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.