Categories
Political

A candidate I do support

After reviewing his various legal actions on behalf of the people of the state, and comparing same with his competitor, one candidate I am behind is Jay Nixon for governor of Missouri.

Black River News writes on an ad paid for by Ed Stewart in the local Ironton newspaper:

These same groups [ed. Sierra Club, Audubon Society, and the Missouri Coalition for the Environment], working with Jay Nixon, want to see this area turned into a huge wilderness resort. These same groups would like to see schools and towns disappear from the map. They would like to see farms and homes disappear off the map. For at least a couple of decades these same groups working with Jay Nixon have kept any new mines from appearing on the map in Southeast Missouri.

Can I vote for Jay twice?

Contrary to myth, environmentalists support smaller communities; in fact, the more active of the environmentalists live primarily in smaller communities. We work to ensure that community natural resources aren’t raped by big interests; work to develop a thriving visitor and tourism economy, support cottage industries and small businesses, as well as helping to find ways to utilize the resources responsibly.

I grew up in a lumber community where scraps from the timber processing were burned without filter, making the sky almost unbreathable in the summer. I watched as automation eliminated 98% of the jobs, while leaving behind the ragged remnants of a broken community; the company providing token funding so that the schools were barely kept in subsistence (thus ensuring that the people didn’t fight back no matter how abusive the timber interests were).

Rather than wanting to see schools close down, environmentalists want to see that the community’s schools are adequately funded. We want all schools in the state to be adequately funded, if for no other reason than most educated people see the wisdom of taking care of the environment.

As for small farms, there’s not an environmentalist around who won’t help small farmers learn all the many techniques they can use to grow their crops, raise their livestock, and not pollute streams; or their own kids, when it comes to that. It’s the big corporate farms that don’t care about the land.

Environmentalists work to see that every community thrives because the land, air, and water are clean, and the wildlife abundant and healthy–not to mention the trees not all cut down, the land not paved over and sick or dying from exploitation. Environmentalists believe, more than anything, in quality of life, and we live up to that belief: not just mouth words about ‘family values’, while working to ensure that the next generation inherits only despair.

Big business, on the other hand, well what does it do for communities? I’ll tell you one thing: it decides in the economic interests of the company, not to mention the next quarter’s stockholder reports, not to do the work necessary to maintain a dam so that a billion gallons of water doesn’t come rushing down a hill–almost destroying one of this state’s greatest natural treasures. Knock on wood, no one was killed, eh?

You know why I stay in Missouri? To make sure people like Ed never get a good night’s sleep again.

Categories
Stuff

On a lighter note

Recovered from the Wayback Machine.

I saw Snakes on a Plane, and cheered when Jackson said the line, but I still think a bomb would have been a whole lot simpler–and why is that Sci-Fi pushes these films at women over 50, but filmmakers insert female nudity?

I thought V for Vendetta was a wonderful film, and I particularly liked the gift V gave Evey. A truly beautiful film.

Over the Hedge is cute. A must watch for all squirrel lovers, and all people who dislike housing association presidents.

After Scoop I will never take another outside chance on a Woody Allen film ever again.

Categories
Political

If I were President

Recovered from the Wayback Machine.

It’s easy to say what we want our elected officials to do. We want them to magically balance the budget while giving us universal health care. We want to pull out of Iraq, while magically making the people of the country resolve their differences so we don’t have to feel guilt at what we’ve done. We want them to perform magic, while absolving ourselves of any responsibility in understanding the issues, paying for the reforms, or otherwise putting ourselves out in any way, other than an occasional rant.

When I was critical of John Edwards, Ralph pointed out Edwards’ work with The Center on Poverty, Work, and Opportunity, as well as pointing out that Edwards discusses poverty when he’s out on the campaign trail–something other candidates do not.

Ralph’s point is good, in that we as a nation don’t deal well with poverty. If we want to point fingers of blame about New Orleans, we have to point them at ourselves as much as the Bush Administration because New Orleans was a disaster in the making long before Katrina happened. As long as we had our ‘colorful southern city’ where we could have our Mardi Gras party, and as long as the affluent in New Orleans had areas like the Garden district, no one really cared exactly how poor and how vulnerable most of the folks in New Orleans were. No one cared that the kids were failing in schools, violence was on the upswing, that flooding was inevitable.

Even now, we really don’t care that the same could be said about most inner cities, or poor rural areas.

We don’t care about the poor, because we think that being poor is a matter of choice rather than one of circumstance. After all, look at all that’s been accomplished by people who began poor but pulled themselves up by their ‘boot straps’ and ‘made something’ of themselves.

