I had been kind of mildly following the Cap & Trade bill over the past few weeks, but to be honest I had been too distracted by Iran and other things to notice that Congress "secretly" pushed up the vote on the bill to later this week. And they probably did it exactly because so much attention in the media is distracted right now. They are like a bunch of evil little kids, you turn your back on them for 2 seconds and they will use it against you.
Anyway, after my dad sent me an email today to let me know that happened (and after I sent a long reply back to him comparing Cap & Trade to, what else, Atlas Shrugged), I realized I needed to find out if my thoughts on the subject actually held water.
The big question I have is: Who does this actually help??
By putting (what amounts to) a tax on using energy, this is going to hurt everyone, and I mean EVERYONE, because there is probably not a single person in this country who does not rely on powered transportation of some kind (or on things that were produced/delivered by energy-using transportation). If you don't, good for you (and get away from me, weirdo).
The only way to justify this is to say it is in the interest of the "general public" or whatever....and that's where reason goes out the window.
Anyway, it looks like its probably going to happen, since a recent poll found that only 24% of people knew that Cap and Trade was an environmental plan (good job with the secretly deceptive naming, Congress)
Anyhow, if you want to know how much you might be paying for this idea, check out Nate Silver's analysis on 538. Seems pretty solid to me. Its kinda funny how the states with the lowest populations/more republicans seem to be paying more for it. I wonder if that is correlation or causation?
Andrew Sullivan has another pretty balanced analysis of the situation, saying that it will cost the average household an additional $1,100 per year. And after 100 years of paying that much (which equals $110,000 per household!!!!), the goal is to reduce global temperatures by one-tenth of 1 degree Celsius. Whats the cost-benefit analysis on that look like??
Finally, the political conclusions of Cap and Trade are drawn out by The Weekly Standard (and this is the only part of the whole thing with a tiny, little, silver lining). If this passes the House, one of two things will happen:
"One possibility is the Senate does nothing, in which case Nancy will have hung the entire Blue Dog caucus and a bunch of other moderates out to dry by forcing them to take a tough vote on cap and trade for nothing. Republicans will be able to hammer these guys in 2010 for voting against the interests of their own constituents for some pie-in-the-sky environmental program that even a filibuster-proof Democratic Senate wouldn't touch with a ten foot poll."
Sounds pretty good to me - no cap and trade law, and it makes Democrats in the House look foolish (which they mostly are).
Option #2 (also from The Weekly Standard):
"the Senate does pass cap and trade and saddles Americans with the most complex tax scheme in the history of the world. Their energy bills go up while the economy is still in the toilet. The left is out there claiming that this legislation will cost Americans the equivalent of one postage stamp a day. Good luck with that. The whole point of cap and trade is to obscure the costs, and Republicans will be telling voters that half their electric bill is a feel-good tax imposed by tree-hugging Democrats."
This is the more likely, and the more nightmarish, scenario. Democrats still end up looking foolish, maybe even being hated for it, but that won't mean much when you're being taxed out of existence. Things could get to the point where the combination of an on-going depression combined with a tax on energy would basically shut down transportation, and thus almost every business as well, across the country.
Meanwhile people won't be able to pay for electricity or oil to light and heat their homes (or if they do, they will certainly have less money to spend on other things) and the economy will be further crushed.
Not to mention that the cost of EVERY SINGLE ITEM you purchase in a store that got to that store by means of train, plane, or truck will be more expensive.
Not to mention that every single item that is manufactured, harvested with farm machinery, or made of plastic will also be instantly more expensive.
Not to mention that the costs of replacing/fixing the machinery in those factories and on those farms will go up as well, because the companies that make that machinery will have to be paying extra taxes to produce and ship the needed machinery to the farms and factories.
So production becomes more expensive, meaning that supply will either fall, or prices will go even higher to compensate.
And either of those scenarios creates a situation where people would probably buy fewer things, which is of course not good for anybody, really.
I understand this is going to hurt some people a lot more than others, and this is obviously a worst-case scenario, but the question remains:
Who is this actually going to help? And I want a reasoned, specific, answer. Not just environmentalist, collectivist crap.
One final point from the Standard:
"cap and trade strikes me as the Iraq war of the Democratic domestic policy agenda. It's the overreach moment. It's a massive program that no one is demanding, no one understands, and no one can explain."
I hope he's wrong. I hope its not going to be as bad for us as the War in Iraq. But I have to agree with the rest of the similarities. This is the progressives being progressive, simply for the sake of being progressive. But since no one can really understand it, explain it, and especially since there aren't a lot of people demanding it, not many people are going to stand up against it either. And that's too bad.
Friday, June 26, 2009
End of the First Quarter
and I'm pretty sure I'm winning. Or at least I'm not losing.
What I mean is this was the end of my second week of work in Rochester. That means I've officially completed 1/4 of the internship, and so far things have been going pretty good. It's been really hot here the entire week, but after some absolutely amazing T-storms this afternoon it seems like the hot wave might be over.
I think I've got the city pretty well figured out, but that doesn't mean there aren't still a few surprises waiting for me.
Case in point - I arrived home today to find an orange paper taped to the front door of my apartment building that notified me that the Department of Health had placed rat poison inside the building.
Oh Good! My $450 a month gets me free pets too??
