Voting
For those of you who haven't given up on the entire idea of voting, remember that next Tuesday is election day in many places. And for those of you going to World Fantasy Con and not coming back by Tuesday, it may still not be too late to send in an absentee ballot.
That reminded me to go look at my own ballot info pamphlet. By next Tuesday, I have to figure out whether I care who gets elected to the governing board of the Foothill-De Anza Community College District. Also whether to support a bond measure for El Camino Hospital.
The latter is opposed, as usual, by this lawyer guy who writes the arguments against (and/or rebuttals of arguments for) every bond measure ever placed on a Santa Clara County or California ballot. His argument against them all basically boils down to "taxes are bad, bonds are bad, this is going to cost you personally huge amounts of money, and this is a poorly designed measure that won't have the intended effect anyway." Regarding that last point, he doesn't appear to be clear on the concept that ballot measures aren't a choice between Thing A and Alternative Better-Designed Version Of Thing A, but rather between Thing A and Not Thing A. (Which is not to say that one should always vote for flawed measures; merely that I don't see this guy working to get the alternative better-designed versions on the ballot.) Even if I'm dubious about a given measure, I tend to be more favorably inclined toward it when I see that he's opposing it, just 'cause he's so shrill and annoying.