A Partially Examined Life

2003-03-10T19:58:00.000-06:00

WE HAVE MOVED.

http://www.kimmitt.org

Moved, I tell you.

Moved.

2003-03-05T15:54:00.000-06:00

The Smoking Gun has some useful documents relating to the case of Stephen Downs, whom some of you may have heard got arrested for wearing a "Give Peace a Chance" t-shirt. Of course, things were a smidge more complicated than a security guard just randomly accosting a random leftie . . . but go ahead and draw your own conclusions.

A tolerance for passable handwriting will be required.

In other news, I'm going to a Howard Dean thingy tonight. I want him to win the primary so bad.

See you around.

2003-03-03T01:57:00.000-06:00

This is/was advertised for above my blog. I checked out the site, and it's not what you'd think. Ignore the juxtaposition of the ad.

2003-03-03T01:53:00.000-06:00

Okay, some things which may be relevant to your attention:

This is the letter of resignation submitted by John Brady Kiesling, who is apparently a 20-year veteran at State. I dunno, maybe it's because I was thinking about working there someday, but it bothers me that people feel obliged to do this.

A fellow calling himself the South Knox Bubba believes that he has located at least one of President Bush's tells. You are invited to draw your own conclusions.

Amusingly, one of the jurors in a recent case in Manhattan was forced to put down, under previous occupations, "President of the United States." He also noted that his experience with the "O.I.C." [Office of the Independent Counsel] would not keep him from being fair and impartial.

I'd care about the death of Phil Donahue's show on MSNBC, but who watches TV? Besides white supremicists, of course.

On a more personal note, my sister Theresa just turned thirteen, which brings the count of people whom I named who are teenagers to, um, one. Also, I am the best goddamn GM this world has ever seen (other than maybe Eric Wujcik). More on that later.

See you around.

2003-02-27T15:10:00.000-06:00

I'd heard about this, and it's pretty decent, but nothing to write home about.

I'm so punny.

2003-02-25T12:39:00.000-06:00

What a bizarre outright lie. The Bush Administration claimed back on the 18th that an economic group that puts out a monthly publication called Blue Chip Economic Forecast had endorsed the President's tax cut plan by stating that it would increase economic growth. Instead, the publication forecast 3.3 percent growth on this year (man, they're optimistic) independently of whether or not the President's plan went through (since, of course, it wouldn't have a significant effect for at least a couple of years).

I bet Fox News doesn't give this one much airtime.

2003-02-21T18:15:00.000-06:00

On a more entertaining note, I've been playing a couple of games lately.

First, Neverwinter Nights. God, this is good shit. It's pseudo-real-time play and combat, with the D&D 3rd Edition D20 system underlying the engine. And there's so much love in the game. The plot is affecting and occasionally startling; the side quests are (by and large) nearly as important as the real plot (and you can always rationalize them as "gathering intelligence" anyway), and it's just so freaking good to make a character and play for a while. Even the dialogue and voice acting are quite excellent. I'm gonna have to get together with some folks and do some multiplayer at some point. Such good squishy.

Tamora got me Grand Theft Auto: Vice City for Valentine's Day. It's a good game, but it's not the end-all and be-all. Some of the missions are kind of trick-oriented, the weirdness surrounding how easy it is to get arrested or die and come back, and various other little things bring it down from "oh my God" to "okay, this is good stuff." I'm having a great time, don't get me wrong -- and I got six stars at one point. So, good game.

Finally, we're using Klooge to play online D&D. It's basically a map generator that rolls a pile of dice for you when asked nicely. I'm getting used to the interface, and as time passes, coming to really enjoy it. It's really raw, though, and a smidge overpriced if you're not quite as into tabletop gaming as I am.

That's about it for now. Take care.

2003-02-21T18:04:00.000-06:00

Eek! He's right! Now what am I going to talk about?

In other news, Howard Dean busted out some serious criticism of Dubya, and it was pretty much right on target. If we're allowed to write history books, President Bush will go down in history as a man who simply was not up to the times he faced.

We, of course, will go down in history as the most stupid and self-absorbed American public in a long history of stupid and self-absorbed American publics. But that will come after the Social Security and Medicare Meltdowns. Ah, who knows? Maybe we'll elect Dean and rescue ourselves.

I went ahead and joined the Virtual March on Washington. You probably should, too. Folks who've read the archives probably know that I really do want to fight a war with Iraq, but I don't trust this Administration to do so. I'm told that I should never attribute to malice what incompetence will explain, but I'm fairly sure that both are in great supply at 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue these days.

My health continues to be marginal but not awful, my classes are absorbing and extremely time consuming, which is why I haven't been updating much, and I am growing slowly more and more bitter and disillusioned about my native land.

Here is the generally readable Arianna Huffington discussing yet more reasons why Dick Cheney is pretty much just evil. In his blog, Tom Tomorrow unearths a gem regarding the fact that the Bushies forgot to put any money in the 2004 budget for rebuilding Afghanistan. And we still don't know what the hell happened with the Columbia.

Hell with it; I'm moving to Hawai'i and studying math. Oh, wait.

2003-02-05T17:20:00.000-06:00

After months of prodding, the Bush Administration has finally decided to make a case for the war it has been planning to fight since before the 2000 election.

The case consists of two parts: 1) Saddam has maintained a chemical arsenal and is seeking a nuclear arsenal in contravention of UN treaty and mandate. 2) We therefore must invade Iraq. (It is fairly clear that discussions of Saddam's butchery are ad-hoc additions; we make no bones regarding, say, the cruelty of the Russians in Chechn'ya or the repressive Central Asian states to whom we've decide to ally.)

The first part of the case, as previously mentioned, appears to be fairly tightly nailed down. We have good intelligence (gathered, one might add, only because the weapons inspectors who were let in forced the Iraqis to shuffle things around, which is our main clue) that Iraq is in contravention.

The second part of the case is not so clear. Before we rush off to war, let us ask the simple question: Are US interests -- both political and moral -- served by an invasion and occupation of Iraq? The US does have limited assets; are we better off expending them in a war with Iraq or more directly against Al-Queda? Will our ally Israel suffer retaliation from Iraqi missiles? Finally, a war will cost both money and lives; has the Bush Administration calculated the economic and personal cost which this war will bring?

These questions have not only not been answered, they have been deliberately obfuscated.

If we look at Afghanistan, we can see that the Bush Administration is not interested in or committed to the kind of heavy occupation and rebuilding which would keep Iraq from falling into chaos and poverty, but the Administration insists that a democratic Iraq will be the inevitable result of US intervention.

Taliban camps are restarting along the Afghanistan-Pakistan border, and the Department of Homeland Security continues to warn us that another terrorist attack is imminent. Links between Al-Queda and Iraq are tenuous at best, so this is not a false dichotomy.

We have simply failed to discuss the possibility of Iraq managing to land a chlorine gas shell in Tel Aviv or some other terrorist result; we know that Israeli retaliation will ignite a firestorm of protest. Will invading Iraq cost us our alliances with Egypt and Pakistan due to some collateral regime changes?

Finally, the budget which President Bush has submitted to Congress deliberately omits a discussion of the costs of war in order to make the deficit look smaller than it will be, and Administration estimates of possible US casualties in the war look impossibly rosy.

The President has begun to make a case for war against Iraq. But he must be more truthful and nuanced in his arguments than he has been so far to finish that case -- and neither honesty nor nuance have so far been demonstrated to be characteristics of the Bush Administration.

2003-02-05T14:18:00.000-06:00

NASA continues its investigation.

Okay, this is sad and frustrating. To sum up: there are more children receiving free school lunches than are physically eligible, according to Census data. Part of the President's will require schools to verify the eligibility of students before serving them free lunches.

Okay, come on. First, this is a flat-out unfunded mandate. School districts are going to have to cope with the increased administrative load -- and that load may well be a significant percentage of the cost of the erroneous or fraudulent lunches. Second, we're talking about school lunches here! Just go ahead and feed these children, for the love of Mike. Finally, and this is most important, the verification requirements are onerous enough that a lot of eligible people may simply decline to participate in the program. President Bush has decided to balance the budget on the strong backs of the poor and local school districts.

There are other, possibly reasonable, measures -- a little more money to check up on fraudulent EITC claims, and playing about with Federal rental assistance programs. But the President's strong anti-school-lunch stand should tell you all you need to know about this Administration's priorities.

2003-02-01T22:13:00.000-06:00

It really hasn't hit me yet.

Rick Husband.
Michael Anderson.
David Brown.
Kalpana Chawla.
Laurel Clark.
William McCool.
Ilan Ramon.

These are names I would never have known, probably. I don't feel bad about that, really -- there are lots of dedicated, thoroughly competent people who are doing work that I care about and believe in that I don't know. It happens. And they are hardly the only seven people to die today; six skiiers died in an avalanche in British Columbia, Ethiopia is in the middle of a horrific drought, and hey, there was a landslide in Indonesia. People die every day.

This matters more, though, somehow. They did this incredibly difficult, dangerous thing. They did it because it was to be done, and they did it to make all of our lives -- just a little bit -- better. In some ways, they were the best of us, and they rode the best of our machines. I think that is why this matters more than other losses; because this loss is to the best part of ourselves.

