I still have work stuff to do today. But I ended up sleeping almost all the daylight hours on Saturday. So that is kinda sorta a weekend. I am awake now. Now that it is dark outside again. Awake is good. Next I’ll be working on productive. That is harder.
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Still doing stuff for work. Monitoring one issue over there, waiting to look at another one in another couple hours. Sleepy though. It will be nice once the holiday season is over. Then I’ll be able to sleep. I have barely even opened my home email at all, let alone answered any. I have barely done any of the things I usually do at home in the evenings (email, paying bills, reading, genealogy stuff). I’ve been on call for work, plus it is December and given where I work that means everything is going nuts and people are all on edge because it is the busiest time of year, and so every little thing matters more than it would any other time. So I’ve been taking more work home than I usually do. And when I haven’t been doing that, the last thing I’ve wanted to do is sit at my desk and be productive. So a little TV watching has happened. And some sleep has happened. But basically. Busy and exhausting week at work, means nothing gets done at home. That is OK I guess. I’ll catch up eventually. Maybe. Don’t know why I think I’ll get caught up. Last time I was caught up on all my basic routine tasks was something like 2003…. and even then there were long term projects outstanding.
Oops. It looks like it will last for days. Just saw this bit: The Federalism Issue
My immediate response is that this is probably a very good example of one of the major problems of politics today. All politics SHOULD start with a core vision of what comprises good government… completely independent of any specific issues… completely blind to who may or may not be in power… as both issues and who is in power shift over time… then when looking at how to address any specific issue, that discussion should be framed within the constraints of that model. When politics starts with individual issues and is organized only on trying to find the optimal way to game the system to get results on those issues, then of COURSE the system is going to get horribly corrupted over time. Maybe you will get results on those specific issues. The desired policy result in the short term will perhaps be exactly as desired. But over time, the shortcuts and distortions to the process eventually come back on some other issue in the opposite direction. It all becomes a muddled mess instead of a functioning system. Now, it is one thing if there really was a fundamental disagreement on what constitutes good government… in terms of balance of powers between state, federal, local and between executive, legislative and judicial… perhaps even between national and international… and of course on the fundamental of which things government should be involved in at all, and which it should not be… but I think Yglesias actually has it correct. The real case is that most people actually don’t care and don’t have a principled opinion on those issues. They only use those things in whatever way happens at the moment to push their own view on some specific issue. Yglesias seems to think that is OK. I think that is a horrible problem and perhaps core to the increasingly divided and dysfunctional political culture we see today. Having some sort of national consensus — or at least real discussion — on what the proper roles, functions, and interrelations of the various parts of government — divorced from the specific issues of today — would be very healthy. Unfortunately, it won’t happen. Just a quick thought about the effort going on to change the way California selects electors. First of all, fundamentally I have no problem with the notion itself. States should be able to select electors any way they see fit. Winner take all, proportional to an election, or even with methods that don’t involve elections at all where the electors are selected directly by the legislature. My radical proposal? Much like jury duty, select electors completely at random from the entire adult citizen population of the state. Unlike jury duty, excuse people from it ONLY for physical or mental inability to participate. It would be absolutely compulsory. Do the choosing only 48 hours before the electoral college votes, with absolutely no vetting in terms of who the newly chosen electors support. Make lobbying the electors on behalf your candidate illegal. An exception would be the electors themselves. The electors would be able to talk amongst themselves and lobby each other for the 48 hours before they have to vote. Sequester them at the moment they are chosen, deliver them to the state house to perform their vote, and then see what kind of results you get. I imagine it would be a very interesting way of doing things. :-) But in any case… if changes are made, although there may or may not be anything already enshrined in law to prevent it… I think any changes to how electors are selected by the states should be made one full election cycle in advance, so that all potential candidates can make their plans knowing the state of affairs for the full four year campaign cycle. That is only fair. Sam talks about:
Fever maxed out Saturday morning at 312.1 K (for the Kelvin impaired, that is 102.1 °F or 38.9 °C). It has been dropping since then and at the moment I’m actually below normal. Which is good I guess. The infection isn’t gone though. I am still in a bit of discomfort. But things are definitely better that a day ago I guess. Hopefully this will all work itself out by Monday.
OK, so you can’t tell from the horrible cell phone picture, but it is snowing heavily right now. Some of it is even sticking and accumulating a bit. But it is supposed to change to rain later and wash it all away. Suddenly at about 22 UTC yesterday I started rapidly feeling unwell. Standard UTI/Stones symptoms for me. I had just recently (within the last few days) been fully back to normal after the last round at the end of October. Grrr. Not happy about this. I had someone fill in for me at a meeting I had at 23 UTC and headed home a bit early. Now, about 5 hours later, I have a fever of 311.0 K. It has been rising over the past few hours. I took some Rx pain killers and some fever meds, but I am still a decent bit uncomfortable. And I’m doing what I have been told and drinking a LOT, so staying within arms reach of the facilities is of course mandatory. Lovely. Just lovely. On the bright side, it is supposed to snow here today… for a little bit before it turns into rain. I am eating a hamburger and fries Brandy made now. Then I am hoping the pain killers kick in fully soon and knock me out for the night and everything feels better in the morning. That would be nice. |
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