RAW: Whatcha doin'?
Eel: Tracking the progress of Hurricane Frances.
RAW: Still concerned that it's going to rain on our parade?
Eel: It looks like it's headed northbound once it gets into Florida.
RAW: See? I told you we had nothing to worry about.
Eel: Well the question is how close it's going to come to us. We may not get the hurricane but we're in danger of getting rained on.
RAW: Won't happen.
Eel: We've been through this.
RAW: I know, but I just want to make sure that you realize that it's not going to happen. We've already done the hurricane thing. We can't get hurt again by a hurricane. It's like the Chicken Pox.
Eel: I've dealt with patients that have had the Chicken Pox twice, Alex.
RAW: Yeah, okay, but within ten years?
Eel: Yes.
RAW: Oh, did I say Chicken Pox? I meant something else that you can really only get once.
Eel: Like what?
RAW: Hey, shouldn't we be packing?

During my breaks I like to walk the parameters of the building. This afternoon I was sweating bullets. It's much more difficult to sweat up here than it is down in Houston. I got half-way and decided that it was no fun so I went back inside.

Way too friggin' hot.

I think it's safe to say that Idaho has officially spoiled me.

And that Florida is going to absolutely kill me.

It's bad form to take two breaks so close together, I know, but I'm headed out to Not Louisiana. While I value the blog, I don't value it to the extent of long distance phone calls from the southeast to the northwest.

Be back Tuesday. I'd say "hopefully with lots of stories to tell," but uneventful is good for a vacation!

In PE at our high school, you are required to wear either shorts or sweats. One day in a PE class that I had with Jay, he forgot and was left with slacks that might possibly could be passed as sweats if you didn't look hard enough. We stuck to the wall and out of the way hoping that Coach Turnbull wouldn't see. At one point, Turnbull was walking out the doorway we were standing beside and looked at Jay. He looked closer at his pants, bending backwards to get a better view. We both stood there, absolutly paralyzed, as though if we were really still we would become invisible. The worst that could have happened was that he would have given Jay a demerit or whatever, but there was something about Coach Turnbull that made us fear interaction with him, much less rebuke.

I don't have to tell most of you this, but in the blockbuster film The Matrix there is a suspenseful scene in which Keanu Reeves is trying to evade the Agents. At this point in the film, little is known of who the Agents are and what they want. All you know is that it isn't good. It turns out, of course, that it's worse than "not good."

When driving along the freeway, you find a police car behind you. You check your speedometer and you're not speeding. But when you turn, the cop turns with you. You don't think he's following you, but you have to ask yourself how long before you screw up and his lights turn on. The more your concentrating on him, after all, the less you're concentrating on the road.

I had that sort of feeling today. I've never had a Mormon officially try to sell me. On one hand, it could be a very enlightening conversation. I am genuinely curious about the faith from an academic standpoint. Who better to inform me than a Missionary? Of course, while I don't know how the conversation would go, I know that it would get very uncomfortable during the "close" stage of the transaction. I don't know how, I just know that it will be. I also fear that my genuine interest would give them a false hope. I could keep up a lack of curiosity for a bit, but like with the cop behind me, how long till I screw up and sound interested?

They were talking to someone on the other side of the building. A couple of them flanked out and started walking around the bend to our side. I ignored them as best I could, talking to Dundee about his release from prison. Like Jay and I in the high school gymnasium, I was hoping that I would just turn invisible.

They came for Strang. They knocked on his door for a bit and when he wasn't there, they left.

I breathed a sigh of relief. Dundee went in and turned up very offensive rap music as loudly as he could (most offensive rap song I've ever heard, which is saying something). I wasn't sure if Strang was there only target (he actually struck up a conversation with them not long ago, proving that he is indeed insane), if the rap music did it, or if it was because apparently the last time they came by Dundee told them where they could put it.

I'm not sure, but I think that by associating with Dundee they may get a similar impression of me.

Dundee and I have a pretty reciprocal association. I loan him my phone, he feeds me when he has leftovers. But I think this is the biggest gift he's ever given me.

I've been working for Cooper & Price for almost three weeks now. I stayed at OmniStar for six and lasted eight at Gattaca. This is, however, an entirely different experience. I enter employment with both of the others with the intention of leaving. Mentally, to me, that's no better than being unemployed (my pocketbook has a different attitude on the matter, however). So mentally speaking, I am for the first time in over a year, employed.

Generally, we work to make money. Without the need for money, few people would go through the daily grind. I'm not sure what I would do. I can say this, though: the joy of working has little to do with money and less to do with what I'm actually doing. I'm not saving the world nor making enough money to buy even a chunk of it. That's irrelevent. What's relevent is that I had a job. Up until now, I'm not sure I realized how much that meant to me.

The year 2004 has been a rough one in a number of respects. The move to Idaho has been tough for a number of reasons. The biggest problem, without a doubt, was the employment one. Because I saved so much at UFC and took the temporary jobs, I never ran the risk of going broke. Again, not about the money. Money is exchanged for goods and services, but it's given me something a lot more valuable than that: stability.

I don't do well with uncertainty. While life is never certain, I try to keep the variables to a minimum. Since arriving here, the variables have been numerous. But more than the variables, I think, was the burning fuse. While I was never in danger of going broke, I knew that unless something changed I would eventually get there.

The loss of that feeling has by far been the best thing about my job.

I was taken to task on here for not calling my father while I was unemployed (imagine, for a moment, the egg on my face when I found out that he reads the blog!). Justifiably so, but in a way that's always how I've worked. Stability is two points for me, and one point for my perspective on the world. Without having a job, it felt that in a way I couldn't face my parents. Nothing they said or did made me feel that way. In some ways, I had trouble facing up to Eel who has been outstandingly supportive throughout this all. It more or less defines my relationship with God. "I'll get back with You once I have my life in order and feel that I can face You again."

It's beyond silly. Support during the downtimes is what parents, significant others, and Loving Gods are for. Not to make your life all better, but to give you aid and assurance to help guide you along.

I'm leaving for Florida tomorrow morning and I'm going to see my family. C&P gave me the time off to do to that, but more than that, they gave me the ability to go to Florida with my head held high.

Ora once said of me that I am "obsessed with justice." Given the circumstances that surrounded the conversation, it was an understandable remark. Things with Audrey had been seriously derailed and one of my first impressions was that I deserved it because I had broken Anna's heart. I don't know that I would use the word "justice," but I do believe in a sort of kharma when it comes to relationships. If you do the right things, something good will almost always come along. If you've been hurt, there's likely something that you did that created the situation.

When Anna and Pierce got together, my joy was three-fold. First for Anna, because she'd managed to get out relatively unscathed, swapping one technerd sasquatch for another. Second for Pierce, who'd apparently finally moved on from his impending divorce. Third for me, because while I wasn't off the hook, I was no longer responsible for a seriously wounded heart.

My faith in all of this was justified somewhat later when Audrey - who'd hurt me - was miserably in unrequited love with Michael, when I - who'd hurt Anna - was still fixated with Audrey, and Anna and Pierce - who'd just been hurt - were blissfully in love. It seemed that there was justice in the world.

Somewhere along the way, the justice has gotten, at least temporarily, lost in the mix.

A little bit ago, I made the comment that I am happy "whether I have any right to be or not." I regret saying that (despite the kind responses by TP and Heidi). Not because of what I meant, necessarily, but the feelings that it projected: guilt, self-loathing, and self-pity. Even in my kharmic sense, I have suffered for my sins and don't feel any guilt about being happy. There is, however, an uneasiness about it.

At some point later this week will mark the third week anniversary since Anna and Pierce broke up. Anna is down from calling me about it three times a day to one. After a while my shoulder became numb from the tears cried on it, but I still answer or return her calls because I made a promise that I'd be there for her. This is nothing compared to what I put her through until Pierce came along and what she's going through now.

But my hands are tied, in some ways. I can't dig too deeply into Pierce's motives and offer some insight because so much of it is so similar to my state of mind when things ended that it's not a comfortable place to go. It also leads to the conclusion that she's simply not ready for yet: that they're not going to get back together. She's not in denial, but the awareness of her words are betrayed by the lingering sense of longing.

Mostly, though, it confronts me with worry. I worry for her a great deal. With the exception of a month in 1996 and another in 2000, she hasn't been single since February of 1996. She's not a vineswinger, which I define as someone that cautiously clutches to a vine until she has firm hold of another and can (to mix metaphors) leave the sinking ship. She's either been lucky or a guardian angel has been watching over her. But the luck has ran out and the guardian angel has left the building. There is no one on the horizon which is only good because she's clearly not in a position to get into another relationship. Otherwise it's very, very bad.

