I was looking at a book by some liberal leaning sort that decided to try being a conservative for some set period of time. The introduction led to one of those moments that I'm starting to have more of where the book soon is determined not to be worth my time. He starts off saying he is from some safe lib area, Seattle, but noticed that conservatives seemed to be nice sounding sorts that had something sensible to say. Oh, and had some political debates with his conservative brother-in-law (connected to Cheney), and always seems to lose them. This annoyed me since it simplified the whole thing.
Like those who say that some family member is a really nice person but has some sort of racist side. Surely, they cannot really be racist ... they are sooo nice! Clearly, all slave owners -- though often involved with founding acts of our nation that otherwise seem sort of like good things -- must have been ignorant assholes. Life is a tad bit more complicated. Surely, those who voted for Bush and think abortion should be a crime and homosexuals not worthy of any number of civil rights are often nice people on some core level. You might find this hard to believe from the tone of some of the blogs and so forth out there. The reverse is true, really, from the eyes of the other side of the ideological divide. If they were honest. You can be nice and wrong. A bit too often, this even applies to yours truly.
BTW, I did something today that every right-minded New Yorker has to do at least once ... yes, go to Kinkos. I had them do the copying, so hope that counts. Great service really -- from your home, you can designate the file you want copied, set terms (number, binding, paper, etc.), and so forth with the bottom line charge a dime a page. And, no additional charge for having them do it. Thus, I had over 100 pages (five packs) done for around $13. OTOH, I never took a yellow cab. I did take car services a few times. But, no yellow cab. It seems silly to me ... you have buses and subways for that. Seems more of a Manhattanite sort of thing, really. Since a subway ride is about the same as a minimum fare (go two blocks, let's say), plus city traffic is often a killer, I probably won't be taking one soon either.
I did see the "tree" at Rockefeller Center, of course. Saw it today, actually. No big deal. There are various nice Xmas displays in the city, including the Bronx, that are much more impressive. It is a really really big tree, sure, but all it has is lights. Who cares? Seriously, my mom has an artificial tree, which without decorations by now looks like that tree in the Peanuts Christmas special, but toss all the trimmings, it looks fairly good. More exciting than a big tree with lights. As to Xmas, found out that one of my orders got accidentally cancelled -- they only sent me an email, which was spam-blocked. It was a big enough order to warrant a phone call or something. So, yes, still have a few things to buy. Oh well.
Finally, we have various scenarios for both NY teams to be able to get in to the playoffs. Some teams are really just going through the motions the rest of the season, including one which has home field sewn up already. How boring. Much better to keep track of about half of the teams in the league, all which in some small way factors into your playoff chances. Ah, the world of parity.
Bengals did right yesterday. Now, if the Jets beat two subpar teams, and two of three teams lose at least once in the next two weeks ... and if Libra is in the lower quadrant ...