You may recall a few weeks back a (heterosexual) couple in California were pitching a fit over new marriage license forms from the state that identified the couple on the form as “Party A” and “Party B,” rather than “bride” and “groom.” Given that the state now recognizes the marriages of men and women in whatever pairing their hearts choose, that sort of gender-specific language was deemed inappropriate.

But this, the couple said, was religiously oppressive because, no matter what they called each other, or their friends called them, or their families called them, or their church called them, if the state of California didn’t call them a “bride and groom,” then they somehow weren’t really married or something.

Well, the state of California has come up with something to assuage the couple and others who have similarly complained about the (gender neutral but aesthetically awful) terms.

California state officials, saying they had heard from residents all over the state who would like to be identified as “bride” and “groom” on their marriage license, announced Monday that state forms will be changed. Again.

Couples filling out the license will now have the option of declaring themselves bride and groom, bride and bride or groom and groom. They can also leave the space blank. The new forms will be available in county offices in November.

Which, shrug, is fine. People can put what they want, love conquers all, and all’s right with the world. 

(Well, unless Prop. 8 passes next month. Mutter mutter mutter …)

Filed under :: Gay Stuff :: Politics & Law :: Writing and Language
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It hasn’t been quite a week since the last time,  but since we’re heading into a debate tonight (note to self: DVR!), here’s where the candidates know they stand:

So all but one of the sites has Obama handily with the 270 needed. One of the sites has actually dropped the Obama lead slightly, but it still gives him one of the largest margins.

Margie’s been watching these numbers a lot more than I have, and she’s been keeping me apprised as various polls show various states (a surprising number) flipping for Obama.

Now what these sites don’t yet reflect is (a) the McCain/Palin smear-surge, i.e., whether it’s working or not, and (b) the results of tonight’s debate, and any particular melt-downs from either candidate. (I may be biased, but I don’t see Obama “melting down” — underperforming and not coming off quite as town hall folksy as we know McCain can be, perhaps, but nothing that would significantly shake up the numbers here.)

I was asking a statistician of my acquaintance whether the numbers here meant that I could truly count on Obama winning (as much as one can count on anything). The statistician noted that when numbers get this high, the begin to take a life of their own — people decide to vote for a winner, and are discouraged from supporting a loser. I’m hoping that’s true …

This is all barring some sort of “October Surprise” from the Republicans, of course — but I think that the American public is so sick of that sort of thing, it would be so obvious of a gimmick that it would be largely discounted, or even cause a reverse effect. 

We’ll see. As candidates (usually the ones behind in the polls) usually say, there’s only one poll that counts, and that’s on election day. (Unless, of course, it gets thrown to the Supreme Court …)

Filed under :: Elections 2008
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So I’m off on Sunday to India, and the 17-million-strong city of Mumbai (Bombay). Getting all the last-minute details ready — checking out the consulate info, state department info, travel guides through our company, contact numbers, all that good stuff. 

I’ll be spending most of my time at the hotel, the office, and a conference center, and any time I’m out it will be with a group, being duly cautious in a foreign country and all that sort of thing. We’ll be doing a bit of touring stuff toward the end of the trip, and I’m anticipating that the food should be excellent.

Along with the beer and the G&Ts, of course (got to fight against that malaria, don’tcha know).

Oh, boy — 10-day forecast: day-time highs in the 90s, night-time lows in the high 70s, all-time humidity in the high wiltings!

Filed under :: Travel
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Nothing like realizing, after two and half hours of work, that the seventeen email messages you’ve generated so far for your boss, direct reports, clients, etc., have been stuck in your outbox, determined not to move anywhere. Though I guess that explains why nobody’s replied so far to any of them.

Filed under :: Job Jollies :: My Computer
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Doyce and Kate were over last night for a bit, and we chatted about this and that, the subject inevitably circling around to the election. And both of them did a bit of gentle ribbing that I’d been, um, vigorous in my political blogging of late.