This is the third time that she's been left. The first was a dolt who reallized his error less than a day later, but still roughly a day too late. Pierce and I, however, both left at four years give or take six months or so. Some of the concerns that he has now are the ones that I had then. It's officially a pattern. Given the investment in each relationship, it's not one that she can just re-aim until she gets it right. So far she's avoided this self-destructive line of thought, which is wonderful. I can't say that I was able to do the same when things didn't work out with Ora and then Audrey under similar circumstances.

My head knows that this will be good for her. My head knows that she's dealing with this remarkably in that mysterious way that she deals with such things. She needs the time to develop a stronger sense of self (by which, lest there be any confusion, I don't mean self-esteem). But as her heart betrays her mind, mine does the same.

Which brings me back to my vague comment as well as Ora's about justice. Of all the people that I know, Anna is among the least deserving to be hurt. She's fiercely loyal, extremely loving, and a great person who has never intentionally or negligently done anyone harm. Yet I walked away and therefore I am not in a position to criticize Pierce for doing the same (nor would I, which I'll get in to another time).

I've made many mistakes in my life and over the last year. Yet Eel has stood by me. But I don't believe I'm a lousy person nor that I am, all things being equal, deserving of unhappiness. Yet when my phone rings, and I see that it's Anna calling me again to share her unhappiness, it's infectious and reminding me that the world is not a just place and reminding me that whatever I've brought to the table with Eel, I've also gotten really lucky. With that in mind, from ring to click on the phone I find it extraordinarily difficult to bask in what is going right in my life while someone so much more deserving of happiness is in such pain.

The U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development apparently has a project to cut down on the amount of paperwork required with it's own officer. Bureaucracy to tackle bureaucracy! Our company does documentation that corporations turn in to HUD, so I can understand the need to cut down on paperwork (so long as it doesn't lead to layoffs here!), but I find a department whose job it is to cut down on paperwork to be amusing. I wonder how much paperwork they go through?

I used to wonder why older folks objected so much to skateboarding. I was never into it myself, but it seemed that it was better that they be out of the house with at least some physical exertion rather than sitting around watching television.

There have been an inordinate number of kids that have moved in to Thrifthaven over the past week or so. A lot of them like to skateboard.

Since they started I've been spending twice the amount of time indoors avoiding the danged noise.

I have officially changed my position. Now I know exactly what's wrong with skateboarding.

Grumble, grumble.

8+4+5+8=25

$.50 x 4 = $2.00

$2.00/25=$0.08/can

I've been taking my lunch breaks driving around Tater Falls to get a lay of the land. Turns out that most of what there is to do in TF is in near where I work. Given that I work in the industrial district, that's a bit surprising.

A few coworkers have mentioned this place, so I shouldn't have been too surprised to see it.

But there are some things you take for granted living in the same state for so long. Seeing that state's flag regularly is among them.

I've always thought that Texas has the best flag in the union (edging out Alaska and New Mexico), but when I saw it today it was different.

It was more than good looking.

It was beautiful.



Eel is almost certainly rolling her eyes as she reads this.

Since moving to Thrifthaven, I have seen a number of things. Drugs, police, violence, alcoholism, self-love, arson, and, of course, the knife in the door.

And then, today, I saw Loren again.

I was more scared than I have been in a long, long time.

[Part One]
[Part Two]

Houston, Texas: I had over $2000 worth of stuff stolen from my car.
Gate City, Idaho:: I had a $70 coat stolen with a checkbook inside. A $60 check was forged.

Houston, Texas: When I called the police to file a report, the call handler all but asked "Why?"
Gate City, Idaho:: The Detective seemed personally offended that I did not report the stolen coat.

Houston, Texas: The patrolman took two hours to show up.
Gate City, Idaho:: A full-fledged Detective, after-hours, was able to help me within five minutes.

Houston, Texas: The cop filled out the report within 5 minutes. I offered to give him the serial number of the computer stolen, but he declined.
Gate City, Idaho:: I was interviewed for 45 minutes. He practically asked my life story.

Houston, Texas: The cop was visibly irritated.
Gate City, Idaho:: The Detective was apologetic that they would probably never catch the person that did it.

Houston, Texas: "Chump." -cop (okay, he didn't say it, but he was thinking it loudly).
Gate City, Idaho:: "It must be awful to know that someone out there stole your identity. I promise that I will do everything I can to catch this person, and you'll probably get the money back, but I'm afraid we probably won't catch the bastard." -GCPD Detective

Houston, Texas: As the cop drove away, I doubt he ever thought of me again.
Gate City, Idaho:: The Detective has called me twice so far. The first to ask for some more information and the second to give me an update on the investigation. He was working on getting authorization to view my former employer's security tapes and left a message for the pizza outlet's owner to find out if the pizza was delivered and to recommend that in the future they don't take out of state checks without ID.

When I was in the job hunt, there remained the spectre of a job possibility that haunted me. I knew that there was a job waiting for me if I would just take it. I feared, however, that it would ultimately be another OmniStar, where I wouldn't be able to stay for any prolonged period of time for ethical reasons.

Debt collections.

I have nothing against debt collection per se. Someone has to do it. My neighbor at the Bickford Barrios apartment in Houston was particularly good at it. I've always been a debt hawk and a believer that unless it keeps you out of the rain or comes with four wheels and an engine, you never spend money you don't have. So I'm sympathetic that the companies want their money back (and then some).

But I don't like debt collecting tactics. I know this not because I've declined to give people money for services and/or goods rendered, but because I haven't and it doesn't seem to make any difference.

On my birthday a couple of years back, I got an eviction notice. I had three days to leave the premises because I hadn't paid my bill. Never having recieved an eviction notice, I thought that it was a pretty big deal. Apparently, they hand them out like candy. I got three while I was at that apartment. The first because they changed their accounting system without my knowledge and my checks were no longer valid because I was not the "primary renter" (Danforth was). The second was after we put it on automatic payment, but they forgot to do it. The third was when, the next month, they forgot to do it again. Each time I was effectively kicked out until I cleared up their screw-up. It wasn't about actually getting kicked out; it was about scaring the living heck out of me whether I'd done anything wrong or not.

Debt collection, I've learned, works in much the same way.

Right before I left OmniStar, a very dear jacket was stolen. A couple of days later I realized that the jacket had my checkbook in it. Since I needed to move my account up here, it was easy enough to switch banks and cancel the account.

A couple of weeks later, a check was written on my checkbook for $60 worth of pizza. The pizza chain turned it over to the credit bureau, who kindly contacted me about it. Well, they actually contacted my parents because that's the address on the account. I can hardly fault them for that because they didn't know that I had cancelled the account and that it was forged. They said I had a month to reply and I did, explaining the situation.

With one hand, they wrote me back telling me that I needed to go to the police station and file an affadavit of forgery. Simple enough. But with the other hand, they wrote me another letter telling me that I was a deadbeat whose credit record was going to be shot all to hell if I didn't pay them pronto.

Mom recieved the letter and, scared to death, called them about it. They told her that yes, they'd recieved my letter. They could tell it was a forgery (the forger's sig doesn't even remotely resemble my own). But the hand sending the nasty letters doesn't care what the hand that is actually taking care of the problem. The entity itself has apparently made a decision that it's easy just to send everyone scary lessons and letting the chips fall where they may rather than actually taking into account the circumstances that I'm sure they deal with on a regular basis.

I understand that there are people that they need to extract money from.

I just wish that they'd understand that I'm not one of them.

Scratch that cause they do understand. I just wish they'd care.

At the Gate City Police Station:

Detective: Okay, Mr. Whitlock, before we get started I'm going to have to ask you some pretty basic questions.
RAW: No problem.
Det: Could I get your full name, please?
RAW: Rayford Alexander Whitlock.
Det: And your address?
RAW: 1395 South Fifth Avenue.
Det: [pause] You life in Thrifthaven?

Det: I'm going to go ahead and give you my card. If you can remember anything else that might be valuable.
RAW: I think I told you everything that I know, but thanks. [takes card]
Det: Also, if there's... ahhhhhh... anything else going on that you think we should know about, don't hesitate to call, okay?
RAW: Sure.
Det: Anything at all.
RAW: Okay.
Det: We will maintain confidentiality.
RAW: Alright.
Det: So you'll give me a call if anything has happened or will happen out in your neck of the woods?
RAW: Uhh, sure.

