Mile Zero
no matter where you go, there you are
Mile Zero is the personal website of Thomas Wilburn. All statements and opinions here are my own, and do not represent the views or policies of my employers at Congressional Quarterly, Ars Technica, or other publications.
With Opening Band "...And You Will Know Us By The Trail of Dead"
James Wolcott today points out a question that's been bugging me for a while now: how much is it costing the American public for George Bush to jet around the country, rocking his one-hit wonder "Social Security Privatization, Baby" to sparsely-packed screened audiences?
Seriously, conservatives: is that really the best use of the President's time? We've got this invention called television now that can reach all kinds of people instantly, and as much as I dislike the president's pre-emptive strike at prime-time television last night, you have to admit it's a hell of a lot cheaper.
00:00 x Thomas x /politics/national/executive x link x 0 comments
The Not-So-Great American Novel
I've promised the Nerdlet that I will write a page a day on a novel if we both eat healthier. It's a way of enforcing both my work ethic and my own slacker food habits (I love to cook, but it's awfully easy to just toss a hot dog in the microwave instead of breaking out the pots and pans). So I think I'm going to maintain my schedule these last few days, which have been one big post and one or two smaller ones. Up on the agenda: book reviews (finally!), Beck's new album, and the return of Metro propaganda.
00:00 x Thomas x /meta/announce/previews x link x 0 comments
Can someone explain to me why it is that Beck wants to be Eddie Vedder? There are about three good songs scattered around his new album, Guero: "Que Onda," which has a fun little latin beat and (for some reason) a Mexican accent; "Girl," a sunny Beach Boys vamp; and "Scarecrow," which is funky enough to almost redeem the whole thing. On these tunes, it doesn't sound much like Beck--but it doesn't sound bad either. The rest of the album ranges from generic to terrible. And the vocals... oy.
No-one would ever, I think, claim that Beck is a particularly talented singer. Flat is probably a good way to describe him, but it always seemed to work well for his brand of folk/rap. Mix in his gift for arrangement and rhythm, add judicious chorus and distortion, and the result on Odelay and Mellow Gold (the two other albums I own) was distinctive, to say the least. Maybe he's decided to add more "character" to his singing, because on Guero he's adopted that mumbling, mouth-never-opens-all-the-way delivery of Pearl Jam or Creed. It annoys me, and it sounds terribly generic.
In fact, that's really the worst part about Guero: it just sounds plain. In its best moments, it tends to evoke other artists, not its own sound. "E-Pro," the album's single and opening track, just isn't very interesting. Some of the songs, like "Farewell Ride," start out slow and labored, and will sometimes gradually improve during the choruses. But those choruses are often wordless "la la la" singing. Combine that with the Vedder Gargle, and my hand instinctively darts toward the track forward button whenever I hear "Missing" or "Emergency Exit," almost the worst songs here...
And then there's "Hell Yes"--what's going on here? Why are there stereotype-accented Japanese women cooing phrases like "Hi. I rike your bass. Your beat is nice." throughout the song? It's a little offensive, and more than a little ridiculous. This wasn't a good track to begin with, what with the vocoder and the gratuitous harmonica and the utter lack of the melody. Add a constant half-whispered request to "prease enjoy" and it almost becomes "Muskrat Love" comical.
Maybe Beck's busy. Maybe he's pulled a John Carmack, off firing rockets instead of creating product--and that's fine. But Guero sounds like his attention just wasn't there, and I don't like being sold a product that the artist didn't care about. Music is littered with albums, like John Popper's sad little solo effort Zygote, that aren't good--but aren't lazy either.
00:00 x Thomas x /music/artists/beck x link x 0 comments
Guess who just preordered the new Nine Inch Nails album?
I can't wait.
00:00 x Thomas x /music/artists/nin x link x 0 comments
And he is in fine form.
00:00 x Thomas x /politics/blogs/linky x link x 0 comments
I just saw this on a gaming blog called Broken Saints, and I thought it was a brilliant modern pop-culture reference. It's used in the context of a revelation.
