Unqualified Offerings

By Thoreau
Usually, if somebody is working on a plan that will eventually involve or affect you in some substantial way, it’s best to have a conversation with that person early in the process.  If the person is open to suggestions, by giving input early you can shape the plan in a way that’s mutually beneficial.  [...]

By Thoreau
Over the weekend, we discussed how the rank-and-file supporters of legalization do mostly lean left (although some of my more nanny-style lefty friends and “I don’t smoke it so taxing it won’t affect me!” righty friends run counter to both sides of that stereotype) Democratic politicians are mostly against legalization (at least in public) [...]

Steelers won today and I’m glad, even though I haven’t watched a football game this season yet. But Tim Graham at ESPN is blogging nonsense:

But Steratore’s ruling [on a fumble-possession replay challenge] wasn’t the reason [Miami lost].
“It was a big play in the game, but it shouldn’t have come down to that play,” Dolphins head [...]

By Thoreau
My nephew’s school can’t call their party at the end of October a Halloween party.  They call it a literature party (since most Halloween…um, I mean, end of October harvest festival celebration) costumes are based on characters in stories.  Why do they have to do this?  Because Halloween is apparently a religious holiday.
Look, I [...]

By Thoreau
I keep hearing that regardless of whether Prop. 19 passes, it will generate excitement and turn out among voters who will support the Democrats. Now, I grant that there are many good reasons why individuals who support Prop. 19 might also support Democrats, but if legalization is really the main issue that’s getting [...]

It means picking against two people it’s never smart money to go against – Bruce Baugh and Patrick Nielsen Hayden – but in this case you can avoid both misunderstanding and the final serial comma by rewriting the sentence as
Among those interviewed were Kris Kristofferson, Robert Duvall and his two ex-wives.
That said, the strongest argument [...]

At Boing-Boing, Rob Beschizza gives us the New York Times Torture Euphemism Generator web app.

It turns out the NYT has a reputation for studiously avoiding the word, to the point of using bizarre bureaucratic alternatives.
It must be awfully hard work inventing these things. So I thought I’d help out . . .

As with all random apps, [...]

By Thoreau
I’m probably just dwelling on the trivialities of my comfortable suburban professional existence, but my basic grievance against big companies is that when they screw up they take 6-8 weeks to fix it, usually after multiple phone calls and whatnot, but if I screw up a penalty is immediately levied.  This happens on every [...]

By Thoreau
Prof. Yoo, circa 2001-2008 (paraphrased):
The power of the federal government should be without limits.  If the Decider wants to crush a kid’s balls, go for it!
Prof. Yoo, 2010:
The 17th Amendment weakened the states’ ability to resist the expansion of federal powers. The problem is that there is no point to trying to [...]

By Thoreau
Russia gives medals to the spies deported from the US over the summer. As far as we can tell, these spies accomplished very little aside from draining large expense accounts and attracting FBI attention.  And for that, they get top honors.
Did somebody put the Bush administration in charge of Russian state honors?