Eel: Did you bring a shopping list?
RAW: It’s all up here. [points to head]
Eel: I don’t know how you do it.
RAW: That’s easy.
Eel: Huh?
RAW: I do it very unsuccessfully.

[note, as far as I know the co-worker had nothing to do with the coke cup – and my tone was more lamenting than accusatory or angry.]

RAW: [picking up cup] You know, it’s bad form for someone to put a coke cup in the trash can without emptying it out.
Co-worker: Is this a pet peeve of yours?
RAW: I think I've just discovered that it is.

UPDATE: Apparently I'm not the only one with this pet peeve. Got a memo on this just today:

I have been asked (kind of) to ask you to not throw away soda or any other type of liquid in the garbage’s anywhere. It makes a real mess for the cleaning people because it leaks through the bag. Please dump it in the sink or something. Thanks so much!

The Forbes Index
Everybody loves lists, no matter how pointless. There's apparently an index for cost-of-living for single folks using the really important statistics: How much does a Heineken cost? Pizza Hut?

Tow Yard Complaint (MP3) [via Eel]
When I worked for OmniStar, I never had to field any calls like this! The woman claims to have found a large piece of excrement in the back of her car.

Badass Australian Cows [via Lex]
There are tons of lessons in this story, ranging from how not to try to trip a cow to why you shouldn't get drunk enough with Danes to want to try.

Why I hate Microsoft: A personal, lengthy, but highly articulate outburst [via Pierce]
Lengthy is right. I think the 9-11 Commission Report is shorter by a hundred pages or two. I haven't plowed my way through all of it yet, but the author makes a pretty good case against Microsoft.

As True Today As It Was Back Then
Pete has some great tips on how to keep young suitors away from your daughter. I'll have to save this and use it if I should need it some day.

A week or so ago I posted the last of the Kitties of Thrifthaven posts. The reason being that Meatloaf was falling behind on his rent and skipped out before they put a bolt on his door and sold his stuff to pay the backdue.

Meatloaf and I got off to a rocky start, but before too long he became one of my best friends here along with Stoner, Yale, and, of course, Dundee. Though Meatloaf is only seventeen, he's futher along than more people his age are. We spent more than a couple of late nights philosophizing on, well, mostly relationships. Being that he is seventeen, it all came back to that.

He's dating a girl named Nadine. A little odd in the face, but overall reasonably attractive all things considered and a really nice girl. Nadine is a bit on the rebound with some guy that I never met named Bofo. For reasons I won't get in to, they both waited a lot longer than either intended to before having sex. The day that they did, Bofo showed up a couple of hours later. Bofo asked to talk to her alone. Having been there, I could really sympathize with the way his mind was running rampant.

They talked again on the phone that night. He said that he loved her and she declined to say anything in return.

At three in the morning she called him back.

"Hello?"

"I love you, too. Goodnight."

"Goodnight."

He came over to tell me all about it. I was a little jarred being awoken at three in the morning, but he was so excited and enthralled that it was hard not to catch the bug.

I found out more about his sex life than I think I ever really wanted to know, but I'm actually going to miss him.

On Strang's door:

"Don't f*ck with me again"

I got a couple of inquiries during my absense making sure I was okay, since I was in a "foul mood" and all. The truth is that I've been great, but a number of people around me haven't fared so well. That's why I wasn't in a particularly good mood.

I took time off in part because of my mood and because with all that's going on with the new job, I wasn't getting enough me time. I tried to write a handful of posts but none of them came out right. To be honest, the ones I'm writing now aren't coming out remarkably well either. But I'm not going to let distraction and writer's block keep me from this, so here I am.

The me time was well spent. It's been a very enlightening week. I was forced to confront some issues that I didn't realize how tired I was of avoiding until they'd been dealt with. Sometimes, I have trouble letting go of things. I forget how heavy they weigh on my shoulders and I just accept it as a fact of life. Then, when the weight is lifted, despite whatever sense of loss that I feel, I also feel relief.

I've got a clearer sense of what I need to do now that I have a job and am getting settled.

My shoulder's aren't sore anymore.

My mind isn't a whirlwind.

Oh, and whether or not I have any right to be, I'm happy.

I have a few things to post about, but am not feeling inclined to post on them. I've been in a foul mood over the last couple of days and don't have anything productive to share right now. Eel and I are also (probably) leaving town this weekend, so taking a couple days off is analogous to taking a week or so off.

So instead of trying to drum up content, I'm going to let it be for now and check back in to let you know where I am in a week or so.

I haven't gotten the usual 5-7 links, but I'll go ahead and post what I have so they don't grow as stale as my green burritos.

Movie led man to strangle lover [via Susanna]
This has to be the worst title for an article I have seen in a long, long time. The movie, Passion of Christ, did not lead the man to strangle his lover. It lead him to confess. That aside, the story is interesting, though short on enough details that I have to wonder if it's true.

Civil Rights Lawsuit Filed in Waller County
Chris Elam comments on a lawsuit in Waller County against the District Attorney and Governor Perry. I don't know enough about it to have a lot to say, but Chris is a lot more familiar with the politics in the county.

Liberal Bias in the Wording of a News Article
Regardless of whether one believes in liberal media bias or not, Patterico does one of the best jobs I've seen of pointing out how articles sharing the same structure and same set of facts can be written to produce two entirely different conclusions.

Name game increases sex appeal [via MWilliams]
How people associate sexuality with names.

[Read More!]

Eel was complaining two nights ago about a coworker who was singing along with some vapid pop song. I nodded in agreement.

Last night, she caught me singing along to "King of Wishful Thinking."

A matter of perspective, I suppose.

Our apartment complex has a coke machine. Actually, it's an RC Cola slash Crush machine. It's only 50c a can, which is actually better than your going to get for a single can from a convenience store. It's mighty convenient, to boot.

But the first two times I tried it, it ate my money.

When Morton went to use it, I laughed at him cause he was about to get robbed like I had. Except that he put 50c in and got 5 cans of coke in return.

It's been pretty spotty ever since. It's eaten my money a couple of times, but a couple of other times it gave me a couple. I never did hit the jackpot, though. It's happened to a couple of people.

What really sucks about the machine, though, is that it's always out of RC Cola proper. Since I don't like the Crush line of fruit drinks and I get tired of RC Cherry, this bugs me. Sometimes I just want a coke or its nearest equivalent, in this case an RC Cola. And it always seems to be out. Even right after they replace them.

Today, I went down to get me an RC Cherry and there was an RC Cola sitting in the bay. So I took it. Then another fell out. So I took that one. Then another fell out. Repeat the process for eight cans in all. I didn't even put in my 50c.

Come to think of it, every time someone has gotten freebies, it's been RC Cola proper.

Using my keen detective skills, I think I've figured out why it's always out of RC Cola.

Jay introduced me to potato salad many moons ago. I tried it once as a kid and didn't like it. After much cajoling, Jay got me to try it again.

I liked it.

I don't like it a whole whole lot, but it's kinda tasty.

But Walmart only sells them in 2 kilogram tubs.

I don't like potato salad two kilograms worth.

When Jay was living in the Chickie Pad (tm), he had a hyperactive freezer. The ice crept up so much that it eventually consumed the food. Even before that point, it was easy for food to get lost in there. On top of that, Jay is not known for being a neat freak and doing things like, for instance, cleaning out his freezer.

Adam, Brian, Jay and I were watching Fight Club over at his place one night. I'd already seen it so I chose an opportune time to go into the kitchen and make myself an Instaburrito. I pulled out the bag and much to my disappointment, the burritos were green. We'd probably gotten them the last time that we were up there, some nine months prior. There was an unopened bag there, too.

With my nose right next to the seal, I opened it.

Then I calmly walked to his restroom and preceded to vomit.

So, with that in mind, I have come to a decision: I am not going to smell the green burritos residing in my fridge right now.

Fool me once, shame on you. Fool me twice, shame on me.

Louisiana Congressman Rodney Alexander decided, twenty minutes before the filing deadline in the face of a Democratic primary challenger, that he is a Republican instead of a Democrat. This causes a bit of a problem because he'd already filed to run as a Democrat and, according to the DCCC, "Alexander's second filing 20 minutes before the deadline is in effect a withdrawal of his candidacy under Louisiana law since candidates are prohibited from amending their ballot qualification in any way once it has been made."

