Month: November 2006

Maybe Not a Tsunami, but Good Enough

It seems the Democrats could actually take the senate depending on late results and recounts in Montana and Virginia.

The pendulum finally seems to be swinging leftward again and the country is moving towards the middle. A place I like to call sanity. Most Americans seem to be socially libertarian and fiscally conservative. Maybe this newly divided government will adhere to those ideals.

At any rate, Bush and the extreme rightward tilt of the Republican party have been repudiated. At least for now. Hopefully it will be awhile before these new bums need a good throwing out.

At any rate, meet the new bosses.

Dems to Take the House

November 7, 2006 • James Brush • 1 Comment

The Democrats will control the house, at least that’s what CNN says.

Wow. Good political news. I can’t remember what to do with that. Ever since my dog ate an entire batch of oatmeal cookies off the counter on election night of 2000, it’s all been bad, bad, bad.

What do you do with good news like this? Perhaps a little fifteen year old scotch? Probably.

Unbelievable.

Election Day

November 7, 2006 • James Brush • 7 Comments

I love voting. I love the fact that I have the opportunity to fire the crooks, liars and thieves who run this state and this country. It’s a nice feeling even if my ballot did wind up in the trash since I voted strictly for Democrats and Libertarians this time.

They say a wave may be coming tonight. Or maybe not. Rick Perry will win the race for Texas governor and the GOP will sweep Texas. I think the Democrats will take the US House and close the gap in the Senate. Maybe that’s wishful thinking, but the leaves in the bottom of my green tea are clustered on the left side on the mug. At least they are when I hold it in my right hand so I’ll keep holding it that way.

It will be interesting tonight to see if Americans prefer to maintain a status quo of corruption, incompetence, arrogance and lies. I’m hopeful, but not really optimistic. Since 2002 Americans have been betting on crooks and swine, and it’s hard to leave your abusers. They are after all the only ones who can protect you.

If you’ve not done so already, vote. And please vote for Democrats. Throw these bums out. That is, unless you like corrupt incompetent government, then by all means vote to keep one party Republican rule.

The Lost Book Club: Season 3

November 6, 2006 • James Brush • 2 Comments

I’m still working on The Brothers Karamazov. I’m reading other books simultaneously so it’s slow going. I’m about halfway through it, but I haven’t run into anything that I would need to add or change from my earlier post on the subject. I did run into this quote in “From the Talks and Homilies of the Elder Zosima”:

For all is like an ocean, all flows and connects; touch it in one place and it ehoes at the other end of the world.

I’d say that nails Lost pretty well.

I wasn’t too surprised by last week’s episode (“The Cost of Living“) which ended with the end of Mr Eko. The suggestion that this would happen was planted pretty well last season by the reference to The Epic of Gilgamesh in which Mr Eko becomes Enkidu to Locke’s Gilgamesh. Now, having lost his spiritual ally, Locke, like Gilgamesh, is about to set off to the other side of the world island searching for answers. I guess I wasn’t too far off on that one.

I wasn’t sure if I was going to continue this Lost Book Club thing into season three, but when the season began with the Others engaged in a book club meeting, I thought, well, maybe that’s a sign. Of course, I could just be “mistaking coincidence for fate” again.

But then, the books that have appeared so far this season comprise an interesting list:

A Tale of Two Cities by Charles Dickens referenced by the title of the season opener: “A Tale of Two Cities”
Carrie by Stephen King also referenced in “A Tale of Two Cities”
Of Mice and Men by John Steinbeck referenced in “Every Man for Himself”
On Writing by Stephen King referenced (apparently through the white rabbit with the number 8 stenciled on it) in “Every Man for Himself” (And what’s up the rabbit thing? We’ve now got Of Mice and Men (“Tell me about the rabbits, George”), this white rabbit thing from On Writing, Alice in Wonderland, Watership Down, and a season one episode called “White Rabbit.”)
To Kill a Mockingbird by Harper Lee referenced in “The Cost of Living” (Ok, it was the movie not the book, but I’m still going with it.)

Now, I’m still working on Karamazov and haven’t even touched Our Mutual Friend, but I’ve enjoyed the books I’ve discovered so far and I since I’ve already read Of Mice and Men, To Kill a Mockingbird, and A Tale of Two Cities, and intended to read On Writing anyway, that only leaves Carrie.

What the hell, I’m in, but I’m not rereading anything unless I bloody well feel like it.

Over the next few days I’ll post on the three books that I have read and so continue with this little literary adventure.

And, finally, I found another blogger plumbing the depths of literature to better understand Lost. Check out Reading Sawyer.

Stumbling Up the Tollway

November 6, 2006 • James Brush • 3 Comments

On Saturday, I found myself driving south on I-35 in Round Rock. I was planning to stop at the Petco in La Frontera to pick up some dog food before heading south to the vet. I got off at my usual exit, but – Holy Missing Exit Ramps, Batman! – there was nothing but a dirt mound where the exit ramp had once led into La Frontera.

I found myself in a rapid ascent, heading straight into the heart of a largish cumulus cloud. As I throttled back to allow myself time to adjust my oxygen mask, I realized that I must have erred onto the new toll road system. Just before the cloud, the way parted and one road led far off to the east beyond Pflugerville. The other appeared to go west towards Mopac. Neither of these were where I wanted to go, but if I got to Mopac, I would be able to land closer to my destination.

I began a steady westward bank that took me over La Frontera. Eight thousand feet below me, I could see Petco and Krispy Kreme, Lowe’s and Barnes & Noble and dozens of early morning shoppers scurrying like ants to and fro. I adjusted the ailerons, came out of the bank and leveled off at cruising altitude to find that the new tollway would take me either back to the vicinity of my home in north Austin or, as I suspected, to Mopac from where I could take Parmer to I-35 to resume my journey.

