Teh Kat with his new owner. Both seem very happy. Also, new owner isn’t going to declaw him, so that’s good. I miss the little guy already, but I’m also hugely relieved. Very very relieved. Also the cat was fluffy and cute. Did I mention that?
Entries from September 2008 ↓
Dear Cat: I still love you, really, it’s just… it’s complicated.
September 30th, 2008 — photos, updates
Health insurance for everybody? Not so easy.
September 26th, 2008 — thoughts
I just read this (probably biased, but still…) highly pessimistic report on the State of Massachussetts’ bold experiment with universal citizen health care. I have long been torn by this issue. I want everyone to have health care, and it seems like a friggin’ crime that they don’t. But I realize that it’s friggin’ expensive, and that the state is not usually a better manager of market forces than markets are (though note our recent financial meltdown for the kinds of delicious things markets are capable of).
Massachussetts’ program was apparently to give individuals financial help in buying health insurance from private companies (HMOs or something like them), but… only allow them to buy from certain corporations on a list? The creation of this list is corruption-fodder a-go-go. And people get fines if they don’t get health insurance with their government subsidy. Or something like that.
Maybe I’m naive (probably), but it seems, if you’re a universal-health-care kinda person, there would be an easier and more humane way to skin this cat. Let me know if any of this stinks to you (it seems too simple): Continue reading →
Related posts
Six Minutes of Conehead Kitten
September 26th, 2008 — updates
This might (cross fingers) be my last day with little cat. His name might be Euphrates, because that’s what his new owner is calling him (so far). At some places in the video, you can see (a) the healing wound around his gumline, and (b) the one under his chin where he was (apparently ill-advisedly) sewn up the first time.
Related posts
Why I’m Not a Republican
September 25th, 2008 — thoughts
I used to identify with the Republicans, especially in the area of fiscal policy. It has always been easy to criticize the GOP’s apparent preference for using military means to accomplish international objectives, but one at least had to admire their resistance to big, intrusive government and their insistence on balancing budgets (in everything except military spending) . Naturally, that has changed (all except the military part).
Since GWB took office, we’ve seen evidence that the only thing holding (some) Republicans back from creating an oppressive, militarized, almost unimaginably expensive Orwellian state was the means by which to do so. As soon as they got the means, they got busy building one.
And it has become obvious that Republicans (at least those in charge for 8+ years) have a fundamental difficulty understanding the difference between “doing what is good for business” and “doing what businesses ask.” They’re not the same thing, people
Related posts
I don’t know her, but she rocks my world.
September 23rd, 2008 — webthings
Related posts
…MUST… HAVE… EMPATHY….!
September 23rd, 2008 — updates, webthings
It is SO VERY HARD to feel any pity whatsoever for Bill O’Reilly (or his loyal website subscribers). The man practically makes a career of loudly and sanctimoniously blaming others for their misfortunes.
I guess the moral of the story is something like this:
A. IF you’re going to base your identity and lifestyle on delivering vicious weekly public diatribes against those who are
- different from you
- less fortunate than you, and/or
- hold diverging political opinions
B. AND IF the groups against whom you rant happen to contain large numbers of people with mad computer hacking skillz
C. AND IF you’re going to make a website for increased efficiency of delivery of said diatribes
D. AND IF you’re going to charge select visitors $49.95 a month to have special privileges on said website…
E. MAYBE you should invest a few bucks in some basic website security.
Passwords stored in plaintext? Srsly? The hacker(s) should be caught and prosecuted, of course; but, Bill, what were ya thinkin’?
(photo from hunterseakerhk on flickr)
Related posts
Democrats are Lackadaisickal and Republicans are Jumpy?
September 22nd, 2008 — webthings
or something not exactly like that. Research in this month’s issue of Science that finds a significant correlation (among people with strongly-held political views) between certain physical reactions and political leanings. The physical reactions studied had to do with how intensely people responded to being scared by shocking images (photo of a spider on a face, gaping wound filled with maggots, sudden noises etc.).
