Fleeing the Bay Area

I can’t believe this was published so prominently in Sunday’s Chronicle. Imagine someone suggesting that the reason the middle class is fleeing the Bay Area has something to do with the fact that planners and assorted NIMBYs are making it very difficult — or at least rather disagreeable — for them to stay there.

On top of that, imagine them publishing something which suggests that the middle class contributes more to the economic vitality of an area than the very rich or the very poor.

Even better, imagine the author having the audacity to suggest that planners might be wise to consider compromises based on how people WANT to live rather than merely dicatating how they SHOULD live.

Scandalous.

Cindy Sheehan Must Go

Despite the fact that I emphatically agree that the war in Iraq was a bad move and that George W. Bush is an inept, smirking moron masquerading as a president, I find Cindy Sheehan to be one of the single most annoying individuals who’s ever walked the face of the earth.

She’s one of those folks who should never be chosen to speak publicly on any issue, because her strident, whining, and nagging personality causes many people to instinctively tune her out and support any position which doesn’t have her as its spokesperson. She generally ends up doing her cause way more harm than good.

That said, I don’t remember there being a law against being annoying…

Art Good. Everything Else Bad.

The whole campaign can be seen here, and you’re absolutely right, baby. It’s garbage. I’d never actually seen it until today.

“Has your 4th grader ever taken a DANCE class or learned the basics of choreography?” “When was the last time your 12th grader went to a museum or talked about the origins of symbols in the SCULPTURE of various cultures?” Give me a fucking break.

What irritates me so much is not the idea of promoting art, but the idea that anything other than art is essentially meaningless and boring. Frankly, I can’t think of anything more irrelevant to my life than “the basics of choreography” and it would be no more relevant had I been force-fed it in the fourth grade. I just don’t care. If you do, that’s fine, but who the hell are these morons to assume I’m a less worthy individual for pursuing things which have a more practical bearing on my own life.

Parents who support the ideals of this campaign are no different from their overzealous peers who force their completely uninterested kids into Little League or summer camp or beauty pageants. I’m glad I had parents with more sense than that.

Emotions and the Internet

I understand. The chain reaction surrounding my dead internet connection sent me into a fits of gut-wrenching sobs and tears on the couch a few weeks ago.

No. Really. It did.

Who knew that a G5 comes packaged with an external Airport antenna that you apparently really need when you suddenly move your computer and it’s no longer right next to the base station?