very simple

The New Yorker this week has a really fascinating article about the recent phenomenon of high school students suing to become valedictorian. Kids with extremely close GPAs, kids who get "regular" grades (as opposed to weighted "honors" or AP grades) for participating in certain activities like sports, kids who figure out how to game the system (sign of creative thinking or just plain sneaky?).

But the phenomenon is not so new. And perhaps I find the article so interesting because 13 years ago, when I graduated from high school (wow, now I feel old), my high school was involved in a similar situation. My high school was incredibly competitive, and my class was, at the time, the smartest class to graduate in the 20 years that the school had been open. I wasn’t exactly a dummy, and took multiple honors and AP classes, but out of 380 kids, I ranked somewhere in the 70s (they only gave out actual rankings to the top 10 kids).

Anyway, when it came time to name the valedictorian and salutatorian, the principle called these two guys (let’s refer to them as M and S) into his office and explained that their GPAs were only .008 apart, so he had a proposal. If they both agreed, before finding out who had the higher GPA, they could be named co-valedictorians and J, who was third in the class (and who was all of 15, had completed high school in 3 years, and went on to study physics and math at the University of Chicago) would be salutatorian. I think S (who was a friend of mine), didn’t really care – he had already gotten into Harvard early and been a Westinghouse finalist. But it didn’t matter, because M, confident that he was in first place, refused. And then found out that he had the lower GPA, meaning S would be valedictorian.

So M sued. He sued the school, the principal, and our AP English and Chemistry teachers (for giving him As instead of A+s) in order to be named co-valedictorian. He argued that because S took band, which was ungraded, and he took art, which was a "regular" class, and therefore did not receive honors weighting, he was at a disadvantage (nevermind that he could have signed up for band). He guilt tripped our AP English teacher until she did change his grade (and the grades of everyone in the class to be "fair"). She actually took early retirement at the end of that year after all of the chaos. He tried to guilt trip our AP Chemistry teacher, who flat out refused – grades in his class were based entirely on exams, which had no leeway. M got what he "earned", and Mr. W wasn’t about to bend to the pressure.

When it eventually got to court (and yes, it got that far), the judge laughed M out of his courtroom. In the judge’s view, the school set up rules, gave M an opportunity that he rejected, and then when he didn’t get the answer he wanted, insisted on a do-over. He made his own bed…yadda yadda yadda…

It all seemed so crazy at the time, that someone would go to such lengths over what was essentially a title. But apparently we were just at the front of the curve.

My brother e-mailed me yesterday to tell me that I wasn’t updating my blog enough. I suppose it’s too late to make this thing anonymous…

I thought about posting some amusing story from our childhood that would have embarassed him, but then common sense kicked in, and I remembered that I stopped intentionally trying to humiliate him around the time he got taller than me.

The weather around here has been absolutely dreary, so there’s not a lot to photograph. I’m not writing anything (more) on that thing that everyone else keeps talking about. And I’m waiting for the field to narrow a bit before I delve into politics again, with the NYC Mayoral race up next (I know I’m going to lose all sorts of liberal cred for this one, but for all of his faults, I kind of like Bloomberg, faux republican that he is. He’s just so…pragmatic, which in the long run seems to be more productive than being an ideologue).

Oh and the governor’s race too! I’m already getting e-mails from the "lawyers for Spitzer" campaign (which apparently got the mailing list from the lawyers for Kerry campaign), and while I like the guy, I think it’s a little too early to throw my support behind only one of the 2700 democratic nominees.

So here’s some completely random, sort of non-political stuff that I’ve been reading about lately.

First, plants that can apparently fix their own genetic deformities (warning, the article makes mention of evolution, so if you’re one of these people, don’t click on the link lest it offend your delicate sensibilities).

Second, take a look at the most obviously skewed bar graph that I’ve ever seen on a "legitimate" news site. I mean, really. The very first day of my statistical political science class back in college, we were specifically told to never, ever, present information this way. What’s really amazing is just how obvious it is…

and Third, and absolutely most frivolously, apparently some people are up in arms about about the Gap dropping SJP from it’s ad campaign. which is funny, because she was quite possibly the most annoying character on SATC, and most "regular" women really can’t relate to a spokesperson who reportedly needs to "take in" her size 0 clothing. And I don’t know anyone who liked those commercials ("I enjoy being a girl?" please. I enjoy being able to find inexpensive work-appropriate clothing that fits without being patronized to by a horse-faced, infantalized, anorexic 40-year old). Oh, and Gap sales keep falling, so perhaps spending $38 million to essentially feed one person’s ego wasn’t the best use of funds.

Now I’m going back to nurse my migraine some more.