If you're my age, you probably hear that weird Gameboy siren and a few seconds of Russian folk music when you read that.
00:00 x Thomas x /gaming/society/language x link x 0 comments
You may be my savior. You may be the death of me.
Just as Netflix has made it just about impossible for me to buy DVDs because it is effortless (nay, less than effortless, it actually defies the second Law of Thermodynamics), you make it so hard to buy many, many things. It is now obvious that I will not buy socks, batteries, flash memory, root beer, and other sundry items anywhere else. The fact that I must buy these things by the metric ton does not dissuade me, as I use most of them by the metric ton. And of course, it is wonderful to have cheap gas in these days of petroleum piracy.
But do you not realize the terrible nature of your actions? You have lowered so many other precious commodities, like CDs and exotic foods, from more discouraging prices to the level of impulse buys. Hardcover books become purchaseable by mortal man (although, to your credit, you then devalue that privilege with a painfully tasteless selection). Tonight I found myself purchasing Beck's Guero because it was only $10, and I was eyeing the $30 Family Guy collection warily while I did it. All I wanted was a set of AAs! I can afford it, but that's not the point. I was enjoying my life of relative thriftiness.
Please do not start carrying musical instruments. If you do, all will be lost.
Sincerely,
Thomas
00:00 x Thomas x /random/personal/finances x link x 0 comments
Sorry about the lack of posting, by the way. Work has been extremely busy, and I've been putting in overtime instead of writing anything, either for the Asia Press or for myself. But fear not! Meditations on experimental bass rock music, Chinese anti-Communism, book reviews, and an article on the Nintendo DS are soon to come!
00:00 x Thomas x /meta/announce/delays x link x 0 comments
After my aggressive post about World Bank protesters a few days ago, I want to write about the Bank protest movement in general. The other night I attended a dinner for a Bank conference with a lot of management-level NGO (non-governmental organization) and Bank staff. As I've said, I'm not comfortable discussing my work or my criticism of the Bank in very much depth here, because I don't want to endanger my employment. What I will say is that I was struck anew by the sheer chutzpah of the Bank's mission--although they disagree with each other about methods or theory, when these people say that they want to end poverty, they mean it. It is easy to forget (or to trivialize) what the World Bank actually does, because I don't work out in the field. Yet there is no other institution in existence that has the same audacious goals for ending poverty and injustice.
One person who underscored this point was a researcher from Ohio State University, Dr. Robert Kelly, who has studied the Bank and its relationships with NGOs for his dissertation. Dr. Kelly mentioned over dessert that his conclusions had given him pause for the fate of the Bank--its greater visibility compared to the IMF, its sister institution, have caused it to take relatively higher levels of criticism from the radical left, which disapproves of the Bank's methods and closed nature. This liberal faction has joined with American conservatives, who have never liked the Bank on general principles. Both would like to remove the Bank, with the leftists hoping to erect a more open, democratic institution on the rubble. Kelly noted, however, that the Bank's relationship with NGOs and civil society is not one that can be easily replaced--and certainly the Right wing will not help build the new once it has managed to tear down the old.
I understand that is a pretty roundabout paragraph, so let me put it more simply: if these groups manage to destroy or cripple the World Bank, it will not recover. That ambitious mission of ending poverty would be dealt a serious blow, because while smaller groups working toward the same goal could survive, they would no longer have the Bank to coordinate and provide funding for their beneficial projects. The progress that has been made toward the Millenium Development Goals would likely stall, or even regress--and although they will not all be realized, it would be a shame to see them fall apart completely.
That's what scares me about protesters at the World Bank. Their arguments are largely toothless and weak, true, but in their haste to reform the Bank, they and their allies have jumped into bed with the Right. They haven't considered the damage they could do, or the cause they're really advancing. I may seem harsh, but these people must be ridiculed and delegitimized--to lend them credence is to betray the very ideals they profess so loudly.
