Perfect Bowling Form

Happy Birthday Blog

It's been one full year since I've been throwing words out into the vast chasm that is the internet. I don't think this was ever mentioned, but blogging was done at the encouragement of this strange fellow, who wanted to do a blog, but was too free ranch chicken to step into the void himself. He talked a couple of us into being as idiotic as him. There is stupidity in numbers.

It's been a useful exercise. Maybe a few people have learned a couple things about me that they hadn't know before. Maybe I've had an opinion that made someone rethink an idea. Maybe I've made a couple people groan and realize why they never started a blog. It's all good. May next year's blog be just as pointless.

What I did on my day off.

I went to Google the other day for lunch with a friend. (Thanks J) I work at a college campus, but in an administrative building. I've got an office and when I go to meetings, or I go to other offices or conference rooms. Unless I'm at the student union, it's easy to forget the scholastic activities that go on around here. In comparison, Google seemed more like a school. Eating lunch there was like going to the school cafeteria. They had writing scrawled across a giant memo board. They had a continual slide show of smiley happy people. They had dozens of chefs preparing food for a couple jam packed roms. The only difference it the food there was free. And they upgraded to free range chicken and stuff. I could see why people would want to work there, but I would probably gain 20 pounds if I did.

It stays in Vegas except for this.

I went go-karting for the first time this weekend. Essentially this means I strapped myself into a wheeled metal frame with a loud lawnmover engine that could do about 40 mph. It might not sound like a lot of speed, but when you're that close to the ground, and the engine is that loud, it's plenty of speed to hurt or kill you. Anyway, for a forty dollar pop we were given two opportunities to race around an indoor track as fast as we could.

I have a new found respect for NASCAR drivers after that experience. Before it didn't seem like a sporting event to watch guys zoom around in a circle over and over again. The engine does most of the real work. But, I found it very difficult to pass people. There's a skill in doing so without causing a wreck. And the adrenalin was rushing so that at a point I had to remind myself to breathe. So there is a little bit of an athletic element to it. Overall, it was just a great experience to race around with the guys. Ultimately, it seems like I wasn't one of the best drivers or one of the worse. I guess that's what I should have expected.

Well, that's it for this weekend. For anyone who wants more lurid details on the bachelor party activities in Vegas, you'll actually have to have been there or talk to someone who'll share the details with you. There are a couple stories that will never be forgotten.

Add another lie to the book.

The credibility gap continues to widen. Junior says there is no civil war going in Iraq. This despite the fact that fifty to sixty people continue to die in sectarian violence every day. Is he waiting for a formal declaration of war? That would be funny, considering that he never got one from the US congress, and arm twisted a UN that only partially went along. This is a poor lie and there isn't a single American without half a brain who shouldn't see through it.

At some point the war paradigm shifted. There are no formal declarations anymore. War these days is not about lining up big armies and marching across the field at each other. These days it's about guns in back allies. IEDs and landmines that rip up tires and limbs upon remote detonatation. It's called low intenstiy warfare. And the trick is, it doesn't really matter how many soldiers we use. We can't win.

Does anyone know what the strategy is at this point? Junior doesn't either.

A slap for a hand in the cookie jar.

The truth of the matter is FISA is pretty clear. Get a warrant. And despite his refusal to give any details into the program and assertions that he was authorized to act in such a manner, he didn't get a warrant and he was wrong.

The thing is because no one willing to give any details, we really don't know how bad he's been trampling our liberties. I think when all is said and done, we'll see that this program based on modern technology did create some issues that were unforeseen when FISA was written almost 30 years ago. It probably involves some data mining into legitimate terrorist threats that tangentially skirted FISA (okay, maybe I'm just being naive as to Junior's purposes). If he had given the FISA court a chance to review this, fine. If he had asked Congress to amend the law, fine. Instead he pretended the law didn't apply to him.

So, Senator Feingold's idea of a censure is pretty good. He violated the law. He continues to stonewall Congress. Censure him. This by itself probably isn't impeachable, but given his overall record, I wouldn't mind that either.

Just a sprinkle of snow.

Every couple of years, the higher points around the Bay area, mostly Mt. Hamilton or the Santa Cruz mountains pick up a dusting of white stuff. At those times, a lot of people around here will race for the hills to experience something resembling winter. Californians think its cute, though most of them could never survive a real winter.

