I was at a barbecue earlier this evening where there were some young children in attendance.  While they were a bit wary of me at first, they eventually grew comfortable enough around me to start demonstrating assorted feats of body mechanics.  They beamed with pride as they contorted fingers, knees, and other joints into wince-inducing positions.  Not one to be outdone, I instructed them to watch me as I performed my patented ear wiggle maneuver.  The kids ate it up and I think they respected me just a bit more afterwards.  But one tot couldn’t understand why I kept refusing the half-eaten hot dog he shoved against my mouth. 

 

I may never have children of my own, but I’m fairly confident in my ability to assume the role of cool uncle, should I be so called upon. 

I had an opportunity to observe a demonstration of the assistive voting devices that are scheduled to be deployed around Hennepin County in time for the September primary elections.  Unlike other, more notorious electronic voting machines, this model still uses a paper ballot; the ballot is fed into the machine and marks it up according to the voter’s choices.  The device should be particularly helpful to voters with visual impairments, as it allows users to magnify the ballot, display it in high contrast, or have the ballot read to them through a pair of headphones.  I only hope that the election judges receive adequate training on how to help voters use the thing.  Not to stereotype election judges, but I’m imagining some nice old lady trying to show someone how to use the device and getting completely befuddled in the process. 

 

I probably won’t be using the device, as the only alternative means of input is with a sip-and-puff device, which doesn’t really work for me.  While I know I can always request assistance from two election judges, I usually employ my nurse as a scribe.  After all, my politics are hardly a secret to anyone. 

This president hasn’t had a bill come across his desk that he didn’t like–until now.  The Senate is expected this week to pass HR 810, which clears the way for expanded federally-funded research on embryonic stem cells absent the restrictions on available stem cell lines that the president imposed in 2001. The president has made it clear that he will veto the bill, most likely to ensure that religious conservatives will keep his approval ratings from plummeting into Herbert Hoover territory.  Over at Slate, Michael Kinsley made it clear that he has no patience for the hypocrisy of religious conservatives who oppose stem-cell research on the grounds that it sacrifices human life in the process.  If these ideologues are sincere in their desire to protect these blastocysts from meeting an untimely end, he asks, then why aren’t they equally opposed to the fertility clinic industry, which disposes of thousands of human embryos every year?  Yet nobody on the right has ever said boo about this practice. 

 

If this bill is vetoed, you can be certain the Dems will make an issue of it in the fall elections.  If I was a Democratic media consultant, I would already be storyboarding 30-second spots featuring someone with advanced Parkinson’s staring directly into the camera and saying, “Everyone keeps telling me that a cure is on the way.  But the Republicans are working hard to make sure that never happens.”  It’s absolutely manipulative, but it’s also the truth.  Republicans can bloviate until they’re blue about how they are protecting the sanctity of human life, but most voters will instinctively sympathize with the paraplegic in the wheelchair instead of the clump of cells in a test tube. 

 

As a favor to a friend, I’m linking to Getella, his art auction website.  I’m going to suggest that he reconsider the embedded .wav file, but otherwise it’s a good effort.