nothing edifying » political

YESSSSSSSSSS!

mim — Wed, 05 Nov 2008 04:56:18 +0000

McCain’s concession speech was really conciliatory and respectful. Classy; I don’t think we could’ve asked for more.

OMG, some part of me didn’t think this could happen. Wow. Just wow.

On a lighter note, this is from pol:

One Last Time

mim — Tue, 04 Nov 2008 21:21:49 +0000

Edited to add:
OMG, I have ads for “Yes on [California Proposition] 8″ all of a sudden– dude, noooo, VOTE NO ON 8!!! Everyone should be able to get married, and enjoy all of the rights and responsibilities of marriage, if they feel like it. No discrimination if we can help it. Holy cow, yucks.
—–

Okay, so probably a lot of you have already voted. But if you haven’t, please go! (Haha I am so convincing.) I think Gene Weingarten’s essay on voting was beautiful, and states it so much better than I ever could.

AAAAAND, if you’re going to vote, but you’re still undecided (I should think this election it’d be easier to decide than most elections, but I know there are still undecided people out there), People in the Middle for Obama (via boingboing):

Also, The New Yorker’s endorsement (via kottke and blurbomat), well worth reading even if you’ve decided. But hey, even if you disagree with me, or even if you can’t decide who to vote for for president, go vote anyways. There are a lot of Congress people up for election, and there are always propositions and other ballot initiatives to vote on as well; there’s more than just one thing on the ballot.

Still not convinced? Free stuff, listed by others on the interwebs (including Ben & Jerry’s and Starbucks):

Debate

mim — Sat, 27 Sep 2008 01:14:50 +0000

Live (more or less) blogging the presidential debate!

6:10pm - Jim Lehrer asked Obama and McCain about the bailout. Obama said that it’s obvious that the idea espoused by the Repubs that no regulation whatsoever is good for the economy isn’t working. McCain said that it was great that Congress is being so bipartisan. No mention of any economics.

6:18pm - McCain: “I was called ‘the Sheriff’!” He hates pork barrel spending more than anything! He’s not Miss Congeniality!

6:19pm - Lehrer keeps insisting that the candidates address each other. I think they keep forgetting. McCain doesn’t like to look at Obama for some reason.

6:24pm - They are getting feisty!

6:30pm - Doesn’t matter what the question is, McCain’s answer is less spending! Less pork!

6:33pm - Obama: “A spending freeze is like using a hatchet where we need a scalpel.”

6:35pm - Lehrer: “Let me try and phrase this a different way.” I think he’s trying to get McCain to talk about something besides spending less and/or less pork. He also asked about how the economy is going to affect the way the president “rules” — this is news to me!!! The president is not our king!

6:37pm - McCain: “Less spending!!!”

6:43pm - Obama: “Senator McCain likes to pretend the war in Iraq started in 2007 with the surge.”

6:45pm - McCain: “I’m afraid Senator Obama doesn’t understand the difference between tactics and strategy.”

6:55pm - Now that they’re talking about Iraq, Afghanistan, and Pakistan instead of the economy, McCain is suddenly ok with spending, and his new slogan is Petraeus Roxors! He’ll fix Afghanistan (or whatever) as soon as he fixes Iraq.

7:02pm - Lehrer says that they are both even on time, but they have both gone over.

7:10pm - Did Obama just help McCain pronounce Ahmadinejad?

7:15pm - I’m getting tired of McCain continually saying that Obama “just doesn’t understand” blahblahblah. It’s really patronizing and disrespectful.

7:20pm - Omg, McCain likes to talk about how he travels to places, like Iraq and Russia and whatnot (ad nauseum). I wonder who’s paying for the flights. Stop telling me about your travels like I give a damn. More content, less slogans, less show, please.

7:30pm - I like how Obama gives credit to McCain for things like standing up to Bush on torture, where it’s due. It’s a far cry from McCain’s stupid “just doesn’t understand” bit. I get it, dude, you don’t think he’s got as much experience as you, but saying that he just doesn’t understand over and over again doesn’t work, and it got annoying a long time ago. Answer the damn question instead! Gaaaaaaah!

Okay it’s over — 7:40pm

Survey

mim — Thu, 14 Aug 2008 02:49:10 +0000

Our phone number came up in some random survey about the election, and of course I’m more than happy to tell them my opinions! Which is the opposite of Yut so it works out rather well — the minute that Yut hears that it’s a survey he puts the phone on speaker and hands it to me. So they ask me things like what’s the most important issue in this election for me (the environment, duh!), and all sorts of other things, like if I’m a moderate or liberal or conservative, do I pay attention to the election (a lot? somewhat? not at all?). And it finally gets to the end where they’re basically not even asking about issues anymore, they’re just asking demographic information, like race and stuff. And then the poor guy asks about our annual household income, listing things like under $15,000, yadayada, and so I pick a range and tell the surveying person, that’s it! But one glance at Yut, and I correct myself, “Hold on a sec, I think I’m wrong cos he’s making the craziest face!” So yeah, it turns out I have no idea what we make in a year. And it’s the same thing when he asked if we felt like we were getting ahead or falling behind or staying the same - I’m just not too sure, so I hem and haw and finally tell him about the same. But ok, maybe I’m a time waster for them, but at least I’m nice about the whole thing, not that it took more than 15 minutes even with my indecision.

