Insane Punditry 101

I give up. Part II.

2006-01-30T16:32:00.000-06:00

Well, I guess that last post was invalidated by an outbreak of common sense by the US Senate. They voted to end debate and push for a vote tomorrow on Alito's confirmation and cloture was achieved, largely on party lines. So, the Democratic Base is appeased, Kerry and company come out looking like brave warriors defending whatever it is the far left cares about this week and it looks like Alito will be confirmed.

News hasn't broken on Kos yet. Their reaction should be well, suitably foamy.

Oh, there's a push to get Cindy Sheehan to run for Senate in California. If I were Dianne Feinstein, I might be worried. But of course, if Feinstein kicks her ass, that might send a signal to the far left that people who might be inclined to vote Democratic in California may be willing to go left- but not that far left.

That's all from the homefront for now. Thoughts on the State of the Union later in the week. Also, I think more on Hamas and their win, the state of the Liberal Democrats in the UK (my peeps!) and upcoming elections that interest me. (Costa Rica is next up for Latin America. Don't think that'll be too earth-shaking, apart from the potential confirmation that everyone south o'the border is turning left. Next big one, I think, is Peru. Then Colombia and Mexico. Brazil's later in the year.)

laters.

I give up.

2006-01-30T14:56:00.000-06:00

If I die of a stroke before I'm thirty, it will be the fault of the Democratic Party. I have decided this for any number of reasons, the least of which is the current 'let's all fall on the grenade together' manuever of trying to muster a filibuster of Alito. I have a number of problems with this:

1. It loses the Democrats momentum. They had the initiative, and I fear they are about to completely and totally piss it away. Consider the events of the past months: Republicans caught in corruption scandals, the war still dragging on, the government's lackluster and incompetent response to Hurricane Katrina. I mean, talk about a gift from heaven. It was a gift from heaven. It was several gifts! It was practically a plate of wings and a stripper dumped right in their laps! Now, and I do mean right now is the time for the Democrats to put together a hard hitting, coherent, easy to understand program of issues for the Midterm Elections. Think up a 'Contract With America' you guys, and run with it! Keep smacking the Republicans hard on corruption, fiscal irresponsibility and the morass of other issues that they're not doing a damn thing about (like health care, for instance. And oh, could please propose some Social Security reform while you're at it?) and you might have a decent shot in the fall. Do this filibuster idiocy and it will screw you seven ways to Sunday. It will unite the Republican base like that and give them back the one thing they're lacking right now: momentum.

2. Shameless political kow-towing: I don't like it when President Bush kow-tows to the far right wing of the Republican Party by jumping on the 'intelligent design' and 'let's ban gay marriage' bandwagon. It drives me nuts. The lunatic fringes of the American political spectrum should not, in any circumstances be in a position to force their definately out of the mainstream views down anyone's throats and that goes equally for the far right as well as the far left. (This is not to say that they can't have those views, far from it. They can say whatever the hell they want as far as I'm concerned, but by forcing the hands of either party, it essentially means that the rest of us get stuck with government by fringe minority. And that's not democratic at all.)

Kennedy started this lunacy because he can. Not like the people up there are gonna toss his ass out anytime soon. Kerry jumped onboard because he discovered a shiny new toy (the blogosphere) and wants the nomination in '08, (God help us all if he gets it.) Once Kerry was on board, that meant Hilary Clinton had to support it or risk the wrath of the loony left and so on and so forth.

Let me spell this out for everyone: the far right wins more votes that the far left in this country. Period. End of discussion. It's not going to work any other way, and yelling and screaming at the rest of the country is not going to make everyone become flower-powery and Socialistic anytime soon. So stop it.

The Democrats are becoming too narrow. The Republicans, for all their many faults have a very, very big tent, and they like everyone on their side of the spectrum inside the tent pissing out and not outside the tent pissing in (to paraphrase LBJ) in other words, Conservatism is a big tent concept now. They can appeal to hard right religious types, they can appeal to small government libertarian types they can appeal to moderate blue state types. They've got wide appeal. The Democrats, by allowing the Far Left to dictate their agenda risking narrowing their appeal. They are going to need moderate and independant voters to win anything and tying themselves to the Socialist wing of their party isn't going to do a damn thing to change that.

Some caveats:

Yes, I know the Democrats are ahead in all the polls. But ask youself why: is it because the Republicans are increasingly seen as corrupt jackasses? Or is it because the Democrats are winning the battle of ideas and persuading people that their ideas are better? I think it's the former rather than the latter. There's been no big idea from the Left that's caught my imagination recently. In order to entrench a liberal majority in D.C. they've got to win the battle of ideas, not just be prepared to assume the reins of power because people get tired of the other guy's screw ups.

I know this is about the whole 'Roe vs. Wade' thing, but I'm not as worried about that as other people are. For some people, it's the end all be all of how they vote. Not me. And I'll tell you why: overturning Roe hurts the Republicans more than it hurts the Democrats. Consider: the Republicans need the culture wars to get their base pissed off enough to vote. Overturn Roe, it's no longer a national issue and you risk a total fracture of the Republican base (libertarian types being pro-choice.) Get abortion overturned, and it becomes a state issue. So what does that leave the Republicans with? Oh yes, rising health care costs with an increasingly old population. Advantage: Democrats.

The undeniable fact of the matter is that by sticking with Roe until they die, it gives the Republicans huge advantages with their base. They can point fingers and call the Democrats baby killers in as many ways as they can think of and certain parts of their base just swoon with joy.

A Supreme Court seat, while important, isn't always a sure thing. Conservative jurists have, so far as I've seen, a great respect for precedent, and I think they'd be reluctant to overturn something that's been considered settled law and upheld time and time again for years now. Plus, once they're on the bench, they can do whatever the hell they want. Consider David Souter for example. The Right still has nightmares about that guy. Alito could be a liberal's best friend. We just don't know, and if you don't know, I don't think it's worth completely blowing your chances in the midterms over. This would be a serious blunder for the Democrats.

But, I think it's one that they're going to make anyway. So, I give up. I hated the two party system, so now I think I guess I'm going to have to hate the one party system. There's still time though, I could end up eating my words.

I'm not betting on it though.

To check out the nexus of the gang that's pushing the filibuster, go and browse the fascinating blog: DailyKos

Election Scorecard: Canada and Palestine

2006-01-26T08:46:00.000-06:00

I've got to run to class in about ten-fifteen minutes, so I'm going to have to make this a quick post, and for that I apologize deeply, because both of these subjects are quite fascinating. But, to the matter at hand: we've had a couple of more elections since I last posted, so I thought I'd update y'all on both of them.

Canada: Everyone probably knows this already, but Canada, our northern neighbor took a right turn and handed the Conservative Party and it's leader Steven Harper a minority government to work with. The final tally of seats and vote share percentages from the CBC:

Conservative: 124 seats, 36.25%
Liberal: 103 seats, 30.22%
NDP: 29 seats, 17.49%
Bloc Quebecois: 51 seats, 10.48% o
Green: None!
Independent: 1 seat.

Basically, my post-mortem, as well as every other pundit in the Western Hemisphere is this: corrupt, scandal ridden Liberal government that had been around for nearly a decade and a half finally just got too corrupt, too scandal ridden and too damn exhausted for Canadian voters to put up with. Hence the change. But, it should be noted that this is a Conservative minority government! There may be Canadian Conservatives that dream of advancing bigger social agendas, but they have constraints upon them. Harper and company should tread carefully, which they probably will, but if they stick to the whole 'let's clean things up a bit' platform they ran on, they should be fine.

Palestine: Well, this is the shock of the morning, though I have no real idea as to why. Palestinians voted in their first parliamentary elections in about a decade yesterday and although last night there were Fatah members who were saying that they had managed to hold a slim majority on the legislative council, when the smoke cleared, this was not so! Hamas stunned everyone by securing upwards of 70-80 seats in the 132 members legislative council and everyone seems to be completely agog over what happens next. Palestinian Prime Minister Ahmed Qurei and his cabinet have already resigned.

I don't know why people are surprised though. Let's look at some facts: 1. Fatah is hopelessly corrupt. We have all known this for a very long time now. Arafat and his cronies siphoned off international aid that was supposed to be going to refugees, blah blah blah. It's been a long standing complaint of everyone for years now. 2. Hamas, despite the attempts of the International community to paint it otherwise does have a political wing. And that political wing does do social welfare projects. I took a class on the Israeli-Palestinian conflict a few semesters back and the prof (who'd been to the area repeatedly) told us the same story: aid organizations, if they really wanted to get the stuff where it needed to go, wouldn't go to Fatah. No way, because then it would end up in someone's pocket- no, they would go to Hamas, because at least then they would know that the aid would get to the people it was going to help.

So, we have a hopelessly corrupt ruling party and a party that has won broad popular support not only because it blows shit up but because it you know, feeds the people as well. Hamas seemed like a viable option and alternative this time, so Fatah and it's corruption gets the big ol'middle finger from the voters. We should have all seen this coming a mile and a half away.

Why this is a good thing:

Hamas wasn't expecting to get this much support. Now they actually have to govern and that's where things get interesting. It's one thing to hand out food aid and blow shit up to win support, it's quite another to be responsible for everyone's needs and developing the infrastructure of a future Palestinian state. They have to keep everyone happy now, and it's going to be interesting to see if they are up to the challenge. They may not recognize Israel, but polls show that Palestinians support the two state solution, so now they're going to have to reconcile those two notions together some how.

It gives them legitimacy. This is also a bad thing, but look what happened with the PLO and the IRA. As soon as they were brought down from the trees and governments started talking to them, it defanged them somewhat. Everyone on the radio this morning was pretty much saying the same thing: now that they're in charge, Hamas is going to have to take a long, hard look at it's position on Israel and probably change it if they want to get anywhere at all.

It's Democracy: By all accounts, this election was free and fair and both sides played by the rules. This is a refreshing change from times past where things usually were stacked in favor of the Fatah Movement so Arafat's power wasn't weakened in any way possible. All in all, I think holding free, democratic elections is a very good thing, no matter who does it. As long as all sides continue to play by the rules of the game, then we should all quietly cheer, despite the complications of having Hamas in charge.

Why this is a bad thing:

Nothing may change. In fact, things may get worse. Hamas could stick to it's guns, began a radical transformation of Palestinian society and pushing towards a more fundamentalist Islamic state which is what they're kind of aiming for, I guess. The ceasefire could break down and then it could all very easily go to hell in a handbasket. Everyone is holding their breath to see what happens next.

It gives them legitimacy: OK, this is also potentially a good thing, but they have to evolve to make it work. They cannot stick to their 'let's push the Jews into the sea' routine and expect the International community to support them. If they try to, then the Peace Process is dead in the water and that's that. We could be potentially looking at a Palestinian State run by a terrorist group that refuses to renounce the use of violence. Not a recipie for love and happiness in the region.

What everyone else should do: OK, it's very simple here. Hamas needs to: a. Renounce the use of violence. and b. Recognize the right of the state of Israel to exist. If they can do those two things to the satisfaction of the international community and Israel, then why not talk to them? And before anyone gets on their 'we don't negotiate with terrorists' horse, remember this: Arafat wasn't just some random guy they found on the street in a khuffiya- no, he was the head of the PLO and organization that most of the rest of the world considered to be a terrorist organization! Israel and the world have done this before, and provided Hamas comes down out the trees a bit and follows the two main conditions set above, then they should give them a shot and see what happens.

And I ran... I ran so far... away!

2006-01-20T17:14:00.000-06:00

I forgot to add: Iran.

This is fast becoming the crisis of the New Year, and I've seen all kinds of things out there that are well worth reading if you want to keep up on what's going on and the really gloomy things that people are predicting. Despite the apparent push by the Western Powers to send this down the UN for another six rounds of 'should we or shouldn't we' push sanctions, I am thinking (based on what I've read) the following:

1. This thing is probably going to get much, much, worse before it gets better.
2. I wouldn't be surprised if we, Israel, NATO, or any combination of people launch airstrikes on Iran this year.

Now, some caveats: this particular equation was greatly upset by Arial Sharon's sudden stroke a couple of weeks back. With him out of the picture, the potential for Israeli military action has been pushed back until at least after their elections, I think. I could be totally wrong on that of course, but there are diplomatic avenues that can still be pursued, and so far, Israel's been willing to play that game. They may want a bit more stability, politically speaking before they risk any potential for a unilateral strike on Tehran.

The problem is that from what I've read, there are no good options for anyone here.

But, the latest news is that Iran is transferring assets out of Europe to cushion their economy against possible sanctions. I've got some more thoughts (depressing ones) over here, and some slightly less gloomy ones over here. If you want to take a peak at some regularly updated links and info on a blog, try this one here.

I'm back and I'm never leaving again!

2006-01-20T15:32:00.000-06:00

I'm back and I'm never leaving again, I swear! Consider this the first post of the new semester and the new year, and man oh man oh man, people, I got a lot of news to update on.

Election Scorecard: We have a buncha and a half of elections to update on, the most recent being the Presidential election in Chile. Michelle Bachalet, Socialist member of the center-left coalition Concertacion won with 53% of the vote to become Chile's first elected female leader. But that's not all, for those of you not watching at home, which I'm going to assume is a lot of you, we've had the following:

Honduras saw the election of Manuel Zelaya from the Opposition Liberal Party. Another victory for the left.

Bolivia finally got the leftist Firebrand of leftist Firebrands Evo Morales elected.

Latin America is going to have a very busy year at the polls. Key elections to watch out for: in Mexico, the battle to replace Vicente Fox is probably going to start to heat up soon and in Brazil, we'll have to see if President Da Silva can manage to get himself re-elected.

So, everything south of the Rio Grande seems to be taking a left turn- but, north of the border, it seems like the Canadians have totally flipped. I know I called a status quo, things not changing much type of situation, when last I blogged, but things have totally flipped now.

The Conservatives under leader Steven Harper have a commanding, 9 point lead in the polls in the run-up to next weeks election. The latest poll breakdown:

Conservatives: 37%
Liberals: 28%
NDP: 16%
Bloc Quebecois: 12%
Green: 7%
Undecided: 15%

these numbers are from the CBC, with a margin of error of +/-3%. This is quite the turnaround from where we were heading going into Christmas. Basically, from what I can tell, around New Year's, everyone just suddenly got sick and tired of the Liberals the numbers began to trend right in a big way. Some caveats though: the Liberals could go into coalition (theoretically) with the left-leaning, ideologically similar NDP- or at least court them for support, so even if the Conservatives get the majority of seats, we'll be looking at a coalition situation of some kind. And, also, there are lots of undecideds still left. Gotta see how they swing too.

Iraq: The Shi'ites have stormed to power in the Iraqi elections, with the final results finally being released just today. The U.S. is pushing hard for the formation of a National Unity government, so don't expect any official announcement on who's running what for awhile. They've got at least 10 rounds of negotiations to go. Check out the final numbers and some analysis over at Iraq the Model (a pretty informative blog, I've discovered.)

Weah-ry at last...

2005-12-21T13:42:00.000-06:00

Some good news from Liberia. Everyone can take a nice deep breath and relax. Former Presidential Candidate and Soccer God George Weah has dropped his fraud claims in regards to their Presidential elections. This will allow Ellen Sirleaf-Johnson to become Africa's first elected female head of state without any potential conflicts hanging over her head.

I'm glad Weah dropped this, because quite frankly, he took it a little too far to begin with in my book. I'm all for ensuring free and fair elections- but the key sticking point on making peace in Liberia work is holding elections where the losers gracefully accept defeat. OK, so if you have evidence of real fraud, check it out. Run it through the wringer a couple of times. But it shouldn't have taken this long for him to concede- not that he is, per say, according to the article. He's just magnanimously letting Liberia get on with business.

Well, whatever. It's a good thing. One mountain climbed- I don't know how many more to go.

Oh, and Elton John got hitched.

Year End Review: Movies

2005-12-21T13:41:00.000-06:00

Everyone's been talking about what a crappy year Hollywood has been having, and I'd have to agree- but only up to a point. I thought that the summer movie season was a bit blah, and there were not huge amounts of movies knocking on my door demanding to be seen. There were however, some that just were not worth missing at all:

Top 10 Movies of 2005

1. Serenity: Only the most anticipated movie of the year for me personally. Firefly was one of those television shows that I just quickly fell in love with, and of course, because it was on Fox and Fox in its wisdom usually cancels that shows that are really good, it got canned. But, they brought it back as a movie! I was so pumped! And this movie totally lived up to my expectations. The story was advanced- with twists, turns and unexpected tragedy popping up all over the place. An eminently worthy big screen successor to a great television show. If you haven't seen this movie you should. And if you've never heard of Firefly, go out and rent it, buy it or borrow it from a friend. Both are worth seeing.

2. The Upside of Anger: This was a random choice at the time, but I was surprised at how funny, touching and well, good this movie was. Joan Allen is fantastic as a woman scorned- and I don't think I have ever been as impressed with Kevin Costner as I was in this movie. He was fantastic. And it's been awhile since I (or many people for that matter) have been able to say that.

3. Harry Potter and the Goblet Fire: Well duh, this was going to be on the list. I was impressed with this movie, but I had some issues with it as well. Mike Newell is to be commended for working with longtime Harry Potter screenwriter Steve Kloves to boil down a very dense book into a taut, fast, fantasy thrill ride that moved a long at a very brisk clip. I thought the beginning was a little jerky- but once the movie settled down the thing just rocked out and did so very hard. Ralph Fiennes as Lord Voldemort was an absolutely inspired choice. Like the Godfather of Soul, he is Super-Bad. (Though unlike James Brown, he is sans soul.)

4. The Lion, The Witch and The Wardrobe: Another highly anticipated movie for me that failed to disappoint. I grew up with Lord of the Rings and they rocked and I grew up with Narnia and the first of what I'm devoutly hoping will be many Narnia films was just fantastic. The acting, the story- including the bits that I had long since forgotten about all came rushing back to me the first time I sat and watched this film. It was, quite literally, like watching a piece of my childhood come to life. Tilda Swinton was dripping evil as The White Witch and although I was somewhat doubtful about Liam Neeson as the voice of Aslan he won me over within like a minute. I want more of these movies. Lots more. (Prince Caspian, The Voyage of the Dawn Treader and The Horse and His Boy. Please!!!!)

5. Good Night, and Good Luck: Fed the inner nerd in me quite nicely. Plus, I think it made a far more salient point about today's politics than Michael Moore's excremental 'Farenheit 911' (not that I have anything against Moore's views personally. Hell, I agree with some of them. I just can't stand movies that make slipshod, ill-thought out arguements and F911 was one of them.) Anyway, Good Night, and Good Luck was awesome. Putting it in black and white was a wise choice- keeping it confined pretty much to the CBS News Studios was also a wise choice. Another very wise choice was having McCarthy only be seen in actual news footage. Casting an actor to play the guy would have undermined the movie. Watching and listening to McCarthy himself made it much more powerful. One of the year's best.

6. Batman Begins: The Dark Knight returned with a vengeance. A trip back to the more old-school darkness of Batman and a welcome step away from the campy colorful surrealism which made for an interesting initial departure (Batman Forever) but soon went completely and totally overboard (Batman and Robin). Christian Bale is fantastic... Liam Neeson and Cillian Murphy were great bad guys. All in all, this is probably the best Batman I have ever seen.

7. The Hitch-Hiker's Guide to The Galaxy: I love these books. I love the BBC radio series. And I love the movie. People kind of knocked it for departing from the original radio show and books for a bit, but from what I understand, Adams tweaked with things over time. So, the radio series is a little bit different than the book, the tv show different than... and so on and so forth. So that didn't bother me too much. I think they upped the love story a little too much, but despite that, it was still an awesome movie. In the current time of nonsense we live in, what more sensible advice could there be than: Don't Panic!

8. Crash: I didn't actually go and see this at the movie theater, but this has to be one of the more amazing films I've ever seen- certainly one of the best I saw this year. Race relations are still a touchy issue in this country and this movie confronted them head on in an almost brutal fashion. The acting was top notch, the story visceral, but this was a movie that you just couldn't take your eyes off of.

9. Kingdom of Heaven: This movie totally got a bum rap in my book. I found it engrossing. Everyone thought Orlando Bloom was shit in this movie. I found him tolerable- but Edward Norton, Jeremy Irons and the rest overshadowed him quite nicely and more importantly made this movie work. Plus, who can forget Saladin's response when asked what Jerusalem was worth: "Nothing..." he replied. "and everything." I really should buy this movie- when I get some more cash... I'm not even sure if I asked for it on my Christmas list. If I didn't, then I should have.

10. Shopgirl: A recent view of mine, I found it to be a nicely somber movie, but one that proved to have something of a happy ending. Steve Martin does a nice job in this movie- Clare Danes is frankly luminous and the story is suitably tragically draped in reality. I found it to be good- but sad in a way as well. Plus, for some reason the music kept creeping out to hit me in the face. It was good. Beyond good. I expected something truly tragic to come about, just on the basis of the music alone. But this movie is definately worth going to see.

Honorable Mentions:
Dukes of Hazzard
Wedding Crashers
Kiss Kiss Bang Bang

Also, keep in mind that there are tons more movies coming out that I want to go and see- I'll post reviews on them when I can. (Expect reviews of The Lion, The Witch and the Wardrobe, Shopgirl, and King-King in the near future. You can probably throw Munich and Rent in there as well.)

But, that aside- these were the movies that I dug in a big way this year. They were all good in their own, unique way- although some you had to be in the right mood for, but all in all, despite the bad news for Hollywood this year, there were plenty of gems hidden away in this rather lackluster year. At least from where I'm sitting, that is.

Monday Morning Musings

2005-12-19T11:03:00.000-06:00

Well, we've just had another fire alarm. We seem to be plagued with them here at the Museum of Art, probably due to the new system of smokeheads we had installed during the last major renovation of the place. Now we have like super-sensitive laser based smoke detectors, which go off at the drop of a hat. I honestly think that the Fire Department is going to start giving us frequent flyer miles one of these days...

There are some things in the news worth mentioning:

John Spencer: This was an extremely sad bit of news from last week. John Spencer, longtime actor on 'The West Wing' died last Friday of a heart attack. I've been a fan of 'The West Wing' for a very long time, and Spencer's character of Leo has always been one of my favorites- he was an absolutely brilliant actor, who wholeheartedly deserved his Emmy in 2002. The sad irony of his character being a recovering alcoholic who had a heart attack and then recovered to become a Vice-Presidential candidate makes his death especially sad. His death leaves a big hole in the cast of 'The West Wing' and I honestly haven't heard yet what adjustments they'll make for the rest of the season. I am hoping, however, as I have been hoping for a long time that they decide to take a final bow and go out on top.

Tanzania's New President: Elections were held in Tanzania to select a sucessor to two-term President Benjamin Mkapa and Jakaya Kikwete seems to have won with 80.2% of the vote. Kikwete, currently Foreign Minister under President Mkapa also seems to be set to take the job with an outright majority for his CCM Party in Parliament.

Bolivia's New President: Latin America continues to sharpen and define it's political left turn, as exit polls from Bolivia seem to indicate that longtime Leftist Firebrand Evo Morales has won, perhaps an outright victory in Bolivia's Presidential election. Bolvia's had quite a bit of turmoil to deal with in recent years- and Morales looks like he's going to be good buddies with Chavez in Venezuela more than Bush in D.C. so definately not the bestest of news for the U.S. Some reaction from Publius- you can just follow their links to more blog reaction and info if you want.

Sharon's Stroke: Israeli Prime Minister Arial Sharon suffered a mild stroke Sunday afternoon, was rushed to hospital and is, apparently fine- his speech was only slightly affected or so the Doctors say. At age 77, Sharon is obviously not as young as he once was, and this stroke, however mild will probably make his health a major issue in the upcoming Israeli elections.

Canada Poll Update:
Liberals: 34%
Conservatives: 29%
NDP: 19%
BQ: 13%
Green: 5%
Undecided: 13%
--12/18/2005 Poll conducted by Strategic Counsel for Globe and Mail-CTV News: margin of error +/-2.5%

Hmmm, well the gap between the Conservatives and the Liberals seems to have narrowed somewhat. Whether it will continue to narrow remains to be seen. The Conservatives need to break 30% and get some more momentum going- the Liberals, in fact everyone needs to hope that a majority of the Undecided voters (still a pretty big-ass chunk at this point) breaks their way. But, it's not even halftime yet and we've still got a ways to go. But we do have movement.

That's all for now. I await the delivery of my lunch...

Year End Review: Music

2005-12-16T07:53:00.000-06:00

This year has been something of a busy musical year for me. I've discovered all kinds of fascinating new groups that have been around for ages, but had, until this year, failed to pop-up on my radar. So, if I wax lyrical about some band that's been an integral part of your CD collection for years, please forgive me. I was adventurous this year and discovered a lot of good music because of it.

That said, here are my top 10 albums/bands/musicians of 2005:

1. Death Cab for Cutie- Plans: I was atrociously late finding DCFC, but I'm glad I showed up to the party so to speak, rather than not showing up at all. I do have both 'Transatlanticism' and 'Plans' now, as I fell head over heels in love with these guys- albeit in a manly, platonic kind of way. Their music is lyrical and melodic and perfectly suited for any number of my moods, ranging from angsty to out and out depressed and even back to the mildly happy. Their lyrics are fantabulous beyond belief- so well written and most of them are very, very poignant. Sort of mournful, but excellent stuff. Tom says: Very, very hot.

2. Fall Out Boy- From Under the Cork Tree: The now ubiquitous top 40 hit, 'Sugar I'm Going Down' sucked me into the phenomenon that is Fall Out Boy and so far it hasn't let me go. These guys are a little less mellow than DCFC- in other words, they're not afraid to be loud- and once again, their lyrics are fantastic. Any band with a song named: 'Our Lawyer Made Us Change The Name of This Song So We Wouldn't Get Sued' has got to be cool. Tom says: uber-HOT!

3. The Futureheads- The Futureheads: My cousin, Em, (big shout out to any readers who go to Nottingham University. Woo-woo, go Fighting... Notts? I guess?) flung me into a world of indy punk hard rockin' bands that just plain kick ass. She hasn't steered me wrong yet- and The Futureheads were a band that only confirmed my opinion that she has excellent taste in music. Hailing from Sunderland in the UK (so they sing with waaaaaay cool accents), these guys rock out majorly with wicked guitar hooks and you know... loud indy rock music. Worth a peek- plus, they have a cover of the Kate Bush song 'Hounds of Love' that everyone needs to go and download right now. I'm serious, peeps. Get to it! Tom says: Hot as you can get.

4. Franz Ferdinand- You Could Have It So Much Better: Franz Ferdinand oh so totally beats the dreaded sophomore slump in style. More of what you peeps should have grooved on with their first album and then some. The title track kicks ass, 'The Fallen' has some wicked hooks and 'Do You Want To' is probably the first serious attempt at a punk-dance track that's actually worked. Tom says: Oh yeah, bay-bee!

5. Coldplay- X & Y: Always has rocked my face off. Period. End of discussion- however, they followed up 'A Rush of Blood To The Head' with such gems as 'Speed of Sound,' 'White Shadows', and 'Talk,' all of which made this album totally worth it. Tom says: So cold, it's HOT!

6. Kaiser Chiefs- Employment: Another reccomendation from cousin Em that panned out well. My last, end of the summer purchase which proved to be a happy one. Who couldn't love such songs as: I Predict A Riot, Everyday I Love You Less and Less and Oh My God. Seriously, these guys rock hard- and even if you're an old geezer who hasn't listened to anything new and rockin' since Bon Jovi released 'Slippery When Wet' you will have to admit that these guys can rock- and in a good way. Tom says: Hot.

7. Depeche Mode- Playing the Angel: The last of my specific albums- Depeche Mode has always been one of my all time favorite bands period- and this new album of there's marks something of a return to form for them. Don't get me wrong- the sort of slow, cool acoustic grooves of 'Dream On' were cool, but it's nice to get the old D-Mode with the heavy industrial techno type sound back. Way cool stuff, even if you have no idea who these guys are. I reccomend highly: Tom says- very, very HOT.

8. Pixies: My cousin's favorite band and one I have to admit I was happy to discover. Hard core post-punk (if they can be defined as post punk. I'm sure some music nut is going to correct me on that.) they rock hard and have vicious hooks (Debaser) and fun lyrics (Gouge Away, Wave of Mutilation) that generally make them the perfect music to listen to if you've had a shitty day and are pissed off at the world. Tom says: Cool- and hot at the same time.

9. Fiona Apple: I've been vaguely aware of Fiona for quite some time now- but it wasn't until this year with her new album that my love affair really took off. That, combined with the fact that I was informed that a love of Fiona would raise my potential for getting laid on a regular basis in a big way and that it was 'hot' made me explore her music even more. 'Extraordinary Machine' probably ranks as one of the top albums of the year- and her second album 'When the Pawn' is worth checking out as well. In general, she's worth checking out. And you should. Tom says: Hot, but in an angry way.

10. Flogging Molly: A very late addition that came out of the festivities of finals week combined with Steven King's (yes, that Steven King) latest column in Entertainment Weekly. I had heard of these guys, but I had never actually bothered to listen to any of their stuff. After Steven King had one of their singles as one of his 'Picks of the Year' and after I had been subjected to an incredulous stare of disbelief when I revealed I had none of their stuff on my computer, I decided that an investigation was in order. And man oh man, did I like what I heard. Where, I thought, has this band been all my life? Traditional Irish music fused with Rock n'Roll/punk? Probably the coolest thing I've ever heard... Tom says: Check them out. Now. At the very least, they'll liven up your St. Paddy's Day party next year.

