The Basement Studio

Holding on to Thanksgiving

2011-12-01T13:37:00.004-07:00

As we move from Thanksgiving and the traditional celebration of the harvest, our family turns to a celebration of Christmas. Christmas is my favorite holiday and December is my favorite month. I love the lights, the music, the spirit of gift giving and the thoughtfulness that goes into the selection of gifts.

But I’m reluctant to let go of Thanksgiving. We’ve been very purposeful in our efforts to establish an attitude of gratitude within our family and with our children. Every night we say a prayer of thanks that begins with those that help shape and mold our lives. This part of the prayer is the same every night. We say thank you for our parents, grandparents uncles, aunts, cousins, siblings, teachers and friends. We say thank you for our ancestors who helped clear the path on which we travel. Then we say thank you for our pets and for those specific items or activities that have brought joy during our day. I don’t know what impact the prayer has on my kids or my wife but it helps me focus and end the day in the right frame of mind. I silently repeat it before I fall asleep.

Often it is hard to be thankful and mindful of all of life’s gifts. In spite of all that we have, life is often hard. My wife’s grandmother, Burney Horne, learned extreme hardship as an early life lesson. Burney was fond of saying, “Life isn’t for sissies!” And she was right.

Earlier this fall, the New York Times Sunday Magazine asked the question, “What if the Secret to Success is Failure?” The article looked at the issue of character education in America today and concluded that our current way of doing things, teaching kids to work hard and be nice may not be the fundamental character education they need. The article makes the point that what kids need is to learn how to overcome hardship with some degree of grace. True character, the article says, is built when we look within ourselves and find a way to rise above something bad that is happening.

So I look around at our world and I see wars and terror, corruption and stalemate, boundless greed and deceit and I wonder how we will rise above it. I look at my family and I see an argument with my wife, the stress caused by too much work and the mad dash of parenting two kids and I wonder how I will rise above it. I turn on cable news I’m told that we are a blessed, exceptional country and that means we will automatically rise above it and I wonder if that means I can quit worrying and go to bed.

And maybe a good night’s sleep is just what I need. Because before I go to sleep I say a prayer of thanksgiving and I remember that exceptionalism comes when people rise above the bad things that happen in our lives. I say thank you for my ancestors, my friends, my teachers and my family because I never rise above on my own. I always need a little help.

Four years before Burney Horne passed away, I was asked to drive her home after the funeral of her grandson, Chris. In a time filled with sharp emotions and great pain, Burney spent most of that car ride focusing on the things for which she was thankful and at the top of the list were a lifetime of moments she was able to share with her family and friends. I spent most of that car ride back in school, listening as Burney gave me a lesson in character education. I’m thankful for it.

Clinton or Obama

2008-02-05T14:53:00.000-07:00

I'm probably going to caucus for Hillary tonight. Obama is an amazing inspiration but I worry about his ability to lead and I worry about his having the ability to actually get things done.

Having said that, this video, done by some of Obama's friends in Hollywood, is really well done.

One Month Me

2007-11-25T22:55:00.000-07:00

Goldilocks in reverse

2007-10-17T22:27:00.000-06:00

Who knew that bears can find the refrigerator?

One of the things I hadn't heard a lot about prior to moving to Colorado were the stories of bears breaking and entering and raiding the fridge. It happened again this morning when an Aspen woman heard a noise and went to investigate. She walked into the kitchen and got slapped in the face by a black bear.

The woman was able to get away, her young son called 911 and the woman was taken to the hospital to be treated for cuts from the bear's claws.

Authorities say that in this case the bear found the sliding glass door unlocked and simply slid it open to gain access to the house.

Bears in Colorado at this time of the year spend 20 hours per day eating in order to consume the 20,000 to 30,000 daily calories needed to prepare for hibernation.

Pitkin County, which includes Aspen, has relocated 24 bears this year and has had to put down 12 bears, mostly for breaking and entering.

ROCKTOBER!

2007-10-12T23:27:00.000-06:00

As I noted on opening day, I'm not the world's biggest baseball fan. I've fully jumped, however, straight on to the Rockies bandwagon. These guys are a lot of fun. They remind me a lot of the 1987 Minnesota Twins.

Both teams approached the game fully bought in to their manager's "one game at a time" mantra. The Rockies manager even claimed tonight that the Rockies have never had anything more than a one game winning or losing streak. Neither team was expected to do much. Both teams were (are) very young. And with both teams it was and is easy to forget that the players were (are) highly paid professionals. The players simply have too much fun and have too good of an attitude to be Major League Baseball players.

welcome autumn

2007-10-08T17:01:00.001-06:00

Baseball played closer to heaven

2007-10-07T10:07:00.000-06:00

The lead story in Sunday's Denver Post is a column by Mark Kiszla. It is the story about life, death, family, sibling rivalry and baseball. It is the story of the aftermath of the death of Mike Coolbaugh, a coach for the minor league Tulsa Drillers who became the first player or coach killed by a baseball in a pro game since 1920. It is a column worthy of the lead and worth the time it takes to read it and you can find it here. http://www.denverpost.com/sports/ci_7107832

A note for my friends in Austin

2007-10-06T20:04:00.000-06:00

Colorado beat Oklahoma.

The end of summer

2007-10-06T14:19:00.000-06:00

The high today in Denver is supposed to be in the low 80s.

The high tomorrow in Denver is supposed to be 50 with significant snow above 9,000 feet.

Autumn arrives overnight.

Wonder what the weather is like in Austin?

Defining a compassionate conservative

2007-10-05T13:29:00.000-06:00

Indicted legislator needs pr help

2007-10-02T15:37:00.000-06:00

Terri Hodge, a state legislator from Dallas has been indicted by the feds in a bribery and extortion scheme involving the building of low-income housing. Her supporters rallied around her by crowing about what a great advocate for prisoners' rights she's been over the years.

Talk about a self-serving politician. At least she'll have friends in the pokey.

I hate home owners associations

2007-10-02T00:08:00.000-06:00

I'd never thought about home owners associations until we bought our first house in Austin. We'd gone through financing, inspection, resolution of inspection issues and were at closing when one of the documents we had to sign if we wanted our house was the document selling our soul to the local home owners association.

Now my guess is that when originally conceived, home owners associations were probably a fairly harmless little thing. But not today. Today, home owner associations are bureaucratic, red-tape manufacturers with the power to fine you and prevent you from selling your house if you don't conform to their rules. I can't believe anyone who believes in private property rights or individual freedoms actually thinks these things are a good idea.

The worst thing about home owners associations are the nattering ninnies who run them. These people have far too much time on their hands and appear to be, in my opinion, not the brightest bulb in the set of lights. Let me give you an example.

We just got our HOA Newsletter. It appears to have been mostly written by a man named Erik. One of the articles Erik wrote was about the horrible problem of people parking their cars on the street overnight. He wanted to remind people that the HOA Board is now enforcing a rule that says no cars may be left on the street overnight. He also detailed the reason for the rule.

"Parking on the streets is considered unsightly and hurts our property values."
and
"Cars parked on the street block the view of drivers, placing people at significant safety risk, especially children running or biking from the sidewalk."

So I'm now to believe that my property value is going down because there are potential buyers scouting my sleepy little neighborhood in my sleepy little suburb at 2:00 AM? That's silly. I'm sure that 100% of the people scouting my neighborhood for a house are doing so during daylight or evening hours when parking on the street is allowed!

And while I understand that cars parked on the street may block some views and be a hazard to children I'd argue that the bigger hazard to the kid walking or on a bike are the parents at home who are letting that kid walk and/or bike at 3:00 AM.

I would rather pay taxes to the federal government than pay my HOA dues.

Goodbye to Moneypenny

2007-09-30T23:29:00.000-06:00

According to CNN.com Lois Maxwell, who for years played Miss Moneypenny in the James Bond series, has died of cancer. She was 80 years old.

Something nice to say about the Bush Administration

2007-09-28T09:31:00.000-06:00

Those of you who have perused previous posts clearly understand that I'm not a big fan of the policies of the current administration. And while the nominee for Attorney General, Michael Mukasey, may have some scary ideas about executive power, he did offer up the following opinion which in my mind makes him at least interesting.

Seems one beer maker was running an ad criticizing Coors for making beer that sucks. Coors filed suit in an effort to try to get the ad campaign stopped. (As an aside, I wonder if Coors supports so-called tort reform efforts because there are too many frivolous lawsuits. Seriously, if all those companies and individuals that support tort reform would stop filing silly suits they probably wouldn't have any reason to want tort reform in the first place.) But let's get back to the case at hand. Coors is feeling bad because they've been criticized in an ad campaign by a rival, they sue to stop the campaign.

Judge Michael Mukasey tosses out the suit by saying, according to the New York Times,

"De gustibus cerevesiae non scit lex"

I don't know Latin but the Times translated the phrase this way,

"…the law takes no account of taste in weak beer."

Finally, someone in the Bush administration takes a stand I can believe in.

I'll enjoy it while I can.

Blogging Austin Texas

2007-09-20T20:49:00.001-06:00

I'm in Austin for about 24 hours. It is fun to be back. I had dinner tonight at a steak house called III Forks. The food was great. The service was great. The sales pitches were probably more aggressive than what I've experienced in other restaurants. Our waiter pitched pretty hard. For the most part we said no and avoided the expensive items.

We drank Zinfendel and Pinot Noir wine. It reminded me of something I read this week that said diners never order the cheapest bottle or glass of wine on a menu. People just don't want to look that cheap. So, most people order the second most expensive wine on the menu. What this article said is that as a result, most restaurants take a cheaper bottle of wine and make it the second most expensive. The article recommended going for the cheap glass or bottle.

I'm staying at the hotel San Jose. It is a funky, hip fun hotel in the SoCo district. I picked it because it is right across the street from the Continental Club and I liked the idea of having a beer and seeing some live music before I go to bed and there are few spots better in the world for live music than the Continental Club.

Tomorrow it's breakfast with friends, a work meeting, a quick drive past the old house and then a short flight home to Lone Tree.

Finding a memory on top of a mountain

2007-09-14T22:14:00.000-06:00

Below is an e-mail I recently sent to the Program Director at WCCO-AM, 8-3-0 in Minneapolis, Minnesota.

Hi Wendy,

I wasn't sure who to share this with but I'm a native Minnesotan who now lives in Colorado. As I grew up in the 1970s and 1980s, first in Brainerd and then Luverne, my father kept our radio tuned to WCCO. We'd listen to Boone and Erickson in the morning and Steve Cannon in the afternoon. As a kid I'd sneak a radio into my bed at night and scan the AM dial trying to see what cities had stations I could pull in. I was fascinated by the idea that I could listen to radio stations from Cleveland, Louisville, Denver, Fort Worth and St. Louis while I was in a small town in Minnesota. I especially enjoyed catching a football, basketball or baseball game.

A few weeks ago, I spent Labor Day weekend at a friend's condo on a mountain about 1,500 feet above the town of Silverthorne, Colorado. Saturday night, the Gophers were playing their first game. My family and I went out to supper in Dillon, CO and as we headed back up the mountain to the condo I thought I'd see if I could find out how the game was going. I tuned the radio in our mini-van to the still familiar 8-3-0 and there was Dave Lee coming through as clear as could be. It was fun to listen to a bit of the game. And it brought back memories of those late nights when I was a kid, scanning the dial to find a distant station that was broadcasting a game.

Running for President without a brain or any common sense.

2007-09-09T11:30:00.000-06:00

And some people think our current President is dumb. Read this quote from brand new Republican Presidential Candidate Fred Thompson as reported by the New York Daily News.

SIOUX CITY, Iowa - Freshly minted GOP White House hopeful Fred Thompson puzzled Iowans yesterday by insisting an Al Qaeda smoking ban was one reason freedom-loving Iraqis bolted to the U.S. side.

"They said, 'You gotta quit smoking,'" Thompson explained to a questioner asking about progress in Iraq during a town hall-style meeting.

Thompson said the smoking ban and terror tactics Al Qaeda used to oppress women and intimidate local leaders pushed tribes in western Anbar Province to support U.S. troops.

But Thompson's tale of a smokers' revolt baffled some in the audience of about 150 who came to decide whether the former Tennessee senator is ready for prime time.

"I don't know what that was about," said Jim Moran, 72, who had driven from nearby McCook Lake, S.D.

Life in Iraq

2007-09-06T11:49:00.000-06:00

I just found this interesting blog written by an Iraqi woman. She's been living in Baghdad although today's post is about her getting out of the city and fleeing to Syria. I think it provides and interesting look at one person's experience in Iraq.

http://riverbendblog.blogspot.com/

Are You Ready For Some Football

2007-09-05T23:05:00.000-06:00

With the NFL season kicking off tonight I thought I'd offer you a preview of what's to come this NFL season. Just as I did a year ago on this blog, I offer you my predictions for each team's record as well as a road map to the Super Bowl.

First, the final standings will look like this as we head into 2008.