I'm not sure that the case is as clear as the DCCC makes it out to be, but honestly, isn't it a little disingenuous for the Democratic leadership to be talking about sancitity of election law? The Democrats, for those of us that recall, pushed to invalidate election law as recently as 2002, when they nominated someone with too much scandalous baggage that was going to lose in an otherwise safe Democratic state. Back then they argued that people should have as much choice as possible. Now, of course, they're fighting to keep Rodney Alexander off the ballot. Kuff even accuses Alexander of trying to "thwart competition," which is a bit of a stretch since he's practically handling the Democratic nomination to his would-be challenger and cannot force his would-be Republican challenger to drop out.

The only thing that's different here is that there is a party switch involved. In both cases, one party or the other tried (or is trying) to skirt election law to improve their chances of willing.

Ain't democracy grand?

A number of my readers might have thought that my view of the Torricelli situation was colored by partisanship. Well, the shoe is on the other foot (though the repercussions admittedly more minor) in Louisiana right now and my view stays the same: except in special circumstances a la Paul Wellstone or Mel Carnahan, the law should not change to suit partisan maneuvering. The corruption of Robert Torricelli or lost footing by abnormally conservative Alexander do not constitute special circumstances. Both made their own bed.

Half an hour or so ago there were flashing lights outside of my apartment. I didn't think much of it until I heard sirens and looked out the window to see people hovering about. Three people were watching from behind my car. I didn't see the fire until I turned the corner. I never smelled it.


This is the complex next door to ours. Ironically, I'd already decided if I were to post on this place, I'd dub it The Firebird. Like Thrifthaven, it used to be a hotel and specializes in low-rent apartments.

A couple other pics of the aftermath if you click below.

Update: Adding more pictures as I take them.

[Read More!]

Bandwidth Thieves
Kevin is just evil. But it's an evil that I think more people should start being!

USA: Land of the Free, Home of the Evil?
I've been to Canada three times, though only twice in my adult life. Everyone in Toronto was extremely nice and no one reacted negatively to my being an American. Only one person actually said anything negative about my home country, pertaining to our litigous society. Of course, it's no secret that our friendship with Canada has been on the rocks, but the numbers coming from this poll are downright scary. 40% of Canadian teens consider America a "force of evil." Not good, though I do have to question the methodology of a poll in which 90% of respondants say that America is a "Force for good" (50%) or a "Force for evil" (40%).


N.J. Governor Resigns, Admits Gay Affair [via Chris]
Ex-Aide Says He Was Victim of McGreevey
N.J. Newspapers Opine: Resign Now, McGreevey
I've never cared much for James McGreevey and I knew that he was in trouble so his resignation did not come as a surprise. Apparently I've been quite out of the loop, though, because I wasn't even aware of rumors of homosexuality. But he's out and he's out. All things considered, I think McGreevey handled the decision to resign pretty admirably with the exception of timing his resignation to prevent a special election. I can't help but feel a great deal of sympathy for his wife.

The Obama Myth [via Reductio]
Illinois senate candidate Barack Obama has been portrayed as a measured and moderate politician. There is some talk that this is not the case, that he escews the moderate wing of his own party, and that he would do things such as nationalize health care. So where is this talk coming from? From Obama.

A French Employee's Work Celebrates the Sloth Ethic [via Judd]
There is a lot wrong with the way that corporations work in the United States. I don't mean in the sense that US corporations are heartless, but rather that their stinginess and structures can often be counterproductive. If the French author of this book's portrayal of France's economy and structures is accurate, then I need to take a breath and remind myself how appreciative I should be of being over here and not over there.

Porter Goss and the Reverse Peter Principle
James Joyner takes a somewhat snarky post by Jesse Walker and honestly explores the repercussions of lower and upper level employment practices. Not as amusing as the French Sloth article, but interesting nonetheless.

You're older that you've ever been
and now you're even older
and now you're even older
and now you're even older
You're older that you've ever been
and now you're even older
and now you're older still

In one of our more poignant conversations before I left Houston, Audrey and I talked about the seriousness of the decisions we needed to make in our respective lives. Particularly as they related to love and marriage. Though we focused on different areas (me on a stable family and she on a soulmate), we both have the tendency to get ahead of ourselves. At one point she blurted out, "You know, we're only twenty-five."

Yesterday I turned twenty-six.

So now I'm twenty six years, zero months, one day, five hours, and thirty-four minutes old.

This is not where I'm supposed to be right now. Right now, I'm supposed to be working with my wife trying to concieve our first child. We've been married for two years or so. The girl could be Anna, Ora, or some girl that I never met or one that I did in passing and never thought twice of. That's more or less how I saw things right up until my twenty-third birthday past and I wasn't married. I spent a good part of the next couple of years trying to play catch-up with an urgency that was, in retrospect, toxic.

I think that there were times when my hurry to find someone had less to do with being lonely and a lot more to do with getting that part of my life settled so that I could spend my time and energy on other pursuits.

In some ways, it's good that the woman I met and moved to Idaho for is suspended in time for the next couple of years. There's no rush because we're not going anywhere for at least another two years. If things go well we may or may not be married before then. There's no wondering why we're not further along because there's nowhere further along we can really be. There's no impetus on having kids early (which was always my plan) because as long as she's a resident, it would be a logistical nightmare.

time - is marching on
and time - is still marching on

That leaves me a lot of time to think. That can be a double-edged sword, of course, with the way my mind works. But it allows me to reflect on who I am, where I am, and explore my life with the sort of relaxation I'd imagine a weekend fishing hobbyist feels waiting for the next bite because there's no way to proactively make a fish take the bait. In the meantime, I have the pleasurable company of a woman that I love and who, for reasons beyond my ability to comprehend in these trying months of unemployment, underemployment, and personal doubts, believes in me.

It's also given me time to look at who I've been and appreciate that I haven't been nearly as ready for my future marriage and family as I thought I was at the time. As much as I wish I was - and think I am - ready right now for it, I'm probably not.

"So," I think to myself, "I've got two years to get there."

And the urgency returns.

this day will soon be at an end
and now it's even sooner
and now it's even sooner
and now it's even sooner
this day will soon be at an end
and now it's even sooner
and now it's sooner still
-They Might Be Giants, "Older"

Internet at the apartment has been virtually non-existent for a few days now. While that's the case - and while I'm busy commuting two hours a day for a full-time job, posting will be limited.

The apartment owner swears it'll be up by tomorrow.

The following post contains some sensitive imagery and naughty words. If you don't care, click below.

[Read More!]

Dundee's last breakup was astonishingly easy. On a Saturday he called her up to say that his Parole Officer said that they couldn't see each other anymore. I don't know if his PO actually said that, but the day before he told me to take note of an RV on the University grounds across the way from us. He asked how long it had been there and I said since the day after he moved in. He said it was cops and that it first showed up when his girlfriend moved in to stay a couple of days.

After he called and broke up with her, she came by an hour later and picked up her stuff. No harsh words, no arguments. She just got her stuff and left. The next day the RV was gone. Might have been a coincidence, though it was odd to see a camper hanging out at the university's plant and shipping depot.

The night after the demise of that relationship, he met a girl by the name of Abra. I use the term "girl" as she was probably four or five years my junior and mentally four or five years younger than that (Dundee is, I estimate, 36 or so). I can't say that I cared much for Abra. In addition to immaturity, there was something... well... dirty about her. It's hard to describe. She some kind of makeup that made her skin look oily. Her short hair was styled by gasoline as near as I could tell. But she was really nice and offered to get me any brand name shirt I wanted for $4. I never took her up on the offer.

A few days ago he met another girl at AA. Instead of just giving him some clothes, she offered the ticket to a Harley Davidson motorcycle. Her mom apparently owns the local shop. Deidre, his new girl, is probably a year or two older than myself and not noticeably as immature of Abra was. She comes over with her two friends and their two kids.

With Diedre seemingly in and Abra seemingly out, I was a bit surprised to see the latter hanging around today. She was talking to Meatloaf, which was no surprise. Meatloaf actually recognized her days before by her moans eminating through Dundee's walls one night a week or so back. He's apparently familiar with her through a friend. Most guys in Gate City are familiar with her to one degree or another.

Dundee's son has been in town for the last few days. Nice kid, but pretty quiet. Dundee asked his son if he would hang out with me for a while so that he could "get him some pussy" with Abra. I think the kid resented hanging around in my apartment twice as much as I resented his causing a time-out in my Playstation football season. Just as we were starting to get along, Dundee busts in and says that the kid can go back to his place because he's never "going to put up with her shit again."

I found out later that she'd asked him if the sex meant that they were back together. When he said that it did not, she did not respond very favorably.

