Internal Monologue

I'm very happy our new house is in a walkable environment. This clip is an ad for the "new urbanism" movement. I hope it catches on, for both environmental and aesthetic reasons. If more areas were nice and walkable, the price of nice, walkable areas would be lower, and more people could live in them.

What if the UN human development index were applied to individual states? Well, you'd get this map . The correspondence between human development and voting Democratic in recent federal elections seems pretty high. Though who knows which way the causal arrows are pointing. UPDATE: There are some problems with this map, apparently. A better version here .

Here's something to applaud the Obama administration for doing: The Obama administration's new drug czar says he wants to banish the idea that the U.S. is fighting "a war on drugs," a move that would underscore a shift favoring treatment over incarceration in trying to reduce illicit drug use. In his first interview since being confirmed to head the White House Office of National Drug Control Policy, Gil Kerlikowske said Wednesday the bellicose analogy was a barrier to dealing with the nation's drug issues. "Regardless of how you try to explain to people it's a 'war on drugs' or a 'war on a product,' people see a war as a war on them," he said. "We're not at war with people in this country." I'd like it more if we weren't at war with people in other countries, either. But this is a good start. I really hope the tide is turning on the harsh criminalization of drugs.

Republican Strategist #1: Oh, here's a welcome bit of good news: The Republican Governor of Florida, Charlie Crist, will run for senator in 2010 ! He has high approval ratings from Republicans, Democrats, and Independents! When Crist announced his intention to run, Congressional Quarterly shifted their rating of this race from "tossup" to "leans Republican". This is great! What can we do to support him? Republican Strategist #2: I know! Let's get behind a right-wing challenger, Mark Rubio , and spark an ugly primary battle that will force Crist to tack to the right, damaging his standing with the Democrats and independents! That way, we can either replace our enormously popular candidate with one who is less popular, or at least damage Crist enough so that he'll be more vulnerable to a Democratic rival! He may still win, but we'll have to spend a lot more money and energy than we would otherwise have to! Republican Strategist #1: Sounds like a gr

I am pleased to hear this : [May 7, 2009] WASHINGTON (Reuters) - President Barack Obama 's $3.55 trillion budget proposal, released on Thursday, eliminates spending for programs that teach U.S. schoolchildren sexual abstinence and shifts funds to programs aimed at reducing teenage pregnancy. The administration's $78.4 billion spending plan for the Department of Health and Human Services, which must be reviewed and approved by Congress, includes support for teen pregnancy prevention. "The program will fund models that stress the importance of abstinence while providing medically accurate and age-appropriate information to youth who have already become sexually active," the budget proposal said. That's why I voted for and supported this guy. You still got a lot of work to do, though, Obama. Internal Monologue is all up in your business!

This is actually Quinn hunting for Easter Eggs, but today it's Quinn looking for Mommy Sarah to wish her a Happy Mother's Day!