Pax Plena

Book Review Coming Soon

2012-01-24T14:49:00.001-07:00

Last week, I was contacted by Archipelago Books in Brooklyn about doing a review of Norwegian author Karl Knausgaard's latest book, My Struggle: Book One.

With a goal of ten book reviews for the year and having produced all of zero to date, I readily agreed. That Knausgaard is a heavily decorated writer in his home country only adds a post-hoc validity to my decision. As Newt Gingrich demonstrates, wisdom is as much about appearance as it is about prescience.

According to the press release:

A Norwegian Marcel Proust. This nerve-striking, addictive piece of "hyper-realism," by the Norwegian Crtics' Prize-winning author of A Time for Everything, has created a phenomenon throughout Scandinavia. Written as though his very life were at stake.
Almost ten years have passed since Karl O. Knausgaard's father drank himself to death. He is now embarking on his third novel while haunted by self-doubt. Knausgaard breaks his own life story down to its elementary particles, often recreating memories in real time, blending recollections of images and conversation with profound questions in a remarkable way. Knausgaard probes into his past, dissecting struggles - great and small - with great candor and vitality. Articulating universal dilemmas, this Proustian masterpiece opens a windows into one of the most original minds writing today.

Mr. Knausgaard's work has been already published abroad as a behemoth, six-volume set. While the first book of the volume has yet to be released in the US, pre-release copies have earned glowing reviews from The New York Review of Books, and London's The Independent.

My Struggle is set for publication on May 12, 2012. Readers can pre-order a copy on Amazon here. More to come.

The Most Depressing Day of the Year?

2012-01-16T21:56:00.001-07:00

According to a bit of sketchy science, today is supposedly the most depressing day of the year.

Psychologist Cliff Arnall says the third Monday in January is the most depressing day of the entire year, dubbing it Blue Monday.
Arnall's formula factors in the weather, time elapsed since Christmas, failed New Year's resolutions, and debt.
[Link]

The theory has largely been discredited, but it's not difficult to see how Arnall could arrive at that conclusion. Three of my new year's resolutions have met an untimely demise - including a naive hope of blogging four times per week, and drinking less alcohol. With Tebow out of the playoffs, and my favorite GOP candidate folding up shop, today seemed a lot like Blue Monday to me. The only thing more pathetic than this particular Monday is the measly army of dolphins we have defending the Strait of Hormuz.

Lest I seem bluer than usual, I have taken some proactive steps out of the doldrums. For example, Lifehacker suggests that many resolutions fail because we are the saboteurs of our own goals. His solution is a printable online checklist, which admittedly is pretty cool. Another blog I read called "The Art of Manliness" (don't laugh) suggests that the key to increasing willpower is simply a matter of putting in the time to create new habits. I'm not sure that this idea is limited only to the manly, but it makes sense to me that better habits beget a temperate lifestyle.

So, in hopes of developing new habits, and in celebration of the somewhat new year, I'm glad to finally share my list of new year's resolutions, including the one's I've already broken, and only three weeks late. For the tech savvy, the full list can be found here, courtesy of a nifty website called Accompl.sh, which allows users to develop lockable lists for long-term goals. For everyone else, below is a more structured summary, divided into categories for your perusal:

Spiritual:
Read the Bible in one year - I did this fairly consistently during high school. But in college I more or less became a little heathen as kids are prone to do. Needless to say, I could stand to gain from such wisdom on a more frequent basis.
Go through Confirmation - My wife and I have attended an Episcopal Church for over a year here in Tucson. The denomination's commitment to "scripture, reason and tradition" is increasingly where I feel most at home theologically. I hope to formalize what I already believe through the rite of Confirmation.
Memorize the Nicene Creed - We recite this creed nearly every week. And nearly every week I feebly turn to the Book of Common Prayer to supplement my lack of memorization. This needs to change before my neighbors in the surrounding pews start to notice.
Blogging:
Blog four times per week - This unfortunate resolution needs to be amended to blogging twice a week. With a dissertation in the works, it's become nearly impossible to blog as often as I once did. My hope is that quality posts will compensate for a lack of quantity.
Finish ten new book reviews - Last year, I introduced a bimonthly book review. This year, my goal is to complete ten of these. I think this is realistic depending upon the supply of material available from publishers.
Professional:
Complete my dissertation in time for Spring Graduation - After some 22 years of education, it's time to give school a rest.
Find gainful employment - Gainful is an interesting word. Its common usage relates to wealth or profitability. A secondary use relates to an increase in resources, and productivity. I would be happy with a job that encompasses either definition.
Move back to OK - Barring a big change in plans, and with only slight trepidation, I plan to make this the year that I return to my home state, and begin some form of a career - hopefully in academia.
Fitness:
Ride my bike twice per week - This goal hasn't happened in the new year either. But with a newly minted bike computer on my desk, I expect to resume riding in the near future.
Drink less alcohol - In College, we would jokingly proclaim, "die liver, die!" before a night out. But rumor has it, I may need my liver later in life. With age 30 knocking at the door, it's probably time that I punish my body less.
Reclaim my high school weight - I won't say how much I once weighed, but I will say that married life has ably dealt a blow to my younger, more active self. Aside from weight loss, I hope to make fitness in general a bigger priority.
Random:
Finish War and Peace - I've begun Tolstoy's master work no less than four times. And each time it has defeated my will to power through. This time, I'll be armed with a reading plan that coincides with Lent.
Finish The Brothers Karamazov - My wife and I had hope to finish The Brothers Karamazov together in November. Somewhere between Thanksgiving and early December, we abandoned our plan. With a little over halfway to go, this should be easily attainable.
Save money for a celebratory vacation - After getting married in mid-August 2009, my wife and I immediately made the long move to Arizona. Alas, being but poor students, we weren't able to take a honeymoon. With my SJD nearing completion, we plan to finally take a trip somewhere - if only we can set aside a few greenbacks.

Silent Nights

2011-12-25T17:15:00.001-07:00

O God, who hast caused this holy night to shine with the illumination of the true Light: Grant us, we beseech thee, that as we have known the mystery of that Light upon earth, so may we also perfectly enjoy him in heaven; where with thee and the Holy Spirit he liveth and reigneth, one God, in glory everlasting. Amen.

The Christmas activities have pretty well abated here at the Fodder Family farm. Presents were demolished with a vengeance on Christmas Eve, in accordance with our somewhat quirky tradition. Alexas enjoyed her annual Christmas rawhide. And Gwyn's Christmas Day ham came out with a glaze of golden perfection.

Late last night, I spent sometime out on our porch, pipe-in-hand, looking at the winking stars of a cold Oklahoma sky.

I don't know what the birth of Christ was like in Bethlehem. I wasn't there. But something in me hopes it was a bit like the satisfying quiet of last night.

Happy Christmas, Friends.

On Significance

2011-12-13T19:15:00.001-07:00

I expect the photo above will be instantly recognizable to anyone using the Lion OSX operating system. The image is of the Galaxy Andromeda, located some 2.5 million light-years away from Earth. The image is also the stock desktop wallpaper on Lion OSX - an image that some of us have, perhaps, never bothered to change.

Even if I knew how to change the picture, I'm not sure that I would. Anytime I fire up my computer, I find my self enamored with the image because it establishes so well the lot of mankind set against the awesome reality of the cosmos. It's also interesting to me that the picture looks so serene when in reality, the Galaxy Andromeda is one of the greatest threats to our existence.

That's a bit of hyperbole. But it's also true. Upon consulting the infallible oracle of information, Wikipedia, some 4.5 billion years from now, the Andromeda Galaxy is expected to collide with the Milky Way Galaxy, leaving the fate of our entire planet and solar system unknown. One scenario envisions the solar system being dislodged from the Milky Way Galaxy entirely. There's a joke about lactose intolerance here, but I'll spare you. (Happy Christmas.) It's probably a sad commentary on my mindset these days, but upon learning of the pending, galactic collision, my initial thought was to find out whether the event constitutes an act of God under my Progressive insurance policy.

The point of this post, of course, is not to worry about a cosmic event that, with luck, I'll never live to see. What especially interests me about the image is what it portends for our significance as individuals inhabiting this tiny blue marble amid the dark sea of the unknown.

Interestingly, Rick Warren's daily e-mail blast offered an insightful, albeit somewhat unctuous, take on the significance of human life. After noting the American epidemic of depression and dissatisfaction, Warren suggests that the key to addressing such feelings of despair is a matter of turning our thoughts outward, rather than inward:

That’s us. Our own personal drive to have more, be more, and do more causes us to lose sight of what really matters. But that isn’t how God wired us. Life isn’t about what you make, who you know, or what you do. Life is all about love — loving God and loving others.
[Link]

Warren's solution for malaise is the committing of one's life to some form of service to others - not merely due to altruism, but because of an innate will to do something more than simply exist.

He also has a bit of secular support from one of my favorite bloggers, Penelope Trunk. In a recent post, she notes an initial feeling of dissatisfaction with her present work/life balance - that is until she invited someone to help her get organized. Not only was the guest an absolute nightmare, but the loss of Ms. Trunk's usual routine (cooking for her family, driving her kids to various practices, and lessons, etc.) made her realize how much she missed her family regardless of the monetary reward earned by more work. Again, significance is determined based upon a commitment to some external motivation, rather than aims focused upon the self.

Finally, even avowed atheist, Vanity Fair Editor, Christopher Hitchens, who is locked in a painful battle with esophageal cancer, has noted the significance of simple things in his life. Despite his many accolades as a writer, and a life full of professional accomplishment, Mr. Hitchens is struggling with the effects of cancer treatments on his vocal chords. The treatments have, at times, robbed him of his ability to speak, leaving the written word as his principle means of relaying information. This is, of course, quite an ability, and in the hands of Mr. Hitchens a formidable tool, indeed. Still, in his latest column, Hitchens makes plain that what he would most like to have back, should he win his battle with cancer, is his ability to speak.

I think Rick Warren is on to something here...

Less than two weeks ago, I learned that one of the people most instrumental for my foray into cycling had passed away. There and Back Bicycle shop owner Steve Vihel had long endured an enlarged, and thereby weakened heart. I would say that Steve suffered from this affliction, but in many ways he so embodied the type of life that Warren is describing, that to say he suffered would be a gross misrepresentation of the way in which he lived.

I have no idea what Steve's spiritual beliefs were. All I know, and will forever remember about Steve is the way that he reached out to people. Whether encouraging a novice cyclist such as yours truly, or jawboning with customers who were avid cyclists and friends (or what Steve called "friendstomers") it was obvious that Steve loved what he did, and the experiences it provided. This is even more striking when I consider that Steve lived his entire life knowing he might die at any moment. This is the reality for all of us, and yet for Steve the matter was pressing, having had two cardiac scares in his early twenties, and having lost his mother to the same condition sometime before.

Yet, at the end of his life, after reaching out to hundreds of cyclists here in the Tucson area, Steve did a most unusual thing:

That morning, he had some ice cream and the hospital staff snuck some beer into his room. He took a sip from a straw, and proposed a toast. Here's to new beginnings.
[Link]

When the Milky Way and Andromeda galaxies collide a few billion years from now, I don't know that there will be much left of mankind to indicate that any of us have ever existed. For all I know, mankind will bomb itself into oblivion once the Martians attack, and the Chinese realize we'll never make good on our debt.

But as Rick Warren, Penelope Trunk, and Christopher Hitchens have all learned, the end doesn't much matter. The significance of our lives is what we make of it now. And like Steve Vihel, I hope that my time on Earth is spent loving people, and that it ends with a sip of beer and a toast, "to new beginnings."

My Thoughts on Tim Tebow

2011-12-08T13:44:00.001-07:00

As a loyal fan of the Dallas Cowboys, I haven't willingly followed Tim Tebow's performance this season.

The problem, of course, is that it's quite nearly impossible to watch football and miss Tim Tebow's performance this season - largely because everyone feels the need to opine at length about it, or perform the odd "Tebowing with Santa," to make their views absolutely clear.

When I say everyone, I usually intend the word to pack a bit of melodrama. In Tebow's case, it stands to reason that not everyone can form a definitive opinion of a rookie quarterback no matter how famously heralded his college days were. (A simple look at former USC QB Matt Leinart is sufficient to make the point. Leinart took his team to the BCS National Championship, and won a Heisman Trophy while in college. Yet, his most famous accomplishment in the NFL has been a guest appearance on Ashton Kutcher's Punk'd.)

But in Tebow's case, quite literally everyone who watches football has conjured up some type of opinion on the Broncos QB. From ex-quarterbacks who remain skeptical, to religious experts who seem baffled, to NBA super star LeBron James who flat sounds supportive - heck even Bill Cosby took a break from promoting pudding pops to weigh in on the Tebow phenomenon. Naturally, Bill C. is a fan.

Among current and recent NFL players, those who have faced Tebow on the field sound mostly bitter.Not only has Tebow gone 6-1 as a starter, but he has done so in electric fashion, leading five come-from-behind victories deep in the fourth quarter.

Those who haven't faced Tebow on the field seem more concerned about Tebow's public displays of faith (PDFs?), than his actual performance as a quarterback. These include former Rams QB, Kurt Warner, and former Broncos QB Jake Plummer.

Given that everyone else has beat me to the punch, in the grand tradition of Thursday morning quarterbacking, here's two-cents from yours truly. I think the best summary of the Tebow phenomenon come from the National Review's Rich Lowry:

Raised by missionaries and home-schooled, Tebow sets off cultural tripwires. He says he’s a virgin. Feminists were outraged by a gently pro-life Super Bowl ad he did with his mom about her troubled pregnancy when she was carrying him. But as writer Daniel Foster notes, what is most off-putting to some people about Tebow is his utter lack of irony and sheer earnestness. Doesn’t he know life isn’t a 1950s sitcom? Can’t he leaven his impossible goodness with a few readily identifiable vices? You can almost hear his critics urging him, “Shut up already about God, and please start failing.”
[Link]

It's hard for me to imagine the National Review offering a cogent bit of football analysis, but Lowry's piece summarizes the Tebow controversy superbly. The simple fact is that Tebow's off-the-field critics couldn't care less about his style of play - which has opened up a new era of NFL football with the running game again taking center stage through an option-based offense in a league of pass-happy teams. And Tebow's off-the-field critics don't much care that he has gone 6-1 as a starter, and led five come-from-behind wins.

Tim Tebow's off-the-field critics care only that he supposedly injects his faith too much into his public persona.

While the diagnosis is relatively clear, I cannot understand the rationale for criticizing Tebow simply because he unabashedly shares his Christian beliefs in public. The repressed lawyer in me can't help but feel that the entire notion cuts against the very best traditions of our Nation, and its typically fierce protection of the freedom of speech. Note that society and the courts tend to tolerate the freedom of speech in the form of pornography, hate speech, corporate campaign contributions, and the desecration of the American flag. Yet for reasons completely inexplicable the chattering class is fixated upon Tim Tebow's dropped knee, and bowed head on the sidelines.

As Lowry notes, the latent issue seems to be that Tebow's public profile is a new model of counter-culture, one harkening back to the values and social conventions of a more innocent time. This almost makes Tebow's NFL career a post-post-modern phenomenon. The earnestness of his beliefs represent a stark contrast to the socially acceptable idea of NFL players, and athletes in general, reveling in their vices - including time spent in prison, womanizing, drugs, alcohol, gambling, etc.

Given the opposition, doubt, and outright ridicule that Tim Tebow has faced in his short career, I hope that he has a long, prosperous, championship-filled career in the NFL. And I hope that he silences each and every critic again, and again. As Frank Capra demonstrated some 65 years ago, the world needs more George Baileys, and fewer Henry Potters. If Tebow isn't the NFL's George Bailey, then I'm not sure that the league will ever have one.

And so, Tim Tebow, Godspeed. Here's hoping it's a wonderful life after all.

Slight Self-Call, and Plug for a Friend

2011-12-07T21:06:00.001-07:00

My friend and fellow grad student, Chris Schumerth of Anderson, IN, runs a blog, eponymously titled "The Schumerth Shuffle." Chris covers a broad swath of topics, including teaching, religion, sports, politics, and, yes, even feminism.

His recent series of interviews has featured a number of interesting folks, ranging from seminarians, philosophers and academics, to yours truly - who is really none of the above.

If I had to typify Chris's virtual interviews, I would describe his questioning as candid and forthright, cutting to the quick of his interviewees, and striking at the essence of prompting honest replies. Stating matters differently, he has a number of interesting friends, who are glad to go on the record for a stand-up guy.

Be sure to check out his blog here. And if you're so inclined, check out his interview with your lowly blogger, here.

Fighting the Grinch

2011-11-25T20:09:00.001-07:00

Allegedly, today is a major shopping day in these states united. According to Bloomberg, during the first 24 hours of Black Friday, sales were up $27 Billion, or 8%, over sales during the same period last year. I doubt the relatively flat increase has anything to do with the Occupy Wall Street protestors' call for a boycott of major retailers. But, alas, questions about Holiday spending haven't been reduced to the fringe down at Zuccotti Park.

One source that I consider to be uniformly insightful has not only questioned the wisdom of such a frenzied shopping blitz, but he has also hinted that America should resuscitate long dead 'blue laws,' mandating that businesses close on Sunday. Even the normally estimable Zen Habits has gone so far as to encourage his readers not to spend money during the Holiday Season at all. Minimalism indeed.

Naturally, such notions are misguided.

In fact, perhaps the worst thing consumers could do during this time of economic downturn is not spend money - since (surprise!), our economy is largely driven by consumer spending. If Americans stop spending money, then companies have no incentive to hire and greater incentives to downsize. This leads to greater unemployment, and even slower economic growth. I get that families should be prudent with their personal finances, but if everyone took Zen Habits' advice, our economy would probably tank before most people have time to put up the Christmas tree.

Given our economic morass, and quite unlike my betters, I want to do my part to help fight the army of Grinches. Accordingly, I have published my personal Christmas list below. In the event that readers are tempted to abstain from making holiday purchases, consider my list, and if you can't be moved to buy something for yourself, at least buy something for me. After all, our economy needs you to make these purchases. That I am a side beneficiary of your concern for the greater good, well, I'll just try to find a way to live with myself.

Whatever the motivation, I call that a win, win for everyone.

And in the event you would rather not purchase presents for yours truly (you scabs), then maybe the list will give you a few ideas for the lowly grad student/blogger/technophile in your life - conveniently sorted into four categories. You're welcome.

Entertainment

1. Mad Men (Seasons 1 - 4). Cost: $79.99. Store: Amazon. Description: Set on Madison Avenue in the 1960s, Mad Men is quite simply the finest television series currently being produced. The character development perfectly suits each member of the cast, while the writing remains consistently smart and witty.

2. Californication (Seasons 1 - 4). Cost: $97.99. Store: Amazon. Description: Californication has been a guilty pleasure of mine for the past two years. Im' already counting down the days until the series resumes with Season 5 starting in January. For those with greater moral scruples than me, I should warn that the series is completely debauched. But it chronicles the exploits of a struggling, alcoholic writer who dances on the razor's edge of genius and disaster. My own dance trends more toward disaster, but I like the idea of knowing that someone has it worse than me.

3. Atlas Shrugged (Part 1). Cost: $14.99. Store: Amazon. Description: This book radically, and inexorably reframed my world view and thoughts about politics. In fact, I quite nearly lost a job simply for reading this book - but that's another story for another time. While I don't buy into all of Rand's philosophy, or even most of it, one cannot read this novel and walk away unaffected. The film adaptation of the book came out this year. Unfortunately, I never made it to see the movie while it was in theaters. I would like to correct this by owning the movie.

Lifestyle

1. Garmin Edge 200. Cost: $149.99. Store: Amazon. Description: I took up cycling over the summer, and oddly dropped it once the weather cooled. I would like to resume my habit, and the Garmin Edge 200 is a spiffy new "GPS-enabled cycling computer," tracking time, distance, speed, location, and calories burned. It also appeals to my inner nerd by syncing all of the data with Garmin's servers. Whoa.

2. Nike, Oklahoma Sooners Replica Football. Cost: $30.00. Store: Dick's Sporting Goods. Description: Early last month, Gwyn and I were playing "keep away" with my Nike football from our young Pit Bull Alexas. Unfortunately we lost, and my football now looks like it took a couple of turns in a blender. It's not fair to say she ripped it to shreds. But it is fair to say the ball is hers and completely unusable. An OU Sooners Nike football would make a fine substitute.

3. Hi-Point, 9mm Carbine. Cost: $274. Store: Local Gun Dealer. Description: Eventually the zombies will attack. The CDC says so. When they do, I intend to be ready with my 9mm carbine. Better for mid-range situations (à la zombie attacks), and more maneuverable than a rifle, Hi-Point's carbine is both economical and effective. In the words of former President George W. Bush, "bring it on".

