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So maybe in my last post, I was a bit hard on Louisiana because it’s the state I’ve left. It’s not like we don’t have our own wackos in NC. Two examples: One of NC’s representatives, Patrick McHenry (R) has proposed that we put Reagan’s face on the $50 bill. Maybe for his work on voodootinkle on trickle down economics? Although there is some appropriate irony to giving Reagan the $50… it’s a bill that most people don’t use. Personally, I’m not rich enough to deal in $50s, $20s maybe. Hey, if we’re redesigning money, why don’t we give more important presidents more prominent spots. Jefferson definitely outranks Reagan and he’s on the never used $2 bill. What about Madison? The dude practically wrote the Constitution. Shouldn’t those of who don’t use $5,000 bills get a chance to see him? And closer to home, the newly minted republican majority on the Wake county school board has succeeded in rolling back a nationally recognized program to improve educational outcomes by ensuring socio-economic diversity. Sure, I was bussed in elementary school. It wasn’t the most enjoyable experience of my life, but at the same time, I think that it was good for me as a person to be exposed to other socio-economic groups at school. Moreover, the program in Wake has demonstrated that it reduces the achievement gap between poor/minority students and rich/white students. That’s gotta be worth a little time on the bus. Music for the evening: Danger Mouse’s and Sparklehorse’s Dark Night of the Soul and Titus Andronicus’s The Airing of Grievances. They seem to capture the mood.

Every once in a while, something from Louisiana will catch the national attention, or at least the political bits that I care about, and I’m once again reminded of why I’m happy to have left. The latest? Apparently, the Bossier Parish sheriff is creating himself a militia. No really. It’s called “Operation Exodus,” which according to the sheriff’s press release is an allusion to the biblical Book of Exodus. I’m not certain if that worries me or makes me happy that it’s not a reference to secession. I think I’ll go with worry since it’s a biblical reference to secession. ...

K’s out of town this week. IIRC, this is the first week since we’ve been married that she’s out of town and I’m still at the house. I figure that’s gotta give me a good sense of what I’m actually like without her, um, civilizing influences. Helpfully summarized in the table below: Behavior****ChangeTelevision watchingdecreasedComputer useincreasedWork while at homeincreasedBowling averagesway upMini-golf scoresway downAlcohol consumptionslightly increasedNews consumptiongreatly decreasedFood varietydecreasedFood qualityno changeFood healthinessno changeTime spent preparing food ...

Speaking of Festivus, I should note a recent sighting of a genuine Festivus miracle… they still had a quart of Maple View Farms eggnog at the grocery store! Er, actually, a better Festivus miracle is that today the senate democratic caucus reached the 60 votes needed for their final cloture vote and will vote on healthcare reform tomorrow. FWIW, the vote could have been held today, but Vitter (R-LA) objected. The bill also could have been held up until 8pm tomorrow, but republicans couldn’t quite bring themselves to wait that long to get out of town. So instead, the vote (needing only 50 ayes plus Biden) will happen at 7am tomorrow morning. ...

Just a reminder of that it’s the 23rd. Bring on the feast and the airing of grievances! After dinner, all of the pets in the house will have to try to pin me in the feats of strength :-)

Now I want to be professor Claus when I grow up. I wonder where you can find Nietzsche sweaters?

42 ° and sunny, perfect for turning: 10273 into: 10270 into: 10276 and then: 10267

This just makes me sad. Two articles, one in the WSJ, the other on CNN, describing how insurgents in Iraq are hacking predator drones and receiving the video feeds that the drones are sending back to U.S. ground stations. First things first, let’s fix the headlines. Both are running something like “Iraqi insurgents hacked Predator drone feeds.” That should more clearly read: “Iraqi insurgents watching the videos that the Predator drone sends out unencrypted.” Or maybe “Iraqi insurgents watch Predator drone feeds on TV.” ...

I’m officially boycotting any retailer using “ Santa Baby” in their commercials. Yeah, it’s an empty threat since I wasn’t going to the mall anyway, but there you are. Now to get the idiotic song out of my head. Maybe the Mighty Mighty Bosstones? Failing that, a power drill may be my best bet.

K and I received our copies of the Yellowstone calendar and they look great. I’m happy with both the images we selected and also the printing - which was great. As I mentioned earlier, we went with Zazzle for doing the printing and couldn’t be happier. My mom got the ones for the folks in Louisiana and she also thought they looked good. But hey, your mom is supposed to think everything you do looks good, so I was even happier to see that someone I don’t know in Illinois bought a copy on the Zazzle marketplace. I didn’t expect that, but it was nice to see :-) ...