Monthly Archives: November 2006

David Foster Wallace

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All the hipsters were reading him, so I actually talked my book group into reading one of his early works – Broom of the System — or as I call it “Broom of the Fucking System.” I actually read the whole thing thinking that sooner or later there actually had to be a plot there, or something. Yeah, right.
Talk about letting down the group. Man. They hardly trust me to pick books anymore. Fucking David Foster Wallace. Which is why this made me laugh. Ha! That almost makes up for reading that crappy ass book.

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Tomorrow is Election Day

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  • Post category:Politics

Please remember – The polls close at 6 p.m. in Indiana, so vote early! Try to vote before work or at lunch. People often skip voting in mid-term elections, which is unfortunate since they tend to have a much greater impact on your daily life than the national elections. If you don’t know who your candidates are, Vote Smart is always helpful in figuring that out.

Where to vote: Indianapolis has a polling locator website. Unfortunately it seems to prefer Internet Explorer to Firefox, where the form to enter your address into is completely hosed. The screen is better in Safari for the Mac; at least you can enter your info. Way to be accessible, people. Incidentally I’ve noticed lots of the city website is only useable in IE.

If you live in Indianapolis (especially downtown) and are concerned about GLBT issues, here’s a great rundown of the candidates on that issue from Mark St. John of the Indiana Equality PAC. I should clarify I grabbed this information from an email list from our neighborhood where people were asking Mark directly what he thought about candidates, so some of his personal preferences might be included with official positions of IE.

In Marion County the House of Representatives candidates with which IEPAC has been working in support include Susan Fuldauer (D) in House District 88 (running against Representative Brian Bosma), Representative David Orentlicher (D) in House District 86 (running against Kathryn Densborn), and John Barnes (D) in House District 89 (running against Larry Buell). All three – Orentlicher, Fuldauer, and Barnes – have stated positions in opposition to the marriage amendment and in favor of the inclusion of sexual orientation and gender identity in the state’s civil rights laws.

As for House District 97 (which includes most of downtown Indianapolis, including the Old Northside, Chatham Arch, etc.), the candidates are the incumbent, Representative Ed Mahern (D), and the Republican candidate John Elrod. Mahern is a strong supporter of LGBT civil rights issues, and voted in opposition to the proposed marriage amendment. He has a gay brother, and his entire family is highly supportive of the LGBT community. Elrod has stated his opposition to the marriage amendment, although mostly in private, one-on-one conversations. He has put out some pretty nasty mailings during the campaign, twisting around votes made by Mahern regarding illegal immigrants and child abuse so as to make Ed appear to be the Devil incarnate. Just a few minutes ago I received a killer call on behalf of Elrod, stating that Mahern is a career politician who is only worried about taking care of himself. Please be aware that Elrod is an attorney, and serves on the advisory board of Center Township. Elrod is in opposition the proposed consolidation of Marion County fire departments – hence, Elrod is busy protecting his political friends in township government and his own bottom line. For me, the real bottom line – Elrod is a Republican who will vote for Brian Bosma to be Speaker of the Indiana House of Representatives – something that is very dangerous to the future for the LGBT community.
In other races, both prosecutor candidates, Melinda Kennedy (D) and Carl Brizzi (R) have expressed support for hate crimes legislation (to include sexual orientation and gender identity). Melinda appears to be far stronger than Brizzi on domestic violence issues. Brizzi has included sexual orientation (and gender identity, I believe) in his office’s non-discrimination policies. My vote is for Melinda.

In the Senate District 31 race the challenger, Russell Brown (D) has announced his opposition to the marriage amendment and in favor of LGBT civil rights protections. The incumbent, Jim Merritt, voted in favor of the marriage amendment in both 2004 and 2005. Pretty simple choice here.

In Congressional District 7, what can I say? Julia Carson has been with the LGBT community through thick and thin. Her support of the changes to the Indianapolis Human Rights Ordinance were key to the enactment of local protections for the LGBT community. It’s essential that we remember our friends.
Mark St. John

Continue ReadingTomorrow is Election Day

links for 2006-11-04

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Nanowrimo: Day 3

Okay, I really, really have the plot all worked out and I’m very excited by my idea, which I think is fun, entertaining, and a Big Idea, also.

But I have to do some more research, in the form of purchasing the Historic Plan for our neighborhood, at a cost of $5, from the Indianapolis Historic Preservation Society.

Back in a flash to get caught up on the actually writing. And if you been following along with my blog posts over the past several days, you can see hints and drops of my idea scattered among them. Except for the Slush Mug commercial; that’s just silly fun.

