lolife

Rosetta Stone #fail

I’m mad at Rosetta Stone right now and I think it is a lesson in how NOT to run a company. Here is the crux of it: Rosetta Stone is more concerned about preventing software piracy than they are about existing customer satisfaction. These things always come from the top down. Some big important MBA has [...]

A rejection of extremes

It is an amazing thing to watch your generation take over the world. The President of the United States is 4 years older than me. The positions of power in industry, government and culture are being occupied by people my age. It makes you think — what are our responsibilities to future generations. What are [...]

don’t talk about sex

There is a weird disconnect going on. I love weird disconnects because they are saying something. I don’t know what this one is saying. We all like sex. Our culture is permeated with sex. And yet we never talk about sex in a real way. We joke about it and we might share a few details [...]

sparkfail

sparkfun.com had a sale. Everything was free, you only paid shipping on the first $100k they sold. They have a blog post congratulating themselves about it. This is a hilarious act of denial. Their site was virtually unavailable during the sale. I was not able to accomplish a single thing at any point over the [...]

My Life As I Remember It By Nora Dafoe

This is a long memoir by my late grandmother, Nora Dafoe. My Life As I Remember It By Nora Dafoe Chapter 1 - Childhood My mother tells me this story about my birth. My dad...

Rural America has its head up its ass

Every once in awhile these revelations hit me. Once they do they are here for good, the bell can’t be un-rung. Rural America is killing America. Rural America is the Taliban of rational thought. There is a class war going on but its not between the rich and the poor, nor is it between red [...]

The 4th flight of Cindy Loo Hoo

On Sunday we had the last Tripoli Minnesota launch of the year. It was a beautiful day and we successfully launched and retrieved our rocket. Nice to have no new failures to report. To the right you see a frame grab of the launch and the altitude and velocity plots from the PerfectFlite MAWD altimeter. It [...]

Tweetwall

Here are my tweets, right here: Get your own tweetwall here: http://www.tweetwally.com/

The hysteria on the Right is manufactured

(This was going to be a comment on this post.) What if, and I realize it is a big if, Obama’s health insurance reforms work. What if we all do measurably better under a cooperative approach legislated by the Democrats. Would conservatives be OK with it? I deplore double-standards and I ask myself — what if we [...]

Reflections on Paris

First of all, obviously, I’m no expert on Paris. I’ve been here a couple of days. But here, nonetheless, are my observations. Our hotel room is ridiculously small. We could have spent more money, of course, but it came recommended to us and it’s not exactly cheap. I think they are all like this. We had [...]

Micheal Olauson of Valley City is a fucking retard

I present as evidence: Need to respond to Joe DeMasi’s letter in the Times-Record (“Obama on education: Superintendent should have stood up to bullies,” Monday). We were some of the “objectioning” parents to our good dictator’s speech on Sept. 8. We are very glad that our school administrators had enough sense to recognize propaganda for what it [...]

Lessons Learned the Hard Way

This list pertains solely to rocketry. I decided I was going to make a list of every mistake I made that resulted in failure of some kind. My goal is to never make the same mistake twice. I’ll be updating this list every time I make a mistake. Hopefully that will be rarely. On the [...]

Why I love the Kindle

My wife gave me a Kindle. I obviously knew about the Kindle and I am an admitted bibliophile so I was curious, but, like many, I love traditional paper books so much that I wasn’t sure I’d enjoy the Kindle. I love it. It is really awesome. Here is why. It’s not backlit. This is a huge [...]

The Lolife Podcast No. 76

Hell froze, pigs flew and I recorded a new podcast! You can listen to it here or perhaps you want to subscribe (or iTunes)? It’s my usual profanity-ridden chatter about politics. It’s called Taxes and the Nanny State. Take a listen and post a comment with your thoughts.

On Happiness

I heard a great speaker on MPR — Daniel Gilbert talking about happiness. I highly recommend that you listen to it. A lot of things in the talk struck me and kept me thinking. In particular, he talks about how married people are happier than unmarried people and that men in particular are much happier when [...]