Which is true. Part of that has been the tools — Google Reader makes it wildly easy to read and share more web stuff than I could possibly otherwise browse, which in turn provides fodder for further blog posts consolidating those links (political and non) into a narrative, if not a list of bullets. That Google Reader is accessible in a far-too-convenient fashion on my Blackberry adds to the flow of fun.

By the same token, the subject has swept me up. I am not some dewy-eyed optimist who thinks that Barack Obama is the be-all, end-all of great leaders. He may turn out that way (and he certainly has more of the makings of such than many another candidate that’s come down the garden path), but I’m neither expecting perfection nor historic greatness.

But my loathing for the Bush Administration, my growing disgust with John McCain’s shift to the right, and the appalling choice of Sarah “Heartbeat Away, You Betcha!” Palin has energized me with a passion (and blog output) I’ve not had since the run-up to the War in Iraq (and here’s hoping that’s not an omen). The prospect of a McCain/Palin win so dismays me, that anything I can do to pass along information, opinion, and amusing videos to prevent it feels less like a casual pastime and more like a civic duty.

I don’t expect this “surge” will last. Indeed, I hope not. I expect that, after the election and Obama’s win, I’ll be able to taper off into a bit lighter tone and pace, content with noting what last-second shenanigans the White House is going through before they get the boot (expect fleets of shredding trucks), and bemoaning the blow to Tina Fey’s career.

That’s my hope, at least. Otherwise, it’s going to be a very long four years.

Filed under :: Blogging :: Elections 2008
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The SNL lead-in last weekend, after the VP debates. I’ll tell you — Tina Fey is downright spooky the way she channels Palin (it would be interesting to see it the other way around).

Then we have some David Letterman (never torque off the media) fun with Gov. Palin:

Filed under :: Elections 2008
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In ten long pages, <i>Rolling Stone</i> reviews the careers and lives of John McCain — sometimes in his own words, sometimes in the words of his colleagues on both sides of the aisle — and paints a picture of a man who should, frankly, be allowed nowhere near the White House. From his early Navy days, to his imprisonment in Hanoi, to his post-war political career, to his campaigns for president, it’s hard to reconcile what’s there to what the common myth of John McCain is, even as recently tarnished as that myth is — save that the narrative rings frighteningly true and consistent.

If even half of it is accurate, the choice on November 4th is crystal clear. I strongly suggest reading it, especially if you are a McCain supporter.

Filed under :: Elections 2008
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THESE MAKE ME SAD

1. Ill-advised movie sequels - “Ill-advised” as in “crime against humanity.” Or at least “against culture.”
2. Schneier on Security: Hand Grenades as Weapons of Mass Destruction - The devaluation of the term “weapons of mass destruction.” Read the comments for actual legal definitions — yeesh!
3. The problem with the one-eye veil for women, and a… - The willingness of ideologues to tromp on any semblance of human liberty in order to make people comply with their beliefs never fails to amaze (and disgust) me.
4. Nick Reynolds, RIP - Boing Boing - The short member of the Kingston Trio.

THESE MAKE ME THOUGHTFUL

1. Who is “essential” during a pandemic? - Clearly the societal necessity of IT Directors has been greatly underestimated.
2. Save a Tree - Shrink Your Sunday Bulletin - I can’t imagine doing a full-up service bulletin with all the text each week. That would be incredibly wasteful. We don’t force people to flip back and forth within the BCP, but we do create season service booklets that are used for 2-3 months.
3. Bush’s sad finale | Reaping the whirlwind | The Economist - When The Economist proclaims your conservative presidency a failure, that’s pretty darned sad … for you. (And, I suppose, for the rest of us as innocent bystanders.)
4. What’s missing from the oldest Bible - Pish-tosh — we all know the King James Bible is the final, ultimate, perfectly revealed Word of God, right?
5. The J-Walk Blog: Christ As Magician - An interesting archaeological find, though not particularly decision-making in in particular directoin.
6. Pam’s House Blend:: Gay or queer? - Um, you people settle it amongst yourselves and send me the memo. Meantime, I’ll try not to be linguistically offensive while writing in support of your rights.
7. 317 - Tea As A North/South Litmus Test « Strange Maps - If it weren’t for slavery, I’ve little doubt that Sweet Tea would have been the eventual cause of a civil war.
8. Obsidian Wings: Mark To Market - What I don’t understand about the current financial crisis could fill a book (or twelve), but this is an interesting article about “mark to market” vs “mark to model” asset pricing. 

