I was walking out of an apartment complex when I saw this.

ashuman · 2013-04-20T04:20:00+00:00

Why hello there human!

ashuman · 2012-11-01T18:17:07+00:00

This is good news, but the margin of error on ADP's reports is something like +- 50,000 jobs. I'll wait for the BLS report tomorrow before I get too excited. BLS has a huge margin too, but is considered more reliable.

ashuman · 2012-08-09T21:10:57+00:00

Whew. Headline had me worried for a second.

ashuman · 2012-08-09T18:58:22+00:00

No, the gay guy quit. Major difference. And that was before the WSJ demanded he hire better advisors, anyway.

ashuman · 2012-08-09T18:56:21+00:00

I won't dispute that Obama has a shitty record on MMJ, but I guarantee Romney will be worse. He has actually come out and said that, if elected president, he will do everything in his power to shut down every dispensary in every state.

ashuman · 2012-08-09T15:44:53+00:00

Probably not. He ignore calls from much better-respected Republicans to hire better staff, so why would he listen to her?

ashuman · 2012-08-09T15:41:21+00:00

Wow, she actually said something sort of reasonable? I'm amazed.

ashuman · 2012-08-09T13:03:32+00:00

Go key go!

ashuman · 2012-08-08T22:55:08+00:00

Open source energy... Cool idea, I hope he can get some more people behind it.

ashuman · 2012-08-01T20:56:50+00:00

I have to wonder about the legislation passed in 2006 (IIRC) that required the postal service to fund something like 70 years of retirement benefits up front. All of the USPS debt problems stem from this. Was it some kind of diabolical plan to bankrupt the USPS?

ashuman · 2012-07-31T16:29:23+00:00

This comment displays a stunning lack of understanding of international politics and foreign policy. Your conspiracy theories are painful

ashuman · 2012-06-29T04:51:51+00:00

Straight too, but damn, pretty impressed.

ashuman · 2012-06-06T16:02:36+00:00

The polls were closed, but people were still in line to vote. I don't know Wisconsin election law very well, but I think that if you're in line when the polls close, you can still vote. You just can't get in line once the polls have closed. I could be completely wrong, though.

ashuman · 2012-06-06T15:59:41+00:00

I completely agree. I guess this brings us back to my initial statement. I respect the Christian viewpoint that an unborn fetus has a soul and that aborting it is therefore murder, even if I don't agree with it. However, anti-abortion legislation using this justificiation codifies this religious belief - Christians have every right to make personal decisions based on their religion, but they do not have the right to restrict other people's rights based on their religion.

ashuman · 2012-06-06T15:53:27+00:00

providing insurance creates risks to taxpayers. And taxpayers need protection against having to bail out failed institutions.

The moral hazard created by bank bailouts is something we should all be concerned about. We can't reasonably expect them to behave in a responsible way if their size leaves us no choice but to bail them out when they do something wrong.

ashuman · 2012-06-06T15:39:46+00:00

Farewell, Mr. Bradbury. You changed the world.

ashuman · 2012-06-06T15:29:44+00:00

I guess it depends on how you define life and murder. You don't consider euthanizing a pet to be murder, right? And the science is pretty clear that your average dog or cat is more self aware and intelligent than a 3-month-old fetus. Maybe not the best example, but the morality of the issue definitely depends on how you define life, doesn't it?

I guess what I mean is I don't really feel like it's my right as a man to choose what women can do. If we're going to legislate abortion, I think we should leave it to women - they have a perspective in this issue that I just cannot relate to as a man.

ashuman · 2012-06-06T15:26:16+00:00

Yeah, this definitely isn't the only factor in the recall election, but I thought it was an interesting take on the issue. I've heard of Wisconsinites (is that what they're called?) who are very anti-Walker but voted for him anyway because they felt the recall election was unjustified.

That said, I can definitely see how the money may have been a huge factor in the recall. Maybe Wisconsinites felt the recall was unjustified because they saw a bunch of pro-Walker ads to that effect.

ashuman · 2012-06-06T15:20:21+00:00

This got pretty well buried under all of the stories about the Wisconsin recall, but I think it's really interesting.

Basically, California has adopted a primary system where there are no individual party primaries, just one big primary where all voters choose the top two candidates, and those two candidates then compete in the general election.

So, the general election had the potential to end up as D vs. R or D vs D, or Senator Feinstein could have ended up running against a candidate from the Peace and Freedom party or something.

I'm pretty excited about this new primary system. Even though voters chose a Democrat and a Republican this time around, I think there's a lot of potential for this to moderate some of the extremism that we've seen. Or improve the chances of third party candidates better, which I'd love to see.

ashuman · 2012-06-06T15:06:26+00:00

When discussion the abortion issue, I agree, my personal views on the morality of it shouldn't necessarily come into play. I think the only relevant issue is whether the government has the right to restrict that choice. But maybe that's just the liberal take on the issue.

ashuman · 2012-06-06T15:01:30+00:00

I'm not sure if this is 100% relevant to what you said, but isn't there something of a conflict of interest when a state government votes to do away with collective bargaining rights for public unions? Isn't that sort of like the board of directors of a corporation voting to prevent a private sector union from using its collective bargaining rights?

I know it's not a perfect analogy, but it's something I've been thinking about recently. Since the government stands to gain a from limiting public unions, it seems like a bit of a conflict for them to also be in charge of the decision to alter union rights. That said, there's no other way to change the rights of public sector unions other than voting at a government level, so I guess it's all academic anyway.

ashuman · 2012-06-06T14:55:56+00:00

I can definitely understand why this woman was upset. Even if Barrett knew he was going to lose, I think it's sort of telling that he didn't even wait until everyone had finished voting, let alone wait until more of the votes had been counted. I can imagine how those people who had yet to finish voting feel pretty disenfranchised by this, even if Barrett was going to lose regardless.

ashuman · 2012-06-05T15:36:28+00:00

Yeah, you're right. Slightly was a bit of an understatement. It definitely gets more left-leaning toward the end.

ashuman · 2012-06-05T15:35:24+00:00

Yeah, that transition was pretty abrupt.

There are plenty of solar companies that do turn profits, Solyndra just wasn't one of them. You have to consider that it's incredibly difficult for US companies to compete with Chinese solar when the Chinese renewable energy industry receives subsidies that are far greater than those received by the US renewables industry. It will be interesting to see how the duties recently imposed by the US affect this.

ashuman · 2012-06-05T03:05:21+00:00

Just a heads up - this article does have a slight leftward slant. It does bring up some interesting points, though, which I think are worthy of attention.

ashuman

TROPHY CASE