Sartorial

1. Kenneth Cole, Leather Laptop Messenger Bag. Cost: $117.33. Store: Amazon. Description: Rumor has it, my doctoral foray will end this Spring. Should I land a gig as a real-life professor, I will need a new 'backpack' to match my status. This product from Kenneth Cole would do nicely. Trust me. I'm almost a doctor (SJD).

2. J. Crew, Vintage Oxford Shirt. Cost: $68.00. Store: J. Crew. Description: There are few more traditional items sold by men's clothiers than the vintage, Oxford shirt. I have a few, but this is an eminently practical Christmas request - and it's not quite so cliché as a tie. Plus, it would match quite well with the leather laptop bag above. Yes. I said 'match.' Good style is not metrosexual.

3. Nike, Dartmouth Men's Hoodie. Cost: $48.95. Store: Dartmouth Coop. Description: Although I sometimes deny it, yours truly is a graduate of the College on the Hill. Unfortunately, this Dartmouth man has very little in the way of Dartmouth gear. As I approach my 30th year on this earth, I think it's time to get a hoodie from my alma mater.

4. Adidas, Men's Tiro Training Jacket. Cost: $65.00. Store: Amazon. Description: My point in selecting this item is not so much this particular jacket as it is to suggest a jacket of a similar style. I've concluded that track jackets are really quite good for cycling during the late fall and winter months. And, true to form, I do not have one.

Inspirational

1. The Macallan, Single Malt Scotch, 12 yr. Cost: $35.00. Store: BevMo, etc. Description: When I'm not busy cooking up content for the blog, working on my dissertation, or being a thumb warrior on MW3, I love a glass of scotch in the evenings while I read. If I can add a cigar to the mix, that makes the night even better. My poison of choice is the inexpensive Johnny Walker Red, but on occasion I indulge myself with a scotch of the single malt variety, and this bottle is by far the best.

2. SoHo Bar Glasses. Cost: $49.99. Store: Wine Enthusiast. Description: Being a fan of the finer things, I purchased a set of nice scotch glasses a couple of months ago. Being also a huge klutz, I dropped one of my glasses on the tile in our kitchen floor. It didn't end well. This set would be a fine substitute for the one my clumsiness destroyed.

3. Steve Jobs, by Walter Isaacson. Cost: $17.88. Store: Amazon. Description: The Steve Jobs, authorized biography has been on my tentative list of reads ever since it came out. The man's life absolutely fascinates me. That his technology has changed my life and our world, goes without saying. Note also, this is the only book on my list.

Wishing You a Happy Thanksgiving

2011-11-24T05:00:00.000-07:00

From all of us here at Pax Plena (viz., me), here's wishing you and yours a Happy Thanksgiving!

see more Lolcats and funny pictures, and check out our Socially Awkward Penguin lolz!

Some Thoughts from Locke

2011-11-21T00:39:00.002-07:00

For those interested or inclined to ridicule, I am in the thick of writing my SJD dissertation. This basically means I spend many late nights over scotch considering the thoughts of better men - mainly because I am too ADD to consider their thoughts during the day. I've been told I have a flair for the dramatic, but I swear, somewhere in Africa there's a tsetse fly with an attention span longer than mine.

Most recently, I've spent my wee small hours of the morning drafting a chapter on libertarian political philosophy and how it can be used to improve many of the Federal Government's policies toward Native Americans.

My readings tonight took me to the works of John Locke and his 1689 manuscript Second Treatise of Government. In the selection below, Locke argues at length against the absolute monarchy and its attendant evil, absolute power.

Locke writes:

For he that thinks absolute power purifies men's blood, and corrects the baseness of human nature, need read but the history of this, or any other age, to be convinced to the contrary.
-John Locke, Second Treatise of Government, Sec. 92.

I find that the quote above is both inspirational and aspirational. It is inspirational in that Locke sounds like an old friend, warning against the largesse of government, rallying patriots to freedom's cause as if the British were already en route to Cambridge from Boston.

The quote is also aspirational because in the 322 years that have intervened between Locke's work and our present day, civil society has yet to reign in the scourge of absolute power - particulalry in the halls of government. As Solomon would say, nothing new under the sun.

N.B. I hope to explain later in my own research how the notion of absolute power is notoriously troublesome in the area of Federal Indian Law. The Arizona State University Law School has a helpful summary here.

New Pit Bull Documentary Campaign

2011-11-17T15:07:00.001-07:00

I haven't mentioned our dog Alexas here on Pax Plena nearly enough - although my post about the Royal Wedding last spring is a notable exception. Still, having welcomed Alexas into our lives, we could (and perhaps may) write a lengthy book about the adventures we've had with her. I like to think she's a small tornado of fun.

I won't regale you with personal experiences, unless you ask, but it's obvious that the American Pit Bull Terrier has developed quite the image problem in the past decade or so. Thanks to Michael Vick's infamous dog fighting ring, and the biased or inadequate media coverage of local markets, Pit Bulls are now considered roughly along the same spectrum of evil as Joe Paterno and the Serpent of Old himself.

Imagine my surprise, then, when I learned of a nascent documentary campaign in the works called "Pit Proud." Led by an intrepid team of filmmakers called the Dog Files, the effort aims to create a high-quality documentary that rights the Pit Bull's reputation. It's difficult to believe given today's media coverage, but Pitties were once one of America's most beloved dog breeds. In fact, they were even the "poster dogs" of America's effort during WWI.

[Link]

The goal of the documentary isn't so much a return to these golden years, as it is to dispel the harmful myths that have led to reactionary local legislation, and blanket bans on the breed in cities across the country.

The campaign's goal is to raise some $32,000 in 19 days. The group is a little less than 1/3 of the way to their goal, so if you're inclined to give, you can access the group's campaign here.

Check out the first part of the documentary below:

Dog Files Ep.12: Pit Proud: The History Of The Pit Bull from GP Creative on Vimeo.

Book Review: Jesus, My Father, The CIA, and Me

2011-11-11T18:35:00.001-07:00

On the shelves of our office library are a number of biographies. From Winston Churchill to Johnny Cash, we have no shortage of books about the lives of other, much more interesting, people. The number of memoirs, or autobiographies on our shelves is relatively paltry by comparison. This is not an accident. I tend not to buy memoirs because they are uniformly terrible. Given my reluctance to even read such a dust jacket, I was pleasantly surprised when I read Ian Morgan Cron's Jesus, My Father, The CIA And Me: A Memoir…of Sorts (Thomas Nelson, 978-0-8499-4610-3, $15.99, June 2011).

From the outset, it's important to recognize that writing an engaging memoir is difficult. Most attempts at autobiography try to paint life in its best light (think Sarah Palin's Going Rogue). But it's the rare, brave author who communicates the essence of a life as it was actually lived, as opposed to producing a censored version of how one would like life to have been. This sense of honesty is what really sets apart Cron's book. Taking the back drop of an interesting, and complex childhood, Cron communicates in 252 pages the simple idea that life is messy.

As I noted, giving life a sincere rifling isn't an easy undertaking. Ours is a veritable age of depression. Whether it's feeling inadequate for being stuck in the 99%, or latent concerns about the future of humanity, we homo sapiens tend to have more skeletons in our closet than Conrad Murray after a fresh supply of Propofol.

But somehow, Cron's memoir reassures readers that this is ok - that wading through the bullshit of life isn't a journey taken alone, but something we all do to cope with the complexity or our own existence. Somewhere between page one and the end, readers come to understand that they are reading Cron's piece, but the themes explored could well be their own.

The most important theme of Cron's memoir is how he copes with the chronic feeling of being unloved. I realize that at first this theme can sound a bit like a cliché. It's fair to say that no one gets through life without developing some sort of "daddy" issue. But in Cron's case, the daddy issue wasn't a simple matter of Father threatening to pull the car over after roughhousing in the backseat finally got unbearable - say, hypothetically, on a trip to Taos, NM, circa 1989. Cron's issues with his father involved the profoundly more complicated reality of having an abusive father who was not only an alcoholic, but also an agent for the CIA. As one would expect of a good Company Man, Cron describes his Father as being a bit "like Darth Vader, only less empathetic."

Detailing the life of a true Darksider, Cron painfully recounts numerous instances of abuse meted out by his father over drunken nights of scotch. While this is tragic in itself, the author suggests that the greater tribulation of his relationship with the elder Cron was the complete lack of interest he took in his son. The result is that the author was left to "begin life without a center of gravity," foreshadowing the many ways in which the author would mirror the actions of his father.

The second major theme of the memoir is something I've already alluded to. As a recovering law student, I've long taken it for granted that the majority of law students and attorneys are functioning alcoholics. And perhaps in Arizona more than most, we tend to revel in our reputation for debauchery. In fact, my alma mater the University of Arizona, James E. Rogers College of Law was recently dubbed "the top party law school" in the Nation. Work hard, play hard as the adage goes.

While alcohol may be all fun and games here in Tucson, the hooch played a far more harrowing role in Cron's memoir. In fact, some of the book's most disturbing, and heartrending scenes come when the author describes the drunken physical abuse he endured at the hand of his Scotch-swigging father. What makes these moments even more poignant is that they serve as a dark segue into Cron's descriptions of his own drunken nights and his painful mornings after. Even Darth Vader himself would mourn for the son who is controlled by the same ghosts that haunted his father.

Finally, all of these stories, in some way reflect the final major theme of the book, the author's journey as a person of faith. This shouldn't be confused with dogmatic moralizing. The book is far from an exercise in Christian apologetics. Instead, Cron uses his life to illustrate how complicated it is to maintain faith in the Divine when so many aspects of life are unknown, unknowable, and often contrary, to the teachings of theologians and the various sects of Christendom. Rather than avoid doctrinal crises and moments of doubt, Cron honestly, and openly questions where exactly God was during his childhood, while admitting that he still "sees through a glass darkly," lo these many years later. (1 Cor. 13.12).

This is what makes the book so easy to appreciate. Unlike many Christian authors, Cron recognizes that grace isn't cheap. Accordingly, he does not attempt to cheapen grace with empty platitudes of a "loving God," or with talk of "damnation" for the sinner. Rather, Cron seems to recognize that in our own way we're all damned -- if not spiritually, then perhaps emotionally, as we struggle to confront the demons of our own past; or perhaps physically, as we yearn to strike a balance between work and life; or maybe even intellectually, as we attempt to maintain a sense of what is right, while also keeping our minds open to new ideas and change.

Whatever the challenge, Cron never shies away from the truth. The events are never understated. The stories are simply told. This makes the entire account read less like an exposition of morality, and much more like a beautiful meditation on life. Cron reminds readers that life cannot honestly be separated into good and bad because both coexist on a continuum. There is good. There is evil. In the book, a father drunkenly beats his son. And later, a father overcomes his alcoholism, as he lovingly tries to shield his children from harm. And so the light rises from darkness.

In the end, Ian Morgan Cron uses his life to demonstrate that mere existence can be tough. But it is only through this dose of realism that Cron can use his own life to demonstrate how one can also endure, and thrive.

Book Reviews for November and December

2011-11-08T16:29:00.001-07:00

Late last week, I was pleased to receive the opportunity to review two more books in the near future. The titles released earlier this year, but newly minted paperbacks are just hitting the shelves.

The first review will be of author Ian Morgan Cron's newly released memoir titled Jesus, My Father, The CIA and Me: A Memoir…of Sorts. Cron's book chronicles the early years of his life, and explores the complexity of growing up with an alcoholic father who was also a spook for the CIA.

N.B. Cron is also an Episcopal priest, so the memoir traffics into some weighty topics including depression, alcoholism, and the concept of grace. For those who avoid such books, consider yourself warned. And for those curious, Cron's memoir has received excellent reviews from Publishers Weekly, and perhaps unsurprisingly, the Archbishop of Canterbury, Dr. Rowan Williams.

The second review comes from a similar genre, although it's more historical in tenor than spiritual. Author Eric Metaxas is most widely known for having written the biography of William Wilberforce that inspired the hit movie Amazing Grace. (A personal favorite of yours truly). His latest biography titled Bonhoeffer: Pastor, Martyr, Prophet, Spy is poised to become a similarly big hit. Released in April 2010, the book cracked number four on the New York Times Bestseller List only this September, and received glowing endorsements from such sundry quarters as the Wall Street Journal, The New Republic, Christianity Today, and even former President George W. Bush.

The lengthy biography, of course, details the paradoxical life of pastor Dietrich Bonhoeffer, a theologian cum spy who was intimately involved in a plot to assassinate Adolf Hitler during World War II. Bonhoeffer was summarily executed for his heroics by the Third Reich, leaving the pastor/spy's legacy shrouded in myth, and reverence among modern Christians.

Check out the Thomas Nelson Trailer here:

As always I would be remiss if I did not thank the appropriate parties for providing me the opportunity to review their works. Special thanks to Ms. Meryl Zegarek and her team at Meryl Zegarek Public Relations, Inc.

More to come...

Bad Idea of the Month

2011-11-03T17:53:00.001-07:00

With October in the books, it seemed only appropriate to provide a monthly does of inanity from old Winterfylleth.

To be sure, there were many candidates. From the Occupy Wall Street protests, to Kim Kardashian's divorce, to Herman Cain's 9-9-9 tax plan, the month of October had no shortage of individuals competing in a race to the bottom.

But in the words of Jack Donaghy, sometimes you have to climb down into the crevasse. And waiting at the bottom of this dark, dark chasm was the following advice from a normally irreproachable source, Life Hacker.

The topic was mundane enough - what actions should one take when being chased by a dog? It would seem there would be plenty of sensible courses of action that one could take. Running, for example, strikes me as a perfectly reasonable response. Shrieking for help seems to me a close second in reasonability. Walking softly and carrying a big stick, sounds to me like a distant, albeit third, reasonable alternative.

Life Hacker's advice?

Learn How to Bark a Dog Down to Get It to Stop Chasing You
[Link]

Short of wearing a meat dress and running through a pound, it's actually difficult for me to think of worse advice for Life Hacker to give. Being but a human guinea pig, your humble blogger tested this theory of 'barking a dog down,' while enduring a deluge of kisses from my Pit Bull Alexas.

The result was four-fold:

1. Kept kissing
2. Stopped
3. Cocked her head sideways
4. Wagged her tail vigorously
5. Resumed the deluge of kisses

Given that my dog is incredibly docile and the advice still failed miserably, I'm highly skeptical that an angry dog would be even remotely phased by a human's lame attempts to bark.

A far better solution is to order the dog to her crate. And reward her with a peanut-butter-filled Kong Toy when you feel guilty later.

Surprise Guest Post

2011-10-31T10:14:00.001-07:00

Apologies friends for a long delayed update. After last week's review of Caroline Preston's latest novel, The Scrapbook of Frankie Pratt, we've had a number of curious folks come by to check out the review.

Given the interest in her new work, I'm extremely pleased to announce that Ms. Preston will actually be making a guest blog post here at Pax Plena within the next few days!

While the timing of Ms. Preston's post is a bit up in the air due to her heavy travel schedule (and nation-wide book tour) it should be up soon relatively soon. Think days, not weeks.

In the mean time, feel free to check out Ms. Preston's blog, bio, website. And if you're inclined, you can order your copy of The Scrapbook of Frankie Pratt from Amazon.com, here.

More to come...

Book Review: The Scrapbook of Frankie Pratt - a novel in pictures

2011-10-24T16:39:00.001-07:00

I think each of us has an inner packrat. Whatever the object - say, hypothetically, it's an empty lighter from a Vegas casino where you celebrated your first wedding anniversary (I digress) - whatever the object, we tend to invest items with emotional significance because of the memories associated with the object. Just by looking at the item, we can go back in time. And we remember.

It's this feeling of reminiscence that Caroline Preston captures superbly in her latest novel, The Scrapbook of Frankie Pratt: a Novel in Pictures (ECCO/HarperCollins Publishers; ISBN 13: 9780061966903; $25.99; Hardcover; 240 pages; Release: October 25, 2011). The novel tells the story of its eponymous heroine Frankie Pratt, tracking her life from a modest, New Hampshire farmhouse to the City of Light and the Left Bank. Along the way, readers encounter Frankie's various romantic interests, a host of literary luminaries, and Frankie's witty impressions of the "whiz-bang" years of the 1920s.

The story is interesting in its own right with plenty of twists. But what makes Ms. Preston's novel really standout is the telling. Rather than following a conventional novel form, one void of pictures and so often void of talent, The Scrapbook of Frankie Pratt is an actual scrapbook built "item by item" from vintage 1920s memorabilia.

The effort was obviously painstaking. Preston notes spending "countless hours" to amass the 600-item collection of 1920s ephemera required to tell Frankie's story. This lends the tale an appreciable degree of authenticity, with every detail of Frankie's life requiring a genuine period piece. The range of items is impressive, from a first-edition dust jacket of The Sun Also Rises, to the 1915 Corona typewriter used for the captions of the book. The end result is a 240-page novel comprised of full-color photographs of the scrapbook built by Caroline Preston. For bibliophiles, this means a new type of novel that readers can not only read, but experience in a concrete, visceral way.

One criticism I expect the book will receive is that scrapbooking itself is an anachronism, a hobby lost in the digital age not unlike stamp collecting and the U.S. Postal Service itself. But even while the story is told in a very specific way, and set in a very famous moment in time, the larger theme driving Preston's novel is one that every sentient person can relate to: memories.

At its core, scrapbooking is about preserving memories by compiling a personal history derived from objects that people ascribe significance to. While Preston communicates this preservation in the form of a novel, the concept of memory has a lengthy scholarly history. One quick example can be found in the unlikely source of German philosopher Friedrich Nietzsche. In his 1874 essay, On the Uses and Disadvantages of History for Life, Nietzsche muses about the the role of history, and its implications for those sad souls doomed to live in the present. His conclusion of the matter is that "the unhistorical and the historical are necessary in equal measure for the health of an individual, of a people and of a culture." The implication is that dwelling too much in the past, can inhibit human proclivities for progress, while living hedonistically in the present without regard to the lessons of history can lead to a vacuous existence full of narrow-mindedness and selfishness.

Nietzsche's observation is something we tend to internalize intuitively as a species. We give objects significance because they remind us of a special moment, or because they mark an important occasion. In this way, we tend to balance our 'living in the now' with memories and lessons from the past. What Caroline Preston does in The Scrapbook of Frankie Pratt is explore this tendency to preserve memories on a personal level through the lost art of scrapbooking.

In truth, scrapbooking itself isn't all the foreign a concept either. When I was a young child, my sister and I took a trip across the American west with our grandparents. From the backseat of a late-80s, Ford Crown Victoria, the four of us visited nearly every American landmark that mattered. We made stops at Petrified Forrest National Park, an honest-to-God forrest of petrified wood; a massive meteor crater that would easily swallow our hometown; the Mesa Verde cliff dwellings; and Grand Canyon National Park. On the way home, we stopped at Toys 'R Us in Amarillo, TX, before hopping the highway for a stake at the Big Texan Steakhouse.

From each stop, we gathered a small library of brochures, park guides, ticket stubs, and receipts. And when we weren't pestering our grandparents with questions, my sister and I managed to take enough cheesy photographs to make the other tourists blush. Tucked away in the Fodder family annals is a photo of my sister getting in trouble for trying to swipe a large stump of petrified wood, and a snapshot of me awkwardly lying down in four states at once.

Five years later, Grandma would pass away. Though we had resolved to take another trip west, the stars didn't align for us to make the trek again. But even after all of these years, that three-week trip was one of my best memories of growing up. Whenever I look at the old shoe box of memorabilia from the trip, I'm instantly taken back to the long hours spent in the backseat of my grandparents Crown Vic, staring at the rolling desert as we made our way west.

My items rest in a dusty shoe box, but the transition from storage to scrapbook is fairly easy to envision after having read The Scrapbook of Frankie Pratt. And quite literally every person could do something similar.

In this way, far from being an anachronism, The Scrapbook of Frankie Pratt captures something we can all relate to. We all have our own coming of age memories. We can all recall having taken a trip to some place special. And we can all think of objects that we have imbued with significance, either because they remind us of our youth, or because they remind us of a unique event.

Memory is simply the collective human experience. Caroline Preston understands this, and manages to bring memory to life in The Scrapbook of Frankie Pratt.

A Dispatch from Taos

2011-10-22T11:22:00.000-07:00

It's a drop past 11AM here in Taos Pueblo. The temperature has languidly paced it's way into the 50s. A cool breeze makes its way beneath the carport here at my Grandmother's house.

