Convenience

This editorial cartoon by Tom Toles summarizes in a nutshell what we are up against if we want to save this planet.

I'm one of 3400 people.

The day after the mayoral election, the final results were not in by a long shot, because of a snafu that required a long counting process. Nevertheless, the San Francisco Chronicle, wasted no time coronating Gavin Newsom for his second term. But I wondered what the final election results really were. I don't recall the Chronicle ever publishing them, or if they did I must missed it, so I finally went to the SF Department of Elections web site.

I discovered that the candidate I voted for, Ahimsa Sumchai, got 3400 votes, or 2.37% of the total vote count.

It is a shame that in an ostensibly progressive city, a progressive candidacy like Ms. Sumchai's got steamrollered by the powerful Newsom political machine. But there you have it. San Francisco is not as progressive as its reputation.

More depressing is the fact that measure E, that would have held Newsom accountable for his actions, was narrowly defeated, getting 48.61% of the votes.

Dumb and Dumber

San Francisco Chronicle columnist Mark Morford stirred up some controversy by writing this column titled "American kids, dumber than dirt", subtitled "Warning: The next generation might just be the biggest pile of idiots in U.S. history".

Now I will be among the first to recognize that there are plenty of smart kids out there. But as a generation, it is hard to deny that today's kids aren't very smart when you just consider this quote from Ken Burns as to what inspired him to develop his documentary series on World War II:

"The thing that really got me mad was finding out that a huge number of our high-school graduates think that we fought with the Germans against the Russians in the second world war. It's so unbelievable."

If that doesn't prove that there is a lot of stupidity out there, I don't know what does. However, that doesn't necessarily prove that our kids are any dumber than older people. It may be that stupidity crosses age boundaries and persists across the generations. Who knows, maybe sixty years from now, people will graduate from high school thinking that back in the year 2003 Saddam Hussein actually had weapons of mass destruction.

The Unlucky 7

93% of the United States will be able to watch Sunday's game between the Colts and the Patriots, which is being hailed as the "game of the century". Depending on whether the Raiders game sells out, I could be one of the unlucky 7% who won't be able to watch it. I haven't watched a single NFL game all season, but even I am interested in seeing this game.

I found a great graphic from this web site that illustrates the situation:



Yup, I'm located in one of those tiny red areas that illustrate where the game may not be shown--specifically the area labeled "sux 4 u".