Thursday, September 30, 2004

The Micro-Pundit:  The Dream Team

The so-called Dream Team at the most recent Olympics got shot down hard.  They believed that they could win the Gold medal, and they only got Bronze.  I have to say that I have no sympathy for the players, or the NBA, and no patience for any basketball fans who say “we shoulda won, dammit!” Well, guess what?  If USA basketball hadn’t become more about individuals hot-dogging and was still an honest-to-gods team sport, then we probably would have won the Gold medal.  But ever since basketball headed down the path of individual talents instead of good teamwork, I’ve lost all respect for the sport.  And while I can respect the kids trying to escape the inner city via basketball, I can’t respect the game or the athletes those kids tend to become.

Sport is about more than money.  Too bad most athletes seem to have forgotten that fact.

Wednesday, September 29, 2004

A Daedalnexus Public Service Announcement

Tomorrow is September 30th, the day of the first Presidential debate.  It will be on, live, at 9 PM Eastern Time.  I strongly urge everyone to watch the debates, even if you’re already decided on whom to vote for.  The debate should illustrate the primary differences between John Kerry and George W. Bush on foreign policy and homeland security, and, with any luck, we’ll all get a chance to watch both men stake their positions firmly into the ground.

Tomorrow’s debate, and the others on October 8 and October 13, should help define both candidates and, with any luck, will be the events which ultimately decide this election.  And there is a chance, however remote, that one or the other of the candidates will say or do something that changes many voters’ minds, or even effectively ends the candidate’s run for the Presidency.  So please, make time to watch the debates. 

I’ve voted absentee in prior elections, but while voting by mail is available in my county (and maybe even in all of Colorado - I don’t know), I won’t do so this year.  My reason is that there is far too great a chance that something will happen between now and the election that could have a significant impact on my vote.  Any number of things could happen between now and Election Day:  Iraq could dramatically improve or collapse into civil war, terrorism could hit the US again, etc.  And while I must admit I have some difficulty forseeing a situation where I’d actually vote for Bush, I won’t say that such a situation would never occur.

On the other hand, anyone who is even remotely undecided could easily be swayed by national and international events.  And this year, unlike 2000, the chances of late-developing events affecting the election is very high.  Both Democrats and Republicans are doing everything they can to get people to vote early in an attempt to “lock in” as many votes as possible, and while I understand their interest, the fact that both parties are trying to lock in early votes makes me even more leery of voting early this year.

I realize that voting is an inconvenience, and voting early by mail is WAY easier than fighting crowds on Election Day.  But I’ve heard people in their 60s and 70s say that this election is the most important election in their lives, and if that’s the case, the only way to be truly informed before making such a vital decision is to wait to cast your vote until Election Day.

So please, watch tomorrow’s debate (and the others as well) and don’t vote until Election Day.

Tuesday, September 28, 2004

The Miscreant’s Dictionary:  “Youth”

youth

a person in the state between childhood and maturity who is often condescended to for being unaware of or apathetic to the state of the world

Monday, September 27, 2004

Republicans, or Repugnicans?

If you’ve been following my recent blogs and The Micro-Pundit recently, you’ve probably heard me rail on the GOP for being liberal rather than conservative, in the truest sense of the word.  I’ve talked about how the Republican party is no longer the party of Lincoln.  And I’ve said that your run-of-the-mill Republican isn’t being represented by the leaders of the party.

If that’s really true, then maybe we need to come up with a new name for the so-called Republicans who are liberal, big-government, fiscal wastrels, anti-Constitutional rights, pro-Executive power, etc.  They’re not Republicans, since they don’t represent what the GOP actually represents, and neo-conservative gives honest neo-cons a bad name.  Therefore, I dub these slimeballs:

Repugnicans.

The base of the word is, of course, the word “repugnant,” which according to the American Heritage Dictionary online, means both “inconsistent” and “arousing disgust and aversion; offensive or repulsive.”

Gee, that doesn’t describe ANY of the GOP party heads, or any members of the GOP, that I’VE read about,.  Nope, not a one…. (and if you’re wondering what that is oozing out from around your monitor, it’s called “sarcasm,” in case you didn’t recognize it.)

Bush likes to paint Kerry as a flip-flopper, but I’ve seen any number of examples of Bush waffling on issues as important as the 9/11 commission, the Department of Homeland Security, the 9/11 commission’s recommendations, the Patient’s Bill of Rights, and his opposition to nation building (isn’t that what we’re doing, poorly, in Afghanistan and Iraq?).  Inconsistent and thus “repugnant.”

But mere inconsistency isn’t enough, at least not in my book, to label someone as “repugnant.” Their actions must be truly disgusting, offensive, and repulsive.  Unfortunately, the GOP leadership is full of examples, and individuals.  Here is a small sampling for your perusal.

