House of the rising Moonglum

So, I’ve come down hard on Sequoia in the past, but now they are threatening to sue counties that want to verify their security?! Awesome. Because, you know, they are so secure to begin with.

I know it is “just words”. I know it isn’t “getting things done”. But Obama can give a great speech. Between this and his 90 minutes with the trib, I am liking him more and more. The ability to open yourself up to scrutiny and really try to let people understand some of the nuances of your thinking, rather than just shutting down the questioning and giving the answers that he thinks people want to hear. In his speech today, he condemned what was said by his pastor, but gave enough background to be able to understand why he ever would have stood by him in the first place. And then used it as an example of where our country still has to go. I suppose I am a sucker for a good public speaker, but I’m impressed. Even more so because he is learning how to do this more and more as the campaign goes on. At first he did the old, just give enough info to let people know I didn’t do anything wrong. I think the openness thing is really starting to seep into the consciousness of his team. I only hope the rest of the country can recognize it for what it is, and not fall game to the fear based campaigns. (Although to be fair I haven’t seen a lot of that recently from the other candidates either.)

Update: Apparently I am not the only one who feels this way. Blogs from Chicagoist to the Daring Fireball are talking about this speech. Not much from the local bloggers yet though.

The Trib has a fun Test your Barack Obama IQ form that you can fill out. It is interesting to see a quiz like that with an angle. (In particular Q15.) But my favorite is reading the obviously wrong answers. (d. Stealing Bob the Builder’s phrase: Yes we can!) Things I learned: Rezko was the first political contributor to Obama! Knocked all his opponents off the ballot in 95?! I even voted in that election and I don’t remember that (the unopposed ones always piss me off, but maybe they didn’t back then).

Normally I teach a very calm, meditative style martial art. The normal class wasn’t there tonight, so a student from the previous class asked me if I wanted to get hit for a while.

Two hours later…

The interesting thing about being beaten repeatedly is that you realize just how tough the human body is. As long as you keep breathing, and not tensing (and they don’t hit you in the head or other select locations) it is shocking how much of a beating you can take. It takes away some of the fear, and lets you think about what it is you need to do to stop them from hitting you. Either talking them down, connecting to their center via their arm or simply closing behind them to give you more options. All in all a very educational evening. It is good to know that I can get hit hard and still be fluid enough to execute technique.

Also you get a free massage. One of those deep tissue ones. Where the masseuse is a sadist.

The Obama campaign had some issues with an email the Clinton campaign sent out, and responded with a point counterpoint rebuttal. From NPR via Daring Fireball.

Just a random fun story. Apparently, dolphins show massively altruistic behavior (unless you are a fish that is). Two whales were repeatedly stranding themselves in a channel in New Zealand. Some humans were trying to unbeach them, but I guess the channel was too narrow or something and they couldn’t find their way out. Then a dolphin who lives there comes along and shows them the way out. I don’t know why, but this story just made my morning.

Analysts appear to be surprised that rising gas prices result in reduction of discretionary spending. It is called the writing on the wall people. I am so a prophet of doom. I really need a new category for running around yelling that the sky is falling.

But seriously, given all of the uncertainties in what the oil reserves really are, we should be able to see this one coming (pdf). (That last link is a GAO report that I actually find heartening. It shows that someone in the government is listening.)

I would love to know what went on behind the scenes to bring Colombia, Venezuela and Ecuador to the table to discuss peace. I wonder if some of the documents that Columbia found implicating Venezuela in funding the FARC might have softened their bark. Or perhaps, Colombia just did what they needed to and after apologizing to Ecuador, Ecuador was happy and Venezuela had to make nice. Other options?

Did you vote for Stroger? You reap what you sow. Judge Nowicki (why does that name sound familiar? I think I might know her from somewhere.) The report itself makes for pretty good reading, but apparently Stroger hasn’t read it. In perhaps the most arrogant statement I have ever seen in Illinois politics (and that is saying something, Daley is our Mayor!) Stroger said, “I haven’t read her report yet” and “We have cooperated with her office, but the way the report was written, it makes it appear there have been things that have been going on that are illegal in hiring since I’ve been the president, but it’s not the case.” from the Trib. So having not read it, he is now qualified to have an opinion on how it was written? The Trib is even a bit sarcastic on that point. After he indicated that he “is educated” and “can read the paper” the Trib says, “On that basis, Stroger criticized the report”.