So there you have it. My picks for the year in music. Probably fairly unimpressive, I know, but there they are.

Year End Review: The Democrats

2005-12-14T13:46:00.000-06:00

It's that time of year, so I'm going to start going back and forth in between the worlds of pop culture and international and domestic politics and start dishing out my reviews on just hot various things actually were. It's basically a sort of 'are you hot or not' for the entire year. Or at least as much of it as I can blog before the year actually ends.

First up, the Democrats.

I'll be honest with ya, peeps. I'm not a fan of the two party state on the best of days. I just think there's something almost restrictive about it- and this country especially... democracy should be fast, raw, raucous and vigorous- and I've never brought into the notion that only two parties can perfectly represent a country as big as this.

However, the Democrats are just pissing me off. They've been pissing me off for quite awhile, but lately, it's taken something of an upswing. Like I said, the two party system does not ring my bells or get me all hot and flustered- quite the opposite. However much of a detractor of two parties I am, however, moving towards a de-facto one party state pleases me even less.

I'm going to have to try very hard to do this without having a psychotic episode and throwing the roomie's laptop across the room. (I'm blogging on his laptop currently.) But, this is pretty much my views on what the Democrats are doing wrong and what they should be doing in the future:

1. The War: This isn't really a problem for the Democrats. There is a large chunk of the electorate that is either against or very concerned about our progress or lack thereof in Iraq, and it's a valid point of view that should be represented in our political system. However, their opposition to the war needs to be fine-tuned a bit, so it can be more effective. First and foremost, no more kneejerking 'Bush Lied, People Died' and 'No Blood For Oil' schtick. It doesn't work. When you do that, you pander to the crazy left, which is just as bad as the GOP pandering to the crazy right- you can oppose the war in a sensible way that could, theoretically score you some political points.

So, step one, stop pandering to the crazy left already. It's annoying. I hate them, and I'm not die-hard, dyed in the wool Conservative. (If you think I'm being rough on you guys, you wait until I get to the GOP, hehehehe...)

Step Two: STOP TALKING ABOUT PRE-WAR Intelligence!!!!! No one, and I do mean no one cares. It's the wrong thing to focus on- we're in this mess, and we're there- we don't care how we got there, we want to know what you, as the Democratic Party are going to do to extricate us from this ideological orgasm that the Republicans had over the thought of spreading American democracy throughout the Middle East. Tell us how we're getting out and stop obsessing about how we got there.

Step Three: Don't mention Vietnam anymore, please. Firstly, let me say very clearly: I respect people who fought in Vietnam- their sacrifice and service deserves to be honored, and I would not have any qualms about shaking the hand of a Vietnam Vet and thank him for serving his country. That said, I could care less what any Democratic Politician did or did not do in Vietnam. (John Kerry, I'm looking at you, man! So pay attention!) I want to know what you're going to do for me tomorrow- how you're going to save my Social Security and my Medicare. So you drove a boat up the Mekong a few decades back. Congratulations. You and how many other American soldiers were there?

So yeah. No more Vietnam vets who can't get over the fact they were in Vietnam. Leading on from this is the whole Vietnam quagmire, so Iraq automatically is quagmire thing. I do think there is a very large demographic in the Democratic Party that can't really let go of the fact that thirty years ago, they all had flowers in their hair, smoked a lot of pot, and sat around in drum circles singing Kumbaya. That war was that war and this war is this war. Things (including your opposition) should be different now.

OK, so that's your war problem out of the way. Now we get onto a few other bits and bobs. First of all, I think we need a good does of pragmatism in our politics and you can provide that- we need to have you guys step away from being the 'anti-Bush' party and towards being an actual focused, razor sharp, opposition party. This means you need to start proposing your own ideas and set your own agenda in simple, easy to understand terms that you can sell to the American people. In other words, I am convinced that you people need your own 'Contract With America.'

But we are doing things, Tom. We're fighting the good fight and all that jazz. Ok- but the Republicans proposed Social Security reform- which you know damn well we need and you guys just said No. That's all you said. I'm sick and tired of hearing 'No' from the Democratic Party. I want to hear, 'No, and here's our idea and here's why it's better.' That's what I want to hear.

So, solve your war problem, focus your agenda a bit- and start exploiting the cracks in the Republican base already. Stop, take a deep breath and use your heads a bit. You people should be nailing Bush and co. to the wall on spending. What happened to fiscal discipline? What happened to the balanced budget? Our debt is increasingly be found in the hands of foreign countries- and that has national security implications. Hit hard on spending and things other than the war.

Overall, I'd say things are not completely hopeless for the Democratic Party. They had a good couple of months awhile back, but it seems that the GOP is slowly making a comeback- but the Democrats can and do have the potential to mount a comeback- they just need to make some adjustments. We're starting to head towards the second half and maybe then need shake up the playbook a bit.

Oh, and for the love of GOD! Hire someone to stand behind Howard Dean with a 2 x 4. Everytime he says something incredibly stupid and dumb that's going to give the GOP I don't know how much in fundraising and ads, hit in the back of the head with it. Hard.

My Final Verdict: Blah. Have the potential to be both hot and not in the coming year and are in something of a funk at the present time.

O, Canada!

2005-12-13T15:49:00.000-06:00

I think I've mentioned this before, but Canada is set to have an election next month, and as it's pretty much par for the course that we down here in the sunny, balmy south (so to speak) don't know jack about Canada (myself included) I thought I would do some digging and at least set out the basics on who's who, what's what and just what the hell these crazy Canadians are doing having an election in the middle of winter anyway.

I know the cardinal rule of blogging is to use a spectacular spectrum of all kinds of eye-catching, sexy sources, but I'm just out for the basic information here- I could give a damn about people's opinion of the candidates and parties- that comes for later posts, this post is 'just the facts, ma'am' and as such, I went to a source that has all the info bundled up in one, easy to get place: the fine folks at the Canadian Broadcasting System.

So without further ado, I give you: Canada

The Info:

The Liberals:
--Leader: Paul Martin, Current Prime Minister

Alignment: Center Left
Number of Seats Held: 135 out of 308 seats in Canadian House of Commons
The Lowdown: These guys are pretty much the dominant party in Canadian politics and have been enjoying a pretty long 12 year stretch in charge of the place for quite some time now, mainly under the leadership of now ex-Prime Minister Jean Chretien- and now under his successor, Paul Martin. They've hit some rocky spots, however: first of all was a major storm of corruption (see below) that severely damaged their standings in the polls and left them running a minority government after elections this past June. So, the Liberals have kept limping along, striking a more conciliatory tone on the big issues and relying on the opposition parties to get work done. They brought the NDP (next up on our list!) in by promising to spend more money on New Democratic Priorities- and for about six months or so that worked. However, Prime Minister Paul Martin promised to call an election within 30 days of the final report on the corruption scandal, however, the opposition parties banded together to move that date forward, thus plunging Canada into it's current electoral brouhaha.

The New Democrats:
--Leader: Jack Layton

Alignment: Left
Number of Seats Held: 19 out of 308 seats in the Canadian House of Commons
The Lowdown: A solidly leftist party, the New Democrats have something of a Socialist flavor, being reluctant supporters of the Liberal Government and yet feeling that they haven't gone far enough. Job creation, de-criminalization of marijuana and improving the health care system are all big issues for this party- recently, their support got the Liberal Government's budget through the House of Commons, with an extra $4.6 billion added for NDP priorities. Yet they broke with the Liberals to force an election.

The Bloc Quebecois:
--Leader: Gilles Duceppe

Alignment: Sovreignty of Quebec
Number of Seats Held: 53 out of 308 seats in the Canadian House of Commons
The Lowdown: Pretty simple to explain: they want out of Canada and as soon as they can possibly manage it. Failing that, they're basically around to push Quebec's interests on the federal level- on fiscal matters, they're all about keeping as much money as they can handle under local control- and interestingly enough, they're advocates for a common currency of the Americas, which I didn't know.

The Conservatives:
--Leader: Steven Harper

Alignment: Right
Number of Seats Held: 99 out of 308 seats in the Canadian House of Commons (Official Opposition Party)
The Lowdown: Well, as you might expect, these guys are Conservative- and if any of this stuff sounds familiar to us down here in America, there's probably a reason for it. They push strongly for individual rights and responsibilities- free from governmental interference- fiscally, they're all about tax cuts, tough on crime, want to look at more local and private control for the Health Care system up there. (Sound like anyone we know? Or, rather, used to know?)

The Issues:
I'm not going to break down the whole chart of issues and all that jazz- if you really want to know that, you can go here and check this out- and see who you would vote for if you were in Canada, or something like that, I suppose. I will however, touch on this corruption thing and the perennial headaches of Quebec and The West.

The Corruption Scandal was basically this: the Liberal Government hired advertising firms (a few years back) to run campaigns, using pro-Liberal ad agencies, and then somehow no work got done and an awful lot of money got re-routed back into Liberal Party coffers. A big no-no. Anyway, they appointed a Judge, John Gomery to look into this mess and if you want to know more, here's his report.

Quebec and The West: Quebec's always been something of a sticky wicket in Canadian politics, as they're pretty blunt in their desire to get the hell out as fast as they can- last time they held a referendum on the issue was in 1995, and it came very close to passing (50.6% to 49.4%). However, that was the second rejection of independence for Quebec by Quebekers, the first being in 1980 by a 60-40 margin, and it sounds like the pro-Independance folks up there aren't going to go for a third try unless they're sure they've got a home run in the bag. But, the beast is stirring again, so we may see another referendum attempt in the next couple of years. The West too has been an issue in Canadian politics- but it's more of a mild headache than serious threat to Canadian stability- at least in the short term. Basically, the Western Provinces (British Columbia, Alberta, Saskatchewan) don't like Ontario. They think that they have all the natural resources (which they do) and they should get a wee bit more control, money and respect for that. Instead, the general feeling is that they get continually shafted by the Federal Government in Ottawa. It's probably not going to be much of an issue in the election, but it's a long-standing gripe that has the potential (maybe) over the long term to morph into a Western twin to Quebec's eastern desire to get the hell out, as it were.

Current Polls and Prediction as of today:
Liberals: 36%
Conservatives: 27%
NDP: 17%
BQ: 14%
Green: 4%
Undecided: 14%
**Poll from 12/9-12/11, +/-3.1 percentage points

Prediction: No real change. I know it's still kind of early on in the game- we're only heading into week 3, and according to this poll, anyway, there are a pretty decent amount of undecided voters out there who are potentially up for grabs. Whichever party can get the majority of those folks to break for them could see some gains- or losses. But, the main opposition party, the Conservatives just aren't gaining any traction against the Liberals. Right out of the starting gate they were pretty strong, but now the air appears to have been let out of the balloon and it doesn't appear to be going back in yet. So that means, coalition deals will have to be made- and I think that favors the Liberals, as the NDP and the Greens are (potentially) more reliable allies, at least ideologically for them- and I can't see any reason that the Bloc Quebecois would join with a firmly pro-Federalist party like the Conservatives, even if it is just to keep the Liberals out.

I don't know. No one's gaining ground on the Liberals though, so this election could be very anti-climactic. I guess the opposition parties won't be so quick to force an election in the dead of winter next time though.

If you want some professional, slick coverage of this get your hands on the December 9th issue of The Economist. They've got a fourteen page report on all this stuff that is, of course, fantastic.

Finals Week: The Sunday Edition

2005-12-11T20:39:00.000-06:00

Man, I should be studying for something right now. I'm not sure what. Probably everything. I'm a bit front-loaded this finals week- with a test tomorrow (Hindi, open book. Only minor worries as the answers are all going to be right there.) and then two on Tuesday- (Age of Dinosaurs, minor worries again- nearly slept thru the first midterm, didn't really study, still got a solid C. and Modern Political Theory- big worry. Need to do well on it.)

And then of course there's French grammar to deal with.

But everything's under control- I hope. Anyway:

Dave Review!: Sat down and watched David Cameron's first time out in the House of Commons on C-SPAN tonight, and all in all I didn't think he didn't do too badly. I mean, it was his first time out, and given that, he did pretty well. He didn't really get caught into a serious round with Blair- but he took a few potshots- some of which hit home nicely. I'll say this for him, though: he provides a very noticeable contrast. Him: young, vital, energetic. Blair: The Lion in Winter, looking older, slightly creaking around the edges but still pretty damn formidable. The only thing that bugged me: his hands. Blair likes to lean on the dispatch box, and he's very expressive with his hands- body language wise I got the feeling that Cameron really didn't know what to do with his. He kept slipping into this sort of joystick, button pushing kind of hand motion that sort of annoyed me. But he's just starting out, he can adjust. Overall, I'd say life is going to get interesting.

Richard Pryor died, as did noted anti-War activist former Senator Eugene McCarthy.

Presidential elections in Chile will probably go into a second round- with another advance for women in politics looking increasingly likely, as incumbent party candidate Michelle Bachelet looks to be on track to be Chile's First Female President.

Hmmm, well anyway, back to the books for me now. But! I have seen 'The Lion, The Witch and The Wardrobe' and am set to go and see 'King Kong' next weekend, so you can expect reviews on both of those. And any other quick tidbits that will serve as a useful study break!

Monday, Tuesday, then a week of craziness and fun to celebrate. That's my goal.

Wednesday Night Procrastination (with beer!)

2005-12-07T19:32:00.000-06:00

In lieu of doing things for finals, I'd thought I would throw a few more things out there to the world in general:

The world has gone insane: The White House used 'Happy Holidays' on it's Christmas Cards instead of 'Merry Christmas' and people are foaming at the mouth over it. Happily, some brilliant person has put all these rabid paranoid fulminations in one list, so go here, and peruse at your leisure.

There was however, a beautiful reason to smile, thanks to the people at DailyKos.com. Sadly, to give Bill credit, which I don't like doing, but must grudgingly do from time to time, he's changed his website. The menu tab in question is now 'Reccomended Christmas Gifts.' Fine Bill, I'll give you points for being consistent- not many mind you, but like two. That seems fair- and don't think you're going to get a biscuit for it either.

If you want to be scared to death, try these two bits: There's an interesting and quite frankly 'scary as shit' analysis of the Iran situation from these guys- Not being totally plugged into the military analysis side of things, I'm not sure how solid they are, but they seem to have all their stuff right. And it's pretty scary shit. Think of the possibilities and try to sleep tonight, I dare ya.

Mark your calendars for this one as well- if you see a big ball of fire coming towards you in 31 years, run like hell.

Meet the new Boss: David Cameron named his shadow cabinet today- the big news being the return of former Tory Leader William Hague to the frontbenches as Shadow Foreign Secretary. As it turns out, I could have caught PM's Questions live this morning on C-SPAN as the roomie was up at 4 A.M. doing homework, and then, inexplicably, for reasons I'm still not clear on went and retrieved his car so he could go to the grocery store around 6.30 A.M. this morning. However, he brought back fruit juice, so I have no complaints.

Some reviews and thoughts from around the British Press on his first time out at Question time:
The Guardian
BBC
The Independent
The Times

Tidbits from Sports:
--Iowa lost to UNI, 63-67, in overtime up at the UNIDome last night- bringing the men's record to 7-2.

--Bowl games have been pretty much finalized at this point, and happily for the fans of the BCS system, Texas and USC did not screw up and send everything straight down the toilet- instead they both won, making the National Championship game pretty obvious for once- they'll meet in the Rose Bowl this year. Iowa has scored a rematch with Florida in the Outback Bowl- which I'm betting is going to be a very good game.

--The UNI football team is continuing to advance, though, I'm sort of sorry to say that precious few people outside of the Waterloo area are really noticing. I do think the playoff system that Division 1-AA Football has is eminently sensible. And if the BCS turns into anarchy more than once in the coming years, I think that's where we'll end up. Anyway, UNI beat top-ranked New Hampshire to squeeze into the semis- where they will, apparently, be playing Texas State. Go Panthers, I guess.

All right, that's all I got. Hindi review and further work on my French Grammar portfolio await.

The War on Christmas

2005-12-06T18:33:00.000-06:00

I've had to control my rage and irritation at how stupid people are and try and re-write this post in a more moderate, sane and sensible manner. This time of year always seems to have rants popping up all over the place about the evil, secular war on Christmas- some dastardly liberal plot to attack Christians again and blah blah blah. We've all heard this now and again- various objections to people saying 'Happy Holidays' instead of specifying which holiday, and people calling trees 'Holiday Trees' instead of 'Christmas Trees.'

Before I get into that, I have to take a deep breath and make a couple of disclaimers: 1. I'm a Christian. Well, to be more accurate I'm a Catholic. Raised in a household where we had to go to Church until we were 18 every Sunday whether we wanted to or not. OK, I don't go regularly anymore but that has more to do with my many issues (too numerous to discuss here) with the Catholic Church than it does with any particular lack of faith- and the fact of the matter is that every Christmas we all trot on down to Midnight Mass as a family. So, I'm not an athiest in any way, shape or form. 2. I'm a registered Independant. I have a very long list of things I dislike about both the Republican and Democratic Parties, and I subscribed to neither of the ideologies currently being shoved down our throats by the extreme wings of both parties. I consider myself a solid Moderate. So, I'm not a loony leftist, either.

Good, now that's been said, I can get into the meat of the issue: This is the stupidest thing I've ever heard of. It's paranoid and not even all that well thought out and here's why:

1. What secular progressive agenda? I know all you people on the right like to pretend that you're all martyrs and victims of some evil liberal plot that's out to take your guns and make you marry gay people or something equally hysterical, but guys, seriously now- take a deep breath and look around Washington D.C. You guys have Congress, you have the White House and you're coming very close to stacking the Supreme Court with solid ideological Conservatives for the next twenty to fifty years. You guys are ruling the roost right now and the left can't seem to find it's ass with an atlas. So, I ask you people: what secular progressive agenda? I defy you to find me the agenda that's out to destroy Christmas, please! Prove me wrong! It's just not there. You guys have been in the trenches way too long and you're seeing Liberal conspiracies behind every corner. Relax already. No one is going to ban Christmas, because you guys are running the joint here. And as the Republican Party you command the votes of an awful lot of what now? Oh, that's right: Christians! Do you really mean to tell me that the some secular progressive conspiracy is going to be able to outmaneuver the party that's running Washington right now? (And if you do tell me that, then I think you severely overestimate the ability of the ACLU to impact things anywhere.)

2. No one cares: Honest to God, this is the biggest nonesense issue I've ever seen. No one cares. As a Christian, if someone tells me 'Happy Holidays' I'm not going to give a rat's ass, because I'll know what holiday they are in all likelihood referring to despite Bill O'Reilly's stunning assertion that the greeting 'Happy Holidays' is offensive to Christians:

Most recently, O'Reilly revealed a new front in the "war on Christmas" on his November 9 television show when he discussed his "decision to look at some retail policies this year" regarding which seasonal greeting major retailers will use with their customers. In response to a guest's argument that nondenominational salutations did not offend Christians, O'Reilly responded, "Yes, it does. It absolutely does."

(Unlike him, I'm not going to presume to speak for all Christians. But I know it doesn't offend me.)

Let's look at the calendar year here, people: in the months of November and December you have the following religious- and indeed secular holidays: (Note that the key word there is holidays.) Halloween, Diwali, Veteran's Day, Thanksgiving, Pearl Harbor Day, Ramadan, Hannukah, Christmas, New Year's and hell, let's be generous and throw in Kwanzaa. That's 10, count them carefully, ten holidays in a two month period. That's a lot of Holidays- and given the fact that Christmas is supposed to be about spreading tidings of joy and good cheer to your fellow human beings, should we be offended is someone wants to wish us a little bit of happiness for each and every one of these holidays? Not if we have half a brain we shouldn't! Spreading joy and cheer whether you say 'Happy Holidays' or 'Merry Christmas' is at the heart of what Christmas is about. It's about showing a little cheer and goodwill to everyone out there. So this idea that 'Happy Holidays' is offensive is well, let's just call it what it is: silly.

3. If we really want to celebrate the birth of Jesus, we're probably doing it at the wrong time of year: let's pause for a moment, shall we and consider the following quote from one of the many idiots behind this idiocy, FoxNews anchor, John Gibson:

by refusing to say the word "Christmas." And what I've noticed is the way this appears in schools, for instance, is we now don't call it the Christmas break. It's the winter break, as if people worship winter. And there wouldn't be a winter break if there wasn't Christmas at that time of year. So once you call it -- change the name. You won't use the word "Christmas," then you go to "winter," you can sort of push the Christmas thing out of public view

Oh, this makes me laugh so much. 'As if people worship winter...' you know John, it's funny that you mention that, because back in the day, hey, what did the pagans have their major festivals on? Oh yeah! The Winter and Spring Solstice? I think so! What a fascinating coincidence that two major Christian holidays should fall on or around those two dates. (And if you're thinking that maybe our early Christian predecessors moved some dates around so they could convert more pagans, then you'd probably be right.)

If you have such an issue with preserving the true meaning of the holiday then under your logic, we shouldn't be celebrating it on the 25th of December at all, as there's plenty of historical evidence out there that seems to suggest (using Biblical sources no less) that Jesus wasn't born anywhere near December. So John, how about it? Let's move Christmas, shall we? If we're going to celebrate it right, we should celebrate the birth of Jesus on the right date shouldn't we?

I'm not even going to go near the Holiday Tree vs. Christmas Tree thing that Speaker of the House Dennis Hastert decided to get into a snit about. (Shouldn't you be doing something more productive with your time, like say, investigating the BCS? Oh wait...) Let's face it: we, as a nation are not stupid people. A conifer in December, with a bunch of pretty lights on it is a Christmas tree and we all know it. You could call it the 'The Great and Wonderful Non-Denominational Conifer of Secular Humanism' and people across the country wouldn't be fooled: the damn thing is a Christmas tree and we all know it. So who cares what the official literature calls it?

In short, it's not Liberals that are destroying Christmas- the true meaning of the Holiday tends to get a bit lost in the overly materialistic view that we all- including most of the people bitching about this- have developed over the years. It tends to be more about making sure retailers have a good holiday shopping season and that we all get cool things for each other than it does anything else. In short, I kinda agree. The true meaning of the holiday does get lost a bit in the shuffle- and gentle reminders from people to be a little less materialistic and remember the less fortunate are always welcome- because being a little less materialistic is always good, right?

Basically, if you follow this 'war on Christmas' argument to it's logical conclusion, then I hope Bill O'Reilly's going to stop giving everyone in his family Christmas gifts, because that's where this is heading. It's the materialism that shuffles the true meaning of Christmas to the back of the line, not anything ideological. And under their logic, the only way to combat that would be to stop buying each other gifts and go to Church. Which is a perfectly valid response, I suppose- and I'd respect people who actually did that. But, unless O'Reilly and company are going to take the lead in curbing our materialistic and worldly desires at this time of year by leading by example, then they should, quite frankly, shut the hell up.

So, if you're worried about people (or your children) losing the true meaning of Christmas, then give something to the Salvation Army bellringers when you're out shopping. Buy a toy and hook up with the Toys for Tots things that the Marine Corps always does- or even better, sit down and watch A Charlie Brown Christmas and pay special attention to what Linus tells Charlie Brown when he asks what the true meaning of Christmas actually is.

Dave vs. Dave

2005-12-06T17:02:00.000-06:00

The Tories have a new leader, and it turns out that the younger, less grizzled Dave has come out on top in the Dave vs. Dave deathmatch. Yes, David Cameron has the pleasure of being named the next sacrificial lamb- sorry, Tory Leader to face down Tony Blair and the Labour juggernaut- (that even I have to admit is looking a bit creaky nowadays). Cameron's margin of victory: 134,446 votes to 64,398 for David Davis. Reaction and the basics from the BBC, more thoughts from the Independent (Gordon Brown, Labour's Heir Apparent is getting his mojo working already, taking potshots at the new guy...) and check this out from the Independent as well- talk about a wise bet:

* Mr Cameron's triumph was worth £208,000 to a Windsor-based Irish businessman customer of bookmakers William Hill, who staked £200,000 a fortnight ago when Mr Cameron was 1/25 favourite. Before the Conservative Party Conference, he was a 12/1 outsider.

The Guardian weighs in, as does the Times and the Telegraph.

My thoughts: I think they've finally done it. I think they've managed to pull their heads out of their asses and pick someone sensible for once. Not only is David Cameron young and telegenic (at 39), but he's had a relatively quick rise that means he probably won't be able to pinned with the usual Labour potshots about what so and so did when they were in such and such a position during the last Conservative government. So I think the Tories have probably taken a great step forward in shaking the image of them being the party of pensioners and old people with this choice. I'm not sure yet how much they'll be able to appeal to the hip and cool crowd in the British electorate, but at least now they sort of have a valid case to make.

Cameron is also starting with one hell of a mountain to climb. In many ways (but not all) the Tories are in sort of the same position that the Democrats are. Their ideology and their ideas were dominant in British politics for most of the last century, and then suddenly they ran out of gas and were thrown out on their ear by a resurgent opposition that had ideas and teeth. (Of course, the Democrats have more problems than just a lack of new ideas, but I don't want to get sidetracked here, otherwise I'll be here all day.) Dave is speaking a great deal about 'compassionate conservatism', which had better mean something a lot different in the UK than it does here- but I think that with Dave's election to the job of Tory leader, there's been a sort of realization that as a party, they need an image makeover (and with a young, dynamic, telegenic leader they might have that in spades) and they also need to reinvent and redefine conservatism in Britain for the twenty-first century if they are ever to have a realistic shot at getting back into power. And given Cameron's ties to the more moderate leftish set of the so-called 'Notting Hill Modernizers' he may be the leader to do just that.

But, all in all I'd say a good choice and a very good move on the part of the Tories. Mr. Cameron will have to find his footing a bit, but we'll see how things go. (His first Prime Minister's Questions is tomorrow! But given the fact that the roomie is sleeping on the couch now to preserve the health of his back, I'll probably have to wait until Sunday to catch the replay on C-SPAN, as I'm sure he wouldn't appreciate being rousted out of bed at 6 am, just so I can catch it live.)

Aftermath

2005-12-03T16:58:00.000-06:00

Lol, now I know what's it's like to survive a nuclear apocalypse. Seriously. Anyway, it's 1700 hours now, so I'm cutting the day off. It's time to get the flock out of here, trudge home thru the snow, eat some good food and drink a helluva lotta booze. Yeeee-haw!

The final tally, for those of you keeping score at home:

660 people
55 warnings
1 complaint
0 people killed
0 kids crying

the knowledge that i get to go home very, very soon: priceless.

this here was a good days work.

Almost done!

2005-12-03T15:41:00.000-06:00

ARGH! Am getting so wasted tonight. Feet hurt- and hurt is crawling up through knees and into back very rapidly.

As of 1541, we had 1 complaint, pushing 50 warnings- no one dead, no kids crying and 649 people so far.

Mexican Dancers: Awesome. Very loud, too.

Preucil: Annoying, but in a cute kind of way. It's fun listening to kids massacre tango music.

Puppets: Eulenspiegel, or however you spell it. Awesome as usual. I remember them from elementary school.

Final tallies next.

Our tax dollars at work!

2005-12-03T10:13:00.000-06:00

Well, if you want proof about what's wrong the idiots that are supposed to be running this country, look no further than here. Congress, in it's wisdom, has decided that instead of working on the big problems and the pressing issues of this country- (like say, getting us out of Iraq in one piece, fixing Social Security and Medicare) they have decided to investigate the BCS.

Oh joy. I'm going to sleep a lot better tonight knowing that Congress is on the case. God knows what'll happen if USC or Texas loses today. Chaos, Congressional investigations and subponeas... eeeeeeeesh.

Family Day: The Calm before...

2005-12-03T09:42:00.000-06:00

...the storm. That's an understatement if I've ever heard one. It snowed some last night, so I went downtown to enjoy the white stuff a little bit- and to buy Fall Out Boy's first CD in an attempt to win some inspiration for my almost novella. (And yes, it is an 'almost novella.' At 14,363 word, it's just a wee bit short of the 15,000 words which apparently make a novella. Or at least that's what I've been told.) Anyway, inspiration was not forthcoming, and the roads looked pretty slick, so I called into work and offered to come in for awhile, so our guard that lives in Kalona could go home early and beat the weather, so to speak.

Friday night was, as a result, somewhat boring. But I earned some cash, which was nice.

And now we come to this morning. It was fun- we got to see the old Kinnick Press Box get blowed up- which was really neat. The just toppled it backwards into the lot on the west side of the Stadium, just like that. (Check out the webcam!) They didn't sound any alarms or anything before hand, so everyone was kind of caught offguard- there's was a loud BOOM and then everyone's camera jerked up and started snapping. I think I managed to get it on the way down though.

And now, I'm in work early again, listening to Katrina and the Waves singing about walking on sunshine, and waiting for the hell to start. I don't know why they insist on allowing millions of screaming children into Art Museums, I really don't.

Lol, and now the boss (who looks almost exactly like this dude. Seriously, it's kind of scary.) is about to do the 'Numa Numa Dance' to prepare himself for the day ahead.

Anyway, some predictions: It snowed last night, and it's pretty cold today, so I'm going to come down from my moonshot guess of 1,000 people today. I think I'm going to stick with a solid 800, which is good because I never win the attendance pool at these things, so it'll probably be less than that.

Number of kids that we can make cry: hmmm, we have a mixed track record with that. It's usually not many. I'll say 5.

I probably won't have time to blog during the actual event, but I'll do a (very boozy!) aftermath post when all is said and done.

Snow!

2005-11-30T23:32:00.000-06:00

Well, here's my last gasp at procrastination for the evening: snow has finally arrived and in droves! It's still snowing as I speak, and we're expected to get actual accumulation of the white stuff. So, it's here... go figure, I guess.