Half an hour or so later, Dundee asked to use my phone and I let him. He called Diedre and told her that she needed to come over right now and deal with Abra. He explained that he couldn't deal with her because he was on parole. She apparently agreed.

I found out later through Meatloaf that he preceeded to go back over there, make kissy-face, and apologize. It was apparently a romantic enough scene that Mealoaf felt the need to leave.

Forty-five minutes or so after the phone call, Meatloaf said that I needed to come outside. I'm not sure what exactly he thought I would do about it, but when I saw Diedre and her crew arriving, I knew that it wasn't going to be good. I asked Meatloaf when Abra had left and he said that she hadn't (and told me about the kissy-face that got him out of Dundee's room). The three of them went in, screaming occured along with a loud whap and a clank of what I'd guess was a picture coming off the wall and hitting something like a television set. Abra came out with a scratch running down her face from an inch above her eyebrow to the corner of her mouth. Through the blood I could see that her nose was broken.

Diedre's crew pushed her out and when she got up, they pushed her down again. Dundee told them to stop because he couldn't afford to get evicted. She went over to Stoner's place and asked to use a phone. She was told by Diedre that if she called the police, she would hunt her down and kill her. Dundee pulled Stoner aside to explain her side of the story, but Stoner didn't want to hear it. He didn't want to know anything about what had happened. He let Abra in and Meatloaf loaned her his phone. Saul told Dundee that if they took it to Stoner's apartment, Saul would either get involved himself or call the police. Dundee said that it was over, or would be just as soon as she left.

Abra went into the ladies room and never came out. After knocking several times and telling her that they were going in, Meatloaf and Stoner opened the door and found only an open window and a dent on Dawson's car below (Stoner, like everyone else in this scene, lives on the second floor.

Dundee, Diedre, and everyone else left the scene in case she did call the cops. Meatloaf and I debated leaving ourselves to avoid giving a statement. She'd apparently had some illegal substances in her possession. We didn't know if that meant that she was more or less likely to have called the cops. More likely because that would explain why she fled from the window of the second story of Thrifthaven or less likely because she didn't want anything to do with the cops.

In any case, the cops haven't shown up and I'm guessing they're not going to.

Starting on Wednesday, I will be an employed man.

I broke down and got EA Sports NCAA Football 2004 again. I say "again" because I bought the game several months ago but it didn't work coming out of the box and, despite concerns that it might be important, lost the receipt.

Twin Falls blessed Eel and I with both a Best Buy and a Barnes & Nobles. While she scanned through low-carb diet books at B&N, I went to Best Buy. They had NCAA Football 2005, but since it was over $50, I couldn't justify buying it, opting for last year's model, which cost only $30.

I'm not much of a video gamer as I could only justify the purchase of a PS2 because I was in need of a DVD player. I never really intended to play the game. Rather, the GM aspects of it seemed fun and most importantly, I can now watch a college football game any time that I want to. Right now I'm replaying the 2003 season and it's been worth all 2,999 pennies (plus tax).

Watching it go through the season that already happened is interesting. Mississippi State is 5-1 on the game, but in real life they didn't win 5 games all year and it cost coach Sherryl his job. National champion LSU actually has a losing record 3-4. Houston's offense isn't the least bit explosive and as near as I can tell, Kevin Kolb doesn't exist in the came (hard to tell because they don't name the players, but there are no freshman QBs) and defense carried the team to beat Michigan in overtime, but not enough to beat the 0-4 East Carolina Pirates (or Miss State). and the Texas Longhorns beat the Oklahoma Sooners. Maybe UT needs to hire the computer coach?

Some areas are pretty dead-on, though. It predicted the nailbiter between Oklahoma and Alabama, Texas was upset by Arkansas byalmost the same score as they did in reality.

The game looks absolutely gorgeous. It's the first sports game I've ever had where I could just watch the game and have a great time doing it. The rendering gets spotty at some points, though, particularly when it comes to the kicker. Houston's uniform is wrong, though, with really tiny letting on the front of the jersey (the real uniform has large letting) and inexplicably, the away uniform has blue jersey numbers.

There are both regular and TV games, the latter having real announcers announcing. They do a pretty good job of integrating the team names (and some player names) without it sounding awkward. While they have many variations on the same play to keep it from getting repetitive, after a few games you start hearing more repeated phrasings. Incidentally, I think I've discovered Lee Corso's secret. More than anyone else, he repeats himself over and over again with inane and not-particularly descriptive commentary. While on a game like this that's unavoidable, but miraculously I've found it little different from the way he is in real life.

They have several names saved into the system. I renamed all the UH players to fictional ones and it picks up on some more-or-less common ones (Jackson, Reaves), but not others (Eckles, Stiles). Due to the alleged non-profit nature of college football, they can't actually use the players names (which, combined with being too lazy to actually look them up, is why I created my own roster). They use the position and number to name the players (QB #16, for instance). It looks really tacky on the back of a uniform. I'd prefered they just tacked names on the players for those of us too lazy to look it all up and change the names.

The features on the game are pretty cool, too. The Create-a-school feature is rad. They had a logo for just about everything (I'd guess about 30 or 40 in all) I could use and I successfully made the Texas State Bobcats and fictional Lonestar U. Colts. Unlike the real teams, it adds fictional ones for custom-made teams. I think that as you get further and further into dynasty mode, it'll add more. While it couldn't pronounce Texas State or Lonestar, it did refer to them as the Bobcats and Colts respectively, even though the latter was not one of the already-created mascots on the game.

Since it's the 2004 version, none of the conference reallignments have taken effect. One of the advantages that 2004 has over 2005 is that the latter has only the first wave, which leaves the Big East with only 7 teams, and it doesn't make the next series of changes in the second season. I'd just assume have all or none of the realignments. Ideally, I really wish that you could create your own conferences. I'd have a ton of fun with the Southwest Conference or a New Southwest Conference or just The Conferences As R. Alex Whitlock Thinks They Should Be. 2005 doesn't have a conference selection feature, though I hold out hope for 2006. I'm told that there are some conference switches that happen if a non-BCS team gets really good (Houston replacing Texas Tech in the Big XII for instance) and if you use a fictional school, you can place yourself in any conference by replacing any existing team (I think).

Right now I'm watching the Houston Cougars beat up on Memphis. This is much more fun than what happened in real life.

I haven't been a music show since I got up here. Well that changes this weekend. The Idaho-native Braun brothers of Reckless Kelly are doing a show a couple of hours away at a music festical and I'll be durn if I miss a chance to see a Texas band in Taterland!

Be back Sundayish!

I went in to an employment agency on Thursday for an interview to get employment at the Heinz ketchup factory. It was a dirty and sweaty job, but according to Dundee it pays $11.40 an hour after the first month. Since it was an overnight job I'd even have the ability to go to interviews for better jobs.

Plus, let's face it, I've been getting pretty desperate.

So I interviewed with a nice young lady who asked pretty mundane questions such as "How much can you lift?" Until we got to "other skills."

Nice Young Interviewing Lady: Do you have any other skills that we haven't asked about?
RAW: I have computer skills, but probably nothing worthwhile to Heinz.
NYIL: Okay, well what kinds of skills?
RAW: Computer hardware and software.
NYIL: Could you be a little more specific?
RAW: Microsoft Access, Excel, Word, PowerPoint, FrontPage, Outlook, Windows 95/98/NT/2000/2003/XP, Computer hardware configuration, Visual Basic, VBA, VBScript, C++, Database design and administration, computer construction, SQL, HTML, TCP/IP, computerized phone systems, CNC support software, Seagate Veritas backup software, backup hardware including both analog and digital...
NYIL: Okay, this is a little bit much. Maybe you can give us your resume?
RAW: My database administration resume, my general IT resume, or my general office job resume?
NYIL: All three. Okay, so do you have any certifications or degrees?
RAW: I have a college degree.
NYIL: An associates?
RAW: Bachelor's.
NYIL Why are you here?
RAW: Excuse me?
NYIL: Why are you here?
RAW: I'm not sure I understand the question. I'm pretty sure I can handle a sanitation tech job.
NYIL: Do you realize what you'll be doing?
RAW: I assume I'll be cleaning out ketchup-making machines.
NYIL: And you have a college degree?
RAW: Yeah. And three years of IT experience.
NYIL: Why are you here?
RAW: Excuse me?
NYIL: Don't get me wrong, the sanitation tech job is a good one for unskilled labor, but... but...
RAW: Yeah?
NYIL: What are you doing here? This job won't pay you near what you're worth.
RAW: But it'll pay, and at this point I can't afford to be picky.
NYIL: You have too many skills to be cleaning ketchup machines.
RAW: I appreciate the inflated ego, here, but is Heinz not going to hire me because I'm overqualified?
NYIL: One of their factories burned down. They'll hire anyone that can construct a complete sentence and lift 50 pounds.
RAW: Well I can do both.
NYIL: What are you doing here?

