A quick lesson on compromises

Apparently Frist doesn't quite get the concept of a compromise. See, a compromise involves two sides that are having a disagreement each relenting on certain parts of the disagreement in order to reach consensus.

What a compromise isn't is one side getting exactly what they want while allowing the other side to bitch about it. Let us define a "Frist Compromise" as a compromise that is logically equivalent to the judicial compromise he proposed. Then, if I wanted to kill you, and you wanted to live, the Frist Compromise for that situation would be that you get to beg for your life, and then I get to kill you. Doesn't that sound appealing?

For the record

I'm currently sitting in the marble-floored waiting area of the local Lexus dealership waiting for my car. I'm on my laptop connected to their free wireless network, there's an espresso machine in the corner, and I've experienced the following disturbing events in the past 15 minutes:

• Saw a white, groomed poodle standing in the back of a white Lexus SUV
• Saw a man emerging from the bathroom carrying a pipe thoughtfully
• Counted 3-4 trophy wives
• Surrounded by painfully unctuous service people
• Noticed a guy in the corner anxiously watching a live feed of the stock market
• Discussed attending an art opening at Harvard attended by the University President
• Overheard a blond woman with designer sunglasses on her head describing how the company's stock price fell 5 points on news of an FDA investigation into one of its drugs and how she gets the kids all of next week
  

I need to get the hell out of here.

Americans think Bush full of shit

Woo hoo! Suck it, GW. You can keep trying, but they're not buying it.

Update on Microsoft gay rights blunder

There is an internal petition within Microsoft to re-evaluate its position on HB1515 and anti-discrimination legislation in general, and last I checked there were almost 1000 signatures on it including several VPs. Maybe there's hope for Microsoft yet...

Old partisans never die

Oh Doley, Doley, Doley...you silly old partisan hack. You chastise Democrats for abandoning the long tradition of "mutual self-restraint," but let's be honest...the Republicans started this. They found themselves in power and started drooling. The "up-or-down" rhetoric sounds nice except for the minor detail that minority rights are fundamental to the checks and balances of American government. There's a reason not everything is subject to a majority vote. Remember how Hitler was elected by a majority of Germans? Yeah.

The Democrats are taking an entirely reasonable action of last resort given that the Republicans seem intent on putting a handful of fanatical right-wingers on the bench. You didn't mention all the other candidates that they let through, did you? No, you didn't, because it's more fun to make it sound like Democrats aren't being very selective about how they exercise the filibuster. Why, you might even call it a measure of self-restraint...

Terri Schiavo's blog

Sign #9613253 that I'll be receiving an express pass to hell.

Even the unwashed masses think changing the filibuster rules is a bad idea

I can only hope that Republican power-grabbing is finally coming back to haunt them.

My decision on the Microsoft gay rights incident

I've been doing a lot of soul-searching this weekend about the gay rights incident that occurred last week. It has been weighing heavily on me. I could write a long blog entry on it, but I thought the letter I wrote to a colleague just now would summarize my feelings appropriately:

-----

I've been thinking over the HB1515 issue a lot this weekend and done a bunch of soul searching. I think that, in the end, despite being one of the more ignominious episodes in Microsoft's long and blighted past, it's not worth making a big fuss over. I was tempted though. Microsoft is clearly in the wrong here, and it deserves to have awards from gay rights organizations revoked. It deserves to be yelled at. And, if I were ever tempted to before, this ensures that my answer to the question of whether Microsoft and its executives adhere to company values on the annual poll never approaches anything resembling "yes."

That said, corporations can't be anything but amoral. Not evil, but amoral in the literal sense of having no morals. Companies exist to make money. Period. Always have, always will. It is unreasonable to expect a corporation of Microsoft's size to "do the right thing" of its own volition. Such entities are always swayed by the winds of public opinion, and it is unreasonable to expect them to take a stand for what's right without being pushed by potential impact on their bottom line. It sucks, but this is the way the world works. Spending energy fighting this fact of life is as effective as tilting at windmills, and I don't have energy to spare.

So, what I'll probably do is write a short, relatively tame letter to Micronews alone. If I wanted to actually try to effect change I'd try to get as many signatures as possible and really get the attention of VPs, but I don't think it's worth it. Maybe someone will notice, and maybe it will passify my conscience.