Incident Report: Canis Minor

Vehicle Name: Canis Minor Incident Summary: Total destruction of the vehicle. Incident Date: 2009-08-15 Incident Details: On Saturday, August 15th, 2009 the rocket Canis Minor was launched on 2 occasions from the North Branch launch site of Tripoli Minnesota. The first flight was powered by an Aerotech J350W motor and achieved an altitude of 6554 feet above ground [...]

The Global Warming Problem

Here is a guest post by LEVI, a regular commenter on this blog. There’s a lot of rhetoric floating around regarding climate change and the solutions being proposed to address the problem. I wrote this piece to give readers a starting point from which to consider the problem and the mitigation programs under consideration. This article is meant to [...]

Cindy Loo Hoo Flight 2

Tripoli MN had a launch on Saturday and I flew 2 rockets. My successful flight of the day was the second flight of Cindy Loo Hoo, a 54mm minimum diameter rocket 6 feet long and powered by a Kosdon K750W motor. The flight went great! It leapt off the pad and shot straight up in [...]

Indistinguishable from fiction

When we see thinking that is wrong we have to say, in the kindest and most helpful tone possible, perhaps, that it is wrong. For example, the earth is roughly 4 billion years old. If someone wants to claim it is 10,000 years old, they need to be told they are wrong. The writings of [...]

Fascinating debate

Two atheists, one, Sam Harris, a rather hardline but rational fellow and the other, Philip Ball, an “accommodationists” (at least in the view of PZ) are going at it and it is a pretty fascinating read. Ball is arguing that it is folly to outright dismiss religious thinking as incompatible with science. He thinks that religion [...]

Science is god

Yes, yes, yes! I’ve had a revelation of sorts. It’s based on one core concept: that the progress we’ve made in this world is based almost solely on science. Literally, and I mean that in the literal sense, everything we have and enjoy and cherish is given to us by science. 2/3 of your kids [...]

Why I’m happy you are an atheist

The reason I enjoy seeing the ranks of atheism grow is because I think there is still way too much superstition in the world. If you take all the religious activity and then add in ridiculous crap like astrology, psychics, Tarot, “woo”, pseudo-science, etc., etc., it adds up to a shit ton of wrong and [...]

What is a racist?

There is a lot of attention being given to this quote by Sonia Sotomayor: A wise Latina woman with the richness of her experience would more often than not reach a better conclusion than a white male who hasn’t lived that life. Do you think this is a racist quote? What is your definition of racist? As usual, [...]

Sonia Sotomayor

I want to say this before I know more. Let’s evaluate her the same way we do everybody else. It’s gonna get rough. It should get rough. Hopefully people will be respectful and to the extent they are not, they should be ignored. If you search back on this blog, I was respectful to both [...]

Democrats, quit trying to legislate everything

It is well known that I find the Republican party detestable. Any party with the support of Coulter, Hannity, Limbaugh and Glen Beck will never get my support. So don’t get too excited, Righties. But I am seriously getting bummed out with the inept notion that any problem has a legislative solution. It effects me most [...]

Astronomy for stupid people

PZ points out that the retards are at it again. A ridiculous book “What you aren’t being told about astronomy” and its idiotic web site, creationastronomy.com are there and ready to confuse the confused and insult the knowledgeable. It’s ironic that the author quotes published open questions in solar system research as evidence for his non-theory! [...]

Obama stand-up

“Canis Minor” Launch 2

I built a Performance Rocketry Little Dog Dual Deploy. I have a little video which describes the rocket on youtube. The first launch was a disaster which resulted in a cato. (cato is rocket dork slang for a CATOstrophic (sic) failure of the rocket motor.) The 2nd launch was (mostly) a success! I was going to [...]

