Thursday, October 05, 2006

Thursday, October 5 is...

Republic Day (Portugal)
Constitution Day (Vanutatu)
Oxfam Day

Even Wikipedia has no idea what Vanutatu is.

UPDATE: Apparently my calendar has a typo, it's not Vanutatu, it's Vanuatu, "the world's happiest place."

I'm also not sure what Oxfam Day is. If you know something about either of these topics, feel free to enlighten me.

UPDATE: A reader informs me that Oxfam Day probably has something to do with Oxfam International, which makes sense.

Some sources of enlightenment I'm willing to offer in exchange:

Cathy Haustein is a candidate for State House from Pella, and I recently discovered her blog. This post lays out some concrete goals for House Democrats moving forward. For once, I'm on the same page with them.

Yesterday, the Register was looking into the possibility that impounded vehicles were being sold to insiders at discounted costs, and Tim Cox of R&R Towing said this:

"You're digging into something that's not worth your time."


Today, we discover Cox bought a motorcycle valued at $8,000-$10,000 for $100, and employees of the sheriff's department approved the sale. Unless R&R frequently gives out 98.8%-off sales to all of its customers, I'd say that's worth digging into.

IECDB Executive Director Charlie Smithson says we need to clarify the law on district residency, in light of the fact that John Mauro is claiming to live with his sister so he can continue to run in his district. If we had elected officials who were decent enough to be honest about it, I guess it wouldn't be a problem.

John Deeth has a wealth of experience from a variety of past ventures, and in his best posts lately, he ties them back to current situations. This post, talking about the Democrats' 50-state strategy in reference to his State House race in 1996, is a must-read.

Finally, yesterday I stepped up to defend another blogger from a charge of misogyny. Today, for bringing it up, I'm being called a "sneaky bastard." Stefanie, if you're reading this, and I'd guess you will, I would encourage you to do your homework before you call serving in the Iowa Senate a "part-time job." I would also encourage you to look at your future posts as an opportunity to extend debate, not an opportunity to jump to conclusions and resort to name-calling. If you can't do those things, then it would probably be for the best if I washed my hands of the conversation at this point.

KL

3 comments:

Bob said...

Kyle, I was trying to be funny when I called you a sneaky bastard based on the fact that in one of my comments I said something about you pulling the discussion to your blog instead of commenting on mine. Clearly I failed at my attempt at humor.

Anonymous said...

" ... I failed at my attempt at humor."

As well as thought. Labeling people who question the motives and judgment of a self-appointed nomenklatura (the Appels) "misogynist" is just an effort to shut down discussion.

It reminds one of former Mayor Barry's (WashDC) comment that, upon being arrested for the 27th time for being under the weather, so to speak, while driving, he noted that the offense belonged to the Secret Service officers "who were all white" and thus "rascist".

Behavior is behavior, even if one wishes to play the race card because it used to work better. Judgment is judgment, even if we all agree that the Appels can run their family anyway they want; that doesn't make a derisive snort "misogynist" when these self-involved people seek to expand their sphere of influence from four neglected children to 3 million or so people who walk around with a little more humility, than they.

--Manville

Anonymous said...

Perhaps wikipedia has not heard of Vanutatu, but it has heard of Vanuatu, the self-proclaimed "world's happiest place." See for yourself at http://www.vanuatu.net.vu/.