THESE MAKE ME HAPPY

1. Barbarian Class Playtest - Wait! I already have characters figured out! No fair introducing new D&D 4E classes!
2. Simon Says… - A clever way to deal with NPC generation in a game.
3. Bailout Provides More Mental Health Coverage - NYTimes.com - Okay, earmarks = bad. But that they were able to slip this into the bailout bill is both remarkable and, I’ll say, a net gain.
4. a new twist on alternate energy - Coolness. At least until Homeowner Associations get wind of it (so to speak) and ban them.
5. A Is For Alignment: The Geek Alphabet - Probably a scosh sophisticated for folks who really need ABCs, but still cool.
6. 314 - Watch the Road: World’s Earliest SatNav « Strange Maps - Way too cool — I’m surprised that Lord Peter Wimsey didn’t have one of these.
7. 318 - The Semicolonial State of San Serriffe « Strange Maps - A greatly amusing story.
8. Document sans nom - Helvetica Monopoly
9. Texting drives viewing of subtitled movies? - An interesting idea — texting is making subtitles more acceptible, as are CNN-style TV tickers.

Filed under :: Food & Drink :: Gaming :: Health :: Hi-Tech :: Homeland Security :: Media - Movies :: Media - Music :: Parenting :: Politics & Law :: Potpourri :: Religion :: Religion - My Parish :: Travel :: Writing and Language :: ZT & PC
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The McCain/Palin have gone into high gear, quite openly and explicitly openly and explicitly shifting their strategy away from podunk thinks like “issues” and “policy” and in favor of — well — mudslinking, slime-smearing, and attacks on Barrack Obama’s character.

Remember, folks, it’s all about Changing Washington, as McCain and Palin keep telling us.

It all kicked off with Sarah Palin over the weekend dragging out the ol’ Bill Ayers connection to Obama. Never mind the it’s a tissue of lies and innuendo. The amazing thing is that it leaves McCain directly open to a counter-offensive noting all of his past dubious associates: Keating, Chalabi, Keating (again), Liddy, Singlaub — and, heck, even some Palin associates, including a close, personal relationship with a long-time member of a secessionist group whose founder repeatedly stated his disdain and hatred of the United States …

If that’s the course the GOP has decided to fall back to, that’s a challenge worth facing. The only way to break the back of the Rove/Atwater model of negative campaigning is to face it and defeat it. As Obama puts it:

One of the things we’ve done during this campaign: we don’t throw the first punch, but we’ll throw the last. Because if the American people don’t get the information that is relevant about these candidates and instead in the last four weeks all they are hearing about are smears and Swift Boat tactics that can have an impact on the election. We have seen it before, and this election is too important to be sitting on the sidelines. If Senator McCain wants to focus on the issues then that is what we focus on. But if Senator McCain wants to have a character debate that is one that we’re willing to have.

Ah, yes, character. Rolling Stone just released a lengthy, utterly damning article on McCain and his background. Questions keep getting raised over his well-known anger problems, his ties not just to the financial institutions that have (again) failed, but to Big Oil (and the succeeding changes in his policy positions). 

Meanwhile, the GOP has decided to turn Obama’s grass roots popularity into something scary and sinister, implying that donors under the $200 reporting mark might be foreigners and other frightening sorts.

Over in Palinworld, when she’s not being incoherent, people are asking questions why, if she’s been claiming per diem for all those nights she spent sleeping at home, it’s not showing up in her tax returns. Others are recalling a curious incident when her supposed religious devotion gave way to some good North Woods fun.