I thought I’d write about my vote experience this morning. I’m in New York, so it’s not like there was a lot of tension, given that we had no poll watchers or lawyers (except for those of us waiting to vote).

Anyway, I got to the line at about 8:45 in the morning, and outside the building there appeared to be between 75-100 people waiting. A couple of people walk by marveling at the fact that the line wraps around the block. At about 9:30-9:45 I start to get a little nervous, as I should already be at work, and the people coming out of the building, who I can finally see, are not the people at the front of the "outside" line when I got there – in other words, there’s another line inside. I finally get to the inside line at about 10-10:15, and this is where I find out that one of the two machines "tasked" to Gramercy Park is broken, meaning that we’re all voting on one measly machine. The poll workers have not been given a break yet (polls opened at 6am), and there’s no one to relieve them. There are only two poll workers – one to take names and one to operate the antiquated lever machine that New York will NEVER get rid of. Once you give your name, you have to get in the other line to actually vote.

The 90 year old man operating the machine keeps getting up to condescendingly "explain" the alphabet to the younger african-american woman taking names – she knows what she’s doing, it’s just that the guy in front of me doesn’t appear on the list (although his wife did, so everyone just assumes it’s a mistake), so the vote machine line is piling up while the old man keeps forgetting that he needs to set it for each voter, and the sign-in line is now stuck because the poor guy in front of me has to get the "lesson" on how to fill out the provisional ballot.

So, I finally got to work at about 11:30am today, after first stopping off for a pit stop at home again and finding out that my new iPod arrived, weeks early.

At this point, it seems like Kerry’s leading pretty strongly in the exit polls, but it’s still early. I’m starting to feel pretty good, but I don’t want to jinx it.

I’m not so sure what to make of this article discussing John Gilmore’s attempts to fly without photo identification.

Gilmore, who made millions as the fifth employee of Sun Microsystems, has not flown or taken an intercity bus or train domestically since July 4, 2002, when he was not allowed to fly on Southwest Airlines without showing identification, despite having gone through the screening process.

My first thought is that he probably had to show ID to get into work at his high-tech job (I have t show ID every time I walk into my office building, even though the guards know me by now), but doesn’t appear to have had a problem with that, since they were giving him tons of money (I will admit that I’m hypothesizing here – it’s totally possible that Sun didn’t require this – unlikely, but possible). My second thought is that flying is a privilege, and that when you purchase a ticket, you’re essentially signing a contract that says you’ll do certain things in exchange for that privilege (one of those things being that you agree to subject yourself to security searches and ID checks). But this would be a contract with the Airline, and if they were the ones imposing this requirement, rather than the government, we’d probably have a different situation.

Further, the Supreme Court recently decided that "anonymity" is not protected under the First Amendment. Although I suppose Gilmore is not trying to not give his name, but just doesn’t want to prove who he is every time he wants to fly somewhere.

My next thought is a little silly – where is he keeping his millions and how does he access them? whenever I’ve opened a bank account, showing ID was part of the process.

The part where I 100% side with Gilmore though, is this:

"If you are requiring people to do something, you can’t not show them the rule," Schwartz said…

Although a traveling tips page on the Transportation Security Administration website advises travelers to "keep available your airline boarding pass and government-issued photo ID for each adult traveler until you exit the security checkpoint," government lawyers refused to tell the judge in the original case whether or not the requirement existed.

Government lawyers argued the government does not require passengers to show identification to fly and that "the challenged requests for identification are of central importance to achieving the government’s objective of preventing air piracy."

But the government acknowledged that if the requirement did exist, it would be in a secret security directive that had to be challenged in an appeals court, an argument heeded by the judge when she finally dismissed the original lawsuit on jurisdictional grounds 14 months after hearing arguments in the case.

I just don’t get this – apparently, if there is a rule requiring ID checks, which the government is refusing to admit, it’s so secret it can’t be shown to anyone (I’m not getting the logic here, because doesn’t asking someone for ID, and then denying them boarding if they don’t, imply that there’s some sort of rule? If there isn’t a rule, then who is making the decision?) Isn’t it just counterintuitive to have a "secret rule" that’s entire purpose is to be enforced in a public way against every member of society who wants to board a plane?

The New York Times has a really good editorial about how the New York Board of Elections is actually quite worse, and less accountable, than that of Florida. In particular, "There is no ideal way to administer elections, but New York’s system combines the worst parts of all systems."

I personally think that the massive problems in a state like New York don’t get a lot of play because everyone pretty much knows the outcome of the Presidential election here. But the problems in the election system trickle down into the elections for state and local offices, and we’ve had quite a few recounts and such for these types of offices in the past few years.

