When thoughts come to mind, I will put them on my blog. Real names for personal stories are used with permission.
From a Michigan friend
You can de-pant if you want to.
You can leave your trowsas behind.
Because if you wear pants, and if you use pants, then you're no friend of mine.
Hey depant.
Hey depant.
Everyone loosen their pants.
In grad school, I processed a collection around the passage of the Federal Direct Loan Program and learned that I never, ever should have cursed my FAFSA. The system in place before the FDLP was similar to the situation most students now have with private lenders but far, far worse. The government backed the loans in this case and the private companies involved learned that they made more money when students defaulted on the loans. With that information, they began a practice of not sending the loan statements so that students never knew that the needed to begin repayment. In the first Bush administration, most members of congress were in support of changing this system. Enter William Jefferson Clinton and suddenly, congresspeople that once liked the idea of Direct Loans found them to be a terrible idea. Interestingly, all of these individuals happened to be members of the Republican Party.
I don't seem to recall Democrats just flip flopping on issues like this (and with so much evidence about their change in stance) when Bush came in to office. It was more that Bush was doing so many things that Democrats plain didn't like. Oh, sure, Obama is going to do a lot of things that Republicans don't like either, but they're also dragging their feet on issues that they loved in mid-2008. Rachel Maddow played a clip of one such Republican Senator on the "Keep F*cking Things Up" Tour. He indicated that Republicans didn't think that giving money to make broadband and other internet connections available to people was a good use of money. This was why they didn't like the stimulus package as Obama and the Democrats presented it. Interestingly, this same Senator - I forget his name, John or something - actually promoted the same idea he now hates when he was on the campaign trail this year. I guess it was for re-election or something - no, wait, that's right, he was on the Joke Ticket, I remember now. Yeah, Candidate John McCain loved broadband for the people, but suddenly, now that the American people resoundingly rejected his ideas and his party, Senator John McCain hates the proposal.
Welcome to 1993, folks. To bad for Republicans that most of America is far more informed and we have recordings of your flip flops. And to Americans, never forget that this economic crisis is the result of deregulation and the destruction of the New Deal Era policies. We've been through this before, and that it isn't exactly the same is meaningless. If you disagree, well, you probably also weren't in on the joke from this last election cycle. Hope you enjoy your Obama tax cuts.
We're back to doing our best
Also, it was kind of stupid for no Republicans to vote for the stimulus in the House. You know that now the Democrats know that it doesn't matter how much they cater to them, they'll still be stubborn babies. I hope they like being shut out and ignored cuz they've shown that listening and even giving in to their idiotic ideas is pointless.
I present to you Design for Dreaming, a promotional movie by GM about its vision for "the future".
I have always disliked spiders, but as I age, the fear gets dimmer. When I was 14, there was a huge spider in my bedroom which I ran from and made my parents kill. I wasn't able to sleep in my room for days. Some time passed and I told my first therapist about my fear. A few months after that, I saw a garden spider on my ceiling, which was about 4 or 5 feet from the bed I was lying on at the time. I grabbed a shoe, killed the thing, and went back to bed.
When I first moved to San Ramon, I noticed that massive webs with "big ol'" spiders seemed to be pretty normal. As long as there is enough distance or a window between me and the spider, I love staring at them in the atriums of the buildings at work. In my old apartment, there was a time when I killed a massive spider at least once a week, but this apartment doesn't have as many. Earlier this month, I saw a smaller, but still pretty large spider crawling on my bed while I was getting ready for work. It was too big to smush with my hands, so I grabbed a TV remote and managed to smack it. Call me the Spider Killer, I guess, but its only when they come into my dwelling.
That's what my dad told me when my 8 to 10 year old self thought about the Reagan administration, didn't remember any major wars, and decided to declare that Reagan was a "pretty good president". This was information that I did not know, so I said "oh" and moved on with my day. I didn't care that much back then anyway - I don't even remember exactly how old I was, I just remember my dad balking at my statement. But the early 90's saw the introduction of right-wing radio in Central Wisconsin, and just 4 years later, he was voting Republican.
I'm listening to NPR tonight with Terri Gross interviewing a guy talking about war robotics. She mentioned the massive outsourcing of military activities during the Bush Administration and wondered if we can go back, which got me thinking. The no-bid, bloated contracts for mercenaries didn't seem to save the Pentagon any money. So, was Bush the kind of president that history will judge kindly? See post title.
Now if only I can get my father to realize the depths of the crap he's been hearing for the last 16 years.
Choads in the Senate, sad that they are on the wrong side of history, voted against Clinton's nomination to be Secretary of State. There were only two of them and one was David Vitter. Wasn't he the diapers guy? Not that it is fair to make fun of someone for their kinks (though I've got my own feelings about those), it is more the hypocricy that matters. The other choad decided to vote his misogynist conscience:
In addition to concerns surrounding the foundation, [South Carolina Republican Jim] DeMint said he opposes Clinton's positions on such matters as providing aid to foreign groups that offer abortions.
"I do not plan to slow up this nomination, but I do find it difficult to support a nominee who I know will pursue policies so contrary to American sovereignty and the dignity of the human person," he said.
One of which is none other than my incredibly bratty cousin, the youngest duaghter of a brother of my dad's that had kids. If you know my last name, you'll see her on the list. She's grown up now and was always pretty cool, but she was two years younger than me, a year older than my little sister, and the three of us had something like a sibling relationship when we would play together at The Farm.
She is a Campaign Director with the Traveling Press
So a plane had to land in the Hudson River today, all 155 people on board were fine, but they probably lost all their stuff.* I hope the business travelers didn't have any unique company records with them!
"There were eyewitness reports the plane may have flown into a flock of birds," said Federal Aviation Administration spokeswoman Laura Brown. "Right now we don't have any indication this was anything other than an accident." - Yahoo News
That is my New Year's Resolution, to be executed with the following plans.
Lose More Weight