The notice told me to make sure I keep pets and small children away from the poison (does that mean big children are immune to rat poison? and if so, at what point does the immunity kick in? Is it at a certain age? or is it a height/weight things like how you become immune to needing a car seat at a certain point? Is there a government agency that can investigate these questions and get back to me?) so for the rest of the weekend I guess I'll be guarding the rat traps with a baseball bat to make sure no pets or small children are accidentally harmed.
What I mean is this was the end of my second week of work in Rochester. That means I've officially completed 1/4 of the internship, and so far things have been going pretty good. It's been really hot here the entire week, but after some absolutely amazing T-storms this afternoon it seems like the hot wave might be over.
I think I've got the city pretty well figured out, but that doesn't mean there aren't still a few surprises waiting for me.
Case in point - I arrived home today to find an orange paper taped to the front door of my apartment building that notified me that the Department of Health had placed rat poison inside the building.
Oh Good! My $450 a month gets me free pets too??
The notice told me to make sure I keep pets and small children away from the poison (does that mean big children are immune to rat poison? and if so, at what point does the immunity kick in? Is it at a certain age? or is it a height/weight things like how you become immune to needing a car seat at a certain point? Is there a government agency that can investigate these questions and get back to me?) so for the rest of the weekend I guess I'll be guarding the rat traps with a baseball bat to make sure no pets or small children are accidentally harmed.
Thursday, June 25, 2009
One More Post for Gov. Sanford
It's now painfully obvious that any further political aspirations of South Carolina governor Mark Sanford are completely down the drain. Reihan Salam wrote a pretty good elegy for the disgraced governor today. Says Salam:
"The sad fact is that Sanford was too interesting, too smart, and too strange to ever really make it on the national political scene, which seems to demand inhuman levels of discipline and, to put it bluntly, boringness."
He goes on to describe how Sanford's "mile-wide" independent streak was never going to fly on the national level, and it had already made just about every South Carolina Democrat and Republican hate him. But for us Libertarians, he was a breath of fresh air. As Salam also points out, he had a "intense distaste for glad-handing, and an unapologetic contempt for authority", and that's exactly why we all needed him.
While many believed that his open warfare against the legislature that wanted to use Obama Stimulus money was an attempt to fire-up right-wing talk radio hosts and fuel a potential 2012 Presidential bid, but Salam correctly points out that it was more a result of Sanford's "admirably dogmatic" small government beliefs.
Sadly, his attempts to roll-back or eliminate S.C.'s income tax has never been taken seriously by the state legislature either. To get their attention about too much pork spending, he once brought live pigs into the state Capitol building.
"The 2008 uprising...that fueled Ron Paul's quixotic bid for the White House was looking for a leader, and Sanford seemed to fit the bill."
Indeed he did. On the bright side, maybe he came to the realization that the political system in this country was beyond repair and just decided to give up. I kinda hope that is the case, and if it is, I hope he is as happy with the choice he made.
If it came down to a choice between an Argentinian beauty or a lifetime of fighting against politicians that were never going to change and a public that is too stupid to know better, maybe he did the right thing after all.
"The sad fact is that Sanford was too interesting, too smart, and too strange to ever really make it on the national political scene, which seems to demand inhuman levels of discipline and, to put it bluntly, boringness."
He goes on to describe how Sanford's "mile-wide" independent streak was never going to fly on the national level, and it had already made just about every South Carolina Democrat and Republican hate him. But for us Libertarians, he was a breath of fresh air. As Salam also points out, he had a "intense distaste for glad-handing, and an unapologetic contempt for authority", and that's exactly why we all needed him.
While many believed that his open warfare against the legislature that wanted to use Obama Stimulus money was an attempt to fire-up right-wing talk radio hosts and fuel a potential 2012 Presidential bid, but Salam correctly points out that it was more a result of Sanford's "admirably dogmatic" small government beliefs.
Sadly, his attempts to roll-back or eliminate S.C.'s income tax has never been taken seriously by the state legislature either. To get their attention about too much pork spending, he once brought live pigs into the state Capitol building.
"The 2008 uprising...that fueled Ron Paul's quixotic bid for the White House was looking for a leader, and Sanford seemed to fit the bill."
Indeed he did. On the bright side, maybe he came to the realization that the political system in this country was beyond repair and just decided to give up. I kinda hope that is the case, and if it is, I hope he is as happy with the choice he made.
If it came down to a choice between an Argentinian beauty or a lifetime of fighting against politicians that were never going to change and a public that is too stupid to know better, maybe he did the right thing after all.
Wednesday, June 24, 2009
Update....Governor Sanford Found (with his pants down)
Oh, well. So much for the hope that this guy was going to be some kind of a future hope for the GOP.
Still, I'm having trouble shaking the Atlas Shrugged analogy. I mean, he's having an affair, in Argentina, with a "close personal friend", and his wife knew what was going for the past five months. I'm just saying.
Still, I'm having trouble shaking the Atlas Shrugged analogy. I mean, he's having an affair, in Argentina, with a "close personal friend", and his wife knew what was going for the past five months. I'm just saying.
Governor Sanford Shrugged?
Governor Sanford of South Carolina, the only Governor in the country who refused to accept federal stimulus money for his state (and consequently my hero, because even 150 years after the Civil War apparently South Carolina still remembers the power of states' rights), disappeared last Thursday, and hadn't been heard from since. Not even his staff knew where he was, and his phone's signal had been turned off too.
