Politics.NET

Every once in a while, chauffeuring these kids around gets interesting. This happens when the conversation between them takes a turn towards what I like to call the existential and I simply stay out of it. Today's turn led them to ask "Who decided summer was going to be so long?" It started with Dara. Dara: Summer is too long. I miss Mrs Strine so much [Mrs Strine was their kindergarten teacher] Random talk about how the school is empty during summer and students have to hang out with their families...Then: Toni: Summer and winter are so long. I wonder who made them so long Even though I wasn't looking, I could imagine the gears turning in their little heads. Eventually: Dara: It was the first baby! Toni: The first baby? Dara: Yes, the first baby came out and saw the seasons and decided how long they'll be Me? I wondered whether I should blow their minds and ask where the "first baby" came from. But I decided it'll be mean to do that to...

So there I was on a Friday afternoon having a discussion with a co-worker about articles, subject-verb agreement and other arcane aspect of grammar (we were arguing over the help text on a report). As these things sometimes do, it bogged down to an understanding of rules of English grammar. He said one thing was right and I said the other was right. Then out of nowhere he goes "let's get a 3rd person in here to break the tie". Great, I thought thinking he was going to suggest someone with a BA in English Literature or something like that (lots of disciplines end up in IT). But no, he said "let me get someone that was born here ". And thus ended my productive time that day. What the heck do you mean get someone that was born here, I wanted to say to him. I had to study for years and take multiple exams to be proficient in this language; why would you assume someone born here is automatically better than me (I wasn't interested in his estimation of his own pro...

So there I was, watching TV on a Sunday afternoon, when a news item crawled along the bottom of the screen. It said that a 49ers fan who crashed the Seahawks post-Superbowl party turned out to be a 15-year old ward of the state who lives in an homeless shelter. It also said a GoFundMe page had been set up for him. GoFundMe is a fundraising site. So I started thinking, Americans are so generous when a poor person manages to make himself stand out from the rest. Waitress got stiffed by obnoxious guests, we raised money for her. When a bus monitor was insulted by her students, we raised a LOT of money for her. A homeless man with a great voice enthralled us all a few years ago and we all came to his aid. The point is we Americans are very generous when it comes to this kinds of one-on-one giving. But what if we decide that in addition to helping poor people on an individual basis, we come up with a systematic way to raise ALL poor people? I am talking about social welfare programs. F...

When I was growing up, there used to be a game called " Spot the difference " in the newspaper. That and the sports section are just about the only parts of the paper I read (the cartoons back home tended to be more political than funny). Basically, you are given two pictures with slight differences between them. Your task is to spot the differences between the two pictures. Sounds pretty simple, right? Except some are really tough because the differences are where you least expect them to be. Which brings me to the reason for this post. Grocery shopping these days has become an exercise in spotting the difference. Except here, your hard earned money is at stake, you are forced to play and the game is rigged. See if you can spot the difference between these 2 packages of flushable wipes from Costco : If you can't spot the difference, here's a hint: You still what happened there? The package went from 6.8 x 5.9 inches to 7.1 x 5.1 inches. That's a ...

So my birthday was last Saturday. Mixed in with all the "happy birthday" calls and posts on Facebook was this: That's my insurance company sending me an email to wish me a happy birthday. Maybe something is wrong with me but I found this to be a useless waste of time. My relationship with Liberty Mutual is strictly cash (or in this case, electronic payments from my bank). We are not friends so why the pretense? I got the email and I was hoping they'll include some discount in it. But no, nothing of the sort. Just a happy birthday wish. What am I, 3 years old?

When it comes to public policy, you almost have to have 2 approaches: one for your family and one for the general public. Take sex for example. Most parents probably have "no sex before marriage" as the goal. But when you are talking about public health, you have to be pragmatic and know that you won't get 100% compliance. So what happens to the kids that miss the goal? Unplanned pregnancies, self esteem issues etc Even if you have just 1% failure rate, that's a whole lot of people that you haven't planned for. Take abortion, even pro-choice people know this is a life-altering decision. Sure, as a Christian/Muslim, you may abhor abortion but what about the non-Christians/Muslims in the population? Are you not going to plan for them? If you close all abortion clinics (or make it extremely difficult for them to remain open), maybe that'll force some people to have their rape/incest babies but do you think others won't try risky means to abort the baby? So ...

In 2013, why does Microsoft's Outlook.com have this option? : The only option in that dialog ought to be "No".