• Great discussion chez Hugo on PETA's dubious tactics and building uneasy coalitions. In particular, Pip weighs in:
  

  What I'm suggesting is that in this case and many others, the absence of "common [ideological] ground" isn't a barrier to co-operation, it's the *basis* of it. Both sides are entirely clear-sighted about the nature and limits of the partnership. There's no dreamy talk of "we all want the same thing really" -- the point is, in a specific scenario, we all want *this* thing.

  On the other hand, if you're not entirely sure where you yourself are coming from ideologically -- if you just somehow feel sure the war in Iraq is a BAD THING -- then stepping out on a peace march in the company of Islamist fascists may not be such a great idea.

  Now I can put my finger on why I feel uneasy at ANSWER events! They're always ostensibly about a fairly specific thing, but judging by the people and the signs and the chants, they're really about the communist revolution and veganism and all sorts of other things. It's not that I don't know where I'm coming from - I'm just always too lazy to bring my own sign, so I feel that my presence is being co-opted by movements which I either blandly fail to support (animal rights) or actively oppose (violent revolutionaries of various stripes). And I feel a little bit taken advantage of, too, when this tacit agreement to focus on a specific cause is violated.

  I think I owe Hugo a fuller response on the PETA thing, too. Or maybe I just owe it to myself, I don't know. Anyway I'd like to write one, but I've found myself unable to articulate it yet.

• Distinguishing schools of feminist thought at Alas.
• A discussion on the correct application of science-fu has erupted over at Pharyngula. In particular, I delight in these (woefully out-of-context, but the context is so dull!) remarks from Razib:
  

  kevin drum, who has a degree in math from cal tech, seems at least as able to comment on network dynamics as PZ, a biologist.
  [...]
  non-trivial correction, drum went to cal tech for two years and majored in math, but transferred to cal state long beach and graduated with journalism.

  Finally, someone recognizes that a Caltech undergraduate education does indeed give significant additional gravitas to one's random spoutings-off on all things vaguely sciencey - HAH! Take that, everyone who didn't like my plate tectonics post!

  More relevantly, the virtues of science-fu are at issue in the upcoming Pasadena school board election. Scott Phelps - a geophysicist turned high school science teacher - writes in the voter guide that "I believe in using my Caltech-science sense to detect unscientific arguments and to not be 'snowed' by the administration." Unfortunately for him, he's running against incumbent Susan Kane, who lists her occupation as "research scientist" - she's the associate director of research at the City of Hope medical center. I know Scott; he was one of the model teachers in my high school science teaching course. He's a good guy; I don't trust his political instincts (he caused a bit of a flap a while back...) but I do trust his take on the gritty details of curricula and testing. Since I haven't been following local school politics, it's hard for me to say which of these things is most important.

• I'd like to round this out with a link to something funny, but I haven't seen anything notably funny today. Say something hilarious in the comments, won't you?

Fellow 29th/21st/44th District mostly-doctrinaire lefty Hugo Schwyzer has posted his ballot, for all but the judicial slate. We agree on everything except the things we disagree on, but it looks like my ballot has ten more names on it than his!

Under the fold are my endorsements for Superior Court Office Nos. 18, 29, 52, 53, and 69. They're based on the League of Women Voters questionnaire; my sample ballot is only lightly marked in pencil so arguments are welcome.
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1. Arrr, even me landlubbin aunties is talkin like pirates today! But they be not tellin such salty riddles:
   

   Q: Whom did the pirate vote for in the Haitian election?
   A: ARRRistide.
   Q: Wait. Why did they let a pirate vote in the Haitian election?
   A: Remember, the nation was taking its first halting steps toward democracy, and balloting procedures were rather chaotic. The pirate just slipped in somehow. Arrr.

2. The scurvy maggots of urban sprawl be opposin' residential construction for me sainted grandmama! The bilge-waters of the Pasadena Star-News online don't have the booty, but from the paper swag, it seems that West Covina, Baldwin Park, and the rest of the shark bait suburbs in the East San Gabriel Valley be tryin' to scupper a bill requirin' cities to allow small second units or "granny flats" to be built with only reasonable zoning restrictions. We'll be keelhauled under our own boat, me hearties, if we don't smartly scrape the barnacles of sprawl. Arr.
3. ARRRRRRR!

Local ethnic pseudo-group fails to act as a monolithic voting bloc! News at 11. Note to Asian-Americans: pls resolve differences and pick one (1) stereotype k thx.

I'm so writing my city councillors on this one: 3-ton SUVs are illegal in my neighborhood (and others). I'm sure if they tried to enforce the ban, all the Hummer owners would get together and "help" with the City Hall renovations... but hey, an irate citizenry knocking down historic buildings is a small price to pay for gradual improvements in the ecological impact of Pasadena's passenger fleet, n'est-ce pas?