It's mid-October, but wood stoves burn in the distance, and the smells of piñon waft through the air as it has done for centuries in this ancient, mysterious place.

There's a shed across the dirt driveway. It is filled to the top of its 9-ft tall ceiling with enough wood to last two winters. I suppose the excess is important during the cold winter to come. But I've never seen the wood shed at less than capacity during any season.

Maybe that's the point. The cares and concerns here are about history and routine. Irrigating. Agriculture. Fishing. Hunting. Home repair. Tradition. Custom.

In most respects, Taos is a full-throttled embrace of the historical. This disposition allows for language and tradition to coexist alongside the western/anglicized City of Taos less than a mile away.

Naturally, this makes a balance with the unhistorical nearly impossible, as Nietzsche would say. Living in the moment, living for self, and the now are supreme challenges for Taos Pueblo and its denizens. Western arts, culture, and technology (aside from the ubiquitous Chevy trucks) are scarce on the reservation.

Yet, as the leaves rustle, marking the passage of time, it's a comfort to know that places like Taos still exist. Off the grid. A shrine to history.

A place where time stands still.

Exploring Northern AZ

2011-10-20T12:03:00.001-07:00

The wife and I made an overnight stop in Flagstaff, AZ en route to see my family in Northern New Mexico. While here we decided to sample the local fare and stopped into a quaint, All-American diner called Denny's.

Copious amounts of food. A bottomless cup of coffee. Friendly waitresses (she called us 'sir' and 'ma'am'). And astonishingly reasonable prices.

The world needs more Denny's. One can wish...

Book Review Update: The Scrapbook of Frankie Pratt

2011-10-19T14:32:00.001-07:00

Lest anyone wonder whether your humble blogger has gone the way of Rick Perry's poll numbers, let not your heart be troubled. I'm alive and well, though still recovering somewhat from my trip to Old Tucson Studio's Night Fall. I didn't like haunted houses as a child, so imagine the many dollars in therapy sessions I'll need to dole out in order to recover from a haunted town.

Yes, you read that right. A haunted town. In truth, I was fine for a good portion of our visit - that is until the chainsaw-wielding clown chased me around the haunted town square. Some things you just never recover from.

At any rate, I wanted to give a brief update on title above. When we last left off, I was awaiting a copy of the novel, while teasing your interest with author interviews and preview trailers. Well, I received my copy of Caroline Preston's The Scrapbook of Frankie Pratt ($25.99/Hardcover/240 pages/HarperCollins Publishers; On-Sale: October 25, 2011) from the folks at HarperCollins/ECCO last week. I'm about midway through the novel, and while I will save the bulk of my comments for the review, I want to briefly note how stunning and ambitious a project this is.

As I noted, Ms. Preston acquired numerous items of vintage, 1920s ephemera to create this 'novel in pictures.' But the sheer scope of items, the story's attention to detail, and its commitment to authenticity all combine to make the project really impressive. (Check out a few sample pages here). In terms of scope, the range of items Ms. Preston collected extend from authentic, period magazine covers, to actual college graduation announcements from the same era. The work of collecting the ephemera alone was a massive undertaking, so imagine arranging the items into a coherent story, that's actually quite readable. Suffice it to say, the novel is quite a unique work.

I hope to have my review of Ms. Preston's novel done by the end of the week, with an exciting announcement to follow.

For now, and as always, stay tuned...

OU v. Texas 2011

2011-10-08T09:11:00.001-07:00

Update: OU - 55, TX - 17.

As ABC's Brent Musburger put it, the "Red River Rivalry" quickly became the "Red River Bloodbath." While I have no love lost for Texas, this game was ugly. Really ugly. I mean, even uglier than Texas's puke orange uniforms.

Naturally, I enjoyed every second of it.

Boomer Sooner!

[Link]

The Meaningful Life

2011-10-06T12:29:00.001-07:00

The news is old now, but Apple pioneer Steve Jobs died yesterday. There's no way to summarize the death of an icon, but as the Daily Caller succinctly put it, "with the death of [Steve] Jobs an industry mourns."

I haven't been a Mac acolyte for very long. A friend and fellow blogger in the strife has been an Apple Fanboy for much, much longer. But even as a relative novice monk in the Apple Cult, it's clear how much our late, great leader meant to the company, and to the act of innovation itself.

One of the things that make Apple products unique, a quality typified by Steve Jobs, is that every single one caters to the human need to create. From playlists on the iPod, to word processing and video editing on an Apple computer, Jobs took the personal computer, scrapped the term P.C., and envisioned a world of uses for it that literally no one could have imagined.

Jobs at work in his parents' garage must have been a lot like the first man walking on the moon, or when Gutenburg set about building his printing press. Poetry in motion.

Another aspect of Jobs's legacy, though one not always championed by his fans, was his relentless drive for perfection. For Jobs, it was insufficient to simply create. Like Hegel's dialectic, ideas had to be deconstructed by antithesis, and refined in such a way that products got better with each iteration. Naturally, only Jobs could define what 'better' meant.

As CNET famously recalled, when designers, and engineers, failed to live up to Steve Jobs's vision, he made very clear how disappointing a subpar product was:

Perhaps the most telling--and surely the most unsurprising--involves the somewhat punchless launch of MobileMe in 2008. The servers tended to crash and the loading times were somewhat pedestrian.
So, Fortune relates, the Apple CEO called the MobileMe team into his office and reportedly got a little cross.
"Can anyone tell me what MobileMe is supposed to do?" he reportedly offered. Someone in the room ventured a response, reportedly one that made an awful lot of sense. "So why the fuck doesn't it do that?" retorted Jobs.
[Link]

While it's true that my own potty mouth has been known to make sailors blush, I've never had the pleasure of telling an entire room full of people exactly what I think of them. But for Jobs, this was simply life being lived. Others have recognized this quality of Jobs's and called it staying true to himself. And there's some truth to the point in a trite way.

But I think a better description is to say that Steve Jobs was not only an innovator, but a person who lived a life of innovation. Jobs viewed every waking moment as an opportunity to create. He understood, in a way that few of us do, that the only things we leave behind when we die are the things we create. To state matters more simply, life isn't about the accumulation of money. It's not about acquiring more things. It's not about amassing power, or collecting business cards. Life is about creativity on every level.

Biologically, we call the creative process procreating. Commercially, we call the creative process innovating. And when we create simply for the sake of creating, we call the creative process art. When the products of any of these processes are exceptional, we call the general result, beauty. And this is what makes life meaningful.

Like so many of Apple's products, this quality of meaningfulness is something we tend to recognize intuitively. We see it in the bike shop owner who's passion infuses every derailleur housing he adjusts. We see it at the local pizzeria that hand-tosses every pizza crust they make. And in Steve Jobs we saw it with every product launch and commencement speech he gave.

And, selfishly, maybe that's the question we take from Steve Jobs's life - a subjective question he readily answered.

What do I want to create with my life?

Fall in Tucson

2011-10-05T09:45:00.001-07:00

A few sorority girls are in denial, but the abundance of jackets and sweaters on this bright October morning tell me that fall has finally arrived in the Old Pueblo. The temperature, as of 9am local time, registers a cool, 66 degrees - which is actually supposed to be the high for all of tomorrow. It's a funny thing how a new season can bring a sense of a fresh start - particularly when there's so much turmoil in the world...

Here at home, American political activists seem, well, confused. Protestors across the country are clamoring for an occupation of Wall Street - which of itself is a fine, highly symbolic target - albeit a highly impractical once. Still, the glaring problem with the protests is that it has no actual purpose. Not one. Not even list of demands. Naturally, this leaves one to assume that the sole goal of the protest is to literally occupy Wall Street. Capturing the sentiments of bankers everywhere, I believe it was Ben Franklin who observed, "fish and visitors stink after three days."

Turning our gaze abroad, the world is no less turbulent. Greece, for example, may be one of the few countries in the world whose finances are in worse shape than our own, and that's no small feat. After teetering on the brink of default (sound familiar?), Greece's budgetary austerity measures have proven insufficient to reign in their deficit, despite scores of layoffs of public sector workers. These workers, now miffed at losing their jobs, have curiously opted to walk off the job they don't want to lose in protest. The whole matter is disturbingly cyclical. Apparently, after inventing democracy, Greece decided it could coast by on the kindness of strangers.

And, in truth, this plan has worked to a point. But the problem with accepting billions in loans from foreign governments, is that at some point they become due. And unlike Bank of America, you can't just blow off a government. Maybe it's time for a world-wide year of jubilee? I'd move student loans to the front of the line, but that's just me being selfish.

On the political front, things sure aren't looking up for President Obama - not that I care. Still, it's odd that the only thing Democrats and Republicans seem to agree on these days is their opposition to the President. You know things are bad when not even Rick Perry's racist hunting camp has helped the Presidents ailing poll numbers.

Speaking of Rick Perry, the Texas Governor earned a new nickname this morning. Though "Jim Crow" has long been taken, Gov. Perry can yet take heart knowing that the moniker "$17 Million Dollar Man" is available. The Governor's fundraising amount was impressive by all accounts, except the ledger of his main rival. Gov. Perry's fundraising fell roughly $1 million shy of the mark hit by former Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney over the same period. Mittmentum anyone?

Despite the chaos in the world, it is a great time to be in Tucson, AZ. The weather over the next few days is supposed to be absolutely perfect. Oklahoma plays Texas this weekend, and Sam Adams Octoberfest just hit the shelves.

Even the world needs a break from its own chaos, and that annual break is the fall.

Lolcat of the Week

2011-09-29T11:33:00.001-07:00

The lolcat of the week below is a bit late this Thursday morning. But, for those in need of a life motto, the contrarian in me suggests, 'always buck the conventional wisdom.'

Enjoy!

Pax Plena Update

2011-09-26T17:52:00.001-07:00

Almost a month ago to the day, I shared news that I would be reconsidering the direction of Pax Plena. The idea was to narrow the scope of topics covered, potentially changing the blog's content focus. While visions of topicality and sugar plums danced in my head, the actual result was simply taking a month off from blogging, and not doing much of anything.

The problem I had in winnowing the topics we discuss was two-fold.

One, my mind is notoriously prone to wander, making it incredibly difficult to focus solely on one topic. My Google Reader Feed, for example, is a veritable index of ragtag and madcap websites, each appealing to one prurient interest or another. I follow over 100 rss streams that are roughly categorized into 14 different genres, ranging from "friends" to "technology." But the overlap among the categories is considerable, reducing my organizational prowess to the level of your local ATF agent.

The second problem I had in narrowing the scope of Pax Plena is that I enjoy the writing process itself. I realize there are scores of freshmen writing students out there who beg to differ, but there's something cathartic about a white screen, and the process of transforming thoughts and ideas into words and bad puns. As they say, it's all fun and games until you go off the meds, and with writing I've been unfettered for quite some time.

Given these two rather formidable obstacles, over the past month I've dithered about making Pax Plena topic specific. Indecision begat inertia. And most regrettably inertia led to a halt in writing. But then I read a blog post from a friend, who's work I don't mention nearly enough. The post is much longer, but his take on reading and writing cut me to the quick:

Reading and writing really are good gifts, aren't they? It is through those two venues as much as any that I find myself constructing meaning, that is to say, of trying to make sense of this life. (emphasis added) Takes some work, but I would venture to say those habits of the heart and mind also bring us great pleasure.
[Link]

The thought hadn't occurred to me before, but much as my friend described, writing is the way that I make sense of life. From random thoughts about politics, to errant lessons learned on a bike ride, writing is the way in which I try to understand ideas and the world around me better.

I realize that this has been done with varying degrees of ability over the years - and to my oldest readers I'm truly grateful to you for the torture you've endured. I suppose there's a little masochist in all of us. Still, I like to think that the pieces I've created are thoughtful if not interesting, and for me that's the point of this blog really: to be thoughtful, and make sense out of the chaos we call life. Nothing more. Nothing less.

As you may have guessed, the above is really a long prelude to concluding that I plan to keep the blog as is - topically freewheeling, varied, and hopefully more honest. I expect this will change the blog in a couple of ways. I suppose this could produce more amusing pieces, which would be a nice side effect. And I suppose it could mean actually broadening the scope of topics discussed rather than narrowing them.

After all, I have a lurking suspicion that my penchant for salsa making, and my interest in dog training have yet to make the blog. But then again, perhaps some things are best kept under wraps.

As always, I'm most grateful to my readers for stopping by, and of late for your patience while I figure things out. And as I noted a month ago, the Lolcats are here to stay.

More to come...

Book Review Coming Soon

2011-09-20T16:30:00.001-07:00

I'm pleased to announce another book review, set for publication sometime in October. According to publisher HarperCollins, The Scrapbook of Frankie Pratt by Caroline Preston is a one-of-a-kind book because the plot is advanced solely through full-color pictures.

Below is a description from the presser:

Pulling from her own extraordinary collection of vintage ephemera and memorabilia, the author of the New York Times Notable Book Jackie by Josie, and two other acclaimed novels, Gatsby's Girl and Lucy Crocker 2.0, creates the first ever scrapbook novel, transporting us back to the vibrant, burgeoning bohemian culture of the 1920s and introducing us to an unforgettable heroine, the spirited, ambitious, and lovely Frankie Pratt.

For those curious, HarperCollins imprint ECCO has released a brief and interesting interview with the author discussing her new work.

And here's a trailer introducing the storyline.

I honestly have never read a graphic novel of any kind, and certainly not one using actual images. Should be an interesting read.

As always, stay tuned for more.

Christmas in September?

2011-09-18T16:22:00.001-07:00

The wife and I took a trip to the mall this afternoon. While traipsing about Macy's we happened upon the scene below.

I realize that it's a frigid 96 degrees outside, but isn't it a little early for Christmas?

- Posted using BlogPress from my iPhone

September in the Rain

2011-09-14T16:19:00.001-07:00

The leaves of brown came tumbling down,
Remember, in September in the rain.
The sun went out just like a dying ember,
That September in the rain.

-Rod Stewart, September in the Rain

It's been a wet few days here in Tucson. But not even our Indian summer monsoons could compare to the tears that rained down from Congressional Democrats last night. At the end of an undoubtedly Bourbon-soaked evening, Democrats lost disgraced Rep. Anthony Weiner's solidly blue Congressional seat to Republican Robert Turner, 47% to 53%. The White House made an effort to put its spin on the results, but the point remains the same: if Brooklyn and Queens aren't safe for the Dems, what districts are?

Unlike the unreasonable folks over at HotAir, I won't read the results as anything other than what they are - an epic repudiation of President Obama's failed policies that all but portends a historic GOP victory in 2012 and beyond. Objectivity aside, it strikes me that when there is a Republican Congressman from New York City (New York City!?), it's either a sign of the apocalypse, or the sign of a burgeoning political tsunami. I'm hoping for the latter, but I think there's some evidence that it may be the former.

First, the New York Times, ran a reflective piece musing about the travails of living the authentic life. Alas, given that no one at the New York Times is actually authentic about anything, the article does little more than state the obvious. For the curious, the essay sagely observes that the image we project to others is little more than our perspective of how we want others to see us. Startling, I know. According to the NYT, this indicates that no matter how much we change our looks, or how ardently we attempt to conform to social mores, at the end of the day, we're all about as authentic as a James Frey autobiography. Somewhere in Hell, Michael Jackson is rolling over in his grave singing "Black or White."

I suppose matters could be worse. At least many of us have, or will have, the comfort of a stable relationship/marriage to fall back on when times get tough. Unless, of course, you reside in the 2/3s of the country typified by the American South and the American West. These decidedly red states, where God's faithful foot soldiers defend the citadel of marriage from the onslaughts of gay barbarians - these red states boast the highest divorce rates in the country. The hypocritical-evangelical-Christian meme is tired at this point, so I won't go there. But I recognize that, with the exception of Kim Kardashian, people aren't perfect. Still, maybe it's time to give the gays a chance at being miserable too? Fair is fair.

With New York turning red, marriages yielding to divorce, and weeks passing without a post, one might think your humble blogger has become more jaded than ever. This simply isn't true. I start my day with a cup of Joe (that's coffee, not Biden), and look for the good in the world.

One source of inspiration for me is the performance of the Oklahoma Sooners football team. OU was recently ranked the No. 1 team in the land for a record-setting 100th time, besting Notre Dame, Ohio State, and USC, coming in lightyears ahead of Texas. Second, returning to the topic of marriage marriage, I was also encouraged to see that roughly 86% of all Americans now approve of interracial marriage, or as they say in Tennessee, miscegenation. Should my wife and I ever decide to have spawn, they'll grow up in a much more tolerant society than the one Gary Coleman did, and that's a good thing.

But then I learn about products for children such as the Thudguard Infant Safety Helmet, and my hope for humanity languishes once again.

The aim of the Thudguard is to soften the blow, so to speak, while children are learning to walk. This, of course, begs the question, how in 7 million years of human evolution did we ever get by without the Thudguard? God only knows what the poor kids will do once they've out-grown their helmet. Walk without one? I realize if you're Rick Perry, the question may be a little different since the Earth is only slightly older than 5 thousand years. But even a creationist must consider how inexorably different history would have been. Imagine if Goliath was wearing a Thudguard when he fought lowly David? I'm not just saying, I'm just saying.

After reading about the Thudguard, I immediately recalled the poetics of former hip-hop sensation Aaliyah (RIP), and wondered how the lyrics of her song Try It Again might change given the advent of so ingenious a device. Perhaps we wouldn't encourage folks to try it again, so much as we would encourage them to be extremely careful while trying it the first time. Naturally, I promptly horrified myself by wondering whether Thudguard made an adult version of the helmet, and how much it might cost. If there's a moral to any of the above, it's probably that less is more.

For all my hemming and hawing, I don't think the apocalypse will be here any time soon. My Dallas Cowboys still haven't won a football game, meaning that Hell hasn't frozen over - unfortunately for the King of Pop. To celebrate the non-event, tonight, I will enjoy a quiet glass of wine with the wife who really is as close to perfect as anyone I actually know. I will be thankful that my marriage is well on the positive side of 50% of marriages in our great and blessed land. And I'll probably block http://babysfirstheadgear.com/ in my bank account's security settings.

But assuming my own happiness isn't enough to chase away your blues, as always, let not your heat be troubled. Things could always be worse. We could be living in Beijing.

Faith in Humanity: Restored

2011-09-13T08:12:00.001-07:00

Blogging of late has been sparse. Still, I'm a sucker for a good clip, and the video below has done its little bit to restore my faith in humanity - at least for today.

Not sure what the complete backstory is but to state the obvious, a vehicle/motorcycle collision left both car and bike engulfed in flames, and the motorcyclist somehow pinned beneath the car.

As the fires raged, 12 or so bystanders were left to decide the trapped man's fate. Watch the outcome below.

Book Review: Irma Voth

2011-09-02T15:17:00.001-07:00

The desert of Northern Mexico seems an unlikely place for religious dissidents to settle. Yet, in the late 19th and early 20th centuries, Mennonite families exited Canada in droves, en route to Chihuahua, Mexico in hopes of finding freedom, cheap land, and the opportunity to maintain their religious and cultural practices - the most important of which included the right to speak the Low German language. Miriam Toews' latest novel, IRMA VOTH, (Harper; Sept. 6, 2011; $23.99), draws on the Mennonites' history to present a concept of language that is at times both humorous and haunting.

First, Toews uses language to fundamentally distinguish the Mennonite wayfarers of Chihuahua from the broader Mexican population. Early on, readers learn that the novel's eponymous, main character, Irma Voth has married a Mexican man named Jorge. The union creates a host of problems for Irma, not the least of which includes a strained relationship with her mercurial father - who would very much prefer that the Voths live "in" the world while doing all they can to avoid becoming "of" the world.

The clash between father and daughter results in Irma's painful exile from her immediate family to a second house on the Voth family property. It's unclear whether Irma's father reacts to her marriage angrily because of racial, cultural, or religious differences. All three justifications make an appearance, yet, all three are united by Toews' use of language as a differentiator. Race and cultural differences between Mexicans and Mennonites are typified in the novel by each group's embrace of its particular language - obviously, Spanish in the case of the former, and Low German for the latter. The same divisions are present when analyzed from the perspective of religion. Low German is venerated by Irma's father as the principle method of maintaining religious purity and social homogeneity among the Mennonite campos.

Second, shortly after Irma's banishment, Toews uses language in a markedly different way. Rather than using language as a tool for division, Toews uses language as a source of unity to develop the relationship between Irma and her sister Aggie. The entire Voth family has been instructed to avoid Irma. But Aggie is a fiery pre-teen and has absolutely no intention of avoiding her older sister. She mischievously begins a routine of making her way over to Irma's house. Although somewhat precarious, the clandestine visits restore a sense of family, and love missing from Irma's otherwise isolated existence. Irma and Aggie communicate in the hushed whispers of Low German to share news from home, and to share hopes for a brighter day.