Second Out of Three, This Year

mim — Fri, 30 May 2008 04:37:14 +0000

Okay, I believe in voting, but dooooooood!!! I’m voting again — this time in the California state primary election, as in the primaries for US Representatives, the State Senators, etcetc, state stuff. Why couldn’t they have bundled these votes in with the national primary election is beyond me, seems like a waste of time and money. They’re expecting really low turnout, but it would’ve been super high if they’d done this in February. It’s ridiculous! Gah! Erm, ok, end rant. :D

Wait! One more thing! Another annoying thing is that researching this stuff is hard! I’ve been checking the Sierra Club and California League of Conservation Voters and etcetc for endorsements, but they don’t mention everything that’s on the ballot, especially the people I haven’t heard of, of course. I have resorted to checking Facebook, for goodness’ sakes. Geez. Okay now I’m done, for real this time.

Candidate Match

mim — Fri, 09 Nov 2007 23:16:54 +0000

misa and I were talking about the presidential candidates the other day, and she mentioned Dennis Kucinich, and lo and behold, like a day later I see this Slate article, Stop lying to yourself. You love Dennis Kucinich (via mingaling). And it’s true, I took USA Today’s Candidate match game and Gravel and Kucinich keep coming on top (some of the questions I’m ok with answering multiple ways). And for all the rest of the quizzes that are mentioned in the article (I like the Candidate Calculator which is similar to Pick Your Candidate), I get Kucinich too. Dang! The top three Democratic candidates (Clinton, Obama, and Edwards) and all the Republican candidates never come out on top. I kinda wish Al Gore would run, except he’s probably right, he can do more good by doing what he’s doing now instead of running for office. Pretty interesting, if slightly disheartening. But try it out, what do y’all think? (Besides that I’ve gone quiz mad:P)

Unrelated, but I’m slightly addicted to FreeRice. I hope they’re really donating rice cos if so, I have donated hecka rice!

Nobel!

mim — Fri, 12 Oct 2007 18:14:38 +0000

Isn’t it funny how instead of trying to argue that global warming isn’t happening, now the climate change/global warming skeptics are trying to argue that there were errors in “An Inconvenient Truth,” and things aren’t that dire. Really? So if whole cities aren’t underwater then we don’t have a problem?! And anyways, a lot of the points are nitpicky. Gore claimed that hurricanes will get stronger as an effect of global warming, not that global warming was the direct cause of Hurricane Katrina. And the Ocean Conveyor won’t stop, it’s just going to slow down. Etc.

Anyways! Congratulations to Al Gore and the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change for the 2007 Nobel Peace Prize.

Spanning Various Topics: Cough, Gay Marriage/Loving vs Virginia, and World Cup

mim — Fri, 16 Jun 2006 23:36:54 +0000

Pretty random, eh? Can’t imagine how they relate, eh? Well they don’t. Cos I’m too tired to focus. Not that I’m any good at focusing anyways.

I thought I got better, but now I’m back to coughing. Wonderful. I’m really wimpy about these sick-like symptoms, so I’m just tired out and I don’t feel like doing much lately, and I guess that included posting. I mean sometimes I would think, hrmm that’s interesting, but then nothing. I still haven’t been to see a doctor so I don’t know if it’s allergies or a cold or what, but mostly I’m leaning towards cold cos Yut had it and now he’s given it back to me, I think. :p Nothing scary like a fever, so I think I’ll give my doctor’s office a break cos I already been there this month for other stuff.

I read this article on washingtonpost.com on June 12th talking about the anniversary of Loving vs Virginia which in 1967 (yes really as recently as 1967) finally legalized interracial marriages in this country. What really struck me were the words of Caroline County Circuit Court Judge Leon Bazile: “Almighty God created the races, white, black, yellow, Malay, and red and placed them on separate continents, and but for the interference with his arrangement there would be no cause for such marriages. The fact that he separated the races shows that he did not intend the races to mix.” It’s funny how in 1967 God was against interracial marriage, but now it’s ok and instead, in 2006 God is against homosexual marriage. In 1967, the institution of marriage was going to crumble because people of different races were going to be allowed to get married, but it didn’t, except now in 2006 the institution of marriage is going to crumble if we allow homosexuals to be married. And although I’m pleased that the Senate voted against the gay marriage amendment (on June 7th), it’s sad how close the vote was ( 49 to 48 ). Guess we haven’t come as far as we might’ve thought we had.

