What the hell happened to comments 3 hours ago?
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10:53:47 PM,
Saturday 4 May 2013
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All alone at BWI....
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(3)
03:28:08 PM,
Monday 22 April 2013
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Reading this article on why conservatives oppose same sex marriage, I am somewhat amazed at how much, and how little, has changed.
As to how little, it wasn't until quite late in the article that I realized it wasn't current. The arguments against SSM were trite and tired. Tradition, 2000 years of history, why should society be forced to approve of something they don't like, won't someone think of the children?. My favorite, however, was the argument to defend all those poor churches which will be forced to perform gay marriages? We know it could happen, because Henry VIII seized Cathlic Church property when the church wouldn't recognize his divorce!
So, yes, not anything we haven't heard before, for the most part (the Henry VIII precedent was, at least, new). Then the author started talking about the political reality. And this is where how far we've come suddenly came into focus, and caused me to check the puplication date.
4 years ago, no presidential candidate had endorsed gay marriage. In September 2012, Barack Obama did just that. 4 years ago, every state that had voted on SSM laws either defeated them or banned the practice. In November 2012, voters in three states approved SSM rights. 4 years ago, there was still sneering at unelected judges forcing gay marriage on the Commonwealth of Massachussetts. Today, a lot of people believe the Supreme Court of the United States is poised to strike down laws banning SSM, and whats more, a majority approves.
Not mentioned is that other elected officials keep climbing aboard the SSM pride parade float. Tim Johnson of South Dakota being one of the latest, leaving only 3 Democratic senators still opposed (on paper, at least).
There might still be conservative arguments against gay marriage, but from the vantage point of 4 years after this article was published, the arguments are thin indeed.
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02:32:47 PM,
Tuesday 9 April 2013
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The problem is the GOP
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02:06:45 PM,
Tuesday 9 April 2013
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Yay, Bloglet's back!
::singing::Bloglet got back...
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02:38:17 AM,
Sunday 7 April 2013
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Bowls haven't changed in
any important way since
the Song dynasty.
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01:29:29 AM,
Friday 5 April 2013
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What a day.
It started at 7:15, when I ripped my pants getting out of the car. Too late to go home and change, too late to really fix it. By third period, I was able to get a teacher to watch my class for a few minutes while I ran to the teacher's lounge with some safety pins. Wardrobe malfunction corrected (I think duct might have been better, now we'll never know), I spent the rest of day hoping none of the safety pins gave out, either stabbing me in the groin or worse, flashing a student.
So, a full day at work, and I mean, as I had to substitute for a teacher who had to leave suddenly. Those days take forever.
This was followed almost immediately by a visit to my chiropractor, to have my chiros pracked.
The the hair salon, to have my hair cut. I think it could be a little shorter in the back, but the illusion that I have a mullet is just that, a delusion of my addled brain.
Later, dinner with Philip, and internetting to boot.
The thrift store was the last stop of the evening, and I picked up several pairs of pants to replace the pairs that had failed, and some ties, and a thing which is incredibly adorable: A lamp shaped like a tortoise.
Finally, home to walk the dogs, change the clothes, perchance to shower, although I think laundry tonight is out, and soon bed, because tomorrow I get to do some of it all over again.
The school stuff, mostly. The after school stuff will be replaced by (possibly) after school tutoring and (probably) fiddling with state taxes for a friend.
So, good night!
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02:11:34 AM,
Thursday 4 April 2013
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The Smell of Rain
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10:34:25 PM,
Wednesday 3 April 2013
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V ungr jevgvat yrggref bs ersrerapr sbe fghqragf. V nyjnlf srry (fyvtugyl) senhqhyrag.
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(1)
04:20:21 PM,
Wednesday 3 April 2013
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I haven't been watching Game of Thrones. Maybe I should. I stopped reading after the 3rd book, because I was so pissed off at George RR Martin over the Red Wedding. Reading another one of SEK's visual rhetoric posts led me to question my memory of some of the events, and thus to do some googling, which in turn reminded of why I liked the books so much in the first place.
Not sure if I will ever go back to the books. Maybe I could just read Tyrion's, Daenyrus's, and Arya's stories?
