Hooray for voting! I wrote

Hooray for voting! I wrote in a vote for myself for Sheriff. Now I will go buy my supporter an ice cream

Whoops. Went to wrong district

Whoops. Went to wrong district

Last day of early voting

Last day of early voting and the line is around the block! Must be 100 people waiting. Line is moving fast, however. Go Democracy!

Navigate the Yellow Submarine on the WII

Harmonix has announced it colloboration project with the Beatles.

Players will have to remove the "G" from "Glove" to get "LOVE" at which point they must run up a set psychedelically expanding zapf chancery text staircase and shoot rainbows from their hearts in order to defeat the Blue Meanies and free Pepperland. In multiplayer mode, bonus points will be award if the players can synchronize their efforts to sail the ship, chop the tree, skip the rope, and look at me.

Japan unveils maid robot

So I saw this video of a clanky humanform robot stuffing shirts into a washer

First off: How stupid. Robots don't need to be human form. What you need is a washing machine that roams your house seeking dirty clothes and sucking it into its thorax then plopping down next to a water source and air vent, then doing its business. Our even better, remember houses in the 70's that had hampers built into the upstairs bathroom that dumped out into the laundry room on the floor below? What if the whole house had a series of room automations that sucked stuff into the proper bin? But I digress

The main point of my post: STOP FOOLING AROUND! We don't want to see maids and dancing robots. Confirm our worst fears. Put autocanons on their spindly bodies and have them stupidly shout "Rodger Rodger" or make them look like Arnold Schwarzenegger or make them out of cars that transform. If there is a science fiction armed conflict betweeen vampires, zombies, robots and wiccans... I want to see the players come to the field!

After thought: I like that the robot has a big platform in the back. I can imagine Jason standing on it shrieking "Robot Go! Robot, Go!"

McCain or Obama Tax Calculator Applet

Because doing a tax return is so fun, now you can do a hypothetical tax return three times with:

Who's easier on your pocketbook -- McCain or Obama?

So I admit that I tried and and amazingly Obama and McCain's plan have NO EFFECT ON ME AT ALL. Not only are my taxes exactly the same under each plan (although oddly for different reasons), they are also the same as my current taxes. To which I can only say:

Gee whiz!




Actually, no... I can do better than that. People (real and imagined) are very critcal of me when I do a "Calvin's Dad" that is, answering Dakota's question with an absurd falsehood done deadpan. I get everything from "How dare you lie to your children" to "Do you think its funny to have your children get mocked when they repeat your lucrious statements?" [In 2nd grade, I mocked plenty of people who repeated the ludicrust statement of their patent, and believe me: it was only funny to me.] But the fact is, all of that is, like many cultural issues, total nonsense. Here is an example of why:

Dakota: Dad what does AM stand for? Does the M in AM and PM stand for the same thing?

So I go into this long explanation of the concept of Merediem and how it means both the middle of the day and the position of the sun in the middle of the sky and how its latin and how "Ante" and "Post" are also latin, and I've lost her.

Dad: Dakota, I'm sorry. Look, "AM" stands for "Awesome Morning" and "PM" stands for "Party 'til Midnite" because you should wake up everyday and have an awesome morning, then after lunch you have 12 hours to Par-tay.

Dakota: That's great! Thanks, Dad.


Have an Awesome Morning, y'all.

My Dell Monitor is freakin awesome

So my monitor started getting blurry. It's about 3 years old so, I figured "Well, life cycle baby." But I decided to go through the motions of using the manual adjustments. One of the menu's was "Auto Adjust" so I tried it. And zzzzzzURP! Back into focus.

Freakin awesome!

Watching "Hellboy"

So my question about secret underground gov't labs: Who does facilities management and custodial services?

Blogging on the bus

I saw a "Members Only" jacket today (oh boy). It was a homely man who missed 1980. .. .

Neopseudoincentivizationismiteitis

Ktru and crazy craziness saves the hrim grimness known as "public radio pledge drive" during drivetime.

The End of Music

Guns and Roses finally releases Chinese Democracy Nov. 23.