In happier news, the World Cup started on June 9th! I lurve the World Cup! It’s lots of fun. I’m not saying I’m a huge soccer fan, but dude the World Cup is just fun. (It’s sort of like how I’m not really a basketball fan, but every March I pay all sorts of attention to March Madness.) People get so excited and the stands are crazy and so many countries participate and there’s all these subtexts and it’s awesome! (Score spoilers if you continue reading.) Like today’s Mexico vs Angola match, which ended in a tie 0-0, which seemed way more exciting than the score would indicate. Gosh, the reactions of the commentators and the team was like Angola won! They were so excited. Of course the Angola team’s stated goal was to not embarass themselves or something like that (the country’s been in civil war a lot I think and also they’re poor and I don’t really think of Angola when I think of “good team from Africa” cos I think of Nigeria although maybe that’s old news cos they didn’t even manage to make it to this World Cup), which clearly they’ve done at least that. Anyhows, I only listened to the commentary (online), didn’t get to watch it, but still.

I’ve been trying to figure out reliable ways to watch the World Cup on the computer for my dad especially, but so far I haven’t found a great way to do it. CT hasn’t tried out Paul Boutin’s instructions yet, so I don’t know if that’ll work. I mean it works fine at my desk here at work (shhhh) but my connection at work is probably better than their dsl connection at work, so who knows. If it works though, that’ll be extra cool cos they’ll be able to watch broadcasts from Shanghai (I think) with Mandarin Chinese commentary! :D Any hints or other ideas are welcome (as in please please please!!!).

World Baseball Classic

mim — Fri, 03 Mar 2006 17:29:00 +0000

I’m watching Korea vs Taiwan in the World Baseball Classic (think World Cup for soccer/football) right now. The game’s being played on ESPN2, delayed though. As usual, Taiwan is being called Chinese Taipei. Sheesh, I’m so sick and tired of that. Wikipedia has a page for World Baseball Classic that talks about the whole “Chinese Taipei” controversy a little at the bottom. Actually, there’s a whole page devoted to the Chinese Taipei thing.

Seriously, if nothing else, China should AT LEAST call it Chinese Taiwan. For goodness’ sake, Taipei is ONE city in Taiwan. I don’t think that’s all the territory China is claiming. Also, why does the Taiwanese Olympic flag have the Kuomingtang party symbol on it? (For the nerds who are thinking the KMT party flag has shorter points than the national flag, that difference is small; I don’t even see it.) Taiwan is no longer a one-party authoritarian dictatorship. Gawd, I can’t get started on this. This may be a post for another day:) (Maybe next month:p I’ve realized that I’ve been ranting a lot the past few days. I mentioned irritable, right?)

I’ve strayed a bit off topic:p Anyhows, Japan, Korea, Taiwan, and China make up group A. I think Japan must be considered the favorite out of the group, since they have a lot of players in MLB and a big league of their own and home field advantage, then Korea (also with the multiple MLB players), then Taiwan with 1 MLB player (Hong-Chih Kuo), and last China. Oh Korea won, 2-0. I think this was considered a must-win for both teams, so that’s good for Korea. China vs Japan next, but bedtime.

Disheartening

mim — Thu, 02 Mar 2006 16:24:00 +0000

Alito managed to get into the Supreme Court. The Dems are so out of it that they can’t manage to keep either Alito or Roberts (the new CHIEF Justice) off the Court. Roberts is already being compared with Scalia and Thomas, the most conservative members of the Supreme Court. Right away, the South Dakota senate passes legislation (not yet signed by their governor) that would basically make abortion impossible in South Dakota. It’s already pretty tough since no doctor in South Dakota will perform abortions, so Planned Parenthood has 1 clinic in Sioux Falls that flies in doctors from Minnesota, one random day a week (source: SD Makes Abortion Rare Through Laws and Stigma by Evelyn Nieves in the Washington Post). But I guess not tough enough, they want it to be impossible. The craziest part is, South Dakota rates 44th out of 50 states and DC in contraception and family planning support! Even though reducing unintended pregnancies is one of the major ways to reduce abortion (from Unintended Pregnancy Linked to State Funding Cuts by Ceci Connelly, Wash Post). The United States has one of the highest rates of abortion and unintended pregnancy in the industrialized world. Do they not see the disconnect??? It’s hypocritical. This isn’t just a blue state/red state thing, the four states that do the best in terms of contraception are California, New York, South Carolina and Alabama, so obviously, enough people in some places get it.

Does no one think it’s weird that we trust women to bear our children, yet we can’t seem to trust them to make contraceptive and reproductive decisions??? Please someone explain this to me. It’s so damned patronizing. I feel like this overall issue (family planning) is an indicator of the equality and respect of women in our society, and that’s frightening.

Update Monday 6 March 2006: S.D. Governor Signs Abortion Ban into Law