New Office, New Post

It’s not that I didn’t have anything to write about, it’s just that I …didn’t write anything. For 3 months. There’s just something about an office environment that is conducive to blogging…what did you say? Boredom? Nah, it’s too early in the new job to be claiming that already. Things are quiet here, though. It’s holiday season, half of my would-be team is on vacation, and the new manager is in and out of meetings.

The office has beautiful views. We’re on the 48th floor down on Water Street, and man, does the Statue of Liberty seem tiny from up here! I can see out the window behind me when they leave the conference door open; otherwise, I have to get up and walk up to the room to gawk around.

I sit around the corner from the CEO. And I’m writing a blog post. Hmm.

They gave me a laptop, but it looks exactly like the one I have – Dell 2004. And I don’t know how to take it out of the dock. Hmm.

I might get sent up to Boston soon, yay!

Better posts to come, and more often. I hope.

Update: I am now the proud owner of the company laptop bag and fleece. And I have a badge so I can get in and out of the building without lying down on an x-ray conveyor belt.

What will it take to get our elected leaders to do their job?

While I think it's unfair that General Petraeus has become a scapegoat for the Iraq quagmire, this is a flagrant waste of time and an insult to this country's collective sensibility. But I suppose it makes sense - after all, going after an ad is much easier than dealing with the actual problem.

Sign here if you agree.

"It's not about liberal. It's not about conservative. It's about the Constitution." - Rick Perlstein

VICTORY!

Effective at midnight tonight!

Let's take down the WSJ next. Or will Rupert Murdoch take care of business himself?

No Child Left Behind

Oh, Miss Teen South Carolina. Surely you’ve seen the video by now. But is it all really that bad?

Okay, so she can’t form a coherent sentence, but still manages to burst out into some spontaneous exclamations (our education here! In the US!). Actually, it’s much funnier if you write out the response word for word with no punctuation:

I personally believe the U.S. Americans are unable to do so because some people out there in our nation don't have maps and I believe that our education like such as in South Africa and the Iraq everywhere like such as and I believe they should our education over here in the U.S. should help the U.S. or should help South Africa or should help the Iraq and Asian countries so we will be able to build up our future for us.

Hilarity aside, the people that are targeting Miss Upton as “what’s wrong with America today” seriously need to come off the high horses. First off, I don’t believe that statistic is right, and The Machinist backs me up on that one. My clever friend Brian, who first showed me the YouTube clip and has a useful post on his own blog, says “Never underestimate the stupidity of the American people.” I’m not normally one to engage in such underestimation, but I find it very difficult to believe that 20% of Americans above a certain age cannot locate the US on a map. I don’t know if this survey even took age into account, but in any case, I’ve found no conclusive research that proves it.

Secondly, this girl is a beauty pageant contestant, for fuck’s sake. Most people I know are fairly quick to judge the intelligence levels of beauty queens. So is the fact that she gave a dumb answer to an unresearched question really any basis for serious cultural introspection? Personally, I think we should just laugh - which I’m still doing every time I come across the phrase “everywhere like such as”, by the way.

You can tell me to stop talking to judgmental people, but it ain’t gonna happen.

If you need a comparable example that is relevant to our national psyche, then consider the following. In 2002, National Geographic released the results of a geographic literacy survey that showed only 13% of Americans between 18-35 could locate Iraq on a map (a statistic I can easily believe). A few weeks later, Gary Trudeau (cartoonist of Doonesbury fame) drew a strip with an Iraqi official asking “Is it true only 13% of American kids can find Iraq on a map?” The American reporter to whom the question was posed then retorted “Yeah, but all 13% are Marines.”

After the strip was published, the quotation somehow got attributed to Gen. Colin Powell, then Secretary of State, and made the rounds around many proud Americans. Now that, in my mind, is a much bigger cause for concern.

“Never mind our own ignorance; we got the whip, we got a better bomb. We will use brute force to get our way.” Rhetoric that’s become dangerously commonplace over the past 6 years.

And cheers to you if you know where that lyric was from.