Using Quicken to look at last year's expenses, I have some $11k spent on purchases over $500 (or groups that total > $500). And this doesn't count my eBay purchases, which were for smaller, more discreet items. Taking into account the $5k from the car insurance, that is a bit more than the debt I had coming into this year. So obviously I need to contain those big purchases.

I actually don't see that as a problem. Last year I helped buy Chris a computer, there was the trip to Memphis, wedding present for the Appelclines, the CoolPix 990 and accessories, the new PowerBook, maybe one other thing. I don't anticipate any of those expenses this year. 2002 though, that could be a problem as I'll be replacing the PowerBook and maybe I'll go on a real trip.

Nightline just ran a week-long series about President Clinton's two terms of office. It was pretty interesting, using a lot of interviews from his former staff members. They have that material and more on a web site, which I'm slowly reading through. Although most people will remember Monica Lewinsky and his impeachment, he did accomplish many of the things he wanted to do when he first came to office in 1993.

No matter what I think (and I actually admire the man, he's been the President most of my adult life) about him or George Bush Jr or any other President personally, I respect the work they do. It's not an easy job and they try to do what they feel is right. Some nutcase ran a truck into the state capitol last night. As I was watching the video footage, which interrupted "Judging Amy", I was thinking that trying to assassinate the governor is a really heinous act to commit (not that we know yet why the man did it, he died in the crash).

Trying to assassinate the President or a governor is just an act of utmost disrespect to our government and way of life. You attack a leader and you're not just attacking the person, you're attacking the office and the people who put him there and the whole system of government. And that does make me a bit angry.

Last night's JAG episode was about a former Marine Staff Sergeant who was on trial in a civilian criminal case for assault. Including his Court Martial which drummed him out of the Corps years ago, this would be his third serious offense and would invoke a "three-strikes" law which would put him in jail for life. The whole point of the episode was that blindly applying that kind of law is wrong, as some people need other forms of help, not life imprisonment.

It's hard for me to say that "three-strikes" is wrong. You have to do multiple bad things before it goes into effect. Now, applying it across the board is probably not a good thing. I believe that our criminal justice system, run by people, does just fine. I'm willing to give police officers, judges, and attorneys leeway to pursue and convict criminals based on their judgement. The problem with trying to have a uniform code of law is that it doesn't apply equally fairly to everyone, and it doesn't solve all problems. Different offenders need different punishments. No complex formula of punishment to crime is going to be as good as human judgement.

Today I got car insurance because Saturday my mom is going to sign over the car to me. I got the insurance from Traveller's, which is affiliated with IEEE-USA. It's $1550 a year, quite a bit more than my previous insurance. But I do have a recent speeding ticket and a previous claim and I drive a lot. I really wanted to use AAA but my mom has the car insured with AAA and she of course neglected to tell them that the car is stored in Concord and driven by her son 100 miles a day. I can't really fault her for being the way she is, but I'm not going to deceive a big impersonal company just to save money. I try to be honest all the time, and frankly I do fail a lot, but I keep trying.