Month: November 2010

Wednesday various

  • Yeah, I think John Scalzi pretty much sums up how I feel about last night’s election results:

    But as I’ve noted before, the GOP may have put a gun to the head of the Democratic majority in the house, but it’s the Democrats who said, “dude, you’re holding it wrong,” jammed the gun into their own temple, and then pulled the trigger. The most accurate word I have for my feelings about the Democrats right now is disgust; disgust that they could get elected on a platform of substantial change, execute on many of the changes they campaigned on, and then allow the GOP and its allies to turn those actions in liabilities — well, again, disgust is not too strong a word.

    Dear Democrats: You managed to lose the House in historic proportions to a party whose strategy was to harness the inchoate anger of old white people so stupid that they don’t sense the inherent contradiction of screaming about a smaller government whilst cashing their federal checks. You are morons. Please find someone who can play this game and put them in charge of your electoral strategy, because what you’re doing now isn’t working. Also, henceforth, every time you whine about Fox News and shadowy financiers of the Tea Party, we get to beat you with a hammer. This is the political landscape now. Deal with it

  • Not to knock a cure for the common cold, or the research that will have gone into it, but it seems to me there are significantly larger health risks that we face than sore throats, runny noses, and sneezes. Is the common cold the holy grail just because of its ubiquity? Is the idea that if we can cure that, we can cure anything?
  • I continue to find the story of Randy Quaid and his wife sad and strangely fascinating.
  • But at least Quaid’s just starring in movies I don’t want to go see. Some people divorced from reality actually got elected last night. It would almost be amusing if Rand Paul didn’t think there were any poor people, if he wasn’t now an elected representative.

    Frankly, it’s like Scalzi also says in that post above:

    And oddly enough, most people aren’t the whole package of white, male, heterosexually-paired and well-off. I’m puzzled that enough of you keep looking out for me, even when I really don’t want or need the help. Really, folks, I and people like me are fine. Take care of yourselves, please.

  • And finally, the Monolith Action Figure. Zero points of articulation! [via]

Election Night Special

Headed back downtown at lunchtime this afternoon, this time finding the place I was looking for, no problem. It’s amazing what happens when you turn the right way instead of the wrong.

Otherwise, it was a pretty uneventful day, even what with it being Election Day here and everything. This year, they replaced the old voting machines, which I think were already old when representational democracy was first kicking around as a human idea, with a new paper ballot that’s then scanned into a machine. It felt simultaneously high-tech and very low-tech. But it couldn’t have taken, all told, more than five minutes.

I haven’t really been paying attention to the election results this evening, electing instead for a little calm, but I’ll admit to taking a little delight (or maybe just relief) at some of the Tea Party losses this evening. Although maybe that’s just because I know I have to steel myself to prepare for their wins. In New York, we have some important races this year, including for our new governor, but I don’t think Democrat victories were too surprising there.

And now, as I prepare for bed, allow me to leave you with Monty Python‘s “Election Night Special.”