adrian is rad

Here’s some stuff I found interesting in the last while or thoughts I’ve had, largely without comment.

NY Times spends 36 hours in my neighborhood (photos)–here’s the article. Not entirely unrepresentative.

I think there’s some reasons to be hopeful about what’s going on in Zimbabwe, but like pretty much everyone, I’m going to see what actually comes of it.

Here’s another NY Times piece about Palin as a stepping point to different ideas of the American West (NYtimes login required; bugmenot helps).

I’ve stopped buying Cavendish bananas, for now at least. There are other cultivars available around here.

NY Times Magazine had a piece on Bush’s last stretch and his sometimes contentious relationship with McCain.

There’s an project to find the first black African cyclists that will compete in the Tour de France.

I watched a video of two suited guys longboarding down Berkeley Hills. It’s about twice as long as it needs to be, but it’s pretty spectacular. Make sure you see the turn around 3:26-3:30.

Adam Kimmel presents: Claremont HD from adam kimmel on Vimeo.

72% of Americans apparently feel that it is important for the president to have strong religious beliefs.

Biden and other Catholic politicians have been refused communion (or its been strongly suggested they don’t present themselves for communion) regarding their abortion stance. Have their been similar suggestions or outcries for Biden (or other politicians) because of their disagreement with Catholic Church’s stance death penalty? I haven’t heard any. Maybe it’s just that evangelicals make up a louder voting block and there’s no unified position there on the death penalty.

I find adultery appalling–once I very nearly threw up when I saw a friend kiss a girl that wasn’t his girlfriend–but it’s legal and don’t think it should be illegal. I’d never thought of it (and moreso its implications) that way before.

In case you haven’t seen it. There are even shirts.

dark, quiet, sparsely populated, wasteful, English-speaking, diverse, casual, expensive

filled with…
people who drive everywhere, giant cars, giant portions of food, giant supermarkets, giant stores, giant napkins, whites, blacks, latinos/as, smiling people

I first heard about the mounting protests by monks in Bangkok. Considering Thailand is a neighboring country to Myanmar, I was concerned that it might just be a region news story. I’m glad it’s not.

I am concerned about the fact that monks are being beaten. The countries Minister of Religion (or something like that) even said “If the monks go against the rules and regulations in the authority of Buddhist teachings, we will take action under existing laws.” Wow.

The images of so many monks marching is pretty powerful:

Taiwan’s possible bid for a UN seat is kind of a big deal here.

I’ve seen this banner on a number of buildings:

And yesterday, the world’s tallest building had a message on the side:

zoomed in:

I generally avoid writing about religion or politics, though I have a half-written post from months ago on exactly this topic. What brought it up this time is Barak Obama’s keynote speach at the “Call to Renewal” conference. It’s the sort of topic that could alienate people on both sides, but the speach is well-written and I think it walks the line pretty well. I admire someone that’s willing to put his thoughts out there like that, though. I’d recommend reading it all the way through.

(Incidentally, Call to Renewal is run by Jim Wallis, who wrote this book, which looks like it might be interesting.)

Now to go back to being apathetic about politics.

some things people are scared of and have been exploited in recent politics:

• another terrorist attack
• reversal of Roe v. Wade
• a draft
• their children being taught something other than what they believe in the classroom

So the state of the union deal was last night. Blah blah we all hate bushy yada yada.

He proposed a reform to Social Security. People are up in arms about it, of course. He outlined some apparent principles of this thing and I will regurgitate them from memory and add my thoughts:

• can’t change the benefits for those who have retired or about to retire. yeah, okay.
• any changes should be gradual so that people can have time to adjust. sounds reasonable.
• the money will be yours and the government can never take it away. well, it’ll be in the government’s hands, which is not quite as good as in my pocket, but in principle it’s nice that some administration or congress can’t decide that it wants the money I’m about to retire on.
• the money will grow faster in a private account. I remember back in economics class many years ago that the economy will do better in identical situations if people have their money than if the government taxes some of it then spends it/ redistributes it. I mean, the government basically wastes some of the money in overhead and things like that. It would seem to follow that the same would be true in private vs. goverment run retirement accounts. This says nothing about if it’s better for the rich or the poor or who ever; that’s another topic entirely.

Now, I don’t know the details of the plan itself, but it seems to me that if I get to choose where my withheld money goes and it’s stays mine, that’s almost as good as it being in my pocket and me getting to put it into my 401K or Roth IRA or whatever. Are mandatory withholdings good? In the end, probably yes. It would probably cost the taxpayers more to have retirees going onto welfare or other government programs because they didn’t save enough.

Again, I’m making assumptions. This time that the Social Security system needs to become zero-sum. I don’t think it can last with the young funding the old, etc.

I think basically most of this comes down to the thought that I’m doing reasonably financially and saving money under my own volition for the future because I want to and other people could be doing the same if they wanted to badly enough. I can make you a giant list of (non-MIT) people who are smarter than me, but I am here, at a job that I enjoy, making a reasonable wage, because I worked really freaking hard for the last ten years to the edge of insanity (literally) multiple times.

Or maybe I’m just trying to justify my way out of the guilt I feel for being in my situation. My head is starting to do this floaty/ detached thing, which means it’s time to stop now.