Category: politics

Forgive me.

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so long, long weekend


Sunday night coming off an extremely short-seeming four-day weekend. Shame, really, I enjoyed myself so much at Ben and Suzy’s wedding that the time flew by. Saturday was largely spend loafing around the house catching up on a night of little sleep and letting my stomach recover from fried food, wine, and clove cigarettes. It’s Sunday morning now as I write, I’ve got a Twilight Zone episode playing on TiVo while Keaton plays on her blanket on the floor and Sharaun’s getting ready for church. After she gets out, I’ll strip the baby down and take her in with me so we can both get cleaned up for the week. Gameplan for today is short – work on the finishing touches of the new Halloween prop and maybe grill some burgers if the weather holds.

Today I finally bugged Sharaun enough that she let us all sit down and attempt teaching Keaton to feed herself some small solid food. Sharaun is deathly paranoid of her choking, and I think if it were up to her we’d hold off introducing small solids until she had a mouthful of molars. But, in the face of my prodding, she relented and we laid out a smorgasbord of cheese bits, sweet potato puffs, and smooshes of pear on her highchair tray. While she’s good at picking up most everything and putting it into her mouth, she didn’t show much interest when it came to things actually edible. Instead, she pushed around the food, picked it up and looked at it, and nudged it around the tray. Finally, I helped her by plopping things into her mouth, all of which she dutifully chewed and swallowed with nary a gag or cough. It was cool – that baby is getting biiig.

Speaking of Keaton, I just barely managed to not get her week thirty-two photos up before heading off to dreamland sometime after midnight – but (much to your pleasure, I’ll go ahead and assume) I’ll pledge now to get them up tomorrow night just as fast as I can. Apologies. To tide you over, go ahead and reminisce with me as we look at just how much she’s grown up since her internet debut.

It’s been a massive couple weeks for music, a virtual opening of floodgates, the amount of new and potentially exciting stuff to listen to being almost too much to handle. But, some how, I’m managing… pulled on my waders and walked right into the deluge to sort the flotsam and jetsam for the good stuff. So far, I’ve been digging the Fratellis, Malajube, and with the recent Shins and Mogwai leaks it’s shaping up to be an awesome year-end rally. I’m especially looking forward to sinking my teeth into the Shins album, and with it not seeing the streets until January, I should have plenty of time to form an opinion. For now, though, I’m completely hung up on the Malajube album… it’s simply outstanding, even if every word is in French and I can’t understand what’s being said.

You guys see Obama’s verbal dance around his previous assertions he wasn’t considering an ’08 bid? Seems he’s changed his mind, and I find this extremely interesting. Spent some time last night wading through the Digg comments on the news to see what other “young hipsters” had to say about the whole thing. If any crowd represents the tuned-in youth of today, it’s Digg, although that’s honestly quite a small percentage of voters (remember the digital divide?). Anyway, check out the comments yourself if you’re interested – I, for one, think it’d be a heck of an interesting race of he did officially cast in his lot.

Well folks, I’m off to bed – that’s enough for “an entry,” even though it’s less cohesive than that one glue that those 3M scientists accidentally invented while trying to invent a “super” glue that was so weak it was deemed useless until one scientist started using it to temporarily stick notes around the office and was then subsequently marketed as PostIt Notes and made millions.

Goodnight.

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keaton’s gonna want to go to college


Hey, Monday’s down… spent a good bit of time this evening searching fruitlessly for decent-priced flights back to Florida for Christmas. If I let my memories get all shimmery and hear chimes, I can cast my thoughts back to years gone by when Sharaun and I both flew home for a grand total of nothing more than ~$500. Now, that’s a one-person fare. I’m not sure, but I suspect Osama may be to blame. Anyway, I gave up in a fit of wailing and gnashing of teeth as I stared bleary-eyed at the screen through my uncontrollable tears. And I haven’t even started pricing Thanksgiving, and I’m sure Keaton’s gonna want to go to college sooome day…

