Sixty is also known as:

• Three Score
• the smallest number divisible by the numbers 1 to 6.
• the smallest number with exactly 12 divisors.
• the maximum number of marbles (game pieces) in Chinese checkers.
• the highest score which can be achieved with a single dart (triple twenty)
• The code for international direct dial calls to Malaysia.
• The atomic number of neodymium
• the sum of a pair of twin primes (29 + 31), as well as the sum of four consecutive primes (11 + 13 + 17 + 19). It is adjacent to two prime numbers (59,61)
• New York Yankee Babe Ruth hit 60 home runs in 1927.
• “Sixty Years On” is a song by Elton John.

HAPPY BIRTHDAY, DAD!

This excites me more than I thought possible.

From the author himself, HBO has given the order for the pilot episode of A Game of Thrones to be filmed.

For the uninitiated, the series is A Song of Ice and Fire by George R. R. Martin, which currently consists of 4 titles: A Game of Thrones, A Clash of Kings, A Storm of Swords, and A Feast for Crows are available at Amazon or at your local library if so inclined. It’s more political than magic, though as the series progresses, magic becomes more of a factor. Also, the series is fascinating as no character so far appears to be “safe” from death; Mr. Martin is not afraid to kill anyone. Currently, the series is expected to stop at 7 books.

I’m stoked. You?

Quick recap:
July 2007: Mom gets mugged.

May 2008: The judge gives the mugger 20 years, and to quote Sublime “…and his heart was filled with tears.”

September 2008: Mom calls me, tells me that he’s up for Parole and the hearing is in November. Me: “Really…?” Mom has the option of being at the parole hearing, in person or by video conference; she declines (over her lawyer’s advice and mine) and prefers to write a letter. She writes it, and asks me to look it over. I proof it, and add a comment about the fact that, if paroled, this man would have done 14 months of a 20-year sentence, and only 6 months since his sentencing.

Today: Mom just emailed me and told me that apparently the parole board and the prison both believed that his sentence was 10 years, and not 20. My comments in that letter made someone go back and check the court records, and indeed the sentence was 20 years, and this guy is not eligible for parole for another 5 years.

I’m happy that this guy’s not getting out anytime soon, but I’m a bit bewildered as to how a guy living in California is the only one to remember the length of sentencing for a crime in Tennessee.

Also: Really? You can do less than a year and a half of a 10-year sentence and be up for parole? Really?

Sometimes justice is not only blind, it’s mildly retarded.

So here we are in 2008 where the NYT mentioned conveniently last Monday that the news networks might have to do the same thing, despite the unreliability of exit polling in the last 2 elections. It’s a poor move on a network’s part, no matter who appears to be headed toward a landslide. As is referenced in my linked article, California’s voter turnout dropped by over 2% in 1984, most of it directly related to the Presidential election being called early that afternoon. The People’s Republic of California, though, has dozens of referendums to vote on in every election, though, and all those referendums suffer as a result. The same would apply in the other pacific states as well.

“When a candidate gets 270 electoral votes, they’re the next president,” said Sheldon Gawiser, director of elections for NBC News. “If some states are still voting, it’s an unfortunate circumstance, that’s what it is. The founding fathers never expected us to count the votes fast.”

That’s right, sir, and the greed, the desire to be first on the TV with the results is incompatible with the lack of expectation to count the votes fast. Also, one would expect with the last 2 election “fiascoes” that one would concern themselves more with accuracy than speed.

Be that as it may, however, the networks DID wait until 49 states had closed their polls, Alaska being the lone holdout. I was watching CNN that evening, as for some reason I had deemed them to have the nicest looking set. Wifey was in her sewing class, so Eldest and I were watching. About an hour or two before the actual declaration that the Chosen One was indeed going to win, CNN declared Ohio and Pennsylvania for Obama. They then talked to one of the analysts for predictions, whereupon we learned that “We don’t see any way McCain can win now… but all you on the west coast, PLEASE STILL VOTE.” (Yawn)

So yeah, they kinda called it first. However, they were kind enough to wait on the official declaration until PRECISELY 8PM Pacific time, when CA, OR, WA, ID, and HI closed shop. The only state left open was Alaska, and they still had 2 hours to go.