A lot of people are talking about the future of the space program, or what happens next. I haven't yet gotten beyond what just happened now. Maybe once we find out what exactly happened and why I'll be able to look forward. Right now, I can't see much of anything in any direction.

2003-01-30T17:24:00.000-06:00

This, on the other hand, is unadulteratedly tasty.

2003-01-30T17:17:00.000-06:00

Here is some analysis on the State of the Union. I can only partially recommend it; I like the links to various items that refute Bush's consistently provably false claims, but there's a lot of US-hating in this document that I just don't agree with.

In other news, I'm grumpy as hell.

See you around.

2003-01-22T15:28:00.000-06:00

I LIVE!

Okay, I've been really really bad. There's just been a lot going on. To borrow from Inigo Montoya: "Let me explain. No, there is too much; let me sum up."

1) I've been diagnosed with a spastic colon. We are working on various treatments and other suchlike.

2) Christmas was amazing. We hit the five separate parties we wanted to hit, then had a lovely New Year, then spent time seeing our remaining friends and family near the Bolingbrook area. Also, we drove from San Francisco to Chicago in 3 days, but that'll be a separate, later post.

3) PRAISE TO JARED WADSWORTH FOR RAISE AND RESQ! Jared's timely Xmas present of a video card has opened the joys of Time of Defiance and Neverwinter Nights. The first one was a bust (I don't have that kind of time and money), but NWN is incredibly addicting. I'm starting, finally, to chafe a little at the linear nature of the plot, but that's a good thing, since it means I'll be itching to really game.

4) President Bush has been busy too; he's working on unilaterally invading Iraq, a mind-bogglingly stupid and regressive tax cut, and various other schemes to make life a little poorer, sadder, and shorter in this nation.

5) I am now safely ensconced in my second semester at the University of Hawai'i Economics Ph.D program. I'm starting to get the hang of this, I think.

See you around.

(PS: The Bushies finally dropped their plan to extraconstitutionally depose Hugo Chavez. Which is good. But I haven't talked about the anti-woman or anti-African-American policies . . . so much bad government, so little time.

2002-12-17T18:20:00.000-06:00

Health update:

I had an upper endoscopy and a CT scan of my abdomen done, and nothing abnormal was found. I'm so frustrated I could just eat someone else's hat (I like mine too much).

In other news, I am Really Fucking Good at Civilization III Play The World. Bring it.

2002-12-16T12:29:00.000-06:00

The thing which interests me about this story is that the US has been pushing (again) for the extraconstitutional removal of a democratically elected leader. How miserably contemptuous of the democratic process is the Bush Administration? Wait, don't answer that.

2002-12-13T16:51:00.001-06:00

Oh, and thanks to Al Gore for giving the Lott quote legs.

2002-12-13T16:51:00.000-06:00

Well, I'll be a monkey's uncle. Kissinger actually stepped down rather than drag out the process of releasing his client list until the Republicans take over the Senate. I'd still love to have been a fly on the wall in the room where it was decided that he'd be a good choice to run the commission in the first place.

As we look at Snow's record, it becomes clear that he's a far better fit for Bush's administration than O'Neill. Snow is polished, smooth, and a goddamn thief. Much more compatible than the vaguely honest (but still not terribly competent) O'Neill.

2002-12-09T23:07:00.000-06:00

Joe Conason, who I've come to appreciate over the past few months, is kind of agog that the Dems aren't taking Lott to task for this remark at Strom Thurmond's birthday party.

My response was, "whatever." Lott is a bigot elected by a bunch of bigots, supported by people who are comfortable with bigotry. This is a surprise? If you don't want to be a part of a party which is run by bigots, don't be part of the Republican Party. Sure, racial bigotry's more or less faded into the background (Bush is many things, but he's not anti-black, just anti-poor), but there's all kinds of other bigotry (anti-Muslim, anti-gay, anti-Hispanic) which is part and parcel of Republican policies and rhetoric. Yeah, the Dems used to have a bunch of these guys, but they all bolted in '94, when it became clear that we weren't going to give them a lot of policy attention. So -- if you are a Republican, you are a member of the Party that all the racists went over to because the Democrats didn't match their views.

To recap: Lott is in favor of segregation. He is now Majority Leader of the Senate. Apparently, a number of Americans agree with him. If you don't agree with him, don't vote for the Party that put him into a leadership position.

In other news, we appear to have a nominated replacement for Secretary Paul O'Neill. John Snow seems to be better than O'Neill on so many levels that one wonders why he wasn't the first choice. My theory is simply that he wasn't a close personal friend of the President's.

2002-12-06T18:26:00.000-06:00

Well, Treasury Secretary Paul O'Neill and Lawrence Lindsey, the White House's chief economic advisor, resigned today, at the behest of the White house.

There do not seem to be any replacements in the wings. I'm not sure if this is good news, bad news, awful news, or just bizarre. It looks like half of the Washington economic management institutions are simply lacking their highest officers. Bizarre.

In other news, I have an appointment with a GI guy on Monday. Finally.

2002-12-05T16:44:00.000-06:00

So, I've been sick lately. I've been getting these neck spasms that trigger migraines, and my gut is killing me. I had an Upper GI done (unpleasant), and it found evidence of duodenitis (those playing at home may remember that I had an ulcer in my duodenum at one time).

Frustratingly, the GI doctors who work for Kaiser Permanente are so busy that they simply do not see people who are not bleeding internally. I may, however, qualify for that, so we'll see what (sigh) turns up.

In the meantime, I'm missing classes and alienating professors. Not to mention enduring occasional excruciating pain. So. Frustrating.

See you around.

2002-12-05T16:42:00.000-06:00

Conversation I had in the elevator this morning:

(Elevator door opens. I enter, wearing sunglasses and a bicycle helmet.)

Four year old boy in elevator: Are you going on a bike ride?

Me (perfectly seriously): Yes.

Boy (points to visor on helmet): What's that for?

Me: To keep the sun out of my eyes.

Boy: But you're wearing glasses!

Me: There's a lot of sun.

Boy: Do they ever fall off?

(Mom sniggers, then breaks into laughter at my response.)

Me: That happened to me once, so I only buy cheap sunglasses, so I don't miss them.

(Elevator opens, I head off to class.

2002-11-27T19:17:00.000-06:00

President Bush has announced that Henry Kissinger will chair the independent inquiry into the various failures leading up to September 11th. This is his basic contempt for the American people allows him to appoint one of the most famous liars and coverup men in American history.

Since we're going to roll over and take it, I think that Bush's opinion is essentially accurate.

2002-11-24T12:22:00.000-06:00

A decent summary of some of the indefinite detentions. I want to make this clear: the Bush Administration is comfortable with abducting you and holding you, an American citizen, indefinitely -- without charging you or releasing your name to the public.

The War on Terror -- Like the War on (Some) Drugs, but even scarier.

2002-11-22T19:27:00.000-06:00

Rush Limbaugh has been off my radar for a while, but his recent vituperous attack on Senator Daschle has brought him again to my attention. The essence of his argument is that anyone who questions the Administration's policies or their results (or lack thereof) is attempting to undermine the War on Terrorism.

Tamora and I were talking last night about how bad things had gotten and how bad they were getting -- referring, in particular, to the recent secret appellate court decision regarding the USA PATRIOT act. I complained that the checks and balances which were built into the system weren't functioning.

Her response, which was thoroughly valid, was that they were -- the checks and balances are designed to require 20 years for major shifts to occur. Those 20 years have passed -- the SCOTUS (especially Rehnquist) is violently partisan, which explains the recent ruling (Rehnquist appointed all three of the "appellate" judges). The American public voted to put Bush into office (well, kinda), then rewarded his miserable first two years with an increased majority in the House and control of the Senate. Like the Athenians during the Peloponnesian War, the US is desperate -- crying -- screaming -- demanding at the top of its lungs. WE WANT BAD GOVERNMENT! We want people dragged out of their houses without due process! We demand environmental degradation! We require the assassination of American citizens! We will not be satisfied until the Federal budget deficit is explosively increased!

This country is going to shit, and it's because we want it to.

And now it's too late; dissent is unpatriotic and the state has begun compiling lists. I don't know what to say or do.

2002-11-21T16:48:00.000-06:00

I'd been wondering about this off and on recently. I still remember how far my jaw dropped when Greenspan endorsed Bush's tax cuts in the first place; he knew as well as I that the growth rates projected were essentially fantasy.

I cannot understand the Republican committment to outright bad government. From exploding deficits to poor regulation of financial markets to pork-laden antiterrorist bills, this Adminstration (and its allies in Congress) are, it seems, deeply committed not only to implementing bad policy -- but also to implementing it badly. There is a deep contempt for the American people here, and as long as we continue to return these men to office, it will be deserved.

2002-11-20T14:27:00.000-06:00

Another goddamn head cold. I can only assume that my body will adjust eventually.

This, in addition to being awful, is yet another argument of why the US Military does not need a massive centralized database with which to spy on the public.