00:00 x Thomas x /bank/protest x link x 0 comments
Putting our money where our mouth is
You are probably already aware of BuyBlue.org, or one of its alternatives in the political purchasing space. BuyBlue uses publicly available information to rate companies by their political contributions to the left or the right. Now, if you are like me, you've already stopped shopping at Wal-mart (because they are exploitative of both workers and customers) and maybe a few other stores because of personal reasons. I hate Old Navy commercials, much less the clothing, so I wouldn't ever think of setting foot inside. After a bad customer experience years ago, my father will not shop at Montgomery-Ward to this day, assuming he can find one to ignore. But is it worth it to extend that pickiness to companies for purely political reasons? Should you join me in shunning red businesses?*
For the most part, I will argue "yes." First of all, there's a correlation that I can see between companies that treat their workers well and those that vote progressive with their contributions. Costco, where I just picked up a membership, is ranked as one of the best places in the country to find an entry-level job. Second, maybe it really will send a message--blue voters are not some small group of the population, we're a sizeable chunk of the market. Giving to Republicans, especially scumbags like Tom DeLay, is an easy way to lose my money. There are plenty of other places I can shop.
But most importantly, it just feels good. I'll take my good political vibes where I can, in this age of It's-Okay-If-You're-A-Republican and John Bolton as the UN ambassador. Every day, I wake up and the right wing in this country has taken another goosestep into my life, and I'll do my little part to drive them back. Even indirectly, it feels good to deny them money, and give it to people that agree with my values and my ethics. Try it out! I think you'll like it.
Not that I'm perfect--I keep buying from Amazon, because they're fast and they've got everything, but they're only 10% over the line. And I'm pretty sure that my Diet Pepsi habit goes red, but I don't have many options there. All the same, I'm doing what I can. BuyBlue has launched a "Driving for Progress" campaign, showcasing the fact that Progressive Auto Insurance is apparently (go figure) progressive. Last election cycle they gave exclusively to Democrats, totaling more than $68,000. My current insurance provider, Geico, gives 95% of its contributions to Republicans, totalling more than $16,000. I can't change over right away, because I started a new 6-month arrangement with Geico last month, but when the time comes around to pick my new insurance provider, something tells me that I'll be enhancing a blue company's bottom line instead.
00:00 x Thomas x /politics/activism x link x 0 comments
I owe an apology to the protesters who showed up outside the Bank on Saturday. There were many more of them than I expected--about 250, I'd say, which still wasn't enough to fill the park at H and 18th, but more than I thought would be there. But look! Pictures!
Now, that being said, it was still a really stupid thing to do. I'm sure they don't want it, but here are some words of advice to these earnest young (and not so young) wannabe revolutionaries:
You need more organization. The crowd that I saw Saturday was at least 25% journalists, taping the event. The speakers had no charisma. There were no chants, just a bunch of people milling around. When I left, there was a folk singer coming up on stage, of all the horrible things, and someone called him the troubador of the left. No offense, but my Left doesn't have "troubadors." We have rock stars and policies and rabble-rousers. We certainly don't have people like the moron pictured here.
But you know, the most damning problem with protests against the World Bank is that there are just bigger villains out there that you should be working on. We have the most corrupt institution in history hanging out at 1600 Pennsylvania, as well as a radical religious coalition working on tearing down the judiciary, and you're worried about the IMF? Grow up. Go raise money and awareness for the DNC or some other productive means of resistance instead of pretending anyone cares about your weekend activism. I took the rest of the day off and went to the zoo with Belle. See how relaxed the animals are?
00:00 x Thomas x /bank/protest x link x 0 comments
Lots of people are out of the office today, so my main job is covering the phones. I present the following transferred call (not word for word):
Caller: Yeah, I'm calling because I was really... you know, Pope John Paul died lately, and one of the things he said was that the richer nations have a duty to the poorer nations--to help them out. So I just wanted to ask--not for me, but for the poorer nations and because of the Pope--if the World Bank could do its part to help out the poor, you know, by forgiving their debt.
Me: Okay...