AFC North

Pittsburgh 12 - 4
Cincinnati 10 - 6
Baltimore 9 - 7
Cleveland 1 - 15

AFC South

Tennessee 13 - 3
Indianapolis 12 - 4
Jacksonville 5 - 11
Houston 3 - 13

AFC East

Buffalo 10 - 6
New England 9 - 7
NY Jets 4 - 12
Miami 2 - 14

AFC West

San Diego 14 - 2
Denver 8 - 8
Oakland 3 - 13
Kansas City 3 - 13

NFC North

Minnesota 16 - 0
Chicago 11 - 5
Detroit 10 - 6
Green Bay 4 - 12

NFC South

New Orleans 14 - 2
Carolina 5 - 11
Atlanta 5 - 11
Tampa 1 - 15

NFC East

Dallas 12 - 4
Philadelphia 11 - 5
NY Giants 5 - 11
Washington 5 - 11

NFC West

Seattle 11 - 5
St. Louis 10 - 6
Arizona 10 - 6
San Francisco 7 - 9

Now, here's what the playoffs will look like.

Wild Card Weekend

Cincinnati at Pittsburgh
Indianapolis at Buffalo
Chicago at Dallas
Philadelphia at Seattle

Divisional Playoffs

Indianapolis at San Diego
Pittsburgh at Tennessee
Seattle at Minnesota
Dallas at New Orleans

Conference Championship Weekend

Indianapolis at Tennessee
New Orleans at Minnesota

Super Bowl Sunday

Minnesota defeats Tennessee

Going a step too far

2007-09-05T09:42:00.000-06:00

According to this story from the BBC, regulators in the UK have approved a proposal from scientists to make human-animal embryos. They want to merge human cells with animal eggs so that they might harvest the stem cells from the embryo.

I'm all for allowing stem cell research but I get scared when we start doing things like making embryos that are half pig and half person. I think it is a dangerous path to walk down and I think we have no idea whether or not the merger will be helpful or whether the merger might spawn some awful disease we've never even considered.

The problem with Larry Craig

2007-09-04T20:03:00.000-06:00

So right-wing Senator Larry Craig of Idaho gets busted soliciting sex in a Minneapolis Airport bathroom. The political pundits go nuts, cable news has a story to beat to death and the Republican party forces the Senator to announce he will resign.

There is absolutely no reason Larry Craig should resign.

Is the guy a hypocrite? Yes.

Is the guy a liar? Yes.

Did he break the law? I doubt it. I can't believe that toe tapping constitutes lewd behavior.

Did he want to break the law and exhibit improper public behavior? Sure looks like it.

Are those reasons not to vote for him? Yes.

Is that a reason to resign your US Senate seat? Never. They'd all have to resign. Every single senator.

But you don't force a Senator to resign because he is struggling with dealing with the idea that he is at least bi-sexual and maybe gay. I spent six months working with the gay community in Portland, Oregon, and was shocked to learn what a rough thing it can be to come to terms with the idea that one is not straight. Then, to make matters worse, you have to announce it to your family and friends. The process is so brutal that the rate of suicide among gay teens is four times that of straight teens.

There is no glee in the downfall of Larry Craig.

I think the worst behavior in this case was committed by the Idaho Statesman. In a long story detailing years of rumors and innuendo about Senator Craig's sexuality, the Statesman included this bit of absolute proof Senator Craig must be gay,

Craig also took piano lessons in high school and was in the high school choir.

WHAT?!?!?!?!?

And that's what's wrong with this entire situation. If this story were about improper conduct in a public facility it would be one thing. It's not. It is about America's hang up with sexuality. A hang up that makes otherwise intelligent writers and editors point to interest in music as proof of homosexuality. Our unwillingness to have open, honest conversations about what it means to be gay, straight, bi and / or transgendered allows for the perpetuation of ridiculous stereotypes that are harmful to everyone.

That is why I believe there is no joy in the downfall of Larry Craig.

High Country

2007-09-02T00:03:00.000-06:00

It is almost midnight Mountain time and I'm hanging out among the peaks in Colorado's Summit County. The windows are wide open as we expect a low temperature tonight in the 40s. We'll cuddle under blankets while we sleep. It is calm and a welcome break from travel schedules and suburban life.

We have no plans for this long weekend in the mountains. We simply want to be here. The five year old wants to hike. The three year old has a bum toe and wants to ride in a stroller. We'll have to find a happy medium.

On the drive up today, we stopped by the lake in Georgetown, Colorado and ate a sugar cookie. It was so simple. We didn't do anything elaborate. There were no picnic blankets or even any preparation. It was a family moment. We pulled off the highway, parked by the lake, got out of the mini-van and enjoyed being surrounded by mountains as we looked at the water and ate our sugar cookies. It was beautiful.

America's got talent???

2007-08-29T12:05:00.000-06:00

Uncle Sam's Grad School

2007-08-27T15:24:00.000-06:00

Did you know that the Department of Agriculture, USDA, runs a grad school?

I don't remember where I first found out about this but it drives my friend Turk crazy. And I have to say that I agree with him. I'm not sure how or why USDA thinks operating a grad school is falls within the mission of the department.

I was reminded of the school when I attended the National Conference for State Legislators in Boston earlier this month. The USDA Grad School had a booth in the exhibit hall and were handing out trinkets and trash to all those who stopped by for a conversation.

The school says it is self-sustaining. I assume that means they don't get a direct appropriation from Congress but a quick look at their board of directors and they are almost all Federal Government employees.

What does the school teach? Well, here's a list of the classes they pimp on their website.

Federal Appropriations Law, Clear Writing Through Critical Thinking, Introduction to Supervision, Pre-retirement Planning, Project Management for IT Professionals, Contracting Basics for COTRs, Paralegal Studies, Project Management, Information Technology, Introduction to Photography, Travel Writing, Personal Finance, Effective Business Writing, Intensive Spanish, and Intermediate Accounting.

Here's what I want to know. Just how important is "travel writing" to running a farm? I mean, this is the USDA that is running the grad school. My assumption is that the classes might have an agriculture hook to keep things relevant.

Don't feel bad if you live outside of DC and want to take a class. This must be the world's largest grad school. They've got an opportunity for everyone no matter what state you live in. I checked on Colorado and there are 56 courses scheduled to be offered in Denver in the next 12 months. None of them, not a single one, has anything to do with Agriculture.

Maybe USDA should focus on things like the security of our food supply instead of trying to run a grad school.

Does Bush Rock?

2007-08-20T22:42:00.000-06:00

My friend Anne has this thing for George W. Bush. I can't figure out why, but she does. She recently posted this list of his accomplishments on her blog in response to my being a bit critical of the President.

The question is, are these really accomplishments? If you were President, would you aim to achieve as much, more than or less than President Bush?

China vs. Mexico, Spain and a host of other countries

2007-08-20T22:36:00.000-06:00

As I mentioned in my previous post we are beginning to look at elementary schools. Our local school district has decided that every elementary school student should have the opportunity to learn either Chinese or Spanish.

So here are my questions. Should my two kids learn Spanish or Chinese? Which will be more useful? Which provides the most interesting window into a different culture? 20 years from now, which will be more beneficial in the job market? Which one will open the door to better trips for me when I retire?

Living what you believe

2007-08-20T22:23:00.000-06:00

In 1990 I was visiting an elementary school in Alabama during recess. What I noticed was a bit shocking for me. The kids were all playing in groups. All of the groups were racially integrated, gender integrated and even, to some extent, age integrated. What determined the make up of each group was the clothes the kids were wearing.

Kids with more expensive clothes were playing with other kids who were wearing more expensive clothes. Kids with cheaper, more worn out and ill-fitting clothes were all playing together. The kids on the playground had literally grouped themselves based on family income bracket and I knew this by looking at the clothes they were wearing.

Ever since that day I've been a huge believer in school uniforms. I think they ought to be required starting in Kindergarten and ought to stay a requirement all the way through high school.

Tonight, however, I was looking at the website for the local elementary school my oldest child might attend next year. I was surprised to find that they require a school uniform four days a week. (Kids are allowed to wear their own clothes every Wednesday.) You'd think, given my strong belief in the importance of school uniforms I'd be happy, right?

Not me, my gut reaction was, "Screw them. They can't tell my kids what to wear." My gut reaction was to protect my kids' independence and freedom to choose to wear what they want to wear.

In the end, my head will over-rule my heart on this one and next summer I'll gladly shell out the bucks for the appropriate articles of clothing. But I'm not going to feel good about it. I'm going to feel like I did when I was a kid and my parents made me eat liver.

A Double Dose of Passion

2007-08-16T15:30:00.001-06:00

Jen Lemen is a blogger who recently wrote about meeting Elizabeth Edwards. The post is a bit over the top but the passion is real and an interesting read.

“I worry about you,” I said, surprised at how emotional I felt putting these thoughts into words. “I know your cancer is back and that you have these little children. I want to be so supportive of what you’re doing, but at the same time I don’t want to participate in something that would diminish this time in your family’s life–your time is so precious.”

It feels shocking now to recount this. Who am I to worry about Elizabeth Edwards or to get myself worked up into some form of motherhood grief over the thought of being ill or leaving little children behind, but the whole thing just gets me. One of my greatest fears is orphaning my children. I feel so deeply how much they need me, how much their hearts would be split in two without me.

She turned to me with so much fire in her blue eyes..."

Read the entire post here.

Making Grandma Margaret Proud...

2007-08-06T07:56:00.000-06:00

I had Friday off so I took my kids to Broncos training camp. It ends up we live just a few minutes away from their headquarters and practice facility. We had a great time and the kids really did a good job of paying attention. I wasn't sure they would have much interest in watching practice. After about 90 minutes of watching we headed for the team store and then went home to eat lunch and get a nap.

As we were eating lunch, I asked my five year old son if anything at camp had surprised him. His response was, "yeah, I was surprised you actually bought us something."

My frugal grandmother will be proud!

Sometimes, good things happen in Wisconsin

2007-07-31T15:58:00.000-06:00

I love this story. According to the Janesville Gazette, two professors at Concordia Univeristy plan to launch a joint, bi-partisan, challenge to Congressman Jim Sensenbrenner together.

Political scientist Jeff Walz, 40 will run as a Democrat. Historian James Burkee, 39, will run as a Republican.

The two men will publish a document that lays out the ground rules for their campaign. It will include a pledge to avoid personal attacks and not accept money from special interest groups.

Walz and Burkee say they disagree on many things but want to show district voters what they believe campaigns ought to look like.

If, by some chance, Burkee manages to win his primary challenge, the two have pledged to travel the district and debate every day between the primary and general elections.

What's not to love about this story? It is too bad they aren't challenging someone a bit more vulnerable. I wonder if they'll have any staff or consultants and if so if they will hire them jointly. That could be really interesting. Could you imagine joint television commercials?

Actually, you could save a lot of money under this model because you wouldn't need nearly as much staff or as many consultants.

I wonder if it will work.

$10 for Breakfast food

2007-07-30T17:32:00.000-06:00

The family would like to go out for breakfast food tonight. Unfortunately, I can only find one good local joint that serves great breakfast food AND stay open after 3:00 PM.

As a result, our choices are IHOP, Village Inn, Mimi's Cafe and Sam's No. 3.

Now Sam's is great but we were just there last week so I don't really want to go again.

I'll give $10 to the first person who can provide me with a list of good local restaurants within 20 miles of Lone Tree, CO., that serve breakfast food at night.

Edwards, Clinton, Obama, Biden, Richardson

2007-07-24T16:54:00.000-06:00

I've gotten some feedback regarding my Obama post from the other day AND I watched the entire CNN - YouTube debate last night.

A couple of people took me to task saying that I mis-represnted Obama's position and that Obama thinks it's better for UN forces to deal with genocide than US forces and that he would not stand by twiddling his thumbs.

OK. Maybe I got a little carried away in my language as it applies to Obama. I still think he's wrong. When genocide happens, the United States shouldn't wait for someone else to act. The United States should lead and lead by example.

And that leads me to my next point, I thought Joe Biden was great at last night's debate. He was forceful and acted like a leader -- a bit of a goofy leader -- but a leader. Joe said we need boots on the ground in Darfur. The other candidates largely passed the buck to the UN or others, although Clinton deserves some credit for outlining how she would use US forces in the region.

I thought Biden and Richardson won the debate. Clinton and Edwards tied for second with Obama coming in next.

I thought the most remarkable moment of the debate happened when John Edwards was asked about gay marriage. You really could see him struggle with the question. He says he's against it but I think he's mostly confused and conflicted. It was almost painful to watch.

The best question of the night came from these two guys.

Finally, beacause Anne asked, I'm supporting Edwards. My second choice is Clinton and then it is either Obama or Richardson, I'm not sure which.

Obama is wrong

2007-07-20T14:19:00.000-06:00

Senator Obama says that the U.S. military shouldn't be used to stop genocide.

"Well, look, if that's the criteria by which we are making decisions on the deployment of U.S. forces, then by that argument you would have 300,000 troops in the Congo right now - where millions have been slaughtered as a consequence of ethnic strife - which we haven't done," Obama said in an interview with The Associated Press.

"We would be deploying unilaterally and occupying the Sudan, which we haven't done. Those of us who care about Darfur don't think it would be a good idea," he said.

I think he's wrong. And I'm not sure I want a President who is willing to stand by and watch genocide happen.

And what's up with the "which we haven't done" portion of his quote? Is he really going to base his foreign policy decisions on things that the current administration has or hasn't done? I thought part of the rationale for Obama's candidacy was that of change.

As the world's last remaining superpower I think stopping genocide ought to be a high priority for our country. Obama says if stopping genocide is a priority then we would need to be engaged in the Congo and in Sudan. I don't see anything wrong with being engaged in those countries.

