Babies…

I would like to congratulate my favorite microbiologist on her recent physiological changes! We’ve also got our second in the pipeline. And it looks like this one will have those nasty, floppy, dangly parts.

Although very cognizant of the fact that I am of the redundant (XY) gender, I hope I might be permitted to offer a few random… thoughts? suggestions? as a recent parent. Take them for what they are.

1) Lamaze is useless. As far as I can see, the best thing that it does is allow anxious parents to get proactive. And also to be led through the various stages of labor and delivery. I did like the delivery videos – found them surprisingly moving, which I never did until I became a putative father.

2) The lamaze instructor kept using the male pronoun in reference to the baby – “He’ll do this, he’ll do that…” which started to annoy the hell out of me (knowing that we would be having a she). Parenthood changes your perspective on things…

3) Don’t be a fucking hero. Take the epidural… The woman in the room next to us was having her baby without it. She sounded like a prisoner in Abu Ghreib…

4) Nurses have a ton of experience. You should respect that. But some of them also have some crazy ideas…

5) Significant Others – map out in advance the path from the front of the hospital to the OB. The last thing you want to do is try to figure out directions while your woman is in labor.

6) When my baby came out, she was beautiful, amazing etc… But the thought that went through my head was, “Holy shit, she looks completely pissed off.” She was looking at me like, “What the hell just happened? I mean, WTF? And who the hell are you”

7) Munchkin was amazingly hairy when she came out. I sort of – intellectually – expected it (elevated testosterone etc). But it was still a shock. I said to my wife, “Honey, I think you just gave birth to a gorilla.”  For some reason, wife wasn’t all that amused.

8) Funniest words in the English language: “cloth diapers”. HA!

9) Sleep now for you shall sleep no more…

 

 

Another debate on religion! Yay!

(via Pharyngula)

I have to disagree with PZ. This was not a wonderful debate. I don’t know how heavily it was edited, but it seemed far too short and perfunctory. As always, the moderator got in the way. My suggestion regarding format – dispense with audience participation. Have the speakers sit facing one another, give ‘em three hours and let them go at it.

Also, I don’t know why everyone is so down on Stephen Frye. I thought he did a perfectly adequate job. What did people expect? A comedy routine?

Wedding…

My wedding was tediously conventional – church, organ music, etc (secular service, I should be quick to add). The church was very ornate and fancy-schmancy. One of my friends remarked afterwards that the only thing missing was an albino priest.

I’m of the mind that this should’ve been my wedding ceremony:

Morons

I know, I know… I’ve been neglecting my little bloggie-woggie.

Here, let me make it up to you…

Dumber than doorknobs…

Are conservatives that stupid?  A part of me hopes not.

A part of me hopes that there’s a guy out there who is writing this stuff and giggling.

Public vs Private

Kevin Drum wrestles with Verizon.

It really is a mystery why Americans perceive private companies to be efficient, customer-friendly, just plain better than the public sector.  Yes, it’s true the DMV can be annoying to deal with.  It’s true that dealing with federal bureaucracies can be a frustrating experience.  But what about corporate automated telephone menu hell?  What about crappy customer service douchebags?  Sleazy marketing.  Junk mail.  Spam.  Cable guy.  Scummy credit card tactics…  Are people blind?

All I can say is that if there is public health care plan, I… am… so… THERE!

Another Nutter

Go and watch this train wreck.

I think Richard Dawkins genuinely believes he can: 1) learn something during these conversations; 2) convince these people of something.

It’s a futile exercise. There is nothing to learn and no-one there to convince.

In the end, he concedes too much and for very little in return.

Chip off the old block…

Munchkin recently started pre-school, and received her first report card!

She received “Average” for almost everything.  She received an “Outstanding” for Lunchtime.

Gates

I’m reading about the Henry Louis Gates incident with some interest.  In part because, in a country where race and class are so inextricably intertwined that they become indistinguishable, we have a case that nicely disentangles the two.  Is this about a black victim of racial bias?  Or about a Harvard professor and a working stiff cop?

Stipulating that both sides seemed to have behaved obnoxiously, I agree with this assessement that the cop committed the greater error.

I have to admit that I’m no great fan of Boston cops.  In my (very limited) experience (okay, with Boston cops – not necessarily Cambridge ones), they’ve always shown nothing but naked contempt and unprofessional, often downright jerky, behavior.  I contrast that with New York cops who (again, in my limited experience) have been nothing but considerate, courteous and professional.  I’m talking not just NYPD, but the Port Authority cops and the airport cops as well.

Morbid Summer

Let’s see:

Ed McMahon
Farrah Fawcett
Michael Jackson
Robert MacNamara
Walter Cronkite
Karl Malden
Steve McNair
Frank McCourt

This really has been the Summer of Death.  You get this weird vibe that a generational change thing is happening…

Sotomayor

So, let me see if I got this right.

A wise Latina judge rules against a Latino firefighter in a race case.  Therefore she must be a racist.  And stuff.