Two hours after the interview, I was offered the sanitation tech job. Except that since I couldn't report to work immediately, they called the next person instead.

In my latest RAW Links, I link to an MSN article on Don Henley getting into it with his conservative fans over the politicization of his show. It's well-known that Don Henley, like most musicians and artists in general, is politically to the left of center. Given the political dispositions of Hollywood and other entertainment centers outside of Nashville, I'm not in a position where I can "boycott" artists that I disagree with. There'd be precious little left, but furthermore I wouldn't want to because I'd be missing out on a great selection of people with more artistic skill than political sense.

And yet I find myself, over and over again, mulling over the relevence of political leanings and artistry. There are, in fact, a number of artists out there I simply can't get in to because of things that they've said on and off stage, Steve Earle being cheif among them.

So that puts me in a strange predicament. On one hand, I feel the way that I do about artists because of what they often say outside of their works. At the same time, I don't want to say that because they're a musician or a writer that they can't have political views. Nor, as a strong believer in moral arts, do I believe that their views should never find their way in to music.

I was reading an op-ed by Bruce Springsteen when I realized one component of the conflict. By the end of Springsteen's column, I realized that I actually had more respect for him despite the fact that he was endorsing John Kerry and announcing his alliance with at least one of the musicians that I don't follow anymore in spite of their talent for political reasons. It seemed to me that Springsteen "gets" what a lot of artists miss.

Musicians and writers often take pride in their understanding of humanity. Rightfully so, because if they're any good it's that understanding that helps people relate to what they're writing or singing about. To relate to a particular piece, I have to be able to relate to the artist, the subject of the piece, or feel that I could relate to them if I was under the circumstances that they were. One of the highest compliments I've ever gotten on my fiction writing was when someone that had nothing in common with the main characters of one of my novels said that he could truly relate to that character.

Writing, then it's good, is about more than just telling stories about people. It's about revealing aspects of humanity and opening doors of understanding between very different sorts of people. I focus on the former in my own writing, but the latter is no less legitimate. That's what requires a certain level of understanding.

So when an artist goes on stage and gives an interview in which they openly express (even brag about) a failure to understand me, it breaks the relationship between the artist and the only audience that matters to me (namely, me).

Imagine for a moment that you're a fan of a particular artist. You can relate to his material and can really connect to it. Then imagine that the artist, during an interview, said that The Turner Diaries is one of the great inspirations for his work and refers to blacks and Jews as "mud people" that weren't human. If you go back and listen to his music - and you're anything like me - it'll never be the same again. Imagine that you're Jewish or black and you discover this.

Now obviously there are a number of differences between discrimination based on ancestry versus political beliefs. But the sense of de-humanitizing is still the same, particularly if you are the one being dehumanitized. Failing to see and understand the humanity in those with bad ideas is failing to understand humanity at all. Viewing 48% of Americans as fascist or sympathetic to the fascist party is failing to see the humanity in 48% of Americans. If I know that an artist views me as the enemy and out to do great harm to this country, it's harder to relate to anything else that he says. When morality is inexplicably tied to political dispositions and his view of my political positions includes a set of horns above my temple, then the moral of the story is lost on me.

Now, in the case of Don Henley, there are a couple of points to be made. First, his transgressions weren't that bad. Secondly, I don't get the feeling that our worldviews are as far apart as his comments have sometimes demonstrated. His "Garden of Allah" is one of the best moral criticisms of pop culture that I've ever come across. And lastly whether their works can overcome differences in worldview is an inexact science. The Dixie Chicks have fallen off my playlists for the most part over much less boorish behavior.

But I do wish that artists will take this sort of thing into account before they start spouting off.

When RAWbservations started over two years ago, it was a political blog in its most superficial sense and largely indistinguishable to nearly every other right-of-center blog out there. As time has passed, it's become considerably less political and when I talk about politics it's become a lot less sharp in tone. As I've written more and more about my personal life and thoughts pertaining to life more than Republicans and Democrats, both the audience and linkage have changed.

With TP, Adam, Heidi, Pete, Linus, and other political liberals (though Heidi would object to that characterization and she'd be right) reading and commenting on the blog, I've found myself considering how political posts will be recieved and altering my posts accordingly. Does that mean that I'm misrepresenting my views? Not at all, but instead of writing conservative posts for a conservative audience, I find myself starting from a more neutral standpoint and avoiding the contestable assumptions that conservatives make before the conversation even begins. If half of my audience doesn't make the same assumptions, there's really no point in going any further, is there?

I'm certain that it's really easy out in Hollywood and the East Coast to assume that everyone approaches politics the same way that you do and those that don't are somehow defective in some way or another. But that represents a limitation in the artist's understand of how people think a lot more than it represents anything about the people that disagree with them. If some outspoken artists spent half the time trying to understand those that think differently as they do on lecturing us how to "understand" those that act differently, they'd probably learn a great deal and their works would be a lot better off for it. I know that the liberal contingent of my readership has certainly improved mine.

Bush pushes for changes in labor laws [via Judd]
I don't know how serious Bush is about this, but giving employers more flexibility in giving their employees more time off is an outstanding idea.

Dying at Sea. Probably. [via Judd]
Odd story of a couple. He has a latent deathwish; she's just along for the ride. They disappear while diving off the west coast. Conspiracy theories abound.

Republicans, searching for votes, look to Amish for support
Ironically, Republicans are making headway with one of the most pacifist voting blocs in the country.

Kerry Channels Michael Moore
According to Kerry's recent statements, we are left to presume that unlike Bush (who finished the book he was reading to elementary school students upon discovering the second tower had been hit), Kerry would have leaped out of his chair, run to the nearest phone booth, shedded his glasses and donned his cape and circle the Earth opposite the rotation to turn back time and prevent it. Christopher Cross takes the timeline from the 911 Commission's report and sets the story straight.

Sandy Berger Times Two [via Judd]
An article by the other Sandy Berger, tired of being confused with the first.

Henley’s comments hit sour note [via Susanna]
First Henley goes political on stage, then after exercising his first amendment rights in an inappropriate forum, he berates his own audience for exercising theirs (by booing). Unreal.

The Media's Fear of God [via Theosebes]
It's generally not disputable that a large contingent of journalists don't "get" religion in the same sense that a large contingent of the rest of the population does, but Chris Weinkopf uses African bushmen to illustrate it quite colorfully while talking about a PBS documentary.

A few days ago I commented on a study put out by MIT that made some points about wealth and happiness that I disagreed with. Leading into his conclusion, he makes some other points that I would like to talk about:

Many important rewards in life–access to the best schools, to the most desirable mates, and even, in times of famine, to the food needed for survival– depend critically on how the choices we make compare to the choices made by others. In most cases, the person who stays at the office two hours longer each day to be able to afford a house in a better school district has no conscious intention to make it more difficult for others to achieve the same goal. Yet that is an inescapable consequence of his action. The best response available to others may be to work longer hours as well, thereby to preserve their current positions. Yet the ineluctable mathematical logic of musical chairs assures that only 10 percent of all children can occupy top-decile school seats, no matter how many hours their parents work.

That many purchases become more attractive to us when others make them means that consumption spending has much in common with a military arms race. A family can choose how much of its own money to spend, but it cannot choose how much others spend. Buying a smaller-than-average vehicle means greater risk of dying in an accident. Spending less on an interview suit means a greater risk of not landing the best job. Yet when all spend more on heavier cars and more finely tailored suits, the results tend to be mutually offsetting, just as when all nations spend more on armaments. Spending less– on bombs or on personal consumption– frees up money for other pressing uses, but only if everyone does it.

The essential argument here is that for people to make the decisions that would make their lives more fulfilling, it is required that others make the same decisions or else they are put at a disadvantage. The article comes quite close to advocating using law to force other people to make these decisions since, as Frank argues (unsuccessfully in my opinion, see previous post), ingredients to happiness (shorter commutes, clean air, etc.) are more universal than we previously believed.

In response to an unrelated post, Adam Taylor makes the following observation:

Someday I hope to write something up on why I think the women's lib movement and it's push to allow women to work in more jobs (a worthwhile goal) had the adverse affect of *making* women work even when they don't want to, thusleading to your "destruction of the formal household."