Iowa beat NC State at Carver Hawkeye tonight, which was like I don't know, probably 300 feet at best from my couch. (OK, maybe 500. We're like right there. But I didn't get up off my keister to go to the game. I'm just glad we won...) Final Score: Iowa 45, NC State 42. The Wolfpack finally get handed their first loss of the season, and it look as though the Iowa Men are off to a pretty good start. (Big 10 play has yet to start, so everything could go to hell in a handbasket. But hey, it's cool.)

And the last gasp for the night: someone sent this too me via email a very, very loooooong time ago, so sadly I'd deleted it, but oh joy! There's a website! So check this out and laugh and laugh. I do. (Tiger hand totally beats paper, rawr!)

Sigh. Can't put off studying for this damn French test any longer. Nalgene bottle with iced tea: check, notebook: check, french textbooks: check. The knowledge that I won't have to sit through another semester of French Grammar ever again: priceless.

We'll always have Peres...

2005-11-30T20:14:00.000-06:00

I know, I know, I know! I promised! I said that I had totally and completely nerded myself out for the week, and you know what? I thought I had. But! Events intervened today, so I have to dip back into the nerd pool again and zip back over to Israel for the latest piece of news to come out of their just underway electoral campaign.

Shimon Peres, former Prime Minister, Foreign Minister and I don't know how many other type of ministers, has declared that he's leaving the Labour Party to back Arial Sharon's new Kadima Party in the upcoming elections. (For those of you who don't speak Hebrew like me, Kadima apparently means 'forward.') Looks like he's not running under Sharon's new party, just endorsing them. It also looks like that if Sharon is re-elected Peres can expect to play a role in pushing peace talks forward with the Palestinians.

Anyway, reaction from around the place:
Jerusalem Post: "Peres: Sharon only leader who can lead Israel to peace" and, we have this as well: "Labor says good riddance to Peres"

Haaretz: more reaction here. Also it looks as though we've got a poll here, which means good news for Arial Sharon (47%) not so good news for Labour Leader Amir Peretz (18%) and even worse news for Likud's Benjamin Netanyahu (10%).

Some commentary on Peres' desicion to leave Labour which is actually pretty harsh. Personally, I've never really had all that strong of an opinion on Shimon Peres, but then again, I'm not plugged in enough to Israeli politics to formulate one. From what I can remember and from where I'm sitting, he seemed to be a pretty competent PM when he was in office. (But the article does have a point. He seems to be like the Gerald Ford guy. You know, serving out the remains of someone else's term... hmmm.)

Another defection to Kadima, as well, this time from the Shinui Party. (I had heard of these guys before, and a quick zip over to their party website reveals that they're a smaller, secular party. Perhaps not the biggest players in Israeli politics, but in a tight Knesset they could prove invaluable as Coalition Partners.)

Given the fact that the election is in March, I'd say it's pretty early days yet to say with any definate certainty what kind of impact the Peres defection will have on Kadima's electoral fortunes. It's a significant defection to be sure- whether you have a good or bad opinion about Peres (see commentary from the Haaretz above) it's a pretty safe bet to say that he was a very high profile figure in the Labour Party and his defection, at the very least, is something of a boost to Sharon and his new party. Whether or not that boost will hold long enough to get Kadima into first place at the ballot box come election time has yet to be determined. But, big defection and good news for Prime Minister Sharon.

And all right! I will give specifics on non-nerdyness this time, and not just vague promises: we've got the BCS which is set to be straightened out over the weekend, hopefully- which should tell us where Iowa is going for a Bowl Game, we've got my very last Museum Family Day- a fun, exciting bit of torture I'll probably post on, and I want to go and see Aeon Flux and/or Rent this weekend, so I'll post thoughts reviews on either of those movies, should I get the time to go and see them.

We're supposed to get snow tonight, but it has yet to put in an appearance.

And this is post #50 for me! Go me! Woo-hoo!

The Snow is Hitting the Fan!

2005-11-29T19:04:00.000-06:00

And I don't mean down here in the balmy, sunny south. No, Canadian Prime Minister Paul Martin's government was brought down by a no-confidence vote yesterday, triggering a winter electoral campaign set to bring new elections to Canada on January 23rd. Martin's Liberal Party had been limping along as a Minority Government for sometime now, dealing with the fallout from a very messy corruption scandal that finally saw the three main opposition parties come together to engineer the no-confidence vote, forcing Martin to call new election.

Given the current make up of the Canadian Parliament, with Liberals and Conservatives, the Bloc Quebecois and the Free Democrats, it's probably likely that the Canadians are going to lumped with another minority government or a possible coalition government, but we'll have to see. It is very, very early days yet.

Anyway, some reaction from around the place, and the latest news and blogs:

Some stuff from the CBC, including their main election page, here.

Some thoughts from the Toronto Sun, here. Blog reaction, here. And some Canadian blogs I've dug up that have been (obviously) following this:

The London Fog (just scroll down, you'll get there. Don't think they're fans of Paul Martin.)
IAM(also)Canadian (I get the feeling this may have a touch of satire about it, but hey, whatever works.)
blogquebecois.com (Not in French, so don't panic.)

It occurs to me that I seem to be getting somewhat unbalanced here. Need to find a few fans of the Liberal Government out there in the Canadian blogosphere... Liblogs!

Liberal Underground! and, finally, The Wingnuterer!

Another election to watch! Oh joy...

p.s. I'm all nerded out for the week, I promise. Something non-political is coming at the weekend. I don't know what though.

Fist Fights and Fruit Fights

2005-11-29T15:42:00.000-06:00

Well, the biggest news to pop up on my radar screen in reference to Africa has been the news from Kenya, but this is pretty interesting too. At the opening of the first elected Parliament in the self-declared and yet to be internationally recognized Republic of Somaliland (find Somalia on a map, and you'll discover it looks somewhat like a big old 7- the top of the seven, the northern chunk of the country- that's Somaliland) there was a fistfight. I guess democracy can get a little rowdy over there. Don't know much about Somaliland either, except for the fact that unlike most of the rest of Somalia, it appears to have achieved a certain amount of stability and government. So there ya go.

But, KENYA! That was the bigger news from Africa! So, what's the deal in Kenya, you ask? Well, last week, Kenyans went out to the polls to reject a newly proposed Constitution by President Mwai Kibaki- and, unlike the many democratic uprisings springing up now and again in the news, they used fruit as their factional mascots. Orange supporters being the 'Vote No' camp and Banana supporters being the 'Vote Yes' camp. Basic issues in the new constitution seemed to have called for some limits on executive power, shaking up the court system some (allowing for the retention of Islamic and other religious courts) and the bigger issue of land reform- the basic FAQ sheet from the BBC can be found here, the Constitution Review Commission's site can be found here. Voters seem to have taken the vote on the new constitution as something of a vote of confidence in Kibaki's administration. He discovered, unfortunately, that he was trying to sell his voters bananas when what they all wanted was a nice cup of orange juice, lol.

Anyway, President Kibaki responded to the firm rejection of his proposed constitution by firing his entire cabinet- rejecting the opposition's calls for fresh elections, and then, in what I would consider a pretty silly-ass move, they went ahead and banned all public demonstrations.

Police have been instructed to seal off a planned venue for an opposition demonstration in Mombasa on December 10th- however, it's not all bad news, despite the press worries. It looks like some senior figures in Kibaki's administration are sending out peace feelers to the Orange opposition movement, hoping to get some of them into the new cabinet.

Some news and blog sources following this story:
Kenyan Pundit
Diary of A Mad Kenyan Woman
The Standard
Daily Nation

Free the Iron Butterfly!

2005-11-29T15:14:00.000-06:00

In today's world, I think it's safe to say that there are few people left that draw the pretty much universal admiration of most of the world, either for their genuine goodness and piousness (say John Paul II and Mother Teresa) or for their dedication to the cause of freedom- in which case you can count former South African President Nelson Mandela and Burmese Pro-Democracy Activist Aung San Suu Kyi as very high on the list of people that I admire.

Suu Kyi, daughter of Burma's founding leader, General Aung San and head of the National League for Democracy has been under house arrest for much of the past 15 years, (Her party, the NLD won a landslide victory in the 1990 elections- Burma's first multi-party elections. The Military Junta crushed the pro-democracy movement and refused to recognize the results.) and two days ago, the NLD confirmed what the Burmese Junta had already announced: that her house arrest had been extended for another year. The international community has roundly condemned the extension.

The international community has been trying a variety of approaches to prod the military government to political reform, but none seem to be working. The U.S. and company have taken to strong condemnations and sanctions against the regime, while some of Burma's Asian neighbors seem to be angling for more of a 'carrot type' approach. Fifteen years since democracy in Burma was crushed, not a whole lot seems to be working anymore.

Some news and blog sources, if you want to follow Burma a bit more:
Democratic Voice of Burma
The Irrawady
Free Burma Coalition
Burma Underground
BurmaWatch.com
Burma Digest

USA Today also had a good editorial today on her, so check it out here.

First day back...

2005-11-28T16:47:00.000-06:00

...and what a day it's been. Practically a blur. Sunday night was not kind to me at all, as suddenly the realization that I had done, well, nothing all week came back to haunt me as I had plenty of things to do- and still do come to think of it. Anyway, mountains of stuff on the table, things to do- honestly, I'm not sure how much time I'm going to have to blog this week, but I do want to get to some things:

1. Aung San Suu Kyi's detention was extended by another year
2. Kenya's in a bit of turmoil after the rejection of President Kibaki's newly proposed Constitution.

3. And whatever else happens to pop up.

It's going to be a busy week, but I'll try to get somethings done.

Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire

2005-11-26T21:40:00.000-06:00

Harry Potter suddenly begins to notice girls. That's the big news in this, the fourth movie in the ever-expanding Harry Potter franchise. Hormones are abuzzing at Hogwarts as year 4 begins and there's plenty of evil afoot. For those few of you that haven't read the book, let me summarize it thusly: Harry returns to school, where it's announced that instead of the usual Quidditch shenanigans, they'll be holding the famous 'Tri-Wizard Tournament' with two rival schools, Beauxbatons and Durmstrang. There are only supposed to be 3 champions, one for each school, but someone (evil) slips Harry's name into the famous Goblet of Fire and soon he's off working his way through the vicious tasks, and trying to deal with the ostrasication that comes from his friend Ron and the school at large, who thinks that he robbed the Hogwarts Champion, Cedric Diggory of a chance for true glory, etc, etc. At the end of things, however, it's revealed that Harry's name was dropped in the Goblet of Fire to aid in the return of Lord Voldemort- and suddenly things take a dark turn leading into book 5.

Well, the cast of this particular movie is on fine form, as usual. Alan Rickman is nicely slimy as Professor Snape, Maggie Smith, uptightly severe as Professor McGonnagal. Michael Gambon also seems to have settled firmly into the role of Professor Dumbledore, fleshing it out and making it his own, taking over ably from the late Richard Harris who played the role in the first two movies. Robbie Coltrane is a lot of fun as Hagrid, and the trio of kids: Emma Watson, Daniel Radcliffe and Rupert Grint all manage to grow their characters quite nicely as hormones come bubbling into the mix. (My sister complained of Hermione being reduced to the role of a 'weepy girl' and wish she'd had a bigger part. I didn't have a problem with Hermione on that score- and Harry's line about girls 'always travelling in packs' is oh so very true.)

However, it's not the old favorites that truly shine in the movie- it's the new additions that steal the show. Brenden Gleeson is nicely twitchy as new Professor and Defense Against the Darks Arts Teacher Mad-Eyed Moody (and yes, the eye is very mad and twitchy.) David Tennant is also suitably vicious as baddie Barty Crouch Jr. (I sort of did a double take, as I realized I was looking at what I believe is the 10th Time Lord for you Dr. Who fans out there. But he did a fab job.) And of course, Ralph Fiennes makes a return as the supreme bad guy of the series, Lord Voldemort- and I think, when all is said and done, Lord Voldemort will take his place in the pantheon of movie bad guys right along side Darth Vadar from Star Wars, because man, was he just dripping evil! So awesome!

All in all, I'd have to say that this movie is a very, very worthy succesor to Alfonso Cuaron's Harry Potter 3, which darkened the tone of the series quite nicely. Mike Newell does a good job continuing with that- and the movie is tightly packed and zips along with the action, building to the final climactic confrontation between Harry and Voldemort. Evil definately has returned with Harry Potter 4! And both the director and the screenwriter are to be commended for taking a very, very dense book and compacting it down into a very zippy, taut, thrilling two and a half hour movie. If there is to be one criticism levelled at this film, it's that I thought the beginning was somewhat jarring. It felt jerky and somewhat choppy, but once the action and the main plot has established itself, the thing just hummmmmmmed. It was that good.

My final verdict: ****(out of 4) And if you haven't read any Harry Potter books or seen the movies, you need to start.

Pre-Thanksgiving Ritual Fast Underway

2005-11-23T08:43:00.000-06:00

Some quick tidbits of news that have come up in the past couple of days:

Sri Lanka: New President Mahinda Rajpakse has appointed both a Prime Minister (Ratnasiri Wickramanayake) and a new Cabinet... some fallout from that, here.

Israel: The date has been set! Some wrangling and compromise were necessary, but it's been decided that March 28th is the day for the new elections in Israel- and former Prime Minister, Labour Party Leader and Foreign Minister Shimon Peres has announced that he will be staying in the Labour Party, ending some mild speculation about his future. I don't think that's bad news for Sharon's new party necessarily, but it's probably a safe bet to say that if Peres would have jumped ship then the new party would have been given a big vote of confidence. Sharon's a heavy hitter, but it's an open question (as some have mentioned and I agree with) as to whether or not this new party of his can survive him. With Peres on board the party would have had two big heavy hitters and potentially some time to establish itself before one or both of them take their finals bows in Israeli politics and quit show business, so to speak for retirement. But, eh. We'll see.

Germany: Angela Merkel was officially confirmed as the first female Chancellor of Germany yesterday- she's the eighth Chancellor since World War II and the first from the former Communist-ruled areas of East Germany... reaction from Der Spiegel here and here... and thoughts on Germany's new First Husband.

Liberia: The results have now been officially certified and Ellen Johnson-Sirleaf has been declared the winner of Liberia's Presidential election with 59.4% of the vote compared to George Weah's 40.6% of the vote. International observers have declared that the poll was free and fair, but Mr. Weah and his party have said that they will push their case of vote-rigging to the Supreme Court if the electoral commission finds no evidence of fraud, so we may not be out of the woods yet.

It's also the day before Thanksgiving- finally, officially- and I've discovered- or was informed last night rather that I have to go to work today. So much for doing laundry at a decent hour, I guess. It's not a huge deal of course, really, I could use the money, but the illusion that I had the entire week of was a nice one while it lasted. I should also begin a ritual fast or something before tomorrow. Tomorrow sounds like it's going to be pretty wacky, and I made the mistake of getting Chinese food last night thinking it could last me a couple of days- or at least long enough to get groceries, which is what I'm going to do today. One of these days, I'm going to start running again. If not by Winter Break, then certainly next semester the ab-roller will be found, the running shoes will get a workout and hopefully pounds will be shed! I'm sick and tired of feeling bloated. But whatever, I can deal.

That's all until Friday, at least. Maybe more later today if I find something worth blogging.

Good Night, and Good Luck.

2005-11-21T21:45:00.000-06:00

I think it's pretty rare in the times we live in that movies are made to actually make a point about the world in which we live- and it's rarer still when those movies actually suceed in making their point in an intelligent and thoughtful way. Farenheit 9-11 was the last movie that seriously tried, and although it may have impressed many, Michael Moore's slipshod and quite frankly unconvincing arguments did not sway me in any way, shape or form. Happily, 'Good Night, and Good Luck' succeeds where Moore failed.

The movie, which is George Clooney's directorial debut, takes a look at the CBS News Team, which, headed by Edward R. Murrow (played fantastically by David Straithairn) took on Senator Joseph McCarthy- questioning his tactics, his methods and his means- ultimately helping to bring him down. Orbiting around Murrow is a wonderful cast- including Clooney as CBS News Producer Fred Friendly, Frank Langella and Jeff Daniels and two corporate higher-ups feeling the pressure from Murrow's controversial reports on McCarthy- and Patricia Clarkson and Robert Downey Jr. serve as characters with a question mark hanging over them- one that's answered by the movie's end.

It's a black and white film, which was a good move on Clooney's part I think, as it serves to heighten the realism of the period- (and perhaps making a subtle commentary on the black and white, us versus them view of the world which was so prevalent at the time.) Another brilliant move on Clooney's part was to not actually cast an actor to play the role of McCarthy- no, they used actual footage of McCarthy, which I think makes him much more sinister and menacing in a way. You're not seeing some Hollywood Leftist's portrayal of McCarthy, you are seeing actual footage of the man, which makes him a very powerful part of this particular film. The story itself is mainly confined to the newsroom and Murrow's broadcasts, which I think helps to concentrate the action and the plot of the film quite nicely. This movie doesn't meander all over the political landscape: it's compact, simple, and makes it's point in a very powerful way.

But what is the point? I know this movie is going to be dismissed by many as merely another piece of Hollywood propaganda, but I think that's a bit unfair. I think it's taken pretty much for granted now that one of the most important pieces of wisdom ever imparted to the American people by a President were those words of Franklin Delano Roosevelt: 'The only thing we have to fear, is fear itself.' And that message was as true back then as it is today- and therin lies Clooney's point, I think. What I took away from this movie was this: we're fighting terrorists across the globe today- and the most powerful weapon in the arsenal of the enemy is fear. If we give into fear in this struggle, if we let our fear lead us to sacrifice our basic freedoms and liberties- everything that makes us better than them, then they win. Clooney shows us a time when we gave into that fear- and the consequences because of that, right or wrong.

I wasn't alive during much of the Cold War- I didn't grow up in the 50s, so I don't know how pervasive the fear was. But in titanic struggles between ideologies, whether it is communism vs. capitalism or democracy vs. fanaticism, the most important lesson of all is that if our fear of our enemies drives us to compromise the very principles we believe in then we lose the struggle, plain and simple.

My final verdict: ****(out of 4) The most intelligent, thoughtful and fascinating film I've sat through for a very, very long time. Don't pre-judge this film. Go see it, debate it, argue about it- discuss it- do all of those things and do them repeatedly. This is one film that more than lives up to the hype.

Well, isn't this just lovely?

2005-11-21T14:32:00.000-06:00

I can't say that I'm a big fan of this idea: there's legislation currently moving thru the Massachusetts Statehouse that would require people who can afford it to have health insurance of some kind of face penalties like losing their driver's lisences. The basics of the plan call for insurance companies to offer low-cost plans estimated at around $200 a month- and people earning up to about $28,000 a year could qualify for state subsidies to lower the cost even further- under their House plan, people who don't carry coverage could lose their driver's lisences.

I really don't like this idea at all. I'm sorry, but I know that I am bloody lucky to still be in school because as long as I am, I qualify for my parents health insurance- that ends next May when I graduate and I'm not looking forward to that level of uncertainty. But then again, my finances as a young college graduate go straight out the damn window when I graduate, because I have loans to pay off. If the government- state or federal wants to do something really nice for me, they should be helping to ease my financial burden not adding to it by forcing me to get Health Insurance that I may not be able to afford, what with loan payments, probable car payments, apartment rent and the basic cost of living- which is getting more and more expensive all the time.

Never mind the fact that this gets the stubborn, neo-libertarian streak in me all riled up. Once I graduate, I'm not going to have a lot of money laying around the place- and it's not the business of any government to tell me how to spend it. Would I like the security of having Health insurance once I graduate? You betcha. But life doesn't always work that way and if I can't afford it, then I can't afford it. I might need a car more, you stupid people! If I don't have a car to get to work at what I'm devoutly hoping is a decent-paying job, how am I supposed to afford mandated health insurance? Hmmm... something for the idiots running Massachusetts to ponder, I suppose.

Scratch Boston off the list of places I wanted to live. If you guys are going to screw poor people and college graduates, then you can bet I'll live in a box by the river before I ever move to your state.

OK, OK, you say, what's the big deal? It's just Massachusetts acting all crazy again, right? Well, it sets something of a precedent. Health care reform is going to be a big issue in the next couple of elections and if this idiocy passes, then some other idiots in some other state are going to get the same idea and then soon it'll be everywhere.

There's got to be a better solution to the lack of health coverage for the uninsured in this country than shoving it down the throats of them that need it like forcing feeding a goose whose liver is destined to be foie gras! And then, you're going to punish people who can't afford it or whose financial priorities could be elsewhere. Oh joy! I'm positively rapturous at that prospect!

If Massachusetts Governor Mitt Romney actually thinks he can get the GOP Nomination in 2008 after proposing this idiocy, I hope to whatever Deity is up there that the GOP rank and file slap his ass upside the head with a 2 by 4. Mandating how people spend their money is supposed to be the very antithesis of what the GOP is supposed to be about. This idiot should know better.

And what happened to the Democrats defending the rights of the poor? You're going to shove insurance down their throats and punish them if they honestly can't afford it or think that having a car so they can get to work every day is better? Come on, people! This is crappy. Plain and simple, and the Democratic Party should be pushing for real solutions to the problem, not imposing even more financial burdens on the lower classes.

ARRRRRGH! People are STUPID!

Exit, stage left...

2005-11-21T08:44:00.000-06:00

The trigger has been pulled on the electoral cycle in Israel, as Prime Minister Arial Sharon asked President Moshe Katsav to dissolve Parliament and set a date for new elections. He also, in a surprise move, announced that he was quitting the governing Likud Party to form a more centrist party to run under- wanting to break from hard-right minister in Likud who were opposed to the Gaza pullout.

Reports seem to indicate that this new movement, party or whatever will be called 'National Responsibility' and that Sharon has the backing of about 14 of Likud's current 40 MPs, including 5 Cabinet Ministers. So, as expected the move has caused something of an uproar in the politics of Israel, with Likud claiming it's a good thing, as it's going to enable them to get back to basics- and Labour Party Leader Amir Peretz joining forces with Sharon to push elections from November of next year to early March- in all probability March 6th (though Israeli law apparently mandates that elections be held on a Tuesday, March 7th is a Memorial Day for fallen soldiers whose resting place is unknown, so they'll probably push it back a day so they can get all the votes counted before the Shabbat.)

There is of course, plenty of reaction to this move:

Jerusalem Post: "Sharon's Departure Stirs Uproar," "Sharon's Party Holds First Meeting," and this rather interesting article on some of what I'm going to imagine are many hurdles Sharon's going to face, as the Likud Party managed to manuever the vote on Dispersal of the Knesset to Monday instead of Wednesday. This would prevent- or at least mandate a very, very quick cabinet reshuffle- as Sharon can't do a cabinet dance with the Knesset dispersed. If it goes through on Monday then Sharon would be left with six ministers in his Cabinet.

Some analysis and more reaction from Haaretz: Sharon's New Party is a One-Term Party- this is a very interesting point. By founding a new party, Sharon has become the central pillar in that new party and he's not going to be around forever- what happens when he goes? Will the party crumble into dust afterwards? Unless they can claim some sort of solid ideological ground and find a successor to Sharon in short order, I would say yeah, they probably would crumble. More reaction here and here!

I think this is a very interesting gamble on Sharon's part. There's no doubt that he was running into more and more difficulties especially from the more right wing members of his own Likud Party, but this is quite the risk to take. He may be more of a centrist now than an old line ideological warrior, but he's starting from something of a position of weakness, but if anyone could overcome that and sell a platform of moderation- so to speak, to the Israeli people, it's Ariel Sharon. But, he's going to have problems aplenty to face, especially since I doubt the Likud Party is going to forgive him and his buddies for bolting to form a new party. So, come March, Israel will have three choices: the right, the left and now the center. Who'll come out on top in that particular contest? At this point, who knows...

Interesting times are ahead.

Hitting the Murtha Load

2005-11-20T12:02:00.000-06:00

The now very, very tiresome debate about whether or not pre-war intelligence was manipulated to get into the Iraq War has taken a bit of a nasty turn and it looks as though things are going to get even more partisan and vicious before the furor dies down. (And I call it a tiresome debate, because at this point in time it is a tiresome debate. We're already in there- so it's a bit pointless arguing about how we got there- but whatever.)

Anyway, this latest round of Iraq War bickering began when President Bush took the occasion of Veteran's Day to slap back at critics that had become increasingly vocal on the question of pre-war intelligence and the President's war policies in general, saying amongst other things, the following:

"...I also recognize that some of our fellow citizens and elected officials didn’t support the liberation of Iraq. And that is their right, and I respect it. As president and commander in chief, I accept the responsibilities and the criticisms and the consequences that come with such a solemn decision. While it’s perfectly legitimate to criticize my decision or the conduct of the war, it is deeply irresponsible to rewrite the history of how that war began. Some Democrats and anti-war critics are now claiming we manipulated the intelligence and misled the American people about why we went to war..."

Democrats, naturally shot back at this criticism in various ways, but then Pennsylvania Congressman John Murtha stepped into the fray by joining support for a pullout of troops. Now, normally this wouldn't have been a big deal- another Democratic Congressmen calling for a pullout from Iraq- alert the media on that one! However, Murtha is a decorated Vietnam veteran and has previously had something of a hawkish reputation on the war- up until now- his statement calling for a pullout can be found in full, here.

Naturally, this called for a response, and who better to slam back but Vice-President Dick Cheney, who pulled out the really big guns to say that the charge that pre-war intelligence was manipulated was

"one of the most dishonest and reprehensible charges ever aired in this city."

And so, this prompted a response from Congressman Murtha who said:

"I like guys who've never been there to criticize us who've been there. I like that. I like guys who got five deferments and never been there, and send people to war, and then don't like to hear suggestions about what needs to be done. I resent the fact on Veterans Day he criticized Democrats for criticizing them."

So, the upshot of all this bickering was what? Well, Democrats, sensing an opportunity to float a symbolic gesture of defiance and disapproval to the war, go behind Murtha's resolution calling for a troop pullout, obviously believing that there was not a chance in hell the GOP would ever allow it to come to a vote.

Ooops. They did allow it to come to a vote. The GOP, sensing the opportunity, called the Democrats' bluff, putting them in the somewhat unpalatable position of standing by the resolution (which they altered slightly. Murtha's called for a pullout at the 'earliest practical date', the establishment of a Marine presence and a quick reaction force in the region and called for stability through diplomacy. The GOP simply went for a 'presence should be terminated right now' resolution.) or being painted as cowards that want to cut and run before the job's done or what I would imagine to be something similar. This prompted a very raucous House session, in which the Resolution was rejected 403-3.

So, what do I think of all this? Well, I've never bought the whole 'Bush lied, people died' horseshit. I really, really, really hate to say it too often, but in this case, the Prez is right- there were Congressional investigations which concluded that pre-war intelligence was just plain crappy- however, it was not, manipulated by the administration. Plus, it's a cold, hard fact that everyone and I do mean everyone was convinced that Saddam had WMD's stashed somewhere. Yes, Bush is guilty of something: believing unbelivably crappy intelligence. Was that a mistake on his part that he should accept responsibility for? Absolutely. Should he have fired some people, (Rumsfeld, for instance?) for handling the post-war occupation in such a staggeringly incompetent way? YES!

I could care less about pre-war intelligence- what bugs me, and what has always bugged me about the Bush administration's war policies has been how incredibly short-sighted they were. Consider: we wanted the invasion to be quick n'dirty- the whole shock n'awe thing, because Rumsfeld was all about making the military leaner n'meaner- and lo and behold, the invasion went incredibly well. But, seemingly no one had bothered to sit down and consider the possibilities of what happens afterward. We didn't anticipate the strength of the insurgency and we should have, we made the collosal mistake of universal de-Baathification, which isolated the Sunnis and drove them straight into the hands of the fanatics- the list is endless. We may have done this for the very best of reasons (and defending America, even though I had my doubts about the veracity of the administration's argument at the time, I am forced to concede is a pretty good reason) but the whole 'shoot first and ask questions later' attitude we did it with has made a hash out of the whole damn thing. I dislike incompetence instensely- and this administration has shown plenty of it in their prosecution of this war.

But, the question of withdrawl is a very sticky wicket, so to speak. On the one hand, the GOP has a point: if we withdraw too soon then the unintended consequences could leave a bigger mess in its place. If it looks like we're cutting and running before the job is done, then that sends a baaaaad message to the bad guys and indicates our lack of faith in the Iraqi government.

However, the Democrats also have a valid point: we're kind of in a mess and we can't do this forever. At some point the Iraqis are going to have to get behind the wheel of the car, so to speak and start learning how to drive themselves. The Democrats raise a valid point in asking why we cannot determine when that day will come? I seem to recall Republican fulminations against Clinton's foreign escapades into Bosnia and Somalia- and the favorite theme they seemed hammer on was 'the lack of a coherent exit strategy.' And that's what we lack in Iraq...

I honestly don't know. I think if we could actually see some concrete proof that more and more Iraqis are getting into the fight- (like say enough to let some of our guys come home) then I think it would go a long way to convincing people that the job is getting done, slowly but surely, and there's a finish line for this mess somewhere up ahead.

Kiss Kiss Bang Bang

2005-11-19T18:48:00.000-06:00

OK, it's pushing 7pm, I'm exhausted and I've had one amazingly fun day. I now own an extremely large pink t-shirt that says 'Who's Buckman?' on it that I am only dimly aware of how I got. Iowa won! So, Go Hawks! Better bowl for us! Well, after the dust had settled from the game a few of us went downtown to see a movie- and the movie of choice for this afternoon was 'Kiss Kiss Bang Bang.'

