http://www.adventuresinurbanliving.net/ en Copyright 2009 Thu, 03 Sep 2009 18:15:09 -0800 http://www.movabletype.org/?v=4.3-en http://blogs.law.harvard.edu/tech/rss Subscribe with My Yahoo!Subscribe with NewsGatorSubscribe with My AOLSubscribe with BloglinesSubscribe with GoogleSubscribe with Live.com <p>1 in 3 LGBT kids seriously contemplate suicide because of the way gay, lesbian, bisexual and transgender people are treated by society as sick, wrong or on par with murders and rapists.</p> <p>In his moving testimony to the California State Senate, Dustin Lance Black (the Academy Warding winner writer of the screenplay for Milk) explained how at age 13 he was told the story of <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Harvey_Milk">Harvey Milk</a>. being told the story of Harvey Milk changed his life for the better. </p> <p><object width="425" height="344"><param name="movie" value="http://www.youtube.com/v/X87gwMQ0q1I&amp;color1=0xb1b1b1&amp;color2=0xcfcfcf&amp;feature=player_embedded&amp;fs=1"></param><param name="allowFullScreen" value="true"></param><param name="allowScriptAccess" value="always"></param><embed src="http://www.youtube.com/v/X87gwMQ0q1I&amp;color1=0xb1b1b1&amp;color2=0xcfcfcf&amp;feature=player_embedded&amp;fs=1" type="application/x-shockwave-flash" allowfullscreen="true" allowScriptAccess="always" width="425" height="344"></embed></object></p> <p>Urge Governor Schwarzenegger to sign the bi-partizen legislation that would officially recognize Harvey Milk's birthday as a day of signifigance in California by calling (916) 445-2841. It's an automated system, you just need to press a few buttons to voice your support.</p> <p><a href="http://www.adventuresinurbanliving.net/2009/09/dustin-lance-black-on-harvey-milk-day.html">Read or post comments</a></p><div class="feedflare"> <a href="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/adventuresinurbanliving/entries?a=GT9vwWYOZU0:-Lpa6F6YDT0:7Q72WNTAKBA"><img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/adventuresinurbanliving/entries?d=7Q72WNTAKBA" border="0"></img></a> <a href="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/adventuresinurbanliving/entries?a=GT9vwWYOZU0:-Lpa6F6YDT0:l6gmwiTKsz0"><img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/adventuresinurbanliving/entries?d=l6gmwiTKsz0" border="0"></img></a> <a href="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/adventuresinurbanliving/entries?a=GT9vwWYOZU0:-Lpa6F6YDT0:V_sGLiPBpWU"><img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/adventuresinurbanliving/entries?i=GT9vwWYOZU0:-Lpa6F6YDT0:V_sGLiPBpWU" border="0"></img></a> <a href="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/adventuresinurbanliving/entries?a=GT9vwWYOZU0:-Lpa6F6YDT0:yIl2AUoC8zA"><img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/adventuresinurbanliving/entries?d=yIl2AUoC8zA" border="0"></img></a> </div> http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/adventuresinurbanliving/entries/~3/GT9vwWYOZU0/dustin-lance-black-on-harvey-milk-day.html http://www.adventuresinurbanliving.net/2009/09/dustin-lance-black-on-harvey-milk-day.html , Thu, 03 Sep 2009 18:15:09 -0800 http://www.adventuresinurbanliving.net/2009/09/dustin-lance-black-on-harvey-milk-day.html <p>This advertisement of a family who apparently wouldn't be able to afford their camping trip were there a 3 cent junk food tax on that soda they brought. </p> <p>A <a href="http://economix.blogs.nytimes.com/2009/07/30/do-fat-taxes-work/">NY Times article</a> suggests 3 cents is not enough to make a dent on obesity, though it would generate $51.6 billion over a decade. </p> <p>One line in the commercial really gets me though. The ad declares, "taxes never made anyone healthy" which is an outright lie because <a href="http://www.cdc.gov/Features/SecondhandSmoke/">according to the CDC</a> taxes are an effective way to reduce smoking.</p> <blockquote><p>Research shows that tax increases on tobacco products are an effective policy intervention designed to prevent initiation of adolescents and young adults, reduce cigarette consumption, and increase the number of smokers who quit. A 10% increase in the price of cigarettes is estimated to reduce consumption by 4%.</p></blockquote> <p><object width="480" height="295"><param name="movie" value="http://www.youtube.com/v/0zmDwMNaTzA&amp;hl=en&amp;fs=1&amp;rel=0"></param><param name="allowFullScreen" value="true"></param><param name="allowscriptaccess" value="always"></param><embed src="http://www.youtube.com/v/0zmDwMNaTzA&amp;hl=en&amp;fs=1&amp;rel=0" type="application/x-shockwave-flash" allowscriptaccess="always" allowfullscreen="true" width="480" height="295"></embed></object></p> <p>Paying an extra couple cents for to have a soda a few times a week, even a few dollars for a family, isn't going to put anyone in debt.</p> <p><a href="http://www.adventuresinurbanliving.net/2009/07/false-advertising.html">Read or post comments</a></p><div class="feedflare"> <a href="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/adventuresinurbanliving/entries?a=LEm7Q-U3dVw:0HW1J4K0Lks:7Q72WNTAKBA"><img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/adventuresinurbanliving/entries?d=7Q72WNTAKBA" border="0"></img></a> <a href="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/adventuresinurbanliving/entries?a=LEm7Q-U3dVw:0HW1J4K0Lks:l6gmwiTKsz0"><img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/adventuresinurbanliving/entries?d=l6gmwiTKsz0" border="0"></img></a> <a href="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/adventuresinurbanliving/entries?a=LEm7Q-U3dVw:0HW1J4K0Lks:V_sGLiPBpWU"><img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/adventuresinurbanliving/entries?i=LEm7Q-U3dVw:0HW1J4K0Lks:V_sGLiPBpWU" border="0"></img></a> <a href="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/adventuresinurbanliving/entries?a=LEm7Q-U3dVw:0HW1J4K0Lks:yIl2AUoC8zA"><img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/adventuresinurbanliving/entries?d=yIl2AUoC8zA" border="0"></img></a> </div> http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/adventuresinurbanliving/entries/~3/LEm7Q-U3dVw/false-advertising.html http://www.adventuresinurbanliving.net/2009/07/false-advertising.html , Thu, 30 Jul 2009 17:17:18 -0800 http://www.adventuresinurbanliving.net/2009/07/false-advertising.html <p>The same day I arrived in Barcelona, my ex-boyfriend sent me a story about <a href="http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2009/05/20/BA4N17NHVC.DTL">banning cars on San Francisco's Market Street</a>. Despite a promising headline, the second paragraph states that actually banning cars (which are already outnumbered by bicycles) on Market Street is no longer on the table and seems to be a trial program which forces east-bound auto-traffic to turn at 8th Street and preventing cars turning onto Market at another intersection.</p> <p>"It will feel pretty good to see some progress, albeit incremental progress on Market Street," said District Supervisor Chris Daly though the article doesn't make any mention that this is at least the third Market Street study conducted by the Transit Authority (TA) and the supervisors like Daly who also act as the TA Board of Directors have yet to act upon any of the previous recommendations yet. The article mentions some of those recommendations like colored bike lines, improved signs and lighting, bikes lanes and streetscape improvements might be implemented in 2013.</p> <p>Despite having done for years and these safety improvements still being 4 years away, assistant deputy director of planning and development at the SFMTA Timothy Papandreou is already patting himself on the back, "We have the opportunity to make Market Street a world-class street".</p> <p><div style="float:right" style="padding: 3px 0 8px 10px"><a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/jamison/3554309110/" title="Bicing by Jamison, on Flickr"><img src="http://farm4.static.flickr.com/3654/3554309110_445149ffa6_m.jpg" width="240" height="161" alt="Bicing" /></a></div>Meanwhile, here in Barcelona they actually do have world class streets with bike only lanes, dedicated bus lanes (and busses free of interior advertising), and a citywide bike sharing program which had 90,000 members within six months of it's March 2007 opening. Today <a href="http://www.bicing.com/">Bicing</a> (at just 20€ per year with unlimited use and no additional charges for the first 30 minutes) has grown to 186,000 daily users, or 9% of the population. The friend I am living with here, Edu, tells me the effect on the Metro bus and rail lines has been noticeable with less overcrowding and fewer cars on the streets causing delays. Along with the growth in bike ridership comes dedicated bike lanes and maybe as maybe as soon as next year Barcelona will complete a network of dedicated bike lanes on all the major streets of the city. </p> <p>San Francisco has made little to no progress by comparison (under a legal injunction which prevents the city putting in so much as a bike rack without an environmental study) and while this non-ban-ban is a step forward anything short of true dedicated bus and bikes lanes is far from "world class" and politicians like Daly need to just shut the fuck up until they've actually made something happen instead of just commissioning studies. </p> <p><a href="http://www.adventuresinurbanliving.net/2009/05/bike-and-transit-priorities-on-market-street.html">Read