I feel so…well…violated.

Along with a really cool comment from my sister-in-law (thanks, Marle!), I got my very first piece of useless-horseshit-helps-nobody-makes-no-money-wins-no-converts comment spam, an offer for a Nigerian-style “419” money scam.

As a result, I am reducing the maximum number of hyperlinks in a comment to zero. Any comment that includes a hyperlink will be deleted. Sorry folks, but it’s that or shut down commenting altogether…which I’ll probably end up doing next week anyway. 🙁

Margaret and I were listening to Marketplace on KUOW last night when we heard that The Governator, Mr. Arnold Schwarzenegger, is attending a trade mission to Japan on behalf of the State of California. Apparently, California exports about 12 billion dollars’ worth of stuff a year to Japan, mostly agricultural products. On the other hand, Japanese companies do not tend to build manufacturing plants in California, perferring instead to set up shop in the Southern states where regulations are much more lax. Arnie is trying to change that, attempting to convince Japanese auto manufacturer Toyota to build a new Prius plant in California.

The first thing that hit me upon hearing this announcement was: did the higher-ups in California government really think that the best person to convince Japan to build a hybrid automobile plant in their fine state would be the guy who owns at least seven Hummers?