I’m sorry if I seem to be stuck on the politics gig recently, but there’s just so much awesomeness going on. We’ve got Woodward’s new book (which I’d really like to read) and republican representatives getting bused trawling for hot nubile gay sex then subsequently retreating to the inner sanctums of Tomcruiseology to clear themselves of those young gay thetans. There’s all sorts of awesome stuff going on in the keerazy world of politics lately; for instance, here’s a good one about our favorite Latin American Bush-basher:

This article tickled me yesterday. The opening line alone was enough to get my head wagging:

The recent military build-up in Venezuela by U.S. nemesis President Hugo Chavez has other countries in the region worried that the weapons could end up in the hands of terrorists, Defense Secretary Donald H. Rumsfeld said Monday.

U.S. nemesis?
…in the hand of terrorists?

Oh man, the message here is pretty clear: speak ill of this administration and they will, somehow-someway, associate you with their fix-all that is terrorism. I’m so fucking sick and tired of hearing things trotted as terrorism before a rapt crowd of fraidycats; grow a damn spine people. Terrorists are here, they’re gonna be here, they’re gonna kill people and blow stuff up. Let’s be reasonable, let’s not invite them in or anything, but let’s at least be rational about the whole thing. One of our original statesmen said it best when he said:

Those who would give up essential liberty to purchase a little temporary safety, deserve neither liberty nor safety.
– Ben Franklin

Sorry for the vitriol, I got a little worked up there.

Time to download some tunes, I’ve heard the new Hold Steady is good and the new Shins is purportedly leaking as I type this. Oh, and I’d like to make a prediction: The new hotness in illicit filetrading? Not members-only torrent sites, not the newsies, not any P2P app… nope. It’s anonymous upload/download “dumps” like yousendit, megaupload, rapidshare, and sendspace. I know we’re not supposed to talk about it, since it might jinx it, but if you want the new-new stuff and you’re not a member… these sites are the way to go.

Goodnight.

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weekdays are torture


Sunday night and it’s back to work tomorrow (“boooo!” jeers the crowd). This weekend turned out to be an exercise in laziness, both purposeful and unplanned. Wanted to mow the lawn: didn’t happen. Wanted to go to Wal Mart and invest in some of those “energy saving” lightbulbs: didn’t happen. Wanted to say home and do nothing both Friday and Saturday night: did indeed happen. Overall though, I’m happy with it. Found some time Sunday to work on this year’s “late breaking” Halloween prop with Ben, even managed to take some quick footage and assemble it into this year’s first “teaser” video. I’ve added it to the Halloween Teasers gallery, so go check it out. Found even more time after doing the teaser to upload some new images to Keaton’s Gallery, so go check those out too. And then, read this:

Downloaded the new iTunes and let it update my iPod to firmware 1.2. Had some issues with the actual update process, as iTunes just stalled out on “updating iPod” indefinitely. I let it go for half an hour thinking it really might be taking that long, but soon noticed the iPod’s screen was showing the “do no disconnect” message. I unplugged the whole mess and Ctl+Alt+Del’d the iTunes process. Went through this twice before the iPod actually got updated, and iTunes never did stop showing the “updating the iPod” message… I just had to hard-reset the iPod and kill the iTunes task again. Then iTunes took approximately 300hrs to analyze all my MP3s for “gapless playback.” I hope gapless playback is rad enough to warrant that. Stupid Apple software.

Friday night I stayed at home alone while Sharaun went to some pyramid-scheme party. While the party isn’t the point of what I’m writing here, I think I’ll go ahead and mention how it seems to me like these kind of things are really on the rise. Maybe it’s just that Sharaun’s now at the prefect age to be invited to them as a target buying-audience, but it seems like there are pyramid-scheme parties for just about everything these days: makeup, children’s toys, housewares, baskets, food, candles, etc. Oh, and I know the term “pyramid scheme” isn’t PC anymore and that I should call them multi-level marketing… give me a break. (Note to my friends who are gettin’ their multi-level on, I still love you… no pyramid could keep us apart.)