The strongest responses to the shocking stimuli were witnessed in people who favored “socially protective policies,” which…
…tend to be held by people “particularly concerned with protecting the interests of the participants’ group, defined as the United States in mid-2007, from threats.” These positions include support for military spending, warrantless searches, the death penalty, the Patriot Act, obedience, patriotism, the Iraq War, school prayer and Biblical truth, and opposition to pacifism, immigration, gun control, foreign aid, compromise, premarital sex, gay marriage, abortion rights and pornography.
The paper concluded, “Political attitudes vary with physiological traits linked to divergent manners of experiencing and processing environmental threats.” This may help to explain “both the lack of malleability in the beliefs of individuals with strong political convictions and the associated ubiquity of political conflict.”1
- From the Science Daily summary (because I certainly can’t afford a subscription to Science), [↩]
Related posts
Not My Cat: Update
September 15th, 2008 — photos, updates
Bath Cat
By Saturday, I noticed that maybe his face wasn’t healing as well as it should. By that night (no vets open), the skin and fur had peeled down and back, and were hanging from the raw open flesh of his distinctly un-skin-covered lowere jaw like a flip-flop on a beach bum’s foot. Only the sutures seemed to be holding things together, and they were turning black and, um, oogie. Plus, the raw, nasty flesh that had been de-skinned was turning dry and black in some spots. BAD! So I freaked out a lot, worried a lot (I’m discovering that I’m a bit of a worrywart), tried to keep him isolated in the back room (except for mandatory snuggling) to keep him from further irritating his evil wound, and ultimately waited until this morning to do anything, except applying peroxide and antibiotic ointment, which NyC didn’t even seem to notice. On his raw, open wound. ::shudder:: Nerve damage, maybe.
This morning, I went to see Dr. Cerelli, who specializes in animal oral/maxillofacial surgery or something. I heard he was expensive, which was why I didn’t go in the first place (in retrospect, this may have been a been a bad choice). Four Paws is a swanky place. It smells clean and perfumed and new and expensive. They have sparkling consultation rooms with scrubs-clad technicians. They have lots of forms to sign. It feels (I’m sure intentionally) like an MD’s office.
NyC had a great fun time. He was angry from no breakfast, but he explored and meowed and played and came back to snuggle in my lap every few minutes. Normal cat stuff. Dr. Cerelli didn’t seem overly worried about his chances for survival, but he did express wonder and disbelief that my other vets had chosen to suture his mouth the way they did. Cerelli will remove the wire sutures, then cut along the gum line and re-attach the mouth in sort of a u-shape all along the lower jaw, with dissolvable sutures. It will cost much more than the first procedure.
One vet I talked to last week said something I already knew: for the price of making this kitten healthy, I could have several spayed or neutered. The implication (not very subtle) was that it would be more responsible to let this cat go (or having him put down) and then donate the vet money to other causes.
I can’t fault the guy’s logic. It’s logic I use all the time. But now I have a personal relationship with this cat. It’s not that I have to keep him; it’s just that I can’t stand to think of him suffering. Nonrational but very compelling.
Related posts
Perspective-putting picture(s) of the day #2
September 14th, 2008 — thoughts, webthings
Sarah Palin is an “expert” on energy. Um… moving on. She, John McCain (in one of his more recent policy flipflops) and, of course, President Bush, advocate opening up all sorts of protected areas for domestic oil exploitation. In fact, they are saying this is a solution to our gas-pump blues. Here are the bumper stickers I’m seeing in town, these days (snapped from a neighbor’s minivan):
And here is a visual representation of how much our oil supply will change, if we start tearing up our coastlines & wildlife refuges, and destroying our marine & arctic habitats to get those precious drops of oil. Estimates are that no significant price change could be expected until 2030 at the least, and not much, at that. (Chart originally ganked from gristmill, data from the official U.S. Energy Information Administration):
Note how the yellow line is not even visible before about 2020. Naturally, when McCain reversed his position on this, the price of gas fell. This might have even had something to do with his announcement. But it could not possibly have had anything to do with long-term price determinants, since nothing had changed. Even if these estimates could be disputed rationally, I agree with my insightful wife: finding more oil is not our real problem. In my view, that’s kind of like a drug addict explaining that his real problem is not having enough heroin. At some point (ASAP, really) the issue of need must be recognized as much more important than the issue of supply.
