Finished taxes: six grand winging its out of my bank account today to pay Uncle Sam plus the Governator. That’s only how much I underpaid my taxes, nowhere close to what I paid for 2007 overall.

It’s book review time. I’m most of the way through a book entitled Where Does the Money Go?: Your Guided Tour to the Federal Budget Crisis, by Scott Bittle and Jean Johnson. The New York Times business section mentioned it a couple of weeks ago. Despite the goofy Schoolhouse Rock cover, it is absolutely a must read. And very relevant right now: not just because it’s tax season, but because it’s an election year. Wondering where most of your federal tax dollars go? Hint: it’s not (yet) defense, and it’s definitely not pork-barrel, or even earmarked spending. For the most part, I avoid discussing politics on this blog because as a nonvoter for both where I live and where I’m from, I really don’t have a say in the matter. However, as a fiscally responsible (and dare I say, conservative) person watching the economy slide into recession due to fiscal irresponsibleness, I’m still keenly interested in what the presidential candidates have to say about money matters. Yes: it’s about the economy, stupid, no matter which party you vote for. How else are we going to fund universal health care? Or if that’s a non-starter for you, fair enough: replace those last three words with “national security”, and it still starts with the budget.

One of the messages I’m getting out of Where Does the Money Go? so far is this: the federal government (and by extension, Americans as a whole) is in deep, deep trouble unless we address Medicare and Social Security spending, and balance the budget. That trouble might be a couple of decades away in the case of Social Security, or looming on the horizon immediately (Medicare). Balancing the budget means reducing the deficit to zero - and not just reducing the deficit by a few billion dollars - because only then will we start making some headway on the debt (which is not the deficit, as Bittle and Johnson make clear). The authors, in a mostly non-partisan style, go into clear and precise detail about worst case scenarios; and better yet, propose common sense, realistic (yet painful) fixes to the budget crisis. Yes, raising taxes is one of them. After reading this book, it’s worthwhile seeing exactly what the current presidential candidates have to say with regard to these issues. As a single example that affects my financial situation: Social Security taxes now cap at about a hundred grand. Removing the cap means more money into Social Security, which may delay the looming SS crisis for a few years. An important point the authors make clear: the government needs much of those SS tax dollars you’re paying now, simply to pay out this year’s benefits to other people: you’re not just funding your own retirement. (This is why simply switching to a privatized, self-directed Social Security is not an answer in itself: you’re not funding the current generation of benefit receivers.) Personally, I think people who make more than the cap (self included) can well afford to continue to pay SS tax on the remainder: seeing as how they were able to live for some first portion of the year where it was automatically deducted from their paychecks. Barack Obama is in favor of removing the cap, while Hilary Clinton is uncommitted (and in fact, she’s been extremely vague on Social Security in general).

It’s only one issue, but when you realise the candidates aren’t very clear about the basic issues as presented in the book, you start realising they’re aren’t very clear about how they’re going to fund other issues they’re campaigning on. And why am I harping on Social Security? Because it’s the biggest chunk of where your federal tax dollars go. Not defense. Not earmarks. Medicare is #3 (defense is #2), but unlike defense it’s mandatory spending, and its costs are skyrocketing.

After you finish your taxes, go buy the book and read it before you vote. There’s a lot more to it than what I covered here.

Something I heard about on NPR this morning: from the recently declassified files of the CIA - the so-called “Family Jewels” - comes an internal memo describing “oddball letters and phone calls” sent in to the CIA in the early 1960s. There’s the usual Cold War paranoia, including the guy who tried to alert the government to Communist electronic thought-control by “a coherent light process of inducing a state of controlled hypnosis by radiation of radio frequency energy on a wavelength of approximately 4 x 10^-5 centimeters.” My favourite: “the man who came in to volunteer as a spy in the Czechoslovakian uranium mines”, who feared exposure to radiation, but had come up with a novel solution: wrapping the tinfoil from Chesterfields cigarettes around his private parts. And you thought tinfoil hats was just a silly Internet meme.

The memo itself: Cranks, Nuts, and Screwballs (yes, that’s really the title!).

It didn’t really hit home how bad it was until I watched television (CNN) last night for the first time in a week. I’ve been hitting CNN’s web site at work but watching moving pictures, hearing unscripted reactions of victims and reporters was something else.