Anyway, where were we? Oh yes, I was home alone… and I took the quiet time after I fed Keaton and put her down as a chance to catch up on some of the week’s news I’d missed (work being fairly consuming of late, hence the spotty blogging last week as well). The major outlets were primarily consumed with the sex-toy highschool MySpace killer, but the indie guys were almost completely focused on the Military Commissions Act. Oh sure, I’d heard a lot about the “torture bill” over the course of the week, but the more I read the more inflamed I became. I decided I should probably read the thing for myself before I got too hot and bothered by potentially biased summaries of the legislation. So, I headed over to Thomas and grabbed a PDF of the final passed version of the text.

A lot of folks are up in arms over this legislation, and doubtless we’ll see some legal challenge brought against it in the courts as early as this week – I’m sure there were several groups working over the weekend to get their motions in order. Now, I’ll say right out that I don’t have much in the way of new or insightful information to offer about the bill, but you can go to any number of places to get some brainage on it if you’re inclined – here’s a good start. Anyway, I downloaded the thing and fired up my trusty laserjet printer (which made me realize, I hardly ever print anything these days) and printed off the entire thing. I stapled it together, and plopped the thing in the bathroom for some dumptime reading.

I’ll fill ya in once I’ve got the whole thing sorted, OK? Goodnight.

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full of stuff today


Thursday, my head hurts. There’s some big fire somewhere out there in the part of the world within wind-reach of me, and it’s blanketed the lands as far as I can see with smoke. The smoke bothers me, even though I was only out in it briefly as I shuffled to work, lunch, and the like. Full of stuff today, and it’s a Friday so I’m super happy for the weekend. Let’s do this.

Sharaun always makes fun of me because when I’m around people with foreign accents, I tend to subconsciously appropriate their accents in my own speech. I always feel somewhat disgusted when she calls me out on it, since it seems to me to be some sort of “pandering.” In reality, I think I may have developed this ridiculous tactic as a part of my larger “making people comfortable” approach to gaining confidence. I’ve long been able to observe and simulate or respond to body language in order to give someone an unspoken message that we’re on the same page. I also consider myself pretty good at pegging a person’s personality and likes/dislikes quickly enough upon initial meeting so I can be sure to subtlety work within the confines of their comfort. I’ve never been a used car salesman, but I bet if I went on a reality TV show where it was my task to study under the tutelage of one of the best some of the first lessons he’d teach would involve honing techniques much like the ones I’ve already described. Small, seemingly insignificant verbal and non-verbal actions which serve to make a person comfortable, to ease their natural defenses and give them the impression that you’re a good guy – all based on reflecting little bits of themselves back to them. Because, after all, who’s everyones most trusted person? Themselves of course. The more you’re like someone, the more they relate to you.

So, now that I’ve admitted I use manipulative techniques to win friends and influence people, let’s get back to the point of this paragraph: my fake accents. I don’t know why I do it, and I usually don’t even realize when I’m doing it. It can range from a subtle Latino-tinge to full-on broken English approximations of my good buddies from Taiwan. So, if you ever hear me do this – call me out. Help me break this embarrassing habit. Thanks.

Even though I sit at a computer and type most of the day for a living, I still come home and type some more for pleasure. Usually though, I don’t like sitting at “the” computer, you know – the one in the back room with a big ol’ desk and CRT monitor and comfy office-type chair. No, no, that’s too much like my work environment. Kicking it with a laptop on the couch though, for some reason that’s different. Dunno why, but it is.

