If I’m going to found my own island nation, I’m going to need a flag. Something distinctive that will set it apart from the 193 other flags that are already out there. Something that will instill respect–nay, fear–in the hearts of U.N. General Assembly delegates. Something that will very clearly and elegantly lay out the consequences for illegally occupying a disability parking spot. Something like this:
:

It gets the point across, doesn’t it? Nitpickers will probably point out that this was once the flag of the Benin Empire, which faded from the scene in the late 19th century. I’m pretty sure that a flag can’t be copyrighted, so I’m going to appropriate it for my own purposes.

Next step: hire a Project Runway cast-off to make me a badass general’s uniform.

I took a break from health care blogging while the Senate Finance Committee went about the ponderous business of crafting its own version of a bill, but expect me to start wonking out in the coming days and weeks as the debate moves from the committees to the floors of both chambers as well the closed-door conference rooms where the real negotiations will take place. I’d love to see every bargaining session broadcast on C-SPAN, but our form of representative democracy has never trusted the electorate enough to be comfortable with full transparency. Still, I’m expecting the floor debates to provide the kind of theater that will have Daily Show writers clapping their hands with unrestrained glee. I also expect that the media will declare negotiations deadlocked at least once before a bill gets signed. I remain confident that a bill will get signed and it might even be a pretty good bill.

I’m not sure how the politics of this will play out, though. Most bill provisions don’t take effect for a few years and it seems really awkward to tell voters that they need to hold on for a while longer before they can get health care. I’m sure Obama’s advisers are paying attention to the problem, but I hope they come up with something that will provide tangible benefit to people in the short-term.

Oh, to be young, articulate, and scary-smart. M.I.T. is employing student bloggers to write posts about student life, which can be read by interested high school students who are considering applying to the school. And check out this snippet from the article:

The M.I.T. student bloggers have different majors, ethnicities, residence halls and, particularly, writing styles. Some post weekly or more; others disappear for months. The bloggers are sought out as celebrities during the annual “Meet the Bloggers” session at Campus Preview Weekend.

Clearly, I was born a couple decades too soon. Imagine the fanbase I could have accumulated as my school’s blogger-in-residence. Imagine the groupies! Then again, the Catholic liberal arts college I attended might not have been thrilled with frequent references to fishnets and other such subversive content.

San Francisco isn’t a particularly big city in terms of land mass, but it is quite dense. This density can result in some startling changes of scenery in short order. One minute, I was in the trendy and gentrified SoMa neighborhood and a block later I was in the hardscrabble Tenderloin. This density, combined with one of the more comprehensive public transportation systems in the U.S., allowed me to see a good deal of the city and surrounding area without ever stepping foot in a car.

We’re all familiar with some of the more iconic sights such as cable cars and the Transamerica Pyramid.

The Ferry Building hosts a bustling farmer’s market on Saturdays that is sure to give any foodie heart palpitations. The Bay Bridge provides a lovely backdrop to the scene.

I also made some new friends at the Folsom Street Fair (link very NSFW).

My brother first described it as a gay pride event, but it’s more accurate to describe it as one of the largest leather and fetish festivals in the world. To use a Minnesota analogy, it’s like Grand Old Days, but with a lot more people wearing chaps, dog collars, and nipple rings. It is decadent, outrageous, and the embodiment of every conservative’s paranoid vision of life on the Left Coast. I thought it was a blast, although I could probably have won the award for Most Boring Attire (Heterosexual Male).

Not shown in these photos are my wanderings through the ridiculously crowded streets of Chinatown, my visit to the famous but cramped City Lights bookstore, my afternoon in Golden Gate Park, my exploration of the wonderful Richard Avedon exhibit at the Museum of Modern Art, and my day trip to the Berkeley campus (where everyone is both smarter and better-looking than me).

Of course, I didn’t manage to see everything. But that’s what return trips are for.

Blogging will be on hiatus again until Tuesday. I’m leaving tomorrow to visit my brother in San Francisco for a few days. I don’t have a specific itinerary other than to wander the city, buy my brother a birthday dinner, and measure myself up against the Bay Area hipsters. I was last in San Francisco way back in 1997, but my only memories are of the runaways congregating in Haight-Ashbury and making the ill-advised purchase of a tie-dyed T-shirt.

Pictures will be posted upon return. And if you have recommendations of places to go or things to see and do, feel free to e-mail me. I expect that my iPhone will need a vacation after I put it through its paces on this trip.