
I made one other post that first day, about the nightclub fire.
On my second day of posting, I partly caught on to the idea of titles being a Good Thing, and was soon consistent about it.
Two years.
I look back and say “it’s only been two years?” It seems like I have been doing this forever. And I mean that in a good way. I can’t imagine stopping. I can barely imagine taking a hiatus.
Blogging gave me a social outlet, allowed me to meet great people, brought me a wife when I has given up on so much as ever having a date again, brought me an amazing baby when I’d finally accepted that I’d be a genetic dead end, and gave modernized wings to my writing impulse. Even if I should be applying it in more lucrative ways, and have slacked since my life changed so dramatically because of blogging.
I’ll try to post more memories, impressions, and perhaps past post highlights from two years of blogging during the day. What a ride it’s been.
The ride started here and continued here, for those unfamiliar with my history before joining Deb in marital blog here.
Thursday, February 24, 2005
CSPI Smackdown
Nathan exposes the real health hazard posed by the Center for Science in the Public Interest.
Not as yuck. Yay!
My Little Gourmet
We bought a case of Beechnut Stage 1 food out at BJs last weekend, and over the last two days have discovered a very cool thing: Sadie prefers them over Gerber. Never would have occurred to me that there might be that much difference between baby foods, but tasting them ourselves we’d have to agree. Jay reports that the sweet potato tastes more like real sweet potato, and I thought the same about the banana (that it tastes more like real banana, that is...). Nothing Beechnut has been anything but enthusiastically wolfed down, with the exception of rice cereal, and who can blame her? I mean, it’s not like there’s such a thing as good rice cereal. Heh.
Holy crap! I’ve been channeling Michael Demmons!
That is not at all a bad thing, of course. 
Seriously, he said more plainly what I was trying to say earlier about killing Social Security.
Via The Queen of all Evil, who isn’t so sure.
Hey, it’s another source of greehouse gasses!
I knew McCain’s name would come up as soon I saw that his buddy Chucky Hagel was blowing enough hot air to warm the globe himself.
To wit:
Sens. John McCain, R-Ariz., and Joseph Lieberman, D-Conn., have proposed legislation mandating carbon dioxide reductions. They also would cap overall emissions but let countries trade permits, like credits, with less-polluting countries.
Because a back-door implementation of Kyoto will save the world. Not.
(If you aren’t reading JunkScience.com, you’re missing out.)
The Jedi’s Spicy Baked Mac and Cheese
This is a recipe I adapted from somewhere (where is lost in the mists of time, I’m afraid) and am thinking it’s time to make again soon. If needed, cut the spices even further or re-spice to your taste. This makes a firm, casserole-y sort of dish, rather than a creamy mac. I tend to use it as a main dish, accompanied by a couple of veggies.
1/2 pound macaroni or small noodle of your choice
1 tablespoon butter
1 egg
1/4 tsp dry mustard
1/4 tsp black pepper
1/4 tsp cayenne pepper
2 cups grated cheddar cheese
1/2 cup milk
Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Boil macaroni until tender; drain. In mixing bowl, dissolve spices in 1 tbsp of hot water. Add egg and milk and beat well, then add cheese and butter and mix. Combine egg/cheese mixture and macaroni. Pour into greased baking dish. Bake in 350 degree oven for approximately 30 minutes, or until cheese is melted and the top is golden brown.
Galen Patient Informatics
Galen is getting ready to launch what looks like a fantastic new product that makes it easy to keep all of your medical information together. I really could have used something like this for my pregnancy, which, being “high risk” involved seeing a group of four midwives, an OB (and not the one who sectioned me...I’d never met him before), a perinatologist, my primary care doctor, and a nurse...sometimes all in the same week. Most of them wanted to know what the others said and what my last blood pressure elsewhere was, and by the end I was having a heck of a time keeping it all straight. And compared to what someone with truly complex problems goes through, that was nothing. Which I suppose is an anecdotal way of saying that I figure there’s a huge market for this sort of thing, and I hope that it does as well as it seems to me it ought.
Slaves to the taxman
Phelps has an interesting answer to La Shawn Barber’s question.
By the way, I tend to be a fan of abolishing Social Security, myself. Not right this minute (breathe, folks, breathe), but people my age certainly have time to plan sufficiently for our own upkeep, even if we’re stuck paying for everyone who is over, say, 45 today. I’d happily pay it and get nothing back if it would keep my children out of the economic black hole that will otherwise suck their paychecks out of their hands and make it even harder for them than it is for us. And even better that they wouldn’t have to rent themselves from the state…
Note to self
Things I want to blog about that I need to leave until later so I can do what I have to do before it snows:
State of Fear (Finished it.)
Various television
Gator
Probably several other things I can’t recall offhand
Stay tuned....