Went through the mail tonight, pretty much a bi-weekly (if that’s the incorrect term for “once every two weeks,” I’m sorry, I have a hard time deciding if it means that or twice per week) thing now. The “snail mail” is of almost zero value to me these days, it’s 90% advertisements and wasted paper and the actual “need” for it has been almost entirely eclipsed by e-mail and the internet. Who the heck needs paper these days anyway, I tell all my bills that will allow it to “stop sending paper statements” and go all-online. I don’t keep a check register, just check in online every few days to make sure things look right. It’s the new generation folks, better hip up.

Well, looks like the lid is juuust about blown off the whole Lonelygirl15 thing, all signs are currently pointing to it being a new form of Blair Witch derivative viral marketing – with most lines of thinking pointing to it being an advert for a Halloween-timed horror movie (perhaps even a mockumentary). With the whole registered trademark and cyber-sluething IPs to Beverly Hills talent agencies (not to mention a potential admission from “the creators”), it seems inevitable we’ll get the entire story here soon. Hey, it was fun while it lasted, and almost carried me through to the new season of Lost where I can once again assume my role as armchair detective. At least now I’ll quite writing about it, and spare you that small thing. (And damn, BoingBoing scooped me and once again made it look like I wrote this in response… I gotta start considering real-time posting if I wanna be hot on the shit.)

On the politics tip, I had a hearty guffaw reading this story over at the America Weakly website. America Weakly is a “satirical newspaper designed to give voters a glimpse into the future if Democrats take control of Congress this fall. Set in September of 2007, the newspaper reflects the condition of the America one year after a Democrat takeover of Congress.” In the story titled partly “Dems Celebrate End of Bush Security Measures,” the GOP Onion wannabe invents a hilarious fictitious statement from a House Democratic leader about the current administration’s NSA “wiretapping” goings-on:

“This program was a clear violation of due process,” House Judiciary Committee Chairman John Conyers said. “I don’t care how many attacks it might have stopped. Even if there really are sleeper cells in this country, we have a careful and deliberate process to stop them. Yes, it might take a bit longer, and we might not get every single bit of information, but that’s a small price to pay.”

Get more funny-’cause-it’s-freaky-not-because-it’s-funny Democratic-House endtimes GOP paranoia over at America Weakly. And, for some we-swear-it’s-not-pandering donkey goodness, head over to FaithfulDemocrats.com and count yourself shocked to see that it’s (purportedly) possible to hate guns and still love Jesus.

Goodnight.

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mostly politics


So I took a day off, can’t a brother get a couple days off per month? I had intended to write last night, but got caught up working on my Akismet plugin for Coppermine and lost interest. If it means anything, I got a lot done with the plugin… but… let’s be realistic, it doesn’t mean anything. Mostly politics today, sorry.

Been looking for tickets back to Florida for Christmas lately, prices are insane. Every year it seems to get worse. I remember being able to get Sharaun and I there for under $500 round trip, and now it’s hard to get it under $1,000 – and Keaton still flies free on a lap, I can’t wait until I have to purchase a 3rd full-fare ticket for her. Soon enough we’ll have to putting into a “Christmas in Florida” fund every month. Not that I don’t love my Florida peoples, but dang your state is far.

I’ve linked to the Political Arithmetik blog before, but more and more it’s becoming a part of my daily online regiment. I’m a data-whore by nature, as I firmly believe that knowledge truly is power, and I enjoy increasing my understanding of the political machine. This site combines those two things into one neat politicarithmetical package, perfect for civic-minded slide-rule jockeys like me. Of the regularly updated features, I think my favorite are the Bush approval ratings trend and the so-called “generic ballot” trend. Lots of political trending sites report on the generic ballot or Bush’s approval ratings, but I like Franklin’s statistical approach of charting these things over time and fitting trend lines as predictors. It’s interesting to see most political blogs showing Democrats with a lead in the 2006 generic ballot polls for the Senate and them compare this with Franklin’s line of best fit trend. Hope the aren’t getting too overconfident, American opinion, as tracked by pollingreports.com, gives them only a 10% lead over the GOP – and you better believe they’ve seen the numbers too. Bush ain’t just sitting around doing nothing about it, he’s flying around doing something about it. I wonder if the Democrats will ever get a platform solid enough to make a real run at it… one can only hope (that is, if “one” is Blue).

