By Chad on 9/2/2008
Bar graph showing relative performance of various browsers' JavaScript engines on Windows XP
Wow.
Posted in Software Libré | Tagged Google, Google Chrome, JavaScript, software
By Chad on 8/29/2008
I don’t know if you watched Barack Obama’s speech accepting the Democratic nomination for President last night. I watched every minute of it, and it made me prouder than ever to be one of his supporters. It was a very unique combination of inspiring rhetoric, stinging rebukes, witty one-liners, and specific, concrete policy. I think most Democrats would agree with me, that it was a masterful speech by a masterful speaker.
Clearly, though, Republicans don’t want to admit that anything Obama says or does has any substance, because then they would have to admit that there are genuine problems facing America. That’s why David Brooks, for example, lampoons the speech as though it were nothing but flowery words, because he can’t face the fact that it forces McCain’s campaign to stop the ad hominem attacks and campaign on the issues, or else admit that they don’t think there are any issues at all, thank you very much.
Continue reading “Serious Case of Sour Grapes”
Posted in Politics | Tagged David Brooks, Democrats, ideology, McCain, mental recession, Obama, Paul Krugman, Phil Gramm, republicans
By Chad on 8/14/2008
Bianca was playing at the mall earlier this evening, and she was climbing on this big caterpillar thing like she usually does. I wasn’t there yet, and Jennie doesn’t know exactly what happened, since she was keeping track of two kids at once, but all of a sudden Bianca face-planted and started screaming. By the time I met them at the mall, she was starting to calm down, but she didn’t want to move her right arm. We were concerned, and thought about taking her straight to urgent care, but she had calmed down and was somewhat able to move it without freaking out. We let her choose what to do (I know, bad idea, right?) and she chose dinner first. Then, after dinner, we tried to go to the urgent care nearest to us, but they were closed. We had promised the girls ice cream, so we went there, and decided to let it go until tomorrow and see how she was doing then. Not long after we got home, though, she was just in agony, and so Jennie took her to an urgent care further from home while I stayed home with Sabrina.
Jennie called a little bit ago to give me an update, and I’m very upset. Bianca broke her collarbone and a growth plate in her shoulder. They’re at Children’s Hospital right now, where hopefully there’s an orthopedist on call. Not that there’s much to be done for a broken clavicle. That should be an interesting trick, getting her to wear a sling for 6-8 weeks. Who knows what they’re going to do about the growth plate. I worry that we messed up by not taking her in straight away – what if we made it worse?
Posted in Personal | Tagged Bianca, children, clavicle, family
By Chad on 7/6/2008
I just thought the last line of this interview with Robert Reich was funny. I read it and thought, man, he’s exactly right.
Posted in Humor, Politics | Tagged Politics, republicans, Robert Reich
By Chad on 3/17/2008
You know that scene in Happy Gilmore, when he misses his tee shot, and proceeds to get bleeped for 2 solid minutes? Yeah, that would be me if I ever got on television as a bowler. Even if I could hone my skills sufficiently to make the PBA tour, I don’t think I could ever master my temper well enough. Jennie’s folks no longer bowl with us on Monday nights because of my outbursts. Now, I try really, really hard, but sometimes I just get so frustrated that I have to drop an f-bomb or two. Or seventeen. Hundred.
Posted in Personal | Tagged bowling, Happy Gilmore, PBA
By Chad on 2/16/2008
With the events of the last 3 weeks, we’re really looking at an interesting scenario for November. Hillary Clinton’s campaign continues to insist that it will court superdelegates to win the nomination, no matter the damage to the party, if she hasn’t won a plurality of committed delegates. It certainly doesn’t look at this point like either Democratic candidate will have a clear majority of delegates, and it doesn’t appear that either one (or, especially, their supporters) will go away quietly, either. I think there’s definite potential for a party split, especially if Hillary wins either because of superdelegates or by getting the Florida and Michigan delegations seated.
On the Republican side, even after Mitt Romney dropped out, Mike Huckabee started winning pretty substantial numbers in the remaining Republican primaries. Rush Limbaugh has been practically foaming at the mouth about how McCain’s “not really a conservative” – just because he doesn’t support trying to deport 12 million people en masse – how novel! The Republican winner-take-most allocations in those states means Huckabee’s not likely to cause a contested nomination, but it indicates that McCain’s support from “the base” is pretty thin. If he does get the nomination, will the Religious Right split the party?
Continue reading “Could We Be Heading for 4-Party General Election?”
Posted in Politics | Tagged Clinton, Democrats, Huckabee, McCain, Obama, Politics, religious right, republicans, teddy roosevelt, third parties
By Chad on 2/8/2008
Some of the brouhaha recently with Al Gore winning the Nobel Prize got me thinking. Scientists recently have taken to raising alarms in political circles and the public arena, no longer content to simply publish their findings in a journal and let our elected officials do the right thing with the results. There’s one main reason for this: the politicos (especially the morally bankrupt sophists in the Bush administration) refuse to acknowledge the science, let alone do the right thing.
Continue reading “Political Activism in Science”
Posted in Politics, Religion, Science | Tagged Al Gore, Bill Nye, Creationism, evolution, global heating, global warming, Science
By Chad on 2/8/2008
Fair warning: if you don’t like to hear about anybody’s bodily functions, skip this one.
Anybody with half a brain could tell you this, but you need to know the names of the medications you take, even those you only use occasionally – especially if you buy store-brand generics. I thought I remembered the generic name for Immodium (it’s loperamide HCl, btw), so when I was sick with some stomach bug yesterday, I popped two loratadine tablets and waited for the diarrhea to pass. After about 2 hours, I took another one when it hadn’t gone away. Then by 8PM I was suffering a brutal sinus headache, barely able to move my head. If I sneezed or tried to blow my nose, it felt like I was bashing my skull against the wall. When I complained to Jennie that my sinuses were killing me, she asked if I had taken any Sudafed yet. I replied that I hadn’t, and went to see if we had any in the bathroom.
Continue reading “Why It’s Important to Know Your Medications”
Posted in Personal | Tagged Claritin, Immodium, loperamide, loratadine, medicine
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