I have no interest in supporting Obama in the primary.

That's right, you're not from Texas

2007-07-15T19:42:00.000-06:00

See I was born and raised in Texas
And it means so much to me
Though my girl comes from down in Georgia
We were up in Tennessee
And as we were driving down the highway
She asked me baby what's so great
How come you're always going on
About your Lone Star State

I said that's right you're not from Texas
That's right you're not from Texas
That's right you're not from Texas
But Texas wants you anyway

That's right you're not from Texas
That's right you're not from Texas
That's right you're not from Texas
But Texas wants you anyway

My girl (from down in Florida) and I saw Lyle Lovett perform at Red Rocks on Friday night. His opening act was k.d. lang. Not a bad pair to go see. Concerts are Red Rocks are great! I encourage everyone who loves live music to make the trip to Morrison, CO to take in a show. The temperature at show time was about 85, there was no humidity, there were no bugs and the entire amphitheater had the feel of a community festival.

One of the things that amazed me was that almost everyone in the audience seemed to run into someone they knew at the concert. That was really fun to watch.

In addition to getting to see and hear some really great music under a Colorado sky, I also confirmed something I've always thought. While I really miss being a Texan and all that conjures up, I do not miss living in Texas.

It was gorgeous in Morrison and great to be in Colorado.

Avoid Cheap Tickets dot com

2007-07-12T22:31:00.001-06:00

Cheap Tickets released their list of the top 10 places in America to enjoy bar-b-que on the Fourth of July. I've always liked bar-b-que but I learned a lot about it when I lived in Central Texas for eight years. If you are looking for red meat, then you've got to eat your bar-b-que in Texas, Missouri or the South.

One look at the Cheap Tickets list and even someone from Minnesota would realize that they haven't got a clue. Here it is according to the Memphis Business Journal.

10. Memphis
9. Little Rock
8. Charleston, SC
7. Cincinnati (Chili - not bar-b-que!)
6. Kansas City
5. Dallas
4. St. Louis
3. Washington, D.C. (Crabcakes - not bar-b-que!)
2. New Orleans (Really? I'm going for gumbo.)

and number one is almost too hard to type.

1. New York City

I want to write words that would upset my mother right now.

Here's how you do a top 10 bar-b-que list.

Fly to Austin. Sleep for as long as possible. Get up early, rent a car. Drive to every Central Texas town which has a name starting with the letter "L." Eat at each of the many bar-b-que joints in town. Make sure you get sausage if possible.

As you wind your way through Central Texas stop in Elgin, Gonzales and Marble Falls as well. Actually, just stop every time you see a bar-b-que joint. Finally, stop and pick up a six pack of beer and head for the Salt Lick in Driftwood. I know they've got one in the airport and one in Las Vegas but nothing beats the BYOB, Texas countryside feel of the original.

Finally, if you can't make it to Texas, I'd recommend Sonny's bar-b-que at locations throughout the South. Or you can stop in just about any city from Myrtle Beach to Kansas City and find much better bar-b-que than anything you'll ever find in NYC.

Lady Bird Johnson, 1912 - 2007

2007-07-11T16:01:00.000-06:00

"I sometimes look back and almost say to myself: 'Gee, was that really me? Did it all happen to me?' It was a wonderful life. It took vigor and forbearance and a lot of elasticity. But it was an absolutely wonderful life."

To read more please visit the Austin American-Statesman.

Dress up clothes on a summer day

2007-07-10T10:00:00.000-06:00

What a disappointment

2007-07-02T13:55:00.000-06:00

I had never visited the University of South Dakota nor it's hometown of Vermillion. But one of the things I've come to realize as I've traveled around the country is that most cities that host "The University of ____________" are generally cool cities and most "University of ______________" are good looking campuses. Think about the Universities of

North Carolina
Florida
California
Montana
Washington
Texas
Virginia
Wisconsin
Colorado

just to name a few. So I expected the University of South Dakota to either have a beautiful campus or Vermillion to be a quaint University town.

Unfortunatley, neither is true. I was disappointed. I'd expected I might find an ice-cream shop and buy the kids a cone as we lounged in the shade on a grassy mall.

I'll be visiting the University of Wyoming in the next few months. Maybe that can help me rebound.

California Summer

2007-06-28T15:25:00.000-06:00

The three year old and I enjoyed a long weekend with her uncle in Tiburon, California.

It was the good life. We flew in Thursday and Friday headed for Stinson Beach. It was great fun to show my daughter the ocean for the first time. She absolutely loved it. After seeing how many pictures we were taking of her, she decided to take a couple of us.

What a great weekend and what a great location. The daughter missed her brother a lot and missed her mother a bit. As a result she was pretty clingy with me and didn't want to be carried anywhere by her uncle. But she really enjoyed talking with him and telling him that she could "do anything I want to do!"

She's enjoyed talking about her uncle quite a bit this week.

Summertime, and the living is easy

2007-06-25T22:37:00.000-06:00

My brother and I were debating music over the weekend. He got irritated when I said that I thought Bob Marley was a lazy writer.

I thought I'd see if anyone here might want to continue the conversation. So...

What's on you ipod / mp3 player right now?

I've got my old favorites including REM, Junior Wells, The Dixie Chicks, Willie Nelson, The Greencards, Muddy Waters, Prince, the Ramones, the Replacements, U2, Sammy Davis Jr., Eminem, Wilson Pickett, Ingar and Bruce Springsteen.

But the group I'm addicted to this summer is Big & Rich. I can't get enough. I think they write great songs that are a ton of fun.

What I don't have are any American Idol contestants -- can you believe I've only seen the show twice? Then again I guess if you look at the music listed above I'm pretty much stuck in an era before 1995.

Senior Year

2007-06-21T19:15:00.000-06:00

Has anyone read Dan Shaughnessy's book Senior Year? I've read one good review of it and it was enough to make me wonder if anyone else has picked it up. Peter King of Sports Illustrated recommended it in his blog.

It's the end of the world as he knows it

2007-06-20T11:37:00.000-06:00

Who's the greatest scientist of all time?

How about Sir Isaac Newton?

Sir Isaac Newton was evidently a deeply religious Christian. I wonder what he would think of the whole evolution vs. creationism vs. intelligent design debate.

One of the things Newton believed is that the apocalypse is coming and he spent considerable time trying to figure out the date. He wrote that he did this not because he thought it was important to figure out the date but instead he wanted to,

"put a stop to the rash conjectures of fanciful men who are frequently predicting the time of the end, and by doing so bring the sacred prophesies into discredit as often as their predictions fail."

Newton did end up making a prediction about the end of the world. He wrote that the apocalypse will not happen before the year 2060. Someone tell Pat Robertson we've got at least 53 more years.

Hillary Hits a Home Run

2007-06-19T15:49:00.000-06:00

You may or may not know but Hillary Clinton has had a poll up on her website asking her supporters to pick a theme song for her campaign. People could vote for one of the choices the campaign made available or they could write in their own choice.

They announced the winner today with this video, a spoof on the final episode of the Sopranos. I think this is great.

Who do you trust?

2007-06-19T02:03:00.001-06:00

I spent a good hour in the chair at the Dentist's office Monday afternoon. As I sat there I thought about polls I've seen measuring the amount of trust people place in medical professionals. It dawned on me that I've never seen a poll about trust in dentists.

This is interesting to me because my experience is that dentists are among the least trustworthy people on the planet. I had two dentists in Austin that tried to get me to agree to extensive, unnecessary work. Our son had a dentist in Austin who billed both me and my insurance company. They then refused to send me my money back until I had called them three times and gotten ugly with them on the phone. Remarkably, the office manager for that dentist told me that they never re-fund money in cases where they double bill unless the patient is both insistent and persistent. Now in Colorado, we've stopped sending our kids to a pediatric dentist and instead are taking them to our dentist because we discovered the pediatric dentist was practicing fraudulent billing.

So, who do you trust? I should say that our dentist here in Colorado is fantastic and everything is above board. But I've found them to be the exception to the rule.

The problem with expectations

2007-06-14T16:19:00.000-06:00

I'm in DC. It is a monthly trip I make for work. Last night, after attending a political event, I headed through the rain to Central, the new restaurant from Michel Richard.

Michel Richard is an excellent chef. I had a wonderful night, a few years ago, at his fancy restaurant Citronelle in Georgetown. After a multi-course meal by myself in the dining room, I asked the waiter if the chef was in the restaurant and if so if he would be willing to come out so that I might thank him for the meal. The waiter came back to tell me that the chef had invited me to join him in the kitchen at his table where he was about to eat dinner with friends. When I got to the kitchen, Richard had me sit next to him at his table and proceeded to order an entirely new multi-course meal of his choosing. I ended up having somewhere between 12 and 16 courses of food that night and the kicker is I had a different glass of wine with each course. It was (even with the wine) a memorable night! It was an honor and a lot of fun to get to visit with Chef Richard.

How good is Richard? He was recently named the 2007 "Outstanding Chef" by the James Beard foundation. It's the chef equivalent of winning the best actor Oscar.

So last night I went to his new restaurant.

The review?

The service was inconsistent.

The ingredients in the food were out of this world. It is amazing what a huge difference high quality ingredients make in cooking.

The food was very good.

It wasn't as good as Citronelle but this restaurant isn't supposed to be as good as Citronelle. My bill at Citronelle was well more than double my bill from last night. But the food was good. And I'll probably go back.

The problem, however, is that I kept having to adjust my expectations downward. I had to keep reminding myself that I wasn't at Citronelle and that I shouldn't expect that type or level of food. After all, this is a Michelle Richard restaurant. And that's the problem with expectations, isn't it? Once expectations are set, if they are not met, we get disappointed.

As for the coffee? It wasn't great. But the way things have been going with me and coffee I didn't expect the coffee to be great. Maybe the addiction is over.

Losing My Addiction

2007-06-13T16:16:00.000-06:00

I haven't had a good cup of coffee in two weeks. At least I haven't had a cup of coffee that I've enjoyed in two weeks. This is a big deal. I'm a many multiple cups of coffee per day kind of guy.

The strange thing is that it doesn't matter where I get my coffee. It could be coffee I make at home, it could be at Starbucks or it could be at a fun little French restaurant on Capitol Hill. It all tastes bad.

Either my tastes are changing or something tragic has happened to all the coffee beans in Colorado and DC.

I'll try again tonight, hopefully at Central, a new restaurant from Michel Richard. The website says they take walk ins which is good because the website also says they don't have an open reservation until June 19th.

She turned three this month!

2007-06-11T17:08:00.000-06:00

The Federal Budget

2007-06-11T08:47:00.000-06:00

This is a cool graph that shows where money is spent in the federal budget. Click on the link not the picture.

Obesity, saving money and flying

2007-06-09T02:02:00.000-06:00

There was an interesting article about Frontier Airlines in the Denver Post today. The headline read,

Frontier finds its fliers lighter than average

The sub-head read,

The Denver-based airline saves about $3.5 million a year in fuel because of a difference of 17 pounds per passenger.

Evidently, the Federal Aviation Administration tracks the average weight of airline passengers and that data is able to be broken out by airline. Frontier Airline passengers are, according to the FAA, about 20 pounds lighter than average. Frontier was intrigued by the data so they went out and did their own study and narrowed the number down to a more precise 17 pounds per passenger.

And that works out to $3.5 million per year in savings. That's not bad.

A Great Fundraising Appeal

2007-06-07T22:58:00.000-06:00

Here's the deal. I think John Edwards is running a smart, issues-focused campaign. And he's not just offering platitudes when he talks issues. He's got some very detailed proposals. I think you ought to support him and you can donate to him by clicking here.

Having said that, I think Barack Obama offered up the most creative and compelling fundraising appeal of the year so far.

Here's a guy that's got them talking in New Hampshire and Iowa about how campaigns have entered a new era where the top tier candidates are no longer able to do hundreds of small, intimate gatherings with real folks because of the crush of the candidates' celebrity. How do you fight that image, the image of high rollers buying access with their contributions and still raise some money?

You invite a few small donors to an intimate dinner. Not only that but this appeal has a lottery type feel as well where people have a chance to win something. I would think a lot of people might find that "chance to win" a compelling hook.

I think this appeal is brilliant. My wife is supporting Obama. Here's the e-mail she got earlier this week.

--- "David Plouffe, BarackObama.com"
wrote:

> Date: Wed, 6 Jun 2007 13:54:52 -0400
> To:
> From: "David Plouffe, BarackObama.com"
>
> Subject: Dinner with Barack?
>
> Make a donation in the next week and you could have dinner with
> Barack:
>
> https://donate.barackobama.com/dinnerforfive
>
> Dear ,
>
> Most political fundraisers are hosted by lobbyists and filled with
> representatives of special interests.
>
> But our campaign is different.
>
> Our funding comes from a movement of Americans giving whatever they
> can afford, even $5, and Barack wants to sit down with supporters like
> you.
>
> In the next week, four donors will be selected for a new kind of
> fundraising dinner. If you make a donation in any amount between now
> and 11:59 pm EDT on Wednesday, June 13, you could join Barack and
> three other supporters for an intimate dinner for five.
>
> Two seats will be reserved for people like you who have given before
> and decide to make another donation during this special drive. Will
> you renew your generous support and take a chance at having dinner
> with Barack?
>
> https://donate.barackobama.com/dinnerforfive
>
> Our movement is changing the way campaigns are funded. We're not
> taking any contributions from Washington lobbyists or political action
> committees.
>
> More than 100,000 individual donors have demonstrated that this choice
> is about more than an election. It's about each of us having a
> personal stake in the future of American politics.
>
> The dinner for five is an opportunity for you to sit down with Barack
> and your fellow supporters and talk about what matters to you.
>
> Get the kind of treatment other politicians reserve for special
> interests. Make a donation in the next week, and you could share your
> story and your ideas with Barack in person:
>
> https://donate.barackobama.com/dinnerforfive
>
> With every single donation, we're building a movement to change
> American politics. And this is just the beginning.
>
> Thanks for your support,
> David
>
> David Plouffe
> Campaign Manager
> Obama for America>

I'm impressed. What a great way to frame yourself as a populist.