The Right: we’re fine with torture

I can’t think of any other explanation. If you listen to Cheney or the guys at Powerline, the only impression you can be left with is, if torture works, we should use it. Obama may be criticized for trying to thread the needle on this one. He doesn’t want to start a witch hunt on the [...]

Why I hate micadelic

First let me say that micadelic, the Right-leaning commenter on this blog, is someone I know in real life and he is a very nice person. I don’t hate him in real life. But I HATE him in “cyberspace”. Here is why. There are people I almost instantly like and respect and I’ve been thinking about [...]

The age of dissent under Obama

My opinion on dissent has not changed — it is a good thing. Actual debate is always good. And right now some actual debate is occurring. For example, Krugman, who I like, doesn’t like Obama’s bail-out plan. Neither do some other economists I read and listen to. I think Obama has gotten a wide range [...]

OMG Obama smiled at Chavez!

I think that if Obama is kind and respectful to the leaders of Venezuela, North Korea and Iran it will be a good thing. Diplomacy is an art. The Bush foreign policy doctrine was a joke. Call them names, ignore them, demonize them — WTF did that get us? Obama is obviously going for a “speak [...]

What would the world look like if the Right had their way?

JUST LIKE IT DID FOR THE LAST 8 FUCKING YEARS UNDER THE WORST PRESIDENT IN AMERICAN HISTORY. It is fucking ridiculous that the goddamn Right Wing thinks we are going to forget the last 8 fucking years. If you disagree with the approach Obama is taking — GOOD! That means we might be on the right [...]

Pot vs. Alcohol

This is a phenomenally convincing article by a former police chief about the major policy inconsistencies regarding alcohol and marijuana. Alcohol is legal and highly costly to society. Yet no one wants to prohibit it. Why? Because we tried it and it didn’t work. How dense do you have to be to not apply the [...]

Video tour of my rocket

This is the latest rocket I’m working on. It’s roughly 54mm in diameter and it uses 38mm motors. It should go to about 7000 ft (2134 m) with the biggest motor it will take.

The curse of being attractive

This has come up before. Some bloggers are beautiful women. Some dudes comment that the woman is beautiful. All hell breaks loose in a flurry of accusations of sexism and misogyny. I see both sides of this. There are huge double-standards when it comes to how men and women are treated. Women are objectified and marginalized [...]

What is worse, violence or drugs?

From some smart Harvard guy: Prohibition creates violence because it drives the drug market underground. This means buyers and sellers cannot resolve their disputes with lawsuits, arbitration or advertising, so they resort to violence instead. Violence was common in the alcohol industry when it was banned during Prohibition, but not before or after. Violence is the norm in [...]

At least 65,000 Catholics are retards

From Fox News: Nearly 65,000 people have signed an online petition protesting President Obama’s scheduled May 17 commencement address at the University of Notre Dame, saying the president’s views on abortion and stem cell research “directly contradict” Roman Catholic teachings. It’s hard for me to even comment on this. How weak is your goddamn faith if you [...]

10 ways you can help parents enjoy dinner out with their kids

Some lucky people don’t have kids so some things just don’t occur to them. That is understandable. This little post is to enlighten young waiters and waitresses on how they can help a family with kids who are eating at their restaurant. 1. Seat us where we won’t bother other people without dooming us to the [...]

My love affair with astronomy

(I’m currently on vacation. This is cross-posted from Slacker Astronomy. ) We remodeled our basement and in preparation we boxed up a lot of stuff. The basement is finished now and the boxes are down there ready to be unpacked. One of them has all of my old beginning astronomy books in it and I [...]

KD0GQX

I got my call sign! On February 2nd I was doing some research in amateur rocket telemetry systems and one of the systems I looked at said that you needed to have an amateur radio (“ham”) license in order to buy it. So I started looking into it and later that night I tweeted: in case you didn’t [...]