This is not the land of opportunity it once was, though. With the internet and global communication, you can’t walk away from your past and never look back. Most folks can’t fail in school and still become a success like in the old times. Heck, you can barely make a living even if you have a college degree.

With each new generation, it becomes that much more difficult to pull oneself out of poverty. There are the internal factors working against you, including the ‘clan’ that pushes the members to behave a certain way, do certain things, and above all, keep your dreams to the level of your brothers and sisters. There are also the external factors, such as access to a good education regardless of where you live.

I admire Edwards for not giving poverty a slide, and that’s a vote in his favor. I also admire him for actively working towards solutions to poverty. At the same time, though, kicking off a think tank of well born liberals, where evening sessions are focused on ‘bringing about poverty awareness’ isn’t necessarily going to do more than take the place of the Ladies Society of the past–where women would gather to gossip as they made baskets of hand outs to give to the poor in the neighborhood, and thus absolving themselves of any further responsibility.

Heck, if I were somewhat of a long shot candidate, possibly running against a black and a woman, I’d want to emphasize my nurturing, social skills, too. What better way to do that than to create a center to discuss poverty, while you wait for the next election?

This isn’t to insult Edwards or imply that this is what’s on his mind, because, yes, he is bringing this up as an issue; from what I can see of the reception of same, not a popular one among Democrats. Time for the Dems and Republicans both to remember that as the poor class grows–and make no mistake, it is growing as the middle class shrinks–it makes a tasty voting bloc, too. Perhaps other candidates should take a page from Edwards and jump onto the Poor Train. However, it’s a fast ride, and if they’re not willing to stick with it, then I don’t need to hear their hypocrisy.

Talk is big, so if I were President, what would I do to help combat poverty?

First, I would implement universal health care. People often times stay in dead end jobs because at least they have medical coverage on the job. Additionally, the number one reason for bankruptcies in this country are medical problems that have left horrendous bills people can’t pay.

More than just the economic factors, if you’ve never lacked for health care coverage, you don’t know what it’s like to have this wearing you down on a daily basis. More importantly, have you ever gone into a free clinic? If you have, then you know what I’m saying: how you’re treated as a ‘person of no insurance (no consequence)’ can last beyond the treatment you receive.

We’re the only so-called First World nation in the world that doesn’t have universal health care, and we should be ashamed of our selves. We should also be a little more forward thinking, because the way things are going, everyone except the very wealthy will be without health insurance, or decent health coverage, in less than twenty years.

What else would I do?

I’d raise the minimum wage, but more than that, I’d enforce a standard of work so that companies such as Wal-Mart, in its rampant greed, cannot establish procedures that force long-term employees out the door. People should be able to count on their jobs, and though things can go wrong, and companies close or have to cut back, when a company is doing well, and the employee is doing their job, they shouldn’t have to worry about the shenanigans of their company just because they have enough seniority to make something a bit more than minimum wage.

Shame on us for our pattern of giving corporations and business a free pass for inhuman treatment. We were raised on a level of propaganda that makes anything that came out of the Kremlin seem amateurish in comparison. “Well, a company needs to keep its costs down or it might have to close its doors and then where would we be?” “Companies have to be competitive.” “Nowadays, you should be happy just to have a job.”

Why do we believe this crap? Even after hearing about the obscene profits these companies make, we still give them every advantage to take advantage of us. Why is that? This leads to the third area I would work on to help the poor: Campaign reform.

Damn it all, I don’t want the best Congress money can buy. If you think that Democrats are somehow isolated from the lobbying pressures and campaign fund raising pressures and the like, you really do need to buy that swampland in Florida. We have to make it so that the vote matters more to these people than the coins dropped into their campaign chests, and the only way to do that is campaign reform. In fact, I should list this first; at a minimum, I list this in parallel with the two above.

You know who the biggest contributor to Bush was in the last election? MBNA. Now, do you know how much Bank of America/MBNA/Citibank and the like charge in interest rates for the poorer of the credit card holders? Close to 29%. Twenty nine percent!

In 2005, Congress decided that the poor are deadbeats and caved into the credit industry, making it more difficult to achieve a Chapter 7 bankruptcy. Yet at the same time, there was absolutely no move to clean up the credit card industry, not to mention the housing loan and other financial institutions. The reason why Congress did this is because it was, and until I see otherwise based on actions, it’s still the best Congress money can buy.

A fourth area I would emphasize is education. We don’t need to spend money on allowing Intelligent Design into our schools, and to hell with tax breaks for the wealthy to send their kids to private schools. Let kids get their religion in church, and their status at the debutante balls. What we need is to ensure that every kid has the opportunity for a safe, sound education–good enough to get them into any college they really want to attend. A kid can’t learn in a school where he or she is afraid of getting beat up or knifed; where the bathrooms are disgusting; and the teachers don’t care because they have too many kids and not enough time to do the job right. Kids should want to come to school because, at a minimum, it’s a safe haven for them; a place of hope.

