Happy Birthday, Shrift!

Thanks for the links on the evils of the contraceptive mentality, tommyrot. I think it's time for me to set up an appointment for my essure implants, while they're still legal.

There is the high cost of age imbalance, with heavier and heavier burdens placed on the young, who must care for their contracepting elders.

Buh? Contraceptives make you live longer, or contraceptives mean less young people to care for the baby boomers? (And if the latter...isn't that kind of a self-correcting problem?)

Buh?

It's the part where low birthrate and long lifespan are the defining characteristics of "Third World" that really got me.

I need to rewrite this business requirements document. I just don't want to. Your contraception talk isn't helping.

I think part of the crap sleeping last night was the Life Serialness of my dreams. Same short and basic one, over and over, as I tried to make it come out the way I wanted. Never worked. Leaves me with a sense of failure this morning, which is distracting.

It's the part where low birthrate and long lifespan are the defining characteristics of "Third World" that really got me.

@@

The only useful thing I've done so far today is edit a paper for a friend of mine. You want me to work on your document, ita?

You want me to work on your document, ita?

Yes! Please to incorporate the 1995-level requirements from an external team into our perfectly cromulent 2006 design.

Sir Tom Jones:

Tom Jones has been made a knight in the New Year Honours list, leading a host of names from the entertainment world.

The 65-year-old, whose hits include Delilah and It's Not Unusual, has been honoured for services to music.

Please to incorporate the 1995-level requirements from an external team into our perfectly cromulent 2006 design.

I'm sure that will be no problem.

In happier political news (well, happier from my perspective): [link]

Once a masterful Republican lobbyist with close ties to the former House majority leader, Representative Tom DeLay, [Jack Abramoff] earned tens of millions of dollars representing Indian casino interests and farflung entities like the Commonwealth of the Northern Marianas Islands. Through a complicated web of financial arrangements, he helped funnel donations to his lawmaker friends' and their campaigns, and took members of Congress, mainly the Republicans in power, on lavish trips.

Now, after more than two years of investigations, prosecutors have developed a list of at least a dozen lawmakers, congressional aides and lobbyists whose work appears suspect and who are now at the core of the case. With Mr. Abramoff's cooperation, the Justice Department will have a potentially critical witness to alleged patterns of corruption or bribery within the Republican leadership ranks, which in some cases they believe also took the form of campaign donations and free meals at Mr. Abramoff's downtown restaurant, Signatures.

You'd think, but look at the election debacle of 2004.

On the other hand, look at Romania. Maybe in 22 years or so, there'll be enough results of of those Priority Pregnancies to foment rebellion!

I don't really want to wait that long...