My Facebook Terms of Service

Some of you may have seen my Facebook terms of service video on facebook: I got a lot of funny responses but this one deserve special attention: Thanks a lot, Chuck-o! M.

sig

Here is what your sig should say: This email may contain confidential material. If you were not an intended recipient I obviously fucked up and it is my own damn fault. It is insane to assume that I can bind you to some agreement based on my own inability to send a fucking email. I should [...]

Microsoft MBAs fuck up again

This is so stupid many people haven’t been sure if it is a hoax or not. “…Windows 7 Starter Edition [is limited] to running only three concurrent applications“. Says a Microsoft spokesperson: We ran a study which suggested that the average consumer has open just over two applications [at any time] They claim this will make their [...]

Intoxicant double-standards

Michael Phelps gets suspended for smoking a bong hit. Had he drank an entire bottle of vodka, it wouldn’t have made page 7 of the sports page. Because he smokes a bong hit, he’s front page news. PEOPLE, THAT IS RETARDED.

What don’t you fucking understand

2 Random thoughts

1. Singing is hard. Some people get the false impression that singing is a wonderful, joyous and carefree form of expression. It can be, but it’s a lot of work getting there. There are a few freaks in the world for whom singing comes very easily. For most of us, it takes intense concentration and [...]

Arduino makes noise with light

Just a little dorking around I’ve been doing with the Arduino and Lego sensors…

Pro-Life crazies

From the bankrupt Minneapolis Star Tribune: On the 36th anniversary of the Roe vs. Wade Supreme Court decision that legalized abortion, a man smashed his SUV into the entrance of the Planned Parenthood office in St. Paul this morning…”We think it’s intentional because of Roe vs. Wade,” Panos said. “He’s not saying much. He was praying [...]

Obama on a roll already

I am proud of Obama already. He is closing Gitmo and he is unreservedly renouncing torture. Good on ya!

Windows Weenies are, well, weenies

The Windows Weenies are mad (again) that people really truly seem to enjoy Apple products. Even journalists! How dare journalists enjoy Apple products! Don’t they know the appropriate response? Just ask Mary Jo Foley: …I hear/see a lot more jeers than cheers in the Microsoft press rooms and events… Umm maybe that’s because they make products [...]

The Obama Years

I am, of course, very, very happy that Barack Obama is taking office. I think he is going to be a great President. He is smart and shown excellent judgment so far. I think we elected a very good man and I am optimistic that he will point us back in the right direction. With that [...]

The ATF hates rocketeers

The ATF, let’s just say, does not strike one as the most reasonable organization in the world. They are oh-so-serious and important and protecting us all from something or other THAT IS VERY DANGEROUS. Like, you know, me. I’m an amateur scientist who enjoys launching high-power model rockets. The ATF, in their infinite wisdom, treats the [...]

Olbermann on gay marriage

With a tip of the hat to mnphenow, here Keith Olbermann makes the point:

Sanjay Gupta confusing medicine and politics

There are rumors that Sanjay Gupta may be nominated as Surgeon General. I don’t have a strong opinion on it (yet) but I do have to take exception to this article he wrote: Why I Would Vote No On Pot. It’s not a bad article — he lists the health benefits of marijuana as well [...]

How Apple screwed up AppleTV

AppleTV is Apple’s hardware “set top box”. You hook it up to your TV, the Internet and your stereo and you can listen to music and podcasts, buy and watch movies, watch youtube, look at flickr photos and more. It’s a nice little box. But it could be a great little box if Apple hadn’t screwed [...]

Bah AND Humbug

I’m finding the Holiday season quite annoying this year. I have very fond memories of Christmas when I was a kid and I do enjoy seeing how much Myles enjoys the holidays. He sings Christmas carols and watches the holiday specials and loves the Christmas lights. The bah humbug, for me, comes from the fact that [...]

Photographers suck

(OK, sorry for the inflammatory title — just trying to get your attention!) I think the financial model that most photographers adopt is ridiculous. The problem is, they don’t charge for what I do value and they charge a lot for what I don’t value. I have 2 examples to illustrate this. We went to Smirk for [...]