Caller: I just think that would be really great, if you would give them a boost... drop the debt.
Me: ...Let me transfer you to someone who can help you with that.
I had to be good. I mean, I just finished castigating protesters for not getting directly in touch with the Bank a week ago. I swear I was snark-free. But I love being asked, personally, if we could do something about all that debt, as if I was the last remaining hold-out on the issue. I wanted so badly to say something like "Wow! Now that you mention it, that's a really good idea! We'll do that tomorrow." or "Actually, sir, because we hate the poor and freedom, we're going to double the debt, and there's nothing you can do about it."
These are the kinds of things that make my day.
00:00 x Thomas x /bank/protest x link x 0 comments
Today we have our first protesters outside the Bank. I'm very disappointed. So far, it's a very elaborate production by Oxfam, with a movie and LCD screens and a big clock--and there are more reporters than protesters.
Tomorrow is supposed to be the "big" march. I'll try to make it into the city and get pictures and commentary. But my advance prediction: this is a non-event.
00:00 x Thomas x /bank/protest x link x 0 comments
Unfortunately, I didn't actually approach this street vendor, so I'm not really sure what system he's using to honor those credit card symbols on his hand-painted sign. I like to think that he has a cunning, high tech hack involving a satellite phone, a hamster-powered generator, and a rewired cash register. The more likely scenario is that he uses one of those old sliding card machines with the carbon paper, and then runs the numbers on his home line at night.
Regardless of how he does it, considering his target audience (the lobbying/nonprofit district of DC, aka the "Golden Triangle") it's a pretty clever move. Impulse buys on plastic are much easier for significant amounts (say, more than $10) than with cash. Credit card companies know this, and today they will likely succeed in getting Republicans and pet Democrats in DC to pass a bankruptcy bill that exploits this psychological flaw. The bill makes it more difficult to declare Chapter 7 bankruptcy, which seizes all liquid assets as repayment, in favor of the heavier Chapter 13, which requires filers to pay more than the value of those assets on an installment plan.
Now to a lot of people that won't set off any warning bells. It's hard to get worked up about forgiving people who owe money, because most of us keep our debt under control and feel no sympathy for those who don't. Often times, in a grim echo of the Reagan "Welfare Queens" myth, I've heard about anonymous abusers of the bankruptcy system who will run up enormous debts, then use bankruptcy as a "loophole" to get out without having to pay for it. Not only is this a serious misunderstanding of how bankruptcy works, but it's also no excuse for a corrupt law. I have the same answer for these stories as I do for the tall tales that an ex-girlfriend is fond of telling, where her friends will cheat the welfare system to get a summer vacation: just because a few people are dicks does not give the government the right to screw the rest of us over. And make no mistake, that's what this law will do.
And the fact of the matter is that the story of systematic abusers, like most anecdotal evidence, is crap anyway. Note this Washington Post column by E.J. Dionne, which quotes Harvard Law professor Elizabeth Warren on the bill's effects. Warren has found that more than half of bankruptcy filers are driven to poverty by medical bills and illness, not by abusive spending, and about 75% of those medical bankruptcy claimants had health insurance. Tightening the bankruptcy bills punishes these people just as much as it does financial slackers--possibly more.
What about the other half? We have to wonder if they all got into massive debt through malice, or if it might have something to do with the way that credit card companies bombard the poor and the financially unproven with deceptive offers for cards that start low, but can jump to obscenely high rates after a missed payment or an initial time period. When you first get a card, it's very easy to think of it as free money--psychologically, that limit isn't money you'll have to pay back, it's cash you've got on hand. There's no systematic education in our society for how credit works, and how interest will make it worse. The effects can be rough, to say the least. I know several people who have had extremely high credit card debts coming out of college, or worse, they still have that debt and are now realizing that it may take years to pay it off. I'm not saying that we should necessarily just blow up the credit card companies a la Fight Club, but just as the tobacco industry has had to face its own marketing, lenders need to take responsibility for their targeted marketing and practices.
