Grr. Argh. So, both Rhode Island and Michigan let me deduct any taxes I paid to another state, and ask me to include a copy of the other states return. Recursion may be heaps of fun, but it has no place in the tax code. I feel that this wasn't well thought out, or possibly was carefully thought out by the tax preparer lobby.
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(1)
08:16:14 PM,
Sunday 30 March 2003
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I went into the book store hoping to get something to enjoyable to read, since while I am interested in the effect of economics on european history, I often find the inside of my eyelids more interesting. Unfortunately, I somehow wound up with a book on globalization.
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05:56:39 PM,
Sunday 30 March 2003
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Another car accident outside our window. Must be Saturday. One of the cars can still move, this time, and the other one only spun about 20 degrees. The guy who ran the stop sign staggered on getting out, almost certainly drunk. Its a small road crossing a major one-way street, and the 1 way street doesn't have a stop sign, but does have a well-used crosswalk. This, and various local bars, lead people to think it does in fact have a stop sign.
I suppose we can't really make the establishment that serves the alcohol criminally liable for the people it intoxicates, any more than we can make casinos liable for the suicides. How about giving people licenses to drink in public establishments, and revoking those as well? Revoking drivers licenses can't be done willy-nilly because its so hard to make a living without one, but drinking licenses could be.
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(1)
11:21:06 PM,
Saturday 29 March 2003
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While thinking about Stanislaw Lem and P.G. Wodehouse; it's clear that a bad translation can mar a work, transform it into terrible mess. I'm curious if Wodehouse does anything for people in translation; if the control of language was taken away, there would be nothing left; while Solaris survives somewhat intact from the travesty of a double-translation. I like the idea that it could work the other way, that translations can improve over the original. After all, translators often put much more time and thought into a work than the creator. I like the idea that the greek texts have been being improved over the centuries, our understanding of the words changing to fit what various translators have made of it; that they are accretions around the original work, becoming more thoughtful and profound as time passes. This helps me, as someone with little patience for the idea of genius, accept them.
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10:49:48 PM,
Saturday 29 March 2003
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"At Tarantoga's I saw an interesting new encylopedia entitled The Lexicon of Fear. It used to be, says the book, that fear had its roots in the supernatural: in spells, witches, demons, heretics, atheists, black magic, ghosts, Bohemians, and abstract art, but in the industrial age fear shifted to things more concrete. There was fear of tomatoes (carcinogenic), aspirin (stomach bleeding), coffee (birth defects), butter (saturated fat), sugar, cars, television, discotheques, pornography, birth control pills, science, cigarettes, nuclear power plants, and higher education. I wasn't surprised by the popularity of this encyclopedia. Professor Tarantoga is of the opinion that people need two things. First, and answer to the question "Who is responsible?" and second, to the question "What is the secret?" The first answer should be brief, obvious, and unambiguous. As for the second, scientists have been annoying everyone for two hundred years with their superior knowledge. How nice to see them baffled by the Bermuda Triangle, flying saucers, and the emotions of plants, and how satisfying it is when a simple middle-aged woman of Paris can see the whole future of the world while on that subject the professors are as ignorant as spoons."
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(2)
09:20:47 PM,
Saturday 29 March 2003
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"You ever pondered on snails?"
"Only intermittently, if at all"
"I was wondering how they get around the way they do. Look at this one. Breezing along like a two-year-old with its chin up and its chest out. How does it do it without any legs?"
"Will power, I should imagine."
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(2)
09:09:46 PM,
Saturday 29 March 2003
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Very few things were able to disconcert Mortimer Bayliss. The monocle in his eye did not even quiver.
"A burglar, eh?" he said, as if he had ordered one from the stores and was glad to learn that it had arrived safely.
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09:08:05 PM,
Saturday 29 March 2003
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"Most. But never mind about me. Nobody ever does. I have yet to meed the man who gives a damn what happens to poor old Bayliss. If I were being torn limb from limb by a homicidal gorilla and a couple of fellows who knew me came along, one of them would say, 'Don't look now, but Mortimer Bayliss is over there being torn limb from limb by a gorilla,' and the other would reply, 'You're absolutely right. So he is,' and they would go off to lunch. Well, what brings you here, Keggs? Yesterday's excitement in the home?"