Why rockets?

Let me preface by saying that I really, truly don’t feel like I need to justify my activities to anyone. My family is very supportive of my random interests and as long as I am learning and enjoying myself, I don’t beat myself up about opportunity costs. Hedonism, no, enjoying life’s random byways, yes. But I [...]

Feel good pills

I read a news story that said cold medicine doesn’t help people feel better. Ibuprofen, though, does make cold sufferers feel better. Wonderful little pills like Vicoden and Percoset work even better! If you want a cure for the common cold, take a Percoset. Except you can’t. Our government in their extreme wisdom spends a lot [...]

Things greater than yourself

Most of my readers know that I am an atheist. I’ve written about it extensively but let me summarize to say — atheism is a movement of hope, rationale and enjoyment of life. It is not an outlook which is depressing or fatalistic. There are many people I love in this world but, if push came [...]

Mike looking devious

Mike looking devious Originally uploaded by massdistraction massdistraction caught me being a law-abiding pyromaniac.

More rocket data

I got out and launched some more rockets. Although it doesn’t exactly compare apples to apples, you can see on the image to the right that things either went very wrong with my initial iPhone launch or the GPS data I’m getting is screwed up. The black line is a flight with the red iPhone rocket [...]

Blog overdrive

I noticed I haven’t been posting too much here lately and it’s because I have been posting elsewhere. I added The 365 Days of Astronomy Podcast to my blogroll. Check it out! It’s going to be really cool and I need your help to spread the word. We also have a few new things over at [...]

Get with it RFK

I like Robert Kennedy Jr. I think he is a smart guy who is trying to do the right thing in a lot of areas. But dude you have got to drop this “vaccinations causes autism” bullshit. It’s completely, 100% NOT TRUE. You are hurting children far more than you are helping them. Read up [...]

iPhone launch videos

Finally, here is video of the 3 launches of my iPhone. The first one is the failed launch due to a motor failure. The 2nd is the one where I got all the data that I’ve posted. The 3rd one I got almost no data but the motor performed better as the flight seemed [...]

iPhone rocket interview

Dan at MobileOrchard interviewed me about my iPhone rocket and put together a nice video. Here it is: iPhone Rocket Launch and Interview (from MobileOrchard.com) from Mobile Orchard on Vimeo. I’ve been meaning to put my video stuff together but have had some technical difficulties. I’ll get that finished up soon! If anyone from Apple should stumble [...]

TRA #012058

I joined the Tripoli Rocketry Association (TRA). This allows me to get certified to buy and fly bigger and bigger rocket motors. If the weather cooperates I hope to do my Cert 1 flight this Saturday in North Branch, MN. I’ll fly one or both of my 29mm-motor-capable rockets, first on a “G” reload kit [...]

iPhone rocket in 3D

A further update from my previous post on my iPhone rocket launch. This is kind of a cool plot using only the GPS data: Here is a plot of the first few seconds of the launch from the accelerometer: You can see that the data peaks at 3g when I was expecting 12g. The acceleration heads back up [...]

Norm Coleman is a piece of shit

And you can quote me on that. He apparently thinks if he claims victory somehow it is his to lose. No, Norm, an automatic recount has been triggered and YOU ARE NOT THE WINNER YET. I personally hope we send you back home to reinvent yourself into a kinder, gentler piece of shit. Maybe you could [...]

WTF California, Florida and Arizona

You homophobes are ridiculous. No one is harmed by same-sex marriage. It is not required that you be comfortable with the choices made around you by your free fellow citizens. I don’t approve of half the shit you do, believe me. I think it is a dying viewpoint — that same-sex marriage is “bad”– and these [...]

Righties — lighten up

First let me say that I think most people who didn’t vote for Obama are being gracious and hopeful that we will live in good times in the coming years. It’s funny to me, though, that the general sentiment I’m sensing from the disappointed Right is that they need to hold on to their checkbook. They [...]

