The best thing about the Iowa Caucuses last night is that I didn’t stay up to watch the returns, because if I did, I’d be too tired to accomplish anything today, and I start work much too early anyway. However, the whole thing is laid out there for me, in chronological order on twitter, and from what I can see, it’s a whole lot of fuss over an election that doesn’t even bind delegates – the whole thing is really nothing but manufactured TV drama. This is played out by the apparent real victory of CNN for finding a couple of ladies in Iowa named Edith and Caroline who made for good TV, and yeah, apparently Romney beat Santorum(!) by less than ten votes (or maybe he didn’t – Google just had the froth rising to the top on a line graph – it’s essentially a wash).

There’s no denying it’s prime entertainment, but, really, it doesn’t change anything other than to stretch this business out a bit longer. I’m still holding by my position that Romney will be the eventual GOP nominee, though he’ll never quite be embraced by the conservative base of his party, who are now kind of settling on Santorum, this week, because he’s who is left – I guess an Opus Dei-style Catholic is more acceptable to conservative evangelicals than a Mormon, after all. They’ll all kind of fall in line eventually, but none of them will be that enthusiastic about it; echoes of John Kerry in 2004, only from the right.

This business will probably be good for my chosen candidate, though at this point, there really isn’t much of a choice for someone like me.

You see, I’m what US pollsters like to classify as “progressive/very liberal”, who’d probably be a perfectly content center-left type in the EU (where even the righties tend to think that things like national health care and the social safety net are a good and valuable idea). However, at this point in American history, where I’m sitting on the (admittedly imperfect) left-right spectrum falls outside of the mainstream. The Democratic party, despite all the annual accusations of this or that candidate being “the most liberal in history” is actually more accurately categorized as “center right” and occasionally feel like it’s drifting further rightward. There are a few modern outliers, (see Kucinich, Dennis and Sanders, Bernie), but most Democratic politicians active today, including, arguably, President Obama, fall pretty close to the center of the spectrum, not the leftmost edge.

So, given my general leftist/liberal tendencies, I have come to accept that the most liberal political candidate in any given election I might vote in will, unless things shift dramatically, always be somewhat to the left of me. I’m kind of okay with that; compromise isn’t a bad thing at all; assuming all parties are willing to offer up something in the spirit for finding a mutually acceptable solution (this is not an assuption I’m usually willing to make when it comes to American politics).

So, I haven’t much choice but to be a partisan, in the sense that there’s only one party on a given ticket for whom I can imagine voting.

Usually, this doesn’t bother me; on the whole, I think President Obama does an acceptable, if not spectacular job, given his vision of it. He’s taken he whole idea of “being the President of everybody” to heart, and tries to find solutions that could appeal broadly. That’s not a bad way to do it, if there weren’t other factors involved (tribalism and racism, primarily) that prevent the other side from being capable of governing in good faith. One of the things I like about the President is also kind of his biggest weakness – he’s eternally optimistic, and always tries to assume the best of people, which sometimes makes him look like Charlie Brown lining up to kick the football Lucy’s holding. Occasionally, though, he connects with the ball, and we get some good things.

This doesn’t mean that I wouldn’t love to live in a country where it felt like I had a choice between multiple candidates who I felt represented my values. That actually happens some places, but not that often in America for someone who leans left, and I can’t see abandoning my values and becoming a mythical “swing voter”, the 10-20 percent of Americans who are actually regularly up for grabs in a national election, because for the most part, those “swing voters” are actually “low information voters” who don’t really understand the system and respond solely to emotional appeals like the “who would you rather have a beer with” or “who has the nicest looking family” factors.

However, I don’t want to be partisan to the extent that I demonize everyone on the opposition – I know some very nice conservative people* – I think they’re misguided sometimes, but I like them. Some of the current crop of Republican presidential candidates seem like genuinely nice, interesting people**. Romney seems pleasant, if a little stodgy, and Gingrich, besides being kind of a know-it-all, would probably provide entertaining conversation. Doesn’t mean I’m ever going to support or vote for them.

