Saturday, December 31, 2005

New Year's Resolutions   I didn't go out tonight because...well, I feel fine today, but I was still really sick yesterday, so tonight I'm probably still carrying the bad cold I had for the last few days.  It seems to me spreading my cold around on New Year's Eve is probably not the best possible karma to get on New Year's Eve.  I'm even sober on New Year's Eve, which breaks a streak of about 17 years (that I wasn't drunk on this day, not entire years, that is.)  And I've always been fuzzy when to come up with New Year's Resolutions:  New Year's Eve, or New Year's Day.  Since the word "Eve" isn't included, I think tomorrow is when, so I’m starting a little early (feel free to correct me if I'm wrong), but I'll be adding to this list tomorrow.   I resolve to...have more resolve. There was a girl I knew who always had chocolate on a table by her bed.  When she woke in the morning, she would put some chocolate in her mouth, so "every moment was bursting with sweetness".  Yes, sappy, I know.  She got the idea from a book.  I resolve to lose weight in the coming year. I resolve to live every day.  I mean, that's it.  I don't want to die.  You didn't think I was going to say, "I resolve to live every day like it was my last”, did you?  Because that would be crazy.  You start living like that and pretty soon you'd be right. Many years ago, Adlai Stevenson made this offer:  "I have been thinking that I would make a proposition to my Republican friends...that if they will stop telling lies about the Democrats, we will stop telling the truth about them."  I'm making the same offer. I'd kind of like to learn how to juggle. I want to sleep less (true every year) and read and write more...and you see how neatly those go together?  If I spent less time resting, I'd have more time for reading and writing.  Sleep is just...wasteful.  I try and I try to quit, but I just can't kick the habit. 11:32:37 PM    comment []

Republicans Prospects in Minnesota May Be Very Bad   There were special elections in two formerly Republican state Senate districts in Minnesota last Tuesday.  Things didn't go very well for the Republicans.  Actually, that's an understatement.  They went spectacularly badly.  Republicans lost one district by 18%; they lost the other by 45%.  Granted, distaste for the President was a factor; the folks at the Powerline blog are practically the only Republicans in Minnesota who haven't been expressing something between disappointment and rage over President Bush's efforts to discard the Constitution in his efforts to turn the Presidency into an elected dictatorship.  I use that term advisedly; the major distinction between a President--or even a king--and a dictator is that Presidents and kings are subject to their nation's laws, while a dictator is above the law.  Lately, this administration has been explicitly making the argument that the President's not subject to the law. The Republicans I talk to can stomach the President's recreational war; they are for his tax cuts; they can even hold their noses for his explosive increases in domestic spending; but his contempt for the Constitution and civil rights is too much for them.  And some find it deserving how few Republican office holders are willing to stand up for the Constitution.  That has broader implications than just the President's approval ratings.  None of those folks voted in the two elections where Republican districts voted for Democrats in a landslide.  But it might shed some light on just how that happened. If the administration doesn't start paying more respect to the rights of American citizens, as opposed to the supposed "right" of the President to break the law--any law, every law--with impunity, some other solidly Republican districts may flip by large margins as well. 8:02:07 AM    comment []

Quote for the Day, 12/31/2005   "He's got that look in his eye that I had when I was his age.  The look that says he's here until he leaves..."   -Warren Ellis, Transmetropolitan, "What Spider Watches on TV"   As a body of work, the dystopian Transmetropolitan comic book series compares on at least an equal footing with The Watchmen or V is for Vendetta or Sin City or really any of the much-ballyhooed graphic novels.  Ballyhoo is a fun word.  (And yes, I know, I'm a bit of a comic book geek.) 3:21:17 AM    comment []