GEORGETOWN TALES

Euphemisms and The Occupy Movement

2011-12-14T19:42:00.007-05:00

Note: some of this content may be offensive. If you think it is over the line, please let me know. Young readers should be reading Dr. Suess and not this. Older readers, but not yet adults, may find enjoyment in the Crazy Horse Electric Game, Stotan, S.E. Hinton's books, starting with the Outsiders, or other books for Young Adults-i.e Teenagers. Those trying to get into college, should read prose with bigger vocab words, such as books, by Charles Dickens, Thomas Hardy, Kurt Vonnegut, D.H. Lawrence, James Joyce, among other serious novelists Those that only need to retake the SAT score, out of bets that they can repeat their perfect score and others with a B.A. can continue to read. Those still working on a BA or BS degree may should read with the following with discretion. And should stop if they feel melancholic or disenchanted.

First off, a lot has happened in my life over the past several months. At one point, I wanted to be a blogger-well really, I wanted to be a writer-who aspires to just blog? A writer that would write about anything and everything that has happened to him, to be able to write about the thoughts that if said, would make me cool, but if unsaid, make me awkward. (At least that's what I tell myself.) But since I realize, I may never have the guts to say things, at least I can write about... what I would say, if I was actually cool. I guess at my age, with my hairline, cool might be too high an aim. What's between being cool and a total loser? Alright? Ok, I hope to be alright.

So first the euphemism. You know why Macs are better than PCs? Well as Avenue Q says, "the Internet is for %&#". Well in a moment of weakness, during my finals week, while home with a project due and a final to study for, I put the web browser on private and... Low and behold caught some malware. I had thought you know with the internet at least you can't catch anything. Lo and behold, I caught, a virus. Hopefully, it is one that is curable.

All this time, I've been doing my "private" web viewing on a Mac and thought that all "private" red-district web browsing was safe, no harm no foul-safer than a bar. Who would know that you are probably less likely to catch a virus going to a bar and picking up some random woman, as long as you use protection, rather than visiting the "red-light district" on your PC. Pay $500 dollars more for a Mac to visit adult sites on a Mac without even needing to thing about safe procreation. They should put that in a Mac ad- at least in Playboy and other adult magazines. Buy a Mac and surf the internet's red-light districts and back alleys without fear or need of protection! The web on a Mac is like your (STD-free) girlfriend or wife on birth-control! No Protection needed!

Secondly, the occupy movement. Don't these people have jobs! Or they must have had them and are now living off their savings? I don't have savings, I've got schoolwork and I need to find a job. Yes, things aren't fair. But I've got to establish myself (at least financially, and maybe socially) in our society, and I don't have time to camp in a city park. If I'm going to go camping, I'm probably going to somewhere peaceful, serene, with good views. The only reason I'd go to the occupy camps would be to hook up with hippie chicks, but I've got a girlfriend. But, I do hear there is a lot of adult-only type activities going on in those camps.

The real positives about the occupy movement is that people are not talking about the tea party movement, at least as much. There is a Yang to the Tea Party's Yin. So, for this reason, I think the occupy movement has done a good job.

But stopping shipments to the port of Oakland, and other ports, really? I hope you aren't hurting a lot of people by doing that. You think the 1% can survive, a day without a port to unload packages? so do I. It is the 99% people that might be hurt- the small business owners. When you smash a Men's Warehouse window- you think George Zimmer, President of Men's Warehouse has to clean the glass and put in a new window? Or you think the store salesman, who makes less, and is paid based on commission-i.e. his own production, or the cleaning people- who might be illegals and are paid maybe minimum wage, clean up the broken glass and are affected by your attempt to harm the 1%. As if men in the 1% buy their suits at the Men's Warehouse!

I know what you'll say in response to this. That wasn't the occupy movement, that was the anarchists. They just see this as an opportunity for violence.

It's too bad the anarchists are smart enough to avoid getting pepper sprayed, unlike the UC Davis students. Just because the authority figures are wrong though. I.e. the police using too much force to distrupt the movement, doesn't make the occupy movement right. Two fools fighting are still two fools. One bad guy (authority figures using pepper spray unnecessarily) doesn't make the other good (the occupy movement).

But two movements on the opposite side of the political spectrum, does gives us some balance. A Yin and a Yang, no taxes vs. equal income, which is a good result of the occupy movement.

As I mentioned early, I've been too busy, completing my school work and looking for a job. But I guess in my self-interest, I should be happy about the Occupy movement, besides just on principle. People in the occupy movement, are not competing for the jobs I'm applying to, so for that I am thankful. Maybe I should hope more people join the occupy movement, at least until I, and every one else who would rather work, rather than camp in a city park and pretend they are part of a commune, occupy jobs.

As you probably guess, I will try, but not suceed in writing another blog before 2012, so on that note: Happy 2012! Obama in 2012! My wish for 2012 is the that Obama gets bigger..., hmmm. is a euphemism, really needed here, or does every Democrat know what Obama needs? I don't care which way Obama goes, center or left, as long as he goes there big.

Not trying to be cool, just trying to be alright.

GCNOF

Occupy This

2011-10-07T13:07:00.002-05:00

What is everyone's take on the Occupy Wall Street Movement? I checked out the Chicago chapter, OccupyChi, and found it fascinating. Growing up in a College town, there were many protests going on, but I never bothered to join any. I went on a lhttp://www.blogger.com/img/blank.gifunch brake this week, and biked down to the protest, as I work Downtown, it is not a long ride. There is a lot of energy going on at the protest, and I was able to bask in it. I did not have a sign of my own, so almost felt out of place, but watching was itself very enjoyable.
People are dissing the movement for not having one coherent message or leader, but that is not really a negative in my perspective. First, the Tea Baggers had no coherent message other than anger at first either. Second, the movement is young, but growing, and I feel it will distil a more unified message at some point. I plan to visit the protest more next week, and encourage everyone else to visit one as well. The most impressive aspect I think, is the technological organization. You can check out the Chicago website at www.Occupychi.org

Writing-Weather Fantasy Baseball

2011-06-05T16:15:00.002-05:00

My summer resolution is to write more. Things are going well. but I've got to start working on a final for my class, so now I hope to just write a few notes.

No real news, except "Crazy Weather". Please feel free to share in the comments your crazy weather. Usually it doesn't rain in California during the summer. Once every 30 years or so.

lso I may need to write about fantasy baseball. I know you expect me to write about important or interesting things. But I am in first place in my fantasy baseball league. My draft strategy really paid off. I researched. But when the draft came, I didn't really have a "plan." I just took the best player that was available. Four of my first five picks were outfielders, this is usually a mistake, as outfield is a fairly deep position and usually it is important to take scarcer positions first, but for me is has paid dividends.

Off to studying. More posts to follow.

GCNOF.

Nothing

2011-03-11T00:30:00.005-05:00

Dear Readers,

For the last two months, I've had nothing to say. What can I say? I guess you could call it writer's block. But that entails that I've have this stream of "writing" that was blocked. Maybe... who knows? Maybe there was nothing to be blocked. The well was just dry. Even tonight, I have nothing to write about now. So stop reading. I have nothing to say.

Most of my thoughts are very simple. I wonder why I like the smile and hello of the girl working behind the counter at my gym. I wonder if people full of sh-t like global warming deniers will be ever called out in this lifetime. I wonder what it says about America and our educational system that Rush Limbaugh is the most popular radio broadcaster and that Howard Stern is the second most popular radio guy. (Unfortunately, my fact-checker has left me- unsurprisingly considering I haven't written in two months- so the veracity of this blog should be questioned.)

I wonder if people will start buying electric cars and how that will work out for everyone involved: car makers, urban air breathers, electric companies, oil producing countries. I wonder how, when we can produce and iPad2 or an iPhone4 or an Android or fly into space, (the latter, something we've been doing for 40 years), but we can't give global warming more of a fight (by seriously reducing our CO2 emissions). I realize we are going to get there (reducing our CO2 emissions). It just seems we are taking the slow and cautious approach.

I can envision a world, in which a lot more people drive electric cars.

But, I hope they don't break down all the time. That would suck. If you run out of gas, someone can just put more gas in your tank, so you can make it to the nearest gas station. When you run out of electricity, what do you do? Get towed to the nearest (electric) outlet?

Even with issues bound to happen, I hope electric cars (just like the Israelites that came before them) become as numerous as the Toyota Pri (at least the Toyota Pri in California). Not just to decrease the atmosphere's capacity to store heat, but also and maybe more importantly for the air we breathe.

I love it, because some people doubt global warming, or hate people, or hate people that understand the science of global warming, some people are actually for polluting the air. I can't believe there are people, Dick Cheney, I'm think of you that say, that air you breathe, it isn't dirty enough, not enough inner city kids are getting asthma.

Exactly, how do they (global warming deniers know global warming is a sham? I am including global warming agnostics in my h-te list. The ones that say, yes the world is warming, but I'm not sure it's caused by us, human beings. Not all people can really handle the world as is, so they filter out thoughts that don't confirm their world view.

I understand that life in America can be hard. There are a lot of different TV shows on at one time, and my DVR only can record four of them (at once). Really I understand, the real issue is that there just aren't that many middle class jobs left in our economy anymore. You have to work real hard to become wealthy, even if you just wanted middle class. Otherwise it's being a high school math teacher or working at McDonald's. It's either that, or we could have socialism, pick your misery!

I think people will look back at this time period, and think what f--==g id--ts this guys were. Caring so much about stupid computer tablets, which allow them to play games as the world they live in both politically and environmentally was heading towards the brink. Hey, at least we/they enjoyed ourselves until the very end. Playing games on our little computers, while the real world's issues were a bit more challenging to be called a game or warrant our attention.

My last thought. eh, you don't want to hear it. The thought was here (literally), just not good enough, even for this blog. I got nothing more to say.

Signing off (probably for March),

GCNOF

Letter to the Editor of the Wall Street Journal

2011-01-09T20:27:00.003-05:00

A senseless tragedy occurred on Saturday. A federal judge, a congressional staffer, and a nine year old girl died among others, in an assassination attempt of an Arizona democratic congresswoman Gabrielle Giffords, who may or may not die, or be permanently brain damaged.

Lots of people rushed to politicize the event. Which of course is expected. It was a political event, and a politician was targeted. I personally do not hold the Tea Party or any of its members responsible in any way for this tragedy. However, being politically minded. I do have an angle of this story and maybe something good can come of this tragedy.

What I see as the central issue of this tragedy, is that the "suspect" of this shooting was either diagnosed or suspected of being schizophrenic. He had failed out of school and wasn't good enough for our desperate military.

I'll skip over the fact that he was allowed to buy a gun, given his background, five weeks ago. I guess you have to be a convicted felon not to get a gun. I'm sure if you are really a felon, you'll get one on the black market.

But really, that's not my point. My point is that this man, wasn't institutionalize or given good... wait for it.... Health Care. With good health care, this man wouldn't be out on his own, or given a gun, or been in a position to kill six people and change the lives of several more.

Until the 1980s and Republican hero Ronald Reagan, our country institutionalized a lot of mentally ill in hospitals. Since the 80s most of these people are mostly on the streets or in jail. Some people just can't take care of themselves. Most of the time, these people are harmless to others, some of these people, maybe that's true all the time. Unfortunately in our society, if one person "major objects" and uses his/her nuclear option he or occasionally she, can cause a noteworthy damage to society. And besides of a moral responsibility to our fellow human beings (Americans really), this makes it in our interest to take care of "everyone." (Moses, G-d and Jesus would agree). I know there is another particular prophet out there that would agree, at least I think, but I'm kind of scared to say his name, because a few of his followers are well... you know.

With good (mental) health care, we can prevent some of these senseless tragedies and the silent tragedies of people living on the streets, who really can't take of themselves. So let me simplify why the government is getting involved in the health care industry. Lots of people with the worst conditions can't/don't qualify for/can't afford treatment. This is either because Health Insurance Companies are greedy or that it simply isn't profitable (can't be done by private companies) to insure everyone. Either the market is inefficient or it's simply impossible to make a profit in the health care industry. Either way the government (with its responsibility to the people) intercedes. Which is what our president has already done. Obamacare!!! Listen Mr. Wall Street Journal... the Health Care Industry isn't working based on the free-market, whether because of Collusion of Companies or the unprofitability of the Industry (the latter is what I think). As far as I know, no one has proved that the free market works in every situation. Let alone most. So the government infers, and the next Jared Loughner, is treated before he goes on a killing rampage. Or at least the medical/mental health records get transferred, so he is denied the right to bear arms if say he refuses treatment. G-d bless the departed and wounded.

Sincerely,

George Costanza's Number One Fan

p.s. people are scared about government health care options because of "Death Panels." umm. please to tell me What happens now?... Let me guess our current health care is so good, that you actually don't ever... you know...and no one now is ever refused a life saving procedure, because it's too expensive. Right!

Dumb and Dumbererer

2010-11-22T23:29:00.014-05:00

Sometimes I think pieces of information that are tangential to a story can be more revealing than the intentional focus. Reading between the cracks in the accepted narrative of this hard to believe NYT article on the pitfalls of negotiations in the Afghan war, two facts stood out more than the absurd fraud in the headline:

1. The man was paid to participate in the negotiations?!!! Even if he was the real McCoy, he would be just as likely to fake the talks just to receive more payments. A prerequisite to negotiation is that each side has something the other actually wants. If you have to pay the other side to show up, then its a safe bet that any resolution is DOA.

2. The real Taliban leadership is believed to be in Pakistan, hiding with the help of the Pakistani government?!!! At what point does Pakistan stop being our Ally? We invaded Afghanistan and unseated the Taliban in the first place because they were harboring our enemies. How is this very different?

Certainly our interests in the Middle East are very complicated, but it is not backwards land. Up is not down and pigs still don't take off from Kabul airport, yet these two facts that seem essentially like admissions of total failure are "background" to the story.

Hemingway had a simple rule for playing poker: if a hand is good enough to check, it is good enough to raise. If it isn't good enough to raise, then fold. If we can't win in Afghanistan, then there is no point spending another day, another dollar and another soldier's life trying not to lose. In the Middle East we are being strung along like suckers. Only the oil and defense companies will walk away with a smile.

Corrections Dept...

2010-10-02T06:52:00.003-05:00

Apparently the TARP, which I have bad-mouthed repeatedly, is not really so bad after all. If it really didn't cost much or anything it was probably a pragmatic band-aid that served stability. However, I still am dubious about it's overwhelming moral hazard and it's favoring of large banks over smaller banks and credit unions that should have been rewarded for their prudence.

Anne Coulter to GOProud:

2010-09-28T22:28:00.014-05:00

"Marriage is not a civil right, you're not black."

1)If marriage is not a civil right then a government that outlawed marriage would not be oppressive?

2) "You're not black." Sure, not in that room, but what about the larger context? Does the 14th amendment allow Wanda Sykes to marry her girlfriend, but overlook her paler colleagues?

See Blog dated August 27th.

2010-09-14T21:20:00.002-05:00

Please check out my awesome my blog dated August 27th. Thanks! p.s. Politically I said that after Obama was elected President, I would trust every decision Obama made and not worry about politics until he was up for re-election. I realize that is black-and-white thinking. In the future I hope to elaborate on my political thoughts. I may also add how my hero George Costanza might act, if he were elected to a high public office. Again- Please check out my blog posted August 27: Injuries- A Memoir.

Thanks!

GCNOF

Compromising Principles

2010-09-13T10:47:00.014-05:00

From TPM: John Boner (sp?) maybe will lead the House GOP to a compromise on the Bush Tax cuts and, effectively, vote for higher taxes on the wealthy. This might be the first glimmer of what will turn into a marked change in the national Republicans after November. Once they have a little bit of actual power I think they will take a slight, but sharp turn to the center for the sake of getting anything done. Hysterical non-sequitors may be a useful campaign tool for the Right, but once they have enough seats to actually affect policy, the Tea Partiers will find themselves under a very heavy bus. Or maybe it's just some random off the cuff remark. We will see what comes.

Lies, Damn Lies and Surveys

2010-09-07T08:30:00.016-05:00

Andrew Sullivan has a succinct critique of a disturbinglyingly unAmerican and disturbingly poorly written post at the The New Republic. Marty Peretz seems to revel in his social-criticism/make-out-session with a New York Times poll showing that New Yorkers have some kind of opinion about Muslim-Americans:

The newspaper (NYT) has done a poll of New York City residents which found that 33% of them thought Muslim-American "more sympathetic to terrorists" than other citizens. Frankly, I don't trust opinion surveys on matters like this.

Before he goes on to slander the overwhleming majority of Muslim Americans, Peretz does take the time to say that he doesn't trust opinion surveys. I disagree. Opinion surveys do a half-way decent job of assessing opinions. What would happen if the Times sent some reporters out to assess some facts? Like if they spent some time at various mosques around the Big Apple or even around the country and reported on what was actually preached by Muslim-American religious leaders. Wouldn't that be more in line with the higher aims of journalism than taking a poll about what New Yorkers think might be in other people's hearts? Even by opinion survey standards, what is this particularly inane question trying to mean? Lets think it through for a moment:

If there are tens (hundreds?) of thousands of Muslim Americans and probably tens (ones?) of Muslim terrorists in the US, that would ascribe criminal intent to about .1 - .001 percent. How many Christians have ever committed a violent crime in the US? But the question at hand is how many Muslims are "sympathetic" to terrorists? Or actually do "more" Muslim Americans sympathize with terrorists than non-Mulsim Americans. I'm starting to think Kevin Bacon may be involved.

Let's assume in context that the question is only concerned with Al Queda-associated terrorists (what percentage of American Muslims are sympathetic to the terrorists who burned down the mosque in Kentucky?). Let's also assume for argument's sake that there are very, very few Muslim Americans who are sympathetic to Al Queda. But lets also assume that there are roughly zero non-Muslim Al Queda sympathizers out there. If one single practitioner of Islam is sympathetic to Al Queda's cause, that still constitutes "more".

So, even given my total lack of any relevant knowledge or facts, I can surmise that the question is nearly a tautology, or at least just as meaningless. Yet only 33% of New Yorkers responded in the affirmative. I am guessing that the other 77% said "no" to make a point about how stupid and racist it is to even ask this question.

Some People Just Can't Decide

2010-08-31T21:19:00.011-05:00

Here is an odd court ruling from Texas: gay couples married in other states can't get divorced locally because, according to Texas, they weren't really married. From a practical standpoint, if Texas doesn't want them to be married and they don't want to be married, divorce seems like a win-win.

Of course, if the court really wants to uphold the traditional definition of marriage, then nobody in Texas gets a divorce without the Pope's says so. How many of these people are willing to go the distance with their own logic? Do opponents of gay marriage want to give up their right to a no-fault divorce? Do they want their sisters and daughters to give up the right to chose when they have kids? Or to hold a job, or to own property? Where do we make our stand?

Finally, I Get It...

2010-08-29T22:15:00.019-05:00

This is kind of a funny shirt that someone made for Glenn Beck's defamatory Honkey Ashram, according to TPM. In context it has racist undertones: like blacks and other minorities have it so good in America, where is the federally designated slice of the pie for poor white people? But taken at face value, it is a slogan I can get behind. I do believe America is a place where people who are economically, culturally and educationally marginalized should still have a place at the table. Even shit-kicker high school dropouts who might be prone to using the pronoun "y'all" during a job interview still deserve healthcare, clean air, decent working conditions, a home to call their own, peace... and the list could go on of things that America does pretty well, but has been doing a little less well lately.

The Tea Partiers are right to be worried: in a shrinking economy the elites of our society most definitely are squeezing the little guys. What I don't understand is why they think Glenn Beck or the GOP has anything to say to them.

Injuries-A Memoir

2010-08-27T01:32:00.006-05:00

Dear Readers,

It is time for my monthly blog. Okay, it was, I'm a month late... I'm not sure exactly what I will write about at this point, so it is going to be a stream of consciousness with maybe no point. Like Seinfeld, but not quite as funny. Actually over the course of the month, I did decide. I'm writing about my injuries, if you don't like me, or humor, you may find this boring. Even if you do like me or humor you may find this boring.

This summer went by fast, and I don't think I capitalized on it. I haven't been biking much, didn't do an open-water swim. (actually the first time I haven't done two open-water swims since '05 (when I just did one). This summer I've just gone from injury-to-injury to injury.

I'm counting the sty in my eye as an injury. That was the first injury, although there must have been something before that. Went to the eye doctor and took some antibodics. Then I hurt my groin while swimming breaststroke. Next was my back, which was hurt (really reinjured) while rummaging through a drawer looking for a missing shirt. It's been a couple of weeks. Now I'm finally feeling better, but just really waiting for my next injury.

I really have no idea what it's going to be or when it's going to happen. Am I going to re-injure myself and get a familiar injury like a sprained ankle from stepping into a gopher hole while tossing a Frisbee or hyper-extending my knee while playing Frisbee golf or am I going to hurt myself in a way I've never done before, hmmm, that might be hard... perhaps breaking my arm falling off a stationary bike in a spinning class?

I have a tough time deciding which is worse a new injury or an old familiar one. A re-injury means I have a chronic issue, something that might never completely go away. Like my right shoulder injury. Or if I hurt something new, like my left knee last November (playing Ultimate Frisbee), I now have pain and worries about a body part, I previously simply enjoyed and trusted (like my left knee).

Since I twisted my left ankle the last day of being a counselor at a summer camp while playing basketball (the summer before my sophomore year in college), I don't think I've gone a whole year-most of the time six months- without hurting something. That fall I think I sprained the same ankle several more times, which might have been one of the reasons (besides being a bench warmer) which led me to switch from the club sport of Ultimate Frisbee to the club sport of water polo (first and only off the bench) at my alumna matter. I remember playing a water polo tournament with a sprained ankle, which was a tournament I should have probably skipped.