2002-11-18T12:07:00.000-06:00

Okay, this one's going to be more or less a litany of sins. We've had a lot of Bad Government lately, and I'm trying to keep up with it.

The US Army has seen fit to dismiss nine Army Linguists, including (most importantly) six working in Arabic, because they are gay. It is both sad and unsurprising that in the fight against global terrorism, when our armed forces have the opportunity to choose between national security and bigotry, bigotry is the higher priority.

The Bush Administration warned of the possibility of a spectacular attack, but didn't upgrade the utterly meaningless Homeland Security Advisory System. Your tax dollars at work.

It also increased the number of snowmobiles allowed to romp around our national parks, despite park ranger protests.

The Pentagon is constructing a massive centralized database for keeping tabs on American citizens. As if that weren't terrifying enough, the effort is being headed by John Poindexter, the Reagan aide who was convicted of several felony counts of lying to Congress.

Harvey Pitt has become the answer to a Twenty-First Century Trivial Pursuit question. Now we get to find out how long the SEC remains without a leader, then who that leader will be. Joy.

In a courageous blow against women and children, the Administration has decided to pull out of an international program of action that included reproductive health care as part of a plan to curb population growth.

Finally, despite the Administration's best efforts, Osama bin Laden is still alive and well. Here's a hint, guys: he's not in Iraq.

See you around.

2002-11-09T14:11:00.000-06:00

Dammit, the Liberal Oasis beat me to a lot of what I wanted to say. As I've said earlier, it's practically impossible to say anything truly original these days. But they're right, so go read it.

2002-11-09T12:31:00.000-06:00

Man, I'm mercurial. Good mood today, no good reason.

I find myself obsessively checking the news sites, hoping for good news. There isn't any.

The Conventional Wisdom at this point is that Dems couldn't do anything -- Bush caught the political break of happening to be President on September 11, 2001, and that's kinda that. Liberality isn't going to necessarily bring success -- look at what happened to Walter Mondale. And Republican moderates continue to labor under the misapprehension that they accomplish anything, so we can't pull them over, even if the Democratic Party continues to lurch to the right.

I'm not sure that's wrong, but it does suggest a course of action -- hammer Bush on his handling of the terrorist attacks. This will have two prongs -- one aimed at the base and one aimed at the public at large. The base gets the civil liberties and Afghanistan memes. Anyone in his right mind is terrified about what happened to Jose Padilla, and now the Administration is whacking US citizens in Yemen. The lesson here is simple: Bush thinks it's okay to disappear and assassinate US citizens without even a patina of due process. That'll get us fired up, and then we can start talking about how the Administration's failure to adequately support Hamid Karzai is leading to humanitarian crises in Afghanistan.

The public gets "Where's Osama?" Seriously -- ad after ad in the "Where's Waldo" vein, asking why Osama hasn't been captured, why his business haven't been shut down by Saudi authorities, and why he's still carrying out terror attacks in Bali and Yemen. Over and over. "Oops, he's not in Afghanistan. Maybe he's in Pakistan. No, wait, he could be in Afghanistan after all." It's not a terribly fair criticism (after all, catching bin Laden is something of a bitch no matter how you look at it), but it opens the door to the more fair criticisms (such as the secrecy of the Administration, their lies about Iraq, and their unholy alliance with the Saudi and Pakistani regimes).

We needed to pass some bills out of the Senate and have the House kill them so that we could call Bush obstructionist. We did a good job with the judges, but unfortunately we got beat. I don't think the Republicans are going to move much faster on the judges, as I think they're rather out of practice with this whole "confirming" thing.

In the long term, we need think tanks like the Heritage Foundation and Cato Institute. Republicans have been pulling the center to the right for two decades. It's time to do our own long-range pulling.

See you around.

2002-11-06T03:59:00.000-06:00

Well, the election returns are in. The Republicans kept the House and took the Senate. It appears that the clever Democratic "Give Bush Whatever He Wants" plan didn't pan out. I want new Party elections, and I want Daschle and Gephardt out.

2002-11-04T03:15:00.000-06:00

God, that was scary.

So, I've had a head cold for a week, and one side effect of it was that it brought my Fibromyalgia symptoms back in a huge rush. I managed to get my responsibilities taken care of, but it was creepy. I ain't going back.

I'm worried about my gut, so I'm gonna have an upper GI to make sure things are more or less smooth. I don't know what I'm hoping for more -- that they'll find something, or that they won't. Of course, due to the glories of managed care, I have to wait another two weeks before doing the tests.

It's still too hot to ship the cat. November, and the highs are above 85 F. Unreal.

I have to say, I'm voting on Tuesday mostly for the local stuff. Our national leadership is still a bunch of Quisling Uncle Toms (now there's a juxtaposition for you), so I'm not all that gung-ho on giving them my imprimatur. At least my guys voted against the Iraq resolution.

I can't get over how badly our country is being run lately. We're in an endless war on terrorism which seems to have few victories (anyone seen bin-Laden lately? And how's Bali this time of year?), our civil rights are under constant assault, the CIA is being pressured to lie about Iraq so that we'll be more likely to invade, Harvey Pitt is exactly the tool anyone with a brain thought he would be, and we've gone from a significant surplus to a deficit due almost exclusively to the tax cuts. Which are going to get bigger and more targeted toward the wealthy. I know intellectually that the right response is to pick some battles, make sure I vote, and send the letters to the Congressfolk, then try to move things in two years. We did and do have leaders in high places, notably the late Sen. Paul Wellstone, and I should be grateful.

By the way, I didn't know Senator Wellstone at all; I'd noticed that he tended to vote my way on a lot of issues and that he was from Minnesota (which has a lovely habit of producing very interesting people). Now that he's gone and I've read more about him, I've discovered someone who I deeply respect. As with most plane crashes, there is plenty of sorrow to go around; mine is more or less negligible in the overall scheme of things.

At any rate, go out and vote on Tuesday. It's the only way things will get any better. That's what I keep telling myself.

2002-10-28T00:44:00.000-06:00

Hey hey hey.

Fixed a typo in a previous post which seemed to imply that I had more power in my gastronomic choices than would otherwise be believed.

The dominant strand in my life currently is ill-health, which is a strand I'd though I was done with for at least a little while longer. Neck pain, migraines, general fatigue, gastronomic distress, poor reactions to exercise, and now a head cold (fuck) have made basic concerns a little larger than they usually are. I am simultaneously gladdened by the existence of this light semester (academically) and terrified at the thought of attempting to be Actually Busy with this health set. I'm doing the usual doctors and whatnot combination.

Got through the first batch of midterms with respectible grades. I'm not thrilled, but I am reasonably happy. I'll continue to do better as I get more and more used to absorbing the quantities of information necessary to go to grad school.

From the research I've been doing for my own purposes, Dr. Patricial Sulak is the gal you want to talk to if you're interested in using The Pill to get fewer periods. Of course, you could also wait for Seasonale to finish its FDA approval. As part of my general philosophy, I'm going to refrain from telling women what to do with their bodies. (Other than, of course, give them to me for generous -- wait, I'm married. You'd think I'd be completely used to it by now.)

Our condo is shaping up nicely, and I will be deleriously happy to live in it for the next five or so years.

This note is being typed on my laptop as I enjoy the fruits of our Fully Armed And Operational Wireless Network. I got a Netgear router, because it was cheap and had short range (think about it). I gotta say, it's worth a hundred bucks to sit on the couch or bed and websurf. Especially during Charmed.

It's still too hot to ship the cat, Jose Padilla is still in jail without charges, and we're still going to go to war in Iraq for no apparent reason in February. But hey, at least North Korea can't nuke Hawai'i. Oh wait. Fuckers.

2002-10-24T13:32:00.000-05:00

Now this is an interesting idea.

I'm starting to view our dependence on the oil from nondemocratic regimes as more and more of a national security issue. A lot of American died and will die to feed our SUV habit, and I think it's time we bite the bullet and make real sacrifices which will help prevent another September 11th.

However, the Bush Administration is currently taking a courageous stand against fuel-efficient cars and states' rights in one swift action. The fair-weather Federalism which is the hallmark of modern Republican philosophy (cf: Bush v. Gore) would be more frustrating if it weren't so transparent. Once one understands that the entire States' Rights argument set is used exclusively to cause some sort of harm to a random minority or to keep conservatives in power, everything becomes much clearer.

2002-10-21T14:43:00.000-05:00

Sorry I've been gone for a while; the in-laws were in town, I had a couple of migraines, and I ate at Taco Bell, which turned out to be a horrible gastrointestinal mistake.

It appears that North Korea has a nuclear weapons program which they developed in contravention of treaty with the assistance (of all people) of the Pakistanis. The North Koreans admitted this after being presented with US evidence. I'm still tired out over being enraged over the Quisling Senate Democrats, but I'm stuck with several frustrating questions:

1) How long has the US known that North Korea was in violation of the treaty, even if we couldn't get them to admit it?

2) Why did the Bush Administration get the North Koreans to admit that they'd had the program on October 4th, but waited until October 16th to release this news -- especially to Congress? One painfully cynical answer -- Bush didn't want to complicate the debate on Iraq. Yet another lie or unwhole truth to add to the list.