Beyond the grade and high schools, no one should be denied a college education because they can’t afford such. I’ve long felt that we need to start rewarding folks for doing well in schools, including ‘forgiving’ some of their school loans. We can’t do that, though, if states attempt to sell off or misuse funds marked for such.

Bottom line, to start helping the poor is stop thinking of them as some new species of human and stop considering them as cheap, disposable labor that is encouraged to consume cheap shit, doesn’t need to be well fed, well paid, well schooled, or live in a home that’s above sea level in an area surrounded by water. Can we do that in meetings and town halls? I doubt it. The only way we can do that is in the courts and in the legislatures and in the White House, filled with people we put there to do a job, not further their political careers.

It’s going to take more than words. It’s going to take campaign promises that are kept because we watch our elected officials’ butts and make sure they keep them. It’s also going to take the American people realizing that we’re judged by how we treat the lowest of us, and accordingly, that makes us shitty.

After a period of nearly unprecedented political corruption, Americans of all political persuasions are anxious to believe in the efficacy and honesty of government. The knock against the Democrats in recent years has been that our leaders bend with the political wind and practice expediency over principle. The Democratic Caucus in the House needs to coalesce around these issues and stand up to those who oppose them. If the president, as he said the other day, wants to “work with Democrats,” great. And if there are Republican lawmakers who have the good sense to join you in fighting for these initiatives, that’s great too, but bipartisanship for show is bunk, pray you avoid it.

What he said.

Categories
Critters Just Shelley

What were they thinking?

Zoë had to go in for a rather intensive physical today. She’s always been somewhat of a gorger, chomping down her dry food too fast and than…well..you know. Lately it seems to happen more frequently and we thought it was time to check her out, make sure she’s OK.

Zoë’s also moving with more difficulty. When she walks down the stairs in the morning, she hops down, keeping her back legs together.

The vet tried to listen to her heart and thought she heard a murmur. To check for sure, she got an EKG, which is kind of cute (if not inexpensive). The worst of it, though, was getting a blood sample.

Zoë is the sweetest cat in the world, but she hates vets. One we had would examine her without assistance until the day when Zoë actually scratched the stainless steel of the examining table. The doctor jumped back, held his arms up, exclaiming, “Whoa!”

Now she gets a vet, two assistants, and being wrapped in The Blanket. Well, and today she got a muzzle for the first time, too. It’s good to know Zoë still has her teeth.

I’m not happy with the vet right now, and it wasn’t necessarily because of the muzzle. They shaved Zoë’s neck to get a blood sample, but she fought so much they decided to get the sample from her leg. A shaved neck and three shaved legs, they got their sample. Since the legs were still bleeding what did they do? They put gauze over the puncture wounds, and wrapped each leg with adhesive medical tape.

Do you know how hard it is to get tape out of a cat’s fur? Especially when it hurts the cat? My roommate and I finally succeeded, but not before our little girl was further traumatized. I think it’s time to find another vet.

Zoë is now on arthritis medication; one of the first real signs of her advancing age. According to the charts, she’s equal to a 75 year old human but she still plays On the Back of the Chair monster, chases the bird toy around the top of the bed, plays keep-away.

Categories
JavaScript RDF

To JSON or not to JSON

Recovered from the Wayback Machine.

Dare Obasanjo may be out of some Ajax developers spheres….actually *I’m probably out of most Ajax developers spheres…but just in case you haven’t seen his recent JSON/XML posts, I would highly recommend them:

The GMail Security Flaw and Canary Values, which provides some sound advice for those happily exposing all their vulnerable applications to GET requests with little consideration of security. I felt, though, that the GMail example was way overblown for the consternation it caused.

JSON vs. XML: Browser security models. This gets into the cross-domain issue, which helped increase JSON’s popularity. Before you jump in with “But, but…” let me finish the list.

JSON vs. XML: Browser Programming Model on JSON being an easier programming model. Before you jump in with “But, but,…” let me finish the list.

XML has too many Architect Astronauts. Yeah, if you didn’t recognize a Joel Spolskyism in that title, you’re not reading enough Joel Spolsky.

In the comments associated with this last post, a note was made to the effect that the cross-domain solution that helped make JSON more popular doesn’t require JSON. All it requires is to surround the data returned in curly brackets, and use the given callback function name. You could use any number of parameters in any number of formats, including XML, as long as its framed correctly as a function parameter list.