And damn, was it hilarious! The basic plot: Harry (Robert Downey Jr.), thief and all around punk commits a robbery which goes wrong and he inadvertantly stumbles into an acting audition- which, soon enough lands him in LA, looking to land a movie role- which means he needs to take 'detective lessons' with the amusingly named Private Eye, Gay Perry (Val Kilmer)- soon Harry and Gay (who, naturally enough is also gay) are being framed for various murders, bodies are being tossed off roofs and various hilarious hijinks and shenanigans ensue. There's also a pretty girl involved (naturally) who has been in stuff, but whose name tragically escapes me at the moment (which is tragic, because she was very good.) Everything works out in the end, and the movie culminates in probably one of the best closing lines to a movie I've ever seen (when Robert Downey Jr's character is wrapping up his narrative, staring into the camera, and Val Kilmer comes up behind him and tells him to get his feet of his desk...) The line in question: "And to all you good people in the midwest, sorry we said 'fuck' so much."

Robert Downey Jr's character is delightfully twitchy and funny as hell, Val Kilmer is on his 'A-Game' with this film and funny as hell- hell, pretty much everyone in this movie was funny as hell and I can't think of a performance that I disliked. The movie was also the directorial debut of 'Lethal Weapon' writer, Shane Black (who also worked up the screenplay and story for this movie) and he too did a damn fine job with this film- the dialogue is snappy and well crafted and the whole movie just plain works- and it's hilarious!

My final verdict: *** (out of 4) this movie was just too damn funny not to be good- it's a buddy cop type of movie, and that genre has been, perhaps, a little done to death, but this movie was a pleasantly original take on the idea- and the hilarity was genuine and the movie just plain fun. Definately worth seeing.

Walk The Line

2005-11-19T05:24:00.000-06:00

This is the movie that turned me around on country music- maybe. I'm not saying that I am going to rush out and buy a bunch of Tim McGraw and Faith Hill albums, but after sitting through two hours of a very engrossing and in some parts downright enthralling film, I have to say I walked out of the theater in the certain knowledge that although I had one Johnny Cash album to my name, as soon as I had some money in the old pants pocket, more would follow- because his music was that good and this movie was that good.

I can't say that I've ever been a huge fan of Joaquin Phoenix- I've liked in him in the stuff I've seen him in, but in this movie, he channels Cash, he breathes him, he practical seems to become him, his acting is that compelling. He's got the deep voice downpat and you watch, slightly awestruck as you see Cash ascend to the peaks of stardom and then go down through the hell of booze and pills and out the other side again. Reese Witherspoon easily erases the mildly amusing bumfluff of 'Legally Blonde' with an inspired performance as Cash's Second Wife, June Carter. And if there was a strong woman character to be portrayed, it's June Carter- she runs the gamut from caring, loving and vulnerable to rough and tough and not about to put up with any bullshit from anyone, and Witherspoon does a fantastic job of portraying her.

The story starts at the famous 1968 concert in Folsom Prison and then flashes back to Cash's childhood, as we see him struggle for his father's (Robert Patrick) approval and watch him deal with the lost of his beloved older brother, Jack. Then we see him in the early years of his first marriage, struggling to jump start his career- and then, gradually, the past catches up with the present as we watch Cash struggle against booze, pills and the implosion of his first marriage before finally cleaning himself up and eventually getting a 'yes' to his marriage proposal to June Carter.

This movie was fantastic- I don't usually buy into the notions of 'a movie having Oscar written all over it' but this one, quite frankly does. Both Phoenix and Witherspoon deserve nominations for best Actor and Actress at the very least and this thing should win tons of music awards. Given what's coming in the holiday season though, Walk the Line is going to have a lot of competition, but, that said- I think it can take 'em on.

My final verdict: **** (out of 4) If you don't want to fight through the hordes of mini-people waiting to see 'Harry Potter and The Goblet of Fire' go and see this instead! And even if you do want to fight through the hordes, wait a couple of days for the Harry Potter mania to calm down and go and see this anyway. Definately worth, if you'll pardon the pun, the cash.

p.s. Off to trackdown my fellow tailgaters now. See y'all later. Lol, perhaps much later.

Who loves ya, baby?

2005-11-18T08:01:00.000-06:00

The results are in! Mahinda Rajapakse took the Presidency of Sri Lanka ahead of opposition leader Ranil Wickramasinghe with about 51% of the vote, according to reports- at the end of counting he had recieved 4.8 million vote or so, about 180,000 ahead of Wickramasinghe. So all in all, it was as most predictions predicted- although I'm not entirely clear whether or not the Tamil boycott of the vote was the fatal blow to Mr. Wickramasinghe, it cannot have helped any.

Anyway, here's the coverage:

BBC:
Hardliner wins Sri Lanka election
What now for Sri Lanka
Tamil Tigers warn new President

TamilNet.com has what looks to be news from the Tamil perspective, including the news that the UNP has called for a re-poll in the Northeast of the country- however, LankaPage.com, which has tons more election coverage has a somewhat interesting bit that Rajpakse has decided not to appoint the outgoing President's brother, Anura Bandaranaike as Prime Minister to replace him. The article says that the ostensible reason behind the move was that Bandaranaike had done little to support Rajpakse's run for the Presidency, so why give him the PM job- which could be totally, true I don't know. The other thing it does, intentionally or unintentionally is distance the new President a bit from the very long shadow of outgoing President Chandrika Kumaratunga. The Bandaranaikes are going to have to go on hiatus for awhile, I think.

So it's done. It's in the bag, and the implications and after effects of this on the Sri Lankan peace process could be very interesting. We'll have to wait and see, I guess.

Thanksgiving preview!

2005-11-17T17:44:00.000-06:00

OK, well tomorrow, Thanksgiving Break officially begins, and as I've been waiting for this particular break for sometime now, let's just say I intend to enjoy the weekend- a lot. But, that said I will be blogging over break and I want to step away from the usual commentary driven stuff and do some movie reviews- there are a plethora of films I want to see over the break (Good Night and Good Luck, Harry Potter 4, Walk the Line and probably Rent, if I get a chance) so I'd thought I go see them and try my hand at reviews- but, fear not, if you come to me to get your international relations fix, I'll still wade into the dorky areas now and again: I'll have results of the Sri Lankan elections as soon as they're in- and Malawi keeps trying to impeach it's President, so I'm kind of interested as to why they're doing that, so I'm going to check that out too. And if anything earth-shattering happens, I'll be all over that as well.

Enjoy the Weekend, everyone!

Next... in Colombo!

2005-11-17T16:25:00.000-06:00

There are elections taking place in Sri Lanka as I'm typing this, and it's only of interest to me because the tenure of one of the world's few female Presidents is coming to an end with this election. President Chandrika Kumaratunga has been running the place since 1994, and previously had only attracted my attention for having probably the coolest name of any President I could think of out there in the world today. Try saying it: Chandrika Kumaratunga. It just rolls right off the tongue, doesn't it? I think she'll still hold the prize for the coolest name of any President anywhere for sometime to come- other neato names for world leaders: Hu Jintao (President of China), Junichiro Koizumi (Prime Minister of Japan), and another long one- and another lady- Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo (President of the Phillipines.) So yeah, Kumaratunga had a pretty cool name and that's the only thing I really knew about her and what she's all about. I also had this vague notion that there was a Civil War going in Sri Lanka, but hadn't really taken the time to find anything out about it.

Well, there's no time like the present, right? After all, these folks are having an election and if I'm going to comment on it, I should probably figure out what's making it tick and stuff, so I did some digging on the net, and this is the background, the lowdown to what's behind the mess that Sri Lanka currently find itself in... I'll spare y'all the pre-history- if you're dying to know everything you've ever wanted to know about Sri Lanka but were afraid to ask, go here. As for the lowdown:

Sri Lanka has something of an ethnic divide- you have the majority Sinhalese and the prominent minority Tamils- now, for pretty much most of Sri Lanka's history that I could tell, it's pretty much been all about the Sinhalese- and the Tamils have always had issues with that, hence the occasional bout of ethnic tension between the two groups. The British, being the imperialist pig-dogs they were, kept things in check fairly successfully from 1818 on, when they formalized a treaty with the local monarchy to preserve it as a British dependency- and by the early 20th Century, constitutional development and democracy were creeping in, with universal suffrage and an elected assembly achieved by 1931. Dominion Status within the Empire followed in 1948, giving Sri Lanka, then Ceylon independance- and everything seems to be fine for a decade or so- and then the party system which has been kicking around in Sri Lanka since about 1960 clicked pretty solidly into place.

You have two parties: the Sri Lanka Freedom Party (SLFP) and the United National Party (the UNP)- from what I can tell, there seems to be something of a pattern going in Sri Lankan politics. First, we start with the SLFP which is the leftist party and tends to be more socialist, or at least it has been historically in its economic practices. Socialist bullshit economics fail to work, people want jobs, bring in the UNP for a spell. Now the UNP (more pro-business) has always been more tolerant towards the idea of being conciliatory towards the Tamils- but after awhile, pacifying the Tamils, especially with the recent Civil War, pisses people off, so they bring back the SLFP, which talks and walks a very tough like with the Tamils. And then the pattern repeats itself- SLFP's socialist economic policies don't go anywhere, so back to the UNP- and so on and so forth.

These two parties have been trading off back and forth since about 1960, when Sirimavo Bandaranaike took power with the SLFP, becoming the first female head of government anywhere. She swept back into power in 1970, and promptly turned the country into a Republic- the Democratic Socialist Republic of Sri Lanka- the Senate was abolished and Sinhala was made the official language again, which prompted an ethnic reaction- 1971, a Maoist rebellion under the JVP sprung up, which claimed to be revolutionary, but was more anti-Tamil than anything else- it was put down easily, but provked a reaction from the Tamils, who promptly formed the LTTE, the Tamil Tigers and called for a separate homeland of Eelam in the northwest areas of the island. So, ethnic tensions take an upswing.

By 1977, people had gotten tired of the SLFP and bring back the UNP- but this time, people were really pissed off at the leftist parties under the SLFP and totally denuded them, leaving the Tamil United Liberation Front as the official opposition in Parliament, which opened up the ethnic divide a little bit more. Then PM Jayewardene made Sri Lanka into a Presidential Republic with himself as President, but despite the UNP being traditionally more in favor of concessions to the Tamils, Civil War broke out in 1983.

And that's pretty much been the going situation in Sri Lanka ever since. Jayewardene ruled until 1989 under various emergency powers that he invoked, and in 1987 made himself very unpopular with the Sinhalese majority by asking Indian Prime Minister Rajiv Gandhi to send troops into Sri Lanka to try and calm the situation down. Both his successor and Rajiv Gandhi were assassinated by Tamil suicide bombers in 1993 and 1991 respectively.

So then the compass swang back to the tough-talking, no surrender to the Tamils party, the SLFP, and this time Chandrika Kumaratunga took charge in 1994, appointing her own mother, the still around 78 year old Sirimavo Bandaranaike as Prime Minister and things settled into stalemate. The Tamil Tigers weren't going away and the SLFP wasn't in the mood the play nice and negotiate, so the Civil War dragged on- and by the 2000 elections, people were tired of death, destruction and chaos and brought back in the UNP under Ranil Wickremesinghe to send out some peace feelers and end see what happens. He, however, was pretty ineffectual in the face of Presidential power and was eventually ousted in new elections by the current SLFP candidate, Prime Minister Rajapakse.

And that brings us up to today: a new Presidential election in Sri Lanka!

The Candidates:
Mahinda Rajapakse, current Prime Minister for SFLP and
Ranil Wickramasinghe, ex-Prime Minister for the Opposition UNP.

What's at stake: The ceasefire with the Tamil Tigers that's been in place since April 2003, when Norwegian mediators managed to get both sides to stop shooting each other and start talking. Talks have been stalled since April 2003, but violence has not erupted on a serious level since then, either. There was a certain amount of tentative cooperation between the Tigers and the Government after the Tsunami, including a deal which allowed aid to flow (fairly) freely into Tiger controlled territory in the north. However, the recent assassination of foreign minister Lakshman Kadirgamar was blamed on the Tigers (they denied responsibility) and has spaked fears of a potential upswing in violence. So, basically, continued peace is potentially at stake- along with Tsunami reconstruction, the economy and a host of other things.

The Wild Card: Chandrika Kumaratunga- yes, the current President is very, very powerful- she's going to be a major influence in Sri Lankan politics for sometime to come, even after her term as President ends. This means the Bandaranaike Dynasty will have to take a rest for now, although her brother Anura Bandaranaike is now foreign minister and seen as a potential successor in the long term.

The Complications: The Tamils are boycotting the vote. Yes, they've said that they don't care and the BBC is reporting that turnout in the northern town of Jaffna was put at 0.014% which was the lowest turnout anywhere in the country.

Thoughts and Coverage:

The BBC:
Tamil boycott of Sri Lanka vote
Sri Lankans tire of crucial polls
What now for Sri Lanka?
FAQs: Sri Lanka Elections

Other Sources:
LankaPage: http://www.lankapage.com/
The Hindu: Polling Ends Peacefully in Sri Lanka

Famous People who live in Sri Lanka: Arthur C. Clarke, author of 2001: A Space Odyssey- his foundation is to be found here: http://www.clarkefoundation.org/ Although, I don't think Sri Lankan politics is exactly their main focus, I'd just thought I'd throw it in there.

The Weather Man

2005-11-17T14:42:00.000-06:00

Went to the movie theater on Sunday night, and saw the new Nicolas Cage move, 'The Weather Man.' It wasn't like the highest priority for me- I mean, there was nothing about the movie that made me want to jump up and down and run to see it at the earliest possible opportunity, but of all the movies out right now, I was mildly intrigued at the possibilities- so, I went to see it, and I was... not disappointed. I mean, it's not the greatest movie ever made by any stretch of the imagination, but nor it is the worst piece of steaming excrement I've ever seen.

The story is this: A Chicago Weatherman with the overly cheerful name of Dave Spritz is approaching middle age and hey, lo and behold he's having a mid-life crisis type of thing. Not a cheery one involving buying fancy cars or anything, just the general realization that his life is kind of in pieces and nothing is where he wants it to be. His ex-wife, Noreen (played by Hope Davis) and he fight like cats in a sack, despite his sincere desire to reconcile, his daughter is overweight, young and unhappy- his son his a druggie whom they send to re-hab and has to dodge the very creepy advances of one of his counselors (Gil Bellows, from Ally McBeal), and his father, a famous pulitzer-award winning author, played by Michael Caine is dying of terminal cancer.

And to top off all these various crises that Dave has going, he has a lucrative job offer in New York.

This movie was pretty inconsistent tone-wise I thought- it kept bouncing back and forth between the bitingly funny dark humour (listening to Michael Caine give a clinical description of the meaning of 'camel toe' was fairly hysterical) and the sort of depressing, grey malaise (the whole movie sort of has this overcast, wintery tone of greyness, which ties in nicely) of dealing with middle age and the knowledge that your life isn't where you imagined it would be. It makes for an interesting movie overall, but the sort of roller coaster effect you get at alternating between wanting to laugh and feeling depressed is sort of annoying after awhile.

The music was also a combination of odd songs and annoying industrial random sound effects that also annoyed me. Dave's Dad, Robert (Caine) has a living funeral for everyone to gather and say goodbye to him, and all that jazz- and Dave's speech about his Dad is interrupted just after he says that whenever he thinks of his Dad he thinks of the Bob Seger song, 'Like a Rock.' Now, we hear the line in question that Dave is referring to- and it makes for a nice, meaningful scene between father and son, but why that song? I would never think of my father when I hear that song- and neither would anyone else. Everyone, and I do mean everyone would think about Chevy trucks. So, although I would want people remembering my father, should, God forbid, we ever have to do a living funeral for him, unless he starts driving a chevy truck, I think I can find a better song.

But, basically, the movie resolves quite nicely as Dave realizes that despite people throwing food at him constantly and his life not being anywhere where he imagined it would, life is not all that bad after all, because, as his father puts it:

"Do you know that the harder thing to do, and the right thing to do, are usually the same thing? "Easy" doesn't enter into grown-up life... to get anything of value, you have to sacrifice."

My final verdict: a good movie. Worth seeing if you're bored and want to pop out to the movies one night, if not, I'd wait for a DVD rental. *** (out of 4) though.

You call this intelligent design?

2005-11-14T08:51:00.000-06:00

One the weirder stories to come out of the election last week was the defeat of the proponents of Intelligent Design in Dover, Pennsylvania- the original 8 members of the board had decided to push Intelligent Design in Science classrooms- there was a backlash and they were all ousted by folks who, apparently had no real problem with it, but wanted to keep it out of their science classrooms. Pat Robertson responded by saying that they had 'voted God out of their city' and 'don't turn to God if there's a disaster, because you've rejected him' and other statements in that vein. However, the Kansas School Board adopted new science standards which encouraged criticism of the theory of evolution (gaps in the fossil record, molecular evidence, whatever...)

This got the old grey matter churning: intelligent design vs. evolution- why do people care? What exactly are intelligent design and evolution and do I care?

It's been an issue in America for awhile, but recent history of the controversy starts with the Scopes Monkey Trial, probably one of the most famous trials in American history now, which took place in Tennessee a very long time ago in 1925. The basic crux of the issue: Basically, this science teacher in Tennessee, John Scopes was accused of illegally teaching the theory of evolution in the classroom, which violated an anti-evolution statute which Tennessee had on the books at the time- William Jennings Bryan, former Democratic Candidate for President came down on the side of the anti-evolution crowd and Clarence Darrow defended Mr. Scopes- apparently the ACLU was looking for test cases to prod at the Constitutionality of the Anti-Evolution statutes many states had on the books at the time. However, and I think this is a metaphor one can apply to the current round of bickering on the issue, it was pointed out that there was a bigger societal cleavage at work here: modernists vs. traditionalists...

That's what it comes down to I think: those that think 'traditional American values' are under attack versus those that well, I don't know. Disagree with that notion? Maybe... want to progress forward with the times? I'm not sure you could say that with any accuracy either. But, I do think there's a large sort of 'our values are under attack with this' type of thing going on with the proponents of Intelligent Design and Creationism.

So, what is Intelligent Design? OK, from what I can tell, the jist of it is this: the universe is too wacky just to have happened by accident, so the complexity and intricacies of life seem to indicate than a 'designer' of some kind is responsible. This doesn't necessarily make it a religious position, that's something that the folks at the Discovery Institute, which a the big proponents of this thing seem to be saying very loudly. (Though if evidence point to a 'designer', and it's not a deity of some faith or another, then who done it? Truly, a mystery...) But, it turns out that the idea isn't exactly a new one... the analogy of the 'blind watchmaker' or just 'the watchmaker' has been around for centuries: basically, it boils down to this: "If we find a watch in a field, it is too complex to have appeared there by natural process so they assume that there must be a watchmaker responsible for its creation." In other words, there's a master designer behind it all.

So, it's an idea that's hardly new and it's a pretty simple one. Things are just too damn complex to have happened through some weird process of random natural selection. Hell, I could buy that, probably. But, where does it go off the rails? Why all the kerfuffle?

I've been listening to the occasional lecture in my 'Age of Dinosaurs' class this semester (and yes, it's a real class and yes, I have to take it to fulfill a GenEd requirement. My last one- the need for a Science class with a Lab Section. And this class has it...) Anyway, the Prof has a bit of a burr in his bonnett about how wrong the media tends to get the fact of basic science and this thing is no exception- he also took time to beat the basics of the scientific method into us, so I'd like to think I've got the basic scientific objections to Intelligent Design down- and if I haven't, someone please correct my ignorance:

1. Falsficationism- the Scientific method rests on this baby, big time. It's not a real hypothesis unless you have the ability to prove it wrong. Now, with evolution, scientists took a look at the info they had before them and said hey, this is the best explaination we got. Could someone come up with something better? You bet your ass they could... the theory of evolution has the potential to well, evolve in a big way. After all, we're learning more and more about the genetic code, biology and all that jazz gets more complex year after year. Could a better explaination for where we came from be found? OF COURSE IT COULD! So, evolution is not set in stone, despite what the creationist crowd is trying to say. If they want to knock it down, knock away, but you gotta float theories that can be falsified. And therein lies the problem with Intelligent Design, I think.

You can't falsify it! Even if you took the basic, pretty non-religious idea of the Watchmaker Analogy and it can't be done. The notion of some kind of a higher designer? How do you disprove that? The fact of the matter is that you can't, so that makes it well, unscientific in a way- well, it makes it pretty damn unscientific, so that's strike one.

2. Evolution doesn't really give any solid explanation on where life comes from. This is direct from lecture, but come to think of it, I guess that must be true. It basically says that we all evolved from one basic life form. Doesn't say where that life from comes from or how it got there? Go back to the Big Bang even: the Universe was created in a big explosion. But, in my experience and knowledge anyway, big, huge-ass explosions don't happen on their own or in a vacuum. Who pulled the plug and pushed the detonator? Evolution, at least from my understanding of it doesn't preclude the idea of some sort of a God, nor does it give a solid explanation on the origins of life. It just says we all started from a single point and that over time we diverged and diversified. Change over time. That's pretty much evolution in a nutshell. God doesn't enter into it, and I'm a little puzzled by how he, she or they (depending on your denomination) get flung into the midst of this rather tiresome argument.

So me: I don't like Intelligent Design for reasons both scientific and religious. For a start, if you're teching science in a science classroom it makes some sort of sense, at least in my head to have the theories you teach adhere to the basic principles of the scientific method. Intelligent Design doesn't- or if it does, no one's convinced me of that yet. Falsificationism is at the heart of the scientific method and something as unfalsifiable as the idea of a 'designer' whether religious or not flies in the face of science itself. If I had kids, and I was sending them to a science class, I'd want them to learn science! (And I wouldn't want their science curriculum decided via court case, fiat or whim or someone's political agenda, whether it's a leftist one or a rightist one.)

I object to Intelligent Design theologically because it undermines faith, and faith is what religion is built on. It asks us to take the notion of some higher power, designer or whatever and open it up to scientific scrutiny which means apply falsificationism to the idea of God. And that's an open invitation to undermine faith... you can't disprove God. God just is. Hence, the difficulty of trying to insert the Deity into the science classrooms of America. Also, the Prof in Age of Dinosaurs had a rather brilliant point to add onto this: I.D. promotes the idea of God as ignorance. Step back and think about it for a second: basically, they're saying well, we can't explain everything, so it must be God. But say times goes by and we learn more. Then it'll be: well, now we can't explain this. So it must be God. I don't like setting that precedent. God should not be something we turn to in ignorance. Our lack of knowledge about any given topic should not automatically point to God. My faith may not be as strong as some, but I'd like to think of God as the source of knowledge not the lack of it.

In short, I smell a rat. The Supreme Court, rightly or wrongly- I'm no legal scholar, struck down creationism, so the pro-creationists found this old idea that'd been laying around the place and revived it to try and sneak it back in. I'm not going to go so far as to say Intelligent Design is merely 're-packaged' creationism, but it seems like the Creationist crowd out there found what they think might be a loop hole and is trying to milk it for all it's worth. Science classrooms should have good science at the center of their curriculum... scientific education is going to be vitally important in maintaining this nation's technological edge in the next century and it's a race we're already beginning to lose primarily because the Republican Party has taken science and politicized it, which is just plain wrong. Intelligent Design is bad science, in my humble view and thus should not be taught in our science classrooms.

But, don't take my word for it... check out more thoughts, commentary, news:

Discovery Institute: http://www.discovery.org/csc/
TechCentralStation: Is Intelligent Design a Bad Scientific Theory or a Non-Scientific Theory?
Sisu: There Is Grandeur in this view of life

NPR: This is an interesting story- I don't agree with Intelligent Design, but harrassment of those that do is well, stupid, as well as just plain wrong. It may not be very scientific, but you can't hold it against people- it's a perfectly valid opinion.

Blogs4God: Would the Real Pat Robertson please sit down?
From DailyKos: Marketing 'Intelligent Design'
Kansas Evolution Hearings: Transcripts of an Intelligently Designed 'Kangaroo Court'

Tidbits! (pt. 3): Saturday crumbs

2005-11-12T09:46:00.001-06:00

It's early Saturday morning and I'm doing a pre-work CD burning binge having finally gotten this year's edition of the Mix together last night. The Mix of course is something I randomly started like my second year at the Museum I think... just got a bunch of people's favorite songs together and threw them all on a CD and I've been doing it ever since. This year's edition of the Mix is going to be the last though... as I hope I'm not working at the Museum next year. Lol, in fact I hope I have a decent job, salary, new geographical location, car and although it might be overly optimistic of me, a girlfriend would also be very nice as well.

But anyway, let's purge some of my world-watching dorkiness that's built up over the last couple of days:

Massive Madness in Monrovia: Results seem to be saying what they have for days: Africa has it's first directly elected female head of state in Ellen Johnson-Sirleaf, but despite that, her opponent, soccer God George Weah, known as 'Oppong' and 'King George' is alleging vote rigging and his camp has launched a formal complaint, which the National Election Commission has promised to expedite as quickly as possible. Weah has also called for a re-run of the entire thing. This has always been the tricky part of elections like these, I suppose: getting the loser to well, lose with grace. None of the international observers that I've seen mentioned in the press have stood up and said there's evidence of vote-rigging, in fact most of them seem to say that the election was free and fair. And yet Weah is still pushing this! The good news is that he's being sensible: he's urged his supporters to chill out and remain calm while they check this thing out- and the quotes they have from ordinary Liberians on the street also seems to indicate that people are very, very, very tired of violence. I think if the NEC checks this out and doesn't agree with Weah, he's going to come under increasing pressure to accept the result. (Because if he disagrees with the electoral commissions findings, he's going to look like a sore loser and people will probably start telling him to take a seat.)

The Deal is Done in Deutschland: FINALLY! They got 'er done! A deal for a Grand Coalition was finally hammered out and now it looks to be official: pending a Bundestag vote on November 22nd, Angela Merkel is set to become the next Chancellor of Germany- the first Female Chancellor and the first one from the formerly Communist east apparently. Nothing new, juicy and sexy to report from the coalition deal- they had to horse trade in a major way: the CDU pushed through an increase in Germany's VAT- with the aim of lowering Germany's non-wage labor costs to hopefully kick start growth- they had to eat an SPD pushed tax increase on the rich though, since a VAT increase is going to hit the less fortunate a little harder... but, finally, Germany looks to have a new government.

Aftermath of Amman Attacks: Jordan is still reeling from a triple suicide bombing on three mainly western Hotels this past Wednesday- the Radisson, Hyatt and Days Inn in Amman were all hit and at least 57 people were killed. Abu Musab Al-Zarqawi has claimed responsibility for the attacks, but officials are now saying non-Jordanians were behind the attacks, and husband-wife team was suspected to be behind at least one. The attacks provoked a strong reaction in Jordan, as despite Al-Qaeda's stated desire to kill westerners at these hotels, more than half those killed were Jordanians.

Bill's Bulls--t: O'Reilly went off, as was his want. San Franciscans approved Proposition 1, which limits military recruiters on public school and college campuses. O'Reilly went nuts at this, calling for the President to withdraw military protection for the city:

"...If al-Qaida comes in here and blows you up, we're not going to do anything about it. We're going to say, look, every other place in America is off limits to you, except San Francisco. You want to blow up the Coit Tower? Go ahead."

What an idiot. First of all, the people of San Francisco have a right to vote however they want on whatever they want and second of all the President takes an oath to defend the entire country, not just the Red States, Blue States or whatever parts meet with his approval. The whole country. Yes, San Fran may be a bit left field for Bill, but his comments were idiotic and far from intelligent. In fact, they were just plain stupid. Blow up Coit Tower... ? What a gasbag.

All righty then... I'm out for now. Back to work.

Are We Ready?

2005-11-11T10:20:00.000-06:00

Ever since the debut of ABC's new hit series, Commander in Chief, America has been abuzz with all kinds of juicy questions being asked around the water coolers of our fair nation: Is Commander in Chief nothing more than stereotypically liberal, pro-Hillary propaganda? Is Geena Davis believable as a female President? Is it just me or are her lips really freakin' huge? At 6'4'' is Mackenzie Allen the first President, real or fictional that has an honest to god chance to go one on one with Shaquille O'Neal and take him all the way to the hole- and more importantly, to do so in heels?

And of course, the big kahuna: Is America ready for a Female President?

Well, as a nation, I'd have to say we're surprisingly behind the curve when it comes to getting women into positions of political power- there are tons, and I do mean tons of nations that got there first. So if you had any hopes of the hyperpower leading the way on breaking that ceiling, no such luck- this time, we, the sole superpower and all that jazz are trailing. So who got there first and why? And does this make us different somehow? What are the prospects for American women breaking the glass ceiling of glass ceilings and getting into the White House?

The concept of women running countries isn't entirely a new and shocking one. The first female Prime Minister anywhere was in fact in Sri Lanka, then Ceylon in 1960. Mrs. Sirimavo Bandaranaike, widow of assassinated Prime Minister Soloman Bandarnaike- whose daughter, Chandrika Kumaratunga is the current President of Sri Lanka- and whom, weirdly, got to give her own mother her governmental mandate, appointing her mother Prime Minister again in 1994. (Chandrika Kumaratunga being unique in the fact that she's the only head of state who's the daughter of two Prime Ministers.)

The first female President followed along in 1974, when Isabel Peron became President of Argentina following the death of her husband Juan Peron. She didn't do so hot at the job, being removed in a coup in 1976, and imprisoned until 1978- then she went into exile in Spain- the first democratically elected female President came along not long after that from exotic and sexy Iceland... Vigdís Finnbogadóttir, (say that three times fast, I dare ya!) the first female President in Europe and the first democratically and directly elected one anywhere- in 1980.