Anyway, in quiet little San Mateo, there wasn't enough snow to stick on the ground, but there was a good quarter inch on my car. Pretty cool, as long as you don't have to drive.

GI Janes

I was reading an article about women in the military. 48 women have died in Iraq, not all of them in combat situations. Several have died from dehydration. They are afraid to drink water before going to sleep at night because they are afraid of being assaulted or raped by their male counterparts as they head for the latrines. Now, I can't swear that this report is true or that 30 percent of female veterans report some rape or attempted rape, but wouldn't any rape just be unthinkable in this situation?

These are not only mothers, daughters, and sisters, these are war comrades, team mates, someone who has your back when people have guns pointed at you. The military does a tough job. It has never been a forward thinking organization, and promotes that Rambo outlaw image, but there have to be standards.

Hopefully, they're out of the torture business. Hopefully, they will learn to treat their own with more respect. That's one place to start.

The truth, Barry. Can you handle it?

This morning on the radio I heard some San Francisco pundits laying into a Sports Illustrated reporter in the defense of Barry. They argued that one of the prime sources against Barry, his former mistress was bias. Of course, she's bias, but that doesn't mean what she says isn't true. They also argued that the book accused the San Francisco Giants of enabling the whole thing. They accused the bookwriters of going after Barry when this problem was pervasive throughout baseball. Barry certainly didn't make friends with the media. He also deserves some of the attention, because he is the greatest power hitter in our lifetime. Like it or not, that's his legacy and his responsiblity

He did it. The team looked the other way. Barry deserves to be booed at every game because as great as he was before, he lied and he cheated. If he didn't, he's got a great law suit that should put another couple of million in his pockets.

Bye Kirby

I can't say I was ever a real Twinkies fan, but watching Kirby lead the Twinkies to the World Championship twice was great. This guy had enthusiasm for what he did. He knew reckless abandon. He always made me think, bowling ball. Anyway, his life like his career is over much too soon.

Next volley in the abortion argument.

The abortion issue continues to divide this country and probably will continue to divide this country long after I'm around. The Supreme Court has swung and today a new law in South Dakota has been signed to challenge Roe v. Wade. It's very likely that the world I grew up in, one that respected a woman's right to choose whether or not a nine month (if not an entire life) commitment is going to be taken away from that woman and regulated by the State. It's probably not a good thing.

I wish I could say with certainty that one side was right or wrong in this issue. It's hard to argue that life shouldn't be valued, but it's also hard to argue that a woman wouldn't be the best judge of whether or not she's willing and able to take care of such a large responsibility as a new born infant.

So what it really comes down to for me, is that I am not confident that I should tell a woman how to live her life. So why should the government? I wish I had something smarter to say on the whole topic.

But this isn't the only battle. Potentially, this Supreme Court will be marching all over your rights for the next 30 years.

When did we fail?

When did this failure occur? Before Colin Powell's presentation of evidence at the UN, before Bush's State of the Union. Even before Hans Blix went on his cart before the horse search for WMDs in Iraq, it was already clear in my mind that Iraq was not a threat to the U.S. They had no WMDs. There was no reason to go to war. But despite my voice for peace. Despite the world telling them it was a bad idea, something called to Coalition of the Willing was formed and the U.S. found itself in Iraq led there by a President who chose faith over facts. Is it fair to say, that's when we failed?

After the U.S. took over, prediction after prediction proved false. There were no WMDs, Americans were not greeted as liberators, but as imperialists. Saddam was not involved with Al Queda or 9/11. Yet, Bush declared the mission accomplished. Is that when we failed?

A constitution was drafted. Elections were held. Another election was held. Each time we were told to stay the course, that some mythical corner was coming in sight. A plan that anyone could understand still had not been formulated or implemented. Is this it?

Today, most people in Iraq are much worse off than they were under Saddam. Life essentials like, water and electricity are not provided. The only jobs are military or enforecment jobs where minimal training will be provided. The truth is the civil war has already started. The U.S. has no plan to get in or out and our troops are at risk for no clear reason.

I think it's clear at this point, that history will judge Junior a failure for his war. Most people in America have finally figured this out. More and more are figuring this out every day. I'm just wondering when Junior will be able to admit it to himself or to any of us.

Elton and I

There is a recent basketball article about Elton Brand where they quote his high school coach in some detail. Several years before Mr. Panzanaro's involvement with Elton, he taught me in 5th grade. So next time you see that left handed lay up from Elton, you'll know where that evolved from.