More Election Brilliance

As a lot of you know, I live in Texas and March 4 was our big day.  Of course, that means that there's going to be a lot of stuff about the elections that are from here on the local level.  I was reading one of the local papers here yesterday, and they were interviewing some people after they had voted.  One of the things that they were honing in on was the way that females were voting.  They were talking about how ladies had a difficult choice to make between voting for Hillary, because she's a woman, or voting for Obama, because they agree with him on things.  Here's one of the good quotes, talking about women that like Obama.

"...and some of Obama's biggest fans were unable to vote for him, fearing a vote against Clinton would be a vote against their gender."

Hmm, so that's a good idea.  Let's not vote for who we think will be the better president, and instead vote for someone just because they're the same sex as us.  The reasons that some people have for voting astound me.  If the reason that you are voting for someone is just because they are black, or a girl, or an old rich white guy, then you really don't need to be voting.  Vote based on character, on where they stand on issues, and on how well you think they'd do the job.  People need to vote for someone that they want to be president because they think they would be the best president, not because they want them to be the first black, first woman, or oldest. 

On a somewhat related note, if you actually did want to vote for Hillary, check out what Lawrence Lessig has to say about it, it's very interesting.

Texas Winter

My Google desktop gadget tells me that it's 75 degrees out right now.  I'm wearing shorts and a short-sleeved shirt.  There is an ice cream truck down the street that all the kids are running out to.  There are people out playing around the pond all in shorts.  This is insane.  To put things in perspective, though, the record low for today (Dec. 8) was 16, and set 2 years ago.  Tomorrow it's going to be about 30 degrees lower than today.  That just means that I'm likely to get sick again.  I miss Oregon.

Pedal to the Metal

I actually don't have a big problem with speed cameras, despite my driving habits. I can't say I'm for the use of them, though. My real beef is the red light cameras. Ironically, I don't ever worry about getting a ticket from one of these, I just don't believe they do any good. In fact, I'm of the school of thought that they are actually more likely to do harm. The fact that the companies that sell them tout how much more revenue the city can get, not how many accidents can be prevented, should tell you something. Either way, I'm glad that the Texas House just passed a bill that will prevent the use of speed cameras and require warning signs for red light cameras. Perhaps we can ban the use of the red light ones one day too.