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(3)
06:23:45 PM,
Tuesday 2 April 2013
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Mea navis aëricumbens anguillis abundat!
Since this was the second reference of the day I just had to post it, but man, what a day its been.
(For the record, I was looking up mirabile dictu)
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(3)
06:16:05 PM,
Tuesday 2 April 2013
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Its Spring Break! Sure, there's snow on the ground, and its below freezing, and we might get more snow before Monday, but I have a week off! ROCK!
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(1)
02:28:55 AM,
Saturday 23 March 2013
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A fascinating profile of Bruce Jacob, the lawyer who argued against Gideon v. Wainwright.
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09:53:16 PM,
Friday 22 March 2013
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Mrs Warren Goes to Washington. A nice little writeup of Massachussetts senior senator.
(On a totally unrelated note, is it going to be weird for Mass. citizens to have two new Senators? A relief, perhaps?
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02:57:18 PM,
Friday 22 March 2013
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Do you remember Junior Lab, and vectors? Well its totally destroyed transporters and teleportation spells for me. I keep worrying that teleporting to a location takes you to that location in space, but there won't be a planet anymore, because its moved.
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(4)
03:12:53 PM,
Thursday 21 March 2013
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I believe this week is relativistically approachings the speed of light. Monday sped by, and Tuesday was also fast, but each extra day seems to take longer and longer. Since the perception of time slows down as speed increases, this must mean that I'm traveling at tremendous speeds right now.
Yeah, thats the ticket!
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03:06:04 PM,
Thursday 21 March 2013
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After a hellishly stressful weekend, this week is dawning auspiciously. Its a good day.
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06:13:12 PM,
Monday 18 March 2013
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Gorgeous night here in Kansas city. Sitting on th patio, enjoying th breeze, looking at the stars and watching the dogs. Bliss.
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01:55:29 AM,
Saturday 16 March 2013
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The things people get exercised (and excommunicated) about.
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(2)
01:00:23 PM,
Friday 15 March 2013
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Its true because its funny.
-Perhaps the most profound truth of all.
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05:01:42 PM,
Monday 11 March 2013
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Recently, this poem by Mirabai came to our attention, and I decided to try putting it to song. If you dont mind my froofroo phrasing, you might enjoy it.
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(1)
03:34:23 PM,
Monday 11 March 2013
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Happpy Birthday to that hoopy frood Douglas Adams! Also, check out the google doodle for him today!
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03:28:18 PM,
Monday 11 March 2013
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Ironically, its cheaper to fly somewhere than to drive or take the bus.
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08:18:53 PM,
Friday 8 March 2013
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Whats a phone without internet? - a student, asked incredulously
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(2)
02:44:55 PM,
Tuesday 5 March 2013
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2 hours, and 2 parents. I doubt I'll even get by 15% that I was expecting.
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(1)
06:27:45 PM,
Thursday 28 February 2013
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[Obama] still has to share the job of governing with people who don't believe in governing *or* sharing.
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(2)
05:55:43 PM,
Wednesday 13 February 2013
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Men and woman both generally want egalitarian marriages. But what happens when marriage turns out not to be egalitarian?
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06:28:54 PM,
Friday 8 February 2013
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Get ready for the next fiscal collapse (Student loan edition)
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(1)
06:27:38 PM,
Friday 8 February 2013
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The mission of the United States Postal Service is “…to provide postal services to bind the Nation together through the personal, educational, literary, and business correspondence of the people. It shall provide prompt, reliable, and efficient services to patrons in all areas and shall render
postal services to all communities.” Additionally, the Post Office has two ‘unofficial mottos’, the most famous of course, being Herodotus’s famous line “Neither snow nor rain nor heat nor gloom of night stays these couriers from the swift completion of their appointed rounds” and the other being an original letter inscribed in the former Washington, D.C. Post Office:
Servant of Parted Friends
Consoler of the Lonely
Bond of the Scattered Family
Enlarger of the Common Life
Carrier of News and Knowledge
Instrument of Trade and Industry
Promoter of Mutual Acquaintance
Of Peace and of Goodwill Among Men and Nations.