3) Why is diplomacy and moderate force appropriate for North Korea, a state so dangerous we've maintained tens of thousands of US military personnel on its border to contain it for forty years, but inappropriate for Iraq, a state which we have also successfully contained for the past ten years?

4) I've read a number of columns stating that our "hands are tied" with regard to North Korea. I honestly don't understand what this means, other than that the option of randomly invading and conquering the country has been made even less attractive. Is the US so devoted to the doctrine of peremption that any country which has the capacity to defend its borders against us is considered an inappropriate threat?

5) And where do those kidnapped Japanese citizens fit into all of this?

I'm still swirling around. Maureen Dowd, on the other hand, is much more interesting.

2002-10-14T13:29:00.000-05:00

While Bush has making political hay with respect to Iraq, it appears that Al-Qaeda has been keeping busy. God, this is so bad. Are we going to endure another Oklahoma City bombing or worse every year or so? How long will it take before the Administration stops tilting at Iraqi windmills and addresses the real security concerns of this country?

2002-10-11T18:58:00.000-05:00

Orwellian.

2002-10-10T13:49:00.000-05:00

So the Dems have decided to support Bush's plans to invade Iraq. I'm kind of torn. On the one hand, I'm still a strong supporter of the ideals of the Party, but on the other hand, they're a bunch of fucking Uncle Toms.

This is one of the most important decisions we're going to make this year. We're deciding how to spend hundreds of billions of dollars, put hundreds of thousands of Americans into harm's way, and cause the deaths of (probably) tens to hundreds of thousands of Iraqis. It is wholly inappropriate for the Leadership to try to push the debate aside in order to make (maybe) a little more political hay on the President's incomprehension of the economy. It's no wonder that contributions are down; why contribute to the Dems when they just act like Republicans? Why support a Party that is so willing to throw American (and Iraqi) lives away to help Bush get over his father's failure to finish the job?

I wish the Greens were capable of doing anything besides getting Republicans elected to Federal offices. I'm ashamed of my Party affiliation.

See you around.

2002-10-07T00:20:00.000-05:00

State of the Organism Address

Archetypes, memories, prejudices and opinions. Talents and skills, faults and incompetencies. Preferences and desires and needs. Muscles, bones, nerves, and organs. It is with great humility that I address you as your sense of self/worldview.

Since the re-fusion of these two offices nearly a year ago, I have sought continuous improvements in the physical, psychic, and social status of the organism. And I am honored to report that our efforts have been, by and large, successful. (applause)

On the physical front, the malaise which had, for the previous seven years, so aggressively elevated our misery index has finally been laid, at least partially, to rest. (applause) Through diligent effort, we have discovered a combination of treatments which gave us extraordinary health for three months and acceptable health for the past four. But I am not satisfied! I will not rest until the root causes of our illness are found, rooted out, and fully addressed. (applause) I will not rest until we rest well. (applause)

As a consequence of our improved health, I have embarked us upon a program of fitness through increased exercise. Despite some setbacks in the abdominal area, I am confident that our goals of increased strength, flexibility, posture, and endurance will be met. I ask all of you to support our study of Tae Kwon Do. (applause)

In addition, we have made contact with local medical resources and will pursue such treatments as repair for our possibly deviated septum, chiropracty, and examination of our overall state of being. We will not allow ourselves to be driven again into the desert of illness; the promised land of wellness is before us. (abortive applause) We – we will dwell for all time to come in this Canaan. (wild applause)

As you are no doubt aware, our long-held dream of graduate school has come to pass. (applause) Our capacity for understanding, and thereby manipulating, the world increases steadily, and we have every reason to believe that we will finally find our path to influence. The goals of intellectual achievement, power, and altruism will, finally, become one and the same! (applause)

Finally, despite the necessity of attenuating many of our social ties, we have begun an aggressive campaign of social improvement. We have found many friends on this island, and our ongoing efforts to maintain and increase the intimacy and good feeling in our household committments have been largely successful. We expect our first game of Advanced Civilization within the month, with a true housewarming party before Christmas. (wild applause)

We have faced horror, fear, and loneliness. We have faced inadequacy and emasculation. We have emerged from these challenges stronger, kinder, and more decent. Now, let us take up the challenge of strength, with the lessons we have learned. Let us take the Canaan we have found in Hawai'i and make of it a great nation! (wild applause)

2002-10-01T02:16:00.000-05:00

I simply cannot get over the service Al Gore has rendered to this country. Now, if he'd only stay a part of private life . . .

Anyway, I had my first car-bike accident, albeit a trivial one. I was riding across a crosswalk (yes, yes, a venal sin, but there were reasons for it), and the guy who was sitting at the stop sign just accelerated and smacked into the back part of my bike! I skidded, he braked, and we all went on with our lives, but it was very exciting there for a few moments. My bike was protected by the saddlebag he hit, and I was meaning to stop by my bike shop for my free 30-day tuneup, so there we are. But it was a bit startling.

Actually, it wasn't particularly startling. I was so exhausted (still haven't been sleeping well) that it barely penetrated. Much, unfortunately, like my homework lately. Time to get my shit together.

See you around.

2002-09-24T18:43:00.000-05:00

It's about time Al Gore returned to public life. I wonder if he'd be okay with being Dean's veep.

2002-09-21T11:54:00.000-05:00

I've more or less settled into a routine.

I have classes on Monday and Wednesday -- Math for Economists and Statistics. They go from 1:30 to 5:45 PM, with a break in the middle. On Tuesdays and Thursdays, I TA a class from 10:30 to 12:45, then hold office hours until 1:30. On Friday, I hang out a bit and catch the weekly Departmental Seminars. Saturday and Sunday, I spend some time with friends, then run errands and unpack. It's a pretty good life.

I'd been hoping to join a Tae Kwon Do club, but it meets during my classes this semester. Maybe in January.

I still haven't managed to get myself to the point where I feel consistently lucid and well. I'm still off the sugar, and I have thoughts that I might be working against some leaky gut variant, so I'm in the process of locating a GP nearby. But I'm on an HMO, so I have to wait three weeks for an appointment. Frustrating. At least Tami still games with me.

See you around.

2002-09-18T15:04:00.000-05:00

Another variant on the theme.

2002-09-17T12:33:00.000-05:00

This isn't particularly surprising. We've been presented with enough evidence that the Bush Administration is unaquainted with the idea of telling or hearing the truth. However, an interesting idea came to me -- couldn't this be used as an argument against the sweeping expansion of Executive Privilege that the Administration has been asserting? Their claim was that the President needs unvarnished advice, and release of that advice might change people's willingness to offer it. But these actions make clear that the Bush Administration is explicitly seeking to avoid hearing unpopular or disagreeable notions, especially if they are true.

I wonder if the various Courts of Appeals which are hearing these cases are familiar with this breaking news.

2002-09-16T10:21:00.000-05:00

I want to share a guilty secret with you: I want to invade Iraq.

Don't get me wrong. I'd like a crack at Saudi Arabia, too. Burma might be a nice. But Saddam Hussein is personally responsible for some awful wars, some hideous crimes against humanity, and is definitely at the head of the list of people who really have to go if we want to live in a peaceful world.

The reason I want to invade Iraq is the same reason I wanted to invade Afghanistan. Some crimes call out for justice, even from those uninvolved or far away, and Hussein's crimes against humanity, like the Taliban's, are such. I was convinced that containment and the no-fly zone was enough. But a member of the Kurdish leadership made a case for intervention, and the idea of a democratic, multinational Iraq . . . it is beautiful.

Cheney is, of course, full of shit. There is no good evidence that Hussein has weapons of mass destruction with the capacity to deliver them. Further, Hussein is anything but suicidal. He has to know that if he drops anything on Tel Aviv, Jerusalem, or (somehow) New York, we'll first turn Baghdad into a plane of glass, then start really trying to kill him. MAD works against rational people, even vicious and predatory ones.

Before we invade, we have to commit to rebuilding Afghanistan's economic and security structure. We also have to wrap up a lot of our operations there, so we can redeploy our Special Ops guys in Iraq as necessary. And we have to get over the absurd notion that we can put local opposition troops in the front lines – in Afghanistan, our opponents entered the battlefield in pickup trucks. In Iraq, they'll be driving Soviet-made heavy armor. We'll have to go in the same way we did during the Gulf War. Most importantly, though, we have to commit to rebuilding the Iraqi nation, in exactly the same way we have failed to rebuild Afghanistan.

Thus, for now, I am forced to oppose our plans to invade Iraq. I won't have it done under false pretenses, and I don't believe that the Bush Administration is capable of handling the aftermath. Which is a shame, because the world and the Iraqi people deserve better.

2002-09-10T00:20:00.000-05:00

Heya, Bill. Been a while. I hear Harlem's treating you well. Listen, could you maybe push a little money Howard Dean's way?

Thanks.

2002-09-06T17:25:00.000-05:00

I'm on a Republican listserv, because I think I should know what's up, and because I hate myself.