What sucks most about this next paragraph is that I actually wrote it on Tuesday, intending to post it Wednesday. However, I slacked Tuesday night and and didn’t come up with anything other than this sole paragraph. Figuring it wasn’t enough to justify and entry, I decided to just roll it into Thursday’s entry (I really liked the writing, or else I may have just scrapped it altogether). Then, come Wednesday, I see CNN has picked up the whole WWII/Fascism thing – and thus my story, once just a bit stale, now seems completely trite and pre-chewed. I’m still posting it though, and you’ll just have to pretend you heard it here before CNN, OK? Thanks.

I read with interest a few days ago this article which puts forth the notion that our administration is slowly changing the name of our “terrorist” enemies. In what the article refers to as a slow “linguistic makeover,” what we were previously calling the “war on terror” is now being referred to as the “war on Islamofacism.” When I first read the article, I thought it was an interesting commentary, as I too had noticed Bush’s out-of-place-ish reference to “fighting the Islamo-facists” in a recent speech (I think it was the newness of the term that caught my ear). However, I didn’t give the whole thing much thought – until I read this article today about Rumsfield’s recent “history lesson” speech. Reading excerpts from that speech, peppered with references to “a new kind of fascism,” I started to wonder if the administration really is doing an branding do-over on our enemy.

I imagine some young political strategist working in a small windowless office, pulling out his hair after being tasked with finding a way to turn the tide of America’s perception of the current “war on terror.” Slowly, he begins studying past conflicts and the support they received from the populous. Soon, he’s got a plan to re-cast the current “terrorist” enemies as “Islamofacist” enemies – a brilliant turn of the tongue which instantly evokes imagery of some of history’s most cruel, evil, and heartless regimes and leaders. Suddenly, we’re not just fighting a faceless verb, we’re fighting the scum-of-the-earth bloodlines of those universally-perceived devils of the past – none other than the prodigies of Mussolini and Hitler. By spinning the poorly-defined and impalpable “terrorist collective” as understudies to universally-loathed Fascist alliances from history, the administration can stir up long-dormant but pre-existing emotion and perhaps reinvogorate waning support. While fighting “terror” may seem endless and futile, fighting Islamofacism may seem like a shining example of America’s indomitable democratic spirit. All with a turn of a phrase; brilliant. Anyway, read the article – it does a better job than me.

And, before I go… will Lonelygirl15 be outed by botanists?

Goodnight.

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discovery


Monday night, and I’ve realized I’ve taken to opening entries with a simple statement about what night it is. Not much here tonight (canned stuff), been trying to work on the big three-year anniversary entry (not much progress there either, actually). Yeah, that’s right – sounds familiar, my humble little blog that started because I wanted to emulate others, is turning three years old next month. I’m not really sure what I’ve got planned for the occasion, maybe a statistic-driven entry tooting my own horn, sure a GIMP’d image, and likely nothing more. Sound underwhelming? That’s my style.

Today at work, my thighs burned as I walked up and down the stairs and the palms of my hands felt noticeably rough compared to their normal “computer engineer” suppleness. And I do believe I felt better for it. Each near-cramping step reminded me that I actually did something over the weekend. Breaking a sweat, getting things done – I love it. Compared to my daily job where I literally sit on my ass and type. No, seriously, I type all day long – staring at a monitor. In any given day, I experience so little outside the chest-high walls of my cubicle, my excitement is limited to corporate politics. It may sound like I’m complaining, but I’m actually torn. In some ways, I love that I’m able to do so little physically and make a living. On the other hand, I occasionally become desperate for something more – with wider boundaries and scope, maybe something more impactful or that has more quantifiable end-results. Because, at the end of the day now, would it really make a difference whether or not I answered those 100 e-mails? Probably not. I guess you’re just hearing my frustration with work of late, where the environment hasn’t been the best for a while.