Now, here’s your fifty-cent question. Why precisely 8PM pacific? I can think of multiple reasons:

• “We all know Alaska would vote McCain, that’s why we didn’t wait.” True, but during your scenarios a few hours earlier, you knew California, Washington, and Oregon would vote Obama. You could have been the first to call this a few hours prior.
• “We wanted to declare a winner before losing most of our East coast viewers to sleep.” Plausible, but again, it seems a bit odd, considering that it could have been done at least an hour prior.
• I have a sinister thought in my head, and it may not hold water, but here goes: They KNOW declaring early will suppress votes in states that aren’t closed yet. There was a close Senate race in Alaska between incumbent Republican (and convicted felon) Ted Stevens and Mark Begich. The Dems need every seat they can get, because with 60 Senate seats they are filibuster-proof. I wonder if there was a slight attempt at suppression happening there to help, in the only Senate race they could conceivably alter? (Disclaimer: Yeah, I know it’s farfetched, and unlikely, but it’s about as possible as any other loon theory that floated around in 2004, so whatever.)

It’s unlikely that my lunatic theory pans out, but it’s something that struck me as a bit odd. That race is also important to Joe Lieberman, I think. If the democrats reach precisely 60 Senate seats, Lieberman will still get to caucus with the Democrats; if they reach 61 or more, or fail to reach 60, watch the Independent Senator lose his position as Chairman of the Senate Committee on Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs, and get kicked out of the Democrat Caucus in the senate. They’re a little bitter that he didn’t follow the party, since he endorsed McCain this year.

I’ve saved this post for a while, for fear of pissing off a couple of my readers (about 40% of my normal readership, in fact). I now no longer really care what they’ll say, and my wife already knows this anyway.

I didn’t vote Republican.

There, I said it. I didn’t vote Republican. Now before knickers get twisted, keep in mind that I didn’t vote Democrat either. I voted Libertarian. “But OMG, Why?” you may ask… and the answer is simple: Because I know the Libertarian won’t win.

I’m not quite what the current Republican party calls Republican. I still call myself a conservative, but I think the Republican party has left conservativism behind in recent years. Frankly, I don’t think McCain’s much of a maverick anymore, though eight years ago he might have been one. Palin doesn’t impress me, though she doesn’t really frighten me either. Palin’s a plus in my eyes, simply because if they win the election SNL’s got good material for Tina Fey for the next 4 years. I do love Tina so.

Obama? Not on your life. While I don’t want to see him assassinated, I don’t want to see him President either. Yes, I know that’s a probability, especially 2 days prior to the election, though I don’t think it’s a lock yet. I simply think Republicans are avoiding any and all polls that don’t begin with “Fox” or “Christian Science Monitor.” We’ll see in about 60 hours.

So why Libertarian? What is it about Barr/Root that got my vote?

The fact that they couldn’t win.

I threw out my vote. I admit it freely, but I had a purpose. My recent posts lamenting the state of the modern two-party election system were a start. I want to see more viable candidates for President in the future. We’ve not seen a person with a decent chance since Perot in ‘92, and before that it was John Anderson in ‘80. I’m tired of the two-party system, because most people use it to cast votes against people, rather than FOR people. We’re not encouraging the best candidates to run for president by voting against a party, which is what most people do.

Why Libertarian? Knowing I wasn’t going to vote for the big two, I actually researched party platforms for everyone else on my ballot — the Greens, the Socialists (yes, them), the Constitution Party, Libertarians, and the independent candidates. The Libertarian platform was actually closest to what I currently believe in. Yes, I know Barr’s a former Republican who only VERY recently renounced some of his hardline Neocon values. It doesn’t bother me. I didn’t vote for Barr; I voted to get some exposure to the Libertarian party. If the Green party were more up my alley, I’d have done the same thing despite the fact that McKinney’s a raving loon who left her party because she got killed in the Dem primary a couple of years ago.