At first there were reports that he had gone on a private hiking trip on the Appalachian Trail, but yesterday he was spotted at the Atlanta International Airport.....which happens to not be a part of the Appalachian Train (who knew?)
Today, the issue has been cleared up, at least a bit. According to the Governor himself (he's back in South Carolina now), he was enjoying a little private vacation in Argentina, without even informing his staff or family of where he was going.
Now, maybe its because I'm currently knee-deep in Atlas Shrugged, but when I see a guy like Sanford (the only major politician in the country who is trying to do things the right way for his state by refusing federal stimulus money and generally opposing the way in which government is growing in size and power), and then that guy just suddenly disappears for a little while, to go to Argentina (of all places), and now won't really discuss what he was doing there -- well, I can't help but think (or hope) that maybe there really is a Francisco D'Anconia-type guy down there trying to make things right.
At first there were reports that he had gone on a private hiking trip on the Appalachian Trail, but yesterday he was spotted at the Atlanta International Airport.....which happens to not be a part of the Appalachian Train (who knew?)
Today, the issue has been cleared up, at least a bit. According to the Governor himself (he's back in South Carolina now), he was enjoying a little private vacation in Argentina, without even informing his staff or family of where he was going.
Now, maybe its because I'm currently knee-deep in Atlas Shrugged, but when I see a guy like Sanford (the only major politician in the country who is trying to do things the right way for his state by refusing federal stimulus money and generally opposing the way in which government is growing in size and power), and then that guy just suddenly disappears for a little while, to go to Argentina (of all places), and now won't really discuss what he was doing there -- well, I can't help but think (or hope) that maybe there really is a Francisco D'Anconia-type guy down there trying to make things right.
The Article I Wish I Could Have Written
Earlier today I covered a story about a small cruise ship that made port in Rochester. Obviously, upstate New York is not exactly on any top 10 list of cruise destinations, but hey, it was pretty cool. Despite the golden opportunity this presented to me, I decided it was in my best interest to keep any references to The Lonely Island out of a serious piece of journalism. Never-the-less, the idea kept running around my head.....so here it is: The story I wish I could have written.
and in case you're not aware....this is the inspiration.
**Disclaimer** The following satire contains some harsh language, but its ok because I'm just quoting people. Even so, this may not be intended for any young children or close family who are reading this and don't want to accept the fact that I find explicit language to be funny
Also, the names have all been changed to protect the integrity of the actual story....and to prevent me from getting in trouble at work (i hope) in case they find this.....and to avoid plagiarizing myself, if that's even possible. **End Disclaimer**
For City, Future Tourists Could Be On A Boat
Oh sh*t, get your towels ready.
After three weeks at sea, the cruise ship Callie II arrived at the city's port on Tuesday morning, and was greeted by Mayor Charles Roth.
"Never thought I'd see the day that a big boat's headed my way," said Roth at a brief news conference where he presented Captain Thor Janson with a plaque to commemorate the ship's first visit to the United States.
Afterwards, Santana Champaign was served, because it's so crisp.
The Callie II left Lisbon, Portugal, on June 3, and made two stops in Canada before arriving here.
As the passengers disembarked with their swim trunks, flippy-floppies, and nautical-themed Pashmina afghans, Roth and some senior political officials took a tour of the vessel.
"I'm on the deck with my boys, motha-fucka," exclaimed Roth at one point.
When asked if a relatively small cruise ship like the Callie II had any trouble crossing the often-stormy North Atlantic, Captain Janson expressed total confidence in his ship.
"Take a good hard look at the motha-fuckin' boat," he said, adding that he believed it possible to fly that boat to the Moon, somehow.
"Anything is possble," agreed Kevin Garnett, one of several celebrities who had enjoyed the cruise.
"This boat is real," said another passenger, though he refused to identify himself or to elaborate on his statement.
The Callie II will remain in port until Thursday so it can be inspected by the U.S. Coast Gaurd.
Captain Janson said he was not worried about the inspection, because he had told his crew to "stay on their motha-fuckin' toes," during their time in port.
The summer, the luxury vessel will be sailing in the Great Lakes, on the big, blue, watery road between Toronto and Duluth, Minn.
E.
and in case you're not aware....this is the inspiration.
**Disclaimer** The following satire contains some harsh language, but its ok because I'm just quoting people. Even so, this may not be intended for any young children or close family who are reading this and don't want to accept the fact that I find explicit language to be funny
Also, the names have all been changed to protect the integrity of the actual story....and to prevent me from getting in trouble at work (i hope) in case they find this.....and to avoid plagiarizing myself, if that's even possible. **End Disclaimer**
For City, Future Tourists Could Be On A Boat
Oh sh*t, get your towels ready.
After three weeks at sea, the cruise ship Callie II arrived at the city's port on Tuesday morning, and was greeted by Mayor Charles Roth.
"Never thought I'd see the day that a big boat's headed my way," said Roth at a brief news conference where he presented Captain Thor Janson with a plaque to commemorate the ship's first visit to the United States.
Afterwards, Santana Champaign was served, because it's so crisp.
The Callie II left Lisbon, Portugal, on June 3, and made two stops in Canada before arriving here.