Anway...sigh. This sucks. This is, it seems, one of the subtle costs of selling one's soul to corporate America.

Nick

The fantasy world of conservatives

I think this falls under the heading of "some conservatives are more stupid than they are evil." Though certainly evil abounds...

(at what point do the Republicans cut their losses with DeLay? It's not that big a deal...as we all know, another Sith apprentice will simply rise to take his place...)

Microsoft bullied by Christian Right on gay rights

I find this deeply upsetting and haven't yet figured out what I'm going to do about it. Of all the shitty things Microsoft has done, I think I find this the most disgraceful.

Universal healthcare is a good idea

Our health care system is totally fucked up and is a major drag on the economy as a whole. It would cost us less to set up a centralized system to insure everyone than the current system does now. But it will never happen because insurance companies give gobs of money to Republicans, and the Republicans in turn have convinced the world that privatization always solves everything.

Sometimes I understand people vote Republican because they don't give a shit about other people, and on some level I kind of respect that. But there are lots of instances (like this) where Republicans just plain make the world worse for everyone, themselves included.

A conspiracy of cartographers

It's 1 am, I have what my banker college roommates refer to as a "conference call" at 9 am (meaning I have to be up _before_ 9 am...), and I'm behind on two separate projects, so I figured this would be an ideal time for verbal masturbation. I'm sorry, "blogging."

Collection of random thoughts:

1. After wasting about half an hour searching through publicly listed blogs on blogger that are in the same general vicinity as I am, I have determined that most people are profoundly boring. Add this to my previously stated assessment that people are dumb. Henceforth, you may safely consider people both dumb _and_ boring.
2. re: the title of this post, I had the odd and philosophical thoughts as I was brushing my teeth that we take a lot of our perception of reality on faith. I'm heading to Italy in a few weeks, and it occurred to me that I have no tangible justification for the majority of the things I believe I "know" about this trip. For instance, I have never been to Italy, so I take it on faith that it exists. It might be, as Rosencrantz (or Gildenstern?) so famously suggested, merely a conspiracy of cartographers. I have this image in my head of "Italy" as this far away place where all the men look like either Chef Boyardee or Nintendo's Mario (but definitely have that ridiculous mustache), speak in sing-songy gibberish, use funny-looking money, and intermittently elect Popes. I take it on faith that the airplane I'll get on will, in fact, take me to "Italy," and that all of the basic rules of physics, human interaction, and bodily function will still hold when I get there. For all I know, it will all be like that scene in Breakfast of Champions where the ground goes all wonky, and everyone eats poop and craps pizza.
3. On the subject of Popes, how the fuck can someone who is elected be considered infallible? A bunch of guys in funny red garments point a finger quivering with importance at you, say, "Abraca-Pope!" and suddenly nothing you ever say or do is ever wrong ever again? Didn't this cease to be a viable idea around age 6?

Anyway, such was my thinking. Lest the papal election pass without comment, I'll throw in my two cents: I find it odd that "liberal Catholics" are so upset at the election of the Panzer Cardinal as His Popeishness, Pope Benedict XVI. Or as his friends will likely call him, Eggs. Sure, the guy is basically an ultraconservative. He's a fucking German who was charged with defending the orthodoxy of the church...try _not_ to be terrified by that prospect. He was even technically Hitler Youth (against his will, reportedly). So? Have you looked at your church recently? If you hadn't noticed, this was the same church that allowed you to buy your way out of sin during the Middle Ages, that declared basic scientific facts heresy during the Renaissance, that to this day thinks it's okay to use math for contraception but not latex, and that thinks a pedophile priest is better than a married or female one.