In this way, Aggie's entry into the story presents language as a stark foil of the earlier scenes. Rather than using language to drive Irma away, Toews uses language to draw Irma and Aggie closer together. Language is used in a similar way when the novel's other gaggle of characters arrive. A ragtag group of Mexico City film makers have designs to shoot a movie about life in the rural campo. The bulk of the novel develops as a result of Irma's ability to communicate trilingually, landing her a gig as a translator for the film crew. This sets Irma up for exposure to a number of foreign, and secular ideas about life, culminating in a formative decision, that shakes the very foundations of existence as she knows it. But the point about language as it relates both to Aggie and the filmmakers is really the same: language is redemptive, wielding the ability recast a mechanism for dividing into a mechanism for uniting.

And this manipulation of language is the point of the novel in a macro sense. Toews uses language not only to advance her plot, but also to communicate ideas, thoughts, and emotions. This is true of any story, but what makes Toews' novel unique is its ability to immerse readers in the exercise of language manipulation from page one. Her prose has been called minimalist, but this is an understatement. The writing style is absolutely Spartan. This has the odd effect of causing readers to dive into her works not only for the sake of understanding the story, but also for the sake of carefully exploring each word for meaning.

This is largely how the novel reads in its entirety. Each page is a potential hiding place for beauty - whether it's a thought, a feeling, or an insight. And all the while, a reader's search for these gems inexplicably unveils the novel's plot.

I suppose in this way Toews' work mirrors life. In Irma Voth, she demonstrates life's complexity through language, underscoring that life is not often lived in the world of black and white envisioned by Irma's father. Rather, it is lived in the shades of gray where our ethical, moral, and religious suppositions are challenged by life itself - a world trafficked by Irma and Aggie, and all of the wonderful characters they meet.

Miriam Toews' Irma Voth is set for public release on September 6, 2011. It is available for pre-order here.

Just a Typical, Tucson Bike Ride

2011-09-01T18:16:00.001-07:00

Tucson had its first signs of fall today. Rather than topping out at 106 degrees, it was a balmy 103.

The weather seemed ripe for a bike ride since my trusty steed had sat dormant due to the extreme heat. I also needed to mail in the rent check, so a stop by the post office was on my to do list as well. As Uncle Dave Ramsey says, in a pinch, one can skimp on some payments, but rent should never be among them. I think his rationale is that it's a lot harder to do without shelter than it is to do without an iPhone. I'm not sure that he's entirely right. But it seems wise to pay rent all the same.

As I etched my name to the corner of the check, and sealed up the envelope, it occurred to me how antiquated the notion of check writing is. My landlord and I could easily set up a balance transfer, and she would have the money as soon as I authorized it. Yet, we opt to play the game of formalities once a month, and I write the check for her to cash.

I made my way out the door and realized that 103 degrees isn't terribly different from 106, so I rode my bike a little slower. The post office is located conveniently along the River Bike Path so I took my usual route through the foothills. As the sun beat down on my back, and the cacti and lizards greeted me along the way, I wondered whether my experience was similar to the pony express riders who carried mail through the desert west almost two centuries ago. It probably wasn't much similar at all, but it was a fun thought. After all, we have roads. And ponies smell.

In short order, I made my way out of the foothills, and headed toward the River Bike Path's entrance. Access to the path isn't direct for me, so I dutifully walk my bike along a twenty-yards stretch of sidewalk. It's quite illegal to ride a bike on the sidewalk, and nothing annoys me more than cyclists who break the law. While walking my bike, I noticed an oddly clad young man who was himself walking in the middle of River Road. He was asking cars that had pulled up to the stop light for a ride to Campbell Avenue. The request seemed a bit odd, seeing as Campbell Ave. is less than a mile away from this particular intersection. I don't think he was mentally stable. Still, I felt sorry for the man, until I re-remembered that it was a balmy 103 degrees. Of course, I then re-realized that 103 degrees isn't much different from 106, and I silently re-hoped that someone would give him a lift - even if it was less than a mile away. Much to my surprise, someone did. The good samaritan was a surly looking man, driving a mini-van in such a way that he he told the world how depressing his life was. Still, I was glad the somewhat unstable young man had found a ride, even if his benefactor did reminded me a bit of John Wayne Gacy.

After reaching the post office, I noticed a postal worker schlepping mail from the curb-side mailboxes. I quickly rode up to her, gave her a bright and friendly greeting, before asking her to include my envelope with the other items in her cart. After making this utterly reasonable request, one of Jane Austen's famous lines came to mind. "It is a truth universally acknowledged that an employee of the U.S. Postal Service is among the most miserable of human beings to walk this planet." Jane Austen didn't write that. But it's a universally acknowledge truth all the same. True to form, rather than addressing me, or otherwise acknowledging my existence she pushed her cart past me, grunting in a way that only female postal workers can, and indicated that I should put my envelope where the sun doesn't shine - presumably she meant in the mailbox, which as luck would have it had yet another pick up time at 5:00PM.

After dropping the check into the mail, I immediately felt lighter - around $850 lighter, in fact, and I quickly made my way to Gwyn. I rode quickly because I had a slight, nagging fear that Helga might come back with her Norsemen chums from the Post Office break room, and I didn't want to be anywhere near the vicinity when they returned.

In all, I made fairly decent time getting to my wife, arriving five minutes early. This earned me only about a ten minute wait in the sun, and a quarter-mile walk to the truck, but I still call that a win. At least I wasn't standing in the middle of the road asking errant motorists for rides.

Lolcat of the Week

2011-08-30T05:00:00.000-07:00

I've been working on the early embers of my dissertation the past few months. Being the compulsive planner that I am, the lolcat of the week below embodies my basic approach to failure on this project.

It's surprisingly easy to erase a hard drive.

see more Lolcats and funny pictures, and check out our Socially Awkward Penguin lolz!

My Trip to Costco

2011-08-28T20:07:00.001-07:00

I took my first trip to Costco earlier this afternoon to purchase a membership. On the advice of a couple of friends, my wife was persuaded that the amount of groceries we purchase would easily make up for the price of joining over time. I'm not sure that it ever will, but that probably won't keep us from trying to milk every bit of savings that we can out of our membership. In addition to an obscenely large bottle of Scotch, we also bought a doggy bed for Alexas that is certifiably many times larger than she is, selling for roughly half the cost on Amazon.

Walking around the massive warehouse, I had several mixed reactions.

My initial thought was "this is exactly why Al Qaeda hates us," and while the conclusion is dramatic, it's also quite true. If Costco isn't the poster child for American opulence, then I'm really not sure what is. By every objective measure, that store is huge. Huge. It's shelves, which span the entire height and length of the building, are stocked full of every conceivable product one could ever want or need. (Although, there was a notable absence of products from Apple). From discounted computer software to relatively inexpensive and presumably, relatively fresh salmon, the store was a treasure trove of American consumerism. Given economic disparities between countries like America and, say, countries like Afghanistan, it's easy to see how the seeds of envy, jealousy, and hate could grow. Any 'reasonable militant' could simply look at places like Costco (or Sam's Club, BJ's, Walmart, Target, etc.), realize that such stores will never exist in her home country, and blame every economic woe on the 'greedy Americans' hogging all the goods.

On the other hand, I realize that I've used a loaded term, consumerism. In fact, somewhat frightening, and almost certainly annoying protests were held this weekend warning of the coming 'class war,' demanding to know 'which side are you on.' I fancy myself as more of a Switzerland whenever the class wars are waged, but as an unabashed proponent of the free-market, the libertarian in me responds to the sentimentalist above by noting, "That's just how markets work. Someone had the idea to form a company based on the concept of selling bulk products to consumers rather than selling to retailers only, and I'll be damned if the idea wasn't a smashing success. I will drink my ridiculously inexpensive alcohol tonight, and, accordingly, sleep like a baby - albeit a very drunk one." The simple point being that if local supermarkets can't compete, then shouldn't they go out of business? Why should the market reward inefficiencies?

But again the sentimentalist in me considers that the ground isn't exactly level at the foot of the economic cross. Companies like Costco can leverage billions of dollars in annual revenue to sell products at deeply discounted prices thanks to their incredibly low product mark-ups. Mom and Pop supermarkets could never compete because they lack billions of dollars to leverage and offer competitive pricing.

And on, and on the conversation goes. I don't claim to have a solution. If I did have a solution, you could (and should) contact the folks at the Nobel Headquarters, and tell them this year's Nobel Prizes for peace and economics have all but been picked up. I'd certainly be a more worthy recipient than our hapless President who somehow won the Nobel Peace Prize while orchestrating three wars around the world. Of course, he was only a warmonger twice-over at the time.

Still, the interesting thing about shopping at Costco was the simple fact that no one seemed to be having the internal dialogue above in their heads - except for me. That's when I realized that I am weird. So, rather than revel in my eccentricity, I happily walked up to the checkout to pay for the doggy bed and scotch, knowing that I would drink the scotch, and knowing that Alexas would still sleep in our bed rather than the doggy bed I had just purchased. In fact, after posing for the photo above, Alexas promptly got up, and lay down on our king-sized bed. And maybe that's the lesson of consumerism.

The point of consumerism isn't really to be satisfied. That would make the world markets tank for sure. The point of consumerism is to feel you need something, pretend you enjoy it, and then lumber back to the bed you're used to sleeping on.

Thoughts on Blogging, and Time

2011-08-25T15:29:00.001-07:00

Earlier this week my wife was twenty minutes late getting out of work. I took my typical 11 mile bike ride to reach her office by 4:30PM, only to swelter for twenty minutes in 106 degree heat. By the time she emerged from the cavernous enclave better known as Tucson Medical Center, the water in my water bottle tasted like a hot cup of tea, minus the tea.

To understate matters, I was upset. But not with my wife. The lone thought that came to mind over and over while I baked on my favorite bench was how much I hate wasting time. The situation was a bit like Dostoyevsky's white bears, no matter how hard I tried not to think about wasting time, I ended up thinking about wasting time. This may seem a bit compulsive, and it really is, but I realized from a young age that time is the only thing in life that you can't get more of. You can get more money. You can acquire more possessions. If you are lonely, you can fill your life with with more relationships. The super lonely, like former NY Gov. Spitzer, can even pay to fill their lives with more relationships.

But as ex- Apple CEO Steve Jobs demonstrated yesterday, you can't get more time, and that's why time is life's most important commodity.

It's a bit dramatic to say that a few minutes in the sun profoundly shifted how I think about blogging. But in some ways it did. Over the past week I started thinking seriously about this blog, the time I've devoted to it, and most importantly what I hope to see from it - not only in the coming days and weeks, but in the months, and hopefully years still to come. While I have changed templates, and layouts many, many, many times, I have never tried to make the blog anything more than it is: a place where I can opine, and hold court on whatever topic strikes my fancy. And I've done this for nearly seven years, come December 24th.

In that time span, I've made just under 2600 posts. My traffic has gone from an anonymous voice crying in the wilderness (NH) to a voice with a slightly bigger bullhorn, crying in a different wilderness (AZ). Our readership is still fairly modest, averaging only about 2500 hits per month. But that's still much better than when I averaged only about 40.

Given that our blog isn't very topical, it's probably a small miracle that anyone reads Pax Plena at all. The bulk of my posts concern politics, music, faith, book reviews, cycling, and the occasional Lolcat of the Week. But Pax Plena isn't devoted to any one of these topics in particular. Still, in the greater blogosphere, the actual range of blogs and their topics is as wide and as varied as the internet itself. Some blogs are very narrow in scope, covering niche areas like the intersection of life and career building, and the affairs of a specific technology company (guess which company). Stiil, other bloggers cover broad topics like Indian Law, politics, technology, cycling, faith, minimalism, sports, sport teams, etc.

I guess my conclusion is that that after seven years of blogging, it's time to start narrowing down the focus here at Pax Plena. To be clear, I'm not worried about missing out on traffic. That's not the point. But I am interested in developing the blog into something that is more engaging, more interesting, and more useful to readers. I want Pax Plena to maximize the effort and time I put into it. And I think I can do this with a couple of adjustments.

Let me add, I don't feel these seven years have been wasted. (Although, I have, at times, been wasted during these past seven years.) I sincerely appreciate each and every hit that comes my way. You readers make the whole exercise worthwhile. My itch for change stems primarily from the fact that I don't want to waste the next seven years of blogging because I didn't create a vision for Pax Plena when I had the chance.

My task over the next few weeks will be to figure out what exactly this means in terms of content, and quality. I suspect it will mean higher quality pieces (e.g., no more short posts containing only snarky links for your perusal). And, in terms of content, I suspect that the blog will cover a narrower range of topics, in effort to become more topic-specific. Or at least more topic-specific. But for you the reader, this simply means what it always means. Stay tuned.

And, regardless of which direction the blog takes, let not your hearts be troubled. Lolcats of the Week are here to stay. Your blogger loves you.

Lolcat of the Week

2011-08-23T05:00:00.000-07:00

The lolcat of the week below is certifiably one of the cheesiest I've posted. But it's hilarious in a dorky sort of way, so it gets a post.

It's reminiscent of the old gag, 'save your holiest socks for Sunday.'

see more Lolcats and funny pictures, and check out our Socially Awkward Penguin lolz!

Tucson's Newest Cyclist

2011-08-21T21:17:00.001-07:00

Years ago my wife Gwyn lived in an Amish commune where all forms of modern transportation were shunned. Alas, she never learned to ride a bicycle.

I kid, I kid. Gwyn isn't Amish.

But it is true that for various reasons (viz. reasons I do not know) my Dear Wife never learned how to ride a bike as a kid.

After making a post on Twitter about our bike lessons last week, I was surprised to hear from various friends and readers that first-time, adult cycling is not an isolated phenomenon. Turns out, there are quite a few folks who have never learned to ride two-wheelers as kids. Growing up in Oklahoma, I just took it for granted that every child knew how to ride a bike. It was the quickest way to get to the mailbox from Grandma's. It was the quickest way to get to school from Mom's. And bikes were much easier for a ten year-old to drive than the Gator, although the Gator was driven plenty when it came for fishing. Suffice it to say, life on the farm was markedly different than life in metro-area, Tucson, and times have changed mightily.

Anyway, a couple of weeks ago, I tried to help Gwyn learn to ride a bike, using my trusty steed. But the tires on my road bike were way too narrow for a new rider to learn on. She did a fine job of balancing, but when it came time to peddle, she ended up losing control, getting frustrated with a bike she simply wasn't prepared to ride. To her credit, she never wrecked the bike, which is more than I can say for myself, and in fact, she didn't even take a tumble. But after a few hours in the drive way, it was clear that a road bike was not a good way to begin learning how to ride.

Over the weekend, we decided that the best way for her to learn to ride would be to buy her a bike that was better suited to her comfort level. We considered three criteria in shopping for a new bike: 1) A bike with wide tires to make for easier balancing, 2) One that allowed for the rider to ride upright rather than bent over, and 3) A bike that was not so expensive that she would be afraid to wreck it in the event of a fall. For the record, the last point was made more out of practicality than a sense of fatalism of Gwyn's biking ability. One's wallet cries a lot less when wrecking a cheap Schwinn, than when one wrecks a Novara Verita Bike - at least my wallet does.

Given that our main concern was cost, our bike shopping took us to Wal-Mart where we happened upon the ladies' Schwinn Admiral above. The bike boasts seven speeds, front and rear breaks, SRAM grip shifters, Shimano rear derailleurs, a bike rack, and a solid, steel frame. The bike seemed like a smart purchase, but what really sold her on this bike was its aesthetics - as you can see in the photo, it has a certifiably cool, retro look, coupled with extreme comfort while riding. Add to this a $149 price tag, and it was an easy purchase decision to make.

Gwyn will still need a lot of practice before she takes to the bike lanes along Skyline and Sunrise. But the change between a bike that was appropriate for her experience level, as opposed to my road bike, was remarkable. The last time we practiced riding, we spent at least two hours just learning how to balance on my road bike. But within 15 minutes of getting the new bike adjusted, Gwyn had already mastered balancing on the bike, pushing off with her dominant foot, and pedaling unaided down the driveway. Before we called it an evening, she even felt comfortable making slow, 360 degrees turns!

Needless to say, I was quite proud of her.

I think there were probably two lessons that we took from the two bike-learning experiences.

First, a little patience goes a long way. This is an obvious lesson, but people have innately different senses of balance and caution. What works for one may not work for another, and this was difficult for me to remember. I just assumed that since it was easy for me to take up road biking, my wife would take to it as well. Really, what she needed was a bike that was better suited to her experience level.

Walk before you run, as they say.

Second, for adults learning to ride a bike, do yourself a favor and find a bike that you feel comfortable riding. Don't ride a bike simply because it's available. In terms of fit, Gwyn fell in love with her Schwinn hybrid because it allowed her to put both feet on the ground with ease. She also liked the comfy seat, and wide handle bars. At the end of the day, she loves her bike because it makes her feel comfortable to ride. And that's the point really: if it isn't fun, and it isn't comfortable, don't ride it. There are plenty of bikes available that can meet your needs.

Today we conquered the driveway. Tomorrow we might very well try the bike path. After that, who knows? Maybe one day we'll conquer the world.

Next Book Review: Irma Voth

2011-08-19T13:56:00.001-07:00

A few weeks ago, I was contacted by HarperCollins to review an advanced copy of Canadian author Miriam Toews new work Irma Voth. I received my copy late last week.

Here's a brief description from the press release:

A distinctive coming-of-age novel, Miriam Toews's IRMA VOTH (Harper; September 6, 2011; $23.99) takes readers into an unfamiliar world as a young Mennonite woman struggles to break free from the constraints of her sequestered upbringing and find her place in the alien outside world. Toews, the author of such critically acclaimed novels as A Complicated Kindness and The Flying Troutmans, and winner of two of her native Canada's most prestigious literary awards--the Governor General's Award and the Rogers Writers' Trust Prize for her body of work--was herself raised in a small Mennonite town on the prairie. For IRMA VOTH, she taps not only her personal knowledge of this rigorous faith, but also a little-known piece of history--the real-life legacy of Mennonites who migrated to Mexico in the late 19th century and settled in the country's northern provinces.

I'm not very far along, so I'll save the balance of my comments for the final review. But one thing that struck me, not being familiar with Toews's other works, was her distinct, almost minimalist style of writing.

I should hedge what I'm about to say a bit. It's really not all that uncommon for authors omit quotation marks when their works. Hemingway did it masterfully at various points in A Farewell to Arms. But in Toews's work, dialogue subtly blends into description, which somehow morphs into the inner thoughts of the characters. The result is that readers are obliged to appreciate each word of the novel, rather than greedily reading through some portions, while skimming over others.

It's really quite a beautiful manipulation of language, and I'm only a quarter of the way through.

The novel is set for release on September 6, and available for pre-order on Amazon.com here.

More to come...

Approaches to Finding Contentment

2011-08-18T15:48:00.002-07:00

I have learned in whatever situation I am to be content.
-Philippians 4.11-13

A couple of weeks ago, Wifey and I began wading into the advertising morass better known as the hit TV series Mad Men. The basic premise of the show is rooted in the perpetual malcontent besetting American consumers. The shows 'Ad Men' are successful if they can convince consumers to buy their clients' products, and to do so they must also persuade consumers that they they need the wares being sold.

Consumer malcontent is a funny thing. There's a logical argument that if Americans would actually spend more of their money, or act on their material discontent during tough economic times, then this would stimulate a consumer driven economy, allowing American companies across various sectors to produce more goods, and hire more workers.

Yet, the consumer trend of late seems to be that austere times call for austere measures. This results in consumers being more apt to stay home, saving their money, rather than going out to spend it. Of course, reduced demand leads to a glut in supply, which means less money coming into the sellers' coffers. Rational business persons respond by reducing their workforce to compensate for lost profits. This leads to spiraling unemployment, and cyclical markets. (FYI, the Dow gained 700 points in the past five days, only to see those gains largely erased this afternoon in a matter of hours, closing at a 419 point loss.)

My point is that our Nation's economic plight can largely be chalked up to the contentment of consumers. The rule, then, is that the more discontent people are, the better off the markets will be. A corollary to this rule would be that our Nation's economic prospects are eminently tied to the lot of us being miserable, and seeking cures in material goods. It wasn't by mistake that Apple became the world's most valuable company.

