November is a light-blogging month for me as I take part in the National Novel Writing Month and pound out 50,000 words in 30 days. During this time I’m relying on a cache of emails from my dad to help fill in the space so that Have Coffee Will Write doesn’t go dark. I’ll be back full-time on Friday, 1 December. B’shalom, Y’all.

That’s the central message from a Christianist Republican Rae Hart Anderson who lost a race a State Senator race in Minnesota to a Democrat who is also a practicing Hindu. As Andrew Sullivan says, the denial continues. These people have been telling themselves that they’re anointed for so long, they actually believe it.

From WCCO:

The race of your life is more important than this one–and it is my sincere wish that you’ll get to know Jesus Christ as Lord and Savior. He died for the sins of the world, yours and mine–and especially for those who accept His forgiveness.

His kingdom will come and His will be done–on earth as it is in heaven. There’s more….I love belonging to the family of God. Jesus is the way, the truth and offers His life to you and each human being. Pay attention…this is very important, Satveer.

Have you noticed Jesus for yourself…at some moment in time, yet???

I really do hope that Conservatives find the strength and will to save their own party.

My name is Jeff Hess and I’m a biblioholic. I own hundreds of books. Not valuable books, mostly Science Fiction paperbacks and text books, tomes rescued by the bag from library book sales. A few years ago, in the interest of not burying myself, I began reading more books from the library and taking notes. My electronic chapbook was born.

This is a passage I copied from A Charlestonian”s Recollections 1846-1913 by Daniel Elliot Huger Smith.

A perfect, or legal, fence had to be horse high, bull strong and hog tight. p. 26

Because I’m devoting most of my time in November to the Novel In A Month Challenge, I’ve set up 30 items from my blogpile — items I once thought interesting but never blogged about — for everyone to discuss. Next up is Move Over Starbucks: Israel’s Upside Down Coffee Saga. Scoop, lever, heave, scoop, lever…

From Army Girl: I would like to say a few choice words to some people back home who think it good form to send soldiers alcohol while they are on deployment. We’re not talking about a couple of cans of Guinness, we’re talking bottles of liquor: vodka, rum, whiskey. I realize that you’re trying to be “understanding” and “cool” when you send that stuff, or are trying to help the…

November is a light-blogging month for me as I take part in the National Novel Writing Month and pound out 50,000 words in 30 days. During this time I’m relying on a cache of emails from my dad to help fill in the space so that Have Coffee Will Write doesn’t go dark. I’ll be back full-time on Friday, 1 December. B’shalom, Y’all.

As an educator I appreciated the story earlier this week about flagging science scores. When you teach to the test there is no room left over for the things — in this case science — that aren’t on the test. Then I read this morning about how our government doesn’t know what the phrase scientifically accurate means. We are in deep shit folks.

…in the bedroom of Barbie’s funhouse, what will be the response then? I read this story earlier and thought: Semper Fi! But the Marines have caved and allowed the politicization of its Toys For Tots Campaign. Of course Teddy Bear should be able to sell its talking Jesus doll, but giving it away is proselytizing and the Marines should have stuck with no.

My name is Jeff Hess and I’m a biblioholic. I own hundreds of books. Not valuable books, mostly Science Fiction paperbacks and text books, tomes rescued by the bag from library book sales. A few years ago, in the interest of not burying myself, I began reading more books from the library and taking notes. My electronic chapbook was born.

This is a passage I copied from A Charlestonian”s Recollections 1846-1913 by Daniel Elliot Huger Smith.

Hog crawl meant hog pen, using the Dutch-Portuguese-African word kraa! [Related to the Zulu “corral?” meaning enclosure. JH] p. 24

Because I’m devoting most of my time in November to the Novel In A Month Challenge, I’ve set up 30 items from my blogpile — items I once thought interesting but never blogged about — for everyone to discuss. Next up is WELCOME TO STARSHIP DIMENSIONS…. Scoop, lever, heave, scoop, lever…

Educator and blogger Marybeth Matthews is reinventing herself and now blogging at Ask the Fairy Godmothers: Advice for the Disenchanted. After 10 years of friendship shaped by their roles as parents of children in Catholic school and the resulting roller coaster and, Marybeth and her co-blogger, Susan, are going public. She begins…

Funny how two people can share the same experience, yet remember things differently.

Yes, I vividly recall the utter humiliation of being handed “the note” by my son’s teacher that first week of kindergarten. What kind of terrible mother must I be that my youngest child, barely past the toddler stage, is already in trouble at school?

It is true, misery does love company, and I remember the relief I felt to see that I was not alone in my parental shortfalls. Thank God!

My Re-Elect Gore in 2008 banner has been over there on my sidebar for awhile now, so everyone knows how I feel. The conversation concerning whether or not Gore will choose to run reminds me a great deal of the Kremlin watching in the ’60s and ’70s when everything rested on who was standing next to whom during the May Day Parade.

