(Thanks to everybody who answered my David Paterson question!)

There’s a great podcasting app available for my new phone (an Android Dev Phone, the unlocked version of the T-Mobile G1, about which I could write an awful lot if I had the time and energy), so I’ve been listening to a lot of podcasts. Most often, I’m listening to On Point. (It’s two hours every weekday, so that’s a lot to listen to even if I don’t listen to every show.)

Tonight, I listened to yesterday’s segment “Everything, Incorporated”, in which Douglass Rushkoff talks about the ideas in his new book Life, Inc.. I found it really really interesting. He talks about the origins of the modern corporation and of money, about railroads and corn and hiring a lactation consultant to teach you how to breastfeed so you don’t have to impose on mothers you know to talk to you about it and about being criticised by his neigbours for posting about a mugging because they thought it would hurt their property values. It’s a fascinating scratch-the-surface but very interesting examination of how we ended up with the social and economic structure we live in. It touches (briefly) on an idea I’ve had rolling around in my head for a long time and wanted to post about (but never collected my thoughts enough) about how money distorts our priorities and our notions of sacrifice and benefit, because some kinds of value and importance are much more easily measurable with money than other kinds.

Anyway, if any of that sounds interesting, I would encourage you to listen to it. The page linked above has a big “Listen to This Show” button to stream it, or you can download he mp3 here.

(This is something I’ve wondered for a while.)

Following the national media, I know basically four things about David Paterson:

• I know about his succession of Eliot Spitzer, and the biographical stuff about him that was reported at the time.
• I know about his appointment of Kristen Gillibrand to fill Hillary Clinton’s Senate seat when she was picked for Secretary of State.
• I know about his active work to legalize same-sex marriage in New York State.
• And I know that he is desperately unpopular.

What I don’t know is why he is unpopular. I have the impression that the Gillibrand selection pissed off some people in inside-baseball sorts of ways, but that can’t be all of it. But in Massachusetts, I don’t hear about the day-to-day running of state government in New York. So, those of you who know, why is Paterson so unpopular?

Thanks. We now return you to your regularly scheduled friends page, already in progress.

Yeah, yeah, according to the political spectrum quiz all the cool kids are doing these days, I’m a left-libertarian¹ non-interventionist cultural liberal. We all knew that.

I agree with the criticism somebody on my Friends-list (not identified because s/he posted it in a locked post) made: A lot of the questions were in two parts, like “22. Laws regulating private behavior are put forth by the weak, who prefer security to freedom.” Well, what if you think that laws regulating private behaviour are put forth by the strong, who prefer security to freedom? Or that they’re put forth by the weak, who prefer Cocoa Puffs to freedom? Or that they’re put forward by the strong, despite preferring freedom to security, but that they are still an Abomination in the sight of the majes? There were a lot of two-part questions like that where the answer I had to give probably obscured rather than clarified my actual political beliefs. (And of course there were a lot of “No, really, it’s an awful lot more complicated than that” questions, but that’s sort of unavoidable.)

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¹ I originally mistyped that as “libertartian”; I think that’s actually a better description of me.

This Daily Kos entry about the inclusion of incentives for bicycling in the stimulus package is kind of interesting, although we are talking about pretty small numbers.

I’m late posting this, but half my Friends-list has reminded me that today is Transgender Day of Remembrance. sophiaserpentia posted a list of trans people killed for being trans in in the last year.

Michael Palin for President (video). A hockey mom, and a whole lot more. Thanks to samuraizergling, who posted the link as a comment on this post in mizarchivist’s journal (which you should also go read).

So plumtreeblossom and I will be marching in the annual GLBTQFFAORTFMOMGBBQ Pride Parade tomorrow! There’s no Poly Boston group marching this year (although there will be a Poly Boston table at the festival afterwards, thanks to the unparalleled — unparalleled by me, at any rate! — gumption and efforts of alan7388. So I will be marching with the Obama supporters, which I’m thrilled to be doing anyway. Then we’ll be hanging out at the Poly Boston table at the festival before going to plumtreeblossom’s place to catch our breath and change for a pool party. Whee!

Happy Pride, everybody!

PS — Governor Deval Patrick’s daughter recently came out as lesbian. He’s always been a strong, strong supporter of same-sex marriage, and I’m sure that made it easier for her. The two of them will be marching together in the parade. He’s also strong supporter of Barack Obama (who sadly doesn’t support same-sex marriage, although he supports civil unions and supports states being left alone to decide the issue for themselves). A few years ago (after the fateful DNC speech, but before he was seriously working towards a presidential candidacy) I saw Obama in person when he introduced Patrick while Patrick was running for governor. I was very proud to contribute to Patrick’s campaign and to vote for him, and I was thrilled when he won, and I’m very proud to contribute to Obama’s campaign and to vote for him, and I sure hope to be thrilled when he wins.

So on Saturday plumtreeblossom and I went to Worcester for a Barack Obama rally [warning: bacground audio]. The campaign was encouraging local groups to have simultaneous rallies nationwide on that day, and plumtreeblossom found this one. (Boston didn’t have any when she first looked, although there were signs that one might get organized last-minute.) And of course she asked me if I wanted to go, and of course I said yes.

Because I was driving, we got there very late (and had to resort to old, 20th-century technology by stopping and buying a map), but we got there. It was fairly small but lots of fun and totally worthwhile. And there was a bagpiper! That was quite a surprise. We had a great time meeting people and talking and listening to the speakers and the programming, and we came back with Obama swag.

I ended up taking a bunch of pictures (and plumtreeblossom took a couple of me), and they’re up on my Flickr set of the event.

I’d been on the fence about whether to participate in the LiveJournal content strike, but after reading this post about it by sunspiral, I will be participating. Since I don’t post every day anyway, you wouldn’t know unless I told you, so I’m telling you. ( Some explanation, but not enough :-) )