Z.Monkey’s Blog

Hey all, heard about this game on NPR.  It is a game about redistricting voting districts.  I’ve not played it yet, as I don’t want to start that type of behavior at work.  If you give a shot let me know how it is.

D14 sent this to me.  It is probably one of a million ways to compare how much the war in Iraq has cost us.  I think the one problem is that this is a supplemental bill.  There is normal everyday military money going into the war.  Nor does this cover the lose of life or the long term medical bills for the 20-odd percent of our troops who are coming home injured. Though the pentagon has found ways to save money on the war.  Way to go guys.  Real bang-up job you’re doing.

It seems that the US Attorney thing is all over the news now a days, but I just read through a blog article that outlines our NH Attorney record. This is mostly focused on the Phone Jamming scandal from back in ‘04 and it is an interesting read. I’m sure the source is biased but do you think there is something here? I am still to ignorant of NH politics… maybe it is time to start reading a local newspaper (blah!). Is there actually a good NH newspaper? The NH Gazette, while entertaining, just isn’t enough.

Also, anyone else get annoyed by the daylight savings time change? I’m personally think it is a waste of time and money to switch our clocks twice a year. How many man hours are wasted by exhausted employees every spring (i.e. like me right now)? Does it actually save any energy at all? How much money does the change over cost us in software updates, missed flights, missed calls and customer complaints? I assume that Bushie didn’t do any research before this was forced on us (knowing his view on science), so what was the decision based on? I think it was just a way to make Bush appear to be environmental while doing absolutely nothing. It is frustrating.

In case you are wondering about the decrease in my posting, here are my reasons/excuses:

1. I haven’t felt like posting about politics.  While more things seem to be happening, not much more seems to be getting done.  Mostly because the Republicans are doing what they accused the Democrats of doing. Remember this? While, I’m not tired of following politics I am more annoyed than angry, because now there is a chance to move back to where we were before Bushie.
2. I usually post at work.  I don’t often turn on my computer when I’m at home (this probably seems like an odd statement to those who never turn yours off), and lately I have found myself extremely busy at work.  Now I like being busy because it makes the day go by faster and makes it feel like I’m getting things done.  Though, every time I invest any of myself into this place I get burned.  It’s like a bad relationship, you just keep on working to make her (it?) change but deep down you know she (it?) never will.
3. I’ve been trying to keep myself busy not thinking how long it was til we left for London.  This is now only two days away so I can post!
4. I’ve been watching more hockey.  The bruins have stopped losing recently and, hopefully, they will keep it up. There has been the Bean Pot (BC should have won) and UNH has been on TV quite a bit.  We also went to see a Monarch’s game last Saturday with Toby, his wife-to-be :), and Jared, which was really fun even if we didn’t end up having car bombs, get a Mr. Potato Head, or win french fries.
5. Been trying to wrap my head around the arguments one of the guys I work with has been trying to make.  I personally don’t feel that ‘instilling virtue’ is one of the roles of government, or that the scientific method destroys free will (or what that has to do with morality).  I’m trying to understand his ideas because it seems to be what a lot of people believe but I’m failing.
6. Generally being lazy.

Saturday was pretty fun in general.  We went skating on the pond in the morning, then went over to my folks’ place.  Toby, Lindsey and Jared met us over there, which was cool (it made it feel more like home, which is weird).  My mom even called to say what a good time she had.  We then drove down to Manch and had dinner at Strangebrew ($2 dollars for most everything they had on tap, except the beers we ordered which were $3).  The food was pretty good and the beer selection was excellent… I haven’t had Leffe since I was in Korea.  The crowd at the game was pretty loud and excited (more so than at the Bruins games, but the Monarch are leading their division) and there were lots of quirky gimmicks, including a T-Shirt cannon.  Oh, and the company was good even if I could not hear what anyone was saying throughout the game.

Enough.  Peace out.

Apparently, moving stuff around is some sort of political or social statement.  Maybe it is because I’m getting old but I’m conflicted.  While the image below is extremely amusing to me, the person most likely to notice this in a bookstore is an employee, and the employee is probably just going to sigh and put it back.  Maybe chuckle.

In the end this ends up being just like graffiti.  While some can be very cool, most are just penises or names scribbled on a wall.  Plus, no matter how cool, so images are just not appropriate in some locations.  Anyway, I guess the idea is force people to look at a book out of context, but I don’t really understand using 1984.  How can it be taken as anything other than a warning?