In other items that I’m too tired to try to fit into narrative paragraphs …

• Palin and Biden exchanged words during their debate on McCain’s health care “plan.” Good. It bears discussion.
• Biden has been criticized by some folks for talking about where the Constitution defines the role of the Vice President. Except, it seems, he was right.
• It’s usually not a problem when an incumbent decides to retire. It would be nice, though, if it weren’t an indictment of the political atmosphere in Washington.
• Most economists like Obama better than McCain. Now, if only more people thought economists knew what they were talking about.
• Race continues to rear its head in the campaign. While some of the racism is clear and explicit, of continued worry is the more subtle kind. Of course, the best way to defeat that, over the long haul, is to get Obama elected …

And so it goes.

Filed under :: Elections 2008
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The current McCain/Palin self-proclaimed slime-o-rama against Obama may turn out to be a huge tactical error. Not because the negative ads will turn off the populace against McCain (they might), not because there’s plenty of ammo for the Obama side to lob back as provoked (there is), but because, just maybe, it will clear up the question of who Barack Obama is.

A steady mantra we’ve heard from undecideds and even some Republican moderates is that they don’t feel like they can vote for Obama because they just don’t know enough about him — who he is, where he’s from, what he’s done. The info’s been out there, but it just hasn’t sunk in. That personal uncertainty has been a bigger factor than disagreement over his policies.

But now the McCain camp is forcing the issue. They want to set their own stamp on that image of who Obama is, sure, but the fact is there will now be a flurry of more information about him, his background, who he’s known, what he’s done. Misinformation will be followed by counter-information. People will be asking, and getting answered, biographical background and fact-checks. And by the time the next four weeks is done, people will know a lot more about Barack Obama — both where he’s been, and how he stands up to personal heat.

And maybe, just maybe, that will turn out to have cleared some of that uncertainty, that mystery about him. And maybe (and wouldn’t it be ironic?) that will convince some folks that they actually can vote for him.

Filed under :: Elections 2008
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I think I just want to leave the last clip running on a continuous loop somewhere.

See? Once upon a time John McCain used to say things like that and we thought he meant it. And maybe, once upon a time, he did.

Filed under :: Elections 2008
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I suppose if you’ve been on TV for 30 or 40 years, you can find a lot of, um, parallel dialog between episodes. And it looks like the complier of this Doctor Who video found nearly everyone one of them. Or at least eight minutes worth. Including my (pantomime) favorite.

For a show with “Who” in the title, that’s a lot of “What”s.

Filed under :: Media - TV - Doctor Who
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So yesterday the weather report for today showed lots of rain. We got a bit of rain last night, but today has been clear and sunny.

Tonight? Frost warning.

The National Weather Service in Denver has issued a frost advisory… which is in effect from midnight tonight to 9 am MDT Tuesday.

Clear skies and light winds will allow temperatures to drop into the 30s across northeastern Colorado tonight. Areas of frost are expected across the plains. In the Denver area… the frost will be localized… mainly in low lying and rural areas.

A frost advisory means that frost is likely. Sensitive outdoor plants may be killed if left uncovered. Move them indoors if possible… otherwise cover them with newspapers or blankets.

To be followed tomorrow, no doubt, by a hail of frogs.

Filed under :: Weather
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So part and parcel of the McCain/Palin last-30-days offensive (cough) is trotting out the old canard about the Democratic candidate being “liberal” or “too liberal.” The current ammo being used is the National Journal’s Vote Ratings, put together back during the primary, at which time they deemed him “most liberal senator in 2007.” Just as John Kerry was dubbed the same thing by them in 2003, the GOP plans on using this study to put the scarlet “L” on Obama’s forehead. (Remember, if you can’t get people to vote for you, maybe you can get them to vote against the other guy.)

But this article by Bob Geiger makes it clear that rather than being “too liberal for America,” the votes that Obama is dinged on are, in fact, right in line with the values that America holds and the programs it supports. 