My injury pattern did change a little once I moved to DC. So from the age of 20 to moving to DC my injury of choice was a sprained ankle (both ankles, I think fairly equally). Sometimes the sprains hindered my mobility or enjoyment. Like when I sprained my ankle leading a backpacking trip in Vermont. Most of my sprains came from jogging before I got arch supports. One came from misstepping while stepping down from a log. Two came within a mile of my parent's house. The furthest one came either in Vermont or Western Connecticut, although the idea that I lived over two months on Cape Cod and didn't twist my ankle there perplexes me.

Sometimes they changed the course of my life. Like when I sprained my ankle teaching environmental education, some tag game, which is incidentally the same way I got stitches on my chin. After that debacle I felt like I needed a job, where either I was very unlikely to sprain my ankle (a desk job), or I didn't need my ankle to perform work (also a desk job). So that miserable sprained ankle season, a fall in New England when (and where) I didn't get to enjoy the autumn foliage which was something I was really hoping to enjoy- or rest my ankle or just enjoy being out in the woods of Western Connecticut- was my last job, in which a sprained ankle, may be likely to happen or have adverse effects on my job performance. So if you were going to trace my career path and wonder why I'm currently studying statistics- look no further.

Some people sell-out (or take a crappy job) for money, some for prestige, some to avoid ankle injuries.

Peace,
GCNOF

Bread for the Masses (and the middle class and...

2010-08-25T22:29:00.035-05:00

...the fairly well off and most small to medium sized businesses and manufactoring, the professional class,etc)

Read the whole thing yourself, but below is an interesting bit from the middle of a Mother Jones post where Kevin Drum delineates the supposed self-absorption of his liberal principles:

Now, it's true that I'm generally in favor of reducing or eliminating government programs that don't work. Who isn't? But self-interest plays a big role here, even if we don't always like to admit it. Like Matt, I think we should eliminate ag subsidies. But that's a pretty easy stand to take since I'm not a farmer. Earlier today I suggested we do away with Fannie Mae because we subsidize housing too much. I can afford that too, since I already own a home and don't need any help buying one. High tax rates on the rich? That wouldn't affect me much, so I'm OK with it. National healthcare? That would be pretty handy in case I ever want to quit my job, so that's also in my self-interest.

However, I think he is missing the point. Everyone of these policies he uses as examples of his self-interested liberalism (not that he's knocking it, just making a point) is a pretty good example of something that is in nearly EVERY American's self-interest. Let me break it down:

End Agricultural subsidies because "I'm not a farmer". I have news for Kevin: no one is. The miniscule number of people still practicing what any onr thinks of when they say "farmer" are actually hurt by the market manipulations of agricultural subsidies. The handful of people who benefit are the owners (not the workers, only the owners) of giant agriculture and cattle corporations. So Kevin rolls pretty deep on this one.

End Fannie Mae. After their complicity in the real-estate and mortgage-backed securities bubble, many take this view. Or reform them to look like their original inception: a government backed program to proactively seek out lower-income, but loan-worthy housing customers that might have trouble getting a mortgage at a traditional savings and loan. The problem with that mission is that there aren't many "traditional" S&Ls left, only retail-banking subsidiaries of financial services conglomerates, and Fannie Mae was deregulated into a profit-seeking enterprise that was very motivated to work against the interests of their clients, just like private banks do. So it's not a stretch to say their present form is not terribly useful.

High tax rates on the rich? I guess it depends on your definition of "rich". Obama wants to slightly raise taxes on incomes above 200K, the top 2%. Recently there have been musings in the liberal media about much higher tax rates for people earning over a million or 10 million, or a quadrillion or whatever. The point is that Drum is talking about something that wouldn't affect him...or 98% or possibly even 99.9% of Americans. That's not narrow "self-interest", that's a rounding error away from 100%.

Nationalized health care, so he would feel like it was possible to change jobs. Isn't that what America is supposed to be about? The flip side of this is that most businesses would probably love to not have to pay for their employee's health insurance. The entire health insurance industry is essentially a leech on the side of American business and entrepreneurship. And that is not even the worst part. The issue is framed by critics as a matter of "choice", i.e. do I want the government making choices for me about my health care? The only thing I can imagine worse than that is a profit-driven health insurance corporation chosen for me by my employer in charge of my health care. For nearly every American that is the current "choice". I can see how you might not feel like paying for it up front in taxes, especially if you were in that new mega-millionaire 75% tax bracket, but ultimately, in dollar and cents almost every American, employees and employers alike, would be better off with socialized health care.

What I am saying here is that Drum is being too hard on himself and his comrades. I believe liberal policies are correct because they are good not just for me, but for all (or at least 99.9%) of America.

I also know that a sincere, intelligent conservative could make counter-arguments to most of what I have written above. But I don't see that happening in the American right. Not to say that the Democrats aren't essentially corporate lackies, but they are putting forward at least some policies that benefit most Americans. The same cannot honestly be said about the GOP.

Their obstructionism, pandering and lack of any actual budget proposal (?!!!) speaks to a nearly empty constituency. Their ideas almost categorically resonate with only the fearful, the hateful and the incredibly wealthy. Maybe that will change after the elections when the partisanship calms down, but for now the progressive, supposedly borderline-socialists writing for Mother Jones are left fighting tooth and nail for what to my thinking should be "center-left" policies that benefit almost everyone.

Through the Looking Glass

2010-08-15T21:44:00.033-05:00

Below is a bit from an NYT article mentioned in a Political Animal post. The article and the post are about Paul Ryan's (R-WI) "Road Map", a plan that the GOP claims to support. The plan includes essentially an end to Social Security and Medicare, reduced income taxes for the wealthy and most likely an increase in national debt, proposals which seem more than a little odd in a campaign year...or in this century. The role of the press should be to disseminate the substance of Ryan's proposals in objective news articles and provide analysis of it's merits in columns like this. In the below excerpted sentences from the NYT column (with my commentary added in bold) the article by one Matt Bai shows enormous cynicism in treating politics as a meaningless, zero-sum sporting event. Reading not very deeply between the lines Bai seems to have almost no respect for Ryan or his policy initiatives, yet the columnist self-consciously approaches the debate as if his job description is to NOT make a substantive analysis:

Let’s leave aside for now the debate over the viability of the road map, which, as a practical matter, doesn’t stand a chance of being enacted as is, anyway. (So we are "leaving aside" the question of whether Paul Ryan, the only Republican to even come close to producing an actual budget proposal, has any relevant policy ideas?)

The more pertinent question is whether Mr. Ryan is the kind of guy who just wants to make a point — or whether his road map represents the starting point in what could be a serious negotiation about entitlements and spending. (So again, there is no reason to even consider whether his ideas actually have any merit. The only possibilities are legislation as rhetorical point or legislation as negotiating tactic. Isn't there room in modern political coverage to point out how vapid and cynical this makes Ryan and the national GOP?)

We tend to think of bipartisanship as cooperation among a few pragmatic principals in both parties who already agree on how to solve a particular problem. (Or in the last year as mainstream Democrats compromising with conservative Democrats to create workable legislation while the GOP sits on their hands and make demonstrably false claims)

A good example is the recent bill on climate change advanced by Democrat John Kerry and Independent Joseph I. Lieberman with their Republican colleague Lindsay Graham, which stalled in the Senate.(which is by their own accounts a nearly worthless piece of legislation that accomplishes almost none of it's supporter's goals, so no, I wouldn't say its a good example)

But what President Clinton and Speaker Gingrich demonstrated in the mid-1990s is that meaningful bipartisan agreements can also be forged by fierce and ideologically opposed competitors who wrestle each other toward a tolerable consensus, as long as that consensus stands to benefit both parties politically.(i.e. they are "fierce" and "ideological" as long as their every action coincides with partisan concerns and popularity? What definition does this columnist understand for "fierce" or "ideological"? And how is Bill Clinton, the Democratic president who more or less ended Welfare and pushed NAFTA ideological? Do words truly have no meaning? Am I taking crazy pills?!!!)

Basic Economics

2010-07-23T01:05:00.005-05:00

As I sit here. I think about boycotting my blog. I want to write about inappropriate personal stuff. Instead I'll write about matter that is PG at its dirtiest. Also I should probably stop stealing people's cartoons too before I get in some sort of trouble with the internet cartoon police. In the meantime, thanks for the free cartoons!

Here’s the issue of the day. Today I supported the economy. The idea of spending money, by paying for goods and services that in general you, personally could do yourself. Thus supporting the economy and welfare of others. Today, I paid $13 to get my car washed. I paid for the wash for three reasons. I am too lazy to do it myself, as my dad says it’s bad to wash the gunk that’s on your car into the street and the third reason I got a $18 discount which turned a $30 car wash into a $12 car wash.

While I was at the car wash. I paid $7 to get my shoes shined. I did this, because I haven’t taken the time to shine them myself. My acts of generosity definitely passed my money around. And who really needs their shoes shined? I gave people money for things that I could do myself. In fact, I’ll have to finish one of the jobs myself. The Car washers didn’t do a good job (or maybe any job) of vacuuming my car.

I even supported the economy more today. I went out to a new Chinese restaurant that in general was fairly high quality. The Hunan Beef (or was it Szchewan?) was top notch. However its sesame chicken had only white meat (which would be a plus for those boring people who only eat white meat) and the restaurant’s fortune cookies were stale. It is a new restaurant and was very empty. So I’m guessing the stale fortune cookies were just never given out to restaurant guest in time. Another downer the restaurant charged for tea. Chinese restaurants don’t usually do this, right?

So back to the issue of the day- I was taught it was good to be well rounded. And it feels good to be competent in many things. To be self-sufficient. To be able to shine my own shoes, wash and wax my own car, take care of my own car, be a handy man, clean my house. But it is better for the economy, if I am one dimensional. I do my math, and employ people to do things that maybe I could do myself. My taxes, my cooking (restaurants and microwaveable food instead), cleaning my house, my car and my shoes.

So my questions for you, loyal readers, and random readers too: Do you ever notice this dilemma? Self-sufficiency vs. paying people to do things you could do yourself? Do you ever feel guilty for doing things on your own, that you know you could pay someone else to do? On the flip side, do you pay people for things that you wish you could do on your own? Or even feel bad for paying for things you know you could do on your own?

Best.

GCNOF

Hmm...

2010-07-16T12:41:00.001-05:00

I write like
Stephen King

I Write Like by Mémoires, Mac journal software. Analyze your writing!

Old Generals Don't Die...

2010-06-29T15:58:00.021-05:00

They just get quoted by Rolling Stone.

My two cents on the RS General McCrystal profile: In a rational, substance driven world, the most damaging parts of Michael Hastings' piece are the ones that are pretty much already common knowledge:

1) We cannot decisively defeat Al Queda by fighting in Afghanistan.

2) Any strategy we pursue will cost more in money and blood than most Americans feel is warranted.

Hastings is not the first and won't be the last to point this out in print. And, as far as I can tell, no one is even denying any of the substantive aspects of the piece. What gets everyone's panties in a bunch is Hastings recorded McCrystal and his staff criticizing civilian leadership and generally acting inappropriate.

So, essentially, these guys drink, curse and sometimes disagree with their bosses. Not exactly gripping stuff and, to my mind, not particularly demeaning to McCrystal. Whatever you may think of his plans for Afghanistan or his potty mouth, at least he isn't a cynic or a glad-hander. The only question is why he did any of this in front of a reporter.

I'm not disagreeing with the President's Personnel choices either. If I woke up to that Rolling Stone article I would have fired McCrystal too, but that is not nearly as important a decision as our path forward in the quagmire that was accurately described in the article.

Is Obama going to pretend to have a plan in Afghanistan for about 12 more months and then begin pulling out troops regardless of the nearly inevitable inadequacies of the Afghan government and military? Or is July 2011 a bait and switch and we will really be there for the next hundred years trying to build a nation from scratch? Neither is a very attractive position.

Afghanistan is not Iraq; there are reasonable arguments for us to be there. There have even been times when I felt that the invasion was warranted by the Taliban's support for Al Queda. But ultimately, you have to ask yourself, would I die for this cause? Anyone who claims to support the war but has not signed up for military service is voting with their feet.

Limbo

2010-06-26T22:53:00.005-05:00

Dear Loyal Readers,

I'm in limbo, at least in my professional life. but instead of talking about that I will discuss other events in my life. I apologize for the infrequent blogs, I get inspired to write during work, but by the time I get home, I usually have lost steam... I hope to write semimonthly from now on....

so here goes... I don't know if George Costanza would approve this blog, but maybe he is more similar to me, than I would care to admit. I have some decisions to make that I've been putting off and more importantly. I find myself noting that sometimes I haven't been the best of friends, and most importantly that I need to work on being a better person.

If my current girlfriend is reading this... Please stop here.... Please!

This first part isn't about you anyways. well not completely. a friend doesn't want to hang out with me any more... I can think of two reasons specifically, but usually when this thing happens it is not the specifics, but just an underlying personality difference... the two reasons being that I went to a party with him and my girlfriend and left him there... He wanted to stay, and I wasn't in a good judgment place. He was drunk. We should have made sure he got home with us.... It was weird, he insisted on staying and we let him even though we knew it was a bad idea.

This was a friend I really respected, even though he has some issues of his own. so tonight I am mourning the loss of a friendship.

And I chose to do this by having a quiet night of reflection, before the big trip to Indiana. I have a red eye getting in Thursday morning. not sure it was the smartest thing to do... especially since recently I have had no trouble sleeping and I've been getting up early. but it was the cheapest flight available. and as always, I have a reputation to uphold.

Before my quiet night of reflection I went on a bike ride to get over the blues. I was disappointed that the US soccer team lost to Ghana today, but not surprised. I didn't think our team was that good. and almost wish I had bet against us. still I was down b/c of the loss until I went on a bike ride... to be honest, I never realize exactly when my mood shifts, it it is never right away on the ride, although sometimes it is just the thought of going on the ride that will do it.

at first I was thinking, George Costanza's Number One Fan be careful, you usually hurt yourself when you are feeling down. so I was cautious, trying to be very mindful on my ride. Paying attention to as many details as possible. confusing at least one car (and driver)... Still I was down for the first fifteen or twenty minutes of my journey. When a hot high school/college girl turned and gave me a dirty look when I called out "passing", it didn't faze me. I was still in a place where I couldn't go to a sad place, I was already there. I think it was when a woman with her son, commented on what a tough hill I was climbing and I tried to respond to her in a socially acceptable way; I must of smiled and that was my mood changer. (for California standards it wasn't that tough of a hill, and as a thirty something male, most high school/college girls seem hot and also not socially acceptable to date. Lastly, I'm pretty sure I didn't respond in an articulate or semi-intelligent way to the lady; nonetheless, I smiled...)

so I finished the ride happy and relaxed...now I just sit in limbo as I wait to hear about my future education and future employment. thinking that even George eventually moved out of his parents' house. I'm just waiting to hear about my future options before doing so.

in my next blog, I plan to make the case that George's many fictional girlfriends aren't that ridiculous. Average-looking men get looks from women, and if that's the case, there is no reason woman aren't interested in dating average-looking guys. Secondly, I will answer the question that everyone has been asking: What do Charles Manson and Osama Bin Laden have in common? The answer will shock you and make our country look even dumber than was previously feared.

Kindest regards, (same sign off the Nigerians' use when asking you for to advance money, because of a rich-deceased relative)

GCNOF

A Murky Brew

2010-06-22T11:26:00.023-05:00

Talking Points Memo has an interesting post on the "Florida Tea Party". To be honest, I didn't actually read the whole thing, but using the intensive skimming I perfected as an English major, I gather that the Florida political party known as "Tea" is not making many friends, but may have some strange bedfellows. Isn't it always like that with the social conservative crowd?.

Aparently, the national (small "t") tea party movement thinks that the officially registered (big "T") Tea party in Flordia is a case of GOP astro-turf ing. However, since the party's candidates will inevitably split the conservative vote, the GOP is calling foul on Florida Democrats, saying that in particular Alan Grayson may have put up at least one bad faith Tea Party state candidate to split the conservative vote in that district.

Well you can't really have it both ways can you? Either it's a plot by the GOP to manipulate their electorally inconvenient grassroots or it's a plot by the DNC to manipulate the GOP's electorally convenient grassroots. Or maybe it is actually both, sort of a heads you lose, tails you double-lose for America's nominal deficit hawks. Frankly, the right has no one to blame but themselves:

Exhibit A) How many "teabaggers" voted for Bush? Twice, after he was obviously driving the national debt to towering new heigts? At least liberals have something to show for their profligracy. What exactly did Bush spend all that money on: occupying a foreign country and giving rich people tax breaks.

Exhibit B) You can't make Karl Rove your go-to guy and then start getting upset at other people's dirty tricks.

Exhibit C) Kissinger called the winning play 40 years ago: Racism + Fiscal Conservatism = Win Elections. If Michael Steele is confused, he can ask Pat Buchanan for a refresher. GW let the second part slip so far off the cliff that some base conservatives are as upset with Republicans as they are with Democrats.

The Take away: you can't run campaigns on fear alone; you need at least one policy idea, and Alan Grayson may be a Democrat, but he still fights like a Southerner.

Apples to Oranges

2010-06-08T23:34:00.006-05:00

Andrew Sullivan recently linked to a clever idea from some Israeli students. They are organizing a "rival flotilla" to deliver humanitarian aid to Turkish Kurds. Clearly the plight of the Turkish Kurds is at least as unjust as the Palentians' situation. This little bit of counter-spin points out the inherent hypocrisy of the Turkish government crtiticizing Israel. I have heard similar cries of "double standard" when Israel is criticized by its various less than democratic neighbors. But that begs that question, when did Turkey become the gold standard of justice? If the best thing you can say about your country's human rights record is "it's no worse than Turkey", maybe something is wrong.

2010-05-24T20:13:00.002-05:00

Really quick blog.

Surviving at the new job. Surviving at the old job. Getting up on time. Kinda tired. Driving more than I'd like. But I rationalize it by saying biking and BARTing would waste some of my already precious time. The two job situation will last for two more weeks. Hope to be able to sleep when its over. Not that I am total sleep deprived. Not sure to do with the extra money I'm making.
Whether to invest it or save it for moving out of the parents house. Did George ever do that.

What do I do at the new job? Enter data into excel spreadsheets and help users navigate our companies software. Something you could see George doing in a Seinfeld episode. Not sure how it would end for George at this job... Maybe I'll think of the ways George would get fired (or promoted) from this job in my next post.

Looking forward to visiting Indiana in July and seeing family. No time for picture with this post.
Best.
GCNOF

Up Come Abubblin' Crude

2010-05-23T20:11:00.032-05:00

It certainly is one plum of a pickle

Rand Paul may have stumbled on a genuinely honest statement about the BP oil spill: "accidents happen" and we shouldn't play the "blame game".

At first blush it sounds appallingly dismissive of an evironmental and economic disaster. And it also overlooks the admittedly preliminary evidence that BP, Transocean, Halliburton and Federal regulators were all turning a blind eye to short cuts that caused this spill. Certainly there should be a criminal as well as civil investigation, but there probably won't be. And BP will probably pay the cost of clean up, but not nearly all the actual costs of the spill. There is no hope for justice when so much money is involved. Remember the consequences for Exxon after their now quaint-seeming mishap in Alaska.

But none of this is really the point. No matter how many safety regulations the fed actually enforces, as Paul says, "accidents happen". It is inevitable that off-shore drilling will involve some catastrophes of this kind. And what would justice really amount to in this situation? What amount of money would "make whole" the people whose livelihood depends on the Gulf?

We may be spending a lot on the clean up, but how much are tax payers going to spend on unemployment and other social services for Gulf fisherman, and tourism business owners and staff; how much wealth evaporated in lost real estate value? Not just now, but for decades, possibly a century, this will have a depressive effect on the economy of the Gulf states. How could anyone shoulder that cost? The people of the Gulf states and every US citizen are gong to find out.

But Paul doesn't like the "blame game", and he is right. It doesn't matter who we blame; it matters what we do about it. Obama and Congress's role isn't to catharticly channel our collective anger, their job is to enact policies that have practical benefits to our country.

"Pro-drillers" like Sarah Plain, Rand Paul and the President argue that off-shore oil drilling is an economic imperative. Any real economic evaluation of the price of oil needs to include all these costs. In comparison, an enormous investment in green energy seems like a deal.

Hitting The Hard-Deck

2010-05-20T22:10:00.006-05:00

The lesson learned from Sue Lowden's travails? There is a limit to the idiocy a politician can spout. Mid-recession supply-side economics, "whats a magazine?", there were no domestic attacks under Bush, crypto-socialism, death panels, Census conspiracies, birth certificates; it seemed like there was no assertion so stupid that it would turn voters off. Sue Lowden dug deep and found an unforgiving rock-bottom at "pay your doctor in chickens". I guess there might be hope for American democracy after all.

Aye, the weight-freight, Hamish!

2010-05-09T23:12:00.005-05:00

Is real estate the socio-economic version of lapel size?

George Costanza's Yankees

2010-05-04T02:07:00.004-05:00

Through all his troubles, my hero George Costanza does finally get a job. A job that he keeps. He does take a lot of crappy jobs first.

Maybe I found my George Steinbrenner and Yankees. Who knows? I hope to start this week or next.

It's a contract hire, so they can fire me any time; maybe even before I start working for them. That would be classic!

If I do keep the job, the company is located in the town over from where I currently reside. I do hope to move. But it is near BART, which is awesome.

Does George ever move out of his parent's house? I don't remember him having his own place...
Well that decision is a couple of months down the road at the earliest. Well that's it for now.

Maybe I'll post more this month. but I almost definitely won't be traveling much for awhile.