As the passengers disembarked with their swim trunks, flippy-floppies, and nautical-themed Pashmina afghans, Roth and some senior political officials took a tour of the vessel.
"I'm on the deck with my boys, motha-fucka," exclaimed Roth at one point.
When asked if a relatively small cruise ship like the Callie II had any trouble crossing the often-stormy North Atlantic, Captain Janson expressed total confidence in his ship.
"Take a good hard look at the motha-fuckin' boat," he said, adding that he believed it possible to fly that boat to the Moon, somehow.
"Anything is possble," agreed Kevin Garnett, one of several celebrities who had enjoyed the cruise.
"This boat is real," said another passenger, though he refused to identify himself or to elaborate on his statement.
The Callie II will remain in port until Thursday so it can be inspected by the U.S. Coast Gaurd.
Captain Janson said he was not worried about the inspection, because he had told his crew to "stay on their motha-fuckin' toes," during their time in port.
The summer, the luxury vessel will be sailing in the Great Lakes, on the big, blue, watery road between Toronto and Duluth, Minn.
E.
Tuesday, June 23, 2009
Update!!!
The other day I posted a link to a blog that was making fun of Pete Hoekstra, a House Republican from Michigan. Well, now they've moved the page from a blog to a full-blown domain name of its own.
check it out here.
If you don't know the background, Hoekstra made a post on Twitter that compared the Iranian revolutionaries to the struggle his fellow House Republicans face when dealing with the tyranny of the Democrats. And yes, Hoekstra is clearly an idiot.
So this page is dedicated to making other, equally crazy, comparisons. Such as: "My baseball game was rained out the other day, now I know how the people in New Orleans felt during Hurricane Katrina." And: "I had to work from home today, so now I know how Anne Frank felt."
check it out here.
If you don't know the background, Hoekstra made a post on Twitter that compared the Iranian revolutionaries to the struggle his fellow House Republicans face when dealing with the tyranny of the Democrats. And yes, Hoekstra is clearly an idiot.
So this page is dedicated to making other, equally crazy, comparisons. Such as: "My baseball game was rained out the other day, now I know how the people in New Orleans felt during Hurricane Katrina." And: "I had to work from home today, so now I know how Anne Frank felt."
want to get paid for doing nothing?
Well, that is pretty much the goal of anyone who starts a blog, right?
But no, I've found an even easier way to get paid for doing nothing.
Ready? Here's what you do.
1. Become a public school teacher in New York (the greatest city in the world) City
2. Become a part of the teacher's union
3. Get charged with (your choice!) either sexual misconduct, insubordination, or probably a handful of other potential offenses.
At that point, CONGRATULATIONS, you get to do nothing and still receive your full paycheck, just like over 700 teachers in the NYC school system!!!!
You'll be placed in a "rubber room" and allowed to do just about anything you want with your day, and since they cant fire you because the union is too powerful, you still get paid.
The Department of Education says that this practice costs taxpayers $65 million a year. The really funny thing the irony of the Department of Education complaining about anything else wasting taxpayer money and failing to successfully education children. I guess they finally found something more useless than themselves.
But getting back to the immediate point, I'm going to file this away as evidence of two arguments that I strongly support.
1. Why unions that are too powerful actually become entirely counter-productive to their own goals.
2. Why New York City is absolutely NOT the best place in the world, no matter what 80% of the people who live there (and 95% of the people who dont), want you to think.
But no, I've found an even easier way to get paid for doing nothing.
Ready? Here's what you do.
1. Become a public school teacher in New York (the greatest city in the world) City
2. Become a part of the teacher's union
3. Get charged with (your choice!) either sexual misconduct, insubordination, or probably a handful of other potential offenses.
At that point, CONGRATULATIONS, you get to do nothing and still receive your full paycheck, just like over 700 teachers in the NYC school system!!!!
You'll be placed in a "rubber room" and allowed to do just about anything you want with your day, and since they cant fire you because the union is too powerful, you still get paid.
The Department of Education says that this practice costs taxpayers $65 million a year. The really funny thing the irony of the Department of Education complaining about anything else wasting taxpayer money and failing to successfully education children. I guess they finally found something more useless than themselves.
But getting back to the immediate point, I'm going to file this away as evidence of two arguments that I strongly support.
1. Why unions that are too powerful actually become entirely counter-productive to their own goals.
2. Why New York City is absolutely NOT the best place in the world, no matter what 80% of the people who live there (and 95% of the people who dont), want you to think.
Monday, June 22, 2009
Home is Where the Onion Smell is....
People have been asking me (no, they haven't), "Eric, what is your living situation like in Rochester?"
So I'll tell you.
I'm renting a single room apartment in an old house that has been carved up into (I think) 12 different apartments. It's honestly not easy to tell which doors are apartments and which are just random doors to no-where (like the second door in my room, cleverly hidden behind the dresser). It's at 125 Gibbs Street, and I'm apartment #9, in case anyone wants to visit.
There isn't very much remarkable about the room itself, besides the stench of onions that I was dealing with for the first week. Yes, onions. It really wasn't so bad once I was home for an hour or so, but when first walking in the door it would hit pretty hard.
Scientific tests concluded that the smell seemed to be coming from some kind of brown stain in the bottom of one of the two mini-fridges in the room (I'm only using the other mini-fridge), so I thought keeping the door shut and cranking the dial up as high as it would go might limit the odor.
