LISTENING TO:
Goodbye Jumbo
World Party

I’ve been wanting to get this for over a dozen years; this reamastered version is well worth that wait.

When I finally received it, I’d forgotten how good it was. A handful a classics on this one disc, with Put the Message in the Box the highlight of the CD, to me.

All music

I’ve mentioned this before, but it still seems true: The U.S. can’t visit the Middle East except as on a non-planned (i.e. surprise) visit.

I understand the reasoning, but still – three years (!) after the invasion, about two and half years after “Mission Accomplished” and so on, we are still coming into the Middle East via the back door:

Rice, Rumsfeld make surprise visits to Iraq

Sometimes it just doesn’t pay to be a Superpower….

“It is illegal to leak information. That’s what you sign up to when you join an intelligence service,” former acting CIA Director John McLaughlin said.
— CIA agent fired for ‘pattern of behavior’

A new wave of controversy over leaking began last week when prosecutors released court documents in which a former aide to Dick Cheney testified that the vice president told him in 2003 that President Bush approved the release of information in a classified intelligence report.
— Specter: White House needs to explain leak

Bush said he had authorized the release of the documents because some Americans questioned his reasons for going to war.
— Bush acknowledges declassifying intelligence

Former President Richard Nixon: “Well, when the president does it that means that it is not illegal.”
— Nixon’s Views on Presidential Power: Excerpts from an Interview with David Frost

Well, it was a beautiful weekend weather-wise. The rain held off and the temps were in the high 60s, so perfect weather for some yard work.

Now, our suburb traditionally has two “all you can toss” garbage days – one in the spring, one in the fall. And you can pitch anything, and they’ll pick up.

No more.

Next weekend is our last “all you can toss” day. I’m sure it’s a money issue. Whatever. I don’t believe our taxes have declined…

Now, when we bought this house, it came with a really ugly, rusting shed set way in the backyard. We never used it for much, and always planned on replacing it.

With the threat of no more easy garbage pickups for something like this, it was time to nuke the old shed.

Lots of unscrewing and work with a hammer and pry-bar did the trick. It’s now just two (pretty neat) piles of sheet metal.

Next week, out they go!

On the negative side, we now have a clear look at the ratty-looking area what was beyond the shed. Oh well, this’ll help light a fire under our asses to get this fixed something this year – or, at least, improved upon.

Baby steps…a little at a time….

Well, I have the best job according to a Salary.com/CNN study.

If my title was more in line with my real job – web dork – would my job suck more than if I didn’t have my current Software Engineer title? Just curious…

Mine are – for two months now.

Nah nah na nah nah…

(Forturnately for the procrastinators, there are two additional days to whip things together: April 15 falls on a Saturday, so – this year – Tax Day is Monday, April 17).

REVIEWED:
West Wing Season Five

First non-Aaron Sorkin year, and it shows.

The West Wing didn’t jump the shark this year (the following year they did, painfully – I stopped watching), but they came close.

It was a “let’s shake it up” year, yet most of the changes didn’t (to me) work. There were moments, but – overall – very weak compared even to Season 4 (weakest of 1-4).

All reviews

With apologies to Jonathan Swift, here’s a very high level response to some of the craziness that has been happening in the old US of A these days, issues such as:

• Bush says he signed NSA wiretap order – The government is ignoring the courts and eavesdropping on foreign-domestic calls.
• Whistle-Blower Outs NSA Spy Room – OK, the government is eavesdropping on us all. I hate when that happens….
• Classified Leaks as Political Weapons – While President Bush has branded those leakers of classfied information, saying their disclosures were a “shameful act”, he’s willing to (probably legally) declassify information for political gain.

There are a million more examples (health care, social security, immigration et al), the bottom line – to me – is this:

The reason much of this insanity is not addressed – and why it occurs in the first place – is politics. By politics, I mean the issue is not the issue to politicians, but the politicians’ concern is how this will harm/help re-election, fundraising and so on.

In other words, all this stuff that has great import to the average citizen isn’t getting the proper(?) attention in Congress – Are my calls to my granddaughter being intercepted and analyzed? Is there a breakdown in the checks-and-balances the Constitution enumerated? Are we in Iraq – and potentially, Iran – for the right reasons? Will I actually be able to collect Social Security a decade from now? Will I be able to get that life-saving procedure? And so on.

