look, i twittered today!

• 04:19 landed in chicago...is it can be sleep tiem nao plz? #
• 04:22 @sillylittlelaw i tried that sometimes, but it never works like the real last minute. #
• 07:56 up for work. the good news is that i feel like i slept in, since my body adjusted to eastern time. the bad news is...work. #
• 09:05 so happy to be wearing flats again. those heels were killing me. #
• 10:56 oooh...a circuit city in chicago is closing. i need to raid the store-closing sale. #
• 12:42 @sillylittlelaw two words: monkeys. typewriters. #
• 12:58 @sillylittlelaw now i have a mental image of a cage full me monkeys playing with those thick tax code books. #
• 13:18 @jaku hey, you can always see if they're still around... :-D #
• 13:33 @sillylittlelaw yes! throwing feces and ripping the pages...estate and gift tax was messy enough, i don't want to think of the rest. #
• 13:51 i love when people i know or strangers with whom i share interests friend me on twitter. spammers and promoters, however, are not welcome. #
• 17:05 i hate my office computer. fucking windows. #
• 17:55 i'm already devising ways to hax my shmoocon barcode, and the con is still three months out. :-) #
• 21:31 @sillylittlelaw the monkeys are rooting for you!!! #
• 21:35 @sillylittlelaw but after you write that page, you can go to bed! #
• 21:57 eating sushi + reading the 2600 book = one awesome dinner. #

don't blame me, blame loudtwitter.

election day

it's tuesday, november 4...election day, if you're in the states.

if you've already voted absentee, early, or you got up at the crack of dawn and have already voted today...awesome. ♥

if you haven't voted yet, make sure you do that today. do it before school or work. do it on your lunch break. make sure you get out early enough and do it afterwards. find your polling place, check the hours, and go. stand in line if you need to.

our representative democracy boils down to days like today. on other days, non-election days, there is still plenty of political work that can be done...discussing issues and sharing your opinion with fellow citizens and with elected officials. but, today we decide who is actually put in office.

no one on the ballot is perfect, but it's almost impossible that anyone on the ballot will perfectly reflect your personal vision for the country. at least in illinois, there are seven candidates for president on the ballot, and then others for state and local offices. there is someone on the ballot who is more likely than the others to bring america closer to your vision for it, or who agrees with you more than the others on issues that matter to you. identify them and vote for them. if you're disappointed with all of them, write someone in and work to get someone on the ballot next cycle who does share your vision. being disappointed with all the candidates, major party or otherwise, is still no excuse not to vote.

today we decide the decision-makers. vote...or lose your right to complain about the actions of the people in power. it's what we do today that puts them there, so if you did nothing you may say nothing.

my condolences.

this section should exist at your local card shop:


[from this week's New Yorker.]

if i were the least bit artistic, and somewhat less mean, i would totally occupy this niche.

where did i shove that lawyer...

on eHow.com, there's a page discussing how to file Chapter 7 bankruptcy for a business. as on all of the eHow pages, it contains a list of necessary tools for doing the desired task. the list on this page entertains me greatly:

Things You’ll Need:

• Bankruptcy lawyer
• Records of debt and company assets

i'm used to these "things you need" lists on eHow containing common household items like scissors, yarn, tape, paper...that kind of thing. thus, this gives me a mental image of rifling through my cabinet trying to find where i stashed that bankruptcy lawyer a couple of months ago when i last needed to dust it off and use it.

excuse me???

this editorial disgusts me more than anything i've read in an extremely long time.

***

first of all, criticizing america doesn't mean that people hate the country. it merely means that they admit that it's not perfect. there are oceans between pointing out the flaws in something and hating it. and, someone's got to do far more than just "go on and on about slavery, about racism, about how black people have been held down and held back" to fall into the category of hating the country. those are very legitimate criticisms about our history, and flaws that still need to be addressed today and as long as there are any racial disparities whatsoever about how people are treated.

in short, racism isn't dead, and admitting this fact does not constitute treason.

***

secondly, he moves his criticism from the citizens to barack obama. he condemns the kind of change that he feels obama represents, stating that "Obama represents change from American exceptionialism to America as just another nation. He represents change from America as a leader of the free world to America as just a peer with the likes of France or Germany...These black elites do not respect America. America is special, truly exceptional. I don't think that Obama believes that about America."

the idea of american exceptionalism bothers me deeply. there are things in our government that make it great. i treasure democracy, and i treasure the american ideal that this country ought to be a melting pot that welcomes anyone and everyone who wants to work hard to try to make it. we are unique.

but, this attitude is dangerous for at least two glaring reasons. first of all, it belittles the fact that we are not the only country who has made strides to provide freedoms to its citizens over the last two hundred years. america's road is unique, but unique does not necessarily mean best. just because we live in a great nation does not mean that our nation is the only great nation, and thinking that way will only make it more likely that we will alienate other countries with which we share some [even many!] values in common.

furthermore, this columnist's attitude is exactly the kind of attitude that has caused our nation's esteem in the world to plummet during the bush administration. we need a government that stands up for the interests of the american people, but we cannot have a government that will readily insult, belittle, and trample over other equally sovereign nations to get there. the bush administration's arrogance has made our country a laughingstock.

so what if this columnist thinks that obama will relate with other countries as if we're a peer with other nations in the free world? we need that desperately. it's the only way we can even begin to repair the damage that has been done to our standing in the world over these last eight years.

OMG OMG OMG

jonathan lee riches © sued sarah palin.

and it's three pages of pure brilliance:

"Palin stole Joe Biden's Wilmington Trust debit card and secretly built a bridge to nowhere to Russia to learn foreigh policy."

"Since I been in prison, Sarah Palin used imminent domain and Todd Palin's BP working cronies to steal artifacts from my home and place them in the Alaska state museum. The Jonathan Lee Riches statue, the crystal skull I got from Indiana."

"I got Sarah Palin's daughtor Bristol pregnant, it was either at the Bristol Motor Speedway or while we were watching Juno in Juneau."

"Sarah Palin plans to turn Barack Obama into a chocolate moose cake."

"Palin bought an igloo with my credit from Countrywide Loans."

this made my day.

...

president obama.

he won't be a magic panacea, but i honestly believe that he'll point us in a better direction than mccain would. i wasn't convinced that a mccain administration would do anything much differently from the bush administration. whereas, we're more likely to have wider access to health care under an obama administration. we're more likely to have a sharply progressive tax scheme under an obama administration. we're more likely to have new supreme court justices who won't eviscerate abortion rights under an obama administration. we're more likely to begin to repair our reputation abroad under an obama administration. nothing will happen overnight, of course, but there will be baby steps.

the election is over. i feel guardedly optimistic.