This is a Progressive Blogger Union entry.

Kevin Martin is replacing Michael Powell as the head of the FCC, raising the question of what is likely to change. It's a little early to tell, yet, but there are four major topics before him: indecency, deregulation, digital television, and voice over IP (VOIP), and one can at least look at his previous stances on these issues.

I've volunteered myself to attempting to write weekly on various topics in current events over at the Progressive Blogger Union. I've finished my first entry, but it won't be posted until tomorrow morning, to stay in sync with their schedule.

I'm not really sure that this sort of thing actually has any great value from the perspective of trying to push good analysis to the forefront; my experience has been that inviting a lot of people at random to talk or write about something generates a little bit of useful information buried in chaff (and whether or not I'm going to be in the "chaff" category myself remains to be seen, though I intend to skip a week's entry rather than write something abysmally useless). On the other hand, I've found myself a little out of touch with current events from time to time, and this should force me to at least pay attention once in a while.

The Middletown, Ohio Tax Superintendent has been suspended for a week for adding humor to tax instructions.

It may not be very professional, but I'd love to get official documents with things like this. It's perfectly true, and it had me laughing.

Digital camera, that is. I've just placed an order for a Canon 20D with the 17-85mm IS lens, a 75-300 IS lens, Speedlite 580 flash, 4GB Sandisk UltraII CompactFlash (and a cheap laptop PCMCIA converter), a batch of filters (to help compensate for purple fringing when the 17-85mm lens is wide open, I plan to leave a UV filter more or less permanently on it, except for ocean or sky shots, where I might switch out to a circular polarizer), filter converter (the 75-300 is a 58mm, and the 17-85 is a 67mm — I hope I can use the converter with the lens hood; if not, I'll have to order a second polarizer), battery grip, new camera bag, and basically most of the accessories listed on the Wiki entry I've been using to keep track of the gear I was interested in.

There is a fascinating article over at Talking Points comparing what Clinton was trying to do in his final years (shoring up Social Security) with what Bush is trying to do now (complete destruction of Social Security, to be replaced with stock market accounts). It is well-supported, and well worth a read.

I'm replacing my third Maxtor hard drive in six months (not including the external USB drives that keep collapsing at work), and I have my eye on two others that might be degrading. One of those is only a scratch disk, so I'm not really worried about it, but the other may need to be replaced soon just for peace of mind.

I went to see an allergist yesterday for a scratch test and some counseling. The scratch test came back so severe that even before they brought the doctor back to explain the results to me, they had rolled an epinephrine cart up to my door in case I went into anaphylactic shock (I didn't). I've been told that the times before that I've had a severe allergic food reaction and just waited it out, I've been lucky, and next time I might not be. If I want to reach old age, I'll be carrying an EpiPen on me for the rest of my life, it seems, to be replaced once per year even if not used, at a cost of $50 after insurance for a two-pack. Of course, there are prominent warnings that using the EpiPen incorrectly can kill me, too. I find myself wondering if I'm being scammed by the pharmaceutical industry, and whether or not I'm willing to risk death to find out. For the moment, the answer to the latter is taking the form of a small cylinder inside my inside left jacket pocket.

There's been a small storm of protest over CNN chief news executive Eason Jordan accusing the US military not only of killing 12 journalists, but doing it deliberately. That's the kind of statement that really requires a bit of preparation, so it's quite annoying that he seems to have bungled the job of defending something I suspect is true. Let's go over the list of reporters attacked by the US, and see how many could fit that description.

I found an interesting summary of the Joint Economic Committee Study titled Payroll Taxes and the Redistribution of Income. It's an interesting read, particularly since it notes that even under the current system, a $50,000 per year wage earner would get more out of simply saving the money that goes into Social Security than what is paid out at retirement. The break-even point appears to be somewhere around $20,000-$25,000, with anything above that being used to fuel payments to those that didn't make that much throughout their careers.

For those that have ever wanted to acclimatize themselves or their friends before their enemies have a chance to leave a real bloody warning, it is now possible to purchase your own stuffed horse's head pillow. It's actually kind of cute.