Speaking Liberally

Pass This Line Around

2010-03-10T02:19:00.003-06:00

Via Talking Points Memo, a spokesman for a Democratic congressman.:

Toyota has more credibility on car safety than [congressional Republicans] have on ethics

I want to hear this come out of the mouths of multiple talking heads by the end of the week.

Worst Job in the World

2010-02-22T13:07:00.001-06:00

Former Vice-President Dick Cheney's international travel agent.

Research Silently Affects Discourse

2010-01-17T11:59:00.002-06:00

Since a recent UIC study (via Gapers Block and Chicagoist) showed that the Wal-Mart on the West Side saw no net gains in local jobs, and that the wages earned locally actually decreased, politicians and news articles aren't mentioning the "more jobs" aspect of Wal-Mart stores anymore. Instead, as in this Sun-Times article, they're touting Wal-Mart Superstores as a solution to the various Food Deserts in the city.

Signing off on the Chatham Wal-Mart won't solve the problem, another Daley adviser said. "We need several" supercenters in Chicago's food deserts, the adviser said.

What would be nicer than the research silently affecting the discourse would be for the city to try to find a retailer who is not as toxic to its local environment to come in and sell food in Chicago's deserts. Apparently that's a bit much to ask of our elected officials, though.

It's a Rumor, But...

2010-01-11T03:16:00.003-06:00

It's about time that DePaul athletics did something about the Men's Basketball team, which performs dismally for a school that only has one revenue sport. Hopefully the rumors are true and the school will get a new head coach soon. It's being reported by multiple sources, so it's likely true. As things stand right now, I only bother to root for Illinois even though I'm entitled to two schools now.

Something for that Special Evangelical in Your Life

2009-11-16T23:11:00.002-06:00

What with the holidays coming around (which were heralded by Christmas ads on November first...), I bet you're looking for the perfect gift for that hard-to-please Fundamentalist Christian on your list. Well, look no further, as Teresa Nielsen Hayden has found for us some Vaccine Waivers for Creationists - just print the pdf on an appropriate page of stickers and you have an instant gift as well as a means to pitch in and conserve the seasonal flu and H1N1 vaccines for those who need them!

Disconnect in Perceptions

2009-11-08T19:43:00.002-06:00

I realize that Cecil's already covered this, but I still have to marvel at how people think that Rogers Park is a lot more dangerous than other places on the North Side. I mean, sure, the area around Howard isn't terribly great, but I don't see stories in the newspaper about that area. Instead, I keep reading about horrible things that happen in Lincoln Park.

Me thinks it's more about who one see's upon stepping off the L, rather than any real crime statistics, that gives the area its reputation.

How Bad is It?

2009-10-09T14:59:00.003-05:00

How bad must it be to be the president whose successor is given a Nobel Peace Prize mostly for not being his predecessor?

A bunch of Bush Administration proxies were stressing that history would judge them best.

Well, the historical viewpoint is beginning, and it's not off to an auspicious start for Bush 43.

That Took....Talent. Yeah, Talent...

2009-09-18T23:41:00.001-05:00

Don't ask me how, but apparently some guy aspirated a plastic spoon.

He Makes a Good Point

2009-08-20T13:46:00.003-05:00

Ramsin Canon at the Gaper's Block blog Mechanics aruges that we really don't have a good idea of what constitutes a 'good' Democrat, and this lack is a major problem when it comes to defining what the party is for and how we are to judge it.

There is a flaw in the motto "Elect More, and Better, Democrats." This motto of the liberal netroots--as a handy shorthand for the current generation of liberal activists--was laid out originally by Markos Moulitsas and adopted to various degrees by the other major netroots networks and organizations.

The flaw is the word "better". With no real left ideology (and therefore, no attendant analysis of the current political and economic situation) there is no real way to gauge what makes a "better" Democrat. With no definition of "better" in this context, we are left with "Elect more Democrats;" not only this, but without an ideology--an analysis--we can't gauge legislative progress--meaning we will never know when we have "enough" Democrats. Electing more Democrats is not a worthwhile goal until we know what makes a politician a "good" or "better" Democrat.

That is to say, without a party-independent movement capable of providing analysis of current political and social crises, we'll end up with a constant tension between those who think espousal of particular issues, versus partisan loyalty, define "progress", "the left" or "progressivism".

It's worth a full read, which you should go give it.

Safety is in the Eye of the Beholder

2009-08-19T10:48:00.003-05:00

There was yet another set of beatings in Lincoln Park last night, but people still think that Edgewater and Rogers Park are less safe because there's more brown skinned people around here.

Go figure.

EtOH Observation

2009-08-01T16:57:00.003-05:00

I find it interesting that while Pres. George W. Bush was elected partially because he was the candidate you'd be more likely to have a beer with, Pres. Barack H. Obama was the first president to actually put having a beer with someone to good use in recent memory. (I have to add the caveat as I'm sure that people better versed in US history than I can wax poetic about how John Quincy Adams and some guy sat down for a lager and hammered out the whatever bill of 18-something.)

Healthcare NIMBYs

2009-07-23T23:00:00.004-05:00

I apologize for the paucity of posts - I'm busy, which makes it hard to find things to gripe about here. Anyhow, here's a decent one: Children's Memorial Hospital is in the process of building a brand-new facility on the Northwestern Memorial campus in Streeterville, the neighborhood that is home to the Mag Mile. Children's Memorial has long had a heliport at its Lincoln Park location, and wants one at its new place in the Near North. The approval for the helipad is nearing the end of a long process, but is meeting resistance from the local block club, SOAR. Their opposition has triggered a series of hearings by IDOT, the first of which was today. While it is currently unknown whether or not SOAR has a legitimate concern, as their day to offer expert testimony is tomorrow, this quote in a Chicago Daily News piece on today's hearing made it seem to me that something else is going on:

“If there’s an accident in this neighborhood, it could be terrible,” said Streeterville resident Hugh Stevens, who came to hear more about the hospital’s proposal. “I’m in favor of Children’s Memorial Hospital, but I don’t think Children’s thought about this enough before they decided to move.”

What struck me about this resident's statement is that he says it as if Children's did not already have a helipad in a Chicago neighborhood. I mean, I do not actually live in Lincoln Park because it is too expensive and a bit too stuck-up for my tastes, but I am there quite frequently for school and I can assure you that it would be just as terrible to have a helicopter accident in Lincoln Park, the only difference being that the victims would have slightly smaller wallets than those in Streeterville. This, to me, sounds like the neighborhood's using a classic NIMBY tactic of claiming safety concerns as a cover for really just not wanting the potential for helicopter noise at any time of the day or night. Tomorrow may see something different at the hearing, but I do not anticipate being surprised.

I Used To Live Next Door...

2009-06-15T14:41:00.004-05:00

The News-Gazette's reporting a working fire at a campus apartment building next door to where I used to live. Thankfully that didn't happen to my building, which was identical, while I was living there.

UPDATE: The N-G took down their blurb story, breaking the previous link. The new, longer story on the fire is here. My old building's the one next door, though my apartment itself if out of the shot.

As If We Needed His Word On It

2009-05-22T15:52:00.003-05:00

Via DailyKos and a whole chain of other blogs is this video of Chicago's own Mancow being waterboarded. Even though he's conservative, he has to admit that it's torture:

For Future Reference

2009-04-24T01:52:00.002-05:00

DanK is Back, a diarist at Daily Kos, has done us all the service of putting together the known timeline of the legal non-justifications of torture that occurred under the Bush administration, and the denials that came after.

Another Reason to Dislike Disney

2009-04-10T01:32:00.002-05:00

Via Aaron Williams of Nodwick fame is a video showing how many "classic" Disney movies (ya know, the ones that seemed to make the least coherent sense) really just reused scenes from each other.