Heck, when I went to vote last year (local elections only), two poll workers were having a major screaming match about how to operate the antiquated machines, and one of the women was actually threatening to shut off the machine and go home (thereby invalidating a day’s worth of votes in my district). On my way out, I actually found a police officer and told him he should go inside in order to prevent such a thing from happening. There’s definitely a need for better standards throughout the system.

I did watch Obama speak last night, but I was too wrapped up in something else computer-wise to blog of consciousness my way through it. The guy’s definitely got that *thing* that all great politicians have – Words just seem to roll off of his tongue, and has a bit of that preacher voice that works so well in large rooms (Clinton is the master of the preacher voice). Plus, he’s got a great story. African father (not african-american, actually from Africa), and white mom from Kansas, raised in Hawaii by his mom and his grandparents, ends up at Columbia and then Harvard law school, then Chicago, where he teaches at the University of Chicago law school (one of the best in the nation) and works as a state senator.

And the Republicans have mucked it up so badly that he doesn’t even have an opponent right now. Dude is golden. I can’t wait to see where he is in 10 years (for the next six he’ll clearly be in the Senate).

Like the networks, I’m only sporadically paying attention to the Convention tonight, but I did just tune in to see Teddy Kennedy – He’s doing pretty well, but it just doesn’t have the energy of Clinton’s speech last night.

He’s getting warmed up now – good line: "They believe they can’t win unless the rest of us lose…We reject that shameful view".

Of course, my favorite part was the fact that he was introduced by Robert Caro, author of the best book I have ever read. I even saw him speak last year, and he signed my copy. Yes, it’s a book about municipal government, and yes, I’m just a really big dork (but so were the 300 other people packed into the Union Square Barnes & Noble, including Conan O’Brien, who was sitting directly behind me).

Back to Teddy…quoting a prayer by John Adams that hangs in the White House:

"’I pray heaven to bestow the best of blessings on this house and all that shall hereafter inhabit it.’ May none but the honest and wise ever rule under this roof." In November we will make those words ring true again!"

He’s on a roll now, listing out all of the things this administration makes us fear…including "fear of four more years of dreams denied and promises unfilled and progress rolled back!"

It seems like he’s hitting the crescendo now – this is getting good, so I’m just going to quote:

"The roots of that America are planted deep in New England soil… Across this region, are burial grounds. Many, so humble, you find them without intending to. You’re in a town like Concord, Massachusetts, or Hancock, New Hampshire. You’re visiting the old church there. and behind the chapel you find a small plot. Simple stones bearing simple markers. The markers say ‘War of 1776’. They do not ask for attention, but they command it, all the same. These are the patriots who won our freedom. These are the first Americans who enlisted in a fight for something larger than themselves. For a shared faith in the future. For a nation that was alive in their hearts, but not yet part of their world. They and their fellow patriots won their battle. But the larger battle for freedom and justice and equality and opportunity is our battle too. And it’s never fully won. Each new generation has to take up the cause. Sometimes with weapons in hand. Sometimes armed only with faith and hope, like the marches in Birmingham and Selma, four decades ago. Sometimes the fight is waged in Congress or the Courts. Sometimes on foreign shores like the battle that called one of my brothers to war in the Pacific and another to die in Europe. Now it is our turn to take up the cause. Our struggle is not with some monarch named George who inherited the crown, although it often seems that way [Heh], Our struggle is with the politics of fear and favoritism in our own time, in our own country. Our struggle, like so many others before, is with those who put their own narrow interest ahead of the public interest. We hear echoes of past battles in the quiet whisper of the sweetheart deal, in the hushed promise of a better break for the better connected. We hear them in the cries of the false patriots who bully dissenters into silence and submission. These are familiar fights. We fought and we won them before, and with John Kerry and John Edwards leading us, we will win them again and again and again and make America stronger at home and respected once more in the world.

For centuries kings ruled by what they claimed was divine right. They could not be questioned. They could not be challenged. The people’s fate was not there own. But today because of the surpassing wisdom of our founders, the constant courage of the patriots of the past and the shared sacrifice of generations of Americans who kept the faith, the power of America still rests securely in citizens’ hands. In OUR hands. True to our highest and noblest ideals, we intend to use that power. We will use it wisely and well. We will use it, in the poets’ words ‘My brothers love, to strive to seek to find, and not to yield.’ We will use it to heal, to build, to hope, and to dream again, and in doing so we will truly make our country, once more, America the Beautiful!"

Say what you will about the man, but he can still turn a phrase better than most.

I’m skipping Gephardt, but I might be back for Obama.

How come every time I take one of quizzes those quizzes that match you to a candidate, I keep coming up with Dennis Kucinich as my perfect match? I mean, he seems like a really nice guy, but I’m beginning to think that some of these surveys should ask the question "How important is it to you that the candidate you vote for has any chance in hell of winning?"