There was a proposed gun and ammunition tax in IL. They dropped the ammunition tax part. I don't think the gun tax part has been approved yet.

Yeah. I remember a columnist likening the ammo tax to Chris Rock's routine about the key to eliminating innocent bystanders in gang shootings is to make the bullets ridiculously expensive.

I forget the name of the comedian who recommended a mandatory "Eat what you kill" law to reduce driveby shootings.

Among other issues, the system was never beta-tested or checked for functionality without going live before Election Day, two sources said. It went live that morning but was never checked for bugs or efficiencies internally

Ah ha ha! That makes me think of this pic that was distributed around our team after an *exciting* development partnership with another company. They told us that if we needed to QA for further integrations, we'd have to pay for their QA environment, because that's not part of their SDLC. Uh--that's not a LC you have going with your SD. In fact, that's not that much evidence of proper D of your S at all.

We are ridiculously behind on our cross-browser compatibility. It's been easier to react since we got sold off, but since the biggest app my team supports is a combination of a lot of other apps--it's hard, even with the best intentions.

Nope, he's at the book fair and, without permission, he brought all his money to school and wants to buy a $20 Lego book, and the cashier insisted he call for permission first.

Oh, the kinds of trouble he will get when he has an amazon acct.

Very cute.

During the hurricane, I think it was, there was a map on Boston.com (a popular website, as you might imagine) that didn't work in IE. OK, I get it -- I should download a different browser, but come ON. That seemed ridiculous to me.

A completely neat thing Occupy Wall Street is doing: buying up delinquent debt then writing it off.

[link]

It makes me wish I had a couple of hundred spare dollars to send them.

interesting. I wonder how the people whose debt is purchased and forgiven find out.

I really like the idea of micro-loans to help people out of debt, but I think it should be tied to some financial education also. Ramsey or Orman courses or somesuch.

I looked through that site of Romney's supporters and campaign workers mourning and I do feel sorry for them. I think they chose wrongly, but my heart goes out to them for being so sad and distraught. And I heard about the staff credit cards being cut off - that's just tacky. Also petty and mean; I'm assuming no one thought through what it was going to mean for people trying to get home afterwards - hope no one needed to take a plane home from the campaign - but it seems of a whole with the inability to think through what something means to people who don't have a lot of money to fall back on. Or even enough cash on hand for a cab ride.

I read that his staffers are getting paid through November, and the Romney campaign's first order of business is now helping them with their resumes. I'd like to think that credit card thing was just an isolated stuff-up.

(I also read that the Secret Service packed up Romney's detail immediately. He arrived to his HQ in a fifteen-car motorcade; he left in the back of a single car, driven by Tagg.

It is named ORCA? Like the whale?

I'm getting my pedant on. Technically, it's not a whale; it's the world's largest porpoise.

Big ass snow flakes silently falling down outside. It's very pretty and I don't have to drive anywhere. I think I'll light some candles and incense.

For those not sick of election discussion yet:

Mitt Romney's disastrous ground game and 7 other behind-the-scenes revelations - The Week