The Post Office’s charge is to facilitate communication between the polity of the United States, and has a nation-wide infrastructure to support their mission. However, the Post Office also is facing the reality that paper mail is decreasing, losing out to both internet communication, and to some extent private parcel delivery services (although UPS often uses the USPS to deliver to rural and out of the way customers). Perhaps if private parcel services could provide truly nation-wide services for everyone, or if telecommunication companies provided internet access in all communities, than the relative decline of the Post Office would matter less. Government should provide services which are both necessary for the good of the country and which the private sector is unable or unwilling to perform. Since we are in a situation where the Post Office will remain a vital part of the nation’s communication infrastructure for some time.
So, the Post Office is still necessary, but facing challenges in the 21st century. What can be done? What should be done?
The decline in revenue from lower mail volumes would be unfortunate, but not dire. However, in 1970, the Post Office was changed from a pure government agency to a quasi-private organization, that is, to make it more businesslike and phasing out government appropriations for postal services. Beginning in the early 2000’s, changes to government accounting policy required that the Post Office, unlike any other government service, had to prefund their pensions and retirement system. This $40,000,000 liability sapped the Post Office’s revenues and led to downsizing, rate hikes, reduced service windows and the closure of thousands of local branch offices. If these changes were reversed, and if the Post Office was treated as the public service agency it is supposed to be, then perhaps no other changes to their mission would be required.
However, there are other possibilities, opportunities to expand the scope of the Post Office, and to allow it to fulfill its core mission by embracing and integrating the communication technologies of the 21st century.
I have long thought that the USPS could expand its mandate to promote personal, education, and business correspondence by providing basic, low cost, internet services to all communities in the United States. It would obviously not be able to compete with the larger telecommunication providers in major metropolitan areas, but for the smaller communities and rural areas of this country, internet access is sparse and not always readily available. Consider, just as the post office provides P.O. Boxes in their brick and mortar buildings, they could provide virtual mail boxes and basic internet access for their subscribers.
This is an especially opportune time to consider how the Post Office might expand its services. Firstly, with the recent announcement that Saturday would be delivered, there is a real fear that this heralds further cuts, and that without immediate action, those cuts could prove fatal. Secondly, with the Federal Communication Commission’s recent decision regarding the 700mHz spectrum opens the possibility of a true national wifi network. If some portion of these public airwaves were set aside for the post office to manage, they could, in one action, expand their services across country. For a relatively minor investment in IT infrastructure, the Post Office could become the public communication resource it is meant to be.
The Post Office is a vital public service. As communication moves increasingly to electronic media, the Post Office can and should adapt. The opportunity is there. All it takes is a little imagination, and the understanding that seizing that opportunity is the better course.
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(6)
05:01:21 PM,
Friday 8 February 2013
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Worf assisting in delivering a baby might be the funniest thing ever.
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(1)
08:32:39 AM,
Monday 14 January 2013
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An interesting article on the possibility of global population decline. The only drawback is that, because its Slate, they have to put a disastrous spin on it, in this case, OMG, Humanity is going to go extinct!
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(2)
03:52:55 PM,
Thursday 10 January 2013
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"These aren't conservative people with conservative budget principles, these are morons who can't do math!"
-My sister, explaining (some of) the GOP's budget woes.
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(1)
12:39:07 AM,
Tuesday 25 December 2012
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Signs you need to clean your room: You think, "I should go to the bookstore and pick up a planner for next year" and you think, "I should pick up Scott McCloud's Understanding Comics" and then while cleaning up a pile of books, you find both a planner and McCloud's book that you bought fairly recently but have since forgotten. Go team brain.
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(2)
12:36:56 AM,
Tuesday 25 December 2012
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A hodgepodge of video clips from the KC Aquarium. I claim total credit whenever the scene changes coincide with a musical change. Chance had nothing to do with it. At all. Really. I promise.
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(1)
01:14:48 PM,
Friday 21 December 2012
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O.o.C.Q.o.t.D.: "She wrote a letter, like they did in the 1950's"
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(3)
01:44:15 AM,
Wednesday 19 December 2012
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