Nice little dig, you don’t normally see subtlety like that nowadays in reporting.

Updated: Reading the actual claims… OMG this is horrifying. And this is the same asshole who wants to raise our taxes enough to drive all the business out of Cook County? I wonder if they can arrest the entire HR for Cook County? Reading this report, I think that is what it will take. Then the new HR would need to start firing all the political appointees. Even if they could do it, it would take forever!

You can get plenty of takes on how the Iranian President’s visit was a pleasant thing, but one Iraqi blogger has a different take on the situation. I am particularly interested in how he is not impressed by Ahmandinejad’s lack of visit to Najaf, whereas all the US reporters seem to think that he went to all the holy sites. A minor, but important difference.

Well that would explain why he was so pissed off. Apparently computers captured in the raid into Ecuador contain documents indicating Venezuela gave FARC $300 million. If true, Chavez has interesting taste in friends. Drug dealers and kidnappers. I wonder what he got for his $300 million? That is money that his socialist state probably could have used to shower gifts (of food) on his populace.

So it appears that both Ecuador and Venezuela have moved troops to the Columbian frontier. They also both recalled their ambassadors. The government of Columbia finally strikes a major blow against FARC, who have been terrorizing Columbians for the past half century, and this is the congratulations they get from their neighbors. Simon Bolivar would be rolling in his grave. Of course from the Venezuelan side, this is all grand standing since the actions were taken in Ecuadorian lands, however moving 10 battalions to the border. Wow.

I wonder if Chavez sees himself as the true heir to Bolivar so strongly that he would actually invade, trying to reclaim Gran Columbia. Good luck with that my friend. How long have you been sleeping with the devil backing FARC anyway? Sure, they can hold the jungles in the mountains, but those cities are pretty large. And I don’t think that any of the auto-defencia’s would be real interested in watching you roll in to town. Invading Columbia would be like invading Texas. Only the defenders have actually be practicing defending themselves for the past century.

Also, I wonder if Chavez knows that Bolivar traveled with a copy of Smith’s “The Wealth of Nations”? I mean really. Just get rid of that invisible hand, make it visible, and use it for your own political purposes? Oh Bolivar would have loved that.

Of all the things to greet you first thing in the morning when looking out your bedroom window, the circle of life isn’t what you normally expect. At first I thought there was a very large pigeon out the window, but when I did a double take I noticed that it was a VERY large pigeon. In fact, there was a pigeon, but it was leaving bits of itself on the ground at the HAWK that was holding it down tried to eat it. It was of course trying to get away, but the hawk would have none of that.

There was some effort to get a picture of it, but it was pretty far away, and was quite nervous about any noise or movement. At one point the coopers hawk flew to a neighbor’s porch taking the pigeon with it. Man I wouldn’t want to mess with one of those, a pigeon is like more than half it’s size. Unfortunately I was unable to get a picture of it, but watching it with some binoculars was pretty spectacular. What an amazing animal. Thanks to 24/7 and RPB for letting me know to keep on the lookout for it. Follow the RPB link to see what it looks like when this thing eats. Those feathers do make a mess.

Thank you Suffredin, thank you Stroger. Chicago now has the highest sales tax of any major US city.

“This tax increase is unjustified for too many reasons to mention at 10 minutes to midnight,” said Commissioner Forrest Claypool (D-Chicago) during debate.

Key to resolving the impasse was a deal between Stroger and Commissioner Larry Suffredin (D-Evanston), who agreed to provide the crucial ninth vote to get the tax increases approved. In return, Stroger agreed to turn over control of county health services to an independent oversight panel for three years.

Well, at least Stroger is turning the health services over. One good thing came out of this. Too bad those thousand county jobs Stroger is saving are going to things like his high school buddy doing PR for him. Man I wish Claypool won the election.

The more energy you pump into the system (energy = temperature, system = Earth) the more chaotic the system becomes. That is to say, in the short term, when you disturb an oscillating system (the Earth’s weather) you can get more erratic swings, until the system settles into its new equilibrium. This will cause greater unevenness in the heating of the surface of the earth, in turn causing greater wind speed. Conclusion: wind power becomes more viable, the more oil we burn.

Ed to add: The above is sarcasm. However it is useful for dealing with people who think that any individual data point has anything at all to say about global warming and climate change.