I never really faced these kinds of debt dilemmas, because I had no lending history to speak of until I graduated college. I couldn't get a card without paying a deposit, and my lack of credit record meant that it was hard for me to get a cell phone. It seemed like a real pain at the time, and it may still annoy me every now and then. On the other hand, it meant that I was protected from the tendency to spend plastic until my budget sense matured. I recognize now that I probably would have run up some serious debt, which could have been disastrous. Lots of people don't have the buffer that I did, and they're going to be literally paying for it.
00:00 x Thomas x /politics/issues x link x 0 comments
I'm training to be a cage fighter
Vote for the Idaho state legislature, and all your wildest dreams will come true.
00:00 x Thomas x /politics/issues x link x 0 comments
And the Dead Shall Work (from 9 to 5) *
Juan shuffles in to work a little past 9:30 today. I shake my head at him and smile. "Late night?" I ask. He grimaces.
"Couldn't get the door down," he says, "and they boarded up the windows. We had to go through the cellar."
I shake my head again. "It's tough all over," I say. Juan nods and wanders over to his office, flopping down into his chair and staring off into space before he starts flailing away at the keyboard. He's a nice guy, but a real traditionalist--always eating out. Me, I prefer just running to the store and grabbing a quick bite on my way home. Not as fresh, but you don't end up with a pitchfork in your chest either.
I flip through my morning memos and get to work. As usual, there are accounting problems that have to be cleaned up, because Andy over in payroll is missing a couple of fingers and so he just stops counting at 8. I've complained and complained, but what can you do? Accounting says they can't fire him until the contract's up, but they do me a favor and unplug his keyboard two days a week. I've heard they've got a betting pool for when he'll notice, but it's been a couple months now.
Once I'm halfway through the minutes from yesterday's meeting, Tracy from down the hall shows up. She's got some spare time, and we chat for a bit.
"Oh, have you heard?" she says. "They're going to move the HR division to our floor."
"What? Why?"
Her good eye sparkles, and the other one sags in amusement. "Apparently, the smell's gotten pretty bad down there."
"So they're bringing them up here?" I can't believe we'll have to put up with those morons. They travel in packs. One of them cornered me in the elevator once and asked if I was 'streamlining my production,' a phrase I hate almost as much as our company motto ("Your brains fuel our work."). "Who'll fill that space?" I wonder out loud.
"Food services, probably," Tracy says. "It's not like the odor's going to bother them."
Out of the corner of my eye, I see Juan perk up and sniff the air, just as a cart is pushed around the corner. There's a big garish Cafe Houngan logo on the front, and frightened shapes cower behind the bars, keeping as far away from the delivery boy. "Speaking of food," I mutter to Tracy. "Looks like lunch is here."
"AAAAAAGGGGGHHHH..." she agrees, and we lurch toward the cart together.
00:00 x Thomas x /fiction/micro x link x 0 comments
We've still got Muhammad Ali, right?
Why does my birthplace keep producing crazy people?
I mean, honestly, read that article, because it leaves me speechless.
Actually it doesn't: the worst part of the whole thing is that the woman didn't have any clue that she was being raped and abused, even when her husband started paying her to perform sex acts on tape. And this is the man that Bush has appointed as an advisor on the Advisory Committee for Reproductive Health Drugs for the FDA.
It's sick and disturbing. But IOKIYAR, as they say - it's okay if you're a Republican.
00:00 x Thomas x /politics/national/agencies/fda x link x 0 comments
Obligatory Cherry Blossom Post
Ah, spring, when the animals awaken from their long slumber and we start to realize that it'll soon be time for summer re-runs. This weekend the cherry blossoms around the tidal basin--how shall I say this?--blossomed. Their scent draws in herds of wild amateur photographers, all snuffling around and forcing both subject and passers-by into bizarre poses. It also draws in their cousin creature, the blue-speckled tourist, specimens of which flooded the area in droves, or maybe even throngs.
