Heh. I’ve thought, recently, about getting a pet, but … I don’t think I’m quite ready for the level of responsibility.
Case in point: I just went outside, and when I came back in I noticed Bovard’s two cacti, sitting by the back door. They both were looking rather wilted and sad. I realized that they probably hadn’t been watered since I last watered them … about six weeks ago.
So. In a house where the only plant that can reasonably survive is a cactus–and where that survival is marginal at best … I’m probably not ready to have a pet. Unless it’s the kind of pet that you can ignore for weeks at a time without repercussions.
Hmm. Maybe I’ll call the animal shelter and see if they have any pet rocks available for adoption…
It appears that Republican operatives looked to gain an advantage by purging as many voters as possible from counties that lean Democrat. The director of the Republican Party issued a blanket challenge to validly registered voters based on false criteria, trying to persuade election clerks that a mere change of mailing address is grounds for automatic cancellation of voter registration.
Not only was the effort blatantly deceptive, but the Republicans based their challenge on a national change-of-address database from an out-of-state vendor who sells personal information. Among other problems, this database lists servicemen and women who have been deployed overseas as having moved out of Montana. In other words, if you go to Iraq, or Afghanistan, or Fort Sill, Okla., to report for active duty, you have “moved out of the state” according to this list.
A significant number of the 6,000 voters targeted were servicemen, including Kevin Furey, a former state legislator from Missoula who left the legislature to serve in Iraq; Cindie Kalan-Green, who is also serving in Iraq; and Mathew Robison, who I am told has been deployed to Fort Drum.
Many were college students and elderly people. For example, Babe Aspholm, of Anaconda, an elderly man, simply moved across town from his house to a senior living center. The Republicans tried to void his registration. Tom Detonacour, a policeman from Deer Lodge County who simply bought a house in another county, also got targeted.
But worst of all is the legendary Frank St. Pierre, 86, also of Anaconda, who helped save thousands of allied troops at Dunkirk in World War II and has 10 Medals of Honor. St. Pierre, too, moved from one end of town to the other, and the Republicans tried to void his and his wife’s registrations. I have a copy of the signed affidavits from the Republicans, declaring that Frank and Marilyn St. Pierre’s voter registrations must be purged. An utter disgrace.
Beyond the outrageous lack of consideration for citizens, patriots and heroes, a significant burden and cost has been placed on county election administrators, public servants who work hard to ensure the integrity of our elections. They have been completely swamped by this scheme.
This seems like an entirely desperate move on the part of the Republican party. On balance, I suspect that people are very protective of their right to vote–something that’s been hard-won through the years for ALL Americans (or, at least those over 18 years old who haven’t committed a felony). I can only hope that, as in the case of the Montana Standard author, this tactic backfires so spectacularly that this sort of tactic is never tried again.
If there’s an art to motorcycle maintenance, I’m Jackson Pollock.
Truth be told, I’ve drawn plenty of insights from Robert Pirsig’s “chautauqua”. (Who used to be a professor at MSU, by the by…) Ironically, his meditations on motorcycle maintenance … alluded to significantly in the title Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance have proved absolutely worthless. One wonders if Pirsig ever owned a motorcycle … or a motorcycle repair book. Where were the helpful tips like, “before embarking on a long journey, a journey of thousands of miles … and self discovery? … remember to check your oil. You will not travel far on the road to self-discovery without oil.”
Well, that was last summer. Just in the last few weeks, I’ve actually managed to get the beast up and running again … but it turns out that I’m a pretty awful (or “abstract”, if you prefer) mechanic.
Turns out the order of operations matters in subjects other than math. Let’s see … Mike Shappell taught me to PEMDAS: Please Excuse My Dear Aunt Sally. Or, in non-mnemonic form: parentheses, exponents, multiplication, division, addition, subtraction.
But for all that Shappell taught me … he forget to tell me to be “PC”: Push-rod-cover before Cylinder-head.
Which is to say: when I was putting my cylinder head back together last summer, I messed up my order of operations, and put the cylinder head back together before installing the push-rod cover. Since the cover was plastic, I somehow managed to get it in place after the fact. Unfortunately, it didn’t quite seal… and during the two weeks or so that it’s been running since, there’s been a flood of oil coming out of the cylinder head.
So that’s what I spend my afternoon doing: pulling the whole freaking cylinder head off again, so I can replace the seals and put it back together again properly. So that I can sell the darn thing…
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This morning, though, I spent in Helena. I emailed my professors a couple days ago, telling that I’d miss class today. But Outlook Express didn’t understand the word “GMAT”. It suggested that I meant “goat”, instead.
So … I took the goat this morning. I drove to Helena last night and got a cheap hotel room with the hope of getting a good night’s sleep before the exam. Well, so much for that: I was up ’till 2:30 am studying, and up again at 6:30 am. Ug.
Speaking of math… Good lord. I didn’t score as well as I had hoped. But I suspect I scored well enough to pursue my new found grad school ambitions.
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In other news:
The Montana Republican Party is actively trying to suppress the vote, targeting counties with large Indian, student, and low-income populations. … The Montana Republican Party is challenging the voter registrations of 6,000 Montanans. Over half of those challenges have come in Missoula County, where many, many students live. Other challenges have targeted Glacier and Hill Counties, both Reservation counties. And now, the Republican Party is pledging to challenge even more voters despite overwhelming evidence that their initial challenges impacted many eligible voters!
