HMMM...PUT A FORK IN SALON. I'm a little slow on the uptake, I guess, but as of last week, one of my former fave internet-only reads looks doomed. (I stopped reading last month, when it started charging for all content.) Too bad. Salon was my Monday stop for the fresh Tom Tomorrow cartoon, and had good articles from Cintra Wilson, Joe Conason, Arianna Huffington, and many others. R.I.P.
- posted by thegusdad @ 2/21/2003 12:11:00 PM

 
I READ A LOT. That fact gets both the credit and the blame for who I am, why I am what I am, the whole vegan burrito. And last year, 2002, the year of a spectacular breakup with Ms. X and a more spectacular reunion with old flame Trina, I read everything. Novels (lots and lots), the Times, the New Yorker, Adbusters, graphic novels, Slate, Salon, books of essays--whoo! And remember, as a lawyer, I push words around for a living. My whole world is ink and paper. [quick clarification: toner counts as ink. --mww]

I've been telling myself that I owe it to my blog constituency (both of you) to give some recommendations, a personal top-10 list, or something. But then I realized that impulse was just a rationalization that would let me tell the world about the best book I read last year: Where Rivers Change Directions, by Mark Spragg. This set of autobiographical essays, mostly about Spragg's cowboy boyhood in Wyoming, is one of the best pieces of writing I have ever read. Period. That may not be much of a recommendation in this day and age, but I'm fairly well-read considering the general Philistinism of my generation. Then this month I read Spragg's first novel, The Fruit of Stone, and the story broke my heart. I finished it near midnight, and lay in dim light listening to my lover's quiet breathing and wondered if I would have the spirit to wake up the next morning. Am I communicating here? These books left me wanting to walk up to people on the street and shake them, not just to tell them to read these books, but to tell them to read these books to know what it is to be living.
- posted by thegusdad @ 2/20/2003 09:16:00 PM

 
I CROSSED THE STREET IN FRONT OF A HUMMER H2 yesterday. I peered up and over the hood at the Pilates-toned yupster driving it, dressed for opera, and I found myself in a morbid daydream of spitting on its windshield, kicking dents into its fenders, jumping up and down on its thick steel hood.

The EPA's annual vehicle ratings are out. They speak for themselves. It should surprise no one that the highest-rated SUV is Honda's Romanian-looking Element, and that there is a big knot at the bottom of SUVs tied for the lowest rating.

Item: Nissan plans to introduce a full-size SUV called the Titan.

Item: Toyota plans to introduce a full-size SUV called the Armada.
- posted by thegusdad @ 2/18/2003 09:23:00 AM

 
YOU CAN'T FIGHT CITY HALL. Or in my case, an even more powerful monolithic force, Microsoft. With the recent move-in with beloved cuddle partner Trina, I gave up my beloved cable modem subscription, as her (our) apartment isn't wired for cable. In this day and age! So I signed up for a DSL package where hated Qwest provides the wire and MSN provides the ISP. Naturally, as MSN has advertised heavily (viz., the guy in the butterfly outfit during the Super Bowl), there are lots of value-added chunks stuccoed on to the integrated Web and email client. It's like AOL buffed with jewelers' rouge. And clunky, and in-your-face, and relatively slow (okay, I'm comparing the MSN web engine to K-Meleon, so it's not really fair), and altogether unsuited {preen, preen} for a highfalutin' power user such as yours truly. Uncompensated plug: get K-Meleon, use K-Meleon!

On the other hand, the install went about as smoothly as could reasonably be expected, though the DSL modem came with a handy flyer advertising the services of a company that will come to your home and install it for you.
- posted by thegusdad @ 2/14/2003 01:26:00 PM

 
SPEAKING OF TAXES... Several huge retailers have entered an agreement with states that charge sales tax by which the retailers will charge sales tax on online transactions. This is a big deal. Online retailers have resisted charging sales tax on transactions for three basic reasons: (1) it's administratively cumbersome, (2) it offers a competitive advantage over brick-and-mortar stores which have to take more money from the customer for a good of the same price, and (3) states which have argued for taxation of online transactions have also sought to make the tax liability retroactive, in effect handing retailers a huge bill for back taxes. This interstate online sales tax collection accord acknowledges that it really isn't that hard to charge people sales tax or administer distribution of the proceeds to the states. It also recognizes that the competitive advantage is not all it's cracked up to be, in terms of price: web merchants really have it over stores on the ground in terms of selection and convenience. I would guess that lots of the "savings" to be found on the web are over other web retailers, which is why price comparison services are so popular; similar bargain-basement prices can also be found on land, but it takes more looking, and more driving around. And the deal minimizes tax exposure and provides certainty, which businesses always like.

But the retailers that have signed on (Wal-Mart, Toyz R Us, Target) all have stores on the ground. Will internet-only ventures like Amazon sign up? Ay, there's the rub.
- posted by thegusdad @ 2/10/2003 10:50:00 AM

 
TAX TIME AGAIN. Let me say up front that as a tax and spend liberal, I LOVE paying taxes. It's just that I always screw up my withholding so I end up owing tax, which with my hand-to-mouth spending habits is a hardship every year. This year, though, we just seem to be in a spectacular fiscal mess at the federal, state and local levels.

On the federal side, we have greedy and downright malicious tax cuts, combined with increased military spending and a personal-never-business Iraq war, causing the biggest deficits ever. See this disturbing graph. We knew GWB wasn't a great talker, but it turns out he can't do math either.

On the state side, we have the failure of a quick-fix tax increase, Ballot Measure 28. The failure of the voters and of the Legislature to adequately provide for basic services means very bad things for just about all Oregonians, including cuts to the schools (shortest school year in the nation? sure! 35 kids per class? you bet!) and the courts, my place of business. The state courts will now be closed for business on Fridays, staff will be furloughed and have hours cut, and many crimes will not be prosecuted. The news is dire.

At the local level, we have a mayor and City Council that is focused on spending money on trams, baseball teams, reservoir domes, and the like, even as they plan for an increased local income tax. This is not good.
- posted by thegusdad @ 2/10/2003 09:29:00 AM

 
Splinter cell does rule. When you're done with that, we'll need to start you on Metal Gear Solid 2. It's over here, if you want to come play it....
-E
- posted by Eric @ 2/09/2003 11:15:00 PM