I was in New Orleans for SIGGRAPH 2000 (held at the convention center, no less) and I have memories of it as an beautifully old, yet vibrant city full of friendly people. It is beyond sad and disheartening to see what’s happened in the aftermath of Katrina. What’s even more sad is to see the recrimination and finger pointing going on by politicians and media as this all unfolds. While there’s no doubt there is plenty of that to go around - the disaster relief efforts look pathetic, unbelievable that this is the United States (a first world country!) we’re talking about here - now doesn’t seem to be the time to be look for someone to accept responsibility. And on ther other side, it’s definitely not the time to be patting oneself on the back for relief efforts that seem far too late in coming.

Whether or not you think this is just an American problem - and I’m sure some of my Canadian friends think so, and might even think Americans have brought this on themselves - there are people in misery out there who had no control over the Kyoto Protocol, who couldn’t (not wouldn’t) evacuate, who couldn’t influence those in charge about levees and flood prevention, who couldn’t afford to move, and who certainly didn’t expect the aftermath relief to be as disastrous as it’s looking. They deserve better. If you don’t know how else to help, and I certainly don’t, donate money. The Red Cross works. I’ve heard the Red Cross is inundated (not my experience), but apparently you can even haul spare change to your local Coinstar machine, which accepts donations for the Red Cross (without skimming the top). USA today has a list of other charities. Find a bank and ask. Or do charity research on google. It takes 10 minutes to do the research and type in a credit card number during a coffee break.

I took the bus to the Cinerama yesterday. A clean cut guy, in his fifties or sixties, who was on his way to Westlake Mall to take part in a protest was earnestly discussing his experience in the Vietnam war, why he had to speak out against the situation in Iraq, and his plans for moving to Powell River (which is on Vancouver Island, in B.C).

I cheered up some by watching the Incredibles again, although it was marred by people who clearly ignored the PG warnings and brought their very young kids. People, it’s PG for a reason, and the label doesn’t justify your kid bawling for ten minutes in the middle of my movie.

On the way home, two men came on the bus just before Aurora bridge and started loudly discussing how the current Bush administration should start focusing on Muslims who live in the states instead of overseas, where “focus” is my euphesism for something much cruder and more despicable. Noone on the bus said anything, one of these men sat next to me so I kept my mouth shut. Whatever goodwill I was feeling evaporated instantly. Thankfully I only had three stops to go.

Spending the weekend in a black funk; not just for the above reasons, mind.

I’ve been in California since Saturday and will be here for the rest of the week. Susan had a break-in last week, so I’ve been here providing moral support and working from the mother ship in Emeryville. Turns out after yesterday I might be the one needing moral support.

I gave up hope pretty early on while watching election coverage, mainly because Bush was clearly carrying the popular vote. This more than anything reinforces that I’m living as a minority, in a country where the majority believe things I don’t, things that Bush stands for: that gay marriage is wrong; that Saddam Hussein orchestrated the 9/11 attacks in New York; that America has a right to go to war based on the flimsiest of evidence; that a cluster of unthinking embryonic cells is more important than saving lives.

Bush made “moral values” central to the election and the American public lapped it up. 51% of Americans said, by voting for Bush: we don’t care about accountability, the environment, the economy, the war, foreign policy, separation of church and state, heck the rest of the world. I am a coward. I am never leaving for vacation again without a red maple leaf on my backpack.

Random musings.

Ariadne Auf Naxos was on Wednesday, and I’ve decided post modern librettos in opera just really aren’t my thing. Give me a good burning, suicide by jumping, or end of the world any day instead.

Leon has apparently given up on the New York Rangers for good. I can’t blame him: they’ve got the highest payroll in the National Hockey League but look destined to miss the playoffs for a seventh year in a row. Ok, it’s just a friend giving up on a sports team, but he’s been a NYR fan forever - even his high school yearbook entry mentions them. (Sorry Leon, but you can’t erase that, nor can you touch my blog.)

Mark invited to me to join orkut, a Friendster clone. And much like the latter I find it mildly amusing for about a week, and give up; mainly because none of my closest friends will have anything to do with this, and it’s depressing to see my social contact circle enumerated on the spokes of a very sparse wheel.