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09:05:32 PM,
Saturday 29 March 2003
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Letterboxing
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(1)
09:59:13 AM,
Saturday 29 March 2003
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Spirited Away to finally get a wide release. Who knew that the Oscars could be a force for good?
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(2)
06:12:09 PM,
Tuesday 25 March 2003
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My imitation sheep rug has arrived! It is from an extremely large artificial sheep. Much cheaper than a woven wool rug, which didn't make sense until I realized that woven wool is simply loose wool + labor - lots of air. Much like a live chicken being cheaper than a dead and butchered one, if there isn't any shipping involved.
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05:58:46 PM,
Tuesday 25 March 2003
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Teriyaki Jerky Chew is indeed wonderful stuff.
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(8)
05:27:12 PM,
Tuesday 25 March 2003
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I found some good news! Berezovsky arrested.
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(1)
12:01:06 PM,
Tuesday 25 March 2003
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I find the term 'consumer staples' amusing.
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08:34:52 AM,
Saturday 22 March 2003
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I hate live news coverage. I'd rather wait an hour or two until they know what they're talking about. On the other hand, they are preempting their pledge drive.
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02:09:27 PM,
Thursday 20 March 2003
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To war, to war, to war we're going to go.
Oh, hi-de, hi-de, hi-de, hi-de, hi-de, hi-de-ho.
They got guns,
We got guns,
All God’s chillun got guns.
No editorial content is implied by this, simply a state of mind. It's stuck in my head, displacing all critical thought. Thus I betray once more my fundamental lack of seriousness.
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10:32:30 PM,
Wednesday 19 March 2003
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What Altria has to say for its logo:
"Aiming higher, reaching further, innovating and growing. The Altria name and logo powerfully express these enduring qualities. The colorful mosaic evokes our enormous diversity, our energy and our operating companies' astounding portfolios of successful brands."
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02:04:51 PM,
Wednesday 19 March 2003
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Altria nee Philip Morris Kraft has the worst logo imaginable. It looks incompletely downloaded. It suggests obfuscation, and ancient paint programs.
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(1)
02:02:57 PM,
Wednesday 19 March 2003
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For instance, I sometimes remember that it is much easier to emigrate than to amend the Constitution.
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09:05:28 PM,
Tuesday 18 March 2003
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When forming opinions about political matters, you have to decide beforehand how much power to grant yourself; who you get to control. A point of view of this sort is implicit in all political opinions.
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05:59:16 PM,
Tuesday 18 March 2003
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While we're amending Constitutions, The UN should require that ambassadors are directly elected in national elections, and provide observers for all these elections. This would make it represent the people, rather than the governments, and would give democratic opposition movements a great platform. Any nation could refuse, but then they would be out of the UN. Currently, the UN represents national governments, who are the natural enemies of effective world government. The thing that worries me most about this swaggering to war is the boost its giving to nationalists around the world.
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(11)
12:11:35 PM,
Tuesday 18 March 2003
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It's all the fault of the Constitution. No one can stop the administration. Members of administrations never resign, because instead of being made up of elected politicians, it is made up out of party faithful who lost elections or are unelectable for one reason or another. The congress can't stop the administration short of impeachment, so they simply position themselves without trying to influence events.
Suggestions:
Replace the senate with a national body, elected proportionally using party lists. This would give 3rd parties a reason to exist, and give sub-majority opinions a voice.
The Senate elects the President, who must be a member of either house of Congress. The same goes for all cabinet members. Senate elections are held regularly every 6 years, but emergency elections can be called if no President can be elected.
An amendment defining a strict system for creating house voting districts. Stick the algorithm in the constitution. No more gerrymandering.
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(11)
12:05:09 PM,
Tuesday 18 March 2003
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Ich habe eine Postkarte.
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(1)
08:47:14 PM,
Monday 17 March 2003
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I have a credit card that I haven't used for well over a year. It was just upgraded to a Quantum card. For the first time, my credit card is made of the material it claims.
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(1)
06:40:46 PM,
Monday 17 March 2003
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The cat managed to get through the mesh we have attached to the railing and jumped down onto the roof of the french window below, then realized that the french window was still 3 floors up, and then he got worried and didn't know if he could jump back up off the sloping copper roof, and started mewing and pacing. Eventually he jumped and caught the gutter with his front legs and scrabbled up. I'm just glad he didn't try to jump onto the roof of the neighboring house. I feel vaguely ill, tired and shaken.