Andrew Sullivan calls him the Dark Horse of 2008. I think he’s looking brighter and brighter.

Mick LaSalle at the San Francisco Chronicle thinks it all comes down to the former vice presidents BMI:

When Al Gore started to run for the presidency in 2000, he was thin. By the time the race was over, he had gained a lot of weight (like Clinton in 1992), and then he kept on gaining weight in the months after the election. (Who could blame him?) He also grew a beard.

However, by December of 2002, by the time he announced he was not running for the presidency in 2004, he had slimmed down again. That meant that he had strongly considered running, was getting himself into presidential trim and then decided against it.

Big Al is back to being pretty big right now, or at least he was a few months ago when he was going around promoting An Inconvenient Truth. But if he shows up on TV six months from now, looking 40 pounds lighter while promoting The Assault on Reason, then get ready, he’s running.

I’ve mentioned the connection with Richard Nixon’s runs for president in 1960 and 1968. The political parallels between Nixon and Gore are striking. LaSalle takes it even further, finding a pattern that reaches back to President Andrew Jackson.

Normally, when a candidate loses a presidential election, if he runs again, he does even worse (Adlai Stevenson, William Jennings Bryan). However, in every example we have from history, whenever a candidate has won the popular vote but lost the electoral, when he comes back next time, he wins the election.

In 1824, Jackson won the popular vote, but lost to John Quincy Adams when the election had to be decided in the House of Representatives. He came back in 1828 and won big.

In 1888, Grover Cleveland won the popular vote but lost the electoral (and the presidency) to Benjamin Harrison. Cleveland came back in 1892 and won big.

In 1876, Samuel Tilden won the popular vote and had the election flat-out stolen from him. He chose not to run in 1880, though historians seem to agree that the presidency was his for the taking, and the closeness of the subsequent election suggests that would have been the case.

As a student of history, Gore has to know all this. And there’s another relevant election as well. 1968.

Look for the political paparazzi to do a reverse of the pregnant celebrity watch; looking for the Gore’s belly to shrink rather than swell.

Only 23 months until the election.

From SPC Jami Gibbs: I think my mind has definitely hit the “rough patch”. I’ve never been one to know what depression is. Yes, I have always been moody. Yes, some people have described me as an “asshole” (I have no idea why I wrote that in quotations). But I have generally been a very pro-life person. I’ve always been able to see bad experiences as just some…

November is a light-blogging month for me as I take part in the National Novel Writing Month and pound out 50,000 words in 30 days. During this time I’m relying on a cache of emails from my dad to help fill in the space so that Have Coffee Will Write doesn’t go dark. I’ll be back full-time on Friday, 1 December. B’shalom, Y’all.

My name is Jeff Hess and I’m a biblioholic. I own hundreds of books. Not valuable books, mostly Science Fiction paperbacks and text books, tomes rescued by the bag from library book sales. A few years ago, in the interest of not burying myself, I began reading more books from the library and taking notes. My electronic chapbook was born.

This is a passage I copied from A Charlestonian”s Recollections 1846-1913 by Daniel Elliot Huger Smith.

The truck-minder regulated the flow of water on the rice fields. p. 22

It’s been a busy week in Wally World: the Universe’s source of cheap plastic crap. On The Writing On The Wal — the blog USA Today says should be on its readers’ radar — Jonathan Rees, Robert Feinman and I continue our work dedicated to drawing back the curtain on the Bentonvile Behemoth’s corporate disinformation and other flackery.

PERSISTENCE, PERSISTENCE, PERSISTENCE… Two previous lawsuits filed by the pro-community citizen group Save Our Community failed to slow the Space Invaders-esque descent of the Bentonvile behemoth on Rosemead, California, but the people haven”t given up. From The Whittier Daily News: Keep reading…

A MOTLEY FOOL”S POINT OF VIEW… One of the public radio shows I like to listen to is The Motley Fool, a Wall Street and investing show that is the opposite of Luis Rukeyser”s Wall Street Week. This morning I came across this paragraph under the headline: Yay Wal Mart!? Keep reading…

WHY SHOPPERS LOVE WAL MART, NO 103… The consumer revolution is being blogged and one of the walls up against which retailers are being placed is My 3 Cents. Stop in and type a search for Wal-Mart and watch the search engine whir. I got 309 hits, like this one: I entrusted Wal-Mart @ 7075 1960 West Houston TX 77069 with my vehicle which I took in for a tire replacement which I had warranty for. Keep reading…

WHY SHOPPERS LOVE WAL MART, NO. 104… The consumer revolution is being blogged and one of the walls up against which retailers are being placed is My 3 Cents. Stop in and type a search for Wal-Mart and watch the search engine whir. I got 309 hits, like this one: On November 2nd, I purchased three Lexmark printer cartridges at Wal-Mart in Emporia, VA. Keep reading…

BANKING ON MEXICO… PARTE TRES… Dang, it looks like Wally World is going for a squeeze play. When it”s native land expresses reservations about granting it a banking license, the Bentonvile behemoth takes advantage of the world”s two longest unprotected borders. Keep reading…

