"How fortunate for governments
that the people they administer don't think."
-Hitler-
"Only two things are
infinite, the universe and human stupidity, and I'm not sure about the
former."
-Albert Einstein-Old
Updates....
9/17/17 (19:27)
the USC/UT game wasn't
a disappointment. i was very close to going to the game, but family and
work obligations kept me from making the drive. i regret this decision
quite a bit now. great game, 2OT. lots of missed opportunities by USC and
a lot of heartache, but they got the job done. i thought we were done for
when UT was driving the ball down the field on their last regulation possession.
we refused to put double coverage on johnson for some reason. but when
i saw that we had 39 seconds on the clock and were at the 35 yard line
i was surprisingly confident. normally i'm in deep despair in this situation
because the odds are pretty bad....but we have sam darnold. he's the best
clutch qb USC has had in my memory. i honestly think the kid is better
than leinert. i just remembered the rose bowl and thought to myself "this
is exactly where sam darnold wants to be; this is where he's at his best."
he drove down the field and got within chip shot range and the kicker nailed
it. great game to watch. the execution wasn't all there and i really regret
missing it in person, but very fun to watch.
trump is going after daca
now. the way he's doing it, however, is probably surprising for those who
think he's literally hitler. instead of just canceling the deferment program,
he's giving daca people 6 months to renew and he's telling congress to
solve the problem with an actual law. this is much more in line with what
one would expect from a conservative president. and, frankly, this is the
way more of our lawmaking and regulatory structure should work. we may
have forgotten since it's been so long since it's gone the way it's intended,
but the way the system is intended to work is congress writes laws and
the executive is in charge of executing those laws. it's part of the constitution
for the president to faithfully execute the laws of the u.s. when a president
says they're going to selectively execute the laws or when congress refuses
to write laws to address issues of the day, then the system starts falling
apart. there's been a consistent power grab from the executive branch since
FDR to take on more and more of these duties and i think it's coming to
its logical conclusion now...an inept congress that can't or won't address
major issues like immigration. given this power vacuum, the president steps
in and does what he can, even if he thinks it's unconstitutional (as obama
said). i should expand on this because i don't think the mainstream clickbait
media is covering this very well and the average voter probably doesn't
remember it.
in 2011, obama explicitly
said that the president can't just write an executive order to stop deportations
or change immigration law. in 2008 he said "we're not going to use signing
statements as an end run around congress." but with DACA he flipped on
both of those. DACA says he's telling the executive not to execute existing
immigration law in an even way...he's prioritizing who we should go after.
not only that, but he created a framework for young illegal immigrants
to be legitimized in society. further, he expanded it to not only DREAMERS,
but also their close family members (DAPA). this is constitutionally questionable
in my opinion. the 5th
circuit ruled on this and also said he went too far with DAPA and essentially
said that it's more than just an executive action. i think it's basically
the right sentiment, but executed in a way that very well might not be
constitutional. of course obama supporters would say he had no choice because
republicans suck. i would argue, that's the way the system works. just
because you have the presidency doesn't mean you get to suspend the way
the system is designed so you can get your agenda through while your party
occupies the white house. if you do this then it's just a race to the bottom.
whichever party is willing to push the boundaries of executive power the
most gets its agenda through. so, it's more than a bit galling when obama
lovers gripe about authoritarian trump taking over and doing unconstitutional
things when they were pretty much silent on obama doing the same stuff,
to a lesser degree.
you would think that after
W, democrats would be a bit wary of too much executive power and military
overreach and all the rest, but they didn't seem to learn their lesson.
i think part of this was the notion that there was a demographic shift
in the country so they thought it was literally impossible to lose the
presidency. oops. meanwhile, there's the party of small government (republicans)
that has factions in it that are very prone to authoritarianism, strong
military presence, etc. they should be the check when it comes to presidential
power, but are every bit as power hungry as the democrats. one reason i
think W was so bad is that he was the worst of both worlds. big government,
big spender, bad on environment, bad on foreign entanglements, etc. he
basically was picking the worst policies of each party. seems like a nice
guy, though.
saw a bit of the zurich
track and field meet a couple weeks back. mo farah is just phenomenal.
he bided his time the entire race and then took over. with about 200m left
he had 4 strong challengers, but i told the people i was eating with that
no one outkicks farah. well,
let's just say it was close. honestly, i got a bit worried at the end
and was surprised to see that they kept up with him, but farah refuses
to lose in the stretch. he's basically unbeatable in this scenario. he's
truly one of the best ever...up there with haile gebrselassie.