By the weekend it was clear that plan A wasn't getting the job done, but plan B (a box of baking powder in the fridge and an air freshener in the room) seems to have adequately disarmed the stench, for now. I bought some Febreeze too, concerned that my clothes might be picking up that smell after basking in it for a week.
I sleep on a futon, I have the old mattress from the nook at school on my floor, and I have a desk that triples as a table for preparing/eating food, using my computer, and holding my keys/wallet/etc. All in all, its not a bad little place, but I wouldn't want to live here for more than a few months.
Oh, I'd post pictures of it.....except that my internet connection is pretty crappy and uploading photos would probably take a good hour or so -- time that I'm just not willing to spend.
So I'll tell you.
I'm renting a single room apartment in an old house that has been carved up into (I think) 12 different apartments. It's honestly not easy to tell which doors are apartments and which are just random doors to no-where (like the second door in my room, cleverly hidden behind the dresser). It's at 125 Gibbs Street, and I'm apartment #9, in case anyone wants to visit.
There isn't very much remarkable about the room itself, besides the stench of onions that I was dealing with for the first week. Yes, onions. It really wasn't so bad once I was home for an hour or so, but when first walking in the door it would hit pretty hard.
Scientific tests concluded that the smell seemed to be coming from some kind of brown stain in the bottom of one of the two mini-fridges in the room (I'm only using the other mini-fridge), so I thought keeping the door shut and cranking the dial up as high as it would go might limit the odor.
By the weekend it was clear that plan A wasn't getting the job done, but plan B (a box of baking powder in the fridge and an air freshener in the room) seems to have adequately disarmed the stench, for now. I bought some Febreeze too, concerned that my clothes might be picking up that smell after basking in it for a week.
I sleep on a futon, I have the old mattress from the nook at school on my floor, and I have a desk that triples as a table for preparing/eating food, using my computer, and holding my keys/wallet/etc. All in all, its not a bad little place, but I wouldn't want to live here for more than a few months.
Oh, I'd post pictures of it.....except that my internet connection is pretty crappy and uploading photos would probably take a good hour or so -- time that I'm just not willing to spend.
Moral Majority FAIL
It appears that Pat Buchanan has some huevo on his face (again).
At a conference on Saturday, Buchanan and some fellow members of the "moral majority" were stumping for more English-only initiatves and spreading the fear that the Obama administration was going to make Spanish classes mandatory for all schools.
Problem is, they were doing so under a sign that was conspicuously mis-spelled.....sigh.....come on Republicans, you can do better than that.
Now, I'm no fan of learning Spanish (thats why I've never had a class in that particular language), and I generally would agree that if you live here, you need to be able to speak enough English to get by in public (though you can speak whatever you want in the privacy of your home or with others who speak the same language as you do), but I hate the assumption that just because you speak Spanish, everyone you encounter in retail or the general public should be able to do so too. Admittedly, there is a very small minority of people who make this assumption, but it still bothers me.
So when is the Republican Party going to dump these idiots that do nothing but shot themselves in the foot over and over again. Making this kind of a mistake makes everyone associated with them look bad and issues that should be taken seriously are laughed off as a result. Buchanan and his buddies have been allowed to overstay their welcome, its time for new ideas and new faces for American conservatism. please.
Before you can engage in a serious debate, you have to get your premises (or at least your signs) right.
At a conference on Saturday, Buchanan and some fellow members of the "moral majority" were stumping for more English-only initiatves and spreading the fear that the Obama administration was going to make Spanish classes mandatory for all schools.
Problem is, they were doing so under a sign that was conspicuously mis-spelled.....sigh.....come on Republicans, you can do better than that.
Now, I'm no fan of learning Spanish (thats why I've never had a class in that particular language), and I generally would agree that if you live here, you need to be able to speak enough English to get by in public (though you can speak whatever you want in the privacy of your home or with others who speak the same language as you do), but I hate the assumption that just because you speak Spanish, everyone you encounter in retail or the general public should be able to do so too. Admittedly, there is a very small minority of people who make this assumption, but it still bothers me.
So when is the Republican Party going to dump these idiots that do nothing but shot themselves in the foot over and over again. Making this kind of a mistake makes everyone associated with them look bad and issues that should be taken seriously are laughed off as a result. Buchanan and his buddies have been allowed to overstay their welcome, its time for new ideas and new faces for American conservatism. please.
Before you can engage in a serious debate, you have to get your premises (or at least your signs) right.
Friday, June 19, 2009
Courage
This week I've been following Andrew Sullivan's blog that has focused on the Revolution in Iran. These people are my new heroes, and the way this whole thing is unfolding has made me completely rethink my opinion of Twitter. Apparently its only a useless, self-absorbed piece of technology in the hands of American teenagers. Elsewhere in the world it can be a catalyst for revolution.
The extensive coverage by Sullivan is worth the time to look through, but this post in particular is amazing.
The extensive coverage by Sullivan is worth the time to look through, but this post in particular is amazing.
Lets all find a job!
So here's something that should be of interest to my recently-recently-graduated-and-looking-for-a-job friends, (and lets face it, if anyone is reading this blog, that probably describes you).