Before anyone thinks I had an epiphany and am abandoning the Republican party, fret not. Or just fret a little. I’m still registered as (R), and for the moment I have no desire to change. However, I do think the Republican party has abandoned me, and am watching them closely for confirmation.

I’ll still be watching Tuesday evening, looking for Barr to receive a significant percentage of the popular vote. I hope this leads SOMEwhere.

DRM Free:
Amazon for your mainstream stuff
Amie Street for indies and up-and-coming artists

[Telephone ringing]
[examine Caller ID]
[It's local, but not someone I recognize. Pick up.]
“Hello?”
“Mr. Yarbrough?”
“Yes?”
“This is Rochelle from (indecipherable), and…”
“Sorry, who?”
“This is Rochelle from Direct Buy Showroom, and…”
“Sorry, I’m watching the debate and you’re bound to be much less interesting.”
[Hang up phone]
[Drink more tea]

My absentee ballot came in the mail Monday. Disappointingly, 2 of my 4 votes are going to be in uncontested races.

Now to research…

Nee Nee called me.  Or I called her, I can’t remember, but I think she called me.  She of all people remembered something very important to me, that I completely forgot:

Today an Associate’s Degree in Science was conferred upon me.

Now, for some this is a yawner, I’m sure, but this is important to me.  I’m 37, and started pursuing this degree almost exactly 19 years ago.  It started with a bit of a dream of being a journalist, a lack of available money, and an unfulfilled desire to get scholarships.  A generous Aunt footed the bill for a community college, I believe because she didn’t want to see me join the Army.  This was fine by me, because I didn’t want to join the dumb ol’ Army anyway. 

I got a year into the college experience, realizing it wasn’t quite as different from High School as I had hoped.   That had more to do with it being a Community College than anything, to be sure.  Anyway, a year into the whole College thing I decided that I knew what I was doing, and got married.  UGH.  Big mistake, though some good did indeed come out of it.  I couldn’t afford college AND a family, though, so I dropped out and went to work full time (or double part-time, depending on how you want to look at it).  I let her attend school, to watch her drop out right before she should have gotten a certificate.  Then I watched her do it again, and one thing led to another…

So 4 years after starting college, I ended up in the Navy.  Funny how things turn out, sometimes. Life was still difficult, but I had steady work, health benefits for myself and my family (the quality of which is sometimes suspect, but the benefits are there), and things were going OK.

[Skip 14 years, a kid, a divorce, a marriage, another kid]

Last May, I got serious about this whole college thing again.  I realized how close I was to an actual degree, and some word coming down the pipe was that soon a degree might be required to receive a promotion… not my next one, but the one after that.  No way was I going to get mired in THAT again, so despite my feelings about that particular requirement, I buckled in and studied a bunch of stuff.

This all led up to today, which I forgot about until yesterday.

I’m pretty damned proud.  I’m not one to totally toot my own horn… OK, maybe I am, but I like to think I’m not.  Anyway.  Of my parents’ children, I am the first one of us to a degree.  Nee Nee will be first to a Bachelor’s degree, I think; she is a lot further along than I am, and has been plugging away at it for about as long as me (17 years); she didn’t stop to get an AS, but will probably have her BS within the year.  I’m probably a year away if I were full-time; we’re probably looking at 10 years at the rate I go.

Done tooting my own horn for now, but I was pretty psyched to log in to the college’s website and see a bunch of links for Alumni.  W00t!

The BS Journey starts in November, I think.

Here’s what I get from the discussion:

“It’s a winner-take-all voting system.” OK, sure, because in the US you vote for one person, as opposed to voting for a party in Parliament. I get that. WHY, however, do we insist on voting for the major-party candidate? Just because we vote for one, doesn’t necessarily mean we’re voting for (or against) one of two. There’s lots of people saying that the system pretty much only allows for two, but are vague in why.

I did come across an interesting point, though, which might be the answer: The Constitution, Article II Section 1. If you’ll break out that pocket Constitution I hear everyone carries, Clause 3 says that you have to have a MAJORITY of electoral votes; otherwise, the House gets to choose the President, with a 1 state = 1 vote requirement. Leading back to what I said in the previous post, this will motivate a lot of people to vote, if for no other reason than to make sure the “other guy” won’t get in to office.