God Bless America

I often say “bless you” to people, like when they bring me a cold frosty Summit Extra Pale Ale. I like the phrase, even though I’m an atheist. But I just want to take a moment to say THANK YOU JESUS! THANK YOU! THANK YOU! THANK YOU! THANK YOU! THANK YOU! The United States of America [...]

iPhone rocket data quicklook

It’s taken me awhile to understand the data I got from the first launch. Using the video, the GPS data, the accelerometer data and my own recollections, I’ve put together a rough timeline of events. I’ve notated it on the plot of the altitude. A couple of weird things happened. First of all, with the engine [...]

Prelude: iPhone rocket

So…I’m sort of an obsessive person at times. I had two simultaneous obsessions going, iPhone development and model rocketry. I’ve posted a little bit about both of these. One late night I had an inspiration — I should launch an iPhone in a model rocket! The reasons were obvious: the iPhone has a 3D accelerometer in [...]

What Obama meant when he said “share the wealth”

We can look at this in terms of moral ideals or we can look at it in greedy terms of pure capitalism and either way we come to the same answer: we all do better when we all do better. Financially, it’s just obvious: you get a better standard of living and a bigger GDP [...]

Palin and McCain continue to be dumb

These people clearly can not be trusted with governance in the nation’s highest office. They’re too stupid or they hire people that are too stupid and either way, they’re fucked. She vowed – as she has many times — that if she and running mate John McCain are elected, they will nix such fat that’s tacked [...]

Dear Republicans, I’m sorry your party is anti-science

Phil Plait is miffed and I totally understand why. Every time he posts about the latest anti-science bullshit in the news, some dumb shit whines about how Phil should stick to science and leave politics alone. Science IS politics. In the US, the federal government pays for nearly 100% of astronomy research. Further, politics on issues involving [...]

The last flight of the Aura

So I’ve been building model rockets for the last month or two. It started when I told Myles how I used to launch rockets when I was a kid. He wanted to do it, too. So we went to the hobby store and bought a ready-to-fly (RTF) rocket, a launch pad and a kit rocket [...]

Hedge funds and hemp

Andrew Lahde, whom I have never heard of, apparently made a bunch of money betting against the sub-prime market. He recently closed his fund and wrote a “Jerry McGuire” letter saying so long and fuck you, basically. He concludes the letter by talking about how the this nation has its head up its ass in regards [...]

Powell sums it up

Collin Powell, that left-wing socialist un-American loon has done it again. On Palin: I don’t believe she’s ready to be president of the United States, which is the job of the vice president On the rat-bastard Republicans: I’m also troubled by, not what Senator McCain says, but what members of the party say. And it is permitted to be [...]

Conservatives, if that’s what you call them, freak out

This is fascinating: Christopher Buckley, son of William F. Buckley, founder of the National Review, resigns from the National Review because he endorsed Obama on a blog: Obama has in him—I think, despite his sometimes airy-fairy “We are the people we have been waiting for” silly rhetoric—the potential to be a good, perhaps even great leader. [...]

New dorky theme

It was bumming me out that the tag cloud didn’t work on my old theme. Turns out it relied on something that doesn’t work on newer versions of WordPress. So I picked a new, random and nice little theme for now. It’s a little too cartoon-y for me, so I’ll work on it a bit. But [...]

Mad, mad McCain

Study finds that nearly all recent McCain TV ads and one-third of Obama's were negative McCain thinks he can scumbag his way into office. Norm Coleman apparently thinks the same thing. When will they learn? Those scary ads about how scary the other guy is with wolves howling and facts set aside for sensationalistic lies DO NOT WORK.

Rocket 1

How to make Twitter lame

Contrary to most people, perhaps, I think it is the mundane nature of most twitter updates that makes it cool. People who try to make their Twitter feed “important” are the least interesting people to follow. The reason is — they misunderstand the medium. When I look at a tweats going by, I don’t want [...]