or post comments</a></p><div class="feedflare"> <a href="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/adventuresinurbanliving/entries?a=3vQD7zzQvBQ:ydI7ujtFU7A:7Q72WNTAKBA"><img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/adventuresinurbanliving/entries?d=7Q72WNTAKBA" border="0"></img></a> <a href="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/adventuresinurbanliving/entries?a=3vQD7zzQvBQ:ydI7ujtFU7A:l6gmwiTKsz0"><img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/adventuresinurbanliving/entries?d=l6gmwiTKsz0" border="0"></img></a> <a href="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/adventuresinurbanliving/entries?a=3vQD7zzQvBQ:ydI7ujtFU7A:V_sGLiPBpWU"><img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/adventuresinurbanliving/entries?i=3vQD7zzQvBQ:ydI7ujtFU7A:V_sGLiPBpWU" border="0"></img></a> <a href="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/adventuresinurbanliving/entries?a=3vQD7zzQvBQ:ydI7ujtFU7A:yIl2AUoC8zA"><img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/adventuresinurbanliving/entries?d=yIl2AUoC8zA" border="0"></img></a> </div> http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/adventuresinurbanliving/entries/~3/3vQD7zzQvBQ/bike-and-transit-priorities-on-market-street.html http://www.adventuresinurbanliving.net/2009/05/bike-and-transit-priorities-on-market-street.html , barcelona, bicing, bicycing, bike, market street, san francisco, transit Fri, 22 May 2009 18:35:22 -0800 http://www.adventuresinurbanliving.net/2009/05/bike-and-transit-priorities-on-market-street.html <p>I was invited to a preview of the new Star Trek film last night and having long ago given up on the series (I think everything after First Contact was crap, and even then it was a rare highlight in a minefield of technobabble and it's boringly utopian view of the future) I started watching some episodes of the <a href="http://www.cbs.com/classics/star_trek/">original series online</a>. At it's core there was a great show and interesting characters, but it was very much a product of it's time with computers that my iPhone puts to shame and a weird gender bias which had every close up of a women in soft focus. </p> <p>In the new film, J.J. Abrams has done for Star Trek much what Ron Moore did for Battlestar Galactica, taking what was good about the original, leaving behind a lot of the baggage that brought it down in later years, and bringing it up to date with our contemporary expectations of more complex stories, imperfect characters and more realistic production values. For the first time in nearly 20 years, Star Trek feels new and fresh again. Abrams seems to have mastered the use of time travel, using it in Lost to create and intricate puzzle and here in a brilliant maneuver which frees him to go wherever he wants with this new series without contradicting what's already </p> <p>My only real complaint is a slapstick scene with Mr. Scott and a ridiculously convoluted water pipe. I think the film did a much better job portraying Scott as a true genius (his expertise was more narrowly focused on transporter technology) I get annoyed when shows have characters who only seem to exist for comic relief and where they rounded out the rest of the characters with both serious and comic moments, I don't think Scott had a scene without a joke. </p> <p>Overall: good movie, great scifi movie.</p> <p><a href="http://www.adventuresinurbanliving.net/2009/05/star-trek-the-previous-generation.html">Read or post comments</a></p><div class="feedflare"> <a href="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/adventuresinurbanliving/entries?a=23s67V7jduY:RTxO27l3XUw:7Q72WNTAKBA"><img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/adventuresinurbanliving/entries?d=7Q72WNTAKBA" border="0"></img></a> <a href="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/adventuresinurbanliving/entries?a=23s67V7jduY:RTxO27l3XUw:l6gmwiTKsz0"><img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/adventuresinurbanliving/entries?d=l6gmwiTKsz0" border="0"></img></a> <a href="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/adventuresinurbanliving/entries?a=23s67V7jduY:RTxO27l3XUw:V_sGLiPBpWU"><img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/adventuresinurbanliving/entries?i=23s67V7jduY:RTxO27l3XUw:V_sGLiPBpWU" border="0"></img></a> <a href="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/adventuresinurbanliving/entries?a=23s67V7jduY:RTxO27l3XUw:yIl2AUoC8zA"><img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/adventuresinurbanliving/entries?d=yIl2AUoC8zA" border="0"></img></a> </div> http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/adventuresinurbanliving/entries/~3/23s67V7jduY/star-trek-the-previous-generation.html http://www.adventuresinurbanliving.net/2009/05/star-trek-the-previous-generation.html , Thu, 07 May 2009 15:23:36 -0800 http://www.adventuresinurbanliving.net/2009/05/star-trek-the-previous-generation.html <p><object width="425" height="344"><param name="movie" value="http://www.youtube.com/v/Wp76ly2_NoI&amp;rel=0&amp;color1=0xb1b1b1&amp;color2=0xcfcfcf&amp;hl=en&amp;feature=player_embedded&amp;fs=1"></param><param name="allowFullScreen" value="true"></param><embed src="http://www.youtube.com/v/Wp76ly2_NoI&amp;rel=0&amp;color1=0xb1b1b1&amp;color2=0xcfcfcf&amp;hl=en&amp;feature=player_embedded&amp;fs=1" type="application/x-shockwave-flash" allowfullscreen="true" width="425" height="344"></embed></object></p> <p>Isn't it odd how I'm the one who's had my Constitutional Right to get married taken away, yet they are the ones pretending to be victims.</p> <p>Because of Prop 8 here in California, some of my friends may actually loose their marriages. I mean really, literally have the State Government tell them they are no longer married. When these homophobic liars have that happen to them, then they can start complaining. Until then: shut your ignorant fucking mouths!</p> <p>On a related note, now that we're putting Constitutional Rights up to popular vote, who wants to help take away the right for Mormons to vote?</p> <p><a href="http://www.adventuresinurbanliving.net/2009/04/the-gays-are-taking-away-your.html">Read or post comments</a></p><div class="feedflare"> <a href="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/adventuresinurbanliving/entries?a=7oxa4OcT2tk:unHAVIH8iS8:7Q72WNTAKBA"><img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/adventuresinurbanliving/entries?d=7Q72WNTAKBA" border="0"></img></a> <a href="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/adventuresinurbanliving/entries?a=7oxa4OcT2tk:unHAVIH8iS8:l6gmwiTKsz0"><img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/adventuresinurbanliving/entries?d=l6gmwiTKsz0" border="0"></img></a> <a href="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/adventuresinurbanliving/entries?a=7oxa4OcT2tk:unHAVIH8iS8:V_sGLiPBpWU"><img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/adventuresinurbanliving/entries?i=7oxa4OcT2tk:unHAVIH8iS8:V_sGLiPBpWU" border="0"></img></a> <a href="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/adventuresinurbanliving/entries?a=7oxa4OcT2tk:unHAVIH8iS8:yIl2AUoC8zA"><img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/adventuresinurbanliving/entries?d=yIl2AUoC8zA" border="0"></img></a> </div> http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/adventuresinurbanliving/entries/~3/7oxa4OcT2tk/the-gays-are-taking-away-your.html http://www.adventuresinurbanliving.net/2009/04/the-gays-are-taking-away-your.html , Fri, 10 Apr 2009 18:11:52 -0800 http://www.adventuresinurbanliving.net/2009/04/the-gays-are-taking-away-your.html <p>Last night New Hampshire Senator <a href="http://www.jeanneshaheen.org/home">Jeanne Shaheen</a>, one of the Democrats who has recently split with the party to oppose President Obama's agenda, was on <a href="http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/28314808/">The Rachel Maddow Show</a> to discuss her opposition.</p> <p>In principal, she seemed supportive of all the President's major agenda items. She said she supports, even campaigned on health care, solving the climate crisis, and all the other change-y buzzwords. In fact, I didn't even get what she had a problem with except this vague sense (at least to me) that you can't just do shit without spending time complicating matters. I transcribed a few bits of it.</p> <blockquote><p>There are a lot of arcane rules for how the senate operates that I'm still learning. But one thing I do know from my time as governor, that you have to compromise, you have to be able to work together and often that means taking a bipartisan approach. It means working with people who you may not agree with on every point and that's what I think we've got to do.</p></blockquote> <p>If the President has a majority of support in the Senate, you agree with him, and there's a mandate from the American public to fix some of these key issues, what do you want to compromise for the sake of watering things down? Why do you want to get all bipartizan with a party that says they want the president to fail and want to stop him from fixing what's wrong with this country? </p> <p>I found her last statement pretty telling.</p> <blockquote><p>I was a governor, I prepared a budget for the State of New Hampshire with my administration. And I sent it to the legislature and I knew they weren't going to rubber stamp my budget, that they were going to put their own imprint on it and that's what's going to happen, I'm sure, with this president and this congress. And that's the way the process works.