Ever since I saw the full page ad in last Sunday’s NY Times put in by these morons congratulating Bush on the Federal Marriage Amendment (you can see their ad here), I’ve been irked. I’ve been meaning to write about gay marriage here, but instead I read today’s Times and found an article by Jonathan Rauch in the Magazine which hit exactly all the points I’ve had floating about my head in far better prose than I could ever come up with:

In endorsing the passage of a constitutional amendment that would restrict marriage to the union of men and women, President Bush established himself as the country’s most prominent advocate of same-sex marriage.

So I guess they weren’t such morons after all. Go read the article for yourself.

The Mars Rovers Opportunity and Spirit apparently have blogs.

Spent part of the day coding on l2rib, modifications will go up tomorrow after some testing. A change: coding on non work for the first time in forever.

Looks like Arnie will be the next governor of California.

I’ve been kind of mildly amused by the entire recall thing. I think this is due to growing up with British Columbian politics, which has a brand of silliness unlike any other place I’ve been to; so electing movie actors as governor just doesn’t seem like a big deal.

Among other things, BC is the only province in Canada with recall legislation, and we’ve already tried to exercise it many times (although I think only on MLAs, and all attempts have failed).

Then there are our glorious premiers. The first premier that I remember well, Bill Vander Zalm, resigned over a conflict of interest scandal involving a biblical theme park once owned by him and his wife, “Headband” Lillian. (Fun fact: I was playing piano in Delta Youth Orchestra at “Fantasy Gardens” on the day that it opened.)

His successor, Mike Harcourt, resigned over “Bingogate”: a scandal involving charity bingo funds being diverted to his political party.

Glen Clark (whom I shook hands with once) stepped down over a conflict of interest: he awarded a casino license to his neighbour in return for cottage renovations.

I was in California for the next two premiers (Dan Miller and Ujjah Dosanjh), and missed any news about their terms in office. In any event I don’t think they were noteworthy (although I think Dosajnh was the first non-white to ever serve as a premier in Canada). I definitely noticed when the current premier, Gordon Campbell, took office. Campbell was the mayor of Vancouver for a while when I was around. His most noteworthy accomplishments to date have included being arrested for drunk driving in Hawaii over this last Christmas, and (along with his “Liberal” party) destroying what little remains of the social safety net that exists in BC.

Politics is fun, especially if you don’t live in the states or provinces involved.

The BBC reports: “Appeal for dwarf-tossing thrown out” - and then, for those unaware of the finer aspects of the sport, helpfully explains that “the person who throws the dwarf furthest wins”. Which brings back a debate I had years ago with Manh in the UBC cafeteria: dwarf, or midget? The argument spilled over to random diners in the vicinity (”Hey you over there with the pizza - dwarf, or midget?” “Hunh?”), but never reached a satisfactory conclusion before it was time to head to the next class. I was a lot less politically correct in those days.

Last weekend I was up in Summerland, getting in some last minute outdoors climbing at Skaha before the end of the season. Apart from being stuck in a car for five hours with a total stranger on the drive up (which actually turned out to be okay, since Greg’s friend Trevor was nice enough to let me to control the music), it was a nice, if greatly rushed, weekend.

I did shoot off my mouth mockingly trying to defend American foreign policy while among my Canadian family and friends - to the point of being called George Junior by David. (At one point I think I made some stupid comment about carpet bombing being good for the economy. For the record: I really, really don’t mean what I said.) And so, I suppose it’s fittingly ironic that when I got home, there was an envelope from the Selective Service System waiting for me. Inside was the receipt telling me that I’ve been officially registered for the draft.

I knew about the SSS, and I knew that all permanent residents regardless of citizenship were supposed to register, but I never bothered. (I was going to plead ignorance, but then I suppose it’s too late to pretend that.) So the fact that I have a receipt is either a really bad joke at my expense, or (more likely) automatic registration as soon as my green card got approved.

So: no wars til Feb. 15, 2004. Or ever. Please.

With digital rights management (DRM) so much in the media lately, tonight’s little rant will hopefully illustrate what can easily go wrong with the entire idea.