Biden vs. Palin

First of all, Dear Republicans, quit treating your candidate like she is a delicate flower. If she is, she ain’t qualified to be VP. Tonight should be a knock down drag out fight. Biden should not have to be careful to make sure he doesn’t bruise the delicate flower. All the women I debate with [...]

Barack said

From The Political Animal: If you want the next four years looking just like the last eight, then I am not your candidate. But if you want real change – if you want an economy that rewards work, and that works for Main Street and Wall Street; if you want tax relief for the middle class [...]

Palin’s great moment

A friend sent me this. We’ve all seen that Palin clip by now. I think it is maybe the first time that SNL was able to use a quote word for word and have it be absolutely hilarious. Jack is mad and he should be. I would forgive Palin for having one bad moment. We all [...]

Palin is a liability

Palin is a liability to McCain and the US of A. She is the intellectual equivalent of George W. Bush. She is not educated, not informed, not intellectually curious, not quick on her feet and completely inappropriate for the job of President. It has nothing to do with her being a woman. I’m glad that [...]

Bush: A Socialist

Reports the BBC: US President George W Bush has defended a rescue package to tackle the worst financial markets crisis for decades. … Mr Bush said the measures required the US “to put a significant amount of taxpayer dollars on the line…But I’m convinced that this bold approach will cost American families far less than the alternative,” [...]

Obama’s Resume

Over at 2 Focus Inn there is a post of an email forward comparing Palin and Obama. Look, Righties, we know that Obama is running against McCain. YOU invited the comparison between Palin and Obama because you keep harping on this incorrect notion that Obama is inexperienced. McCain is old and his VP choice has [...]

The Republicans are DEAD WRONG about health care

A major cause of the health care crisis in America is that millions of dollars are spent every day by health care providers and medical insurance providers arguing. Talk to any doctor. They spend tons of money managing the crushing bureaucracy of insurance companies. The insurance companies do this on purpose because they ultimately have [...]

The Objective-C 2.0 Programming Language

I’ve been playing around with iPhone development and I have to say — I love the Objective-C 2.0 Programming Language. It’s got all the simple goodness of C but with very nice OOP extensions. I’m not sure to what extent, if any, it’s used besides in the Appleverse, but it’s nice and I like it. [...]

The McCain campaign — lame and getting lamer

(From the LA Times) “You can put lipstick on a pig,” Obama said. “It’s still a pig. You can wrap an old fish in a piece of paper called change. It’s still going to stink after eight years.” For the McCain campaign, the comments were a not-so-subtle reference to Palin’s comments at the GOP convention. She asked [...]

On the Republican watch

Let’s see, a high-level recap of the things that happened under the Republicans over the last 8 years: 1. 9/11 2. Katrina 3. The credit crisis 4. The closely related housing crisis 5. Iraq 6 Afghanistan 7. $4 gas Now the government just nationalized Fannie Mae & Freddie Mac — another example of deregulation at work. While the Democrats are deeply flawed in [...]

McCain’s confusion

Let’s give him a break, he’s old after all. Really old. Like approaching the average life expectancy old (which is 77.8 years). But his speech last night was confusing as hell. I can’t sum it up better than this article from the Guardian: At the biggest moment of his political career, he delivered a flat, stupefyingly [...]

Hypocrites caught in the act

Palin’s denigration of community organizers

It is ironic as hell that a party that has a goal of shrinking the government and a party that extols the virtues of the private sector as being a more powerful force than government should denigrate the role of community organizers. If the Republicans weren’t hypocrites they would hold up Obama as the exact [...]

This fucked up election

1. Executive experience is required to be President! But McCain doesn’t have any! Neither does Obama! Neither does Biden! But Palin does, 18 whole months of it! 2. Foreign policy experience is required to be President! Obama doesn’t have any! Neither does Palin! Both McCain and Biden do! 3. Washington insiders are bad. McCain is a Washington insider! So is Biden! But Palin isn’t! Neither is Obama! But see [...]