Adventures in Onionism

Here's a photo from the day I went to the field earlier this month. I spent Thanksgiving with The Bit. We watched Happiness, In a Lonely Place, Quantum of Solace, Headhunters, Lady in the Lake, When We Were Kings, Saturday Night Fever, and Skyfall. Those whose titles start with the letter "H" were quite good; the rest were stinkers. I put in for Hardrock and Western States. Lotteries are next month. I kind of hate running hundreds, so I'll probably only sign up for 2 or 3 more on December 1 when the registrations opens up. At a work dinner I had a conversation with a nutritionist about veganism. She thought I'd be low in iron. I said I don't really take supplements, and wasn't especially worried about it. She seemed to  advocate more of a paleo diet than the whole foods plant-based thing I swear by.  I'm pretty easily swayed by evolutionary arguments, so this gave me pause, and made me think I eat too much grain (though it's usually wh...

An ad in the international terminal of the ATL airport. Atlanta public transit sucks. Not only did whites vote against expanding public transit to the 'burbs because they feared that inner city blacks will take the train to come and rob them, it's a 10 or 15 minute shuttle drive from the international terminal back around to the domestic terminal to catch the train downtown.

I think I've posted this before, but this dude looks exactly like me. Shirtless, tats, baseball cap with sunglasses on top, jeans that are probably too baggy by annoying hip people standards, he's got the whole package. Oh, and how 'bout those election results? Pretty freaking amazing. Basically everything that was in the realm of possibility went the progressive way. Obama (1-3 Supreme Court justices), marriage equality 4 for 4, marijuana 2 for 3, improving the Senate (Warren!), and not only did California vote to raise taxes so as not to further pipe-bomb public schools, they elected a Democratic supermajority who will be able to raise taxes on their own. (I'm pretty sure--some of the assembly races were very close.) If you read the quotes from the party leaders, I think their humility is pretty reasonable--they'll lose it in the very next cycle if they overplay it, but still, an oil extraction tax would be great, and they'll be able to put a marriage...

I am back in Western Kenya for a week to help with the launch of our baseline survey. Looks like the Lake Vic hyacinth is really bad again. Venus Williams was on the same flight.

PBS Frontline has a pretty good show on money in politics post-Citizens United, specifically in the state of Montana, that everyone should watch: Big Sky, Big Money . You should especially watch it if you don't know what a 501(c)4 is, or if you think SuperPACs aren't coordinating directly with campaigns. I have to say that I was hoping for a bit more dirt, or something more explosive, but honestly, Stephen Colbert pretty much nailed it months ago with his SuperPAC shenanigans. They obviously coordinate with campaigns. At least they have to name their donors. Non-profit non-campaign "issue advocacy" 501(c)4s  don't, however. Except in Montana they not only coordinate with campaigns, they straight up run them. As far as I know, only one supreme court justice (Thomas) believes that even anonymous corporate and individual speech is protected by the first amendment. So this is something we could actually win. But it's not like the Supreme Court is going to up an...

Does everyone hit their thumb on the spokes or hub taking a bike pump off the tire, or is it just me?