Remember how I told you guys I thought there was a song on the new Decemberists album that had a “Doors sound” to it? I decided tonight to take some MP3 clips to try and make my point. Now, I’ll admit, when I heard the songs next to each other the similarities weren’t that striking – but I still think it’s worth sharing (especially since I spent 10min in Audacity whipping up the clips). So, for comparison, I present the clips

[audio:the_perfect_crime_clip.mp3]
The Perfect Crime 2, by the Decemberists

[audio:riders_on_the_storm_clip.mp3]
Riders On The Storm, by the Doors.

Let me know what you think. By the way, if you couldn’t tell from that badass driving bassline and steady drumming, that Decemberists song is excellent.

Music fanatics, rock and roll historians, and popular culture experts – you may want to shut your ears tight for this personal revelation: Up until this week, I’ve never, ever, sat down and listened to Pet Sounds all the way through. That’s right; never. Oh, I’ve read article on article about the merits and impact and durability of the Beach Boys’ crowning achievement – but I’ve always poo-pooed it all. Why? Simple: I hate(d) the Beach Boys. That’s right folks. All this time, I associated the Beach Boys with the “surf sound” that I so abhor; that Jan and Dean “Dead Man’s Curve” crap that I just cannot stomach. Really, it’s the “early” Beach Boys stuff… the surf-o-rama sound… that I can’t stand. It just took me this long to decouple that slick surfer group from the Beach Boys who did “God Only Knows” and “Vegetables,” y’know, the amazing ones. I guess it’s kinda like the guy who can’t stand the Beatles early records, the tripe like “Honey Don’t” and “I’ll Follow the Sun.”

So, what finally made me take off my blinder and listen to Pet Sounds as an album, rather than a “surf” album? I think my absolute fanatic love of Brain Wilson’s recently finished opus, Smile, had a lot do to with it. Listening to Smile, I was able to hear Wilson’s melodies and hooks as more than just surf music. I was able to hear the brilliant harmonies and layering, was able to hear the pure pop craft in the pieces, the attention to detail. Even though, to the casual listener, it may sound like “Beach Boys,” to me I was hearing something entirely different. In the end, I don’t remember what pushed me over the edge – but I finally gave in and picked up the Hoffman remastered DCC (25k gold) release of the album (in lossless FLAC format). Oh. My. God. This thing is brilliant. Dave, where the fuck have your ears been all these years?! How could you have ignored this gorgeous gem for so long, and purposely at that! Oh, gods of music, I am sorry… I lay this gold CD at your alter in atonement. Please, please find it in your heart to forgive me.

Before I go, I wanted to link over to this article at the new Porkbusters blog (blogging about government waste). Seems that senators Tom Coburn and Barak Obama have propose a piece of legalisation that would create a public-accessible website containing a searchable database of almost all federal funding recipients. This would be an awesome resource for John Q. Public, and, in my opinion, would go a long way in perhaps forcing some accountability on for whom and what funding is secured. Or, it’ll just make the money-getters become more creative in securing funds in less traceable ways. Anyway, some senator has placed a “secret hold” on the legislation, and Porkbusters is urging folks to call their senator asking for confirmation they aren’t the “secret holder.” Interesting. By the way, what the hell kinda thing is a “secret hold?”

Sorry for all the tune-talk. Love you bunches, goodnight.

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wolf!


Monday night. I desperately need a haircut, but I didn’t feel like going to get one. I also need to mow the lawn, although not quite as desperately, but I didn’t feel like doing that either. Was supposed to fly to Oregon today, but that didn’t happen. Instead whiled away the day working at the same old desk.