These questions don’t come up on The Hill. The questions are more like: Will backing this bill make me vulnerable in the 200X election? If I stay quiet about this, I probably can expect X’s support on Y, right?

While some outrage or rebuttals are legit, I see more actions/inactions that are politically based, and – again, in this entry, I mean a given lawmaker not serving his/her electors, but worrying about how to not get NOT elected next time around.

This is a problem in our democratic system (and remember – it’s a Republic, not a true Democracy – a democracy has one person, one vote: Here, it’s who you democratically elected making decision for you, and you have not direct vote there).

Which is why I have always opposed term limits – vote the bastard out if desired, why punish those that (for good or bad reasons) people want to elect over and over?

I think the current terms for Senators, Reps and President are too short. People are already calling President Bush a lame duck, yet he has about three years to go…but those pesky primaries and all that, with the full knowledge that the president can’t run again…

Back in 1776, the numbers made sense, when most members of Congress knew the 48 or so people who they represented. Today, you really think a senator from CA/NY/IL has a clue about the people (10 million +) they represent? No way.

Politicians today, for the most part, don’t represent the people – they instead act for themselves. Swap votes, curry favor, get pork not for good reasons, but to get re-elected. (Hell, who wants to be fired?)

And running for office takes a buttload of money today. More and more, we are seeing the wealthy running for office, because they can afford to. As these runners are elected, we’re seeing less and less representation of the average American in office. Which will slant policy (tax cuts for the wealthy). Look at our recent presidents – either party – with the possible exception of Gerald Ford (who wasn’t elected), all the presidents back to Eisenhower where men of means.

So, the Not-So-Modest-Proposal is to try to fix the morass politics is mired in: Fear of losing funding/elections. That is their focus; it is not what they were elected for.

I don’t have the answers, but these are some of the questions I have, some of the realities I see.

It ‘taint pretty.

LISTENING TO:
Ulisses
Cristina Branco

I heard an interview with this singer on NPR early April; I was captivated.

I like her music, her sensibilities (shown during interview) and her voice.

She does songs in French, English and native Portuguese; lovely. I don’t know if the non-English songs would hold up for me (but I have the CD in my Amazon cart!), but I just love her cover of Joni Mitchell’s “Case of You” – I’ve already purchased on iTunes.

She is lovely to look at as well (pic from NPR site), but it’s the voice…

All music

NPR (National Public Radio) depends, to a degree, on listener contributions. (Yes, I’m a subscriber.)

Hence the painful pledge drives blah blah blah…

Over the past year or so, NPR has been experimenting with – and expanding – its podcast offerings. Which is great for listeners, but … bad for pledge drive!

Unlike MPAA or RIAA (I refuse to link), NPR gets it – yes, the business model is changing, so they have to change. Read the Wired article.

Someone gets it. No DRM, no weird lawsuits…just an understanding that yesterday does not reflect today. *shrug* Times have changed; we must as well..

Write this date down…

UPDATE: Dave Winer comments on situation; not as optimistic as I am, but he gets that NPR gets it.

Every time I build out a Linux box it gets easier (I’m not doing unformatted drives and so on, which is easier).

Yet – each time – I trip up on something obvious (httpd.conf or php.ini setting, for example).

On the plus side, getting easier to see where I f*d up.

New box working well; thanks.

Had takeout Thai food for dinner Friday.

And leftovers for same for brunch and dinner Saturday.

Hotter than hell stuff. I love hot food, but this was a little too hot – and, for red curry, didn’t have much of a curry flavor.

But – mainly – oh_my_god hot.

I’ll be farting thunderbolts for some time now…

OK, two screen captures (via Flickr, attributions below) of Dooce’s Heather Armstrong and Kottke.org’s Jason Kottke at some sorta panel/disucssion at SXSW this year.

Heather – who seems quite slight – seems to have the more robust arms than Jason.

Just struck me as funny/puny.

Photos:
– Heather Armstrong
– Jason Kottke