bostorus

For Lovers of Elder Gods...

2009-12-29T16:44:01Z

... from Neil Gaiman, a short story for the holidays.

More Random Politics - 3/5ths Majorities

2009-12-19T18:16:15Z

You know, it is a good thing that the House doesn't require a 3/5ths majority. Controversial legislation that has a 3/5ths majority in the House would be just as twisty and turny as the Senate's. If both chambers requires a 3/5ths majority, there would be no way that Congress would ever be able to reconcile a House version and a Senate version.

Of course, with the way things are now, the Senate version basically has to win in order for the system to work. That seems terribly unfair to the House. There has to be a better way. I would say the Senate should get rid of the need for a 3/5ths majority vote to end debate, but I don't actually believe that, because it is a reasonably valuable way to protect minority rights (as I argued 5 years ago when they were considering getting rid of it WRT judicial appointments).

The only way I can imagine to make it harder to stop passage of bills but also retain minority rights would be to force them to filibuster the bill the old fashioned way, by giving long speeches. I think the Republicans would love this, though. They would have started talking in January and they wouldn't have stopped yet.

No Public Option

2009-12-09T16:40:50Z

Hm... The NYT says:

[S]enators said the tentative agreement would sideline but not kill the “public option” championed by President Obama and liberal Democrats in Congress.

Under the agreement, people ages 55 to 64 could “buy in” to Medicare. And a federal agency, the Office of Personnel Management, would negotiate with insurance companies to offer national health benefit plans, similar to those offered to federal employees, including members of Congress.

If these private plans did not meet certain goals for making affordable coverage available to all Americans, Senate Democratic aides said, then the government itself would offer a new insurance plan, somewhat like the “public option” in the bill Mr. Reid unveiled three weeks ago.

Obama supported, but never promised, a public option. He promised that people would have choice, which is what this provides. This is what he said in September:

My guiding principle is, and always has been, that consumers do better when there is choice and competition. That's how the market works. Unfortunately, in 34 states, 75 percent of the insurance market is controlled by five or fewer companies. In Alabama, almost 90 percent is controlled by just one company. And without competition, the price of insurance goes up and quality goes down. And it makes it easier for insurance companies to treat their customers badly — by cherry-picking the healthiest individuals and trying to drop the sickest, by overcharging small businesses who have no leverage, and by jacking up rates.
...
Now, it's worth noting that a strong majority of Americans still favor a public insurance option of the sort I've proposed tonight. But its impact shouldn't be exaggerated -- by the left or the right or the media. It is only one part of my plan.
...
But I will not back down on the basic principle that if Americans can't find affordable coverage, we will provide you with a choice.

I'm just putting this out there because the progressives are all going to start talking about how Obama doesn't deliver. Meanwhile, as far as I can tell, he is hewing as closely to his promises as just about any President we've ever had.

Frankly, the public option isn't that big a deal — what's important in this bill is that 30-40 million more people are going to be covered, and that insurance companies will end the (out-and-out evil) practices of denying people coverage based on pre-existing conditions and of imposing lifetime limits on the amount of compensation you can get (which means that cancer patients aren't going to get cut off after their treatment has cost, say, a million dollars).

In the spirit of everyone posting about racism today

2009-07-30T22:49:54Z

Here's what one of the colleagues of the officer who arrested Henry Louis Gates said... well, I'll quote it. You won't believe it if I say it:

In Barrett's e-mail, which was posted on a Boston television station's Web site, he declared that if he had "been the officer he verbally assaulted like a banana-eating jungle monkey, I would have sprayed him in the face with OC (oleoresin capsicum, or pepper spray) deserving of his belligerent non-compliance."

Barrett used the "jungle monkey" phrase four times, three times referring to Gates and once referring to Abraham's writing as "jungle monkey gibberish."

He also declared that he was "not a racist but I am prejudice [sic] towards people who are stupid and pretend to stand up and preach for something they say is freedom but it is merely attention because you do not get enough of it in your little fear-dwelling circle of on-the-bandwagon followers."

And here is how his lawyer defended the use of such language:

"Officer Barrett did not call professor Gates a jungle monkey or malign him racially," Marano said. "He said his behavior was like that of one. It was a characterization of the actions of that man."