New Guns N' Roses - NEWS

New acdc album: why?

New acdc album: why?

Powell speaks out against bigotry

http://thecaucus.blogs.nytimes.com/2008/10/19/powell-endorses-obama/

Around minute six of the above is a really effective use of the ancedote as a rhetorical advice. What's effective about it:

1. There is just enough detail. It's clear from the beginning what point he is making but every detail he adds ups the ante and the details are in the right order to produce drama.

2. It's not a hypothetical. This is where Joe Biden's "kitchen table conversation" ancedote totally fails.

3. It's not going to be disputed. Or at least, I would be very surprised. Somebody has set out to prove that Joe the Plumber isn't really a plumber. People did the same thing to Al Gore's anecdotes, at least one of which was embelished to the point to call it a fib.

* Frankly speaking, I could take or leave the endorsement. "I voted for this guy and you should too" seems like a really dumb thing that happens in politics.

Instead, I am impressed that Powell has taken on the "Obama is so a Christian" smear with, "So what, why is this a smear? It only matters if you are a bigot, which I am calling you out for being." Its rather embarassing that it has taken two years for someone of real signifance to step up and say this. I think its more effective that the message comes from someone who is (at least nominally) a Republican as a rebuke to his own party. Additionally, I feel it restores some credibility to Powell.

That said, I regret that Pres. Bush didn't deliver this "ix-nay on the uslim-may" message. I say this without irony. HIstory will probably judge Bush very harshly, but I hope that historians will take note of the fact that Bush crossed ethnic, party, and other lines in his executive appointments. Morever, he did it without being ostentious about "diversity." Rather, Bush gave the (probably accurate) impression that those issues simply didn't factor into his thinking at all, which is how it should be.

Piece of Furniture wins debate: Maybe re-Bob quit too soon

Okay here's the link:

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/discussion/2008/10/14/DI2008101401597.html

And here's the quote:

Durham, N.C.: This feels like the first debate where the moderator has been able to move the candidates to engage beyond talking points. Do you agree? Do you think it was Schieffer's moderation, the format, McCain throwing caution to the wind in face of bad polls, or some other factor?

Robert G. Kaiser: Shieffer deserves some of the credit, the table does too. And maybe we should credit the candidates as well. It was the best of the three debates, I thought.

(Emphasis mine)

Oh yes! Let's not forget the importance of good interior decoration and the role it plays in world politics. Where would we be without the President's cabinet. And when Truman says "the buck stops here" he meant here on his desk in the oval office, which I hear has excellent Feng Shui.

But what I really want to know is: Did McCain discredit Obama's mulitpositional sofa Cham(ois)? Does McCain willingness to go throw pillows help or hurt his campaign? And really, isn't the most pressing issue in the world today, not the economy, not climate change but nuclear dis-armoire-ment.

Please.

Obama gives a shout out

Obama gives a shout out to fixing messed up IT in the medical care business. I should point out that this is A Newt Gingrich idea circa 2002 (aka the New Newt)

When you badly hum a

When you badly hum a hymn, its a hmmm

Childrens Television and Farenheit 451

Oh! Hello there. Do you remember watching the movie "Farenheit 451"? Like
many movies based on books, they added some stuff not in the book to make
up for the stuff in the book that doesn't make it to screen because its
cerebral not audiovisual. In this case they added the television show
where the audience is supposed to participate:

"We are having a party, who should we invite?"

"What should we eat?"

"What decorations should we have. "

"You are just fantastic!"

Except that the director and cinematographer made this about as sinister as
possible.

Welll.... I hate the way childrens television programs do that too.

NY Times is also horrified

Or maybe they read my blog.

http://www.nytimes.com/2008/10/04/opinion/04sat1.html?hp

Star Wars: the clone wars

Star Wars: the clone wars is fantastic! Seriously.