Books

2007-06-06T15:22:00.000-06:00

My friend Anne writes a blog all about books and my other friend Anne recently posted some thoughts as to what she reads.

USA Today, meanwhile, gave us a list of the "25 most memorable books of the last 25 years.

I haven't read a single one. I've seen a couple of the movies and I did leaf through my wife's copy of "What to expect when you're expecting." But I didn't read a single book on that list.

Should I?

Here's the list.

1 Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone
By J.K. Rowling (1998)

2 The Deep End of the Ocean
By Jacquelyn Mitchard (1996)

3 The Da Vinci Code
By Dan Brown (2003)

4 The 911 Commission Report
By The National Commission on Terrorist Attacks (2004)

5 Chicken Soup for the Soul
By Mark Victor Hansen and Jack Canfield (1993)

6 Men Are From Mars, Women Are From Venus
By John Gray (1992)

7 Dr. Atkins' New Diet Revolution
By Robert C. Atkins (1992)

8 And the Band Played On
By Randy Shilts (1987)

9 Beloved
By Toni Morrison (1987)

10 The Greatest Generation
By Tom Brokaw (1998)

11 Bridget Jones's Diary
By Helen Fielding (1998)

12 Left Behind
By Tim LaHaye and Jerry B. Jenkins (1995)

13 The Purpose Driven Life
By Rick Warren (2003)

14 Fast Food Nation
By Eric Schlosser (2001)

15 The Satanic Verses
By Salman Rushdie (1989)

16 The Closing of the American Mind
By Allan Bloom (1987)

17 The Bonfire of the Vanities
By Tom Wolfe (1987)

18 The Joy Luck Club
By Amy Tan (1989)

19 What To Expect When You're Expecting
By Heidi Murkoff, Arlene Eisenberg and Sandee Hathaway (1984)

20 A Brief History of Time
By Stephen Hawking (1988)

21 Iacocca
By Lee Iacocca (1984)

22 Waiting to Exhale
By Terry McMillan (1992)

23 Cold Mountain
By Charles Frazier (1997)

24 Backlash
By Susan Faludi (1991)

25 Final Exit
By Derek Humphry (1991)

By the way, if you are going to buy any of these books, please buy them at my favorite bookstore which is right here.

Rough days for Republicans

2007-06-01T10:56:00.000-06:00

Things are rough for Republicans these days and no one sums up the state of the party than former Reagan speech writer Peggy Noonan. Noonan's column in today's Wall Street Journal includes the following tidbits.

What political conservatives and on-the-ground Republicans must understand at this point is that they are not breaking with the White House on immigration. They are not resisting, fighting and thereby setting down a historical marker--"At this point the break became final." That's not what's happening. What conservatives and Republicans must recognize is that the White House has broken with them. What President Bush is doing, and has been doing for some time, is sundering a great political coalition. This is sad, and it holds implications not only for one political party but for the American future.

The White House doesn't need its traditional supporters anymore, because its problems are way beyond being solved by the base. And the people in the administration don't even much like the base. Desperate straits have left them liberated, and they are acting out their disdain. Leading Democrats often think their base is slightly mad but at least their heart is in the right place. This White House thinks its base is stupid and that its heart is in the wrong place.

How bad are things in the party? Well read this!

The president has taken to suggesting that opponents of his immigration bill are unpatriotic--they "don't want to do what's right for America." His ally Sen. Lindsey Graham has said, "We're gonna tell the bigots to shut up." On Fox last weekend he vowed to "push back." Homeland Security Secretary Michael Chertoff suggested opponents would prefer illegal immigrants be killed; Commerce Secretary Carlos Gutierrez said those who oppose the bill want "mass deportation." Former Bush speechwriter Michael Gerson said those who oppose the bill are "anti-immigrant" and suggested they suffer from "rage" and "national chauvinism."

Why would they speak so insultingly, with such hostility, of opponents who are concerned citizens?

Good question, Peggy. The answer is that they are Repbulicans and that is what Republicans do. Don't you watch Fox News? The Republican party has been so devoid of political ideology, policy ideas and ethical leaders for so long that all Republicans know how to do is to speak insultingly, with hostility of their opponents who are simply concerned citizens. Peggy, you really ought to stop your whining.

What happened to Republicans is that they got so caught up in their hatred of Government that they decided not to ever govern. Peggy, were you the one who wrote the Reagan line in his first inaugural address, "Government is not the solution to our problem, government is the problem." Post-Reagan Republicans get elected so that they could have power and use that power to enrich themselves and their friends. They don't care about governing or good government. There is no vision for what government ought to be -- only a vision for what government ought not to be. As a result, the Republican party and its' leadership has become both ethically and ideologically corrupt.

Peggy Noonan did get the following right when she wrote of the current administration,

What I came in time to believe is that the great shortcoming of this White House, the great thing it is missing, is simple wisdom. Just wisdom--a sense that they did not invent history, that this moment is not all there is, that man has lived a long time and there are things that are true of him, that maturity is not the same thing as cowardice, that personal loyalty is not a good enough reason to put anyone in charge of anything, that the way it works in politics is a friend becomes a loyalist becomes a hack, and actually at this point in history we don't need hacks.

Hacks got the jobs in Iraq. Qualifications didn't matter. Hacks got the jobs in FEMA. Qualifications didn't matter. Hacks got the jobs in the Justice Department. Qualifications didn't matter.

Jimmy Carter never should have retracted his statement that the current Bush administration is the worst in history.

Pink, Blue, Yellow, White and...

2007-05-31T15:52:00.000-06:00

If you look at the history of the obesity epidemic in the United States you can trace the almost the entire thing back to one plant; corn.

It was the introduction of high fructose corn syrup as a sweetener that helped spur the massive increase in obesity in this country. It seems our bodies metabolize the syrup in a different manner than we metabolize sugar. As a result, the more we replace sugar with high fructose corn syrup the more chance we have of getting fat.

Today, however, in an announcement that is sure to shake up the processed food world, Cargill and Coca-Cola announced they were working together to begin sweetening Coca-Cola products with a new sweetener. The new sweetener is called "rebina" and is a derivative of the stevia plant. It is reportedly 100 times more sweet than sugar. Cargill is also working on a new table top version of the rebina to compete with Equal, Nutrasweet, Splenda and natural sugar. I wonder what color Cargill will choose.

I haven't heard if anyone knows the impact of rebina on our bodies. According to Coke, Stevia isn't approved in the U.S. for use in food and beverages, but is approved in 12 other countries, including Brazil, Japan and China. Cargill is currently conducting clinical trials in an effort to get FDA approval to use the plant here.

The Center for Science in the Public Interest says that more tests need to be done before Stevia is approved by FDA. While there is no evidence that the plant causes ill effects in humans, CSPI says there are warning signs that need to be investigated.

Google Maps and directions from Denver to London

2007-05-29T09:05:00.000-06:00

Those Googleheads are pretty funny. Check out step number 23 in the itenerary below.

Drive:
5,705 mi (about 30 days 11 hours)

1.
Head west on W Colfax Ave/I-70-BL toward Delaware St 0.9 mi
3 mins

2.
Merge onto I-25 N via the ramp to Fort Collins 5.9 mi
7 mins

3.
Take the I-76 W/I-76 E exit toward Grand Jct/Fort Morgan/70th Ave 0.1 mi

4.
Take exit 216A to merge onto I-76 E toward Ft Morgan
Entering Nebraska 182 mi
2 hours 27 mins

5.
Merge onto I-80 E
Entering Iowa 473 mi
6 hours 34 mins

6.
Take exit 123B to merge onto I-35 N/I-80 E toward Chicago/Minneapolis
Continue to follow I-80 E 166 mi
2 hours 28 mins

7.
Take exit 290 for I-280 E/US-6 E toward Rock Island/Moline 0.7 mi

8.
Merge onto I-280 E
Entering Illinois 26.7 mi
26 mins

9.
Continue on I-80 E
Partial toll road
Entering Indiana 168 mi
2 hours 44 mins

10.
Take exit 16 to merge onto I-80 E/I-90 E
Partial toll road
Entering Ohio 278 mi
4 hours 14 mins

11.
Take exit 142 to merge onto I-90 E toward OH-2 E
Partial toll road 28.3 mi
29 mins

12.
Take exit 170B for I-90 E/I-71 S/OH-176 S toward Cleveland/Columbus 0.7 mi
1 min

13.
Merge onto I-90 E 17.2 mi
19 mins

14.
Take the exit onto I-90 E toward Erie PA
Partial toll road
Passing through Pennsylvania
Entering New York 448 mi
7 hours 0 mins

15.
Continue on I-87 S/New York State Thruway S (signs for New York Thruway S/I-87 S/New York/Boston/Mass Pike)
Toll road 14.6 mi
14 mins

16.
Take exit 21A toward I-90 E/Mass Turnpike/Boston
Toll road 0.9 mi
1 min

17.
Merge onto New York State Thruway E
Toll road
Entering Massachusetts 24.1 mi
22 mins

18.
Continue on I-90 E/Massachusetts Turnpike/Mass Pike
Partial toll road 134 mi
2 hours 9 mins

19.
Take exit 24 A-B-C on the left toward I-93 N/Concord NH/S Station/I-93 S/Quincy 0.4 mi
1 min

20.
Merge onto Atlantic Ave 0.8 mi
3 mins

21.
Turn right at Central St 0.1 mi

22.
Turn right at Long Wharf 0.1 mi

23.
Swim across the Atlantic Ocean
Entering France 3,462 mi
29 days 0 hours

24.
Slight right at E05 0.5 mi
2 mins

25.
At the traffic circle, take the 2nd exit onto E05/Pont Vauban 0.1 mi

26.
Turn right at E05/Quai Colbert
Continue to follow E05 5.7 mi
10 mins

27.
Take the exit onto A29/E44 toward Amiens
Partial toll road 27.8 mi
23 mins

28.
Take the exit toward Dieppe/Amiens/Calais/A151/Rouen
Toll road 1.1 mi
1 min

29.
Merge onto A29
Toll road 22.6 mi
19 mins

30.
Take the exit onto A28
Partial toll road 45.6 mi
37 mins

31.
Take the exit onto A16 toward Boulogne/Calais
Partial toll road 63.7 mi
54 mins

32.
Take exit 42 0.6 mi
1 min

33.
Slight right 1.0 mi
2 mins

34.
Turn right 0.4 mi
1 min

35.
Turn right 0.2 mi
4 mins

36.
Take the Dover Folkestone - Calais Frethun train to Folkstone
Entering United Kingdom (England) 34.2 mi
1 hour 2 mins

37.
Continue straight 0.3 mi
2 mins

38.
Slight right toward M20 1.6 mi
4 mins

39.
Merge onto M20 via the ramp to London/Ashford 47.2 mi
45 mins

40.
Continue on A20 (signs for London (SE)/Lewisham) 9.7 mi
15 mins

41.
At Clifton's Roundabout, take the 2nd exit onto A20/Sidcup Rd
Continue to follow A20 2.2 mi
6 mins

42.
At the traffic circle, take the 2nd exit onto A20/Loampit Vale
Continue to follow A20 1.3 mi
4 mins

43.
Continue on A2/Lewisham Way
Continue to follow A2 0.7 mi
2 mins

44.
Slight right at A2/Kender St 72 ft

45.
Turn right to stay on A2/Kender St
Continue to follow Kender St 0.3 mi
1 min

46.
Turn left at A2/New Cross Rd
Continue to follow A2 1.9 mi
5 mins

47.
At Brick Layers Arms, take the 1st exit onto A201/New Kent Rd 0.6 mi
2 mins

48.
At the traffic circle, take the 2nd exit onto A302/St George's Rd 0.4 mi
1 min

49.
Turn left at A3203/Lambeth Rd 0.6 mi
3 mins

50.
At the traffic circle, take the 2nd exit and stay on A3203/Lambeth Rd
Continue to follow A3203 0.2 mi
1 min

51.
At Horseferry Rd, take the 3rd exit onto A3212/Millbank
Continue to follow A3212 0.4 mi
1 min

Memorial Day in the Mountains

2007-05-27T00:11:00.000-06:00

Our friend Molly has a condo in Summit County, Colorado. She is very kind to us and called us on Thursday wondering if we would like to use her condo for the weekend. It is a great place that sits about 1800 feet above the town of Silverthorne.

We said yes and as a result I'm sitting in an easy chair in the Rocky Mountains as I write this post. It is a wonderful and relaxing place to be.

Life is good.