Medical Humor

2009-04-03T16:28:00.001-05:00

I have now progressed far enough in nursing school to make this parody video funny.

An Observed Phenomenon

2009-03-30T10:29:00.003-05:00

Previous screeds of my past blog aside, I do have a number of current and former sorority women as friends on Facebook, and this only increased as I began my current program of study. Over the past few months I have noticed something: a disturbing (and annoying) percentage of them have their presumed middle names listed instead of their last names. Admittedly, this does not affect the sorting algorithm for Facebook, as the site alphabetizes by first name, but for the first month or so that this was going on it was somewhat confusing when, instead of seeing stuff about Jane Doe on my news feed, I get stories about a Jane Sue when I am certain I have never friended anyone with a last name of Sue.

No one has told my why this is going on, as I try to stay on the periphery of such social groups and have not asked directly. However, my best guess is that it's some cutesy attempt to keep people, like job recruiters or admissions officers, from finding their profiles and seeing everything that can be seen there. Using the friend list and other privacy features, not to mention de-tagging all those underage drinking photos, would be a better means of doing this, though, so I am not sure my guess is correct. Anyone know what's really going on?

Continuing Implosion of the Cook County Republican Party

2009-03-11T19:43:00.004-05:00

Case in point: quality leadership.

Former Cook County Republican Chairman Gary Skoien is denying a police report that said his wife found him at home with two prostitutes and beat him with her fists and a toy guitar.

The report filled out by Barrington-Inverness police says that’s what Eni Skoien told them — and that Gary Skoien confirmed the account, said Deputy Chief Jerry Libit.

“That’s how it was reported to us,” Libit said.

A police report on the incident said he told responding officers there were prostitutes with him in the play room when his wife caught him.

...Police said he suffered cuts and had blood on his hands after his wife attacked him when she walked in on him at about 1:15 a.m. Sunday.

While the article states that the guy denies everything, let's look at this from a more pragmatic standpoint. If you are a philandering politician, and are smart about it, you do not bring hookers into your home, especially if you are a member of a party that proclaims a "family values" platform. You most definitely do not do this at a time when your spouse has even the slightest chance of being home. Lastly, if you want to cover it up, you start by not pressing charges, rather than by filing the police report and then repudiating it later. I mean, Illinois voters are rather inured to having crooked politicians, but we at least expect them to be competent at it. From my side of center, he loses respect not because of what he did, but because he was dumb enough to get caught doing it.

The Sun-Times article says the Cook County GOP has not won a county-wide office in 17 years. With geniuses like this bozo running the show, is anyone surprised?

Must Be Too Much Real News This Week

2009-02-24T16:37:00.002-06:00

How can you tell? CNN.com's dug up a twenty-year-old missing white female story.

Honestly, can we just have more real news? I understand that a certain amount of fluff news is good, but this just serves to highlight modern media fetishes that we're all well aware of now.

Yeah, This Was a Not-Fun Surprise

2009-02-19T05:44:00.004-06:00

CTA U-Pass mistake hits DePaul students

Thousands of DePaul University students were met with a surprise this morning: Their CTA U-Passes were no good.

Mistakenly, about 5,000 of the student transit cards were deactivated, officials said.

Earlier this week, a list of students who hold the passes was sent out to DePaul officials for the information to be updated. The card company responsible for maintaining the passes was inquiring about students who were no longer enrolled at the school, said Noelle Gaffney, spokeswoman for the CTA.

But instead of updating the list, someone at the CTA interpreted the information to be "hot listed" and deactivated all the cards associated with the names on the list, Gaffney said.

...The CTA notified customer assistance workers at all the stations near the DePaul campuses and told them to allow students to board by just showing their pass, Gaffney said.

...the Chi-Town Daily News is also on the story, confirming that my U-Pass won't be turned back on 'til the weekend, at the earliest.

GOP State Rep Pisses Off Every Single Academic In Illinois

2009-02-05T17:42:00.003-06:00

Out of sheer political grandstanding, State Sen. Larry Bomke (R-Springfield) has introduced a bill with the sole purpose of forcing UIC to fire Bill Ayers.

State Sen. Larry Bomke...wants Ayers removed from his university post under a proposal that says anyone who has committed an act of violence against the governments of the United States or Illinois cannot work at a public university.

Here's a hint: professors and other academics are really touchy about politicians saying what can and cannot go on in academic settings. It has to do with the whole free flow of ideas thing and all. Thankfully, the Dems control the state legislature, so this will go nowhere. Considering that this guy represents the Springfield area, itself home to UIS and to SIU's Medical School, I'm amazed that he thinks that the political calculus for this stunt will end up on his side.

The Problem With Hooters

2009-02-04T20:01:00.002-06:00

I've never been impressed with Hooters restaurants. Beyond the "meh" quality of most of the food, the major failing of this chain is that women with respectable quantities of the anatomical feature for which the restaurant is named are usually able to leverage their visage into a better job elsewhere.

Trying Too Hard

2009-02-04T19:52:00.002-06:00

A recent CNN.com story regurgitating GOP hand-wringing over the large size of stimulus package manages to torpedo the one redeeming feature of the piece, the headline "Numb and number: Is trillion the new billion?" by explaining the pun in the text:

" 'Number' itself can be parsed 'number' or 'numb-er.' And maybe in this case, the latter is a better pronunciation," [Temple University Professor John Allen] Paulos said.

The piece does get a bit better in the end by saying that the large numbers are necessary to deal with the large pile of shit that is the U.S. economy, but then flounders with a concluding sentence that makes no grammatical sense. In all, CNN would have been better off not running the story at all.

My Dad Steered Me Away From These

2009-01-27T22:41:00.004-06:00

For those who don't know what a Four-Plus-One is, here's an article that describes them and how they fit into Chicago zoning laws. It tries to defend the four-plus-one, mostly from forty-year-old arguments expressed once upon a time by Yuppies in Lincoln Park and Lakeview, and in so doing kinda glosses over how they were generally not built with an eye to quality, and for a long time were not maintained horribly well (until various areas in the Winthrop-Kenmore corridor gentrified). Needless to say, I was not impressed with the four-plus-ones I was shown while I was looking for an apartment.

Kudos to Gaper's Block for the link.

This Cannot End Well

2009-01-27T01:47:00.002-06:00

Via El Reg, Fox has picked up a pilot for an American remake of Ab Fab. Merely thinking about it hurts my brain. Hopefully Fox'll do what it does to any of its shows in the past decade that have even the hint of being successful and cancel it before it finishes its first season.

Zombie Musical!

2009-01-26T23:48:00.003-06:00

The Trib reports that some production company has purchased the rights to make Michael Jackson's Thriller into a musical.

The Nederlander Organization announced officially today that is has acquired the rights to Michael Jackson's iconic 1983 music video "Thriller" and plans to turn it into a Broadway musical.

Rumors of the project first surfaced last fall on New York gossip pages. Since the Nederlander Organization controls Broadway in Chicago, that would suggest such a project would start out in Chicago.

"Could be," said James L. Nederlander, the coy lead producer, on Monday morning. "I'd like to."

Apparently Michael will be involved with the creation of the show - which should bode well for the sake of the choreography, at least. The man's a creep, but he can still dance better than more or less any other pop star out there.

Myself, I forsee this being made of either epic awesomeness or epic fail. There really can be no middle ground on it.

Fictional Course: ENG 415 - Ethics and Morality in Speculative Fiction

2009-01-26T23:45:00.003-06:00

Essay question: Discuss how the term 'grok' relates to the concepts of agape, philia, and eros.

Don't They Say This Every Year?

