House of the rising Moonglum

I like any signs that Iraq is making steps towards actually ruling its own country. One good sign in that regard? It is trying to get the US and Iran to talk. I don’t know how far they will get, but it is Interesting to see them making moves to improve their own position from an international relations perspective without US instigation. Of course for every one of those you get, you also get a dozen complaints about the government being ineffectual, so your mileage may vary.

Another interesting piece of Iraq news I saw recently was an analysis of the costs of the insurgency. I don’t think his numbers are correct because the US involvement has many logistical requirements that simply wouldn’t exist for locals, but it is an interesting way of looking at insurgent warfare.

The CTA started an experimental bus tracking system last year that let you log in and check where the busses were and how long you had to wait until the next one. When I first heard about this I was extremely excited. Unlike most technology that I get excited about this one actually had a chance of changing the way that I live. In particular, my new location is not particularly well placed to get to the El. I used to live a 10 minute walk which was no problem, but now it is closer to 30 and means that I pretty much always take the car downtown. This annoys me, and I have tried the busses. Coming back is trivial since the howard stop has a bunch of bus lines I can take, but going there is harder since those bus lines run on different streets. This bus tracker would allow me to look at the three possible lines and pick which street to walk to, thus making it much much more likely that I will ride the train instead of driving.

So why do I mention this now? It looks like the CTA board has decided to go ahead and install the system on all the bus lines. This is awesome. As we begin to enter a world of gasoline scarcity, improvements that make the public transportation system more usable are most welcome.

It was an odd Sunday yesterday. A good chunk of the service was devoted to the environment. Apparently Jesus was a hippy (well, he did have long hair and wear sandals) and wants us to take better care of the environment. This is a pretty good message given that it is earth week, or however long it is now, but I was still a little surprised when they handed out compact fluorescent bulbs at the end of the service.

It turns out the visiting pastor had just attended a conference put on by Faith In Place, and interesting organization takes the “care for all creation” command pretty seriously. Heh, they even had the president of the ELCA do a blessing on the solar water heater (pdf) installed at a local church.

Been out of town (but I voted early! Don’t blame me!) and am catching up on the Rogers Park blogs, when I ran across this beauty from RPB:

I’m still chuckling. Especially good if you have seen the movie 300.

I saw the doughnuts myself, and while I saw Moore within a polling place, he was in a well organized retreat, so I didn’t witness him personally doing anything inappropriate. Don Gordon’s website seems to have some images of him actually doing inappropriate things now, and a statement from a poll watcher about other activities at a nursing home polling place. The thing that I don’t get is why he doesn’t just do it outside the polling place, that would be perfectly legal and just as effective.

I should have signed up to be an election judge.

I don’t know why this makes me so happy, but it appears that Daniel Radcliffe, Rupert Grint and Emma Watson have signed for the rest of the films. I think it is probably because it tickles my continuity desire. I am so particular about internal continuity in the stories I read (or create) that seeing the same actors continue in the same rolls probably fulfills that need in me.

And while I refused to get into the hype for the books, the movies sucked me in and now I have read all the books multiple times, and can’t wait for the final book. But it was the movies that suckered me into it, so I suppose they hold a special place in my heart. I think Evanna Lynch looks great as Luna Lovegood (james bond name if ever there was one) she has just the right penetrating stare for someone who states uncomfortable truths. Some head shots and stills of the upcoming fifth film. The first pic is my favorite, all the kids beat on from battling the Death Eaters in the Ministry. I don’t envy the screenwriter who had to turn that tome into a screen play though.

Well I went and did the early voting thing, since I will probably be out of town for the actual election, and it was pretty fun. The poll watchers and judges were all really cool, and I got to see some humorous signs. A very large laser printed sign on the front door stated in no uncertain terms that candidates were not allowed to do any electioneering in the building. I wish I took a picture of it because the wording was hilarious.

The other fun sign I got was my thank you for voting card. This had a prominent note on it reminding me that if I voted early I am not allowed to vote again in the general election.

Aaah, Chicago politics. I got three people showing up at my door demanding to come in, and I told them from the window that I already voted. One of the Moore supporters had to tell the other one that I already voted. Guess I wasn’t really clear. My wife got the one question poll that I got earlier this week. Guess they are calling everyone in the ward, my brother got it as well.