So, Maybe that’s my unrealistic wish for the new year – to have more palatable candidates to vote for in elections I find myself voting in, or at least have them get elected in elections I can’t vote in. There’s some potential out there – Elizabeth Warren running for the Senate in Massachussets, for example, is someone I’d personally love to vote for – but I’d really like to see that become the norm rather than the exception.

we really need to yank that overton window back over to the left a bit; the structure is feeling a little unbalanced.

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* – Sorry about that; it looks kind of like I played the “I have gay/black/whatever friends” argument. Won’t happen again.

** – Santorum‘s a different animal, however. I can say from personal experience that that guy is categorically not pleasant. That guy, in person, just oozes*** smarm and sleaze (even more than your average politician, who, almost to the man, glisten like lubed up used car salesmen), all wrapped up in the most personally repellent packages, the “asshole jock frat boy who found God, but never lost the bullying nature and sense of superiority and privilege”. I had to wash my hands immediately after shaking his when I met the then-Senator as a recent college graduate, almost a decade before my so-called “political awakening”. <<shiver>>

*** – Ew. “oozing Santorum. <<shudder>>

For all the posting I did this year, I don’t think I hit as many personal “wow” writing notes this year. Most of what I ended up posting was “link and short response” and “oh look at this thing” blogging, which, while valid art forms, don’t really exercise the writing muscles much. However, that doesn’t mean that there isn’t some stuff worth looking at, and pointing to here at the end of the year, when it’s customary to do such things. Not as many think pieces, perhaps, but there’s still some good enough content that I think deserves a little light shined on it. Here are some of those pieces, in not entirely chronological order:

• the surprisingly long life of the incorrect lesson
• smart phone, one week in: novelty and paranoia
• go away, little one
• benefits with friends
• you realize you brought this on yourself
• balticon wrap-up, and a short elegy-ish thing for missed opportunities of youth
• an imperfect application of a Gordian Knot allusion
• getting to the bottom of the conversion narrative
• still not very good at this
• end of an era
• the value of the journey – when the road less travelled becomes the main throrofare
• a retroactive, meandering mission statement
• time…keeps marching on
• Calypso: 1997-2011
• for want of a Sharpie®…
• those two “f” words
• a grand day out, at peace with the universe
• the entirety of the “cut out racks” series of record reviews

A few statistics to put the past year into perspective:

• posts to this blog: 237 (so far)
• web site hits this year so far: 6482
• miles ridden on a bicycle: approx. 1134
• records reviewed: 100 and counting
• miles driven in car: 10k, give or take
• nights spent in a hotel: 125
• nights spent sleeping in the great outdoors: 2 (way less than my wife)
• fan conventions attended: 6
• professional sporting contests attended: 4
• live theatrical productions attended: 3
• live musical performances attended: 13
• books read: 67
• books written: 1
• books purchased with intent: more than that
• gaming sessions: lots
• rpg characters killed out from under me: 1
• natural disasters weathered: 2
• days without power due to those disasters: 7
• movie screenings attended in theater: forgot to count, but lots
• cats mourned: 2
• new friends made: many, and I’m glad for it

Subjectively in terms of the personal, I’d say the year was better than average. Not perfect by any stretch, given the loss and stress and what have you, but pretty good when you consider all the great people that I got to spend it with.

Not sure if I’ll get more specific that that, but in general terms, a solid 6.5-7 out of ten.

Also, not sure how much more posting there’ll be this year; I’m on vacation, and am kind of enjoying the real world (and a fair bit of other virtual worlds besides the net), but I’ll probably do a “these are the posts I liked” collection before the 31st, so you have that to look forward to.

Yesterday was a low-key affair, we all actually kind of slept in – presents weren’t getting well and truly cracked until after 8am. We went more for quality than quantity this year, which is perfectly fine with me.

I got, among other things, a very fine, home made Jayne Cobb hat, some new pants, a nice selection of classic TSR Dungeons and Dragons books(!) and a copy of Skyrim*, which ate up most of the day that didn’t involve picking Beyblade bits an d Legos out of my foot or cooking a ten pound ham.

This wasn’t much of a problem, since the spouse spent most of the day playing around with her new Kindle.