Despite this, Belle and I had a good time, as she can well attest, and dire consequences have been promised if my own sub-par photography is not offered up to the Internets. Seriously, though, it was a fine day to play with manual settings on my camera, and learn just how much more I need to read up on film speeds and f-stops. The following pictures were pretty much all taken at f8.0, ISO 100, with varying shutter speeds depending on the light. If I set the camera myself, it usually looks better than the auto function, but it's a trial-and-error process and I end up having to delete about 3/4 of my shots. All in the name of self-improvement!
The roses don't actually have anything to do with the cherry blossoms. I just liked the shot.
The Jefferson Memorial. Not pictured: 700 million other people trying to take the same picture.
The Nerdlet looks back at the other Thomas. I actually had a cute shot of her from when I was testing shutter settings, but it doesn't look nearly as good on an actual monitor.
Our nation's greatest phallic symbol, the Washington Monument. You know, if someone wanted to write really classy spam, you could do worse than this picture as a visual aid. I'll leave the rest up to you.
00:00 x Thomas x /dc/photos x link x 0 comments
Gripped as we are (See "Great Moments in Catholicism") in the middle of POPE-MANIA 2005 in the media, I might be a little hyper-conscious of religion infringing on my life. On the other hand, a paranoid is simply in possession of all the facts. Either way, this "Revelations" show is really starting to annoy me--I get that little twitch whenever I see religious-themed advertisements in godless heathen venues like Salon.com, and "Revelations" is particularly egregious.
Google it, and the ever-helpful TV Tome states:
Drawn together by personal tragedy, these unlikely partners -- one who worships God and one who worships Science -- are propelled into a deepening mystery, finding evidence that the world, as predicted by The Book of Revelation, has reached The End of Days.
So the "notable" guests are the dwarf from Lord of the Rings (whose actual career is an object lesson in b-moviedom), Fred Durst (!), and the voice of PBS's Arthur? They must be so proud.
Of course, we could snark about miniseries casting all day--and maybe one day I will--but it's all just icing on the cake. What really bothers me about this is the insinuation that the "skeptic" is the one who's out of touch with the "truth" of a biblical apocalypse loosely adapted for television. That's the kind of sloppy, wishful dramatic thinking that makes fundamentalists so infuriating. It feeds their persecution complex and their conviction that a patchy book written by a 2000 year-deceased hitchhiker is somehow more truthful than hard science, great literature, and non-Fox journalism. Note the phrasing in that first quote: "...one who worships science." Nobody "worships" science--but the fundamentalists need to think they do, so that their own kooky fantasies can have equal time with cold facts. In an era when almost half of America thinks that evolution is a mistaken belief held only by elitists, our society doesn't need "Revelations" to muddy the waters.
So I would like to offer the following alternative to the networks, completely free of charge: a show about a freelance skeptic who dramatically debunks supernatural frauds and fallacies in and around American culture. Imagine the X-Files without the blatant bias against Scully's point of view. We can even throw in a crisis of faith, some doubt, and romantic tension if that'll help. Here, try this pitch on for size:
Drawn together by personal tragedy, these unlikely partners -- one who practices Reason and one who worships God -- are propelled into the deepening mystery of credulity and superstition in America.
I couldn't write it--I'd be too vicious. But get a good, rational writer on this, one who's got some sympathy for the devil (as it were) and can handle both sides fairly but critically, and you could be looking at some great television.
00:00 x Thomas x /culture/religion x link x 0 comments
From an A&W Cream Soda, 20oz plastic bottle (emphasis mine):
I don't know about you, but it makes me want to go shake up some cream soda.
00:00 x Thomas x /random/comedy_and_tragedy x link x 0 comments
I found this while walking around downtown Arlington with the Nerdlet the other night. It was in a Catholic bookstore window.
You just can't make that kind of thing up.
