RIP Milton Friedman.
I was first directly exposed to his work as a graduate student. He was an intellectual giant and I learned from his writing and I am surprisingly moved.
May he rest in peace.
November 16, 2006
May 30, 2006
Explain something to me.
To get a driver's license in Illinois, you must present your Social Security card. This, they claim, is in response to Homeland Security and 9/11 and the dramatic rise in identify theft and whatever else. (Possibly bordering-on-paranoid ranting about why the State of Illinois needs to validate the number ostensibly used only to manage my negative-rate-of-return "account" with the social security administration can wait until another day, as can a separate rant in re the number of ways the possibility of identity theft is increased by having to record said number in yet another location.) Being able to prove you are, in fact, a born-and-raised citizen of the United States--using, say, a Passport in combination with your birth certificate--is insufficient. The lovely Department of Motor Vehicles needs to validate your social security number with your social security card.
If, however, your social security card was, say, stolen out of your wallet along with your driver's license when you were but 19 and in college, and you have never needed it again until now, you can go into the local social security office, present (you guessed it) your Passport (to, you know, prove that you are who you say you are), and be mailed a new social security card in 7-10 days.
So, to sum up: A passport is required as ID to obtain a social security card. A social security card is required (as ID?) to obtain a driver's license. But a passport cannot be used as ID to obtain a driver's license. I think there should be a parallel formula here, something basic like if a > b and b > c then a > c, except that in this case it is not true.
Are governments creating these regulations just to make people crazy?
May 02, 2006
Say it with me, people.
I sent this link to a former co-worker yesterday because I knew that we'd have spent a good deal of time IM'ing about it if he still sat across the cubicle-wall from me.
Say it with me: supply and demand. (Charles Krauthammer in the Washington Post.)
I know that gas prices are high; they are just now getting to the point where I am contemplating things like carpooling to the office or working from home for reasons other than the ability to spend all day working in sweats and a t-shirt. But the answer is not to lower gas prices...it strikes me that the best thing we can do to combat this crisis (real or imagined) is to change our behavior in a way that lessens its impact. It'll take more for some people and less for others, but gas prices rising to around $3 a gallon will start to change behavior, and I've seen nothing to convince me this is a bad thing.
October 14, 2005
Fool's Gold in The Economist.
A must-read for the week (from last week's print edition) if for nothing else than to see the context for this quote:
One finishes this book persuaded by Mr Gallagher's thesis: that he is surrounded by idiots. That would certainly explain why he was unable to do any research.
November 03, 2004
Colorado.
Colorado's ballot measure designed to make the state a democracy (sorry if I sound a bit jaded here) did not pass. I could write for hours on why I think it should have passed, but that would be irrelevant. However, at least we know that it did not fail because educated voters were against the idea:
Another woman, who declined to reveal her choice for president, said she had voted against splitting Colorado’s Electoral College votes. "My children have all graduated from college already," said the voter, as she rushed to her car. "I’m not that interested in that issue anymore."
You have got to be KIDDING me. YOU HAVE GOT TO BE KIDDING ME.
These are the people who vote. I cannot even begin to express my disbelief.
September 07, 2004
Candidate forum, blogger style.
I am so impressed by this, it makes me want to move to Oshkosh, Wisconsin.
Candidates for the Wisconsin State Assembly (54th District) have apparently agreed to participate in an online candidate forum--a candidate blog with a (not yet available) parallel constituent forum/blog. The candidate forum is
...sponsored by the Oshkosh Community News Network, the Oshkosh League of Women Voters and the Oshkosh Public Library and will be accessible from the OCNN Web site, Oshkosh News, and from the library’s Web site.The four participants in the forum are independent Dan Carpenter, Democrat Gordon Hintz, Wisconsin Green Tony Palmeri and Republican incumbent Gregg Underheim.
While Hintz, Palmeri and Underheim might be disappointed to realize the the links behind their "Learn More About the Candidates" options all point to Dan Carpenter's bio (which I'm sure will be addressed shortly), I cannot help but this that this is a fantastic idea. And it is sponsored in part by the local library! Talk about helping your customers get information...
How did I find this random site, you might ask? That (previously-considered to be annoying) header bar on all Blogger sites with the "Next Blog" button. Three clicks from Tequila Mockingbird.
The internet is amazing.
June 09, 2004
President Reagan.
I wrote about President Reagan once, when I was eight or nine years old. Actually, I wrote about a neighbor, a then-new friend of my mothers, who had worked for the President when he was the Governor of California. I had overheard part of a story between the adults, and my interpretation made it into my essay for the GATE program's journalism unit at my elementary school. Unfortunately, what was an innocent comment in my mind turned out to be a rather humorous, innuendo-laden comment to the adults who read my essay, and it was subsequently published (without my parents or the friend seeing it first) in the local paper. You can imagine the ensuing hilarity.
Oops.
Anyway. Every morning this week I am choked up with sorrow for his family as the newscasters describe the masses of people waiting to pay final respects in venues I know well--first at the Presidential Library down the road from my undergraduate alma mater that was dedicated while I was in school, and then today in DC. I have wished, this week, that I were still in Washington, where his funeral service is being anticipated with the solemnity and pomp that seem so appropriate. I wished today that I could attend the processional on Constitution, feeling the pressure of the humidity and the pressure of the masses of mourners saying farewell, knowing that I was watching a moment in time.
Missy has pictures from the processional.
June 08, 2004
Voting Day.
It is voting day in my district in Virginia (the 8th), where my friend and former co-worker Andy Rosenberg (go Andy!!) is challenging incumbent Rep. Jim Moran in the Democratic primary. Members of all parties can vote in Virginia's open primary system, so if you live in that area, get to the polls. Find your polling place at the Virginia State Board of Elections site.
March 23, 2004
Religion is taking over my aggregator today.
1. In my TalkLeft news I found a link to The Revealer, a blog billing itself as "a daily review of religion and the press."
2. Radley Balko (of The Agitator) has a piece on Tech Central Station on God and Globalization.
It is as if the ghost of my undergraduate program has possessed NewsGator.