Saw the Beastie Boys on Letterman last night. I’m not the biggest Beastie fan, but I like some of their songs; a few of which I’ve *cough* borrowed *cough* from friends on the Internet. They did an interesting trick last night with what appeared to be a SteadiCam rolling down the street in front of them. Would have made a good video.
This guy is on a mission to read 52 books in 52 weeks. I admire his resolve, but I’m not sure it’s the quantity of the reading as the quality of the experience that’s important. Is devouring a book in seven days more worthy than reading it at a more leisurely 14 days. I read at a pretty fast clip, but I’ll admit that the books keep piling up around my living room. Part of the problem is that I tend to read a lot of stuff on the internet. News aggregators and RSS are great inventions, but they can be like brain crack for someone like me. So lately I’ve been making a conscious effort to get away from the computer after a reasonable amount of time so that I can devote some to words on paper. And even then, I have to keep up with the five or six magazines I subscribe to. Sigh. Nancy Kress wrote a novel called Beggars in Spain about people who were genetically modified so that they didn’t require sleep. I wish someone would hurry up and design a pill that can delete the sleep function encoded in our brains. I’ve got stuff to do, damnit.
I had the opportunity to get a sneak peak ride on Minneapolis’s new light rail train today. Pictures are forthcoming.

RealNetworks and Starz are launching a movie downloading service for people with broadband internet access. I think it’s great that more media distribution is being done over the Web, but I’m not sure people will pay to watch movies on their computer screens. It’s not like music, where you can play it and then walk away. You’re chained to a desk and sitting in a position that doesn’t lend itself to extended inactivity. I’d prefer to be able to kick back and watch a film on my 31″ JVC with surround sound than on my 19″ monitor. And it’s even less ideal on a notebook computer. But maybe I’ll give it a try to see what the selection is like and how they handle technical issues like image resolution. I have a feeling it’s something crappy like 640×480, but maybe I’ll be pleasantly surprised.
Bob Herbert wrote this NYT editorial about recent Medicaid cuts in Mississippi (registration req’d). No, “cuts” is being charitable. More like “gutting.” Almost 65,000 elderly and people with disabilities could lose their health care. People with Alzheimer’s and CP and quadriplegia. And what’s Governor Haley Barbour’s rationale for these draconian measures? He says that taxpayers in Mississippi shouldn’t have to “pay for free health care for people who can work and take care of themselves and just choose not to.”
I give you the bold new future of compassionate conservatism, ladies and gentlemen, where even those on their deathbeds will be expected to get off their lazy asses and flip a burger or two. Of course, it must be stated that Mississippi expanded Medicaid eligibility in the booming 90’s and now lacks the will to raise revenues to keep those benefits intact. It still amazes me how we treat health care like a commodity in this country. It’s not something you can give and take away like a child’s toy. Idiots.

I got a nice letter from Wells Fargo, my former mortgage holder, saying that they had sent me a refund check in February for a goodly amount and why hadn’t I cashed it yet? This was news to me. I can’t figure out why they would owe me a refund. But who am I to turn down their money? So I filled out the form asking them to reissue the check. I can always use a little extra scratch to pay down my credit card and maybe put a little towards some new toys.
I know you will find this news as shocking as I did: Karl Rove and his subordinates in the Bush campaign tried to incorporate Reagan’s legacy into a new series of campaign ads. These ads did not go over too well with the Reagan-Is-God crowd and now the campaign is being urged to destroy the ads before the public sees them. You have to wonder how desperate things are in the Bush campaign when they resort to co-opting the legacy of a dead president before said president’s body is even in the ground. The very idea of comparing this Bush to Reagan is absurd and I don’t think even the most ardent conservative would disagree with me.
But if you do, you can comment to your heart’s content.

I know I said I was going to write something about the stem cell controversy today, but I want to save that for a time when my heart’s a little more into it. I went in for a wheelchair fitting today and the radio in the waiting room was tuned to Rush Limbaugh. The man’s rantings gave me a headache. But I got to sit in my new chair and it’s pretty sweet. The thing turns on a dime and doesn’t have some of the jerky motion of my current chair. It needs a couple minor modifications and then I should be good to go. I’ll post some pictures for those of you who want to compare it with your own ride.
Just talked to my sister, who is back on American soil today after a semester in France. Her French is probably better than mine now and I bet she’s smoking Gauloises and reading Camus all the time. Brat.

Remember how Nixon was the only one who could go to China? Ariel Sharon may be inching closer to becoming Israel’s Nixon. His government is on the brink of collapse because of his plan to evacuate settlers from the Gaza and parts of the West Bank. I don’t agree with the context of the pullout; I’d rather see it as part of a negotiated settlement with the Palestinians. But this is probably the best we can hope for given the current political climate in Israel. My brother was in Israel back in 2000, just before the last major peace push at Camp David. He said that most people seemed prepared for a comprehensive peace agreement and that there wasn’t much interest in holding on to the territories. And then everything went to hell, at least in part because of Arafat’s inability to put the interests of his people ahead of his own neck. In the end, the political result may be the same. Israel will leave most (but not all) of the territories and a de facto Palestinian state will emerge. It remains unclear exactly how the Palestinians will govern themselves. Basic services, like trash collection and police force, will have to be quickly established by the Palestinian Authority for it to retain whatever scraps of credibility it has left. Otherwise, a group like Hamas, which has already outshined the Authority in its ability to provide social services to those living in Gaza, will seize the opportunity to make a power grab in the territories. And a Palestinian state dominated by Hamas does not fill me with a warm, fuzzy feeling.
Boy, it’s fun to give opinions about stuff I’m barely qualified to talk about. Tomorrow, stem cells.