November 24, 2003
Income Tax et al
Good morning class. Here's today's reading assignments:
- Tax Exemptions for Teachers?
Protesters dont' like music.
And finally, I don't have a link for you, but apparently the dems, especially Wes Clark are pissed off about Bush running ads citing his mighty accomplishments. Enjoy this fake quote from Boortz:
"How dare the president run an ad citing his accomplishments. He's just exploiting the 9/11 terrorist attacks against Americans! Oh, sure .. it's OK if we run advertisements and make statements in opposition to Bush's war in Iraq, because when we do that we're not exploiting 9/11. But if the Republicans run any ads saying the president is actually doing the right thing then that IS exploiting the terrorist attacks of 9/11 and they should stop it immediately!"
I guess I had a link after all...
So, as is sometimes my habit, here's my thoughts in reverse order. Regarding Bush's ad... my ideas about campaign advertising would make no politician happy. Heck, they'd probably piss off most Americans, but c'est la vie, no? The point is, fair is fair. If they're going to attack an incumbent president for his policies, doesn't he have the right to defend those policies? I think so.
It should be noted here that I've been reading Allah Blog a lot lately, and my temptation to attach kufr? to the end of sentances is very high. My speech patterns are easily influenced by things like Allah, or Asimov, or maybe Strongbad (like this sentence), and sometimes Ye Olde English, and very often by Sportsnight (best show ever). So if I slip up and clearly borrow someone else's voice for a bit, just let it slide, kufr. The Naginata apologizes.
Moving on...
The army plays loud patriotic music while the protesters protest. Seems that the protesters might have a valid thing to be upset about here, so they should feel free to protest. They should also expect that the army is going to arrest them if they try to get onto the army base. Heck, if the army base's perimeter is clearly marked (and I feel certain that it is), and some protester is shot, I wouldn't shed a tear.
On to the music thing... I think it's very funny. The Army has said that they aren't going to mess with the protest on Sunday, because they expect it to be more somber and religious in nature. That's fine, sounds like it will be peaceful. If the Army is going out of its way to make that distinction, there might be something there. I need more information before I can make a judgement. I will say this: It hard for me to be mad at the Army over this. You're angry because you think they did something wrong. They disagree with you. You want to have a quiet sit in, good for you. If you really want to make it an issue, play some loud protest music in response, and see what happens. That's when its gets interesting.
Now we turn to the meat of this post, the possibility of lifting the tax burden on teachers and social workers. WORST IDEA EVER!!
Have I made myself clear? I know that a lot of you readers are programmers like me, let me summarize this bill for you:
if(person.Salary > $100,000 ||
(person.PoliticalParty == politicalParties["Republican"] ||
person.PoliticalParty == politicalParties["Libertarian"]))
{
IRS.Screw(person);
}
else
{
try{
politicalParties["Democrat"].BuyVote(person);
}
catch(Exception)
{
IRS.Screw(person);
}
}
Strong language... I thought about changing or apologizing for it, but I'm pretty much done with that. Parents probably shouldn't let their children read this blog anyway. (Editor's note: I changed it anyway. Damn you people who read my blog who don't approve of strong language - you know who you are!)
Anyway, could this plan be more transparent? I mean, for years we've had to deal with the left saying things like "Vast, right-wing conspiracy" to talk about the right, when that's clearly not the case. It's hard for me to see this as other than a vote-buying scheme on the part of the left, should it actually pass. I know, I know, its for the teachers... lets not forget that the teachers are the most powerful union in the country. A union that has shown in the past that it really doesn't care about the welfare of our children at all.
Oh, and once teachers are off the roll, why not social workers. And then all Government workers, after all, they're really just social workers too. Then why not all policemen and firemen. While we're at it, may as well include volunteer firemen too. Probably not national guardsmen, since the military is a known hotbed of right-wing extremism. Heck, lets lift the tax burden on everyone who's not a WASP, after all, they've lived under our oppression so long, they deserve it. </sarcasm> Eventually all income taxes will be payed by Bill Gates, Larry Ellison, and Matthew Lesko. Also, if someone wants to shoot Matthew Lesko, see me in the hallway after class, I have some special homework for you.
Its ideas like this that make me lose hope in Democracy. Our nation, our freedoms, our rule of law can survive attacks from without and within. We can survive wars, recessions, terrorists, all kinds of stuff. The only things that worry me are mass stupidity and its cousin apathy.