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(1)
10:06:26 AM,
Monday 17 March 2003
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I just bought an imitation sheep rug.
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(3)
02:17:37 PM,
Sunday 16 March 2003
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Just opened the storm windows, and have a breeze in the apartment for the first time this year. Having windows on 3 sides is worth however much rent you have to pay.
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(5)
01:40:22 PM,
Sunday 16 March 2003
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Trying to listen to the NPR Sunday worship program. I just can't imagine being Christian, which worries me, that I find it so unaccessable; that the gap between the godly and the godless is so wide.
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(7)
11:38:23 AM,
Sunday 16 March 2003
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Purchased a very small Dwarf Alberta Spruce, which I've just repotted. The first wave of seedlings (Marigolds, Violets, Lavender, Sweet Alyssum, and Thyme) have now germinated, and the sweet Alyssum has its second set of leaves. There is mold on some of the peat pots, which worries me terribly. I need to start the Parsley and Dahlberg Daisies this week, and the Dwarf Morning Glory, Lettuce and Peas in April.
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11:35:09 AM,
Sunday 16 March 2003
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In case anyone is keeping track, I've finally landed on the anti-war side, by route of it being hopelessly and irreversably bungled diplomatically and rhetorically. Bush saying "In matters of security, we don't need anyone's permission" pretty much sums up what made up my mind. He started this by declaring the UN unimportant and that he will ignore them. Of course they are going to oppose anything he suggests after that. He then has the gumption to say they are making the UN irrelevent by refusing a rubber stamp.
Since its not enough simply to oppose something, I have to say what we should do instead. The Canadian proposal of better defined hurdles over a sensible time frame seems like the best option. We have to at least comprimise enough so that Chirac looks worse than we do if they oppose. The worst that could happen is that they could agree, making us wait a year and throw away some military plans. I don't think we can contain Iraq indefinitely with inspections, and I don't think we can just pull out of Iraq, but waiting is better than this mess.
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05:09:22 PM,
Saturday 15 March 2003
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Daniel Shore just said "The warlords are still.. warlording". What is it warlords do, anyway? There must be a more elegant way out of that sentence, but I can't find it.
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09:18:36 AM,
Saturday 15 March 2003
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Add to that a distaste for his "I'm a Doctor!" rhetoric. This idea that being a doctor makes you morally unimpeachable is one of the many things wrong with our health care system. Many people become doctors because of naked greed, but Doctors good / Lawyers evil is part of our culture. Health care should not entirely be between you and your doctor, particularly if neither of you are footing the bill.
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(1)
01:45:08 PM,
Friday 14 March 2003
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My concerns about Dean:
Thinks gun control should be a state issue.
Wants a federal balanced budget amendment. My only hope is that it may be hollow grandstanding, depending how many loopholes are permitted.
His piecemeal plan for Universal Health care: Require state medicaid programs cover everyone under 23. Employer based insurance with tax subsidies to cover adults. Add prescription drugs to Medicare. It keeps all the bad things about the current system, and does nothing to control price.
Still my favorite at the moment, though.
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12:41:35 PM,
Friday 14 March 2003
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2003 New England Flower Show. I'm conflicted. I like plants, but the Detroit Auto Show has given me a terrible fear of overcrowded convention centers. Then again, I liked the Farm Show in Harrisburg. Small ruminents and butter sculpture, what more could you ask?
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(2)
02:29:41 PM,
Thursday 13 March 2003
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I wish the Supreme Court would become literal in its interpretations in order to force amendments; for instance, rule that the 2nd amendment protects the right to purchase anything the US military has in order to maintain effective private militias.
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11:41:55 AM,
Thursday 13 March 2003
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Snow tomorrow morning, they're saying. I'm finished with snow, I don't need anymore. Today we walked around the portuguese neighborhood, and bought a loaf of wonderful bread thats significantly larger than the cat. Also, bought more seeds for my indoor lawn expansion plans. I bought them primarily because we'd been hanging around in the fish shop ogling the various underwater gardens filled with hermit crabs.
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(2)
09:36:03 PM,
Wednesday 12 March 2003
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