The new bass amp I’m time-sharing with the eldest hasn’t gotten turned on yet, but I imagine it will soon enough, once she gets around to digging into the Hal Leonard bass method book and giving the old Ibanez (freshly tweaked and set up by the good luthiers at Guitar Works of Carytown) a whirl. If she stays focused and makes progress in the next couple of months, I’ll take her shopping for her very own axe. That, my friends, is what you call a motivational tool (I hope).

Anyway…that’s about it from here. Probably going to make some bean soup today, given all that ham I have left over. Maybe we’ll crack open a couple of those table-top/card games we added to the “family” pile.

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* – Day one in Skyrim? Level 8 with one dragon slain. I am Thane of two different cities, and have only been curb stomped by those damned giants once.

My favorite Christmas song, for what I hope will be a quiet Christmas eve. Joni Mitchell wrote it, I discovered it via the Indigo Girls, though I think I’m currently in love with this version from Tori Amos:

Hope you enjoy your Merry Christmas with a little bit of melancholy; I know I do.

Happy December <cough>23rd</cough> everyone*! This is indeed a day that needs a song of it’s own, especially one that’s a dead-on pastiche of They Might Be Giants. Who better to bring us that song that the inimitable Paul and Storm?

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*- please ignore the backdating, after a while, no one will notice.

So, I’ve been on “vacation” more or less for a couple of days. There’s been, to be sure, some chores, some parenting, and some last minute holiday shopping (mostly extraneous bits – the actual “shopping” has been done for more than a week). But, in there too, were a couple of nice “dates” out with my loving spouse, making full use of our built-in babysitter.

Last Saturday evening, we spent a few hours at the Virginia Mystery Dinner Playhouse, Richmond branch, enjoying a pretty good meal and an interactive murder mystery comedy show. It was a surprisingly fun experience, given that in my head, I generally associate “dinner theater” with unpleasantness like “outlet malls” and “destination shopping”. We went, largely, because our friend James, aka @thepopeoffrance, is a member of the cast (and only abused us a little bit during the performance: silly hats and “bathroom monitor” responsibilities were involved). If you’ve got a free evening somewhere in Virginia (or at least Richmond, Arlington, Williamsburg or VA Beach), it’s worth the price of admission.

Also, yesterday, we finally got around to having lunch at The Black Sheep in the Carver district of Richmond, just off the campus of VCU. We’d been trying to visit this tiny little place for months, because it’s supposed to be good, and the “Battleship” sandwiches looked really good on that episode of Man vs. Food. We opted for the half-size sandwiches, because the fully-loaded two-footers were just too intimidating (the guys at the table next to us tried to take pictures of theirs, and had to step back into the dining room to get the whole thing in frame on their iphones. It’s a tiny little place, with seating for maybe 35 people, but again, if you want to take a shot at getting a seat (try for off-hours for best results), it’s worth it. The food is AMAZING.

Anyway, I won’t talk about how we combined yesterday’s lunch out with a trip to Costco, because frankly, that’s not terribly romantic, unless you *really* get off on 50# bags of rice and taquito samples.

Enjoy the shortest day (and longest night, if that’s your thing!) of the year.

The ideas put forth in the lastest article at Pandagon, “Believers Believe, Yes, But Because They Want To“, and especially the comments this piece is going to draw, are going to be interesting.

Many people will be put off by the overt atheism of the source, but beyond that, there’s some really interesting questions about the nature of belief and how and why people come around to believing (or not) the things they do (or don’t), why evangelism, from whatever direction, doesn’t work on people already invested in something, and, seemingly paradoxically (but not really), why those most invested in something are often the most likely to reject it, whereas people who just don’t think about things very deeply end up being an idea’s most vehement defenders.

Watch the space – there’s likely to be a lot of big ideas and heavy thought flying around before long.

It’s the kind of thing that seems to be begging for a completely tl;dr essay from me, and someday I might even get around to writing it. But, right now, I’m busy wrapping up my work year, and once I do that, I’m probably going to be taking a break from heavy internet lifting beyond the occasional funny link and maybe a couple of half-hearted “year-end” list posts. You all will just have to live with that.

Let’s hope so, anyway. In any case, a whole lot of people who could really use them are getting some happy holidays, as last US troops prepare to leave Iraq.

Welcome home, folks.