The rhetoric of "do it now"
I saw this in a political email message:
"But what the media and Congress seem to forget is that it's not just about politics or policy minutiae. It's about real people who are really suffering under our broken health care system—and can't afford to wait any longer for real reform."
Read More →
^ TOP
Posted on 09/02/09 at 13:26:47 by dchaley (David Haley)
No comments
"Nazi" policies??
The debate about health care reform is filled with all kinds of nonsense from all kinds of places. Here we have a fine citizen comparing Obama's efforts to Nazi policy during a town hall meeting hosted by Rep. Barney Frank (D-MA). Frank's response is appropriate. Watch the video on YouTube.
I don't understand how people can so casually accuse others of having "Nazi" policies. Regardless of the merits or lack thereof of Obama's health care reform, comparing it to the murder of millions upon millions of people is, indeed, an idea from another planet. To use the word so inappropriately cheapens the horror of what happened then, and uselessly distracts from important debate now.
^ TOP
Posted on 08/19/09 at 11:50:03 by dchaley (David Haley)
No comments
Ye olde Joe the Plumber
This whole thing about "Joe the Plumber" is rather odd. He's being trotted about as the archetype of a blue collar worker, representative of average Americans, etc. But when you go back to his initial question to Obama, he was complaining about taxes on yearly revenue greater than $250k. Let's think about this for a second: $100k yearly revenue puts you in the top 10% of the country in terms of income. $250k puts you in the top few percent. Not exactly "average".
I'm not entirely sure how this person has become the poster boy average American. People are pointing to "Joe the Plumber" as an example of how Obama's tax proposals will hurt average Americans. If the average American made $250+k/yr, that would be a fair criticism, but, well, that's just not the case. This guy has somehow found himself in the spotlight and is being used as a giant straw man argument. It is rather misleading to portray his case as being relevant for average Americans.
^ TOP
Posted on 10/30/08 at 09:31:03 by dchaley (David Haley)
1 comment
Official emails and Trial Versions
I get email from AUP's alumni office from time to time. I've noticed the following message a few times:
--------------------
E-Mail sent using the Free Trial Version of WorldMerge, the fastest and easiest way to send personalized e-mail messages. For more information visit http://www.world-merge.com
890172
You would think that a university could either just buy the damn program or otherwise obtain a proper mailing list manager...
^ TOP
Posted on 02/08/08 at 09:03:13 by dchaley (David Haley)
No comments
Pound stomp pound
I went running (at the gym) this morning and at one point this girl showed up and started running on the treadmill next to me. She sure was making a lot of noise: every single step was a stomp that felt like it was echoing through the room. And it's not as if it was due to size or anything; she looked like she must have weighed less than half what I do, and I felt like a graceful leaf gliding on silent wind by comparison. Nor was she going terribly fast (~6.5mph). I guess she was taking very high steps or something. But in any case it was pretty disconcerting; it was hard to stay focused with this stomp stomp stomp right next to me. I wonder if there's any rule in unspoken gym etiquette there (not that I would know since I'm a relative newcomer to the Stanford gym). Strangeness!
^ TOP
Posted on 12/07/07 at 11:03:16 by dchaley (David Haley)
No comments
"Temporary Wives" ???
I was reading this article from Le Monde about how plastic surgery, tanning salons etc. are more and more common in Iran. Naturally, such an article segued into a discussion of women's rights.
Read More →
^ TOP
Posted on 10/08/07 at 02:02:01 by dchaley (David Haley)
2 comments
The Holy Hand Grenade
The Monty Python joke "Oh Lord, bless this Thy hand grenade" takes on somewhat new meaning as churches use the game Halo to reach out to the young. See the NY Times article for more information.
Some choice quotations from the article (emphasis mine):
Read More →
^ TOP
Posted on 10/06/07 at 19:34:17 by dchaley (David Haley)
No comments
"Please RSVP"
A pet peeve of mine. I'm guessing that somebody, at some point, didn't know that "SVP" means "please" in French, and therefore figured it was more polite to add "please" in front of RSVP. Of course, this is rather like saying "ATM machine", "PIN number", "NYC city", "HTML language", or any similar thing. But now, people are so used to seeing "please" in front of "RSVP" that it could be considered impolite to tell people to just RSVP. So, we are reduced to asking people to please, reply please! (Pretty-please??)
It's kind of like how you order an appetizer and then a starter (entree) at the restaurant. Grr.
I am reminded of the Uncyclopedia article on Redundancy. :-)
^ TOP
Posted on 10/03/07 at 00:25:00 by dchaley (David Haley)
No comments
Laundry Room Dilemmas
A trivial pet peeve, framed as a moral dilemma of grand proportions. (You've been warned. Please turn on your irony and auto-derision detectors.)
At our building, we have a shared laundry room. We've got about ten washing machines and ten dryers. There are eleven floors of people, with, oh, twelve apartments per floor, meaning that Quillen houses about 11*12=132 units. Then there are some low-rises that share our facilities. What this means is that it is very easy for a lot of people to be doing laundry at more or less the same time, especially if you try to act like a normal person and do your laundry before midnight and after 8 am. And what that means is that the laundry room is very often congested. This leads to an interesting social dilemma...
Read More →
^ TOP
Posted on 09/25/07 at 02:19:08 by dchaley (David Haley)
No comments
Monkey See, Monkey Do-Something-Else
This article from the NYT is fascinating. Apparently, chimpanzees are better at detecting redundant steps in a task than young human children are. I don't want to over-simplify the experiment by explaining it all in just a few lines, so I strongly suggest that you read the article. I've tried to provide a basic summary below.
Read More →
^ TOP
Posted on 12/13/05 at 23:53:33 by dchaley (David Haley)
No comments
|
![[Valid Atom 1.0]](http://blogs.the-haleys.org/media/valid-atom.png "Validate my Atom 1.0 feed"){kind=small}