The incongruity of the market view of contentment is that it applies a quantitative analysis to what is inherently a qualitative conundrum. As a species, mankind is prone to seek contentment through a number of venues that are not necessarily related to spending at all. One blog that I read frequently, advises people to seek contentment through living a minimalist life. This invites a number of questions, but the basic point is to spend money on experiences, and invest in relationships, rather than spending money on things.

Another blogger and friend takes almost the opposite approach to minimalism. Whereas a minimalist would advise chunking the daily planner and living life in the moment without the strictures of a schedule, my friend finds contentment through following a disciplined routine. He takes great care, most mornings, to get up early and enjoy the wee, small hours of the day. He claims this is the best time for engaging the creative faculties of the mind. The notion of contentment through routine is strikingly similar to a career blogger I read, who advises women to follow her detailed "Blueprint for a Woman's Life" to the letter.

I'm not sure that either extreme 'corners the market' on finding contentment. Aside from being qualitative rather than quantitative, contentment is almost an entirely subjective state of being. My dog finds contentment in her red Kong Toy. Some people claim that they can escape their troubles simply by riding a bike. Others try to find contentment by preserving as much of the present as possible, even to the point of absurdity.

I like to think that contentment has a way of finding me, even when I don't realize it. A lot of times I get restless with where I am in life, second guessing decisions, wondering about what might have been under a different set of circumstances. But then I read stories that really make me appreciate being alive in general. Just today, I read about a couple from NYC, struggling to rebuild their lives after a tragic bike accident. The facts are too long to recount here, but what went from a simple ride to a concert quickly turned into a life-changing event.

I also think about people like food blogger Jennie Perillo. I assume Ms. Perillo is more than financially secure. She's been apprenticed in some of the finest restaurants in the world. And she has successfully promoted her website in the National media, making her a minor-culinary celebrity. Yet, her lone request on the blog last week was that readers make a pie in honor of her late husband Mikey, who she unexpectedly lost to a massive heart attack days before.

My intent is not to glory in other people's tragedies. And there's really no big picture lesson from all of this because I think we each have to arrive at a place of contentment on our own terms. My basic and subjective observation is that my lot really isn't so bad when I take a step back. Sure, I'd like to make more (viz., any) money, but Wifey and I get by. We both have our health and each other. Soon, my academic program will end, capping a lengthy quest to earn the title "Dr." before my name.

In the mean time, I plan to eat a little slower, sample some microbrews, and spend more time doing the things I love - like reading, writing, cycling, and working on Prestige 15 in Call of Duty, Black Ops. I don't know that this is exactly what St. Paul had in mind when he penned the verse above, but it works for me. Maybe my suggestion about contentment is to do what works for you.

My Beta Fish Died Today

2011-08-17T17:34:00.001-07:00

Our beta fish, Maestro, died this afternoon.

He fell ill early last weekend. He started acting strangely, floating on his side during the day, lying down on his side during the night. Soon his behavior became much more erratic. Without warning, he would sprint to the top of his tank for air, and allow himself to sink slowly back down to the bottom. After these fits of swimming, Maestro invariably came to rest on the smooth river rocks that lined the base of his tank. I like to think the cold stones gave him comfort.

When his illness began, my first instinct was to change his water, and this seemed to help. He showed a little sign of improvement, swimming around the tank, rather than swimming on his side. All seemed well for a day or two.

But last night the same symptoms came back. This morning I found him resting on the cool rocks again, his gills weakly breathing. Food held no interest to him. I can't imagine fish having overly complex minds. But it seemed like our little friend had simply lost the will to live.

This afternoon, I checked on him knowing the end was near. I found him in his favorite corner of the tank. He was already gone. But he looked at peace.

Maestro's tank sits empty now, beneath the windows in our living room. It's strange that a fish so small, could bring our lives such joy.

An Obligatory Post About Rick Perry

2011-08-16T18:19:00.001-07:00

We're more than a year away from the 2012 election, but the GOP primary race got a lot more interesting over the weekend with the addition of long suspected candidate, Texas Governor, Rick Perry.

On Monday, the Daily Caller summed up the state of the GOP race as follows:

Mitt Romney is the kid in the front row who constantly raises his hand. Michele Bachmann is the popular girl who knows she’s better than you. And Rick Perry is the laid-back football player (in actuality, Perry was an “Aggie Yell Leader” — but this is about perception) who sits in the back of the class. He’s popular with the cool kids, yet still treats the outcasts with a degree of respect.
Everybody likes that guy, and in politics, likeability matters.
[Link]

The analogy is oversimplified, but it works on balance. I'm no expert on Texas politics, but based on video I've seen, Perry has a natural affability with voters. I suspect this can be chalked up to his roots in rural America, places where friendliness is still a serious matter of social obligation.

There's also no question that Perry has the most compelling narrative of the top three candidates. It was chronicled at length in London's Telegraph, but even in a foreign daily, Gov. Perry's story reads like the stuff of fiction. Small town kid from a family of poor tenant farmers, who now has a very real chance to become the President of the United States. It's the kind of thing that can only happen in America, but it's not a bad storyline, even by UK standards.

Of course, Perry is not without some liabilities. In particular, he would make a general election race against President Obama especially polarizing. The Daily Beast's Michael Tomasky sums the matter up fairly well:

During an Obama-Perry contest, millions of Americans on both sides would be shuddering constantly for four months. We’ve never had quite this kind of showdown culturally. Our present Kulturkampf dates only to the 1980s. There’s never been a cultural showdown of the sort Obama v. Perry would represent. Yes, Republicans hated Clinton, but he was Southern and enough of a good old boy that he cut across those lines to some extent. Gore was painted as an egghead, and was, but again Southern-ness diluted the cocktail a bit. Bush versus John Kerry is probably as close as we’ve come, but Kerry was never really quite threatening enough to Bush America to merit serious hatred. And John McCain, mostly because he was not Southern and partly because he was so old, was not nearly as perfect a foil for Obama as Perry would be.
[Link]

Tomasky's complaint is that Rick Perry would reignite the culture wars, pitting red states against blue states, on a scale that we've never seen before in the history of history. Tomasky can be forgiven for sounding a bit like Henny Penny. The sky isn't falling, simply because Perry is the frontrunner. But Tomasky's right in that Perry would basically be President Obama's anti-twin, and the left's skin would surely crawl if he were elected as President, regardless of how he actually governed the country. The National Review's Rich Lowry ably predicts even more Perry hatred (along the lines of Tomasky's piece) in his latest column in the National Review. I think he's probably right.

But elections are about contrasts. Contrasting visions. Contrasting personalities. Contrasting styles. Assuming Perry wins the GOP nomination, which is still a big assumptions given Mitt Romney's massive political machine, he will present a contrast with the President in basically every way as Tomasky notes.

The conventional wisdom says voters want choices. They'll have some fairly stark ones come November 2012

Lolcat of the Week

2011-08-16T05:00:00.000-07:00

A couple of weeks ago the new MacBook Airs were released by Apple. After diving into a bit of technological lust, I had to remind myself that the grass is always greener…

Turns out, in some instances, it actually is.

see more Lolcats and funny pictures, and check out our Socially Awkward Penguin lolz!

Love

2011-08-15T05:00:00.000-07:00

A special post for the love of my life. Happy second anniversary, Dear.

Little Pricks

2011-08-11T14:57:00.003-07:00

The piece I wrote earlier in the week about Ben Stein and the economic meltdown has weighed on my mind lately. It isn't a newsflash, but today's headlines abundantly suggest that we live in an era of unprecedented economic uncertainty, and global unrest.

Rioters in London burned their own homes in protest of UK budget cuts.

Wall Street twists in the economic winds - soaring on the smallest glimmer of economic hope, crashing with the least bit of turbulence.

Earlier in the week, naysayers warned of a Post-American planet, drearily musing whether we had already spent ourselves into oblivion.

Meanwhile, others have taken a fancy to questioning the value of higher education, as if society would be helped by the masses remaining uneducated, helpfully observing that most Americans are wasting money on anything more than a high school diploma (special reference made to law students).

In fact, people have become so fed up with bad news that nearly 200,000 people cancelled their cable TV subscriptions in the last quarter alone.

Not even President Obama gets a break. The latest poll numbers, bless his heart, show Generic Republican besting President Obama 47% to 42%. And just a couple of days ago his vacation home on Martha's Vineyard burned down (not really, but it did catch fire).

Make of the above what you will, but it seems fair to say that times are tough.

As the adage goes, desperate times call for desperate measures, so it seemed only appropriate to draw some words of wisdom from the Bible - just in case. Serendipitously, the writings of an old friend from high school (published on Facebook, no less), turned my weary eye to the fifth chapter of St. Paul's letter to the Romans.

Paul writes:

Therefore, since we have been justified by faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ.
Romans 5.1

I won't say the winds instantly calmed when I read the verse above. But something like that happened. I looked outside of the kitchen window, and saw our cactus sitting on the porch, warming in the sun, its tiny pricks of yellow gingerly reaching toward skies of blue. It occurred to me, that the world economy could crash this afternoon, and my cactus couldn't care any less. So long as my wife provides it the occasional drink of water, it will thrive regardless of the calamities besetting the kingdoms of men.

I can't help but think the cactus has it right. The little prick. At risk of being over broad, the verse above strikes me as the simplest statement of Christianity ever written. At its core, the message is a compact one of assurance, written to all those twisting in the winds of the stock market, written to all those questioning whether their education is worth the price, and written to all those forced to watch Netflix Streaming because they cancelled their Cable TV package.

The message is that faith in Christ yields peace with God. Nothing more. Nothing less.

The other stirring aspect of the short verse is that it is without qualification. It does not assure peace only to stockbrokers. It does not assure peace if only we make the appropriate spending cuts accompanied by corresponding 'revenue increases.' The point is plain. Those justified by faith have peace with God. Period.

Now, Stein's article questions the premise of our calamitous world entirely. "Meltdown? What meltdown?" he would say. While it's fair to question the origins of the situation, it's also disingenuous to deny the phenomenon altogether. As my wife and I wait for student loans to come in, the reality of hard times is clear to us. We see similar concern among our circle of friends - mostly young professionals, and students, or some combination of the two.

By contrast, Paul more or less takes the same approach to reality as my cactus Paul says, embrace reality. Sometimes life sucks, but come what may, those justified by faith have peace with God. It will be ok.

And if that conclusion is good enough for my cactus, well, it's good enough for me.

PS: I realize the many jokes I could have made when I titled this post 'little pricks.' Most lawyers, Tiger Woods, and Ron Paul all come to mind. But gentle readers, I can only hope that my effort at more reflective commentary will compensate for lone cheap laugh I tried to get.

UPDATE: Ben Stein adds some more thoughts in today's (8/12/2011) essay on the 'meltdown,' and reaches somewhat similar conclusions to those I reached yesterday:

6. The speculators do not have all power. There is only One who has all power and I live by His rules, not by the rules of fear and panic peddled by some cable TV systems.
So, I can keep some perspective and go on with my life after all.
And I can look out on this magnificent mountain lake and think how it must laugh at stock markets and the affairs of men.
[Link]

Stein's lake laughs at the affairs of men, much like my little cactus laughed when I picked it up.

Lolcat of the Week

2011-08-11T05:00:00.000-07:00

This Lolcat of the Week basically sums up my attitude toward life the past week. My bike wreck has sidelined me from riding, so I've been stuck at home while the world goes on without me.

I'm being dramatic, of course, but if I had a dime for every time this sentiment crossed my mind, well, I might not hate everything quite so much.

see more Lolcats and funny pictures, and check out our Socially Awkward Penguin lolz!

The Flying Pigeon Commercial

2011-08-10T13:34:00.001-07:00

I've been sidelined with my bike injury for about a week now. But I like to think that I've spent my hiatus constructively. One thing I've done, for example, is spend some time each day looking at bike-oriented websites. True, I'm not actually riding a bike, but at least I'm thinking about other people riding theirs. Call it, passive moral support.

Today, I ambled across this fairly amazing commercial from a bicycle manufacturer called The Flying Pigeon. The name is remarkable because, unlike the pigeons roosting atop our porch, most pigeons actually fly around on a regular basis. All of which is to say that the name is a redundancy, really, following in the tradition of my favorite The Fat Bastard. (Fat bastard? Is there any other kind of bastard?)

Nevertheless, the Flying Pigeon commercial is interesting because it uses a movie-like storyline to sell the product. The commercial communicates the functionality of the bike by sharing the daily routines of its owners, from shopping at the market, to visiting a local coffee shop. As every good movie director knows, sex sells, so the film/commercial (filmercial?) also incorporates a bit of romance into the piece. Enter a svelte blonde, and a brooding writer whose paths cross at various points in the day.

Anyway, I thought the clip was a fine example of marketing, and frankly, one of the better commercials I've seen in a while. I can't forecast much beyond that, but I would not be surprised if other companies picked upon the idea and began producing "filmercials" too. Granted, they might be a big long for the average 30-second spot. Still, it would certainly make the Super Bowl ads a lot more interesting...

The Flying Pigeon Bicycle from yulu canada on Vimeo.

What Meltdown?

2011-08-09T15:05:00.001-07:00

Among the American intelligentsia, few possess the versatility, of actor/lawyer/economist/author, Ben Stein.

When I was but a young lad muckraking with the Dartmouth College Republicans, we ambled into the archives of our E-mail to discover that an enterprising member of our motley had 'procured' Mr. Stein's E-mail address, and invited him to campus. Needless to say, this was back in the days when it wasn't illegal to procure E-mail addresses, and when "spam" was still a type of meat product.

After a couple of messages back and forth, it was clear that Mr. Stein was actually very much keen to come to campus. Alas, his speaking fees were a well beyond the pale of our modest budget. Nevertheless, since reading that exchange, I've maintained a private admiration for a man publicly admired by many. His reflections last month on the death of his dog were especially profound. Give it's lack of publicity, I would also add that they went terribly under appreciated. I digress.

Today, Mr. Stein writes at length about America's fiscal plight. His basic point is summarized below:

Why are we having this meltdown? Why right now?
The real economy is not doing great, but corporate profits are extremely strong. The nation's large corporations are loaded with liquidity. The luxury retail sector is powerful. Autos are excellent. The agricultural sector is stupendously strong. High tech and biotech are doing well, sometimes amazingly well.
[Link]

Stein's answer to the question is a bit simplistic, blaming matters on speculating buy-side investors. But it is curious that the day's financial news sees at least one tech company enjoying breathtaking profits, even while the stock market supposedly tanks. Stepping back from the fracas, one of Mr. Stein's implicit points is that the relationship between America's economic strength, and the S&P debt downgrade hasn't been well-explained since the downgrade occurred.

Aside from long-term effects on mortgage rates, and on students taking out educational loans from private lenders, it isn't clear that the debt downgrade matters much to the average American at all, except that it makes them increasingly fed up with Washington.

On the other hand, if you're not convinced the matter is functionally much ado about nothing, a studious Amazon.com shopper has complied this helpful list of "Pre-Post-Apocalyptic Survival" goods - just in case the sky does actually fall. Consider this your blogger, looking out for you.

Rick Perry's Prayer Event

2011-08-06T19:00:00.001-07:00

I hesitated to make a post about Rick Perry's prayer event down in Houston, TX.

My hesitation wasn't the hate speech feared by some on the left - that, incidentally, never materialized. My hesitation wasn't a mixing of church and state - that, incidentally, has never been quite so separate.

My hesitation stemmed from the simple fact that Gov. Rick Perry is not a declared candidate for President of the United States. All of the Presidential rumblings so far have been little more than conjecture on the part of disaffected Republicans, hoping for a knight that can unite the various factions of the GOP. Having, more or less, picked a horse in this race, Gov. Perry has been little more than an interesting afterthought.

But when a major political figure makes an address to a Football stadium full of people, well, that's extremely hard to ignore.

The smart money on the right is that Perry runs. If he does run, then today's prayer gathering boosts his fortunes immeasurably with folks in Iowa, South Carolina, and perhaps pockets of Florida. It would all but shore up the South, which he would have had anyway being the Governor of Texas. So, really this is all just a long, obligatory statement of the obvious, deviating little from the collective wisdom of the blogosphere.

In hopes of adding something slightly original to the conversation, as a wayward evangelical (the wife and I are flirting with joining an Episcopal church), I was much more taken with Perry's remarks.

Naturally, there's more than a bit of stagecraft with every address to 30,000 of your closets friends. Perry's talk/sermonette was no different. But I was struck by Gov. Perry's natural ability to connect with a religious audience. To state matters plainly, Perry spoke their language. He understood what phrases from scripture to emphasize in the inflection of his voice. He understood the appropriate cadence with which to read his passages from Joel, Isaiah, and Ephesians. He knew the attitude of humbleness that he needed to convey in his address. And most of all, he seemed to understand the significance of his remarks to his audience.

This isn't a terribly unique skill. Many a politician professing faith has demonstrated similar faculties. But with Perry, we see a remarkably good skill, that has been appropriately developed, and honed almost to perfection.

Now, it's not my place to question a person's faith, and I don't mean to do so by implication through my break down of Perry's remarks. But as a purely rhetorical matter, I have to say that Gov. Perry's ability to relate his faith to other evangelicals is simply stronger than any other GOP candidate currently in the field.

By way of tempering the above, it may be a bit more precise to say that Perry speaks to Western and Southern evangelicals better than any of the other candidates. As every armchair scholar of American religions will note, the theological roots of Christianity in America are very different in the Midwest from those in the Deep South, and the American West, to say nothing of the puritanical provenance (how's that for alliteration?) of the Northeast.

To wit, Rep. Michelle Bachmann has made some waves, of late, over her ability to relate to Christian conservatives in Iowa. But I think a Perry run saps the energy out of her appeal to evangelical audiences, not only in Iowa, but across the country. The two are just on different planes in terms of their ability to connect with an evangelical audience.

I've embedded the Governor's address to The Response Prayer Rally in full below. As always, feel free to leave comments or critiques.

What a Wonderful World

2011-08-04T14:35:00.001-07:00

Ever wanted to pack it all up, and travel?

Given that I'm alone with the dog most of the day on most days, I can't tell you how many times I've entertained a serious case of wanderlust.

But then I think about things like air-conditioning, clean water, and the Samuel Adams in my fridge, and the feeling quickly goes away.

Still, the creative three-video series below by Rick Mereki, Tim White, and Andrew Lees is steadily wearing down my resolve.

According to their Vimeo site, the trio travelled to some 18 countries, logging in the neighborhood of 38,000 miles in 44 days. Comparing them to yours truly, it's not hard to see who had the more productive summer.

The fruits of their travels are three, one minute films, each devoted to one of three themes: Food, Learning, and Movement.

I've embedded all three below for your vagabond itch. Enjoy!

Eat

EAT from Rick Mereki on Vimeo.

Learn

LEARN from Rick Mereki on Vimeo.

Move

MOVE from Rick Mereki on Vimeo.

My First Bike Wreck

2011-08-03T22:34:00.001-07:00

It was inevitable. My coordination and dexterity levels are somewhere around those of the African Bush Elephant.

Today, while riding down Tucson's Ft. Lowell Road, near the intersection of Ft. Lowell and Dodge, I hit a rough patch of pavement that sent me head over handlbars, off my bike. Fortunately for me, the asphalt broke my fall.

When I got up, the first thing I did was look around to see if anyone saw me. I'm not sure why I do this every time I fall. It's not as if I have any more dignity to preserve at that point. Alas, this spill must have been particularly nasty since a local businessman came out of his shop to check on me. Fortunately, only my pride was seriously hurt at the time. I'd give the man's business a plug, but I was too dazed to notice where he came from except that it was out of one of the shops.

Once I had gathered my bearings, and feebly called my wife for a lift and first aid, I took a quick look at the scourge that caused my spill. Turns out, there's a 15 yard stretch of bike lane, eastbound along Ft. Lowell Road that makes the infrastructure of entire third-world countries seem desirable. Unfortunately, while I was humming along about 20mph, I didn't see the massive hole until it was too late.

In truth, the fall could have been much worse than it was. The bike lane at that point isn't very wide, so a speeding car in the outside lane would have been a real problem for me. But the reality is that I escaped with only a swollen wrist, and a couple of gashes from the fall.

My bike came out of the incident relatively unscathed as well. The only battle wounds that resulted were scrapes on my left Shimano Shifter.

I suppose if there's a moral to this story, it's that the City of Tucson still has work to do to make its cycling infrastructure both convenient and safe. I suppose if I had broken my wrist I would be less forgiving, but as they say in basketball, "no harm, no foul." The problem with this view, of course, is that the next bike rider who comes along and wrecks in the same spot may not be so lucky.