Of course there have been tons of other notables in the 20th Century: Golda Mier, Benzair Bhutto, Margaret Thatcher, Corazon Aquino, Indira Gandhi- more recently, we've seen Megawati Sukarnoputri in Indonesia and Gloria Arroyo in the Phillipines- should she ever be let out of house arrest, technically speaking Aung San Suu Kyi is the democratically elected leader of Burma- in other words, countries far more conservative than the United States haven't batted an eye at having a woman oversee their affairs. I mean, we can say that socially speaking, Muslims are pretty conservative compared to some of us crazy Yankees and yet Megawati Sukarnoputri was President of Indonesia- and lost an election instead of being ousted in a coup.

And now, we have Angela Merkel on deck in Germany, set to grab the position of Chancellor with a little luck, should her coalition negotiations get done. Ellen Johnson-Sirleaf snagging the Presidency of Liberia, becoming Africa's first elected female leader and in Chile has the option of electing their first female President in December.

So why hasn't America jumped on this bandwagon? Are we special? Are we different somehow? I honestly don't think so- America's just a little slow is all. It's been creeping up slowly on us, but all in all, I think Americans are willing to vote for candidates that stand by their convictions and are strong and you know- all that jazz. If one of them happens to be a woman, then that's who'll people are gonna vote for. More and more women governors are getting elected, 8 of them to be precise, we have 81 women total in Congress, 14 in the Senate and 67 in the House. OK, so that's not an amazingly large number, but it's getting bigger with every passing day.

Geraldine Ferraro was the first female major party candidate in 1984, running for Vice President. That obviously didn't work out all that well for her, but recently, we've seen other women seeking the nominations of both parties: Elizabeth Dole in 2000 and Carol Mosley-Braun in 2004, so I think my conclusion is that it's just a matter of time at this point.

Will it be 2008? I don't know- a recent poll that MSNBC had seemed to say that most Americans thought 2012 would be a more likely shot for a woman or a minority taking the top office, but I think it's now safely moved from a question of 'if' to 'when.'

The roomie and I have this discussion now and again whenever we both get really, really bored and Hardball is particularly annoying- he always says that I shouldn't underestimate the power of chauvinism in this country, and I suppose I might grudgingly concede that- but only by a little bit. Yes, America is a remarkably conservative country, socially speaking- but on the other hand, the idea of a woman holding high office on a state level is no longer a big deal, and it's becoming less of a big deal as time goes by on a national level. I think voters respond to honesty, strong stands on the issues and politicians who have convictions. If a politician comes along who does that and happens to be female, then I think they'll vote for her. Everyone says Hillary is going to run, and if she does, the Republicans probably already have 1,001 reasons not to vote for her all lined up and ready to go. If they start using 'Don't vote for because she's a woman,' then I think America will know what desperation smells like and I think it'll trigger a backlash, because voters are going to need a better reason than that not to vote for her.

In short, yes we are ready. And it's just a matter of time before it happens. I'm not going to go as high as 50 years, but I think certainly within my lifetime- and before 2030- within the next 25 years at least, we'll have had a female president.

Some interesting links on the subject:

The White House Project: http://www.thewhitehouseproject.org/

The Worldwide Guide to Women in Leadership: http://www.guide2womenleaders.com/

Blazing a Trail for Africa's Women: http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/africa/4428434.stm

Tidbits! (pt. 2): Election fallout

2005-11-10T15:43:00.000-06:00

I'm back at the end of a fairly productive week. Time marches onwards, the semester is about to collapse in on itself and life goes on more or less, but great things are afoot. First of all, progress is being made in a big way on one of the piece I'm working on- I got precisely nothing of consequence done last night, because I was writing most of the night. I also discovered that metaxa (Greek brandy) smells like something akin to what I imagine starter fluid would probably smell like, but it marginally drinkable, provided you drink it on the rocks. Lots of rocks are reccomended.

Anyway, the tidbits:

US Elections: Democrats won governorships in New Jersey and Virginia, and the Governator got fairly well bitch-slapped by California voters, who rejected all of his ballot initiatives pretty resoundingly. This has naturally led to another flurry of pundit based speculation that the Republicans are in imminent danger of collapse, suffering from an arrogant, God complex, etc. But, I stick by my initial feel. The Republican screw ups aren't enough for the Democrats. They need to find a niche, an idea that can really connect with the public and run with it. 10 years of a Republican Congress that promised fiscal discipline, small government and other things and we have a government that is anything but those things. Here's an interesting idea: If we can have big government conservatism, it follows that we should be able to have small government progressive liberalism? That makes sense to me. Election night was good news for the Democrats, but they need a 'Contract with America' doo-hickey. And they need to start floating ideas and initiatives and basically taking advantage of this. No more glee! No more of the attitude that 'yay, they've screwed up, now it's our turn!' You have a moment. Don't screw it up.

Liberia Elections: Got a bit dodgy there, and we may not be out of the woods yet, but The Iron Lady looks to have scored the go ahead goal to end Weah's dream of being President of war-ravaged Liberia. Ellen Johnson-Sirleaf, known as 'The Iron Lady' is set to become the next President of Liberia. Some Weah supporters are less than pleased, alleging irregularities, but international observers have said that the election met standards of being both free and fair. Weah has also told supporters to chill out while they investigate the alleged corruption. But Africa has it's first female President. Something to applaud about, for sure.

Pre-Armistice Day thoughts: Yes, I do think of it as Armistice Day. Of course we should honor our veterans with their own day, I don't object to that, but I think in this country especially as more and more time passes, we tend to forget about the horror and brutality, in fact, we just tend to forget about World War One in general. America's big thing is World War II, and I guess there's something too that. After all, I think the number stack up to maybe 116,000 dead, over 200,000 wounded, sent across the pond to France, and there were oh so many more for World War Two, but I think by calling the 11th of November Veteran's Day instead of Armistice Day you encourage people to forget about what the day is really about. Across Europe tomorrow, there will be many people wearing a red poppy. Entire countries will fall silent at 11 PM, to mark the eleventh hour of the eleventh day of the eleventh month when the guns on the one of the most brutal wars ever fought fell silent.

Honor our Veterans, by all means. But tomorrow, at 11 AM, stop for a minute and think about the guys that fought in that first Great War, so long ago now. There aren't that many of them left.

All righty, I'm all tapped out for now. Bracing for a symposium at work, and I have to work late. But, two things I want to post a bit more comprehensively on:

Intelligent Design vs. Evolution (the PA School Board that tried to promote I.D. was ousted. All eight of them. In Tuesday's elections.) and, I want to wade into the whole 'Female President' debate. Especially with the election of Ellen Johnson-Sirleaf in Liberia.

So stay tuned!

Tidbits! (pt. 1): 2,910 newtons.

2005-11-06T15:11:00.000-06:00

The weekend is going just swimmingly thus far- Friday night was rehersal for Hindi skit, with Port, silliness and Empire Records which I have purchased on DVD. (I had seen Empire before, and until I saw it again recently, it failed to impact on me. The recent time convinced me firmly that it was well, a kick-ass movie, and I should have it. So, I went out and brought it! The Hindi quiz did not go as well as I thought it had, but I nailed the post-positions and got the majority of constructions- so I was pleased with that. I felt pretty good about the Age of Dinos midterm- and it was a good night. Sleep was had.)

Saturday was more rehersal for Hindi skit and then work- (which was a very, very long day. Marred by disappointments of Iowa's one point lost to Northwestern- 28-27! Such a tragedy. And, of course, the Oaxacan woodcarving exhibit opens up, and it's fab! And the store has loads of extra woodcarvings for sale, but they are obscenely overpriced! Argh!) After work, however was Diwali down at the IMU. I kicked myself through most of that. I really missed a lot of opportunities in college, being a nerdy monk and all and that was one that I should have taken advantage of year after year- it was just that awesome- the food, the celebration, the dancing. Plus, after that, I got home, had a beer and pushed ahead in a piece I've been working on in a major way! I was so pumped, because this is the piece I have under control- it has structure, a plan- people may end up finding it massively boring, but I can see how it's supposed to unspool, climax and end. So, I'm happy with that.

And now it's Sunday, and it's been relaxation, a quick trip downtown snagged some essentials: pasta sauce (will finish all our pasta this week or die trying!), bread and cheese (from the co-op, so it's good.) and a mullet wig from Ragstock that won't fit on my fat head- (had a thought for the Hindi skit. But, I can wing it. It'll be coooool... no worries.) Plus, I went into the Prarie Table to scope out strainers for the pasta only to find out that small ones cost about $20, which was a price that I was unwilling to pay for a mere strainer, but they had chocolates that, forgive me, looked too damn sexy not to buy, so three truffles brought I, and ate them I did and fantastic they were. So, tonight is the Hindi skit and then more relaxation.

I feel good about the potential for the coming week. This is probably a mistake on my part.

So tidbits to share with you peeps:

Burma is moving it's capital. I hate it when countries do this, because then I look like a total boob when people ask me what the capital of such and such a country is and I tell them, and then they get great glee in telling me that I'm wrong. Leaving aside the fact that Burma (and yes, I do categorically refuse to call it Myanmar.) is run by a gang of thugs and bastards and Aung San Suu Kyi is still under house arrest instead of running the country like she should be, this news does not please me. Plus, 'Beyond Pyinmana' just doesn't role off the tongue the way 'Beyond Rangoon' does. What's Bridget Fonda going to do if they want to make a sequel? Stupid military junta so totally didn't think this through.

And now they're ruining cow-tipping as well. Scientists, I swear to God. You would think they had better things to do with their time. I mean, find a cure for cancer or something- don't ruin my plans! Don't tell me that the force required to tip a cow standing up has been scientifically proven to require five people instead of one! I don't want to be told this! I want to be out in a field, drunk off my ass, discovering this for myself! I don't care what some fancy pants scientist says! Before I die, a cow will be tipped. When I'm drunk. It's on my list of things to do before I die and Newtonian physics isn't going to stand in my way, dammit. (2,910 newtons can be beaten!)

I'm all tapped out. Laters.

Paris is burning

2005-11-03T16:31:00.000-06:00

What a long strange week it's been. I got one midterm back, much to my horror and disgust I've pretty much screwed myself quite nicely on it. But, I shall do my level best to salvage what's left of my grade and see if I can crawl back up to decency and respect-like levels. But, the good news is that I think I did pretty well on the Hindi quiz today, so we'll just have to see how that plays out tomorrow.

The weekend is going to be very busy. Nothing on deck Friday night, but the Diwali Celebration is Saturday night and then we have the thing at Phillip-ji's House Sunday night. This means, tragically, I'm missing the live debate episode of The West Wing, but I think I can handle it. I think I'll survive.

So, the pre-weekend tidbits:

Paris is burning: A seventh night of riots in Paris has the French government deploying a thousand police officers to the area of the Paris suburbs around Seine St. Denis-- this round of race riots was set off after the deaths of two African youths last week. Got coverage from the blogosphere here:

Gateway Pundit
Roger L. Simon
Meryl Yourish
Brussels Journal

There could be very interesting fallout from these riots. De Villepan, the Prime Minister and Sarkozy the Interior Minister are considered likely rivals for President in the upcoming elections next year- Sarkozy, the tough talking interior minister has drawn some fire for being very blunt in his remarks regarding these riots, but the fallout from this has political ramifications, potentially, if they bungle the response. (And given the fact they've been rioting for a week now, I would qualify that as a bungle.)

This is really cool, I think: I've started to be really interested in Cyprus ever since I did a paper on it in my Ethnic Conflicts class a couple of semesters back. First of all, I think it's probably one of the most overlooked ongoing conflicts in the world- at least from where most Americans sit anyway. I mean, people know about North and South Korea, they saw the Berlin Wall come down and Germany reunite, but I'm willing to bet that a lot of people would be hard-pressed to find Cyprus on a map, much less realize that it's been divided in a long running conflict since 1974. Michael J. Totten has a post from along the Green Line, or as he calls in 'The Attila Line.'- And I guess there's literally an entire city, devoid of people that the Turkish military sealed off thirty years ago and it's still there.

Headaches for Angie: Not the best of weeks for Germany's would be Chancellor- first a key proponent of the Grand Coalition from the SPD side of the aisle resigned as Party Head, as Franz Müntefering decided he would not stand for re-election- the head of her sister party the CSU, her chief rival Edmund Stoiber announced that he wouldn't be jumping into the chaos of Berlin, pulling out of the government and saying he would stay on as Premier in Bavaria. The latest on Germany's ongoing election drama from Der Spiegel, here. I think this week's news has probably delt a pretty hefty blow to the plans for a Grand Coalition, but not necessarily a fatal one by any means. Angie Merkel and the CDU have said they're going to push ahead with coalition negotiations, so stay tuned I guess. Not the bestest of news for her, but not the worst either.

That crazy rain in Spain: the delicate system of regionalism/federalism that's been the norm in Spain since the restoration of democracy in the early 80s is under some strain, as the Spanish Parliament has just passed highly controversial plans to grant Catalonia a higher degree of autonomy. Catalonia would, under the legislation have the right to be called a nation, levy taxes and change laws passed by the Parliament in Madrid. This has ignited a firestorm of debate in Spain, as one might expect, critics saying that it goes to far in the direction of independance and raises the prospect of a break-up of the Spanish state. Hmmm, well, I'd be more worried about the ripple effects this has on the Basque Country next door. What are you going to say to them when they want to be called a nation, levy taxes and have pretty much the same deal Catalonia just got? Or Galicia? What if they want the same deal? It's a slippery slope. I'm no expert on Spanish politics, that much is for sure, but what I've read and what I know of the situation can lead me to safely say this: there's a balance in Spain- between the power of the central government in Madrid and the generous powers of the various semi-autonomous regions in the North of the country... the trick is trying to keep all these regions happy without upsetting the balance too much and crashing the ship of state into a reef, so to speak. I'm all for self-determination, federalism and all that jazz, but I think the critics here raise a valid point. How long until the Catalans demand independance? Would Catalonia even be viable as a nation? There are real worries here, but Spain's kept the balance between the regions and Madrid for a couple of decades now, so... they can probably maintain that balance. They've gotten pretty good at it over the years.

Tensions rising in Ethiopia: Ethiopia and Eritrea might be about to go at it again- troops are apparently building up in the volatile border region and the UN is sounding the alarm on the matter. I haven't been all that plugged into the whole border war between these two, but by all accounts it's been pretty brutal fighting over not a whole lot of land. Apparently we're talking throw backs to trench warfare type stuff, the Eritreans advancing a whole six inches before being thrown back a foot by the Ethiopians kind of thing.

So, what do I know: Back in the day, elements of Ethiopian society cut a deal with the Eritreans to get Mengistu's Communist regime out of power, which managed, hooray, everyone applauded, etc. But, then naturally, part of the deal was that Eritrea would get to decide it's fate, and decide it did, becoming independant in 1993. Things went downhill after that as Ethiopia had to face up to the fact that it had lost a bunch of land, and more importantly outlets to the sea. Hence, the border war. I don't think Ethiopia wants Eritrea back, but I think they'd probably like a port along a body of water somewhere. But, it's bad, bad news for the Horn of Africa- and the UN is to be applauded for getting everyone to settle down with their peace deal in 2000. (That's probably a fairly appaullingly simple summary of a very complex situation. For that, I apologize.)

But, there's a new twist: Ethiopia recently held elections, which the opposition claimed were pretty blatantly rigged. They are, because of this, quite unhappy and protesting most vociferously on the streets of Adis Ababa, the Ethiopian capital- the latest on that, here, courtesy of an entry at Publius Pundit... (just scroll down, you'll find what I'm talking about.)

Ethiopundit
Reuters
Ethiomedia
Weichegud

So, the question is this: is the Ethiopian government looking for a distraction? Did they get caught red-handed pulling a crappy election? I think so. The opposition is pissed as hell and isn't going away anytime soon, at least as far as I can tell, so what does the government do? Bring in the Eritreans and make them the bad guys again by ratcheting up tensions and doing a 'Wag the Dog' manuever. Or they could just generally want to mess with the Eritreans, I don't know. But given events in Adis Ababa in recent days, you have to wonder if there's a correlation between the two.

American tidbits: I'm going to ignore Alito for awhile. And the crazy (but ballsy, very ballsy) 'let's shutdown the Senate' thing the Democrats did yesterday. In fact, I'm just going to ignore America for awhile. Scooter Libby did plead not guilty today though, and Der Spiegel had the following quote from his book:

"He could feel her heart beneath his hands. He moved his hands slowly lower still and she arched her back to help him and her lower leg came against his. He held her breasts in his hands. Oddly, he thought, the lower one might be larger.... One of her breasts now hung loosely in his hand near his face and he knew not how best to touch her."

I think I'm just going to leave that thought hem, hem, hanging there for everyone to digest. :-)

I'm out for the weekend, peeps. Catch you on the flip side.

Hunkering down to fight over 'sloppy seconds.'

2005-10-31T14:50:00.000-06:00

Well, both sides are starting to dig in seriously now- and, as expected, the Left is most displeased. I think this is going to go the full nine yards and if Judge Alito gets confirmed, he will have definately been put through his paces. I've found no word yet from the 'Gang of 14' but MSNBC has both Reid and Leahy weighing in- initially as heavily against. Daily Kos is also teeing off on Alito, and Althouse has some more thoughts, saying that he's probably a stronger pick than Roberts, which judicially he might be (that ain't my department.) Politically, however, I think this gives us a balls-out, knockdown drag-out fight to confirm Alito, which is probably what both sides want to a certain degree. (Gets the bases fired up.)

I think abortion is going to be pushed to the forefront of this particular fight, as the Left, if it's not going crazy already will probably blow a nut over his dissent in Casey back in 1991- but I would seriously reccomend clicking on the Althouse link- she's dug up some more of his desicions that I would say seriously calls into question his moniker of 'Scalito-' and I think it shows that he probably isn't the nuttiest, craziest howl at the moon right-winger that the left is going to make him out to be. I'm going to dig in and do some serious reading up on this guy, because I want to be able to actually have some coherent of my own to say on the issue.

In a somewhat amusing note, Drudge has a flash that the rather ironically named Chief White House Correspondant for CBS, John Roberts asked the following:

“So, Scott, you said that -- or the President said, repeatedly, that Harriet Miers was the best person for the job. So does that mean that Alito is sloppy seconds, or what?”

Sloppy seconds. HAH! He only wishes... if anything I'd say the reverse would be true. Alito is going to inspire one helluva fight. Miers inspired heartburn, anxiety and reams of quiet glee amongst the Left as they watch the Right savage her and other than that had little else to say. A ten round confirmation battle is hardly what I would think of as 'sloppy seconds.' But I'm sure somewhere, some lefty blogger is going to start referring to him as 'Sloppy Seconds Sam.' That much is inevitable, I think.

So, I guess the impending question of the day is are we going to dive back into the 'nuclear option' debate? Will the Democrats filibuster? Will that end up being a totally disastrous move on their part? I don't know. I was never a fan of the filibustering because the Republicans are like, framing GODS! And by that I don't mean they frame pictures really, really well- they just have this uncannily irritating ability to frame issues and debates on their terms that the Democrats like. Hence, the charges of obstructionism/flouting the Democratic will of the people, etc, seemed to me, at least, to stick harder on the Democrats, who had no real defense. (Blocking a nominee just because they're not rabidly pro-Choice is well... you'd need more than that to convince me, put it that way. But I can understand how some people might think that would be reason enough.) Anyway, I found an interesting piece on Daily Kos that provides a very interesting counter arguement to the whole 'flouting the will of the people thing,' that almost has me convinced. Check it out.

Let the blood-letting begin!

In other news, just when you thought we were finally done with this mess, Germany's long, painful electoral process has taken another blow with the resignation of SPD leader Franz Muentefering, after losing a key vote in the SPD leadership over who would take over the number two spot in the party- as a result, his positions in the Grand Coalition have also been called into question- in another bit of bad news for the German Grand Coalition, not to mention Angie Merkel, Edmund Stoiber has also apparently hinted that the CSU- sister party of the conservative CDU may withdraw from the coalition, because he doubts it's viability without Muentefering onboard.

This is baaaaaaaaaaad news for those folks that were looking for Germany to finally calm down and get back to the business of, you know, governing the country- and seriously raises the potential that the Grand Coalition may collapse into a minority government- and beyond that, fly apart like a broken spring, forcing new elections. Not good news for Germany, that's for sure.

Peace out, peeps. I'm out for now.

It's Halloweeeeeeeen...

2005-10-31T08:15:00.000-06:00

The next victim, no I'm sorry, nominee for the Supreme Court has been chosen- and it's Judge Samuel Alito, and even as we speak, the poop is starting to hit the fan in a major way. As expected, Conservatives are over the moon with this nominee and I think the Left is going to start plotting it's next move very, very carefully. There are plenty of rocks and shoals ahead for them to run aground on with this stuff.

That said, here's some reaction on Alito:

Volokh pointed out something that I didn't know, but if Alito is confirmed then there will a five-seat Catholic majority on the Supreme Court. He's of the opinion that it would be quite the step, given that it was an issue when JFK was elected back in the day and now I'm not even sure anyone's going to blink at the notion. From 'rum, Romanism and rebellion' to a Catholic President and now the potential for a Catholic majority on the Supreme Court. That's quite a ways to come.

Althouse is taking a more cautious approach, it looks like- but she brings up what's probably going to be a hot, hot issue with this nominee and that is the fact that he was the lone dissenter on the Planned Parenthood vs. Casey desicion when it was wending it's way through the Circuit Courts in the early 90s. The 3rd Circuit struck down a spousal notification law in Pennsylvania, and his was the lone voice of dissent- even though the Supreme Court eventually upheld that particular desicion on a 6-3 basis. Spousal notification? Hmmm... I think it's pretty much a given in any free society that there's no such thing as a totally unlimited right. All our rights have limits- including the first amendment- and I'd support sensible limits on the Second Amendment and I support sensible limits on abortion, as I think does the rest of the country. But spousal notification is a bit dicey. Say the woman in question is being beaten? Should she be required to go and inform her abusive husband of her intention to have an abortion? There are probably arguements that swing both ways on that question though...

It's early days, but it looks as though the left is gearing up for a potential knockdown, drag-out fight on this one. Reaction from Kos. There's no reaction from TPM as of yet, but when they get spooled up on this, I'll link to it- Kos also linked to the ACS blog, so you can check that out too.

My first glance: You can't say this guy isn't qualified. He's got judicial experience up the wazoo, so I don't think that's going to be a problem for this particular nominee. Personally, I'm uneasy at his dissent on Casey. Generally speaking, I'm mildly pro-choice, just because I don't like the idea of the government interfering in medical desicions between any given woman and her doctor (and supposedly small government conservatives should agree with me! But they don't...) but, that said, I don't support the idea of unlimited abortion on demand- but, eh... I'll say he might get through. I haven't heard any reaction from the 'Gang of 14' as of yet, but if they give their blessing then I think we'll have a tough confirmation hearing, but I think he'll get in. But, we'll see what develops. This one is going to be an interesting one.

The day before Diwali, New Delhi has stepped up security in a major way as police are following leads on Saturday's bombings- the death toll from those attacks now stands at 62- and marketplaces across the city are still reported to be fairly empty. A possible reason given early on after the attacks was the impending sentencing of the militants implicated in the December 2000 attack on Red Fort- and a Delhi court handed down a death sentence to one of the militants involved in that attack today as well.

All right. Well I should probably get rolling on you know, doing stuff today... hope everyone has a Happy Halloween, and here's hoping that New Delhi can have a safe, peaceful and happy Diwali tomorrow.

Scooting along just fine

2005-10-30T21:04:00.000-06:00

Some updates for this Sunday night.

In deference to the Halloween holiday, Venezuela's President Hugo Chavez has called for a ban on Halloween. Halloween is apparently a part of the U.S. 'Culture of Fear.' and all about 'putting fear into other nations.' Chavez, I think, has kinda gone overboard on this one. I mean, the guy isn't well liked to begin with, but given the fact that people were hanging skeletons from overpasses in Caracas to protest his regime and are now, apparently, stashing anti-government messages in hollowed out pumpkins, I think it's pretty obvious where this plea to avoid Halloween is coming from. The only thing I have to say to President Chavez: Boo! Mwaahhahahahahahaha!!!

In Scooter Libby news, Drudge is saying that Fitzgerald is wanting to call Vice President Cheney as a witness in Libby's trial in open court, which means that a major smackdown over executive privilege is probably in the works, if this is true. I also was watching NBC nightly news tonight and they were expecting the next SCOTUS victim, uh, nominee to be announced tomorrow and moreover they were putting forward Alito and Luttig as the two top names in that particular guessing game. I've heard that Luttig is big on the whole concept of 'super stare decisis' which means he would probably be loathe to overturn Roe vs. Wade and has a rep for being against judicial activism of any kind, at least according to the news cast. But that wasn't the thing that interested me. What interested me was the possibilities of a Democractic filibuster of the next SCOTUS victim, uh, nominee... Normally, I wouldn't approve of such things. The Democrats have enough problems without being tagged (again) as being obstructionist, and quite frankly, I don't want an opposition party that's known as the party that just automatically says no to President Bush because it's President Bush who's doing the asking. I want an opposition party with ideas- good ones, creative ones, and more importantly new ones. I don't want an 'I hate Bush' party, because recent history has shown that pandering to the 'I hate Bush' sectors of the party doesn't do them a damn thing- hence, Kerry losing the election, Democrats losing Congress. But, I have to wonder now.

Bush is taking hits, so they might get away with it, and it might inflict more damage to the President, which from where they're sitting probably looks to the Democrats like a good thing... but gah, I don't know. A judicial filibuster carries risks and they need to weigh them carefully before deciding to 'go all in' on this hand, as it were.

Elections in Zanzibar have apparently gone off without too much violence- there were, apparently reports of sporadic violence and some claims by the opposition that people had been prevented from voting, but all in all, it went off pretty well. Counting is underway it's unclear when results can be expected, though the ruling party's President Amani Karume is going head to head with Zanzibar's main opposition the Civic United Front led by Seif Hamad, who claimed that members of his staff and some party officials were kidnapped and unable to vote.

Voting to replace current Tanzanian President Benjamin Mkapa isn't set to begin until December 18th, as there has been a delay due to the death of Opposition Vice Presidential Candidate Jumbe Rajab Jumbe.

There's more instability in the Ivory Coast as well, as current President Laurent Gbagbo has defied opposition demands to step down, saying he will remain in power until new elections are held. As with a lot of situations in West Africa, it's a north-south split- the Rebel or New Forces opposed to Gbagbo controlling the North and pro-Government forces controlling the south- with French and UN peacekeepers patrolling a buffer zone between the two. Elections were set for well, now, but have been postponed, with the apparent blessing of the UN for up to a year, but Gbagbo has said he's confident that elections will be held well before that. The situation in the Ivory Coast is well, a mess, but it's also kind of sad, because up until now, the Ivory Coast had been considered something of a success story next to such countries as Liberia and Sierra Leone- not to mention Nigeria. But now, it's a total mess and, given the fact that it's the world's largest producer of cocoa, that'll probably effect the market somehow, but I haven't seen a spike in my candy bar costs as of yet...

New Delhi Update

2005-10-30T10:15:00.000-06:00

It's morning now, so I've done a search to get some more links to coverage on this. MSNBC and the BBC have updates- the latest from the Times of India as well.

Other news coverage:
VOA
Guardian
The Hindu

Blog coverage:
Desipundit
SepiaMutiny
Mall Road
River's Blue Elephants
Gateway Pundit

Everything I've seen seems to agree that 59 people have been killed and anywhere from 188-210 were inured (MSNBC and the BBC differ on that number.) There has been a claim of responsibility- a smaller group called Inquilab/Inquilabi, depending on how you spell it- it was formed in 1996, and although they haven't been a very active group, they do have links to the Kasmiri militant group, Lakshar-e-Taiba (looks like the Times of India called it yesterday when they said suspicion was heading LET's way. Though Inquilab isn't LET specifically.) MSNBC says that the caller who claimed responsibility said the attacks were to rebuff Indian claims that the militants in the Kashmir had been wiped out in military crackdowns and during the earthquake October 8th. Police are apparently making quick headway into the investigation, as multiple news sources have said that at least 22 people have been detained in connection with the attacks.

There was also a remarkable act of heroism on the part of the bus driver involved in the Govindpuri bombing (the two market bombings were further north- this was the third attack, which was further south.) Anyway, the bomber boarded the bus, refused to buy a ticket and got off, leaving his bag. Some passengers alerted the bus driver to this, and he and the conducter investigated the bag, and, finding it full of explosives, threw it off the bus just as it exploded, injuring them both.

I honestly don't know what else I can say on this. There's never a good time for a terrorist attack, obviously, but like I said yesterday the timing on this was particularly vicious- and that is, I think what bugs me the most about this. Striking before Diwali may have made sense in some twisted way to this madmen, but striking just before the end of Ramadan, when you know that those markets are going to be crowded with Hindus and your fellow Muslims... I mean, that's just shitty. Period.

Hopefully they'll catch these bastards. And soon.

**Hope everyone remembered to re-set their clocks this morning- 'Spring Forward, Fall Back'**

New Delhi Attacks

2005-10-29T15:32:00.000-05:00

This is a few hours old, but I wanted to wait to see if any new, more complete information shook loose before I blogged it. There has been a terrorist attack in New Delhi- two near simultaneous blasts in marketplaces and a third one in an area further south. The BBC has the death toll at more than 50 currently- and other sources have it as high as 58.