2009-01-22T20:51:00.003-06:00

Streets and Sanitation is telling residents to get their crap out of the street.

Coincidentally, this is probably the last week for curbside specials this Winter, at least until the various colleges start letting out for the summer.

As If More Important Things Weren't Happening Today

2009-01-20T20:31:00.003-06:00

Cnn.com felt the need to bring up a 25-year-old story about a missing white female.

Exploring Chicago, Part Two

2009-01-17T14:43:00.003-06:00

Part of an ongoing series of observations.

Lincoln Avenue is a looooong diagonal street.

There are also other streets (e.g. Clark) that appear to be mild-mannered North-South streets, but with a diagonal bit in the middle that puts them out of order depending on which part of town you learned the names for.

Learning the Marker Light system for the L is helpful when one is squinting into the distance trying to tell if that's a Red Line train coming, or just another Brown.

Speaking of the L, the heat lamps on the platforms are great, but only do so much to prevent frostbite.

Hardly anybody takes credit/debit cards in this town. Restaurants want cash, cold and hard, unless they're either nice or are places where people drop loads of money all at once.

Simple Answers to Simple Questions

2009-01-17T13:57:00.002-06:00

A Chicago Tribune headline asks, "Have we set the bar too low for miracles?"

Yes.

This has been an installment of Simple Answers to Simple Questions.

Number 6 is Dead

2009-01-14T17:35:00.003-06:00

(Via the Tribune) Patrick McGoohan died today at the age of 80. While not as well-known to more mainline sci-fi geeks as the passing of Majel Barrett-Roddenberry, it's significant to those of us who are familiar with The Prisoner, a rather surreal ITV show produced and starring McGoohan. For those who haven't watched the show, AMC (which is remaking the series) has put all 17 episodes online. If you've not seen it before, you should go watch it, and be surprised at the little references to the show that you'll recognize in later TV and movies.

What Do You Mean, "Not Your Job"?

2009-01-09T12:17:00.005-06:00

Gov. Blagojevich was impeached today by the IL State House, 114-1. The one against was Rep. Milton Patterson, D-Chicago, who the tribune reports said that it "wasn't his job to vote to impeach the governor," saying things about the criminal process needing to take place instead.

Well, excuse us, Rep. Patterson, but one of your admittedly rarely exercised powers as a state representative is to vote on articles of impeachment of state officers that are put before the Illinois State House. As Archpundit has repeatedly stated, impeachment is a political process, not a criminal one. The object of impeachment is to send to the State Senate a recommendation remove state officers who have manifestly demonstrated their inability to follow the law while doing their jobs, with or without actual criminal charges being filed. If you think part of your job is not your job, you and your constituents need to have a conversation come primary time, hopefully one ending with you not appearing on the November 2010 ballot.

And besides, if you really thought that it "wasn't your job", Rep. Patterson, you could always have abstained.

An Auspicious Start

2009-01-05T22:26:00.002-06:00

So I get to the L platform this morning to head to campus for my first day of grad school, and wait... and wait... and wait some more. Two Northbound trains went by, but for us Southbound folks, nothing. The platform was actually almost crowded, which for an 8-car platform at my stop is something of a minor feat, as best as I can tell. Then the CTA attendant came on the PA and told us that there had been a derailment at Howard, the terminus for the Red Line and the location of one of the yards, which was preventing Southbound traffic.

Thankfully, the CTA already runs bus routes parallel to the line which, while it took a long time, at least was warmer than the L platform and involved motion towards my destination.

As for my first day of classes - I currently do not feel as if I have been hit with a sack of bricks, but that should not last long. Maybe a week. If I'm lucky.

Exploring Chicago, Part One

2008-12-23T01:16:00.005-06:00

The beginning of an on-going series.

Halsted Street in Lincoln Park (specifically, between Fullerton and Armitage) is where you send all your female friends who have too much money to go buy overpriced clothing they can't afford. And there's an occasional bar there, too.

Which came first, Kenmore the avenue or Kenmore the Sears appliance house brand?

There are reasons why the NFT updates annually - stores close. At least I found a cool game shop around the corner from the site of a former bookstore I tried to find.

I now live a few scant blocks from the first apartment my parents had right after they got married. Not coincidentally, my world has now shrunk a bit.

Apparently, when I'm wandering semi-aimlessly I still look enough like a local that people ask me for directions. I follow in my father's footsteps in this - he was able to pull this off in London.

I'm Not Sure What to Say

2008-12-15T01:31:00.002-06:00

Other than that this webcomic is both profound and disturbing.

Gingerbread Masonry

2008-12-10T21:31:00.002-06:00

Via my UIUC LAS Alumni email comes word that a grad student made a gingerbread house replica of Lincoln Hall.

Of course, the replica had better structural integrity than the building it was patterned after...

The Sad State of Illinois Politics

2008-12-09T10:59:00.005-06:00

I've long said that citizens of Illinois are disappointed, but never surprised, when we find out that yet another of our politicians is corrupt. But still...damn, a sitting governor arrested for trying to sell Barack Obama's former senate seat, among a long list of charges.

I'm not surprised at the corruption, just that the man's that stupid.

At least we'll have an open Democratic primary in 2010.

EDIT: Subject-verb agreement is a good thing.

Pro Forma Announcement

2008-12-02T11:40:00.003-06:00

While all of the seven regular readers of my blog already know this, I feel that I should announce anyway that I will be moving to Chicago this month to attend DePaul's Masters Entry to Nursing Practice program. I've signed for a place in Edgewater near Loyola and look forward to taking the Red Line to classes. I intend to keep blogging here, and will keep the coloring scheme - Orange and Blue at least technically follows the Rule of Tincture, while Red and Blue blatantly does not.

If I Were a Fangirl, I'd Squee

2008-11-17T19:06:00.002-06:00

The new Star Trek movie trailer is up here. (You'll want to click on Trailer 2.)

UPDATE: Here's an official-looking YouTube video of the trailer.

Edify Yourself

2008-11-16T14:57:00.003-06:00

Devilstower at DailyKos has a long but informative post up about credit default swaps and how they made the financial markets explode, spawned by the current GOP spin trying to pin the crisis on anyone but themselves. Go read it.

Read It and Weep

2008-11-10T00:15:00.002-06:00

Chancellor Herman writes to the DI to say that, try as hard as they can, Students for Chief Illiniwek's antics won't bring back the Chief:

I want to clarify and add background to a recent announcement by the Registered Student Organization (RSO) "Students for Chief Illiniwek." The RSO plans to rent the Assembly Hall on November 15 to promote its cause at an event called, "Students for Chief Illiniwek Presents: The Next Dance."

The campus does not support and is not sponsoring this rally and, as long as the group does not exclude any fellow students from participating, the organization is free to express within the law the beliefs and perspectives of its members.

On February 21, 2007, the University at Urbana-Champaign retired the Chief Illiniwek tradition. The campus also ended the production of Chief merchandise, except through the Collegiate Licensing Company's "Vault" program, which is used for retired logos.

We will not reinstate the Chief Illiniwek tradition.

However, we will never prevent people from expressing themselves on our campus. The RSO system at the University allows groups of students to create organizations that represent many different viewpoints. While the University will not always condone those views, we will allow students to form a RSO, as long as they meet clear and existing guidelines. Those guidelines include adhering to all federal and state nondiscrimination and equal opportunity laws, orders, and regulations.

All RSOs have certain rights, including the right to reserve/rent certain campus spaces for their events. The Assembly Hall is one of the venues available for such events.

The University works very hard to create an inclusive campus community. Free speech and the ability to express ideas is a core value of this great institution. Without this freedom, students do not have exposure to ideas nor the ability to test the veracity of those ideas.

This is a tradition we will always honor.

