“First, writing the decisions down is essential. Only when one writes to the gaps appear and the inconsistencies protrude. The act of writing turns out to require hundreds of mini-decisions, and it is the existence of these that distinguishes clear, exact policies from fuzzy ones.”
— Frederick P. Brooks, Jr. “The Mythical Man-Month” (via Brad)
Today is MC Frontalot‘s 35th birthday, which means he’s 6 days older than me. And he always will be! In honor of that, I give you a series of nerdy dances:
“How am I supposed to vote with my dollar if you won’t even give me a polling place?”
— Karen, trying to get around Southern California by train
Today’s “guest post” is shamelessly copied from an email I got from Lee. The words are his, but I share the sentiment. ~c
My friends (!) -
So you know how most of the world kinda wishes we could just undo Bush? Maybe take away the God-like power W gave to the presidency? Perhaps return some level of civility and worldliness to our approach to global enforcement? I see this happening in 3 steps:
1. Replace Bush with Unbush — DONE
Maybe a Democrat. An eloquent one. Ooh! And make him black. And from the north. And level-headed. And a good listener! Ooh, this is gonna be good!
2. Unmake Bush’s abusive laws — YOU HELP HERE
Support Ron Paul’s “American Freedom Agenda Act”, which is seriously as close as I can imagine us realistically sending giant “f u” to Bush, and a pragmatic turnaround toward reason. I did, and it literally took two minutes. Don’t be lazy. It took longer to vote. I’ll even give you a note to copy-paste (thanks to Brad):
Please co-sponsor the “American Freedom Agenda Act of 2007″ (HR 3835). Undoing the damage done by G. W. Bush and his calamitous administration over the past eight years must be our single most important focus with the start of a new presidency and Congress. Please throw your complete support behind this bill to restore the American people back to the position that they deserve—the position that was created by the prescient and able founders of this nation.”
3. Repair the gaping wounds with the world and ourselves — AWAITING OBAMA PRESIDENCY
I’m hoping our nation will become a citizen of the world again (not its parent), refocus on domestic programs, balance the budget, reinvent health care, etc. You know, the basics. Easy-breezy.
Like most of you, I’m not an email forwarder (to be fair: I wrote this). But I do suddenly find myself a proud, caring American. I’m eager to help, but I’m busy. This is how I felt good today. I just wanted to share that opportunity with my friends. Please help!
Love,
Lee
I went to bed last night full of pride in my country’s ability to (just barely) choose reason over innuendo, hope over fear. This morning I’m still buoyed by the thought of an Obama presidency, but it’s dampened by some of the terrible choices my state and my city appear to have made. So on a day when the world congratulates us for moving past color, I have to wonder: what happened to California?
UPDATE: Ah. The Onion explained it to me. I guess California hasn’t hit rock-bottom yet.