</p></blockquote> <p>There we have it: she's more interested in trees than the forest. I think I can safely speak for most Americans (Democrat, Republican, Independent, conservative and liberal) that we don't like these stupid little games where politicians are more concerned with putting their imprint on the budget than putting together a good budget. </p> <p>Sometimes it's better to just support a good idea than trying to find a compromise. That how we end up with mistakes like blacks counting as 3/5 of a person or Don't Ask, Don't Tell.</p> <p>Also, this is someone from the state with the motto <i>live free or die</i>. There's no compromise in that.</p> <p><a href="http://www.adventuresinurbanliving.net/2009/03/compromise-for-the-sake-of-compromise.html">Read or post comments</a></p><div class="feedflare"> <a href="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/adventuresinurbanliving/entries?a=fo5t-StBFc4:bE_ib10q3Mk:7Q72WNTAKBA"><img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/adventuresinurbanliving/entries?d=7Q72WNTAKBA" border="0"></img></a> <a href="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/adventuresinurbanliving/entries?a=fo5t-StBFc4:bE_ib10q3Mk:l6gmwiTKsz0"><img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/adventuresinurbanliving/entries?d=l6gmwiTKsz0" border="0"></img></a> <a href="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/adventuresinurbanliving/entries?a=fo5t-StBFc4:bE_ib10q3Mk:V_sGLiPBpWU"><img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/adventuresinurbanliving/entries?i=fo5t-StBFc4:bE_ib10q3Mk:V_sGLiPBpWU" border="0"></img></a> <a href="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/adventuresinurbanliving/entries?a=fo5t-StBFc4:bE_ib10q3Mk:yIl2AUoC8zA"><img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/adventuresinurbanliving/entries?d=yIl2AUoC8zA" border="0"></img></a> </div> http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/adventuresinurbanliving/entries/~3/fo5t-StBFc4/compromise-for-the-sake-of-compromise.html http://www.adventuresinurbanliving.net/2009/03/compromise-for-the-sake-of-compromise.html , Thu, 26 Mar 2009 14:20:05 -0800 http://www.adventuresinurbanliving.net/2009/03/compromise-for-the-sake-of-compromise.html <div style="float: right; margin-left: 12px; margin-bottom: 10px;"> <a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/jamison/3352231176/" title="photo sharing"><img src="http://farm4.static.flickr.com/3539/3352231176_d25342ba71_m.jpg" alt="" style="" /></a></div> <p>My new passport arrived in the mail today. This one is a lot more decorative with illustrations throughout of Americana, including a riverboat on the Mississippi, the Transcontinental Railroad, and amber waves of grain. On the last page is one of the Voyage space probes leaving the Earth and the Moon behind to explore the solar system. Across from it is a quote from US astronaut <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ellison_Onizuka">Ellison S. Onizuka</a> who was part of the lost Challenger crew.</p> <blockquote>Every generation has the obligation to free men's minds for a look at new worlds... to look out from a higher plateau than the last generation.</blockquote> <p>By the time I was born, the United State had stopped landing men on the Moon, scaled back manned space flight to nothing further than Low Earth Orbit. Only recently have we started to really explore our solar system again and even though discoveries seem to be made daily on Mars, we're still not living up to that obligation again either up in space or here on Earth.</p> <p><a href="http://www.adventuresinurbanliving.net/2009/03/passport-to-the-universe.html">Read or post comments</a></p><div class="feedflare"> <a href="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/adventuresinurbanliving/entries?a=lERo_aQx-x8:kH2uWpV2yY4:7Q72WNTAKBA"><img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/adventuresinurbanliving/entries?d=7Q72WNTAKBA" border="0"></img></a> <a href="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/adventuresinurbanliving/entries?a=lERo_aQx-x8:kH2uWpV2yY4:l6gmwiTKsz0"><img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/adventuresinurbanliving/entries?d=l6gmwiTKsz0" border="0"></img></a> <a href="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/adventuresinurbanliving/entries?a=lERo_aQx-x8:kH2uWpV2yY4:V_sGLiPBpWU"><img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/adventuresinurbanliving/entries?i=lERo_aQx-x8:kH2uWpV2yY4:V_sGLiPBpWU" border="0"></img></a> <a href="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/adventuresinurbanliving/entries?a=lERo_aQx-x8:kH2uWpV2yY4:yIl2AUoC8zA"><img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/adventuresinurbanliving/entries?d=yIl2AUoC8zA" border="0"></img></a> </div> http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/adventuresinurbanliving/entries/~3/lERo_aQx-x8/passport-to-the-universe.html http://www.adventuresinurbanliving.net/2009/03/passport-to-the-universe.html , Fri, 13 Mar 2009 12:35:53 -0800 http://www.adventuresinurbanliving.net/2009/03/passport-to-the-universe.html <p>In his first inaugural address, President Ronald Reagan is famously quoted as saying "government is not the solution to our problem; government is the problem." I've heard that quote a lot lately and it sums up the Republican Party's attitude towards the recession and most other problems facing America right now. Out of curiosity, I did a google search on the line. </p> <blockquote><p>In this present crisis, government is not the solution to our problem; government is the problem. From time to time we've been tempted to believe that society has become too complex to be managed by self-rule, that government by an elite group is superior to government for, by, and of the people.</p></blockquote> <p>Not that it makes Reagan any less of an ass, but the entire quote puts a different spin on things. Every day we seem to be learning about some new atrocity of the Bush Administration, while Republicans still in office are opposing President Obama's attempt to fix things. </p> <p>America (and the world) are suffering from the fallout of a government run by an "elite group" which put it's own interests, business interests, and their religion and ideologies ahead of the people. Now we're starting to see what happens when government is seen as an ally again instead of the enemy it's been made out to be by the GOP.</p> <p>Yesterday, less than 2 months into the Obama Presidency, funding was given to a brand new <a href="http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2009/03/10/AR2009031000705.html">D.C. Metro line</a>, the Silver Line to Washington-Dulles airport. It's an idea that's been around since the system opened three decades ago, plenty of time for the private sector to have stepped to solve a need for airport service. Here the problem wasn't the government, it was the Republican run government stalling on funding an extension since it was approved in 2002. That's 7 years of stalling that only drives up costs, kept contrustion jobs from being created and made getting to and from the airport harder for everyone.</p> <p>No matter how much the GOP denies the facts on the ground, there are some things better left to the great satan of government. Universal health care is being attacked right now as "socialist" (which is just a label, nothing more) but it's Anthem Blue Cross who's denying coverage of my physical therapy, not some government bureaucrat. I see the need as figuring out what is best left to government entirely and where government needs to provide a minimum floor that the private sector can improve upon.</p> <p><a href="http://www.adventuresinurbanliving.net/2009/03/governement-is-the-solution.html">Read or post comments</a></p><div class="feedflare"> <a href="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/adventuresinurbanliving/entries?a=LgjpDg1Uz7k:MuTVzLj_OVc:7Q72WNTAKBA"><img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/adventuresinurbanliving/entries?d=7Q72WNTAKBA" border="0"></img></a> <a href="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/adventuresinurbanliving/entries?a=LgjpDg1Uz7k:MuTVzLj_OVc:l6gmwiTKsz0"><img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/adventuresinurbanliving/entries?d=l6gmwiTKsz0" border="0"></img></a> <a href="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/adventuresinurbanliving/entries?a=LgjpDg1Uz7k:MuTVzLj_OVc:V_sGLiPBpWU"><img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/adventuresinurbanliving/entries?i=LgjpDg1Uz7k:MuTVzLj_OVc:V_sGLiPBpWU" border="0"></img></a> <a href="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/adventuresinurbanliving/entries?a=LgjpDg1Uz7k:MuTVzLj_OVc:yIl2AUoC8zA"><img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/adventuresinurbanliving/entries?d=yIl2AUoC8zA" border="0"></img></a> </div> http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/adventuresinurbanliving/entries/~3/LgjpDg1Uz7k/governement-is-the-solution.html http://www.adventuresinurbanliving.net/2009/03/governement-is-the-solution.html News & Politics, Wed, 11 Mar 2009 11:58:33 -0800 http://www.adventuresinurbanliving.net/2009/03/governement-is-the-solution.html <div style="margin: 0 