November 20, 2003
Silly Presbyterians
I'm driving through town last night and I see the following (more or less, I might not have it exactly) on the sign in front of a presbyterian church:
The best way to get rid of enemies is to turn them into friends
That's the dumbest thing I've ever seen on a church sign, and I've seen some real winners. Let's think about enemies that we might turn into friends. It makes sense to start with an enemy whose name actually means adversary. I, of course, refer to Satan.
So, presbyterians, are you saying that the best way to make Satan go away is to befriend him? And I suppose the best way to get rid of temptation is to give in to it too. Man am I glad Jesus isn't a presbyterian.
Wait, wait, maybe I'm being silly. Clearly we can't befrend the adversary. So let's think about terrestrial foes. How about... Saddam Hussein? How about it, presbyterians, shall we befriend one who has butchered his own people for political gain and personal amusement? Shall we have his sons over for afternoon tea? Maybe we should send him money to help him take care of his people. I'm sure he won't spend it on gold-plated bathroom fixtures and Russian-bult military hardware.
Wait, wait, maybe I'm being silly again. After all, Saddam isn't around to befriend anymore, unless you watch a lot of al-Jazeera. There is a level on which this idea works, clearly. If you have a problem with one person at work, sometimes the best thing is to put yourself in their perspective, and see if you can get along. Sometimes the people you used to butt heads with can turn into your strongest supporters. Sometimes angry people are just waiting for someone to reach out to them.
Sometimes they're just jerks.
November 17, 2003
Verbosity 2.0
Impracticality, Impartiality, phenothalene and Irkutsk.
I respond:
I figure allowing a little suffix modification is ok, since the verb form of "verbosity" has been established as "verbosify".
Impracticality: "This medicine bottle is too easy to open. We need to Impracticalify the cap"
Impartiality: "Why is the FOX News Channel so afraid to Impartialify themselves?"
phenothalene: "He tried to impress the class by drinking a mixture of HCl and NaOH. Sadly, the indicator totally phenothalened his digestive system".
Irkutsk: "If you don't toe the party line you're going to get Irkutsked just like the rest of the capitalist spies!"
I'm in it to win it.
Final Fantasy XI
I present to you This mocking of FFXI. And all you FFXI gamers are too polite to make fun of me because my game is almost 5 years old, right? Good.
November 13, 2003
Ja, Mein Toleranz!
Here's your reading assignment for the day, class.
...
All done? Good. Now, I'm not one to poke fun of internal politics in other countries, particularly ones so friendly to the United States as Germany, but I don't think I can hold back in this case. There's a lot of people crying "intolerance" at us right now because of our actions against terrorism and, supposedly, because of the increase of "hate crimes" inside our own borders. Where's the proof, pal?
The United States is not a police state. The United States is still one of the most free nations on the planet, even if there are occasional, isolated incidents that some of us think are going too far. The only time that we invade someones right to do what they think they should like this is when we really, really have to. Case in point - the muslim woman who was trying to get her drivers license photo taken with her face covered in Florida. Clearly, we can't allow that; you want to drive, you get your face shown on a little card, and those are the rules. Banning a woman from wearing what is, effectively, a hat when she's teaching a school is a little crazy.
But alas, it seems I'm doomed to bring this back to talking about the states now. I know what you're thinking: "I heard about this guy nagi, and the US Secret Police grabbed him in the airport, and strip searched him, and had him deported and beaten with rubber hoses until his face fell off".
Look, I'm not saying we're perfect. We make mistakes, big mistakes sometimes, because we're human. The point is that there's a big difference between US and a POLICE STATE. We go after our enemies, and sometimes, someone unfortunately gets mistaken for an enemy. I'm going to go ahead and say that if you have Canadian and Syrian dual citizenship, you might want to make sure all your paperwork is up to date and you have the phone number and name of your lawyer with you if you plan on flying. Sorry, but that's just the mindset that we've been forced into. A POLICE STATE would be going after political dissidents, malcontents, n'erdowells... you know, anyone it didn't like. Michel Moore would be in a gulag somewhere.
The point is, I don't think that Germany has the right to say a whole lot about our respect for freedoms and human rights at this point. Not that this incident is a violation of basic human rights that even compares to what's going on in <insert long list of countries here>
November 11, 2003
Guest Commentatorship
Gentle readers, its going to be a slow week here... cuz I'm a guest commentator over at The Straw Men on sunfist.com. Enjoy!