The Obama-Biden ticket could always hit back that the GOP again using “liberal” as a curse word ignores the fact that liberals are responsible for such all-American favorites as Social Security, Medicare, the minimum wage, the Peace Corps, Clean Air and Clean Water legislation, the Civil Rights and Voting Rights Acts and the Family and Medical Leave Act.

The Voter Ratings were based on 99 “key” Senate votes. What, then, were the horrific sins that Obama committed against the sanity and commonwealth?

Two of the votes that would cause McCain and Palin to shriek “liberal” at Obama were in favor of raising the Federal Minimum wage for the first time in a decade — something Americans overwhelmingly supported — and against another piece of cruel Republican legislation to kill the minimum wage entirely. And, yes, for all you folks out there making the lowest required wage rate, Senator McCain did vote to abolish it and let your employers decide based on state law or their own kindness how much you earn.

If a minimum wage is “too liberal for America,” Obama’s definitely not your man.

Obama also voted for a whole slew of other popular things including fully funding special education in our schools — you know, Governor Palin, for kids with special needs — allowing more children to get basic health care and lowering prescription drug prices on our senior citizens. Here’s to hoping our elderly in Florida consider that last one and allow the “liberal” cry from John McCain to send them to the voting booth for Obama.

Oh, worrying about high drug costs is so 2007.

Stem cell research? The vast majority of Americans support that science and the promise it holds for new treatments and cures for some of the most debilitating and deadly diseases. Barack Obama supported the “liberal” position of the Stem Cell Research Enhancement Act and, as a matter of fact, so did John McCain — but that won’t keep McCain and Palin from using it like a bat to beat Obama with.

 Eek! John McCain got liberal cooties on himself! Eek!

The same hypocrisy is true with legislation by that flaming liberal Joe Lieberman that called for the creation of a Senate Office of Public Integrity to, as Lieberman put it, “aggressively investigate allegations of misconduct among [Senate] Members.” Lieberman, McCain and other Republicans voted for that — but somehow Barack Obama also voting in favor makes him an evil liberal American.

 More liberal cooties! Maybe we should vote none-of-the-above to avoid any hint of ideological impurity!

American energy independence is one of the hot topics this campaign season and yet two votes cast by Obama to reduce U.S. dependency on foreign oil will be assailed by Team McCain — even though John McCain couldn’t even be bothered to show up for either of those votes.

I guess you can avoid becoming liberal if you never show up to vote. Indeed, that’s actually the case with McCain, based on the NJ article (emphasis mine):

Members who missed more than half of the votes in any of the three issue categories did not receive a composite score in NJ’s ratings. (This rule was imposed after Kerry was ranked the most liberal senator in our 2003 ratings despite having missed more than half of the votes in two categories.) Sen. John McCain, R-Ariz., the only other senator whose presidential candidacy survived the initial round of primaries and caucuses this year, did not vote frequently enough in 2007 to draw a composite score. He missed more than half of the votes in both the economic and foreign-policy categories. On social issues, which include immigration, McCain received a conservative score of 59. (McCain’s composite scores from his prior years in the Senate, published in our March 2007 vote ratings issue, are available here.)

Get that? We can’t actually judge how “liberal” or “conservative” John McCain was in 2007 on economic and social issues because he didn’t show up to vote often enough. It does cause one to wonder how “engaged” he’ll be as president.

Meanwhile, back in the Geiger analysis … 

And on Iraq, caring for our troops fighting there and in Afghanistan and securing America within our own borders, Obama has consistently voted for what “Main Street” thinks is right and which again, in Bizarro Republican World, would make voting in step with the American people a bad thing.

The majority of Americans no longer want us bogged down in the Iraq quagmire and all of Obama’s votes to set a timeline to get the hell out of that mess makes for more GOP evidence of his “liberal” ideals. Obama also voted to implement the 9/11 Commission recommendations — how did that become a liberal stance? — and to fund screening of cargo containers at major U.S. shipping ports… McCain didn’t show up for work to vote on those issues that day either.