A Stephen Gould Moment

2010-05-03T14:13:00.016-05:00

The other day I was looking at a Childrens' Zoology Encyclopedia and I had a random thought:

All the marsupials that live in Australia are more closely related to each other than they are to other mammals. Yet in terms of gross anatomy, each one resembles another common mammal. Koala 'bears", Tasmanian "wolves" (Thylacines), kangaroos, which look like the consequences of a Romeo & Juliet situation between a deer and a rabbit, echidnas which look a lot like hedge-hogs, platypi which are essentially beavers going as ducks for Halloween, etc.

What I am wondering is whether this is evidence of the limitations imposed on evolution either by environmental conditions or fundamental aspects of organic chemistry. Like there are only so many kinds of things that could thrive on planet Earth as it is, or even only a limited number of shapes that you can make with amino acids. Is there a well of untapped creativity in natural forms, or are the things that we see around us the extent of what could be?

2010-04-26T21:54:00.008-05:00

Poltifact.com is an interesting site that provides a much needed breath of honest air in our national political debate. But they seem to lean away from the President bias-wise. One example: in calling out his "lie" that he wouldn't raise taxes on anyone making less than 250K they point out that the Health Care Reform bill imposes some forms of taxes on behaviors irrespective of income. To my mind they seem to be reaching. Here is one gem of analysis that particularly stood out:

Obama has made the case that the tax penalty for people who decline to buy insurance should not be considered a broken promise on taxes. If that tax, better known as the individual mandate, were the only new measure we were considering, we might be inclined to rate this a Compromise. But the fact is, if you're a happily uninsured smoker who likes to tan, you are facing a triple whammy.

Now, this may technically make a fibber out of the President, but it also seems like about the most reasonable policy I can imagine. As a tax-payer, I definitely want take a little something up front from this theoretical citizen (Charlie Christ by Christmas?) before they inevitably end up getting their chemo/radiation/oxygen/melanectomy/skin-graft/death-panel referral, etc. through the county ER.

Self Reflection

2010-04-08T20:05:00.002-05:00

"We are what we pretend to be, so we must be careful what we pretend to be." I had a peak at the letter my Professor wrote to the judge today, and it got me thinking. This was not a letter of recommendation, but rather a note from an old friend. This was never intended for my eyes. The other clerks were looking through their files, and I thought I would peak at mine. This is a professor whose class I did very well in, and ended up TAing for in the fall. He had many good things to say, including, that I was a good citizen. He also had some interesting things to say that I had not expected. In his eyes I am rough around the edges, dont dress up, probably come from a unprivileged background, and have trouble with some social cues. This is coming from my favorite professor, the teacher I respected most. I do not even know why any of those negative aspects would be relevant to me being a clerk. He is right about a couple of things, I do not come from a privileged background and I never really cared about how I looked in class. Ok, I also might come off a little rough around the edges at first. However, I never really consider myself as having trouble reading social cues. But does it matter how I consider myself, or am I just what other people see me as? I had never had that many interactions with the professor, so I racked my brain trying to pin point where his idea could have gotten that idea. We had never interacted in social circumstances, all our interactions had been academically related. It is strange to see yourself in another persons eyes. Clearly me and the prof come from different backgrounds. I went to an small hippie liberal arts school and he went to Harvard for our undergrad. He is Catholic and I am Jewish and there must be many other cultural differences. I wonder if we have differing expectations of social cues. Perhaps we can never really know who we are until we see ourselves though someone else.

Sedars

2010-04-06T22:48:00.003-05:00

It's been awhile since I last blogged. Two passover seders, a fantasy baseball draft and a brother's visit.

Things are good. The GF and I had two sedars, one at my parent's house and one at hers. Nothing special. At my families sedar, we tried to speed through everything to get to the food, because we wanted to eat at GF's parent's house we sped through everything, by normal standards to get to the food, because of toddlers and babies. At the GF's we didn't skip anything, just didn't do any of the haggadah after the meal.

The week before passover my brother came to town. He brought his baby and wife to visit. It was a nice visit, but my niece cried a lot. And I didn't get anything done.

My friend, D, got out of the hospital. So we have been talking again. Which is nice. He feels like a loser, because he has no job or girl. I think it's kind of ridiculous. When you get out of a hospital for a mental condition. I think just getting back to normal is enough of a goal. even if normal means volunteer work, or minimum wage part-time job and masterbating to porn on the internet. Doing those things and re-entering society is enough. Girlfriend? Most girlfriends require a steady paying job, no? Maybe he'll meet a girl that will love him for who he is. (and hopefully he'll love her back; but that isn't even the happy ending story in movies.)

Note: as I publish this, my friend Doug is feeling good again. Which is great. One week out and he seems fine. Hope this is his last visit to the Hospital.

Fantasy baseball season is happening, and I need to get a life. Fantasy baseball is all I think about, and want to talk about. I didn't draft well this year. So I'm doubtful I'll be able to defend my title. Wish me luck. Players that I shouldn't have drafted. Ben Sheets, Chris Coughlin, Nate McLouth. Wish me luck.

I won my college basketball bracket, but don't think I'll get paid. Which is just like George, even when I win, I lose; or at the least I don't win.

Peace out.

GCNOF

My Passover In Puerto Rico

2010-04-01T14:23:00.002-05:00

Last year and this year were the first years I can remember when I did not make it home for passover. Last year the Jewish Law Student association had a Seder, and I made Matza ball soup for 50. This year I went to the Chabad house's Seder. They rented out a room in one of the fanciest hotels in San Juan, the El San Juan Hotel and Casino. There must have been over a hundred people at the Seder, including 15 or so kids who ran around the whole time. I had fun, and if nothing else the wine flowed like water during the Seder. I sat next to two Israelis who opened moved to Puerto Rico, and opened up a kiosk in the mall selling dead sea beauty supplies. On my other side was a clerk for the 1st Circuit court of appeals. There was also a family visiting their mother, from Buffalo, and a MIlF. Let me start off by saying that I had no idea how hot Israeli woman could be, at least the saphardic ones. I could not tell them apart from the Puerto Rican Jews. I need to go visit the holy-land. At some point I accidentally consumed gifilta fish thinking it was chicken. I quickly learned my mistake, but pretty much finished the fish anyways. However, I have no interest in ever consuming the stuff again. The Rabbi went a little to the conservative side when telling the story of passover. After the usual story he started to talk about Israel, and how we had to love and defend the country no mater what. He harped about the unfair view given of Israel by the other western countries. At one point he mentioned the killing of the Hamas member in Dubai, and how no one really know who killed the man, so it was unfair to point the finger at Israel. The two Israelis at the table looked at me and said it was the Massad, their faces saying duh. I tried to keep my liberal views from getting the best of me and kept my mouth shut. I just wanted to enjoy the Seder. After the meal the family across the table from me decided it was time to leave, and the grandmother, who lived in PR, started handing out her business card. All it said was her name, number, and consultant. I asked the MILF, who seemed to be in the know, who she was. The MILF winked at me, like we were both sharing a joke, and said she would tell me later. It turns out the grandmother was part owner of one of the biggest banks in PR. She is one of us so it clearly came as no surprise. I now have her card, but what would I need her consultation for, unless I wanted to get a loan in PR. Anyway I traded numbers with the Israelis, and hopefully I will hang with them before I go back. P.S. My dick parts the sea.

A whole lot happened in DC

2010-03-19T00:44:00.006-05:00

I went to DC last weekend and it rained almost the entire time we (me and my girlfriend) were there. We flew in on a red-eye on Friday morning, and I felt like didn't get any good sleep on the flight. But we packed it in. Saw the Capitol, Library of Congress (on Friday), the Holocaust Museum (on Saturday), the Portrait Gallery (on Sunday), and the Natural History Museum and the Hope Diamond (on Monday). In addition we walked the mall and saw the World War 2 Memorial and the Lincoln Memorial.

I also saw a couple of old friends and talked (on the phone) to a few more. The highlight of the trip was seeing cousins from my father's side of the family that live in the area. All in all a good visit.

Here's a brief lowdown of our trip, in case you are planning a visit to our Nation's Capital.

The Capitol Hill tour was a waste for me, as we got the cheap and impersonal one. Make sure to have someone in your congressman's office actually give you the tour.

The Library of Congress had an awesome exhibit by the political cartoonist Herb Block, who cartooned from 1929-2001, which was one of my two favorite things.

Check out Herb Block or Herblock's cartoons here:

http://www.loc.gov/rr/print/swann/herblock/fire.html

The Nazi Propaganda Exhibit at the Holocaust Museum was my other favorite. That exhibit contained video, newspaper clippings and other media on how the Nazi's came to power in Germany; how they coerced or convinced the rest of Germany (non Jewish or Gypsy) to follow them. Kind of crazy.

My saddest thought during the whole Holocaust Museum visit was the this stuff happened in Africa very recently. And we didn't really stop it(I don't know if we tried).

Here's a list of other things.

Thing the GF wanted to see the most: The Hope Diamond.
Best Flight: A nonstop on Jet Blue
Best Milkshake we ate: The Good Food Eatery; Southeast near the Capitol
Best View: (well besides from the Washington Monument) The 12th floor W Hotel on 15th St., NW
Best Dinner: Chef Geoff's in downtown
Best Reader: Cousin B. (She's a first grader)
Best Coffee: Elli's
Favorite Monument: Still the Jefferson Memorial (Although we missed it this year)
DC's Best Ethnic Food (with hot waitresses): Ethopian Restaurants
(hope the gf isn't reading this)
Best Place to Walk or Run: The Mall and Tidal Basin Area
Best Place to stage an intervention with a spouse that spends too much time following sports: Dave and Busters. (really I feel sorry for Cousin S. as Cousin B. (not the first grader) really does spend too much time on sports. I don't understand his sports addiction, but that's definitely what I would call his relationship to spectator sports.)

Best.
GCNOF

The Cat Shepherd

2010-03-15T23:15:00.015-05:00

When Liberals talk about the President there is plenty of having it both ways. We get so upset at his scathing betrayals because he is the Second Coming. Lately the needle has been swinging to the negative. There seems to be a flurry of “his first year sucked”, and “his agenda is stalled”, but I see a very different picture.

There is plenty to complain about, but it's important to remember that it could be so much worse. Theoretically, with the Presidency and a Super-majority in Congress, a much larger Stimulus, a public health plan, lawful adjudication of terrorists, meaningful banking reform, repeal of DADT, etc. should have been a matter of paperwork. The problem is that Obama isn’t fighting the Republicans. And by that I don't mean that he isn't fighting against the GOP with enough ardor. I mean the GOP is not the obstacle to his agenda. They have made it clear that they would filibuster a resolution to declare puppies cute, but that doesn't really matter, or at least it didn't for most of the last year.

The GOP has whole-heartedly embraced their irrelevance with proposals like a spending freeze, less banking regulation, and a “shadow budget” that raises most people’s taxes. If there was any chance of them being able to achieve these overwhelmingly unpopular, ill-advised objectives, I doubt they would still want to. And yet there are plenty of people listening to their cable news antics. The Stupacks and the Lincolns hear them loud and clear and are digging their heels in to have something to tell their angry, conservative-leaning constituents in November. When Obama talks about compromise and bipartisanship it means trying to placate both Democrats and conservative Democrats.

And yet Obama is actually accomplishing something. His policies have immediate benefits: a soldier comes home alive, a teacher keeps their job, a bridge doesn’t collapse. It is difficult to get excited about things being “less bad”, but it is none the less real. We are still waiting on health insurance reform, but it feels like we are going to get something, if not the public option that the vast majority of Obama's supporters, not to mention most Americans want. When HCR passes everyone who's been predicitng doom and gloom since Scott Brown's election will suddenly remember just how superhuman Obama is. Of course they will still be wrong.

I'd describe him as a cautiously effective centrist. Rahm Emanuel knows that the tasks set before his boss are too important to tackle boldly. It is more like a vicious uphill slog that we are slowly, painfully winning. Clearly everything that happens in Washington is a deal with the Devil, and it seems that Obama has made a calculation that to successfully fight the Neocons, health insurance providers, GM’s management, the Religious Right,and the conservative wing of his own party, he desperately needs the support of the pharmaceutical industry, the investment bankers and the military contractors. With friends like these…

Health Care Reform By Easter; Moscow By Secular Christmas

2010-03-03T23:23:00.019-05:00

Obama's recent speech was a remarkably good sign that this thing is in the bag, if only because he doesn't have the courage to stick his neck out unless it is a known outcome. This bill will not really affect most of us who get decent insurance through employers, but it should have a hugely positive effect on the slice of Americans who are being cut out by the current system either because of preexisting conditions, un(der)employment, or because their employer is too small to bargain for a decent plan.

And I hope this legislation is the first step towards something like the elusive "public option" and even single-payer. Yes, I'm saying it out loud, Michelle Bachmann is right; many supporters of this legislation do hope it will snowball into an eventual government takeover of health care. First we regulate the industry and set up "exchanges", then tomorrow we will have a public option, then with little or no fanfare you will wake up one morning to an essentially single payer system.

The way Bachmann and I see this happening is that a health plan run by the Federal government will be more popular and probably cheaper than private plans so private plans will go out of business. If you are a free-market ideologue you would know the outcome of this competition in advance: the back-asswardsness of public sector management would create a wasteful, bureaucratic, Kafkaesque nightmare of a health plan that wouldn't be nearly as attractive as the efficient, service-oriented system forged in the beneficent fires of the free-market. It seems pretty basic that you would only fear a public option if you actually thought it was going to be successful. Maybe Bachmann is a closet Marxist with her undue concern for the fate of private industry in the face of public competition. Her name does sound kind of foreign.

Obviously Medicare is popular because it is free, but it tends to get high marks for service too, and by any accounting, the government spends less money providing health insurance to senior citizens than private insurance companies charge healthy adults. A government run plan open to all citizens that charged self-sustaining premiums would presumably follow suit and most people would choose it over private plans. Only the very wealthy would choose very high-end private plans, which is certainly the American way. And insurance companies would have only their own greed and incompetence to blame for getting cut out. They should have taken a page from Hollywood's book and self-policed to keep The Man out. But Wall Street only sees the short game so here we are, very close to taking the first step towards what me and my new found comrade, Ms. Bachmann, predict will one day become something similar to single-payer health care. I love the smell of collective bargaining in the morning.

Don't Call It a Come Back

2010-02-21T14:45:00.002-05:00

Howdy,

It has been a while since I graced this site with a post, but here goes nothing. I am sitting at a Starbucks, because my internet is slow and I needed a change of scenery. I cannot discuss my work, but it is going well. Once I got over the initial freakout, I have felt able to handle the pressure. It is strange going into a store when you are deciding its fate in a law suit.
In terms of my personal life, things are just beginning to settle down. I have done a very bad job with the ladies. I feel destined to fail out of any relationship. I was not even dating my most recent epic failure. It might be my best "break up" yet. I got "dumped" on valentines day weekend after comming up from Puerto Rico. I always feel fine about ending relationships, when it is me doing the ending. It is my fault, because the last two times I got into something complicated with vague hopes of things working out. I plan to be done with that.
I have yet to properly explore the Island yet, I am waiting for visitors to go see the sights. I will have these in overwhelming numbers soon. I will be swamped the entire month of March. I dont know where everyone will sleep, but that problem will just have to work itself out. Look for my next post, I will explain about the PR pollicatical status.

Tiger Woods-Scott Lagos

2010-02-20T04:59:00.010-05:00

This was written one week ago. I was really busy this week and wanted to look at it again before I posted.

Okay. I know it's the Olympics. And I should just be focusing on the noble, pure Olympic athletes. Okay, the Olympic athletes, that haven't been sent home for playing with their bronze medal with young, innocent girls, Scott Lagos, you, perverted 22 year old! You don't pull up your shirt and you are probably still partying in BC.... that's Scott above and if any one actually read this blog, I'd probably get in trouble with TMZ for posting this pic...

I'm not sure if there was another picture too risque for TMZ to post. (I swear I'm not being sarcastic). If there was that picture then I guess Scott Lagos got unlucky, if not, and they didn't edit anything out, that's ridiculous. Obviously he is at a party or bar, there are lots of people around. I hope he didn't disrobe. He is young and the girl is obviously enjoying herself. what's wrong with that? Isn't the point of being an Olympic athlete, that you can party with hot girls (although personally I'd rate this girl around a 6, maybe 6.5; good for me, I hope an Olympic medalist could do better.) I wonder how many pictures there are of Alberto Tomba, a five time Olympic medalist, three time gold medalist (known as three and five also for another reason). Alberto bragged a normal night for him is to party till five with three women, the night before the Olympic race, he will mellow out and party only until three, but with five women....

besides, Tiger Woods apologized today, well yesterday (okay a week ago).

One complaint about Tiger Woods long awaited public apology is that it was during the Olympics and is taking away some of the spotlight from the Olympics. It seems to me that he did it to take away the spotlight from one of the sponsors that dropped him. Accenture, which hosted a major golf tournament last weekend. I think this is definitely a fair. If a sponsor dropped me, you bet, I'd screw it over every chance I got. The Olympics unfortunately happened to be at the same time.

Sometimes I feel people don't feel responsible for their behavior. If you paid attention to Tiger's apology it is because you wanted to. Notice the period at the end of that sentence. Notice how it is complete thought. Nothing else needs to go in that sentence. You might have chosen to pay attention because there was nothing better on, or because you really wanted to. If you did, you might still have watched as much tape-delayed Olympic coverage as you wanted and maybe even some live coverage (if you were lucky). If Tiger's apology made you not care about the Olympics, and that is entirely possible, there is nothing wrong with you or Tiger, as far as I am concerned. That's just the free market of interest working there.

Listen I understand if you are one of the people personally affected by Tiger's story, but I have no idea why you are reading this blog. I'm writing from my perspective. For me, Tiger's story is pure entertainment. It's a good story. It's interesting.

Here's a man, that was so successful in his career that he made a billion dollars. A billion dollars. Hitting a ball about the size of a human testicle (okay, two put together), into a hole (really a cup). You have to be really good at this thing to make a billion dollars. With this kind of success, girls seem to come easy to him or easy girls came on to him.

Although morally this may be wrong. At some point all guys fantasize about getting together with lots of women or men. For many straight guys this always remains a fantasy. It can be hard to hook up with women; especially women that aren't promiscuous. Will women actually find you attractive and be willing to put out? Some guys just don't have want it takes to get with lots of women. If lots of women want to have sex with you, generally as a guy, you don't turn them down.

So this is Tiger's tale, he married one woman and got with lots of other women. Lots of people knew about this before the story hit the public. They had kept hush hush. Being a billionaire, maybe you could do what you wanted. Finally his wife found out, and the sh-t hit the fan and golf fans. If you took a vacation to Mars, you might not know that Tiger took a hiatus from golf since Thanksgiving and has been in sexual addiction therapy for awhile now.

After months of letting the story stew without any remarks. Tiger finally issued an apology in a break from rehab. Commentators wondered whether his apology was sincere or fake. Was he really sorry for his behavior or just covering his ass. Did he feel like he let the public down or that his behavior is none of the public's business? or was he just embarrassed?

Whether his apology was sincere or not. Why limit your judgment to (his) words, tone of voice and body language. Why not just see what happens next? See what he does.

Tiger can reform. He can become a faithful family man. Or he can learn to use more discretion with his sexual conquests. Either way, I hope he gets back on the golf course and I never have to hear about his sex life again. Personally I hope he gets back with his wife and stays faithful. But if he is not happy with that, I understand. Many males aren't wired for monogamy.

As for why I am interested in his story, because I think for me, Tiger represents a generation of males. Males that would do exactly what Tiger did. Men who play video games or computer games, and swear on the golf course, and in some ways still act like they did in high school or even earlier. Men who would given the chance sleep with 14 women, even though they were married. I wonder what's going to happen to him (to us). Is Tiger and my DC roommates going to man up? or is this incident not really going to help him grow? I don't see how that can happen. That's growth, redemption is what I'm hoping to see and that's why I'm following his story.

Back to the Olympics.... So far: Bode Miller three medals, one gold. Lindsey Vonn, two medals one gold, and many good-looking bikini pics. Apollo Ono one. Scott Lagos one medal, one standby flight back to the States.

Best.
GCNOF

NBC Prejudice

2010-02-19T17:34:00.004-05:00

(caption) Lindsey Jacobellis, US Snowboarder, 2006 silver medalist; 2010 5th place.

I think NBC is prejudice against the unemployed, those that work evenings and weekends and (sometimes) those that live on the west coast. For example how can NBC, which shows the Olympics on Prime Time, and Tape Delayed the same events to TVs on the West Coast even though the actual events take place in Vancouver, which happens to be in the Pacific Time Zone.

I'm okay with scheduling events so they'll be live on the East Coast at a reasonable hour, but then please, show them live on the West Coast, too. It's not fair that the East Coast gets to hear Shaun White's coach swear, and then NBC edits out for the West Coast. I'm okay with the tape delay of figure skating, and cross country skiing.

Really, it's just the snowboarding and downhill skiing I care about. Now I can't check the Internet, because the results of say, Downhill Skiing or the Women's combined are posted around 12 p.m. on all the sports websites and the NBC telecast of those events are not until prime time 8-11 p.m. I have enough will power to avoid the Internet, if I know I'll get to see the events at 8. But say, I have to teach a class from 6-9 p.m, so I'm not sure I'll see the events on tv anyways. Then I might as well see what happens when it does. And if I'm at the gym, I can't watch any channel that has a footer with scores. That's how I heard about Lindsey Jacobellis's fall and Bode Miller's bronze.

Say, you are already behind in life, either you don't have a job, or you work nights and weekends, when most of your friends are free. It, life, already sucks. The least NBC could do, is show the events live. So you can watch the Olympics on TV when they actually happen and not worry about accidentally finding out the results on yahoo's sports page or ESPN. If you lost your job, you can console yourself by knowing that at least every two years, you'll have good day-time TV (The Olympics) to distract yourself from your troubles. Who knows, it might cut down on the people that fly planes into federal buildings (in Austin, TX)... at least during the two weeks of the Olympics.

as for me, I'm going to see what NBC website has to offer. As tonight, I'm going to miss NBC's telecast of the men's super G.

