Brains on accomplishment, panic, sex, religion, and politics.

Zen To Done

Since everyone liked my link to Zen Habits on Friday, let me point you to Zen To Done, the original article that discusses how to actually get things done without killing yourself.

The best explanation of the economic crisis yet.

( No, really. Listen to this. It's worth your time )

The map of human sexualities [NSFW]

( Truly Awesome! )

It's not an expression of religion, it's a virtuous statement!

( Most bizarre argument yet! )

"If I decide to do it, by definition it's good policy."

( A conversation with the President )

Who was John Keating?

( Team Obama rolls out the big guns )

S&M filmmaker says "Bush does it," gets slapped down anyway

( Another successful obscenity prosecution )

McCain writes off old people

( He'd pay for his new health care benefit by cutting Medicare! )

Uh, oh, Sarah.

( Seven officials change their minds, will testify to special investigator. )

Weekendy notes

After all of the excitement of Friday, Saturday was much more sedate. We recovered at home for a while, then went north to visit with friends through the afternoon, dropping Kouryou-chan off with them and their little girl for an overnight while Omaha and I went to Kouryou-chan's school for the first evening fundraiser (excuse me, "giving campaign") of the year.

It was held in the school's dining room, which is surprisingly loud. We were all pretty much of the opinion that Montessori had made our kids better children, and had stories about adapting our home lives to deal with the way our kids dealt with new stimuli. There was wine and food in abundance while the school staff made their pitches and thanked every team (including Omaha's grounds team) for their hard volunteering.

Afterward, we went home. Injured and tired, even without the children about we went straight to bed.

Sunday, I picked up Kouryou-chan and we all did our monthly Costco run, then went home, had lunch, took naps, that kind of stuff. Omaha went off to her every-other-week D&D game at lisakit's house, and I made an effort to tidy up the bookcases. I now have three full-size paper bags full of books to take to Half Price. The neighbor's kids were outside, so Kouryou-chan spent the afternoon riding her bicycle through the light drizzle that is Seattle's autumn. We had leftovers for dinner, played a few rounds of Quiddler (house rules helped a lot) and went to bed early.

Aren't we exciting?

Bear Naked Opportunism

Bear Naked is a brand of granola that has recently been making a push in our neighborhood. Two big billboards, and suddenly the stuff is appearing on the shelves in every grocery store in the city. I've had it, and found it good enough granola but hardly remarkable. The billboard is catchy, though.

Since cereals were on the shopping list, I took a look at Bear Naked and its competitors. And I was struck, as I was looking at the nutrition information, that Bear Naked was so much better in the sugars and other "fast" carbohydrates than any of their competitors. I mean, startlingly better.

I took a closer look and realized that Bear Naked said "Serving size: 1/4 cup," whereas every other cereal has "Serving size: 1/2 cup." I mean, who eats a quarter up of cereal in the morning? A half cup isn't terribly much.

Scaling up the serving sizes so they were all the same, the generic "organic" store brand, "Back to Nature" actually came out on top. Better price, less sugar-- excuse me, "evaporated cane juice"-- about the same amout of protein. Slightly less fiber, but the price/performance was overall excellent compared to the others.

Obviously, the assumption here is that even people who look at the nutrition facts block will forget to check the serving size, assuming that every cereal uses the same serving size. But to be so blatant about it as to make the bullshit alarms go off was just stupid of 'em.

Brain: Midday edition. I feel like I need meds.

"Voters need to be reminded what McCain offers (to the extent that McCain knows what that is), and they need to be reminded that they don't know Barack Obama."

Did Yuval Levin just admit that John McCain's understanding of what John McCain offers the American People may be limited? Is McCain "confused?"

McCain campaign says the Keating Five scandal was "a classic smear job," and McCain's not sorry at all.

( And he throws away his honor in one phone call. )

Term of the day: Dead Cat Bounce

A dead cat bounce is a term used by traders in the finance industry to describe a pattern wherein a spectacular decline in the price of a stock is immediately followed by a moderate and temporary rise before resuming its downward movement, with the connotation that the rise was not an indication of improving circumstances in the fundamentals of the stock. It is derived from the notion that "even a dead cat will bounce if it falls from a great height".

Palin's staff don't want the press talking to her supporters!?

( After Palin mentioned Obama, one man allegedly shouted "Kill him" )

McCain becoming vile and repulsive

( I winced watching this... )

What bothers me most about the Ayers line of attack

What bothers me most about the Ayers line of attack is that it's an attack on American jurisprudence at its most fundamental. We're not talking about upper-court Constitutional shennanigans; this is the bedrock law-of-the-land kind of thing.

Ayers got off on a technicality. The prosecutors were so go-hung to get him they apparently broke the rules, and he got off with little more than a slap on the wrist. I hate to say this but, that is as it should be. Ayers committed crimes, but pursuit of justice cannot be done with injustice. Michael Kinsley is mostly right that Ayers seems to be an unrepentent jerk whose redemption seems completely insincere. I'm sure his getting off on a technicality only served to make him more of a jerk.

Yet when Sarah Palin goes after Bill Ayers, what she's really telling is what the Republican right has been saying for years: when in your heart you know you're right, you can do no wrong. The prosecutors should not have been prevented from bringing the case forward. There is no "injustice" committed when you have "good intentions." It is this attitude that condones the torture of prisoners and the invasion of countries that are not a clear and present danger to the United States.

The McCain campaign, with all good intentions, holds out its hands and invites us to walk further down the road toward Hell.