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* President - Alan Keyes - NO DICE

(Yes, that's right, I voted for the *real* black guy. ;) Dr. Keyes ran as a member of the American Independent Party, the only Conservative party in California besides the GOP. Up until recently it was the state affiliate of the national-level Constitution Party. So I had been expecting to cast my vote for Chuck Baldwin. Whom I saw in the third-party debate that evidently finally did actually happen, caught it on C-SPAN a few weekends ago. The four ballot-qualified minor party candidates and the two major party ones were all invited, but only Baldwin (Constitution Party) and Nader (running independent of any party, is my understanding) could be troubled to show up. Nader reminded me that he can actually make some sense, *some* of the time. Now everyone knows the Dem and GOP people wouldn't be caught dead at such an event, but one can only wonder why Bob Barr (Libertarian) and Cynthia McKinney (Green Party) thought they were too above getting their voice out to the people.

Anyways, so I was content to vote for Baldwin, a Baptist minister, as I believe I agree about in the high 90's percent-wise with the Constitution Party platform, and he answered everything the right way, despite the Left-wing moderator presenting almost every question from a Left-wing presupposition (like "what are you gonna do to give everyone free college?"). But apparently the AIP had a falling out late in the game and split into two, but I guess it was the chairman of Keyes' half that had qualified the party for this election in California, so he was the one that got to be on the ballot. Which was fine by me, because 1) I liked Keyes in the 1996 nomination race, when I was deciding between him or Phil Gramm, and 2) I like the AIP platform a little better than the Constitution Party one, the latter being much more anti-interventionist and isolationist than I agree with. (But otherwise they seemed to me to be basically in agreement.)

Only 33,895 other Californians voted my way on this one. Compared to Obama with 6,943,907 votes statewide and McCain with 4,237,587. Yes, it's a deep blue state, with Obama fetching 61.0% of the popular vote here (compare with only 52.6% nationwide (yes, it *was* absolutely a landslide in the Electoral College, tho)). Oh well.

* U.S. legislator - Republican - DICE!

I liked what he said.

* State legislator - Libertarian - NO DICE

GOP candidate didn't say much, mostly an image-only campaign, my nod went to the guy who said what I liked.

* Local office - Democrat - NO DICE

Despite being in the wrong party, and an encumbent, I liked him, a scrappy fellow. I just didn't see the need to replace him, even with his Republican opponent.

* School board members - 4 out of 4!

Just going by what they submitted about themselves. No statement = no consideration.

* Prop 1A - NO DICE

High-speed rail between SoCal and NorCal.

* Prop 2 - DICE!

Room for animals I love to eat to turn around in their cages. Seemed reasonable.

* Prop 3 - NO DICE

Childrens' Hospitals' bond. I tend to vote against almost all bonds, as I think the state is in enough debt (we have the highest budget deficit of any state in the nation!).

* Prop 4 - NO DICE

Parental notification of minor's abortion. Chock full of tons of safeguards and waivers, totally reasonable, but, the greater the evilness of power granted to people, the greater they'll cling to it. (See also: slavery)

* Prop 5 - NO DICE

More programs less prison for non-violent drug offenders. Seemed reasonable to me, but demagogued by the Right.

* Prop 6 - DICE!

Entitlement form of locked-in funding for anything vaguely falling under the law enforcement category. Disguised with a bunch of slightly toughened criminal penalties. Guess we weren't fooled.

* Prop 7 - DICE!

Lock in above-market rates for renewable energy, lock out small providers from the market. Even the dumb greens of this state didn't fall for that.

* Prop 8 - DICE!

Amend the state constitution with the following, reproduced here in its entirety: "Only marriage between a man and a woman is valid or recognized in California." BTW, I'm for civil unions, I just want to hang on to the name (which I consider to be a religious term (and therefore govt. shouldn't really have anything to do with anyways)).

* Prop 9 - DICE!

More and better quality rights to crime victims.

* Prop 10 - DICE!

Corporate welfare for T. Boone Pickens' businesses to buy new huge trucks running on natural gas. Disguised as a renewable energy initiative. This one didn't fool us either.

* Prop 11 - DICE!

Independent panel does legislative redistricting, not the legislature.

* Prop 12 - DICE!

Bond to help veterans into homes. Supposedly the veterans pay it back and it pays for itself.

* Local propositions - 2 out of 5

Basically more liberties removed and more debt added. Such is life in the Golden State.

So overall things went 15/25 or 60% my way (including about that within the propositions -- 10/17) a week ago. Which is *much* better than I usually do. (Too bad I lost on the big one, and that's what'll affect me the most.)

I just recently found out from me mum that I was unplanned. No I'm not a bastard (well, I am, just not in that way! :) -- my folks were married two Novembers before my birth month. So unless my mom is an alien and my gestation went longer than about 9 months... And I distinctly remember coming out of a womb, and not a chest.

But anyways, I did feel a little weird about, and I don't know why.

I was wanted -- my folks wanted a boy and a girl, in that order. And while they were young. And I came at a good time, during the summer, given that my mom was a teacher. They had to scrape by a little in the moola dept., but who doesn't probably for their first child. So I was sort of planned, just not planned quite that early. (And my sister was planned, just not quite so late -- they wanted us a couple of years apart, and it ended up being five years difference. I guess I was eager to join the world (if only I knew then what I know now! ;) and she was not so much.