AT THE WALLYPLEX… There are sound stages on Hollywood”s back lots smaller than Bentonvile”s behemoths, so it”s no surprise that budding video talent has been sneaking cameras in at odd hours. And now for the midnight show at the WallyPlex featuring the ECPAG. Keep reading…

WHY SHOPPERS LOVE WAL MART, NO. 105… The consumer revolution is being blogged and one of the walls up against which retailers are being placed is My 3 Cents. Stop in and type a search for Wal-Mart and watch the search engine whir. I got 309 hits, like this one: I”m kind of upset with WalMart right now. Yesterday, Oct 21, 2006, I took my car to WalMart on 6th St, Fayetteville,AR, to have my oil changed. Keep reading…

WHY SHOPPERS LOVE WAL MART, NO. 106… The consumer revolution is being blogged and one of the walls up against which retailers are being placed is My 3 Cents. Stop in and type a search for Wal-Mart and watch the search engine whir. I got 309 hits, like this one: I went to customer service dept. to return a pair of jeans, and a tablecloth that was marked down to $3.00 that I was overcharged and paid $5.98 for. Keep reading…

MEXICO, SÍ…! WAL MART, NO…! Political and Labor opposition to Wal Mart in Mexico got more organized over the weekend when activists banded together to form a unified front in what they see as a fight to save both local businesses and national culture. From The Associate Press: Keep reading…

WHY SHOPPERS LOVE WAL MART, NO. 107… The consumer revolution is being blogged and one of the walls up against which retailers are being placed is My 3 Cents. Stop in and type a search for Wal-Mart and watch the search engine whir. I got 309 hits, like this one: First let me start by saying This happen at Sam” Club in which Walmart is an owner. I recently purchased a Sam”s Club membership. Keep reading…

WE ARE IT IS THE WORLD… Yes, I took Economics in college. As a business editor I”ve studied and written about plenty of financial reports. So I get it. But this piece from Reuters is particularly poignant in light of Wal Mart”s recent U.S. sales figures and price slashing. Keep reading…

WHY SHOPPERS LOVE WAL MART, NO. 108… The consumer revolution is being blogged and one of the walls up against which retailers are being placed is My 3 Cents. Stop in and type a search for Wal-Mart and watch the search engine whir. I got 309 hits, like this one: Walmart “says” that they will match any competitor(s) advertisement This is definitely NOT the case at store #1612 in Tucson. Keep reading…

WHY SHOPPERS LOVE WAL MART, NO. 109… The consumer revolution is being blogged and one of the walls up against which retailers are being placed is My 3 Cents. Stop in and type a search for Wal-Mart and watch the search engine whir. I got 309 hits, like this one: My husband and I were in Florida on vacation and went to the local wal-mart to purchase groceries and I wanted to buy some beer. Keep reading…

Because I’m devoting most of my time in November to the Novel In A Month Challenge, I’ve set up 30 items from my blogpile — items I once thought interesting but never blogged about — for everyone to discuss. Next up is Learn the Language of the Kingdom!. Scoop, lever, heave, scoop, lever…

As district maps go, Ohio’s is pretty good. Even the serpentine 6th District makes sense because of the industrial nature of the counties running along the Ohio River. But there are other states whose gerrymandering of house districts is a horror story and I think we need to start talking about a national solution before the next census.

And I’ve got to say, that among the alternatives, I think this one looks the best:

[A] history of bitter conflict prompts speculation on the meta-meta-political question of how best to resolve meta- political questions. In particular: Would it be feasible to take the process out of politics-indeed to take it out of human hands altogether?

The answer is surely yes. Computer programs could readily draw legislative districts. Drawing good districts, however, is a more challenging assignment. And harder still would be persuading the legal and political establishment to give up control of the process and accept an algorithmic solution.

Whether or not computerized redistricting would make for good government, it offers some interesting exercises in mathematics and computer science. Algorithms for redistricting exploit techniques from computational geometry, graph theory, combinatorics and optimization methods.

Even if such algorithms are never embodied in law, perhaps they can suggest some ideas that would be useful in a more conventional approach to redistricting.

Take a look at the before and after maps of North Carolina. As Andrew Sullivan suggests, the choice is a no brainer. And if the code is open and everyone can see and understand how the factors are weighted, it becomes very difficult to tamper with the results.

Since the program would easily fit on anyone’s laptop, and the census data ought to be downloadable, I can compare the map on my laptop to the one the legislature publishes. If they don’t match, I can spot the rat.

Makes sense to me.

From Tadpole: I recently attended an “All Navy Call” in Bagram for a visit by the Master Chief Petty Officer of the Navy, the highest ranking enlisted person in the Navy. He has only been the MCPON for a few months, and he is the second MCPON to visit since I have been here. He strikes me as being much more down-to-earth, and much more sailor-oriented than the last…