Best.
GCNOF

next post, more Olympic coverage. I'll talk about results, favorite events, and more.

ANTI DEPRESSANTS

2010-02-03T20:26:00.012-05:00

I thought I'd write about a Newsweek article on the effect (or lack of effect) of anti depressants. Given the likely readers, I think I'm talking to people (ok, I'm talking to one person, El Capitan) who don't have these issues, nonetheless, loyal followers of Georgetown Tales: Here goes...

The Newsweek article cited studies that suggest most of the effects of anti depressants in curing mild to moderate depression can be attributed to the placebo effect. The idea that you are taking something that can help your depression has just the same effectiveness in curing your depression as taking an anti depressant helps you. Considering that therapy helps much better than antidepressants for all but the most severe forms of depression, this lack of impact by the anti depressants is not really all that surprising. The debate is over whether to tell patients this and lose the placebo effect of the drugs, or just let the placebo effect of the drugs do the trick and let ignorance be bliss.

After reading several economics books that talk about how taking a $1 aspirin, helps more than a 10 cent one, I'm a firm believer in the power of the placebo. But, I'll warn you, as someone with a mental illness, just because it's just in your head, doesn't make it less real. Society use to stigmize those with cancer, because people didn't know what cancer really was. We now have a stigma with mental illness, depression, bipolar, schizophrenia, for the same reason. Finding out more about cancer, made it less stigmized; hopefully as we find out more about the brain and mental illnesses, we will erase the stigmism.

So, my recommendation is if you are depressed, see a therapist. Talk to someone (whose a professional). There are no side effects. If you have issues with getting help. You can be really open and joke and say you are seeing a "shrink", like Barbara Streisand in "Prince of Tides," and make a joke about it and remind everyone exactly where you are going or you can lie and say you have a weekly lunch or coffee date with your "friend," Lowenstein. If you choose this option, make sure no one is following you when you go to his or her office. I recommend wearing a disguise, even just a baseball hat and sunglasses. And make sure you don't put your guard down until it's just you and your therapist. You never know who you might see in the waiting room.

Therapy has definitely helped with my situation, but it didn't prevent my episodes. And unlike depression, the meds for serious mental illness are probably not much better than a placebo. The med I'm on, even says, it works, Eli Lilly is just not sure exactly why. This makes sense, because as far as I know, we (the best scientists/doctors in the world and, of course, me) don't know exactly what goes wrong in the first place. If you don't know what causes something to go wrong, it's kind of hard to fix it. Of course, everyone I know with a serious mental illness who changes meds has an episode and winds back up in the hospital. Could all this be because of the placebo effect?

Speaking of friends and hospitals. You can get an update of my friend, who I blogged about last week. Doug's posts are at http://www.dougmeron.blogspot.com/. He's in the hospital and am pretty sure he's not going to be let out any time soon. : -(.

Love to hear your thoughts on the anti depressant article, or any issue of mental health.

Finally, for anonymous, is this emo boy style thing a porn website, or is it to help us get some style so that we can become cool; and therefore, we will be able to pick-up hot chicks, have real sex and therefore not have to visit porn websites?

Peace, (used My friend, Doug and also, I think, cousin N)
GCNOF

Putting The Horse Before The Horse

2010-02-03T09:13:00.009-05:00

Here is an interesting bit from Israel's Defense Minister, the other Barak. He is concnerned that Israel may become an "undemocratic apartheid" state. What exactly does he think is going on right now? Possibly his reference to the obviously unpopular and failed South African system was a rhetorical point to signal his disaffection for the Israeli government's policies. An admission that the current state of affairs is neither moral nor practical is a good sign, especially from the military.

My friends visit

2010-01-29T17:40:00.002-05:00

I have been out of sorts a little bit. I was sick, then I was in Indiana, now my back hurts, and I've lost my voice. but I am feeling better. My friend, D, visited me right when I got back from Indiana and that was a mistake. It was nice to see him, but I was tired and he was episodotic. (he is now in the hospital doing a drug study and getting paid hundreds as oppose to having to pay thousands, if he just was a regular patients). But it was really interesting being with him and seeing how much fun he had.

My friend, just has a way of talking to strangers. He brought a bunch of homeless kids pizza. (So they could spend their money on drugs, I presume. It is berkeley after all). We were at the coffee shop and he starts a conversation with a homeless native american guy and really connects with him. I felt sorry that we were going to a warm house and this guy is looking for the best place to sleep not sure he could sneak on BART and sleep in a train or something.

after the coffee shop, we were taking BART back home and we had 15 minutes tell the next train. I was discouraged, but my friend said, no, let's talk to someone, people are lonely. so while I was pretending not to notice my friend, he went up to a cool looking guy, starting a conversation with him. at first the guy was like, what do you want? but after realizing my friend just wanted to connect, he engaged in the conversation. and then once it was "safe" I joined in. a little. I think my friend talked to like 8 or 9 different strangers over his stay with me. and his illusions of the world fit right in with the disillusionment of Berkeley. He would say, "the man is out to get you and me." and the Berkeley locals would say, "yes, he is". although my friend meant it literally. and I am guessing both of the groups have no idea of who or what the "man" really is.

but, I'll volunteer for the position, if no one else wants it. I'll be the man. you can blame me for your problems. I can take it. and if you tell me your woes, I'm pretty bright and have been around the block (a few times). maybe I can help you to help yourself, so you will stop blaming me for your problems. but I understand, I could solve your problems, I just choose not to, most of the time.

so even though my back hurts, I have a cold, and I canceled a trip to LA this weekend, I am good.

thanks to anonymous for increasing our website visits and for giving us such legitimate and scrupulous opportunities to increase our wealth. you were anonymous, because you didn't want the credit for the mitzvah, which is even more honorable.

: - ).

Cheers (as swimmer A-Train would say)

GCNOF

Why Health Care Reform Is Difficult

2010-01-21T08:55:00.013-05:00

Talking Points Memo put up an interesting pos t on why national Democrats are often ineffective when it comes to big policy goals, like health care reform. The commentor's point is that Democrats represent a large number of interest groups and are better at acting in opposition to policies that a wide majority of their constituents dislike, than they are at crafting policies that please enough of their backers without alienating anyone.

He also accuses Obama of missing a strategic opportunity in the wake of one of the most unpopular presidents in history, to consistently paint the entire GOP as "Bush Republicans".

His critique is probably accurate. It also is another way of saying that Democrats act like adults who represent large portions of our society's interests, with the corollary that Republican stock in trade is ad hominem attacks to push the agenda of a very narrow group.

Spam Sucess Stories Revisited!

2010-01-06T21:36:00.014-05:00

Thank you readers for responding to our request for true life spam success stories. We were literally deluged with your letters of concern and condolence. However, we were hoping for emails of what happened when you replied to internet spam. A couple of you managed to stay on topic so here goes:

Have you ever responded to "Hot Girls" who may "Want to Meet You", and actually met them?

Dear GTT:
I have responded to numerous solicitations to “Meet Hot Girls”, and it has mostly turned out great. The women in question tend to be surprisingly happy to meet me and I have had lots of relations with a variety of highly attractive ladies, very few of whom have later appeared on talk shows. I hide my indiscretions from my wife by telling her I am golfing (I am pretty good) so she has remained more or less blissfully ignorant. That is, until recently when she went a little Babe Ruth on my whip. But I am not too worried. I am a pretty focused person who can usually accomplish whatever task I set my mind to. I am still working out all the angles on this particular issue, but I am confident I can knock this one back onto the green. Or at least continue to see my kids. Maybe on weekends. So, again, not saying it’s totally consequence free, but overall, pretty happy with the whole “Hot Girls Want To Meet You” thing.
Yours, T

Ever gotten free stuff in response to a spam e-mail? Tell us about it.

It sounds too good to be true, but all I had to do was type my credit card numbers, SS# and address into this website: https://www.eswearthisisntas.cam
It turns out I had the winning numbers so now I will be receiving free Viagra and free Breast Enhancement Cream! Seems a little redundant doesn’t it?
-John Q. Gullible

If you are making $100-$200 a day from your home, please let us know how that's going and what you actually do?

It’s true! I make at least this much every day without leaving the comfort of my bedroom, or sometimes my boyfriend drops me off at a motel.
-Peaches

Gotten money from Bill Gates for buying a Windows product? or gotten a free vacation? or gotten to test and keep (for free) the latest in electronic gadgetry?

Dear Unwashed Masses,
Please, please stop emailing me about this. I mean really…stop it. I know that I am a little smarter than most people, but how dumb do you have to be? Yet my inbox is clogged every single morning! I have to change my MSN address like twice a week. It is really getting to be a problem. So let me put this out there: don’t ever respond to any internet promotion containing the words “Bill", "Gates" and "Free”. Please. In fact, unless you are my wife, my girlfriend, my accountant or CEO of a company named after a piece of fruit, then you can feel confident that I don’t want to hear from you. Really. I mean it! Thanks.
-W. Gates

Has anyone ever been generously given a winning a lottery ticket or been sent money from a dead relative that you didn't know existed? What are you doing with your millions?

To Whom Is Concerned,
This has all happened to me many times over and some more! You will be happy to meet my positive experiences with TrustTrueNexTechHappyCatCo. The corporation formerly known as TrustTrueNexTechHappyCatCo is the best place for giving them and us your money. TrustTrueNexTechHappyCatCo will invest your savings of life in a diversified portfolio of opportunities and risk-chances that could see one or the other of us rich! rIch! RIICh! rR1Ch!!!!! RICH.rtf
-Charles Dickens
Lagos, Nigeria

The Face of Spam

2009-12-23T19:01:00.009-05:00

Thank you readers for your wonderful submissions of Spam success stories. This is a follow up to El Capitan's printing of your responses.

Since I asked our readers their experience with Spam. I thought I would do some follow up and really investigate this issue. So I set my sights on the Spam King, and the Can-Spam law. Did you know that 80% of Spam is sent by only 135 people? They may be small in number, but powerful in deed. (of course I'm not sure this limited to the US or World Wide.) So I'm not sure if there are 135 Spam Kings in the U.S. or in the whole world. either way this fits Malcolm Gladwell's Tipping Point theory that a small number of people are involved in most of the real action.

The official definition of illegal Spamming is sending e-mails from other people's accounts, usually by means of a virus or an unsecure network, crafting messages to disguise the origin, falsifying the headers, or creating five or more e-mail accounts with fake names or five IP addresses and spamming from them.

So if you want to avoid the CAN-SPAM Act, four is the golden number for your Spam operation.*
Four e-mail accounts and four IP addresses. Of course if you limit yourself to four, you probably won't be sending billions of Spam e-mails or making $18,000 (a year in US dollars).
(from http://itknowledgeexchange.techtarget.com/security-bytes/japanese-spam-king-arrested/)

Not all Spammers that get caught, are just your basic white collar criminals.

for a morbid and somber Spam King story: see.
http://www.rockymountainnews.com/news/2008/jul/24/20080725_C6LO_BENNETT/

On that, Spam is just a slight hiccup when considering the positives of new technology.

Thank you, Internet for we take the good with the bad, allowing us to gain inheritance from dead relatives we never knew we had or helping out a stranger with a winning lottery ticket. Thank you for the free stuff. Free Porn. Which in my opinion has completed screwed up a generation of young men. Free news articles (so we can help the newspapers go out of business, and force alcoholic journalists to find a job that pays more so that don't have as much to gripe about when they go to a bar).

So Thank you, Al Gore. (j/k). Really, thank you Bill Joy and others lucky to be born in 1954-1956, nerdy, and willing to forgo sex with hot co-eds in the seventies (when everyone was just giving it away), to put in over 10,000 hours of programming (in front of awfully slow computers) to make the internet what it is today.

I might be wrong about the sex, I'm basing my judgment solely on my impression of computer "geeks" from 80s movies, like "Revenge of the Nerds." Well, maybe the computer guys weren't forgoing sex. Perhaps, in the seventies there was true equality, and even computer nerds got laid... (just during the day, when they were not programming.)

*Four besides being the ideal number for Spammers is also the number of wives you can have in Muslim culture (definitely the biggest draw in converting to Islam... at least for guys.) of course you have to wake up at dawn, pray throughout the day, live with people that only know the Koran and nothing else, rely on handouts from people that sell oil and might have to kill your daughter if she doesn't wear the right clothing, gets raped, has sex or even just goes on "dates" without your consent.

and I'm not even mentioning that you have to live and submit to the rules of completely nuts, power hungry undeserving dogmatic and delusional fellow Muslims. They might be using Russian (Soviet Union) or US made arms to intimidate or kill you, because they see you as a rival, you forgot to follow one of the Islam's rules or they were just having a bad day.

but you get four wives! tough call. maybe there are many Muslim men out there, completely reasonable citizens of the world: for peace, conserving the environment, social justice, educating the young, that just going along with the fanatical religion thing, oppressive government, etc. because they have four hot or at worse still attractive wives (at the same time). and they know that with all our freedoms, in the United States, you get in trouble if you have more than one wife (at a time).

or you could live in the Muslim world for a few years get married (four times) and move to GB (Great Britain). Do you think they have just one bride per wedding at a time? or do they sometimes double or triple-team it, or even go for the whole shebang all at once?

http://www.thesun.co.uk/sol/homepage/news/columnists/fergus_shanahan/790620/Columnist-Fergus-Shanahan-Bed-hoppers-are-screwing-us-all.html

Peace out.
GCNOF.

RIP Frank McCourt

2009-12-22T15:36:00.005-05:00

I just realized Frank McCourt passed away this year. July 19, 2009. I wondered if I missed it at the time or just forgot? It was the weekend of my Tahoe Swim Relay.

I read his ob piece in the New York Times.

here it is...

http://www.nytimes.com/2009/07/20/books/20mccourt.html

I enjoyed his books tremendously. I read all three. Angela's Ashes, 'Tis, and Teacher Man.
If I ever write a memoir it will be because of him. (ok, a little melodramatic; exaggerated.)
I also like how he writes about his teaching. To McCourt! If you haven't read his work you're missing out. No one does childhood or adult life, quite like the Irish. And McCourt captures it beautifully and memorably.

And remember to share with us at Georgetown Tales, your Spam stories. (Georgetown Tales is not liable for any harm to persons, possessions or computers, resulting from investigations into your Spam e-mail. You do that at your own risk. We especially caution against traveling to Nigeria to gain inheritance or to attend funeral proceedings for dead relatives [that are not on your family tree]). Nonetheless, we relish in hearing your stories.

Spam: Internet Success Stories

2009-12-21T16:36:00.009-05:00

I write today. First I would I like to thank all our anonymous readers out there, for making it seem like we have more readers than we actually do. Even if you just are trying to get us to by Viagra, or separate us from our money for no worthwhile product. We really need to make it look like this blog is the blog to read.

So (as long as you count on our counter) Spam away!

[I was like 8 comments on my blog. I don't know if I have eight friends that read this blog.]
(as if) R.I.P.B.M.

We, here at Georgetown Tales, know that hot girls (not married to us) don't really want to see us. Unless, we spend lots of money on them or are Tiger Woods (I think even he had to spend lots of money on them, but maybe that's just a rumor). People do not want to give us money for nothing. Nor do they want to give us "free laptops", "free ipods" or "free trips to the Bahamas". Bill Gates doesn't want to help the economy, simply by giving away his money to all Americans. That's just not his style.

People may make $200/day working for home. But I'm not sure how that works. and somehow I know I would wind up on the shorthand of the stick or maybe I would become another Spammer. Besides, I already work for "the man." and the worst part is that my particular "man" isn't doing that well in this economy.

I don't want to try products for free. Because I have a tough enough time ending relationships as it is. and I don't want to go to the hassle of canceling after receiving your product. Plus there is the off chance, you'll charge my credit card. (and thanks S C D), it happened once and took me two months to clear the charges.

But Spammers, Spam away. We have a symbiotic relationship. Readers, if something seems so good that besides your better judgment you have to check it out, go ahead and click on it!

From personal experience, just don't give away your e-mail address and use a public computer. That way if you get a virus, you'll cause problems for a whole public computer system, at the library or a school as opposed to your own.

But don't do it at work, you might get fired.

So Readers, we, at Georgetown Tales, are having a world-wide search.

If you have ever soliticited hot girls, and actually met them or gotten a free product in response to a Spam e-mail. Please let us know. How many other products did you have to buy? how long did it take?

We, here at Georgetown Tales, are very curious. if you are making $100-$200 a day from your home, please let us know how that's going and what you actually do. Gotten money from Bill Gates for buying a Windows product? or gotten a free vacation? or gotten to test and keep (for free) the latest in electronic gadgetry?

And of course, I'm forgetting the big ones: who's been generously given a winning a lottery ticket or sent money from a dead relative? (that you didn't even know you had) preferably one that was living in Nigeria. please share your success story. what are you doing with the millions of dollars?

Loyal readers, in my next week's column I'll write some of internet Spam's success stories. The lottery winners of the internet age. They didn't even need to buy a ticket!

Of course, if you've had a Spam disaster, please tell us to. What happened, what are were the consequences?

You can read our Spam success stories and learn where you went wrong. Maybe you too can meet hot, local, young women or get to test and keep a new flatscreen TV.

Find out what it is exactly that separates Spam disaster from Spam success in next week's column.

(no guarantees, when that column will actually appear).

-GCNOF

writer's block

2009-11-04T18:29:00.003-05:00

Things have a way of working out, I was out of work and now have a calculus student. I face a major decision. stay in California and (possibly) finish my Master's in statistics or leave to work as a writer. which maybe in DC or really anywhere.

It would be nice to change just a little bit. stay in California, but become a writer and still finish my Master's Degree in Statistics. moving across the country for a job, sounds kinda of risky, even if it is a place I know, like DC. too bad, I didn't get a writing job while I was living there the first time, maybe I would have never moved back.

DC is probably the most appealing city for me to move. I had quite a few friends in DC. and they have a good ultimate frisbee league. it's close to philly and my other relatives there. I could get back into that. I was happy there. I won't need a car, but I am hesitant to move. I like Lafayette, and California even though I was happy in DC, except about missing home and my social connections in Lafayette aren't that great, mainly old friends that I hang out with. I just like the hills, the weather and the vacation spots (Tahoe, the Pacific, San Francisc0).

I thought I would blog about this. I would like to be a journalist that focused on the science/break down the science for the common folk. I wouldn't have to be the expert. I could bring in other people that really knew the issues, like a statistician with a PhD., but I know enough about it, I think to be able to ask the right questions to an expert.

I think that is what I want to do, be a journalist. at least for today. fight misinformation. encourage children and young adults to value their mind. make thinking cool again. I guess if I am really serious about this, I need to write more.

here's my first blog in ages. I would love the peanut gallery to comment on my blog. stay in CA. move to greener pastures, DC or somewhere else, with a fresh start. I think getting a degree in statistics might help. it would be cool to move out of my parents' house. I'm about the right age for that to happen.

Why Facebook is like high school all over again

2009-08-21T01:06:00.002-05:00

Hey it's that time of the month again. Yeah, time for my monthly blog update. Yay. Great. get excited.

ok now that you're excited. I'm tired and I have a little over a week to do a take home final for a class I got an incomplete two years ago. so at least I'm working on it. I think I still have a chance to get an "A". If so, I can reapply to the grad program in statistics. If I fail (not get an A). I promise to blog religiously. because I think writing is my only real love. I would call it a talent, but I'm not sure how talently I am. besides does the world really need another blogger? ok, I don't really care. I'd like to be that superfluous blogger that doesn't change the world in any way, maybe even making the world a little worse, annoying people, sharing stuff that shouldn't be shared, like vomiting, porn and masterbating. destroying the moral fabric of the next generation of Americans and all world citizens. but at least gets to write whatever he wants and that pays the bills.

speaking of which, yesterday was an eventful day for me. I saw a homeless guy, with a sign, "spare some change for a hooker, I'm sick of masterbating". I pretended that wasn't funny or unusual at all, just kinda of ignoring the guy, but I was definitely amused. these guys (homeless guys) scare me, but so does pretty much anyone "hanging out". I never learned that in junior high or high school or college. I don't know how to hang out and check out chicks walking by. I want to learn. can anyone teach me?

the other eventful occurrence yesterday was that I startle a skunk on my bike ride home (at ten pm.) luckily I didn't get sprayed, but I was worried.

I'm having a problem teaching, and this was actually something that initially stopped me from being a teacher. I get nervous around hot students, it kinda of inhibits my teaching. It's not that I have inappropriate thoughts. It's just that it's always been hard for me to communicate around and to attractive women, which is what teachers do. It's hard having hot girls in your class, I try not to stare, I hope I don't look at them disportionately to the other students. I have two weekend classes, which sucks, I hate having no weekend. it's hard to have as much fun during the week.

in addition to teaching, I've been using facebook. the positives you can reconnect with old friends. the negatives, everyone else is also there, kinda of like high school. it can be kinda of awkward. do I add this person or that person? I almost always say yes, if someone adds me, but I rarely add people unless I was really close to them. it's still awkward. there are times in my life that I would like to forget. facebook reminds me of those times. of course there are people that I would like to reconnect with, and facebook gives me that opportunity as well. it's a definitely a mixed blessing. I guess I kinda of live in an imaginary world, where there are only people I like in it, and the people that were just ok, don't exist. maybe I should accept that there are people in the world, classmates, that I'm just not friends with and that's ok. I still need to participate.

but, I do feel bad for high schoolers, that do most of their socializing on facebook. I hope that get to hang out in person enough. because ultimately internet connections just don't measure up to real life experiences.

I'm glad I didn't have the internet when I was in high school. I probably would have been whacking off to internet porn in high school and probably won't have been playing water polo or wrestling. who knows what would have happened to me? maybe I would be 33 with no car and still living with my parents. ok, I guess, it actually might not have made my life any worse. I definitely should have done more drugs, at least at this point. it couldn't have hurt.