Hey. Guys. Wake up. Your church was fucked from the get-go. On the Christianity spectrum, really only the Mormons have you beat for goofy orthodoxy. Getting upset that you got a nutjob wearing the funny hat is like getting upset with cannibals for farting at the table. If you have issues with church policy, consider allowing yourself to take the next logical step and admitting that hey, maybe some of this shit happens naturally just by nature of the fact that it's organized religion. Maybe the problem isn't the Pope but the system that created him. Maybe the Catholic church is a human institution just like any other and is subject to the same dark human impulses that take control in any power hierarchy. Maybe the sanctimonious fucktards who run things invoke the divine because they don't have any better way to justify their prejudices, egotism, and power-lust. Maybe the Grand Creator, if he/she/it exists, doesn't have anything to do with this charade and would prefer you to sit in a field somewhere, take a deep breath, and think a few nice thoughts about other people instead of taking part in goofy rituals every Sunday and listening to pasty old white guys who have no better idea of the nature of the universe than you do.

Just a thought.

God increasingly annoyed at being invoked by DeLay

"Closer to God," huh? Obvious comment: not close enough for most of us...

Brooks on hedonism

Interesting op-ed that addresses a topic slightly off the beaten track. I'm a little suspicious of Brooks based on some of his previous op-eds (they are often rather shallow), but it's nonetheless nice to see someone finally saying, "The first lesson in all this is we shouldn't overestimate the importance of the media. People like 50 Cent may produce hit after pornographic hit, but that doesn't mean his fans want to lead the lives he raps about. It's make-believe."

Gross

Delay really is a toad.

Union retaliation

You honestly expected this administration to be less blatant about its retaliation?

A loophole in the steroid ban

It figures that a failure of government regulation would be in part to blame for steroids in the major leagues, doesn't it?

Got junk in the trunk?

Then do I have a line of clothes for you!

Republicans catching up on filibuster PR campaign

I sincerely hope that the Democrats (by which I mean the liberal groups that are trying to save the filibuster) have the sense to run their own set of ads accusing Republicans of co-opting religion for their own agenda and themselves oppressing people of faith who disagree with them. This "against people of faith" crap is horseshit. Again, I wish people weren't so dumb.

House of Scandal!

Wow...an unusually inflammatory web site set up by House Democrats. Maybe they're actually getting some balls?

Relatedly, nice to see some Republicans who aren't completely co-opted. I love that their concerns aren't worth considering because one of them opposed Bush in the last election. Yes, clearly Bush is right about everything, and if you ever disagreed with Bush, you're automatically wrong.

Idiots.

Free academic journals

I find this debate just stupid. It's obvious that public availability of academic articles is in the interest of the nation as a whole, and it should therefore be government subsidized. This is the kind of stuff that should be in a library, people. Freely available to anybody. Economic restrictions on the availability of objective scientific information is no better than outright censorship. Having to pay outrageous subscription fees is stupid. So is having researchers pay to get articles in the journal. Just subsidize the damn system. There's just no excuse not to, especially in light of the fact that publication cost on the internet is bloody trivial.

Yet Another Instance of Market Forces Not Solving Everything.

House sets fire to Estate Tax

I just realized that's somewhat of an ironic headline...

Anyway, though this is not unexpected, it's still disappointing. Even Bill Gates (or at least his father, who is more vocal on the issue) thinks it's a horrible idea. Hey guys: preventing an entrenched aristocracy is a fundamental tenet of the United States. The whole point is to redistribute a fraction of the rich's wealth to the general population on their death. If you disagree with that principle, fine, but let's be clear about what we're talking about here. Repealing the estate tax is bolstering the ability of an aristocracy to stay an aristocracy, and it's decreasing social mobility. It's much easier for a wealthy child to grow up to be a wealthy adult than it is for a poor child to grow up to be a wealthy adult. If you want to talk about "fair," let's take that into account. Did a child born into a wealthy family do anything to "deserve" being born into a wealthy family? I didn't think so. So why is it so unfair to try to level the playing field for the poor kid? It's not like the guy who made all the money will care. The fucker is dead.

Ever wanted to publish your own computer science paper?

Well, now you can!

An effective safe sex message

I'll say it again: children are annoying, not cute.

BioPro!

God, people really are retarded, aren't they?

Well here's something to be frightened of

Soon you shall be eating tikka masala stir fry.

Randomness to Structure

For those who don't seem to get the concept that randomness can give rise to structure (as in, oh, say, life), suck it.

A diatribe on lazy people I didn't write

You gotta love Macinnis.

