The aftermath.

[silveradept]

So I went to bed last night not knowing what was going to appear. For the moment, it looks like the Dems may have both of the federal houses, which will make life hell for the current President, assuming all the Dems vote in their ranks. Likely as a result of this, Donald Rumsfeld is stepping down as Defense Secretary. Both of these things makes the Democrat supporters happy. The rest of us get some relief from the constant Republican assault. With the speed of Rummy's evacuation, one wonders whether the relationship terminator was called in.

Unfortunately, there was also the matter of the amendment to end affirmative action programs passing, too. In the environment I'm in, you want to believe the state champions liberal causes. Then elections happen and you realize that you're in a bubble. (Most of us knew this already, I would hope.) On the cheerier side, it looked like Arizona was set to reject a gay marriage ban, making them the first state to do so.

Much of Pennsylvania was also overjoyed to see Rick Santorum lose his job. What's best about this article is the picture - look at the expressions on the family. You could probably have a captioning contest on this, and I suspect it would quickly deteriorate into the worst of the Republican offenses, like "The girls know that Daddy will be drinking tonight. When he gets drunk, he wants his belt. The boy knows that after the belt, he wants his son." or something like that. It's a pretty weird picture.

Michigan did vote down a mourning dove hunting amendment. That doesn't stop hunting season from starting next weekend. Some people, who don't want to wait for dressing and cooking, may elect to use the seasoning shells to help make their game more palatable from the beginning.

Another possible avenue toward renewable fuels - nanoporus materials to hold hydrogen fuel at safe temperatures and pressures. In other nanotechnology, there may be an easier way of making strongly conducitve carbon nanotubes. We'll see whether the laws regarding power and size still manage to hold, or whether we have to wait a little bit before nanocomputers.

And then there's a surfaceish look at the zombie genre and what it means. At least, to me it looks kind of surfaceish, but it hints that there might be something deep in the non-deepness of the zombie movie.

Anyway, that's the end of the links post. After I scribble down the other post, I'm probably dropping into bed and snoozing for a good while.

Comments

[annaonthemoon.livejournal.com]

Sarah Maria looks constipated!

[starkruzr.livejournal.com]

I've never liked Affirmative Action as it's done today. It was originally supposed to be in support of things like MIT going into minority neighborhoods and actively searching for and giving scholarships to kids who needed and deserved them. Instead it has turned into quotas and lawsuits, because government is lazy. Good riddance.

[silveradept]

Quotas were already outlawed a long time ago. Even "point-based" systems fell under the ax recently. Things were happening to force people to actually do some thinking and finding a way to make considerations in the right ways. Admittedly, at the pace of government. It remains to be seen, though, with this particular proposal, whether things like Women in Science and Engineering get put on the chopping block, because their an organization that gives "preferential treatment" based on gender for their membership.