It turns out that 95% of everyone has sex before they are married.  Wow is that not shocking, but it does raise a good point about the effectiveness of the abstinence based programs Bushie is forcing on everyone.  If 95% are going to have sex before they are married then it is important for 95% of us to know about contraceptives (preferable before we become sexually active).  Teaching sex ed is not a moral question, it is a necessity.  That aside, in the article the author paraphrases Wade Horn, assistant secretary for children and families at the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (who supports these abstinence based programs):

Horn said he found the high percentages of premarital sex cited in the study to be plausible, and expressed hope that society would not look askance at the small minority that chooses to remain abstinent before marriage.

Hehe.  He’s asking us to not make fun of the loser who can’t get laid.  Hehe.  (Sorry Grue)  I wonder if this is a sensitive spot for him.  Ah… juvenile humor.

Two weeks ago I was feeling a bit down… not really sure if I remember why or if I knew why at the time.  The Scientist tried to make me feel better by going and getting a Christmas Tree.  I’m not sure if it worked at the time but it does make the living room smell nice.  According to History.com “… as late as the 1840s Christmas trees were seen as pagan symbols and not accepted by most Americans.”  I also find some amusement pointing out hypocrisies.  Anyway, here is our tree:

On another note, when we moved into our new place we inherited a Flag.  This is nice, I suppose, but it is in poor condition and I don’t want the flag police to write me up (in a newspaper article).  All I can say is it is a good thing those crazy senators didn’t pass that flag burning desecration amendment, because, according to the Flag Keeper’s website, “The U.S. Flag Code states, ‘The flag, when it is in such condition that it is no longer a fitting emblem for display, should be destroyed in a dignified way, preferably by burning’.”  Now I’m sure the legislation was intended to stop people from destroying our flags (with malicious intent) but it might have interfered with people trying to destroy our flags (with a patriotic intent).  Can you really have different punishments for the same action, where the only difference is intent?  Our Flag:

I stopped by Wal-mart this morning and did not succeed in getting a Wii. I didn’t get up as early as I should have which was apparently 5:30 or so (the first people showed up around 2:30 this morning). Back to the phones to call each store to see when they plan on releasing more!  I am a failure!
Google search ‘failure’ shows whitehouse.gov/president as the #1 result and michaelmoore.com as the #2 result. It makes me laugh what people choose to google bomb. Neither of these individuals are failures:

• assholes? #1 = yes, #2 = maybe,
• arrogant? #1 = yes, #2 = yes,
• stupid? #1 = maybe, #2 = no,
• misleading? #1 = yes, #2 = yes,
• lying? #1 = yes, #2 = maybe.
• failure? #1 = president, #2 = Oscar winning director

The scientist and I caught the end of this 20/20 segment on Friday.  It questions why women in America do not get more maternity leave, and why child care costs so much (upwards of $10,000 per year per child).

For example, of 168 countries surveyed in the world, only four offer no national maternity-leave program: Lesotho, Swaziland, Papua New Guinea, and the United States of America.

Not getting more time off could possibly make things a little difficult for us this coming May.  I’ll probably end up working a 4 day week, but that means we have a kid in day care for 10 hours.  Is that good for a two month old?  Hell, why don’t I get paternity leave!  We’re both going to probably use up a sizable chunk, if not all, of our vacation time.  Anyway, it’s an interesting story (though I don’t think there is enough outrage… it seems like tired acceptance) and you can watch it if you don’t feel like reading.

On the way in to work I was listening to some commentary on what the new Democratic NH government will do, courtesy of NHPR.  (The scientist and I were sort of discussing the same thing last night)  A professor from St. Anselm’s commented that the democrats need to make sure they do not follow their first instinct of fiscal irresponsibility while trying to resolve the education issue.  I don’t understand this.  In my experience the main offenders of fiscal irresponsibility have been the republicans (though I suppose they have been in power my entire political life).  They started a war and cut taxes for god’s sake!  He did echo some of the scientist’s comments from last night, in that the NH population has not become more democratic but that the republican party has become less New Hampshire-esque (i.e. pandering to social conservatives who should get their big fat heads out of our bedrooms).  So I guess he wasn’t all bad, but can someone explain why republicans are supposed to be more fiscally responsible?  Is it because they believe in lower taxes?  I hear that ‘Goldwater‘ Republicans believe that if you raise spending on one thing you have to cut equally from another (which just makes sense, though it leaves out raising taxes), but are there any ‘Goldwater’ Republicans left?  Because if there were, I think that the election on Tuesday might have been different.  What does anyone else think?  This is, of course, assuming that we can have a fair election and that big money does not own our representatives.
So what will the democrats do?  Here’s what I think:

• Raise taxes
• Force our children to have sex with strangers
• Force our children to have abortions

Oops… that’s what Fox news thinks.  Let’s try that again.

• Education, as a state, what do we need to do? how much will it cost? can we pay for it?
• Tax (optional), change them if item 1 requires.
• Increase NH energy independence
• Increase environmental conservation measures (clean air, more money for state parks)

What do you think?