20040509 - the relative morality of republicans

There has been this annoying tickle at the back of my mind for quite a while. An itch that happened when listening to some partisan politician, conservative repubilcan type, starts trying to bend the issue away from something we've done and try to say that that's not so bad because of something 'they' did to us. Just now, listening to some republican congress man try to do some damage control about the abuse of prisoners in Iraq, it hit me as to what exactly that tickle was being caused by:

Hypocrisy.

Suddenly morality is relative. "Well, OK, maybe the soldiers were raping prisioners, but there's 9-11 and those burning dead bodies AND THAT'S REALLY BAD."

So, barbarism is OK, as long as our hats are a tiny bit less black than theirs? When the hell did you guys shift from "Jesus says this is bad" to this moral relativism? You've shouted about Sodom and Gomorrah when you heard a couple spicy 5th-hand details about Mapplethorpe's XYZ portfolio, you've had Promise Keeper's meetings to help men get over their addiction to pornography, and now 9-11 makes rape and forcing prisioners to masturbate on each other not so bad.

Who invaded here?

How much direct evidence do we have of Iraq's involvement in 9-11, again?

But 9-11 justifies it anyway.

I'm not saying that there isn't partisan gain on the other side of this issue, now; some, if not most, of this outrage is driven by Bush hating. But again, is defending your side worth losing your moral compass?

But I don't want another conservative pinhead with affairs and bastard children giving me another lecture about morality. In fact, no matter how clean you are, I don't want to ever hear any sort of moral spouting off if you can't draw your line right now. If you have to make excuses for barbarism, I don't want to dance.
 

20040109 - reminder for next year

When you get a paycheck, it (apparently) counts for the tax year the check was cut, not the tax year you did the work.

So, next year, in December, I need to remember to make sure that I'm really happy with any payroll settings I have.

I got my last paycheck for my contracting job today. Two weeks of work and the net deposit into my account: $68.70.

My 401(k) withdrawl was set to the maximum percentage.

20040101 - running on empty

Today is my first day of not having work.

Last year (and the year before that, and 7 months of the year before that) I was suckling on the fatted teat of the big yellow mother.

Our project didn't make the second round of funding cuts.

What was weird was that several of the real employees, who didn't lose their jobs, were more broken up than the 3 contractors who were out. But some of them had been with the project for much longer than my mere 2 years, 7.5 months.

So, "Have Keyboard, Will Program."

I have a new resolution to keep...no bitching about my favorite old-work-topic.
 

20031218 - spend local

We decided a couple of days ago, over a pitcher of beer, to put our money where our mouths are, or at least put our money where our apartment is and not where we detest. We made a vow to do our best to only spend money within Rochester, and not in the local suburbs, and try to be real facists about it for the next month.

As previously mentioned, Rochester is a cowspot. So by spending money in the Rochester city tax area, we're helping out the city and though we're not paying property taxes, gotta be helping out the city somehow.

But this goes beyond the school system thing. Like a lot of hipsters, I don't really care for Wal-Mart and the big box store syndrome, and I really don't like what suburban malls have done to a lot of cities. But because you can't miss the mall, I was still going to a lot of the barnacle stores around the mall. Even without stepping in a mall for half the year, it was familiar, and the draw was pulling me to the area. Sally's Beauty Supply for hair bleach, Lowe's for copper pipe fittings to make stuff with, etc.

So, enough of that. There ARE hardware stores in the city limits of Rochester, somewhere. I can go there for my copper fix. While driving around (post-vow) we discovered a Sally's closer by, in a strip mall that might be within Rochester. And even though Video Barn is probably the only place worth renting from in the tri-state area, let's at least check out some of the local places before going to rent I Am Curious (Yellow)/(Blue) there. And yes, the only movie theaters in Rochester proper are art-haus theaters, so when you want to go see something pulpy like Lord of the Rings or Paycheck, make sure that you're really going to a theater that cares (Pittsford Plaza) more than the generic Mall Cinemonstrosity.

This may end up lasting more than just a month...
 

20031201 - elopement

We eloped today, in the alley behind Wheatsfield Grocery in Ames, Iowa. Here are some pictures of elopement.