Why, one wonders, are these considered a “liberal” stand?

Finally, it’s a very strange part of the election cycle when the McCain-Palin team thinks it can turn votes Obama made on behalf of America’s troops and their families against him — but they’re going to do exactly that when it comes to the Democratic nominee’s efforts to limit the duration of Iraq deployments and extend the period of downtime troops receive with their families before they can be sent back.

“This is an amendment that is focused squarely on supporting our troops who are fighting in Iraq and Afghanistan,” said Senator Jim Webb (D-VA), a combat Veteran, arguing for one of two bills he authored to give troops more time between deployments. “It speaks directly to their welfare and to the needs of their families by establishing minimum periods between deployments for both our regular and reserve components.”

Obama voted with the troops and their families on that issue, McCain voted against them — and this is a bad thing for Obama?

Republican Senator Chuck Hagel sponsored a bill to limit Iraq deployments to 12 months saying that the extended tours favored by the Bush administration is “…wearing down the troops and their families, impacting the mental and physical health of our troops.”

Again, wherever Sarah Palin speaks in the next month, she will try to convince voters that Obama siding with Hagel and military families was a nasty liberal plot while McCain voting with Bush and against the troops was the right thing to do.

So what exactly has John McCain done for veterans lately?

Look at what other votes Obama made in the 99 that paint him as “liberal” in the eyes of the National Journal:

1. Expanding the State Children’s Health Insurance Program by increasing taxes of those earning more than $1 million. (Several of the votes counted here were votes in support of SCHIP, which means, I guess, it’s a really liberal program.)
2. Blocking individuals from serving on Food and Drug Administration drug advisory panels if they have conflicts of interest. (How liberal!)
3. (Against) repealing the estate tax. (A favorite for people who stand to inherit bucketsful of money.)
4. Approving the fiscal 2008 budget resolution. (!)
5. Limiting debate (i.e., forcing a vote) on the energy bill to increase fuel-efficiency standard to 35 miles per gallon by 2020 and shift energy-tax incentives.
6. (Against) defining a fetus as an “unborn child.” (Abortion is a deeply divisive subject, to be sure, but most Americans are in the “uncomfortable middle,” and aren’t eager for any wild swing on current policy.)
7. Preventing Mexican trucks from operating on most U.S. roads.
8. Voting for various plans that would set time tables for withdrawal from Iraq (nearly all the foreign policy votes tallied have something to do with this; it seems to be what defines “liberal” for the NJ).

The table is hard to read (whether an item is a “Conservative” or “Liberal” position seems to vary depending on the yes or no vote, as far as I can see), but looking at the the summary, there’s nothing there that shocks or dismays me as an unreasonable position — no “send money to Hamas” or “educate children about gay pride” or “ban the word ‘God’ from the English language” or any of the normal conservative bugaboos that get the “L” word slapped on them. Granted, I’m of a liberal bent these days, at least in social policy, but this seems like pretty mainstream stuff to me — left of center, not lunatic fringe, as McCain and Palin will try and paint the “most liberal senator.”

Doyce (hardly a political ranter) shared the Geiger article in Google Reader, and commented there:

I’ve actually spent a lot of time at http://thomas.loc.gov/ (the Library of Congress archives) in the last couple weeks, looking over the laws that Obama has sponsored in the last two sessions (550+), the ones he got passed (20+), and how he’s voted. More people should do that, instead of taking their ‘knowledge’ of the candidate’s voting record from whatever “Male this to all you’re freinds!!!” email they got this week.

Barring that, take a look at this piece, dissecting Obama’s ‘liberal’ voting record. Only in the US (when contrasted against the current Republican neocons) could this man be called “liberal”.

Indeed. Do the research yourself; don’t just rely on the sound bites from campaign ads. And when you hear someone claiming that Obama is a “liberal” (let alone something goofy like “too liberal for America”), be sure and make them define their terms — what specifically do they consider as (too) liberal for themselves (if not America), then decide if you agree.

