Month: June 2007

Leaning left vs. right

My wife accused me of being a Republican a little while back based on things I’ve written here. And after my last post, in which I didn’t exactly present a Democratic Senator in a totally positive light, I thought I might address that.

I’m not a Republican. I’m not a Democrat. I think both parties suck. However, I think I just can’t complain about the Republicans anymore. I did, a lot, and they still suck. I guess I kind of feel like the current crop of Republicans in office is a lost cause. They’re going to continue to do stupid and possibly illegal things, and there’s not much we can do about it.

_As an aside, can I say “the current crop is” and then “They are”? It seems wrong, but grammatically I’m not totally sure. I’m referring to the same group, but in a different way? Anyway, if it’s wrong as I’ve written it, I apologize. _

The Democrats should take it as a compliment when I complain about them. It means I haven’t given up on you them yet.

What that means is that the day you see me start complaining regularly about Libertarians or the Green Party or some other political party, that will be the day that I’ve given up on everyone.

Legislating fairness

Techdirt: Senator Really Does Want A Return Of The Fairness Doctrine

Senator Dianne Feinstein said this weekend that a legislative remedy may be needed to counter the influence of right-wing talk radio, which she blamed for stymieing attempts to bring about immigration reform.

Ask any parent – it’s impossible to make a rule that’s fair for everyone. If all parties involved aren’t interested in being fair about things, you’ll never get anywhere.

Of course, this isn’t really about fairness at all. This is about unfairness in the opposite direction. And, actually, Techdirt is either reporting stuff from elsewhere, or is maybe inferring a little extra malice in what Feinstein is saying. She doesn’t seem to be making this as black and white as is suggested.

My view here is that the proper way to combat excessive right-wing bias in talk radio is to get more excessive left-wing bias on talk radio. I mean, that seems pretty simple, right? I don’t think anyone is barring anyone from getting a radio show based on their political leanings. And if they are, there are probably already laws in place to take care of that.

When you have two sides competing, and one is dominating a space, and the other suggests legislating fairness, you have to wonder if things are really unfair as they are. I honestly can’t think of how radio stations could be legally keeping liberal views off the air. They can’t get together and make deals to make sure only conservatives have jobs. Maybe they can just refuse to hire liberals? I don’t know that liberals are a protected group under EEO laws. I would suspect that they aren’t.

_NB:  The wife says, “There is no historical evidence of discrimination on the basis of one’s party affiliation, so they don’t qualify as a discrete and insular minority.”  Hence, no EEO protection. _

However, that doesn’t mean that a group of concerned liberals (With backing from, say, concerned Senators) couldn’t start a radio station and be as left-wing as they want to be.

The other issue here, and I may be completely wrong, but isn’t Bush being uncharacteristically reasonable on the immigration debate? Aside from the ridiculous wall, hasn’t he been pushing a pretty moderate plan?

My wife, my accountant

And I thought I was just getting a lawyer when I got married.  Turns out my wife is an accountant, too.  When we were (Well, she was) doing our taxes, she discovered that I had failed to report some mortgage interest paid on my 2005 return.  So, she insisted that I re-file.  Or, rather, she re-filed, and made me sign it.

Today, I get a check from the IRS for $328.46.  $300 in taxes I paid and didn’t owe, and $28.46 in interest.

So, what should I do with it?  I figure it should be something nice for both of us.

Nice job, Apple store

Yesterday, my wife fried the power supply to her month-old MacBook.  I think it happened when she unplugged it to move from the living room to the dining room.  Today, I went in to the Pentagon City Apple store, where we bought the computer last month, and talked with a salesman there.  He checked the power supply on a store computer, checked our computer on a store power supply, determined that our power supply was, indeed, dead, and promptly gave me a new one.  No questions, no nothing.  Just gave me a new one.

Then he walked me through the process for transferring files from the old computer to the new, which we tried once unsuccessfully.  I’m going to try it again tonight.

So, I may not like Apple and their over-priced proprietary hardware and their snooty commercials and the f’ing iPhone.  But I’m quite impressed with the service at this Apple store.  They were busy, too.  It’s not like I caught a guy, bored in an empty store, and got a lot of attention.  And this will certainly be the first time an Apple has ever worked better after I touched it.

Opening night at The Heights

Last night was the grand opening of The Heights, a new restaurant a few blocks from us. The wife and I went with a friend of hers visiting for the weekend.

First of all, it was packed. We waited probably half an hour. It wasn’t too bad – we found a spot at the bar to wait. The staff all seemed a little nervous, but very friendly and attentive. The food was very good. The buffalo shrimp appetizer was very good, and my tilapia with rice was also very good. The wife tried their frozen mojito, which she liked. We had a caramel banana cake thing for dessert, which was quite nice.

The staff was a little overwhelming. We had at least 5 people bring us things or take things from our table. But the service was good, and everyone who did come to the table was very pleasant. It was a little warm in the restaurant.

I really liked the bathroom – nice stone tiles and funky orange walls. The finish on the construction left a little to be desired. However, they plainly aren’t quite finished with the construction. The floor of the entire restaurant is still bare concrete. So maybe they’ll polish off the bathroom soon.

Anyway, I’m glad to have them here in the neighborhood. And it will be really cool when they open up the outdoor patio, which I think will just about double the capacity.

