Friday, November 14, 2008

Snippets

1) Soon after I posted about our uneasy truce, the blue screen of death returned. But, the computer is still behaving better. The blue screen of death coming after 20 or 30 minutes of computer functionality is certainly an improvement over not being able to get through the start-up without crashing. If only I could get the blue screen of death to go away completely.

2) As of Sunday, when Barack Obama's resignation from the Sunday goes into effect, there will not be a single black member of the Senate. I did not realize he was the only one. That seems shocking to me. Are there any minorities in the Senate? That seems too important a body and we have come too far on racial issues for us to return to a time when it was 100% white.

9 comments:

kristen said...

As a Mac user, I have to be honest without trying to rub it in: I have never seen the blue screen of death.

S said...

Believe me, I know. I should have just gone Mac the last time I bought a computer, but I was too paranoid about not having perfect compatibility with my work computer. That is less of an issue now that we've switched software packages at work, so if I do end up replacing this guy, maybe I'll finally pull the trigger and go Mac. (Wouldn't you be proud of me then, NSBJB?)

In defense of this computer, though, it has worked like a champ with no problems for over 3 years. This blue screen of death nonsense has really only been within the last week.

BellsforStacy said...

As of 2006 there weren't any hispanic Senators either. Not sure if that still holds true after this election, but I believe it does. There are 16 women (yea for women - though it still doesn't match our percentage of the population).

There have been 5 black individuals that have served - 3 in the 20th-21st centuries (that includes Obama).

The supposed people on the short list to replace Obama from Illinois are Emil Jones (state senate IL) and US Rep Luis Gutierrez. There are others of course ... it'll be interesting to see who is picked because this will be at least a 2 year appointment.

The Senate has never been very balanced racially / demographically, is my point. It's all fat, white, middleaged creepy men. The only one who wasn't creepy (to me anyway) didn't seek re-election in 2006.

S said...

Thanks for that info, Stacy. I was thinking I might look into that today, but now I don't have to!

16 women does sound like a lot because I actively remember the time when there were only 2 and we were really excited that we tripled it (I think it was triple) in one election.

I guess I was just a little stunned to realize how much the Senate is still a bastion of the old, rich white boys. Not that I mean to disparage many of those individual Senators who I very much admire (and some of whom I wish could stay there forever). But then there are those like Stevens who can still come close to winning re-election at 84, even after being convicted of multiple felonies, and Strom Thurmond who stuck around until well into his 90s, and the same for Robert Byrd.

The House is so much more diverse. Certainly, it's easier to carry just one district instead of an entire state. But it would be nice to get more of that into the Senate as well.

BellsforStacy said...

I agree. The House is just ... better. I think because they are held accountable to their constituents every 2 years, they keep less ego. Senators and their 6 years have a longer time to remain in the news and build up their incumbancy. Reps don't have that ability. There's only a handful of people that know who their reps are ... but there are a lot of celebrity Senators.

Lisa Johnson said...

The blue screen of death truly is a horrible sight to behold. I've seen it way too many times.

I hadn't even thought about the lack of color in the Senate after Obama's departure. Not good. Maybe that will change in the next few years.

And thanks for dropping by my blog! : )

S said...

Stupid computer was ok Thursday and Friday night, but today is back to constant crashing. A quick perusal of bestbuy.com has taught me that laptops are a lot cheaper than the last time I was in the market for one... (Bad, S, no new computer!)

Thank goodness SO finally got a computer with internet!

dmarks said...
This comment has been removed by the author.
S said...

Actually, both Senators from Hawaii are Asian-Americans: Inouye is of Japanese descent and Akaka has Chinese and Native Hawaiian origins.

So that's some diversity.

 
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