Rock Bottom

2011-08-01T23:15:00.002-07:00

I went through a friend's trash yesterday.

Sunday, was a hot and humid one here in Tucson. Given that it was only slightly less miserable than segments of Hell itself, and given my knack for being perpetually unlucky, it was also completely natural that the last day of July just so happened to coincide with the expiration of many a lease here in the Old Pueblo. Moving from place to place is its own hell. The weather was more than accommodating.

True to form, one particularly good friend needed help schlepping her stuff from point A to B, so my wife and I readily helped her with the move. On the off chance my friend sees this post: my quibble is not with the request for help, but with Mother Nature for being a royal bitch on the lone instance I needed to exert physical effort on a Sunday.

Turns out, we got most of the heavy lifting done in the early morning. While three flights of stairs were less than an optimal condition for moving things like a couch, bed, and bookshelves, we managed to finagle the reluctant items down the stairwell, and into/onto my truck for the quick jaunt across town.

With the heavy items out of the way, we helped our friend haul various boxcars of trash to the dumpsters behind her apartment complex. The stretch of blacktop between the apartment and the dumpster was only twenty yards long. But ray after humid ray of sunshine gradually began to wear down our resolve. Soon, we were indiscriminately hauling items that were certifiably NOT trash to the bins, simply because we were too tired to actually go through the items to see whether they were salvageable or not.

In some ways, I relished the roll of trash man. I took a visceral satisfaction at being able to chunk the items into the bin after carrying them in the heat of the day across the parking lot. I felt a bit like Bing Crosby in "Road to Morocco," clawing along the sands of the Sahara Desert, yearning for a drip of moisture from the heavens. But of the actual, disposal process itself, there was nothing particularly insightful about it. The thud of the items against the hollow trash bin was an eminently satisfying conclusion to a walk in Tucson's humid, monsoon climes.

But, on one occasion, as I hurled a J Crew bag at the very back of the massive dumpster, I heard a distinct, metallic clang when the bag hit the wall of the bin. As a rainfall of beans fell out of the bag, along with various other kitchen items, I saw a lone silver bowl glinting in the sun.

My mind immediately wandered to the many hours I've spent making salsa in our own kitchen. I thought about the smell of cilantro, and jalapeños that fill the apartment while we prepare our secret recipe. And I thought about the times I wished I had had a massive, metal mixing bowl in which to pour out the salsa purée as I prepared the other ingredients.

There, winking in the sun, was exactly the bowl I needed - if only I would dumpster dive to retrieve it.

Having spent some time in Boston, I can say with a bit of authority that dumpster diving is less a science and more an art. There are, quite literally, tons of dumpster lining Summer Street in Boston's Financial District. And on several occsions I had the opportunity to witness the homeless and mentally distressed prospecting in the dumpster bins of local businesses. Call it America's very own iteration of the video game "Fallout New Vegas."

In my arrogance, I had always assumed "these people" had somehow hit rock bottom. Whether by circumstance, or by life choices, these individuals had simply put themselves in the position of having to dive into dumpsters in hopes of finding a treasure. I assumed that the dumpsters of Summer Street, Boston, Mass., were the cemeteries where hopes and dreams came to rest, after having died long ago.

So, naturally, it was with a bit of hesitation that I scaled the wall of the trash bin to retrive my friend's junk, and my own treasure. A bit of Palmolive would have the bowl right back into culinary order. And I could always deny its pedigree. After all, the bowl could very well be an $80 mixing bowl from Williams-Sonoma, which isn't beyond the pale of plausibility given that my friend is a good Yalie.

Still, as I climbed out of the bin, I couldn't help but wonder, based upon my own biases, whether this was what rock bottom was like. Had my life been reduced to dumpster diving? With a full two weeks before students loan disbursement, perhaps.

Surprisingly, rock bottom really wasn't all that bad.

Rubio v. Kerry, Debt Ceiling Debate

2011-07-30T15:38:00.001-07:00

Most Saturday afternoons in the U.S. Senate pass with little fanfare. Assuming Senators are at the Capitol at all, Saturday afternoons are not typically spent delivering speeches on the Senate floor.

Today, however, is not like most Saturdays, and with our Nation's default date set for Tuesday, Senators Rubio and Kerry squared off in a historic debate on the Nation's debt ceiling limit.

For once, C-SPAN captured a United States Senator that gets it. (Hint: it's not John Kerry.) The clip runs about 14 minutes, but it's worth every single minute of your time.

With people like Sen. Rubio, who knows, we may save the Republic yet.

The Macabre Exercise of Predicting Your Own Death

2011-07-30T12:54:00.001-07:00

I'm not a prophet. FYI. I'm just an ordinary man, writing about ordinary thing.

But, if I had to predict my own death, say, for the good of humanity, I suspect my end would be something like this.

Xbox addict 'dies from blood clot
[Link]

While my end might be a bit unceremonious, if I were to pass after reaching Prestige 15 on Call of Duty, Black Ops, I would count my life a success.

Before and After Workout Exhibit

2011-07-28T15:07:00.001-07:00

The website My Modern Met showcased an interesting art exhibit earlier this week by French photog Sacha Goldberger.

One half of the layout shows pictures of joggers that have just completed a brisk workout. The second half of the layout shows the same joggers in professional attire, posing in the same light, and manner as they had the week before.

According to Goldberger, the photos are intended:

"To show the difference between our natural and brute side versus how we represent ourselves to society," Goldberger tells us. "The difference was very surprising."
[Link]

Here's an example of Goldberger's work, courtesy of My Modern Met.

Goldberger's premise isn't terribly insightful. Everyone presents an image of self to the world around us. But the exhibit is dramatic in that it underscores just how highly constructed the image we present to society actually is. Think about how much of our day is spent maintaining the image we wish to present.

Your morning shower. A, hopefully, daily ritual to evince good hygiene, and keep one's bodily odors at bay. Why? So that you and your co-workers can co-exist in relative, cubical harmony.

The clothes you wear. As one fashion blog put it, the entire fashion industry exists for the sole purpose of producing 'wearable art.' I kid you not. They really said that. By this logic, you choose to wear clothes that make an artistic statement about you to the rest of the world. My t-shirt and jeans, for example, probably say to the rest of the world, "I hate you."

The car you drive. Chevy struck advertising gold in the early 2000s in its effort to persuade Americans that you are what you drive. While trying to hawk its massive, and over-priced Silverado pick-up trucks, Chevy cleverly implemented the tagline "Like a rock." Alas, this would be the last clever thing Chevy ever did.

The point of the "like a rock" campaign was that "you may be a bit soft about the gut, but by God if you drive a Chevy you're just like a rock all the same." According to the Wall Street Journal, the "like a rock" campaign was so successful among middle-age men, Chevy just might bring it back. The point, of course, is that the vehicle you drive says something about you to society.

For example, one good friend, who shall remain nameless, drives a Kia Spectra circa. 2004. His choice of car says to society, "Please, don't hit me. But if you must hit me, I have lots of insurance." Yes, my good friend is an attorney. My own, battered Chevy Colorado says, "I decided to start law school in the desert west before the economy tanked, and moved here from a major city where I didn't need a car. This is all I could afford."

The accessories you carry to work. Being but a lowly student, I don't have a real job per se. But since I am a student, I've given considerable thought to the kind of backpack I carry. I think my Timbuk 2 bag tells society, "I could be a hipster, in a real city." And once society believes what the bag tells them, it says, "I kid, I kid! The limeade racing stripe was supposed to let you in on the joke."

Etc.

I suppose I've quite belabored the point by now. But the exhibit really is interesting in that it underscores how nearly the entirety of our waking existence is spent shrouding the image on the left in the trappings of the image on the right. Naturally, this doesn't address the real question.

Exactly why do we care so much about what other people think of us?

Best Political Use of a Country Music Song

2011-07-27T14:20:00.001-07:00

The typically all-business, conservative website Hot Air threw me a bit of a curveball as I perused yesterday's headlines.

In a nondescript article, mulling the Presidential aspirations of Gov. Rick Perry and his, admittedly impressive, record of job creation in Texas, Hot Air titled its piece:

Why All Your Exes May Live in Texas
[Link]

The urbane and sophisticated among us would probably miss the reference - as might anyone who did not feverishly listen to country music during the middle 1980s. Being neither urbane, nor sophisticated, it just so happens that yours truly did in fact grow up during the middle 1980s, feverishly listening to country music - or as I like to call it, the music of angels.

Purely for your edification, I can say with conviction that the headline above is a riff on the Billboard No. 1 Country Music song from 1987, All My Ex's Live in Texas, performed by none other than country music legend, George Strait.

Given Hot Air's readership, I might very well be the only person in these United States to recognize the schtick. Regardless, well played Ed Morrissey. Well played.

Of course, it's not nearly as clever as the UPN sitcom Eve, which ran a 2004 episode in season two titled, All My Exes Havin Sexes. We all have our betters, I suppose.

Ready for the 2012 Olympics!?

2011-07-27T13:10:00.001-07:00

As you all know, every four years Americans elect a new President. And every four years, the rest of the world celebrates by putting on the Olympics.

Sports Illustrated is getting into the spirit early, showcasing Olympic venues around foggy London town.

Apple Store Hijinks

2011-07-26T11:07:00.001-07:00

Of all the things I like about Apple, I can't say that their store here in Tucson is one of them. In general, the employees tend to meander about the room, not so much for the purpose of actually helping customers as to avoid them.

But, apparently, the store in NYC is so nice they will let you do nearly anything in their store - short of fornication and murder.

Prankster Mark Malkoff decided to test the limits in the video below. Let's just say goats and Darth Vader were involved.

HT: Gizmodo.

Debt Debate: Boehner v. Obama

2011-07-26T05:00:00.000-07:00

House Speaker John Boehner, and President Obama gave dueling addresses to the American people last night concerning the debt limit hike that has embroiled Washington, lo, these many months.

Of the tales, one was much taller than the other.

Speaker Boehner summed up America's fiscal straits as follows:

The solution to this crisis is not complicated: if you're spending more money than you're taking in, you need to spend less of it.
[Link]

Naturally, President Obama framed matters much more opaquely:

Yes, many want government to start living within its means. And many are fed up with a system in which the deck seems stacked against middle-class Americans in favor of the wealthiest few. But do you know what people are fed up with most of all?
They’re fed up with a town where compromise has become a dirty word.
[Link]

Speaking as but one lowly member of the proletariat, er, citizenry, I think people are much more frustrated with a goverment spending than with the 'four-letter word' of compromise.

For starters, Washington, D.C. has never gotten along. Hence, eventual, President James Madison's words in Federalist Paper No. 10, about factions, circa. 1787. If anyone is surprised that Washington doesn't get along, well, that person must either be delusional, or the present occupant of 1600 Pennsylvania Ave.

Second, given that unemployment is at its highest since the Great Depression, I should think more Americans are upset with, well, being unemployed than they are with all the carping that goes on in Washington City.

The bottom line is that this President just doesn't get it. Never let it be said that I didn't try to help President Obama out:

"Dear President Obama - Spend. Less. Money. Love, America.

America's Debt Visualized

2011-07-22T12:17:00.001-07:00

An interesting website called http://www.wtfnoway.com/ has a collection of amazing/frightening/stunning info graphics of the U.S. Debt. By far the most intriguing of the site's graphics is its visualization of $1 trillion.

According to the site, $1 trillion would look something like this - enough industrial strength pallats (often handled by a forklift) to fill an entire football field twice (!), with each pallat containing $100 million stacked to the height of an average size person.

I still think there's room for a grown-up negotiation between the White House, and Congressional leaders on raising the debt ceiling.

But when you have an actual image in mind of the amount of money being discussed, well, it's enough to make me especially sympathetic of House Leader Eric Cantor's plight, and his insistence that there be no tax increases as a part of the debt ceiling hike.

The simple fact is that the Government is spending too much money.

Storms in the Distance

2011-07-21T17:51:00.001-07:00

Earlier today, I read that former Utah Gov. Jon Huntsman's campaign manager, Susie Wiles, had resigned her post. The news is far from a death knell for the campaign, but as Politico notes, the news is not especially good, amounting, more or less, to an admission that Gov. Huntsman's positive campaign message was not resonating with Republican voters.

[Link]

I think news of the resignation, and the campaign's lack of traction is telling about the state of our country. I may be reading a bit much into the matter, particularly given my support for the candidate, but it strikes me that there has to be more to the dismal performance of an overtly positive campaign, than just a lack of traction. Consider that back in 2006, and 2008, voters famously punished Republicans for being too nasty and too negative.

Based on the headlines, the economy, and polls about voter intensity, it's clear to me that America is in a bit of a funk. It's nothing to be ashamed of. We all get like that from time to time. Just ask Charlie Sheen.

Mort Zuckerman, of U.S. News and World Report, much more articulately dubbed my "American Funk", as an "American Malaise" last October. His essay tracked the mood of voters in wake of the consequential 2010 elections, which summarily booted Nancy Pelosi and a number of Democrats from power.

But as Zuckerman writes, the trend was more than just a political one.

Both parties are reeling from the shock of an enraged electorate venting in the primaries. There are eccentric results but there is no doubt the votes reflect dismay at what has been happening to America. The supreme confidence, national pride, and sense of achievement that marked the nation through its first 200 years have been transformed into a mood of doubt. The spasm of hope and idealism that greeted Barack Obama's election two years ago has gone up in smoke. Nearly everyone knows someone who has lost a job or home. They can't help worrying whether they are going to be next and whether their dream of a middle-class lifestyle has evaporated.
[Link]

I'm not sure if even he realized it, but Zuckerman was on to something. The issue isn't just that Obama's faux hope and change were rejected by voters as the hogwash it was. The issue is that at our core, there is a deep sense of questioning about America's place in the world, whether we can regain some of the status we lost, and whether our country still creates an environment of opportunity for its people.

Zuckerman's questions about the American Dream really get at the root of the problem. As a rank-and-file citizen, I worry whether there'll be a market for my skills both as a lawyer and as a potential educator when I complete my graduate studies next year. But even this is a small worry, particularly, when a number of very smart people openly question whether America needs to invest so heavily in higher education at all. Just today, Michael Barone of the National Review argued passionately, if not convincingly, that higher education is a bubble that will burst, and that the Government needs to stop subsidizing it.

[Link]

The essay is an obvious hypocrisy on the part of conservatives generally. At one point in time, conservatives crowed that President Obama musn't nationalize student lending because the private sector was in the best position to lend money to students. Today conservatives like Barone argue that we shouldn't lend students money at all. This is probably a small issue in the grand scheme of things. Young people don't vote as every pollster and Presidential campaign knows. Never have. Never will. But what does it do for National morale if the conservative argument is that not everyone needs a shot at a college education?

Consider also the story on Drudge Report today about a Lufkin, TX man who was convicted of resisting arrest after police officers mistakenly thought he was trying to break into his own home. In a better America, not long ago, a man's home was his castle. But for a warrant, police had no right to enter, let alone arrest the owner of a home without probable cause. Here, the police were responding to a call, and had no probable cause. Nevertheless, they roughed the homeowner up for good measure. And because the guy put up a fight to a patently unlawful arrest, he was prosecuted and convicted by a Texas jury. I understand there are, perhaps, racial implications to the story. That's another argument for another blogger. But what does it do for National morale, when citizens aren't really safe in their own homes?

The state of America, as gleaned from today's headlines, is three-fold: A) Only a putz would try to run a positive campaign for President. B) The American Dream is dead because subsidizing it through higher education is a waste of taxpayer dollars. And C) We're more or less a police state since the cops can arrest you, whether you're a crook or not.

Congratulations, America. We've officially become Communist Russia, except we no longer have a space program - that ended today as well.

Contessa Brewer Gets Pwnd

2011-07-20T17:18:00.001-07:00

As a network, MSNBC has never been one to fact check very carefully. Network anchor, Contessa Brewer, learned this the hard way when she contemptibly asked Congressman Mo Brooks (R-AL) whether he had a degree in Economics.

Turns not, Congressman Brooks not only has a degree in economics, but he also graduated with highest honors in his field from Duke University.

Oops.

Naturally, Brewer's visibly shaken, and stuttering reaction was priceless. The lesson, kids? Don't be a jackass on national television.

HT: The Daily Caller.

Huntsman Featured in Esquire Magazine

2011-07-19T17:06:00.001-07:00

Esquire Magazine's political cover story for the August issue features an in-depth look at the Presidential Campaign of former Utah Governor, Jon Huntsman. The story is a fascinating read in its own right, following Gov. Huntsman from his return to the U.S. in April, through his first stump speech at Jesse's Tavern in Hanover, NH.

[Link]

But what struck me most about the piece is the role that narrative plays in building a national campaign. According to the article, Huntsman is being branded as a "conservative problem solver" - a measured alternative to the noise (see here, here, and here) that has become the Republican Presidential Primary.

In Huntsman's case, I'm not sure the brand is all that difficult a sell. By most accounts, conservative problem solving is exactly what he did in Utah. As an example, Huntsman's plan for job creation is both forthright and solution-oriented. It's heavy on substance, and light on red meat. By contrast, other candidates have offered little more than scathing critiques of the Obama Administration - a lá Mitt Romney, and Rick Perry.

Still, it's hard to say whether Huntsman's story will be a compelling enough narrative to carry the day through the rough and tumble GOP Primary. But the Esquire essay charts a path to the nomination that's plausible, assuming certain cards fall the right way. And who knows if the cards will fall the right way?

Beltway appraisals of Huntsman's candidacy indicate that the team might as well fold-up shop, and move back to Utah. But at this point in 2008, Sen. John McCain might as well have folded-up shop, and moved back to Arizona. Even by Newt Gingrich standards, McCain's campaign had imploded. Senior staffers were fired, the campaign's coffers were empty, and J-Mac famously had to carry his own luggage from the tarmac to the local Motel 6. That's a bit of an exaggeration, but you get the point.

As of July 19, 2011, we simply don't know what the storyline of the 2012 campaign will be.

Memories of Harry Potter

2011-07-15T14:43:00.001-07:00

Sometime during the sticky summer of July 2007, I eagerly bounded into a Barnes & Noble in Braintree, MA to snag a copy of "Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows."

The trip to the bookstore was really little more than a calculated distraction. I was set to start law school in a few weeks, requiring a move across the country to the desert hinterlands surrounding Tucson, AZ. I was preparing to leave behind friends, a girlfriend, and all that I had grown accustomed to in the six years I spent in New England. I needed a copy of the book both to conclude the series, and to escape the avalanche of life falling round about me.

Reading the Harry Potter books had become a kind of personal catharsis. It was my way of escaping reality, putting to rest old memories, and forgetting the general uncertainties of life itself. Once I had purchased my book, with a palpable sense of greed, I immediately went home and began reading it. By sheer force of will, I readily soaked up each and every word of J.K. Rowling's magical world as fast as I could.

Life being what it is, I ended up finishing the book sometime during the week after its release. I recall being alone in bed in the wee, small hours of the morning, nursing a glass of wine. When I turned the final page, a lone tear fell from my eye. As Harry waved goodbye to Albus in the King's Cross Station, I knew that a final chapter of my adolescence had closed as well.

A few days later, I would leave New England for good.

Much has changed since the summer of 2007. I survived law school, managed to get married, and even piled on the education by entering a doctoral program. But I'll never forget those late nights spent immersing myself in Harry's world, falling asleep to dreams of flying broomsticks, and hoping that light would eventually prevail against darkness. Tomorrow, we plan to see the the final Harry Potter movie, watching on the silver screen what I had imagined nearly four years ago.

Update: Thomas Hibbs of the National Review has the best review of the Harry Potter series and film that I have read. You can find his estimable review here.

Feces: It Is What It Is

2011-07-14T13:02:00.001-07:00

Believe it or not, the title above has absolutely nothing to do with the latest round of debt ceiling negotiations going on down in Washington.

The headline is more or less the opinion of the Iowa Court of Appeals, upholding an imate's conviction of assaulting an officer with bodily fluids.

The inmate sought to appeal his conviction on grounds that a "scatology expert" was not brought in to verify the contents of a toothpaste tube (containing brown liquid) that the prisoner had hurled at a guard.

The Wall Street Journal law blog has all the sordid details. As the WSJ notes, footnote one of the opinion is especially amusing.

[Link]

Some Thoughts on the Debt Ceiling

2011-07-13T18:44:00.001-07:00

The word out of Washington is that President Obama petulantly blew up in the latest round of debt ceiling negotiation meetings, and stormed out of the room, leaving GOP House Leaders stunned at his intransigence.

