You Know What I Hate?

Two posts in one day? Surely I must be drunk.

You know what I hate? When you're sweeping something up, and you use a dustpan, and there's a little line of dust that you can't quite get into the dustpan. And you keep sweeping the line up into a little pile, and then you try again, but every time you try there's still that little line of dust in the tiny space between the dustpan and the floor.

I hate that. Can nothing be done? Is the only recourse to just sweet away the tiny line, under a couch or out the door? Are these tiny lines of dust just accumulating everywhere, forever to plague us with a lack of fastidious, OCD-level cleanliness? Has the world gone mad (or was it always that way)?

Your comments are, as always, welcome.

On Principle

Well...

I don't usually comment on the news (this is not a 'political blog') but I feel compelled.

Luckily, I don't really think too much commentary is necessary. Here are three stories I heard, all in a row, on NPR News. I feel there is a theme developing...

President Bush has promised to veto a Congressional funding bill because it requires troop withdrawal by August 2008. In his comments, he expressed his outrage that the Democrats are delaying important emergency funding to the troops who need it.

There is a defendant up for the death penalty in Georgia whose trial is being delayed, for the second time (the first time was one month, this time was six), because the Georgia public defender system is running out of money. The case has so far cost them $1.4 million, and is projected to exceed $2 million.
Relatedly: the Colorado House Judiciary Committee recently voted to replaced the death penalty with life sentences, and will use the money saved (Colorado has spent an estimated $40 million in the last 30 years, and the death penalty has been sentenced thrice in that time) to try and solve the 1200 or so cold-case homicides in that state. It has been suggested that the same could be done in Georgia, but many continue to defend the death penalty.

In Colorado, due to recent measures restricting illegal immigration, there is a shortage of farm workers this season. There is a plan to offer the work to inmates in Colorado prisons, a controversial notion; an alternative, proposed by Bush and others, is a program that would bring in immigrants during the farming season and then, when the seasons ends, remove them.

So: Bush won't let the Democrats let the troops have what they need, unless he can keep them there longer. Georgia will continue trying to kill people who kill people, even if it costs Georgians a whole lot of money (which could actually be used to stop other people from continuing to kill people). And we've gotten rid of a bunch of foreigners who are the only ones willing to do the work we need done (except, of course, for the prisoners we don't want doing the work), and so maybe we'll invite those foreigners back in but then politely ask them to leave when the work gets done.

It can at least be said that many of us here in the US are sticking to our guns (an expression which, unfortunately, I use quite literally).

Okay, so maybe that's a little bit of commentary; I couldn't resist.


P.S. One of my favorites: My favorite people right now: the people who answered the question in my last post. Fewer than I expected, but clearly the best of the best.

I'm feeling bloggy, so I'll blog.

"I wanna frollic scientifically."

How true.

That's a Quote of the Day, and it's Number 4.

I think it's funny, but it's definitely funnier if you know Maggaggie and can imagine her saying it (she was complaining that a friend of hers gets to go do something cool, while she doesn't really know what to do).

Maggaggie is one of many people who, I'm quite sure, don't read this blog. It is my impression that the group of people who don't read this blog is quite large, but how large exactly? How about, just this once (and any other time I feel like it), you post a comment if you are reading this? You don't actually have to say anything, just indicate your name somehow.

Until recently, I was under the impression that these, our little 'network' of 'blogs', were only being read by the people who have blogs (which if true, might I add, makes the whole thing seem slightly solipsistic), but now Cram Raisin's commentacious last entry (yes, that's right Jimijimjim, two can play at that game) has proven me wrong. And that got me wondering.

If you do feel like telling me something, tell me your favorite of something in a unique category. By which I mean, pick a category of things (favorite letter of the alphabet or something) that you think noone else would think to pick (so, for example, not 'favorite letter of the alphabet'), and then tell your favorite of that thing. It's a game I just invented because I'm bored and tired all at once, and, as I mentioned, I'm feeling bloggy.

This is especially ridiculous because I am really just talking about (or I think I am just talking about) one person. So this is the equivalent of if I thought I was talking to someone behind me, but instead of turning around I just shouted everything I had to say while facing away from that person, only to find out that there was nobody there and I was shouting at myself. I like the word solipsistic, so I'll use it again. But go ahead, surprise me.