February 2007 Archives

Here's my thumbnail sketch of why Libby and Rove should be sent to Gitmo (using the President's logic):

1. The CIA's operations are essential to fighting the war on terror.
2. Keeping the CIA's operations secret in the war on terror is essential.
3. Exposing an undercover CIA agent and their contacts impairs our ability to fight the war on terror, thus providing aid and comfort to our enemy; emboldening our enemy.
4. Those who provide aid to comfort to our enemy are to be considered enemy combatants.
5. All enemy combatants are to be stripped of their rights and kept at Gitmo.

So we've been watching clips from Fox News' "Half-Hour News Hour" brought to us from the jingo-istic mind of Joel Surnow. A lot of people have been complaining that it sucks, that it's not funny, that it's a vicious, mean-spirited, steaming pile of shit festooned with garland and sparkles to distract us from its inner shitty nature. I think you're all being too hard on it.

The show is funny. It's a laugh riot, even. I can really enjoy the humor of discomfort and embarrassment. Seinfeld, Curb Your Enthusiasm, Sacha Baron Cohen, they're all very funny at times. Which is what makes 'The Half-Hour News Hour' funny. Watching those dipshits struggle through train wreck after bloody train wreck in the vain pointless attempt to wring real laughs out of their material is awesome. Mocking people with melanoma, repeatedly calling Hillary Clinton a lesbian, bringing up Barack Obama's cocaine use every 12 seconds, well that's funny.

I just wish they'd follow the cast off the set when they race to drink themselves into oblivion so they can try to erase any memory of the shit they're doing for a paycheck because even that pathetic sight would be funnier to watch than the show.

While you're at it, enjoy this review of the show too. And this one too.

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And as an afterthought, I find it ironic that they're mocking Obama for his occasional cocaine use when that was Dubya's drug of choice for most of the 70's and 80's. If conservatives will give him a pass on that issue, why not Obama? Oh right, because he's black and a Democrat.

The last few weeks I've noticed that I'm not enjoying eating meat as much as I used to. I was the guy who would saddle up to the trough and order a giant plate of the brontosaurus ribs, with an extra plate of bacon and some cheese sauce to dip it in...but I don't know. Not anymore.

It might be that my tastes are changing as I'm getting older, perhaps it's because I'm eating more Indian and Chinese food; I'm sampling through better vegetarian dishes; my cooking skills are getting better; there's more variety to choose from. All of the above are true, and right now I think I could do without meat for at least two meals a day.

This isn't to say that if someone wanted to invite me to Ruth's Chris Steak House or to go get wings, I'd demure. It also doesn't mean that I'm going to go completely vegetarian, or worse, vegan. It also doesn't mean I'm going to try and force my opinion on others. At this point all it means is I'm not looking around the table for 3 different kinds of meat and the hot bacon dressing for my salad.

I need to stop reading Men's Health and GQ. I've just spent the last 10 minutes debating whether or not I should tuck in a flannel shirt I am...I might...wear out of the house. I even started searching online for the answer, but that was no help.

I think the best thing I can do is stop reading those magazines and stop worrying...

I've been interested in micro-lending and alternative lending for a while, so when I came across Prosper.com I was excited. It's peer-to-peer lending. It works by people putting their loan requests on the website, say for $1000 to consolidate some bills, or expand a small business they're running out of their home, whatever they want. Part of the borrower's proposal also includes the interest rate they're willing to pay.

People go to the website and choose which proposals to contribute towards. They don't even contribute a lot of money, say no more than $50 towards a person's proposal. Prosper.com collects the money from the borrower and redistributes to the lenders, taking a 0.5% fee from the lender, and a 1% fee from the borrower. Only 3% of the loans on Prosper.com are currently past due, which in my mind is not a bad rate, considering they've helped broker $27 million in loans so far.

I'm really intrigued by Prosper.com, and enthused as well. It makes me happy to see that there are companies that are willing to take on the larger financial institutions in different ways, ways that give some of the power back to everyday people.

Here's a few more questions for people that are smarter than me, as I can't seem to find anyone who's able to get me an answer:

1. On the matter of Iraq, there's this debate about a non-binding resolution condemning an escalation...mildly protesting a troop build-up...saying anything about anything about something, about whether there should be a debate, about whether or not senators will ever vote for the resolution they themselves authored, ad naseum. Further, there's discussion about whether or not the Senate should use "the power of the purse" to curtail war efforts in Iraq. But what I keep wondering is: at some point, both houses passed a bill which authorized the president to go to war in Iraq in some form. Can't they just...revoke that authorization? That would effectively end all of this debate and all of this discussion. Theoretically, Congress is the only body that can declare war in the first place, so it should be a simple matter of saying "Wait, we didn't declare war, so bring the troops home". I mean, if that's what they really wanted to do. Which I don't think it is. Which isn't even what I'm sure they should do at this point...fuck...maybe I understand why they're dickering over the size and girth of their dickering.
2. The tide might already be turning on this one, thank God, but it bears asking: why don't people in power get the clue that electronic voting machines are a BAD THING? This is one piece of technology that every single geek is screaming about. If geeks fear some new technology so strongly, shouldn't it be obvious that it's got some flaws? I bet the programmers at Diebold even refuse to use the machines. I would.
3. When will people face the overwhelming evidence that the economy is not suffering from outsourcing, but is actually thriving. Time and again the numbers show that companies are able to grow and prosper while doing outsourcing. Anecdotal evidence also shows this. US unemployment was at 4.5% in December 2006. That's an awesomely low unemployment rate. Compare with Europe which has an unemployment rate of 7.5% on average. Further factor in that a lot of the baby boomers are going to start retiring in the next 5-10 years and we're going to face a serious labor shortage. Baby boomers make up 43% of the workforce in the US. The work they're doing is going to have be done by someone. We might as well work out the best ways to outsource now.
4. In a similar vein, when will our politicians and pundits recognize that there is no national solution to the question of immigration? Certainly the Constitution gives Congress and the President the ability to determine how naturalization will work and they need to have some say in the matter of immigration and how immigration affects our economy and national security, but seriously. Aren't the needs of the citizens of Texas vastly different than the needs of North Carolina or New York when it comes to this matter? Or the needs of Seattle different than the needs of Los Angeles? Some communities, some states welcome an influx of immigrants, illegal or otherwise, because they represent a boon to the local economy. Cheap immigrant labor helps businesses to grow, similar to how outsourcing works, only locally, and promotes the opening of new businesses. It's clear to me, and should be clear to others that we should unleash the States to determine some of their own immigration policy instead of jamming one down their throats like our leaders want to do now.

Tomorrow I go to one of my clients and hand over the software to them.

I am excited to be able to deploy software and transition into a new role, a role which will give me my nights and weekends back. I am so ready to have my own life back, and I am sure my client is too.

I've really enjoyed working on this project and working with my client but I'm ready for a break. I'm ready for some rest. I'm ready to start writing again.