Richard Herman,
Chancellor

As I've said many times before, retiring the Chief was an irreversible decision by the Board of Trustees. The nature of our former "symbol"/mascot is so toxic that, were the board to reinstate it, the university's reputation as an enlightened institution of higher learning would be shot. That's why it's best not to have these big displays, and best not to cling on to things like yelling "Chief" during the Three-in-One at Halftime (two-thirds of which I'd also like to go see the way of our well-maligned mascot). The more people keep deluding themselves that it will come back, the longer it will take for the community as a whole to move on.

I Hate Pervasive Disney Advertising

2008-11-06T22:54:00.004-06:00

I now understand why some people have fancy covers for their facial tissue boxes. In my case, at least, I would not have it to coordinate with my decoration scheme (which would require me to have one in the first place). Instead it would be to cover up the fact that it was not until I got home that I realized that, on the middle box of the three-pack of Kleenex I just bought, Hannah Montana's face was rictus-grinning back at me.

I'm not sure what to do with this box at the moment. Suggestions are appreciated.

Thank God

2008-11-06T00:25:00.003-06:00

Gov. Blagojevich (D-Idiot) is "not interested" in appointing himself to Obama's soon-to-be-vacant senate seat:

What the governor says he's looking for: someone who shares many of the Democratic ideals he and Obama share, including health care expansion, creating jobs, cutting taxes for working class people.

The governor said he hopes to have a decision made by New Year's, but there is no timeline.

Names being bandied about Illinois political circles include Democratic Reps. Jesse Jackson Jr., Luis Gutierrez, Jan Schakowsky and Danny Davis, Atty. Gen. Lisa Madigan, Comptroller Dan Hynes and Treasurer Alexi Giannoulias, who is close to Obama. Some are promoting themselves while others are mentioned due to the offices they hold and the political landscape in 2010, when Democrats must defend the seat.

Another name mentioned is real estate executive Valerie Jarrett, a close Obama friend and top adviser, who could help Blagojevich with blacks, women and the White House if he seeks re-election. Yet another: Tammy Duckworth, an Iraq war veteran who narrowly lost a congressional bid and now serves as Blagojevich's Department of Veterans' Affairs director.

I've read elsewhere (don't remember where, though, else I'd link it) that Mayor Daley would like nothing more than to kick Rep. Jessie Jackson Jr. into the Senate, since Jackson's been making noises about being Mayor of Chicago himself - the hope being that he'd like his new job too much to come back to Chicago and challenge Daley. If that's true, then I wouldn't be surprised to see it happen. What Daley wants, Daley gets.

Late Election Roundup

2008-11-04T23:46:00.004-06:00

Hi there, paltry readership.

I spent my afternoon and evening as a Poll Watcher at Cunningham 5 at PAR, and then watched the returns come in at Matt's place. And, though it's been said many times already - Yay Obama!

So far, it looks like the Constitutional Convention is losing, as is the School Sales Tax - both "yay"s for me. Sadly, the City of Champaign referendum to fund general assistance did not pass.

I'm gonna vegetate for a bit, then head to bed. I may have something more profound to say later. If not, Yay!

Obama Wins Dixville Notch, NH

2008-11-03T23:11:00.001-06:00

15 votes to 6.

(No link, I watched it on the teevee.)

Election Day is Tomorrow!

2008-11-03T22:56:00.003-06:00

In case any of my seven readers are first-time voters, you need to bring a government-issued ID (like your I-card) and a piece of mail, i.e. a bill, listing your current address. Even if you're not a first-time voter, having these along to smack down the Republican poll watcher with is never a bad idea.

Myself, I plan to vote early, and maybe end up as a poll watcher myself at some point tomorrow. We'll see how things go.

Also, if you live in Champaign County, go find and print out your specimen ballot before you go to the polls. If you fill that out ahead of time, all you need do once you hit the polling booth is copy your ovals to the official ballot. If lots of people do that, voting will go a lot smoother.

Viral Election Funness

2008-10-30T01:23:00.002-05:00

Via Aaron Williams, the guy who draws Nodwick (if you have to ask, you're not a gamer), comes a link to this YouTube video synchronizing the three 2008 Presidential Debates.

Of course, these guys were helped immensely by the fact that the second debate was a complete retread of the first. Can we do away with the "Town Hall" format, please? We never get anything new out of it.

...But This One Goes to Eleven

2008-10-30T01:02:00.003-05:00

Official word has come through the BBC that David Tennant will be leaving Doctor Who at the end of the 2009 series of four one-hour specials.

Cue rampant speculation on who the Eleventh Doctor will be. Since Russel T. Davies is also bowing out, stage right, we likely won't be seeing Sigourney Weaver wielding the sonic screwdriver. (However, if Steven Moffat is open to an American running the TARDIS, both Matt and I would like to see Mos Def take the role. He's already proven himself in another Douglas Adams-linked acting gig as Ford Prefect, so getting a handle on the Doctor should not be terribly hard for him.

Because Everyone Needs a Laugh

2008-10-29T00:56:00.002-05:00

Your daily dose of humor, courtesy of a CNN.com story on Windows 7:

Addressing another complaint about Vista, Microsoft said Windows 7 will be faster and need less memory to run.

You may now resume your regularly scheduled web browsing.

Attention Forum Posters

2008-10-27T01:57:00.002-05:00

Punctuation is a good thing. Ellipses do not properly end a sentence. Paragraphs are also good, especially ones that have logical internal structures.

I mean, for a message board that's geared towards people obtaining or possessing college educations, I have to wonder how so many of you passed high school English.

About Bloody Time

2008-10-19T17:38:00.003-05:00

The Chicago Tribune has endorsed the hometown favorite, Sen. Barack Obama, for President. From the endorsement:

This endorsement makes some history for the Chicago Tribune. This is the first time the newspaper has endorsed the Democratic Party's nominee for president.

The Tribune in its earliest days took up the abolition of slavery and linked itself to a powerful force for that cause--the Republican Party. The Tribune's first great leader, Joseph Medill, was a founder of the GOP. The editorial page has been a proponent of conservative principles. It believes that government has to serve people honestly and efficiently.

With that in mind, in 1872 we endorsed Horace Greeley, who ran as an independent against the corrupt administration of Republican President Ulysses S. Grant. (Greeley was later endorsed by the Democrats.) In 1912 we endorsed Theodore Roosevelt, who ran as the Progressive Party candidate against Republican President William Howard Taft.

The Tribune's decisions then were driven by outrage at inept and corrupt business and political leaders.

We see parallels today.

The Republican Party, the party of limited government, has lost its way. The government ran a $237 billion surplus in 2000, the year before Bush took office -- and recorded a $455 billion deficit in 2008. The Republicans lost control of the U.S. House and Senate in 2006 because, as we said at the time, they gave the nation rampant spending and Capitol Hill corruption. They abandoned their principles. They paid the price.

We might have counted on John McCain to correct his party's course. We like McCain. We endorsed him in the Republican primary in Illinois. In part because of his persuasion and resolve, the U.S. stands to win an unconditional victory in Iraq.

It is, though, hard to figure John McCain these days. He argued that President Bush's tax cuts were fiscally irresponsible, but he now supports them. He promises a balanced budget by the end of his first term, but his tax cut plan would add an estimated $4.2 trillion in debt over 10 years. He has responded to the economic crisis with an angry, populist message and a misguided, $300 billion proposal to buy up bad mortgages.

McCain failed in his most important executive decision. Give him credit for choosing a female running mate--but he passed up any number of supremely qualified Republican women who could have served. Having called Obama not ready to lead, McCain chose Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin. His campaign has tried to stage-manage Palin's exposure to the public. But it's clear she is not prepared to step in at a moment's notice and serve as president. McCain put his campaign before his country.