The BBC, MSNBC, and CNN have good round-ups of the latest developments. The Times of India is a bit closer to the story in question, so they've got more information than the networks at this point, I think. They're saying that the devices used are IED similar to those used by militants in Jammu and Kashmir and that security had already been stepped up in advance of the Diwali Holiday on Tuesday. The TOI is also saying that the 'needle of suspicion' seems to be pointing towards militant group Lakshar-e-Taiba, out to avenge the conviction of their fellow militants for their role in the attacks on the Red Fort, India's Parliament in December of 2001. Though at this point, everyone seems to be clear on the fact that no one has claimed responsibility as of yet.

I think this is going to end up being pretty bad. The marketplaces were all crowded in advance of tomorrow (all have been closed since and security across the country has been stepped up) which is apparently a heavy shopping day- and one that would probably be even busier given the fact Diwali is on Tuesday and the Muslim Festival of Eid marking the end of Ramadan is at the end of next week. There is never a good time for a terrorist attack, obviously, but the timing of this one is particularly vicious I think.

I haven't had time to do a hard-core search of the blogosphere yet (I'm still at work, on break.) but when I get time, I'll do some digging and see what coverage the blogs are giving to this.

Somebody needs a new Scooter

2005-10-29T14:04:00.000-05:00

Well, the indictments, sorry, indictment in the Plame Case was handed down yesterday and apart from the uber-political junkies like me, few, if any people cared. And even I don't care that much, I am grudgingly forced to admit. Not grudgingly. Eagerly. I just didn't care. I didn't get why Chris Matthews was practically slobbering over the prospect of indictments. I didn't care that whole reams of space on the blogosphere had been devouted solely to this idiotic issue. I just don't care. Period, end of discussion. It just didn't get me all worked up for whatever reason. I will say this: Fitzgerald is to be commended for running a smooth and thus far non-partisan investigation. This guy has such a good rep you know, in fact, you just know that if there's anything to be found, he'll find it. So good on him for not letting things degenerate into the usual partisan bickering.

So, the indictment was handed down. Five counts against Scooter Libby, Cheney's Chief of Staff, who has now resigned to deal with this mess. There could be more coming... so stay tuned, if you care.

The proverbial s--t is hitting the proverbial fan

2005-10-27T20:18:00.000-05:00

Wow. What a week so far. I'm still not entirely hunkered down, but I've gotten a bit more productive since Monday, actually getting things accomplished and put in place. Things are starting to move quickly now which is always kind of depressing because it means everything's going to start happening at once, things will come due, soon it will be finals and argh. Just too much to think about really. And happily that includes the big wide world out there as well.

Miers out: Harriet Miers withdrew her name from consideration for the Supreme Court early this morning, so that big long, drawn out saga is now finally over. Personally, I think although some liberals may be gloating about a failed Court nomination, especially by this White House, they should be wary. In fact, they should be very, very wary. Miers, for whatever you can say about her qualifications or lack thereof was not what the left would consider a Thomas/Scalia type at least from an ideological standpoint. (Unfortunatly for her, the fact that she wasn't a Scalia/Thomas type drew ideological objections from the right.) Fact of the matter is that Miers seemed sane and sensible. The next nomination might not be, and that's where I think it'll go off the rails for the Democrats. The Democrats have perfect field position, and there's a very high chance they're about to throw an interception. Consider: The Republicans are on the back foot right now. They're sagging in the polls, scandals are everywhere, in short, they're having a crappy couple of months. There's a year to go before the midterms and that's plenty of time for them to recover. So, what do the Democrats do to capitalize on this? Not a damn thing. Seriously. If the Democrats would stop a minute and pull their heads of out their asses they would see the real need to work up their version of a 'Contract With America.' This Contract should be 12 issues, and 12 exciting, fresh and new ideas to confront them. Once this Contract is established, they should campaign on that mother like there's no tomorrow. There seems to be this attitude in the Democratic Party of barely surpressed glee. The Republicans are in trouble and that means the big wheel gets to spin around to them next by default. Not so! The Republicans have a year to win back ground and more importantly, win the battle of ideas. The Democrats have blood in the water and they seem to be doing little more than grinning like idiots about it! You can't win if you don't have ideas! Write the Contract with America thingy and do it now.

So what does this have to do with Miers? Well, I think the next nomination is going to be someone as conservative as they come. President Bush has pissed off his base and now he's going to give them exactly what they want- a Scalia or a Thomas. The Democrats will then filibuster, the nuclear option will be pulled out and suddenly the Republicans, who are badly in need of a win get a big one. They paint the Democrats as obstructionists- and, provided that the nominee in question isn't too howl at the moon, those charges will probably stick. Suddenly it's the Democrats who are on the back foot, trying to defend a judicial filibuster that in all probability will send the Senate straight into anarchy.

The Democrats have a moment here. They shouldn't blow it- and shouldn't be so quick to be joyful at the demise of Miers.

White Sox Win: If baseball keeps this up, I'm going to have to start tolerating it, and that's going to bug me. I have to admit that last night's game 4 was boring as hell, being scoreless for pretty much most of the game and being a measly and paltry 1-0 win on the part of the White Sox, but that said, like with the Red Sox it was quite the sight to see, history being made as an 88 year drought came to an end and the Curse of the Black Sox was broken. Lol. Shoeless Joe never needs to walk out of an Iowa Cornfield ever again. (And now we just need the Cubs to complete the Trifecta, though I expect that particular miracle is beyond even divine abilities.)

Liberia: The wife of former President Charles Taylor has endorsed Ellen Sirleaf-Johnson in the run-up to the second round of Liberia's Presidential election on November 8th. I'm not sure how that will play in Liberia, given the fact that Jewel Taylor is probably about as hated as her husband is. I've been digging more into Martin Meredith's fabulous book 'The Fate of Africa' and he goes into a couple of chapters worth of detail on Liberia and Sierra Leone. I don't think I had full grasped how big a deal this must be to the people over there until I read those chapters. Liberia has, quite literally, been through hell and out the other side in the past 20 years or so, first under Samuel Doe (who was a Seargeant when he took over in '82. Lowest ranking African military officer ever to succesfully lead a coup.) who ended up being tortured by another Warlord, Prince Johnson (all recorded on VHS of course.) when Taylor finally came to power in the early 90s. Pretty grim stuff. (Sirleaf-Johnson surfaces early on as a key figure in the opposition to the Doe regime) Anyway, so I'm not sure if this particular endorsement is going to help Johnson or hurt her. Some deal has been made of Weah's lack of education, but his answer is that the educated people have been the ones messing up the place. Sirleaf-Johnson has the attitude that it's been the men who've messed up the place going for her as well. I still think Weah is going to run away with it, but we'll see.

2,000: Much was made of the 2,000th casuality in Iraq earlier this week and, as per usual, my irritation levels and blood pressure simultaneously rose as both the right and the anti-war left managed to piss me off at the same time. The anti-war left: I don't like these people. In fact I hate these people... their arguements are slipshod and silly and I strongly suspect that if President Gore had made the choice to go to war in Iraq many of these people would be backing it 110% or more. Don't get me wrong: I'm not a huge fan of this war, but neither am I a fan of brutal dictators like Saddam. But, let's take the anti-war movement's positions one by one:

Bush Lied, People Died: This one is a classic. And untrue. Yes, we found no weapons of mass destruction to speak of, but Bush technically didn't lie. He just had crappy intelligence. I mean everyone, and I do mean everyone was under the impression that Saddam had WMD. Everyone was wrong, but his intel said it to be true and he was just following his intel. Ok, so if we went to war based on crappy intel, should we keep fighting? Hmm. That one's a slightly tougher question, but I would think that once we had determined that WMD's were probably not going to be found we were in too deep. Let's say we had withdrawn once that had been determined- that would have been very, very bad news. Chaos in Iraq would have left openings for Iran to step in- plus the Kurds would have probably declared independence and that would have drawn Turkey into a big ol'mess of a war. You want to rap Bush for following crappy intel, go ahead! But once we figured that out we were in too deep and we couldn't get out with compromising our interests even more.

No Blood For Oil: Grow up. Yes, Bush may babble on about promoting democracy across the Middle East, but of course this war is about oil. We all drive SUV's. But, that said, you cannot deny that there have been ripple effects since the Iraq invasion: Lebanon and Syria are at loggerheads with one another, Saudi Arabia tipped its hat ever so slightly (and not nearly enough, in my opinion) in the direction of democracy and Egypt had an election where someone was actually running against Hosni Mubarak. The winds of change may not be sweeping through the region, but there's a light breeze and it's because of what's going on in Iraq. If we keep it up, it could turn into a big ol'wind.

Cindy Sheehan: I have to grudgingly admire her willingness to stand up for what she believes in, and I'm certainly not one of those people who thinks she doesn't have a right to stand up and say whatever the hell she damn well pleases, but outside of that, she's not my favorite person in the whole wide world. She rather melodramatically stated that she would tie herself to the White House in protest of reaching 2,000 dead. I'm sorry, but if you take a step back and squint a little, it looks very much to me like she's trading on her dead son just to give MoveOn.org free publicity- and the fact of the matter is that if she had been running the country in 1941, we'd all be speaking German.

My Final Verdict: In theory, I support the idea of removing Saddam Hussein. The guy was a total asshole and the world is a better and sunnier place without him. In practice, it isn't the bullshit conspiracy theories of the Left that gets me ired about this war, it's the sheer incompetence with which we went about it. The Invasion went better than expected and then we suddenly woke up and discovered that the Administration had very little in the way of a plan on how to deal with what happens next. And that's what sends me over the falls on this war. The stupid, foolish short-sightedness on the part of this administration and their sheer bureaucratic incompetence which at times has hurt more than it's helped. The blunders of the bureaucrats and the neo-cons in Washington are costing our soldiers lives. And I think their incompetence in the prosecution of this war is a far better arguement than some pie-in-the sky, how-we-wish-it-were-true hystrionics which we get from the anti-war movement today.

The right pissed me off (yes, I did say that the left and the right had pissed me off) by trying to minimize this. Yes, I know that sounds like I'm trying to have my cake and eat it to, so to speak, but I don't know how many times I can hear the stats (and yes, there was a clip from Fox and Friends along these lines run on last night's Colbert Report) along the lines of 'well, at this point in Vietnam we had lost so many troops and at this point in World War II we had lost this many troops, so 2,000 dead is really small potatoes.' That's B.S.! I'm sorry but 2,000 dead is nothing to sneeze at. OK, we've had it worse in some wars we've been in, but God! Minimizing the fact that we've lost 2,000 troops is disgusting! All but calling it 'not a huge deal' is downright despicable. 2,000 troops may be a long way away from say, 100,000 but it is still 2,000 lives, so of which might not have been lost had this administration I don't know, taken the time to actually think about a plan for the occupation, and say, anticipated the insurgency? This number is a sobering number. Period. Minimizing it is sick, and trying to make political hay out of it is just as sick.

So, a plague on both your houses.

Madeline Albright on Tuesday's Gilmore Girls: One of the funniest cameos I have ever seen. Rory has a dream prior to her birthday, where instead of her mother coming in and doing the whole 'this time, x number of years ago, i was on my back, legs spread, swearing like a sailor' routine like she normally does, it's Madeline Albright! Hysterical stuff. Then Rory wakes up and is like: 'I just dreamt that Madeline Albright was my mother.'

Haven't we all had that dream?

Case of the Mondays...

2005-10-25T10:39:00.000-05:00

I think senioritis has hit me big time. I just did not want to get up off my behind and do a damn thing yesterday, and I was very tempted this morning just to stay in bed all day, but ultimately I didn't. Of course, I missed my first class (bad Tom! No biscuit for you!) and now have a first draft of my third French composition to turn in that is truly, without a doubt the most wretched piece of writing in any language that I have ever constructed. Perhaps my backlash against, you know, work has something to do with the fact that last night, when I finally decided to hunker down and do this composition, I went to watch the little movie clip we had to base it off of, and guess what? The movie wouldn't load on a Mac. So I had to make an 11 PM trek down to the Libarary just to watch 30 seconds of a French couple trying to decide which coffee maker they wanted to buy.

I cannot begin to tell you how thrilled I was at having to do that.

I read a column in USA Today yesterday at lunch asking 'Where have all the heroes gone?' I wish I knew the answer to that question, because as of last night we are officially down one in the hero column. Rosa Parks died yesterday at the age of 92. I know I admire her for her courage in standing up- or rather sitting down- to the system, but what amazes me more is how quickly history can turn corners at how little it takes to start the avalance of change moving down the hill. Lech Walesa climbed a fence, and Solidarity happened. She refused to give up her seat and launched the Civil Rights movement. I think I told someone once that if you really want to change the world it's the little things that do the most damage. You do a bunch of little things and then they pile up higher and higher and soon you're toppling dictators and ending world hunger.

So here's to doing the little things. And wherever all those heroes go, I hope Mrs. Parks is nice and comfy up there with them.

Friday got fingered...

2005-10-21T22:33:00.000-05:00

I ended up getting stitches!!!! Like, honest to God stitches for the 'Friday Morning Bagle Attack.' As I sit here and write this, my right index finger is wrapped in a big-ass piece of tubulur gauze and is thus very awkward to manuever/type with, which is starting to irritate me some. Anyway, the story since I last posted: I went to class with the band-aid I got at work, and that worked out just fine and dandy- walked home, because I wanted to snag the 'rents van and deal with the recycling- so I hoofed it home, showed the Mother the damage and she hooked me up with a temp gauze type thing until I could get some real band-aids. Went, got the recycling, went back to Hy-Vee to buy bandaids, and by this point the cut had re-opened and was almost soaked thru the gauze. So, went back home and the Mother told me to go to the Doctor- who took a look at it, numbed the finger up and stitched it up.

The first time in my life I get stitches and is it because of something sexy like a knife fight or a stray horn in my ass during the Running of the Bulls? Hell NO! It's because of a damn bread knife and a damn bagle.

Argh!!!!!!

Giving Friday the Finger

2005-10-21T12:40:00.000-05:00

Gahhhh! I now officially hate pre-sliced bagles. It's bad enough I have to drag my ass into work at 7.30 every Friday morning, but this morning, and I was running late enough as it is, I did the usually 'let's run a knife thru the bagle' routine and took a chunk right out of my finger! (I mean, the finger's still attached and everything, just a chunk missing. And I do mean 'chunk.') I don't know, I really don't... these damn pre-sliced bagles, which they don't slice all the way thru- if you try and pry them open with your hands, they rip and tear and go nuts on you- and now apparently, I have to be wary of running a knife thru them, because apparently the knife can go right thru and take chunks of finger instead!

Yes, I'm having a little bit of a morning. The good news is that I've escaped a Hindi quiz, because everyone got confused on the whole possesive marker vs. post-possesion thing and then word order problems kicked in and craziness ensued. So I have a Hindi quiz on Monday now. The Great Closet Cull has yet to begin, because I got home last night and well, got lazy and drank about three Mackeson's, which gave me a very nice buzz and watched 'Animal House.' But, I do have some tidbits and updates to pass along:

The Happiest Mug-Shot in The World: I know I declared on yesterday's post that I was done caring about Tom Delay- and I stick by that, because he'll wriggle out of it. Politicians always do- but the guy was booked, fingerprinted and released- and they took a mug shot of him. And he's grinning like an idiot. I have to admit, it makes a certain amount of sense. There's no 'Nick Nolte crazy person' mugshot for the Democrats to use, but the guy is smiling like he swallowed a bottle of Prozac... lol. A happier alleged felon there never was, I guess.

Black Out Saturday and Pink Update: I figured out the mystery t-shirts! I don't think I mentioned this, but a couple of weeks back at Homecoming when we were downtown for the Better Than Ezra Concert,we wandered into 'Book n'Crook' and found these 'Black Out Saturday' T-shirts for the Michigan game... we were a bit mystified as to what exactly it was, but explainations have been given! Penn State apparently does a 'white out' thing where they get everyone to wear white to their home football games. Apparently Iowa wants to do the same thing, but with black. (Which means when Penn State next plays us at home, if we coordinate right we could have like a monochromatic sea of 70,000 jammed into Kinnick. That would be pretty impressive.) So, that's one mystery solved. I'm going to have to snag one of those t-shirts. They actually looked pretty cool.

And there's a Pink update! It's been officially dropped. The NCAA declined to get it's hands dirty with this mess and now President Skorton has officially backed the University out of investigating it. Common sense has apparently prevailed! I still think it was a stupid thing to go after anyway. You are dealing with probably one of the most politically correct campuses in the Midwest. And these locker rooms have been pink for years. If anyone had been bothered by them, there would have been petition drives, effigy burnings and whatever it took to get them repainted a looooooooooooooooong time ago. But no cared enough to protest them then and apparently no one cares now either. This reaction to the news that the issue was being dropped however, was a little sarcastic, I thought:

"Because I'm a girl, I'm feeling too docile and passive to respond with a comment," said Associate Professor of law Jill Gaulding, who previously had spoken out against the color of the locker rooms.

I don't get this quote. Seriously. You were a girl when you brought it up and you certainly weren't too docile and passive not to make a comment then, but apparently you are now? Maybe it makes some sense. After all, you lost and you're annoyed that the beer-chugging football loving crowd has risen up against your percieved gender-inequity issues. But cheer up! You got the issue on the radar screen of the NCAA- got it some national press, if I recall correctly- ok, everyone was laughing at you and how ridiculous it was, but you got the University to "take no action toward investigating alleged sexism and homophobia in the locker room's hue..." I still take issue with your reasoning, but that's no reason to be all snooty and sarcastic about it! What happened to fighting the good fight? Lol...

The Only Other Country That Doesn't Use The Metric System: If you answered Liberia, you are correct! Anyway, they're in the middle of their first really democratic election if not ever, then certainly for a very, very long time. The UN has calmed everything down- they have the biggest guns in the country now- Charles Taylor the lunatic/jackass that tore the country apart for a decade or so with his brutal rule by plunging it into a vicious civil war is in exile and facing criminal charges for crimes against humanity for his support of Sierra Leone's rebels during their Civil War, but all in all, things are looking up for Liberia. (A country sorely in need of some good news!) Anyway, the first round of voting went incredibly well according to observers- the top two candidates: International Football Star George Weah, who scored 28.3% and International Banker Ellen Johnson Sirleaf who got 19.8% of the vote. For the second round of voting, set for November 8th, it look as though Liberians will choose between uber-popular Weah, who is young, dynamic and certainly has the name recognition thing going for him. (Plus his nickname is 'Oppong.' How cool is that?) And then there's Sirleaf, who has solid international experience having worked with World Bank and the UN- plus, she's a grandmother who stood up to the warlords- and apparently there's this notion that men have screwed up Liberia enough, so why not elect a woman? Numbers wise there were three more candidates in the first round: Charles Brumskine scored 13.9%, Winston Tubman got 9.2% and Varney Sherman got 7.8%. These are not insignificant numbers- whichever of the top two candidates can get the majority of these votes to break their way will get it. I think Weah has the popularity behind him and will probably win the second round, but then again, he's short on experience- so Liberians could swing to Johnson. There's a very telling quote in the BBC article: "People voting with their hearts will go for Oppong; those voting with their heads will mark for Ellen." And I think that sums it up nicely, so we'll have to see whether Liberians go with their heads or their hearts on November 8th, I guess. I'm going to stick with Oppong who, realistically, I have to admit will probably win, but Africa's first female President? That's one hell of a glass ceiling to break, so go Ellen, go!

O boy, Obote: Former Ugandan President Milton Obote was laid to rest today in a state funeral in Kampala. He was Uganda's first President, and was overthrown twice- once by Idi Amin, the second time by his army guys- who were then ousted by current Ugandan President Yoweri Museveni in '86, which made the fact he was granted a state funeral a truly eye-brow raising matter. I don't know about Obote, I really don't. I think there have probably been leaders in Africa's recent history that have been worse, but it's hard to feel sympathy for a guy who was overthrown by Idi Amin, came back to power after Tanzania ousted Amin and then ended up plunging the country into even more chaos than it was already in. I can't really comment from my perch safe and sound in the United States- I don't think I have a good enough grasp of African politics for that, but when all is said and done I don't think you can call him one of the bad guys, but I don't think you can call him one of the good guys either. And I don't think I'm the only one that feels that way. The BBC has comments from people at the funeral, some who think he was a great man, some who weren't shedding a tear for him. But there you go- Milton Obote, one of the last of the founding fathers of African independance, laid to rest following his death last week at age 80.

Senegal vs. Gambia: Things are getting a bit snotty between the two neighbors and Nigerian President Olusegun Obasanjo has stepped into to put them both in a room to get them to simmer down some. For those of you unfamiliar with African geography (and don't feel bad, African geography gives me trouble too,) Gambia is quite literally, a river valley that is very narrow and very long smack dab in the middle of Senegal. Senegal to get from point A (north of Gambia) to point B (across the River Gambia and Gambia to South of Gambia) via a ferry across the River Gambia. Well, this whole spat began in August when Gambia raised prices on the ferry. In response, Senegal instituted a ferry boycott and a transport blockade. This might have made some sense in the big picture, but it turns out the continued blockade is doing damage not to Gambia's economy, but to both their economies- many basic food stuffs in Southern and far Eastern Senegal are now in short supply and the price of sugar- a key commodity has gone from 20 US cents per kilogram to 50 per kilogram, so it's starting to become something of an urgent matter to get this situation resolved, as the Senegalese are sticking to their guns and detouring all the way around Gambia into eastern Senegal on bad roads, which is just plain inconvinient for everyone concerned, I think. But President Obasanjo is set to sit down with everyone today, I guess and hopefully with settle things down. This dispute has been going on for a couple of months now and I have to say Senegal gets the nod for thinking creatively on how to resolve the crisis. They suggested tunneling right under Gambia a month ago! I'll keep an eye on this though, see if anything more happens.

Well, I'm all blogged out. On to the weekend!

Midterm hangover(s)

2005-10-20T14:20:00.000-05:00

Oh man. Oh man oh man oh man. What a crappy week! Well, not crappy per say, it's just that I paid a price for my weekend of boozing and debauchery last weekend (well, boozing anyway. I wish there would have been debauchery, but sadly that was not to be.) Anyway, I've been a good boy this week, not skipping a single class, skating thru my Politial Theory Midterm and in all probability totally butchering my French test which I just took a couple of hours ago. But, it's midterms! I have time to bounce back and recover, so hey-ho, on we go, I guess.

The Great Closet Cull begins tonight! After work! And then deep thinking starts on just how and what my 'new look' should look like and what exactly it is I am in need of in the way of clothing. God knows how this is going to turn out, but I have to admit that it's starting to perk my curiousity somewhat. I mean, fashion sense... having fashion sense... yeah, I'm starting to like the idea of that somewhat. (Let this not be taken as an indication of my sudden desire to go out and buy reams of clothing, because it's not. I hate clothes shopping. I do this only because it's never been done before.)

Anyway, on to the juicy tidbits of the week:

I want my very own TARDIS: There is a release date for Season One of the New Dr. Who!!! In North America!!! I cannot begin to tell you how excited I am! This is like the DVD news that I have been waiting for since the summer. I never really was a fan of Dr. Who until I saw the new ones. I mean, it was just something you saw on PBS at like 1 in the morning, and you were pretty out of it when you did, so often it seemed weird and strange- to me, at least. So I never really dug it all that much, but my Aunt and Uncle (more my Uncle, I think) but they started watching the new ones, and in fact snagged every last one of them, so when we were over there in the summer, they made us watch them and I was blown away! Seriously! Christopher Eccleston was amazing, Billie Piper was well, hot! The plots were comprehensible and some of them were just plain creepy and all in all it was the best Science-Fiction I've seen on television since Firefly came out. So, naturally, I was like 'must-have!!!!' And now I can! February 14th, 2006 is now marked on my calender with big, solid permenant black marker- and not just because it's Valentine's Day either.

Vic-Tory is MINE!: Well, the MP votes are in and it is, as I predicted a head to head death match between the Daves. David Cameron topped round 2 of the voting with 90 out of 198 and David Davis snuck in with 57. There were some mutterings that Davis backers would urge their guy to pull out if Cameron came out on top, but apparently, that's not going to happen. Now the issue goes to the rank and file members of the Tory Party, all 300,000 of them and it's going to be very interesting what might result. This could be the leadership contest in which the Tories finally wise up and start to move more quickly in the right direction. Personally, I think it's going to be image vs. ideology in this contest. Cameron seems to be ideologically reliable- he's no Kenny Clarke, and I think the right-wing will be able to swallow him nicely as leader, but he's got the image thing down pat. He's young, telegenic- and if he can put a few shots over the bow of the juggernaut that is Blair's Labour Party then he will do much to project an image of a Tory Party that is young, vital and 'with it' so to speak. David Davis, while maybe not quite as young and good-looking as Cameron is a reliable, right-wing ideological warrior. This guy has been in the trenches and would definately provide a more hard-bitten, grizzled vetran look to the leadership. Plus he has hair! They both have hair!!!! (I think this is a good thing. The last time the Tories were in power, what did the PM have? Oh yes, HAIR!!! Then they chose three baldies and got nowhere. It's all about the hair, man.) So yeah, in the Death Match of the Daves, I'm going to have to go with Cameron for right now. He's got momentum, youth, and a good image on his side. But, don't count Davis out just yet.

More on Wilma: Meteorologists everywhere went into super-nerd mode early Wednesday as then slowly intensifying Wilma suddenly hit the gas big time and went from like a Category 1 to a Category 5 in twelve hours flat- and it's pressure dropped to 880 millibars which was the lowest ever recorded and made it the strongest storm ever recorded in the Atlantic Basin- she's slowed down a bit now to a Category Four and is currently giving Cancun a walloping before moving on. She's expected to crash into Florida as a Category 3 or more early this weekend. In happy, smiley news associated with this, Wilma is apparently another indicator of the rapidly oncoming Rapture/Apocalypse... apparently the Rapture Index is hovering around 160, which is the highest it's been since 9-11. (And yes, there apparently really is a website called RaptureReady.com which tracks this stuff.) I'm not ready though. I tried to think about this in a sort of semi-serious way and decided that if it came soon, I'd be screwed. It's not that I'm a bad, evil person, persay, it's just that I could be better. If I have to repent, I'd like some advanced warning, because it might take awhile, you know?

Things I categorically refuse to think about:

1. Harriet Miers: not until her hearings start on November 7th. Until then, hush!

2. Valerie Plame: I approve of the way Prosecuter Fitzgerald has run this thing. He's been quiet, efficient, and I have no doubt he's going to get to the bottom of this, with or without indictments. However, I'm not going to give a damn until indictments are actually issued. And I wish Chris Matthews would stop slobbering about this. It's been like two weeks of Plame on Hardball. Enough already!

3. Tom Delay: In a perfect world, he'd go down in flames. (He's a politician, and politicians always have their fingers in dirty little pies.) However, he'll wriggle out of it. So, I'm done caring about that.

4. The Grades I got on my midterms: eeeeeeeeeeshhhhhh! Definately don't want to think about these...

Knife of screeeeeams!!!!

2005-10-17T14:43:00.000-05:00

Yes, I did it. I surrendered to the urge and went ahead and brought Robert Jordan's Knife of Dreams last Thursday, the 11th Book in the Wheel of Time series and have spent most of the weekend wondering why I did it. Don't get me wrong, this was- and to some degree still is an extremely well written fantasy series, but that was like 5 books ago. I mean, does anyone really care anymore? It's been interminable!!! I can't even remember what happened when, where, why- hell, I can't remember back more than 4 books ago at this point... I'm all for grand narrative, but this dude has taken it to extremes. It's time to tie it all together and finish it up already- like you should have done around say, book 10!

Happily, this book takes a big step forward in that direction. And, according to the Tor website, it's the SECOND TO LAST book!!! Let me say that again, for those of you who are as weary of this series as am I and want Tarmon Gaidon (The Last Battle/Apocalypse/End of the World fight vs. Dark One) just to come already so we can get it over with: THE SECOND TO LAST BOOK!!!! (Can I get a whoop-whoop? I think SO!!!) So yeah, threads are being tied up, the pieces are moving forward and a decent pace, rather than a snail's one and I'd say he's got a good chance of capping off the series nicely. (Lol, and then we can all go back to the beginning and start over, just so we can try and keep it all straight.)

The Daves are ready to rumble: Well, this is the week. Two rounds of voting by Tory MPs and then it goes to the party rank and file. The candidates made their last pitches to the MPs ahead of the first round of voting tomorrow and I'm still sticking with my prediction, which may be foolish. The drug thing doesn't seem to have done much damage to Cameron, despite the wishes of Ken Clarke and Liam Fox- David Davis still has the most publically declared MPs and Cameron is still the young, telegenic candidate that is going to have a lot of appeal to a party that wants to improve the hip and sexy factor and cut back on the hip replacement, sexless factor... Davis has 66 MPs out for him, Cameron 39, Clarke 25 and Dr. Liam Fox 22... that leaves about 40 undecideds to put two of these dudes over the top- and pundits are already warning about making predictions as there's no real way of knowing who'll get thru, since these contests have a history of being pretty funky.

Shenzhou 6 is back in town: The second manned Chinese space launch went well, as their two taikonauts touched down without a hitch on Sunday, safe, sound and in one piece to the usual rapturous acclaim. In the wake of launch #2, the Chinese have started opening up about their future plans which incude a space station and a lunar probe- which probably means they have ambitions on beating the U.S. back to the moon. Next launch is set for 2007 with a spacewalk on tap- and maybe even a female astrounaut, sorry taikonaut. (Seems fair. Women do hold up half the sky, right?) I know there are some out there who probably are getting all twitchy over commie China going to space, but I think this is good for us. We need motivation and we need it badly. Our space program kicked some serious ass when? Oh yes, when the Russians (them other commies) were breathing down our necks threatening to beat us to the moon. Nothing like a little competition to get people really pumped up. So, write NASA now and get this race started up... lol.

