Below are the 20 most recent journal entries recorded in weremensch's LiveJournal:

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Wednesday, July 16th, 2008
7:22 pm	Today is the 63rd birthday of the Atomic Bomb. In two years it will be eligible to retire with full Social Security benefits, plus what has to be an incredible government pension (what with longevity bonuses). Yeah, I know; but wouldn't it be nice to hope? (2 Comments |Comment on this)
Sunday, July 13th, 2008
9:43 pm	I realized, as I got off a bus from elsewhere, that I hadn't gone for a walk down by the river for many moons (the weather was still chilly at the time). Oddly enough, there were more people out this time; but that aside it was still a nice enough way to get some air and a bit of thinking done. Not that I do that, of course; but were I to, it would have been. (1 Comment |Comment on this)
Tuesday, July 1st, 2008
8:01 pm	A few thoughts... First, I've been working out in Queens for a few months. Nothing terribly interesting there; but there's a community garden nearby. So I'm the proud gardener of about 8 dill plants, which are supposed to get somewhere between 3 and 5 feet tall eventually. Good thing I like dill, isn't it? Second, a political thought. Right now, the GOP is doing everything they can to keep the Census Bureau defunded so the planning for the upcoming census can't happen. Why? They're terrified that the Democrats will control the process starting in January '09; and the Bureau will be told to actually count the population of the United States. If this comes to pass, then many (probably tens of) millions of people will be found in our cities that would have been ignored under the Republican standards of the last two censuses. Where does the tens of millions figure come from? Case in point, New York City. The GOP standards tell us there are 8 million New Yorkers; while every utility that keeps track of usage (which is to say all of them) tell us that there are 12-14 million New Yorkers. New York City can hardly be the only town in this situation; and oddly enough the cities with large illegal populations (either here illegally, or in illegal shelter) are all Democratic strongholds. That all of the (largely Republican) suburbs and exurbs will officially lose some of their currently overcounted population is noteworthy, but fairly trivial by comparison. Still, if the count is an accurate reflection of the population, then there will heard the giant flushing sound of one to two dozen Red suburban and exurban congressional districts disappearing forever into Blue cities and states (gas prices will see to that). Better to thwart the law and the Constitution, says the GOP; the alternative is having to find honest work. (1 Comment |Comment on this)
Tuesday, June 3rd, 2008
6:23 pm	It seems that so far as computer RPGs are concerned, brushing the dog IRL is a free action. The dog doesn't seem to mind either. (Comment on this)
Monday, March 24th, 2008
8:35 pm	I saw a memo today which contained the line "Please be ware that a fax is coming...". So I was duly apprehensive for a while. (4 Comments |Comment on this)
Wednesday, March 19th, 2008
9:07 pm	A few days back I was reading a local paper in the subway. In the middle of the political news was a comment in a story about New York's new governor; that everyone is so glad the tawdriness our last one was involved in is over. In the back of my mind I had to add the line: 'but if you're not equally glad, feel free to turn back to the picture of the hooker in a bikini on page 3'. It's not much of a paper, but it's cheap and has the comics. (1 Comment |Comment on this)
Monday, February 25th, 2008
12:28 am	According to some mouthwash manufacturer, hydrogenated castor oil is supposed to make their product taste good. I'm not entirely sure I want to know what they consider to be tasting bad... (2 Comments |Comment on this)
Monday, February 18th, 2008
12:47 pm	It seems that there is a bill before the Pennsylvania legislature. If it passes, it would protect any doctor that doesn't like the idea that women should be seeking reproductive health services from any possible comeback if he denies them to her and says the magic words 'religious objection'. As it happens, this is far from the first time some Republican has proposed something like this bill in legislatures around the country. Now me, I suspect there's more to this than pandering to those so willfully ignorant as to think the GOP actually cares about the life of anyone without a trust fund. I think they're trying to create a precedent for hospitals with religious objections to treating the uninsured to be held harmless if they adhere to that precept. If I were into sucker bets, I'd wager $20 that if such a law is ever upheld by the Supremes, some hospital corporation will be in court trying to claim exactly that privilege within 48 hours...but who'd be crazy enough to take that bet? (4 Comments |Comment on this)
Friday, February 1st, 2008
1:11 am	Happy Leapmonth, everyone. (Comment on this)
Thursday, January 3rd, 2008
11:45 pm	A little while ago, in a faraway land called Iowa, Senator Clinton was outpolled by two of the other candidates. There are those captious critics who may claim that this will somewhat tarnish her aura of inevitability; though she still stands a fair chance against B'rer Huckabee if it comes to that. At least for her party's nomination. (2 Comments |Comment on this)
Tuesday, January 1st, 2008
1:20 pm	So, happy new year. I managed to find myself among a houseful of almost complete strangers who insisted on singing every verse of Auld Lang Syne last night; so it looks like this year is off to an interesting start. Let's see what comes next, shall we? (Comment on this)
Thursday, December 27th, 2007
7:47 pm	For those who missed it, ex-prime minister Benazir Bhutto was assassinated by a bomb, bullet, or both this morning. This bodes. (8 Comments |Comment on this)
Saturday, December 15th, 2007
5:29 am	A few hours ago, my downstairs neighbor gave up his smoking habit. According to informed rumor, he also gave up his drinking habit. He even gave up his very short lived inadvertent arson habit. Alas, in the process of all of this he gave up his breathing habit. Meanwhile, upstairs, I happened to be the one who called the Fire Department; mostly because I was awake already and online (and so I noticed the various telltale hints of wrongness, like smoke coming out from under the sink). Owing to the various speed of my noticing, and the speed of the nice firemen putting in an appearance, this apartment is merely something of a smoky smelling mess (and a bit dented here and there, where a wall or two was opened). Heck, we still have an internet hookup, so how bad can it be? Still, this is a wood building; it could have been somewhat worse had the whole thing taken a few minutes longer. Here's hoping the smell is abated enough to close the windows by the time the storm hits tonight. (18 Comments |Comment on this)
