Everywhere I go

Insanity at work, insanity at home, it's a good day to be listening to Orphans: Brawlers, bawlers, and bastards.

The deployment went better than expected, but there are still problems as ever. Mostly exactly the problems we predicted that are under the control of an external group.

With my lovely wife on bedrest we are relying heavily on my mother in law to help out. She means well. But giving a 2 year old frozen pizza and popsicles for lunch isn't really the kind of thing I approve of. Especially since there was a fridge full of much better alternatives. And of course since there is inclement weather she has been frantic since yesterday morning even though the weather isn't due to get bad until later today.

I need a good reasonably priced babysitter.

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Down with the sickness

As a testament to how loved I am by my coworkers, when they heard I would be late today due to food poisoning in the family they hoped that it was I who was afflicted.

Sadly it was not.

As I looked in the mirror before finally shuffling off to work I noted that I am in need of a haircut, as I am beginning to resemble Harlan Pepper. And I don't even have dog.

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Closing Time

Ah, what a long Saturday! Raked the yard (probably 100+ cubic feet of leaves!) into the street for the pickup tomorrow. The joys of home ownership.

Went out to West County so Mae could get her hair done (and it looks tremendous) and get her new glasses (which also look wonderful). I went to the Apple store to drool of 23" flat panel monitors (Photoshop runs great on the dual 1.25Ghz machines).

 Dinner at Michael's in CWE again, wonderful as usual. Then we closed out Llewelyn's with the stlbloggers crowd. Quite the turnout, with Ryan, Angeline, Leesa, Melf, Vince, Ko, David, Ben, Tempe, Freddy, Chipper, and special guest Elaine. Andrew, Courtney, and Melissa joined us as well, and a good time was had by all (even the poor sound guy who ended up performing a solo set when the band failed to show).

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Lemme hear ya say "Fight the Power!"

Hot tip: make sure you know what's plugged in to the power strip before turning it off. Also: save early, save often.

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Don't know when I'll be back again

I am very very confused by St Louis Downtown Airport. I get that it's the closest airport to downtown. However, it's not like Lambert is an hour away from downtown. Given traffic on the bridge I doubt very much that Downtown Airport is more than 10 minutes closer than Lambert. Lambert is closer to downtown than the airports in almost every city I've been to. L.A., Denver, San Francisco, Boston. Now San Jose had the foresight to build the airport right IN downtown S.J. Sure it took another 30 years for San Jose to become a tech hub, but they sure were ready for it.

Unrelated: scary scary report on NPR. They were announcing the amount of parking left at the malls in the area. That this is considered necessary frightens me.

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Who you jivin with that cosmic debris

Ah, at long last some valuable research dollars will be redirected from a project that has spent a quarter of a century discovering absolutely nothing. Bye PEAR. From sloppy experiments to a methodology that even they admitted was deeply flawed to an ultimate result of accuracy didn't best coin flipping. So glad that this drain on research funding is going away.

It's not even close enough to be wrong.

That's a nice way to start the short week.

UPDATED to credit Wolfgang Pauli for the line "It's not right. It's not even wrong."

Also note that the link to PEAR is often nonresponsive, here's a good explanation of it. PEAR stands for Princeton Engineering Anomalies Research, a group that spent almost three decades and millions of dollars failing to prove telepathy/psychokenesis.

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Everybody's got to rock n roll

Got off the Metro and was confronted with a line of teenagers in all white sweatsuits with letters on them spelling out "S H O U T I T O U T". They were exhorting the commuters exiting the train to "C'mon, shout it out with us!". Very enthusiastic kids.

I looked around for the TV cameras as this struck me as the sort of thing you'd see in a commercial but never in real life. I saw no cameras and neglected to take a picture myself because I was more interested in getting out of the cold wind.

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Make yo momma proud

We had a wonderful visit with my Mom. I really don't get to see her enough, nor does Boo. Hopefully in a few years we'll move someplace closer so visits will be easier to work out.

I do always feel awkward around Mom. There is this self applied pressure to make her proud. Is everyone like that around their parents? She is not a highly critical person and there's really no tangible reason for it, but I always second and third guess everything I say and do because I don't want her to be let down.

I wonder if I'm conflating her too much with Dad, who was pretty critical and negative when I was in high school.

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You can read it in the Sunday papers

This is my last post on the midterm elections. OK, maybe not. My favorite part of the entire election season is broken down right here.

Note that my favorite part isn't the resignation, but rather how it was broken.

And once again this is why I rely on Comedy Central for all of my news.

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Get out there and register to vote, I'm outta here

Huh. The spectre of investigations that are not actually coverups must be pretty scary.

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St Louis got the best of me

I awoke to a pleasant surprise. Only a few of the candidates I voted for won (Greens and Progressives didn't do so hot) but then only one of the ballot measures/amendments/etc that I voted for failed. Overall I'd call it an excellent result.

As much as I get down about living in an overwhelmingly Christian Social Conservative state, I often forget how wonderful the city of St Louis is (and even parts of the county).