And finally we have a mailer apparently being sent to the North of Howard area claiming that Don Gordon is being supported by the Republicans. The above link claims dirty tricks by the Moore camp, others claim dirty tricks by the Gordon camp, and still others are upset because it has her address on the return label. Seems pretty odd to me, I have severe doubts that either candidate had anything to do with it myself, this seems like the work of some possibly affiliated, though independent person who thinks themselves much cleverer more important than they are, especially given the limited distribution of the postcards.

Update: I’m not the only one who thinks it could be someone else.

People jeered at me in the past because I didn’t want Stroger in power. Check out his latest antics.

I think it is about time for a local politics category…

The NRO has a short interesting article on how oil helps “supersize” the problems in the Middle East. I really like this article, it points out that oil doesn’t cause the problems, but it makes them much more difficult to solve. The basic thesis: the Middle East has the same problems that much of the world has, it is just the way that oil has injected money into the system that multiplies the problems.

I’ve been spending a lot of time thinking about the problem of oil recently, in particular the fact that it is a limited resource and will run out at some point. How much of our worldwide population of 6.6 billion people is dependent on oil for survival? I believe that we are in a good position to mitigate the problems involved in switching to a non carbon economy, however people need to be aware of the problem. The above is a nice way to get people thinking about the problem in security terms, which is something on everyone’s mind right now.

Is in action outside my window. The weather is a chaotic system. As such it is extremely difficult to understand and predict. The more energy you put into the system the larger the standard deviation of behavior may become. In the case of climate the ambient energy of the system is the temperature. This provides the power for wind which drives the entire system. Thus we end up with more days of aberrant weather than we otherwise would. Hence, snow in April. (Not to mention that crazy warm December we had.)

One item worth noting however is that since climate is an oscillating system, it tends to be self correcting over time. However the time-scales on these corrections are longer than the human time frame, and of no particular use to whether or not I need to shovel today. Of course since the system truly is chaotic, claiming results from any single data point, be it day, year, or even decade, is pointless, as the results of the system tend to look random.

The trib just did an interesting article on Gordon’s $60,000 donation he got from David Herro. He’s mostly a republican but from the article he has given plenty of money to democrats as well, Claypool, Daily, and Madigan. Now those are some donations I can get behind. But more to the point, the Gordon donation is much larger than most of his other donations (including the ones I can’t get behind, like the Swift Boat Vets). (Full donation list)

So why would he give so much money? Unlike the Trib article claim, there are strings attached. Fortunately Herro says what they are, even if he claims there aren’t any. He gave the money “because he disagreed with Moore’s position on the big-box wage ordinance.” So the strings? Don’t push through a big box ordinance that would only work on a level larger that the trivial driving range of the consumers affected. (My personal hope would be a raise in the federal minimum wage, and if you want to punish large companies, do it at a state level, not the municipal level.)

Fortunately these are things that Gordon has already promised to do (focus on the Ward instead). I believe that if Herro wanted a meeting with a future Alderman Gordon he would probably get it right quick, but hey, at least you only need to keep track of one donor with Gordon, and thus far he is only asking that Gordon keep his campaign promises. That seems like a good donation to me.

(Links to this article and the Moore TV ads are on the all the RP blogs.) (Yes Moore is running TV ads for an Aldermanic election, he must be doing worse in the polls than I think.)

Monster Rock is on the way. At a very reasonable price, too. Only $18. The problem is the “building fee” $1 “convenience charge” $8, plus tax. Those charges don’t seem like too much for $60 U2 tickets or infinitely priced Rolling Stones tickets, but for Lordi, the “fees” are 50% of the ticket price!

That is truly impressive.

I just had a Moore canvasser come by. The awesome question: “Is there anything that the Alderman can do for you before the election?” I actually tried to come up with something on the assumption that the next week or so is all the time I have to get the Alderman to do something for me in the next four years. I couldn’t come up with anything and told him so, and he asked me if I was sure. I guess that’s the power of the incumbent.

The way these guys walk around with their little clipboards, knowing your name ahead of time and asking who you are voting for. I’m almost scared to say my opinions for fear of repercussions in the future. I felt much more comfortable with the polling company who claimed to not have names associated with the data. (That is a false sense of security though, since they are calling me they could easily hook name up to collected data behind the scenes.) Of course the Gordon canvassers are the same only without the “what do you need done” question, and a lack of any power backing them.

