The long national nightmare returns, I hope.

The Onion didn't foresee stem cell squishing and the legitimation of torture.

* MLK on Canada
* Brazil's economic management. We could take lessons.
* Inauguration cost myths
* Decay of Detroit -- $7,000 houses.
* Nurse removing IUDs
* Street preachers denounce enthusiasm for Obama and gay sex
* Water pollution and male infertility So it's *Republican* policies that threaten the purity of our bodily fluids, and our collective masculinity.

Huh, it's been three days already?

( Canada; wacky election theory; Susannah Clarke; women in PR; med school flowchart; various forms of crazy )

I've been banned from someone's LJ! First time. Don't know why, but probably because of Palin-related posts.

Hope after Prop 8

"We didn’t lose by much. Eight years ago, on virtually the same question, we could only get 39 percent. On Tuesday, we got over 48."

And don't forget the lies that had been going around about how churches would be forced to perform gay marriages. Some portion of the "Yes" voters thought they were voting against more than just gay rights. But we have the children: 61% of 18-29 year old voted against it.

[Edit: oh hell, they were effectively lying about Barack Obama, implying he supported the measure when he explicitly opposed it. Consider that when contemplating the 70% of blacks voting for Prop H8]

There's a movement advocating the Mormon Church lose tax-exempt status, given that they poured $20 million into backing Prop 8, arguably a violation of the "don't get involved in politics" condition of tax-exemption.

Conservative Kathleen Parker on Palin and elitism. Paraphrase: "competence is not elitism."

This is for James.

Books:

* I found word counts for the Bible: 593,000 OT, 181,000 NT. A novel is 60,000-120,000 words, usually, so the whole Bible is like 7-14 novels. Huh, though it was bigger.
* Recently read: Runaways, a Marvel comic about a group of superpowered runaway teens. Wikipedia points out a bunch of things I hadn't consciously noted as neat: no costumes or code names (they try, then stop), strong girl power (at one point the group is one guy, four girls, and the guy is *not* in charge.) Nico's magic is also an interesting steal for an RPG, it seems to be "cast any spell you want -- once".
* Rome and Jerusalem, Martin Goodman, about the lead up to and consequences of the destruction of Jerusalem in 70 AD, and Roman and Jewish cultures. Summary of his version: it was all kind of a historical accident. Well, not all, the Zealot Jews were asking for it, especially when they murdered surrendered soldiers. But Imperial politics play a big role in his version: Vespasian wanted a quick glory, so had his son speed things up vs. waiting out a slow but sure siege; the destruction of the Temple was an accident, claimed as deliberate afterwards to not look like incompetent boobs and integrated into the triumph; anti-Jewish policies continued as most subsequent emperors apart from Nerva had reason to benefit from the glory of crushing the rebellious vassals, e.g. Trajan's father was part of the 70 AD campaign. And then there were more rebellions, leading to Hadrian building on the site of the Temple.
* Chalice, Robin McKinley, her latest novel. Classic form by her. Arguably another Beauty and the Beast twist but rather distant from the standard form. World has elements of Jo Walton's The King's Peace, lords magically connected to the land, but more elaborate. Also has an echo of her own Sunshine, with both Rae and Mirasol having unique versions of magic.
* Programming the Universe, Seth Lloyd, read at about the same time as the "Does the Universe Compute?" conference at IU, of which I went to the Lloyd and the Charles Bennett talks. I took notes, but maybe will describe some other time. Lloyd's theme is of the universe as a quantum computer, Bennett's was about information loss. I asked a question inspired by Psychohistorical Crisis which I think he resolved.

Non-election news:
* Sex slaves in the suburbs, either terrifying/depressing or hyped up, or both.
* Three strikes laws make criminals more violent after two strikes. That's so surprising! Wait, no it's not.
* The Economist's Democracy Index (pdf). Once again, Sweden leads the list.
* Somali girl stoned in a stadium for being raped.
* Christian Science Monitor to stop print publication. The CSM has unusual funding, so this may not be a harbinger for other newspapers yet.
* Overseer of military tribunals investigated for abuse of power
* Shin Bet head warns about right-wing settler violence in the occupied territories.
* Bush makes last-ditch efforts to trash the environment.

Election news and related
* The Economist endorses Obama.
* Crappy voting in St. Louis. Yay for partisan election officials.
* McCain panders to coal.
* A description of McCain rallies, plus Arlen Specter's coded language hoping for racism to carry the election.
* Ron Reagan Jr. endorses Obama.
* Arnold campaigns for McCain, jokes about Obama's body. That loses a lot of points with me, and Arnold has respect to lose.
* Student activism at Liberty U. Notable for a couple of quotes: "The expansion of the electoral franchise led to the growth of the
welfare state," (a poli sci prof), and "Ray is so random. I'm not. I do as I'm told. I'm really proper. Liberals are very indie, very emo, just very fun. When we go out, we put on button-downs and Sperrys. I think ahead. I'd rather dress like this now, because when I'm in law school this is how I'll be dressing. Liberals are like, 'Live, take a load off!' My friends at home say I have to be perfect 24 hours a day. It's just who I am."

She pauses. "I should recycle more."
(one of the GOP students.)

No political posts for a week! So now you pay. Much old news by now, perhaps.

* William Weld, R-governor of Massachusetts, endorses Obama. Also the Financial Times, an Alaskan newspaper, Chuck Hagel, and best of all, McCain's former adviser and Reagan's Solicitor General, Charles Fried, because of Palin.

