If you ever need to refer to me and my bf, Harold, as a couple, the name is Hairnet.

I can't believe I never thought to ask this question before. You know the joke about Republicans, "They support the death penalty but oppose abortion!" Harold said it the other day, and called it an indefensible ethical position. My question should have been "Do you oppose both or neither?"

I think there's a Serf City blog entry in here somewhere on the topic of Stand-Up Politics. Sometimes the joke is so good it obfuscates the point.

So I've put in two days of training and two shifts for the census as a questionnaire assistant. My coworker, Ewa (Polish, but so far not nearly as fun as last year's Polish coworker, Anna, at the tax office) and I sit at a Pathmark grocery store and watch people use the Coinstar machine. Saturday, one of the store employees who was sitting on our bench taking a break barked, "I don't want to fill that thing out, what's it for?" She was wearing a big white somewhat bloody butcher coat, literally festooned with union pins. Ewa started in with the script they want us to do, about all the federal largesse that's coming your way if you join in the fun and get counted. "That doesn't matter, where I live, the money all goes to the same people. The Jews." And I fell in love with her a little bit! ("Who does she think started her union?" Harold, who also promised me a cut of his Jew-money, asked later.) I took over and told her the constitutional reason we take the census is to keep the congressional districts properly apportioned. "What happens if I throw it away? Will I go to jail?" she asked. I told her she wouldn't go to jail, but if she didn't mail it back, they'll send her another one, and if she doesn't send that back, they'll send a person to her address to try to interview her, up to three times. "So if you want to waste as little tax money on the census as possible," I concluded, "mail the form back." And I didn't even have to suggest we might be sending over a Jew!