National Novel Writer's Month

Continue ReadingNanowrimo: Day 3

Bush publishes info on how to build a Nuke

From the New York Times:

Last March, the federal government set up a Web site to make public a vast archive of Iraqi documents captured during the war. The Bush administration did so under pressure from Congressional Republicans who had said they hoped to “leverage the Internet” to find new evidence of the prewar dangers posed by Saddam Hussein.
But in recent weeks, the site has posted some documents that weapons experts say are a danger themselves: detailed accounts of Iraq’s secret nuclear research before the 1991 Persian Gulf war. The documents, the experts say, constitute a basic guide to building an atom bomb.
Last night, the government shut down the Web site after The New York Times asked about complaints from weapons experts and arms-control officials. A spokesman for the director of national intelligence said access to the site had been suspended “pending a review to ensure its content is appropriate for public viewing.”
Officials of the International Atomic Energy Agency, fearing that the information could help states like Iran develop nuclear arms, had privately protested last week to the American ambassador to the agency, according to European diplomats who spoke on condition of anonymity because of the issue’s sensitivity. One diplomat said the agency’s technical experts “were shocked” at the public disclosures.
Early this morning, a spokesman for Gregory L. Schulte, the American ambassador, denied that anyone from the agency had approached Mr. Schulte about the Web site.
The documents, roughly a dozen in number, contain charts, diagrams, equations and lengthy narratives about bomb building that nuclear experts who have viewed them say go beyond what is available elsewhere on the Internet and in other public forums. For instance, the papers give detailed information on how to build nuclear firing circuits and triggering explosives, as well as the radioactive cores of atom bombs.
“For the U.S. to toss a match into this flammable area is very irresponsible,” said A. Bryan Siebert, a former director of classification at the federal Department of Energy, which runs the nation’s nuclear arms program. “There’s a lot of things about nuclear weapons that are secret and should remain so.”
The government had received earlier warnings about the contents of the Web site. Last spring, after the site began posting old Iraqi documents about chemical weapons, United Nations arms-control officials in New York won the withdrawal of a report that gave information on how to make tabun and sarin, nerve agents that kill by causing respiratory failure.
The campaign for the online archive was mounted by conservative publications and politicians, who said that the nation’s spy agencies had failed adequately to analyze the 48,000 boxes of documents seized since the March 2003 invasion. With the public increasingly skeptical about the rationale and conduct of the war, the chairmen of the House and Senate intelligence committees argued that wide analysis and translation of the documents — most of them in Arabic — would reinvigorate the search for clues that Mr. Hussein had resumed his unconventional arms programs in the years before the invasion. American search teams never found such evidence.

Continue ReadingBush publishes info on how to build a Nuke

Cardio Appointment

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  • Post category:Health

Okay, I have to write about this, because it’s been worrying me for a day, and I have get it out of my head. I went to my cardiologist yesterday for my “routine once a year post-surgery” visit. I had a vague expectation that I would be getting and EKG and seeing the doctor, and that’s pretty much what they repeated when I went in. However, the nurse guy who said this when I entered the exam room was brand new, so it’s possible he didn’t have the complete scoop on what the tests were supposed to be.

After I met with Dr. Trippi, though, he mentioned he wanted an echo-cardio gram, and it seemed sort of like he was tacking that on at the last minute. And then he went to find one of the echo technicians, and there was a wait while they figured out what testing room I could use, which also seemed like the test hadn’t been pre-scheduled.

When they were taking me from the exam room to the testing room, I could hear Dr. Trippi transcribing his notes about me in his office across the hall, which is rather creepy to hear a disembodied voice speaking about you: “Patient is Mineart, age 38….” I tried to hang back and hear what else he was saying, but the nurse was too far ahead and I had to catch up.

It was kind of a difficult echo – basically an ultrasound of my heart. They had trouble seeing everything, especially getting good pictures of my mitral valve, so it was somewhat painful. And at the end of it, the echo technician said something that struck me as odd — I don’t know if I can quote word-for-word, but it was something like “How long did they tell you the repair was good for?” And of course, I had been told that it was supposed to last until forever, so that’s what I told her.

So they bundled me all up and sent me out, but I of course don’t know what they saw on the echo, or if there’s some sort of problem that they didn’t tell me about. And it’s been worrying me ever since. Gf course, it could be I’m assuming too much or imagining things, and I hope that’s all it is. And I shouldn’t worry until I get more concrete information. But it’s sort of hard to write something funny and entertaining right now.

Update: It didn’t really turn out to be anything, thankfully.

Continue ReadingCardio Appointment

links for 2006-11-03

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Drinking Liberally Election Night Party

Drinking Liberally Election Night Party
Election Night — Tuesday, 11/7
6pm-whenever
Spencer’s Stadium Tavern
802 S. West St (SW Corner of West & McCarty)
Drinking Liberally Indianapolis is having a special “Election Night” edition of their regular weekly gathering (usually held on Thursday nights, but switched to Tuesday this week for the election.)
I haven’t had a chance to attend one of these yet, but I’m on their mailing list and I keep it on my radar. I really want to go if I can clear out my schedule. Unfortunately, I’ll be at the gym for this event.
If you haven’t heard of it yet, Drinking Liberally is a national thing with local chapters, and Jason from X-TraRant puts together the local event. It’s a way for liberals to get together and talk politics and network.

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