You couldn't write a much more accurate post about the DC area, at least not from my perspective. As for the Bethesda restaurants, well, I'm too busy getting reamed by the rest of the city to have any idea what those are like.

If you want to be self-important though, you won't be alone.

As for Metro, it's great if you live near a line and want to get into the city, but god forbid you live inbetween two spokes further out and want to go around in a circle. All the way in, all the way out. The proposed 'purple line' is supposed to help, but we'll see if that happens.

But you're right about one thing, traffic is such a death-defying pursuit of hellish proportions, that if you value your sanity, you best make sure you get a job where you can make the commute easily. We're personally in the unfortunate situation of not easily being able to afford it.

Oh, and if you're on the Maryland side, don't even think about public school unless you're loaded. (Housing bubble, grumble grumble)

The gaming industry is getting pretty massive in terms of the money that goes through their doors. I've sat in on state lobbying meetings and heard spiels about tax dollars and jobs crossing state lines of such and such subsidy isn't maintained.

I've also heard that if such subsidies and favorable laws are maintained, sweetness and buttercream will come, with jobs for constituents and parades for congressmen.

Once the video game industry figures out that this is a pay to play system like telecom, the RIAA, and the studios have (or the studios move to gaming) we'll have less of this kind of legislation.

So I guess Osama Bin Laden's 'friends' page makes a good place for the intelligence agencies to start their work.

Given the general technical superiority the U.S. has, I suspect not everyone thinks this is bad.

Ways to infiltrate terrorist groups

Option #1, send agent into caves of Afghanistan

Option #2, recruit armies of men pretending to be teenage girls to pretend to want to kill American infidels.

Option #3, Send police offers to peace activists (Hey, works for Maryland coppers).

A/S/L/T
  (age, sex, location, target)

Actually I never said you shouldn't have voted for him or it's a bad vote, or he's a bad guy, etc. I voted for him, given the options, it was the right vote. You say he's not a God. I agree, my problem is some of his supporters don't seem to understand that. It's the worship of a guy who hasn't done anything yet. Blind loving adoration is not a healthy thing in a Democracy, especially when you have one party rule. The best way to make sure our leaders are responsive is if they know their constituents are paying attention and that their support can't be taken for granted.

Oh really? http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2008/11/25/report-obamas-small-donor_n_146281.html No moreso than Bush.

It's a train wreck and a clown car at the same time! Either way, it's hard not to watch and all the while, I can't decide if I should giggle or be horrified.

Keep in mind that a lot of Bush supporters supported Bush, but not his decisions. "Bush is a good man" or "A good Christian" and sometimes just got bad advice. A leader is his decisions, by and large. This doesn't mean Obama sucks, but it's something to put on the scales.

I hate ads too....a lot, but it's television ads that get me more than the stuff on the Internet. If I hear of a show that sounds interesting to me, I tend to make a note and just wait for it to come on DVD and rent it on Netflix. Nothing illegal or immoral, no footers, no advertisements, just the show. Of course, now that people are avoiding advertisements more effectively, they are getting worse. The product placement is really getting out of control. I have cable, and the less ad-driven HBO and Showtime shows are much more palatable for me. I'm at the point where I have enough money I don't mind paying for my entertainment.

I think it's also good to understand a little bit of the reasoning of perl. A lot of the weird perlisms make sense if you know why they are the way they are.

If you want to get rid of the graphical stuff, put this in your .emacs file.

It looks better in term, but you lose the crap.

(menu-bar-mode -1)
(scroll-bar-mode -1)
(tool-bar-mode -1)