[Link]

I don't know of anyone who is particularly surprised that talks have broken down. As the parties came to the table, pressed to cobble together a deal before the August 2nd deadline, the table might as well have been Arizona, with Obama on one rim of the Grand Canyon, and Republicans on the other.

Untenable Posturing

The debt ceiling impasse strikes me as an obvious example of ideological, and political grandstanding.

For starters, the White House could easily accept Republican offers for a short-term, debt limit increase that would kick the can of major entitlement and budgetary reform down the road into 2012. The problem with this, of course, is that 2012 is a Presidential Election year. The President, naturally, wants to shirk responsibility for his woeful economic policies, so a short-term solution is a political non-starter. Obama, accordingly, has threatened to veto any such agreement. As the musical goes, "with him its all or nothing."

Lest Republicans seem overly unhelpful, the White House has also thrown down its own bag of tricks on the negotiating table. Republicans insist that a debt ceiling increase agreement be accompanied by spending cuts in the Federal Budget. The White House has accepted the notion, so long as spending cuts are accompanied by tax increases, or as the White House would rather them be called, "revenue increases." This puts Republicans in a bind since it's against the principles of fiscal conservatives to vote to increase the Federal Debt as it is. Thus, voting for a Federal Debt increase, and a smorgasbord of tax increases would all but raise the white flag of surrender to the tax-and-spend, job-killing ways of Comrade Obama.

The Real Problem

Hanging in the balance, of course, are two very different visions about the role of Government.

Republicans, for now, seem to be sticking to the limited government ideals that saw them sweep into office in 2010. Democrats seem bent on securing President Obama's re-election, and forging a new vision of American Government that is much more active in the private sector, and one that expands the social safety net en masse.

Reality is rarely so simple as either party lets on. The Christian Science Monitor ran a piece this week, attempting to suss out the truth behind the posturing. The entirety of the article can be summarized as follows:

Both sides can muster some strong arguments, but the reality may be messier than either side lets on.
[Link]

There simply are no politically expedient solutions. As a result, much like the social issue battles of yore, perceptions of the debt brouhaha fall almost entirely along partisan lines.

If your view of Government is that it should spend at its current level, or greater, then the path envisioned by President Obama is the better course. If your view of Government is that it should only do a few things well, then you're much more apt to fall in line with House Republicans.

And so the eleventh hour looms, and neither party seems to have a watch.

Bike Ride Along the Rillito River

2011-07-13T14:44:00.001-07:00

I suppose in a perfect world, a river bike path, would run along side an actual river with water in it. But this is Tucson, and things are seldom perfect in the desert. Truth is, calling our Rillito River a "river" is a bit misleading. In reality, it's a dry sandbar where a perennial river once flowed.

By way of introduction, history, and hydrological erudition, centuries of groundwater pumping, coupled with a population explosion in the last decade, all but drained the water table of Tucson's alluvial plain, leaving the rivers in the area dry.

Oops.

Even though the river long ago ran dry, the City of Tucson nonetheless opted to invest heavily in the river's infrastructure, creating a bike path that has expanded to more or less to run the entire length of the Rillito River within the Tucson City Limits - making lemonade out of lemons if you will.

To state matters simply, Tucson's basic approach is that if you can't have a bike path along a real river, well, why not have a nice bike path all the same? And that's more or less what the City has accomplished with the Rillito River Park.

My route along the path begins where I would normally take Mountain Avenue to head south toward the U of A campus. But instead of heading south, I continue eastward toward Craycroft Road. You can see the entire route here - I'll spare you the embedded video as an act of good faith.

I've posted pictures of where I catch the River Path before. But the photo below shows an unexpected problem I've had in bike riding the past few weeks. We are entering the rainy season here in the Sonoran Desert, and the annual monsoon rains usually arrive in the late afternoon, and early evenings. This makes riding to my wife, who gets off work at 4:30pm, a bit tricky.

Anyway, after catching the River path, rather than taking the bike and pedestrian bridge toward Mountain Ave., my journey yesterday went eastward for about six miles.

On balance, the path is made of extremely high-quality, rubberized asphalt. This makes the ride remarkably smooth, and allows riders to enjoy the quite of the desert. And, in truth, this is how the path runs for the vast majority of its length.

If there is one portion of the River Path that deserves a word of criticism, it's where the path swings away from the river, as it nears Dodge Boulevard. You'll notice in the photo below, the only marker for two-wheelers is a faded, green bike box, and a minuscule sign alerting motorists to a bike crossing. It's not exactly an encouraging investment in bicycle safety.

I'm sure money is an issue in developing this portion of the path. When is money ever not an issue? But it would make a lot of sense, both in terms of liability lawsuits and infrastructure costs, just to continue the path eastward, underneath Dodge Boulevard. The City does this at Campbell Ave, Alvernon Way, and Swan Ave. Taking the path underneath Dodge too, would insulate it from city traffic entirely, allowing the route to be even more family/bicycle/pedestrian friendly.

On the off chance a City of Tucson acolyte stumbles across this post, consider this paragraph a formal Planning and Development request. You can name it the "Pax Plena, Rillito River Family/Bike/Pedestrian Underpass." No royalties necesary.

Shortly after Dodge, but before Swan, the path descends into the riverbed itself. Most of the path runs along the erstwhile bank of the river, so riding in the actual riverbed is an interesting experience. It's a bit like taking a trek through the wilderness, armed with knowledge that the wilderness has a fixed end point in less than a mile.

Once the path descends, portions of the route, roughly 75 yards or so, look like this.

To state the obvious, the road is almost entirely covered with silt, carried along by the annual monsoons rains that create a sporadic water flow in the river during the summer months. Even this section of the route really isn't that bad. My road bike navigated this part of the path just fine, but it can look deceptively treacherous on the first bike ride or two.

Soon, the path climbs out of the riverbed, as you approach Craycroft. I was excited to see some storm clouds in the distance.

Shortly, my excitement waned, as the clouds darkened, making me regret that I had both left my rain slicker at home, and that I didn't spring for tire fenders on my trusty steed. Naturally, I didn't like my odds in a race against the weather. My fears were unfounded though. My wife works at Tucson Medical Center, and by the time I pulled up from the River Path at Craycroft, there was an inexplicable break in the clouds. I sidled up to my favorite bench, just as the wife got off of work, and picked me up.

In all, the River Bike Path struck me as an excellent way for new riders to get used to riding in the city. It's not a very taxing route spare a couple of steep, paved inclines.

Lest anyone be fooled, not all of Tucson's streets, are as accommodating as the River Path. But what makes it good for new riders is that it's a nice, mostly safe way to get used to biking in general without having to worry about the odd motorist and their temperament on any given day. It also boasts some great views of the city.

What Makes a Novel Good?

2011-07-09T15:45:00.001-07:00

I have to confess a slight embarrassment at posting this review. Henning Mankell's latest bestseller The Man from Beijing is exactly the kind of book I try to avoid for want of substance, and deeper meaning.

But, as my third cup of coffee vanishes, I realize this reaction is little more than me being a pretentious asshole, which is also something I try to avoid for want of substance and deeper meaning.

Still, the nagging questions remain. What actually makes a book good? Why is one person's writing any better than the next? Is there something intrinsically better about Dostoyevsky, Tolstoy, and Hemingway that allows us to call them by their surname rather than the likes of mere best-selling authors such as Henning Mankell, Elizabeth Kostova, and Ken Follett?

I don't fancy myself to be an expert on the matter having written all of zero books. But I think I have learned some things about writing after pecking away at this blog for some seven years now. Whatever ability I have to assess writing, however limited it may be, I learned courtesy of three, torturous years of law school.

After finishing up college, my writing ability was stuck in the creative morass of academia. My sentences were overly formal, weighted down by big words, and complex paragraphs. And in all honesty, my writing then was about as interesting to read as the first third of War and Peace.

But in law school, I was introduced to a completely different approach to writing, one that emphasized minimalism, and utility, as opposed to ostentatiousness and theory. The basic idea of my 1L legal writing class was to choose each word carefully when describing facts, and keep everything else as succinct as possible. I never made law review, but I excelled in Legal Writing, and its successive course, Persuasive Communication. I even like to think the quality of writing here at the blog has also improved as a result.

What I learned about good legal writing in law school has largely informed my ideas of what makes for good writing in general. Describe the facts well. Keep everything else brief. I don't need paragraphs of description to be sucked into the story. I don't need dissertations of explanation to explore the deeper themes of a novel. Just get to the point, and I'll follow along.

Getting back to Mankell's book, I doubt he ever took a course in legal writing, but his descriptions are detailed, and he keeps everything else simple. The first sentence of the novel, for example, reads:

Frozen snow, severe frost. Midwinter. (p.3).

This is far from earth-shattering prose (aka, writing). But it communicates to the reader the most important point. It's pretty damn cold in Sweden.

And from there, Mankell unfolds the story like a head of garlic. Layer by layer, clove by clove, until the various segments of the novel come together and form a delicious whole. Readers can't help but become invested in the characters, whether skulking down the streets of London, or sipping tea in a Copenhagen cafe.

I'm not saying The Man from Beijing will go down in the annals of literary greatness. It's a mystery novel based upon a terrible crime in a rural, Swedish village. Its scope is limited. The story is its own end.

But Mankell does what good writers should do. He draws readers into an eminently readable story. He keeps readers in suspense. He makes reading fun.

Quiet Friday Nights

2011-07-08T22:04:00.001-07:00

The summer months and I have a complicated, love-hate relationship.

During the school year, I long for some quiet hours of r&r to catch up on some reading, get in a bit more exercise, and generally take time to think. If only I thought half as much as I spoke, what a different world of mine this would be.

Surprisingly, during this summer, I have had all of the above in abundance. My days are long and quiet. I have an excellent space in which to work. And yet, I still spend my time wondering how much more productive I would be in a different situation.

I would chalk up my perpetual unease to living in a "Twilight Zone" of sorts, except that just last week physicists all but proved that we do not live in one.

This is good news really, but not all that good for my pseudo-existentialism. What's next? Worsening unemployment? America shutting down the space program? Lost tribes still in the Amazon? Casey Anthony acquitted of murder? It's all more than my wine-drenched nerves can take.

In truth, my Friday night isn't all that bad. I adore the Pooch in the picture above. The wine isn't bad either, given the $4 I paid for it at Trader Joe's. And the book by Henning Mankell is actually pretty good - a bit heavy on its theme of China as hegemon, but not bad. Even so, in the quiet of the evening, I can't help but wonder if there's more to it all than this.

As if in response to my malaise, I ambled across some life advice tonight from a 97-year-old, Japanese physician. I love the interweb.

According to Dr. Shigeaki Hinohara, the secret to a long, fulfilling life really boils down to 10 or so key points:

Don't tire the body with too many rules.
Don't let yourself go, and become overweight.
Plan ahead.
Don't retire.
Share your knowledge.
Take the stairs. Carry your own stuff.
Forget pain by having fun.
Don't get caught up in materialism.
Life is unpredictable. Get used to it.
Find a role model.
[Link]

I think his points are right on balance. I make it a point not to tire my body with too many rules - which is why I consider pizza to be a healthy meal, and why I take it to heart that it's five o'clock somewhere. I also strongly agree with point two. God knows breasts don't belong on men. And I make it a point of personal privilege to lug all my stuff up the stairs of our apartment, per point six, particularly since it wouldn't get up there any other way.

The only point of the venerable Dr. Hinohara that I take issue with is point eight, or getting caught up in materialism. The Ralph Lauren penny loafers that graced this page last week are really too sweet to pass up, and if that makes me materialistic, then so be it.

What surprises me most about the good Doc's advice is that it aligns so well with the recent advice of one of my favorite bloggers, the always, yet never urbane, Penelope Trunk.

For those with a life outside the internets, Ms. Trunk has probably been fired from more jobs than she cares to admit. Yet she has a clear knack for reinventing herself, to the point that she has positioned herself as a six-figure blogger, writer, and entrepreneur, all after getting fired from her last job with Yahoo. In the mean time, she has managed to get married, have a kid, get divorced, get re-married, and run her latest empire from the wilds of Wisconsin. Her site boasts that her columns run in some 200 newspapers across the country, and she has repeatedly turned down book deals for her life's story. Book deals! Sigh. Don't get me wrong. I like my self-funded, slice of the web. But it isn't exactly on par with 200 paying newspapers.

Anyway, Trunk's latest advice is really a spin on Dr. Hinohara's point three. He says to plan ahead. She says, create a routine.

Given that you can't really have a routine without planning ahead, I think the pitfall of my summer is rather obvious: I simply didn't plan a routine for these few months. And as a result, I spend some Friday nights home alone with the dog, while my lovely wife spends a night on the town with co-workers.

Maybe there is justice in the world after all.

I Hate It When This Happens...

2011-07-08T12:15:00.001-07:00

Why I Love America

2011-07-04T15:24:00.001-07:00

A prominent Native American law blog I follow posted a tongue-in-cheek message to Americans celebrating the Fourth of July. The headline declared:

Happy Fourth from the Merciless Indian Savages
[Link]

For the confused, the headlined referenced a brief passage from the Declaration of Independence, listing the offenses of King George III. The excerpt appears in full below:

He has excited domestic insurrections amongst us, and has endeavoured to bring on the inhabitants of our frontiers, the merciless Indian Savages, whose known rule of warfare, is an undistinguished destruction of all ages, sexes and conditions.

It's true that the United States has had a violent relationship with American Indians. From an abject policy of destruction and relocation hailing from the early years of the Jackson Administration, to a policy of systemic termination of tribal governments, I suppose if any group in America has a grievance against the government we celebrate today, it would be my people, the Native Americans.

The point is not to measure effronteries, but I can understand the purpose in the making the statement. The simple fact is that America is neither a perfect angel, nor an evil villain as the social extremes would suggest.

The best description we can give America is that we are a wonderful, complicated, dysfunctional family.

Think about our family tree. We have Bible-beating aunts from the midwest. We have uncles that drink too much from the south. We have mothers and fathers who don't speak to each other anymore (but refuse to divorce for tax reasons) in the northeast. And we have lazy cousins who would rather be professional students than get a real job from the west.

But even the most dysfunctional of families has to come together every now and again.

So, we have an annual probate meeting to discuss the estate of our late Uncle Sam. Each family sends its delegates to the meeting down in Washington, D.C. where they take in the sights, and pretend to be very busy. Being a family meeting, however, you can imagine how little they actually get done. In fact, they spend most of their time yelling at each other, drinking, and having the odd sex scandal. The end result is the occasional bastard child, and the need for years of therapy.

But sometimes we really do come together, and get important, things, done. This doesn't happen often, but it does happen on occasion. And when it does happen, we're a stronger family for it. That is until the next time Uncle John gets drunk watching Nascar, and mocks Cousin James for his vegan lifestyle in San Francisco. Then we have a family World War III and Grandma and Grandpa have to step in and settle things down.

And that's why I love America really. We behave just like a family, only on a bigger scale. And even while we may loathe our cousins for being self-righteous, at the end of the day, we would miss them if they weren't around anymore.

America's greatness isn't the moral high-ground we sometimes claim. And our weakness isn't that we drive trucks instead of hybrids. America's greatness is that we manage, somehow, to get along. Mostly.

Remembering Hemingway: Fifty Years Later

2011-07-02T18:26:00.001-07:00

Fifty years ago today, legendary author Ernest Hemingway committed suicide in a quiet, central-Idaho hamlet. The incident marked an all but perfunctory end to a most remarkable life.

Hemingway's memoirs from Paris, for example, published posthumously in 1964, present tales of a poor, American ex-pat living in the City of Light, calling upon historical luminaries such as Gertrude Stein (p.11), Sylvia Beach (p.35), and F. Scott Fitzgerald (p.179).

Assuming elbow rubbing with people of consequence is not enough to actually make one interesting, Hemingway also fought in both world wars, fished for Marlin in the Caribbean, and hunted grizzly bear in Wyoming. He famously survived one plane crash, three divorces, and still managed to produce seven novels during his lifetime.

Suffice it to say, Hemingway's life was enough to make the Dos Equis man look passé. Stay thirsty my friends.

But the most compelling thing about Hemingway's memories of Paris, and indeed of his writing generally, was his ability to recount the mundane. At the end of A Movable Feast, Hemingway paid a final tribute to his favorite city. What follows is the final paragraph of the book in full:

There is never any ending to Paris and the memory of each person who has lived in it differs from that of any other. We always returned to it no matter who we were or how it was changed or with what difficulties, or ease, it could be reached. Paris was always worth it and you received return for whatever you brought to it. But this is how Paris was in the early days when we were very poor and very happy. (p.211)

To observe the anniversary of Hemingway's death, Wired.com ran a piece by author Marty Beckerman, exploring what Hemingway would think of our digital age.

Unsurprisingly, Beckerman's take is that Hemingway would not think much of the world we've created.

Today, many of us have become rich in the currency of cowardice. We have so many things and so few experiences. We are desperate to live as long as possible, not as large as possible. We are so afraid to say goodbye to the world that we never say hello.
We are numbed in our high-def, Wi-Fi cocoons, eager for materialistic possessions — the newest, fastest, shiniest gadgets — instead of a fitting end to a life well-lived. If Papa hadn’t killed himself out of despair in 1961, he would kill himself out of disgust today.
[Link]

The article is intentionally jarring, and outlandishly funny. But it's also true.

Whether due to our technological prowess, or our penchant for comfort, mankind as a lot really isn't as interesting as our forbearers. Beckerman mocks our affinity for Twitter, and Facebook, but it's a sad fact that much of my day is spent checking both sites and wondering who is doing the same of mine.

Beckerman's solution is to power down the gadgets and get back to the serious business of life - such as stalking prey across the Serengeti, and having real affairs as opposed to digital ones (here's looking at you Anthony Weiner).

Aside from the affairs, I'm not sure Beckerman is all that off in his prescription. Life is worth living because of the experiences we create. Given its brevity, there really isn't anything to be gained by playing it safe at every turn.

And so, in honor of a man who truly lived, here's a broad bit of encouragement: do it your way.

Ask your crush to coffee. Go for the job with the corner office. Finish the novel. Go back to school. Take the vacation you've been planning. Email your long-lost friend. Adopt a Pit Bull. Spring for the nice bottle of Scotch.

And, above all, never, ever drink cheap wine.

Hemingway wouldn't have it any other way.

Lolcat of the Week 2

2011-07-01T12:09:00.001-07:00

And just because it's a miserable Friday here in Tucson, here's yet another Lolcat of the Week to get your weekend off to a good start.

You will doubtless be pleased to know that, in many ways, this is a really a Super Lolcat of the Week (á la Stephen Colbert's Super Pac) because it details the entire history of the Lolcats.

Enjoy!

Note: This graphic was designed by Lorena O'Neal, you can check out more of her work here.

Source: onlineeducation.org

I Need a Vacation

2011-07-01T11:44:00.001-07:00

With the 4th of July nigh upon us, and given that every, single day in Tucson during the month of July is forecasted to have 100+ degree temps, one thing is clear:

I need a vacation.

Note: This graphic was designed by Lorena O'Neal, you can check out more of her work here.

Source:Online Classes

Obama 2012: Dead in the Water?

2011-06-29T16:25:00.001-07:00

The National Journal ran a damning analytical piece explaining why President Obama's reelection prospects are growing increasingly dim.

The reason isn't a mystery: as Democrats are fond of saying, 'it's the economy stupid.'

Song of the Week: Free the Toronto Nine

2011-06-29T05:00:00.000-07:00

This latest song of the week is an unusual one, brought to you courtesy of the Sylvan Street jazz band, titled Free the Toronto Nine.

The song is unusual in that I really don't know much about the Sylvan Street jazz band, and I honestly have no idea who the Toronto Nine are much less any idea as to why they need to be freed. I suppose the title could be a vague reference to the nine people who attended the Toronto Blue Jays' last home game, in which case all nine need to be set free, indeed.

Obscure titles aside (is there really any other kind of title for the songs found in jazz albums), I'll be damned if the music video of the song doesn't make Tucson seem like a pretty hip place to live. The vid was shot in a number of locations around town, and does a striking job of making Tucson seem like, well, a real city.

Enjoy!

FYI: Huntsman Likes Tacos

2011-06-28T16:02:00.001-07:00

I'm not sure that the video below has any political import at all, so it's probably categorized under "politics."

But its message is clear: Jon Huntsman likes tacos.

And I do too. Particularly, from this place.

(Via Esquire Magazine).

Lolcat of the Week

2011-06-28T05:00:00.000-07:00

With the dog days of summer in full swing here in Tucson, the lolcat of the week below more or less sums up my attitude toward law at this point.