12px 12px 0;"> <a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/smokebelch/3337996336/" title="photo sharing"><img src="http://farm4.static.flickr.com/3551/3337996336_d7deb435b9_m.jpg" alt="" style="" /></a></div> <p>My flickr find of the day, by <a href="http://www.flickr.com/people/smokebelch/">smokebelch</a></p> <p><a href="http://www.adventuresinurbanliving.net/2009/03/look-sir-droids.html">Read or post comments</a></p><div class="feedflare"> <a href="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/adventuresinurbanliving/entries?a=T-3EePLJ5O8:MS7bQSTNAng:7Q72WNTAKBA"><img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/adventuresinurbanliving/entries?d=7Q72WNTAKBA" border="0"></img></a> <a href="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/adventuresinurbanliving/entries?a=T-3EePLJ5O8:MS7bQSTNAng:l6gmwiTKsz0"><img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/adventuresinurbanliving/entries?d=l6gmwiTKsz0" border="0"></img></a> <a href="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/adventuresinurbanliving/entries?a=T-3EePLJ5O8:MS7bQSTNAng:V_sGLiPBpWU"><img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/adventuresinurbanliving/entries?i=T-3EePLJ5O8:MS7bQSTNAng:V_sGLiPBpWU" border="0"></img></a> <a href="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/adventuresinurbanliving/entries?a=T-3EePLJ5O8:MS7bQSTNAng:yIl2AUoC8zA"><img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/adventuresinurbanliving/entries?d=yIl2AUoC8zA" border="0"></img></a> </div> http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/adventuresinurbanliving/entries/~3/T-3EePLJ5O8/look-sir-droids.html http://www.adventuresinurbanliving.net/2009/03/look-sir-droids.html , Mon, 09 Mar 2009 21:23:00 -0800 http://www.adventuresinurbanliving.net/2009/03/look-sir-droids.html <p>Last year California Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger vetoed a bill which would have made Harvey Milk's birthday, May 22, a "day of special significance", a minor state holiday. His statement at the time was that,</p> <blockquote><p>"I believe his contributions should continue to be recognized at the local level by those who were most impacted by his contributions,"</p></blockquote> <p>But that was before the Oscar Award winning film Milk was released. If you didn't know about Harvey before, the film should make it clear he impacted the entire nation. </p> <p>State Senator Mark Leno (who sponsored the bill last year in the Assembly) is trying again. Sean Penn was on hand for <a href="http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2009/03/03/BAAB168L9U.DTL&amp;type=politics&amp;tsp=1">yesterdays announcement</a></p> <blockquote><p>"Milk 'gave his life so that every elected official up here could hold office,' Leno said. But he added that Penn's powerful portrayal of Milk gives his bill an immediacy it didn't have last year."</p></blockquote> <p>Hopefully this time the Governor will not veto the bill.</p> <p><a href="http://www.adventuresinurbanliving.net/2009/03/harvey-milk-day-second-try.html">Read or post comments</a></p><div class="feedflare"> <a href="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/adventuresinurbanliving/entries?a=jeVgeuUtZQo:I_k4XLYlR7I:7Q72WNTAKBA"><img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/adventuresinurbanliving/entries?d=7Q72WNTAKBA" border="0"></img></a> <a href="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/adventuresinurbanliving/entries?a=jeVgeuUtZQo:I_k4XLYlR7I:l6gmwiTKsz0"><img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/adventuresinurbanliving/entries?d=l6gmwiTKsz0" border="0"></img></a> <a href="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/adventuresinurbanliving/entries?a=jeVgeuUtZQo:I_k4XLYlR7I:V_sGLiPBpWU"><img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/adventuresinurbanliving/entries?i=jeVgeuUtZQo:I_k4XLYlR7I:V_sGLiPBpWU" border="0"></img></a> <a href="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/adventuresinurbanliving/entries?a=jeVgeuUtZQo:I_k4XLYlR7I:yIl2AUoC8zA"><img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/adventuresinurbanliving/entries?d=yIl2AUoC8zA" border="0"></img></a> </div> http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/adventuresinurbanliving/entries/~3/jeVgeuUtZQo/harvey-milk-day-second-try.html http://www.adventuresinurbanliving.net/2009/03/harvey-milk-day-second-try.html , arnold schwarzenegger, gay rights, harvey milk, harvey milk day, mark leno Wed, 04 Mar 2009 09:01:11 -0800 http://www.adventuresinurbanliving.net/2009/03/harvey-milk-day-second-try.html <p>In just three days, the California Supreme Court will hear arguments over the legality of Proposition 8. The constitutional amendment passed last fall by a slim 52% majority, would redefine from being between two consenting adults to only between one man and one woman. </p> <p>Opponents of gay rights are asking the Court to uphold Prop 8, but it's not just as simple as a thumbs up or down. </p> <p>Last year when the Court overturned the existing gay marriage ban, it ruled (<a href="http://online.ceb.com/calcases/C4/43C4t757.htm">full text</a>) in part that marriage violated the equal protection clause of the State Constitution,</p> <blockquote><p>...the constitutionally based right to marry properly must be understood to encompass the core set of basic substantive legal rights and attributes traditionally associated with marriage that are so integral to an individual's liberty and personal autonomy that they may not be eliminated or abrogated by the Legislature or by the electorate through the statutory initiative process.</p></blockquote> <p>Opponents of the decision made the regular cliched attacks of "activist judges" "legislating from the bench", but that's not how our Democratic Republic works.</p> <p>We have a whole other branch of government (and an initiative process) to create legislation, the Court's job to make decisions when laws come into conflict with each other. That's what happened when the Court ruled last year that the equal protection clause of the State Constitution trumping any other laws that would limit that equal protection. The Court is not going to hear arguments on thursday over religious beliefs, the morality of homosexuality or anyone's traditions. </p> <p>I want the Court to rule against Prop 8, not just as a gay who may want to someday destroy traditional marriage with a man that I love, but also because this looks a whole lot like a cheat to get around the equal protection clause.</p> <p>If a Constitutional right can be removed by rebranding it as an "amendment" so all you need is a simple majority to get it though, it makes Constitutional protections kind of pointless to start with. </p> <p>Everyone should be concerned about that prospect, whether you like gays or not, because if the Court upholds Prop 8 then it could lead to similar attempts. I have my own plan in the case to take away the tax exempt status of churches by going around one-by-one. </p> <p>There are probably still enough people who believe in a religion that we could take away their tax exemptions all at once. If we start with... oh... say the Mormon Church for example, it would probably be possible to rile up enough hatred (it's not a real religion is it? weren't they the racists? isn't there idea of traditional marriage one man and several women?) to get a simple majority in an election. The next time around we go after another religion and maybe even get Mormons to support it because they want revenge. Or we could just vote to take away their right to vote entirely, of course there'd be no chance of swaying the Mormon vote...</p> <p>Do you see the problem with this? </p> <p>We can't allow a simple majority to vote on the rights of a minority, no matter how much we might not like them personally. It's the <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ethic_of_reciprocity">Golden Rule</a> isn't enough for you, then think about how you'd feel if you were the minority in the case.</p> <p><a href="http://www.adventuresinurbanliving.net/2009/03/gay-marriage-and-the-california-supreme-court.html">Read or post comments</a></p><div class="feedflare"> <a href="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/adventuresinurbanliving/entries?a=JC8v4d-nZF0:Wf0RRs8vbW8:7Q72WNTAKBA"><img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/adventuresinurbanliving/entries?d=7Q72WNTAKBA" border="0"></img></a> <a href="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/adventuresinurbanliving/entries?a=JC8v4d-nZF0:Wf0RRs8vbW8:l6gmwiTKsz0"><img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/adventuresinurbanliving/entries?d=l6gmwiTKsz0" border="0"></img></a> <a href="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/adventuresinurbanliving/entries?a=JC8v4d-nZF0:Wf0RRs8vbW8:V_sGLiPBpWU"><img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/adventuresinurbanliving/entries?i=JC8v4d-nZF0:Wf0RRs8vbW8:V_sGLiPBpWU" border="0"></img></a> <a href="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/adventuresinurbanliving/entries?a=JC8v4d-nZF0:Wf0RRs8vbW8:yIl2AUoC8zA"><img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/adventuresinurbanliving/entries?d=yIl2AUoC8zA" border="0"></img></a> </div> http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/adventuresinurbanliving/entries/~3/JC8v4d-nZF0/gay-marriage-and-the-california-supreme-court.html http://www.adventuresinurbanliving.net/2009/03/gay-marriage-and-the-california-supreme-court.html News & Politics, News & Politics, california, gay marriage, gay rights, law, marriage, prop 8 Tue, 03 Mar 2009 15:31:24 -0800 http://www.adventuresinurbanliving.net/2009/03/gay-marriage-and-the-california-supreme-court.html <p>So do you remember the other day when Bobby Jindal told us how in the wake of Katrina, some pencil pushing government bureaucrat wouldn't let volunteers help rescue victims unless they had proof of insurance? </p> <blockquote><p>"The boats were all lined up ready to go - when some bureaucrat showed up and told them they couldn't go out on the water unless they had proof of insurance and registration. I told him, 'Sheriff, that's ridiculous.' And before I knew it, he was yelling into the phone: 'Congressman Jindal is here, and he says you can come and arrest him too!' Harry just told the boaters to ignore the bureaucrats and start rescuing people."