Tuesday, December 4th, 2007
10:06 am	I was born the day World War I ended. At least, so far as LJ is concerned. Stupid age filters. Now let's see what kind of content I'm too young for. Btw; the US intelligence estimate that just came out reveals that the Iranians stopped their military nuclear program (as opposed to the rest of it) four years ago. Granted they don't really need one, but still it's idly amusing to see the CIA giving the 'war with Iran' crowd the finger. (2 Comments |Comment on this)
Wednesday, November 21st, 2007
12:56 pm	First, bear in mind that what brought Nixon down wasn't the crime committed in the Watergate; it was the crime committed covering it up. Now, with that in mind, do you recall Scott McClellan? Dubya's ex-spokesliar? He's written a book, due out next spring. There's an excerpt at the publisher's site: The most powerful leader in the world had called upon me to speak on his behalf and help restore credibility he lost amid the failure to find weapons of mass destruction in Iraq. So I stood at the White house briefing room podium in front of the glare of the klieg lights for the better part of two weeks and publicly exonerated two of the senior-most aides in the White House: Karl Rove and Scooter Libby. There was one problem. It was not true. I had unknowingly passed along false information. And five of the highest ranking officials in the administration were involved in my doing so: Rove, Libby, the vice President, the President's chief of staff, and the President himself. This broke yesterday. So...how's that left leaning media doing at telling you about it? Olberman, Huffington, sure; but as for the rest? NY Times? Washington Post? Anything broadcast? *cue crickets* Oh, well. In other news, Chocolate was discovered 500 years earlier than recently thought. It seems that it was a side effect of brewing cacao fruit beer; fermenting the beans in the pulp liberated the theobromine, and when someone tried grinding the seeds into the beer (for whatever reason) the resulting beverage had a very interesting kick indeed... (4 Comments |Comment on this)
Tuesday, November 13th, 2007
12:09 pm	A study was released a few days ago, which compared the intelligence of women (and their kids) to their figures. How they wrote that proposal, I can but imagine...anyway, they found that the larger the hip/waist ratio, the more intelligent a woman and her kids are likely to be. Just in case anyone happens to have an iron in that particular fire. (2 Comments |Comment on this)
Tuesday, November 6th, 2007
10:01 pm	I was just listening to the radio, and some fellow was wondering how likely it was that number 7 World Trade Center collapsed that neatly (and quickly) without help; which is to say explosives. He went on to mention that someone showed him an analysis of the dust from nearby windows, which showed the same spikes you would find from thermite (a steel cutting incendiary). Thermite, thinks I. The products of a thermite reaction are aluminum oxide powder and molten iron, thinks I. So they found the same substances in the dust that you would find if, say, aluminum airplanes hit a steel building and then burned. I find the controlled demolitions crowd a bit hard to credit. (4 Comments |Comment on this)
Friday, November 2nd, 2007
3:43 pm	A thought crossed my mind. Yes, yes; very quickly, there wasn't much in the way...but that aside. As many of you will recall, the Republicans and their fellow travelers were very concerned with the sanctity of the voter rolls a while ago. Lots of talk about a completely fictitious plague of voter fraud, about how this must be dealt with, about how voter ID cards (with accompanying administrative fees) were the only way to go. Then the first such law reached the Supreme Court from Georgia, and was struck down as an obvious poll tax. Within 24 hours the entire issue was gone. All the bills were withdrawn (the one that had already passed but not been signed was tossed), nobody would discuss the matter, it was a non-event, it had never happened. No points for figuring out what the Republicans really meant when they said "ID card". So what was my thought? Simply this; that the Democrats should now take up the idea of mandatory voter ID cards, and push them through in every state they can. The only difference is that unlike all of the Republican bills, the Democratic bills should make the State liable for the total cost of the program. Every voter should receive photo ID upon registering. No Constitutional problems, fairly minimal cost, everyone gets what the GOP claimed to want. But, I hear some of you asking, why bother? Just this; the Republicans wanted poll taxes (disguised as administrative fees) because they drive the poor out of the system. The more expensive and time consuming the process of registering to vote becomes, the more that people who are already having to put off paying bills will be deterred from doing so. Public financing would give these same working poor free photo ID for the trouble of registering; something they would very much desire (especially those not licensed to drive). This would bring the poor and working poor into the electoral system by the millions...and having come in, a certain number would participate in elections. A win/win from a point of view that values a pluralistic democracy, and thinks that the government should assist the poor in their daily lives (as I happen to). Of course, this makes it a lose/lose from the point of view of the GOP; but what the heck, it was their idea after all. (2 Comments |Comment on this)
Tuesday, October 30th, 2007
10:55 am	The acting head of the Consumer Product Safety Commission (which means Bush still hasn't nominated one) just told Congress not to increase her budget. Under no circumstances does she want consumers to be better protected than a proper Republican deems suitable, which is to say essentially not at all; and rehiring inspectors, restoring an adequate budget for them, and such like steps would interfere with that program. The White House plans to send at least one supporting letter to this request. In other news, Dog shoots Man. Hey, it could become the new cliche... (Comment on this)
Monday, October 22nd, 2007
11:46 pm	NASA commissioned a study about the safety of commercial air travel, where they questioned the pilots about what was happening in their world. This study will not be released. The contractor was ordered to destroy the data. Why? According to the nice Republican appointee in charge, releasing it 'could damage the publics' confidence in airlines and affect airline profits'. Our lives? Not a big concern down GOP way. But they do love their money. (Comment on this)