I am beginning to wonder, if we eliminated the “winner take all” system and moved to something Canadian, if the problem of the two party system would be resolved or not. I think not; in fact, I think it would be exacerbated. A peek at the candidates for the “Big Three” third parties (Constitution, Libertarian, and Green) reveal former Republicans and Democrats.* These people have broken away from their parties for various and sundry reasons… Barr claims an epiphany of sorts, Baldwin because Bush/Cheney was too liberal, and McKinney because her constituency voted her out of the primaries a few years ago. (She’s no Lieberman, I’ll give her that. Smile ) I wonder how many took a 3rd-party position simply to run for an office that their old parties would never have let them aspire to? I wonder, if we moved to a Parliamentary system, if these people would have broken ties with their parties to begin with? Old habits are hard to break, old political views are hard to unlearn (though I am trying, I assure you).

* The Constitution Party candidate, Chuck Baldwin, has never held political office, but was a Republican activist for years, which is why I lump him in with Barr and McKinney, who are former Republican and Democratic members of the House of Representatives.

The fact is, yes, the system has a tendency to cater to two parties. Most of this, IMO, is because modern Americans have a tendency to vote AGAINST a candidate as often as they tend to vote FOR a candidate.

For prime examples of this, you can look to the 2008 Campaign, where McCain is dubbed “McSame…” A vote for him is a vote for GWB Part II: Electric Boogaloo. Or the flip side, where Obama is a “Sekrit Mooselim” and a vote for him is a vote to deliver us to the evil communist UN forces, and to create laws mandating we all turn gay and get abortions. Or have a gay abortion. Or whatever. You get the point. Or even better, look to the 2004 campaign; “I’m not Bush” was a plank in Kerry’s platform. (A more local example in the 2006 Cali governor’s race: The whole platform of Phil Angelides was “Governator likes Bush. I hate him. If you hate Bush, Vote for me.”)

Take it a step further. Go to The Democratic Party’s Official website and look at the front of it. McCain is featured in 10 articles, Palin in one. Obama 3, Biden 1. Of the four, two directly dealt with the DNC, and one was simply a pic with a link to BarackObama.com… the 4th a link to the Obama commercial from the Olympics. Over double the exposure on the Dem party’s main page is dedicated to the opposition.

Now go to the Republican website. Obama and/or Biden: 8 mentions, including a rather childish ticker “Time since Biden’s last gaffe!” McCain/Palin? Two.

I personally want to place the blame of the above squarely on the shoulders of the American public. They LOVE the dirt. Not just political dirt, any kind of dirt will do. Look no further than your local “town gossip,” or on a more relevant level, places like TMZ, Perez Hilton, etc. I personally believe that the political parties have developed this tactic simply to give the public what it wants. They ALSO believe that a vote for [$3rd party candidate] is a vote for [$Party you don’t want to win]. See: Perot, 1992 and Nader, 2000 for examples of the bitterness that comes about when a 3rd party receives votes in quantities significant enough that an election’s outcome might have been altered. 3rd parties, combined with the negative campaigning of the big two, have perpetuated the two-party system much longer than it should have gone.

Coincidentally, 1992 should prove to anyone that a successful third-party candidacy is possible. Remember, at one point Perot actually was leading in opinion polls, before he temporarily dropped out of the election… and he actually came in second place in two states’ ballots (beating out Bush in Maine, and beating Clinton in Utah). He was the most successful 3rd party candidate in nearly a century, and managed all that AFTER the debacle where he dropped out and re-entered.

I believe this can happen again, but the American MINDSET, not the system, must change.

Final notice, Time Warner.  You cap, I take all my service elsewhere.

Grab the guitar and play along with top Christian bands! Shred those riffs or blast the bass…you add a unique sound to the solid Christian rock. But watch out: if you can’t keep up, the artists will take a break and stop the music. Crank it up and try again — you’ll soon be rockin’ with the best while praising the Lord!  Order the second guitar and jam with a friend!

