The Republic of T.

The day job requires that I keep abreast of economy-related headlines. I have quite a collection of them now. I thought I’d share these in honor of tax day.

It’s almost quitting time, and if you’ve put off your taxes and haven’t paid them online, you’ve probably scoped out the post office in your neighborhood with the latest closing time. Or maybe you’re planning to speed to the nearest one before it closes. Chances are there will be a line. Maybe a long one. So, here are some articles you can read while you’re waiting in line.

But be careful. Reading these article immediately before or after paying your taxes may be hazardous to your mental health.

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It’s been a while since I asked this question, but it seems like as good a time as any, since my own answer has changed since the last time.

Are you a blogger? If so, how do you do it? What tools do you use to read and keep track of blogs? What tools do you use to create and post content to your blog?

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This is one of those news stories that sometimes stop me in my tracks with just a headline. This one lured me in with a headline and then hit me over the head with the first paragraph.

It all started with a headline that read,“Sludge tested as lead-poisoning fix.” But it was the recipe — and the selection of “test subjects” — that did me in.

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As I write this, there there’s a stack of books on the floor, beside my desk. It’s my “to read” pile; books that I’ve bought because I know I want to read them at some point in the no-so-distant future, depending on my mood or what interests me next. (Sometimes it’s unpredictable. For example, after Blind Spot: Hitler’s Secretary popped up in my Netflix queue, I was so intrigued that I ended up watching Downfall next. I was so intrigued that I ended getting a copy of The Bunker via link Bookmooch, and may end up reading more.)

Aside from my “to read” pile, I also have “to read” list, kept in various places, of books I (a) want to read someday or (b) feel I really should have read by now. Yet, despite being an English lit. major, I have a rather extreme aversion to canonical lists of books one absolutely must read. Maybe it’s because I couldn’t help but notice what (and whom) most of those canonical lists left out. (In college, I avoided taking the required “pre-1800″ classes until my advisor sat me down and told me I had to.) Still, I was intrigued when I came across this list of the 110 “best books” at The Best Article Every Day.

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By way of updating the previous post, I imagine my MacBook’s hard drive ended up somewhere like this around 1:45 p.m. fortunately, I’ve been using Mozy to back-up the stuff that’s absolutely essential. So, I haven’t lost anything that’s absolutely irreplaceable.

Fortunately, when I bought this one I got the extended care plan, which I almost never do. But for a purchase like this, especially for something I’m going to use pretty heavily, It’s worth it. The guy at the Clarendon Apple store said they could replace the hard drive at no charge, because of that. Unfortunately, they had to order the hard drive, which means the computer should be ready by Monday.

Hopefully I can hold out until then.

It looks like I will be taking an involuntary break from blogging.

This is what greeted me yesterday evening. I’d just left a meeting, where I’d been using my MacBook (just bought in September after the old one died) with no problems. I take it with me to work because, honestly, I prefer it. I guess I’ve gotten used to working on a Mac, and it just seems like there are a lot more great apps out there for Macs.

One minute, I was using NetNewsWire, and my computer completely froze. So, I held down the power button, restarted, and got the sign you see above.

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[Update: Unbelievable. I should have waited a bit to post this. Then I could have included Bush's latest comment: that this is a bill Americans should be happy to pay.]

It’s almost a shame that the subprime mortgage bonanza burned out before the sun finally sets on the George W. Bush administration. After all, they managed to lure Americans into a war we didn’t need and couldn’t afford, then stuck us with a ballooning bill and never ending payments. Reborn as a brokerage firm dealing in subprime mortgages, this administration could have made a killing.

Don’t take my word for it. Just have a look at your bill.

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Helping out a colleague at work required me to do something I haven’t done in about five years: watch television news. Specifically, I had to watch the Sunday morning news shows, where various political types are interviewed by the likes of Tim Russert and George Stephanopolis. I even had to watch Fox News, something I never to unless I’m tied to a chair with my head immobilized and my eye’s taped open. (See the picture above.)

I was watching Meet the Press, featuring a debate between Pennsylvania Senator Bob Casey and Pennsylvania governor Ed Rendell (both Democrats) about the Obama CLinton race, when Tim Russert brought up something that seemed, well, strange and brought up rather suddenly.

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I’ve said before that I’m not supporting either Clinton or Obama in the Democratic primaries, and I’m still not. (Though, as the contest wears on, one campaign is seriously trying my patience.) In part, that’s the differences between them, for the most part, are still not that stark to me. And when it comes to gay issues, the difference is becoming less clear in some ways.

That said, something Hillary said recently set me off. Truth be told, I probably should have included Obama in the title of the this post — given the latest news about his campaign — but it wouldn’t have had the same ring to me. I also don’t have as much history with Obama as I do with the Clintons.

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Usually, it’s just the inevitable question that comes up as one completes the mundane tasks of life, like rolling over a 401(k) or — as happened to me last week — while making an appointment with a new doctor: are you married. Usually it’s not so much a matter of life or death as it it just filling out a form.

Usually, I take a deep breath and answer that I’m “partnered” or that I’m “as married as I can be,” which is immediately understood. Then we move on to the next question. But there are a thousand different ways in which the answer to that question can impact our lives and our families, because we can’t legally marry, and the law can’t figure out what to do do with us, or how to define us, and hasn’t caught up with us as we forge ahead with our lives, making commitments to each other, and creating our families as we go. In those cases, we don’t often gee the benefit of the doubt.

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I don’t seem to be able to write anything lately that doesn’t require a day or so of research, and that doesn’t come in under five paragraphs. That leads to less frequent posting around here. Which, in turn, leads to… Well you get the idea.

So, I’m going to try and get back to some shorter, more frequent posting. (But that doesn’t mean that I’m going to stop the long analytical stuff either.) In the meantime, I’ve come across some great blogging in the course of my reading and research. So, it’s time for another roundup.

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Damn. I thought my score would have been higher than this.

Created by OnePlusYou

It guess it’s because I’ve been watching my language. Starting around the time Parker learned to talk.

[Via Respectful Insolence.]

Well, that didn’t take long. Ya gotta admire people who know how to get results, and get them fast. For that reason, I’ve got to take my hat off to the National Association of Home Builders, for pulling off something almost worthy of Wall Street: their own version of a federal bailout, of sorts.

And the beautiful part is, probably almost no one noticed. I didn’t until I read several headlines about the bipartisan agreement on the $15 billion Foreclosure Prevention Act. It’s been described as mortgage relief package, but it’s relief for builders and the mortgage industry (read banks) — not consumers.

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It’s official. I’m an old fart. Or, well, at least I’m not as young as I used to be. But it didn’t completely gel for me until I read this article about the dearth of decent anti-war songs in today’s popular music scene.

An unpopular president, an unpopular war, a restless young generation eager for change — all the elements of a mass protest culture would seem to be present in this election year.

But one thing is missing: a mass culture.

The Vietnam era produced an entire genre of anti-war and cultural protest songs, the best-known of which became anthems of the age.

Iraq and the Bush presidency have inspired lots of music in this tradition, but nothing that has gained a large popular audience or is vying to be a generational anthem.

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