come on, timmy.

Geithner Asks Congress for Higher U.S. Debt Limit

Some highlights: "Congress has never failed to raise the debt limit when necessary. Because members of both parties have long recognized the need to keep politics away from this issue, these actions have traditionally received bipartisan support." -Tim Geithner. "It is critically important that Congress act before the limit is reached so that citizens and investors here and around the world can remain confident that the United States will always meet its obligations," Geithner said in a letter to Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid that was obtained by Reuters.

...Except that you don't need bipartisan support to pass a resolution. And what Democrat Congressperson has turned down the opportunity to spend money?

And... how does raising our national debt ensure that we can meet our financial obligations? Surely the higher our debt, the more difficult it is to honor our financial obligations.

I do not understand this thought process. How on earth is our extreme debt going to help our economy? How is a household deep in debt going to become fiscally healthy by adding more debt? And... AND... Why was Tim Geithner the ONLY person who could save our economy?

the future: now 40% prettier!

So Topher sent me a redesigned version of the Healthcare Bill chart that I posted earlier. I think it only fair to post, and to quote a few of the designer's words. Robert Palmer writes:

"By releasing your chart, instead of meaningfully educating the public, you [the GOP] willfully obfuscated an already complicated proposal. There is no simple proposal to solve this problem. You instead chose to shout "12! 16! 37! 9! 24!" while we were trying to count something.

So, to try and do my duty both to the country and to information design (a profession and skill you have loudly shat upon), I have taken it upon myself to untangle your delightful chart."

His version: (click photo to view his original posting. pdf of just the chart is here.)


OOOOHHH. It makes so much more sense now. I'm glad we got that cleared up.

What the hell? What, because they're circles instead of rectangles, and the lines aren't all pixellated, that's supposed to make this bill easier to understand? The bill is still CRAP. This chart might be pretty, but look how many freaking bubbles there are! There are too many freaking bubbles! Look at how many people have a hand in our health care system under this proposal. Count. Tell me how many bureaucrats, lobbyists, committees, officiaries, advisory panels, and analysts are involved in this. What is the percentage of actual medical personnel? Where do voters come in?

The bill is badly designed. No graphic artist is going to fancy it up and make it pretty, it's UGLY. It's a final paper written the night before it's due, and Obama is the bad friend saying, "hurry up and finish, we've got drin- ...er... spending to do!"

p.s. I love you, Topher, and thank you for sharing that. I really am interested in seeing different takes on this.

the future!

I can't wait until our health care is more like this. I'm so glad Europe and Canada are models for our future health care system, guys. This is going to be GREAT.

Still working my way through the healthcare bill. I expect to be working my way through it for the next several years. It's crap. More to come. Unless I'm too mad.

Here's a good illustration of the bill. Actually, from my reading, apart from a few minor amendments I think it's a pretty good model, but it was put together by the GOP. (And the Dems hate it. I like it.) Pop quiz: Where's your doctor? (Click for larger version.)

*flails arms*

Because I just couldn't help it, and because after all this time it STILL brings tears to my eyes.

Relay For Life is in 6 days.

As many of you know, my internship in Community Relations for the American Cancer Society is almost up. While ACS is decidedly not my ideal employer (for reasons which do not belong in this post), there are certain areas of my involvement that I really enjoy.

For example, the Luminaria Ceremony is really beautiful, and I am delighted to be any small part of it this year. At sunset at every Relay For Life, candles are lit inside decorated paper bags to remember lost loved ones and celebrate those who have survived cancer. The ceremony itself is a beautiful thing, as hundreds, sometimes thousands of candles are lit and provide a soft glow of hope to everyone attending. The Luminaria themselves are wondrous to see. Many people put hours of work into theirs, wanting to create something wonderful to bear the name of their loved one. Others simply write a name, but each name is significant. Each candle is a memory or a life. We use them to light the track, to show us the way as we walk through the night.

My kid brother made one for our mom, a survivor of thyroid cancer. It may not look like much, but it's pretty impressive for a 14-year-old gamer kid:


I made a simple but fun one for a fellow committee member, Becky. (Fraught with subtext. And yes, it's pink. La vie en rose, mes amis.)


But the one I'm really excited to see lit up is the one I made for my mom. It's got a moon and everything! This is shameless show and tell, perhaps, but lookit!


If anyone who reads this would like to make a Luminaria for someone to be lit at the Relay For Life of Burnsville on August 7th, please let me know. The suggested donation is $10 and benefits such ACS programs as the Hope Lodge, a free place for cancer patients to stay during treatment, and HopeLine, a free phone service to answer any and all cancer treatment and insurance questions.

i'm sure it's not important.

I've recently (and repeatedly) heard the argument there's nothing in the Constitution that says legislators must read bills and amendments before voting on them.

Of course there isn't. The Framers assumed that Congress would read them. How can you vote on a bill if you don't know what's in it?

Apparently, reading is not a priority for most Senators.



I'm... gonna let Senator Conyers speak for himself here. And... isn't he a lawyer?

one small step into the universe.

As anyone who reads my tweets knows, today was the 40th anniversary of the Apollo 11 lunar landing. I don't have a lot to say on it here, having exhausted myself on a number of occasions retelling the tale to the k-12 crowd that frequents the planetariums of the world.