Related posts
Reagan - Bush - Bush - Palin - NU-CLE-AR (sort of like “new-clear”)
September 13th, 2008 — thoughts
No no no no no no no no!!! What is it, a legal thing? A cultural/linguistic thing? When you become a nationally-recognized Republican politician, is it considered wrong, or unpopular, or unfashionable to pronounce the word “nuclear” correctly? Maybe it’s part of some kind of subcultural dialect, like ebonics. I don’t know. All I know is that, every freaking time I hear a leader or wannabe leader of this nation say “nucular,” I want to vote against them JUST FOR THAT.
Related posts
Compulsive Sharing of Web Links - 9/13/08 Edition
September 13th, 2008 — webthings
- I have stumbled on the Harry Potter Puppet Pals a little late, but it’s a great way to spend a couple of minutes. Better late than never.
- Inspiring story about a guy in Africa who started using a traditional method of rejuvenating unfarmable land, starting a grassroots movement that has reforested millions (yes!) of hectares, largely with no government or NGO support; just farmers deciding to do this themselves.
- I first heard this beautiful tune by the Fleet Foxes a couple of months ago. and I still like it.
- Liked Back to the Future? Then you’ll (potentially) love Brokeback to the Future! (Totally SFW, despite how hilarious it is)
- I KNEW IT!!!
Now I should probably stop wasting my day and go be productive. At least a little. The cat, by the way, is doing pretty well, as evidenced by the amount of mischief he has perpetrated in a few short days, and the fact that he is now licking his butt.
In response to Amanda’s ridiculous assertion that Euphrates doesn’t yield any good nicknames for cats, I offer: FRAIDY!
Related posts
Perspective-Putting Picture of the Day
September 12th, 2008 — updates, webthings
This graphic from chartjunk.karmanaut.com puts the McCain vs. Obama tax plans in perspective. Don’t believe me? Use teh google and look it up, yo. It’s legit. This is what it looks like when their words get put into pretty colors.
Related posts
Republicans: Bush or Obama?
September 11th, 2008 — thoughts
I have a question for self-identified Republicans (sadly, none of them reads this blog, but anyway…) If you were forced into an either-or choice between 4 more years of George W. Bush and 4 years of Barack Obama as President of these United States, which would you choose?
No fair weaseling out with any talk of third parties or not voting, or changing the subject. Who(m) would you vote for, if you had to vote for one of those two candidates, and if you knew your vote could change the whole contest?
Sigh. I fear I will get no responses because I have alienated any GOP readership I may ever have had. Probably with my diatribes about illegal immigration. But if any Republicans stumble across this, I’d be interested in knowing preferences. Bush has been hidden away from the Republican side of the election to some extent, because of his low approval ratings, and such. But Obama is the enemy. Hm.
Related posts
Not my cat.
September 10th, 2008 — updates
If the above YouTube link doesn’t work, you can try clicking here to download the 50MB (or so) wmv file. I don’t know why you’d want to, but… OK, 1/3 of this blog’s regular viewing audience would probably want to. She is mildly obsessed with kitties. So I put myself into videos with kitties. Sneaky, eh?
Related posts
The Issues: Buncha Red Herrings
September 10th, 2008 — thoughts
I feel intensely frustrated, watching election coverage. I have located one source of that frustration (there are many): the fact that we pretend elections are about the issues that are being discussed by the overly-cosmeticized talking heads on TV.
