Speaking of the morning! Wee Oliver and I took a trip to Belleville Animal Hospital this morning, where I left him to be declawed. Animals have a strange sense of impending suffering. He knew that the vet was not a friendly place, that this was no ordinary tiny room with a steel table, and that all the attention was a little too focused on him. It's also funny to observe his reaction to things, because if he has control over a situation he's going to hiss and growl and (ex-)claw but if he has no control he just gives up and is a lump on the table. It is very odd but a microcosm of larger beings. We'll see what he does when it is time to go back into the carrier for the ride home tomorrow. At least his clawing power will be down by 50%.

Here's a topic that is sure to ruffle some tailfeathers: taxes. I'm a staunch believer in taxes, so much so that I think we should pay more. If that is what it takes to bring infrastructure up to grade level I'm all for it. If that is what it takes to educate students and simultaneously fairly compensate educators I'm all for it. If that is what it takes to set aside parks, go to space, and send up fireworks on the Fourth of July I'm all for it. The reason for this tirade is the condition of roads in southeast Michigan. There's a stretch of I-96 near Novi that is, no exaggeration, 70-80% pothole filler. The expansion joints have been filled so many times that there is no longer a car length in between them, so your ride (for 8-10 miles) is continuously dangerously bumpy. In econ we learn about negative externalities: costs incurred by things beyond your control. This is why taxes can go up; if we equate such negative externalities and taxes, things will be better. We are approaching the necessitation of a system like in (gasp) France wherein the highways are private. Sell the roads, bring on the tolls. The pavement will be as flat and smooth as crisp C-notes, and everyone will complain about the high cost of it all when in point of fact it is just a transfer from paying taxes (or don't, Willie Nelson the country singer) to paying tolls. Either way we need to see a couple long summers of orange cones around the mitten.

While my blood is pumping, a thought on politics and being politically correct. President Bush yesterday estimated that "say 30,000 more or less have died as a result of the initial incursion and the ongoing violence against Iraqis." Forget the outrageousness of this number for a second if you can and focus on the part about 'more or less.' I realize that nobody knows the body count, but everybody knows that nobody knows and 'more or less' trivializes the hell out of an unimaginable amount of suffering. This isn't an estimate of how much time is left on a parking meter, that margin of error is human life, which our leaders lack the appropriate sensitivity towards. (Still. See also 26 March 2004.)

Concluding this marathon post: a clip of messing about in boats gone slightly awry. The New Mackinaw in Grand Haven.