Included in this listing was the following:

Senate Democrats Perpetuate Judicial Crisis by Rejecting Qualified Bush Nominee

Today, liberal Democrats on the Senate Judiciary Committee voted to prevent President Bush's nominee to the 5th Circuit Court of Appeals from getting a fair debate before the full Senate - effectively killing the nomination. Senate Democrats continue their partisan attacks despite the bipartisan support Justice Priscilla Owen has received. Justice Owen has been called "one of the best legal minds of her generation" by the Wall Street Journal and even the liberal Washington Post said, "Justice Owen is indisputably well qualified," and that she "should be confirmed."

Preventing a fair vote by the entire Senate is just wrong. The Washington Post criticized the Democrat controlled Judiciary Committee actions and even Democrat Senator Joseph Biden - a former Judiciary Committee chairman - has called for all nominees to get a floor vote, saying that everyone nominated is entitled "to have a hearing and to have a shot to be heard on the floor and have a vote on the floor." By continuing their campaign of obstructing the confirmation of qualified judges Democrats have perpetuated the judicial crisis that is threatening the administration of justice.

I know nothing about Priscilla Owen. I don't particularly care. But neglecting to inform the American public that the current judicial crisis is exclusively due to the fact that Senate Republicans refused to hold hearings on Clinton's nominations for years is simply criminal. Sure, the Senate sent a nominee back. But at least Bush is free to pick a new one, and at least the Senate is confirming far more nominees than it did under Republican leadership.

All. The. Way. Down.

2002-09-04T12:46:00.000-05:00

A nice article about how to teach 9/11 in K-12 settings.

In other news, Bush is going to meet with Congressional leaders to try to make a case for invading Iraq. Remember, kids: If we scream loud enough, even Bush will engage in occasional acts of democratic decency.

2002-09-03T01:41:00.000-05:00

Purchased Neverwinter Nights. Free time I hardly knew ye.

2002-09-02T17:26:00.000-05:00

Israel, Palestine: I’m sorry, but we can’t hang out anymore.

Wait, wait, I need to talk to Israel first. I want to tell you how hard this is for me. You’re the only vibrant democracy in the Middle East, and you’ve been there for me during the Gulf and Cold Wars. And I know you really do need the military and economic aid we send you. And it’s not that I don’t understand your security needs. You need to have your space from the hostile people around you. But this indiscriminate killing . . . it’s got to stop. It just isn’t right. Another thing that isn’t right is your Settlement habit. Look in the mirror and compare yourself to how you looked two or three years ago. You’re poorer and more frightened than you were back then. I just can’t talk to you until you get off the Settlements. It hurts too much.

And you, Palestine. Raising your children to be suicide bombers and letting the guy in charge amass over a billion dollars. I don’t know how long it’s going to take, but you need to realize that in any fight between Israel and you, Israel is going to win. Your attacks on Israeli and non-Israeli civilians have turned the world against you, despite the fact that you’re the aggrieved party. I don’t want to hear from you until the Fatah party renounces violence and you start reading a lot of Gandhi’s works on nonviolent action.

Okay, if you restrict your targets to soldiers actually occupying the West Bank and Gaza, maybe. But it’s still not healthy.

I wish I could say that it’s not you, it’s me. And I’ve ignored this for too long. But I can’t help thinking that staying involved with you two is partially responsible for what happened to me back on September 11th. I’ve got to move on. Look me up if you’ve decided to make some progress. Don’t worry; I’ll always be your Uncle.

-Sam

2002-09-01T12:11:00.000-05:00

It's bad government all the way down.

2002-08-30T16:08:00.000-05:00

You know, I wasn't even aware of the existence of a secret spy court, much less that the government had consistently lied to it.

Fucked up.

2002-08-29T01:41:00.000-05:00

Okay, time for a Life Update:

The past two weeks have been crazy busy, but I think we have a handle on things.

We closed on our condo on August 20th. We'd originally scheduled for the 15th, but the mortgage guy couldn't manage the paperwork by then, and the 16th is a state holiday (Admission day, celebrating the day the state was admitted to the Union (Illinois should do that, it's cool)). We were going to close on the 19th, but a new requirement popped up -- we needed to get the leaseholders to sign off on the transfer of property.

But we got it done and recorded on the morning of the 20th; Tami took possession while I went to TA training. If we hadn't done it by the 20th, we were risking $20,000; I'm desperately glad that I pushed to have it finished as soon as possible. I think that saved us.

In order to hie ourselves over to Hawai'i, we flew standby. We arrived at ORD at 10 AM on the 18th, left at 9 PM, arrived in LA at 11 or so, spent the night in the terminal, and flew out the morning of the 19th and arrived at noon. We then rented a car and drove to our realtor, who put us up for the night. There is ongoing discussion of not flying standby anymore. You understand.

I did a batch of 1 1/2 hour seminars in the morning on how to be a decent TA, and mixed them up with seeing to various bureaucratic necessities. Tami and I lived out of our suitcases and slept on an air mattress (which took a Long Fucking Time to pump up with a foot pump. Not recommended. Recommended: go next door and ask to borrow your neighbor's hair dryer. Much better.) We scheduled our container to show up on Friday (and I busted my ass lining up acquaintences to help us move that afternoon -- and the movers just plain fell through. They couldn't get the a chassis necessary to move the container from the wharf to our house. To reinflate the air mattress, I borrowed the aforementioned hair dryer.

Fine. We went out with our new friends, bought them drinks to apologize for the suckiness, and rescheduled the move for Monday morning, before my first classes. The moving company jerked us around for a solid three hours, but we finally got our stuff. I only had to skip my FIRST CLASS EVER to get everything in that afternoon. Fortunately, the professor was very understanding. So now our condo is full of furniture and boxes and a bed. Yay, a bed.

I'll be taking a lot of math this semester; about 1/3 of it I know well, another 1/3 of it is needed review, and 1/3 of it will be new. It'll be a light semester, which is good, because my health isn't quite what it could me. As of Monday, I'm eliminating sugar from my diet. Try to avoid being around me.

I'm TA'ing an Introduction to Economics class, which mostly involves holding office hours and grading tests while staying awake in class. It'll be pretty relaxed, all things considered. I'm finding my feet more and more, which means I'm going to start looking for challenges. Biking to class isn't quite enough of one, sadly. I think I'll learn to surf.

Or, you know, I could get caught up on the various gaming committments I've made. Now there's a thought.

See you around.

2002-08-28T17:25:00.000-05:00

Hey, I'm back online!

Shrub has announced his plan for cutting forest fires. We'll cut down more trees! I had some hyperbole to add to this, but it really speaks for itself. These just aren't good people running our country here.

2002-08-08T17:14:00.000-05:00

Busy moving to Hawai'i. More info on the indefinitely detained folk.

2002-08-01T09:10:00.000-05:00

Okay, there's been plenty to talk about, and I've been out of touch. Operation TIPS is dying, which is a relief. Stalinist Russia was bad, and we don't have to do that sort of thing to ourselves. Dick Cheney apparently orchestrated a lousy business deal at Halliburton. I don't really care; even a perfectly competent businessperson is going to make the occasional mistake. I am looking forward to the investigation of Halliburton's accounting practices. There is almost certainly something shady there. The White House is engaging in its usual attempts to assert impunity.

Public outcry has forced Bush to sign bills protecting Florida wetlands. Public outcry has forced Bush to sign Campaign Finance Reform. Public outcry has forced Bush to pledge his signature to a fairly meaty corporate reform bill. We can make this son of a bitch govern this country less awfully (with Daschle's help). Only two more years of serious pressure, and we can get a Dem into the White House.

See you around.

2002-07-31T23:00:00.000-05:00

Sorry I haven't been in touch lately; life has been just oodles of fun.

As most of you are aware, Tami and I are in the process of moving to Honolulu. To that end, we planned to purchase a condo and live there for the next seven years. We found a place we liked back in June, after an irritating process (more on that later).

We were caught in kind of a double-bind; if we stated that we are moving to Hawai'i, we'd have to demonstrate that Tami had a job waiting there for us. However, if we used Tami's job here on the mainland (which she still had, back then), we'd have to purchase the condo as a second property - a vacaction home, if you will.

We tried the latter course. Unfortunately, our mortgage broker's father passed away. This threw us back, of course. We asked for and got an extension on our final loan approval. Then the seller responded that the final loan approval, in addition to having a couple of minor errors, simply contained too many caveats, and began the process of backing out of the deal.

We attempted to placate, but to no avail. A couple of weeks passed while we prodded our bank, our realtor and mortgage broker sniped at each other, and the seller grew more and more agitated. Finally, our seller requested that we cancelled escrow. Our realtor (erroneously) informed us that our down payment was at risk, and we began the process of backing the hell out of this crazy deal.

Enter Tami's parents. First, they shopped around for opinions from their realtor and legal friends. Then, they suggested that we contact a real estate lawyer for some advice on how to proceed - in particular, one which was not connected to any of the parties involved. And they knew a lawyer in Hawai'i who could offer us a referral. So we called him up (Thank you, Robey Bell, for your help) and asked him for advice and a referral. Long story short, we ended up retaining Bronster, Crabtree and Hoshibata to send off some letters.