As for the security issues, JSON has little to do with that, either. Again, if you’re providing a solution where people can call your services from external domains, you better make sure you’re not giving away vital information (and that your server can handle the load, and that you ensure some nasty bit of text can’t through and cause havoc).

I’ve seen this multiple places, so apologies if you’ve said this and I’m not quoting you directly, but one thing JSON provides is a more efficient data access functionality than is provided by many browser’s XML parsers. Even then, unless you’re making a lot of calls, with a lot of data, and for a lot of people, most applications could use either JSON or XML without any impact on the user or the server. I, personally, have not found the XML difficult to process, and if I wanted really easy data returns, I’d use formatted HTML–which is another format that can be used.

You could also use Turtle, the newly favored RDF format.

You could use comma separated values.

You could use any of these formats with either the cross-domain solution, or using XMLHttpRequest. Yes, really, really.

As was commented at Dare’s, the cross-domain issue is not dependent on JSON. HOWEVER, and this one is worthy of capitals: most people ASSUME that JSON is used, and you’re not returning JSON, you better make sure to emphasize that a person can a) choose the return format (which is a superior option), and/or b) make sure people are aware if you’re not using JSON by default with callback functions.

As for using JSON for all web service requests, give us a break, mate. Here’s a story:

When the new bankrupty laws were put into effect in the year 2005, Congress looked around to find some standard on which to derive ‘reasonable’ living costs for people who have to take the new means test. Rather than bring in experts and ask for advice, their eyes landed on the “standards of living expenses” defined by the IRS to determine who could pay what on their income tax.

The thing is, the IRS considers payment to itself to probably be about as important as buying food and more than paying a doctor. The IRS also did not expect that their means test would be used by any other agency, including Congress to define standards for bankruptcy. The IRS was very unhappy at such when it was discovered.

In other words, just because it ‘works’ in one context doesn’t mean it works well in all contexts: something that works for one type of application shouldn’t be used for all types of applications. Yes, ECMAScript provides data typing information, but that’s not a reason to use JSON in place of XML. Repeat after me: JavaScript/ECMAScript is loosely typed. I’m not sure I’d want to model a data exchange with ‘built-in typing’ based on a loosely typed system.

Consumers of JSON or XML (or comma separated values for that matter) can treat the data they receive in any way they want, including parsing it as a different data type than what the originator intended. Yes, JSON brings a basic data typing, and enforces a particular encoding, but for most applications, we munge the returned data to ensure it fits within our intended environment, anyway.

What’s more important to consider is: aren’t we getting a little old to continually toss out ‘old reliables’ just because a new kid comes along? I look at the people involved in this discussion and I’m forced to ask: is this a guy thing? Toss out the minivan and buy the red Ferrari? Toss out the ‘old’ wife for a woman younger than your favorite shirt? Toss out old data formats? Are the tools one uses synonymous with the tools we have?

Snarky joking aside and channeling Joel Spolsky who was spot on in his writing, just because a new tech is sexy for it’s ‘newness’ doesn’t mean that it has to be used as a template for all that we do.

The biggest hurdle RDF has faced was it’s implementation in XML. It’s taken me a long time to be willing to budge on only using RDF/XML, primarily because we have such a wealth of tools to work with XML, and one can keep one’s RDF/XML cruft-free and still meaningful and workable with these same tools. More importantly, RDF/XML is the ‘formal’ serialization technique, and there’s advantages to knowing what you’re going to get when working with any number of RDF APIs. However, I have to face the inevitable in that people reject RDF because of RDF/XML. If accepting Turtle is the way to get acceptance of RDF, then I must. I’d rather take another shot at cleaning up RDF/XML, but I don’t see this happening, so I must bow to the inevitable (though I only use RDF/XML for my own work).

We lose a lot, though, going with Turtle. We loose the tools, the understanding, the validators, the peripheral technologies, and so on. This is a significant loss, and I’m sometimes unsure if the RDF community really understands what they’re doing by embracing yet another serialization format for yet another data model.

Now we’re doing the same with JSON. JSON works in its particular niche, and does really well in that niche. It’s OK if we use JSON, no one is going to think we’re only a web developer and not a real programmer if we use JSON. We don’t have to make it bigger than it is. If we do, we’re just going to screw it up, and then it won’t work well even within that niche.

Flickr and other web services let us pick the format of the returned data, Frankly, applications that can serve multiple formats should provide such, and let people pick which they use. That way, everyone is happy.

Ajaxian: Next up: CSV vs. Fixed Width Documents. *snork*

*most likely having something to do with my sense of humor and ill-timed levity.