GCNOF, Signing off, see you in September.

Erasing old voice mail

2009-07-10T03:19:00.004-05:00

Hey all, I'm blogging again too. woo hoo.

Nothing too exciting. I deleted my voice messages today, from the last two months. There was the undergrad engineering student in my stats class that asked for my help with minitab, that I help only once.

That got me thinking: There was this older guy, seventy, kind of hard of hearing, definitely very social unaware, interrupting the professor, asking really random questions and random answers, who seem to be from the middle east. Even the professor told me how annoyed she was by him.

But after reading Kite Runner, I don't want to rule out that any older immigrant may have been in a position of power or a prominent figure in the community, who was forced by war to become, just another poor working class immigrant in the U.S. I love how reading can expand your mind and expose you to a deeper awareness.

I know in class this man had a fondness for generals. His statistics knowledge was great, but he was scared to use the computer. I wish he were able to get more help, I wish I was able to help him, but alas I was struggling to do just my own work. I wanted to him ask what he did back in his home country, but never got the chance. Maybe he will be in my program, if I ever get back in.

Then was also the phone message about the interview for the lab manager position at Stanford. That was a disaster. The first question was a killer, "Why is there a four year gap on your resume?" I never recovered. I don't know why they brought me in. but it wouldn't have been a good job for me, it was too far away and it wasn't going to be exciting enough.

Besides, I've got some work. I'm teaching my first GRE course on Sunday. hopefully I'll be prepared. there was also the message about ACT tutoring that I couldn't take, because The Review didn't train me to teach the ACT. next time, I'm just going to lie and say that I can teach it, buy a book, take the business and don't tell the Review. Please, if you work for the Review (Big Brother), please make a comment on my blog, so I know not to share. so far I swear, I haven't done anything inappropriate professionally.

E.g. Facebook says I should add a cute former student as a friend, but I have no idea why it suggests her? seems kind of random to me, thoughts on why it suggests her as a friend to me? those that have facebook expertise please chime in. don't worry, I'm not going to add her. although she is legal. Peace out. Safe travels. Safe parenting.

Musings on My first day in Ho Chi Minh City

2009-07-08T06:54:00.006-05:00

The first thing you notice is the traffic. I don’t understand how half the city’s population has not been maimed or killed in a traffic accident. "Utterly crazy", does not even begin to describe the situation. It helps to understand that there are eight million people in Ho Chi Minh, and five million scooters. All the drivers care about is getting from point A to B as quickly as possible.
Almost anything is fair game on the road or sidewalk. Yes, the cars and scooters will go up on the sidewalk without warning. That is just how they roll. Walking is an extreme sport when you are in Ho Chi Minh.
Scooters are also willing to drive head first into oncoming traffic. If the scooter wants to go to a store on the other side on the street they just start going into oncoming traffic like it is no big deal. Magically, the cars and other scooters just go around them like there is nothing out of the ordinary. I was in a taxi today and we had scooters going the wrong way on either side of us.
However, nothing quite compares to the task of crossing the street. Possibly it is like the scene in Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade where Indy has to cross the invisible bridge using his faith. When you cross the street, you just start walking into traffic with the understanding that everything will probably avoid running you over. You literally just start walking into the intersection regardless of the traffic. As long as you steadily walk forward you are safe; if you hesitate you are more likely to get hit. More to come.
Peace Out

This is Why I'm Phat

2009-07-07T23:44:00.011-05:00

The Good Word on Pork Rinds

We all had a superior 4th of July in Missouri, especially the shortest member of the family. My uncle got us box seats to a farm-league ball game and my cousins set off some alarmingly big fireworks. That is how they do in the MO. And of course the food was great. My cousins actually made their own orange-infused, ho-made marshmellows for ho-made rocky-road ice cream (more on this see PurpleHouseDirt).

Another notable comestible was born in a moment of whimsy when a day-old, half-eaten bag of pork rinds happened to be sitting on the counter next to the bowl of excess hollandaise sauce. The newest addition to the Comfort-Fusion pantheon.

The Obama Report Card

2009-06-29T22:32:00.006-05:00

Iraq: C-
Plans to reduce troops to 50K. Much more than the 10K he spoke of on the campaign trail, but a step in the right direction. We are pulling out of the cities, which is to say, instead of being targets in a slow-burning civil war, we will now be sitting idly on the sidelines. So what are those 50K troops for? Secure Iraq’s (Exxon’s) oil fields? Keep employment numbers up? Make funny faces at Iran?

Afghanistan: B-
Will increase troops and try to implement a smarter policy that relies less on bombs and more on engaging (bribing?) local leaders and securing (depopulating?)border with Pakistan. That would be nice. Maybe if instead of 40K more soldiers than promised were left in Iraq, he sent 40K engineers to Afghanistan to build infrastucture, we might have more luck winning hearts and minds. Apparently is far too much to ask that Afghanistan be democratic or that women be given any civil rights or that it not flood the world with cheap heroin. If we could accomplish the single task of not allowing Al Queda a safe-haven, we would at least be looking out for our own interests, if not the Afghanis’.

Torture: C-
Has (re)outlawed torture, but will not pursue an investigation to put the crimes of the previous administration into the public record, much less bring charges against anyone. At least now when the CIA tortures people, they are supposed feel bad about it.

Energy: B+
Strong support for the Cap/Trade Energy bill in the House. Conservative critics say it is too expensive and liberal critics say it is too weak. So, by the Goldilocks theory of political negotiation, it is probably just right. The question is, will it make it though the Senate? Hopefully it will work in tandem with the Stimulus Bill's promotion of green entrepreneurship. If we can export cutting edge energy technology to Europe, Asia and burgeoning economies around the world, and the Energy Bill puts some modicum of brakes on carbon emissions, we can save the world and our own bottom line.

Government Secrecy: F
Has already used the same twisted logic that Bush’s lawyers came up with to stonewall judicial orders. As with our presence in Iraq and the CIA’s actual torture policies, it is a foregone conclusion that the President is above the law. It doesn’t matter how obviously unconstitutional it is, how many Americans disagree with it or whether a Democrat, a Republican, or for that matter a Whig is in office, they will always lie, cheat and steal.

TARP/Bailout: F
I don't have a problem with Obama giving money to the States to spend on our country as our citizens see fit. It is all the money going to private businesses (GM, AIG, Goldman Sachs, Fannie Mae, etc...) that I find criminal. FOX News calls Obama a “Socialist”, but that implies our cash was buying us some control over these companies that are supposedly so necessary. Honestly, at this point, a little genuine populist tyranny would be refreshing. But I don’t see anyone making decisions about the use of private capital for public good; I just see old friends divvy up almost a trillion dollars between themselves. The Federal Reserve/Treasury/FDIC’s power-grab isn’t ambitious enough to be real Socialism or even Fascism, it’s more like cronyism hiding in plain sight: you scratch my back and I cut you a check from the public til. To put it another way, if giving away a couple hundred billion dollars gave Obama the political leverage to give the SEC some teeth, you could call the TARP the price of doing business, but it seems like there will never be the resources to investigate even obvious fraud, rating agencies and auditors will always operate with systematic (profitable) conflicts of interest and the guy asleep at the wheel will always have a 24 karat air-bag. Where is Naomi Klein with a little outrage at the manipulation of a national crisis for narrow personal gain?

Guantanamo: F
Will eventually close our Carribean gulag. Has already made it clear that a change of venue will not affect the underlying policy of holding foreigners in solitary confinement forever without any due process because our immoral, illegal, counter-productive policies have made it impossible to convict them in even the most biased court.. A the end of the day he seems to be saying: “I didn’t make this mess, so you can’t really hold it against me if I can’t fix it”. Possibly things will change on a “going forward” basis, but that would require the CIA to act thoughtfully in the interest of our national security.

North Korea: A
Unlike the “hawkish” previous administration that shot our wad occupying the one place in the Middle East we knew Bin Laden isn’t hiding, the one place that actually lets UN inspectors in, the one place where we already maintained a no-fly zone and a tight embargo, Obama is using our navy against a country that actually has WMDs and is dying to sell them to the highest bidder. If we start policing North Korean shipping, will they retaliate against South Korea or Japan? How committed should we be if the North Koreans try to escalate the issue? Conversely, will our best efforts at interdiction be enough to stop them from selling missles or nerve gas? And while we are playing bad cop with one hand, should we also send them food aid to relieve some of the pressure on their government and move them towards something like détente, or is that just encouraging dangerous actions? It is a complicated situation that has real consequences for our long-term security and I am not sure what the right answer is, but at least the policy bears some relationship to it’s stated aims.

Health Care: B+
This, along with energy policy, is his real test. He seems to be standing firm on his support of a publicly funded competition to HMOs, which is probably the straightest line to decent medical coverage for every citizen. Like the energy bill, we’ll have to see what happens in the Senate. If he can lead the Congress to some version of socialized medicine, that will be his permanent legacy and all else will most likely be forgiven. If he fails the history books will only have a sentence or two about his background and his eloquence, characteristics that are incidental to leadership. But if he succeeds he will be remembered as an FDR with a jump shot, or a JFK with actual accomplishments... BHO, a man for the ages. I am not holding my breath, but I am keeping my fingers crossed.

Toxic Avenger

2009-03-24T00:50:00.035-05:00

Everyone is in agreement that something has to be done There also seems to be agreement that the root problem is a bunch of banks are going bust because they made bets on housing prices increasing and then double-downed on those bets and even 35-downed. Unfortunately for the rest of us, those banks were necessary to make loans that help businesses make things and help people buy those things.

But what to do exactly to encourage lending, rebuild confidence and help our country out of this current re(de)ce(pre)ssion? Bobby Jindal wants deregulation and a decrease in capital gains tax. He also salivates when he hears a bell. Ron Paul, if anyone asked him, would probably recommend buying gold and twiddling our thumbs. Among more proactive people there are two main views:

On the one hand you have the “Swedish “ (Swiss?) nationalization model: the Treasury takes over our most insolvent lending institutions and sells off their remaining valuable parts to other, more sound banks, who presumably would use those assets to capitalize loans to consumers and businesses, as it should be.

This plan has the drawback that for a time the government would be running previously private institutions. Most people agree that managing private banks is not something the government would be very good at. However, in the current situation, the Treasury Department probably couldn’t do a worse job than the private owners who drove these institutions into the ground.

Another drawback is that shareholders would lose a lot of value when the banks' assets are sold off in an auction that would resemble a fire sale. Some of these shareholders are the fabulously wealthy jerks who caused this mess, but many of them are your and Jon Stewart’s mother(s) who indirectly own stock through their pension.

As Arianna Huffington and Paul Krugman have pointed out, this loss is unfortunate and probably inevitable. If these banks are truly insolvent then nothing will make them solvent. That is a fact that no amount of clever financial shenanigans can defactify. However, Tim Geithner is willing to try.

The Treasury Secrety's plan is the other idea that is actually happening and as far as I can tell is really terrible. First the name: "The Toxic Assets Plan”. Is it a plan for toxic assets or a toxic plan for assets? Maybe a little bit of both.

Essentially, in the interest of avoiding nationalization, Geithner wants to help banks resell the assets that ruined them. Sort of like if your friend steps in dog shit so, to help him out, you lick his shoe. The Treasury will set up a government subsidized auction to encourage private investors to buy “toxic” (misunderstood?) assets from “ailing” (sneezy?) banks.

The nuts and bolts of how the government will encourage money managers to buy mortgage-backed securities from investment banks is described in a Time article:
an investor could put up $6, get matching investments from the Treasury for another $6, then obtain loan financing of $72 from the FDIC. This would allow the investor to purchase a security with an $84 auction price.

The loan from the FDIC would be collateralized by the security so, if the security turns out to be worthless, then the taxpayer is on the hook for the majority of the cost.

To put it in perspective, investors will be leveraged 6/1, which is pretty timid for a hedge fund, but this is solely for securities that are publicly acknowledged to possibly be nearly worthless. It is called “Toxic Assets Plan”; how much value does anyone think they will get? And if the securities turn out to be in fact worthless and the investor defaults on their FDIC loan, then the tax payer eats a total of 78 dollars to the investor’s 6. Not so risky after all, especially if they have already sold the security to a mutual fund in your 401K and charged a fee for the service.

As far as I can tell, the only real strength to Geithner’s plan is that Eric Cantor hates it. The minority whip is quoted in a Huff Post article saying:
As described, the plan seems to offer little incentive for private investors to participate unless the subsidy is made so rich that it comes at the expense of the taxpayer

It is probably the most coherent sentence he has ever uttered, and I can only agree. The banks wouldn’t be in such hot water if these securities were actually worth anything so paying people to buy them doesn’t make a lot of sense to me.

To recap: investment bankers ruined our economy by buying worthless securities with borrowed money. To fix the situation, the government is... encouraging people to buy the same securities with borrowed money. The irony is thick enough to cut with a chainsaw.

10/31 update: Nobel Prize Winner totally agrees with me

broken strings

2009-03-20T04:02:00.007-05:00

Notice I'm in a good mood? (rhetorical question, how could you?) I'm listening to James Morrison's Broken Strings (featuring Nelly Furtado), for like the tenth time in a row. I plan to play this song until I'm sick of it or have to go to bed, whichever happens first.

I'm still in a relationship with GD (initials changed to protect the innocent). It's on again. I wonder if the only way this woman won't let me go, is that I'm not that into her, and therefore, I'm setting good boundaries. If I'm ever in different relationship, it will be a good model to emulate. at least that's what I think. Don't be that into her and basically do what I want and make sure to do things without her, don't care what she thinks (about me), be relaxed, have no fear of rejection, just be comfortable.... of course this has created a problem on its own... especially as I have gotten further into the relationship. I do have this fear.... ideally there is this thing called love. You know where you give all of yourself to someone and they do likewise to you.

I'm guessing, just guessing, but that connection makes sex, seem like a PC compared to a Mac or a Pontiac Fiat compared to a Ferrari, or that Mercury coupe that they don't make anymore compared to a Madza Miata. Or the BCS college bowl games compared to March Madness. (sorry having too much fun with these analogies). or Jennifer Love Hewitt horror movies compared to Neve Campbell horror movies. or Kaplan compared to The Princeton Review (although Kaplan does hook its employees up with free movie previews).

back to the point I was making about love and my current relationship. I think it will be hard to build a foundation of trust, real trust and commitment necessary for, you know, the heavens open up and a white light shines through, kind of love, I was kinda hoping for (think the scenes in Ghost, when a person dies and his or her soul gets into heaven. and the white light shines down). Just because, it is based on me, pretty much not caring. I don't know, maybe I will start to care... I don't know. GD, certainly has a good strategy, make me stay around until I figure out that I need to care and start worrying about what she thinks, either then maybe we can have that "Ghost" type of connection. or maybe she decides I was a much better BF to her, when I didn't care. I guess this will be good information to have either way.

Broken Strings, by James Morrison, check it out on Youtube. I'm listening it to one last time, and then I'm going to bed. Peace out. maybe I really will start to blog more regularly. I don't even remember what my other resolutions were, oh yeah. get a regular job. and move out of my parent's house... like that will ever happen.

Not Sushi

2009-03-20T02:02:00.036-05:00

Snapsan, Kraklesan, Popsan

We made a bunch of sushi a couple weekends ago. People wolfed it down so fast I didn't get any pictures. Most people made veggie rolls, some of which we "tempuraed" - the Japanese equivalent of a scotch egg. But that is not our story today...

The next day I had a lot of left over sticky rice which got me thinking of different kinds of non-sushi foods that you could make into rice covered rolls. I should back up for a moment and mention that someone brought rice-crispy-treat fruishi (fantastic, see above) to dinner so not-sushi was already in the air. I started traditional: musubi (in honor of our new prez) and noodle rolls (not so good, but ramen was a dime a piece). Then I took a sharp left...

First I made a batch of mac and cheese and let it congeal in the fridge (It is very rare that a recipe with the word "congeal" is any good, but bare with me). Then I mixed up some raw meatloaf, smooshed it into a rough approximation of a square sheet between two pieces of wax paper and rolled up the mac and cheese. About 15 min in the oven, slice, serve with ketchup and the Comfort-Fusion movement is born.

For my next trick I went back to fundamentals: I started with a square of pressed out sticky rice. But instead of Japanese ingredients, I rolled up slices of braunschweiger, slivered pickle and a long squirt of mustard. Ladies and germs, I give you:
The Axis Roll!

Resolution fatigue

2009-02-28T23:14:00.004-05:00

Every year, I plan on writing more. It's been my new year's resolution for the last few years. Yet here I am, writing quite a few times in January and then totally slacking off. Even people that plan to work out in the New Year usually go to the gym at least through mid-February.

Things are the same here. But different. I always wondered if I would overcome my dark-side thoughts. (more on that later). or whether I would just forget about them or they would magically go away. You know the thoughts about life, what I would do with my life, making decisions. I don't usually stand pat. although I make some good decisions. I. Hereby. Swear. That tomorrow will be different than today. Don't we always say that? Every day I hope to conquer the world, and then something comes up and I go back to my shell or at least near it. (It's not quite as bad as it sounds, over the years I've developed quite a large, roomy shell.) Tomorrow. Tonight, I seriously look into getting out of the parent's house. how long exactly did Costanza, stay with his parents?

on that note... Sorry friends and family on the East Coast. I probably will be relocating to somewhere in the Bay Area, so I can finish my Master's degree. Why? I don't really know. But hopefully soon. ok, realistically, maybe in the next year or two?

It's just so hard figuring out my place in the world, from where I imagined I would be, where I'll actually wind up. I've always wanted to do something great and quite frankly biostatistician or statistician for a psychology program doesn't really fit the bill. Being a teacher, at least you have the potential to do great things. enough of this. For you loyal readers, this is one of the first blogs that wasn't an impulse. I saved it for three weeks before publishing it. Usually when this happens, I don't bother publishing it. consider it a b-side record or an unpublished manuscript, that you get to see, even before I get desperate for money (b-side record) or you know, pass away (unpublished manuscript).

by the way, I've very superstititious about talking about my own mortality. Is it a writing rule I never learned? I hope to never mention it again. and I'm probably making it a bigger deal now, by talking about it again in this paragraph.

The Uninvited

2009-01-28T02:34:00.004-05:00

I watched a free movie tonight. It was a special screening of "The Uninvited." I think I am supposed to promote the movie. I did see it for free, and like many good movies, it gave me a different perspective on things. Either the movie went on a little too long, or I just couldn't handle the suspense. Nonetheless, I was impressed, by everything, except a lot of the dialogue and the interaction between the actors in the early scenes. And I wasn't as scared as I thought I'd be, but I was whigging out a little on the BART ride hope. Like I had just experience a trauma.

I was especially taken back with Arielle Kebbel, the girl on the right. Her acting was amazing. Ok, I'm not one to be aware of bad or really good acting. I just noticed that she's hot and legal. She can even drink, and would've already graduated college if she hadn't become a movie star. She even had a 4.3 average in high school. I'm assuming she is really smart and it that wasn't because she was giving special favors to her teachers. although, I'm sure they would've accepted. Even Emily Browning on the right is legal, but she can't go with you to the bar. Sadly Arielle is a little too tall for me at 5'8". But then didn't George date his share of tall girls? I'm holding out hope.

Sorry, I'm not more specific on the movie, which on the whole wasn't that scary, but had enough suspense, was kinda disturbing, but while impressive was kinda unbelievable. However, I usually not diss movies because of that.... Arielle Kebbel is really, really hot.

Next Post: I promise to talk about the trip, I just came back from. and maybe I'll even blog about online dating or getting back together again, again, again, or not with my ex.

Please, por favor, make some kind of comment if you are read this. Otherwise, I'll think about just creating a journal.

adios amigos.

-GCNOF

Butcher and Singer

2009-01-18T03:49:00.007-05:00

GCNOF was treated to another of Philly's fine restaurants last night. Butcher and Singer is a Stephen Starr Steakhouse, that had some strong points and some weak points. It ranks as a decent steakhouse in Philly, but didn't measure up to the best.

A couple of things of note: we ordered a porterhouse for two, which was decent, if undercooked. We ordered it medium rare, the middle part was definitely just "rare." The outsides of the cut, were perfectly salty and scrumptious, while the gentlemanly Bearnaise sauce made the middle and very raw parts delicious as well. The butcher salad was decent. I had a hard time deciding between that and the tomato and roquefort salad. Had I done it over again I would have chosen the latter. The best side dish we ordered was the mushrooms and onions. I never had room for the potato side dishes, but they looked good.

I was disappointed in the large seafood/shellfish dish we ordered. The cold prawns (or very large shrimp) disappointed. the shrimp salad was decent, as was the crab. I didn't particularly care for the one oyster. I think the appetizer was the worst part of the meal. Unfortunately it came first.

The dessert was without peer or at least without superiors. The cheesecake was just about as good as cheesecakes come and I might still be selling it short. The carrot cake, had (for me) the unfortunate timing of appearing near me after I had eaten half the cheesecake. So in fairness to the carrot cake. I will not rate it... but I'm sure it wasn't half-bad. I've heard the chocolate cake doesn't quite measure up.

Besides the disappointing appetizer, Butcher and Singer suffered from poor design, bad seating for a party of seven, and popularity. The poor design included not having enough space in the waiting area. Besides constantly being in people's way, while waiting for your seat, after we checked our coats, we assumed we would be immediately seated. Now on a pleasant day, this would be no problem. But with the temperature in the single digits, every time someone came in the door, a nice draft made us regret checking our coats at all. Of course I didn't realize that at our sofa chairs, there would be nowhere to put our coats anyway.

The loveseats/couches we sat on made me wish I was a little taller. I assume that would have made the dining position more comfortable. The table was really made for two groups of four, so our dinner of seven was really a dinner of four and three, which in a way was nice. But really it was like having two different dinner parties, seated very, very close to each other.

