With politics on the brain, I wondered. If I lived overseas how would I vote? So, after much digging, I found Who Should You Vote For, a website that quizzes you on political and personal beliefs and then matches you to a UK political party. Scotland, I decided. If I were a Scot, if IContinue reading “On How I'd Vote In Scotland”
On the Upcoming Elections
The Atlantic posted an article online by Jack Beatty earlier this week entitled “War and the American Voter.” Beatty looks at the historical parallels between this year’s Congressional elections and previous Congressional elections during wartime. Beatty’s conclusion? Things don’t look good for the Grand Old Party: In the five wartime congressional elections since 1860, theContinue reading “On the Upcoming Elections”
On The Eye of Argon
On this Saturday past (and with thanks to Terri Osborne) I attended Capclave, a science fiction convention in Silver Spring, Maryland. As conventions go, it was different than any I had attended before–my previous convention experiences having been limited to Shore Leave and Farpoint, both of which are media conventions, while Capclave was geared towardContinue reading “On The Eye of Argon”
On Failures
Josh Marshall at Talking Points Memo makes an interesting analogy to President Bush’s Iraq policy and his insistence upon “stay[ing] the course”–Iraq is a business start-up, and President Bush knows business start-ups. Unfortunately, what Bush knows of business start-ups is how to fail at business start-ups, as Josh explains: Setting aside the vast costs inContinue reading “On Failures”
On Headaches
Frelling migraine. I want to stab myself in the head. And, stolen from a good friend of mind, a science fiction meme! You scored as SG-1 (Stargate). You are versatile and diverse in your thinking. You have an open mind to that which seems highly unlikely and accept it with a bit of humor. NowContinue reading “On Headaches”
On Rick Santorum's Faulty Analogy
Pennsylvania’s junior Senator, Rick Santorum, spoke recently about Iraq and terrorism: Santorum said that the United States has avoided terrorist attacks at home over the past five years because the “Eye of Mordor” has been focused on Iraq instead. “As the hobbits are going up Mount Doom, the Eye of Mordor is being drawn somewhereContinue reading “On Rick Santorum's Faulty Analogy”
On An E-Mail Received
Today I received an e-mail I've been expecting for about six weeks now. It's from a reader of “Make-Believe.” The story hit close to home for him. He lost his brother-in-law in Iraq. The characters, the emotions rang true, he wrote. He said he was touched. I've written back to everyone that's written me aboutContinue reading “On An E-Mail Received”
On a Great Quote
Garrison Keillor had a fantastic line in his most recent newspaper column: When I was in college, I read Kafka and Camus and tried to write like them, in flat non-American English, as if written under the influence of a migraine, until it slowly dawned on me that I was missing the basic experiences thatContinue reading “On a Great Quote”
On Rain
It rained today. Forecasts called for an inch, give or take. In Fells Point, it seemed that we got far more than that. Rain beat up against the windows of the building, a hard driving rain that made the world feel dismal. Forecasts are calling for rain the next few days. It seems as thoughContinue reading “On Rain”
On Opera Widgets
The latest version of Opera, the 9.x version, added a new feature: widgets. Basically, they’re little mini-apps that can run under Opera. Some will bring you newsfeed. Some will tell the weather. Some play chess. Not good chess, but what does one expect for a program with a small footprint like the chess widget? OnContinue reading “On Opera Widgets”