So good: Back to the Future.
Resolved: Quit making resolutions
January 7th, 2011 § Comments off § permalink
A nice post from Merlin Mann on the problems with New Year’s resolutions, and a more sensible path to self-improvement. (Kindly ignore the Seinfeld references.)
The party of Lincoln
January 4th, 2011 § Comments off § permalink
Contrary to yesterday’s report, House Republicans are now claiming that they never really promised to cut $100 billion from the budget. Oh, wait, except they totally did:
“A Pledge to America,” the manifesto House Republicans published last September, included the promise, “We will roll back government spending to pre-stimulus, pre-bailout levels, saving us at least $100 billion in the first year alone.”
Republican leaders have repeatedly invoked the number. On Tuesday the Web site for Representative John A. Boehner, the incoming House speaker, included a link to his national radio address on the Saturday before the midterm elections, in which he said, “We’re ready to cut spending to pre-stimulus, pre-bailout levels, saving roughly $100 billion almost immediately.”
Representative Paul D. Ryan, the Wisconsin Republican who will become chairman of the House Budget Committee, said in December that the goal was to cut “a good $100 billion.”
It’s nice to see the New York Times taking a cue from The Daily Show and calling people out when they make stuff up.
Maybe I shouldn’t be complaining about the Republicans, though, since Jerry Brown is about to propose a budget that attempts to close a $25 billion deficit in California alone. I don’t doubt that California needs to get its finances under control, but man, a $25 billion cut is going to be painful. And I’m extremely frustrated that Brown isn’t willing to talk about amending Proposition 13. Is it so crazy to suggest that part of the solution to inadequate revenue should be more revenue?
In which I rue the ascent of the Tea Party
January 3rd, 2011 § Comments off § permalink
Oh, goody, the incoming House Republicans are getting ready for some good old-fashioned budget hackin’ and slashin’:
The incoming Republican majority in the House is moving to make good on its promise to cut $100 billion from domestic spending this year, a goal eagerly backed by conservatives but one carrying substantial political and economic risks.
House Republican leaders are so far not specifying which programs would bear the brunt of budget cutting, only what would escape it: spending for the military, domestic security and veterans.
That makes sense, because God knows the military and the Department of Homeland Security would never waste enormous amounts of money.
How fortunate that our nation has the new, improved, fiscally responsible Republican Party to bail us out, after all those years of misrule by the stupid old Democrats! Oh, wait:
Looming over the budget fight is the battle over the debt limit. An increase in the debt limit is essential for the government to borrow to meet its obligations, but it is adamantly opposed by the Tea Party movement and other small-government conservatives.
While they complain that lifting the limit enables new spending, mostly it allows the government to cover existing commitments, including trillions of dollars run up when Republicans controlled Congress and the White House from 2001 to 2007.
Ringin’ it in
January 1st, 2011 § Comments off § permalink
Six bottles of champagne, two bowls of punch, five dips, one tub of peppermint bark, four other munchables, fifteen happy guests, and one rowdy midnight gathering in Duboce Park. What a lovely way to start the new year.1
Here’s to a happy, healthy, prosperous 2011 for all of us.
- Apologies to those of you who weren’t invited! My girlfriend and I started by inviting her friends, and that alone was more RSVPs than we bargained for. [↩]
The future of the past
December 27th, 2010 § One comment § permalink
After spending the better part of a day immersed in Perl, I was able to resurrect about 99% of the comments and entries from the old pinchy.org! Most of them need a little massaging before I can put them back online, so you’ll see new (i.e., old) entries showing up sporadically as I get around to cleaning them up.
I guess you’ll be able to find out what I thought of George W. Bush six years ago after all.1
- Spoiler alert: I did not particularly care for him. [↩]
The best coast
December 26th, 2010 § One comment § permalink
Hello, Eastern Seaboard. That sound you just heard was me putting my feet up on the coffee table and basking in San Francisco’s balmy 55°F nighttime temperature.
Aaaaahhhhhhhhhhh. So temperate. So not trapped under two feet of snow.
It’s the little things
December 25th, 2010 § One comment § permalink
I am currently going nuts because I can’t figure out how to make WordPress say “Nine comments” (for example) instead of “9 comments.” You’re probably thinking something like “who cares,” but goddammit, I want my weblog to use proper English, not this “4 comments” nonsense! What’s become of this country, the debasing of the English language, anarchy in our schools, etc., etc.
All of which is apparently my way of saying “Merry Christmas.”
Nature is disgusting
December 24th, 2010 § Four comments § permalink
The Winter 2010 issue of California, the UC Berkeley alumni magazine, has a particularly gruesome article about bed bugs. My favorite part:
Bed bugs have the expected genitals, [an entomologist] says, and they’re fully capable of having insert-tab-A-into-slot-B sex to reproduce. That’s not what happens. This is: “The male grasps onto the female, and it’s very graphic, and they’re rolling around. It’s not a smooth-looking thing. And the male takes his reproductive organ and starts to stab her all over her body, all over her abdomen, and he punctures a hole through her—and remember she already has one that would work just fine—and he punctures a hole through her and releases his sperm into her blood.”
Really?
“It is interesting, and it’s really, really fun to watch,” [the entomologist] says.
From this excerpt, we can conclude the following:
- Entomologists are messed up.
- So are bed bugs.
- When a right-wing politician says we should only have sex in the way God intended, he means that he wants to stab women with his penis.