Simply put, when you double the workforce, salaries get cut in half. Therefore, both parents have to work now to have the same standard of living as they would if just men worked.

These two comments about two different things actually draw from the same basic argument: The freedoms of others either force or induce someone to make a certain decision.

And it's true. For instance, if we had complete domain over our own property, then my neighbor could keep the music raging loudly all night long to the point that I can't sleep. If my neighbor were to burn white crosses in his front yard, that would make it so that I would feel uncomfortable bringing a black friend over.

On a more macro level, as Adam points out the decision that women as well as men should work has had repercussions that have arguably lead to less freedom for others. If women were still not allowed to work (a proposition that neither Adam nor I would support), then there would be less unemployment, there would be a greater need for employees, and wages would likely be comparatively higher. This means that it cases where a man or woman would want to stay home with the kids, it's less economically viable because of decisions made by others.

As Mr. Frank points out in his MIT article, the decisions of the masses for more living space further and further out of town have created market conditions to where it's considerably more difficult and expensive to find living quarters inside the city as there were more houses and apartments built closer to the city. This is further complicated by the undesirable clientelle that choose such a life. So a person making the decision to live closer in to town would either be paying more to do so or would find himself surrounded by less-than-desirable neighbors compared to the more posh suburbs.

For a small-town example, I will use my apartment complex. Though it calls itself Thrifthaven University Apartments, I've met all of two college students that actually live here. Because rent is so cheap here, it attracts people that don't have steady jobs or, in some cases, are literally being supported by the discretionary funds of their parole officers. Because of the type of people that choose to live here, I don't feel as safe as I otherwise would. I can pay more and live somewhere else, but I wouldn't have to if there weren't so few of these places around for perpetual criminals and druggies to congregate. If I want to live in a safer environment, I have to emulate the choices of others because that's who the market is set to please. That means I need a bigger place for more money located away from downtown.

Metropolitan liberals make this argument when they complain about the choices made by others to live in the suburbs. It creates more roads, more traffic, and makes a public transportation system more difficult to accomodate. Conservatives make this argument when it comes to entertainment. My generation has extraordinarily messed up ideas about sex in large part because we were exposed to grotesque notions of what sex should be on a daily basis via entertainment. Parents that don't want their kids to be exposed to such things must then forego a great deal of what popular entertainment has to offer due to the decisions made by others.

A common critique of democracy is that it's a tyranny of the majority. The same is true of capitalism.

I use Microsoft Windows and Microsoft Office for one reason. I have a laundry list of reasons that I use Windows, but in the end it comes down to the fact that it's the standard, it's what everyone around me uses, and therefore it's the most practical. Not because it's better, certainly not because it's cheaper, and not even because it's easier on its own merits. Because everyone else does.

So, with all this in mind, should the government then encourage people to live in different places, watch different things, and use different software?

For the most part, the answer is no. The next part is coming soon.

"I was talking with a friend of mine about this the other day: that country life as I knew it might really be a thing of the past and when music people today, performers and fans alike, talk about being "country," they don't mean they know or even care about the land and the life it sustains and regulates. They're talking more about choices - a way to look, a group to belong to, a kind of music to call their own. Which begs the question: Is there anything behind the symbols of modern "country," or are the symbols themselves the whole story? Are the hats, the boots, the pickup trucks, and the honky-tonking poses all that's left of a disintegrating culture? Back in Arkansas, a way of life produced a certain kind of music. Does a certain kind of music now produce a way of life? Maybe that's okay. I don't know." -Johnny Cash, Johnny Cash: The Autobiography, pg. 17

[via Amanda]

- August 3, 2004 -

I woke up on the wrong side of the bed. I can't remember a time when I woke up on the wronger side of the bed. I went over to Eel and mercilessly tried to bug her out of bed. I didn't know what time she had to be there, but her alarms were keeping me awake and I didn't want her to be late.

Oh yeah, and I really woke up on the wrongest side of the bed in the entire world.

She went off to work and I went back to bed. Or at least I tried to. My contacts were bothering me and it felt like my eyes were going to explode. Unfortunately, I couldn't take them out because I didn't have the little contact holder dealiebob, so I just sat there and not-so-silently suffered with a very naughty potty mouth.

I finally made my way back to my apartment and, lo and behold, the Internet was down. Not just the usual putter-putter-404, but down down. It wasn't even trying to connect. I sat around and moped for about ten minutes. Ten minutes seems like an eternity when looking from the wrong side of the bed. Ordinarily what I do when the Internet is down is knock on Stoner's door, cause that's where the hub is. Unfortunately, now Strang lives there and I wasn't anxious to knock on his door.


It was not a good day for the Internet to be down. I needed to send Dad an e-card for his Birthday, I needed to update the blog, and dag nabbit I needed my Internet! So I knocked on Strang's door and asked to see the hub. He was very accomodating. The light between my hub and his was on, but the light to the main router was not on. This was obviously not a problem that was going to fix it any time soon. So I bugged management.

The manager said that it goes down from time to time and let it be. I started explaining the nature of the problem. First I tried to do it simply saying that either the router was down or the connection got disrupted. When that didn't work, I started getting technical in a way that I knew she would not understand and just to get me to shut up she agreed to check the router. Mission accomplished!

The router was fine, though there were no markings as to which cable went where within the complex. She called the owner, who said it would probably just come back up in a few minutes. He tried to explain what I'd told her what the problem was, but instead she it came out like "the blinkies aren't blinking and Rayford says it's something to do with the phone connection," which makes me look out to be an idiot, but that was okay cause the owner agreed to stop by.

The owner stopped by and told me that it was probably just a temporary outage and that it would come back up soon. I explained the lights to him and he said he'd look in to it. No guarantees, though.

Meanwhile, I realized that my eyes were still at war with my contacts. I found the contact pods at my place, but the fluid was at Eel's. So I went back. While I was out, I got everything that's ever been on my to-do list done. When I got back, I decided to burn some more CDs.

Somehow, that bad day turned in to one of the most productive ones that I've had in quite a while.

So I guessed I couldn't complain and will have to put up my potty-mouth for a bit.

- August 4, 2004 -

I awoke to the sound of a phone. It was a company applying for a job that I really wanted.

A couple of hours later, I got a call from an employment agency about another job that I didn't want quite as badly, but would pay the bills.

And the Internet was up.

And my eyes weren't at war anymore.

More pictures!


GoldKitty got his arm stuck in the blinds' control strings.


GrayKitty wants out.


Both kitties just want to know what the heck I'm doing.

UPDATE: I'm not sure why GoldKitty's eye is acting the way it is. It's not the way he usually looks, though one eye or the other does squint from time to time.

Over a month back, Kuff compared and contrasted the 2004 Texas Republican Platform with a new bill designed to help parents censor the movies they show their kids if they so desire. The basic accusation was that Republicans are hypocritical when it comes to raising kids. Though Kuff quoted the two sources without comment, the thrust of the comments was that parents need to watch over their kids

Except that's exactly what this law is designed to help them do.

The law would allow DVD manufacturers to put in a device that would automatically censor naughty words, sex scenes, violence, and so forth. This way parents that want to censor what their kids watch can do so while the rest of us are not saddled with watered-down material or more diffiiculty buying more risque or bloody features. The law doesn't even allow for the modification of movies by third parties, only how the product is used in their own home.

Win/win, right?

Apparently not because some people believe that they know better how you should raise your kids than you do. While I don't ascribe to the theory that there is no "right" and "wrong" way to raise a kid, I'm apparently more - for lack of a better word - liberal when it comes to allowing parents to raise their kids in a way that they seem fit than are some actual liberals.

Kuff follows up arguing that such devices make parents "lazier rather than more responsible." since it " does nothing to address the question of how one's kids will behave when you're not there to watch them."

Perhaps so. For my part, it is very unlikely that I would ever use such a device since I plan to (emphasis on "plan to") limit overall access to television. Oh, wait, but that would put me in the same category since I can't follow my kid everywhere. With that in mind, I should just give up, let them watch soft-core porn on HBO late into the night. It's the responsible thing to do since they're just going to see it elsewhere, right?

I actually don't plan to (emphasis on "plan to") run a PG household. Ideally, I'll be able to discuss matters of sex and violence and help guide the kids down a deeper moral understanding of the underlying issues with both of those.