*facepalm*

Then why did he get angry when Obama described the officer's actions as stupid? Surely, the President wasn't describing *him* as stupid, he was surely just saying Barrett behaved like a stupid person.

First Pic of New Who in Costume

2009-07-20T07:39:18Z

... is here. WTF? He looks like Tucker Carlson.

Al Franken Makes His Senatorial Debut

2009-07-16T07:22:18Z

Al Franken made quite the debut in the Sotomayor hearings. He really raked her over the coals:

FRANKEN: OK. I -- we're going to have a round two, so I'll ask you some more questions there. What was the one case in "Perry Mason" that Berger won?
SOTOMAYOR: There -- I wish I remembered the name of the episode, but I don't. I just was always struck that there was only one case where his client was actually guilty.
FRANKEN: And you don't remember that case?
SOTOMAYOR: I know that I should remember the name of it, but I haven't looked at the episode. I...
FRANKEN: Didn't the White House prepare you for that?
SOTOMAYOR: You're right, but I was spending a lot of time on reviewing cases. No, sir. But I do have that stark memory because, like you, I watched it all of the time, every week as well. I just couldn't interest my mother, the nurse, and my brother, the doctor, to do it with me.
FRANKEN: Oh. Oh, OK. Well, I -- we -- our whole family watched it, and -- because there was no Internet at the time, you and I were watching at the same time. And I thank you, and I guess I'll talk to you in the follow-up.
SOTOMAYOR: Thank you.
LEAHY: Is the senator from Minnesota going to tell us which episode that was?
FRANKEN: I don't know. That's why I was asking. If I knew, I wouldn't have asked her.
LEAHY: All right. Well -- so, because of that, Judge, we will not hold your inability to answer the question against you.

Franken is really earning his $174,000 per year salary there. He really roped her in a corner. Sotomayor's brother and sister must have been too busy watching Doctor Kildare. Al Franken, welcome to the world's greatest deliberative body!

Idiotic Sotomayor Questioning

2009-07-14T16:51:09Z

I am sitting here listening to Jeff Sessions interrogate Sonia Sotomayor. He is basically spending all of his time asking a variant on the following question: "You are The Other, a Latina woman, and your heritage and experiences frighten me and my constituents. What gives you the right to be a Latina Woman sitting here in front of me?"

I mean, even the idea that she should be some sort of impartial reasoning machine demonstrates a phenomenal lack of understanding of what judges at the appellate level do. Ugh!

Oh, for crying out loud, now he's asking her to feel sorry for those poor firefighters in the Ricci case because instead of issuing her own opinion, her court agreed with the lower court's opinion. Apparently, if the opinion of her court had stood, the firefighters would have felt cheated of a full hearing. Even though the firefighters had already had a full hearing, and the lower court issued a 78-page decision on it. And the Supremes overturned that ruling anyway. But God forbid that our impartial reasoning machine not feel sorry for those poor firefighters who got exactly what they wanted! Wait, what?

A New Regulatory Framework

2009-01-25T08:54:27Z

This:

Officials said they want rules to eliminate conflicts of interest at credit rating agencies that gave top investment grades to the exotic and ultimately shaky financial instruments that have been a source of market turmoil. The core problem, they said, is that the agencies are paid by companies to help them structure financial instruments, which the agencies then grade.

This is from Obama's team, through the NYT. It is the first time I've heard anyone express anything that would actually attack one of the root causes of our current crisis.

Basically, ratings agencies are paid to give advice on how to get a good rating. If their customers give them money, take their advice, and then do not get an increased rating, then those customers will stop giving the ratings agencies money. Perhaps unsurprisingly, the investment products of most of the clients of the ratings agencies got high ratings. That included a large number of very shaky investments (like the infamous bad loans).

Because these shaky financial instruments had high ratings, people poured their money into them. At some point, they realized the investments were, in fact, quite awful, and that the ratings agencies were not producing useful ratings. Now no one is willing to invest in anything, in large part because they don't trust the ratings agencies.

This is well-known, a major issue, and it is also the very first time I've heard any politician speak up on the matter. Restoring trust in the ratings agencies will be a huge first step to solving our problems. It is way better than shoveling money at banks in the hopes that they will start lending again. Congratulations to the Obama team.