So what that there are multiple videos showing Sarah Palin actually supporting the maligned “bridge to nowhere” project, despite repeatedly claiming she has always been a staunch opponent. So what that there is similar evidence showing her boasting about the considerable river of pork she kept flowing into Alaska while Governor. And who cares about her using her government position to enforce personal grudges. Or the multilayered hypocrisy of using her own motherood to further her campaign, supporting intrusive big-government oversight of everyone else’s motherhood, referencing her evangelical Christian beliefs and standards as evidence of her electability, and then insisting that her daughter’s un-evangelically Christian pregnancy is off-limits for reporters. And speaking of reporters… she’ll only do interviews if she’s guaranteed to be treated with deference. Does that count for debates, too? If Biden says something non-deferential, does she take her ball and go home?
Then there’s McCain. It’s almost a sin for mainstream media to question the finer details of his military record (many parts are inspiring, but some iz not so graet ackshully). It also seems a little unpopular, on the big news shows, to ask the very legitimate question of whether McCain’s record (especially the POW treatment he mentions pretty much every time he gets in front of a microphone) is actually relevant to his qualifications to be President. And then there’s Mr. Straight Talk Express’s refusal to answer questions he doesn’t like, and his penchant for using the police to remove troublesome folks who disagree with him (or who are suspected of planning to disagree with him, or who are suspected of photographing or otherwise documenting said police-powered removal) from his “town hall” meetings and… um… national conventions. I guess this is the freedom Senator McCain was fighting for, all those years ago.
I could go on and on, but I’ll skip straight to his latest ad, claiming that Obama supports sex ed for preschoolers or something. Of course it’s either a serious misrepresentation or a flat-out lie, but so what?
Now, I realize that was pretty one-sided. I didn’t say any of the bad stuff that is probably true about Senator Obama, or the even-more-bad-stuff that is almost certainly true about Senator Biden. But I don’t know much of that stuff, since I crossed over to the dark side have become more liberal in many of my political leanings. I know a few things, of course: Obama isn’t as 100% anti-earmarks as he has claimed. His political experience (though not as pathetic as Palin’s) is not as great as some other candidates’. He has played hardball politics behind the scenes while playing Mr. Nice Guy in front of the cameras. And Biden? Well, he’s offended people on both side of the political divide (which kind of makes me wanna like him…).
In a sense, none of this matters. Why? Because the issues are, I submit, not the primary reason most people vote the way they do. I don’t have research to back this up, but I’d lay good money on it: People vote mostly because of identity. The issues matter to some people a lot, and to most people a little, but the big factor is identity1. We vote because voting is both a demonstration and a reminder of who we are.
The commonsense model of how people decide whom to vote for might be like this:1. Investigate issues
2. Investigate parties/candidates
3. Vote for best match
Or something like that. And that’s how it should work. The world would be a better place, if it did. But it’s backward, if you’re looking at how things actually work. Here is how I think people really vote:
1. Self-identity. You know, a knowledge of who we are. This knowledge is often implicit (not conscious), and it’s not as firm as we’d like, most of the time. It also involves, perhaps paradoxically, a heavy dose of ongoing awareness of who our social group is, and what their attitudes and opinions are. Most of us work very hard, daily, to maintain the support and approval of our social group (whether near or far away, physical or virtual), and as a result we absorb their attitudes and opinions. This includes both the positions we take on many issues, as well as our ideas about which issues are important, and how to even frame discussions about the issues.
2. Identity confirmation. Ay, here’s the rub. We’re much more concerned with reassuring ourselves of the validity of our cherished ideas of who we are, than we are about the so-called issues. So, we look for candidates who validate our sense of who we are. If we are Republicans, we look for Republicans. If Democrats, we look for a Democrat. If we see ourselves as fiscal conservatives, we find a candidate who makes us feel like a fiscal conservative. If we think we are environmentalists, then we’re gonna vote Green.