Wiiiiiiiiiiiiiilllllma!!!!!: Just when you thought we were done with this hurricane crap, guess what? Yes, Tropical Storm Wilma has formed in the Gulf of Mexico, and guess who's on the target list? Yes, that's right Gulf Coast, she's lookin' at you... she's the 21st named storm of the season, tying the record for most named storms in the Atlantic Hurricance season...

Bird Flu: Well, it's in Greece now, so the EU is stepping up efforts to curb poultry exports from the affected countries, not to mention starting massive culls. No human cases in Europe- yet. But, it's starting to spread and, cheerfully, the following news popped out from our government:

U.S. Health Secretary Mike Leavitt, speaking in Asia, warned that no nation was properly prepared for a bird flu pandemic and said the disease could spread

I feel better already, don't you?

Madonna's gone nuts: read all about it, here. (Well, maybe not nuts. But what she's saying is pretty damn nutty and weird, considering the amount of money she herself makes off 'the beast' she's busy condemning. Hypocrisy? You tell me..)

ChiSox!!!!: I might have to start liking baseball, and that's a pretty horrific prospect for me to face up too. I've held the line against baseball ever since we floated over here from the UK. I don't get it, I don't really like it, and yet now... it's getting interesting. First the Red Sox and now the White Sox... and I like watching history being made, even if it is insipid sports history. You have to admit, watching the Red Sox win the Series last year was quite the sight to see. Lol, it sounds a bit dramatic, but one could almost hear the curse just snap in two on that last play. And now the White Sox get their turn to grab the World Series. I'm rootin' for them, most definately... (but baseball shouldn't take this to be a signal that I like it in any way, shape or form. Because I don't. So bleargh!)

What's the s-Tory, morning glory?

2005-10-16T00:34:00.000-05:00

What's the s-Tory, morning glory?: Hmmm, well the battle of the Daves may be in trouble, as this drug thing apparently is getting legs, walking around and starting to kick some serious ass. The drug question has expanded rapidly- and David C. is taking hits: not only has it emerged that he's had a family member who's gone thru re-hab to fight heroin addiction, but he still won't answer 'the' question of all questions, and now one of his close allies, a George Osbourne has been sucked in- as photos have surfaced with him and a 'cocaine-snorting hooker.' And now the Independent has run a poll showing that he wouldn't do any better against Gordon Brown than any of his competitors. Bad days for Dave... So, is he damaged goods? I don't know- that remains to be seen, but it can't be good news for him- and it's potentially very good news for Ken Clarke and Liam Fox, who are jumping up and down all over this. However, if he gets thru- which I'm going to say is an open question now, I think he's going to be very attractive to the Tory rank and file, because he's young, telegenic and at least ideologically reliable, unlike say, Ken Clarke. But we'll see what drugs can do.

I-raq n'roll: So, the vote for the Constitution has gone well. It's gone very, very well... whether or not it'll get through has yet to be determined at this hour, but, initial impressions seem to indicate that the turnout was high, the violence low and hey, another step forward on the road to getting things done. The catch is that if three provinces reject it by a 2/3rds margin, then they've got to go back to the drawing board- but I'm not sure that'll happen despite the reports of high turnout in the Sunni Provinces- but, apparently the Sunnis have been told that Constitutional amendments are OK, so that might be a salve to some. I'm happy that things went well, but... I don't know. I've never really known where to stand with the whole Iraq thing- but overall, I think this is another step to getting more troops out of there and back home again, which I think is good. Of course there are going to be those who try to find the bad and not the good, etc, etc. And other that'll milk every bit of good news and ignore the bad, but whatever your point of view, you have to admit that this is a good step in the right direction.

I've been busy on the internet today, tracking down somethings that I've had my eye on for awhile, with mixed success. For a start, I've gotten this notion that I should get an NHL jersey... not sure why, since I'm not a huge hockey fan, but some of them look pretty cool- and hockey jerseys seem a bit more substancial- and dare I say warmer than say, a football jersey. Some one at work today tried to tell me that hockey jerseys were seen as 'ghetto' but that just doesn't add up... so, anyway, I went perusing the NHL site, and DAMN! Them jerseys are EXPENSIVE... with a capital E! You can get 'authentic' ones for the low, low price of $279- and replica ones for the much more affordable $90... mad craziness. I'm going out to The Death Star this evening to see if Scheels has any cheaper ones, but I'm not guessing that they do. (The team I ended up picking: Minnesota. So, go Wild!! Wooooo!!!!)

I also stumbled across a t-shirt site that I want to snag a couple of t-shirts from. I know, I know- the 'Great Makeover' is supposed to include less of these sarcastic t-shirts, because well, there's something ever-so-slightly juvenile about them, but I don't care. I'll get rid of some of the more stupid ones and replace them with these funny clever ones, etc. Or something along those lines. Most of the t-shirts on this site I'm not sure I'd have the courage to be seen in in public- they are that politically incorrect... (one such one that tempted me: All I Want Is Peace In The Middle East... and a blowjob) But, I had to surrender to two of them... the 'Talk Nerdy to Me' one and the 'My Idea Involves Midgets and Porn: More Info Provided upon request' Lol... don't know how my mind works sometimes.

Item number 3 was an Arsenal scarf. I don't have a soccer scarf and they were out of season when we were over there in the summer, but alas! I cannot seem to find a site where they sell them, so I may settle for the fleece blanket instead- something I need and want, but I'll wait and track that down later.

I'm also debating on what form the 'Great Makeover' should take. I mean, I know I need more pants- I'm pretty much just a jeans and embarassingly horrible cargo pants type of guy at the current time and I really don't want to be that guy anymore. But, I keep looking at the supposedly 'trendy' and 'hip' stores and thinking 'Shit, if I wear a shirt like that, it'll be like aping the fratboy look' and that I don't want to do... grah. Who knew this shit could be so hard? I mean let's consider: bigger variety of pants. Ok, that's doable. All they have to do is well, look different and fit me. New bag: my current one is a shit-ass shade of green with orange, for some reason. So a new one is definately in order. Leather coat: well, I think everyone should have a leather coat. Don't know if I'll rock out in a leather coat, but I might. And I'm young, crazy and irresponsible, so dammit, I want a black leather coat. The shirts are the sticking point, I think. Man cannot dress by t-shirt alone, after all... hmmm, I will contine to ponder my options- and then do as Megan says and recruit someone to come with me and say things like 'HELL NO!!!!' and help me avoid atrocious faux pas' (how does one pluralize that? fauce pases? hmmm, i'll have to investigate that.)

Anyway, I think that's about it for the weekend. I so totally have to hit it hard next week, so I may not update too much, if at all. Time to end the flakiness and hunker down again- though I've been saying that for quite sometime.

Can you hold a government together with sauerkraut?

2005-10-13T17:40:00.000-05:00

Some small tidbits I've been following:

A His-'Tory' of Drug Use?: For some reason the question of whether or not any of the Tory leadership candidates have ever done hard drugs has come up. Ken Clarke took a load off everyone's minds by denying that he had ever done cocaine, however, interestingly enough, David Cameron, when put to the question pretty much said 'It's none of your business, go away.' And people applauded... hmmmm. Well, I suppose the 'bugger off' response would go down better than the Bill Clinton 'Yes, but I didn't inhale' response. I think that was the first indication of things to come with Bill Clinton- he was either a very slick politician and very good at dodging questions- or an idiot who didn't know how to smoke pot correctly. But, Cameron's response works. I'm still banking on a Head to Head between the Daves, though: 66 MPs are publicly backing David Davis, and Liam Fox got a boost from 15 right-wing MPs... things are not, I think, looking good for Kenny Clarke. I think this is pretty much his last hurrah- and once again, it'll come down to the MPs not liking his stance on Europe. But, once the Daves, if it is the Daves get going well then it's anyone's guess who comes out on top. Davis is looking good, and Cameron may have to fend of a surge from Fox, but who knows how the arithmatic will play out. Stay tuned, I guess.

In the 'Can You hold a government together with sauerkraut?' department: Some cabinet posts in the new German Grand Coalition have been announced- and it's an 8-6 split in favor of the SPD- who apparently get more cabinet posts so that Merkel can get the Chancellorship- but, some announced today: Steinbreuck is going to finance (used to be State Leader of North Rhine-Westphalia until the SPD got booted early this year) And Stoiber is going to be Economy Minister- Stoiber, head of the CSU, the CDU's sister party... rest of the gang announced, if you care, can be found here

China space news: Well, the Shenzhou 6 is up there, safely orbiting the earth. The BBC is reporting that their orbit has slipped a little bit, but that the problem is correctable, and they are planning to do just that- one of the astronauts celebrated his 41st birthday upstairs (probably the shortest birthday he's ever going to have- I can't remember how long it takes to orbit the earth, but it's faster than 24 hours, I know that.) And on the food thing: outer space fish balls and beef with orange peel, which is more than the last guy got to eat- but, tragically... no chopsticks in space. They are, apparently to difficult to manuever in zero-g.

Iron Lady at 80: Margaret Thatcher turned 80 today, had a pretty huge party, as well. Lots of people and stuff. Happy Birthday to the Baroness, I guess... I think I can see both arguements on Maggie Thatcher- she did sweep a lot of the whole Labourite socialist economic crap under the rug, but the economic pain she caused doing that was gi-normous, methinks. I don't know, really. A tough lady with a tough job and the fact that she's still kickin' it at 80 is probably something to note.

Eh, I think that's it. I'll find something more pop-cultury to blog about over the weekend, I promise. Or something whimsical... it depends.

Does Kung-Pao Chicken Float in Zero-G?

2005-10-12T00:27:00.000-05:00

This is a bunch of things all rolled into one, so if it seems a little odd, well, that's what it's supposed to be about- I'm all about the oddness tonight, because, as it turns out, this is becoming a very, very odd night...

Anyway, onto the updates:

Tory News: Malcolm Rifkind pulled out of the leadership race, electing to throw his support to Ken Clarke, which makes things a lot more interesting I think. I still think it will come down to a battle of the Daves, but there's a bit of doubt thrown into the mix now. David Davis didn't give a good conference speech- in fact it was widely panned- and given the fact that according The Economist (a wonderful magazine, but one of the irritating ones that makes you subscribe to get access to their online site, so I had to read their latest print edition today), he apparently did a photo op with busty women wearing t-shirts that said 'It's Double D's for Me,' I think his stock has sunk a couple of points at the present time- however, D.D. is like the right-wing God, so you can't count him out just yet. Kenny Clarke is going to be helped by Rifkind pulling out and thus not splitting the left wing vote, but I'm not sure if the Tory MP's will be able to swallow his whole 'pro-european' thing- plus he's be denied twice already. So, I'm still counting on seeing a 'Battle of the Daves...' but, anything is possible.

James 'Blond'age: I've heard some weird things about the new Bond movie, the one that upset me the most being the rumour that there would be no Q, no gadgets and that they wanted to move 'back to the beginning of his career' and make him younger and sexier- following the route of the Jack Ryan movies... grah!!!!!! Was so pissed off at that news... I didn't like Ben Affleck in 'The Sum of All Fears' because a. they changed the terrorists to Nazis, which was a total cop-out. and b. Ben Affleck was just annoying. The new Bond- British Actor Daniel Craig, most recently seen in 'Layer Cake' is, apparently going to be confirmed as the Sixth Bond, but the first Blond Bond... lol, the first of the Blond Bond-shells, in a sense... the next movie is going to be, for reasons passing understanding, Casino Royale... (why you would want to make a Woody Allen spoof into a serious Spy Movie is beyond me, but there ya go.)

Does Kung-Pao Chicken Float in Zero-G?: Well, it's a question I'm dying to know the answer too, and I hope the Chinese Space Agency gives us an answer to this, the most pressing of questions. And why might they be in a position to do that, well, they've launched again- the Chinese that is, on their second manned mission, since they became Nation #3 to get a person in space. I have to admit, although NASA is now thinking ambitiously about going back to the Moon and onto Mars, they've got budgets and the Congressional 'let's find something to attack' pork dance to go through, so they're thinking big, but not acting big. China's program may be along the lines of the Russian program in that it could be more of a 'commie prestige project' than anything else, but China has cash and they've got big plans. I wouldn't be surprised if they beat us back to the Moon. (Which, given the current political climate in this country would probably spur us back to the moon faster.) Anyway, the Shenzhou 6 is now up in the air and orbiting- they're going to be up for five days this time, and they've got a two-part capsule- the orbiter and re-entry capsule, so they'll be taking off their suits and floating back and forth between the two parts. Two things: I like the fact that Chinese word for astronaut is 'taikonaut.' That just sounds pretty damn cool. And, seriously: do they do the freeze-dried Chinese food for them? Does anyone know?

Sidewalks: There's a thing around campus- a tradition or sorts, which seems to dictate that various groups scribble out ads and exhortations in sidewalk chalk occasionally to remind the student body that something's going on. This day/week is apparently 'National Coming Out Day' or week. Or whatever, so there were messages all over the place today. Don't get me wrong: the sidewalk chalk thing doesn't bother me in the slightest, but my whimsical and I have to admit odd sense of humour finds it unintentionally funny a lot of the time. A couple of weeks back it was obviously 'Sexual Assault Awareness Week', or that's what I'm guessing, since as I was walking away from class, a bit of sidewalk exhorted me to 'Think with my brain and not with my penis,' which I saw the logic of almost immediately. Thinking with my penis hasn't done a damn thing for me, so it seemed ok to me. Today's batches of messages were even better: a sidewalk near Phillips Hall indignantly inquired "How dare you presume I'm straight?" and "Labels are for clothing, not for people" (but apparently they're for sidewalks as well.) And of course, the best one: "Quack if you're gay!" I didn't hear many people quacking, but apparently our campus is home to some of the gayest ducks in the world. (And given their amount of quacking, those ducks were definately out and proud if you know what I mean...)

That's all for now. More on Miers when her hearings begin. I can only say 'Conservatives are pissed' so many times without it fast becoming redundant...

Heeeeere's... Angie!

2005-10-10T17:18:00.000-05:00

Well, it's over, raise your big foamy mug of beer high and sing a rousing chorus of 'Deutschland, Deutschland uber alles' because Germany has a new government. I don't know what the German equivalent of Florida is, but the long electoral nightmare that's engulfed Germany for weeks now has finally been finessed. A Grand Coalition deal has been finally hammered out and Angela Merkel is set to take over as Chancellor of Germany- after the official vote of the Bundestag, which I believe is coming up like next week... I think.

So, Gerhard is out and Angie is in, and it looks like the CDU's insistance on holding it's ground on who should be Chancellor in a Grand Coalition paid off quite nicely- but negotiating the finer points of this deal is going to be tricky, and if Merkel and company can pull it off, I think people will be happy with them. After all, better politicians co-operating than getting in each other's faces, etc.

There are a couple of potential wrinkly bits though: from the CDU's point of view, there's some unhappiness over the fact that the SPD secured health, finance and labour as their ministries in the Coalition deal, which has pissed some people off because those three ministries are going to be key in pushing economic reforms- and some in the CDU wanted them more than others... from the SPD's point of view, there's unhappiness that they lost Gerhard- not to mention some rumblings that may be could blow up into a full scale left-wing revolt somewhere down the line.

But for right now, they're hammering out the final details over who goes where and then Germany's Second Grand Coalition (first being the '66-'69 GC) will get underway- and I'm not sure how long it's going to last, given the differences on economic reforms, but if both parties were willing to compromise enough to get a coalition deal, I'm sure they can hammer out a reform package that does a little more and yet keeps everyone happy. We'll have to wait and see, I guess.

So, what lessons can be drawn from this mess? Well, first and foremost, if you need to have campaign music, don't use 'Angie' by The Rolling Stones. Yes, it may be your name, Ms. Merkel, but it's a god-awful depressing song- I mean, the irony of the line in the song 'all the dreams we held so close seemed to all go up in smoke' has made me laugh quite a bit over the past few weeks when reading about the political trainwreck Germany found itself in. Secondly, although I had to admire Angie for her willingness to apparently be very blunt and forthright about what kind of economic reforms Germany needs, there's such a thing as being a little too blunt. I think it's a given that pretty much everyone across the political spectrum in Germany (with the possible exception of the far-left party Der Linke) sees the need for economic reforms. That's not in question- the speed and type of reforms are the current debate raging over there- and the citizens could be a little leery of reform. I mean, the status quo isn't making anyone happy- but reform raises the potential for economic pain that ordinary voters would get tagged with in the short term. Being honest and open is a good thing- a quality to be admired in a politician to be sure, but not if it kinda scares people, you know?

The political equation being what it is, people seemed to have said that change and reform are ok, but not too fast and not too slow. The verdict seems to be that Schroeder was going to slow and he'd had seven years to try his reforms with little or no effect- but people don't want to pay the potential costs for going super-fast like Merkel and company were proposing- hence, the deadlock... now, Merkel will be able to get her chance to try reforms, but the power of the SDP and the rest of the left will act as a check. She'll get a chance, but it won't be as fast as she had hoped for.

So now I'm going to have to find another exciting news story to obsess over, gaaah!!

Pork Rinds

2005-10-09T12:35:00.000-05:00

I've been digging and going to all kinds of interesting websites over the past couple of weeks and what I've turned up is pretty interesting. The story thus far: in the wake of Hurricane Katrina as the cost of recovery rose, the fiscal conservatives in Washington rose up and pointed out that maybe, just maybe, some pork-barrell spending should be cut from the Federal budget in order to offset the costs of the recovery. The Conservative sections of the blogosphere picked up on that very quickly and the "Porkbusting" movement to get rid of Federal funding for ridiculous projects was born!

First of all I should say that I'm not a hardcore fiscal conservative by any stretch of the imagination. Pork barrel spending is probably a fact of life- and I don't mind it if politicians secure funding to bring programs to their local districts that have, you know, economic benefits and bring lots of jobs, etc. But, for instance, do I as a taxpayer really want $50 million of my tax money spent on building an artificial rainforest that can't seem to finalize it's own blueprints, let alone start construction? It's the really kooky things that piss me off- the ones that I have no benefit that I can see. And given the costs of rebuilding after Hurricane Katrina, it's probably about time that Congress does rein itself in. Off-setting costs thru cutting pork barrel spending is a good idea. The Republicans used to be all about 'balancing the budget' and 'fiscal responsibility.' Does anyone else remember that, or is that just a figment of my imagination?

I read about this and got curious about the reactions from Iowa's representatives- and according to the latest on the Porkbusters page, there hasn't been any. And then that got me even more curious, because I wondered what assisnine projects our Congressmen and Senators were funding- (the fake rainforest in Coralville springs to mind) so I dug further and found the Citizens Against Government Waste website and did some more exploring on there. This is what I found:

Iowa's biggest chunk of pork is the rainforest thing. Yes, the taxpayers are spending $50 million on building a rainforest in Iowa of all places. Only it's not only going to be a rainforest- it's going to have an elementary school attached to it as well as an integrated aquarium. I don't live in Coralville, so part of me could care less what they stick in their old, run down industrial brownfield district- in fact, who knows? The proponents of this thing could be absolutely right on: it could bring huge economic benefits to the area, which is kind of what we want our representatives to do. Bring us cash to help with the local economy.

However, I also think they may be overstating the interest in this thing, just a little bit: for a start, none of the tall trees are going to be real. None. So it's not even going to be a real rainforest in any sense of the word- and given the cost and the kind of admission prices they'll probably have to charge to get the visitors in, I'm just not sure they'll get as many people coming in off the Interstate as they think- so I think there's a large potential for it to become a big, white elephant å la 'The Millienium Dome' in London.

Debate has been raging about this for awhile now: there are local fans and detractors of the project, plus of course now the Fiscal Conservatives on the Blogosphere have been particularly derisive. And now, there are wrinkles in the Project: the city of Coralville is growing increasingly frustrated with the funding problems- not to mention the lack of progress on getting the project actually started! The work on their Hotel and Convention Center is already well underway and I guess they either want the rainforest started up or they want to put something else in there. So now we have a big question mark over the whole thing. Personally, I think if this thing stalls or gets bogged down, funding should be pulled. It seems reasonable to suggest that the taxpayers shouldn't have to pay for a Rainforest that can't seem to get itself built.

We're also, apparently, spending 3.6 million on a 'National Transportation Heroes Center and Regional Transportation Archival, Research, and Library Center' which was apparently founded to “recognize, celebrate, preserve and interpret the significance of Iowa’s transportation heritage.” Hmmmmm... I'm not sure what this means, but it sounds pretty dumb. What exactly is a transportation heritage? What does it entail? It is like preservation of the handcarts the Mormons used when they trekked across Iowa to get to Utah? (and if it is, shouldn't Utah be preserving them?)

A trip to the Citizens Against Government Waste website picks up some more juicy tidbits from Iowa's pork:

$527,000: Ag-based industrial lubricants (Cooperative State Research, Education, and Extension Service, Research and Education Activities)

$268,000: Livestock waste (Cooperative State Research, Education, and Extension Service, Research and Education Activities - Special Research Grants) Yes, I think this means we're spending good money on cow crap.

$150,000: Italian-American Cultural Center of Iowa in Des Moines, for exhibits, multi-media collections, display (Institute of Museum & Library Sciences - Department of Education)

That last one is a head-scratcher. Because when I think of 'Italian-Americans' the word 'Iowa' doesn't automatically jump into my head. Chicago, yeah... New York, of course. But out here in the midst of all this corn? I know we probably have an Italian-American population in Iowa, but where?

Some of my favorites, nationally:

$6.3 Million for Wood Utilization Research

$25,000 to the Clark Country School District in Nevada for curriculum development to study Mariachi Music

$1.7 million for the International Fertilizer Development Association

Not to mention the bridge in Alaska- the 315 million dollar 'Bridge to Nowhere,' which Porkbusters had this to say about:

"Approved as part of the House Transportation Bill of 2005, the "Bridge to Nowhere" as it was dubbed by the New York Times is a mind-bogglingly wasteful and unnecessary piece of federal spending by anyone's measure. Alaska is already the largest recipient of federal spending in both normal and per-capita terms. The Gravina Island Bridge will connect the city of Ketchikan with Gravina Island, the location of Ketchikan's airport. A small shuttle ferry has served the airport for over thirty years and continues to do so now. The bridge will actually make the trip to the airport longer for about half of the population. Other than the airport, there are about 50 residents on the island who live there because they do not want to live on the road system. A small sawmill has also started on the island and will be the primary beneficiary of the bridge."

And Alaska Rep. Don Young will not even consider forgoing the bridge. He wants his pork, I guess.

All in all, though, I think this is an eminently sensible idea. Cut out the stupid projects to offset recovery costs- it seems to make sense to me- and plus, it might bring the Republican Party back to fiscal sanity, which is something I've been wanting for awhile. I'm not a fan of the Republican Party at the best of times, but the fact of the matter is that they used to be pretty damn good at being tight-fisted with the taxpayers money- and now that I'm paying taxes- ok, not crippling amounts of money, but I still pay! the concept appeals to me more. I don't want to be funding research on wood or fertilization- I want to be funding health care for poor people and education! So if this whole Porkbusting thing helps Congress get it's priorities in order, I say more power to these guys...

Oh, and if you want to write our local reps and complain, here's where to do it:

Jim Leach: http://www.house.gov/leach/contact.htm

Charles Grassley: http://grassley.senate.gov/index.cfm?FuseAction=Contact.Offices

Tom Harkin: http://harkin.senate.gov/contact/contact.cfm

Well there's football and there's football!

2005-10-08T20:19:00.000-05:00

England is through!!! They're IN!!!! They're going to Germany next year!!!!!!!!!!

Sorry. Little bit of football, sorry footie fever- of the 'what the rest of the world calls it' variety and the plain ol'local version of American football- the latest round of World Cup qualifiers are in the books and a lot of my favorittes have clinched for next year! '06, the mystical 40th Anniversary of 1966- which as everyone with any connection whatsoever to England knows is when England last won the World Cup- well, to be precise, it's the only time they've won the World Cup, (other thing everyone automatically knows is the infamous 'Hand of God' Goal where Maradona pulled a volleyball spike and swatted it in in the semis back in one of the 80s Cups.) but it's like talking about the Curse of the Bambino to a Red Sox fan (though not as much now) or the stupid thing about the Goat to a Cubs fan. The year is now totally iconic. Walk into anywhere in England and ask about the significance of the year 1966 and everyone'll be able to tell you.

Anyway, my faves who have clinched thus far:

England (obviously): I am genetically disposed to being an England fan- being from England after all- and despite the whole 'genetic' thing, they rock!!!! Michael Owen, David Beckham... what's not to like? When they're on form, they rock, when they're not, they suck and God help them if they get into a tie and it ends up in penalty kicks. ('98 Cup vs. Argentina probably still the best game of soccer/footie I've ever seen. And we lost... :-( but we beat Argentina in '02!!!!!! Best consolation prize EVER!!!)

Holland: they're ORANGE! Whole seas of orange fans and their soccer chant is an aria from Aida!!! Plus, they're like one of the greatest teams never to win the World Cup. Would love to see Holland get it- they're always fun to watch.

Portugal: another fun team to watch. They've never won the World Cup and they're good. Plus, I speak the language, so I can pronounce all the player's names properly.

Brazil: eh, I'm divided on Brazil. They win it too damn much, so it's like the Yankees- everyone wants to take them down and everyone secretly cheers when they go down- but!!! That said! They play the game so amazingly well... it's crazy to watch them and they are without a doubt the masters of the game. Period.

USA: ahhhhhh, local patriotism is forcing me into this pick, but, we keep getting better. (And yes, I said 'we'. I'm a dual citizen, so I can use the pronoun 'we' on both side of the Atlantic. Technically speaking.) Plus, American soccer fans are enthusiastic to say the least. And colorful.

Angola, Ghana, Ivory Coast and Togo: All new African teams!!!! I love the African teams! Senegal showed up for the first time ever at the World Cup in '02 and bulled it's way through to like the quarterfinals or something. How's that for your first time at the greatest show on Earth? Pretty damn good! (Lol, plus I honestly believe that soccer could, in the right circumstances stop wars. Say the Ivory Coast gets through to like the semis or the quarters. You think Gbagbo's boys are going to be firing at their northern rebel counterparts? I don't think soooooo...) But, I'm so totally cheering for Angola and Ghana.

In the Premiership, my guys Arsenal are doing OK, I guess. They're 7th in the tables and a goodly way back on points, but it's early days yet. Chelsea is still on top, though, so we're going to have to see what the season shakes out.

And Iowa won!!!!!!! On the road!!!!!! And they looked good doing it, considering the fact that the last time they won AT Purdue was in 1991- but I think this is going to be a shot of optimism into every fan. We can win on the road and do so convincingly (34-17 was the final score). I think the pattern we've set is shaping up as per usual- we get all the hype in the pre-season, then we stumble in non-conference and conference play early and everyone writes us off. And then we rebuild and slide along under the radar until we emerge at the end of the season with an amazing record, great Bowl bearth, etc, etc, etc... but I don't want to be too optimistic. Life gets tough after Purdue, so to speak. There are no like, miracle needed games, I don't think- but when we play we can't afford to be sloppy and we probably won't. Next up are Indiana and Michigan at home- we're good at home, so we can take them both, I think- then Northwestern and Wisconsin on the road before we finish up at Minnesota at home again.

Hmmmm, I'm not a good sports prognosticator but I think we can totally get to a good bowl game. All the rest of our games are eminently winnable, but I think Wisconsin, Michigan and Minnesota have the potential to be tough- as does Northwestern- but if we get sloppy, Indiana could be tough.

I could sit here and wonder at the permutations all night. I think we can get to a bowl and have a pretty good season. We have that potential and it's very doable- but we could also very well get to a gooder bowl and have a fantastic season. We'll have to see. But, Iowa won, and that's what counts. Woo-hoo!!!!

Hey! Pink Update: Well, the controversy hasn't gone away, that's for sure- and I stand by my original post on how ridiculous the whole damn thing is, but there's a new wrinkle. I know I said a lot of crap about tempting the wrath of the 'Hawkeye Nation', but the LawProf leading the charge against the Pink Locker rooms has, apparently, recieved death threats. I think the controversy is ridiculous, but I mean come on! Death threats over a pink locker room? How stupid can you get? When you get right down to it, it's just a locker room, right? NOT a reason to kill someone. Everyone just needs to chill out a little bit...

Land of Hope and Tory

2005-10-08T12:10:00.000-05:00

It's that time of year again in the UK, and political parties of all stripes are currently moving through their annual conference season- and the Conservatives have just kicked off theirs- and their search for a new leader and what I'm sure they are hoping is increased popularity and relevancy with the electorate once again. For those of you keeping score at home, this is going to be Leader #4 they're looking for since the Great Electoral Implosion of 1997, and it looks as though the bare-knuckle fight is going to begin with all the usual suspects contained therin.

But we'll get to them in a sec: In the meantime, I think it's going to be interesting to see what comes of this, because although Michael Howard (leader #3, who just resigned) did claw them out of the massive hole they were by a decent amount, it was nowhere near what they had hoped for- and I've said it before, and I'll say it again: Mike is to be commended for stepping aside for a fresh leader/perspective/take on things.

I went back through my thoughts on the last election on my livejournal, and I pretty much haven't shifted much since then. The Tory Problem is, in my opinion, threefold: they have an image problem, a Europe problem and an immigration problem.

