All Things in Moderation

Well, well, well. . . many of our hometowns turn up on this list, but look who’s the gayest of them all.  Who’d a thunk it??

Few things are better than women in science (right??!!??), and this TED talk is great!

Another edition of clinician silliness cartoons: 

Try as they might. . .

So what else is up out there?  Got any more code for us tonight, Kevin?  🙂

Filed under: Uncategorized | 24 Comments »

Quandary.  Texas’ primary will surely be postponed until June.

How did we get here?

1]  TX Lege published its CD map based on the 2010 census.

2]  TX is a state that must pre-clear its map with the Justice Department or alternatively ask a USDC in Washington DC for a declaratory judgment.  No state had ever gone to court before, but TX thought it would do “better” in court than with a D DOJ.  This infused delay, as a matter of course – DOJ pre-clearance takes but 60 days.

3]  The DC Court has not finally ruled, but did make an interim finding that the TX plan violated the VRA.  The DC Court will finally rule in March, perhaps.

4]  TX had scheduled its primary for Super Tuesday in March, so, in an unusual move, the DC Court permitted a TX federal court panel to draw an interim plan for TX.  The San Antonio panel obliged, but without ever making its own preliminary finding that the TX plan violated the VRA.  

5]  TX appealed the SA map to the Supremes saying it was not based on a finding of a violation. Further, TX said, it could use its own map if no violation had been found.  The DC court case was not part of the appeal but it was not far from the Supremes’ minds, either.

6]  Read the link to see that the Supremes are confused, too. I think you will sense that the Supremes will probably come up with a compromise result that will be more about judicial administration of the federal court system, IMHO, then about the probable swing of 4 HoR votes by party that are the political stakes.  3 of 4 new HoR seats are R under the TX plan, but D under the San Antonio USDC plan.

7]  Remember that this is only about TX’s interim plan at this point – the final plan will be dictated by the USDC in DC, or the appeal of that case.  Problem for TX is that the interim makes the CD lines for 2012, and until we have a final ruling, we cannot have 2012 elections or primaries.  The Supremes [and all courts] hate tight timelines in complex matters.

Filed under: Uncategorized | 23 Comments »

Vital Statistics:

Filed under: Uncategorized | 17 Comments »

I’m not sure how many of you remember BGinCHI (Brad-King of Snark), or ever knew him, but here’s a picture of their little guy born on Jan. 6.  Maybe once his life gets back into a nice routine he’ll have time to post over here occasionally…..lol.  Hey if Ash can do it………………………

Also, some of you may remember me asking for advice when our daughter fell in New Orleans at one of the hotels and broke her front tooth quite badly.  We’re still waiting to see if their insurance pays for it (about $5K) but she got her smile back and is grinning again.  I just wanted to say thanks for the advice.

Filed under: Uncategorized | 3 Comments »

I been gone all day, and will be similarly disposed Tuesday and Wednesday. PowerSchool SQL training at work, new puppy and busted TV at home, I’m busy.

So, this is what I’m doing right now:

select st.lastfirst,st.grade_level gl,sc.abbreviation, 

sch2.abbreviation as abbr2,st.entrydate,st.exitdate,st.enroll_status, 

sch2.dfltnextschool, sch3.name,re.entrydate “PrevEntDate”, 

re.grade_level PrevGL,re.schoolid PrevSchoolID

from students st 

join schools scon st.schoolid = sc.school_numberjoin reenrollments re 

on st.schoolid != re.schoolidand st.id = re.studentidjoin schools sch2

on re.schoolid=sch2.school_numberjoin schools sch3

on sch3.school_number = sch2.dfltnextschoolwhere st.schoolid=25and st.enroll_status = 0

and re.exitdate = to_date(’06/04/2011′,’mm/dd/yyyy’)

and (sch2.dfltnextschool != st.schoolid)

and st.schoolid != st.next_schoolorder BY lastfirst

But I’m more interested in figuring out what the custom fields are inside custom CLOBs, but no love so far. See you later!

A former employee dishes on working for Keith Olberman. Blocked by my net nanny, but I’m going to have to read that later. 😉

– KW

Filed under: Uncategorized | 26 Comments »

One of the genuine curiosities of the current race for the Republican nomination is
the absence of The Tea Party as a real player. Given that the energy and enthusiasm
in the Republican party appears to reside within The Tea Party it’s worth wondering why
that element of the party appears content, or resigned, to see Romney or Santorum take the
nomination. Neither candidate could fairly be seen to be suited to carry the banner
of limited government.

One possibility seems to be that the Tea Party simply does not have, for now at least,
the kind of organization needed to bring a candidate to the fore. A successful run for the Republican nomination requires organization and funding. That Romney has been able to acquire that organization and funding without significant Tea Party backing, and given that the Tea Party has not brought a viable competitor forward, it may simply be
the case that the Tea Party does not now possess the resources needed to do so.

Another possibility is that the Tea Party has the resources, or could have acquired them in a timely manner, but has elected not to do so. If that is the case, then it seems reasonable to
assume that the Tea Party isn’t well suited to uniting to support a certain candidate, at least in the nomination process. It may be that the Tea Party is more a loose collection of individuals that a group suited to hammering out differences in order to settle on a particular candidate.

Another possibility is that the Tea Party is not, generally speaking, as opposed to government
as its rhetoric would suggest. With the congress, particularly the House, effectively refusing everything, one would expect House Republicans in particular, to be more popular with the Tea Party base of the Republican Party. Polling does not appear to indicate that that is the case. That is to say that, given the rhetoric, one would expect to see intransigent
Republican House members and the House leadership, buoyed by the praises of the base of
the party. That does not seem to have happened. And given all the talk of
smaller government and reducing taxes, one would expect the Tea Party to find, and back
to the hilt, a Republican nominee fiercely determined to do so. That is not the case either.
Furthermore, the Tea Party, taken as a whole, seems reluctant about, if not openly hostile, toward, cuts in medicare and social security, and, perhaps, to a lesser degree defense. With that being the case, it is difficult not to suspect that the Tea Party is principally comprised of older Americans interested in cutting government programs for others and safeguarding the ones that benefit them.

There are other possibilities and more than one, or none, may be correct. Of the three mentioned above, however, the third possibility seems to be bolstered, in part, by the fact that it would place the Tea Party in line with general attitudes. Americans, particularly elderly Americans, have demonstrated little real zeal for reducing the size of government and perhaps the Tea Party, for all its rhetoric, has not broken free of that.

Filed under: Uncategorized | 5 Comments »

Vital Statistics:

Filed under: Uncategorized | 16 Comments »

Filed under: Uncategorized | Leave a comment »

I decided I need to get back to my normal routine so here are a few political cartoons that have a bit to say about the state of affairs.  First up a dig at Obama and then the obvious choice of the Republican Primary.  I’m not really sure what to call it so I’ll just let the funnies speak for themselves. 

Filed under: Uncategorized | 1 Comment »