And... any cashiers/medical staff I encountered today.

And... that one guy at that bar.

And... anyone who has ever listened to my drunken ramblings about how freaking amazing it all is.

I mean, really amazing. Have I told you how amazing it is? We went to the moon, man. The moon.

(Click to enlarge)

I would, however, like to extend a thank you to all the men and women who have ever been associated with the NASA Space Program through the years. I doubt any of them will ever read the fruit of my keyboard, but if I ever get the chance, I'll tell them personally:

You're my heroes.

a memo to congress

Composing a bill is like composing a symphony, and Federal Law should be like a movie soundtrack. It should never hinder, only help, and for the most part remain unnoticeable.

i assume this needs no introduction.

And now, a break from our regularly scheduled programming to diminish my already dwindling credibility.

edit: the trailer took too long to load. go here if you want to see it. :)

Planet Earth needs a big hug.

Most of the time, when people ask me why I drive a truck, I tell them it's because I hate the environment. I dodge the question, we have a good laugh, everybody moves on.

But I don't. I actually really like it. Being a native of planet Earth and all. I like animals, especially some big endangered ones. I really like whales, for example.


I'd like to save the whales, that would be cool. I'm down with that. But I would hate for people to get the wrong impression and think that I agree with most global warming policy. Or any of it.

The truth is, I just think most environmentalists are either completely stupid or completely misguided. There are a number of reasons for this, some of which I'm sure will appear on this blog at a later date, but here are a couple big ones.

My carbon emissions are not going to kill Galapagos penguins. Cats are. That's right, house cats. The single greatest cause of land-animal extinction is species migration caused by humans. We like to travel, but we also like to bring our bugs and mammals with us. 30 new species are introduced to the Hawaiian Islands every year, and they are decimating native populations which have no evolutionary defense against them. I mean really, how the hell is a flightless baby bird going to defend itself against a hungry house cat?

(Om nom nom.)

I don't have any numbers here other than for Hawaii, but I have read time and time again that this unnatural migration is killing hundreds of species all over the world every year, moreso than destruction of habitat or a slight increase in temperature. Teeth, claws, and bug infestations win over weather.

Here in Minnesota the most obvious example is the Zebra mussel. Apart from being a damned nuisance to everyone with an outboard motor, they are completely changing the nature of our 10,000+ lakes. They latch onto and kill native mussels, and filter plankton, increasing water clarity and therefore the depth at which vegetation can grow, and therefore the kind of vegetation we have in our lakes. Which changes everything. And we all know how they got here.


As for the ocean, we all know that the large fishing operations are ridiculous. They decimate miles and miles of healthy fish populations to feed hungry mouths that live thousands of miles from those fish. (Mostly in Asia, but I don't like to point fingers. Unless it helps my point or makes me feel better. Here it does neither, so I can pretend to be lofty.) It's gotten to the point where indigenous populations of Humans in the South Pacific, who exist there only because of subsistence fishing, can barely scrape by. Many nearly starve after the Asian fishing vessels clean out the fish around their islands, and it takes months to return to normal. Despite international law, the crazies at Greenpeace and Peta, and various UN Resolutions, the Pacific is too grand a wilderness to monitor everything. International eyes are elsewhere, and more importantly, there is money to be made.

There are enough people writing about this that I don't feel the need to elaborate further. Robert Gillett has an excellent and concise text on the matter available online, A Short History of Industrial Fishing in the Pacific Islands. For more information on attempts to re-stock fish in many oceans and seas, I recommend this article, with an easy-to-read and very prettily illustrated abstract here.

And what is the point of all of this information, you ask?

We're not doing anything about it.

We're supposed to turn down our heat, I'm supposed to get a Prius and get rid of my truck. We need Wind Turbines (even though nobody realizes they ONLY WORK WHEN THE WIND IS BLOWING), and solar panels (which ONLY WORK WHEN THE SUN IS SHINING). We're supposed to feel bad about every ounce of fossil fuel we use.

But Al Gore hasn't said a damn word about house cats eating penguin babies. Or giant Japanese fishing vessels catching sharks for shark-fin soup, cutting their fins off, and throwing them back into the water, still alive but unable to swim, so that they can die on their way to the abyssal plain. Tens of thousands of sharks each year. He doesn't care, he's just a guy on a power trip (and possibly acid) who wants to tell you how much electricity you can use.


In reality, while carbon emissions are a problem that we have to face, our priorties are mixed up, and our ideal solutions are misplaced. Al Gore's most recent speech about Cap and Trade and the first steps toward World Government strikes me as completely ridiculous. It's a power grab with too many obvious omissions, even more hidden inclusions, and the speech has all the earmarks of fanaticism. I have a separate beef with Al Gore, possibly because I enjoy non-organic beef, but that's a rant for another day.

This is, as so many of my rants are, really about people who just aren't thinking things through. They are not sitting down with a whiteboard and saying, "okay, what is our biggest problem right now, and how do we fix it for the future?" They are rushing headfirst, like our President, our Congress, and the United Nations, into things that no one fully understands, and no one is willing to think through. All that matters is that legislation is passed and people get re-elected. It offends me deeply.

All we need, for anything in life, is a little common sense. It's been a long time since I've seen any of that. Thomas Paine, where are you?