Author: Jon

Failure or success?

You may know that I’ve been trying to get a more balanced view of the news.  I realized recently that everything I read has a pretty liberal slant, and I want to see the other side.  Both because I agree with a lot of conservative ideas, and because seeing both sides of an issue helps you regardless of which side you’re on.

So tell me if I’m better off now – I don’t like reading either side.  I read the National Review, and all I hear is, “President Bush is doing the right thing, why can’t you stupid liberals see that?”.  Then I read the Daily Kos and I see, “President Bush is destroying the world.  Why can’t you stupid conservatives see that?”.  I’m sick of it all.

What happened to the idea of public service?  What happened to the idea that we’re going to do what’s right for the people, not what the leaders of the political party you affiliate yourself with think serves their interests.

When I first registered to vote in Maryland when I was 18, I registered as a Democrat, mostly because my parents are Democrats, and Maryland requires you to register with a party to vote in the primaries.  Did that mean that I was ruled by the Democratic party?  No.  It means that I chose to associate with them because, in general, their ideas matched up with mine, and they had a much bigger voice than I do.  Later, I considered myself a Republican, because my views changed, and now I agreed with more Republican ideas.

Today, I will not associate myself with either party.  Politics is too much about the party, and about the fighting for the superiority and power of one over the other, and too often the people are forgotten.

Bush Set to Use First Veto on Stem Cell Bill

Bush Set to Use First Veto on Stem Cell Bill

I’m actually okay with Bush vetoing this bill.  I mean, he said in 2001 that he wasn’t going to expand federal funding for stem cell research.  At least he’s being true to his word.  I disagree with his 2001 decision, but at least he’s being honest and consistent.

I’ll discuss my views on stem cell research another time.  The real problem I have with this veto is this:

[This veto] would mark the first time the president has wielded a veto pen, putting him far behind his predecessors Bill Clinton (38 vetoes in two terms), George H.W. Bush (44 in one term) and Ronald Reagan (78 in two terms). To a large degree, the lack of a veto reflects the simple fact that Republicans have controlled Congress almost the entire time Bush has been in office and they have been reluctant to send him legislation that might be vetoed.

You know, the real failing of those who don’t like the President may not be that we allowed him to be re-elected, but rather that we haven’t managed to get anyone in Congress who both disagrees with him, and has the backing to do something about it.  If all of Congress is behind him, and at this point it seems like half of the Supreme Court is his nominees, it’s no wonder that he’s been able to do so many things that make so many people upset.

I thought midterm elections where when the party that opposed the President typically got some more control of Congress.  Maybe we were too busy crying about how poorly he speaks, or how he stole the election.

Lets not get ahead of ourselves

Boing Boing: Will Bix kill the record industry? (I hope so)

This is a cool idea.  This new company, Bix, started by the guy who build epinions, is going to pretty much move American Idol online, except without obnoxious hosts.  The idea is to hold online contests, where maybe everyone pays an entry fee and the winner gets a chunk, or things like that.

Let’s see . . . combine YouTube with American Idol, tempt people with the idea of getting “discovered”, and sell advertising everywhere?  That sounds like a business model that could work for a while.

Plus, if it gets big enough, maybe some cool bands will get discovered that don’t sound like they were manufactured for MTV.  I think the musings at BoingBoing that suggest this could kill the recording industry are a little far-fetched, but giving up-and-coming musicians and whatnot a lower barrier to entry into the market sounds good to me.

Comment spam

Have I mentioned that people who take the time to write little scripts or whatever it is they do to spam the comments at this blog and others deserve to be hit by buses? I don’t quite know why this bothers me so much. It feels like an invasion of privacy. I love when people comment here. I love that people actually do enjoy what I write, and I welcome comments, whether you agree with me or not. But I do wish, with all my heart, that those responsible for comment spam and all other types of spam would die. This is not hyperbole. I wish death upon them. The world would be better off. If only Dante were alive now so that he could write them into The Inferno. They’d be sitting on top of Satan’s head, screaming offers for cheap V14gr4 at the tortured souls all around them.

What may be even worse is the people who actually buy from them. It must be profitable, or they’d quit. Please, anyone reading this, never, EVER EVER EVER buy ANYTHING from a spammer. If you get an email trying to sell you something, it IS A SCAM. No exceptions. It’s only going to get worse if you keep encouraging them.

Someone should be complaining about me right now

So you may know that I’m getting married in about a month.  You may also know that I typically keep my hair short enough that I haven’t owned a brush or comb since high school.  Usually, the $14 Hair Cuttery special is just perfect for me.