TO WAR!
So, its hardly "Spoon!" but I'll take it.
Ah, why did that show have to get cancelled...
November 05, 2003
November 04, 2003
Investments
First of all, my current Red Flag requires two servers (file and database) to be up for me to really work. So, I wrote a little app that obeys the following guidelines:
If the icon is blue, there's much work to do. If the icon is gray, time for Nagi to play.
And in a fit of playtime, I decided it was time to finally get off my ass and invest some money. So I opened an account at Sharebuilder. Right now I just have a Roth IRA account going, complimenting the one that I have or will have shortly at work. Ultimately, I want to invest about 10% of my income (for starters). The one at work matches up to 3% of your pay, so if I put 3% into the work IRA, 4% into the sharebuilder IRA, and keep 3% to play with in "regular" investments, I should be good to go... investing 10% of my income in retirement holdings, and 3% to gamble with.
...Of course, the stupid government limits how much you can put into IRAs in a year (to $3000). So... on the hope that the matching contribution account is going to do good things, I think its time to push a little more income into the "play" account.
Nice things about sharebuilder: no annual fees for having an account, and a low "ira" fee. Trades are 4 bucks each, but get executed at their leisure to keep costs down (they aggregate a bunch of em). The good news is, this discourages day-trading. They also will execute real-time trades for like 16 bucks if you get a hot tip, which isn't that much more than other places.
Also, they have a Visa card that gives you 1% of your purchases back (like Discover), but this 1% goes into your IRA. THAT's cool :)
More news to come, I'm sure.
Sluttis webcamus
Anyone who spends enough time on the internet is bound to see a popup or get a spam related to some "webcam girl". To all you aspiring cam-whores, here's a little guide.
Naginata: Helpin the ladies out since... um... 20 seconds ago, I guess.
November 03, 2003
On Drinking...
[names changed, blah blah blah]
So this weekend I decided to get some local Flava, and head down to Diamond Lill's, a bar here in Winamac. After all, it was karaoke night, and (as some of you know) I'm an avid peoplewatcher. I decided that I'd have a beer in a dark corner, enjoy a few songs, and then leave - this fulfilled my need to be around people without raising the troubling possiblity that I'd have to talk to them.
Anyway, I got a beer (Rolling Rock if you must know), and sat down at my chosen table. I really do have an appreciation for karaoke. You have to be a peoplewatcher to "get it", but someone who's singing goes through a whole range of emotions as they get up, sing, and come back to their friends. Fear, anger, joy, it all shows up at some point, and its fun to watch.
Anyway, I'm about done with beer #1 when a waitress drops off an unordered #2, saying it was "From Boss_03". Looking across the bar, I see Boss_03 (my boss's boss) sitting at the table with his wife and 2 people I didn't recognize (his son and daugher-in-law). I give him the "thanks for the beer gesture" and start on number 2. Yeah, I know I should have gone over, but I was quite content in my corner with my Rolling Rock. After another song or two, Boss_03 comes over and says that I'm welcome to join them. So now the man has bought me a beer and traversed a minefield of drunken rednecks to get to me... I figure I owe him that, I'll go over, make some smalltalk, finish my beer and get around to getting out.
...
...
So now we're on round 5 (6?). I'm a real lightweight, for those that don't know. I have Boss_03's wife doing the "shake your head back and forth" drunk test and laughing up a storm. Boss_03's recounting the stories of their last trip to Myrtle Beach and we're all laughing about THAT one. His daughter-in-law is assuring us that no, she's not drunk, but she also definately doesn't need another round, because she's too drunk.
Then here comes two of her friends, one of whom is celebrating her 21st birthday (and did I mention she was hot, because da-yum woman!). Anyway, she had to do a birthday shot, of course, and have a beer to wash it down with... but she's not going to start a round alone, so Boss_03 bought everyone ANOTHER round. Turns out she's opening a salon here in town (which is good, because I don't really trust the barber here just yet). Anyway, all things considered, it was a very pleasant evening, got to meet some people I didn't know, see some people I did know in new situations (like outside of work), and watch some good (and some bad) karaoke.
Best song of the night: Some guy did Folsom Prison Blues, and I think he may have been posessed by Johnny Cash. Or something like that.
Also, I'd like to say I took the high road, and I was the only guy in the place who didn't hit on one (or both) of daughter-in-law's friends. Why? Because I'm just that cool.