( more election )

( Other politics: golden calf, ACLU, drug raid, censorship, violence, Creationism, more )

( Science! and history, and rail )

Also, Leela is the best companion. (We just watched the Horror of Fang Rock.)

* ETA: GAAAH! Palin: I don't know if abortion clinic bombers are terrorists. This from the campaign that plays up Obama's tenuous connection with Ayers at every opportunity. But blowing up doctors? Not terror.

Won't you be glad when this is over? Caring so much is so un-Epicurean. I know, I'm on 2-3 Epicurean philosophy lists, where the majority opinion seems to take "withdrawal" as canon and to the max. I prefer Democritus, who seems to have said politics sucked (aka was disruptive to tranquility), but letting other people run it sucked even more. Anyway.

* Tonight is your last chance to donate to Obama, apparently. I'm not sure if that's a legal thing or a practicality thing, so don't know if it applies to McCain as well, for the two McCainites (Cainites, hee) who've friended me. Anyway, remember that like it or not, giving money is kind of like voting, but you can do it often.

There's actually surprisingly little money involved, given the scale and what's at stake. If every voter gave $1 to their candidate, that'd match or exceed existing throughputs, I think. If every voter gave $10, we'd be talking about $2 billion vs. existing pools under $200 million.

* Local election news: the Herald Times has a free online information section.

* Speaking of money, Palin thinks paying taxes is for suckers. Well, isn't a patriotic act. To be fair, Obama wasn't taking Oliver Wendell Holmes road either, of I love paying taxes. With them I buy civilization.

* Daylight Atheism gets used in a Dole campaign attack ad, created by someone who can't spell.

* Barry Goldwater's granddaughter describes why she and her generation of the family are supporting Obama. Her uncle disagrees. Apparently her grandmother co-founded Planned Parenthood in Arizona in the 1930s.

* The Christian way: extortion!

* Public schools new focus of the gay marriage ban.

* Off topic: University salaries.

* Oh yeah, issues. Compare and contrast O and M.

* Who cares about Palin's $150,000 wardrobe (and $20,000 makeup sessions)? The GOP donors who aren't amused at how their money got used.

* The telemarketer. That's just a story hook, really. Unlike

Opening for a McCain rally in North Carolina last weekend, Representative Robin Hayes said he wanted “to keep the crowd as respectful as possible.”

In order to pursue that goal as efficiently as possible, Hayes then announced that “liberals hate real Americans that work and accomplish and achieve and believe in God.” This was an especially unfortunate turn of phrase given the fact that he had begun his remarks by saying he wanted to “make sure we don’t say something stupid.”

All this was a direct outgrowth of Sarah Palin’s own comments in North Carolina, in which she praised the “pro-America” areas of the country.

...

over on MSNBC, Representative Michele Bachmann of Minnesota was launching into the Obama/terrorist spin when she suggested that the news media should investigate “the views of the people in Congress and find out: Are they pro-America or anti-America.” So far, the only person who’s felt the impact of her call to reinvent McCarthyism for a post-Communist planet has been her opponent, a hitherto totally ignored Democrat named Elwyn Tinklenberg, who was stunned to discover in the following days that he had received close to $1 million in donations.

Oh hey, I think Bachmann is the one PZ Myers was horrified by two years ago.

Went to vote at the Curry Building. Whoops, 30 minute line, and that's with like a dozen voting booths. Will try again some other time, with better preparation like water bottle and book. It's open 8:30-6, 1-5 Sunday.

al-Qaeda supporters endorse McCain, hope for an attack that will make more likely his victory, and thus ongoing war and drain of US resources.

Like any soccer mom, Palin had $150,000 spent on her by the RNC buying luxury clothing.

London buses to carry atheist ads.

Racism: not dead yet.

Obama's raised more money than McCain and the Republican National Committee put together, which is awesome, but that mostly helps him, and whatever party building he can do. RNC outraises the DNC by like 77/27. Consider donating to the Democratic National Committee as a centralized way of helping all those other Democrats whom you're probably not paying attention to or even hearing about.

Also, vote early! Think about likely high turnout. Think about the low throughput, especially of the craptronic voting machines in Bloomington (where there'll be, like, two machines in the polling station I go to, and they're expensive so they can't easily buy more.[1]) Reckon accordingly.

[1] By contrast, paper ballots could be filled out in cheap booths or impromptu privacy, and dropped in a box or fed through a fast scantron-like machine, *and* leave a paper trail. Yay, "progress".

* West Virginia voting machines switch votes for Obama to votes for McCain.

* GOP mailing has Obama's face -- and watermelons -- on fake food stamps.

* A WSJ editorial warns about the possible consequences of Obama victory. Free speech and voting rights. A liberal supermajority would move quickly to impose procedural advantages that could cement Democratic rule for years to come. One early effort would be national, election-day voter registration. This is a long-time goal of Acorn and others on the "community organizer" left and would make it far easier to stack the voter rolls. The District of Columbia would also get votes in Congress -- Democratic, naturally There's your threat to America, people: easier voter registration and more taxpayers getting represented (remember the Revolution?) Also the horrors of a cap-and-trade pollution regime (the WSJ defends the right to pollute?) and affordable health care.

An RPG.net poster said: "The Republican dream: a higher standard of living. The Republican nightmare: a higher standard of living for everyone."

* GOP challenging voter registrations, with a high rate of false flagging.

( Other items )