The image thing is probably the hardest to beat. These guys were the dominant ideology/force in British politics for quite sometime- (sorta like the Dems w/the New Deal Coalition over here) until the political landscape shifted in a major way and suddenly they find themselves struggling to re-connect with an electorate that's worried, I think, about the relevancy of British conservatism in the world they live in. I mean, it's not all bad news for them: it's just that right now they're not the party with the 'big idea.' (Not that I'm sure that Blair and co. are, mind you, but the Conservatives are NOT.) Every single election- and no matter what UK press sources you peruse, you seem to find the same attitude: that the Cons are ineffective in the opposition and can't seem to connect with the electorate and blah, blah, blah... they're written off. Plus they're not exactly seen as the party of the young, hip and cool they're seen as the party of the pensioner types.

The Europe problem isn't new: they don't have a coherent position on the EU, but thankfully for them they're job got easier. The Euroskeptics now have ammo with the rejection of the EU Constitution and can push for a looser EU that's more 'bout economics than politics- in other words, the rejection of the EU Constitution was a kick straight in the groin for the advocates of European federalism, which the Euroskeptics can be happy about. But, the fact remains that: a. the EU, despite the wishes of some people in the Conservative Party isn't going away anytime soon. and b. because of this, they need a coherent and sensible position in regards to the EU, which I don't think they have at the present time.

The immigration problem is one of framing the issue I think. Immigration's a bigger deal in Europe than it is here, but the problem is that if you flirt with immigration during an election campaign, you're begging for charges of paranoia and xenophobia to be flung at you. I'm not saying it's an issue they should drop, because obviously, if you're a European welfare state, you might have people who object to immigrants coming over illegally and soaking up your social services- that you pay for and they don't. But, they need to figure out a way somehow to frame the issue in a way that doesn't make people lump them in with the BNP and UKIP crazies.

How does this work? Basically, once the nominations are closed, there's one round of voting (by the Tory Members of Parliament)- the candidate with the lowest votes is dropped, then 2 more rounds until 2 candidates are left- then postal ballots go out to all Conservative Party party members and whomever gets the most votes gets to be the next sacrificia- sorry, leader of the party.

So, who wants to be Leader #4?

David Cameron: hmmm, well peeps like this guy- he's young, telegenic and people seem to be tagging him as 'The Blair of the Tories.' I think he may be an attractive candidate because of his youth more than anything else- a young dynamic kind of guy would go along way to convincing people that the Tories aren't the old peoples party. Current Odds: 5/6

Kenneth Clarke: the heavy-hitter, but pro-Euro! Which is going to be a problem that way that it has been for Kenny the last couple of times he's stood for the leadership. However, this contest is after a whole 'nother election and I think now, the 'electability' question is going to become more important- or at least be more on the minds of the party faithful than before- and polls consistently show that he's the most popular Conservative politician in the country. So big appeal there. But again, depsite his recent criticisms of Europe, the pro-Euro leanings won't win him many friends. Current Odds: 7/4

David Davis: I've seen this dude in action and he looked impressive- this was the first Parliamentary reaction after the London bombings this summer and as I said, impressive. He's got a working class background (grandad was a commie. Lol, think about the weirdness if he becomes leader.) and he's got a rep for being tough- an ex-SAS guy after all. He is the darling of the right wing, head eurosceptic supreme, etc, etc. His problem may be his lack of appeal to the left-wing of the party. Total fave-rave of the bookies at the present time. Current Odds: 11/2

Liam Fox: 'nother right-winger, eurosceptic type- another relatively young and telegenic looking competitor, but honestly I have never heard of this guy. Or the next guy. Or for that matter the first guy... but, eh. Who knows- anyone can come out on top in contests like this and he might crawl to the top of the pile. Current Odds: 12/1

Malcom Rifkind: the guy who may cancel Ken Clarke out- as he's calling for a return to lefty-Conservatism type of thing that was around under Ted Heath- does disagree with Kenny-boy over the Euro, though... Current Odds: 80/1

Hmmmmmmm, well things are just getting underway, but I would say it's probably going to come down to a battle of the Daves. David Davis and David Cameron will get through to the party member postal vote and after that, well, I honestly can't say who the party members will pick on any given day. I think electability, telegenicity and you know other stuff will come into play, and both have advantages and disadvantages. But, I'm going on record: top 2 are going to be the Daves. I like Ken Clarke, I do, but I don't think he's going to get enough support amongst the MPs...

This is going to be interesting- but not as interesting as potential changes and challenges on the other sides of the political equation- (i.e. when is Blair going to leave? How will the new Tory leader affect the Lib Dems? Will anyone who reads this care?)

Rock music for the old people!

2005-10-07T10:25:00.000-05:00

I've been on a bit of a CD buying binge lately, so I'm all about trying the new music these days, and a conversation with the Mom suddenly gave rise to the idea that maybe I should issue some reccomendations for old people who want to get into the swinging new music scene of the present day. Now, I understand that Baby Boomers like their rock n'roll and they get pretty set in their ways, sneering their noses up at was passes for new and exciting music today- some of them do anyway, but occasionally they have mid-life crises and start experimenting. Or just get bored listening to the same old stuff day after day.

The Mom had a hankering for Hoobastank awhile back, which, apart from the deadly earworm that is their very overplayed single, 'The Reason' is pretty decent post-punky, new rock type stuff. Nothing wrong with 'em. Then she drifted towards the Black Eyed Peas. Again, good pop music, nothing really objectionable about 'em, save for their latest single the psychosis inducing 'My Humps.'

Now, I'm not a prude, by any stretch of the imagination but insipid lyrics annoy me. If Fergie wants to sing about her bumps, her bumps, her lovely lady lumps she can go ahead and do so. And if I'm drunk and in a bar, I met get a little crazy to a song like that, but when I'm sober, it's just plain annoying. Beyond annoying. It goes into the realms of 'I must turn this off before I get a gun and shoot myself' type of annoying. I mean, the lyrics have managed to top 'Hollaback Girl' in the 'Stupidest Lyrics EVER' Contest. (Seriously, Gwen, tell me this: What exactly is your shit? And why is it bananas? And why do you feel the need to tell us how to spell bananas?) But, The Mom came out with the rather odd theory that maybe 'My Humps' was about a car, because Fergie kept singing about all the 'junk in her trunk.'

Hmmmm, you start to see why I'm putting this list together, don't you? Anyway, after the lil' bro and I had picked ourselves up off the floor from our fit of laughter it occured to me that all the Baby Boomers in the midst of their mid-life crises or merely wanting to update their taste in music a bit should get advice from people who are a bit more plugged into the music scene today than they are.

I'm not saying I'm on the cutting edge, mind you, but I have some game. And here are the 10 Bands I would reccomend for the old folk looking to get back in the rock n'roll game:

1. Coldplay: um, hard to make a comparison. I think if Pink Floyd were happy, dreamy, ethereal and liked pianos a lot you might be approaching Coldplay. Maybe. Doesn't change the fact that they're a very interesting band with a very interesting sound.

2. The Futureheads: um, nerd-rockers? Yeah, that might be one way to put it, but these guys are the first members of the British Trifecta and they're coooooooool. They hail from Sunderland in the UK, so they sing with the funkiest accents you'll ever hear and if there's one song that you should download it's their cover of Kate Bush's 'Hounds of Love.'

3. Kaiser Chiefs: the middle member of the BritTrifecta, these guys are fun. Shades of The Clash, Buzzcocks, etc. They too have wicked guitar hooks and rock pretty hard. Worth a peek.

4. Franz Ferdinand: The last of the BritTrifecta, hailing from Bonny Scotland, these guys have wicked guitar hooks and a nice sound- their new album totally rocks- everyone needs to buy that thing, really and truly. They're rock n'rollers, so they're loud, but not loud to the point of incomprehensibility by any stretch of the imagination.

5. Death Cab For Cutie: total indy rock GODS, I swear- and they have the best lyrics I've ever seen. They tend to be a bit more moody, introspective and melancholy then a lot of people, but that still doesn't change the fact that they have good music. Not loud at all, very palatable and definately worth checking out.

6. The New Pornographers: lol, well in my book the band name alone merits buying an album, but it's surprisingly interesting music as well- and good music, of course. You can sort of see influences ranging from the original BritInvasion people like The Beatles on up to all kinds of others. Not loud, by any stretch of the imagination.

7. Fall Out Boy: If the first song on your newest album is called: 'Our Lawyer Made Us Change the Name of This Song So We Wouldn't Get Sued' you know you've got a bunch of fun, interesting lyricists on your hands. I myself have only just discovered these guys, because apparently I've been out of the loop on the whole music scene thing for awhile, so I'm trying to catch up with all the neato indy rockers that my friends are into. These guys are one such group. They rock and roll, so they're loud. But not that loud.

8. Kanye West: if you want to dip your feet into the morass of hip-hop, then Kanye (and possibly his protege, John Legend) would be the peeps to do it with. I'm not a huge fan of rap myself, but Kanye has at least been doing interesting things with the stuff, which makes a change from the now typical, 'drugs, guns, women, gangsta' routine that's been what rap has become all about lately. That's not to say that Kanye isn't willing to head in that direction, but it's not the only thing he's about. I mean, the guy sampled Shirley Bassye's 'Diamonds Are Forever' for one of his tracks- so I'm forced to admit that's pretty original.

9. Anna Nalick: Carole King, singer-songwriter type? Then Anna Nalick might be worth a peek. She's got the whole 'angry-girl' rock thing down pat, plus she's a good songwriter, plus she can play the piano and do so very well. I'm not usually into the whole 'angry-girl' rock thing, but a couple of her songs are pretty good.

10. My Chemical Romance: if you liked The Sex Pistols and The Ramones, you'll probably like these guys. First of all, be warned: they're LOUD. It took me a couple of tries to get into them, but once I did, I began to like them. Amazon.com makes the eerie prediction that you might find yourself singing along with them after awhile and lo and behold that's what happened to me. So, if you like the loud stuff with the potential for head-banging, maybe, then these guys could rock your world. Totally.

So there you are. The ten new bands I would reccomend to pretty much anyone, but the sane ones that the mid-life crisis victim would do well to investigate if they're looking to be cool and hip again. Not that I'm claiming to be either cool or hip, because really, when you get right down to it, I'm probably not, but I like to think I am.

Miers rum (& coke)

2005-10-06T16:02:00.000-05:00

Well, this is an interesting week. President Bush nominated Harriet Miers, longtime pal and senior counselor/advisor to the President to replace Sandra Day O'Connor on the Supreme Court, and, typically all hell has broken loose, though not in the places that you would expect.

Yes, Satan phoned in and wanted to know why the hell it was so damn cold down there because hell has frozen over and this time it's the Right that's foaming at the mouth more than the left is... some greatest hits:

'I'm not convinced she's going to make it, honestly... Maybe she would do the president a favor by stepping aside'... -Bill Kristol on Fox News

"There are a lot more people - men, women and minorities - that are more qualified, in my opinion, by their experience than she is," Senator Trent Lott, Republican of Mississippi, told MSNBC on Wednesday. "Right now, I'm not satisfied with what I know. I'm not comfortable with the nomination, so we'll just have to work through the process."

"I want to be assured that she is not going to be another Souter," Mr. Allen said, referring to Justice David H. Souter, a George H. W. Bush appointee who has upheld abortion rights and other liberal precedents. "I understand the president knows her well, but I don't." (Both quotes from NY Times article...)

Pat Buchannan is most displeased, as is George Will. The blogosphere is also extremely unhappy, but the Prez is pushing ahead anyway. Not too much noise from the Left, but that's to be expected. After all, why should they waste the effort trying to take her down when the Right seems to be hell-bent on doing that for them. Harry Reid loves her and I think the only way the Democrats could be happier with these events is if they swallowed a bottle of prozac.

We're not out of the woods though... the President is moving to re-assure the base and that may eventually work. She was a Democrat, reportedly, who saw the light and became a Republican, not to mention a born again Christian. I've seen quotes that seem to say that James Dobson approves of her, while Gary Bauer is unconvinced.

But, there are some interesting theories floating around the 'net, such as this one, which I might be able to buy. The cards are still out on this one, I guess. The Republicans are usually pretty good at backing their guy, so to speak, but the President doesn't have re-election waiting for him next year, and after Katrina, Rita, Delay... the pile of problems- real or otherwise for them seems to be growing. Plus, the blogosphere seems to be getting more and more angry small-government types who are on the whole porkbusting bandwagon and getting short shrift from the GOP as a result.

Not a good equation, when you get right down to it. Fiscal conservatives are not happy. Now social conservatives are not happy. In short, base not happy! And if Miers does get thru and then turns out to be another Souter, the Right is going to be calling for tar, feathers and a length of rope because that, to them, will be the ultimate betrayal. They want the courts in their corner and Bush is the guy who's supposed to deliver.

My take: eh. Yeah, that's right, just one word. Eh. Like the Roberts nomination, I think Miers is an unknown quantity, which may or may not be a good thing, but at first glance she doesn't appear to be a Scalia/Thomas type, which is a good thing, in my book as I don't like extremists. However, it's early in the game, so new information could break which could quiet the Right down and set the Left off again- like if they get info on her position on Roe v. Wade. But, as of right now, I think: eh. It could have been a whole lot worse. I know the Constitution doesn't mandate 'judges only' for the Supreme Court, but I have to admit I'm not wild about the concept of appointing non-judge to the Supremes. I mean, if you're going to be on the bench of the highest court in the land for the rest of your life, well then I think you should have judicial experience on both sides of the courtroom. Miers does have plenty of experience as a lawyer, but I'm so-so on the idea that she has none as a judge. But, eh. We shall see...

Serenity now...

2005-10-03T14:45:00.000-05:00

Wow. What an awesome movie. Seriously... Serenity was probably high, if not the highest most anticipated movie on my list of 'Anticipated Movies' this year and it totally lived up to expectations in every sense of the word. I loved 'Firefly' and I loved this movie- even if they don't make a sequel, which I think would be sad, this was the perfect capstone to a television series that ended far too quickly.

I think I agree with the reviews that I've read in that you don't really need to see the t.v. show to enjoy the movie, as they do a pretty decent job of bringing people into the whole storyline without too much fuss. The actors from the television show are all back and on fine form- the movie encapsulates nicely everything that was good about the t.v. show and just makes it bigger. You're sucked into the well-drawn characters- Whedon seems to have this awesome, god-like talent for making characters that are not necessarily nice people, but you like them anyway. And with the movie, he pulls no punches in throwing his characters into potentially deadly situations and you're left wondering breathlessly who's going to croak and then, just when you think everybody's safe...

From a sci-fi perspective, I think Firefly broke new ground and I think Serenity follows along nicely. It takes the concept of a 'sci-fi western' and wallows in it- people aren't inherently good, in fact they're inherently flawed and most of them like to wallow in that fact. Plus, Joss Whedon has created an incredibly entertaining universe with characters that are almost impossible not to like in some way.

Serenity was a totally awesome movie and if you haven't seen it, then you should go and do so. Lol, right now!!!!

Thoughts on American Gothic...

2005-10-02T17:28:00.000-05:00

Went totally nuts last night and stayed up until 4.30 am finishing up Volume Three of The X-Files Mythology- then slept for a very long time, got up, got dressed and about an hour later was on the road to Cedar Rapids to scope out American Gothic. I've worked security down at the UI Art Museum for about four years now and it's taught me more about art than any sane person could possible want to know- plus, I have to admit, it's also given me an appreciation for art that I lacked, and I suppose I can grudgingly appreciate the job for that.

Anyway, we zipped up to Cedar Rapids and got down to it. I've never been a huge fan of regionalism- I tend to run more along the lines of Picasso and Pollack- the more contemporary abstract things, but I've always sorta liked Grant Wood. That's not like a pre-condition for residency in the state of Iowa, liking Grant Wood, but, I did develop a liking for him. The UI Museum has 'Plaid Sweater' as it's major Grant Wood work, along with some sketches, methinks... plus, they actually have the sweater that the kid in the picture is wearing, so that's always made it kind of cool.

But, I have to admit I was surprised. I expected straight-up landscapes and regionalist stuff, but instead I discovered that Grant Wood wandered all over the artistic landscape- there were portraits, landscapes and impressionist-type pieces- all different kinds of styles and some of them I really liked.

American Gothic did not disappoint. Predictably, it looks exactly like one would expect, but unlike the Mona Lisa, there's no little letdown over the size of the painting, and it's probably one of the most iconic American paintings ever, so I have to admit it's really, really cool to actually see it in person.

After we checked out the Museum exhibit, we zipped up a couple of blocks to visit Wood's studio at 5 Turner Alley, and that was even cooler. I want a place like that- it's small, and given the fact that they squeezed three people, plus tons of friends at various points of time, I would imagine that it was extremely cozy when it was lived in. He did a lot of work on it himself and he really seemed to like arches as a main architectural feature and he had storage hidden away in all kinds of places. It seemed like the perfect studio for an artist, and a similar nook would be perfect for writing. In fact, just looking at the place made me want to pull up a chair and start writing...

If you have time, go check out the Exhibit at the Museum, because it's only going until December 4th- and go check out Grant Wood's studio as well. Here are the websites:

Cedar Rapids Museum of Art: http://www.crma.org/
Grant Wood Studio, 5 Turner Alley: http://www.grantwoodstudio.org/

I'm off to 'Serenity' in a bit and then back to the apartment to knuckle down and get some stuff done.

Weekend tidbits...

2005-10-01T22:49:00.000-05:00

So, having gotten to bed at 4 a.m. early this morning, I have decided that I have had more than enough fun this weekend. The Homecoming Parade last night was a blast from the past, as it was the first one I’ve been too in a very, very long time- and it was a pleasant experience, unlike the many memories of my youth recalling wet, drizzily and freezing cold nights watching the parade.

Better Than Ezra also lived up to expectations. Shades of junior high came crawling out of the old cerebellum, especially as we all rocked out to their song ‘Good.’ Other than that, however, it was you know, just your average run of the mill concert- the lead singer’s pithy commentary was probably better than a lot of the music most of the time.

And with all the post-concert activities I had fun with, it ended up being a pretty crazy Friday night.

Anyway, Tom Delay was indicted this week on corruption charges in the whole Abramoff thing and stepped aside as majority leader.

Not living in Texas, I could really care less about his re-districting plan, but I think the whole Delay thing can be taken as another bit of bad news for the Republicans. I think even the most devoted right-wing afficiando would agree that they've had something of a bad month. The whole Katrina debacle brought charges of cronyism and incompetence, concerns are growing about the long-term strategy in Iraq and gas prices went through the roof following the hurricanes, which hit most of us pretty heavily in the pocketbook. OK, the seemingly more 'with it' response to Hurricane Rita has slowed the President's poll slide, but with Delay's sidestep, I think it's safe to say that concerns are growing within Republican ranks over any number of things- I wouldn't say cracks are starting to appear, but there's that potential. The Fiscal Conservatives have this whole porkbusting thing going on in the wake of Katrina to rein in spending while the Social Conservatives are preparing themselves to potentially be unhappy with the President should he choose to nominate someone 'insufficiently conservative' to the Supreme Court.

For once, the right is in a bit of turmoil- but it is, I think, premature for the Democrats to start partying yet- it's over a year unitl the midterm elections and the right has plenty of time to get its shit together and get back on track. But, I would say recent events have put them on the back foot, at least for now and it will be interesting to see what results from this.

Judy Miller was released from jail, which I'm going to tenatively say was a good thing. Initially, I would say I was prepared to admired the courage of her convictions and to some degree I still am, but there's a touch of weirdness that has crept up about this story. The source in question turned out to be Scooter Libby, the Veep's Chief of Staff (and cool a name is Scooter? Seriously... ) and apparently after the story broke he released her from her pledge, yet she went to jail anyway... either wires got crossed until he called her on the phone and said 'yeah, go ahead and talk.' Or, as some more right-wing pundits are thinking, she had other motives. Either way, I think she's to be commended for standing up for her beliefs and sticking by what she thought were the best journalistic ethics.

We have a new Chief Justice, as John Roberts was officially confirmed this week. I did not know he was the youngest Chief Justice is something like 200 some years, but he is- he got confirmed by a pretty decent margin, the Democrats apparently preferring to hold their fire for the next nominee. I was content with the Roberts nomination. After all, it could have been a lot worse, especially given how eagerly this President gets all ideological at the drop of a hat. I can understand how people might have misgivings about him, given how impossible it was to pin him down on many, if not most concrete issues, but I think that the real fight is going to come with the next nominee. The Republican base is getting all excited to get a real hardcore conservative on the court and that will probably ressurect the whole judicial filibuster battle yet again and then things will get interesting.

Another thing: I visit Daily Kos on a semi-regular basis, just to get something of an ideological balance on the whole blogosphere. They make some pretty harsh criticisms of Bush, some of which I agree with some of which I don’t, but they were also taking potshots at elements within the Democratic Party that some of them didn’t consider to be ‘duly’ progressive- especially over the Roberts Confirmation. Senator Obama sent them some thoughts, which, quite frankly, blew my mind. Not only were they eloquent, well reasoned and intelligent, but he also made total and complete sense to me. I want to move to Illinois so he can be my Senator. Put it this way, if he runs for President he’s got my vote. I was impressed.

I just took a four hour nap, so I’m wide awake and partying on now… think I’ll get a couple of frosty beverages, chill out and enjoy what’s left of my Saturday night. Tomorrow I think I’m due to head up to Cedar Rapids to check out the Grant Wood exhibit up at their Museum of Art and I’ll probably grab some groceries and go check out ‘Serenity.’

Pink... it's my new obsession...

2005-09-30T10:37:00.000-05:00

OK, well something came up on the radar screen this morning that I hadn't been previously aware of. Apparently this latest bout of idiocy has been brewing for awhile, but it just erupted onto the front page of the Daily Iowan this morning, and boy, I have to admit it's a doozy.

Yes, Iowa City has done it again. It's been awhile since we've made strides as a metropolis in advancing the notion of political correctness to ridiculous lengths, but we're back with vengeance now. What's the big deal, you ask? Well, it's like this: the visiting team's locker rooms at Kinnick Stadium are pink. That pretty much sums it nicely... Hayden Fry (previous Iowa football coach, coaching God, etc.) apparently had some connection to the psychological sciences and there's research out there that suggests pink is a 'soothing' color. In other words, he figured it'd make the other guys tired, either that or really soothed. For what I'm going to imagine has been maybe like the past 20 years, no one has cared.

Until today.

Yes, UI Adjunct Law Professor Erin Buzuvis has declared a jihad against the strange interior design instincts of our athletic department, decrying the 'cultural connotations' of the color pink, believing that 'the color and location are 'sexist' and 'homophobic.' And thus she wants the locker rooms repainted.

OK, first of all, I want to know how long Professor Buzuvis has been here in town. I mean, cardinal rule of working at the University of Iowa- and I do mean this seriously, is that you don't mess with the football. No way, no how. It's like playing with fire or walking through a minefield. I'm not a crazy-ass tailgater, black and gold bleeding fan, by any stretch of the imagination, but it took me maybe ten minutes to realize that football in this state- whether you're a Cyclone or a Hawkeye is practically a state religion. (And I was only 4 years old when we moved here in 1987. That's how rabid some of these fans get.) Ok, so maybe it's not like 'Friday Nights Lights' type of a religion, but still: people take their football seriously and they don't like you if you start messing with it.

And now you're messing with it. Oooooops. Prepare for the wrath of the Hawkeye nation...!

Second of all, why aren't you teaching? You don't get paid to push idiotic causes, you get get paid to churn out lawyers ranging from the Atticus Finch types to the scum-sucking 'Boston Legal' types. Concentrate on that! I really wouldn't reccomend a career change to interior design at this point...

Thirdly, no one has ever cared before. What makes you think they're going to care now? This campus is crazy-ass liberal at the best of times (and I don't think that's a bad thing at all!) and yet despite that, we've had two decade to protest pink locker rooms and no one has cared! No petition drives, no protests, no howls of how bad they must look. The visiting teams usually paper over the walls with newspaper, anyway... so I think this is a nonesense issue that is going to go exactly nowhere.

Fourthly, this is one of the many reasons why the Democratic Party is stuck in the opposition right now. The idiotic lengths the left can take political correctness too... I don't mind political correctness, I really don't: I think people who go around using racial slurs or believing that 12 members of (insert religion hate groups hates here) are the ones sitting around a table running the the world should somewhere should be subjected to high societal disapproval. But, you can take it to ridiculous lengths. The Iowa City School District's decision to ban Halloween celebrations for fear of offending 'old people,' 'witches', and 'vampires' some years ago springs to mind- this is another one of them times. And it makes the left look stupid. So thanks for piling on!

As for the cultural connotations of it being 'sexist' and 'homophobic', well I reject both those notions. Every department store in the country sells salmon pink dress shirts and guys that are pretty much the 'no-neck, beer swigging' types buy them and wear them- and if pink is viewed as sexist, then surely we want to push the color to places it's not normally seen? Seriously... by pushing this nonesense issue, I wouldn't be surprised if you have fratboys wearing bright pink Iowa t-shirts to the game this weekend. If you push the color places like that, then maybe you can change the negative connotations that you and apparently no one else on campus percieves. As for it being 'homophobic' well, I don't even know where to start with that... I don't consider it homophobic. It's a color. Maybe not a good color to paint locker rooms, but that speaks more to crappy interior design skills than some apparently sinister attempt to promote sexism and homophobia...

So lay off the locker rooms already and do something useful.

Geena Davis can be my Commander in Chief anytime she wants...

2005-09-29T14:40:00.000-05:00

I sat down and watched 'Commander In Chief' on Tuesday night, because I wanted to put off doing my homework after watching Gilmore Girls- (another very good reason to put off doing homework) but also because I have to admit that I was curious to see what they would do with the concept- and how I would view it in my 'polisci geek' mode.

I was, I have to admit, a little uncertain by the time it finished. There were things that I liked and things that I disliked- but ultimately, I'll keep watching it to see if they can work the wrinkles out of what has the potential to be a worthy succesor to 'The West Wing.'

First of all: I loved Geena Davis. She was believable in the role, tall, commanding, with those big, ginormous lips of hers: she played the role as the typical tough-minded female politician, the type you probably could halfway believe would beat the shit out of you given half a chance (i.e. Margaret Thatcher, Janet Reno, etc.) But, she also, being a Mom brought this sort of 'Mom not to be messed with thing' to the table too, which softened her character out a bit and made it a bit more well rounded I thought. She's not just playing an American Thatcher, put it that way.

I loved Donald Sutherland as well. He was nicely villanous as the Speaker of the House, and wins the award for the campiest, cheesiest line in the show. (Geena Davis is giving her first speech as President and the teleprompter goes out! She knows it's Evil Donald Sutherland and thinks fast on her feet to salvage the speech, and of course, at the end of the speech everyone smiles and applauds and he leans down and says to her, I kid you not: "I'll always be right behind you..." ('cuz the Speaker always stand behin- yeah, you guys knew that already.) I didn't know whether to laugh or be scared. No actually, I did know. I totally laughed.) Anyway, Sutherland can act, so he should do nicely make this dude the main bad guy- what people may not like is that fact he's sort of the 'howl at the moon right wing nut-job.' Definately a pot-shot at the right and not exactly in line with the whole 'nonpartisan show' that's it's supposed to be and it gives credence to those that view it as little more than pro-Hilary propaganda.

So the acting is entertaining at least. There are, however, wrinkles. I think they need to define Geena Davis' character a bit more. I know they're working to push the whole 'non-partisan' thing as she's an independant and thus supposedly beholden to no one, but it makes the show a bit muddled, I thought. We know what the bad guy's all about: he's like against sunshine, daisies, butterflies, etc. But, we don't know what she's about, which make it's hard to define this as typical Hollywood leftist fare (yet). So they need to flesh her out a bit, but there's potential to do that, I think.

I'm not a partisan warrior by any stretch of the imagination, so I'd like to think that I can view these shows (somewhat) uncritically, at least from a political standpoint. Hollywood does have trouble writing believable conservatives, and I'm more than willing to acknowledge that point. 'The West Wing' is a prime example of this: the first four seasons, when Aaron Sorkin was writing the show, it was very proto-typical, idealistic, liberal fare. They made no bones about that. Was it preachy? Yes, but a combination of great acting and great writing makes you not notice and not mind that fact. Yet despite the fact that 'TWW' has sort of morphed into little more than comfort food for Liberals and other moderates who want to wrap themselves in the false reality of a Bush-free, Republican weak world, that show even at it's height has never been able to pull of a solid, Conservative view point. They just throw in token conservative characters (blonde, leggy Ainsley Hayes for instance.) and make fun of them.

There's probably going to be a similar dissmissal of 'C-in-C' as nothing more than pro-Hilary left-wing propaganda. However, given the fact that Geena Davis' character has yet to be really defined politically, I'm not passing judgement on that yet. One episode does not a lefty propaganda piece make...

But all in all a moderately entertaining show. It might last, it might not, but I'll keep watching for now.

So, I'm having a little bit of a day...

2005-09-28T16:47:00.000-05:00

I stayed up until 4 a.m. this morning. It wasn't something I was planning on doing, it just kind of happened... to be fair, I keep procrastinating on my homework and leaving it until crazy hours of the night, so when I found myself watching 'Stand By Me' at about 2.30 AM, doing my Hindi Homework and generally taking the piss out of the aforementioned movie, I kinda wondered what was wrong with me. But, anyway. I slept at 4 a.m and the master plan was to get up at 10 a.m and study for the Age of Dinosaurs test, but I woke up instead at 12:05 this afternoon. So, I slept straight through Hindi and got in about at most 30 minutes of cramming for this midterm.

So yeah, I'm having a little bit of a day.