• Dick Cheney, Vice President, and Dennis Hastert, Speaker for the House, for claiming that a vote for Kerry is a vote for another terrorist attack.
• George W. Bush, for the “Axis of Evil,” for invading Iraq without making a valid case for the invasion, for saying that the world wouldn’t forget Afghanistan and then promptly ignoring Afghanistan for a SECOND time, for supporting the USA PATRIOT Act, for supporting the Federal Marriage Amendment, for denying the World Health Organization money because the WHO dares to teach about abortion and contraception in overpopulated and developing nations, for ordering indeterminate detentions of so-called enemy combatants.
• John Ashcroft, Attorney General, for deporting Arabs and Muslims without due process after 9/11.
• Donald Rumsfeld, Secretary of Defense, for ignoring generals in the Pentagon with WAY more experience in warfare than him, for pushing a too-small force into Iraq and then leaving it there to rot, and for trying to turn Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, into a law-free black hole.
• Rod Paige, Secretary of Education, for saying that the National Education Association is a terrorist organization.
• Robert Novak, columnist, for leaking the name of CIA undercover operative Valerie Plame.
• Ann Coulter, writer and columnist, for calling all liberals traitors and saying that Eugene McCarthy was a patriot and otherwise a great guy.
• Tom DeLay, US Representative, for gerrymandering the usual Texas redistricting procedures in the middle of a decade.

Of course, there are many, many more examples, and many, many more individuals who should be added to the above list (feel free to add your own in the comments below).  But you get the idea.

From now on, I’ve decided that I’ll separate out the Republicans from the Repugnicans.  After all, I still have some respect for true Republicans, while the Repugnicans are worthy of scorn, disdain, and contempt. 

The Daily Mantra:  Name Trademarks

You should always expect the initial process of creating a trademarkable product name to take at least a week, even assuming that Google’s is remotely good enough for the initial research.

Sunday, September 26, 2004

The Miscreant’s Dictionary:  “Xmas”

Xmas (also X-mas)

an offensively informal contraction of Christmas

Saturday, September 25, 2004

The Micro-Pundit:  Mr. Brain and Controversial Legislation

Mr. Brain here.  I’m sick and fucking tired of Congress and the Administration treating the press and the public as Public Enemy #1.  They’re both slipping bad news and unpopular bills through after press time on Friday evenings or at 2 o’clock in the fucking morning.  That’s right, when Congress wants to pass a bill that the people and the press should hit the ceiling over, they do it in the wee hours of the morning or on Friday afternoon.  That way, the press won’t print the bad news until Sunday or, more often Monday.  Of course, by then the weekend news has pushed the crappy bill off the press’s radar.  And the Administration pulls the same bullshit, but they prefer to use the trick for things like crappy economic news, Presidential orders, changes to environmental rules, etc.  While it’s not illegal by any means – playing the system and the clock never really is – it’s sure as shit unethical as hell.  And while I’ll be the first to admit that politicians are rarely ethical, this practice should be stopped and any politico who tries it should be run up the flagpole by his or her constituents.

Friday, September 24, 2004

The Daily Mantra:  Coca-Cola

Coca-Cola is great for cleaning car battery terminals, and it tastes great too! (Yes, I am a Coke drinker, why do you ask?)

Come Cast Comcast?

Comcast is presently on my shit list.  Jennifer and I canceled our cable TV service last week in favor of DirecTV, but we held on to our cable modem Internet access via Comcast.  We’ve become far too addicted to the connection speeds to willingly purge our broadband access, and DSL just isn’t an option where we are (and, whatever the “experts” say, cable is almost always faster than DSL unless you pay through the nose for your DSL service and are right next to the central office).  Well, some dumb shit of a service tech came out yesterday and disconnected our cable service.  But he or she apparently forgot to actually READ the damn service order and the tech totally disconnected the cable, leaving us without Internet access for a day.

Now, I can understand having a bad day or simply screwing up.  Hell, maybe the hornet’s nest in the cable box distracted the tech – that I’d totally understand.  But the decent tech who reconnected my service around noon today said flat out that a lot of techs just don’t bother to read the disconnect orders – they must see the word “disconnect” and assume that it’s everything.  If that’s true, and I have precious little reason to believe that it’s not, then it says a great deal about the quality of Comcast’s service techs.  Sure, a disconnect order has got to torque off some people.  If I was in their shoes, I’d be annoyed too.  But there’s a little known fact about telecommunications (and cable delivery qualifies) – besides laying cable, the most expensive thing a company does is roll a truck to fix a problem.  And Comcast rolled a truck today to fix my Internet access because the idiot yesterday screwed up and disconnected it.  The inconvenience to me, and the vacation time I had to take to make up for my lost hours, pisses me off something fierce, but every truck roll costs Comcast $100-$150, and the fact that they LOST money on their screw up makes me feel a little better.

Someone who doesn’t read a work order (or instructions, or follow procedures, etc.) completely before starting a job is being more than impatient, they’re intentionally increasing the chance they’ll screw up.  And purposefully doing that indicates a lack of pride in your work.  Sure, there are exceptions, and like I said, everyone has bad days, but not having pride in your work bugs me.  I have a great deal of pride in my own work, and in my not-even-remotely-dreaming-about-being-humble-opinion, EVERYONE should have pride in their own work.  If you don’t, then you’re not doing the right work and you should find something different as soon as possible.

Now, to be fair, the tech who reconnected our service today was a hell of a lot better.  He was very considerate of my time and did everything he could to lessen the inconvenience to me.  He was very helpful, and he got me back up as soon as he could.  He was good enough that I’m going to write a note to Comcast’s customer service desk praising him – he deserves it, and everyone deserves some praise from time to time.

Too bad Comcast seems to have more useless techs than it has good techs.

Wednesday, September 22, 2004

The Miscreant’s Dictionary:  “Watchmaker”

watchmaker

someone who, when asked a question, provides a detailed description and analysis rather than a direct answer [FROM: “when I ask a question, tell me the time, don’t build me a watch."]