+ 0 - 4 | § ¶Published again!
I just received word that the advance copies of Voyages of the Imagination: The Star Trek Fiction Companion have arrived in the Star Trek production office, and the comped copies will be shipped out soon. I was one of the contributors to the Star Trek Fiction Timeline included in the book, and it will be very cool to see my name in print again. :-)If you're interested in purchasing the book, you can use the links on the above page, or just go directly to Amazon.com, Amazon.ca, Amazon.de, or Amazon.co.uk.
David Henderson,
Timeliner
+ 2 - 3 | § ¶Attack ads
You know election time is close when the attack ads begin airing on TV. One of Rod Blagojevich's attack ads claims that "Judy Baar Topinka has pledged to dismantle Illinois's healthcare [sic] program for kids, and instead give a pay raise to non-union state workers."The ad cites a Chicago Tribune article from August 18, 2005 for the first part of the claim, and a [Springfield] State Journal-Register column from May 14, 2006 for the second. Both are older than the respective free on-line archives the two papers have, but through their paid archives, I've found only one item to match each date that includes the name "Topinka", and neither piece's headlines or excerpts indicate that she is even the main focus.
From the Chicago Tribune, the article I found is "Congressman LaHood drops governor bid", by Rick Pearson. It seems this article focuses on who is thinking about who would be running for governor the following year. Topinka is mentioned as one of eight who seemed to be interested as of August, 2005. The article is only 577 words long, and 69 of them are included in the excerpt.
If Miss Topinka had actually "pledged to dismantle" a health-care program somewhere in that article, that would be a big news item, and I would expect the headline to reflect that much larger topic. But that was not the case, nor was it the case that there was a second article that focused on this bigger news (assuming the paper's archive is complete for that date). I would therefore speculate that this "pledged to dismantle" thing is a "There you go again" situation, where Topinka mentioned that she favored an approach to health care that was different from the system currently in place.
Regarding the conjunction "and instead", I wonder if the two topics are really related to one another. Yes, they are both financial in nature, but given that they were apparently nine months apart, I wonder if the ad is implying a connection that isn't there. If I say "I don't want to buy a new stereo" in February, and then in November say "I would like to get some new carpet", is it really accurate to link those two financial decisions with "and instead"? It's not like I'm planning to buy the carpet with the "stereo savings fund", just out of the money I happen to have available at the tome. (Just a hypothetical; I'm not planning to buy any carpet.)
And now we get to the last part. Is giving a pay raise to state workers supposed to be controversial? Or is it perhaps that the pay raise is going to "non-union" employees that is the problem? From what I've heard, employees who are in unions often make more money than similarly-placed employees who are not, so if Gov. Blagojevich's concern actually is about non-union workers getting a raise, then I think a little pay equality is called for. Of course, the ad omits any details about what specific jobs Miss Topinka wants to give pay increases to, so I can't tell whether I would consider this particular expenditure a bad thing or not. On its face, it certainly isn't, and there's no hint in the excerpt from "Statehouse Insider", columnist unknown, about what is supposed to be so bad about this particular issue.
davidh
+ 3 - 2 | § ¶The tooth, the whole tooth, and nothing but the tooth
Yesterday: Went to dentist to get wisdom teeth out. Ended up with three out and one fractured.Today: Went to oral surgeon to get fractured tooth removed.
Now: Lots of ibuprofen and lots of sleep. Beginning to develop a taste for gauze.
davidh