But what I don't plan to do (emphasis on "plan to") is subject my children to (or allow my children to be subjected to) the degrading, vapid 24/7 skinfest that is pop culture. I'm relatively certain that they would get access to it elsewhere, but with any luck I will prevent them from being immersed with this junk.

I believe that one's environment does have a great effect on who they become. While I don't necessarily think it's in the kid's best interest to control the environment, I do believe in the "garbage in, garbage" out principle. Kuff may disagree, and such is his right, but I no more trust him to tell me the right way to raise a kid than I trust those that would tell me that the devil of temptation will irrevocably enter my kid if they see one stray boobie on TV.

And as for the laziness involved, some parents don't have the time sufficiently to raise their kids. This is particularly two in double-income households where both parents consider their careers non-negotiable as well as those that have to do it for financial reasons (hence all my "plan to"s above). I may or may not agree with this particular way of going about it (auto-edited DVD players, I mean), but I am disinclined to play judge and jury with their right to do so when this is a symptom of the larger problem of the destruction of the formal household... but if I say that I'm being judgmental, aren't I?

The Kerry Doctrine [via Reductio]
Robert Kagan extrapolates on one of John Kerry's sound bites at the convention. If taken to its logical conclusion, Kerry would be the most isolationist and dovish president in recent memory. Kagan also explains why Kerry might feel the way he does. Ironically, if the Democratic nominee of 2000 had taken this somewhat radical position, he might have gotten my vote on that basis alone. Things change... well, some things, anyway.

Edwards' trial lawyer past raises red flags for doctors [via BrosJudd]
American Medical News takes a surprisingly objective look at John Edwards trial history. Half of Edwards's suits involved brain damage or cerebral palsy, two things that science has since demonstrated that OB doctors are not generally to blame for. I will give credit for having some interesting ideas on lowering medical malpractice insurance rates low and, as one Kerry-supporting doctor said, his background would put him in a unique Nixon-China position to get plaintiff's lawyers to accept it. Of course, it also gives him every reason not to pursue it.

'Degrees for sale' at UK universities [via Judd]
Universities in Britain make the discovery that students that have failed out won't pay tuition anymore and make adjustments accordingly.

First-Time Voters: You Never Forget Your First Presidential Election (.PDF) [via The Corner]
I've only read the quote provided by KJL, but intend to read the rest at some point. I've generally been skeptical of polls that show pro-life having parity (or better) with pro-choice Americans, but I find this one interesting because it very explicitly talks about whether or not abortion should be legal and not just moral ramifications. I wonder what other gems are in there.

Computers Weighing In On the Elements of Essay [via Susanna]
Given my... uhmm... creative structuring, I'm really glad they didn't have this when I took the SAT. Basically a computer reads your document and gives you a grade based on whether or not your essay was sufficiently formulaic. Susanna has some good thoughts on the subject.

Busting Balls in a Single Bound [via Pete]
I already wanted this game, but Sneeze Steve just gave me 100,000 ideas on how the game could be even funnier. With a bit of effort, I could be the next Blue Beetle!

More Than Million Students Attend Home Schools
Short article. About 30% are worried about the environment of public schools and another 30% wanted to provide religious instruction in addition to the basics.

Oops:

If John Kerry loses Michigan, he will probably blame it on his joke writers, then Woody Hayes and the mighty Ohio State Buckeyes. But he only has himself to blame. He should have used that several-decade gap between his job in Vietnam and his job of running for president boning up on his knowledge of sports. The Prowler has documented several examples thus far, and over weekend Kerry really goofed up.

To get his Ohio rallies up and rolling, Kerry used a set of jokes to open his events. In Bowling Green, his shtick went something like this:

"If you elect me and my running mate, John Edwards, we are going to give you the courageous leadership you need. We'll take the tough positions, the courageous positions, the tough stands. But there's one tough position I will not take: I am not going to choose between the Falcons and the Rockets" -- this is a local reference to the well-known rivalry between Bowling Green University and the University of Toledo.

"I will say this," he added. "There is nothing better than Buckeye football, period!"

Kerry used this set piece several times in Ohio, to great effect, never mind the waffling with the generality of "Buckeye" football. Was he talking Ohio State University specifically? Or just football in the state in general? Only Kerry knows.

But then Kerry dug a huge hole for himself. On Sunday and into Monday, Kerry hit Michigan, where he attempted to use the same Ohio jokes. Clearly, the sports humor has to be taken out of his hands before he really embarrasses himself.

"I just came here from Bowling Green," Kerry told the crowd to subdued applause. "I was smart enough not to pick a choice between the Falcons and the, well, you know, all those other teams out there. I just go for Buckeye football, that's where I'm coming from."

At that point, before all the boos began raining down upon him, Kerry seemed to realize his error. In an attempt to silent the angry crowd of University of Michigan supporters, Kerry said, "But that was while I was in Ohio. I know I'm in the state of Michigan and you got a great big M and a powerhouse of a team." Then his face, presumably, the Botox permitting, turned Big Blue.

Reminds me of one of those "Wanna Get Away" Southwest Airlines commercials. Some musicians are in front of a stadium crowd and says "We're gonna rock, Chicago!"

[silence]

His bandmate leans over and says, "Chicago was last night. We're in Detroit."

Wanna get away?

[via McGehee]

Being that it's almost 3:30 in the morning and I'm tired, I'm not sure how I came across this site. Regardless I found this tidbit about the old American Basketball Association (ABA) interesting:

The Houston Mavericks were one of the ABA's original franchises, and they were also one of the ABA's most troubled franchises, lasting only two seasons. The Mavericks' owner was T.C. Morrow, a wealthy businessman who refused to spend money on the team. Houston never had any star players, and even die-hard ABA fans are hard-pressed to remember even one Mavericks player. Instead, the Mavericks are mostly remembered for their poor attendance record in Houston.

During their first season, Houston rarely had crowds over 500 people. During their dismal second season, however, attendance was low to legendary proportions. The Mavericks often had crowds of less than 100 people, although such low figures were never officially reported to the press. Instead, the Mavericks front office padded their attendance figures so that the team seemed to have a "respectable" 500 fans each night. In December of 1968, UPI reported that 246 people saw the Mavericks play a game in Sam Houston Coliseum, which held nearly 7,000 people. The night before, 5,300 fans had crowded into a high school gym in Houston to see the University of Houston play Southern Mississippi.

[...]

On April 2, 1969, the Mavericks played their last game in Houston. The opponent was New York, and the announced attendance was 89. The Mavericks gave all 89 fans watching the finale a huge treat -- they crushed the Nets 149-132. Both the Mavericks' scoring output (149 points) and attendance figure (89 people) set official team records.

Also, when hanging out in Jackson, Linus and I were both deriding the "Houston Texans" name, thinking along the lines of "Well yes, Houstons are Texas by definition. Is that really worthy of a mascot?"

Well, I'd take the Texans over the Floridians.

Dean Esmay has an... ermm interesting perspective on leftist plans to disturb the GOP convention:

Dani Emery actually thought we were joking when John Eddy and I said we expect there to be a few deaths at the Republican convention in New York. The Democrats managed to avoid that by forcing all protestors into a cage, but the Republicans have no such plans.

Given what we're seeing, I'm wondering if our body count prediction of 2-3 wasn't a little low. Marbles to throw under police horse hooves, chemicals to confuse bomb-sniffing dogs, slingshots to pelt cops with rocks and batteries, puncturing cop car tires, plans to clog the 9/11 lines with bogus phone calls...

Could these folks pick a better way to help Bush be re-elected? Between them, Michael Moore, and the cretins at Daily Kos, you have to wonder if it's not all a gigantic plot by Bush to help assure his re-election.

Leaving aside the appropriateness of discussing the political effects of what a tragedy that would be, I question the veracity of his prediction. If deaths occur at the GOP convention, it will look bad first-and-foremost for the GOP. The Democrats got their convention off without casualties, and the Republicans (under this scenario) couldn't. The Republicans, at this point, need to demonstrate more than anything that they are in control and that they are worthy of the control that they presently have. This puts the GOP in a lose-lose situation because if they get too secure the tired old accusations of fascism will come up. Since I put the odds of a protester dying higher than that of a Republican politician or cop, the Republicans wouldn't uniformly be considered the victims.

However it were to happen - if it would happen - it would be a travesty for the victim, no matter how culpable they are in the protests and no matter how repugnant their beliefs. I find Dean's tone and the accusation-by-speculation to be extraordinarily off-putting.

When I go to sleep with the radio on, it's not uncommon for whatever music I'm hearing to make its way into the dre