Coming from the Tribune, that's rather damning. Combined with Secretary Colin Powell endorsing Obama this morning, this has to be a bad start to the week's news cycle for McCain.

The Sillier Side of the Election

2008-10-16T23:22:00.003-05:00

Weebl, of Weebl and Bob, was initially swayed by Oldy McDodderington's choice of running mate, but Bob, with the help of one of Hopey McChange-Pants's rallies, was able to bring Weebl around. Go watch and be amused.

Using and Abusing Advertising Tropes

2008-10-14T23:04:00.002-05:00

Via SusanG at DailyKos comes this video from MoveOn. It's both effective and hilarious.

For Your Edification

2008-10-14T08:42:00.003-05:00

Here's the notice I received about a candidate forum for the 15th IL Congressional District on campus:

There will be a debate/forum Tuesday on the UIUC campus for the candidates for the 15th U.S. Congressional District and the 103d Illinois State Representative District. This campaign forum, co-sponsored with the Daily Illini and the Association of Academic Professionals, will take place on:

Tuesday, October 14, from 7:30-9:00 p.m. on the 2nd floor of Levis Faculty Center (919 W. Illinois St., Urbana)

Questions asked will deal directly with university issues. Come hear what their positions are.

I won't be able to attend due to prior commitments, but I'd appreciate any reader feedback (from the 6 or so people who regularly read this blog...).

Up From The Bottom?

2008-10-14T00:42:00.003-05:00

The Dow gained a bajillion points in trading Monday. My question is: did we hit bottom last week, or will the Libor and TED spread still be horrible when the markets open, making Monday's gain the largest dead cat bounce in history?

The world ~~may never know~~ will find out in a few hours.

I Dunno Who Made This...

2008-10-10T22:58:00.001-05:00

But it sure does a lot to link John McCain to the economy after a week when he wanted no part of it.

***WARNING: Those who are prohibited from listening to PG-13 language should not watch this clip.***

Keating Economics

2008-10-06T23:56:00.003-05:00

Here's the documentary the Obama campaign put out on the web to counter the Bill Ayers BS.

There's sitting on a charity board with a reformed extreme leftist, and then there's this... which do you think the American people will actually care about?

Will the Real Challenger Please Stand Up?

2008-10-06T21:22:00.002-05:00

So it's one month and a day before the election, and the Democratic Candidate for the 15th Congressional District in Illinois is still a big question-mark. I have heard precisely nothing out of Steve Cox's campaign, and the campaign "news' page is still blank. He doesn't even have a position statement about the economy, which is the issue of the election. As best I can tell, he intends to ride Obama's coattails into office which, in a gerrymandered GOP-friendly district like the 15th, seems like a daft thing to do.

That said, here's some oppo research I offer up to the Cox campaign (not that either one will see it, as next-to-no-one reads my blog). Rep. Tim Johnson (R-IL15) said of the recent bailout bill:

"I remain highly suspicious of this request and frankly resentful of the presumption that taxpayers should be put on the hook for irresponsible decisions by Wall Street money changers."

Accordingly, he voted against the bill both times. However, this is a reversal of his previous position - remember the Bankruptcy Bill of 2005? The one that was supposed to "prevent bankruptcy abuse" but really was the credit card companies whining that they were getting screwed over for giving every schmo and his dog a credit card but came crying to the government when people who should never have been given more than $50 of credit had their debts forgiven by the bankruptcy courts? The entire point of that bill was to put people - ya know, taxpayers - "on the hook for irresponsible decisions by Wall Street money changers," and guess how Tim Johnson voted on that bill? He voted for it.

Let me type it again slowly, for those who did not read it the first time: Tim Johnson was for putting taxpayers on the hook for the bad decisions of financial executives before he was against it.

And yes, anyone who clicks through and reads the full text of Rep. Johnson's statement knows that I took him about 80% out of context. However, it would make a great political attack ad, and we all know that Cox needs all the help he can get right now.

All's Fair...

2008-10-06T02:32:00.003-05:00

Every time the McCain camp tries to smear Obama by association, the Obama camp should drop a Keating Five reference in the course of steering the conversation back to the economy. Not only does it more damning than anything the GOP has on Obama, but it has a bonus of applicable to the state of the nation.

One of the Sad Things About My Surgery

2008-09-19T11:34:00.001-05:00

Is that talking like a pirate requires making lots of noise in the back of the throat, which is rather painful for me right now.

Post-Op Post

2008-09-15T16:30:00.003-05:00

My adult tonsilectomy and adenoidectomy went well. I'm ambulatory, but the after-affects of anesthesia and motor vehicles do not agree well with my stomach. I haven't tried solid foods yet. I can speak softly (which is a boon, since I've read that some people have pain with even whisperting), although saying consonants at the back of my throat like "x" is occasionally interesting.

As far as how it feels, right now it's as if I have a bunch of mucus at the back of my throat that I can't hawk up. Beyond that, there's a bit of pain, but I've got an extra-viscous liquid painkiller to help with that. I have a week of drinking lots of fluid and eating Popsicles and ice-cream ahead of me. :-D

Thanks for the well-wishes.

Creationist Shindig - Postgame Report

2008-09-14T23:18:00.007-05:00

I'm not about to document all the atrocities against science and informed thought at the Creationist talk I attended this past Friday. In such a setting, the creationist is nearly always at an advantage - they have their well-honed lies and practiced rhetorical tricks, while any skeptic in the audience is hobbled by not having a near-encyclopedic knowledge of the facts.

The talk itself began by conflating Dawkin's strident atheism with the entire field of evolutionary study. He then proceeded to misrepresent natural selection, classical Darwinism, and the Modern Synthesis, all the while referring to the field as "Darwinism". (When questioned about this, he insisted that this was because the media refers to it as such, when in fact the media does such because that's the term the creationists use.) He brought up Panspermia and some crackpots to muddy the waters further, and disparaged the entire field of Geochronology (which made me wish that I had my geology grad student acquaintance with me...). He then trotted out a long list of "problems" with evolution, most of which are not problems at all, and then listed some bible verses aimed at asserting God's hand in Creation rather than denying evolution, all before wraping up with another reference to Dawkins' atheism by transposing it onto the entire biological community.

In all, the talk served to confuse the issue of what evolution really is about, what it actually says, and its history, as well as to construe it as a threat to theism in general when such is not the case. If I wanted, I could reply to the whole thing with a string of citations of the Index to Creationist Claims.

Following the talk was a question and answer session, and John's experience with such things became readily apparent. Question time was limited, supposedly because he gets tired of talking, but more likely because he is unwilling to deal with critical questions from the audience for an extended period of time. He is not interested in debating. Anyone attempting to question him in the future is advised to have a single good question thought out in advance, and to be a lot less confrontational about it than I was. Also, having a laptop with wifi internet access is also a good idea, so that one can access Google and the Index while the talk is going on. Had I been so prepared, I could have looked up and questioned John about Uranium-Lead dating, which is used to date things older than 1 million years old and which he completely skipped over in his talk.

In future, the best way to undermine him may be philosophical. He divides the "possible" views on the issue into three: Biblical Literalists, those who aren't-quite-so-literal, and those who believe what science says on the subject. In doing so, he supports the false dichotomy between evolution and Christian faith. Pointing out that there is really a continuum between pure atheistic support of science and literal creationism while also noting that Dawkins' views are not representative of science as a whole may do more to limit John Bilello's effectiveness than any nitpicking over details.

On a related note, I have heard that there's a Young Earth Creationist giving a talk tomorrow evening. I did not get the details, though, since I will be unable to attend. (I have a tonsillectomy scheduled for tomorrow and I doubt I will be up for much beyond drinking gatorade.) If anyone decides to go I would be happy to hear about it, though.