</p></blockquote> <p>Except it's not true. Jindel spokeswomen Melissa Sellers <a href="http://www.politico.com/blogs/bensmith/0209/Jindal_aide_Story_was_set_after_Katrina.html?showall">admitted to Politico</a> that our hero Bobby wasn't putting his freedom on the line to make sure boats lined up wouldn't be stopped by some heartless pencil pusher. </p> <blockquote><p>"'It was days later,' Sellers said. 'Sheriff Lee was on the phone and the governor came down to visit him. It wasn't that they were standing right down there with the boats.'"</p></blockquote> <p>This wasn't our hero's only lie that night either. Bobby also went after what he saw as waste in President Obama's stimulus bill, like...</p> <blockquote><p>"$8 billion for high-speed rail projects, such as a 'magnetic levitation' line from Las Vegas to Disneyland, and $140 million for something called 'volcano monitoring.' Instead of monitoring volcanoes, what Congress should be monitoring is the eruption of spending in Washington, D.C."</p></blockquote> <p>First off, Bobby clearly didn't research his speech since there is no funding for a Disneyland-Los Vegas maglev in the stimulus act. While there is a high-speed rail project to Las Vegas, the <a href="http://www.desertxpress.com/need.php">DesertXpress website</a> says up front:</p> <blockquote><p>"DesertXpress will be privately financed and would extend over nearly 200 miles on new, high quality exclusive double track with no at-grade crossings. DesertXpress would provide a convenient and efficient travel alternative to Interstate 15.</p> <p>"With trains departing both ends of the line as frequently as every 20 minutes on Fridays and Sundays, and hourly during most of the week, passengers would not need to worry about traffic congestion, erratic timetables and long security lines.</p> <p>"The vast majority of DesertXpress passengers will be diverted from I-15, to the tune of almost 22% of all the cars that currently travel on the freeway between Victorville and Las Vegas."</p></blockquote> <p>Why is Bobby so opposed to a privately funded transportation project which could take a fifth of the traffic off a publicly funded interstate? And so much so that would go on national television to spread misinformation and turn public opinion against it? Amtrak is a frequent target for Republicans who argue passenger rail should be left to the private sector, but here is exactly that opportunity and Bobby at least is still opposed to it. What gives Bobby?</p> <p>The DesertXpress would not run to Disneyland either, terminating at Victorville because as they themselves put it, "for this initial project, it is critical for the station to serve the Southern California market and be financeable without public tax dollars." It could one day serve Disneyland though since it will be a standard gauge railroad that the backers envision connecting with California High-Speed Rail someday and share track (providing California a new source of income through use fews) to serve major population centers they would not be affordable otherwise.</p> <p>Oh, and about the volcano monitoring, how is it that Bobby Jindal can be so out of touch he can see the value of predicting natural disasters after what hurricane Katrina?</p> <p><a href="http://www.adventuresinurbanliving.net/2009/02/bobby-jindel-lied-to-america.html">Read or post comments</a></p><div class="feedflare"> <a href="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/adventuresinurbanliving/entries?a=LA9jRt86THs:oLorxZ17TBY:7Q72WNTAKBA"><img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/adventuresinurbanliving/entries?d=7Q72WNTAKBA" border="0"></img></a> <a href="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/adventuresinurbanliving/entries?a=LA9jRt86THs:oLorxZ17TBY:l6gmwiTKsz0"><img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/adventuresinurbanliving/entries?d=l6gmwiTKsz0" border="0"></img></a> <a href="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/adventuresinurbanliving/entries?a=LA9jRt86THs:oLorxZ17TBY:V_sGLiPBpWU"><img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/adventuresinurbanliving/entries?i=LA9jRt86THs:oLorxZ17TBY:V_sGLiPBpWU" border="0"></img></a> <a href="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/adventuresinurbanliving/entries?a=LA9jRt86THs:oLorxZ17TBY:yIl2AUoC8zA"><img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/adventuresinurbanliving/entries?d=yIl2AUoC8zA" border="0"></img></a> </div> http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/adventuresinurbanliving/entries/~3/LA9jRt86THs/bobby-jindel-lied-to-america.html http://www.adventuresinurbanliving.net/2009/02/bobby-jindel-lied-to-america.html Transit, Transit, bobby jindal, high-speed rail, jindal, las vegas, politics, rail, republicans, stimulus, transit Sat, 28 Feb 2009 14:19:22 -0800 http://www.adventuresinurbanliving.net/2009/02/bobby-jindel-lied-to-america.html <p>In the Republican response to President Obama's address last night, Governor Bobby Jindal ran through a number of tired GOP talking points including one specific and often repeated lie:</p> <blockquote><p>"What we oppose is universal government-run health care. Health care decisions should be made by doctors and patients, not by government bureaucrats."</p></blockquote> <p>Bobby Jindal obviously prefers the current situation where for-profit companies make decisions about our health care. A system where the private insurance companies are encouraged to deny care in order to make more money. </p> <p>An example of how well this works is Blue Cross, who cancelled my coverage a couple days after cashing my COBRA payment. My COBRA provider is working to get my coverage reinstated, but it's going to take some time they say. </p> <p>I don't know if there could be any better example of the Republican system of health care than a company taking my money and then stiffing me for care and payments to my doctors. Bobby thinks I should be thankful though, because at least there's no government bureaucrats making decisions about my health care! </p> <p>Seems a little "better dead than red" to me.</p> <p>But Bobby, would you care to go beyond catchy one-liners and explain how a government run health care company would do worse? So far I'm not seeing an upside to your private health care and you don't seem very interested improving things.</p> <p>Contrary to what you've implied, my "health care decisions" are not being made by my doctor right now. In fact it took two weeks last year for my podiatrist my prescription approved, leaving me in excruciating pain every time I put wait on my foot. When I spoke to one Blue Cross representative on the phone, who I doubt was a qualified MD, told me the drug my doctor wanted to put me on was expensive and "not medically nessacery" for most people. I don't remember exactly how this worked out, but one of the things they said was she'd never sent in the paperwork even though she'd gotten a confirmation they received it and even more obviously it was the paperwork they'd denied. </p> <p>Do you really see this as ideal Bobby?</p> <p>I know, you Republicans believe there no reason to even consider other options because without even trying other options out you somehow know a priori, this is the best damn system there is. </p> <p>If you'll bare with me for a second here Bobby, and I know you haven't used you imagination for a while and it might be kind of hard, but would you give it a try?</p> <p>So lets imagine for a second we did hire a "government bureaucrat" (oops, did I just create jobs) and instead of making money for the insurance company, we'd give them the job of making sure Americans got the care they needed. </p> <p>Would this really be worse?