The driving was peaceful from the elevated roadway that cuts through farms and fields and provides views and angles of north Austin that I’d never before seen in the eighteen years I’ve lived here. When I began my descent near Howard Lane, there was some confusion as other travelers didn’t seem to understand that the roads were free right now, but nonetheless I returned safely to terra firma.

Later in the day we intentionally traveled the toll roads and found them to be convenient and managed to cut about thirty minutes round trip off of one of our regular errands.

Weekend Hound Blogging: Three Greyhounds in One Picture!

November 4, 2006 • James Brush • Leave a comment

This was taken by our friend VP who came over to carve pumpkins last weekend (the P’s pumpkin was the one that wasn’t Paul Stanley). She is the first to successfully capture all three hounds in one frame.

Aren’t they sweet? Daphne is in charge, and in this picture you can see her leadership in the same way that you can see Washington’s in that famous painting of him crossing the Delaware.

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Want to make a fast friend by saving a greyhound in Central Texas? Check these pups out. Or go here to find a greyhound near you. You can also go here to find out why greyhounds are running for their lives.

If you have dogs who need proven leadership, go here to find a cat.

Old Photo Friday

November 3, 2006 • James Brush • Leave a comment

In the mid-nineties we lived in a duplex in south Austin. It was a good student/slacker home that was in sorry shape, but still, not without its charms.

One complaint was the above window, which sat high in the living room, level with the carport roof. It faced west and in the summertime the sun blazed through it as accurately as if the house had been built by Mayan astronomer-priests. Everyday during that first summer we were there (’95) the temperature in the living room was unbearable and you had to wear sunglasses if you faced that way.

Fortunately, my wife had the brilliant idea of painting it. So we trooped up to the carport roof with our roommate, some paints, and no idea of what to do.

The space scene you see here was the end result and over the following summers, it cut our electrical bill dramatically. When we moved out, we had to remove it – no star lasts forever – and so off it went, absorbed into the gravity well of memory, with the help of some turpentine and sandpaper.

Friday Random Ten

November 3, 2006 • James Brush • Leave a comment

A shoegazing/trip-hoppy type of mix…

“You Make It Easy” – Air
“Happy-Go-Lucky Local (Night Train)” – Jimmy Smith & Wes Montgomery
“Man Next Door” – Massive Attack
“Angel” – Massive Attack
“Linger (Live)” – The Cranberries
“Persephone’s Jive” – Nucleus
“On the Run’s Where I’m From” – American Analog Set
“Seven Months” – Portishead
“Nebulizer” – Nils Petter Molvaer
“Lay It Down” – Cowboy Junkies

Man, I Sure Could Go for a Lump of Coal Right Now

November 3, 2006 • James Brush • Leave a comment

Well, it’s week two of the Treehugger/Slate carbon diet challenge and so far I’m not jonesing for carbon yet. Looking back on last week’s assignment, I’ve done everything I pledged to do.

This week’s focus area is home heating. Ironically, I can’t really do much about this one. I live in central Texas where home heating isn’t really a big issue. You know, what with global warming and all.

There were good ideas for shedding carbon if you live in colder climes, but I could only manage to shed .18 cars worth of carbon by making small adjustments with the thermostat, which will be hard since we don’t really run the heat much anyway unless it gets really cold. Which it doesn’t. This is Texas. It’s like Hell, but with BBQ.

Since we live in a new house, I know the insulation is good which means I don’t need to add any, nor do I need to caulk the windows or do any of the other suggested things. The thermostat however, nets these benefits according to my results page:

Turning down the thermostat 2 degrees in winter during the day saves about 800 pounds of CO2 per year.
Turning down the thermostat 8 degrees more at night in winter saves about 1,000 pounds of carbon dioxide emissions per year.

So by doing these things, I can reduce my carbon load by 1800 lbs, which is about 9% of my initial total of 18,274 lbs. Combined with last week’s 14%, I’m now at a 23% reduction of carbon.

You can thank me when it’s still snowing on Earth in a few years.

Divided Government

November 2, 2006 • James Brush • Leave a comment

Not being a member of any political party, I’ve often argued that divided government is the sanest option available when picking the bums who will one day deserve to be thrown out.

Divided government by its very nature acts as an extra check in the checks-and-balances system, and in these hyper-partisan times, it seems to be the most effective. It forces consensus government from the middle. It forces compromise and policies that have a greater chance of working while having the added benefit of really torquing off a lot of powerful people.

When we have divided government, the two parties are forced to the center of the spectrum where most of America actually lives. The result is that country comes before party (though you’d want hip-hop for a really krunk party) and it becomes harder to legislate without taking into account the majority of Americans rather that the “majority of the majority” which by my calculations has equaled the will of DeLay.

For the past few years, Congressional Republicans in their avaricious pursuit of checks have failed to put a check on the Republican executive, but this unhealthy situation can be changed. By voting for Democrats we can reinstall the check that may bring a degree of balance. This will not move the country into the realm of left-wing extremisim, but move it back towards the center away from the right-wing extremism we’ve been enjoying these last few years.

There’s a great article advocating for divided government (h/t to Crooks and Liars) by the chairman of the libertarian Cato Institute. He argues in favor of voting for Democrats this time around. I couldn’t agree more.

Update: I just found a whole blog dedicated to divided government: Divided We Stand, United We Fall, which just goes to show that there really is a blog for every purpose under heaven…