Then, a call from New York. Turns out the seller was right; there really were too many caveats in the final loan approval, and the banks had backed out of financing us. Enter, once again, Tami's folks. They agreed to both cosign on the loan and raise two thirds of the cost of the condo if we needed the cash liquid before the bank came through on the loan.

But the seller contacts us, and she wants to close! We just have to get a final loan approval by July 31st. The problem is, that's physically impossible. And if we sign and don't come through, we pay a hefty penalty from escrow.

Then the parental Deus Ex Machina strikes again. Dad can make a call to the credit union and raise the remainder of the cash. Which we can dump into escrow. Which counts as a final loan approval as far as the seller is concerned.

So, that's where we are now. It's July 31st, and I finally feel like we have a place to stay, though we had to lean hard on the in-laws to manage it. Being sick taught me how to accept gifts, even large ones. So I think I'm okay.

2002-07-31T22:50:00.000-05:00

I just finished my last day at The Center for Law & Human Services. I began working there in January, because they seemed like nice people and I really needed a job.

The Center is a . . . really good place. Their feeder program is the Tax Counseling Project, which gives people money by the simple expedient of preparing tax returns for low-income people. With the complexity of the tax codes, it's more or less a given that many people don't claim all of the credits they're entitled to. What's more, a lot of our clients don't have the math or language background to do their taxes themselves, so they end up paying hundreds of dollars to tax preparers - who then charge them extra to electronically file the return, then a rather brutal processing fee - it adds up to a few hundred dollars, for people who really can't afford it. And the tax houses make a lot of mistakes.

This year, we prepared over 14,500 returns. In addition, the Center also offers a Tax Clinic, which allows people who've really screwed things up to make things right with the IRS. We process hundreds of ITINs to allow immigrants to become part of the financial system. We provide Financial Literacy training, both to households and to small business owners (mostly child care providers). And we give hundreds of volunteers an opportunity to make a real difference in the lives of the people in their neighborhoods.

I fixed computers.

During tax season, from January through April, we operated twenty-five tax preparation sites, with about a hundred thirty workstations, all worked by volunteers. It was my job to make sure that the machines worked as seamlessly as possible. And that's what I did - through database failures, ad-hoc training regimens, a $10,000 theft, and three months of statistical analysis following the season. I replaced hard drives, installed printers, managed data entry projects, wrote queries, and wrestled with Taxwise technical support.

This is the best job I've ever had. These are the best people I've ever worked with. They helped me with my atrocious Spanish, nursed me through bronchitis, and threw me a magnificent going-away party. It was, however, the fact that we provided a genuinely needed service that made the hour-fifteen commute worthwhile. Every day, I woke up, went to work, and helped people. It ruled.

And now I'm moving to Hawai'i. Damn. Life is good.

2002-07-31T12:25:00.000-05:00

Mind boggling. Thanks to The Financial Times and Slate, which turned me on to this delicious table.

And these are the people who have (or, at least, had) tremendous influence in the Bush Administration! Frustrating.

2002-07-26T13:26:00.000-05:00

Okay, this just isn't right.

2002-07-17T12:37:00.000-05:00

Even Alan Greenspan is advocating greater regulation of corporate officers. It's nice to be proven right, but I wish so many good people hadn't lost their jobs and life savings before this happened.

At least some reform is taking place. I can't imagine what would have happened if the Republicans still controlled the Senate.

2002-07-16T14:17:00.000-05:00

Borrowing ruthlessly from Steve Anichini's blog, a guide for the perplexed. Christ, that thing's long.

2002-07-16T14:05:00.000-05:00

So, the twenty is up for a redesign sometime soon. I read a great idea in today's Sun-Times. Let's replace Jackson with Martin Luther King.

Why not? Jackson was an important figure, but King has more of an effect on the daily lives of Americans. And it would make me proud to see Dr. King's face every day.

But then, I'm a sucker for the Susan B. Anthony reverse. Man, that thing kicks ass.

2002-07-15T06:33:00.000-05:00

Egad, I woke up an hour ago and couldn't get back to sleep.

I should just go ahead and go into work early, and I think that's what I'll end up doing. I spent the weekend at a family reunion for one side of Tami's family. It was nice enough; they're all good people and they worked to make me feel welcome. We stayed at a nearby friend's place; I got sunburned; and I continued to play with my laptop and new wireless card.

Tami and I don't talk about the news much these days. It's all depressing, and we're stressed out about the condo and the fact that our sellers are trying to back out of the contract. Tami's handling the details, and I'm inclined to let her.

Good grief, I'm tired already, and I haven't even started. This is going to be a long-ass day. At least I have the party this weekend (and the surprising and startling presence of Jared Wadsworth) to look forward to.

See you around.

2002-07-12T12:54:00.000-05:00

While it's a given that any bill that passes the Senate will get watered down by the House, we should still make sure that the right bill at least includes all the needed reforms. And one of those reforms should be counting stock options as costs. Stop making Nader right, fellas. Get the job done.

2002-07-11T20:39:00.000-05:00

Well, that didn't take long.

2002-07-10T14:09:00.000-05:00

August 10, 2012
Keith Winstein, special to the Washington Post

In a stunning 7-2 decision, the Supreme Court ruled against the Atheist Society of America in their suits against the District of Columbia and struck down as Unconstitutional the DC voucher program (and, by extension, several similar programs across the United States).

On a hot night in July 2009, the Charles Darwin Atheist Academy was firebombed by a fundamentalist Protestant group known as God and Country. A security guard was killed in the attack, and several parents working as volunteer security were severely injured. Two previous (and less deadly) attempts at vandalism had been foiled by security using tranquilizer darts, but the Washington District Attorney declined to prosecute the offenders, instead bringing charges against security officers for unlawful possession of narcotics (the tranquilizers). Three suspects were arrested for the bombing and convicted of felony murder in connection to the arson. In addition to the usual scholastic subjects, the Academy included mandatory "freedom" courses which taught that religious beliefs were "outdated and incorrect."

Corruption and Illegal Religious Discrimination

After the firebombing, the Atheist Society charged the District Attorney's office with corruption and illegal religious discrimination under the Civil Rights' Act and sued for damages. In addition, they contended that the City did not process the voucher requests of families wishing to attend Darwin Academy in a timely fashion, as part of a general pattern of harassment.

The case quickly became a lightning rod for activists on every side, with families whose children had received superior educations due to newly-available vouchered schools and religious conservatives joined in opposition to organizations such as Americans for the Separation of Church and State and teachers' unions. ASA v DC was granted expedited review. A district judge found in favor of the ASA, and her judgement was upheld at the Appeals level.

Writing for the majority, Justice Leonie Brinkema stated that any voucher program which "only provided enough moneys for a child to receive a free education in a religous-sponsored school" violated the Lemon test of whether or not a given state action violates the separation of Church and State. In addition, in a footnote, she wrote that "The First Amendment's express purpose was to prevent the sort of sectarian violence we see before us. We cannot see a situation in which it is appropriate for an institution receiving Federal moneys to educate children to be targeted as part of a violent sectarian conflict." Three judges concurred with the majority in the ruling but not with Justice Brinkema's sidebar.

No Legal Remedy

The Court ruled that insurance moneys were adequate compensation for the loss of property in the firebombing; that the parties culpable for DeShan Brown (the security guard)'s death had already been punished; and that with the end of the DC voucher program, the ASA had no legal remedy to its claim of discrimination.

In a blistering dissent, Justice Scalia discussed the significantly improved test scores generated by children who had moved from public to private schools and concluded that the State's interest in creating the best possible educational climate with the least resources (especially in today's difficult economic climate) far outweighed any theoretical discrimination inherent in the voucher system. [Yes, I know Scalia's generally wackier and more fun than this. Time pressures. -Ed] Ironically, he found in favor of the ASA.

Most To Lose Are Children

The ASA's legal team's spokesperson, Kristina Kimmitt, had this to say: "We are both gratified and puzzled by the court's ruling. Give us some time to sort the implications out. No matter what the result, it seems, the people with the most to lose are our children. We must make certain that the resources to educate them, in whatever system is appropriate, are set aside."

Speaking live on the 700 Club, Pat Robertson predicted another terrorist attack as punishment for "an increasingly Godless country's rejection of Him." Carla Jones, principal of Our Lady of Peace Elementary School in Washington, DC, had this to say: "Where will all of these children go, if their parents cannot afford to send them here? The public schools simply don't have the capacity to teach them."

Mohammed al-Hajir, spokesman for the Cleveland School of the Prophet, concurred. "Our children will have no place to study this fall. This voucher system has been a blessing to our faith. But, if it is the will of Allah that it be taken from us, so be it."

2002-07-08T18:04:00.000-05:00

Well, I went to the chiropractor today.

I have to say, I feel quite a bit better. She wants me to come back Thursday morning and get re-treated, and I'm inclined to do so. It is my sincere hope that all of this pain and suffering will be a discrete event, rather than an introduction to ongoing suffering.

I'm dead tired, of course, with another lousy night's sleep. I've also come to understand that my anger at various things has little to do with being sick (though that's definitely there), but is more of a free-floating sort of frustration.