Judging from the product description, it’s a clone of Guitar Hero 3, including duels where you send “surprises” across to your rival guitarist to try to trip them up.  It’s a bit pricey, though — $100 for the game/guitar, and $70 for an extra guitar.  Comes for Windows AND Mac OS-X users.

But honestly… who would buy this?  Aside from the person who has enough money that they can afford a monitor large enough that 2 players can play on the same screen.  Or the geek who hooks the computer up to their wide screen LCD… or something.  Anyway.  I’m intrigued, simply to see how well it’s gonna sell.  My guess is “not very well at all.”

Via

• Britney Spears Urged By President to Get Divorce
• Perez Hilton to be sworn in as Israeli President?  (Huh.  I didn’t know he was circumcised…)
• Paris Jail Sketch worth $100,000 (wow, for a crayon drawing?  What’s that god-awful poetry worth?)
• Paris in for sex change?  (You’ll notice a trend here, as I keep going)
• Judge Sauer to throw Hilton into Lynwood Psychiatric Wing
• Paris Hilton Lands Leadng Role in New Broadway Production
• Dr. Phil calls Paris Hilton “Trash Without the Trailer” (if it were true, it would be totally ironically funny)
• Ann Coulter wants Paris Hilton thrown in Guantanamo (Of course, Hilton is a dem, so yeah, she does)
• Paris Hilton and Britney Spears in Lesbian Prison Romp (about 5 years ago that might have been hot)
• Paris Hilton’s Vagina Bites Penguin (Um… yeah.)
• John McCain to Paris Hilton:  “Cosmo, bayatch!”  (see, they misspelled “biyatch.”  I hate misspelled spam.)
• Paris Hilton sold her soul to the devil, admits it on Larry King (this one was so important that I got it TWICE)
• Britney Spears to donate eggs for Darfur (what, they have no chickens?)
• Angelina Jolie’s Lips Explode (if the Spam catcher hadn’t caught this, I’d hope I actually had a friend named Norris Harden)

There’s a bit of a lesson to learn, though:

• Spammers are a little behind the times.  We don’t care about Britney OR Paris anymore.  They may be on to something with Angelina, though.
• Spammers now care more about this than my penis size, which they all tell me is too small.
• They at least know America likes sex.
• They still can’t spell worth a damn

Though it is very acceptable and common for the right kind of white people to dress and act as though they were Japanese, Chinese, or European, it is completely unacceptable for them to act like rappers [...]  The brilliant solution they came up with was to appropriate hip hop words and mannerisms and filter them through a white appropriateness system.

This?  True.  What makes it even funnier, or so my African-American friends tell me, is when I do it in the style of Eddie Murphy impersonating a white man.. an impersonation of an impersonation, if you will.

Also:

This is also an excellent way to make white people like you.  If you can recite rap lyrics with perfect enunciation, they will always find it funny.  As a rule of thumb, the more popular the rapper, the funnier it gets.  Best options: 50 Cent, Tupac, Biggie Smalls, or Jay Z.

It’s not just white people, folks.  One of my bestest friends when we were in Alabama, a short-of-stature black mother of three, would recite DMX lyrics with me, downtempo and with perfect enunciation.  It was the only funny thing in that office, many days.  Sunshine on a cloudy day, if you will.

Note: avoid Kanye West as the irony of reciting his lyrics with perfect english is not as great.

I would pay good money to see Kanye West avoiding recitation of Kanye West lyrics.

This random snark has been brought to you by the distraction of getting USA Network’s east coast feed and loving it.

Isaac Hayes, Mr. Hot Buttered Soul, dead at 65.

Hard to say who I’m going to miss more, but at this point I think it’d be Bernie Mac.  He was still relevant in my world; Isaac Hayes ceased to be anything to me when he left South Park a few years ago in a tiff over how they treated Scientology.  (Later it was postulated that Hayes was in ailing health and had recently had a stroke, and those were the true catalysts behind him leaving the show, but this was never proven.)

Anyway.  Rest in peace, both of you.

If these things come in threes, though, I wonder who’s next?

Go here…