UPDATE: Monkeyfilter believes numerous technical definitions of vehicle weight been unfairly bandied - only the heaviest of the heavy SUVs are illegal. But that still takes care of the Hummers, hoorah!

It's time once again to bring the joys of snow to poor inner-city children and city councilpersons:

Last time, Reyes and his staff tried to make their own [snowman], but it turned into a disaster because none of the Southern Californians knew how to build one, said Reyes spokesman Tony Perez.

"We don't have a lot of experience with the snow," said Perez, who added that he has never actually seen it fall from the sky.

Sir! If you cannot build a snowman from first principles, you are clearly unfit to run the city. I suggest a sabbatical in Sweden or Minnesota.

So now that I'm a yuppie, I need a Yuppie House. My job is far away from all the trendy neighborhoods (unless you count San Dimas, which won't be trendy for another couple thousand years) so the ultra-tiny, ultra-expensive IKEA studio is not an option. I'm going for more of an obscure, trendy houseplants and pretentious jazz in the living room type of thing anyway.

Apartment hunting is always a huge pain in the ass, no matter where you live; but of course, it's always the worst pain in the ass wherever you happen to live, and L.A. is no exception. The rental scene is dominated by shady outfits who charge $85 for a list of addresses, which may or may not be cockroach-ridden dumps. If you cannot obtain any of the dumps on the list, you usually get your money back; but if you happen to not want to live in a cockroach-ridden dump you are fucked.

I haven't given money to any of these places yet; the Caltech listings have turned up one likely prospect, and I'm crossing my fingers. But apparently, tons and tons of people buy into the deal. Talking to my prospective landlord, he mentioned that the last time he tried to rent the place, he listed it with one such agency; after a few days of near-constant response, he asked to be removed. Should this prospect fail, I may well be forced to buy in to the system; nearly all the classified ads in the paper are placed by such agencies, and it's all kinds of frustrating.
< ? $viewMore = "poorly formulated pseudoeconomics ho!" ?>
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I'm on a committee that makes more committees; Caltech's student government is brilliant like that. Over the past two nights, we've spent 10 hours interviewing students to fill up our 9 latest, greatest committee creations. If I hear one more person talking about how they wanted to give back to the community, and serving on some random committee seemed like a good way to do it, I'm going to break out in stripes.

It's interesting that people without an ax to grind tend not to be appointed to committees here; I haven't decided whether or not this is a good thing, and I've no oomph left to ruminate. Thank goodness the Dean hands out free homework extensions like candy if you're doing Important Committee Work.

Also, I need a machine that chews my cud for me, and spits out profoundly silly sound bytes.

My earliest memories of the Sycamore Mall were of this big animatronic Christmas tree they put up each year a ways down from Santa's house. It moved its branches and spoke in a pleasant contralto; I was absolutely terrified. More recently, though, I've been thinking of the place as a study in retail failure. You see, a few years ago they installed a giganto-huge chocolate-covered scab complex on the other end of town, which has been steadily siphoning traffic from my childhood haunts ever since. And so the last time I ventured down to Sycamore, it was full of empty storefronts, dark skanky linoleum, and withered plastic plants. The only things left open were Radio Shack, FashionBug Plus, a crappy Mexican bar and an insurance office.

Enter some local development company, stage right. In a short amount of time they've replaced the dark skanky linoleum with light plastic tiles, the decaying plastic plants with fresh new plastic plants, and they've convinced several family-oriented retail ventures to move in. There are now snazzy new movie theaters, a Chuck-E-Cheese takeoff dubbed "Monkey World" and a selection of respectable shops. It's not exactly buzzing with people yet, but there were actual cars in the parking lot and more full storefronts than empty ones. I was shocked and impressed; there may yet be hope for the Forces of Good. In this case the Forces of Good really mean me not having to drive twenty minutes to see a movie or buy socks, but you can make up something about the power of grassroots organization and local community development if you'd rather.

I should mention, also, that I went to the snazzy new theater tonight to see the Lord of the Rings. I don't need to repeat the same old glowing platitudes that others have already repeated, and I'm too tired to give a coherent, insightful review. So I will merely use the time-honored literary traditions of Repetition and Punctuation to indicate my excitement. Lord of the Rings! Lord of the Rings!! Whooo!

So good night, and I wish all of you sweet dreams about elves doing things other than shooting bows or playing rugby.
*cough* *hack* *cough*
Um, I mean, for heaven's sake don't let the bedbugs bite.