Filed under :: Elections 2008 :: Writing and Language
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Filed under :: Elections 2008
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So the southwest and northwest beltway around Denver is the E-470 toll road. It provides a convenient, low-traffic route around the city from our house to Denver International Airport (not to mention to at least one good friend’s house). To that end, we purchased transponders for both our cars so that we could travel from here to there without going through the cash lanes.

An interesting thing is going on.

On January 1, 2009, toll payments will change on E-470.

 

License Plate Toll will become available on January 1, 2009 as another option to pay a toll. License Plate Toll customers will be billed for their travel through any lanes. For those vehicles without an EXpressToll transponder, cameras will photograph the front and rear license plates and a bill will be sent one month later to the registered owner of the vehicle, for all the tolls incurred during that period. Cash and coin payments will still be accepted through July 3, 2009.

 

No advance registration is required. You just enter the toll highway. You will be billed later. Payment must be received by the date specified on the bill or the transactions listed on the statement will eventually become toll violations. In that case, a toll violation citation for each toll will be sent to the vehicle’s registered owner.

So if you take the tollway, without a transponder, and don’t go through the cash lanes, your license plate will be photographed, and the state will provide the E-470 authority with your identity and address and the like, and you’ll be sent a bill.

On July 4, 2009, coin and currency payment will no longer be available on E-470. Payment will be made only through an EXpressToll account or License Plate Toll bill. If the customer does not have an EXpressToll transponder, the owner of the vehicle will receive a License Plate Toll invoice.

I.e., the cash lanes will close, and you’ll either get a bill through the mail or (if you have a transponder) the amount will be deducted from your credit card.

Why convert to non-stop tolling? 

 

• E-470 will offer a discounted toll rate over License Plate Toll and cash customers.
• Removing stop-and-start cash toll collection and adding License Plate Toll payment system will enhance the safety, speed and convenience of the E-470 driving experience.
• Non-stop tolling is environmentally-friendly because stop-and-go traffic as well as idling in cash lanes will be eliminated. It also saves fuel consumption by not having to stop.
• Over 70 percent of E-470’s toll payments are currently made with EXpressToll.

Which skips the biggest reason, i.e., they save a lot of money. No more automated “throw your change into the hopper” toll stops, or, worse, actually paying people to accept toll money. That’s a huge savings in operating expenses for the E-470 authority.

But, oddly enough, that’s not given as a reason.

(Note that only the second and third reasons are actually reasons, from a consumer perspective; the other two are simply conditions that the authority is providing).

Now, frankly, from my own use of the system, there’s not going to be a difference. And for the overall efficiency of the system, this makes a lot of sense. But I would feel a heck of a lot better if they were up-front about it, e.g.,

In order to reduce operating expenses, we will be eliminating cash payments and toll booth attendants on E-470. Drivers without transponders will be sent a bill based on their license plate (via information from the state of Colorado) as they pass through toll stations. We believe this will benefit drivers by providing faster, easier, ‘at-speed’ toll experiences while driving down E-470.

If they said that, it wouldn’t raise any flags. By painting it solely as a “convenience” without acknowledging that they’re working with the state or that they’re really saving money this way, even as they make life ostensibly easier for drivers, just makes it seem like they’re trying to hide something here.

Filed under :: Cars :: Travel
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I still don’t do windows.

But I did spend another four hours out in the garden replanting still more plants in new beds, and creating a new spot amidst the pebbles to place a very large zebra grass, both as an aesthetic anchor between house and patio and rocky swale, and to block LoS to the gas meter.

More to do next (truncated) weekend, but I’m feeling much better about the yard after the last weekend’s activities.

Filed under :: Home Improvement
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One of the things we decided when doing the re-landscape work out front is that we didn’t need them do to the planting for us. Fact is, we enjoy building a garden. We are also quite capable of doing it, as I think we’ve demonstrated, and so the idea of paying for the time, not to mention the mark-up on the plants, for someone else to do it struck us as silly.

That’s why we salvaged as many plants as we co