</p> <p><a href="http://www.adventuresinurbanliving.net/2009/02/how-bobby-jindal-wants-my-health-to-suffer.html">Read or post comments</a></p><div class="feedflare"> <a href="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/adventuresinurbanliving/entries?a=wYhKULaibec:yj5Y6Rju-To:7Q72WNTAKBA"><img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/adventuresinurbanliving/entries?d=7Q72WNTAKBA" border="0"></img></a> <a href="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/adventuresinurbanliving/entries?a=wYhKULaibec:yj5Y6Rju-To:l6gmwiTKsz0"><img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/adventuresinurbanliving/entries?d=l6gmwiTKsz0" border="0"></img></a> <a href="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/adventuresinurbanliving/entries?a=wYhKULaibec:yj5Y6Rju-To:V_sGLiPBpWU"><img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/adventuresinurbanliving/entries?i=wYhKULaibec:yj5Y6Rju-To:V_sGLiPBpWU" border="0"></img></a> <a href="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/adventuresinurbanliving/entries?a=wYhKULaibec:yj5Y6Rju-To:yIl2AUoC8zA"><img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/adventuresinurbanliving/entries?d=yIl2AUoC8zA" border="0"></img></a> </div> http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/adventuresinurbanliving/entries/~3/wYhKULaibec/how-bobby-jindal-wants-my-health-to-suffer.html http://www.adventuresinurbanliving.net/2009/02/how-bobby-jindal-wants-my-health-to-suffer.html , bobby jindal, health, health care, politics, republicans Wed, 25 Feb 2009 11:00:47 -0800 http://www.adventuresinurbanliving.net/2009/02/how-bobby-jindal-wants-my-health-to-suffer.html <p>Effective service should be an ongoing priority for any transit agency, but more often than not politics and government budgets take priority to common sense. </p> <p>It had been two decades since there'd been a good once-over to see how well the San Francisco Municipal Railway (a misnomer, Muni as we know it, runs both rail and bus service) was working when Transit Effectiveness Project started a couple years ago. They were essentially starting from scratch since they didn't even have good counts of how many riders they were carrying or where they were going. And if you don't know that, you can't really tell if you're getting people where they need to go. </p> <p>So what started life as a small project to find major sticking points that could be solved relatively cheap and quick (read that as: they didn't have much funding) became a major project to not just fix service, but develop performance standards so they could measure service to see if the fixes work. There's a price tag of course, something around $200 million.</p> <p class="class="entry-footer"><a href="http://www.adventuresinurbanliving.net/2009/02/making-muni-more-effective.html#more">Continue reading </a></p><p><a href="http://www.adventuresinurbanliving.net/2009/02/making-muni-more-effective.html">Read or post comments</a></p><div class="feedflare"> <a href="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/adventuresinurbanliving/entries?a=jWLnxS7UnhY:v5MW6CoLqTU:7Q72WNTAKBA"><img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/adventuresinurbanliving/entries?d=7Q72WNTAKBA" border="0"></img></a> <a href="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/adventuresinurbanliving/entries?a=jWLnxS7UnhY:v5MW6CoLqTU:l6gmwiTKsz0"><img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/adventuresinurbanliving/entries?d=l6gmwiTKsz0" border="0"></img></a> <a href="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/adventuresinurbanliving/entries?a=jWLnxS7UnhY:v5MW6CoLqTU:V_sGLiPBpWU"><img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/adventuresinurbanliving/entries?i=jWLnxS7UnhY:v5MW6CoLqTU:V_sGLiPBpWU" border="0"></img></a> <a href="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/adventuresinurbanliving/entries?a=jWLnxS7UnhY:v5MW6CoLqTU:yIl2AUoC8zA"><img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/adventuresinurbanliving/entries?d=yIl2AUoC8zA" border="0"></img></a> </div> http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/adventuresinurbanliving/entries/~3/jWLnxS7UnhY/making-muni-more-effective.html http://www.adventuresinurbanliving.net/2009/02/making-muni-more-effective.html San Francisco, San Francisco, muni, san francisco, sfmuni, tep, transit, transit effectiveness project Tue, 24 Feb 2009 14:53:04 -0800 http://www.adventuresinurbanliving.net/2009/02/making-muni-more-effective.html <p>It's hard not to see how the news media has taken on a narrative about Slumdog Millionaire's 8 Oscar wins that mirrors the film's rags-to-riches plot itself. A bit of spin's needed of course, NPR called the cast "unknown actors" even though <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Anil_Kapoor">Anil Kapoor</a> has a long and successful career which isn't getting as much attention as the couple of kids who were plucked from the slum to play major parts. Director <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Danny_Boyle">Danny Boyle</a> isn't a first time director either having had some success before adapting Trainspotting to a film with a cast of largely unknown actors.</p> <p>While the coverage is a little sensational, I'm glad to see Slumdog Millionaire transcend movie fame to become a point of national pride (and some controversy) for India and Indians all over the world. </p> <p><span class="mt-enclosure mt-enclosure-image" style="display: inline;"><img alt="Sean Penn as Harvey Milk" src="http://www.adventuresinurbanliving.net/images/2009/milk-supervisor.jpg" width="200" height="290" class="mt-image-right" style="float: right; margin: 0 0 12px 12px;" /></span>Meanwhile here in San Francisco's Castro District, the same kind of pride is being felt for the pair of awards last night for Milk. I was an extra in the scene from Milk shown during the screenplay nominations and watched the awards just a block from Harvey's camera shop which made it even more thrilling when Dustin Lance Black won the best original screenplay award.</p> <blockquote><p>"When I was 13 years old, my beautiful mother and my father moved me from a conservative Mormon home in San Antonio, Texas to California, and I heard the story of Harvey Milk. And it gave me hope. It gave me the hope to live my life. It gave me the hope one day I could live my life openly as who I am and then maybe even I could even fall in love and one day get married."</p></blockquote> <p>Harvey Milk is easily the greatest icon in the history of gay rights movement, but the nature of "gay community" as something you really come into on your own (sometimes through great struggle) instead of being handed down from your parents, means even among gay, lesbian, bisexual and transgendered (GLBT) people Harvey has gone largely unknown. Dustin Lance Black explains that in a <a href="http://www.oscars.org/press/transcripts/text/screenplayoriginal_interview.html">backstage interview</a> asking what it would have meant to have seen someone like himself win when he was 13 years old.</p> <blockquote><p>" I don't know. I didn't hear that at the Oscars when I was a 13 year old kid. You know, I just hope it makes you feel a bit less alone. It's easy in San Francisco and L.A. and New York, Chicago, because you can find support, you can find mentors and heroes. But where I'm from, and a lot of places, you know in this country, in small town America, they just don't know there are gay heroes, and they don't know there's other gay people, and they don't know there's a potential future, I mean a beautiful future. I mean, look at this; it's insane for out gay people. So, you know, I hope it inspires some folks."</p></blockquote> <p><span class="mt-enclosure mt-enclosure-image" style="display: inline;"><img alt="Plaque marking Harvey Milk's camera shop" src="http://www.adventuresinurbanliving.net/images/2009/milk-plaque.jpg" width="200" height="150" class="mt-image-right" style="float: right; margin: 0 0 12px 12px;" /></span>As I walked home after the awards show, I passed what had been Castro Camera, a small group was gathered in the rain, in a semicircle around the small plaque which marked where the camera shop had been. One block further I passed the crowd that had gathered at the Castro Theater to watch a simulcast of the awards show and everyone outside was talking about Milk.</p> <p><a href="http://www.adventuresinurbanliving.net/2009/02/harvey-milk-for-the-win.html">Read or post comments</a></p><div class="feedflare"> <a href="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/adventuresinurbanliving/entries?a=ZRvf1Yfc_dE:0t9dk9fDnkU:7Q72WNTAKBA"><img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/adventuresinurbanliving/entries?d=7Q72WNTAKBA" border="0"></img></a> <a href="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/adventuresinurbanliving/entries?a=ZRvf1Yfc_dE:0t9dk9fDnkU:l6gmwiTKsz0"><img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/adventuresinurbanliving/entries?d=l6gmwiTKsz0" border="0"></img></a> <a href="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/adventuresinurbanliving/entries?a=ZRvf1Yfc_dE:0t9dk9fDnkU:V_sGLiPBpWU"><img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/adventuresinurbanliving/entries?i=ZRvf1Yfc_dE:0t9dk9fDnkU:V_sGLiPBpWU" border="0"></img></a> <a href="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/adventuresinurbanliving/entries?a=ZRvf1Yfc_dE:0t9dk9fDnkU:yIl2AUoC8zA"><img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/adventuresinurbanliving/entries?d=yIl2AUoC8zA" border="0"></img></a> </div> http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/adventuresinurbanliving/entries/~3/ZRvf1Yfc_dE/harvey-milk-for-the-win.html http://www.adventuresinurbanliving.net/2009/02/harvey-milk-for-the-win.html San Francisco, San Francisco, San Francisco, San Francisco, academy awards, coming out, dustin lance black, films, gay, gay marriage, gay rights, harvey milk, milk, movies, oscars, politics, sean penn Mon, 23 Feb 2009 13:25:48 -0800 http://www.adventuresinurbanliving.net/2009/02/harvey-milk-for-the-win.html <p>In addition to Frebuary 12th, 2009 being the 200th birthday of both President Lincoln and Charles Darwin, and the centennial of the NAACP, it is also the <a href="http://www.ebar.com/news/article.php?sec=news&amp;article=3711">5th anniversary of San Francisco's illegal <i>Winter of Love</i></a> when for nearly a month thousands of gay and lesbian couples were married. I went down to City Hall that weekend to see the lines wrapped around the building, everyone was unbelievably happy. Gay or straight, everyone I knew was excited and proud of their city. In the Castro, you couldn't go anywhere without bumping into a newlywed. One of the bars had built shrine to Del Martin and Phylis Lyon, partners for 50 years who were the first couple to be married.