The Whole Wisconsin Thing

So if you haven't been paying attention - I hadn't, I'm visiting family - it turns out that the governor of Wisconsin is trying to gut union power, and the Democrats are trying to stop him. Since they were outvoted on every front, their current plan was to fly to another state and hide, because without them the legislature wouldn't have enough people there to achieve quorum. No Democrats, no vote at all.

Here's the thing: I'm not happy by the way the Democrats are abusing a loophole to fuck with the process.

I'm not saying I wouldn't do it, if it was the only way (which it looked like it was) and if a sufficient amount was at stake (which it most certainly is). But basically, this retreat is a rules-lawyer dick move designed to gum up the works at a time when they didn't have the votes or the public support. I imagine how I'd feel if the Tea Partiers pulled a similar trick in some Democratic state in order to block, say, a strengthening of union rules, and I'd be pretty pissed off.

I dig why the Dems are doing it, but even so I can't bring myself to go "Rah! Rah! You're my heroes, guys!" because essentially, they're using edge cases to block the will of legislature. Which just encourages more of this type of technical dick-pokery on both sides and makes it harder to compromise when they're literally going to take their ball and go to (not)-home if they don't get what they want.

Like I said. If my back was against the wall, I'd do it too. But I wouldn't think it was a grand thing to do - only a necessary one.

The Good Side To Online Media

So yesterday, in a post to Twitter and Facebook, I asked whether any of my CT friends wanted to have lunch with me while I was in town. And two of my old college buddies replied.

Thing is, normally this would be a horror to me. I'm not good at small talk, and catching up with someone I hadn't seen in fifteen years would be awkward, awkward, awkward. But because of LJ and Facebook, I've kept up with Tom and Tania to the point where they're not old college buddies, they're current buddies. I haven't seen Tania in, oh, seventeen years - but I know who she's married to, what she's been up to, what her politics are. And Guthrie is, well, Guthrie. The big palooka. And now a mailman and in such excellent physical shape that he could walk to the moon and back without getting winded.

I'm looking forward to it, and I'm glad the Internet gives me a chance to stay in touch in a meaningful way with people, to the point where meeting them in person is simply switching methods of communication. There's no gaps here, just friendship.

That's really, really nice.