Ah the Yes Men, always heart-warming to hear about their antics.  Now they've spoofed the NYTimes as what it might look like if a progressive utopia was upon us.  Could have been a shade subtler I think; the overall effect of all the headlines together makes the spoofiness pretty blatant.  Still, hats off!

so after weathering the employment doldrums I suddenly am faced with this choice:

A) teach sociology of religion at UW-Parkside.  this is my absolute favorite academic subject and I've always wanted to teach it.  it would be a foot in the door with UW, possibly leading to more teaching.  it would be more money than adjuncting at private colleges has gotten me, but still not a lot because it would be just the one class, so I'd still need to look for another part time job.  this would be the option of security because my lifestyle would basically remain unchanged.

B) move to Washington DC for 4 months and be an SPSS specialist for a polling firm that works for the Obama campaign.  this would be full time and more money, but I'd have to live in an alien environment where I don't know anybody.  it could potentially lead to more work in politics, which excites me.  I might even like DC and want to stay.  But I don't know too much about what the work entails, so it may be out of my league and it could end up as a disaster if I get into it and it winds up over my head.  So this is the option of risk because there are a lot of unknowns and a new living environment and a new field of work.

i don't think it's possible to make a wrong decision here, but that's not stopping me agonizing over it.  anyone ever had to make a similar decision?

anybody who wants to join me around 4 this afternoon at an Obama call party, where we counteract the Texas Republican voter discouragement machine, should give me a call or let me know somehow and i'll see if i can pick you up or something. there'll be snacks and cool people to meet!

Peace.

hey I'm campaigning for Lena Taylor for the new County Executive, because Scottie-boy needs to go!  There's free food and wi-fi down at our HQ at 35th and State, so feel free to drop by and hang out.  I'll be lurking around there for the next month or so, unless I suddenly get swept up in a great job or something somehow.  Lena's on Facebook and Myspace too, so friend her and keep abreast of her campaign! 
Peace out.

Let it be known: I am now whoring myself out for jobs. You hear of anything in the Milwaukee area, do let me know please. I'll do surveying, office work, teaching, data entry, possibly even retail if it's a fun store like a GameStop or maybe a porn shop or something...

In other news, I spent the last couple days busting my ass as a volunteer precinct captain for the Obama campaign, so the Wisconsin win was quite fulfilling. I even got to shake hands with Mayor Tom Barret at the campaign's victory celebrations. If you wanna help out in upcoming battleground states, just go to barackobama.com and let them know!

So I'm gonna be poundin' some sidewalk for the Obama campaign this week, knocking on doors and getting people to get their vote on. Anybody wanna help out, gimme a holla!

I'm thinking about throwing my support behind previously unbeknownst-to-me candidate Fred Thompson for the following reasons (from IMAO):

• When Fred Thompson speaks at a college, all the hippies are pre-tasered.
• Fred Thompson plans to keep a big pile of dead terrorists on the front lawn of the White House as a testament to fighting ability of American troops. He'd do it at his current home if it weren't for the HOA regulations.
• Fred Thompson's plan to reduce health care costs is to spend more time warning people not to make him angry.
• Fred Thompson's long term plan to secure our borders is to destroy all other countries. He destroyed two this morning using only a six iron.
• The lobby scene in The Matrix is loosely based on final poll results from Fred Thompson's reelection to the Senate.
• Fred Thompson has an extensive library of thousands of scholarly books on every topic... and each one has been hollowed out and had a gun placed inside it.
• Fred Thompson doesn't take "No" for an answer... unless the question was "What don't I take for an answer?" Then you better correctly respond with "No" before Fred Thompson rips out your spine and beats you with it.

Who's with me?

by now you've heard of conservapedia, the dubiously rigorous conservative answer to the fountain of infinite knowledge we call wikipedia.  well i've just been randomly poking through it to wile away some time and i found some amusing things.  but first i have to note that it only seems to be about half what it purports to be - conservative authorities compiling their knowledge in a centralized wiki form.  there seems also to be a significant liberal troll element, which can be very entertaining.  logical and educated left-oriented, shall i call them cyber-hacktivists? who apparently have no life, will go in there and generate topics, post comments, and get in debates that seem to be intended to bait the expected conservative readership into over-extending their positions, drawing them out to their logical implications, and thus calling attention to their inadequacies.  I think this is a wonderful tactic: engage your enemy on their own terrain and do it so subtly that they don't immediately realize that they're under assault until they've already committed to the encounter.  of course, much of this stuff is not backed up or scientifically verifies, stats are not cited, logics are not consistent, anecdotes are used as proofs rather than mere illustrations, and there're a host of other problems that make this a not exactly scholarly source of information, but still it gives me a kick.  :)

anyways, check out this wacky debate: is it wrong to have a christmas tree?  

and here're some interesting viewpoints on gun control.
IMO, guns are absolutely dumb, unnecessary, and the cause of violent crime.  points under debate with my related rantings: