Archive - 2005

Preparing for another roadtrip ... heading down the the Southwest - Grand Canyon, Colorado, canyon lands of Utah, perhaps some stuff in New Mexico. Don't really have a plan. Now we will have to figure out how bad this snow / ice storm will be before leaving tomorrow.

I hope to post from the road but I don't know how often.

I was just reading an article in an old Columbia Journalism Review - 4 books on the Iraq war reviewed by Jarhead author, Swofford. I like the guy but at one point he says something about Iraq being in a state of anarchy.

This is how anarchy is used in conventional context. Much like using the word communist to describe any nationalistic movement during the cold war, this usage of anarchy has little relevance to what anarchy actually is. It does show the extent to which people believe a lack of centralized coercive government will lead to a state of chaotic lawlessness.

Anarchy, as I define it, is a system in which people have control over the decisions that affect their lives. Upon hearing this, most people inevitably respond that such a system is impossible or would not "work." This response is guaranteed to piss me off. The same people who spend hours detailing the failings of this society will inevitably measure different systems against some impossible scale of whether it would have problems or not.

Anarchy is not utopia. Let's get that straight. Anarchy requires work and is likely incompatible with the consumer-driven system which has led to many of the problems of contemporary society. This is to say that people living in a state of anarchy would likely not grow fat watching lame sitcoms (though I hope Scrubs would still be on). But I digress.

Iraq is not anarchy because not only do people absolutely not have control over their lives - Iraq has many sources of unjust authority. From the civilian-targetting insurgents to religious leaders to a tribal patriarchy, Iraqis are arguably further from a state of anarchy that citizens in the United States. Incidentally, saying that these religious leaders have unjust authority should not imply they are not popular - historically, many kings have wielded unjust authority and been worshipped because of it.

I am tired of hearing how someplace is anarchic because the central government has lost power to force citizens to do its bidding. Merely because central government must wither under anarchy does not mean that the withering of central government leads to anarchy. Historically it does not. A daisy is a flower. All flowers are not daisies.

I've been waiting 4 long months to read a fiction book. While I've certainly been reading many books - which I hope to quickly review in a different post - none have been quite as much fun as a Christopher Moore novel. Finally, after finishing my last final, I picked up The Lust Lizard of Melancholoy Cove. Sooo good! This is Moore's 4th book and introduces many of the characters which reappear in The Stupidest Angel which is one of the funniest books I've ever read.

Lust Lizard does not disappoint. Couple of quotes to help you understand just how funny this dude is.

The position of hardware clerk in Pine Cove was highly coveted by the town's retired male population, for nowhere else could a man posture well past his prime, pontificate, and gneerally indulge in the arrogant self-important chest-pounding of an alpha male without having a woman intercede to remind him that he was patently full of shit.

and

Winter near the shore is cold ... Surfers don their wetsuits against the chill of storm waves and white sharks adjust their diets to include shrink-wrapped dude-snacks on fiberglass crackers.

This is post #501 on my blog! Thank you to those who have been reading - especially over the last few months - they've been rocky. But I am finished now and trying to catch up on all the stuff I put off for too long during school. Hoping to get a bunch of photos out and complete some contract work.

But first, dealing with Bush's recent press conferences: what the hell is going on? How is that Bush can talk about the war lasting until no one wants to kill Americans and these realists don't laugh their asses off at him? Seriously? Is this any different from hippies who want world peace, man? A little bit absurd wouldn't you say?

Oh yeah, we are gonna build this great peaceful society. Is this rhetoric new or am I just catching on to how absurd it is?

Additionally, does anyone else have a problem with this statement?

And the amazing thing about -- in Iraq, as a part of a broader strategy, to help what I call "lay the foundation of peace," democracies don't war; democracies are peaceful countries.

My GOD!! Are we not a democracy or are we not at war? How many not wars have we recently been in? Is everyone taking crazy pills?

I've been listening intently to the debate on just how much of a fascist Bush gets to be because he claims we are at war. So he claims he can eavesdrop on anyone without oversight as long as he assures us that he will only target the bad people.

The problem I have with this today is mostly that people keep acting like the terrorists embody some sort of new, horrible threat to the United States.

1 - terrorists are not new. Indeed, the vast majority of military encounters throughout history have been between asymmetrical forces -- which is to say "conventional" army vs. "unconventional" forces. To say differently: whenever someone invades someone else, the invader has to deal with guerrilla warfare. Duh. To act as though "unconventional" warfare is new is to totally forget that "unconventional" warfare is far more prevalent in warfare than "conventional" warfare. Thus, let's stop pretending this is new. If the United States military is surprised at the kind of war it has to fight - then it is blatantly incompetent. No surprise there Rummy.

