| Follow-up to last post |
[Nov. 11th, 2008|10:34 pm] |
Well, I sent an email to some of my friends asking them to write letters, too, maybe hoping that well, enough voices might influence some third level aid and have some itty bitty effect. When Peter sent me this reply:
"Sorry, but I've heard that nuclear power generates nuclear waste, and even after processing it must lie underneath the ground for ~8000 years to become safe. Thus, I don't really trust nuclear power.
Care to convince me otherwise?"
I chose to follow up with this:
( Why waste is not the issue )
Now, waiting for House to download ... |
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| Election 2008 |
[Nov. 4th, 2008|02:20 pm] |
Voted!
I swear, I've slowly been warming up to Rob's sort of politics -- minimal interventionism. All measures got "No" votes from me with the exception of 11 (redistricting) and WW (park bonds). A part of me kinda hopes the train bill passes, though, but I'm not sure how well it will work.
Now, CBEST this evening, then watching election returns -- hopefully I'm back by 7 for the Daily Show!
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| Vote AGAINST Sarah Palin |
[Oct. 12th, 2008|01:26 am] |
Newsweek has a superb article on Sarah Palin, which I think everyone should read. She is grossly incompetant, and as I have alluded to in other places, my vote this November will not be for or against any other candidate; my vote will only be against Sarah Palin.
I strongly encourage everyone who reads this blog to take a look at Sciencedebate 2008 and Nature's science interview (John McCain declined; his previous stances are listed, however).
"The trouble with the world is that the stupid are cocksure and the intelligent are full of doubt."
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| (no subject) |
[May. 12th, 2008|10:19 am] |
God damn politicians and layman idiots who think autism is even remotely related to vaccines. Guess what? Our medical tech is better and we're diagnosing more symptoms now. We also diagnose more people with ADD ... does that mean that air conditioning is associated with ADD?
For the record:
Vaccines do not cause autism.
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| (no subject) |
[Apr. 24th, 2008|04:39 pm] |
This makes me upset. *Sigh*.
Why does no one care about space anymore?
I should do more independant research on the topic, but if it's true McCain wants to freeze/cut NASA's budget .... |
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| State of Politics |
[Jan. 15th, 2008|04:20 pm] |
| [ | Tags | | | politics, random | ] |
| [ | coordinates |
| | Berkeley | ] |
| [ | thoughts |
| |  annoyed | ] |
| [ | audio signal |
| | "Snow White Queen" -- Evanescence / "Scorpinok" -- Transformers | ] |
I think Ms. Weinstein summed up the political situation rather well:
[16:19] Sara: ahh, our new two party system: socialists v religious fundamentalists... either way democracy goes down the toilet
[16:19] Sara: joy
Seconded.
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| Presidential Races |
[Jan. 8th, 2008|11:36 pm] |
| [ | Tags | | | politics | ] |
| [ | coordinates |
| | Glendale | ] |
| [ | audio signal |
| | "Love is on the Way" -- Dave Koz | ] |
I would say this quote is what dooms Obama:
“Obama is almost Teflon in terms of criticism,” said Bob Graham, the former Florida senator and a Democratic presidential candidate in 2004, as he considered the challenge Mrs. Clinton faces. “He doesn’t have much of a record you can dissect,” adding that his advantages included “his freshness, newness, star status."
Hillary's win in NH confirm's my belief (shared my Mr. Chapman) that she'll win the Democratic nomination (because it's true -- Obama's biggest group of supporters is arguably young voters, and young voters don't vote!).
The Republican nomination is up for grabs -- I was expecting Romney to win one or both of the Iowa or NH primaries. Huckabee is insane, and, well, I don't think I could trust someone who thinks the Earth is 6,000 years old to take care of my neighbors' dog, let alone Pharaoh, and certainly not run the country. Sorry. Its just fine and dandy if you're religious, but you need a firm grasp on reality folks. I am not sure what my voting will turn out like if McCain or Guliani doesn't make the nomination. Though I'm not too terribly informed in either direction. (But honestly! Huckabee honest to goodness believes that Adam and Eve were real folks. What the hell people. What. The. Hell.)
I suppose its time that I start looking into it -- CA primaries are coming up. And the year has the same last digit as the election. About bloody time. Now I can pay attention to the prattle.