00:00 x Thomas x /culture/religion x link x 0 comments
Between sometime in 2003 and November 2004, I was bass player and lead singer for a band called Mile Zero in the Fairfax, VA area. The name comes from a sign near my parents' house in Virginia, where I-66 begins. We rationalized it for the band as "rock starts here," and it makes for a pretty great graphic leitmotif, but I'd had the name rolling around my head for a while. I think we were a good but typical college band--we played a lot of covers and some originals, and we had a lot of fun but we never got a real following. Unfortunately, like most bands, drama emerged. In my case, it involved a lease contract gone bad, and ended with my former guitarist threatening to sue me (inquiries with lawyers indicate that he wouldn't win, but going to court is on my top ten list of expensive things I'd rather not experience). When all is said and done, I was left with a fair amount of vocal and instrumental skill, an extensive acquaintance with contract and leasing law, and a domain name without a topic.
Now, as I said in a previous entry, I'm not much interested in personal blogs. Most people don't have much to say, and they don't say it very well. That makes me a little apprehensive about starting this, because from that perspective it's an act of real ego, but that's never held me back before. Basically, my portfolio site does what I want it to do very well, but what it doesn't do is provide a good writing space for frequent updates--I made a conscious choice not to archive its front page, and it has no content management system. So I've made the decision to split the two functions, leaving the old site for my work and my resume, and using this space as my publishing and writing practice.
I don't know what the name means in its new incarnation. I tried to spend some time working out a rationalization, but it's pretty strained. I'd like to think that mile zero is where everything starts, and beginnings are all around us. Here we are, walking down the road together, and there could be just about anything ahead. A mile zero is a place of great potential. I'll try to live up to it.
00:00 x Thomas x /meta/announce x link x 0 comments
In case you've seen Belle's "Fun with Maps" post (it's private, so don't bother if you don't know the Nerdlet personally), Google has introduced a satellite imagery option to the service at maps.google.com. I caught this a couple of days ago and spent about half an hour scrolling around DC. Interestingly enough, a lot of the important government landmarks are blurred, like the White House or Capitol Hill. I guess they don't want you to see where the snipers are located.
But in case you are not similarly awed by these images, check out Google Sightseeing, a journal of interesting destinations seen from the air. I really dig where people have written their name in fields, and now it'll be preserved online forever.
00:00 x Thomas x /random/tech x link x 0 comments
Originally, I was not a fan of blogs, largely because the only ones I had encountered were the personal diary kind. I still don't read those blogs if I can help it - I find that kind of reading tiresome, particularly when the person doing the writing is not very interesting. But while I was working at the ADA, I found political blogs. It really opened my eyes to the fact that commentary by an expert or skilled hobbyist can be incredibly addictive. It also forced me to recognize that I had to separate the medium from the message: while the writing on the average blog may be uninteresting, the underlying content management system offers three advantages:
My final choice was a 16 kB CGI script called Blosxom. It treats the file structure as its database, and it runs on text files, so my Notepad writing habits can go unaltered. All I need is FTP and the script does the rest. The templates can be altered dynamically to create different "flavors" of the site, and since the site is basically just concatenated text, I can use HTML pretty much at will--although I did end up learning CSS anyway, primarily to replace tables in the main layout. There are drawbacks to the simplicity of Blosxom, of course--trackbacks and comments don't seem to be handled very well (I'm not going to implement them), and posts can't be assigned multiple categories. I also note that it's difficult to revise things--they'll end up being reposted when the date on the file changes. I regret losing the comments, but all in all I like the system a lot, and I think I'm going to redo my other, static site to create a kind of global template.
00:00 x Thomas x /meta/blosxom x link x 1 comment
Hello, how are you?
Hola, bienvenido!
Ni hao, renshi ni hen gaoxing.
My name is Thomas. I am a freelance journalist living in northern Virginia, close to DC, and I also work at the World Bank. I'm not sure how much I want to say about myself, because I may want to talk about the Bank at some point, and it would probably be best if I maintain some level of distance anyway. I just need my space. You understand, right? It's not you, baby, it's me.