A Catalogue of Horribles

2008-12-31T06:26:01Z

Vanity Fair has an oral history of the Bush Presidency. Being presented with all the malfeasances and incompetences and infighting at once, in chronological order, from firsthand accounts, is absolutely fascinating. Missed chances to do everything from improving partisan relationships to getting Bin Laden before 9/11 to dealing with Katrina (Brownie has an eye-rolling quotation where he blames the failure of the Kartina response to intervention by Homeland Security) to keeping the recent bailout under control. A couple of choice quotes:

Lawrence Wilkerson, top aide and later chief of staff to Secretary of State Colin Powell: We had this confluence of characters—and I use that term very carefully—that included people like Powell, Dick Cheney, Condi Rice, and so forth, which allowed one perception to be “the dream team.” It allowed everybody to believe that this Sarah Palin–like president—because, let’s face it, that’s what he was—was going to be protected by this national-security elite, tested in the cauldrons of fire. What in effect happened was that a very astute, probably the most astute, bureaucratic entrepreneur I’ve ever run into in my life became the vice president of the United States.

David Kuo, deputy director of the White House Office of Faith-Based and Community Initiatives: I went to a communications meeting the day after [Senator Jim] Jeffords switched [parties]. I remember feeling like I was looking at people who had won a reality-game ticket to head up the White House. There was this remarkable combination of hubris, excitement, and staggering ignorance.

Jay Garner, retired army general and first overseer of the U.S. administration and reconstruction of Iraq: When Shinseki said, Hey, it’s going to take 300,000 or 400,000 soldiers, they crucified him. They called me up the day after that, Wolfowitz and Rumsfeld. They called me the next day and they said, Did you see what Shinseki said? And I said yes. And they said, Well, that can’t be possible. And I said, Well, let me give you the only piece of empirical data I have. In 1991, I owned 5 percent of the real estate in Iraq, and I had 22,000 trigger pullers. And on any day I never had enough. So you can take 5 percent—you can take 22,000 and multiply that by 20. Hey, here’s probably the ballpark, and I didn’t have Baghdad. And they said, Thank you very much. So I got up and left.

Lawrence Wilkerson, top aide and later chief of staff to Secretary of State Colin Powell: As my boss [Colin Powell] once said, Bush had a lot of .45-caliber instincts, cowboy instincts. Cheney knew exactly how to polish him and rub him. He knew exactly when to give him a memo or when to do this or when to do that and exactly the word choice to use to get him really excited.

There is a lot more more in the article. This has been a truly astounding chapter of American history.

Antikytherrific!

2008-12-18T06:39:04Z

They've reconstructed the Antikythera mechanism. That's the 2100 year old astronomical computer found in a wreck near Athens. It's a marvel of 18th century clockwork, invented two millennia earlier.

They have video and everything. Check it out.

Put not your trust in princes...

2008-11-05T06:18:05Z

Possibly because I am in a generally pissy mood these days...

Politicians will break your heart, every single time. Anyone who becomes President has to be an egomaniac who appears humble, a megalomaniac who has to work in a system that is designed not to let anything happen, a manipulator who has to appear honest and straightforward, a pragmatist and cynic who has to appear to be an idealist, and a stark raving schizophrenic.

And their hubris overcomes them, each and every one.

Just remember the disappointments that Clinton and Carter were, unable to handle Congress (or, in Clinton's case, himself). Kennedy gave us the Bay of Pigs and started the real push into Vietnam. FDR sent Japanese Americans into internment camps. Reagan sold arms to Iranians in exchange for hostages, and used the money to fund the Contras.

I like Barack Obama. I gave him a lot of my time and money. He ran the first open source presidential campaign. He's not a magician. The problems that Obama faces are enormous. We haven't just voted away the last eight years, or the last 16 years of fractious partisanship.

On the plus side, he is a smart guy, understands the magnitude of the challenges, and is a change from the disaster of the last eight years. We'll see what happens.

Synchronized Debating!

2008-10-29T07:10:14Z

Ever get that deja vu feeling?

Star Trek Goodness

2008-10-16T07:27:54Z

The first pictures from the new movie, for those who care. The bridge looks like full-on Galaxy Quest territory, which could be very good, and could be very bad. I can't look at Quinto and not think "Sylar". This very Sylar-like picture is not helping matters.