Family Values and Iran

2007-05-27T00:03:00.001-06:00

One of my concerns when we chose our house in the Denver suburbs was that we'd be moving into an all white neighborhood and that my kids only exposure to people of color would be when we hired someone to do work on our house, mow our lawn or clean our house. That's the way it was in Texas.

Thankfully that hasn't been the case in Colorado.

Our neighborhood is remarkably diverse. One family includes both a mom and dad who grew up in Iran, met here in the United States, got married and started a family. They now have a high school age daughter and an elementary school age son. Every couple of years they try to go back to Iran for an extended trip to visit the (now) grandparents and other relatives.

Today was the day one of those trips began. Mom, daughter and son boarded a plane at noon mountain time to fly to Frankfurt and then on to Tehran. They plan on being gone for nine weeks. Their Dad had to stay home to work.

I'm not entirely sure how they are feeling about the trip but I am nervous for them.

Have you heard what the Iranian government is up to? They are holding some Iranian-Americans against their will. The Associated Press reported this way.

An Iranian-American academic who works at a Washington-based institute is being held in a notorious prison after being prohibited from leaving Iran for more than four months, the institute and her husband said Wednesday.
Haleh Esfandiari, the director of the Middle East Program at the Woodrow Wilson Center for Scholars, was sent Tuesday to Evin prison after she arrived at Iran's Intelligence Ministry for questioning, the center said.

The article went on to say,

Other Iranian-Americans have also been prohibited from leaving Iran in recent months including journalist Parnaz Azima, who works for the U.S.-funded Radio Farda. Another American, former FBI agent Robert Levinson, disappeared in March after going to Iran's resort island of Kish, and his whereabouts are unknown. Tehran says it's continuing to investigate.

More details were provided about what has happened to Haleh Esfandiari,

The Wilson Center said three masked men holding knives threatened to kill Esfandiari, who was in Tehran visiting her 93-year-old mother, on Dec. 30 as she was on her way to the airport. They took her baggage, including her U.S. and Iranian passports, the center said. For several weeks, she was interrogated by authorities for up to eight hours a day, according to the center. Most of the questioning focused on the activities of the Middle East Program at the Wilson Center. "Although Dr. Esfandiari went home every evening, the some 50 hours of questioning were unpleasant — to put it mildly — and not free from intimidation and threat," the center said.

Now it is very easy for me to sit here in Colorado and wonder if my neighbors should have simply stayed home. But they are going to see family and there really isn't much in the world that would keep me from wanting to see my family. What would you do? Your parents are getting older, so visits seem to be more valuable, you live 7,000 miles apart so visits don't happen all that often and you want your children to know and understand something of their heritage, you want them to understand something of the place where you grew up. What would you do?

I'd be nervous but I'd probably go.

And so, for the next nine weeks, I'll say a prayer for the safety of my neighbors, a prayer for those Americans already being held and a prayer for a more sane relationship between the United States and Iran.

Memorial Day 2007

2007-05-24T12:21:00.000-06:00

One of my grandfathers was captured by the Germans in World War II. He wrote this poem about his experience.

I’m an Ex-POW/MIA

And in a land so very far away,
And tho’ by no fault of our own,
We were surrendered … then left alone.

The enemy had surrounded us with their guns.
They picked us off then, one by one.
After a time—many, many dead.
We surrendered. Then wondered why in hell we did.

After many months of agony and pain.
We were told we might get home again.
And oh-the happiness that brought me!
(Hope you’ll never have to experience it to see.)

And now we’re home and well—and, yet-
They say there are some over there yet.
Until they’re home then—yes, everyone;
Then our work as Ex-POWs and MIAs is never done.

In 2003, my wife and I visited the field in Normandy where grandpa was captured.

A small monument marks the field.

After he was captured he was marched out this gate.

His first night in captivity was spent in a building at this farm. Prior to the war it was a quiet family farm and today it is a quiet family farm. As we looked at the first two stops on my grandfathers forced journey to a prison camp in Germany it felt strange to me to see how peaceful these places are today. It was shocking to realize just how much life really does go on. Places that are full of fear and sadness for some are places of great joy for others.

His second night was spent in a monastery.

He was shipped via train to Germany. He and his fellow POWs were crammed into boxcars and the doors were shut and locked. Soldiers died in the boxcars. There was very little room to move and the air quickly grew stale and very hot. The only way to get a breath of fresh air was to stick your nose through cracks in the floor boards. Unfortunately there were also no bathrooms so sticking your nose through the cracks meant pressing your face up against some nasty boards. But the fresh air was worth it so the soldiers took turns breathing the outdoor air.

What's remarkable is that these men in the boxcar were ordinary guys pushed into extraordinary circumstances. I can't imagine how they managed other than to say simply that they were survivors.

The men and women we have in our military today are ordinary people that have been sent into extraordinary circumstances. I encourage you to take a moment this weekend to think about what we have asked them to do. I encourage you to think about the sacrifices we've asked them to make and the sacrifices we've asked their loved ones to make.

Movies in the middle of May

2007-05-22T00:36:00.000-06:00

I watched two interesting movies over the weekend.

Bobby is the fictionalized story of people who happened to be in the Ambassador Hotel the night RFK was assassinated. The movie looks at the events in each persons life on the day of the California primary in 1968. I was a bit wary about this movie because I hated Forest Gump and this seemed to be the same genre. But Bobby seemed to stay more true to history than Gump ever did. I didn't have to suspend belief to buy into what was happening on the screen.

From a political perspective, I was struck by what a liberal Kennedy was. Imagine what may have happened if such a liberal had been elected President in 1968. In all likelihood Jimmy Carter never would have been President and I wonder if Reagan would have ever made the move east.

I was also intrigued by the strong sense of place felt in the movie. The Ambassador Hotel, which was imploded a couple of years ago, played as much of a starring role as Bobby Kennedy did. The director and producers did a fantastic job of setting up this luxury hotel as a microcosm for America. There were the famous, the wealthy, the middle class managers and the middle class working stiffs, the retired, the students, the addicts, the dreamers, the radicals, the blacks, the browns, the whites and the working poor. Each segment of society was portrayed by one or two actors on screen and the roles were all tied together by the grand Ambassador Hotel.

As it is in the real world, our lives are bound to others by our connection with where we are and where we have been.

The title Bobby is a bit misleading, actually, for while his candidacy and his ideals play a central role in the telling of the story, the movie is really a look at America and the American dream. The movie is relentlessly optimistic. Even as the movie spills blood and tragedy as Kennedy is assassinated it also shows individuals uniting to care for each other.

It was a nice movie.

The other movie I watched was Stranger than Fiction. As I was watching the movie I kept thinking, "I wish this were a better movie because I really like it." Now, 24 hours later, I still really like it and can't get it out of my head. I think the movie was acted beautifully. I really enjoyed the individual performances although I didn't think the characters blended together all that well. I also thought the movie plodded a bit. At the same time, however, I really liked it. Have I said that before? I wish I could say more good things about it.

Bring the troops home

2007-05-16T12:26:00.000-06:00

I'm one of the few Democrats I know who thought invading Iraq and getting rid of Saddam was the right course of action to take. I didn't come to that conclusion because I agreed with the President. Instead, I've come to believe that America must lead the world in eliminating genocidal dictators. Our ouster of Saddam was the right thing to do – it just happened 15 years too late.

Iraq was and is a killing field. Estimates are that Saddam executed more than 300,000 Iraqis during his reign. We let that happen. Presidents from Ronald Reagan to Bill Clinton lacked the moral fortitude to stand up to this murderer. It was more convenient for Americans to ignore what was happening on the other side of the globe than do what needed to be done and commit our military to getting rid of Saddam.

Unfortunately, the only President willing to take on Saddam is George W. Bush. While Bush should get a small amount of credit for getting rid of Saddam the fact is that Bush did it for the wrong reasons. And his management of the war effort has been absolutely incompetent.

America suffers today because the Republican leadership in Washington is more interested in the game of politics, gaining and keeping power, than in the art of leadership. George Bush, Tom DeLay, Karl Rove, Newt Gingrich and Denny Hastert don't have a clue how to govern.

The leadership of the Republican Party consistently prioritizes partisan politics over public policy. As a result, our conduct of the war in Iraq has been a disaster. Tom Friedman has an excellent column on this subject in today's New York Times. Friedman writes,

One benchmark the Bush team has been urging the Iraqi government to meet is to rescind its broad “de-Baathification” program — the wholesale purging of Baathists after the fall of Saddam — which has alienated many Sunnis and hampered national reconciliation.

But while the Bush team has been lecturing the Iraqi Shiites to limit de-Baathification in Baghdad, it was carrying out its own de-Democratization in the Justice Department in Washington. We would feel that we had failed in Iraq if we read that Sunnis were being purged from Iraq’s Ministry of Justice by Shiite hard-liners loyal to Moktada al-Sadr — but the moral equivalent of that is exactly what the Bush administration was doing here. What kind of example does that set for Iraqis?

And this wasn’t only a Washington problem. Read Rajiv Chandrasekaran’s outstanding “Imperial Life in the Emerald City,” which details the extent to which Americans recruited to work for the Coalition Provisional Authority in Baghdad were chosen, at times, for their loyalty toward Republicanism rather than expertise on Islamism. “Two C.P.A. staffers said that they were asked if they supported Roe v. Wade and if they had voted for George W. Bush,” he wrote.

But this degree of partisanship — loyalty over competence — was destructive in a much bigger way. It also deprived the Bush team of the support it needed when things in Iraq didn’t turn out to be as easy as it expected.

Only a united America could have the patience and fortitude to heal a divided Iraq — and we simply don’t have that today. Why? Because George Bush and Dick Cheney asked everyone to check their politics at the door when it came to Iraq, because victory there was so important — everyone but themselves. They argued that the war in Iraq was the central front of the central struggle of our age — an unusual war, a war against terrorism and the pathologies that produce it — but then they indulged in the most rancid politics as usual at home.

They actually thought they could unite Iraq, while dividing America.

As much as I would like our efforts in Iraq to succeed and as much as I would like to believe that we could leave Iraq united, free from terror and on the road to democracy, that just isn't going to happen. Why? Because George Bush and his advisors are incompetent. No matter what we do in Iraq, no matter how hard our troops fight and work to stabilize that country, we will lose because George Bush is President of the United States. It is time to end America's role in this disaster and bring the troops home. The Iraqi people ought to start praying for mercy. Things are going to get much worse for them. George Bush ought to start praying for forgiveness. He's responsible for the mess.

American Idol

2007-05-16T00:37:00.000-06:00

I had never watched more than about five minutes of American Idol until I saw an entire show two weeks ago. My impression of the show was that it was a bunch of people with decent voices who over-sang every pop song in the world. I really hated what I saw in those snippets.

But I have to admit that I watched the show again tonight. While there was some over-singing going on I thought the three finalists all did nice jobs with their performances. The final show, however, ought to be a contest between the two women.

Now the big question is, will I watch the final show?

I have no idea.

Brain Power -- Eat your carbs

2007-05-11T08:43:00.000-06:00

I'm reading the book, "The Omnivore's Dilemma." It is a fascinating look at how food is produced and consumed in the United States. This little nugget of information popped out at me last night.

"The adult human brain accounts for 2 percent of our body weight but consumes 18 percent of our energy, all of which must come from a carbohydrate."

What's interesting is that the author, Michael Pollan, also says that brain size and gut size are inversely linked in animals. The bigger the brain, the smaller the gut and the bigger the gut the smaller the brain. Animals with large guts and small brains tend to usually only eat one or two items. Animals (like humans and rats) with big brains and small guts tend to eat a wide variety of items.

Pollan says that zoologists theorize that the brain of koala bears has actually shrunk over time. It seems that koala bears' brains don't even come close to filling up the space in their skulls. He says that this shrinkage has happened as koala bears have gone from a diet that included a number of different plants to a diet made up entirely of eucalyptus leaves.

Here's to eating a wide variety of carbs!

Send the Queen Home

2007-05-08T09:36:00.000-06:00

I've read one article about the Queen of England's visit to the United States. I read it because I was interested in how the White House pulls off a big fancy dinner. I really have very little interest in the British royals. I find the entire idea of a monarchy to be absurd.

The article I read was in the NY Times on Saturday. In it, the reporter shared some dos and don'ts as to how people are to behave when hanging out with British Royalty.

Aides to Mrs. Bush shared a few dos and don’ts. The queen shall be addressed as “Your Majesty.” The prince is “Your Royal Highness.”

For women, curtsying is acceptable, but not required. One does not shake the queen’s hand unless the queen offers hers first.

And after Her Majesty finishes her meal, everyone’s meal is finished. (Not to worry, a senior official said of Mr. Bush: “He’s a really fast eater.”)

Will someone please tell the White House we won the Revolutionary War? We aren't royal subjects any more. We don't need to cow-tow to some pompous, old, over-paid, ribbon cutter. We certainly don't need to rush through our meal just so we can finish before the Queen and avoid her having to send us to bed without our dessert.

I'd feel a bit differently if the dinner were in London. But this dinner was in our house. I think it is time for England's Queen to respect our rules.

Do you rush by the world?

2007-05-06T22:30:00.000-06:00

My friend, Anne, over at Black & White & Read has an excellent post regarding our ability to rush by the world.