But I wanted something a little nicer for the wedding, so, at the advice of a coworker, I went to Phantacee, which is not a strip club.  Although they do give you a nice scalp massage before they shampoo your hair.

Now, so far I like the haircut, although I just got home and haven’t washed it yet, so it’s too early to really tell.  But I feel bad.  I didn’t realize that I wasn’t going to be able to tip the woman who cut my hair on my credit card when I paid.  I gave her all the cash in my wallet, which was a mere $4 on a $30 haircut.  I apologized, explaining that I didn’t realize I needed cash.  She blew it off, but she’s not a native English speaker, and I fear I may not have adequately expressed myself.

Anyway, there was an ATM across the street.  However, I felt it would be rude to go across the street and come back, have to get change for a $20 from the desk, and then give her a tip.  Is that wrong?  My plan is to go back for a trim the week before the wedding and give her a large tip to make up for it.  Of course, I forgot to get her name, so it may be difficult.  But I intend to make up for my small tip.

Maybe now that I’ve linked to the salon’s website, the thousands of visitors I get here will all get their hair cut there, and that will make up for it.  So, if you’re reading this, and you’re in the DC Metro area, head on over and ask for the girl who got the crappy tip from a guy with an unkempt (but clean) mop of rapidly greying hair.  Then tip her well.

Put a what on you?

Baltimore Orioles : News : Baltimore Orioles News

No matter how many runs you get, you feel like they can come back and put a [hurt] on you like they did the first night.

Correct me if I’m wrong, but don’t you usually use the word in brackets to add or replace words that are a little out of context?  For example, replacing a pronoun with the specific noun if you’ve chosen not to quote the previous sentence where the pronoun was defined.

What the heck is this [hurt] replacing?  Was there some even more obscure slang word there?  Profanity?  Did Sam Perlozzo, Orioles’ manager and the quoted, make hand gestures?  We’ll probably never know.

Also, allowing 5 hits and no runs in 5 2/3 innings is not a “gem”, as the article states.  It’s a solid start, but in my book, a “gem” is at least 7 full innings, and most of those innings better not contain any hits.

A different perspective

Touch Messenger: Braille Text Messaging – Gizmodo

The first time I really thought about things like this was a few years ago when I had a deaf coworker.  Of course I understand the concept of being deaf, or blind, but it never sinks in until you spend some time with someone who actually is deaf or blind.  But you never think about things like, “How would a blind person text message?”

My deaf coworker called his little two way text messager a “deaf person’s cell phone”.  I had never thought about how useful something like that would be to someone who’s deaf, but once I saw him use it, it’s obvious.  But I’m glad to see some of the gadget companies looking around and seeing niches that need to be filled.

Virginia last in voter turnout in the last primary

USATODAY.com – Fewer primary voters ‘define the range of choices’

I found this via Raising Kaine via Daily Kos.  3.5% of Virginia voters turned out to vote in the primary.  At the school where I voted, it was about 6%, which I thought was pretty terrible, but apparently we were ahead of the rest of the state.  Now, I know there’s a Republican incumbent, so the Republican half of the primary is pretty trivial.  But Virginia allows you to vote in either one.  Those who want Senator George Allen to retain his seat certainly could have decided which of the two Democrats had a better chance of winning, and voted for the other guy.

This seems to be either voter stupidity or voter apathy.  We have a President with a 36% approval rating.  If that doesn’t get people out to vote, what will?  Maybe we need to lose some more civil rights to the war on terror.  Maybe we do need a national ID card, something we’d be required to present all the time to prove our citizenship.  Maybe a draft, to send ground troops in to help Israel, or to invade North Korea.

It blows my mind that people don’t vote.  And then they try to use dissatisfaction with the government as justification.  If you don’t vote, then you don’t get to complain about the government.  I don’t care if George W. Bush himself comes to your house, installs a bug in your phone, and then kicks your dog.  I have no sympathy for you if you don’t vote.

All alone

My fiancee leaves for Puerto Rico today.  She’s going for a quick getaway with a friend, and she’ll be back next Wednesday, just in time for me to leave for Vegas on Thursday.  I think it’s good that we take separate vacations sometimes.  I mean, my trip to Vegas is my bachelor party, so that’s obviously separate.  But we’ll continue taking separate vacations after the wedding.  Not all the time, but sometimes.  I mean, we’re going to be hanging out with each other a lot, for a long time.  Having a few days here and there apart makes us appreciate the rest of the time even more.