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3:00 snapshot #1798: Sunday
Nov. 3rd, 2014 06:32 pm
The signature type of weather for the Boston area is wind-driven slush. We got our first "wintry mix" of the season yesterday, and Pocket got her first encounter with semisolid precipitation.
Nov. 3rd, 2014
The signature type of weather for the Boston area is wind-driven slush. We got our first "wintry mix" of the season yesterday, and Pocket got her first encounter with semisolid precipitation.
Laying my political cards on the table
Nov. 3rd, 2014 07:06 pmTomorrow is voting day. If you've been reading things I've been writing for any time at all, I'm not about to surprise you: I'm a far left liberal environmentalist/social libertarian. If you are interested to see what I'm voting for, I'm laying it out here; this will save me valuable thinking time in the booth tomorrow:
Senator in Congress: Ed Markey (D) - I have heard literally nothing about the challenger. He must be double digits behind in the polls. Don't know, don't care, this position MUST be held by a Democrat.
Governor: Martha Coakley (D) - this is a vote against the Republican businessman candidate. Coakley is a disastrous campaigner, hopefully that won't translate to being a bad executive, but I'll vote for anyone to keep a capitalist like Baker out of the job. Keep ruining the private sector jackass, stay out of government, your kind has enough power.
Attorney General: The Democrat
All the rest of the State Offices: I'm voting for the Green-Rainbow candidates, in the hopes that a genuinely liberal third party will get some more power in the state.
Question 1: NO. The Massachusetts gas tax is tied to the Consumer Price Index, meaning it goes up automatically as other things get more expensive. A yes vote would turn the gas tax into a political football.
Question 2: YES. This is the expansion of the bottle bill--right now only carbonated beverage containers are required to have a deposit on them. That means all the roadside litter in the state is non-returnable beverage cans and bottles. Put a deposit on water and iced tea and wine bottles (I don't know which of these will actually be covered, since this is a limited expansion) and those containers will disappear from the litter stream. There is literally no reason this shouldn't pass, except that the beverage companies are throwing millions of dollars at an ad campaign to try to convince people that something that has worked for 40 years for beer and coke won't work for Four-Loko, orange juice, and canned coffee.
Question 3: This is the toughest one--it's essentially a prohibition of gambling. I'm in favor of legalized gambling in principle. However the way our state is trying to legalize it is by awarding three contracts to three gigantic corporations to make three big casinos. A yes vote will send them back to the drawing board. I think I'm voting yes.
Question 4: YES. This mandates that companies with more than eleven employees would have to provide paid sick time. This should be a federal law, in my opinion, but I support my state mandating it.
NOT on the ballot: a question to stop changing the clocks every six months like a bunch of idiots.
Also NOT on the ballot: a question to make marijuana legal to use just because you want to get high, and not have to come up with some phony baloney excuse about your anxiety or your back pain.
Senator in Congress: Ed Markey (D) - I have heard literally nothing about the challenger. He must be double digits behind in the polls. Don't know, don't care, this position MUST be held by a Democrat.
Governor: Martha Coakley (D) - this is a vote against the Republican businessman candidate. Coakley is a disastrous campaigner, hopefully that won't translate to being a bad executive, but I'll vote for anyone to keep a capitalist like Baker out of the job. Keep ruining the private sector jackass, stay out of government, your kind has enough power.
Attorney General: The Democrat
All the rest of the State Offices: I'm voting for the Green-Rainbow candidates, in the hopes that a genuinely liberal third party will get some more power in the state.
Question 1: NO. The Massachusetts gas tax is tied to the Consumer Price Index, meaning it goes up automatically as other things get more expensive. A yes vote would turn the gas tax into a political football.
Question 2: YES. This is the expansion of the bottle bill--right now only carbonated beverage containers are required to have a deposit on them. That means all the roadside litter in the state is non-returnable beverage cans and bottles. Put a deposit on water and iced tea and wine bottles (I don't know which of these will actually be covered, since this is a limited expansion) and those containers will disappear from the litter stream. There is literally no reason this shouldn't pass, except that the beverage companies are throwing millions of dollars at an ad campaign to try to convince people that something that has worked for 40 years for beer and coke won't work for Four-Loko, orange juice, and canned coffee.
Question 3: This is the toughest one--it's essentially a prohibition of gambling. I'm in favor of legalized gambling in principle. However the way our state is trying to legalize it is by awarding three contracts to three gigantic corporations to make three big casinos. A yes vote will send them back to the drawing board. I think I'm voting yes.
Question 4: YES. This mandates that companies with more than eleven employees would have to provide paid sick time. This should be a federal law, in my opinion, but I support my state mandating it.
NOT on the ballot: a question to stop changing the clocks every six months like a bunch of idiots.
Also NOT on the ballot: a question to make marijuana legal to use just because you want to get high, and not have to come up with some phony baloney excuse about your anxiety or your back pain.