Entries Tagged as 'politics'

The ice cream of happiness

February 4th, 2011 · No Comments

I have been suffering lately from a bit of a case of BADD (that’s Being an Adult Dysphoric Disorder for those of you who don’t regularly make up maladies and their acronyms). I’ve transitioned to full-time at work, which is great except it means driving across town five days a week instead of only three. [...]

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Tags: literature · personal · politics

"Democracy is being allowed to vote for the candidate you dislike least."*

October 28th, 2010 · 1 Comment

So it’s election time again. On Tuesday a friend had a dinner party to discuss the ballot. I think discussing politics in intentional and respectful ways is generally a good thing anyway, but in California I find that these sorts of gatherings are almost essential if you’re going to manage to vote with any degree [...]

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Tags: Los Angeles · politics

Breaking the law while white (and female? and midwestern? and boring?)

July 24th, 2009 · 1 Comment

I work at home two days a week and in an office on the other side of the city from home three days a week. So Wednesday through Friday my life is pretty focused on that whole “commute” thing. To make things a bit more pleasant than they could be I work 10ish to 6:30ish [...]

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Tags: personal · politics

Don’t like it? Leave it? Lump it? Change it?

July 22nd, 2009 · No Comments

I have to admit that living in California (and working for a university in the UC system) these days leaves me wondering why I’m in this handbasket, and where exactly it is we’re all going. The nice Christians who periodically knock on my door to evangelize seem to be capitalizing on this theme. Unfortunately, my [...]

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Tags: Los Angeles · politics

The mathematics of politics: US is always greater than THEM

November 4th, 2008 · 2 Comments

I would like to preface this post by noting that some of the people who know me in person might suspect that this was inspired by a recent very emotional conversation that followed a similar thread (well, to the extent that it followed any threads at all given my state at the time). In fact [...]

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Tags: class · culture · education · personal · politics

A little political desperation perhaps?

November 2nd, 2008 · No Comments

I talked with my parents last week and my mother shared something that amused me.  I still sometimes get mail at their place and she goes through and throws out the credit card offers and piles the remaining newsletters and such for me to look at when I come to visit.  Apparently I recently got [...]

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Tags: politics · Wisconsin

Who to blame when the butler didn’t do it (or band-aids on amputations)

May 27th, 2008 · 1 Comment

Today’s LA Times has an article about a brewing backlash against the homeless in downtown Madison, WI. Years ago I wrote my senior thesis about the young people (my primary focus, anyway) that spent time in a small park just off State Street, the pedestrian thoroughfare that connects the University of Wisconsin campus to the [...]

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Tags: class · news · politics · Wisconsin

By the People…

February 4th, 2008 · No Comments

Sometime between now and whenever I go to vote tomorrow I need to figure out how to vote on the seven propositions on the ballot (as near as I can tell those are the only ones I need to worry about since Prop S doesn’t seem to be on the ballot in Altadena). My polling [...]

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Tags: Los Angeles · politics

Positive thinking.

January 30th, 2008 · No Comments

I’ve been reading Warren Ellis’ Transmetropolitan lately. It’s good stuff. Meanwhile, I’ve been thinking about the coming primary election. Yes I live under a rock culturally speaking but I do read the Economist and the LA Times pretty frequently and I regularly interact virtually with people who read news from all sorts of places. So [...]

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Tags: politics

An eye for an eye, for ratings.

January 28th, 2008 · No Comments

Last weekend I was feeling kind of crappy and decided I’d curl up on the couch and watch some stupid TV. The problem with this plan, of course, was that we don’t have cable, a tivo, or any of the other technologies that allow some sort of control over the stupidness of the available television. [...]

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Tags: politics · religion · TV