I own a recording of Yo-Yo Ma entitled “Solo”. The first track on it is Mark O’Connor’s Appalachia Waltz, arranged appropriately enough for solo cello. I was listening to it today and realised that this was a piece I’d really like to learn. A quick google search revealed that Mark O’Connor has his own web site, and that through an arrangement with a company called Net4music I could actually immediately buy the sheet music online.

This was way cool. So I bought it. And this was where my troubles started.

First of all I have nothing against Net4music. I think it’s a fantastic idea - being able to buy sheet music across the Internet and print it out is the sort of thing that reaffirms my belief in the net’s inherent usefulness, even when ABC News claims today that porn is the driving force behind innovation on the web.

However, in order to ensure that my $4 doesn’t allow me to republish this music Net4music uses encrypted PDF files, and their own custom plugin into Acrobat. Fair enough, I suppose, but this led to problem one: I downloaded the PDF on my G4 laptop, and their plugin doesn’t work in OSX. Fine, perhaps they meant for it to work on OS9. So I reboot my laptop into OS9 for the first time ever, and then bring up the file in Acrobat Reader.

Problem two: the plugin apparently communicates a host key across the Internet to ensure that the PDF (encrypted for a host key) can only be printed once on the machine on which it was purchased. And the host key of my laptop when in OSX (which is where I bought it) is apparently different when in OS9 (which is where I can print it) - so I couldn’t print that file from my laptop at all.

At this point I’d only spent $4, and so I had no problem paying another $4 and purchasing the same sheet music again - but this time from my Windows XP desktop machine. This time everything seemed to be okay, and the Secured Print option wasn’t greyed out from the File menu.

Now I don’t have a printer at home, but I do have access to one at work. I thought I’d try configuring a generic Postscript printer that just printed to disk, print out the PDF to a Postscript file, and bring that to work for printing on the Linux network. So I configured a generic Apple printer, ensured that a test file worked, and tried printing the newly purchased PDF. At this point I quickly ran into problem three: Acrobat anticipated this, and won’t let me print secure PDF files to disk.

So at this point I’ve spent $8 and have nothing to show for it. Which leads to my point, which isn’t about money (sheet music tends to be fairly expensive anyways and I’d gladly pay much more than I have already in this instance). It’s that DRM has, in this case, been nothing but an absolute hindrance - and I’ve never had any nefarious intent here; all I’ve been doing is trying to get a file to print in my little world of multiple operating platforms and networks. I feel conflicted between respecting the rights of the composer (who in all honesty probably has no idea that any of this is going on) - and the feeling that I also should have the right to dissect this PDF file in any damn way I please. And it’s exactly these sorts of problems which leads to people like Dmitry Sklyarov writing tools which circumvent DRM for entirely plausible reasons - and it illustrates why the DMCA is stupid beyond belief.

I’m still sometimes on the fence when it comes to the ideas behind DRM; partly that’s because I’m a developer of licensed software, and also because it was the realisation that I’d never make a living as a musician that led me to where I am nowadays. (Interlude: I have pretty strong views on the entire Napster/mp3 debacle, a summary of which is: I do believe piracy of mp3s hurts legitimate musicians, but I also subscribe to a more radical view: that the musicians who are hurt by this are mostly overpaid anyways, that paying for recorded music is soon to be a thing of the past because any attempts at imposing DRM on recordings will ultimately fail, and that musicians in the near future will have to rely on earnings from live performance, much like musicians in ages past.) Based on today’s minor experience though, I’m tilting towards the anti-DRM camp - and have definitely entrenched my position against the DMCA.

Woke up, turned on my computer, looked at the slashdot headline, froze my neurons, turned on the TV in time to see the awful image of the second plane smashing into the towers - some unbelieving part of my brain said “this has to be CG footage” before footage of the towers collapsing and the chaos made it real.

Work felt silly - most people didn’t come in.

Felt strangely detached all day - not worried, frightened, or angry, just - numb.

Sounds like my four cousins who are in NY are okay, mom checked in on them. One of them (”Gong” is his Chinese name, my mom’s brother’s son - I can’t remember what his English name is) was working in a building right next to the WTC.

6:00 PM: George W. Bush just said: “We will make no distinction between the terrorists who committed these acts, and those who harbor them.” In other words: “We’re going to nuke them til they glow.” We are doomed to war. I’m now scared shitless.