Dirty Drone Laundry

So you're an Obama supporter and you're wondering what to think about drones?

Start with this article from the New Yorker.

Last night over PBRs and some other things I had a conversation about drones with a progressive Southern hipster who came at it defending Obama. For my part, up to and including this six pack I've been fairly vocal about the current administration's hypocrisy.  But between the conversation and his whole family crashing at our place and the marathon cleaning session my wife and I did this morning to de-fratify our house, I now see clearly.

The idealism argument is slam-dunk: there should not be a secret effort to kill anyone without some sort of process, even bad guys or enemies. But the real debate is should Democrats give a shit?

If we were Republicans, we'd brazenly fall into line no matter how little evidence supported our assertion (remember weapons of mass destruction?). But Democrats love a good opportunity to tear themselves apart. Stick to ideals and lose the first opportunity in 20 years to not have to defend ourselves on national security again, or dig out our feel-good picket posters and megaphones and rip into our own party? The New Yorker knows this and that Democrats are tired of reading month after month of Republican stalwartness and that this issue will - as two arguments I've already had and a planned one for next weekend - alight with cocktail party din.

I say fuck them, and fuck the series of decisions that put us in this position. I'm going to treat this like family dirty laundry. It's a clear problem and among family I'm going to talk about the special nephew who humps the dog, but I agree with those that say we don't need to be publishing our vexation on Facebook. It's just a distraction from the real fights that the Southern hipster and I agreed upon: gutting of the middle class, corporate hegemony, and political rot.

After some consideration, I'm conceding my public anger on drones and stressing to all Democrats that if you need something to rail on, rail on the policies of conservatism that champion corporations over working people. And hope that soon we can all take a drone strike to that.

The other One Percent

The 1% need our help.

No, not the 1% taking home nearly one fifth of every dollar earned.  They are doing quite well.

This 1% needs assistance to get to college.  They need help climbing up the opportunity ladder.  

Roughly 29,000 students this year will lose funding assistance for AP tests.  Out of 3,000,000 graduating seniors, 29,000 is about, well, 1%. 

“As part of the federal budget agreement last December, Congress cut federal financing for programs that offer advanced high school courses [AP classes] to slightly under $27 million, from $43 million the previous year, with only about $20 million to be used to subsidize low-income students’ exam fees.” NY Times article

How many of these 1% will not get into college? How many will have to pay inflated costs for college credit once and if they get there? Will have to sit in a less challenging class in the meantime.  We’ll never know how many of this 1% won’t get ahead.  We just know getting ahead will be harder, or worse, out of reach. 

We’re told that this is acceptable because we haven’t raised taxes on the other 1%. 

Conservatives, wake up.  You’re destroying America.  1% at a time.

Paste Top 25 and 4 Random Portlanders

Maybe it’s a sign that after the 10th anniversary of 9-11 we’ve moved on when a song whose lyrics “I was in the air when the towers came down” comes in least preferred in Moogaz’s latest informal poll of Paste Magazine’s top 25 songs of 2011 so far.

The test was to listen to Paste Magazine’s list and decide if their honors were merited.  Four random Portland Mainers, two guys, two girls stepped up to take the exam.  Average ratings ranged from 4.6 to 1.9.  (The original scale was 1 to 5 where 1 was suckdom and 5 was glorious awesomeness).

With a score of 1.9, The Low Anthem “Boeing 737” had the second highest standard deviation, so it was liked by some.  But ultimately – harshly or not given its context – the panel of 4 scored the trombone ballad lowest.

Coming in highest with very little disagreement was the The Civil Wars “Barton Hollow” which no doubt explains their rocket indie ascent into the pop charts.

Other high marks were earned for:

• Bright Eyes, “Shell Games”, latest Conor Oberst
• Rye Rye “Sunshine (featuring M.I.A.)”, an 80s Blondie meets indie meets TLC rap

Songs did get progressively better moving from 25 to 1 but barely, and not statistically as this graph shows.  Without a major crescendo, the Paste Magaziner is left to to frown as he/she moves to number 1.

But good exercise.  Ironically, on a third listen to “Boeing 737” I find myself warming a bit to the melody.  Like 9-11 itself, maybe time heals wounds. 

xkcd: You should be a Fan

This morning’s xkcd is a classic.  But do you know who draws xkcd?

Mount Awesome

Thinking of taking the kids to South Dakota to see … you know, Mount Awesome.