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How'd that asshole ever manage to get in

Playlist for election day:

If You Tolerate This Then Your Children Will Be Next - Manic Street Preachers
Big Black Cadillac - Adrian Belew
Politician - Swingin Utters
Election Day - Duran Duran
Rule the World with Love - Barenaked Ladies
Career Opportunities - The Clash
When the Lie's So Big - Frank Zappa
Cult of Personality - Living Colour
Hell No We Ain't Alright - Public Enemy
Televsion:Drug of the Nation - Disposable Heroes of Hiphoprisy
Another Bloddy Election - Killing Joke
The Kids Aren't Alright - The Offspring
Mind the GATT - Anti Flag
Killing in the Name Of - Rage Against the Machine
California Uber Alles - Dead Kennedys
Who Cares Wins - Anthrax
America Number One - Consolidated
Fitter Happier - Radiohead
Day After Tomorrow - Tom Waits
The Love of Richard Nixon - Manic Street Preachers
Volvo Driving Soccer Mom - Everclear
American Idiot - Green Day
Unity of Oppresion - Consolidated
No God - The Germs
The Preacher and the Slave - Joe Hill
Dear Mr. Man - Prince
Jesus Thinks You're a Jerk - Frank Zappa
Bomb the World - Michael Franti
Silent All These Years - Tori Amos
Solitude Sometimes Is - Manic Street Preachers

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I gotta talk to you baby, set the record straight

OK, so there are reports coming in from all over the country about robocalls from companies hired by the National Republican Congressional Committee that are designed to annoy voters while appearing to come from the Democratic candidate in that district. Sleazy, and apparently illegal, but not at all surprising. Note that the 'liberal' national media isn't covering it at all, only local media. Because I can't imagine how election fraud would be a topical subject on election eve.

What I don't get is the comments in the local news stories about voters saying they're mad that candidate x called them multiple times this weekend (ignore the fact that it was actually candidate y's people pretending to be candidate x's people) and so they're not going to vote for them anymore. Seriously? You've evaluated the candidates and determined who is more likely to represent your interests best and then you change your mind because the one you chose called you too many times? What the hell is wrong with people?

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I'm sittin here on capitol hill

Amendment 3: Raise taxes on tobacco. Simple issue. You're either OK with it or you're not.

City Charter Amendment Prop 1 - Increase maximum fine the city can impose to $1000.

City Charter Amendment Prop 2 - If you are an elected official, an appointed official, work in the Mayor's office, a paid board member, or work for the board of aldermen you do not have to pass the Civil Service exam.

City Charter Amendment Prop 3 - Adjust the probation period and limit temporary appointments for Civil Service employees.

City Charter Amendment Prop 4 - Give current employees an extra advantage over general public in competing for Civil Service vacancies.

City Prop P - 1/8% sales tax for parks and recreation development

City Preferential Prop R - Require city police to live in the city

City Prop G - Renew the special tax in the Gardenside Subdivision Special Business District

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And I'm hopin that they'll ratify my

For all it's wordiness and controversy, Amendment 2 is actually pretty simple. It allows private companies to engage in any reseach into stem cell therapies and cures that are permitted under federal law and are conducted safely and ethically. It explicitly prohibits cloning or attempted cloning. So all the billboards you are seeing about cloning are lies. Not disagreements, not different interpretations, they're lies and the people putting them up know they are lying.

Further the amendment limits any compensation for people who donate blastocysts or eggs so there's no concern of 'cell farming'. The amendment puts a pretty tight 14 day limit on how long after cell division begins that the cells can be taken. I think that's a little too restrictive, but I suppose it's better than nothing. Anyone engaging in research must submit to oversight by a public review board, fair enough.

Section 2.7 is an interesting bit, and I can see a valid criticism on the part of the opponents in that it basically says "Perform your research in accordance with state and local laws regarding scientific and medical practices etc etc except if those laws are intended to prohibit stem cell research". In which case a locality like Brentwood could pass a law making stem cell research illegal in the city limits and this amendment says 'ignore that law'. Certainly a state amendment trumps a local law, but that would still be fodder for a lawsuit.

The rest is housekeeping regarding fines for violation (very very stiff), methodology of reporting to the board, requiring public officials to not hinder stem cell research being done properly, and a bunch of definitions followed by yet another statement that local laws banning stem cell research can be ignored by researchers.

You may have noticed the repeated statements that "local authorities cannot pass and enforce laws that are contradictory to the state constitution". There should be no need to make such statemtns because it's clearly a tautology. They certainly can pass such laws if they choose, but they will be deemed unconstitutional by the state courts if challenged. So enforcing them would just ensure that they were thrown out. But the anti-science activists have repeatedly in many states tried to get laws passed that are unconstitutional and will do so again. These reminders in this amendment are a defensive measure against such tactics.

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Everybody in the club freaked when I stepped from the limousine

Opened up my email this evening and there was a 'Members Only Ticket Presale' offer. There is a new club opening in Vegas apparently. The rumor is he will be playing once a week and booking the other nights with artists of his choice. In the same hotel as Penn & Teller. I now have a new favorite place to stay in Vegas. The kickoff party is November 11th and 12th. Based on the artists on the site, there will be some killer talent in the house.

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I'll be rude

I'll knock out the easy ones first.

Amendment 1.
Interestingly enough for all the purported interest opponents of Amendments 2 and 3 in Missouri have in tax issues no one seems to care about Amendment 1. It's a pretty dull piece of housekeeping to renew a fraction of a cent tax to maintaint parks and soil in the state. Hard to get anyone riled up about that one either way.

Amendment 6
I'm not sure what happened to 4 and 5, but six is a sop to the powerful non-profit lobby* to exempt their property from taxation. Seems odd that there wasn't already an exemption for that in place, but OK. The ballot measure is very wordy and I'm not entirely thrilled with the way they parsed the sentence in 6.1 that defines what is exempt. A clever lawyer could argue that the inventory for ANY business is exempt (and maybe that's the intent).

Amendment 7
On it's face seven is a simple effort to ensure that officials convicted of a felony do not get a pension from the state. The complexity of the structure put into place and the specificity of the makeup of the board (e.g. "one shall be the chief executive officer of a business doing an average gross annual business in excess of one million dollars, one shall be a person representing the health care industry, one shall be a person representing agriculture, two shall be persons over the age of sixty years, four shall be citizens of a county of the third classification") may be a genuine effort to ensure diversity of the board, but it looks like a bad joke.

Proposition B
Raise the minimum wage. Done.


*that's sarcasm in case you were wondering.

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