Anne writes,

A few weeks ago, violin virtuoso Joshua Bell was asked by the Washington Post to take time out of his concert schedule and help them with a social experiment. He took his $3.5 million Stradavarius violin to a nearby Washington subway station. Dressed in jeans and a t-shirt, looking like a typical street musician, he began to play.

It was a rare moment of beauty -- one of the finest classical musicians in the world, playing some of the most elegant music ever written, on one of the most valuable violins ever made.

Guess what happened? The results on Anne's blog.

Women, Politics, Term Limits

2007-04-23T20:33:00.000-06:00

I've always been a fan of mandatory retirement for elected officials as long as the retirement came after a significant period of time. I think 24 or 30 years is probably long enough for any politician to hold a job. Most limits on an elected official's term in office, however, are much shorter than that. The Washington Post on Monday had an interesting article that looked at states with term limits for state legislators and the number of women in the legislature.

Essentially what the article found was that states with term limits had fewer women in office while states without term limits had more women in office. Furthermore, states with term limits have seen the number of women in office decline since term-limits went into effect. According to the article:

Term limits are in effect in 15 states, in every region of the country. Created in the belief that they would make statehouses less hidebound and more representative, the rules remain a topic of considerable controversy, much of it about what effect the turnover has on legislative effectiveness.

In six states, term limits have been repealed by the legislature or killed by the courts.

Since 1995, the year before the first limits were imposed for state legislatures, the percentage of women in the legislatures has grown from 20.6 percent to 23.5 percent, an increase of 200 seats nationwide -- on average, four per state.

The overall increase in states with term limits, however, has been smaller than in states without. The number of women in the Michigan legislature, from the year before term limits were enacted to now, dropped from 34 to 29. Missouri went from 45 to 38, Ohio from 28 to 23 and Arizona from 32 to 31. In Florida, women held 38 seats in 2000 and 38 today.

A few states registered gains, notably California, where the number of female legislators climbed from 25 in 1995 to 34 today. Yet even in Sacramento, women occupy just 28 percent of statehouse seats.

What's questionable, however, is whether or not the term limits caused the decline or whether it is simply an interesting coincidence.

What I think is clear is that there has to be a strategy of promoting the candidacies of women if you want to increase their numbers in elective office. The Democratic-Farmer-Labor Party in Minnesota has been working on such a strategy for decades and the work has paid off.

My college friend, Margaret Anderson Kelliher was quoted in the Washington Post article about the strategy.

In Minnesota, a state without term limits, women have increased their numbers in the legislature from 50 to 70 since 1995, including a jump of 10 last year. House Speaker Margaret Anderson Kelliher (D) credits two factors: the growing number of electable female candidates and the prominence of issues such as education and health care.

"There are more and more women who are serving on local school boards, running for city councils and winning, and creating a pipeline," Kelliher said. "The scholarly literature says it takes on average three times that a woman is asked to run for office for her to do it. My sense is we're maybe down to two times."

Like everything else in politics, success depends on hard work done over the long term. While term limits may serve to prematurely cut off promising political careers I'm not sure they should be blamed for a lack of women in elective office. Term limits simply make having a good pipeline very important.

Altria Arrogance

2007-04-23T20:21:00.000-06:00

The Texas Council on Family Violence is having a fundraising champagne reception on May 9th in Austin.

The event will be "A tribute to Ann Richards." Event tickets are $50 while those wishing to join the tribute circle may do so for $100. Altria is one of the 11 sponsors of the event. So for those keeping score, Altria can now claim --

We addicted her
We employed her
We killed her
We honor her

Quantel Won!

2007-04-13T12:00:00.000-06:00

Thanks to everyone who voted! Quantel just won a trip to the national finals of a slam dunk competition. You can see his dunk in the post below.

We need your vote

2007-04-10T22:01:00.000-06:00

My cousin's significant other recently won the University of Nebraska-Omaha slam dunk competition. You can see his dunk below. What we really need, however, is for you to vote for him. Visit this page and vote in the upper right-hand corner for University of Nebraska-Omaha. Thanks!

Stupid Stupid Stupid

2007-04-10T11:21:00.000-06:00

I went to Wolf Camera yesterday to pick up some picture's I'd taken with my old school, 35 mm film camera.

The guy at Wolf explained to me that their machine that develops pictures is down and that they had called my home phone to tell me and that they'd call me again when my pictures were developed.

I got home, looked at the phone and noticed the voice mail notice light was NOT blinking. Then I looked at the caller ID. I hadn't gotten a phone call all day.

So the guy at Wolf had lied. And what a stupid lie it was. The lie initially made me feel really good about Wolf Camera. I was impressed with their ability to provide quality customer service. But when I realized that they had never called, it made me feel horrible about their company.

What a stupid lie.

UPDATE: I just spoke with the store manager on the phone. It ends up that the employee (the photo technician who doesn't normally do customer service) who was given the task of making the calls didn't make them but told the other employees that she had completed all of them. As a result, Wolf Camera lied to a bunch of people yesterday because their customer service team believed that people had really been called.

So here's my take. This was a case of bad management. Give customer relations jobs to people who are good at dealing with other people and who enjoy that kind of work. I know the sales staff was probably busy selling cameras and dealing with in-store customers. I also know that Wolf had a photo technician sitting around with nothing to do after the machine went down. But asking her to make customer calls was a mistake. It was a job she was not able to perform. Good managers put their employees in a position to succeed. I don't think Wolf Camera did that.

On the farm with the Grandparents

2007-04-08T22:50:00.000-06:00

As a child I would spend a couple of weeks every summer with my grandparents. One week with Grandpa and Grandma H and one week with Grandpa and Grandma L. The weeks would happen back to back and, one might think they would be fairly similar. My grandparents both lived on farms in Eastern South Dakota that weren't all that far apart. They were roughly the same age. Grandma H and Grandpa L were in the same class in school!

With the Hs, my memories are much more focused indoors. Singing along with "Big, Bad, LeRoy Brown," using a tape recorder to do my own play-by-play to football games on TV. I remember being in the house on a hot summer day. There was no central air. Grandma had all the windows and doors open as she tried to coax a breeze through the screens using old box fans. She and I were doing something when she asked me if I could spell the word quarter. "Q-U-A-R-T-E-R" I quickly rattled off. Grandma expressed amazement that someone my age could spell that word, especially with a q-u in it. I told her I couldn't imagine not being able to spell it – after all you can't spell Quarterback if you can't spell quarter!

Outdoor memories at the H's involve riding horses and bailing hay, doing chores, playing with my Uncle Mark, Aunt Cindy and Aunt Margo. Not a bad life.

With the L's, the memories are different but that's probably mostly due to my relationship with my cousins on that side of the family.

One of my earliest memories with the Ls is watching a horse race on TV at Grandpa and Grandma's house. We had a ticket from Hy-Vee, I think, that listed the number of a horse and if that horse won the race then we could cash our ticket in for $100. Our horse started slow but closed fast as they came down the stretch. In the end it was a photo finish. I was excited as I could be. My horse lost by a nose.

I remember going fishing at the river and catching a bullhead, taking it home and cleaning it and finding out it was pregnant. Grandpa showed me the fish eggs and I was fascinated.

I remember playing with Pete, Sean and Chris with home made rubber-band guns Grandpa had made out of clothes pins, wood and the cut up inner tube from a tire.

I remember coffee cans filled with feed for pigs. And I remember the time grandpa asked me if I wanted to do chores with him. I said yes and raced out the door as he got his boots on. "Don't go in with the hogs until I get there," he said. "Okay," was my reply.

I, of course, went down and got my coffee can, filled it with feed, climbed the fence and jumped into the middle of a bunch of hungry hogs. I held the coffee can full of feed above my head. The pigs, being unable to jump decided to take me down.

Now grandpa was a master at working with dogs. His dogs were well trained and protective. Grandpa was still up at the house. His dog, I don't remember which one, jumped the fence and bit pig ankles, moving them out of the way until she got to me. Then she stood right over the top of me, refused to let me up and let go with a torrent of high pitched barks signaling danger until Grandpa came to get me out of there.

Now I was grateful to the dog for saving me but scared as could be about what might happen when Grandpa got me out from underneath the dog. I think that's the most trouble I ever got in with a grandparent.

I remember setting off fireworks, bailing hay, separating lambs from their tails, painting buildings, learning to drive tractors, football games, baseball games, country music, Christmas mornings, ping-pong, dominos, Coca-cola, rodeo on tv, baseball and football in the yard, bottle-feeding calves and lambs, coin collections and visits to the casino.

Either way you cut it you can't beat those memories. It was a good way for a kid to spend some time in the summer.

Another Baseball post

2007-04-05T16:19:00.000-06:00

I'm getting into baseball a little bit. I have no idea why. I haven't been a baseball fan in years. I've actually watched parts of two games already this season. I hope this wears off soon.

With that, Go Rockies! Go Twins!

Mayor Bloomberg hits a foul ball

2007-04-02T11:15:00.000-06:00

I have a lot of respect for NYC Mayor Mike Bloomberg. There is no mayor in the country who has been as strong on public health as Bloomberg. Today, however, he hit a foul ball.

The mayor vetoed a bill that would have outlawed the use of aluminum baseball bats in all NYC high school games. The bill was passed because it is believed that balls hit off aluminum bats may be more dangerous to players in the field, especially pitchers. Kids are able to swing an aluminum bat faster than a wood bat and there is a bigger "trampoline" effect for the ball coming off an aluminum bat. As a result, the ball comes off the bat at a much higher rate of speed.

Opponents of the bill say the data just isn't there to support the idea that more kids get hurt when aluminum bats are used. I say, so what?

Here's the thing. Smart Little League, high school and college teams that use aluminum bats in games practice with wood bats. Why? Because you learn to be a much better hitter with wood bats. With an aluminum bat you can hit the ball in on the handle and still get a relatively good hit. With a wood bat you really need to focus and concentrate on getting the "sweet spot" of the bat on the ball. Make kids use a wood bat as they learn the game and you'll create better hitters.

So I say, let's make baseball a better game and if we make it a safer game at the same time then that's a nice bonus.

Conversations on a plane

2007-03-23T13:39:00.000-06:00

The guy sitting near me last night was on his cell phone. Here's how his side of the conversation went.

Jane. It's Steve.

Jane, I always call you. You never call me.

I'm really angry with you. I'd think you could call me sometime.

I've got the time share in Estes Park for Labor day weekend 2008. I thought I'd invite you and that worthless stiff of a husband you've got now to come up and join us at the time share. The weather will be perfect in late August. It should be great. Plus the Democratic national convention will be in town so you can watch and cheer on all your whacko lefty friends. I hope you can join us.

Call me back.

Genetic Language

2007-03-14T22:44:00.000-06:00

Subtitle: How to talk Minnesotan.

My four-year-old son tonight showed that language can be genetic. He's never lived in Minnesota but he came up with this classic gem.

Me: "Will you please take your red chair upstairs?"
Him: "Yep. You Betcha!"

Grandpa's birthday party

2007-03-02T16:39:00.000-07:00

Sunday in the Park

2007-03-02T16:37:00.000-07:00

Michael Jordan

2007-03-02T16:35:00.000-07:00

Identifying with where you are from

2007-02-28T12:17:00.000-07:00

I'm in Austin, Texas, a place I called home for eight years. Last May we moved from Austin to Lone Tree, Colorado.

What is interesting to me -- and something I hadn't thought about before -- is that I am still more of a Texan than a Coloradoan. I am completely comfortable in Colorado and I love living there. But being back in Texas reminded me that I am still much more at home in Texas and have a much better sense of who Texans are and how they are shaped by their state.

I'll become a Coloradoan in time but I'm not there yet.

The other interesting item is something I wrote about on this blog shortly after we moved. That is that I love the strong sense of identity Texans have as Texans and Austinites have as Austinites. It is fun for me to be back in the middle of that bravado.

Defining your home

2007-02-28T12:06:00.000-07:00

I had a conversation this afternoon with a woman from Crane, Texas. Crane is a West Texas town of about 3,500 people. This is how the woman described her home.

It is a place where, "it don't rain and if it does, it scares us!"

The 10 day forcast for Crane calls for sunny skies and high temps ranging from 70 to 84.

Iraq

2007-02-22T22:33:00.000-07:00

Former Secretary of State Colin Powell reportedly told President Bush that if he invaded Iraq the "you break it, you buy it" theory would apply. This meant that once Bush invaded Iraq (broke it) it would be the responsibility of the United States to stabilize the country and restore order (buy it.)

But a funny thing happened. We went in and broke the country with remarkable speed and efficiency. Then, instead of working as hard as we could to put the pieces back together, we began making all kinds of excuses as to why we shouldn't be responsible for things over there.

These excuses and arguments continued for years. Our leaders claimed everything was fine and that we really shouldn't have to buy anything. Don Rumsfeld and Dick Cheney argued that the Iraqis needed to put their own country back together and that our claiming any responsibility was simply unnecessary coddling. In the meantime, while American troops died, the situation on the ground grew worse and worse. Iraq dissolved into civil war.

Now, the President is finally willing to admit that he broke Iraq. And he has asked for more troops to try to help end the civil war. But he waited too long and he no longer has the trust or support of the American people. To make a bad situation worse, the newly empowered Democrats, knowing a good political issue when they see one, are doing all they can to whip up opposition to the President and to our efforts in Iraq.

And to top it all off, the few allies President Bush had in his "coalition" have started announcing troop withdrawals from Iraq.