On the right you'll see a list of topics (it's the STATIONS sign). Those are the areas that I'm probably best qualified to discuss, although I'm sure I'll talk about plenty of other topics as time goes by. Underneath is another sidebar with links to websites and blogs I find interesting. Note that I'm pretty far to the left politically, and I play with music, games, and languages in my spare time.
Here's what I think you can expect in this space: I'm going to be writing a lot about politics. My background is in communication, so you can expect me to talk about that, and it'll probably have a real influence when I talk about culture (both the pop kind and the sociological kind). Expect some lightweight rhetorical analysis. Because I work in DC, expect photos and commentary about interesting things I see on the street--it's a strange town sometimes. I may talk about my work, but don't expect much. And finally, I'll definitely discuss writing, and probably post some of my fiction, both traditional and experimental.
So enjoy the show, and if something catches your eye just click on my name underneath any post to send me an e-mail. Make yourself at home. Try not to drink the last root beer.
00:00 x Thomas x /meta/announce x link x 0 comments
DC is a really political town. I know that seems obvious, but it really is, and it can be stressful sometimes. Everyone has something at stake. One of the side effects of this is that political ads seem to be more common here. Take the above example, which is currently hanging in Metro stations.
Oh no! According to AHIP, or "America's Health Insurance Plans," we're all at risk from the scary trial lawyers who are costing us so much money! Although I've only seen the one so far, this campaign is part of a series, all using the "shark" theme. In addition to this ad asserting that medical torts cost four times as much as the Homeland Security department, there's one stating that torts are twice as expensive as government education spending, and a third stating that it costs the average household $1,200 a year. Man, that's a lot of money. It almost seems like too much to be true, doesn't it?
Actually, I'm pretty sure it is too much to be true. Wouldn't it be nice if we could check their numbers? Unfortunately, AHIP doesn't tell us exactly where they're getting their information from the Department of Education, the Department of Homeland Security, and the Department of Health and Human Services, so I can't be completely sure. But if we visit Tillinghast-Towers Perrin, the accounting firm that they're citing, we see a report released just this January totaling up tort costs for 2003, putting total tort costs at $246 billion, with the vast majority of that in commercial torts (suits against large companies, by either individuals or other companies). TTP lists total medical tort costs at $27 billion, or about $91 per person. This number is, we note, from 2003, but TTP says they expect to find costs to have grown at a rate of 11% for malpractice suits (lower for other types), which still only puts it at around $33 billion. Maybe AHIP thinks we all have families with ten children, in order to make up that $1,200/household number.
And while it's hard to tell where they're getting their funding numbers for Homeland Security and Education, the FY06 budgets for those two departments list them at $41 billion and $56 billion, respectively. Unless AHIP is relying on accountants from Enron to run the numbers, I don't really see how medical malpractice costs are greater than those, much less two to four times greater.
Still, maybe there's some financial voodoo behind the scenes that I don't really understand. It's possible--I'm not an economist, and I can't be sure what they're actually using to get these numbers. All I can do is check them against common sense. That's why I'm so thankful for the Government Accounting Office, which behaves like a reality check for people like the Bush administration and their lobbying cronies, who don't really believe in that whole "accountability" thing. Hence this August 2003 report in which the GAO found no relation between tort reform and better health care finances.
The real issue here, of course, is not that the right wing in this country is actually worried about the amount of money that you might be losing to those shark-finned trial lawyers. Much like Social Security, this sturm and drang is actually part of a bigger strategy: protecting businesses. Why are doctors angry about tort reform? Because their insurance is high. And heaven help us if we actually go after the insurance companies that charge an arm and a leg. Instead, the Right wants to make it more difficult for you to sue if you are grievously wounded medically (and let's face it, medical malpractice cases can be gruesome, serious stuff). Then, once there's a limit on how much the insurance companies might have to pay out, do you think they'll actually lower premiums to match? Not likely. Doctors and patients will suffer alike, while the rich will get richer off their misfortune.
The fins are circling, all right. But it's not trial lawyers that are smelling blood.
00:00 x Thomas x /dc/propaganda x link x 0 comments