I guess it's time to try to sort out what's what. I'll let y'all know if I come up with anything. The Matrix has you. Maybe it's just a lack of fiber in my diet.

See you around.

2002-07-07T20:49:00.000-05:00

I wake up each morning near tears. I hurt so much, and my energy is gone, and nothing is as fun as it should be. God, I don't want to do this anymore.

I can't tell anyone, which is, I suppose, why I'm telling everyone here.

I'm getting my responsibilities seen to, mostly, but I had to take a day off work last week, and I didn't enjoy the gaming as much as I generally do -- mostly because I was so out of it for the prep time. Still, the session went well, so I'm happy.

Tomorrow, I'm going to a chiropractor. We'll see how it turns out.

Oh, and Bush is a fucker. But we knew that.

2002-07-04T09:52:00.000-05:00

Well, the side effects continue. I can't understand it; one morning I woke up and my neck muscles started spasming, which triggered a migraine. It's been a month now. I can't cut my dosage of mirapex, as when I tried doing that I got a resurgence of Fibromyalgia symptoms (and no migraine relief).

I'm being more serious about avoiding migraine triggers, and that helps a little. But it isn't addressing the main problem, which is that my neck is going all wonky. I'm sucking down NSAIDs like candy, which can't be good for my repaired ulcer.

I really rather wish that I could get things down to one disease at a time, then treat that. The whole notion of my migraines moving from "controlled" to "uncontrolled" is inherently offensive.

At any rate, happy Fourth of July. Let us hope that the Bush Administration doesn't do so much damage to this country that we're embarassed to celebrate next year.

See you around.

2002-06-30T13:15:00.000-05:00

So a friend of mine wrote an article for his job updating the whole José Padilla thing. It is posted here with his permission, as his newspaper chose to print the AP version instead. A couple of days old news, sure, but I've been busy.

BY KEITH WINSTEIN

The government responded yesterday in a lawsuit filed on behalf of Jose
Padilla, an American citizen detained by the military since June 9 as an
"enemy combatant." In its reply, the government sought to dismiss the
suit, saying that an attorney appointed to represent Mr. Padilla by the
federal district court here no longer had the authority to act on his
behalf.

The attorney, Donna Newman, had filed a petition for a writ of habeas
corpus on June 11, asking for an order to produce Mr. Padilla in court so
as to inquire into the legality of his detention in military custody in
South Carolina. Ms. Newman said that she has been unable to speak with Mr.
Padilla since his transfer to a Naval brig.

Mr. Padilla had previously been held in a New York jail on a material
witness warrant in a grand jury proceeding. During his detention in New
York, the court appointed Ms. Newman as his attorney. Although a spokesman
for the U.S. Attorney's office here, Marvin Smilon, called Ms. Newman
"Padilla's lawyer" in an interview, the government insists in its filing
that Ms. Newman ceased being Mr. Padilla's attorney when the president
ordered Mr. Padilla designated an enemy combatant and transferred to
military custody on June 9. Failing that, the government writes in its
filing, the court "should transfer the case to the district court in South
Carolina, the only district court with jurisdiction."

"We are going to meet every single objection that they raise in a strong
manner," Ms. Newman said yesterday. "We are confident that in the end our
habeas petition will be heard and we will have a just result."

The Assistant United States Attorney on the case, Eric Bruce, declined to
comment.

The government's reply references for support a ruling issued only a few
hours before, by a Virginia federal appeals court in one of two appellate
cases concerning Yaser Hamdi, the other American citizen known to be
detained in military custody as an "enemy combatant." The appeals court
dismissed the case filed on Mr. Hamdi's behalf by a federal public
defender, holding with reasoning similar to that in the government's
Padilla filing that the defender lacked authority to file on Mr. Hamdi's
behalf. A second case, concerning a habeas corpus petition filed by Mr.
Hamdi's father, was argued before the court yesterday with a ruling
expected in a few weeks.

Douglas Kmiec, the dean of the law school at Catholic University and the
former head of the Office of Legal Counsel under President Reagan and
President George H.W. Bush, said he was "perplexed" that the government
was not following the procedures described in 1997 Pentagon regulations
issued under the Geneva Convention on prisoners of war.

The regulations classify persons captured by the military in four
categories, and require that those who assert that they are "entitled to
treatment as a prisoner of war" be granted a tribunal, with certain rules,
to decide their status. Capturred persons determined not to receive
prisoner-of-war status "may not be executed, imprisoned, or otherwise
penalized without further proceedings," the regulations say.

A spokesman for the Pentagon, Lieutenant Commander Jeff Davis, said he did
not know how the regulations applied to Mr. Padilla or what category he
fit into, and that "it may not be one of those four." No tribunals under
the 1997 regulations have been held with regards to prisoners captured
since September 11, he said.

"The curious think for me is why the most relevant statutory provision is
being overlooked," Mr. Kmiec said.

2002-06-27T13:36:00.000-05:00

The 9th District Circuit Court of Appeals has finally gone and said what has needed to be said for a long, long time now.

When President Eisenhower signed legislation changing the Pledge of Allegiance, his intent was clear. "In this way," he said, "we are reaffirming the transcendence of religious faith in America's heritage and future; in this way we shall constantly strengthen those spiritual weapons which forever will be our country's most powerful resource in peace and war." He came to entangle Church and State, and so he did.

I don't care what the SCOTUS says; I don't care what the President says, and I don't care what the Senate says. This is a ruling whose time has come.

2002-06-25T22:01:00.000-05:00

I have new shoes. They're nice.

I haven't been posting much recently; this is because I've been suffering side effects from my medication.. I went to the doctor today, and we're going to try a couple of things. Hopefully I'll have some joie de vivre back sometime in the near future.

Went and saw Lilo and Stitch. Lots of fun; highly recommended. The sight gags in particular were lovingly crafted.

I am going to move to Hawaii, and I am going to be happy, and I am going to own Neverwinter Nights. And that is the long and the short of it.

2002-06-20T06:31:00.000-05:00

What can we do? This has to stop. This has to stop.

2002-06-18T21:28:00.000-05:00

PS:

U S A

U S A

U S A

2002-06-18T21:27:00.000-05:00

Pakistani officials recently announced that they are holding two people carrying American passports who tried to cross the border. I am Officially Scared. The facts aren't all in, but it certainly looks like the Bush Administration is buying time for the Pakistani authorities to torture information out of people who are (or at least claim to be) American citizens. Combine this with José Padilla's indefinite detention without charges, and it seems that the Bush Administration is preparing to have anyone it wants captured, then tortured indefinitely.

Take this one step further; remember Ashcroft's remarks before the Senate. Anyone who criticizes the government is aiding and abetting the terrorists -- is, in effect, a terrorist themselves. How long until the knock comes at my door? Well, they'll probably leave me alone, but I'm kind of worried about my friend Zach.

We edge closer and closer to a police state. I know that we've been here before, but each time, a lot of people had to endure a lot of tragedy before it was brought to a close. And Bush/Ashcroft seem much more . . . committed to the idea of a police state than their predecessors. I wish I knew what to do.

See you around.

2002-06-16T13:53:00.000-05:00

Well, the verdict is down and Arthur Andersen is, essentially, no more.

I am, as usual, of two minds about this.

1) Yes! Accountability! (No pun intended.) The high-level officers of a company conspire to decieve the public as to the results of a financial audit conducted. They then destroy evidence of their conspiracy. And the result is that the company in question simply ceases to exist. Brutal, but very possibly an effective deterrent to future malfeasance.

2) Yeah, but who is really getting punished here? Certainly, shareholders in Arthur Andersen are absorbing quite a blow, but they had little or nothing to do with these decisions. (Yes, yes, they could have conceivably pushed to separate the auditing from the consulting branches, but even the shareholders who held this view got screwed.) And anyone who works for Arthur Andersen is losing their job (though presumably, since companies still need their books balanced, they will be able to find employment elsewhere). And, of course, the vast majority of them are blameless. Well, probably -- from what we are beginning to understand, Enron-style deception is de rigeur in Andersen and other firms; perhaps we can safely apply the maxim that for every roach we find, there are 100 more hiding in the walls. And, finally, the executives in Andersen will lose their jobs and may or may not work in their field again. But that seems to be a rather small price to pay for costing the US economy billions of dollars. And that's assuming that they won't find work -- in today's corporate culture, a willingness to commit felonies in pursuit of profit may be something to boast about, rather than hide.

On the balance, I'm reasonably happy. If we must endure the absurd that corporations are people, then they need to be held accountable. But this verdict only serves to underline the fact that our law surrounding the status of corporations needs a serious examination. If the only punishment we can mete out is the direct abuse of innocent shareholders and the indirect approbation of the people who made the decisions . . . I'm not feeling the deterrent. The Death Penalty for corporations just doesn't have the sting of its human counterpart.

2002-06-14T13:17:00.000-05:00

U S A! U S A! U S A!

Oh, and go South Korea!!

Heh.

2002-06-12T22:03:00.000-05:00

So much to talk about, so much to talk about...

