It may be that I feel woozy anyway, but the new magnetic fields album appears to be pretty dreadful. It's just really noisy. It's like a headache. Or I have a headache. Something. Except the Dada Polka. The Dada Polka is beautiful.
_
respond?
(2)
07:15:52 PM,
Tuesday 26 January 2010
-
I'm actually kind of optimistic about politics right now. I don't think I've ever heard so much yelling for procedural reforms in my life. If you'd told me 5 years ago that the hot topics would be the filibuster, healthcare reform and campaign finance, I would have been delighted. Now we just need to abolish the penny. It'd help reduce government spending, and increase efficiency across the country!
Ling on the pointlessness of the political hobby. It's nice to have something to be worried about that has no immediate impact on my life. If I stepped away from the internet and turned off NPR, very, very little of what happens in politics would ever reach into my life. I won't, because I want to know, but I'm not convinced this is a good or useful thing I do, following politics. The world doesn't need to know what I think. It'll get by anyway. I don't even need to know what I think, and I'm me. People like to congratulate each other on their civic engagement, but even if I influenced my government, on a lot of issues I have opinions about, I wouldn't give myself much more than a 50% chance of pushing it in direction that would make the world a better place. Except the pennies. I'm really confident about pennies.
_
respond?
05:11:31 PM,
Tuesday 26 January 2010
-
Dan Rowe is on the radio! Playing Future Bible Heroes! Which is fitting, because I first heard The Magnetic Fields on one of his mix tapes. However, it also means I'm up past my bedtime.
_
respond?
11:00:56 PM,
Monday 25 January 2010
-
Glenn Greenwald on the campaign finance reform ruling. I'm glad to see him making the point that the Supreme Court doesn't and shouldn't care about outcomes. That's profoundly important. I'm with the ACLU on this. There are many ways to prevent regulatory capture, some of which, unlike ineffective limits on political speech, might actually work. I hope this triggers some real ethics reform.
_
respond?
(8)
04:17:44 PM,
Monday 25 January 2010
-
Missing the point: Heard on NPR: "... to put Negro on the census, something African-Americans asked for." It's is sometimes difficult to always know how to describe people, but in this case, it's nearly axiomatic that they aren't African-Americans, or they wouldn't be asking. The impressively obtuse Robin Young, natch.
Slate's brief review of the modern history of the terms.
_
respond?
(1)
01:15:07 PM,
Monday 25 January 2010
-
Trying to find out if my representative supports the Senate bill isn't easy. Shame the decisions all get made by the parties beforehand, making things like votes or debate a sort of quaint tradition.
_
respond?
(7)
12:44:32 PM,
Monday 25 January 2010
-
I normally try to stifle my pedantic tendencies, but on NPR this evening during a cretinous music criticism segment, or rather music boosterism segment, the adjective-riddled, name-dropping fish Guy Raz was interviewing said something about 'the sonic aether' and I've been muttering 'it's called air' to myself ever since.
_
respond?
07:51:04 PM,
Sunday 24 January 2010
-
Why I don't drive past Porter if I can possibly help it.
_
respond?
06:25:48 PM,
Saturday 23 January 2010
-
A movie I will see, come what may. Looks like it's coming to Kendall Square in April. Have I mentioned recently how much I love living near a real city? It's a nature documentary, without voiceovers, about sheep. What could possibly go wrong?
_
respond?
(1)
04:56:13 PM,
Friday 22 January 2010
-
A coworker from out of town you don't know is using an office by your cubicle, and taking a conference call, on speaker, with the door open. Do you a) interrupt and ask politely if they mind you close the door, b) close the door while attempting to look vaguely apologetic and non-hostile, or c) sit there and fume silently and ineffectually?
_
respond?
(4)
11:07:00 AM,
Friday 22 January 2010
-
Does anyone, at all, on any side, respect Justice Kennedy?
_
respond?
(1)
05:29:56 PM,
Thursday 21 January 2010
-
Incompetence is everywhere. Would you believe I've actually been productive at work today? Clearly blogging = efficiency.
_
respond?
03:27:43 PM,
Wednesday 20 January 2010
-
site & script courtesy of Moss