The other complaint was that the bathroom are not that clearly labeled. It wasn't as bad as Tao in Las Vegas, where you have to wait until someone walks out to know which restroom to use. I believe there was an M and a W, but I'm not sure. I went into the bathroom with a squirrel peeing standing up. I just like when it is really clear in one glance which restroom is for you.

Overall, according to the local Philly restaurant connoisseur, Butcher and Singer doesn't reach the elite echelon of Philadelphia Steakhouses. But had our group been smaller, eaten on a weeknight or Sunday, when it wouldn't be as crowded, and passed on the large seafood appetizer we would definitely have an experience worth paying for. We would have been able to enjoy the huge expanse that is Butcher and Singer with ceilings 40 feet tall. Also, next time I'm just going to order the New York Strip.

A joke ruined

2009-01-14T02:16:00.004-05:00

I just saw Half-Nelson (it's a Free Movie, if you have On Demand by Comcast). Ryan Goslin stars as a drug addicted junior high History teacher.

My joke that is ruined is this... Someone says, you know I wish I were a rock star...

I said, I don't. If being a rock star made you happy, why do Rock Stars use so many drugs?

so maybe it's just a movie (Half Nelson) and it's really rare that high school teachers are addicted to crack/coke... I just don't know that many math teachers that use drugs... but then I never been a high school math teacher. Am I naive?

I know there are P.E. teachers and football coaches, that hook up with the high school girls. I've heard it on the media, and am pretty sure it happened at a rival high school. I know there are female teachers that elope with their junior high students. South Park's episode on this subject is classic. I just think, or should I say hope, that teachers are for the most part happy/content.

But it's possible, I have no idea what I am talking about. Maybe our teachers went after school to the backroom of a bar and got "high" and made comparisons on which student asked the stupidest question or came to class stoned, drunk or with a hickey, and then hooked up with each other. And really wish that they were Rock Stars and not teachers.

Maybe the math teachers that O.D. don't get that much media coverage and that's why I have this notion, that math teachers are generally happier than rock stars.

At this point, it should be obvious that I'm making the assumption that heavy drug use and true happiness don't go together (remember, my joke).

Thoughts?

statistics

2009-01-13T02:53:00.003-05:00

I don't know if I'm going to make it... but my quest for a graduate degree begins (again). first, a class, then admission, and then who knows? I don't know if I'm smart enough and inspired enough in the formula/equations/proofs to finish the degree. but. I'm restarting my journey.
wish me luck. (I'll need it). which also means I'll be staying in the Bay Area. at least until, I find out, I won't be in the program.

Happy New Year.

2008-12-30T21:55:00.003-05:00

First, I realize this is a little out of character. I can't imagine my hero, George Costanza, talking about New Year's resolutions. Although doing everything against his nature and instincts worked out quite well for him.... so this is from me, not my alter-ego GCNOF.

I'd like to wish you all a happy new year. Next, if your New Years Resolution can be ruined in one day, you probably aren't going to keep it... So if you say you are going to swear off porn. That probably isn't a good New Year's Resolution. A more realistic one is "I will look at less porn this year than I did in the last one." Or I'll eat better than I did the year before, or exercise more than the year before. We, regulars at the gym, always joke about how crowded it is, in January and February; but we know will get our parking spot and weight machine back by March (at the latest).

So if there is some way you are still making progress on your resolutions, by say, April, you are doing a good job, or at least are above average. If it's a news years resolution that can stand some backslidding, even better. The key isn't to do something every day, but to keep doing it, whatever it is, in June.

A swim buddy of mine, pointed out that the Japanese way of looking at change, was to do one small thing each day. That way there is less to regress and progress is less intimidating. Like climbing a mountain, with the smallest steps, as opposed to making big jumps. The problem with big jumps? big falls. I think we all to some degree are scared or put off in some way by drastic change. As they say, easy come, easy go.

Progress, and learning are two things that can't be taken away from you. So I urge you all to vow to make this new year better in at least one.

What are my New Year's resolutions? To work more than I did last year; to write more; be better to the environment; get a better sleep cycle; and to stay healthy (fewer injuries; antibiotics).

ok. date more. don't just rely on the internet for dating. try to be as present as possible in a relationship. break up only once. appreciation everything I have. realize if I'm confused about the status of a relationship, the other person is as well. try not to think too much. and realize that most of the people I meet know (much) more or much less than I do.

(that's Donald circa 1955, making his dishonest New Year's resolutions, that's why he's looking mischevious. of course, yours and mine are going to be genuine.) Happy 2009!

Journal Entry 9.30.08-Rosh Hashanah

2008-10-01T00:54:00.004-05:00

Loyal Readers (or Reader),

I made it a point to start writing this year. don't necessarily expect more posts (once a month or so). but I hope to actually write like a book or a screen play. Something substantial.

It's a new year. Rosh Hashanah began last night and that's my goal. that to become more observant, to get a real full time job and to stop looking at internet porn. hopefully, that will entail moving out of the parent's house. and also to spend more of my time in the real outside world, as opposed to my inner world, full of day dreams and day nightmares.

I would also like to figure out what to do about my dating life. but I've recently come to the conclusion, that in addition to alcohol,

Personal note: those who don't like to invade other people's private life, should read no further.

...love life is something that is very hard for me to enjoy b/c of the prescription drugs I'm on. (not that I ever had "relations" before being on them, so it could be just me).

But besides my problems. I'm already happy and headed for a good year, because I heard the shofar. Something that I haven't done in three or four years!

As we said at Temple today. Shana Tova! Happy New Year! may you be wiser this year, than you were in the past (year)! (That's the only ability you have the potential to improve in year after year. no matter what else happens.)

House Committee v. Miers

2008-09-21T09:17:00.000-05:00

I have a fun assignment in con law this week. We are going over the case mentioned in the title of this post. It stems from the Federal judge firings that happened a little while ago. The House of Rep. wanted some of the presidents aids to come before the house oversight committee and the president refused to hand them over. Usually when the house orders a subpoena and some fails to show they can hold that person in contempt and send federal marshals to arrest them. The marshals of course are part of the executive so in this case if congress asked the marshals to arrest presidential aids, most likely the president would say no. When two branches contradict each other this is a called a constitutional crisis. So instead of holding the aides in contempt the house sued the president. The district court judge ruled in favor of the house, saying that the executive need to hand over Miers. So, the teacher divided the class into the two sides and, we will argue it in class as if we were in the supreme court. On Tuesday the professor will pull names out of a hat and you are either represent the Executive, the Legislative or the Judges. I am going to bring a fake gavel just in case I get called up as a judge. We are supposed to represent specific judges (Roberts, Thomas, Scalia...)and I hope I get picked for that job so much. Peace out bitches

Verbal Bitch Slaping

2008-09-14T15:41:00.000-05:00

For this post I think that I will just rant a bit, so please bear with me. My most intense class has been constitutional law. We receive about three times as much reading in this class comparatively. We just got done reading three cases about enemy combatants. I don’t know if any of you remember I had a nightmare about being classified as an enemy combatant. Anyway, I digress back to the law. The three cases were Hamdi v.Rumsfeld (2004), Hamden v. Rumsfeld(2006) and Boumediene v. Bush (2008), all three cases revolve around Guantanamo and prisoners of war. They are presented as rulings over detainee rights, but are more or less battles between the Judicial and the Executive branches for control. It seems that both branches have been usurping powers away from the legislative and, the fact that the legislative is so split politically means it is less effective. The executive set up military tribunals, bypassing the legislative and the judicial. The legislative being charged with making the laws, however did nothing to slow down the executives power grab. This is where the Judicial laid the smack down. They asserted their right to decide what the law is and in essence bypassed the legislative to remake the laws. I should note that in the Boumedine case the courts rejected the Legislatives ability to write the Executive a blank check for power. The vote came out 5v4 and the 4 dissenters were very upset. Justice Scolia Said “ The nation will to regret what the court has done today”. There were many other verbal bitch slaps in the dissent, I suggest every one read that case.

Page 3 article

2008-09-07T01:45:00.003-05:00

Page 3

2008-09-07T00:48:00.004-05:00

Hey, I made page 3 of my local paper. Because of privacy issues: if you are a real fan of the blog, and not just a relative or a friend of a relative, I can't tell you what paper or what my name is. but I'm sure you can figure it out. it's probably on this blog somewhere.

It's just in situations like this I know exactly what George would do. (He would probably never get into this situation in the first place.) basically I may or may not be a local hero, but I'm already regretting doing what I've done, and not just because my arms are covered in poison oak (that's the poison plant we have on the west coast for all you east coasters).

tangent, notice how I didn't call you the right coast... please do me the same favor. I am a conservative on this issue. I like north south east west. (besides do you always look at a map north pointing forward or up? ok, maybe you do. still) calling us the left coast won't make you cool or hip. it will just piss me off.

back to the problem. I've been called a local hero twice today. I'm already embarrassed about it, just having one neighbor, one swimming buddy and one friend call me up. it'd be so much cooler, if I did it anonymously. of course I did get a case of Sierra Nevada for my efforts, but I'll need to drink it up, just to forget about the itching oils all over my arms.

I'm just easily embarrassed. I lose on purpose, just so I don't have to deal with the embarrassment/attention of winning. Part of the reason might be I lost so much in youth soccer and baseball, that I got quite comfortable with not winning.

this is why I admire George Costanza so much. He rarely gets embarrassed. He would never get embarrassed for winning or doing something good. If I am drunk for the next few days, know that I am avoiding the attention and the poison oak.

-Over and Out from the west coast. maybe west is too close to best, is that you're problem?

Law quote of the week.

2008-08-28T22:29:00.001-05:00

The case this quote is brought to you on is brought to you by my contracts class. In this case the plaintiff is suing the defendant to force the defendant to make good on a contract. The plaintiff says that he bought a farm from the defendant for 50k, and the defendant claims that he was drunk and joking when he wrote out the contract. Just a note both he and his wife were at the bar and signed the contract. The defendant says he "[W]as high as a Georgia pine" and that the transaction "[W]as just a bunch of of two doggoned drunks bluffing to see who could talk the biggest and say the most." As you can guess this defense did not hold up in court and he lost the farm.

I Can Has Earth Hour

2008-03-31T23:33:00.003-05:00

I am not sure how many of you out there participated in Earth Hour but I had a fun. For those of you who some how manged to not hear about it, individuals and businesses around the world tuned of their power from 8-9 in the pm. I know that in San-Fran the Golden Gate Bridge participated and building in downtown Chicago did their duty as well. Two of my three roommates participated, turning off everything we own. I tried to unplug the fridge but I was vetoed by everyone else. I stared to cook dinner about five minutes before lites out so I had to finish via candle-light. It was me, my lady friend and roommate cooking this food. I decided that before electricity the likelihood of cutting oneself when cooking was higher. Is lighting up a menorah when it is not channuakah sac religious? Because I did not have that many other candles and had to pull it out of storage. Besides dripping wax all over the place it was a very pleasant experience. We just sat around eating and telling stories by candle light.

Presidential Platform Continued

2008-02-27T03:05:00.002-05:00

I recently have decided that I am going change things. I'm sick of waiting for girls to ask me out or of waiting to get my own reality dating show, so I am going to do them the favor of asking them out. And if they say they are 21, I know they are at least 18.

Ok. Back to my presidential platform. I believe I left out my economic and environmental platforms. The important stuff. I was probably procrastinating because I don't really have one. If I did, I would probably look into running for state governor. Maybe I would move to Nevada, or another smaller, relatively unpopulated state where it would be easier to become the governor. Because being governor is a much better experience on which to run for president than being a senator.

A common misconception some, complete morons, have is they think free markets always work. Secondly some even dumber than morons, think the U.S. economy is based simply on the free market. Free markets are great. they do work, when certain things are in place. All costs are accounted for...Free markets don't take into account environmental costs. With just a little adjusting, they could and can.

Another thing that helps free markets is when big corporations aren't subsidized and protective tariffs aren't enforced.

Come on. There is a reason this stuff isn't talked about. Here's what I would really say about my economic and environmental policy.

We need to start making the world a better place, for us, humans, plants and animals. So my presidential environmental economic platform, would be encourage science and business in this regard. Repairing the world. Making the world a cleaner, healthier place to live. Starting with a Americorps program and expanding... Economic incentives for green friendly businesses.

Trying to repair ecosystems, finding and using green technologies and more importantly exporting them around the world. Finding a way to keep our renewable resources renewable.

It's a good thing that people are doing so much. but I would treat this project as more like a war, as in we need to sacrifice to get this shit done.

Wish me luck! 2036 hear my roar!

The Choking Game

2008-02-15T02:23:00.004-05:00

To all family and relatives, because I am 32 and single, with no near prospects of not being single and no game (as in no chance of meeting a girl at a bar), I want you to ensure that all your children, make it to adulthood. So at least some of the genes that we share get passed on. G-d-willing that your children will lead long and healthy lives. Tell your children not to play the Choking Game. Let them smoke some dope, raid the liquor cabinet, have sex without protection, but tell them that this game is off-limits.

The article linked to below explains exactly what is the choking game if you don't remember playing it yourself... I found while looking for and finding the article Jan. 31 that El Capitan claimed did not exist.

GCNOF

http://www.reuters.com/article/newsOne/idUSN1458780620080214

Police Act in Totally Normal Manner

2008-02-13T01:54:00.003-05:00

Cops in Florida were suspended for dumping a QUADRAPLEGIC out of his wheel chair. Wow. I am assuming that is a new low. It is surprising just how blatant and indefensible their actions are, yet they did it in front of their own video camera. Stupidity + arrogance, it's a winning combination. And they aren't being charged with assault, just being suspended. It's not like the guy is some terribl criminal either - he was brought in a for a traffic violation. So, to recap, two things wrong with Florida:
1) Asshole cops
2) Let people without the use of their arms or legs operate vehicles

Nerds vs. Scientology

2008-02-11T18:20:00.001-05:00

Just so everyone knows, this group of internet hackers known as anonymous have decided to wage war against the International Church of the Scientology. I think it is interesting, it is not only on the world wide web but they get people out on the street. A friend of mine went to a protest last night. The protests happened all across the US. They have also shut down the Scientology web site several times and made some of their web sites disappear completely. I would not fuck with these nerds.

My Presidential Platform-Part 1

2008-02-08T03:52:00.000-05:00

This whole primary politics thing has gotten me really confused. Most of the Republicans change their position on something, from Mitt Romney, switching from Pro-Choice as Massachusetts governor to Pro-Life and John McCain moving towards the right. So are these permanent changes, or when the general election comes will the candidates move back to the middle. I'm confused. Is this just talk? or is this written in stone or at least on paper?

For one thing, McCain says I'm for small government and for balancing the budget like Reagan Reagan didn't balance the budget, ever, and because the military is part of the government, he wasn't really for small government either. So McCain, are you for what Reagan said or what he did? and can I get that on paper? with a signature? by the way McCain seems like a good guy... I mean that, I don't think he'll be a bad president, he doesn't seem to have any unresolved, child, helpless, sadness issues, like our current commander in chief. ask me to explain and expound on my psychoanalysis of our current president if it interest you.

Now to what you are waiting for: If I'm going to have a reality show looking for a first lady... I need to have a presidential platform and to make it easier on all the simpletons out there, like myself, I'm going to tell you right now at age 31, where I stand on the issues in writing. It will be interesting to see if I am a man of my word, when, 30 years from now, I take the oval office.

Capital Punishment: Opposed. Quite simply the argument for capital punishment is: it's a deterrent to murderers. Really it's about revenge. Because I think there are things worse than death and I think some murderers would rather get rid of a person and die, than live and have the other person live too, I don't think it is as good a deterent as some people think. Life is sacred, a miracle even if you aren't religious and aren't a moron, and the government shouldn't kill people. Exceptions might be psychopaths, with no redeeming social value. But I'm willing not to kill psychopaths, in order to be consistently against capital punishment. What do I wish for my worst enemies? Well, first I hope they get herpes. Secondly, a chronic sprained ankle. Third, no friends. Fourth, they must have the tv on at all times, forced to watch the absolute worst program on at that time period, lots of daytime tv, and they can't flip the channel during the commercials. Make them watch a lot of the thirty-minute-paid-programming stuff. Finally, take them to an Indian casino, don't let them leave until they are broke.

Abortion: Pro-Choice. I think this is a bigger issue than just Roe v. Wade. Also, I'm against abstinence (and of course) and abstienence-only education. I think they are related. I think junior high students should be handed condoms at school. They would have to go pick them up, with no people in front of the pile of condoms, but a hidden camara. Only the school nurse could know who picked up the condoms, she could of course post this web cam on the internet, to raise money to pay for the condoms. Students should be discouraged from having sex until they reach 18 years of age. Girls should be reminded that they have a bright future ahead of them, if they don't get pregnant. We should do everything in our power to make that preceding sentence true. Lots of teen parents don't think they have a future and decide that the best thing to do is have a child now, with their parents to help support it (this is supported by psychological study, basically teen pregnancies aren't accidents, statistically speaking. of course, some are). Girls with future, probably A: aren't having sex or B: are using protection. Adoption should be an option, but if the woman wants to have an abortion (an extremely emotionally painful event), because she was knocked up by a pastor, priest or raped. She can have one. She has a choice.

More of my platform to follow, including my economic and environmental policies.

Suicide Car Bomber Kills One in Afghanistan

2008-01-31T02:18:00.001-05:00

Shouldn't it be suicide car bomber kills two? http://www.reuters.com/article/worldNews/idUSSP28745320080131

It is time for a new series. Shit that is stupid.

2008-01-17T16:45:00.000-05:00

I was reading my daily environmental news letter from Grist, when I came across an article saying that Mitt Romney's win in Michigan was assisted by an anti climate change group American Environmental Coalition. Their home page has children frolicking (no one has told them about global warming yet) in a field. Apparently they have close ties with his campaign. Well I decided to see for myself what rhetoric this anti-climate change organization was pushing. I scanned their articles and came across one that seemed the most absurd, "Scientist Warn Against Religious Belief in Global Warming". First the title makes you think they are scientist are against religious people believing in global warming, that doesn't make any sense. Second they did not write any of the article, the web site just copy and pasted from cnsnews.com , not to be mistaken with CNN it is the cybercast news service, they slyly stick that S in there. A little digging showed that this used to be the conservitive news service but they changed their name, not only that but they are an arm of the conservative think tank Media Research Center (MRC). The MRC also puts out a video blog called NewsBusters, a conservative answer to the Daily Show and Colbert Report, it is painfully not funny but every one should check it out. Let me digress back to the article. The article is about a report put out by the Senate Committee on Environment and Public Works. First of all the report came out December 6th 2006, I don't know about you guys but that seems a little out dated and the CNSN article does not mention this fact. Second the head of the Committee is Sen James Inhofe (R-Okla) is on record saying that "global warming is a hoax". So already this hearing is biased and the facts are outdated. Just to add insult to injury the quotes are taken out of context and it is the whole article is misrepresenting of the whole committee report. The report is a warning of reporters not doing a good job of covering the issue, having too much alarmist coverage and climate change skeptics whining that they don't get a fair share of the new coverage. Here is a quote from a paper by the Institute for Public policy Research Describing four kinds of misguided thoughts on climate change that are seen.

“Alarmism, characterised by images and words of catastrophe Settlerdom, in which "common sense" is used to argue against the scientific consensus Rhetorical scepticism, which argues the science is bad and the dangers hyped Techno-optimism, the argument that technology can solve the problem”

The article from CNSN also fails to mention that not all of the four hundred scientists mentions in the first paragraph are climate skeptics. Some of the climate skeptics in the report like Dr. Robert Carter work for conservative think tanks funded by guess who, oil companies and other big business. People what is the harm in preparing for catastrophe. What is the worst outcome, we are wrong and the planet is cleaner. If we don't do anything and the world goes to hell in a hand basket what are the skeptics going to apologize, it would be to late for that. I am not trying to teach blind faith here. There is of course a possibility the science could be wrong. As a scientist myself I understand that scientist can be wrong, they are only human.

Results-Divisional Playoff Weekend

2008-01-15T02:27:00.001-05:00

Ok. let's go over the weekend games.

Unprediction of the WEEK: My record : 1-0. The Giants did cover the spread, in fact they beat Dallas. Eli Manning didn't go to Mexico last weekend with Jessica Simpson, like Dallas QB Tony "Yet to Win a Playoff Game" Romo. Though, a parental authority figure of mine clearly pointed out that the Giants won the game by playing better, Dallas didn't lose it.

Congratulations to the Giants and Eli Manning. Lucky you. You get to play football next week (in 4 degree weather), while the Nation roots for you to lose. Sports fans across the country are hoping that Packers QB, "The Great", Bret Favre (pictured above) can get back to the Super Bowl at least once more before he retires.

Other Unpredictions: My record: 0-2. Seattle did get creamed and therefore didn't cover and favorite Indianapolis didn't even win, getting upset by the "Super" Chargers of San Diego.

Recommendations: My results: 3-0. Green Bay won in a landslide as predicted. Jacksonville did cover and NY Giants won straight up. Of course, I didn't make any bets last week.

My thinking is that Green Bay is going to blow the Giants out. So, whatever the spread, Green Bay to cover. And it's only (-7)

UNPREDICTION of the WEEK: Green Bay to beat the Giants by more than 7.

The smart money says that New England will blow out San Diego. They beat them handily in week 2 and San Diego is banged up. The spread is (-14).

My Unprediction : San Diego to cover the spread. They will be pumped up. A score like the Jacksonville game, where the Pats win by two scores, is likely.

I'm not betting this week either. So with my track record, this is a good week to follow my Unpredictions.

A public service reminder: only wager what you can afford to lose or at the very least, don't wager loved ones or priceless family heirlooms.

Picks for Sunday's game

2008-01-11T18:37:00.000-05:00

Before I go into my unpredictions for Sunday... I was driving through my old neighborhood and thinking about where I went wrong, no I was not lost, with my life.