So while allies withdraw, Democrats rail and grandstand and an incompetent, befuddled President dithers, American troops die, Iraqis die and terrorists begin to win by creating anarchy in Iraq.

Iraq is broken and we broke it. And while we have paid a heavy price in both American lives and dollars, we have yet to complete the deal to buy it.

So what do we do now? I believe that in theory, John McCain and President Bush are right. We need to send more troops to Iraq to try to bring some stability to the country.

But here's the problem with that approach: This President and his advisors have absolutely no clue what to do with the troops once they get there. As a result, the new American troops will simply become additional targets for terrorist insurgents as they practice and hone their war-making skills.

The other option is to pull out. But if we leave, we provide the world with yet another example of failed imperialism, we increase instability in a part of the world that is already not at all stable, and we give the terrorists another place from which they may base their operations and train their followers.

Staying means we rely on the failed leadership of George W. Bush, Dick Cheney, Condi Rice and Steven Hadley. And that is unacceptable. Leaving means even more chaos in the Middle East. And that is unacceptable.

My guess is we will stay. And Iraq will continue to get worse and worse until on a cold day in January, 2009, a new President will take over and be faced with an immediate decision as to what to do with Iraq.

Iraq has truly become one of the worst blunders of American foreign policy ever.

And in the end, my guess is that George W. Bush will be remembered in American history books as the President who failed in the war on terror because he refused to fight it, deciding instead to fight a war that had nothing to do with terror. In doing so, President Bush has simply increased anti-American fervor and in all likelihood handed the terrorists a victory over the United States. In Iraqi history books? Well, George W. Bush may just end up being more notorious and known as more destructive than the man he went to war against, Saddam Hussein.

Our misplaced media priorities

2007-02-22T14:10:00.000-07:00

Iran is expanding it's nuclear program, Chlorine bombs are becoming the weapon of choice in Iraq and CNN, Fox News and MSNBC all are caught up in the judicial ruling regarding who gets Anna Nichole Smith's dead body.

At least the NYT, Washington Post and Dallas Morning News have their priorities straight.

Al Franken for US Senate

2007-02-14T15:44:00.000-07:00

Al Franken announced today that he is running for the US Senate in Minnesota. His speech is about 9 minutes long and I think worth a listen. While I don't know if I'll be supporting Franken, I believe he makes an incredibly attractive candidate. Why? He knows how to tell a story and nothing is more persuasive than a good story.

Give the speech a listen. Then tell me what you think.

Joke of the Day

2007-02-05T11:56:00.000-07:00

Q. Have you seen the new movie, Constipated?
A. No.
Q. Oh, that's right, it hasn't come out yet.

For more great humor check out Garrison Keillor's annual Prairie Home Companion Joke Show.

The (legislative) Stars, Sure Ain't Bright, Deep in the Heart of Texas

2007-01-25T15:46:00.000-07:00

Every so often I'll see a picture of Austin, hear about a big event in the lives of one of my friends in Austin or see Austin City Limits on TV and I'll begin to miss my former home.

And then the Texas Legislature convenes and someone asks them about global warming and I remember why I had to get out.

Integration on MLK day

2007-01-15T16:56:00.000-07:00

Earlier today, I heard an interview on NPR with Rob McCord, a Philadelphia resident who wrote an op/ed in today's Inquirer about integration. The thesis of the interview was that American's have self-segregated and that we now largely stick to our own ethnic groups. McCord wrote the opinion piece to encourage white (all?) Americans to conciously integrate their lives and activities in 2007.

My initial repsonse was that McCord is probably right and we are self-segregating ourselves. But then I began thinking about my own experience. And it just doesn't hold true.

When we moved to Colorado, one of my concerns was that our upper-middle class neighborhood would end up being as white as the snow that now covers our yards. Instead, our neighborhood, with Asian Americans, African Americans and Middle Eastern Americans is so diverse that even the white guy across the street is named Miguel.

I agree with McCord's conclusion that we all need to do more to expose ourselves to different cultures, ideas and ethnic experiences. But since sixth grade, my world has consistently, slowly become more and more integrated.

Raise the minimum wage

2007-01-12T14:21:00.000-07:00

As the Senate considers legislation to raise the minimum wage we can expect to hear business groups moaning and complaining that any increase in the minimum wage will shutter businesses and destroy our economy.

The New York Times, however, took an interesting look at what is happening between Washington state and Idaho. Washington not only has the highest minimum wage in the nation at $7.93 per hour but they indexed that wage to inflation so that the minimum wage in that state goes up every year. Idaho, meanwhile, has one of the lowest minimum wages in the country at $5.15 per hour.

So what has happened? The Times reports,

"Business owners say they have had to increase prices somewhat to keep up. But both states are among the nation’s leaders in the growth of jobs and personal income, suggesting that an increase in the minimum wage has not hurt the overall economy.

“We’re paying the highest wage we’ve ever had to pay, and our business is still up more than 11 percent over last year,” said Tom Singleton, who manages a Papa Murphy’s takeout pizza store here, with 13 employees.

His store is flooded with job applicants from Idaho, Mr. Singleton said. Like other business managers in Washington, he said he had less turnover because the jobs paid more.

By contrast, an Idaho restaurant owner, Rob Elder, said he paid more than the minimum wage because he could not find anyone to work for the Idaho minimum at his Post Falls restaurant, the Hot Rod Cafe.

“At $5.15 an hour, I get zero applicants — or maybe a guy with one leg who wouldn’t pass a drug test and wouldn’t show up on Saturday night because he wants to get drunk with his buddies,” Mr. Elder said."

Businesses have not fled from Washington to Idaho. As a matter of fact, Washington business groups that opposed the increase in the minimum wage years ago now say that the Federal government ought to raise the wage nationally.

For all the bravado one hears from the business lobby about capitalism and competition, I've found that frequently business groups base their policy positions on fear of change -- even when there is solid evidence that their fear is unfounded. That's too bad. Imagine how strong our country would be if the business community embraced comptetition and change instead of trying to hide from it.

A surge in Iraq

2007-01-12T13:56:00.000-07:00

President Bush says he wants to send more troops to Iraq. He says it is the only way we will win.

I wonder why we should trust him.

This President has consistently short-changed our troops, the American people and the Iraqi people. He sold us all a bill of goods. He told us it is possible to win a war in which sacrifice was only required if you or a family member are in the military. There is no requirement for anyone else to sacrifice. He told us we could throw out the Powell doctrine of overwhelming force and instead place all of the burden on a relatively small number of troops. As a result, his Presidency is and forever will be a failure.

The legacy of George Bush is ineptitude in wartime leadership and ineptitude in managing our federal budget. As a result of his leadership thousands of kids will grow up without their parent. Millions of their friends will be saddled with trying to pay of the massive federal debt left to them by George W. Bush.

But the President asks for our trust and our faith. After four years of failure, somehow, he finally has figured it all out. I don't believe him. Because once again there is no call for common sacrifice. If the President had it figured out he would understand that the way to beat the terrorists is to take away their money and their money comes from oil. So what should the President do?

1. Set a floor for the price of oil. How's $60 a barrel sound? Why is this important? Because we need to make the price of oil stable at a high enough price that the private sector will be willing to invest in alternative energy development. Right now, the private sector fears losing a ton of money in alternative energy because OPEC can simply drop the price of oil and undercut the pricing on alternatives.

2. Raise taxes on all Americans making more than $100,000 (individually) per year. Divide that money between paying off the debt and alternative energy development.

3. Set a date to get out of Iraq. My vote? January 12, 2008. One year seems like fair warning for the Iraqi people.

I originally supported the Iraq invasion because I think we have an obligation to get rid of those leaders who commit genocide. But the effort has been bumbled and pathetic. Mistakes were made and those mistakes have cost thousands of lives.

Newt Gingrich

2006-12-19T11:28:00.000-07:00

I have this strange fascination with Newt. He is, I believe, one of the more intelligent people I've ever met. But even better than his intelligence is his understanding of how to use language.

I met Newt at a small, private reception in Austin hosted by Fleischman-Hillard. Now I'm not sure there are many issues on which Newt and I might find common ground. But at the Austin gathering, he framed all of his policy priorities using language which made me believe that I agreed with him on everything. Remarkably, I think I was one of two Democrats in the room so this would have been an audience that would have responded well to some Republican red meat.

Gingrich was on Meet the Press this last Sunday. Here is what he said about the war in Iraq.

MR. RUSSERT: Let me start with Iraq, on the minds of all Americans, and show them what you said a few weeks ago up in New Hampshire. “Former House speaker Newt Gingrich told a New Hampshire audience that unless the Bush administration admits that the war in Iraq is a ‘failure,’ it will never develop a strategy to leave the country successfully.” Why is the war a failure?

FMR. REP. GINGRICH: Well, the war’s a failure in part because the strategy, as I told you on this show in December of ‘03, has been wrong consistently, it’s been a strategy that was far too American. Second, it’s a, it’s a failure because the instruments of national power don’t work. And it’s important to understand we all focus on Maliki’s government. The, the Baker-Hamilton Commission reports that out of 1,000 people in the American Embassy, 33 speak Arabic, eight of them fluently. Now, at some point we have to have a national conversation about the fact that, outside of the uniform military, none of the instruments of national power work, and they need to be fundamentally overhauled. This isn’t about policy. It’s as though you wanted to go to Boston, I wanted to go to Los Angeles, and the car standing outside was broken. Doesn’t matter what our policy agreement is, the car doesn’t run.

That from Newt Gingrich! It is sad how far this President has fallen.

The problem we Americans all face at this point is that there really aren't any options in Iraq. No matter which path we choose to follow, we will still have a leader in the oval office who is completely incapable of any kind of management or leadership. Remember in 2000 how Bush bragged about having an MBA and what great skills he would bring to the Oval Office because of his MBA? Clearly they don't teach leadership or management skills in business school.

So, what should we do. 1. Secure Baghdad. If that means more troops on a temporary basis then that means more troops. 2. Give every unemployed Iraqi a job that pays well rebuilding the country. (An idea Gingrich talks about with Russert.) 3. Pay off warlords to hand us the terrorists.

Will it work? I don't know. But I would imagine if we are employing virtually every Iraqi and paying off the warlords and we become the gravy train for these folks it will become very easy to get people to turn against the terrorists. And that helps us with security. And the more secure the country the easier to build an economy.

"What the Hell Happened to Christianity?"

2006-12-14T12:27:00.000-07:00

The title of this post comes straight from a commentary on CNN.com. It is a provacative title and I agree with their basic premise that those Christians with the loudest voices, the theological right, spend too much time screaming about deamons and damnation and not nearly enough (any?) time focusing on the message of love that was the basis for Jesus Christ's life on earth.

The commentary is on the website as a tool to promote Anderson Cooper's look tonight at "What is a Christian?" It also is a tool to promote a documentary series focusing on the authors and their Punk church that is currently airing on the Sundance channel.

The CNN show and the Sundance show interest me on a number of levels.

1. What is a Christian? I have to tell you, when I was a member at Westlake Hills Presbyterian Church I never felt like a Christian. I felt like an outsider. No matter what we did to get involved in church activities, I always felt like that church was its' own special little Christian clicque that I just didn't measure up to. I wasn't Christian enough. Then we joined Hope Presbyterian Church and I felt much more comfortable with the people but that church lacked energy. (By the way, Fred Morgan, the pastor at that church knows what he's talking about theologically.) Now we've moved to Denver and it is hard to get excited about joining a church when the last two experiences haven't been that great.

2. Does anyone pay attention to the New Testament anymore? I feel like Christianity is stuck in this Old Testament rut.

I recently saw a post on another blog where someone told the story of the bible in 50 words. What was interesting to me is that 65% of the 50 words came from the Old Testament. Since when did the life of Christ get so uninteresting to Christians? Shouldn't most of our focus be on the New Testament? Think about it. The old testament is full of interesting and entertaining stories about God causing strange things to happen to (strange?) people. The New Testament is the authorized biography of Jesus Christ who just happens to be the namesake of one of history's most dominant religions. If we are going to give priority to one of the two Testaments shouldn't it be the New instead of the Old?

3. Will Joel Osteen's theology get you to heaven? In other words, is love enough? For those of you that don't know, Joel Osteen is the minister at a church that meets inside an NBA arena. It's a huge church and they fill the seats every week. Osteen, like the authors of the CNN comentary, doesn't focus on sin and the prospect of possibly going to hell. He focuses almost exclusively on the power of love. A minsiter down in Sugarland, Texas, told me that he thought Osteen served a useful purpose but was pretty theologically light. He said you can't have Christianity without some discussion and focus on the fact that Christians believe there is a hell and you may go there.

OK, enough religion for today. I know there are a handful of people with strong relgious beliefs that read this blog. I'd love to hear your take on this if you can tear yourself away from your seminary studies long enough to type something.

Immigration in America (Read the Strib Story)

2006-12-13T23:31:00.000-07:00

This week, Federal agents raided multiple Swift meatpacking plants across the country. One of them happened to be near my hometown. 230 individuals were detained in the raid, almost two percent of the town's total population.

Imagine what happens to a community when 2% of your population is put in jail in one night. Each of those 230 individuals were folks living financially week-to-week if not day-to-day.

Think about what happens to those families when that income is wiped out.

Think about what happens to the economy in that town when that income is wiped out.

