Hate Crimes

Two things brought this post to fruition: a conversation with a friend over my opposition to hate crimes statutes and the recent passage of the Matthew Shepherd Act (adding homosexuality among other attributes to federal hate crime statutes) in the house.

As a gay man myself, this comes after very deep and considerable amounts of thought:

A crime is a crime. It is made no worse by the fact that a crime is committed against someone due to their immutable or projected characteristics. If a person is attacked on the basis of skin color or homosexuality the perpetrator does not deserve a more severe punishment therein than an equal crime committed without the same intent. If anything, the punishment in general should be raised. We cannot truly know an intention. Therefore, the government should not act as big brother by believing that it can divine the intentions of individuals.

Hensarling's Amendment is a Dead Birdy

Wow. Rep. Hensarling (R-TX) is a complete idiot. His amendment today on allowing credit card companies to retroactively raise rates on consumers if they give 90 day notices to the affected consumers was very bad - great that the nays had it. The amendment would have subjugated H.R. 627. His later amendment wasn't as bad, but also deserved to - as Rep. Maloney (D-NY) stated - be "black flag dead".

I am all for allowing the marketplace to operate without government interference. However, I am all for government influence int he marketplace. The difference is this: interference is socialism or ownership while influence would be considered common sense regulation or good government spending (such as the stimulus bill).

When government gives money to a private firm (after intensive bidding for such funds on the part of said firms) to complete a project such as roads, healthcare, high-speed rail, etc. I am completely for it. The government provides directly a stimulating effect while simultaneously disavowing any attempt to interfere after the money is delegated. Republicans need to realize this difference and stop stating that the stimulus was socialism - it isn't! The stimulus has not created any public ownership of these companies to which the moneys have (or will) be awarded.

Cremation Freakout

My mother lost my grandmother's ashes and this is why:

"I had her ashed right next to the three cat's ashes, we had them all cremated - lucky, daisy, and miss kitty. I didn't want her to be sitting by her permanently, and so I put the three kitty ashes on the top shelf of the bookcase in the dining room. Now I cannot remember where I put your grandmother's ashes... I sat her down somewhere because I was going to put her in the urn in the hutch. I hadn't done that yet and then I was thinking 'I want to do this now,' and then I forgot where I put her!"

-Disclaimer: My mother would like everyone to know that she loved and adored her mother dearly, and that her ashes will show up because they are somewhere in the house.

Creamed Spinich

A twitter from Missouri Senator Claire McCaskill:

For all of you that keep asking... The spinich recipe is here.

Placing the Blame

Andrew Sullivan defends Greenspan against James Kwak:

At least Greenspan has admitted his mistake.

I like the reason given by Judd Bagley:

Imagine an apartment building which, due to the unwise actions of its greedy management, devolved into a dangerous fire trap.

One day, an arsonist puts a match to some of the many piles of oily rags in the basement, with predictable results. Whom is to blame for the spectacular conflagration that follows? The greedy management or the firebug?

Everybody here seems to be looking for specific managers at fault for the poor state of the building, while the role of the arsonists has been ignored.
In this case, the arsonists were the short selling hedge funds that orchestrated the collapse of Bear Stearns and Lehman Brothers (learn more about them here).
Would we be in this bind even if Bear and Lehman had survived? Maybe. But it always costs less to bring an old building up to code than to build anew -- to say nothing of the human toll.

So...I blame short selling hedge funds.

Duncan Donuts

From a brilliant new article on Arne Duncan, the new Secretary of Education:

On one hand -

In 2001 he set out to make one of the worst performing urban school districts into one of the best. And by all accounts he fell short, despite his record as the longest-serving big city school chief in the country. During Duncan’s tenure, high school graduation rates rose about 8 percent. But test scores on the National Assessment of Educational Progress, commonly referred to as the nation’s report card, were mixed. Fourth-graders’ math and reading scores rose slightly, but eighth-graders’ reading scores were stagnant. After almost eight years under Duncan, Chicago’s system remains one of the worst nationwide.

On the other -

He hewed then to the same hands-on approach that guided his mentoring endeavor, visiting a different school almost every day, personally returning calls from teachers, union heads and parents, and shooting hoops with kids across the city. He raised the graduation rate of the nation’s third-largest school system, with more than 400,000 students, every year he was in charge.

What-a-Prices

This morning I got hungry (what a surprise) and decided I'd pick something up from Whataburger. I hate their fries so I asked the waiter if it would be cheaper to get just the burger and a large drink instead of the corresponding combo. Guess what!? It's actually cheaper to get the combo! I told them to keep the fries even as I ordered the combo (I didn't want the food to go to waste) and in exchange they put another patty on my burger.

This is why America is fat. I was being served by this obese African-American guy who looked like a total slob as I kept thinking to myself: "how are we ever going to reform health-care in this country if American food corporations cannot develop some sort of quantity/price ratio?" The problem is that Americans just don't know how to control portion size! We are consistently given larger portions for cheaper prices so we tend to eat more, and more, and more, more, more, and more.

The simple fact is that health-care reform in this country will not work until the government systematically redraws fast food regulation. We need to put a stop to giving larger portions for cheaper and we need to invest in education (and reform that as well) so that our children know how to control what they eat and, more importantly, why they need to control what they eat.

Aequidens vs. Cichlasoma

Aequidens or Cichlasoma?


Labeled as Cichlasoma sp. 'Guyana', purchased under the assumption that it was not. I purchased two of the fish (one which is definitely a Cichlasoma) and asked specifically for the oddball and another large specimen. I picked them with the intention of finding out what this fish truly is. They are wild caught from Guyana so the possibility of this being a species of Aequidens that got stuck in with the Cichlasoma during transport is reasonable. I'll update if this does turn out to be something more intriguing.

For comparison:

Aequidens or Cichlasoma?


Cichlasoma sp. 'Guyana'

Mixing Basketball with Politics

Nate Silver at FiveThirtyEight does an excellent job of breaking down Obama's basketball picks:

Was Obama more inclined to select teams from swing states that were closer in last November's election? A bit of reverse engineering of his bracket suggests that the answer is a qualified yes.

Heros Heroes

A new thread's highlights:

Heros efasciatus


Heros sp. "Rotkeil"


Heros efasciatus


Photo credit goes to Japes and Blairo1