Black List

The Cat in the Hat - Dr. Seuss

The Daily Wire has a story about some nitwits trying to cancel Dr. Seuss. Normally I skip over stories like this because I think it's a fad and it won't be too long before the pendulum reaches its peak and then the backswing will begin and it will go through these idiots like a bowling ball through ten-pins, but this time I wanted to know just who these idiots are. I've been wading deeper into the swamp and some names just keep popping up. I'm not very good with names, and usually I don't care, it's usually some government stooly spouting nonsense. 

But now I'm starting to get irritated, there seems to be a problem with this country and maybe there is something I can do. I am not going to solve the problem, oh, I probably could if given the opportunity, but I lack the political skills / patience to deal with strangers. I can transact business at a store and even exchange civil comments with people. But I only really talk to my friends and my family. You meet someone and you spend time in close association with them and you get to know them a bit and sometimes you click, you have the same outlook and the same interests and you understand each other. And sometimes you don't. Sometimes the other person is fine from a civil standpoint, but your interests diverge, and you drift apart. And sometimes the other person has a different idea of what civil discourse is. If it gets bad enough you may find him offensive or even, god forbid, irritating, and we all know what an irritation will do to a person if it hangs around too long.

So, back to where I was a paragraph ago. I am not going to solve the problem, but maybe I can help. Well, the first thing an engineer does when confronted with a problem is to gather data, and I'm thinking I need a list of people so I can keep track of who's being an idiot and who's a running dog and who's dressed up as a hero.

Now it occurs to me every politician probably has such a list. Most of the local ones I expect keep it in their head. Once you get to the level where you start waging professional campaigns, such a list would go into a spreadsheet. Shoot now that I think about it, there are probably professional software packages for political campaigns. Of course there are.

Okay, but all their lists are private as far as I know, and I'm not sure I would want to start with somebody else's list. No telling what kind of useless information is in there. Oh, it's valuable to somebody, I'm sure, but I'm pretty sure it would be a distraction for me. A professional campaigner would keep it all, of course, you never know when some tidbit of information can give you a microscopic advantage over your opponent, or even one of your associates. 

So, no, I need to create my own list. I tried starting one the other day using a spreadsheet, but it's very tedious and time consuming. You need the first and last name, separated, their office and title, if any, political affiliation ranked from -10 to +10, the URL where they are mentioned and a few words about the issue at hand. So, what I want is a program that will scan a web page and pick out all the information, let me add a few words and then store it away. You know, something you can pull up with a right click. Don't turn it loose on the web whatever you do. You'll end up with terabytes of data that you won't be able to use.

Okay, another pie-in-the-sky project, and we know how those go. Right now I am up to my ears in remodeling the new house. Maybe we finish it this year. I hope.

Via Knuckledraggin My Life Away