How I Learned I Was a Moron

For the life of me, I can't figure out why Pacific Park in Santa Monica replaced its solar powered ferris wheel with a new solar powered ferris wheel, but this time one with LED lights.

I'm told it's because the new one is 75% more energy efficient.  But...it's...solar...powered.  Why do I care how energy efficient it is as long as it stays off the grid?  Doesn't greenness then move to the cost of manufacturing a new ferris wheel, not to mention shipping the old one?  Or the chemicals used in manufacturing the 160,000 LEDs used in the new wheel?

My brain is on fire.  Can not compute.

Hillary as VP

My first thought was "no."  There was no upside for Obama, should he win (or vice versa: this was last year), to choosing Hillary that he couldn't find by choosing someone else less tainted by anti-Obama primary rhetoric.

My second thought was "yes."  This was, perhaps surprisingly, after Obama won his 12 primaries in a row.  The two of them had just had a debate, and Hillary had demured when having the chance to attack Obama.  Things are coming to a close, I thought, and Hillary's being a good Democrat, and she deserves the slot.

Turns out that evening of Hillary not attacking Obama wasn't so much a quiet concession as it was a skirmish in some ongoing internecine warfare between factions in Hillaryland.  Sadly, the Fuckwit Faction (Mark Penn) won, Hillary started attacking again, her supporters started doing questionable things, though all the while Obama's nomination grew ever more presumptive.

My current thinking is back to "yes."  As a man, whatever my pretenses to a lack of sexism, I think I tend to naturally underestimate the intensity of many women's reactions to having a woman president.  Although in my mind the problems with Hillary's campaign are based on huge strategic mistakes and her unwillingness to explain/renounce her support for the original Iraq AUMF, the optics of this situation are very bad, and may cause bad feelings more intense than usual between the rival Democratic clans.

(Argh.  Just in the process of writing this post, I reread it and am doubting what I wrote.  Or, more specifically, doubting that picking Hillary would be a good idea.  If Obama is appealing to anti-war Independents, Hillary defuses his message.  Must...stop...pondering...VP...choices...Jim Webb, AYEEEE!)

A Summation of My Feelings About the Clinton Campaign

By someone who's a much better thinker and writer than I:

The dying days of the Hillary Clinton campaign have brought the breathtaking spectacle of a candidate lashing out at every element of public life that has nourished her career. The über-wonk has disparaged economists and expertise. The staunch ally of black America has attacked her opponent for lacking support of "working, hard-working Americans, white Americans." People who thought they knew Hillary Clinton have gazed in astonishment: What has she become? The answer is, a conservative populist.

I'm not a fan of liberal populism, probably because it's so emotionally appealing to wrap up the complexities of our country's economic and social dynamics in a little pink bow. But I do understand the need for populism as a tool of politics, and I suspect we'll see a lot of it from both parties in the fall.

What really burns me up is the calculus inside the Clinton camp that said, "In the primaries, Obama has appealed to better educated people, while our candidate has appealed to less educated people. How can we use that against Obama? Oh, I've got it! Let's steal the rhetoric of the modern Republican party! Let's appear on Bill O'Reilly's show!"

Madness.

Regarding the "gas tax holiday"

Tonight expressing my opinion, Through the Looking Glass:

So, what of Hillary herself? She's touting a plan that's nonsense the way Dubya's war plans were nonsense; the reasons it can't work are widely acknowledged facts which aren't seriously disputed by anyone with relevant knowledge.

Perhaps, after days of publicly touting this proposal, she still doesn't know she's selling snake oil. Or maybe she knows, but doesn't care. Either way, she has left the reality based community.