Mavericky

2008-10-12T17:26:53Z

Here is an interesting New York Times article about the etymology of the word "maverick".

Apparently, it is a family name. The family is a long line of civil libertarians who made that name by defending atheists, draft dodgers and the targets of red-baiting. As you can imagine, they are rather annoyed whenever they hear McCain and Palin describing themselves as such.

Insomnia and Sarah Palin

2008-09-26T10:24:04Z

I've been telling my friends that although I disagree with her stands on the issues, I would make up my mind about Sarah Palin's basic competence and intelligence until I heard more from her.

I've heard enough.

That is truly amazing. It sprints past answer, sails past non-answer, transcends honesty and falsehood, makes a fool out of syntax and semantics, and makes me wonder if she is equipped to run the fryolator at McDonald's, much less the United States of America. It's like some bizarre drug trip.

One can only assume that — somehow — she wasn't prepared for a question on the most important issue facing the country today. However, it does cast some light on why McCain was suggesting that the presidential debate be rescheduled to when the vice-presidential debate is happening.

Oh, I like this meme

2008-08-18T22:19:45Z

ETA: This is apparently called the Omnivore's Hundred, and is a list of foods Andrew Wheeler thinks everyone should try at least once in their lives.

From auros.

Items I've eaten are bolded.
Items that are among my favorite foods are italicized
Items I would never eat (or never eat again) are struck out. I don't drink or eat pork (ETA: I don't drink alcohol or eat pork. Thanks, dear.), so I've struck out some of those.

1. Venison
2. Nettle tea
3. Huevos rancheros
4. Steak tartare
5. Crocodile
6. Black pudding
7. Cheese fondue It is hard to argue with cheese. (It isn't very bright, and doesn't talk much).
8. Carp
9. Borscht
10. Baba ghanoush
11. Calamari Italicized only in the rare cases it is prepared correctly. Fried is fine (frozen, thawed and fried is not). Simmered is good, but easily screwed up. Grilled is equally easy to screw up. Everything else is wrong.
12. Pho
13. PB&J sandwich
14. Aloo gobi
~~15. Hot dog from a street cart~~
16. Epoisses (I'll rate this a "?". I love stinky soft cheeses, and I'm not sure of all of the names I've eaten).
17. Black truffle
~~18. Fruit wine made from something other than grapes~~ (I don't really drink, so this was some elderflower nonsense poured down my throat)
~~19. Steamed pork buns~~ (Before I stopped eating pork)
20. Pistachio ice cream
21. Heirloom tomatoes Strictly speaking, I hate raw tomatoes, but I eat much that is made with them.
22. Fresh wild berries
23. Foie gras Sorry animal lovers, I'm weak.
24. Rice and beans
25. Brawn, or head cheese
26. Raw Scotch Bonnet pepper
27. Dulce de leche
28. Oysters
29. Baklava
30. Bagna cauda
31. Wasabi peas
32. Clam chowder in a sourdough bowl As with Auros, if I lived on the east coast, I might italicize this.
~~33. Salted lassi~~. Iw. Do not want. Note that this is the only thing I've crossed out that is neither booze nor pork.
34. Sauerkraut
35. Root beer float
~~36. Cognac with a fat cigar~~ No booze.
37. Clotted cream tea
~~38. Vodka jelly/Jell-O~~ No booze.
39. Gumbo
40. Oxtail
41. Curried goat
42. Whole insects Yup.
43. Phaal
44. Goat’s milk
45. Malt whisky from a bottle worth £60/$120 or more. No booze.
46. Fugu I'd try it. Food or death!
47. Chicken tikka masala
48. Eel
49. Krispy Kreme original glazed doughnut
50. Sea urchin
51. Prickly pear
52. Umeboshi -- sounds interesting, though!
53. Abalone
54. Paneer
55. McDonald’s Big Mac Meal I think I had one when I was about 6. I'm not proud of this.
56. Spaetzle
~~57. Dirty gin martini~~ No booze.
~~58. Beer above 8%~~ No booze.
59. Poutine Really would like to try Canada's famous dish.
60. Carob chips
61. S’mores
62. Sweetbreads
63. Kaolin . Dirt? WTF? I guess I'll try anything once.
~~64. Currywurst~~ No pork
65. Durian
66. Frogs’ legs
67. Beignets, churros, elephant ears or funnel cake
68. Haggis I think I may have had it when I was in the UK, but I'm not 100% sure.
69. Fried plantain
70. Chitterlings or andouillette Before I stopped eating pork.
71. Gazpacho
72. Caviar and blini
~~73. Louche absinthe~~ Is there another kind of absinthe?
74. Gjetost, or brunost. This sort of falls into the category of "I've had lots of cheeses, and I can't remember all of their names".
75. Roadkill
~~76. Baijiu~~ No Booze
~~77. Hostess Fruit Pie~~ I think I might have been about 8 the last time I had one.
78. Snail With a lot of garlic and butter. Mmmm... garlic pencil erasers.
79. Lapsang souchong
~~80. Bellini~~ No booze
81. Tom yum
82. Eggs Benedict
83. Pocky
84. Tasting menu at a three-Michelin-star restaurant Every chance I get! Unfortunately, that has been 0.
85. Kobe beef
86. Hare
87. Goulash
88. Flowers
89. Horse
90. Criollo chocolate
91. Spam
92. Soft shell crab "Om nom nom nom", as they say.
93. Rose harissa
94. Catfish
95. Mole poblano
96. Bagel and lox
97. Lobster Thermidor
98. Polenta
~~99. Jamaican Blue Mountain coffee.~~ I don't really drink coffee, either. For someone who loves food, there are an awfully large number of things I don't eat.
100. Snake