</p> <p><span class="mt-enclosure mt-enclosure-image" style="display: inline;"><img alt="marriage-aniversary.jpg" src="http://www.adventuresinurbanliving.net/images/2009/marriage-aniversary.jpg" width="480" height="200" class="mt-image-none" style="" /></span></p> <p>By the end of the year, those marriages had all been annulled. Under California law at the time, marriage could only be between one man and one woman. Because what the City did wasn't legal, the weddings it preformed weren't legit. What it did do though, was demonstrate there was discrimination going on (because technically a gay man or woman was still free to marry someone of the opposite sex, so where's the problem?) and allowed the couples who'd now had their marriages destroyed take their case to court.</p> <p>After the narrow passage of Prop 8 in November, which amends the California State Constitution to ban gay marriage again, the whole thing is <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lawsuits_to_Overturn_Proposition_8">going back to the Supreme Court</a> on March 5. In less than a month Justices will hear oral arguments over whether you can amend the Constitution to take away rights guaranteed by the Constitution by a simple majority vote in a general election. </p> <p>State Attorney General Jerry Brown, who in most cases would defend a proposition in court, <a href="http://ag.ca.gov/newsalerts/release.php?id=1642&amp;year=2008&amp;month=12&amp;endMonth=2&amp;endYear=2009">filed a brief</a> arguing Prop 8 be thrown out, but for different reasons than the coalition of civil rights organization arguing against it. While they are making the case this is a revision, which has a different process requiring 2/3 majority in both houses of the State Legislature to change the Constitution, Jerry Brown think there's an even more fundamental issue at stake here, saying...</p> <blockquote><p>"Proposition 8 must be invalidated because the amendment process cannot be used to extinguish fundamental constitutional rights without compelling justification"</p></blockquote> <p>Even if you think all of us homosexuals should burn in hell, you should be worried like he is about the precedent being set here: anyone can have their rights taken away by a simple majority vote. Don't like red heads? With just a simple majority, we could take away their right to vote!</p> <p>When the Supreme Court does rule against Prop 8, I'm as certain as I can be they will overturn it, and the right wing starts calling them "activist judges legislating from the bench" just remember they aren't making any new law, their charge is defending the Constitution from an attempts made by the people and our elected officials from undermining it with flawed or cleverly written laws that might would undermine it in the future.</p> <p>I have a backup plan in the event the Justices don't side with the Attorney General and the plaintiffs (for many it would be the <i>second</i> time their marriage gets annulled, including my friends Bill &amp; J.R., and I'm already pissed anyway) to get revenge on the churches which funded the campaign to take away my rights. </p> <p>Here's the deal: the reality is we can't just vote to take away the tax-except status from all churches, they'd gang up and get it shot down, but by using our newfound ability to exempt whoever we want from Constitutional rights by a proposition, we start excluding churches one-by-one. Start with one of the smaller religion or denomination, I'd personally like to start with the LDS church: Did you see that South Park? Are they even really a church? Why should they get a break... You get the idea. If figure once you do it to a few, it will become routine and you'll build up the number of voters who are pissed and ready to do the same to others. I'm sure the christians will turn on the jews. If they protest too much, you just take away their right to vote as well.</p> <p>You get the idea. It's messed up and we'd turn the California Constitution into something like a bank disclosure with 60 pages legalese footnotes saying who gets excluded from which right in which cases. </p> <p>Let's just stop messing with the Constitution. Everyone gets equal rights.</p> <p><a href="http://www.adventuresinurbanliving.net/2009/02/the-fifth-gay-marriage-anniver.html">Read or post comments</a></p><div class="feedflare"> <a href="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/adventuresinurbanliving/entries?a=ixqjWNPaQCo:xm2EbPBoqMo:7Q72WNTAKBA"><img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/adventuresinurbanliving/entries?d=7Q72WNTAKBA" border="0"></img></a> <a href="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/adventuresinurbanliving/entries?a=ixqjWNPaQCo:xm2EbPBoqMo:l6gmwiTKsz0"><img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/adventuresinurbanliving/entries?d=l6gmwiTKsz0" border="0"></img></a> <a href="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/adventuresinurbanliving/entries?a=ixqjWNPaQCo:xm2EbPBoqMo:V_sGLiPBpWU"><img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/adventuresinurbanliving/entries?i=ixqjWNPaQCo:xm2EbPBoqMo:V_sGLiPBpWU" border="0"></img></a> <a href="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/adventuresinurbanliving/entries?a=ixqjWNPaQCo:xm2EbPBoqMo:yIl2AUoC8zA"><img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/adventuresinurbanliving/entries?d=yIl2AUoC8zA" border="0"></img></a> </div> http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/adventuresinurbanliving/entries/~3/ixqjWNPaQCo/the-fifth-gay-marriage-anniver.html http://www.adventuresinurbanliving.net/2009/02/the-fifth-gay-marriage-anniver.html News & Politics, News & Politics, gavin newsom, gay, gay marriage, gay rights, marriage, prop 8, san francisco Thu, 12 Feb 2009 20:13:03 -0800 http://www.adventuresinurbanliving.net/2009/02/the-fifth-gay-marriage-anniver.html <p>Yesterday San Francisco's Board of Supervisors (the city council) voted 8-3 to give up on addressing the City's budget deficit and <a href="http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2009/02/03/BA8B15MHCR.DTL">call a special election</a>.</p> <p>When the going gets tough... here, you deal with it, bye.</p> <p>There's nothing to go on the ballot yet (this isn't a case where they've got a plan that requires voter approval to get around some bit of red tape) but there are proposals shaping up for additional taxes and fees to cover the $576 million deficit. </p> <p>This smacks of the supervisors avoiding the responsibility of either cutting services, raising taxes, or making serious changes (like renegotiating contracts, labor rules, or cutting pet projects) and adding the cost of an election to the cities dwindling coffers.</p> <p>Anyone got an idea how we can put the Central Subway on the ballot so we can kill it? We don't need to spend $1.5 billion on a subway that will attract no new riders.</p> <p><a href="http://www.adventuresinurbanliving.net/2009/02/this-is-what-we-elect-you-for.html">Read or post comments</a></p><div class="feedflare"> <a href="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/adventuresinurbanliving/entries?a=DtPmY-WeIao:TgtUQddrDXM:7Q72WNTAKBA"><img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/adventuresinurbanliving/entries?d=7Q72WNTAKBA" border="0"></img></a> <a href="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/adventuresinurbanliving/entries?a=DtPmY-WeIao:TgtUQddrDXM:l6gmwiTKsz0"><img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/adventuresinurbanliving/entries?d=l6gmwiTKsz0" border="0"></img></a> <a href="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/adventuresinurbanliving/entries?a=DtPmY-WeIao:TgtUQddrDXM:V_sGLiPBpWU"><img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/adventuresinurbanliving/entries?i=DtPmY-WeIao:TgtUQddrDXM:V_sGLiPBpWU" border="0"></img></a> <a href="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/adventuresinurbanliving/entries?a=DtPmY-WeIao:TgtUQddrDXM:yIl2AUoC8zA"><img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/adventuresinurbanliving/entries?d=yIl2AUoC8zA" border="0"></img></a> </div> http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/adventuresinurbanliving/entries/~3/DtPmY-WeIao/this-is-what-we-elect-you-for.html http://www.adventuresinurbanliving.net/2009/02/this-is-what-we-elect-you-for.html , elections, government, news, politics, san francisco Wed, 04 Feb 2009 08:45:18 -0800 http://www.adventuresinurbanliving.net/2009/02/this-is-what-we-elect-you-for.html <p>Today's poll on the <a href="http://www.foxnews.com/oreilly">Bill O'Reilly site</a> asks where democratic senate seat is the biggest fiasco. Between Illinois, Minnesota, and New York I don't think among the people I know there'd be much question: Illinois, where the Governor is refusing to attend his own impeachment over trying to sell that very seat. </p> <p>But for Bill O'Reilly's audience (and this is why I check in there every so often) that seems to pale in comparison to Minnesota, where Al Franken just narrowly beat Republican Norm Coleman in a very tight election.