Anonymous Headroom

2008-09-13T16:10:00.003-05:00

A message from Anonymous to the leaders of the Scientology organization.

Note: if the above video has been taken down by YouTube, please see it here instead.

Creationist Shindig - Time and Place

2008-09-11T18:13:00.004-05:00

Aighty, so I went and found one of the posters again, and was happily surprised to have been wrong in yesterday's post on the days for the Creationist lectures- instead of tonight and tomorrow, the talks will be tomorrow and on Saturday. The speaker will be John C. Bilello, Professor Emeritus of Materials Science and Engineering at the University of Michigan (faculty bio). Friday's talk is entitled "Darwin vs. Genesis", while Saturday's is "Bible and Physics - Atoms". The talks will take place in room 1320 of the Digital Computing Laboratory at the University of Illinois. The event is being hosted by the Christadelphians of Champaign County, who were kind enough to put a color PDF of their flier online.

Now, onto the juicy pregame analysis.

John's faculty bio page, linked to above, lists his research interests as:

Application of high energy (synchrotron radiation) x-ray diffraction imaging, microdiffraction, grazing angle incidence scattering and other associated techniques as a tool for non-destructive materials characterization to study a wide range of problems in metals, alloys and semi-conductors where it is necessary to control the structure-property relationships on both the micro and macro-scale to achieve improved performance or to create new materials.

Current research is focused on surface and interface studies in controlling the fabrication and mechanical properties of thin films, multilayer nanocomposites, and on the role of grain boundaries in fatigue and fracture.

...which isn't even biomedical, let alone related to anything biological. Off the bat, this guy sounds like someone who has no relevant background to the subject matter he is giving a talk on.

Also, it appears that these talks are something of a standard of his: he gave them in Ontario in 2005, when a review of the anti-evolution section was posted on Panda's Thumb. Unless this guy's updated his talk, it might be easy to start picking nits with his arguments and "problems" with evolution. I intend to be taking notes when I'm not demonstrating how he's wrong, so expect a summary here soon-ish afterwards.

UPDATE: Apparently someone at Discussing Discipleship, a blog spawned from a class at a local Methodist church, has also noticed the talk. It should be interesting to read alternate perspectives of the talk afterward, assuming such get posted.

The Other Palin

2008-09-10T23:16:00.002-05:00

No, I'm not going to go on about yet another icky fact about the GOP's fundie Veep candidate. Instead, I'll just pass along this ad for a new third-party candidate, Michael Palin:

If you were surprised by this video, you should be ashamed of yourself. In fact, you may be in need of a spanking...

Nearly Forgot

2008-09-10T22:53:00.004-05:00

Some wingnut creationist is giving talks on campus tomorrow and on Friday. If I remember and can find one of the sparse fliers, I'll try to post a summary of who/what/where sometime tomorrow (I'd go look now, but I'm sure the buildings with the fliers are locked). Also, if I end up going, I'll summarize the atrocities committed against science and sense.

What He Said

2008-09-10T22:32:00.002-05:00

The Stranger at Blah3.com is the person I cite as my own personal blogfather. His "question-mark campaign" of simple flash videos set to music introduced me to the nascent blogosphere and got me interested in reading political blogs. More recently, he pointed out how well-managed Obama's PR outfit is:

Obama and his advisors seem to understand that campaigns run on a very tight wire, and campaign operatives are so ready to spring at any perceived slight by the opposition that they'll often react before they weigh the situation. To their credit, Obama's team has made precious few of these impulsive moves - to the contrary, they're more likely to create the illusion of inaction if it means not making a mistake. And as situations develop, Obama's team will let the tension build to the point where McCain's campaign are ready to pounce at anything.

A good comparison point is the way michael Jordan would play basketball in crunch time. When Jordan brought the ball up the floor, he'd often slow down his motion to draw his defender in. The longer he slow-walked, the more the defender would tense up waiting for Jordan to make his move. And the longer Jordan would wait, the chances of the defender making a mistake would increase. Then all it would take was a head-fake, a feint, or a full step, and the defender would get faked out, commit a foul or move the wrong way and give Jordan the room to make his move. Two points, maybe three with a foul. Worked just about every damn time.

That's how Barack Obama is running this race. His campaign will lay back for days at a time, letting McCain and Palin showboat and level outrageous charges. It drives some of his supporters absolutely batshit. You can see it on the blogs. A week does not go by where Obama supporters are not on a comment thread, demanding that he fight back, swearing that McCain is running away with the race due to Obama's inaction or refusal to fight back or not responding quickly or forcefully enough. These people don't realize that Obama is playing a different game on a different level - certainly at a much higher level than McCain's Boys are used to playing.

He's been slow-walking the ball since the convention, and you can bet money that McCain's campaign has been tuned into every speech, reading every interview, looking for a slip-up that they can capitalize on. And they get so focused on trapping Obama that when he shows a head-fake - 'lipstick on a pig' - that they dive in and whack him on the wrist.

Two points. And it's worked just about every time.

As with everyone I link to, you should read their entire posts, not just my excerpts.

Edwards Wimps Out

2008-09-05T00:09:00.001-05:00

So sayeth the N-G. See the post below as to why.

We Knew It Already

2008-09-05T00:02:00.002-05:00

But DKos diarist casiopea points out that It's OK if You're a Republican

It's OK to cheat on your wife if you're a Republican: John McCain gets to do it because he was a POW. Newt was cheating on his wife while impeaching Bill Clinton. Gary Hart's candidacy burned at the media's stake after Monkey Business, and John Edwards was crucified. Not that I care one bit. As Bill Maher reminds us, "FDR, Eisenhower, Kennedy, Bill Clinton... they all cheated on their wives. The only one that hasn't... George W. Bush." In the days before Bill O'Reilly, things were different. Grover Cleveland was caught with an out-of-wedlock baby in the middle of his campaign against Blaine. Cleveland admitted it, and started to pay for the upbringing of the baby. Then, he went on to defeat Blaine, who was seen as a saint in private matters but a crook in the public ones.

It's OK to have a thin resume if you're a Republican: in the last days, we have comically learned way too much about the civic life of Wasilla, Alaska. Conservatives have told us with a straight face that Sarah Palin has national security experience because she commands the Alaskan National Guard and lives next door to Russia. To Karl Rove, Tim Kaine is a lightweight because he was the mayor of Richmond, Virginia. Today, he's telling a different story. The only VPs elected in their early 40s in the 20th century were all Republican, and they all won. Theodore was 42, Nixon was 40, and Dan Quayle was 41.

It's OK to have a teenage daughter with an unwanted pregnancy, if you're a Republican: yes, after thirty years making policy out of the woman's body, that's what they are trying to tell us. After thirty years of fighting against choice, they are celebrating Bristol Palin's heroic "choice" to keep it.

There's more where that came from, and that's only a small list of the hypocrisy that is the modern GOP.

As an aside, when will the Republicans get around to renaming themselves the Whigs? That's what they've been since Reconstruction, barring interruptions by competent people like Roosevelt and Eisenhower.

The Propriety of Pranks

2008-09-02T18:29:00.003-05:00

So the big news from this weekend (N-G, DI) is that someone managed to hack the everybody@uiuc.edu email system (which, as far as I understood it, was locked down to all but a few approved users) and sent spoof emails from Chancellor Herman to discourage people from Rushing this Fall. While long time readers know that I approve such sentiments, I have to condemn whoever did this.

"Why?" you might ask. The answer is simple: they did a piss-poor job of mimicking the Chancellor's prose and I belong to the school of thought that a prank not done well is not worth doing.