That is, if coming at a different time doesn't mean a different person. For example, if I came when my folks ideally wanted, would it still have been me? Or are never-been-assigned souls in some giant queue, and when you're up, you go into the next available body, to the next available family? Hmm, if my folk's hadn't fooled around that night, could I have been born black, and be president-elect right now? Maybe I'd be a woman today. I'm a better height for a woman than a man. The balding part is probably worse in a woman, tho.

But even if you come out the same you, no matter what the time, one's life would still be somewhat different, and we're formed a lot from our experiences I believe. So even if say I had been born 3 years later, the span between me and my sis my folks wanted, even if I was me, I might be a little different from the me now. I might be closer to my sister. The legacy of my favorite music growing up might be slightly different. I would've gone thru school meeting and knowing different kids, and probably worked different jobs post-college with different people, which in total would rub off on me in a collective different result/way.

Would I like (or hate) myself as much? How much, if any, would my values be different, by which I measure things including myself? Maybe I'd have some slightly different strengths (e.g. logic) and weaknesses (e.g. socialability). I think if I were born just a few years later I might've skipped learning C, before C++. I might not have taken a Cobol course in college. I probably would've gotten into computers sooner than my last semester of my sr yr in high screwl. Ugh, I might be even more geeky!

We interrupt your regularly scheduled presidential honeymoon period to bring you this special breaking news flash: Sen. Obama has had his first press conference as president-elect, and, as a continuation of his swift non-action on the banking crisis, he dramatically underwhelms once again in the leadership and judgment dept.'s.

Maybe instead of naming your chief of staff first (and a known highly-partisan one at that), you could've picked a treasury secretary first. Ya know, indicate that the economy is your numero uno concern right now, and soothe the markets.

And your awkward dodge of the tax question didn't help comfort the markets. (Which haven't exactly been doing well since it was apparent that you had won.) You should've said something to the effect of my tax plans are still sound and a good idea for "fairness" blah blah blah, but I'm not going to raise taxes in a recession. Why not just say for example that we'll reassess things for 2010, but for 2009 I'm pledging right now not to raise capital gains taxes. Otherwise people are going to continue selling to pay at the 15% rate now rather than hold or invest to pay more later. So your wishywashiness just encourages the market and peoples' retirement values to continue to plummet. Maybe as a student you could've taken just a teensy bit of time out of studying Marxism to learn a little about capitalism and how it works. It would've helped.

Another economic stimulus package is not going to help. I don't need a $300 check (that I never got, because it phased out for me, because I work hard, therefore rendering myself ineligible), I need a job. And for that I need a good economy. And for that I need the rich to continue risking their money to try to make more. And for that I need them to feel that it's worth it. Handing out stimulus checks only worked when consumer confidence was still high. We propped up the economy the last time when businesses panicked and froze their activity. But no one's going to blow their token windfall this time, because now the consumer is also panicking. People aren't going to spend it, they're going to sit on it in case they lose their job.

1.2 million people have lost their jobs this year, 651 thousand in the last 3 months alone, and 284 thousand in just September, so it's accelerating. When I'm working, I live well below my means, so have plenty to pay in taxes. You're better off keeping me working for now, until you can transform the whole economy into a socialist one. You're going to need money to redistribute to bring your redistributive plans to fruition. Let me help with that, be keeping employed those of us left that still want to work. You portrayed yourself as savior, and now you're my president too, so learn a little, wise up a little, and save us. Start by getting serious about saving our jobs.

[Edit]: I should add that on the plus side Obama seems to favor (and the Bush admin. not) loaning the American auto industry the money to try to stay afloat until someone does something to get this current mess to pass. Despite the unions effectively working to kill them off, those jobs, not to mention all the parts supplier jobs, need to be saved.

(And on a Slashdot note, now I'm going to see what if anything happens to a journal's couple of responses when I submit an edit to the journal (somewhere I got the idea that edits might be implemented as deletions and then adds on this crazy site).)

Not really. Just that is it all optical mice or just Microsoft optical mice, that cause the occasional (or not so occasional) lurch in a scrolling view?

I used to only notice it at work, on XP, but then the (Microsoft) mechanical mouse on my old circa 1999 Win2K ex-system died a few years ago and I replaced it with an MS optical one, and I believe that's when seeing this at home began.

So this has been irritating me for a long while, to be reading something, hands off the mouse, and suddenly it shifts and I lose my place or what I had been reading had been at the edge of the view and is now not visible. I'm glad I don't use anything with mouse gestures, or I'd prolly watch my machine auto- reformat itself some day.

p.s. Hmm, technically it could also be the scroll wheel, imagining that it's been moved.

p.p.s. I always use a mousepad. Some have been just a uniform color, some have had a pretty picture on it (OMG! Puppies!!!) or my (podunk) uni's emblem.

My sympathies to Sen. Obama on the death of his grandmother today. If I was a loony toon like, well, characteristic of a particular political persuasion, I'd suggest that the timing of this was some kind of Vince Fosteresque plot to grab sympathy votes from the undecided. But I'm not. But maybe it means I've been hanging around here too long, that these kinds of things are even crossing my mind.