2 - terrorists are not the scariest enemy ever. Seriously, as a society, we just spent decades cowed by the red menace. Decades fearing that one side or the other would nuke the entire planet, leaving roaches with big (literally shit-eating) grins! Now we fear the occasional attack, that though heinous will certainly not come close to the scale of destruction which we feared for the previous 40 years! One would rationally think this is an improvement. Time to read 1984 again.

I have not been posting lately as I struggle to finish the semester. I have one big paper left - 10 pager, and an econ final. Not too worried, but I really just want to be done! I just finished a 20 page paper which I'll eventually post on this site.

Regular readers are probably aware (and thankful) that I have not been talking about my sports exploits lately. I haven't been able to play as I have been resting my ankle, hoping that it would heal and stop bothering me constantly. Well, the waiting is over! It ain't gonna heal.

At least, not until I end my streak of never having surgery on my ankle. My sports med doc has diagnosed me with anterior left ankle impingement. Apparently, my lateral x-ray shows anterior distal tibial osteophytic changes. That can't be good! So I'll be seeing a specialist on 24, January, in order to make sure that is the correct diagnosis and schedule my surgery.

UPDATE: Somehow I forgot to explain this in terms we non-doctors can understand. Basically, I messed up the cartilage in my ankle and it started to produce a bone spur from the foot directly into the ankle joint.

So I just have to be in mild pain with nearly every step for another 6 weeks until I confirm the diagnosis. Then we'll see how long I have to wait for surgery. Super! What happened to our health care being so superior to the Canucks because we have no waiting lists? Yikes!

To sort of borrow a phrase, I hate the announcers from yesterday's Vikings game with the firey fire of a thousand fires. Seriously. I don't know who they were, but they were so bad I don't even know if Fox would hire them - and that is pretty much the worst thing I can say about them.

As a Steelers fan, I'm glad they won. It was a poor game, with mistakes across the board. As a devoted Tice hater, I'm thrilled the Vikes finally lost. However, I am _profoundly_ disturbed that the announcers suggested Tice could be up for coach of the year.

ESPN's announcers had been on Tice's jock also - suggesting he and Brad Johnson were someone amazing for winning 6 games in a row following the boat fiasco. Well, let's look at their schedule, shall we? In those 6 games, the Vikings really only had one unexpected victory - the 3 point win over the Giants.

Other than upsetting the Giants, the Vikings had possibly the easiest schedule in the NFL - beating the Lions twice, the Bears, the Packers, Rams, and the Browns. These are some of the poorest teams in the league! This is not an impressive 6 game winning streak.

Gah! Please get rid of Tice, I don't like rooting against my home team!

I have waited until the last minute to begin researching for a paper I need to write on the International Space Station. Thus, I am trying to find books related to it. I've been searching the online collections of the St. Paul Public Libraries, the CLICnet catalog (local liberal arts colleges), and the U of M libraries without finding much of anything.

Then it hit me, I'm using the wrong tool for a general search. Surfed over to amazon.com to do some searches and get titles of interesting books to plug into the deficient search engines of the various libraries. Success! Thank you amazon ... now can you share your search technology?

Tivo is beautiful, not only does it make recording programs easier since you don't have to fiddle with the tape, it also allows you to easily skip commercials as you watch shows minutes behind the live feed. Apparently, this is indirectly pissing off the writers of our favorite TV shows. Well, someone's favorite shows anyway.

Wired has an article about the stress of inserting ads directly into programming. This is the funniest little tidbit...

In a recent episode of the NBC series Medium, writers had to work the movie Memoirs of a Geisha into the dialogue three times because of a deal the network made with Sony earlier in the season. They even had the characters go on a date to an early screening of the movie and bump into friends who had just viewed Geisha to tell them how good it was.

I shed few tears for the embattled Christians of this country who no longer get to set up nativity scenes outside schools and government offices. However, I will say that called a Christmas tree a holiday tree is patently absurd. Jews do not have Christmas trees. Christians do. This is a Christian tradition - one that should not be secularized. Apparently, some have gone that far - or so claims an interesting Strib article.

In my mind, this is a holiday season. Holiday seasons may involve fasting (when Ramadan conveniently falls over it), it may involve lighting candles, and it may involve setting up a Christmas tree. It ain't no holiday tree - I'll have to agree with Hastert on this ... and I don't have an evangelical audience to which I am pandering.