Look, here's the spoofed email in its entirety:

Dear Students,

Many of you may be aware of an event known as Rush. It is my objective to warn you of the potential downsides of Greek organizations. I advise you to not succumb to the aggressive recruitment tactics used by these organizations. It has been my concern over the years, that the Greek culture of alcoholism and lack of respect for the community degrades campus life. These organizations present themselves as prestigious, yet are discriminatory, serve to perpetuate social inequality, especially with respect to the opposite gender, and promote a lack of diversity. Many students have expressed concerns with regards to safety on campus, particularly due to Greek culture and behavior. It is my hope that a student's experience on campus strengthens one's individuality, but the Greek system emphasizes the group above all, without cause or reason. This is detrimental to the purpose of universities.

I hope that you will consider wisely.

GDI Chancellor Richard Herman

Now, having spent years reading the man's email prose, I could tell right off the bat that the author of the email was not Chancellor Herman. For example, here's a MASSMAIL that went out this past May:

Dear Friends:

I am delighted to announce that our online networking community Always Illinois now features email forwarding. All members of the Always Illinois community can customize an @alumni.illinois.edu address, providing long-term consistency and connectivity. It's also a great way to network with family, friends and colleagues.

If you haven't already, I urge you to sign up for Always Illinois online. Our exciting networking community is a free benefit to all Illinois alumni, students, faculty and staff. Always Illinois offers all the basic functions of a social network with added levels of security and privacy. To join and strengthen your ties to our great Illinois family, visit www.alwaysillinois.org.

Richard Herman
Chancellor

**Always Illinois and e-mail forwarding are free services provided by the
University of Illinois Alumni Association and the Office of the Chancellor.

This mailing approved by:
The Office of the Chancellor

--
This Message sent via MASSMAIL. http://www.cites.uiuc.edu/services/massmail/

Note the many differences: Chancellor Herman starts off with an open greeting to his readers, he spreads his prose out into multiple paragraphs, he generally has a conclusion, he places his title on the next line after his name instead of placing it immediately before his name, the email was sent by MASSMAIL, and it was "approved by the Office of the Chancellor". The scam email had none of these things.

Now, if the author(s) of the spoofed email had taken the time to make their message look more credible, they would probably have delayed a campus reaction by a few hours (as it would've taken longer for people to realize it was a hoax) and they would have gotten my kudos. Instead, I am forced to condemn them for doing a half-assed job.

Bonus for the journalism majors: Ask the Chancellor's office or campus Public Relations if the Chancellor had been a member of a fraternity while in college. If he was, that would be multiple kinds of hilarious.

Taking Stock of the Situation

2008-08-12T23:59:00.003-05:00

Under the headline "Kids and Stocks", cnn.com has a video on teaching your kids about the stock market.

So, what does it say about me that the thought which popped into my head after reading that headline was of a Pythonesque "man on the street" segment about the general public's support for putting children and teenagers into stockades?

(And yes, the "Who has the money nowadays (ever?) to let their kids play on the stock market?" comments are entirely appropriate for this post.)

Grand Late Opening

2008-08-10T11:15:00.003-05:00

The News-Gazette reports that the renovated IMPE, now the ARC, is set to open Aug. 21st.

I would like to remind people that, according to the original schedule, it was supposed to reopen for the last semester of my senior year - i.e. two and a half years ago.

That is all.

When Nerd Worlds Collide

2008-08-03T02:31:00.003-05:00

So I was at a gamer party and since the host had a newer copy of Rock Band I was helping play through the "tour" phase to unlock the cooler songs. Whilst doing so, we discovered that you can buy for your rock dude avatar things a "Doctor What?" outfit, complete with shin-length coat and scarf, which was of course immediately bought and customized to a dark maroon color. Similarly colored pants were also purchased to complete the outfit. (And if you don't know why, go should join Adric on a certain spaceship...) The description for the "Doctor What?" outfit mentions something about being ready for anything with it, whether you're traveling through time or space. If only such stylish togs were more readily available.

Business Cents

2008-07-21T23:21:00.003-05:00

There's no laundry facilities at my current apartment, so I am forced to use the only clean laundromat remotely close to campus. Usually when I go to the laundromat, I don't bring extra quarters - I expect the change machines to be working. This seems a reasonable expectation; most people don't keep $8+ dollars of quarters laying around, and it behooves the owner(s) of the laundromat to make using their machines as easy as possible.

I say all this because when I went to said conveniently-located clean laundromat, there were no quarters to be had. None whatsoever. All three change machines were out, and the person working the desk there had apparently been out of quarters for some time. She said that management had been called, but that it was hard to get someone out on a Sunday. I checked the adjacent former Osco, but they too had long been stripped of their quarters.

So I went to do other errands for a few hours. When I returned to the laundromat, though, there still weren't any quarters. I ended up going across the street to Quiznos to buy dinner and thankfully managed to buy a roll of quarters off of them. It wasn't until halfway through my dryer loads that the laundromat's change machines were restocked.

Now, let's stop and think about this for a bit. A laundromat, like the vast majority of other businesses, exists for one reason - to make money providing a needed service. I, as well as many other people, have a much easier time doing laundry on weekends rather than during the week - in fact, whenever I'm there it's usually quite busy. I have to wonder what owner and/or manager in their right minds would let their business be unusable to most of its customers for hours of peak usage time.

For any business, but laundromats especially, not having quarters on hand makes no cents.

Winning, Losing, and the Winds of Change

2008-07-16T22:40:00.002-05:00

Sara at Orcinus has a post up on Hillary Clinton's primary loss and what it means from a feminist and progressive standpoint. It's probably not what you think it is, either, so go read it.

It's Amazing What You Find

2008-07-16T21:59:00.001-05:00

Apparently Tom Skilling is looking for a new minion.

Someone Said the "I" Phrase!

2008-07-10T22:02:00.004-05:00

Former presidential advisor Karl Rove refused to respond to a subpoena from the House Judiciary Committee and this time they're not pussyfooting around.

"A refusal to appear in violation of the subpoena could subject Mr. Rove to contempt proceedings, including statutory contempt under federal law and proceedings under the inherent contempt authority of the House of Representatives," Conyers and Sanchez wrote.

Normally, contempt proceedings against the executive branch fail, since congress chooses to let the Justice dept handle prosecutions in Federal courts under statutory contempt rules and most administrations will call off their lawyers rather than prosecute themselves. However, statutory contempt is merely congress fobbing its contempt powers off on the other two branches of government. Each house also has inherent contempt powers, which means that the body of congress so defied can try the case themselves and hold that person until the end of the session. This can be repeated at the beginning of each session, and the Supreme Court has upheld this power as valid and integral to the functioning of the Legislative Branch.

Unsurprisingly, his lawyer is playing dumb with the media (who, for the most part, is likely dumb themselves on the issue):

Luskin noted in May that his client had already received a separate subpoena from the Senate Judiciary Committee. "While the [House] committee has the authority to issue a subpoena, it is hard to see what this will accomplish, apart from a 'Groundhog Day' replay of the same issues that are already the subject of litigation," the lawyer wrote, referring to a movie in which a person lives the same day over and over again.

As Mr. Luskin knows full well (or should, if he's taking Rove's money), the reason for the House to issue its own subpoena is that it allows the inherent contempt proceedings to occur in that house. Inherent contempt trials are conducted by the presiding officer of the house so offended. Cases in the senate are presided over by the President of the Senate, a.k.a. VP Dick Cheney, who has political reasons to oppose letting anything Rove's done come to light. Inherent contempt trials in the House of Representatives are presided over by the Speaker of the House, Nancy Pelosi, who is much more likely to play ball on the issue. Knowing those to things, which venue would Democrats prefer such a trial to occur in? I'll give you two guesses, but if the first isn't the House of Representatives you have a moral obligation to strike yourself in the head with a brick.