Immigration reform is needed but it is a tricky issue and not one that can be solved by blathering button pushers on Fox News. To get an excellent sense of how complicated this thing is, click here to read the Minneapolis Star-Tribune's story on this raid.

Girls Got Game

2006-12-12T22:44:00.000-07:00

So we did it. We went to a girls basketball game. Highlands Ranch vs. Ridgeview. Great defense wins games.

First, some meaningless thoughts on the game. #1 for Highlands Ranch just looks like a basketball player. At 5'10" she's listed as the tallest girl on the team but she's got a nice outside shot and can bury the three. #11 for HR played aggressive and was a lot of fun to watch but she wasn't concentrating and ended up on the bench with a bunch of early fouls. HR has a sophomore that got plenty of minutes last night but you could really tell she was a sophomore. This girl must be good to get those kinds of varsity minutes but I sure could tell the difference in approach and in the way she carried herself vs. how the seniors behaved. Finally, HR has a young team with only 3 seniors. They looked pretty good. Short -- but good.

Now to the important stuff. My 4 year old now knows that girls can play ball. More importantly, my two year old now knows that girls can play ball. I'm not sure if this next sentence is true or not but the two year old seemed a bit shocked by the aggressive and fast play. I'm not sure she'd ever seen other girls run and collide the way the girls last night were running and colliding. I'm glad she saw it.

I think we will continue to alternate between girls and boys games as the season wears on. We also need to make it to Boulder to see the Buffs play.

Boys vs. Girls

2006-12-10T19:50:00.000-07:00

I have a four year old boy and a two year old girl. Friday night I took them to see a high school boys basketball game. This was a new experience for my daughter but my son has been to multiple high school games and two college games.

As we drove away from the game Friday night I mentioned that this time we watched boys play basketball but that next time we would probably go see girls play. I want to make sure my daughter sees games with girls playing.

My son, however, surprised me. He said, "Girls don't play basketball!" When I told him that girls do indeed play basketball he said, "That's strange."

Now fast forward to Sunday night. I ask my son and daughter if they would like to go to another basketball game. They both said, "YES!" Then I mentioned that this time it would be a girls high school basketball game. My son immediately looked disappointed. I asked him why and he said that watching girls play just isn't that exciting. I asked why not. He said because they don't dribble or block shots.

Hmmm.

He was surprised again when I told him that girls do indeed dribble and block shots.

Wonder where he picked up those attitudes?

Very nice letter to the editor

2006-11-15T16:05:00.000-07:00

From the Denver Post, a wry observation on the election.

"Didja notice that the last two candidates to conceed their Senate races were Burns and Allen? Say goodnight, Gracie..."

Dan Selig, Westminster, Colorado

Creative Yard signs

2006-10-26T00:52:00.000-06:00

Just got back from a trip to Maui. The election over there is in full swing. I was struck by two things:

1. Endorsements are really important in Hawaii. More so than any other place I've ever been. Most of the advertising dollars I saw spent were for endorsment ads.

2. Creative signs and logos. Let's face it, political signs are about as boring as they come. But I found two good ones in Hawaii.

Free Trade

2006-10-06T11:12:00.000-06:00

New York Times Columnist Tom Friedman told an interesting story in his Friday column.

Last week, I was in Nebraska, where I met Doug Palmer. He and his partner, Pat Boeshart, make insulated concrete forms for buildings. The traditional way to insulate concrete with foam is to make the foam and then truck it around the country to building sites to be attached to concrete. Mr. Palmer's company, Lite-Form, found a Korean machine that, when combined with devices added by his firm, can make the foam and concrete together on site, saving big dollars in trucking. Today, Mr. Palmer's South Sioux City company imports these machines from Korea, attaches its devices and exports them to Kuwait. His company has an Arabic brochure that tells Kuwaitis how to use the device. The brochure was produced by a local ad agency owned by the Winnebago Indian tribe of Nebraska. The agency was started by the tribe's economic development corporation. Midwest Indians publishing Arabic brochures for Nebraskans importing from Koreans for customers in Kuwait ...

"Protectionism scares me," said Mr. Palmer, who has 28 employees. "If we put up a moat and keep doing what we're doing, thinking we're the smartest in the world, we're going to die. We have to have that flexibility to barter and trade."

I come from a Labor family. Both of my parents have been strong and active union members. My Mother currently sits on the board of the Minnesota AFL-CIO and is a negotiator for her local union. I say that because, well, I'm feeling a bit defensive making the argument I'm about to make.

Free trade is a good thing. We need more of it. Protectionism will only hurt us in the long run. But the way we've done free trade up til now is wrong.

There are two problems with our current free trade agreements.

1. Our current free trade agreements, including NAFTA, have set up top secret courts to resolve any disputes that arrive under the treaty. The treaty language is horrible. It says that if a business believes it will be harmed by a law in one of the countries that has signed the treaty, that business can sue in super-secret treaty courts and those courts have the power to invalidate the law.

So, for example, California has passed stronger vehicle emission standards than most of the rest of the places covered under NAFTA. A Canadian or Mexican car manufacturer could sue California alleging that the emissions law will cause it financial harm. That suit would be brought in NAFTA treaty court and the court could order the state of California to stop enforcing their emissions law.

But it gets worse, here's the kicker, the only way anyone will ever find out if a lawsuit has been brought or decision made is if the court announces the decision. Prior to the court's announcement of the decision, all proceedings are confidential.

That's just nuts. Those courts shouldn't be secret and they shouldn't have the power to unilaterally overturn laws.

2. We absolutely must include labor, health and environmental standards in our treaties. Now, we don't need to demand that companies in other countries pay American level wages but we should demand that they pay a wage that will keep their employees out of poverty -- a "prevailing wage" if you will -- and that these companies meet strict health and environmental standards.

Free trade is a good thing. It can become a tool to improve the lives of Americans and citizens of the world. Think about Doug Palmer. 25 years ago, very few people in South Souix City, Nebraska, were thinking about Kuwait as a potential market. Today, instead of limiting most entreaupeneurs to starting businesses that serve just their state or community, we now have the ability to think, work and trade globally. And you don't have to be living in Houston, New York or Los Angeles to get it done. You simply need to have a vision that stretches beyond the boundaries of your community.

Growing up, my parents (and my old high school computer teacher, Charlie Weinman) constantly encouraged me to think beyond the boundaries of my small, rural hometown in Minnesota. But the vision presented wasn't global, it was national -- unless I wanted to become a diplomat and work for the State Department. When they said I could be "anything in the world" I wanted to be what that really meant to me was that I could be anything in America I wanted to be. And believe me, it was hard enough for me as a high school student to really see anything beyond Minnesota.

But for my kids, the world really will be open. They really will have a chance to compete, live and think on a global stage. I think that is a very exciting prospect. And it will only happen if we continue to pursue free trade.

Imus goes nuts

2006-10-06T10:57:00.000-06:00

This morning's "Imus in the Morning" show included an interview with Rep. JD Hayworth from Arizona. Imus asked him about the Foley case, Hayworth gave an idiotic answer, and Imus unloaded on him.

I only wish I would have heard it. Reading it is fun but hearing it would have been better. The transcript, from MSNBC, is below.

Imus and Rep. J.D. Hayworth, (R) Arizona, discuss the fallout from the Mark Foley scandal:

Rep. J. D. Hayworth, (R) Arizona: "You know what's interesting? Pre 9-11 there was a member of Congress from California, there was concerne about a relationship with a page, pardon me, with an intern who went missing and with tragic results. Very interesting. I don't recall anybody demanding that Dick Gephardt, or Pelosi or anybody else in the Democrat leadership resign..."

Imus: "Well, no..."

Hayworth: "Well no because that's different..."

(Imus interrupting)

Imus: "Well what does that got to do with this guy being loose there in the House of Representatives, hitting on these pages and who knows what else, abusing them and terrifying these kids. They're there, they're sixteen years old and they're away from home, their parents are not there. All of this other stuff is answered, and doesn't have anything to do with anything."

Hayworth: "It has everything...."

(Imus interrupting)

Imus: "...Other than---other than both sides do it."

Hayworth: "Here's the point...."

(Imus interrupting)

Imus: "You and your--well not you, but the leadership there in the house has to own up that they knew what this guy was doing. They covered it up because they don't want to loose control of the House of Representatives, and they wanted to protect their seat in Florida."

Hayworth: "Here's the problem...."

(Imus interrupting)

Imus: "Nancy Pelosi's a dirt-bag and Dick Gephardt, and I know a lot of people like him, he's a creep. So you--all of you are. You all are creeps, every single one of you. I like you better than most of them, but you all do the same thing and then you want to and then when, the you know what, hits the fan you want to--you like little children. Well yeah, but he did it too. Well look what they did. Well what the hell does that got to do with anything? The guy was trying to molest children. Own up to it and demand that these people GET THE HELL OUT OF THERE!"

Hayworth: "He's gone. He's gone. And we took action, that's the..."

(Imus interrupting)

Imus: "Good. Get him out."

Hayworth: "We didn't defend him...."

(Imus interrupting)

Imus: "I want you to fly back there this morning and get him out of there."

Hayworth: "...He's gone, he's gone."

Also on the show this morning was Pennsylvania Senator Rick Santorum. For the first time ever, Rick Santorum opened his mouth and said something I absolutely agree with. Santorum said we need to have an investigation and anyone who had knowledge of Foley's preying on pages needs to go. Remarkably, he also correctly told Imus that Foley's being gay had absolutely nothing to do with his going after kids. It was nice to see a "Christian Conservative" make that stand.

How to be a hero

2006-10-02T07:46:00.000-06:00

You are walking down the street with your 13 year old son when you look up to see a baby -- a nine month old baby -- dangling over the edge of a balcony three stories above your head.

At first you can't believe it but then you realize that the only thing preventing gravity from doing what gravity does is the baby's hand which is clinging to the balcony railing.

What do you do? Click here, of course...

Quote of the day from Jesse Ventura

2006-09-27T08:51:00.000-06:00

Former Minnesota Governor Jesse Ventura while campaigning with Kinky Friedman, a candidate for Governor in Texas as quoted in the Minneapolis Star-Tribune.

On other issues, Ventura was no less effusive. Regarding the proposed
Mexican border fence being debated in Congress (which Friedman supports):

"It may be designed to keep people out, but what if it keeps you in 10
years from now? I, for one, don't want to live in East Berlin."

The problem with the immigration debate is that no one wants to deal with the real issue which is that there is a huge demand for immigrant labor in this country and that demand is filled by illegal immigrants. Politicians, as they usually do, take the easy way out and attack the immigrants (who don't vote or contribute money to their campaigns) instead of dealing with the demand side of the equation (voters and contributors.)

We can build walls, massively increase funding for immigration cops and deportations but until we focus on demand issues we will simply be pouring money down a rat-hole. If there are jobs to be had and their are people desperate for work then those jobs will get filled.

More honesty and integrity... (I guess this is what conservative values are really all about.)

2006-09-23T13:17:00.000-06:00

Remember the 2000 campaign? Then Governor Bush promised to restore honesty and integrity to the Oval Office. Maybe he had his fingers crossed behind his back when he said that. He promised to change the tone in Washington. Maybe he muttered "suckers" under his breath every time he said that.

The level of corruption among our current crop of Republican leaders is amazing. Remember, this is the group that impeached Bill Clinton for lying about an affair. But now, if you are Bob Ney, a Republican Committee Chairman in the House and you plead guilty to selling your Congressional office to the highest bidder, well, you can go ahead and keep your job.

And while Ney is selling his services, the Department of Education is doing all that it can to violate contracting rules to make sure that only Bush loyalists are getting contracts.

According to the New York Times,

In a searing report that concludes the first in a series of investigations into complaints of political favoritism in the reading initiative, known as Reading First, the report said officials improperly selected the members of review panels that awarded large grants to states, often failing to detect conflicts of interest. The money was used to buy reading textbooks and curriculum for public schools nationwide.

They not only stacked the review panels but they specifically tried to drive away companies from pursuing contracts.

the director of Reading First, Chris Doherty, urged staff members to make clear to one company that it was not favored at the department.

“They are trying to crash our party and we need to beat the [expletive deleted] out of them in front of all the other would-be party crashers who are standing on the front lawn waiting to see how we welcome these dirtbags,” Mr. Doherty wrote.

We are getting to the point where it seems like we get a weekly scandal from these guys. George W. Bush did change the tone in Washington. He changed it for the worse.

Great Political Commercial from Virginia

2006-09-14T13:13:00.000-06:00

President Bush Speaks

2006-09-12T14:53:00.000-06:00

I was going to write today about the President's speech to the nation last night. As it ends up, I was too busy watching the Vikings beat Washington on Monday Night Football to pay attention to more bull from this administration.

Besides, I couldn't have done much better in summing up the speech than my friend the Pink Lady did here.

Funny thing is, I actually supported the invasion of Iraq. I think 41 should have done it. I think 42 should have done it. Not because Iraq posed a threat to the United States but because Saddam gassed his own people and was a destabilizing force and an already shaky region.

The advantage, of course, to 41 or 42 doing it would have been that competent people would have been in charge both at the Pentagon and at State. We would have invaded using the Powell doctrine of massive force instead of the Rumsfeld doctrine of just enough force to really screw things up and we would have provided our troops with the proper gear needed to survive.