IPhone interface's fundamental flaw

Its not controllable with one hand. The brilliance of the ipod design is :
have thumb have fun

Iphone uses a mousepad alternative design that would be ideal for a tablet
or table pc

That said. Its too bad more people can't do morse code. If they taught it
in elementary school then think how easy it would be to design phones

Palin v the Constitution

IFILL: Governor, you mentioned a moment ago the constitution might give the vice president more power than it has in the past. Do you believe as Vice President Cheney does, that the Executive Branch does not hold complete sway over the office of the vice presidency, that it it is also a member of the Legislative Branch?

PALIN: Well, our founding fathers were very wise there in allowing through the Constitution much flexibility there in the office of the vice president. And we will do what is best for the American people in tapping into that position and ushering in an agenda that is supportive and cooperative with the president's agenda in that position. Yeah, so I do agree with him that we have a lot of flexibility in there, and we'll do what we have to do to administer very appropriately the plans that are needed for this nation.



================================================

Article I, sect 3:

The Vice President of the United States shall be President of the Senate, but shall have no vote, unless they be equally divided.

The Senate shall choose their other officers, and also a President pro tempore, in the absence of the Vice President, or when he shall exercise the office of President of the United States.


Article II, sect 1:

The executive power shall be vested in a President of the United States of America. He shall hold his office during the term of four years, and, together with the Vice President,

Article II, sect 4
The President, Vice President and all civil officers of the United States

=========================================================================

Analysis:

Great Antonin Scalia! The vice president is vested with executive power and is removable through Article II. Article I describes an executive duty of the vice president to be a check/balance by the executive branch over the legislative branch.

There is no "flexibility"

As for the intent of the founding fathers, it was to prevent exactly the sort of abuse of power that Cheney has posited and that Palin says she agrees with.

"the great security against a gradual concentration of the several powers in the same department, consists in giving to those who administer each department the necessary constitutional means and personal motives to resist encroachments of the others. The provision for defense must in this, as in all other cases, be made commensurate to the danger of attack. Ambition must be made to counteract ambition. The interest of the man must be connected with the constitutional rights of the place. It may be a reflection on human nature, that such devices should be necessary to control the abuses of government. But what is government itself, but the greatest of all reflections on human nature? If men were angels, no government would be necessary. If angels were to govern men, neither external nor internal controls on government would be necessary. In framing a government which is to be administered by men over men, the great difficulty lies in this: you must first enable the government to control the governed; and in the next place oblige it to control itself. A dependence on the people is, no doubt, the primary control on the government; but experience has taught mankind the necessity of auxiliary precautions."

Federalist paper #51

=====================================================================

While I am not a strict textualist (as seen by reaching for the Federalist papers), Cheney/Palin's position seems unconstitutional.

It worries me that the Constitution hasn't been an election issue either in the general election or the primaries. Biden takes a stab at it in his reply, but even fresh out of law school, I found his position to be nearly indecipherable.

Why don't the candidates trumpet that they revere the Constitution, the highest law of our nation, and the only thing that keeps us between the scylla and caribdis of tyranny and anarchy? When the discussion turns to values, the only ones which should matter in public life are "to form a more perfect union, establish justice, insure domestic tranquility, provide for the common defense, promote the general welfare, and secure the blessings of liberty to ourselves and our posterity." When the pundits argue over whether the candidates are qualified, the only qualification necessary is abiding by the oath to uphold the constituion.

Tonight's debate put into stark contrast the choice and the stakes, not just in this year's election, but in the years and months ahead. For the United States to be, the Constitution matters above all.

Why the **** people can root for the Mets

Today's reason: Struggling Mets Combine To Form Carlos Voltron

OK, it was really September 25th's reason. Sue me.

Welcome back Intrepid

My favorite boat.

I've noticed that many of my "the link is in the title" posts, don't show the blue link color in the title. Stoopid blogger.

I wish I was better at doing this

Watch here, as Craig Ferguson tells a really lousy joke that he doesn't even get, then gets meta. The first time I saw this comedy technique done really well is when "Late Night with David Letterman" had one of Bruce Hornsby's band sit in with Paul and Dave says, "Yes, we have one of Bruce Hornsby's Rangers, I guess that makes him.. oh never mind."

I think I was 14 (up late) and I still think its funny now, 20 years later.

That said, Craigers has great googley moogely eyes, which helps.