Right now, though, while I listen to the sound of a thousand bricks thumping, all I can hope for is to see this threat of Inherent Contempt be acted upon.

I Name It... Lake Campus

2008-07-08T18:47:00.005-05:00

The City of Champaign really needs to do a better job of maintaining its storm sewers to keep stuff like this from happening. I thought the entire point of the Healey Street Detention Basin was that there wouldn't be things like a stream with a current running North along Locust Street.

Another Nail in the Coffin

2008-07-07T17:38:00.003-05:00

A Federal Judge dismissed the lawsuit brought by the designer of the Chief logo due to lack of jurisdiction.

I wonder how long and how many more failed desperate attempts to revive him it will take before people will realize that their racist mascot of choice will not be coming back.

Because I've Neglected This Blog Way Too Much

2008-07-07T02:19:00.005-05:00

Here's a map of the states of the Union which I have set foot in.

My Visited US States

Get your own Visited US States Map from Travel Blog

Now isn't that spiffy?

Genius!

2008-07-05T01:03:00.002-05:00

I am at my folks' for the holiday.

Trying to be prepared, I plugged my cellphone in to charge a bit before I left.

I then proceeded to forget about the cellphone until I was well north of I-80. The phone is likely sitting on my desk, fully charged, and with a few voicemails waiting for my return.

...

In other news, a very early post on here was visited by a crackpot. If anyone still reads this blog, feel free to have at him.

Missed One

2008-06-16T01:16:00.004-05:00

Sports Illustrated online has a photo-essay up on the most difficult things to do in sports. They left out scoring a riposte in competition Sabre fencing, which is so rare that it when it occurs, it is announced to all present at the event.

D'oh

2008-06-07T17:37:00.002-05:00

NASA's webmaster screwed up: the current headline for their History page is "Put Title Here".

"Any Idea," huh?

2008-04-29T12:24:00.003-05:00

Reading the Tribune during lunch, I found this snippet:

Bush was asked about a proposal by Republican presidential contender John McCain, later endorsed by Democrat Hillary Rodham Clinton, to suspend taxes on gasoline and diesel fuel for the summer travel season. The tax is 18.4 cents per gallon of gasoline and 24.4 cents on diesel fuel.

"I'm open to any ideas and we'll analyze anything that comes up," he said.

Suspending taxes would be stupid - it's not the taxes that are the problem, and with the government running deeply in the red as it is, it can't afford the revenue loss. However, since Shrub is supposedlly open to anything, here goes - it is well-known that the price of gasoline no longer reflects supply and demand, but instead the efforts of big-money investors to save their own asses. In the interests of preventing this price inflation from hurting the economy further, price controls should be implemented. If Nixon, the most vile President before Dubya, could do it, Bush can do it too.

He won't, though - he and his buddies are all oil guys. The last thing they want is the price to come down.

Blueberries and Cherries

2008-04-22T22:53:00.005-05:00

On my way out this evening I noticed a metric buttload of squad cars around the intersection of Green and Locust, all but one of them with lights flashing. Two hours later, some of them were still there (or had been replaced) and the lights were still going.

Whatever was up, I fully expect to read about it in the Daily Illini tomorrow, and will be disappointed if I can't. The DI is a morning paper, it should be scooping the News-Gazette on a lot more stuff than it does. The DI's craptacular local coverage makes it really hard to defend when people I know from other schools make fun of it.

Getting What's Coming To Them

2008-04-13T02:29:00.003-05:00

While I was out and about tonight I noticed that the police were conducting Bar Raids on the Campus bars. During UofI's Moms weekend. I'm not sure what amuses me more, the idea of Champaign getting loads of cash from Suburban parents buying alcohol for their underage progeny, or of some parents seeing direct consequences for indulging their overprivileged kids. I applaud whoever came up with the idea of running a raid tonight.

Amazing What You Can Find Online

2008-04-12T18:26:00.003-05:00

A few years ago a copy of a Cheapass game called Fight the Power was included in an order of other games I received from them. All the game consisted of was a rule sheet, and the only pieces needed to play were six-sided dice, which one can scavenge from most other games. Sometime a year and a half ago I lost my copy of the rules, but about an hour ago finally found a copy of them online.

Yay for the power of the interwebs.

Energy Savings

2008-04-10T01:00:00.002-05:00

Every month or so, there's a MASSMAIL to staff or a story in the local media about how the recent hikes in energy prices and usage have done nasty things to UIUC's budget. While asking faculty and staff to reduce energy usage is a good thing, it'd do wonders for DIA to set an example and not have the lights turned on at Memorial Stadium every single night for no good reason. It's not even football season anymore, the thing is effectively mothballed until August.

And yes, I'm aware of the construction. That still doesn't supply a reason for keeping the stadium lights on overnight.

A Blog You Should Be Reading

2008-04-10T00:56:00.003-05:00

I'm not quite sure how I found it, but Judge a Book by its Cover is a blog run by a librarian who makes fun of bad cover art on books. A common target are romance novels and anything published by Baen. Updated irregularly (but still more so than I, perhaps I need more fiber...), it's still quite funny.

Just a Thought...

2008-03-30T13:37:00.001-05:00

Were Intelligent Design ever to gain acceptance as science, those craptastic Left Behind novels would then be Sci-Fi.

Ewwwwwww.

False Advertising

2008-03-28T19:51:00.001-05:00

There is a marked lack of carousing, battle-happy warriors, and Valkyries in Valhalla, NY.

Blast You, Kansas State!

2008-03-20T22:39:00.002-05:00

You besmirched my 'til-then perfect bracket.

I will also very shortly have similar feelings for Notre Dame.

It's Fairly Simple, People

2008-03-11T19:44:00.003-05:00

You get on the bus at the front, and you get off the bus at the back. Unless you need the ramp or need the bus to kneel in order to get off, leaving from the front causes a traffic jam as you keep the people who actually have a clue from getting on the bus.

"Establish Justice", "Promote the General Welfare", and "Secure the Blessings of Liberty".

2008-03-04T19:31:00.002-06:00

What are three phrases from the Preamble to the Constitution that the GOP would rather we all forgot, Alex? (via dday at Hullabaloo)

Why All The School Closings?

2008-03-04T19:02:00.004-06:00

I was in Subway for lunch today and caught a laundry list of school closings due to weather. Maybe I'm still acclimated to Chicagoland weather, but I'm kinda confused as to why a bunch of school districts closed for the day. There wasn't even two inches of accumulation on the ground at the time, and all the arterial streets were being kept clear by plows and salt.

Yet Another Reason to Dislike Unofficial

2008-03-01T05:13:00.003-06:00

I'm currently sitting up at 5:13AM waiting for a tow truck to come and remove someone from my parking spot. If you and umpteen-thousand of your closest friends are all going to descend upon Champaign-Urbana, a community known for its craptacular parking situation, for its annual Bacchanalia, I'd appreciate it if a lot more of you would take the train, bus, or other means besides a car to get here. There aren't enough parking spots to handle the crowd, so plan ahead: just because I'm out doing something that doesn't involve ethanol does not give you the right to take my parking spot. When your car ends up in the impound lot, you'll get no sympathy from my bleary-eyed self.

Note: Edited to correct early-morning grammar.

They Write About It as if It's News

2008-03-01T05:07:00.004-06:00

So both the News-Gazette and the Daily Illini reported on the Chief student referendum as if it mattered, which it doesn't. At least the News-Gazette took a break from its breathless reporting to mention the 2004 referendum, which was just as non-binding as this most recent one. Both referenda were merely means to get a Students for Institutionalized Racism-associated person elected to a Student Trustee seat with a non-binding(!) vote.