A Black Friday Experiment

Here's the story- it's really very intuitive. If you've been using Dos/Win 3.1/and assorted other Windows iterations it will be no problem at all.

Well, maybe, but I've been using Bill Gates products since 1985.

I promise, I really do, that I will learn to use a mouse pad. In the meantime it's me for the mouse.

I have had the same Fujitsu Laptop for almost seven years. Bits and pieces have stopped working or required amateur tinkering in the sub basements of the operating system.

So yesterday I went Mac. I have managed to get on line and set up my mail (finally.) I'll publish this and then try to turn this devil off. (Just kidding) I'm as happy as a clam in the mud.

Socialism? Yes, Please!

One of the fear memes of the recent Republican campaign was the terrifying aspect of the Socialist bogeyman, lurking like some anarchist bomb thrower ready to blow us all into the gray monotony of a classless society.

I have always suspected that the people who appeal to the “threat of Socialism” are using the word ‘socialism’ the way we sometimes use the word ‘Nazi’—as an indicator of our own state of extreme, frenzied, and emotional disapproval. I don’t think that used in this context the word has any objective denotation at all; it’s just a big “boo word.” It’s like calling someone a S—t Head.

These folks wouldn’t recognize a socialist if one bit ‘em on the ass.

“Some socialists advocate complete nationalization of the means of production, distribution, and exchange; while others advocate state control of capital within the framework of a market economy. Social democrats propose selective nationalization of key national industries in mixed economies combined with tax-funded welfare programs.”
---Wikipedia

The first sort of socialism, the complete nationalization of production, distribution, and exchange was the path that failed in the Soviet Union, but the socialism of the modern Social Democratic movements has, on balance, been successful.

It’s been successful here in the United States, the two most prominent examples of which are Social Security and Medicare. In addition there is the complex network of social safety net programs, two examples of which are unemployment insurance and legislation governing worker health and safety.

It is not Socialism we have to fear, but the kind of Capitalism that is the mirror image of Soviet socialism-- the unregulated robber baronage that has got us into out present economic difficulties.

More to come.

Don't Go, Governor!

I urge everyone to contact Governor Napolitano, asking her to continue to serve the people of Arizona as Governor. Given the state of Arizona's legislature and the specter of a Republican governor we clearly need her here. (Incidentally,this will be an excellent platform from which to launch a 2010 US Senate campaign, should she wish to run.)

The full mailing address is:
The Honorable Janet Napolitano
Governor of Arizona
1700 West Washington
Phoenix, Arizona 85007

Telephone (602) 542-4331
Toll Free 1-(800) 253-0883
Fax (602) 542-1381
On her website (http://azgovernor.gov/Contact.asp) there is a form for e-mailing her.

Suggestion: it is hard to avoid noticing paper correspondence, which spills out of fax machines in abundance. If possible I suggest you fax the governor.

Submissive Democrats give Lieberman a Pass

Oops, that should have been "Senate Democrats."

Just when I was about to re-register as a Democrat the Senate Democrats wuss out on Lieberman. Guess I’ll remain a progressive Independent.

Let’s see. The Democrats control the House, the Presidency, and with or without old Mr. Sanctimony have a majority in the Senate. Lieberman ran as an Independent after he was rejected by the Democrats of his state and then campaigned with the Republicans.

Let him caucus with the Republicans and good riddance.

Two short quotations from today’s Salon are spot on:

Nov. 19, 2008 | WASHINGTON -- If you ever happen to find yourself accused of serious wrongdoing -- publicly betraying your friends and colleagues, say, or maybe something like a federal felony conviction -- forget about a jury of your peers. What you're really looking for is a jury composed entirely of members of the United States Senate.

Both of Tuesday's big winners would seem to be ideal candidates for some kind of harsh punishment: Lieberman, for not just endorsing John McCain but putting down Barack Obama as just "a talker" and other deprecating remarks, and campaigning for the reelection of Senate Republicans. And Stevens, for hiding a quarter million bucks in "gifts" from businessmen.

After Word

Prolificity

I guess that’s a real word. I imagine it shares roots with the French word, “prolificeur:” One who writes much and writes frequently. There is, I believe, a German expression, “prolificheit,” used to characterize frequent publication.

I gather that one of my favorite prolificheitmeisters, x4mr over at Sustainability, has been taken to task for not writing as much, or as frequently, as his devoted readers could wish.

His defense of publishing episodes (following Gauss) that are “few but ripe” is well taken; as is his reminder that most of us in the blogosphere are amateurs---folks who do this for the love of it. For a variety of reasons we have volunteered for the duty, which has to be squeezed into days filled with the ordinary demands of are our rich, full, lives.

I hope Matt will continue his detailed and thoughtful writing. But once a week is plenty.

Having Nothing to Say

Or, rather, having nothing to say that isn’t already being said, it has seemed to me that a decent respect for the patience of my readers required a measured and respectful silence.

I confess to a writer’s pride. I fancy myself a master of a style once described as “elegant Victorian snottiness,” but when everyone is writing that the emperor is jay-bird naked what more is there to be said?


Political Irony

The neo-con Republicans wanted to shrink government until it could be dragged into the bathroom and drowned in the tub. Americans so despised the Bush regime that they shrank the Republican Party instead. We have dragged it into the bathroom, now let’s fill the tub.

Tucson Precinct 56

Katherine and I got up at five this morning and hustled off to our Orange Grove School polling place. Arrived at 5:30 to find that we were not the first in line. There were two ahead of us.

When the polls opened there were 56 people in line. When we finished voting there was an even longer line than when we went in. Poll workers seemed to know their stuff although they were a tad slow.

Met District 26 legislative candidate Don Jorgensen out at the 75 foot limit- palm carding.

NY Times reports first election victory for Obama. He carries Dixville Notch, New Hampshire, 15 to 6.