SF and KS are interesting
test cases. in kansas brownback basically ran an experiment where he cut
taxes and services and all the usual conservative wet dream stuff and it
apparently didn't go so well, though getting hard data on this and comparing
it to other states in the region for an apples to apples comparison, is
beyond what i'm willing to do. but, all the usual suspects say it was a
failure of conservative economic policy and i'm basically willing to accept
that. SF, meanwhile, is run by liberal people top to bottom and they have
an absolutely abhorrent problem with drug abuse and homelessness. they
have all the tax revenues they could hope for, but the homelessness has
been a visible blight for as long as i've gone there. either they have
liberal policies that have completely failed or the liberal people who
run the place are so deeply hypocritical that they refuse to address the
homeless problem. two small case studies that aren't really case studies,
but i think they show the weakness of extreme left/right politics. in both
cases i think reasonable people would have to conclude that whatever it
is the people there are doing, it's not making those problems any better.
need a left wing and right wing to fly.
DADA. data, analysis, decision,
action. i see a lot of people who have intractable problems in their lives
which are only intractable because they don't follow DADA. collect data
on what the problem is. analyze the data. make a decision about what course
of action to take. take said course of action.
was listening to michael
krasny on KQED the other day and he brought up TS Eliot for some literary
reason. but he didn't just mention eliot, instead he felt it necessary
to remind us all that apparently eliot was a horrible anti-semite. i found
this interesting in light of the monuments debate we're having lately.
eventually, people like krasny are going to bring up the writings of jefferson
or washington and feel compelled to remind us that they both were slave
owners. "speaking of great american buildings...monticello is great example
of neoclassical architecture, even though it was built by the rapist and
slave owner thomas jefferson, who i would spit on if i could."
have i talked about
this yet? basically, i think we're getting thinner and thinner skin
these days. couple that with a move in popular "right thinking" culture
to thinking that government is the answer to all our problems, and you
have a pretty bad mix. you don't have an inalienable right to not have
your feelings hurt. government shouldn't be around to protect your feelings.
neither should your school. i pretty much reject the idea of a safe space
if that means you want a space where your feelings aren't going to be hurt
by ideas you may not agree with. if, by safe space, you mean that there
should be a space to safely explore all sorts of ideas, then i'm all for
that. some people who seem to be doing this sort of exploration correctly
are josh zepps, sam harris and glenn loury...they all have podcasts that
do a pretty good job of exploring some interesting ideas in a mostly respectful
way.
9/5/17 (20:01)
the primary reason i buy
so much on amazon, as opposed to everywhere else, is because it's easy.
one click shopping. i can easily choose multiple shipping addresses, multiple
cards (business, personal, shared account, etc.). i went to usps.com to
buy some stamps and they wanted me to setup an account, a rectal examination,
they want the name of my first love, the city i was born in...they want
me to choose yet another fucking password to manage, etc. it's just too
much fucking crap. i have too much stuff going on in my life as it is.
too many customers asking me to do shit, too many passwords and shit to
manage....just buy everything from amazon and my life is easier. maybe
i pay a couple bucks more for the same coil of 100 stamps, but that's the
profit that amazon gets for making my life easier. meanwhile, everyone
else wants to make my life more difficult. my bank holds deposited funds
for weeks. my sole employee calls in sick. my customers change shit on
me left and right. ups doesn't pick up returns when they're supposed to.
my tax preparer can't deliver my stubs in a consistent manner. my dumpster
rental place doesn't work in richmond because they say richmond has an
agreement with one rental company and won't allow anyone else to do business
in town (she straight up called them the mob). basically, i can't rely
on much these days, but at least amazon generally makes my life easier.
been very hot here lately.
it was 92 in the house the other day. trying to sleep when it's that hot
kinda sucks. the girls have fans, but we don't. it's also warmer upstairs
so it's probably about even. they were great about it.