A lot of people--digby, GlennZilla, Joan Walsh, Andrew Sullivan--have already reported on the horrible torture memos, the absolute banality of the evil shown by the authors and their enablers in the Bush administration, and the lack of any kind of coherent legal logic.

But there's a big question rema… Read full post »

I enjoyed reading Ric Caric's article on Obama and Conservative flailage about cubbyholing, pigeonholing, bumperstickering, or otherwise reducing him to something simple and easily mockable ("He looks like Snoopy the Dog in that tank!" "He's a flip-flopper", etc.).  Mostly it's because I'm getti… Read full post »

A number of years ago, my Dad died.  He was only 63, and we had plenty of warning, as he had had stage 4 cancer for nearly 7 years.  Even so, it was devestating.  I cried at odd times, I ranted, I went into hysterics over the least thing.  It was… Read full post »

This is a post about . . . Mahwidge:

Enough with all the depressing posts; time for something a wee bit lighter, yes?

I've mentioned it before, but it bears repeating:  I love my iPhone.  It is a great companion for a traveling technogypsy who is usually 1700 miles from home.  Books, movies, games, music, email, web surf… Read full post »

 In Isaac Asimov's Foundation series, there exists a vast, galaxy-spanning empire, which is crumbling.  The capital of the empire is on a planet called Trantor, which has been the civilized capital so long, it is now one giant city.  Think London or Tokyo or Hong Kong, but extend it to… Read full post »

In front of a bank, a sleeping bag that looks brand new, unrolled and neatly arrayed, waiting for its occupant.  Newly-homeless?  I don't know.

In the window of a restaurant on Castro Street, Mt. Views main shopping street--not 5th Avenue, but still very nice--a sign:  "Cash Only/No Ex… Read full post »

Just a short post.

I've been watching the coverage of the Obama's trip to Europe, and had a number of thoughts:

I have been absolutely staggered by the buildup in the press for this trip.  This is all of a piece with how the press has been viewing Obama in general--it's… Read full post »

It's 1700 miles home.

Spring in California.  It's beautiful.  The nights are cool, so I can sleep.  The sun during the day is warm but not hot; the cool breeze dries the sweat that comes--at my age--with my daily walk to and from the light rail.  It's delightful.

Pretty women are… Read full post »

I thoroughly enjoyed Beth Mann's post on The 25 or 26 Most Annoying Phrases of All Time.  As often happens with lists like this, it caused me to think up a few of my own which, because I have a blog, I get to inflict on people.  Lucky me!

Life is… Read full post »

I've been doing technical writing for a long time now but have, as a friend once pointed out, "the soul of an engineer."  I'm not an engineer because a) I lack the patience to concentrate on designing one thing for months at a time, and b) I am a lousy coder. … Read full post »

You know, it's funny; after reading David Sirota's post about newspapers, I was writing a post of my own about the phenomenon of collapsing newspapers when I went to the front page of Open Salon.

Guess a lot of other people are thinking about it, too.

There seems to both… Read full post »

4:15am:  The alarm goes off.  It's still dark, and quiet.  Maybe it went off by mistake?  Maybe it's really on 2:30?  No.  Time to get up and drag my weary ass out of a warm bed and onto the first leg of this week's trip.  All I can say is:  "Oy."… Read full post »

Feeling even more random than I usually do--the "middle Sunday," that is, the Sunday between my bi-weekly trips back to Austin, is always the toughest day.  I'm feeling more random than usual.  Plate of shrimp random.  Why is that watermelon there random.

So here are some of my random… Read full post »

Maybe I'm just tired.  Maybe 8 years of Bush, immediately followed by (and overlapping with) a financial meltdown has just burned me out.  Maybe I just don't have any left.  Maybe my personal worries over my job, my finances, my family--hell, even my dogs--has just overwhelmed everythi… Read full post »

Hi.  My name is Doug M.  ("Hi Doug!")  I'm a curmudgeon.

I don't give a rip about March Madness.  I don't pay attention to it at all.  I find all the hootin' and hollerin' to be a bit of a distraction, relatively harmless, and kind of silly.  (I haven't followed college… Read full post »

I love Rachel Maddow.

Not in the gooshy sense of wanting to snuggle up to her, nor in the typical guy sense (especially guys who haven't been around lesbians much) of wanting to take her to bed.

No, I love Rachel Maddow because she says interesting stuff, in an interesting way,… Read full post »

I geek for a living and, as such, spend an awful lot of time on the web.  More than is probably safe, honestly, especially if you count the time I spend watching TV and movies on my iPhone.  (Not to mention reading books on my iPhone!)

Such is the life of… Read full post »

I have read, by now, dozens of stories talking about the budget Barack Obama has put forward, and how it is "huge," "unprecedented," "too expensive," "spends too much," and on and on.  And all I can say to these people is:

Can't you add?

Yup, $1.75 trillion is a staggering, back-breaking… Read full post »

I've been posting things online since 1982, when I got my first University computer account.  A long time.  And from the first, I've used my name (sometimes slightly abridged).  I felt like, if what I was saying wasn't worth putting my real name on, I should probably refrain from posti… Read full post »

A few quick thoughts that have struck me in the wake of President Obama's speech last night:

• Everyone seems to have made it a point to mention that this most emphatically was not a "state of the union" speech.  Am I on drugs, or did the last several Presidents not
… Read full post »

Since the economy is in the crapper, and I can't work at home, I'm currently commuting between my home and family in Austin, and my job in Sunnyvale, California.

Rather than do what I normally would at this point--i.e., bitch and moan--I'm going to share a few things that I've learned… Read full post »

Even though I mentioned it in another post, the more I thought about it, the dumber Mitch McConnell's worry about us "turning into Western Europe" seemed.

Let's take this one piece at a time, shall we?

First, Page 3 in the Standard Republican Playbook talks about how one should always make… Read full post »

Is it just me, or are the Republicans really, really flailing in their role as the opposition party? 

They're not flailing when it comes to being obstructionist jerks, of course; I think it's fair to say that they're doing a fine job of blocking genuine progress, forcing more worthless, non-sti… Read full post »

Years ago, when I was commuting over The Hill from my home in Santa Cruz to Silicon Valley, I would sometimes glance out the window and look at the landscape around me.  I don't really have a hometown--my dad was in the Navy, and we moved around quite a bit, so… Read full post »