Month: January 2007

What have we done?

In the House, Suddenly Righteous Republicans

Anne Kornblut of the New York Times asked McHenry if his complaint might come across as whining.

“I’m not whining,” he whined.

So, when the Republicans were in power, Nancy Pelosi submitted a bill asking for fair treatment of the Democratic minority. The Republicans ignored it. Now, the Republicans are submitting the same bill with the roles reversed, and are mad that the Democrats aren’t jumping to do what they ask. The Republicans even had it delivered by a new member who could argue with something resembling a straight face that he had nothing to do with the Republicans actions a few years ago.

This is a pretty crappy thing to do on both sides, especially the Republicans. But the Washington Post has to go and ruin the article by the above quote. “Ooh, let’s call the Republicans ‘whiners’. That’ll show them.” On a related note – Cindy Sheehan is not helping anything. Defunding the Iraq war is the worst idea I’ve heard since someone thought, “Hey, it would be cool if George W. Bush was the President!”

I think my point here is that, when we “cleaned house” and got rid of some of the biggest problem Republicans in office, we seem to have replaced them with equally bad (though in different ways) Democrats. My mom doesn’t like Nancy Pelosi. And my mom has an incredible gift for finding the good in anyone, so if she can’t see anything positive in Nancy Pelosi, it’s probably not there.  And yes, I know my mom doesn’t know her personally, nor is she a professional political analyst. Actually, I don’t think I have a point. I’m just terribly frustrated that there doesn’t seem to be a single person anywhere in American politics who seems to represent my views. There’s no one I can get behind and say, “Hey, this person speaks for me”.  Am I asking too much?  Should the leaders I helped elect occasionally say things I agree with?  There are things I believe in on both sides of the political spectrum (Although not on the strange third axis of political thought where George W. Bush lives).

Is this my least coherent post ever?  Vote in the comments.  It’s not even 8:30AM. I swear I’m not drunk.

Its book review time!

I mentioned earlier that I was reading “Radical Evolution” by Joel Garreau.  I just finished it last night.

It was interesting.  He presents three possible scenarios – the “Heaven scenario”, prominently advocated by Ray Kurzweil, the “Hell Scenario”, foretold by Bill Joy, and the “Prevail Scenario”, which he learns about from Jaron Lanier.

The Heaven Scenario is where technology moves us past such problems as sickness, hunger, and death, and into a utopia.  The Hell Scenario is where technology moves forward without us, and we’re all eaten by rogue self-replicating nanomachines or wiped out by a bio-engineered super plague.  The Prevail Scenario is where we take control of the rush of technology and use it to find new ways of connecting people.  The key element of the Prevail Scenario is that we are in control.  The other two predict that the rapid rate of change in technology, which is currently increasing, is going to be too fast for us to have any input on where it’s going.

As I read the book, I went through a few phases.  First, I read about the Heaven Scenario, and envisioned myself enhanced and posthuman, immune to disease, constantly connected to an ever-present network, and immortal.  It was pretty sweet.  Kurzweil thinks we’ll have significant changes in what it means to be human in the next 2-3 decades. Then I read about the Hell Scenario, which seems less likely.  Maybe I do still have a little faith in humanity that we won’t totally destroy ourselves just yet.  Probably we will before the sun goes out, but that at least gives us a little time.  Although, if we do have a man-made global killer, it’s going to suck pretty hard.

The Prevail Scenario is less concretely defined.  It’s almost like an extension of the web 2.0 user communities into all aspects of life.  Instead of people being kept physically apart, sitting at computers in basements, new technology would allow richer connections between people than are possible now, combining the best of online communities with the best of physical communities.

In all, it’s a good read.  Even those who don’t know much about the tech side of things should be able to follow along.  The writing style is accessible.  And it’s exciting.  The idea of transcending humanity is really fascinating, and it doesn’t sound that far-fetched.

Next on my list is Glasshouse by Charles Stross, which is actually a novel about posthumans.  In the first chapter, we already have a duel for making eye contact and a no-strings-attached orgy just for fun.  The future is awesome!

