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Category: Random Stuff

The catch-all category for random things about life in Austin, food & drink, politics, the occasional rant, whatever else.

Election Day

November 7, 2006 • • 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.

Stumbling Up the Tollway

November 6, 2006 • • 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.

Old Photo Friday

November 3, 2006 • • 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.

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

November 3, 2006 • • 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 • • 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…

David Dewhurst Doth Woo Me Everyday

November 1, 2006 • • 2 Comments

I haven’t gotten much political mail this year, which is a shame, but surprisingly, the bulk of what I have gotten has been from Republican Lt. Governor David Dewhurst. Furthermore, every campaign and get-out-the-vote call left on my machine has been from the Dewhurst campaign.

Most of the fliers are nice, glossy, full-color brochures explaining all of the things Dewhurst will do to help and protect Texas’ children (I wonder if I’m being microtargeted since I’m a teacher or is everyone getting this stuff?) I’ve always thought Dewhurst was one of the few state-level Texas Republicans who really does want to do right by Texas kids, and if I thought Chris Bell would win the governor’s race or the Democrats would get some kind of power in this state, I would consider voting for him.

Unfortunately, he lacks backbone. The Lietenant Governor in Texas, as president of the senate, has the potential to be the most powerful person in the state and yet Dewhurst has balked at exercising this power. If the welfare of kids is truly at the top of his agenda, why hasn’t he used his position to push it through instead of rolling over for Perry and Craddick?

Still, getting all this mail all of a sudden is odd considering that Dewhurst seems to be a shoe-in for reelection and his opponent has very little name recognition. But, could what she lacks in name recognition be off-set by her hispanic name: Mary Luisa Alvarado?

Vince at Capitol Annex theorizes:

Yes, Dewhurst is afraid of something that a lot of political insiders and consultants talk about, but only behind closed doors: that Hispanic surnamed candidates are attractive to Hispanic voters.

Perhaps there’s something to this, but I wonder if it might be something else. I haven’t seen any polls for the Lt. Governor’s race (are there any?) but I can’t help but wonder if the anti-Perry vote (somewhere in the mid-60s) could also be trickling down to affect the Lt. Governor’s race where there are only three candidates instead of five. Could the anti-Perry vote, which despite being massive is so splintered it will keep him in office, actually be moving against Dewhurst?

Find Everything All Right?

October 26, 2006 • • 2 Comments

When you go to the grocery store and they ask you, “Did you find everything all right?” what is the correct way to answer?

Do you say, “Yes. I was able to locate every item on my list.”?

Or do you say, “Yes. I had a pleasant shopping experience.”?

I’m never sure.

Political Mail Call

October 26, 2006 • • Leave a comment

Oh boy, oh boy! My first batch of political junk mail arrived today. Let’s start with a nice crisp folding card stock piece with a matte finish from the Texas GOP. It suggests that I “Vote for Your Texas Republican Team” just above pictures of the very same Texas Republicans who have already demonstrated what amounts to either an inability or an unwillingness to govern.

The inside portion is a handy list of all the early polling locations in my county along with the times that the polls will be open as well as what appears to be a booger (an act of bioterror?) above the name of the public library in Round Rock. Well, that’s helpful (the info, not the booger), I thought until I read the message at the bottom:

By voting early for all Republicans, you can zip in and out and make sure your vote is counted for Texas’ future.

I guess if I vote for Democrats my vote won’t be counted for Texas’ future? Or will I just have to wait in a longer line? Well, I better vote a straight GOP ticket if I want to make sure my vote will count.

Ok, let’s take a look at the next one. It’s from Republican Lt. Governor David Dewhurst. He’d like me to vote for him so that he can lead the effort to pass Jessica’s Law. The flyer ticks off all the ways sex offenders would be punished and has a picture of Jessica Lunsford who was raped and murdered by a previously convicted sex offender. This sounds good to me, and I applaud Mr Dewhurst for wanting to protect kids, but why, Mr. Dewhurst, haven’t you done anything about this already?

You’ve been the lieutenant governor, which means you’ve been in charge of the senate, for the past four years in a state completely controlled by your party. Was redistricting more important to you than protecting kids from sex predators? Well, Sir, I appreciate your concern for this issue, but I think I’ll vote for someone who hasn’t already squandered her time in office, thank you.

Now that the Texas GOP and the Dewhurst campaign have each wasted a few pennies trying to convince me that they care deeply about their party this state, I will apply the final insult… off to the RECYCLING BIN!

<evil laugh>BWAAAA-HAAAAA-HAAAA</evil laugh>

Going on a Carbon Diet

October 24, 2006 • • 9 Comments

I decided to try out Slate’s Green Challenge co-sponsored by Treehugger. It’s described as an eight week carbon diet:

For the next eight weeks, Slate, in collaboration with eco-Web site treehugger, invites you to consider your own individual contribution to global warming—and challenges you to go on a carbon diet. The goal is to reduce the amount of CO2 that you put into the atmosphere by 20 percent.

You start with a test that estimates your individual carbon load. I used my car (not the hybrid my wife drives) and came out with a carbon load of 18,274 lbs, which is the equivalent of 1.79 cars. According to the results page for my test, the US average is 44,312 lbs per person so I’m not doing too bad there. I guess it helps to already be aware of some of these things.

Each week for the next eight weeks, I’ll log in and make a series of ‘pledges’ to do things that will reduce the carbon load in a specific area. This week it’s transportation. I will keep my tires inflated, make sure the air filter in the car is clean once a month, and drive 25 fewer miles per month by combining errands. I also realized that I can save 10 miles per week by taking an alternate route to work. If I do these things, I can supposedly take the equivalent of .25 cars off the road.

I could take more had I been willing to ride trains (Nope. I live in Texas.), carpool (with whom?), purchase carbon offsets (not sure I trust that one), and buy a hybrid in the next six months. The hybrid would be nice – we love ours – but reality is reality and greyhounds are big dogs and I need something that can haul them all. I’ve got a Honda CR-V and it’s great and gets decent mpg, but I’ll probably wait on the hybrid until hybrid CR-Vs come along. Honda sales people say it’ll be in a year or two.

Here are some other transportation things you can do courtesy of Slate:

  • Keep your tires properly inflated by checking them regularly when you fill up at the gas station. Environmental Defense notes that 32 million U.S. vehicles ride on at least two under-inflated tires, wasting 500 million gallons of gas each year.
  • Drive 65 miles per hour instead of 75. This increases fuel efficiency by 15 percent, thereby reducing emissions. And speeding tickets.
  • It seems almost too obvious to point out, but idling cars get zero miles per gallon. According to the Department of Energy, no more than 30 seconds of idling is needed to warm up a car, even on cold winter days.
  • Cutting your driving by a few miles each day stops tons of CO2 from entering the air each year. Could you walk or bike to do that nearby errand? Could you carpool or commute by mass transit—even just one day a week?

So, there it is. If I keep my pledges, I will have reduced my carbon load by 14% or 2558 lbs. If my math is right (a large if), I only have to lose 6% more carbon, but I’ll go for as much as I can. Won’t you join me?