We Are All Our Own Stories
told by hearth-bright
and whispered at night
The Hanged Man
The Hermit and
The Earth Mother
suckling an infant
of thistles and thorns
little mad king
squalling for blood
and not milk as red as
the ink I bleed here now
consumed by dark/light
and spread with embers
and ashes swept from the
fire in a boiling
torrent of bits
and bytes
Glimpses of stars through
rolling troughs and peeks
of simultaneous spells
cast by imperfect renderings
of linear lives that
speak and say
and whisper again
we are all our own stories

Tuesday, September 11, 2007

ReeehardT

I'm losing sleep over
the state of
the world

My tooth-picked unblinking
eyes watch entropy
pulling at our feet while
the shiny guileless
masks of smiling
carrion-eaters keep
our gaze on
the clouds

How long before
I can feel
it too?

I already do...

ReeechardT - March 02, 2006 - The insomnia
is still here but tonight the moon is company.
An image of Future Earth?
Lots of Craters.
Damn...

This came up on another thread, but I liked results so much I want to blog it separately.

Here's a plot of state Smart Scores against the percentage of people in each state who voted for Bush in 2004. On average, the smarter the state, the less likely they voted for George, and a one point increase in smarts reduced the percentage voting for Bush by about 0.3%.

Dumber States Voted for Bush 

Of course, one cannot conclude from the graph that only dummies voted for Bush. We are merely observing that on average, states with higher Smart Scores were less likely to vote for Bush than states with lower Smart Scores. The average Smart Score of states where the majority voted for Bush was -3.0. The average Smart Score for the remaining states was +3.1.

One caveat. This analysis only controls for differences in Smart Scores, which account for about 10% of the variation in the percentage voting for Bush. Other key factors that may influence voting patterns are not accounted for. For instance, states receiving a net inflow of federal dollars (they receive more dollars then they pay in taxes) were also more likely to vote for Bush. Including other variables might change the observed relationship between Smart Scores and voting patterns...but I doubt it would reverse.

Am I the only one that is being restricted by the spam filter?

I have had two posts denied.

Whew!

I've been displaying a Doug Mah for Mayor campaign sign in my front yard for nearly 3 months now. Initially, Doug thought the Goldcrest Homeowners' Association wouldn't allow the political yard sign. I said I'd give it a shot and see what the President of the association, Charlie Lutz, had to say about it.

I was free and clear - until today.

Mr. Lutz stopped by our house near the end of a cul-de-sac and asked me to remove the sign in accordance with the neighborhood covenants. He cited a specific entry in the covenant disallowing any signs other than homes for sale signs. I asked him if garage sale signs were allowed. He fell silent. I respectfully disagreed with Mr. Lutz and asked him to reconsider. He said, "Laws are laws," thus the beginning of my search for real law, not inclusive law.

Once I began to search I felt a bit of a pit in my stomach. Most of the case law was at the federal and state level and explicitly excluded HOA's. I even found a few cases where HOA's actually won out over individuals. Wow, I thought, am I going to have to grown my lawn long and pen 'Doug Mah 4 Mayor' using my lawnmower as a big-ass marker?

As it turns out, no. The State of Washington passed a law in 2005 limiting a HOA's reach reach when it comes to political yard signs. In fact, the law is retroactive to any governing documents in effect on July 24th, 2005.

Know your rights. Display your campaign signs. Tell your HOA to go fly a kite.

WIRE

THE SMITHS

DOOBIE BROTHERS

FLEETWOOD MAC

CHEAP TRICK!!

How is this even possible, you might ask? Only the ghostly city of Olympia, in the dark, forbidding state of Washington could produce such an event unparalleled in the history of mankind! This will be an ungodly collision of the musical styles of the 70s and 80s.

Doors open at 8:30 p.m, show at 9 p.m.

The attached letter was sent to me through my media contact at the LNC.

Dear Bias in Northwest News Coordinators:

The editorial board of Little Nickel Classifieds would like to express its dismay at being excluded from the list of papers that are not invited to your inclusive meeting on Bias in Northwest News. As a long-standing member of the Northwest communications community, we are as deserving of this exclusion as any of the papers mentioned in your notice.

An established brand name for over 35 years, the Little Nickel is a leading provider of commercial news in the Pacific Northwest. Our circulation of 460,000 over 8,000 locations from Bellingham, to Olympia, to Eugene makes the Little Nickel one of the most widely read weekly papers in the nation. In other words, the Little Nickel is big business. So big in fact that we are asking our employees to decide if we should change our name to the Big Nickel, the Little Dime, or the Nickel and Dime.

Speaking of employees, the Little Nickel employs a staff of 165 professionals in 10 offices throughout the Northwest, including seven in Olympia. In solidarity with their fellow staff, the Olympia-7 will not attend your October 26-27 event even though they are tacitly invited.

We only hope that notices for future B.I.N.N. events will recognize the peer relationship between the staff of the Little Nickel and the other papers mentioned in your announcement. Good luck.

Sincerely,

Oldford Fohrssale, Editor in Chief
Little Nickel Classified