Update: I’m not sure I actually believe the last one on this post, but I’m starting to be glad that I don’t buzz anyone in, and just talk to them from my third floor window.

And in sports news… the Chicago Fire has bigger balls than the White Sox. No really, soccer balls are much bigger than baseballs. But the Fire had their opener and the Sox didn’t (postponed due to cold). Not only that, but some of the fire players played in their summer jerseys! The Revolution were all in long sleeves. I can’t really hold it against them though since I was in a parka and long underwear. Matt Pickens was awe inspiring in the cold, basically winning the game for the Fire.

(Written ~ March 31) Well a runoff is in the works, and the usual suspects are foaming at the mouth. I’m not even going to link to them because the rhetoric has gotten out of control. Suffice it to say, so many people have been harping on Moore for so long that there is no possible way that I can vote for him in the upcoming election. From his illegal electioneering (pdf) to his support for Stroger, I cannot with a clear conscience vote for him. To see people who spent months ripping him apart suddenly jump ship to his side doesn’t make me want to vote for him either.

One interesting thing this race (and the 2008 pre-show) is doing though is making me think a little bit more about labels. I don’t think I like them very much. People use them instead of thinking. This lack of rational discourse is starting to really annoy me. I wish Moore hadn’t canceled his debates with Gordon, the one I saw really opened my eyes and let me choose Ginderske over Moore in the previous election. It would be nice to see Gordon and Moore talk back and forth again.

Update: I forgot to hit post on this when I wrote it, and while the decision process is still accurate, I am pleased to see that the rhetoric on the blogs has toned down a bit, and people seem to be going on about the details of the inner workings of local politics rather than blasting each other …. too much anyway. The more this election season goes on, the less I think Gordon will actually be able to win. However if it is close enough, maybe Moore will realize that the people who live in the 49th ward want him to spend more time on local issues that actually affect the ward. On the other hand, I hoped a close election would whip Stroger into shape, and look at what we have there. Oh well.

P.S. early voting at Pottawattomie Park for three more days.

Dude, this might be truly impressive. Two guitars, a mike and some drums. And apparently the original artists. I just hope they make a good song set. The one problem? PS3/Xbox360 only.

On second thought maybe using Jackson Hewitt isn’t such a good idea after all. This is the second tax evasion scheme I have heard about in the past few weeks. The previous one involved a payroll company making off with an entire quarterly payment. The interesting thing is that the IRS goes after the companies that the money was collected for, not the one that made off with the money. It is up to the injured party to bring their own suits. At least the employees are protected.

There is a rumbling that EMI is going to sell songs without DRM on the iTunes Music Store. This makes me much much more likely to purchase my music from iTunes in the future. In the past I have only purchased iTunes music when there was some random song that I wanted to hear right then. But locking my music into a proprietary DRM scheme means that at some point in the future I will no longer be able to listen to my music. Since CDs aren’t that much more expensive and you can turn them into DRM free songs easily, that has always been my preferred method. If they are actually selling music DRM free, I could see making my future EMI purchases online.

Surprised the Right Honorable Rackman on his birthday. Flew on some truly horrific flight times. Had the first vacation with just me and my wife since our honeymoon. Hit every high velocity ride in disney world in all the different parks. (Thanks again RHR!) Learned many new words from zatch (the past tense of zap) to bippity-boppity-bo-tantrum (what happens when a bippity-boppity-boutiqued kid has too much fun). Learned all the secret ways, the ways in, the ways out, and that the cast map can be a very useful thing if you are not staying at a resort hotel. (If you are it won’t really help.) Spoiled a 4 year old child silly by carrying her on my shoulders for much too long. Was consoled by a 12 year old girl who let me know that the ride isn’t as bad as the warnings make it out to be. (The ride turned out to be probably the closest I will ever come to flying into space, amazing!) Luxuriated in the evenings in the quiet of an offsite business hotel. Learned that if you miss the last exit going out of Orlando the next one isn’t for 16 miles!!! Was failed by United on multiple occasions resulting in an entirely unplanned visit with my sister in IAD! (I haven’t seen her in about a year, and she doesn’t currently live in this country, so this really was a special treat.) Had a magical moment. Actually a number of them, including the brit offering us his pair of Himalaya fast passes, and the old cast member giving us a good anywhere anytime fast pass. Got to spend a lot of quality time with RHR, Equusregia and family.

But best of all: got to spend a whole week with no distractions from work, with my wife.