Thanks Armanitarium for your contribution to the planet.  This guy (or girl) has some pretty awesome posts, including this incredible video from his posting Twin Sons of Tatooine taught me everything I know

Don’t forget to finish a reading of his blog with his post on the trailer with the latest from the mind of M. Knight Shymalan, sure to be a blockbuster epic.

http://www.collegehumor.com/moogaloop/moogaloop.swf?clip_id=1940892&fullscreen=1

Annoying to make a point or Let it ride? Urgently need Moogaz Input

Regular readers might remember the crusade I took against street graffiti left behind from construction projects and the subsequent Portland Press Herald article.  Now I need Moogazers help to make a decision.

With the July passage of Portland’s new anti-graffiti ordinance, citizens are encouraged to report graffiti within 24-48 hours.  Violators can be fined or ordered community service. The very clear stated goal was to clean up the blight caused by graffiti which has been proven to lead to increases in other crimes. 

The Portland Police Department has now set up a website where you can report the graffiti.  http://police.portlandmaine.gov/graffitireport.asp In the page, they state, “If the graffiti is on your property, it’s your responsibility to clean it up. Property owners not cooperating in keeping their property graffiti-free will be referred to the Department of Code Enforcement and may be subjected to penalties and fines.”

But isn’t the City the property owner of the sidewalks and pavement?  Aren’t they responsible for cleaning up markings that are in some cases 2-3 years old (see pictures)?  Markings that are not just on old pavement, but also sidewalks, curbs, and cobblestones?  I think it’s funny that on the page they lecture parents on how to teach their kids responsibility when they’re taking none of their own:

Teach community pride

Parents, teachers, and community leaders should help discourage graffiti. The greater the stake a teen has in his or her community, the less likely he or she will vandalize it

So what to do?  Do I fill out this form for all the graffiti I see?  Or let it ride?  Would you fill it out?  Please vote below and comment.

 

What do do?
	Fill out the form once just to make a point.
	Fill out the form for each occurrence.
	Get a local Old Port business owner to fill out the form, but don't do it myself.
	Move on with life
pollcode.com free polls

 

Editorial Cartoons

This one is fabulous.  There are more here.

From Boston comes the Flying Car

Admit it, you thought the Jetson’s aerocar was pretty cool.  But you never thought you’d see it in your lifetime.  Now from the same MIT grad students that brought us Car Talk comes a Federally-approved car that can fly.

Terrafugia recently got National Highway Traffic Safety Administration exemptions for their Transition vehicle, a car that can fly around as easily as it can fit in the garage.  The protoype’s already been flying around, but you’ll need to plunk down a $10K deposit to line up for the 2012 production model.  This article gives some more details on the NHTSA approval.

This isn’t the first time this has been tried. In fact the flying car has been a dream almost since the Wright Brothers flew their first airplane.  http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Roadable_aircraft

 

The company is Massachusetts based (Woburn) and funded so prepare yourself for flying cars, coming soon to New England.

Risk meets Foursquare meets NYC

Need a reason to Foursquare?  Use this latest nerd mashup to conquer lands in NYC by checking in at Foursquare places.  First declare your allegiance and then let your armies march across Gotham. 

Read the full article here at Mashable http://mashable.com/2011/06/29/world-of-fourcraft/

And watch the battle unfold here  http://worldoffourcraft.com/

 

 

Followup: The most interesting part of this app is how it was created.  It won People’s Choice Awards in Hackday, a two day event where the group works together to compete against other groups and output the app.  The list of characters that went into development reads like an IT staff.  The whole thing is amazing … to see what 7 people can do in two days with a bunch of open platforms: Foursquare, Google Maps, etc.

The Google Test

Tim Pawlenty wants to apply the Google test to the Federal government, saying “if you can find a good or service on the Internet, then the federal government probably doesn’t need to be doing it.”  He wants to kill the Postal Service, Amtrak, and federal home-mortgage agencies.  I say while we’re at it kill national parks, regulatory agencies, health insurance, and schools.  Then let’s kill libraries, sidewalks, and help for the poor.   Kill unemployment insurance and financial aid to college.

When we’re done, we’ll be super competitive.    Growth will be incredibly high and businesses will be humming as we will have fought the “unrelenting trench battle against the overregulation that’s suffocating America’s entrepreneurial spirit. (Pawlenty)”  Life will be wonderful once again.

Don’t have the $30 entrance fee to the national park?  Sorry, maybe you can go next year.

Can’t afford the $30,000 for a private school?  Come on, pull yourself up by your bootstraps.

Shy of the $10 you’ll need for the internet café because the libraries closed?  Maybe you can ask a friend.

Recently unemployed with 3 kids to feed?  Sucks to be them.  Maybe a church will help.

Can’t afford the lawyer to fight the chemicals in your drinking water from fracking? Walmart sells bottled water.

Don’t have the 20% down payment for a house? Renting is nice.

Yes, government costs money to run.  But the alternative is a place where, like Washington state and its state parks, only the rich can afford anything. 