Afterwards, we went up to the Marx Cafe in Mount Pleasant. That just might be my new favorite low-key bar. The place looks like a barn or something. Lots of exposed wood, as if it’s still being built. The wife’s friend said it looked kind of like a wine cellar – they have bottles over the bar on some kind of strange shelves.

The beer selection is odd but good.  They serve beers I’ve never heard of in glasses with the name of the beer on it.  The service was great. The waitress even laughed at a marginally funny comment I made, which is always nice.  There was a slightly obnoxious group next to us, but not too terrible.  And the music was fantastic.  Apparently the DJ for most of the night is only there once a month or so, but he played nothing I’d ever heard before, and nothing I didn’t like.  Not that I would go out and buy everything he played or anything like that.  But you know how the bar always plays some really horrific stuff at some point, like some Jane’s Addiction or some other intolerable crap?  This bar played none of that.  And they have a really interesting menu, although we didn’t try anything.  Maybe next time.

Anyway, I heartily recommend both.

Observations

I was just in the restroom at work, and a short, balding man came in.  He had made an attempt to hide the fact that he was balding by getting a really bad haircut and wearing an ugly shirt.  It didn’t work.

He tried to fix his hair, then walked out.  It was all I could do to resist telling him not to bother.

18% alcohol, 100% delicious

Raison D'Extra

We were at RFD last night, and I couldn’t resist the Dogfish Head Raison D’Extra. I probably should have resisted, but I didn’t. Now I’m paying for it.

Anyway, the beer is 18% alcohol. It cost $19.95 for a 12 ounce bottle. And it’s pretty good. It’s not something I would drink very often. It’s very sweet, a little bit in the wine direction but not too far.

And I was thinking – with that much alcohol, drinking one of those is more or less like drinking a six pack of Miller Lite.  Except you can be much more smug about it.

The waiter almost got his arm ripped off, though.  He actually tried to take the glass when there was still a swallow left.  Ordinarily, I probably would have let him go.  But that was like $4 worth of beer left.  So I punched him in the face.

Not really.  But you get the idea.

Why I complain

I may have posted about this once before, so if you’ve heard it, you can just skip to the next paragraph.  A friend at work a few years ago, defending me to someone else, said that, while I complain a lot, it isn’t quite complaining.  It’s really just making conversation.

I’ve always been a big talker.  A perfect example is last Christmas, the first one I didn’t spend at home with my family.  I was with my in-laws instead.  My two younger siblings told me later that we had never realized that I started most of the family dinner conversations.  Apparently Christmas dinner was rather quiet without me.

Anyway, the thing I’m really bad at, and I think the reason that I complain a lot, is that I’m just awful at making small talk with people I don’t really know.  It’s hit home recently in my interactions with the people who live in my building, and the people who live next door.

Just this afternoon, I was sitting on the front steps after I went running, which I often do to kind of cool off gradually before I sit in the air conditioning.  A girl next door, who I’ve never met, came up the steps with her bike.  She said hello, and I said hello.  She asked, “How’s it going?”.  And I had absolutely no response.  Luckily for me, her bike had a flat tire, which I noticed, so I could ask about that.  Otherwise, I really have no idea what I would have said.

And I fear that people will think me unfriendly, or that I don’t want to get to know them.  I would like to get to know my neighbors.  I’ve met the people in my building, some more than others, and I’ve met a few people next door.  They all seem very nice.  But I can just never think of anything to say to people I don’t really know.

I’ve never really understood why.  I love to talk.  I talk at great length when I’m comfortable.  But when I’m not, I’m nearly mute.

Maybe there’s a class or something I could take.

Im totally using this in my next performance review

Why Less Brilliant Presidents Do Better

I’m sorry, boss, but I’m too smart to be a good manager.  Although I suppose that would probably backfire, as if we assume this is true, it follows that it’s extremely unlikely that I will get dumber and therefore improve my managerial skills.

However, when you have a sample size as small as the number of US Presidents (43?  Is that how many we’ve had?  I forget.  Less than 50, anyway), and you can list two exceptions – he mentions Lincoln and Teddy Roosevelt – one starts to doubt the hypothesis.

Never mind how difficult it is to really measure intelligence.

Still, it’s an interesting thought, if not a new one.  And it doesn’t make me want to vote for the dumbest person running.

A strange but compelling book

I hereby demand that all people who are good at math make the world free of illness. The rest of us will write you epic poems and staple them together into a booklet.

I tried out the Mount Pleasant branch of the DC public library the other day, and one of the books I picked up was Adverbs by Daniel Handler. I picked it up because, seriously, it had a very colorful cover. That’s how I often pick books at the library. It has worked surprisingly well so far. I didn’t realize this was the Lemony Snicket guy. I didn’t see that movie, and I don’t really know anything about the books. I’m not sure if knowing would have influenced my decision to read the book.

Anyway, I like it so far. It reminds me of Chuck Palahniuk, the guy who wrote Fight Club, except with a softer edge. Palahniuk likes to lead you in circles and then punch you in the gut. Handler leads you in circles and then kind of jabs you in the ribs, hard enough so you rub them, but it doesn’t really hurt.

It’s a little strange – each chapter is not exactly connected to the previous chapter, and he uses first-person narration that is not always the same person.  But it often seems as if it could be the same person.  Except the gender changes.

I’m only about 65 pages in, though, so I can’t give a full review. But I will when I finish it.