Separated at birth?

Here are two images:





One shows a campaign stunt from 1988. Another shows a campaign stunt from a few days ago.

In one, the press roundly tore the campaigner to shreds for his fakery, despite the fact that he seemed to be a hopelessly earnest person who may well have been just trying to learn something.

In the other, the press praised to the skies the acumen of the campaigner, despite his showing utter contempt for the fighting men and women of the Navy ship that had been at sea for the longest deployment in US history by holding them back from their loved ones for 48 hours so he could get a personal photo op. This leaves aside the issue of his sincerity, given his record of dodging wartime service.

Can you tell which is which?

Curse that liberal press!

Not even Krugman has picked up on this one

Has anyone else noticed that the dollar has been tanking since the beginning of the War?

I have -- albeit wholly out of self-interest.

See, Ulrika has an account in Sweden that's kronor (SEK) denominated. Mostly it's a legacy from her grandparents.

That account has picked up 8.6% since the beginning of the year. About 2 percentage points of that has come in the last week of trading. Relative to normal currency trading, those moves are huge.

What a vote of confidence from the rest of the world, eh?

(Update: I just took a peek at the Euro, and the dollar's dropped about 7% against that since the beginning of the year as well. Even the ruble has gained about 2.5% against the dollar since the beginning of the year.)

Mature, yet a child

So...

When I was having to choose very quickly between apartments for us to live in, two of the finalists were very different. One was downtown, on First Hill. A bit small, and we would've had to still get a storage space. Very urban and asphaulty, albeit with a cute vest-pocket park for Sarah-the-dog just about a block-and-a-squidge away. Great location, but...

The other was out here in Redmond. The two things that tipped me in favor of this place were a) the apartment is big, for us -- the biggest we've ever lived in, and b) there were landscaped grounds all around for Sarah to frolic in.

There is no small amount of irony that we moved from the burbs of Orange County to the burbs of Seattle, all the while proclaiming what a more livable city Seattle is. Which it is. And, assuming I make more money over time, we'll almost certainly move across the lake into the city eventually. But right now, the ratio of expense to space favors the burbs... Mostly because, as supply and demand teaches us, price indicates demand, and fewer people want to live in the burbs, so they get low low prices.

Anyway.

As Arlo would say, "That's not really what I came here to talk about."

What I meant to talk about was how, as I tramped across the expanse of freshly-mown lawn outside our apartment in the lovely far northern light, I thought about how I hadn't had to mow said lawn. For that matter, this apartment is the first one ever for me with -- a dishwasher.

I know, I know, you kids today, all caught up with the ModCons of our age, don't find this exciting... But two of my more tiresome childhood (and beyond) chores for years, nay, decades, were mowing the lawn and washing the dishes.

My inner 12-year-old slacker is very happy in this place. :)