Since we all know that we're not going to be able to recreate the experience of living together at college, maybe we should all choose one of the cities on this list just released by Business Week as the "Top cities for college grads to find jobs". The information is based on the number of employers posting for entry-level positions. It also takes into account the city's average pay, cost of living (as measured by the Consumer Price Index - which I have a major problem with because I think it uses New York City as its basis for comparison), and unemployment rate.
The list is 30 cities long, but thats way too much to analyze, so lets stick to the top 10. And now I'm going to narrow it down even more.
#1, Phoenix, is off the list (too hot!!!), as is #4 Atlanta (same reason).
Likewise, #3 is out the door because it's New York (The one place in the world I have sworn that I will NEVER live. I'd take a job in Baghdad before I'd take one in New York City, I don't care how much you want to pay me)
#8 is Columbus, Ohio, and its out because I really don't want to ever drive through Ohio again. And there's nothing around it.
So those are the only ones that are definitely out. Two others, Indianapolis (#2) and Boston (#10) outside possibilities. Indy is almost out for the same reason as Columbus, and Boston is almost out just because of Red Sox fans. (Seriously, Boston seems like a cool place to live, but only if we could go back in time and prevent the Red Sox from wining the World Series in 2004....there's a lesson in not fully understanding what you wanted. I, like alot of other people, were rooting for the Red Sox back then, not realizing what a monster we were going to create.)
That leaves 4 of the top 10 as distinct possibilities.
Denver (#5), which I know hardly anything about, but mountains are nice
Chicago (#6), rough winters, but its supposed to be alot of fun
Philadelphia (#7), gets my vote
Cincinnati (#9), definently the Dark Horse here, but it looks pretty, and its smaller than the others, so that could be good.
Since we all know that we're not going to be able to recreate the experience of living together at college, maybe we should all choose one of the cities on this list just released by Business Week as the "Top cities for college grads to find jobs". The information is based on the number of employers posting for entry-level positions. It also takes into account the city's average pay, cost of living (as measured by the Consumer Price Index - which I have a major problem with because I think it uses New York City as its basis for comparison), and unemployment rate.
The list is 30 cities long, but thats way too much to analyze, so lets stick to the top 10. And now I'm going to narrow it down even more.
#1, Phoenix, is off the list (too hot!!!), as is #4 Atlanta (same reason).
Likewise, #3 is out the door because it's New York (The one place in the world I have sworn that I will NEVER live. I'd take a job in Baghdad before I'd take one in New York City, I don't care how much you want to pay me)
#8 is Columbus, Ohio, and its out because I really don't want to ever drive through Ohio again. And there's nothing around it.
So those are the only ones that are definitely out. Two others, Indianapolis (#2) and Boston (#10) outside possibilities. Indy is almost out for the same reason as Columbus, and Boston is almost out just because of Red Sox fans. (Seriously, Boston seems like a cool place to live, but only if we could go back in time and prevent the Red Sox from wining the World Series in 2004....there's a lesson in not fully understanding what you wanted. I, like alot of other people, were rooting for the Red Sox back then, not realizing what a monster we were going to create.)
That leaves 4 of the top 10 as distinct possibilities.
Denver (#5), which I know hardly anything about, but mountains are nice
Chicago (#6), rough winters, but its supposed to be alot of fun
Philadelphia (#7), gets my vote
Cincinnati (#9), definently the Dark Horse here, but it looks pretty, and its smaller than the others, so that could be good.
"My baseball game was rained out....now I know what living through Katrina was like"
ok, this is just plain funny
The other day, a House Republican from Michigan (Pete Hoekstra) put out a Tweet that compared the Iranian election protests to the way Republicans struggled against the Democratic leadership in the House last year.
Here's the (now infamous) Twitter page
Thanks to the heroes of the internet, that simple message has become the inspiration for a blog that compares user's everyday minutiae to important historical people/events. It's definently worth a quick look.
The other day, a House Republican from Michigan (Pete Hoekstra) put out a Tweet that compared the Iranian election protests to the way Republicans struggled against the Democratic leadership in the House last year.
Here's the (now infamous) Twitter page
Thanks to the heroes of the internet, that simple message has become the inspiration for a blog that compares user's everyday minutiae to important historical people/events. It's definently worth a quick look.
So now we are DELIBERATELY crashing space probes into the Moon???!
I'm angry.
I was just flipping through the paper here because I'm not working on anything at the moment, and I saw a very brief news story about NASA launching a pair of probes to the Moon yesterday. Its the first Moon launch in decades.
So I did a little more looking.
Besides the obvious issue of a huge mis-placement of government money (that is to say, our money) on a completely unnecessary project, the bigger problem is that apparently, as the AP reported, "The mission is a first step in NASA's effort to return humans to the moon by 2020."
Really?? Really?! We're still planning on going back to the Moon? With all the money the government has thrown away on stuff lately, you would think they would have cut out something like that, which is not only impractical but also scientifically pointless.
But the bigger issue, and the one that really gets me angry, is the mission objective for one of the probes that was launched yesterday. Read it for yourself:
"The other will swing past the moon and go into an elongated orbit around Earth that will put it on course to crash into a crater at the moon's south pole in October."
So after years of accidentally slamming probes into the side of the Moon, and Mars, apparently NASA has decided to just do away with the pretense and deliberately smash millions of taxpayer dollars into that giant ball of cheese in the sky.