</p> <p><span class="mt-enclosure mt-enclosure-image" style="display: inline;"><img alt="Fox News Senate Poll" src="http://www.adventuresinurbanliving.net/images/2009/fox-senate-poll.jpg" width="480" height="210" class="mt-image-none" style="" /></span></p> <p>Ok, it's gone to court and there's some question about whether some ballots are valid or not, but the issue is still just about who has the most valid votes. There's no question there about appointing authority like there is in illinois. If you think Minnesota is a bigger fiasco, why is that?</p> <p><a href="http://www.adventuresinurbanliving.net/2009/01/a-fiasco-for-fox-news.html">Read or post comments</a></p><div class="feedflare"> <a href="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/adventuresinurbanliving/entries?a=rgg_4E0TEl0:rkT683I5RLU:7Q72WNTAKBA"><img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/adventuresinurbanliving/entries?d=7Q72WNTAKBA" border="0"></img></a> <a href="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/adventuresinurbanliving/entries?a=rgg_4E0TEl0:rkT683I5RLU:l6gmwiTKsz0"><img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/adventuresinurbanliving/entries?d=l6gmwiTKsz0" border="0"></img></a> <a href="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/adventuresinurbanliving/entries?a=rgg_4E0TEl0:rkT683I5RLU:V_sGLiPBpWU"><img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/adventuresinurbanliving/entries?i=rgg_4E0TEl0:rkT683I5RLU:V_sGLiPBpWU" border="0"></img></a> <a href="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/adventuresinurbanliving/entries?a=rgg_4E0TEl0:rkT683I5RLU:yIl2AUoC8zA"><img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/adventuresinurbanliving/entries?d=yIl2AUoC8zA" border="0"></img></a> </div> http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/adventuresinurbanliving/entries/~3/rgg_4E0TEl0/a-fiasco-for-fox-news.html http://www.adventuresinurbanliving.net/2009/01/a-fiasco-for-fox-news.html , bill o'reilly, elections, fox news, minnesota, senate Mon, 26 Jan 2009 10:29:51 -0800 http://www.adventuresinurbanliving.net/2009/01/a-fiasco-for-fox-news.html <p>Until a few weeks ago when the advertising started I only had a vague notion "Nixon had done some revealing interviews". I'm surprised after seeing <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Frost/Nixon_(film)">Frost/Nixon</a> last night that I had no idea about this.</p> <p><object width="425" height="344"><param name="movie" value="http://www.youtube.com/v/jw6LhKCYUCQ&amp;hl=en&amp;fs=1"></param><param name="allowFullScreen" value="true"></param><param name="allowscriptaccess" value="always"></param><embed src="http://www.youtube.com/v/jw6LhKCYUCQ&amp;hl=en&amp;fs=1" type="application/x-shockwave-flash" allowscriptaccess="always" allowfullscreen="true" width="425" height="344"></embed></object></p> <p>The film, based on a play, faithfully recreated the interviews and throughout them my mind kept wandering to the parallels with President Bush and his recent attempts in interviews to spin his presidency as anything other than failure. </p> <p><a href="http://www.adventuresinurbanliving.net/2009/01/frostnixon.html">Read or post comments</a></p><div class="feedflare"> <a href="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/adventuresinurbanliving/entries?a=oo1hkoiJW9s:jzBYelMIs6g:7Q72WNTAKBA"><img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/adventuresinurbanliving/entries?d=7Q72WNTAKBA" border="0"></img></a> <a href="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/adventuresinurbanliving/entries?a=oo1hkoiJW9s:jzBYelMIs6g:l6gmwiTKsz0"><img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/adventuresinurbanliving/entries?d=l6gmwiTKsz0" border="0"></img></a> <a href="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/adventuresinurbanliving/entries?a=oo1hkoiJW9s:jzBYelMIs6g:V_sGLiPBpWU"><img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/adventuresinurbanliving/entries?i=oo1hkoiJW9s:jzBYelMIs6g:V_sGLiPBpWU" border="0"></img></a> <a href="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/adventuresinurbanliving/entries?a=oo1hkoiJW9s:jzBYelMIs6g:yIl2AUoC8zA"><img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/adventuresinurbanliving/entries?d=yIl2AUoC8zA" border="0"></img></a> </div> http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/adventuresinurbanliving/entries/~3/oo1hkoiJW9s/frostnixon.html http://www.adventuresinurbanliving.net/2009/01/frostnixon.html , academy awards, david frost, films, frost/nixon, movies, oscars, richard nixon Sat, 24 Jan 2009 08:28:44 -0800 http://www.adventuresinurbanliving.net/2009/01/frostnixon.html <p>Tomorrow MacWorld SF will kick off with the annual keynote address where Steve Jobs traditionally showers the loyalists with new products. So sing along...</p> <p><i>It's the most wonderful time of the year...</i> </p> <p>Along with it comes the speculation, rumors and wish lists for everything from new phones to flying cars, though that was a joke at lunch about how wild people's guesses are. I get irritated by this because it gets to the point of religious fervor and when Apple fails to deliver on some dream machine it's seen as a disappointment.</p> <p>For the next few weeks the parts of the blogosphere I hang out if get jaded and harp on perceived flaws instead of the real improvements. A year ago it was the MacBook Air, costing more, but delivering less power than an ordinary MacBook, with it's non-removable hard drive and a lone USB port. It was certainly doomed to failure, destined to be the next Cube right? Apple already addressed those user needs with the MacBook and MacBook Pro, the Air was for people who wanted a really light weight Mac. I know several people who made just such a compromise and the Apple Store online ranks it as a better seller than the Mac Mini at the moment. </p> <p>Rumor has it <a href="http://www.macrumors.com/2009/01/04/confirmation-of-fixed-17-macbook-pro-battery-mac-mini-with-firewire/">the 17" MacBook will get updated</a> to the new look (I didn't think it would be eliminated, the focus was just to get the consumer laptops out for the holidays) and will have a non-removable battery. Though a non-removable battery has never doomed an Apple product it hasn't stopped the vocal minority from harping on it anyway. </p> <p>Chuq Von Rospach <a href="http://chuqui.typepad.com/chuqui_30/2009/01/cue-the-complaints-17-inch-macbook-pro-without-a-removable-battery-venturebeat.html">wrote about how much of a non-issue it is</a>, with a bit of history and asking how many people change their battery anyway? He's already got a string of comments which miss the point entirely and insist a removable battery is important.</p> <p>I wanted to make another point about the same <a href="http://venturebeat.com/2009/01/04/cue-the-complaints-17-inch-macbook-pro-without-a-removable-battery/">Venuture Beat</a> quote he starts with.</p> <blockquote><p>One of the biggest complaints about Apple's iPhone is that you cannot remove and replace the battery yourself.</p></blockquote> <p>My biggest complaints are stability and the time it takes the camera to start up, both of which were better under the 1.x software, but leaving that aside and getting to the battery...</p> <p>This complain the battery should be removable is just asking to treat a symptom, not the real problem: battery life. The iPhone 3G, iPhone, MacBook Air, iPod, iPod Nano, iPod Shuff, iPod Classic and iPod Touch, are all slimmer for having done away with a removable battery.</p> <p><a href="http://www.adventuresinurbanliving.net/2009/01/last-minute-macworld-2009-pred.html">Read or post comments</a></p><div class="feedflare"> <a href="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/adventuresinurbanliving/entries?a=uCfT_pfsHT8:viWUAylFJDk:7Q72WNTAKBA"><img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/adventuresinurbanliving/entries?d=7Q72WNTAKBA" border="0"></img></a> <a href="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/adventuresinurbanliving/entries?a=uCfT_pfsHT8:viWUAylFJDk:l6gmwiTKsz0"><img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/adventuresinurbanliving/entries?d=l6gmwiTKsz0" border="0"></img></a> <a href="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/adventuresinurbanliving/entries?a=uCfT_pfsHT8:viWUAylFJDk:V_sGLiPBpWU"><img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/adventuresinurbanliving/entries?i=uCfT_pfsHT8:viWUAylFJDk:V_sGLiPBpWU" border="0"></img></a> <a href="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/adventuresinurbanliving/entries?a=uCfT_pfsHT8:viWUAylFJDk:yIl2AUoC8zA"><img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/adventuresinurbanliving/entries?d=yIl2AUoC8zA" border="0"></img></a> </div> http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/adventuresinurbanliving/entries/~3/uCfT_pfsHT8/last-minute-macworld-2009-pred.html http://www.adventuresinurbanliving.net/2009/01/last-minute-macworld-2009-pred.html Apple, Apple, apple Mon, 05 Jan 2009 20:15:01 -0800 http://www.adventuresinurbanliving.net/2009/01/last-minute-macworld-2009-pred.html