Okay, we need to find a legal framework in which we are allowed to pick up and question José Padilla, but in which the government is not allowed to just randomly grab people and say, "They're bad." I humbly submit for the eight or so people reading this that the way to do this is to have President Bush submit a formal declaration of war against "Al-Queda, its closely affiliated organizations, and any successor organizations," along with a list of a dozen or so of Al-Queda's top commanders. Sure, it's kind of strange, but it clears up quickly who we're allowed to treat as what. We would have to work out surrender options and set up a manner by which we would declare the war over, but this would be a way to approach the problem.

I've been thinking about setting up a, waddayacall, forum attached to this thing. If you think it'd be a good idea, email me.

Yes, I still haven't talked about the detainees. Forgive me.

In the Good News section, the US men's soccer team doesn't suck! I know I'll be up at 6:30 on Friday to enjoy the fruits of their labors. You should be too, especially if you live on the east coast and thus have no real excuse not to.

See you around.

2002-06-11T20:10:00.000-05:00

Warning: The following is almost exclusively personal, not political.

This note is being typed on my brand-new laptop, which I am quickly coming to adore. I think I'm glad I waited this long to acquire it, though; I feel quite comfortable with my decisions made in purchasing it, and I know very well how to take good care of the wee machine.

It's a refurb Dell Latitude PIII 500. The screen isn't as bright as one could hope, and the battery life leaves a little to be desired, but it will certainly serve me well as an academic machine. The screen is huge, the keyboard is big enough, and it is light enough (though a reasonably hefty 6 pounds) to be carted around. Plus, it's a Dell, so there's a certain amount of quality assumed.

The migraine keeps threatening to return. On the one hand, I want to kill it with Aleve, but on the other hand, I fear the return of the ulcer. I may just take the short-term gain and move on with my life.

It's June already! The weather is nice (except for the thunderstorms), and only two months will pass before most of my worldly possessions will be on their way to Hawai'i! I am ecstatic, and so is Tami.

Really, I have very little to complain about. I mean, the buses and trains ran late, but that was just an excuse to try out Gettysburg on the laptop. Conclusion: The game really requires both a stable surface to play it on (i.e. train but not bus) and a mouse (i.e. neither train nor bus). The things we learn.

It looks like Tami and I will be celebrating her birthday at the Reniassance Faire on the 27th (yes, yes, a day early). The various vague forces which make up the world are dovetailing to present me with a very nice life for the next little while; I think my job is to get myself healthy enough to enjoy it.

See you around.

2002-06-11T07:21:00.000-05:00

Yay! The migraine is pretty much gone. I fear that our AC may have mold in it, and that was giving me fits.

As most of us playing at home are now aware, Ashcroft has announced the capture of an American citizen, José Padilla (aka Abdulla al-Muhajir), on the grounds that he was planning a terrorist attack involving a dirty bomb. I'm of two minds about this, as usual.

Mind 1: Yay! Competence! We found out that Al-Queda was planning to do something terrible to us and brought the people who were part of the process into custody. Good job, US Government!

Mind 2: Everything else about this case stinks. Ashcroft's initial press release was full of fearmongering and a false sense of how big this plot really was. Because the plot hadn't gotten past the "This looks like an interesting idea" stages, we have little to charge this guy with. We are holding José as an enemy combatant, so he will be tried in a military court. Trying US citizens in military courts is exactly what Ashcroft and Bush promised they wouldn't do when they set up the military tribunals in the first place. And we still aren't at war, dammit. So there are no enemy combatants to speak of.

I appreciate the fact that we cannot treat terrorism as a normal crime; the scope of terrorist activities is much greater than the scope of the kinds of crimes our criminal justice system is designed to handle. We can't just wait until someone does something patently illegal, then go in and pick up the pieces. That part makes sense to me. But this idea that we can arrest someone for pooting around on the internet, because we're pretty sure that he's giving serious thought to a terrorist act . . . well, I hear Minority Report is going to kick ass. We need to find a legal framework for this, where the US government is not given unlimited powers to detain or incarcerate anyone on the basis of suspicion, but where terrorist acts are rationally prevented.

It is time to declare war, real war, on Al-Queda.

See you around.

2002-06-10T06:44:00.000-05:00

The LA Times (I apologize for all of these references to sites that require logins and cookies) ran an article on increased secrecy surrounding National Missile Defense testing yesterday. This is hardly surprising; Presidents have whipped out the excuse of "National Security" to refrain from giving out information before. And while the timing is frustrating, the simple fact of the matter is that if we do manage to get a halfway-decent National Missile Defense system running, secrecy about its capabilities is probably a good idea.

That said, my analysis is pretty simple: the NMD hasn't worked, doesn't work, and won't work -- and Bush doesn't want Congress or the American people to know it. This Administration is contemptuous of the democratic process, and any attempt on the part of our elected officials to assert their proper Constitutional authority will be met with stonewalling and accusations of treason. As said below, this is especially frustrating because the White House seems to be so very incompetent, especially on domestic matters.

Well, off to work and all that. I'm gonna have to talk about detainees tomorrow.

See you around.

2002-06-10T06:28:00.000-05:00

Bleargh. The migraine continues.

Maureen Dowd has a good summary of my arguments with regard to the Department of Homeland Security. Please note that the FBI and CIA, which are the two agencies most involved in counterterrorism operations -- and which are currently being castigated for failure to share information -- are simply not part of the DHS. It's like the League of Nations, only fascist.

2002-06-09T19:55:00.000-05:00

Well, I spent today in something of a familiar state -- bedridden from various illnesses. I woke up this morning with a blinding migraine, and it simply did not respond to treatment. Ow. This is the part where I give mad props to Tami; I foolishly allowed myself to run out of migraine medications, and she not only went to the drugstore to get me more, but also conducted a search of nearby drugstores when our local one was out. I feel loved.

You know, I have a habit of constructing extremely long, run-on sentences.

As usual, my thoughts are flitting to this and that, trying to decide how much groundwork to lay, as versus talking what has happened in the past week. I've come to the conclusion that the blog will lose its appeal to me unless I spend a little time discussing the new Cabinet-level Homeland Security Department. I both like and dislike this on a number of levels.

First, the easy dislikes. The name is damn creepy. Can't we call it Domestic Security or Federal Security or something that doesn't sound like an umbrella organization that includes the Gestapo? I didn't much like the Homeland moniker earlier, and now that it's a Cabinet position, I'm seriously creeped.

On a more substantive level, this department shows the usual Republican myopia. President Bush stated that the various members of the HSD "will come to work every morning knowing their most important job is to protect their fellow citizens." Which is fine for, you know, the CIA, but what about the Coast Guard? I can't help thinking that an awful lot of the Coast Guard's job is to rescue people who have boat troubles. Or, for example, FEMA. Isn't their job to help people who get their homes flooded? It sounds like in his mad rush to declare war on everything in sight, the basic jobs of government are getting neglected. Again.

And, for that matter, who precisely are we at war with these days? At no time was a declaration of any sort of war sent to Congress. We'll get back to this administration's contempt for Congress later.

Finally, I cannot help but to notice the timing of this announcement. The adminstration is being criticized for its failure to act on 9/11 information, so it comes out with an enormous plan for reorganizing government that -- of course -- fails to address the problem. But it does get ahead of the story; as more and more daming information comes forward, Bushies will be able to point to The Plan and say, "look, we're already on it." Sure, but where were you before the whistleblowers went public? Isn't it your job to not screw up in the first place, then conduct your own investigation into the failures? Why does every tiny piece of competent governance conducted by this administration result from an enormous public outcry? What do these people do all day?

At any rate, tomorrow I'll discuss the Administration's plans to keep secret the details of the National Missile Defense system tests. Don't forget to vote in a few months.

See you around.

2002-06-08T19:43:00.000-05:00

This is my first substantive post to my new blog, and I am torn between the feeling of having too many things to say at once and the overwhelming sense that all of it has been said before now.

Well, perhaps I'll say it differently, or I'll say it to different people.

It seems appropriate that this opening set of statements will lay out the themes to be discussed -- or at least tell why I felt compelled to begin chronicling my thoughts in this fashion. There are, essentially, two things I'm going to be talking about here, and those are politics and happiness. Specifically, mine. On both counts.

Since January of 2002, the Chronic Fatigue Syndrome and Fibromyalgia which dominated my day-to-day existence since 1995 have been pushed into remission. I have said, from time to time, that chronic illness is the definition of suffering (a point I'll have to get back to later), so perhaps my current existence is the definition of reprieve. I have my old energy and joy in living back, and it has been deepened by a sense of what truly matters.

As for my politics, I am a good old fashioned liberal -- that is, I believe in the perfectability of human beings. I think that we have the capacity to rise above our origins as clever, violent apes and continue to become something brilliant and beautiful.

Needless to say, I am continuously angered and saddened by the actions of our current administration. One reason I finally decided to begin this log was to have a record, somewhere, of all the illegal, immoral, and simply stupid decisions which have combined to give me heartburn.

I was going to call this blog "An Examined Life," but I am aware, however peripherally, of my limitations. See you around.