The impact is supposedly to look for water under the surface, but I'm pretty sure the guys at NASA just got bored and wanted to blow something up.
If you need any proof these guys are completely out of touch with reality, just read some of the quotes in the story - http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20090618/ap_on_sc/us_sci_moon_rocket
I was just flipping through the paper here because I'm not working on anything at the moment, and I saw a very brief news story about NASA launching a pair of probes to the Moon yesterday. Its the first Moon launch in decades.
So I did a little more looking.
Besides the obvious issue of a huge mis-placement of government money (that is to say, our money) on a completely unnecessary project, the bigger problem is that apparently, as the AP reported, "The mission is a first step in NASA's effort to return humans to the moon by 2020."
Really?? Really?! We're still planning on going back to the Moon? With all the money the government has thrown away on stuff lately, you would think they would have cut out something like that, which is not only impractical but also scientifically pointless.
But the bigger issue, and the one that really gets me angry, is the mission objective for one of the probes that was launched yesterday. Read it for yourself:
"The other will swing past the moon and go into an elongated orbit around Earth that will put it on course to crash into a crater at the moon's south pole in October."
So after years of accidentally slamming probes into the side of the Moon, and Mars, apparently NASA has decided to just do away with the pretense and deliberately smash millions of taxpayer dollars into that giant ball of cheese in the sky.
The impact is supposedly to look for water under the surface, but I'm pretty sure the guys at NASA just got bored and wanted to blow something up.
If you need any proof these guys are completely out of touch with reality, just read some of the quotes in the story - http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20090618/ap_on_sc/us_sci_moon_rocket
Thursday, June 18, 2009
Free Concert (and I don't mean the Jazz Festival)
Apparently they really know how to enjoy summer in Rochester. Or as the people here probably know it, "the 6 weeks when there isn't snow on the ground".
On top of the Jazz Festival, which is only the first of a whole bunch of outdoors city-wide events going on between now and August, there is also a free concert series every Thursday night during the summer. It's called "Party in the Park", but they should add an "ing lot" to the end of the title because that would be more appropriate. To be fair, its a very nice parking lot, right next to the Douglas-Anthony Bridge and right along the river (and only half a block from the newspaper!) but its still a parking lot.
So tonight's show was "The Old 97's", a sort of country/rock mix band. My dad likes them at least a little and I got one of their albums from him. They aren't really anything too impressive on a CD, but they do a very good live show. Most of the songs I didn't really know, but afterwards I looked up a bunch of what they played on iTunes and found that its alot more mellow than how they played it live. They were really rocking out on stage, and they played about 20 songs, alot more than I expected from a free show.
"King of all the World", "Won't be Home", "Timebomb", "Designs on you", and "Up the Devils Pay" are probably the best songs of theirs, so go ahead and look them up.
Also, I basically wrote today's business page (except for the business story that was on the front page of the whole paper, that was Jim's), so not that I'm bragging or anything, but you should check that out too - www.democratandchronicle.com
Thats right, build up the hits on my stories online and they will love me even more, buwahahaha.
and tomorrow is Friday!
On top of the Jazz Festival, which is only the first of a whole bunch of outdoors city-wide events going on between now and August, there is also a free concert series every Thursday night during the summer. It's called "Party in the Park", but they should add an "ing lot" to the end of the title because that would be more appropriate. To be fair, its a very nice parking lot, right next to the Douglas-Anthony Bridge and right along the river (and only half a block from the newspaper!) but its still a parking lot.
So tonight's show was "The Old 97's", a sort of country/rock mix band. My dad likes them at least a little and I got one of their albums from him. They aren't really anything too impressive on a CD, but they do a very good live show. Most of the songs I didn't really know, but afterwards I looked up a bunch of what they played on iTunes and found that its alot more mellow than how they played it live. They were really rocking out on stage, and they played about 20 songs, alot more than I expected from a free show.
"King of all the World", "Won't be Home", "Timebomb", "Designs on you", and "Up the Devils Pay" are probably the best songs of theirs, so go ahead and look them up.
Also, I basically wrote today's business page (except for the business story that was on the front page of the whole paper, that was Jim's), so not that I'm bragging or anything, but you should check that out too - www.democratandchronicle.com
Thats right, build up the hits on my stories online and they will love me even more, buwahahaha.
and tomorrow is Friday!
Tuesday, June 16, 2009
Jazz Festival
So for those of you who don't know (then again, why would you be reading this if you didn't know me? Its a worthy question) I graduated college about a month ago (5/17/09) and just this week I began an 8-week internship with the a newspaper, the Rochester Democrat and Chronicle. I'm working at the business desk. So yes, I'm going to spend most of my day typing into a computer and then I plan on coming home and doing it some more. Or maybe I'll do it at work too (just don't call my boss).
**Free Information** The Rochester Democrat and Chronicle is the top newspaper in the country in terms of market penetration. Over 83% of the people who live in the greater Rochester area read the paper, a higher percentage than any other paper in the nation.
You just learned something for free.
But I do not want to bore you with the daily run-down of my day, so how about something more fun? This week, Rochester is hosting a huge jazz festival, which, besides making it impossible to find a place to park on my street when I come home from work, has mostly been an enjoyable experience.
A few thoughts:
It's technically the Xerox International Jazz Festival. As if they were going to copy the entire thing and pass it around the office afterwards.
