Samuel

In my life, I’ve had some good friends who have been transgendered. Recently, our toddler has started asking about how Mama and Papa seem to have different parts. Mama was trying to explain how girls have yonis and boys have penises, but she got caught up as she tried to explain this in such a way as to be comprehensible to a toddler but not impose hetero-normative ideas as first principles. If anyone reading this has any ideas, they would be welcome.

American Automakers are never going to recover. Another bailout will buy them some time. A few months or a few years, depending on how deep the giant money hole turns out to be. So far, it doesn’t look like we’ve hit bottom. 3 month T Bills are trading at .01% in what looks to my untrained eye like an unbelievable flight to quality, and the Dow is down another 445 points today to close at 7,552 and change. I rattle that off like I know something about what it means, and the truth is I don’t. I’m no economist (although I do read The Economist every week). But the folks who know about these things seem to be scared shitless. Oregon’s Governor released his budget, and some projections were released to the state legislature yesterday. Hear tell, jaws were hitting the floor in Salem. It’s worse than anyone thought. And the picture here in Oregon is a little rosier than the national picture.

In times of trouble, I’m all for Keynesian solutions. The economic crisis is one problem that can be solved by throwing money at it. But not at Detroit. Throw money somewhere it’s needed. Throw it at human services, and at unemployment insurance, and at nationwide job creation programs for jobs that have a future. Don’t throw it on companies that are trying to sell yesterday’s technology (internal combustion) to tomorrow’s consumers. Let them fail, opening the market to new, innovative companies that can sell transportation products that meet our need for green, efficient vehicles.

I’ve had this idea for some time; to buy inexpensive day-planners, decorate them with feather boas, sequins, rainbows, and other twee accoutrements, and to market such as ‘The Homosexual Agenda’.

Get it?

I’ve not done this, but at this point there seems a good enough reason. There is likely going to be an expensive legal fight in California to challenge Prop 8, the act that used the California Constitution to take a fundamental right from Gay and Lesbian citizens. Selling Homosexual Agendas could be a great fundraiser for this campaign. But I want to see whether or not I would be able to pay back an initial investment. So, would you buy one? How much would you pay, knowing that all proceeds were going to a good cause? Push the comment button and tell me what you think.

Of the six ballot measures that Bill put on the Oregon Ballot this year (and seven if you count the mandatory minimum’s measure that was pushed by his crony Kevin Mannix) the number he was able to pass; 0. All none of them. I’m hoping that this means that Bill, a convicted racketeer and an acknowledged slime-ball, is finally done in Oregon politics. Finished. Washed up. But it may have just been a bad year, what with the blue wave sweeping the nation and all. What do you think?

Seriously. You wouldn’t think of it, but it’s actually really good. I just finished of a Mo’s Bacon Bar from the Vosges Haut Chocolate people, and I’ll tell you, it was delightful. I was apprehensive at first, but after the first bite when the sweet met the salty on my tongue and the little bacon bit slithered out of it’s brown cocoa cocoon, I was sold. If you see one of these, go for it. Strange as it sounds, bacon and chocolate go together like peanut butter and pickles.

I realize that I’ve been behind the bell curve on adding new technologies to the blog here. Almost everyone is now using a ’share this’ icon on their posts. I just added mine. Click on the ’share this’ link beneath any post to post my idle musings to your facebook, myspace, digg, or other social bookmarking site of choice. Woot.

Also, external links now come with a little thingy like this —>. Hover over it and you’ll see a little clip preview of where the link points. If it points to something like Wikipedia, or if there’s an RSS feed associated with the link you’ll see a preview of the top stories. Dope.

So, things are moving toward the future here in Samuelrutledge land. Maybe I’ll even find the motivation to post consistently even when there aren’t big political events or home-brew projects going on. Maybe.