Good work, Republicans*. Perhaps when you’re finished nationalizing (see: socializing!) the nation’s financial institutions, you can get back to your favorite shenanigans of denying Americans their right to vote. It’ll be just like the 1960’s Jim Crow South, all over again!
* – Actually, the democrats deserve a hearty portion of blame for this one, too. … John McCain is so PROUD of his work, rallying the Republicans to support an utterly ludicrous bail out bill.
Two-hundred and fifty dollars to take the GMAT? Good heavens! … I guess I better do it right the first time.
And … for some reason, MSU doesn’t offer the GMAT at its testing center. That doesn’t make sense. Doesn’t MSU pride itself on having a fantastic business school? Why, then, in heaven’s name, doesn’t it offer the GMAT? Is the business school really so good that business students don’t NEED to go to graduate school? Or is it so bad that there would be no point in an MSU business student ever taking the GMAT?
But … sheesh. I thought $140 for the GRE was bad.
In other news…
I’ve started doing my physical therapy exercise at home–going to physical therapy was starting to get really … repetitive.
In any case, one of the (core strengthening) exercises that I do involves getting on my hands and knees, clenching my gut, and extending opposite arm and leg.
Me, being the coordinated guy I am, though … sometimes, when I start doing the exercise, I try to raise and extend the same arm and leg. There’s always a brief moment of confusion–“wait … there’s something WRONG here”–before I realize what I’m doing. (If you don’t understand, visualize me trying to do this.)
Did anyone else find a little ironic John McCain’s insistence during Friday’s presidential debate that he “never won the Miss Congeniality award in the senate” when, of course, his running mate actually did win “Miss Congeniality” in the Miss Alaska pageant?
Also: during the debate, McCain said that a nuclear Iran poses an “existential threat” to the State of Israel.
I’ve been thinking about this for a while, now, and … to be honest, I’ve no idea what the man was talking about.
Certainly, the State of Israel has good cause for some existential questions: Why does Israel exist? … Where did it come from? … When will it finally be recognized as a terrorist state by the United States? (Er… that last question is an important question, but perhaps not an existential question.) Perhaps Israel should ask itself some questions: “Why am I here?” “What’s the meaning of my existence?” “Is life, like my borders, completely arbitrary and without rational justification?”
Certainly, these are questions that commentators and scholars have been asking for half a century now … questions still to be resolved … questions deeply troubling … cause for angst, if not existential angst …
My best guess, though, is simply that: McCain’s grasp of the English language is just a little tenuous. (Rather like his mentor George W Bush … who might actually be an intelligent man, but misuses words with the embarrassing regularity of a pretentious imbecile. Would it be too much to ask to have a leader who is fluent in … at least one language?)
When saying that Iran poses an “existential threat” to Israel, McCain probably meant that Iran threatens the existence of Israel. An existence-tial threat, as it were. Oh, ha ha, John McCain! You’re such a wordsmith!
Well, if McCain doesn’t know what existentialism is, it’s no wonder: he’s never been the sharpest crayon in the box. Oh, not by a long shot.
In fact, McCain graduated 884th in his Naval Academy class of 899 students.
That’s not the top 5% of his class … nope. Not even close.
That’s not even the bottom 5% of his class … or the bottom 2% of his class. That’s the bottom of the bottom 1% of his class.
Ouch.
Certainly, I don’t insist that every presidential candidate graduate magna cum laude from Havard, but I would hope the republican party could come up with a candidate who, say, graduated in the upper half of his class? Maybe just someone … average? No smarter–but no dumber–than the rest of us?
Maybe that’s average qualifications for a sportscaster. … But it makes me cringe to think that the people I spend the most time hanging out with are more educated than McCain’s VP pick. (!!)
Despite her sportscaster experience, Sarah Palin has poor posture. Poor posture!
Simply put: as Average-Joes go, McCain and Palin are, at best, pretty average joes. As a presidential hopefuls? They’re losers–abjectly and, we can only hope, in the fullest sense of the word.
Good lord.
Okay … one more: the McCain campaign originally listed Alaska’s proximity to Russia as part of Palin’s foreign relations experience. And somehow it’s stuck.
But what’s funny is that Republicans keep repeating this little factoid … in all seriousness. And Democrats keep repeating this little factoid with grimacing smiles. I guess what’s funny is that the Republicans who keep spouting this fact don’t really get it that they’re being made fun of. Even Sarah Palin doesn’t seem to get it. See below:
COURIC: You’ve cited Alaska’s proximity to Russia as part of your foreign policy experience. What did you mean by that?
PALIN: That Alaska has a very narrow maritime border between a foreign country, Russia, and on our other side, the land– boundary that we have with– Canada. It– it’s funny that a comment like that was– kind of made to– cari– I don’t know, you know? Reporters–
COURIC: Mock?
PALIN: Yeah, mocked, I guess that’s the word, yeah.
COURIC: Explain to me why that enhances your foreign policy credentials.
PALIN: Well, it certainly does because our– our next door neighbors are foreign countries. They’re in the state that I am the executive of. And there in Russia–
COURIC: Have you ever been involved with any negotiations, for example, with the Russians?
PALIN: We have trade missions back and forth. We– we do– it’s very important when you consider even national security issues with Russia as Putin rears his head and comes into the air space of the United States of America, where– where do they go? It’s Alaska. It’s just right over the border. It is– from Alaska that we send those out to make sure that an eye is being kept on this very powerful nation, Russia, because they are right there. They are right next to– to our state.