When I first walked over to the area where the outside part of the festival is, there was a band just finishing up in the big tent they have set up for one of the stages. Their name was "Bonerama" (no, i'm not kidding), and as near as I could tell, they were all instrumental, mostly all saxophones. Their last song was about 20 minutes long. It began with three saxes playing the intro to Star Trek and ended with something that sounded like "Here Comes the Hotstepper"....but it probably wasn't.
After they finished I crossed the street to see what was going on at the public stage set up next to the Eastman School of Music. They were between acts there as well, and since Jazz was never really all that interesting to me anyway, I was easily distracted by the rows of vendors selling all sorts of interesting food. I found something called a "New Orleans Steak", which is apparently what they call a poorly crafted Philly cheesesteak in these parts.
While I was enjoying my sandwich, I started thinking....this is the Xerox International Jazz Festival (although I bet they wouldn't like it if you copied it).....but is jazz really an international thing? Isn't Jazz something that is truly, truly American in both its roots and even in the way it has developed over time? Funny, that as I was thinking about these exact issues, a new band was being introduced on stage, and the guy doing the talking mentioned that they had come to the Festival from Toronto. So THERE was my answer. International means that they have bands come all the way from Toronto (about 3 hours away). How could I have forgotten about that hotbed of Jazz musicians? At that point I realized that the guys operating the "Bayou Billy's Louisiana-style Meats" truck (no, really, that was the name) probably came from farther away than these international jazz guys.
So to recap...in Rochester the jazz is from Toronto, the cheesesteaks are from New Orleans, and I'm quite confused.
In all fairness, I must mention that there is actually an entire stage dedicated to "Nordic Jazz" this week (yes, that means jazz bands from Norway, Sweeden, Finland, etc.) and its a shame you have to pay to see those shows because I would LOVE to find out what "Nordic Jazz" sounds like.
**Free Information** The Rochester Democrat and Chronicle is the top newspaper in the country in terms of market penetration. Over 83% of the people who live in the greater Rochester area read the paper, a higher percentage than any other paper in the nation.
You just learned something for free.
But I do not want to bore you with the daily run-down of my day, so how about something more fun? This week, Rochester is hosting a huge jazz festival, which, besides making it impossible to find a place to park on my street when I come home from work, has mostly been an enjoyable experience.
A few thoughts:
It's technically the Xerox International Jazz Festival. As if they were going to copy the entire thing and pass it around the office afterwards.
When I first walked over to the area where the outside part of the festival is, there was a band just finishing up in the big tent they have set up for one of the stages. Their name was "Bonerama" (no, i'm not kidding), and as near as I could tell, they were all instrumental, mostly all saxophones. Their last song was about 20 minutes long. It began with three saxes playing the intro to Star Trek and ended with something that sounded like "Here Comes the Hotstepper"....but it probably wasn't.
After they finished I crossed the street to see what was going on at the public stage set up next to the Eastman School of Music. They were between acts there as well, and since Jazz was never really all that interesting to me anyway, I was easily distracted by the rows of vendors selling all sorts of interesting food. I found something called a "New Orleans Steak", which is apparently what they call a poorly crafted Philly cheesesteak in these parts.
While I was enjoying my sandwich, I started thinking....this is the Xerox International Jazz Festival (although I bet they wouldn't like it if you copied it).....but is jazz really an international thing? Isn't Jazz something that is truly, truly American in both its roots and even in the way it has developed over time? Funny, that as I was thinking about these exact issues, a new band was being introduced on stage, and the guy doing the talking mentioned that they had come to the Festival from Toronto. So THERE was my answer. International means that they have bands come all the way from Toronto (about 3 hours away). How could I have forgotten about that hotbed of Jazz musicians? At that point I realized that the guys operating the "Bayou Billy's Louisiana-style Meats" truck (no, really, that was the name) probably came from farther away than these international jazz guys.
So to recap...in Rochester the jazz is from Toronto, the cheesesteaks are from New Orleans, and I'm quite confused.
In all fairness, I must mention that there is actually an entire stage dedicated to "Nordic Jazz" this week (yes, that means jazz bands from Norway, Sweeden, Finland, etc.) and its a shame you have to pay to see those shows because I would LOVE to find out what "Nordic Jazz" sounds like.
So here goes, yet another attempt to record what seems to be an important (or at least quite different) step in my life with a blog. As a few people in the world can tell you, my previous attempts at entering the blogosphere have failed – somewhere in between tragically and pitifully – but tomorrow is always another day, and in the case of today, tomorrow is today. (follow?)
Those failures have taught me something though. When I started my first blog, freshman year of college, I didn’t really have material worth writing about. Nothing important to say. Sure, I thought that was going to be an earth-shattering period in my life, but it turns out that college changes you in slower, more subtle ways. When I went to
Basically the first time I had style (even if it was a little immature), and the second time I had substance, but I never had both.
So some might say (and that’s a great song), “Why try again?” “What makes this different from the other times?” Or maybe “Why am I still reading this?”
Because I want to see if I can actually keep on top of something like this
Because even if I don’t have anything worth writing about this time either; maybe I’ll be funny just often enough
so that you, dear reader (probably solitary reader) don’t notice.
So keep your eyes glued to the lookin’ screen…..we’re going on a ride.
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