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| (no subject) |
[Dec. 27th, 2007|02:16 am] |
| [ | Tags | | | politics, rant | ] |
| [ | coordinates |
| | Glendale | ] |
| [ | thoughts |
| | pissed off | ] |
| [ | audio signal |
| | "Closer" -- Lacuna Coil / "Arrival to Earth" -- Transformers Soundtrack | ] |
Someone please remind me not to read creationist tripe before I go to bed. It just makes me furious, and absolutely dejected that someone believing that nonsense has any power at all. I swear. Politicians need a god damn competency exam. I bet they think cladistics is a nasty medical procedure.
ARGH. I was so much happier when I didn't know what any of these fools were doing with their damn policies and how their damn beliefs affected it. Freaking democrats throw cash at a problem and close their eyes, and the bloody republicans point to a bible verse and preach.
Honestly, I think the country would be much better off if the entire goverment read the god damn Wikipedia article on whatever they were legislating before each vote/signature/veto. Flaws and all! Maybe that would have at least made them not pull out of ITER for the second time. |
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| Voting Verdict |
[Nov. 7th, 2006|01:19 am] |
| [ | Tags | | | politics | ] |
| [ | coordinates |
| | Berkeley | ] |
| [ | audio signal |
| | "You've Got a Friend in Me" -- Toy Story | ] |
Philip's Final Voter Guide
| Prop | Vote | Reason |
| 1A | YES | Promotes fiscal responsibility. |
| 1B | NO | Just excess bonds. Use money that's already in the state budget for something so important. Again, encourage fisical responsibility whenever possible. |
| 1C | NO | 2.85 billion is going to be wholly insufficient to implement what is ideally a good thing: homes for vets and battered women. This will just increase debt and not solve the problem. Do the job right or not at all. |
| 1D | YES | We go to Cal. Just look at the state of some of the rooms to see why YES. Funding that goes to seismic retrofitting is money that doesn't need to be spent to rebuild a building. I wish that this was something that would force responsibility on the UC's rather than just a check, but its better than nothing. This is one of the rare cases where any amount of money shows some progress--namley because a can of paint costs a can of paint. |
| 1E |
NO |
style='border-style:solid;border-width:1px;'Prop 84 contains $800e6 to the same cause, and will limit bond measures. I'm big on fiscal responsibility, and bonds getting paid back over 30 years is sketchy. |
| 83 |
YES |
Who would say no? This is just smart. Restrict sexual predators. Keep them away from our children. |
| 84 |
YES |
Break from party lines. National Parks rock, and flood control and stuff is smart. Go natural resources. Not to mention when you realize getting rid of wolves in Yellowstone caused flooding and erosion problems (Had to do with Caribou populations and their changed movements), it makes me hesistant to be *too* glib with the environment. |
| 85 |
UND |
Weigh this one out for yourself. One good argument is that the government has no place in saying this; another says that this is just smart and helps protect children; another says it is damaging and could be bad in unstable households. No council here, folks. |
| 86 |
YES |
Braeak from Party Lines. Make people pay more to kill themselves and put a tax on when we all have to breathe the noxious fumes. I'm all for that. Some say that it will increase 'smuggled' cigarrettes, but people still have to pay more for them which will lower its frequency of usage -- ie, it amounts to "I don't care". This goes straight to hospitals that have to pay for the blokes after they get lung cancer anyway. |
| 87 |
YES |
Break from Party Lines. Alternative energy is very important, and not just to me, but to the whole country [fiscally first, then environmentally .... there is even more evidence of late as to the dubiousness of Global Warming claims. Ask me in person if you want the lecture]. If this causes a temporary spike in oil prices (by companies moving out of California -- the costs cannot be passed onto consumers), so be it. We need to encourage hybrid and nuclear technologies and though $4e9 is a drop in the bucket, its better than nothing. Sadly, I anticipate that to move the US onto the next power plateau we will need to bite the bullet on oil prices for a bit to get some incentive going; or otherwise, generate something similar to the X-Prize. |
| 88 |
NO |
Property taxes are foolish, and penalize you for owning property. It does provide K12 funding, but parents can spend those $50 better than the school, I'd wager. |
| 89 |
NO |
Its an extra proposition that would make taxpayers fund politicians. If I want to fund a politician, I'll donate on my own -- I don't want to help pay for someone I do not support. Foolish in the extreme. |
| 90 |
UND |
Government acquisition of property is not very common, so this is an extra cost that will prohibit the Government from doing something that it doesn't do too often anyway (for a good reason -- no one likes it). However, arguments about it being your propery and the note about the Supreme Court case do bear merit, having pushed me away from no into undecided. |
Person by person, the offices that I'm voting for are all Republican, with the exception of District 2 Equalization Board (don't know enough, so I won't vote on that one), and the libertarian Treasurer. It helps that I've heard talks from McPherson, Schwarzenegger, McClintock, Poochigian, Poizner, and Strickland (if not directly from emails or talks through CCR). Fiscal responsibility is good. |
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| Posting Through the Day ... or not. |
[Nov. 4th, 2006|04:26 pm] |
OK, so, I think I really do need to do a minor clothes refresh. When about 60% of my socks have holes in them that are annoying and my non-black shoes are old enough that they have a sharp spot that starts to give me blisters, I think both need to eventually get replaced.