Everything after step 2 is a bit of a shameful (but fascinating) mess. Remember; it’s entirely possible to become doggedly supportive of a candidate with no knowledge of issues, whatsoever. So, we engage in a process of selectively ignoring information that makes our already-chosen candidate seem less than ideal (because we identify with that candidate), and paying attention to information that boosts our favorite. What’s more, we filter not only our information, but our sources of information. We stop hanging around with, or conversing with, people who don’t think our candidate (or party or philosophy) is the cat’s pajamas, spending our time, instead, with people who agree with us. This naturally restricts the kinds of information we have access to. We are careful about where we get our news. Liberals generally don’t watch Fox, and conservatives tend to get fed up with MSNBC (and they certainly would never watch Democracy Now).
See why the issues are irrelevant? Even if you could strap conservative voters into dentists’ chairs, tape their eyeballs open, and show them the video evidence of Sarah Palin contradicting her stump speech claims, the opinions probably would not change. Because it’s not about whether she is telling the truth or not, and it’s not about whether she’d be a good Veep (or, heaven forbid, President) or not. It’s about how her supporters feel about themselves when they think about supporting her, and evidence of misrepresentation is unlikely to change that.
The same goes for all the candidates. It takes very little imagination to picture these same mental/emotional processes happening with the die-hard Hillary supporters who would rather see a Republican in office than Barack Obama, or Obama’s own starry-eyed consumers of his message of (perhaps just a teensy bit unrealistic) Hope and Change, or John McCain’s minions, who seem to imagine a new Golden Age of American Prosperity, if only we can get a tough military guy who claims to be a maverick into office. And Ron Paul? No imagination at all is required to envision the rabid, information-independent support from his camp.
Disagree? Fine. Tell me about it. But make sure your alternate theory accounts for this phenomenon, at least: voting patterns and party affiliations “clump together” geographically and organizationally (i.e., within professions), somewhat independent of social class, ethnicity, and other obvious demographics. If people “voted the issues,” this should not happen.
So, even if we elect the person I think gives us the best chance of not flushing ourselves completely down the toilet in the next 4 to 8 years, I firmly believe I have somewhat accurately outlined the individual voting process.
And that’s why we’re screwed.
- The psychologically astute reader will note that I ripped this off from Tajfel & Turner, and that this whole rant is an application of Social Identity Theory [↩]
Related posts
Raptors totally suck
September 10th, 2008 — memes, updates
I took a quiz on surviving raptor attacks, and here are my results:
On an unrelated (I sincerely hope) note, I will get the kitty back today, to begin his stay with me while he heals. Sigh. Kittens.
Related posts
Unexpected Cat Update
September 9th, 2008 — updates
The cat, not the update, is the unexpected part. He’s at the vet now, until tomorrow. He is a he. His face is indeed messed up. The tissue covering his lower jaw was almost completely torn away. One vet guy said it might have been an old wound, while another said it could have just gotten infected very quickly (it’s pus-infested and reeks to high heaven). He is only running a slight fever (as assessed by the usual uncomfortable method), and one vet said this is a fairly common kind of wound. I note he didn’t say it’s easy to fix.
The vet (Dr. Garza, in Edinburg; I’ve visited him before, and he seems to do a fine job) said that they would probably use something like stainless-steel wire to sew the flesh that used to cover his chin back where it should be, anchored in place by wrapping it around his lower fangs. Weird, and Franken-cool. I’m massively relieved that something is being done by someone who knows what to do. I guess he’s my cat for about 2 weeks, while his face attempts to heal (no word on how likely that is). I’m actively seeking another owner. He’s not my cat. I keep repeating that, like a mantra.
Related posts
Annual Kitten Report
September 9th, 2008 — updates
September 2006: Dexter. Backyard. Persistent. Adopted.
September 2007: Moses. Weeds at reservoir. Loud and fearless.
September 2008: Unnamed cat from campus. Grotesquely wounded.