Sad, But Me

2008-03-13T23:45:50Z

ETA: I know that this appeared yesterday, but I should really have set it for Pi Day!

Political Math For The Day

2008-03-11T23:25:57Z

Pennsylvania is a must-win swing state in November.

PLUS

The airwaves in Pennsylvania from now until April 22 will be flooded with ads vilifying Clinton and Obama.

EQUALS

President McCain.

(Feel free to apply this retroactively to Ohio. Plus, Clinton is doing a great job making Florida and Michigan residents feel that the Democratic Party doesn't care about them, so kudos on her for doing her best to destroy the Democrats' chances in the fall.)

For Children of the 1980s...

2008-02-13T08:58:35Z

Christopher Eccleston's latest role &mdash yet another flashback to our collective youth.

For those who think electronic ballots are easy easily rigged...

2008-02-06T23:05:56Z

Nothing is more easily rigged than the average voter:

Some votes were apparently lost, however, when about 20 folks at a Chicago precinct were given styluses designed for touch-screen machines instead of ink pens. When voters complained the devices made no marks on their paper ballots, a ballot judge told them the markers were full of invisible ink.

"After 20 people experienced the same problem, somebody said 'Wait, we've got 20 ballots where nobody's voted for anything,'" said Board of Elections spokesman Jim Allen. Officials were trying to contact the voters; Allen said the both the voters and the judge believed the invisible ink theory.

Woo-Hoo! We're not the only retarded industrialized nation!

2008-02-06T20:35:30Z

Apparently, a quarter of Britons think that Churchill was a myth, and half think that Sherlock Holmes was real!

I'm sure that if you asked Americans, a quarter would think George W. Bush was a myth (well, perhaps he is), and that half think that Cookie Monster is real (well, perhaps he is), but still, at least we're in good company.

Primary Day!

2008-02-05T08:08:36Z

People who live in NY, NJ, CA, GA (or is it AL?) and MA should remember to vote!

(...I think that covers it for the people who are on my friendslist)

NOW has lost its mind

2008-01-29T02:40:08Z

Apparently, the New York chapter of NOW thinks that Ted Kennedy's support of Barack Obama is a betrayal of all women, everywhere.

Posted without further comment.

Earthquake!

2007-10-31T04:40:16Z

There was a 5.6 earthquake about an hour and a half ago!

I didn't even know this until my neighbor came to ask me if I were all right!

"Jeremy, are you all right?"

"Why shouldn't I be?"

"Uh... the earthquake?"

"What earthquake?"

"The massive rumbling thing that happened about 15 minutes ago?"

"Umm..."

I was in my car. I guess if you are in your car, you don't feel an earthquake.

Simon Pegg IS...

2007-10-12T12:59:58Z

Mr Scott in the new Star Trek movie?