This must be true because a bunch of white Republican male senators said so.  And as we all know, Republicans have a lot of credibility when it comes to sensitivity to issues of racism.

Huh?

River runs under it

Korea does something right, for a change.

The New York Times reports on a project in Seoul that tore down a highway and “daylighted” (unearthed) an old river.  It’s had great environmental benefits, as well as markedly improved quality of life issues.  This post provides nice details on what was done.  This post talks about the counter-intuitive effects of tearing down highways – how it can actually reduce congestion (although it’s not clear to me that this isn’t just making things worse elsewhere).

If true, then it occurs to me that Boston’s Big Dig may prove to be the greatest waste of taxpayer dollars in American history.

Sex and Taxes

Okay, here’s the stuff that is simple and clear:

A politician is banging a woman who is not his wife.  The husband of said woman is less than happy.  The politician pays him off to keep quiet about it.

Okay, here’s the stuff that’s a little foggier:

Why does the politician pay $96,000?  Why not $95,000?  Why not a nice $100,000?
Why is the payoff not one fat check to the husband alone – but checks to the husband, the wife, and two of their children (but not the third child).
Why is it not one one fat check, but rather [(2(4($12,000)) = $96,000]?
Why is it the politician’s parents who are writing the checks?

Welcome to the American tax code!

Fuck, fuck, fuck…

We’ve got a competitive renewal that received a beautiful priority score.  I mean beautiful…  The comments were mui, mui delicioso…  I simply assumed that it was going to get funded.

Today, I got word that – due to a bureaucratic snafu at the funding agency (too complicated to explain) – they are either not going to fund it, or chop it drastically.

Never – and I mean, never – count your chickens before they hatch.

On days like this, I feel like giving it all up and starting a car wash business or something.

Fuck, fuck, fuckity fuck.

Fusion

I’m usually not a fan of fusion cuisine.  My view is that if you mix bad French food with bad Thai food, you get bad French-Thai food…

Having said that, I went to this place that had tuna tartare on crispy rice that really was to die for.

Damn, I’m still thinking about it.  And it’s 9:30 AM…

Daycare…

Munchkin is 2.5 years old.  Up till now, we had managed to avoid daycare.  Both my wife and I have flexible schedules, and we had lots of help from relatives.  But it got to the point where: 1) juggling schedules became increasingly more difficult as we were both taking on more responsibilities in our respective jobs; 2) we were reluctant to continue asking favors of aging parents; 3) Munchkin was beginning to enjoy (crave?) the company of other kids.  And luckily, a spot opened up at a daycare center that we really liked.  This is, BTW, not that unusual given so many parents are out of work and opting to stay home with the kids.

Today was the first time that I dropped Munchkin off at the daycare center (my wife usually does this, but she had an early meeting today).  I stood at the doorway, staring at my daughter who was sitting at a table eating breakfast with the other kids – and I was hit by a rush of emotion.  Hard to explain why.

I don’t consider myself prone to sentiment.  Rage, yes.  But not the maudlin, violin-stringed variety.  But when it hits me, it hits me like a ton of bricks.  Like my wedding, when everything seemed like one endless chore until I saw Whatsherface coming down the aisle.

I found it difficult leaving Munchkin at the daycare center today… But this post isn’t a complaint about the injustices of modern parenting.  We consider ourselves lucky that we could hold off for this long.  And it was the right thing to do, and the right time to do it.  I feel greatly for parents who don’t have that option for economic reasons – especially those with newborns.

Anyway, today I found myself loving my child more than I ever loved her.

Too damn cute for her own good.

Daddy loves you.

And Whatsherface loves you too.

Glen Hansard

Nice one… The song’s called “Say It to Me Now.”

It’s all about commitment to the song…

California Crumbling

The financial situation in California is approaching supernova.  Bill Lockyer has an idea:

“We’ll have the budget for the coast that has tax increases and services,” Lockyer said in a wide-ranging interview with The Times’ Sacramento bureau. “And in a bunch of other areas in Central and Southern California that don’t have tax increases … their public schools are closed a month of the year – and see what happens.”

He described the idea as a “genuine thought” that would allow Democrats their preferred solution of raising taxes and Republicans their preferred approach of cutting services.

This is an idea which makes sense, though rather than “costal” vs “inland” we would have “local” option by county (like in the Midwest, where one county might be “dry” and the one next to it “wet”).  The Board of Supervisors could be tasked with deciding how they want their county to be (including putting it to an election if they wish).

So–there might be a budget with, say, taxes on millionaires/oil/tobacco which would apply to those counties which are in, and they would get the revenue back (all of the revenue–none of this subsidizing of Modoc anymore).  This would fit the Republican desire for local control, and the Democrats for more revenues.

Let’s do it.  Do it!  It’ll be our own little experiment.  Crucible of ideas and all that.  Come on, Republicans.  What are you afraid of?

Health Care

A long but very interesting speech by Uwe Reinhardt on health policy and economics.  Well worth watching.

Deep Thought

What fraction of Michael Jackson would have decomposed in a year?