Happy fuzzy funtime torpor

God, I do so love Something Positive...

Save the filibuster

Online petitions don't really do any good, but thought I would point this out anyway. If you feel particularly inspired, you can donate funds to help run ads (presumably in vulnerable Republican senators' states). I would except, you know, the fatalism and despising humanity thing. It _is_ a particularly pernicious attempt at consolidating power, and a hypocritical one at that. Most pundits say that if the neocons succeed, dems will bring government to a standstill. I'm sort of unclear what exactly they can do without the filibuster, but presumably there are still procedural games they can play to stall things.

Satan increasingly unpopular

I still don't understand why anyone liked the fucker in the first place. He's the ultimate corrupt sleazeball.

A little too real

This brings a whole new dimension to Halo tournaments. People might be a tad less willing to go kamikaze.

How real is it?

Fascinating implicit commentary on how real the online world is.

Ok, that's kind of cool

Working from a national park seems appealing.

The idiots are everywhere

[Update: This post on Slashdot was too good not to repeat here: "I'll put it in StarCraft terms: you're spending your minerals on upgrading your Zealots, and failing to invest in the pylons and tech structures that would allow you to build a whole frickin' fleet of Protoss Carriers."]

...and they're making policy. Here's one that hit rather close to home.

This is profoundly short-sighted, not to mention just plain stupid. Most of the policies of this government are explicable in terms of cronyism or fucked up ideology. Slashing basic research grants is just plain stupid...it doesn't benefit anybody, and it ultimately hurts everybody, including the corporate world.

See, basic research has a particular definition in economics. It's research that aims to promote basic understanding of a given field without regard to its potential applications. And it turns out that in general it's a) vital to the eventual creation of tangible and practical results, and b) it doesn't usually make sense for private industry to undertake it. For one thing it often costs too much for any single entity to do it (there's a reason that really only Microsoft does basic research in CS...IBM sort of does, but they seem to demand far more tangible results from their researchers), and moreover there's a much higher overall benefit to the country if government undertakes it. Government promotes the basic research that is then available to the general public, and that research creates a marketplace in which entrepreneurs spring up, compete, and drive the research to tangible results. And any honest conservative who knows even the slightest sliver of economics understands this. The technologies that underpin the internet came out of DARPA basic research grants, grants that did not diminish even during the Vietnam war.

To cut such grants now just because our fucktard Republican leaders blew our financial wad in Iraq is like starving yourself after making yourself ill. The harm the funding evaporation will cause offsets by orders of magnitude the temporary savings it will allow.

Moreover, it's plunging a knife into the heart of one of the few areas Americans still hold a competitive advantage in. We suck at everything else: our primary education system sucks, our children are stupid, we can't manufacture anything for shit any more, etc. etc. etc. The only thing we have left are the institutions of higher learning and the raw intellectual horsepower of the top academics, especially in technology. People still come to the US for the best secondary education, and we still generate the most cutting edge research. The only other asset the United States still has is fuckloads of money. But you know what? Money moves easily. The point at which financial institutions and corporations find it cheaper to operate overseas, especially in countries like India and China, the fuckers are gone. The leaves of the corporate hierarchy are now mostly overseas already...it just happens that the money still funnels back to roots in the US. I don't know how long that will last, however.

It's fucking frustrating, and it's stupid, more so because I may well eventually be affected by it. The world will need computer science researchers for a good bit of time to come, and it's not like there will suddenly be no job for me. But it's nonetheless infuriating to watch the United States happily shoot itself in the foot. Is this the beginning of the end for the American empire? Are we really destined to live for only a hundred years more? If so, we fucking suck...Rome will have kicked our ass by millenia.

(and I'm not even going to go into the citizenship requirements...fucking xenophobic morons. Care to guess how many of my fellow computer scientists _didn't_ come from a foreign country???)

Shiavo's parents are fucking assholes

If you had any sympathy for Terri Shiavo's parents, now is a good time to abandon it. What amazing fucktards.

Scientific American gives up

Oh well. They tried.

A case study in cause versus correlation

It's true. Footwear must cause obesity.

*twitch*

I know it's April Fool's, but this goes too far. iLube?!