The cycle of destroying our very social fabric is upon us and my small example is Mackworth Island.  Seems simple enough.  Budget in Portland is in trouble so you suspend payments to the park.  With suspended payments and the need for maintenance on the island, fees are charged.  What once was a nice island for hiking near the ocean with my girls is now a luxury at $3/person and we haven’t returned since.  And you could make a case that I could afford it.  But what about lower income people in Portland?  Mackworth Island might as well be Disney World.  In Tim Pawlenty’s world, we make everything pay per service.  Everything.

For Tim Pawlenty, the Google test represents the awesomeness of limited government.  But for most people, applying the Google test just leads to an empty search bar.

Where our debt comes from… and where its going.

Steny Hoyer reamed the GOP this week about the various causes of the debt.  Based on that the Center on Budget and Policy Priorities (CBPP) went all charty.  Look where our debt would be without the perfect storm of economy killing factors:

 

CJ Craig defeats old Kristen Bell in congressional upset!

the website that will make me care (more) about sports

Renown sports writer and “sports guy” Bill Simmons will be getting his own digital magazine.  A little gift from ESPN for all his years of sucking up to Isaiah Thomas. This promises to be quite awesome as some of the writers already signed up include Malcolm Gladwell and Dave Eggers, and Simmons himself used to write for Jimmy Kimmel Live.  The site is named after a famous sports writer from the 20s that helped make sports the mainstay of American life that it is.

 

Check out the “coming soon” screenshot to see what this is great for me.

The Bin Laden Bluth Connection

Dead serious story.  Googled Abbottabad and found the Google Maps location for Obama Bin Laden’s headquarters.  Was interested in where it was.  Clicked Reviews.  Here’s the page that came up.  Still laughing.

for no particular reason

“I think that Bigfoot is blurry- that’s the problem.”

 

Great Jason Linkins line:

from his article today “What's Next For The Birthers? (Basically, More Birtherism)”

Yesterday, President Barack Obama allowed the world to see his "long-form birth certificate," proving something that was already widely known, but not accepted in some dank, idiotic circles: that he was born in the United States. And so, this great controversy has finally been put to rest. Ha, just kidding! It will do nothing of the sort, actually. Did you think that Pestilence is going to pull up short on his steed to tell the other Three Horsemen of the Apocalypse, "Yo, man, I'm out. I think that penicillin makes a lot of good points."

And Colbert of course added his thoughts last night

Slight of hand?

Does anyone suspect that the long form birth certificate release was to distract people from the defense staff shuffle?

Thoughts? comments?

Location:Tyng St,Portland,United States

Go See Hanna

Do you love the Jason Borne series?  Grimm’s Fairy tales?  Euro house music?  Can you imagine a non-stop action romp of a film incorporating all three?  What if I told you that it centered around a mysteriously powerful 16 year-old girl who was raised in the wilderness of Sweden as she journeys alone from Morocco to Berlin?

The film is fun, beautiful, scary, bloody. And bloody good.  Expert sound editing folds the Chemical Brothers’ original score in each of the fight scenes with tangible gunshots, bone cracks and face pounding wonderfulness.  And Cate Blanchett plays the evil villain with precision, delivering each line with a dripping southern accent.

Trailer below but go see the whole thing before it leaves theatres and you miss out on the sound.

 

The Walk to Work

This one constantly bothers me.  Somebody out there help.

I walk from the bus station to work every day.  Coffee and graffiti aside, normally I walk three blocks east and three blocks south.  Total walk: 6 blocks (3+3).

Sometimes I take “shortcuts” through the side-streets where I walk 1 block east, 1 block south, and so on until I get to work.  Total walk: 6 blocks (1+1+1+1+1+1).

Let’s say I could go through the buildings and make this even more jagged.  So now I walk 1/2 block east, 1/2 block south, and so on.  My total walk would still be 6 blocks. (1/2 + 1/2 + 1/2 + 1/2 + 1/2 + 1/2 + 1/2 + 1/2 + 1/2 + 1/2 + 1/2 + 1/2 )

And let’s say I did that to the infinite limit such that I was taking a millionth of a block walk east and a millionth of a block south.  My total theoretical walk would still be 6 blocks. (1/1,000,000 + etc.)

Here’s my conundrum.  At that point, it’d pretty much be a straight line to work.

 

And since it’s a 45degree angle and each leg is 3 blocks the total straight line distance is

- which is  4.24 blocks.

So which is it?  6 blocks or 4.24 blocks?   This plagues me every day of my life.  Someone talk me down from the cliff.

(cricket)

San Demos High School Football Rules.

Income Tax Receipt

Check out this cool tool that tells gives you a receipt for your taxes paid.   http://www.whitehouse.gov/taxreceipt

I ran it for GE:  :)