Alas, all of those have lasted me about six years. I'm glad I got the brown shoes big ....
Oy, I hate shopping.
I also believe that my self-projection must be very well-defined. No less than three people have commented on "White and Nerdy" with reference to me (Sara said I was the first person she thought of), and apparently when Zeba bought a Rubik's Cube I was also the first person that came to mind. Good times.
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Not being able to post to LJ makes me write an interesting backlogged peice. I thought I'd:
1) Complain about the postponing of more shuttle missions, and,
2) Say that I figured out what the issue with my sound is, I think. I think it may be a driver thing, since I have realtek speakers but am using a Via driver. I'm hoping that this slow-as-ass download of a 25 meg driver that will take an hour to download will be worth it. Note to self--create restore point prior to installing driver.
Update to the unposted entry: w00t it worked!!
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More boredness: Philip's Voter Guide!
Prop: 1A -- YES. Promotes fiscal responsibility.
Prop: 1B -- NO. Just excess bonds. Use money that's already in the state budget for something so important.
Prop: 1C -- NO. 2.85 billion is going to be wholly insufficient to implement what is ideally a good thing: homes for vets and battered women.
Prop: 1D -- YES. We go to Cal. Just look at the state of some of the rooms to see why YES. Funding that goes to seismic retrofitting is money that doesn't need to be spent to rebuild a building. I wish that this was something that would force responsibility on the UC's rather than just a check, but its better than nothing.
Prop: 1E -- NO. Prop 84 contains $800e6 to the same cause, and will limit bond measures. I'm big on fiscal responsibility, and bonds getting paid back over 30 years is sketchy.
Prop: 83 -- YES. Who would say no? This is just smart.
Prop: 84 -- YES. National Parks rock, and flood control and stuff is smart. Go natural resources.
Prop: 85 -- UND. While I like the intent behind this, its kinda sketchy grounds.
Prop: 86 -- YES Make people pay more to kill themselves and put a tax on when we all have to breathe the noxious fumes. I'm all for that. Some say that it will increase 'smuggled' cigarrettes, but people still have to pay more for them which will lower its frequency of usage -- ie, it amounts to "I don't care". I know that fellow CR's will not approve of this (by a slight majority), but that's where I stand.
Prop: 87 -- YES I know that my conservative friends will disagree, but alternative energy is very important. If this causes a temporary spike in oil prices (by companies moving out of California -- the costs cannot be passed onto consumers), so be it. We need to encourage hybrid and nuclear technologies and though $4e9 is a drop in the bucket, its better than nothing.
Prop: 88 -- NO Property taxes are foolish, and penalize you for owning property. It does provide K12 funding, but parents can spend those $50 better than the school, I'd wager.
Prop: 89 -- NO Its an extra proposition that would make taxpayers fund politicians. If I want to fund a politician, I'll donate on my own -- I don't want to help pay for someone I do not support. Foolish in the extreme.
Prop: 90 -- Tentative NO Government acquisition of property is not very common, so this is an extra cost that will prohibit the Government from doing something that it doesn't do too often anyway (for a good reason -- no one likes it).
I'm somewhat ashamed to admit that after going though a person-by-person analysis (I swear it wasn't intentional!) the offices that I'm voting for are all Republican, with the exception of District 2 Equalization Board (which I'm undecided since I do'nt have information on the Libertarian candidate). It helps that I've heard talks from McPherson, Schwarzenegger, McClintock, Poochigian, Poizner, and Strickland (if not directly from emails or talks through CCR). I admittedly may also swing to the libertarian on Treasurer -- just going gung-ho on fiscal responsibility (while bonds can get things done without raising taxes, it does feel kinda bad so far as responsibility goes). However, I also like the idea of people being able to invest in bonds from the Republican. So I suppose we'll see on that one.
[Edit: Fixed word-wrap] |
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