Bipartisan government – the wifes take

So, apparently the other human being who lives with me doesn’t agree with my post about the Democrats being big meanies who don’t want to compromise.  She says, and it’s certainly a valid point, that the Republicans have shown no interest in compromise, and the Democrats have things they need to get done.  So they should just do them.  Getting the majority is no small feat, and they need to make things happen quickly or run the risk of losing ground in the 2008 elections, where Republicans will be eager to play up any failures by the new majority.

I think that was Mike‘s point in the comments, too – they need to jump in and get some things done, and then they can worry about compromising.

On some level, I have this optimistic view that the Democrats will rush in and stand on principle, doing things the Right Way even if it means they lose, and then eventually that Right Way will win out, and the country will be better off.  Why I think that, I don’t know.  I’m not usually that optimistic.  I think I hold Democrats to a higher standard than I do Republicans.

In any event, my view has been tempered somewhat.  But I still don’t like the sound of what they’re doing.

News Flash – People take cabs at 2am on New Years Day

I went to a party at a friend’s house for the New Year.  It was a cool party.  It became uncool, however, through no fault of the hostess, at about 2am.  My wife and I had planned to take a cab to my mom’s house, only a few miles away, where the spare room was all set up for us.  We had both been drinking, and had no intention of driving anywhere.

So I went to Google maps and looked for a cab in the area.  First company didn’t even answer the phone.  The second one told me there was a two hour wait for a cab.  The third said they had no cabs.

Was this a shock?  Were they unprepared for people to want cabs after parties for New Year’s?  I can’t imagine demand was much higher than last year.

It worked out okay, as the hostess had a fold-out couch that we could sleep on that wasn’t even uncomfortable.  But it was annoying.  You suck, Annapolis cab companies.

A new age of bipartisan government

Democrats To Start Without GOP Input – washingtonpost.com

As they prepare to take control of Congress this week and face up to campaign pledges to restore bipartisanship and openness, Democrats are planning to largely sideline Republicans from the first burst of lawmaking.

Oh, wait, never mind.  It’s great to talk about bipartisanship and compromise to get elected, but then let’s just throw that out the window and pass some laws really quickly before anyone can do anything about it.  This is not how our government is supposed to work.

Don’t get me wrong, I approve of some of the laws they want to pass.  More stem cell research?  I approve.  Tightening ethics rules for lawmakers?  Sure.  Cutting interest rates on student loans?  Well, maybe.  I don’t know that cutting the interest rates is really going to help the kids who graduate with $100,000 in debt, but maybe it will.  I’ve spoken at length on the minimum wage, and how it should be tied to real, local economic indicators and shouldn’t be a tool of politicians to appeal to liberals and poor people.  Yes, it should be raised, because if you assume we need a minimum wage, we certainly need to raise it from what it is now because it hasn’t changed in, what, ten years?  At least adjust it for inflation.

I wish the Democrats would notice that they’re alienating a lot of the people who could really be helping them.  After the colossal mess that President Bush has made of absolutely everything, many people (Like me, for example) are desperate for someone to bring back a little sanity to the federal government.  The Democrats would just have to come through on some of the promises they made before the elections and I’d be happy to support them.  But they aren’t even in office yet, and they’ve already broken a big promise to compromise and keep everyone involved.

Are you trying to force me to vote Libertarian, Nancy Pelosi?  Because I’ll do it.  You watch.

A bunch of stuff

Bad timing for some big news items. I haven’t had a chance to write about Gerald Ford, even though I flew out of an airport named after him last week. I haven’t had a chance to write about Saddam Hussein, in part because I’m still not sure how I feel about the whole thing, which is puzzling. I haven’t written about New Year’s, which contains a small complaint about the cab companies in Annapolis, Maryland, who were woefully unprepared for the demand.

So, either I’ll get to all that, and whatever else I missed, or I won’t. That’s the nice part about not doing this for a living. You can always complain yourself if I’ve missed something really glaring.