He’s in the cat carrier, now. I’m off to the vet in a few minutes. My friend was showing me the cute, sociable kitten on campus, when he decided to do a Superman-type thing and landed face-first on concrete. He tore open his lower lip/face. It stopped bleeding soon, and he’s behaved pretty normally since then. No vets were open last night (except the $150-for-the-consultation-fee emergency service), but one told me on the phone he’d probably be all right. And sure enough he slept pretty much 13 solid hours, then at 7:00 began to destroy my bathroom.
No pictures, because his face looks… kinda horrific. But he is one of the yellow/orange stripey type cats. Maybe 8 to 12 weeks old? Young.
Hm. He’s stopped meowing. That won’t last once we get into the car.
I seriously do not go looking for these beasts, and stuff like this hasn’t happened between the Septembers. Sadly, I will not be keeping this little monster, either, even if (as I hope) he turns out healthy and not very seriously hurt. Two cats is enough.
Related posts
Dallin H. Oaks in Stake Conference
September 7th, 2008 — updates
Down here in the McAllen, TX stake, we just got split (now there’s a McAllen West stake, too). So we got Dallin H. Oaks, and Apostle of the Church, to visit and give a talk (brief one, as it turns out). It was very spiritual and highly enjoyable. Here are my personal highlights:
1. “Many of you suffer significant disadvantages because of your immigrant status. The Leaders of the Church are aware of this, and pray for you…” It was nice to hear the leaders of a church whose members are sometimes-just-a-bit-uncomfortably-conservative acknowledge a very non-Republican sentiment: the fact that illegal immigrants are humans. Elder Oaks went on to quote a story from the Book of Mormon in which an oppressed group of people prayed really hard, but were not (immediately) rescued from their oppression; instead, they were given the strength to bear their burdens. He also talked a little about his forbears and the general legacy of this church as a church largely of immigrants. He reminded people here that others have gone through similar difficulties, but that their children would benefit from their sacrifices.
2. He jokingly noted the visibly cheerful faces of the just-released former Stake Presidency and said that the Gospel was obviously working. Men are that they might have joy, and these guys obviously looked joyful. Heh heh. Is the subtext here, “Church service: Because it feels so good when you stop”?
3. The best part was when he said, “Young men and young women, you are the future of the Church. Don’t be stupid.” :D He then clarified some details of this admonition, like choosing friends wisely, avoiding physically and spiritually dangerous habits, and (interestingly) not getting tattoos.
It was a fun meeting. Sadly, it didn’t result in me going back to the Edinburg chapel, which is a brief walk from my house. Sigh. 15-minute drive, or 35-minute bike ride.
Related posts
Dual-booting Ubuntu 8.04 + Windows XP (without modifying the MBR!)
September 6th, 2008 — updates
About 10 years ago, I met a guy at some kind of community festival or something in Columbus, OH. He was running an open-source software booth. He gave me a CD pre-loaded with Red Hat Linux. I never used the CD, but I’ve sort of followed the development of increasingly user-friendly (translate: n00b-friendly) Linux distributions since then. Recently (3 or 4 years back) I decided it was finally worth my while to take the plunge. Note that I still dilly-dallied for a while.
I have an older tower in the back office that I don’t use much, now that I have this spiffy laptop from work. It just got a 500GB second hard drive installed in it, back in May. Last night, I finally rolled up my sleeves and got to work. It turns out Ubuntu is now insanely easy to install. Easier than Windows, in my case. Lots easier. No hardware issues, everything detected perfectly (even the USB ports that are only recognized 1/4 of the time in XP were mounted automatically and with no issues).
The most jarringly pleasant difference from installing Windows was the absence of repeated phone calls to Microsoft’s Genuine Windows Validation Hotline, trying to explain that, no, I was not a skanky software pirate, selling unauthorized multi-terminal licenses of their precious product; I was simply trying to install said bleepenating product on my computer for the fifth time because it kept crashing during install, and would they please unlblock the software I just spent loads of money on and was trying to legally use. Continue reading →