I thought about how in the eighth grade, a large, overweight noncaucasian kept hitting me in the same spot on my left shoulder in Spanish class. I was afraid to hit back, besides thinking that my punches would be ineffective, because I knew the Spanish teacher would notice me, and then I thought about how the Spanish teacher had in for me. Ok, he might have been waiting for me to prove my manhood, or he didn't notice, even though it happened everyday, multiple times, or maybe he didn't want the class to focus on it and get distracted from the incredibly important Spanish lesson.

And then it hit me, he (the Spanish Teacher) did have it in for me. I realized where I went wrong. No, it was not in hitting back. It was in my decision to not take the 8th grade yearbook class. I was going to be the only boy in the class. It was a select group. I chickened out. It would have changed my whole adolescence. That Spanish teacher was also the Year-Book teacher.

I would have been in a class with all girls. Probably would have speeded up my whole introduction to tasting a female's saliva by five or ten years. (Around this time: junior high, some older male, probably from my boy scout troop, spit in my mouth, forcing it open by pinching my nose. So I already knew what (other) male's saliva tasted like. )

Of course had I chosen Year Book, I wouldn't have the deer-shaped planter, the Regulator clock or the Jaguar inscripted mirror, which I made in shop. But who wouldn't salivate with opportunity to be the only boy in a class, and I would have gotten to taken pictures of all the hot girls at my school. Lafayette has some lookers, and my year was definitely a very high-quality year. I think the correct term is, it was a vintage year.

Now on to my (un) picks of Sunday.

San Diego at INDY(-9)

Now on to my unpredictions: Colts will cream San Diego. The Colts hate being over looked. They lost to the Chargers earlier this year, when Peyton Manning threw SIX interceptions and Viniteria missed two Field Goals, including a game-winning FG from point blank range. The Chargers are missing one of their best players Antonio Gates. LT is good, but Indy will force SD to throw and I don't think Philip Rivers has it in him, at least not yet. If Philip Rivers, pulls out a great game, it will be close, but Indy will still win.

UNPREDICTION: INDY to cover (-9) Spread

NYGIANTS (+ 8) at Dallas

It's hard to beat a team three times in one season. Dallas won both regular season meetings. The reason Dallas won was among other things TO. With Terrell Owens in, Dallas is unbeatable by any NFC team, without TO, the Giants will give Dallas a game. Jacobs has emerged as a power back. Dallas has a good ground game of its own, but their QB, Tony Romo, went to Mexico last weekend, with Jessica Simpson. He may be distracted. He has yet to win a Playoff game in his brief career. I think this game will be close. If Eli Manning brings his A game, watch out. The other GIANT factor will be whether the Giant's pass rush can get to Romo, who is known for his elusability.

UNPREDICTION of the WEEK: NY GIANTS to cover spread (+8).

A possible upset, if you have a little extra dough to gamble. This is probably the only game this week, to take the odds and pick the underdog to win straight up.

World War Z a Book Review

2008-01-10T12:52:00.000-05:00

Let me start by saying this book is off the hook. "World War Z: an Oral History of the Zombie War" written by Max Brooks is one of the best books I have picked up in a while. Some of you may know his first book "Zombie Survival Guide" and are thinking, that does not give him much writing cred. But this book like his first is unconventional an entertaining. I can't put this book down, I just picked it up yesterday and already I have torn through the first 120 pages. The premise of the book if you cant tell by the title is about a global war with zombies. The book follows a reporter as he goes around the world interviewing people about their stories. Never is the focus on the interviewer. At each new destination a brief history of that counties modern issues is brought up and shows how different countries and cultures would deal with an apocalyptic crisis. The zombies could be exchanged with other disasters because the Mr Brooks uses the undead as a canvas to express human natures reactions to times of stress and disaster, need we remember how people started to behave in New Orleans, post Katrina. Mr Brooks presents this on a global scale. He leads us to the depths of evil that humans and governments are willing to perform in order to survive. I will give this a Rick James review. I wish I had two extra arms so I could give this book four thumbs up, Bitches. Needless to say my thoughts before sleep wandered into the realm of trying to figure out many zombies could the back gate of my apartment withstand. The answer, not enough.

My betting luck-Unpredictions of the week

2008-01-09T01:43:00.000-05:00

A friend suggested that since I did well at my pick 'em NFL football leagues (I'm in two and near the top of both: 3rd in one, in the 75% percentile in the other, this season, always near the top, but never the winner, so far), I should start betting on football, so I opened an account at an offshore casino. My cousin saw my league rankings and said I should blog about my picks. I am supposed to be Dr. G. The only problem with this is I suck at betting. What I mean by suck, such a generic unspecific word (unless it's used in a sexual setting or with a baby). Is that I haven't won a single bet. In fact I'm 0 for 10. if I have a 50-50 chance of winning a bet that adds up to a (1/2)^10... probability of being wrong on ten straight bets.... .00097 one in 1000 chance of that happening if my bets were just random. of course I was trying to win. which means I really, well, suck. Maybe I am just self-sabotaging myself, either that or there is someone upstairs who wants me to know that if I want to make money, I'm going to have to work for it. Of course this makes me the perfect person to tell you how to bet, just do the opposite of what I say and you'll rake in the money.

Matt Hasselback (pictured above) will determine whether Seattle can upset Green Bay. Every time I watch Seattle, he throws a few picks, starting when he guaranteed a victory in overtime in a 2004 playoff game at Lambeau field (Green Bay, Wisc.) and then threw the game-winning INTERCEPTION, can he change? evolve? It's the question we all want answered.

The NFL Playoffs (ok, just warning you, so far I've been right about them, but still managed to lose my money. the whole spread thing often throws me)... also I'm copying King Kaufman with his whole capitalizing the winner thing. check out his column at Salon.com, for professional opinions.

(note: I'm always betting against the point spread unless otherwise stated).

SEATTLE at Green Bay (13-3) (-8)... Green Bay is rested, Favre is in maybe his last year. Green Bay has finally found a good running game. They are a young team. We saw last weekend how Seattle has lock-down corners. Shaun Alexander seemed to be playing as well as he has in years. Matt Hasselback, made some characteristic bad decisions (throwing a couple of picks that didn't affect the outcome of the game, Washington folded after they recovered a kickoff after finally coming back to take the lead. They failed to scoring after starting at Seattle's 9, that was the game. Washington's offense went to the tank after that Seattle used a short field to go ahead and then scored on two interception returns to ice the game. The question: How will this game be decided? How will the QB's do against the opposing defense. Both teams have solid running games. The difference will be how Favre and Hasselback handle the playoff pressure. I think Hasselback will choke more than Favre. but it isn't really choking if he always does it (throws picks). I definitely think at least one interception will be returned for a touchdown. bet on that! my UNPREDICTION: I pick Seattle to cover the spread.

Which means Green Bay will win in a Landslide. My recommendation: take the safe bet, Green Bay to win straight up.

Game Time temperature is in the upper 20s.

JACKSONVILLE (12-5) @ New England (16-0) (-13.5)

Ok, my pick is Jacksonville to cover, ok against the Steelers they didn't look so good. Jackonsville's QB, David Gerrard didn't really look good at all throwing the ball, but he did win the game for them, with his feet. I'm definitely not sold on the Pat's defense. I don't think teams will lose games before they have even started in the postseason, which is want happened to a few teams in the regular season. Jacksonville's running game, especially De La Salle (Concord, CA) grad Maurice Jones-Drew will give the Patriots all kinds of trouble. The Patriots, can't play better than they have all season. The Jaguars are fierce. A safe bet would be that Jacksonville will cover. This is definitely a game to watch, let's see how good the Pats are.

Game time temperature: the 30s, possibly snow.

My recommendation: Jacksonville to cover. this is something I think I'm going to bet on. No unprediction: It's the playoffs, New England can't possibly blow them out.

If you lose money on this one, I'll come over and clean your bathroom (but only if you live in Narberth or Bloomington).

My Own Reality Show...

2008-01-02T21:31:00.000-05:00

After envying both Tila Tequila and Brett Michaels...

I'll star in my own show:

"a balding, short, athletic, former high school math whiz and varsity wrestler, underemployed, 31 year old Yale reject with aspirations for the White House looking for a Lady"

I would have some Hill staffers, Grammar School Teachers, and other hot, smart women, aged 26-31 who wouldn't mind being the First Lady... (in twenty five or thirty years). ok, having a reality dating show and looking for a lady, might not be a good idea. Given how much action I hope to get by having a reality show, it would give my opponents too much ammo to smear me in the eventual campaign, that, or I don't get any action, then I'm sure my show won't make it to the air.

Either way, I'd still do it. It's probably even better than being Prez.

If you are a reality show producer... MM (well formerly MM, she got married), that's you. give me a call, maybe we can make some sort of deal. (my friend's sister, MM, actually works on these things.)

unfortunately, she doesn't read this blog. My next posting, my presidential platform.

Tila Tequila Dumps Bobby Banhart

2008-01-02T20:09:00.000-05:00

Ms. Tequila pumps booby...I mean dumps Bobby

Tila "Tequila" Nguyen has cut loose her painstakingly and publicly vetted beau. Did she end the affair so that she could do another season of (sur?)reality tv show Shot At Love? Shockingly Brett Michael's reality-TV-based relationship has suffered a similar fate. Brett and Tila don't have a good business model... they have the perfect one. If you are a promiscious star, with no real desire to settle down then this is the best thing since ruffies. Get yourself a reality dating show. The worst case scenario is you actually fall in love, get married and don't do a season two.

It's a serious consideration: keep the significant other or do it all over again on season two (or three). Apparently a Season Two beat out poor Bobby for Tila's heart. The same goes for the pink haired hottie, Jes Rickleff, formerly with Brett. She totally loved Brett and was definitely the best girl on the show, personality-wise and looks-wise.
I guess no one can leave so much potential lovin' on the table. These aren't A-list stars, so maybe the money and the continued lime-light are factors too, but I'm sure they are not complaining about the copious ass either. Bret Michaels slept with maybe every woman on his show. I think they started with 16 contestants. And Tila (whose show I didn't watch until the end) probably did the same, but with men and women.

The only issue is STDs. I guess they either test for STDs before the show, they have some vaccines that are kept from the public per Jesus' instructions or maybe they already have cirrhosis and warts and they just don't sweat it.

The whole American sexual marketplace is so laissez-unfair. Maybe the market needs to be regulated by some sort of central beaurocracy: sex-politburo, or maybe just a safety-net of sex-food stamps, or boudiour-unemployment insurance. I guess that is just not how it works in the US. Everyone wants certain people so bad, they get all the lovin' they want, while the rest of us settle for monogamy and sex toys.

happy new year...

2008-01-02T00:27:00.000-05:00

My only New Years resolution is to take things day by day and not waste days as I sometimes do...

and blog more.

hope you all had a good new year... my two friends got lucky with girls last night... ok. I think one of them had four kids. saying got lucky with some women, is something I'm going to have to get use to saying.

even I got a new years kiss. alright, it was really a New Year's peck. but definitely better than I expected.

where did we get all this action? at the Barefoot Bogey New Years Celebration, in the most liberal city in the country (at least the city that has the most liberal reputation.). And it's not SF, even though that's what the pic says.

In this existential post-post-modern world isn't reputation, not reality, reality?

i danced until my feet hurt and then I slow danced to keep myself preoccupied and distracted.

It was a nice time...

oh, i have a funny George Costanza story.... I'm reminded why I named my blog GCNOF. when I went cell phone shopping with my parents. I felt like George listening to his parents bickering. You would think after oh 30 years of being with your parents you would know when and where your parents might, be a little incompetent, like when making a new purchase.

You would realize it would be really nice to take charge, because you know if you don't, you will spend two hours buying a cell phone, and still might have to go back and pick a new one. you definitely know you will get ripped off, because you will be talked into buying extras you will never use.

If there was someone there to share this experience with, I would have been laughing and not crying.

Why Are the British So Funny?

2007-12-20T13:21:00.000-05:00

Thanksgiving

2007-11-23T01:48:00.000-05:00

This was a post, never before published, from thanksgiving. Please ignore the typos... I'm sure you'll enjoy this work, while I devote my time to a more current post...

My friend, K is always good about being thankful. Thankful for all we have as Americans. Even with, a maybe corrupt and definitely too secretive administration. We still have a great country. It is an anomable to have to resort to begging to get food and shelter. actually, using the great secret tools at my disposal. I found out that 36 million Americans live below the poverty line. 700 million of the world's population goes hungry...

100 billion pounds of food is wasted in America each year. and I believe that's not counting food "consumed" in eating competitions. speaking of wasting... if we are serious about fixing the world's problems, starting with say, Global Warming, we should demand that all sports car racing, is done with hybrids. Sure the races might be slower, but isn't the point of sports to see how you compare to everyone else? does it really matter to the 100,000 fans in the stands that the car they are rooting for is only traveling at 55 mph? I mean the best driver, is the fastest, assuming everyone is using the same type of engine and vehicle. Think about the endurance required to travel 500 miles at 55 mph... that's 9 hours of driving. it'd be like seeing a resident complete her 30 hour shift, having to make crucial life and death decisions after 29 hours of work.

it is important to be thankful for what you have.... remember the 36 million Americans that don't. and Don't waste food. or gas.

40 days and 40 nights

2007-11-15T18:58:00.000-05:00

Some movies inspire you because they are deep. Some surprise you. Others are out to get a tear, letting you cry away your sorrows. some a belly full of laughs.

But I don't think 40 days and 40 nights, starring Josh Hartnett, is deep, surprising, tear-jerking, and while it is funny, doesn't make your belly hurt. it is really suppose to be just enjoyable (which is probably why it has so many sex scenes). It was on tv last night.

I'm pretty sure this upcoming fact is intended. perhaps even the point of the movie. 40... presents a world, SF, where everyone is on the same page. Everyone knows the bagel guy. Everyone finds out about Josh's pledge of abstinence. All the guys and girls are all betting on when he will give into his masculine desires. Even how it will happen (will there be a lucky lady involved?). There is just so much love (and togetherness) in the movie. It creates like this utopian world of the young, where everyone is actually living in the same world, or at least social circle, having a good time and getting laid. Maybe that's how it is for the cool people. while the rest of us are stuck in our own unique.... unpleasant place.

coming back to the Bay Area from DC. I feel like I left the world, where I was more or less apart of it to move back to SF, where I am in my own unique, unpleasant place. In DC, it just kind of happened organically that I became apart of the goings on. it certainly helped to have housemates and be on a friendly swimming team. not that I didn't have problems, but I think there is just a mindset shift, when you think you are a part of a larger group, than when you feel like you are alone or just have a few friends . In fact, I don't think anything physical or real has to shift, for my mind to go from feeling isolated to feeling apart of it. Watching 40 days, made me realize what exactly I was missing. To be honest, I found it inspiring. Am I alone here?

My Dad's Johnny Otis Movie

2007-11-12T00:18:00.000-05:00

This is a video blurb from the local rag in lovely Sebastopol, CA, where my dad previewed a documentary biopic he is making on Johnny Otis.

Otis is an RnB composer, performer, producer, businessman, visual artist, preacher and was nearly mayor of Berkeley - a distinctly American renaissance man. His biggest pop hit was "Willie And The Hand Jive", the song from the dance-off scene in Grease (who didn't cry for Olivia Newton John?), but he is also the notable, but less than duly noted talent behind "(You Ain't Nothin' But a) Hound Dog", made famous by Elvis, but sung here by the aptly monickered Big Mamma Thorton:

The Hills Run Red With The Blood Of Children >:o

2007-11-02T22:40:00.001-05:00

The Festival of Samhain is a celebration of the end of the harvest season in Gaelic culture, and is generally regarded as 'The Celtic New Year'.
-Wikipedia

Samhain, the root of much of modern Halloween, is the Gaelic word for November and the name of the feast held at the beginning of month to celebrate the harvest . But it was also a day to remember the dead. Kind of like a Celtic Thanksgiving and Dia de los Muertos rolled into one. It makes sense in a twisted, Irish sort of way. Celebration always implies it’s opposite: dread. You don’t celebrate something you take for granted, you celebrate things that you are holding onto for dear life, like abundant food in the fall that you pray will last through the coming winter. So Samhain has a dark side. An actual Irishman told me that the night of Samhain, while festive, is also known as “the night the hills run red with the blood of children”. This was probably just his Irish charm talking, but there is definitely something to the holiday’s devilish side as its surviving Halloween rituals attest. On what other holiday would you carve demonic, candle-lit faces into helpless squash, tell ghost stories to impressionable children and run through the night like a crazy person threatening your neighbors? Gotta love it.

But seriously…Halloween is a profound holiday. Coca Cola and Hallmark have pretty much scrubbed clean the rest of the American calendar, but Halloween is still bad. It’s a night when you don’t exorcise demons, you embrace them; a night to accept that chaos, unpredictability and pain are part of all of our lives. A night to remind us that bad things do happen to good people so you just have to roll with the punches. Hopefully that makes us stronger or at least makes the journey more bearable. Here is a serendipitous example of that Halloween black magic in action.

Also:
The custom of the Jack O'Lantern has its roots in 5th century Ireland, where the people would light candles inside of turnips to scare away spirits.

Something Incredible Happened To Me Last Week

2007-10-29T11:58:00.000-05:00

Like BIG big: I saw Elvis Costello and Bob Dylan in concert. It was P-H-A-T phat! Actually, Elvis Costello was awesome and Dylan was great, but ultimately a little disappointing. Costello was really personal and soulful. It was just him and a guitar and he played plenty of older hits that he knows everyone wants to hear. Angels Want to Wear My Red Shoes and Allison were A-fuckin-Plus.

I checked with a cross section of people who saw the show (a dog-catcher) and many of us agree that Dylan, while good, was not really what we were hoping for. One of my favorite Dylan pieces is Just Like Tom Thumb’s Blues, with Robbie Robertson’s punchy guitar as a counterpoint to Dylan’s almost-late vocals. The live version is bourbon to my ears.

But that was a long time ago. Now Dylan is with a backing band that is solid, but unremarkable R’n’B all the way, and they do songs that I have never heard. It is still Bob Dylan, especially when he blows harp, but it is not the Bob Dylan that I want to see. I know the man is probably tired of playing “Like a Rolling Stone” on acoustic guitar for the upteen-millionth time and wants to move on as a performer, but frankly, that is what the kids paid for. I guess Bob Dylan has reached a point where he doesn’t need to try to please an audience. Just showing up as himself is enough.

So that concert was a really amazing thing that happened to me last week. Those of you who know me probably get the joke at this point because…SHAZZAM!!!! I also had a kid last week! Yes, 9 and a half months of waiting are over and now a real person belongs to me, and me alone…plus Sarah. Baby Jacob is the latest and shortest addition to the Schmiechen-DeStefano-Cohen-Burke-Beckett clan. His prodigious predigree includes filmmakers, reverends, newspapermen, Bautistas, Jersey gangsters, Louisville shopkeepers, Samuel Beckett and Capt. John Smith. Big shoes to fill with tiny little feet. Everyone feels this way about their baby, but many people have told me (not just dog catchers) that he is really beautiful. He is like the most fascinating toy ever. All he ever does is sleep and crap his pants yet people have literally traveled across the country just to see him. Having a baby is the most amazing thing ever. Despite his unassuming state, he is always the center of attention and he fills a room with joy just by being him. A little like Bob Dylan.

P.S. A gold star to whoever knows Bob Dylan and Elvis Costello's real names

Chicago's Blue Bags

2007-10-12T14:37:00.000-05:00

Let me lay this out for those that do not know. Since 1995 Chicago's recycling for residential units of four or less has been done via blue bags. This process involves putting all your trash in one container, but the recyclables are placed in specific blue bags that can be bought at participating stores.

The odd thing is all the garbage and blue bags are taken by the same municipal truck. This sounds ridiculous and has lead to major mistrust of the system. It just intrinsically rubs people the wrong way. Besides people's apprehension that they arrived with on their own, there have been articles slamming the system. People quote these articles often but the majority are just spouting second third or fourth hand information. I was made a disbeliever of the system almost as soon as I moved here. I heard it from so many sources (different people) that I figured the system had to be bunk.

I kept hearing the figure "ten to fifteen percent" of the blue bags made it to their destination. Chicago already has a bad reputation because of the horrible corruption and cronyism throughout its civic history. This is left over from the "Great Machine", as it was known. A Daley has been Mayor for as long as any one can remember. Due to the mistrust of the people, the city decided to test a different system in a few Wards.

It took me fourteen months of living in Chicago but eventually I went on a tour of these "awful" facilities. Turns out what happens there is different then I expected. Allied Wate, the people who receive our garbage are a subcontracted company, separate from the city workers who pick it up. Allied Waste employees manually pick through every piece of trash to separate out the recyclables.

Friendly readers, I have to go to South America so I will save the rest for later. I know you all are very interested.

Disaster Capitalism

2007-10-10T22:39:00.000-05:00

Why do we refer to Richard Perle merely as an ideologue -- rather than an arms dealer with an impressive vocabulary?
-Naomi Klein

The HuffPost has a great video and transcript of John Cusack interviewing Naomi Klein about her new book The Shock Doctrine.

Klein explains to Lloyd how people with more connections than scruples use the chaos of disasters as a way to push for government policies that, under normal conditions, would be anathema to the American people. The two examples she gives are privatization in New-New Orleans and, of course, the half trillion dollars that has been lifted out of our pockets to blowup and rebuild Iraq.

Naomi Klein says our social fabric is better off dead

In the transcript of their further discussion she details how companies that have made windfall profits from war contracts directly or indirectly paid public figures to push for the invasion of Iraq after 9/11. She mentions Henry Kissinger, George Shultz and others, but my favorite is her above description of how the media mischaracterizes Richard Perle. In fairness, he is very articulate for someone so totally shameless.

I’ll be very surprised if there is not some grand square in Baghdad that is named after President Bush.

