Let's ban driving in bars

It's strange to see how many opponents of the restaurant smoking ban like to refer to cars and their exhaust as an example of other people being allowed to pollute air. So far I have never seen a running car in a restaurant or in a bar.

Life, whee!

Starting to have a life again, which is nice. Been to two game sessions this week, and visited friends with cats twice, and am still able to breathe after that. Also found that sleep thing, which some people substitute for coffee.

It's still cold and snowing. Can somebody please stop the Ice Age?

Yes, we really can!

Now that Massachusetts has elected a Republican to the US Senate for the first time since the 1972 election, is it time for Obama to change his slogan to "Yes, we can make even Massachusetts elect a Republican!"?

Yes, we can!

Today, for the first time ever in my life, I have voted in a national election in a way that actually counted. In every election before this I knew who our state or electoral district would elect in advance. Massachusetts always votes for a Democrat. Everybody knows that.

Except that now it looks like we don't. The race is very close. The reasons vary: lots of people are disappointed with Obama, for various reasons; the healthcare reform is unpopular; many people feel that 60 seats in the Senate is too much for any party; Brown is a rather inoffensive moderate Republican State Senator, whereas Coakley has a well-deserved reputation as an Attorney General who doesn't care much for justice.

But most of all, I think, people are tired of politicians never listening or paying attention or even bothering to campaign. "Who cares about Massachusetts, they'll vote for Democrats no matter what." Nobody has even bothered to set up the exit polls.

Well, now it suddenly looks like it's very close, even the Beloved Leader himself has suddenly decided to visit the state just before the election, and some of the readers of Helsingin Sanomat in faraway Finland are accusing the electorate of the Commonwealth of Massachusetts of being illiterate rednecks for not voting like the Beloved Leader told them to. (Imagine people in Massachusetts being deeply concerned about the position of Keskusta during the Finnish parliamentary election in 2011, and you might realize how this looks to me.)

I think that we need change. For example, a Republican in the Senate after 47 years of Kennedy, may he rest in peace. I have voted for Brown, and hope he will become our new senator, but no matter who gets elected, this election in itself is a victory for Massachusetts. Now we can finally say: yes, we can have a real election just like in Ohio or in Finland!

Massachusetts is really running out of jurors

I understand that a cat can be summoned for jury duty sometimes. Shit happens.

What I want to know is how come the jury commissioner denied the disqualification. You do have to be a US citizen, at least 18 years of age and able to understand and speak English in order to serve on a jury in Massachusetts; one would expect that this excludes most cats.

Sick

Haven't been posting for a while on account of a really annoying bronchitis, and also because my home is currently a disaster area that needs to be cleaned and rearranged (the cause of the disaster were new bookshelves).

I am, of course, in no condition for cleaning, posting or even sleeping, but tea and antibiotics are slowly winning.

For the entertainment of my readers, an example of why one shouldn't hotlink (warning: goatse).

EDIT: The person who hotlinked to my picture noticed the goatse image and replaced it with a picture of two Israelis in uniform trying to drag an Orthodox Jewish boy somewhere, which is a strange choice of picture considering their topic. It is not known whether he (the hotlinker, not the boy in the picture) has benefited from the experience.

Happy New Year!

Happy New Year, everyone!

Feeling a little bit hung over. Probably should make my traditional New Year salad.