Sitting there, at that desk, I got an e-mail from a friend with no subject and no text – just a link. The link? A case study on Biointensive Agroecology on a Community Farm in California, USA. I took the lack of any explanatory text as a silent attempt to get me to realize my dream of a self-sustaining, off-grid, cooperative community with friends – goading me to drop out. One day maybe… but not today: I worked until 5pm and headed home to my mortgage. Two-paragraph intro; let’s do this thing.

Today’s political rant inspired by this article. (And I swear I wrote this before it hit the Digg frontpage.)

As time goes on, I find myself more and more willing to accept some Leftist theories and ideas which I used to relegate to paranoia and nutjob-conspiracy. The one thing I’m thinking about in particular is the current administration’s need for the occasional terrorist threat to clear the voting public’s mind of its many missteps and once again unite them through fear and misguided patriotism. Six months ago I would’ve refused to believe that news of foiled terrorist “plots” and elevated DHS threat levels were simply products the political machines. I had a hard time believing that these bits of news were purposely revealed for public consumption in times of sagging polls or increased anti-war or anti-administration sentiment. Lately, though, I’m not so sure.

I haven’t taken this to the next conspiracy-theorist level, where you’d begin wondering if the events or busts themselves are fabrications – but I am starting to wonder about the timing. The notion that the powers that be may sit on news, exaggerate the reality of a threat, or strategically time the swooping in of authorities, isn’t all that unbelievable for me anymore. Part of me is still hesitant to admit that, afraid I’ll be seen as increasingly gullible in what I believe, but another part of me feels like I’ve simply finally let go of idealism and accept what’s been plain to see for a while.

I’m sure lots of Democrats might say that the war is breaking the current administration, and the approval ratings would seem to back that up. However, if you take some time to look at the approval trends for wartime 2nd-term presidents, Bush’s declining numbers are pretty much on-track – the only real difference being his initial approval rating at the beginning of the 2nd term (the lowest of any 2nd-term wartime president). Despite the trending suggesting that the drop is expected, I think the overall frustration with the ongoing war is increasing. I’m still not quite sure how much import to assign to Lamont’s anti-war platform’s victory over Leiberman’s Republican-in-sheep’s-clothing one, but I do think at the most basic level it demonstrates the party’s position on the issue. On a larger scale, it reminds both parties that the war is going to be perhaps even more divisive than in the last election. Big revelation though, right? The left is against war, terrorism is going to be an election year issue; you don’t say.

Anyway, I’ve gotten off-track. What I meant to say with all this was that I’ve decided to not let the threat or fear of terrorism influence me much anymore. Terrorism is here to stay, it’ll be something I live with for the rest of my life, and something my children will also live with. But, living with terrorism doesn’t have to mean living in fear under the shadow if terrorism. We live with life and death duality all the time, but not all those “what ifs” dictate our political leanings. I’d no sooner vote for a candidate who promised to protect the nation against car accidents than I would the guy who promises less hurricanes. Fear of the unknown may motivate voters for a while, but it simply does not make for a sustainable platform – sooner or later what was once new and fear-inspiring becomes old as people adjust.

Fear-based politics just take time to be absorbed and ignored by the populous, especially when the impetus for the fear is by and large inescapable. Soon enough, people will “get used” to the threat of terrorism – this doesn’t mean they’ll be comfortable ignoring it or cease to take steps to defend against it, they just won’t jump as high when they see an Arab on a plane. Eventually the sensationalism of terrorism will give way to the simple reality that it’s not going away and you’re more likely to be killed by lightning than by a terrorist. When that happens, people will be less likely to act irrationally out of fear, and will likely stop casting votes in a futile attempt to “eliminate” it. Who knows, maybe they’ll even began to cast a doubtful eye at the timing of plot foilings and cell arrestings…

Common sense precautions are the new hotness, while heavy-handed presumptive offensives are old and busted.

To all my hawk friends – tomorrow will be less liberal, I promise. Goodnight.