-Perle, 2003

Klein and Cusack's brief discussion drives home the point that the Iraq War is not the disaster for which most Americans see it, but actually a huge success - for certain people. Defense contractors and oil companies have made an unprecedented killing.

Facebook

2007-10-08T03:34:00.000-05:00

A brief posting here. GCNOF just joined facebook. He checked out the site and was reminded of why he was hesitant to join, but also impressed with what it could do. I dislike that I interact with people over the computer. it's not satisfying, almost comparable to the difference between looking at porn versus going to a strip club and getting a lap dance... or for those lucky blogs, actually having sex.

Of course it's great to be in touch with everyone I've ever known. But I'm also well aware now of exactly how many of my old acquaintances still consider me a friend. I like imagining that everyone I still consider a friend, but haven't heard from in awhile is just busy and lost touch, but still considers me a friend. Before joining facebook, I could lie to myself. With facebook you find out who just doesn't want you in your life anymore, when they post pictures about the party or event which they went to without you.

On the bright side, someone did invite me to join facebook, and I have, I think, five friends on the site. Maybe I just need to invite more people to be friends and face my fear of rejection. Does that happen? You ask someone to be your Facebook friend and then they decline? I guess I'll have to find out the hard way. Because I keep my facebook life and my blog life separate, there will be no link to my facebook page on this site.

Who knows...after I face my fear of rejection over the internet, perhaps I can muster enough courage to ask out that hottie at the swimming pool.

Amanda Peet or Jessica Biel? I always get them confused...

2007-10-04T02:26:00.000-05:00

I just got back from Bloomington, IN. Visiting family always treats me well, whether it is in Bloomington, New Haven or Philly. Family always gives me the extra spark, that battery recharge to add spice to my otherwise somewhat-stale-but-getting-better living-at-home existence in Cali.

Something else that Indiana has going for it. It always seems easier to talk to people in bars in Indiana; not only that but IU attracts some hotties, including one I talked to named Amanda. "Amandas" are always hot. What (or should I say why) do only hot moms name their daughters “Amanda”? It’s gotten to the point that even when an Amanda is not that hot, which is very rare, I look to find the hotness that must be hidden somewhere in her that I’m just missing. Usually it’s not very hard to find.

Every visit, every experience always provides some unexpected surprise, and now that the Captain has relocated here, my visit began with high expectations. And no, the surprise wasn't that I enjoyed watching "The Princess Diaries" (I had already watched "Alfie", the only other DVD at my aunt’s house and didn't feel like reading. It was that or watching PBS). I guess I'm not much of an intellectual; more of a romantic, kinda of pathetic sentimentalist apparently. Anne Hathaway looks really hot (after the whole princess makeover). I know in the movie her character is 15, but I checked her IMDB page and she was 18 when the film was released.

The unexpected surprise was.... No, no, I'm waiting till Evil Spock blogs about the "surprise" first. It did involve crashing parties, getting free drinks and even (better) getting freaked by hot college girls, but it was much more than that. There is a link to his evil, evil blog on our blog roll. I’m getting impatient, but it's his thing to blog about, at least, first. Check his blog daily. You won't be disappointed.

From the Ranted Files of Dr. G, brought to you at great cost...

2007-10-02T14:34:00.000-05:00

ENCINO - Many times, in ostensibly enlightened company, I have been berated for suggesting that it is somehow unnatural for women to get boob jobs. This kind of neo-philistinism is rampant in our socio-culture, but nowhere is it more apparent than in the systematic marginalization of the films of Jenna Jameson.

Just recently, in the pages of a purportedly progressive blog, when yours truly mentioned her body of work in an artistic context, her films were dismissed as the butt of a crass wanking joke. Is this all we have for the artist who gave us “Where the Boys Aren’t 7”, a radical meditation on modern psycho-sexual identity politics that is almost completely overlooked by the feminist-academic community. Or “Up and Cummers”, in which, judging by the first 7 minutes, she seems to be some sort of naughty librarian. In the tradition of Joyce and Goddard, these texts turn ideas of conventional cause-and-effect narrative and character development on their heads.

In fact, according to her inaptly titled autobiography that my book club read last year, How to Make Love Like a Porn Star, Jameson is now the producer and a distributor of the movies in which her naughty bits star. In taking a lead role in her own degradation she has turned the tables: The peddled becomes the peddler, the exploited becomes the enriched. Of course the obvious question, the “800 pound gorilla in the room”, so to speak, is what exactly happens on the casting couch now? Before she decides to give herself the lead in her studio's next film, does she just give herself a good going over? Sadly, her otherwise very thorough, and often highly-autobiographical, memoir remains silent on this subject. However, such minor philosophical inconsistencies must be forgiven in light of the vital and necessary critique that is spewed forth in her cinematic works like a string of pearls. For clarification I turn to the writings of the deconstructionist philosopher Jacques Derrida:

...the entire history of the concept of structure, before the rupture of which we are speaking, must be thought of as a series of substitutions of centre for centre, as a linked chain of determinations of the centre…The history of metaphysics, like the history of the West, is the history of these metaphors and metonymies. -"Structuralism Destructured Structurally"

Clearly, viewed under the unapologetic light that French literary criticism allows into the darkened theater of bourgeoise aesthetics, we can no longer sit back and conveniently view Jameson’s films exclusively as young-adult fiction. In fact, her proto-neo-feminist protagonists are sympathetic actors, not mere objectified, non-agent receptors of the male gaze.

Stated simply, in the post-media-globo-corporato-neo-fasco-meta-iCulture, it is inevitable that all of us are going to get f&#%ed, but if we act with courage and ironic self-awareness then maybe, like Jenna, we can at least choose which hole.

That is all this American has to say on the subject. Good night...and good luck.

It Gives You A Warm Feeling, But No One Else Notices

2007-09-27T15:02:00.000-05:00

You probably think the above is a reference to the troubling events in Myanmar. Well, it’s not.

A smart person once told me that the secret to a good blog is self-deprecation. And Google has plenty to say on the connection between blogging and self-deprecating humor as well. Apparently people love to hear you go into painful detail about your own humiliating life. Apparently self-immolation or “roasting yourself” (hence the photo up top) is the highest form of bloggery.

My coauthor, GeorgeCostanza’s#1Fan, has consistently made an eloquent show of publicly baring his soul on these pages from the get go so, in the interest of making up lost time quickly and efficiently, I present here an annotated catalog of my personal failures to date:

1. Ate glue. ¹

2. Cheated on spelling test (and still got word wrong). ²

3. Locked my brother in dark basement. ³

4. Ate the last slice of pie. ⁴

5. Stole food from supermarket. ⁵

6. Broke up with girlfriend by acting distant until she decided to break up with me. ⁶

7. Didn’t stand up for myself at a frat bar when drunk guy was being a jerk. ⁷

8. Did a little before I got to the party and then acted surprised when bag looked light. ⁸

9. Ripped someone off for 35 dollars in purchase of used stereo. ⁹

10. When I was drinking too much at a work party and started to make an ass of myself, my supervisor convinced me to go home before I did any lasting damage, but I was too embarrassed to thank him the next day. ¹⁰

11. Left the state with outstanding speeding tickets and/or bench warrants three different times. ¹¹

12. Cheated at Trivial Pursuit by making up fake question on the final round. ¹²

13. Lied to one of my students to cover up a paperwork error that lowered their semester grade. ¹³

14. Didn’t take out the trash when I promised I would. ¹⁴

Footnotes:
¹ 1st grade, bottle claims it’s non-toxic
² Lesson: only cheat off people smarter than you
³ Only for like 5 minutes
⁴ 1,397 times as of last Tuesday
⁵ More than just a handful of bulk candy (although I do that all the time too).
⁶ She wasn’t really a good person anyway
⁷ He was a ~250lb Division 1 hockey player
⁸ Note: after this happens a few times, even your close friends start to get suspicious
⁹ Actually, I have no excuse. He was a friendly, honest guy and I totally Jewed¹⁵ him.
¹⁰ No real excuse here either
¹¹ One of the states was New Jersey
¹² Frankly, that takes more brains than just knowing a bunch of trivial crap
¹³ If they were really so smart they would have known I was lying and gone to the principal
¹⁴ 10,462 times as of this morning
¹⁵ I can say that because I am Jewish on my mom’s side

I hope this has been a cathartic peak into the dark reaches of my petty, cowardly, thieving, little soul. Please come back soon.

It's Hard Out There For a Pimp

2007-09-23T23:46:00.001-05:00

Actually, I doubt that. Watch American Pimp for substantiation, the central premise of which seems to be that The Game is in fact incredibly easy. You gotta wonder though, would the struggling pimps agree to an interview? If they did, would they admit their hardships? The question casts more than a shadow of doubt. Do pimps, maybe even the successful ones, ever wake up in the middle of the night and wonder what might have been?

For all of us, even the L7s, the big existential questions loom. Our choices about friendship, education, love, career, family, all the big stuff, are spilling over with personal meaning, but the decisions can also feel weighed down by a lack of moral purpose. Do I do these things solely for my benefit? If it is just about me, what is the point of personal sacrificc, and what will it all mean when I am gone? Do I do the way my family wants me too? How God tells me too? Do I just do what seems to work for my friends? Putting your shoes on in the morning for those reasons seems like the definition of Socrates’ “unexplored life”. So how do you operate with integrity in a seemingly hollow world? These capital-B-Big concerns can definitely lose you some sleep, but they have also inspired a lot of great writing. Many times I have thought about how my life choices stack up against the problems faced by the characters in Shakespeare, Faulkner, Hemingway, Joyce, Schulz, etc.

But really a writer doesn’t know anything more about the truths of human existence than you. They are just better able to pry their own opinions and prejudices into a pleasing narrative. So in a way, writing fiction is a little like being a pimp. Whether the fantasy is packaged in fake fur and plastic pumps or realistic dialogue and surprising plot twists, both are false and fleeting constructions. The reader gets a cheap thrill as the story builds and then the last page turns, she reapplies her lipstick, and you don’t really know anything more about the world or yourself than you did before. Or even worse, you think you do. I guess, to stretch the metaphor, that is like believing a working girl when she says she really likes you. So if even the classics are starting feel as fake as a stripper’s D cups, what is left? Paul Krassner once said, “irreverence is my only sacred cow,” but you gotta wonder, just where then does the man get his milk?

While we’re on the topic of prostitution, watching the news, even reading the NY Times, is starting feel like a trip to opposite-world, where borrowing more money than you could ever even intend to pay back is fiscally responsible and sending other peoples’ children to die takes courage. The politicians' and pundits' only real ability is to pull themselves into a a miniskirt and smile like it isn’t 35 degrees in the DC night air. At least this go around there is Obama, who seems like a relatively straight shooter. Plus he is like Rocky Marciano in negative: the great black hope. Wouldn’t it be crazy if a black man was president?

Well, not if he is compromised by corporate money, professional handlers and his own burning desire to triangulate to the middle of opinion polls. Is he just Hillary in black face? Probably, but either one will seem like a savior. Obama is definitely a thoughtful, articulate speaker and he has some genuine policies, like health care that you or your employer could afford, and not nuking countries that we aren’t at war with. What a nutcase-liberal that guy is huh?

But at the end of the day Obama is a politician. He gets ahead by telling us whatever it is we want to hear. It reminds me of a conversation I had with my father a few years back when I was doing volunteer work for Ralph Nader. HeMy dad smirked at my idealism, blaming it on my youth. “You young people think you’re so special, looking for a political candidate that has real integrity. Just hold your nose and pick the best looking whore, like the rest of us”. Not the worst advice I have ever heard.

Training

2007-08-11T00:03:00.000-05:00

Lots of different threads in this post... take a deep breathe between each paragraph, so you can fully enjoy my post.

I started training for the Princeton Review tonight. The big question for me at the moment is will I be able to wake up at 7 in the morning? after going to bed at 3 a.m. the last few nights. We will see. could be a very short training for the Princeton Review if I don't get up in time. I can even make it to Oakwood for some swimming if I can... This is my first job in months... so it would kind of suck if I lost it in one day. but then I would be able to go to services at the Mission Minyan next week. The hip places where I plan to meet my future wife.

If that wasn't my intention in going to pray in SF to, at least meet girls, I would probably pray at the synagogue I grew up in. Wouldn't it be ironic if my (future) wife, was praying there? No, she won't be, because she would use the same logic I did. There aren't that many young people living in Lafayette, unless they are unemployed and sad and pathetic and living with their parents.

If this job thing works out, I should have some money for jdate and some interesting stories... otherwise...(make sure to take a deep breathe, it starts getting jumping here)

I will always have this.... a quote from a SAT essay: The question: Is it always "you don't know what you got till it's gone?" I wrote: "Yeah, no one was saying woo hoo after boarding a plane with a full regular tube of toothpaste and a full bottle of drinking water before 9/11". You don't miss those things you take for granted until they are gone....(remember to breathe)

speaking of 9/11, when the number of troop casualties double the number of deaths in 9/11 will we call it even? (what do they think there are too many patriotic, brave men around and if they weren't in a war, they might lead a revolution and (gasp) impeach the president? (you know the drill, hold it in for at least five seconds, maybe take a couple of deep ones here.)

News flash, on impeachment and why it has been taken off the table. I just talked to my mom, and she told me the party line. The democrats are afraid of messing things up for 2008. I would bet money that is exactly why they don't win in 2008. Leadership takes balls and the democrats have none (or at least less than GOPers). If they felt that the president didn't deserve to be impeached that would be one thing, but to not impeach him, because it makes our life harder, will come back to haunt them. He deserves it. The democrats aren't doing anything anyways. ITMFA, close to Savage's DTMFA, read Savage Love if you don't get the acronym. (you might want to count to ten before continuing, I get a little preachy here).

We, as a country, have gotten so fat (figuratively... well figuratively and literally) that we are afraid to mess up what we have. and therefore we will soon find ourselves with nothing, or maybe just empty lives, like the Romans before their civilization collapsed, bypassed by people and countries that are willing to put it all on the line.

Vegas, Baby!

2007-08-05T19:49:00.000-05:00

Hey this is going to be short and sweet... Vegas was a blast... more to come later... the highlight of the trip, one of Sam's friends, Motorboated to girls at the topless pool. (See Wedding Crashers on what Motor boating is, something to do with sticking your head between two knockers. )

so I am tired, got some of my meds reduced, which hopefully will be a real good thing. think I am going to fail out of grad school a second time, am back home, where I belong until I start earning some money or get a rich girl to marry me. I might work as a tutor (but only make $17 an hour)... start training for the Princeton Review on Friday, which will kill my weekends for the next two weeks. Hope to get more involved in the Mission Minyan, with some hip jews...

Ok, you've been waiting for the numbers... Lost $60 at craps, but it was my first time playing... lost $20 at roulette on red, also might have been my first time playing that too. won $50 playing blackjack and was actually up a $100 (making $50 bets), only played three hands. I thought long and hard about betting the money the guys gave me ($2000), but I couldn't take the lose, if I didn't win the hand. too bad I didn't have a job (I would be more willing to take the risk)... be well my friends.... GCNOF is retiring for the night. got a shit load of stats to do tomorrow.

Back home

2007-07-14T02:27:00.000-05:00

Greetings from the Golden State…

I’m back home in California. This is my first rant of the month. I just haven’t been writing. Swimming for 4.4 miles and then not swimming for two weeks, took a toll
on me. Adjusting from the life in the middle of the city, living with three other bachelors, to living with my sixty year old parents, in the middle of suburbia has taken a toll on me. Going from being an outsider, based on economic options and race (I lived near the projects and a homeless shelter, not to mention living on a former crack house block, and a half block from a shooting, while I was living in the area) to being an outsider because of my lack of family (of my own) or a job has been tough too.

I found out yesterday that I can continue my graduate study in statistics at Cal State East Bay. A relief.

Now I just have to get a part time job, so I can move out on my own and I’ll be set.

And I have started swimming again. Training for my next swim around Lake Tahoe (assuming it isn’t engulfed in fire) at the end of July.

I find it very funny that although I just swam 4.4 miles, because I didn’t swim for two weeks, I’m out of shape. I’ve always thought that I lose my shape very quickly for the continuity of working out that I have had since the seventh grade. when I won a plaque because I participated in the most after school sports of any seventh grader (all of the after school sports except track. I didn’t repeat to win the award in eighth grade. I decided to give the glory to someone else.

Basically I didn’t have any friends in seventh grade, (weep, weep), so to fill my days I went out for every after-school sport that there was. as for why I didn’t pursue theater or music: I failed to make a flute have sound in the fourth grade, and never touched another instrument until college. I never thought of singing, Rory Henderson was the only guy with enough balls in the sixth grade to join choir,
and yes, he was always surrounded by the hot-sixth grade ladies. At the time, I didn’t have any theatre talent and was scared to be on stage. Sports were low pressure. Not much you can screw up when you are sitting on the bench.

Reminiscing…

The same boredom came in high school. My first day, I went to classes and then home alone. I was bored. I didn’t know what to do with myself. The second day too. The third or fourth day I went out for water polo. I had tried it briefly during the summer, but found it too tough. But it was better than being home and bored. JV wasn’t as tough. Wrestling was different. I looked forward to wrestling in high
school, since the seventh grade. Wrestling was the sport for short guys, small guys, skinny guys who weren’t tall or coordinated enough for basketball. Because you only wrestled against guys the same weight as you. Wrestling was also the one sport, I had had some success at in junior high (remember, I had tried them all [except track]).

At Stanley intermediate, I was the top wrestler in my weight group in 8th grade and lost to A.J. Buhl in the final tournament (A.J. wrestled for four years at Campo and always kicked my butt). Wrestling was the sport of champions (and pansies and fish). Wrestling was about control. Wrist control and weight control. It was about losing five pounds in a week and then gorging right before a match or a tournament. It was
about running in a sweatsuit with a garbage bag around you in a gym with the heat turned up. Trying to draw every ounce of H20 out of your body. Wrestling meant that each time you took a dump you were one or two pounds closer to making weight.

MK took a spitter (used for chewing tabacco with him) every Thursday before weigh ins. Hit Petrini’s for a Mustard sandwich (never remembered what meat he ordered. Just that there was always lots of mustard(I’m mustard-phobic, FYI). MK would be spitting into the spitter, for two hours, hoping to lose the last ounce of weight before weigh-ins. Salivating over the sandwich, probably helped him drop over an ounce of spit over a three-hour period. DH would complain about how painful it was to watch TV commercials for food-related products and restaurants, while fasting before weigh-ins. We weren’t the brightest then….

Now we know that water helps you lose weight and jogging a little probably would get all the sweat out
of you, without torturing yourself by exposing yourself to food that you couldn’t eat until after
weigh-ins.

It was only years later, that I realized that if I didn’t gorge myself right after weigh-ins, I might have wrestling better. For me, making weight was a lot more of a challenge than the actual wrestling. I don’t think I ever failed to make weight. Sadly, I rarely won my match. I did beat a girl once, and a few freshmen (when I was a senior).

I did letter in two sports. Water polo and wrestling (both my junior year), but never got a lettermen’s jacket. It was worth-it as a freshman or sophomore, when you had years of use of it. Unless of course you want to frequent high school football games as a thirty year old and check out the cheerleaders and impress your fellow thirty year olds (bare with me, fellow thirty year olds , who are also at the high school football game. I guess that being that I’m home, maybe that will be me.).

I guess that is kinda of old school. It might be nice to have that then. Who knows maybe it would have got me laid in high school. Would have been 0 for the 20th century in that case. Some freshman girl, might have thought I was a big-man on campus with a letterman jacket.

So that’s how I started to work out....FYI, after my Lake Tahoe swim, I need another athletic event to train for..

anyone interested in doing a century-ride or half-marathon?

Peace out- GCNOF

China Executes Product-safety Chief

2007-07-10T02:58:00.000-05:00

China does not fuck around.
They know the international reputation of their exports is at stake so they can't afford half measures. A little bit of that might be nice in the Far West. Say you are a public official whose malicious or incompetent behavior is responsible for the death of Americans; take your pick: EPA, FEMA, Pentagon, Intelligence, Green Zone, White House, etc. Instead a tongue lashing and a book deal, you get two to the back of the head. Maybe if you filch from the public till you just lose a hand. It's not exactly progressive, but it might raise the bar a little in the public sector. I guess we can only speak wistfully of having as uncorrupt, efficient a system as the Chinese.

Update

2007-05-08T01:53:00.000-05:00

Hey, It's 3 a.m. and am wanting to go to bed soon. It probably won't happen, as I woke up around 1 p.m. today (Monday) and 1 p.m. yesterday (Sunday). I missed my swimming practice, because I was too tired to get up, comatosed, might be a good word choice. Too comatosed to get out of bed. Watched the basketball game, and saw the Warriors lose a close one. too bad.
the way I feel about competition is always one sided.

Either I am happy to win and don't care about losing or am very upset about losing and don't care if I win, depending on the competition. They produce the same. a desire to win, but one gets a positive and one only has a negative.

poker for me is mainly about the losing. when you win, it usually involves luck, ok, for me (maybe that's the problem, I don't win with skill, which is why winning doesn't feel good, but lately I hate losing at poker, because it keeps happening all the time.

I'm enjoying hanging out with my housemates, mainly watching basketball this last month. we are all leaving the house and I am moving back to California. I know a lot of people looking for work here. and I probably, hopefully can get work here, but it just makes sense to head back to California, take some courses and get a job back there.

When I left for DC, it was mainly a career move and when I move back to California, it is also mainly a career move. It is time I got a regular job. although I'll miss the DC intellectuals quite a bit. I could work here, but as long as I am taking grad classes, it's best I move back there. I can move here, if I get a cushy job here. after I go threw grad school again or get into a field where no grad school is required. it's time for me to hit the head. more to come later. including a wrap up to the Series-When Things Come Out the Wrong Way.
-GCNOF