On the other hand, I still have another year to go in my legal education, so maybe I need to change my tune. I'll chalk it up to the 100+ degree weather we've had the past two weeks making me cranky. Enjoy!

see more Lolcats and funny pictures, and check out our Socially Awkward Penguin lolz!

A Tale of Two Huntsmans

2011-06-27T05:00:00.000-07:00

Perhaps the Wall Street Journal said it best. "No Republican candidate stirs more curiosity than Jon Huntsman."

As if to make the statement a truism, Politico ran two interesting companion pieces over the weekend, aimed at sussing out the strengths and weaknesses of GOP Presidential candidate Jon Huntsman.

The first piece is titled Jon Huntsman Fever: Catch It Here by Charles Mahtesian. The second piece is titled Buzzkill: The Problem with Jon Huntsman Hype by Mike Allen and Jim VandeHei.

Both are interesting reads, but I've taken the liberty of summarizing the highlights for you below.

Strengths

American politics is wildly unstable right now. Voters want a clear vision for the future of the country that Huntsman can provide.

Huntsman is an unconventional candidate that rises above politics, poised to run during an unconventional election cycle.

Huntsman's personal narrative is compelling - á la Barack Obama circa. 2008.

Finally, "Huntsman also has all the hallmarks of a serious candidate." (e.g, "Money, telegenic looks, a solid grasp of the issues, a track record of political success and an ability to articulate a message.")

[Link]

Weaknesses

Huntsman has the wrong issues for the wrong party. Some of Huntman's policy positions just don't square with Republican voters (e.g., civil unions, and climate change).

Huntsman has the wrong persona for the wrong party. The GOP base is flat angry, and it "wants a brawler."

Huntman's tour of duty as ambassador to China under Obama is "all-but-disqualifying."

He may not have the chops to make it through the primary and general elections.

[Link]

Both articles did a nice job of framing Huntsman's plight, but neither article went much into substance. This is fairly rare, but for those looking for policy analysis, the Politico articles do not deliver. Contrast this with last week's Daily Caller article that rooted Huntsman's entire candidacy in his record of fiscal conservatism, and you get the sense that Politico missed a real opportunity here.

But insofar as superficialities are compelling to the American electorate - and they obviously are given the election of Barack Obama - it strikes me that neither piece got at the real core of Huntsman's problem: it's just plain hard to make reasonableness interesting.

The problem is not unique to Huntsman. To a lesser extent, this is Tim Pawlenty's problem as well, and Mitt Romney's too, although less so. All three have records as Governors of working across the aisle, and building governing coalitions that include members of the other party. In a country as divided as ours, this just makes sense. It's what any level-headed, goal-oriented administrator would do.

But as the Allen/VandeHei article explains, in a GOP primary field that includes firebrands like Michelle Bachmann, Sarah Palin, and possibly Rick Perry, the GOP base is more likely to get fired up by red meat than salmon, even if the latter is healthier for the party in the long run.

Huntsman will undoubtedly come across as a reasonable guy, with reasonable policy positions, but how will such views be received when other candidates want to solve our illegal immigration problem by building a Great Wall of China, and a moat with alligators along the U.S.-Mexico border?

Yet, as disaffected political acolyte, I cannot help but think that Huntsman is the future of the GOP. His positions resonate with younger voters far better than anyone else. And his promise of civility is sorely needed in a political climate that quite nearly welcomed Donald Trump to the field as a serious political candidate.

It's a long road to November 2012, but I honestly hope that the first Huntsman tale proves to be correct.

The History of the Penny Loafer

2011-06-25T20:22:00.001-07:00

I've never been a fashionista/o per se. My sense of fashion until college, embarrassingly, consisted of the latest, back-to-school specials from J.C. Penny's and Wal-Mart.

But over time, one acquires an appreciation for how the other half lives. And, alas, my time at Dartmouth more than imparted to me an appreciation for East Coast fashion trends.

Enter my fascination with Ralph Lauren's History of the Penny Loafer which conveniently crossed my path while searching "Ralph Lauren Baby." (Don't ask).

According to the company's website:

Considered the official footwear of the preppy lifestyle, the penny loafer has earned its place in history along with the cotton chino, the oxford shirt and the navy blazer as an American wardrobe essential that's timeless, stylish and appropriate for any occasion.
More than a century ago, Norwegian farmers first slipped on these styles—defined by the strap across the toe with a tab for the coin—to tend to their cows who were "loafing" out at pasture.
[Link]

Funny that what was once the footwear of the peasant has since become the 'official footwear of the preppy lifestyle.' Then again, I suppose this is true of a lot of things.

Harlem in NYC was once the stomping grounds of crack dealers and gangs. Today, it's the poster-child for urban gentrification. Cycling was once the endeavor of those who could not afford a car. Today, it's the pastime of wealthy men. And even Apple Computers, which was once a company in turmoil, has since become the computer of choice for the sophisticated and urbane .

Anyway, there's no greater point to distill from the piece than its interesting history. But I suppose the next time I fire up my MacBook Air in Harlem after locking up my bike, I will double-check to make sure that I have donned my penny loafers for the afternoon.

And after that, I will promptly flagellate myself for having become an empty cliché, masquerading as a person.

On the other hand, the Ralph Lauren penny loafers above are pretty sweet...

Things To Do at DFW Airport

2011-06-22T12:49:00.001-07:00

The video below is a bit cold on the wires now, but two passengers, stranded in DFW airport, created a hilarious video of their unexpected stay in Big D. Fortunately for you, the two posted their night full of mischief on YouTube.

Highlights of the video include wheelchair racing down the terminal, having a beer in an empty restaurant (without paying, of course), and 'planking' the airport escalators.

The video appears in full below. How they got away with it can be found here. And if you try to pull off their crazy shenanigans, you didn't learn about their stunts here.

Huntsman's Campaign Rollout

2011-06-21T07:50:00.001-07:00

I quite nearly slept through former Utah Governor Jon Huntsman's campaign rollout this morning. The event was slated for 10AM Eastern time, with an actual start time of just after 7AM here in Tucson.

The location of the announcement was obviously well-planned. The iconic Liberty Island loomed in the background of New York Harbor, signaling the start of a would-be historic campaign. Regardless of its ultimate success, the site was an upgraded campaign platform over the eminently forgettable farms of New Hampshire.

The speech itself hit all the right notes, cutting a broad swath of economic issues, ranging from manufacturing, to trade, to jobs. It also addressed the growing unease with the American political process itself, stressing the need for civility in public discourse. Most importantly, Gov. Huntsman's speech framed an optimistic vision for blunting the tide of American decline, and the delivery was earnest.

As a technophile, the thing that impressed me most (aside from substance), was the speech's on-line rollout. Huntsman deftly released a series of teaser videos (see here, here, here, and here) a full six days before the announcement, and then carried the speech from the Statute of Liberty streaming live online, with a bevy of Twitter and Facebook links to get people immersed in the campaign's social media.

Below is the video from the event, as released by the campaign, literally, within minutes of the speech's conclusion.

In all, not a bad launch.

Watch live streaming video from jon2012 at livestream.com

Small Things

2011-06-20T12:50:00.001-07:00

I seldom write about my morning Bible readings. I attribute this mostly to the fact that they happen so infrequently. Even so, I am slowly plodding along through the Bible, and my latest reading provided a couple of thoughts that are worth sharing.

My present biblical sojourn in the wilderness of 1 Chronicles, veritable lightyears away from civilization and the Gospels. Nevertheless, in the chapters preceding chapter 17, King David has, more or less, consolidated his claim to the throne of Israel. He has newly appointed 'men of war' to manage his armies. And he has just brought the ark of God to the capital city, Jerusalem.

Having completed these tremendous feats of governance and piety, God opts to renew his covenant with, now, King David. Through a vision of the prophet Nathan, God says to David:

I took you from the pasture, from following to sheep, to be prince over my people Israel, and I have been with you wherever you have gone and have cut off all your enemies from before you.
And I will make for you a name, like the name of the great ones of the earth.
1 Chronicles 17.7-8

In response to the message, David reflects on his life, contrasting the magnitude of his blessing, with the magnitude of God's power:

Who am I, O Lord God, and what is my house, that you have brought me thus far?
And this was a small thing in your eyes, O God.
I Chronicles 17.16-17

I found two things especially interesting about the passage.

First, it's difficult to divine the big picture of life based upon where in life you are now. At one point in life, David was milling about the fields, tending sheep. Much later in his life, he lived in a palace as the newly minted King.

I suspect if you asked David about his life's prospects when he was tending sheep, his ambitions may have included ways to be a more efficient shepherd, or maybe designs to build his family's agricultural business. His thinking would have been confined to his present circumstance. He simply could not have imagined that he would one day be the leader of his countrymen.

As a point of application, being but a lowly student today, I cannot begin to imagine what my life's panorama will look like when I am old.

Second, the magnitude God's blessing will always be a small thing against the backdrop of eternity and the infinite. In David's life, God concocted a rags to riches story that would make Donald Trump himself smile. As a shepherd, David could not have been more removed from the corridors of power and influence in the early Jewish state. Yet, David rose to prominence through God's blessing, and eventually came to command armies, and govern his people.

While the story is remarkable, David remarks that all of the things God did is a small feat, relative to the awesome power of God.

The reminder is an important one. On my bike rides around town, I get to enjoy God's creative handiwork, and its manifestations both in nature, and human ingenuity. Lizards darting across the path, and the craggy escarpments of the Catalina Mountains remind me that God's creative faculties apply equally to the majestic and the intricate. The Mountain bike path, and the cold facade of the U of A library remind me that we humans possess a similar creative aptitude - though not one nearly so great as God's given the architecture here in Tucson. Yet, all of these are small things relative to the expanse and scope of the universe - which utterly bespeaks a world without end.

I don't know what my life will hold. But I suspect I would do well to pray for God's blessing over the small things

A Bike Ride to Visit My Friend

2011-06-16T15:32:00.001-07:00

I've been riding with relative consistency for about three weeks now. The time seemed right to post the bulk of my route on MapMyRide.

(By way of critique, the app itself works well, but I find that after a quick, thirty-minute ride, my iPhone is actually hot to the touch. Suffice it to say, I probably won't be using it much in the future - that is until its programmers figure out a way for it to use less of my battery, and not cook my rubber case.)

The video below was taken from a route to visit my buddy Ben who lives two miles north of the University of Arizona campus. The trek includes most of my usual route to the University - minus two miles. The video will show me turn off a bit early to get to his place.

In all, it's really not a terrible route. But what makes it troublesome is the section passing through the Catalina Foothills - an area of town that, while nice, has some of the worst roads in Tucson.

As you can see in the photos below, there are sections of the stretch that are fine, spare the odd rock, and cactus thistle.

But there are also sections with massive potholes like the one below, lying in wait, eager to catch the wayward cyclist unawares.

Then, there are whole stretches of road like this where the road has buckled from the Arizona heat and traffic, making for an inordinately bump ride relative to the rest of the city.

Eventually, my path ends at River Road, unceremoniously dead-ending in a retirement community/low rent apartment complex.

Being the law abiding citizen that I am, I walk my bike, less than twenty yards from the stoplight to the River Bike Path.

The photo below of the bike path is a bit dated. It now has yellow striping, that mark off two lanes for traffic. But as you can see, it's a top-notch path that makes for a quick ride to Mountain Ave.

Along the path, there is a bicycle, and pedestrian foot bridge spanning the width of the long-dry Rillito River. It's a fine bridge, surely no more than a couple of years old. Naturally, it's also a stunning example how heavily the City of Tucson has in invested in its bicycle infrastructure.

Eventually, the path winds around and connects with Mountain Ave.

After a block or two, Mountain Ave. widens, and boasts a massive bike lane for three miles or so, until the street terminates at the University of Arizona campus.

I realize I've posted a lot of pictures to communicate the perils of a mostly benign, seven-mile bike route. But I think the photos above demonstrate how varied the roads are in Tucson for would-be cyclists, while also highlighting how earnestly the City of Tucson has invested in its bicycle infrastructure.

The City has obviously done some things well, and they deserve credit for stubbornly investing in bicycle infrastructure during a period of budgetary austerity. Of course, there is a lot more to be done - particularly in the northern half of the city where many cyclists ride.

Presidential Rumblings: Jon Huntsman

2011-06-15T13:05:00.001-07:00

I've bitterly complained to anyone who will listen that I do not have a horse in the 2012 GOP Presidential Primary. But one unannounced candidate that has kept my attention is former Utah Governor Jon Huntsman.

Huntsman has already been ridiculed for being a moderate (see here, here, and, not really, but kinda, here), and only a couple of months ago the criticism was so withering that Yours Truly even dubbed his campaign 'dead'.

Of course, in politics, you are only dead if you tweet lewd photos of your "No-Nos" to random Twitter followers, and, really, even that isn't enough to do you in (Here's looking at you Anthony Weiner).

Fast forward from my premature obituary, and the brouhaha surrounding Huntsman's friendly communiques to Obama seems to have largely subsided.

In the span of time since my political death knell, the man has corralled a number of big-time donors, and committed some of his considerable financial assets toward a nascent campaign for President.

Judging from this newly released campaign video, Huntsman is set to announce his Presidential bid in six days. Be warned, the video is utterly void of substance, but it has a nice fiddle track playing in the background and who can fault intro music like that.

What makes Huntsman even more compelling than his obvious ability to handle a dirt bike is his willingness to embrace a wide range of issues. He wields an obvious commitment to life as he discussed the adoption of his daughter at the FFC Conference last month:

But he has also called for bipartisan solutions to national problems. The most famous example of this was his speech at the University of South Carolina back in May.

In all, as my friend aptly summed up, Huntsman would be a formidable candidate in the general election - if only he could somehow manage to eke out a win in the GOP Primary. If only...

Dartmouth Commencement Address: Conan O'Brien

2011-06-13T12:21:00.001-07:00

Cable TV host Conan O'Brien delivered the commencement address at Dartmouth over the weekend.

Naturally, it was pretty damn funny.

Watch it. All of it.

Japanese Kids Love Sponge Bob

2011-06-10T01:13:00.001-07:00

There's no real reason for posting this, except that it's awesome. I would call it your "Friday Funny," but that would imply a new series and we all know how bad I am at keeping up those.

Anyway, the commercial below is for Japanese McDonalds, and shows a group of kids going absolutely nuts when the Sponge Bob straw in their Happy Meal talks.

Oh, to be young again...

Monday Wisdom

2011-06-06T12:15:00.001-07:00

In my Google Reader scroll, I often read a Christian blog Fractured Saints.

While there was a time when I would read such works to reinforce my own opinions, these days, I read it mostly to regain a bit of the 'evangelical' perspective that I seem to be slowly losing overtime.

Today, the blog came through in a surprising way, offering a bit of wisdom that I could not have expected. Below is the post in full.

Overwhelming Provisions
If your reading this, your in the same boat I am. Your sitting in front of a computer somewhere, staring at the screen, reading a Christian blog. So you have computer and internet access, the freedom to read Christian blogs, and the time to site down and read it.
I often forget how well off I am. I focus on what I don’t have instead of what I have. It’s a futile and exhausting effort. So today my challenge is, when we get that overwhelming desire for that new gadget, gizmo, or piece of status, look at all the things we have and read Mark 8:36.
For what does it profit a man to gain the whole world and forfeit his soul?
[Link]

I don't necessarily impute the author's point to new gadgets, etc. But it is rather a nice reminder that no matter what the situation, I actually am doing, ok. This is difficult to remember sometimes.

The vast majority of my ambition is about pursuing the next rung on a ladder that never ends. With this mindset, before too long, life becomes more about the ladder and less about the purpose behind the pursuits.

My life would be much less stressful if I could learn to be content exactly where I am.

Old Idea: Cloud Computing

2011-06-04T17:39:00.001-07:00

Apple is set to unveil its new cloud service sometime on Monday when Apple CEO Steve Jobs delivers the keynote address at the World Wide Developers Conference 2011.

While many have heralded the cloud service as the next great technological innovation, in reality the cloud is little more than an advanced version of a company intranet, or an inter-office server - granted one that can potentially service the entire planet.

Make no mistake, though, this is not a new idea. It's a new manifestation of an idea, but even the folks at MacStories have video of Steve Jobs talking about the same technology nearly fourteen years ago at the WWDC in 1997.

What is fascinating about the video is the passion Jobs brings while he articulates a vision for cloud computing that is finally coming to fruition after after all these years.

I don't know how successful the iCloud service will be. But you have to admire Jobs's vision and persistence. Video follows after the jump.

The pertinent segment of the clip begins at the 13:12 mark.

The Most Overrated College Football Program in the Country

2011-06-03T13:40:00.001-07:00

SI ran a list of the top coaching gigs in College football today.

Despite having won only four national titles, and having produced a mere two Heisman Trophy winners, the University of Texas was still dubbed the most desirable college football program in the land.

[Link]

Given how Texas's numbers stack up to the rest of the top 20, it's pretty clear that Texas is not only the most overrated program in the country, but also one of the few top programs that consistently underperforms.

Just ask Colt McCoy how many championships he won.

(For more, see UT Longhorns Football, circa. 2010, and their 5-7 record.)

Making the Case for Mitt

2011-06-02T15:08:00.001-07:00

I've long prided myself on a personal opposition to Mitt Romney's candidacy. In fact, during the 2008 primary, I made it a point of personal pride to oppose Mitt at every turn. See here, here, here, here, here, here, and especially here, as a small sampling. Imagine my surprise at penning the headline of this post.

But with my man Huckabee out of the race, no real cream rising to the top of the GOP field, Jason Alexander's blessing and today's announcement of his campaign for President, this afternoon seemed like the perfect opportunity to reconsider Mitt Romney's candidacy.

(See Mitt's campaign kickoff speech here. It's a bit hokey, but not bad on balance.)

Fortunately, Mark McKinnon's article in yesterday's Daily Beast provided just the second look I needed. In fact, despite having been a former McCain advisor, McKinnon's piece actually makes a pretty, damn good case for Mitt winning the GOP nomination:

Mitt Romney is a businessman, a turnaround artist, a CEO. That is who he is. The former governor has experience in the public and private sector. He uniquely understands the economy of both worlds. And that is what makes him different than President Obama. To wear a tie is not to adopt some pseudo-sartorial persona à la Naomi "Al-you-must-wear-earth-tones" Wolf; to wear a tie is a statement of his strength as a CEO, a reminder to voters stressed by the nation's economic sclerosis.
Brought in as CEO to rescue the financially and ethically bankrupt 2002 Salt Lake City Olympics, Romney turned the organization's $379 million deficit into a $100 million profit. As CEO of Bain Capital, Romney invested in businesses, making venture capital available to fuel innovation and improve profitability. And as CEO of Massachusetts, Gov. Romney streamlined the executive branch, consolidated agencies, and closed corporate tax loopholes to help address a $3 billion inherited budget deficit.
[Link]

Given the state of the economy, Drudge's alarms that we're entering the next great depression (let not your hearts be troubled, we aren't), and Obama's penchant for being long on locution and short on solutions, I can see where a candidate with strong economic bona fides would play well in most parts of the country.

When I further consider that President Obama wouldn't know a balanced budget from the price of arugula, well, it's almost enough to make me call up Mitt's Tucson office to get on board - if only he had one.

Flat Tired

2011-06-01T11:11:00.001-07:00

I was going about my typical routine this morning en route to the U of A library where I have taken up my post for the summer as a research fellow for my professor.

Sometime after I crossed Fort Lowell my trusty front tire suddenly, inexplicably went flat. It couldn't have come at a worse time (as if flat tires ever come at a good time).

When the wheel went flat, I was more concerned about whether my newly-installed, bike rack would collapse under the weight of my newly-purchased Timbuk 2 panniers. I was especially concerned about my panniers falling off since I installed the rack myself. My mechanical abilities rate somewhere around the talent level of Congressman Anthony Weiner's photography skills. Given the trouble he's in, I might actually be a more skilled mechanic.

Anyway, my first reaction was to panic. My mind immediately harkened back to the time I pathetically tried to change a flat tire on my pick-up somewhere in West Texas. After an hour of fooling around with Chevy's poor excuse for a car jack, the damn truck rolled off the jack and on to the ground. I was utterly mortified when the repair truck arrived and replaced the tire in under 15 minutes. If incompetence had a name that day, it was me.

This time, however, I was prepared for the happenstance. It was easy enough to get the front tire off since it was as flat as a pancake. But getting the tire off the wheel was a real bitch. Fortunately, I had plenty of tools and was actually well prepared to change the flat.

The back story is that when I first elected to take up riding, my good friend Ben insisted that I go to a bike store, and purchase an ungodly amount of supplies that I was sure I would never need. I ridiculed Ben mercilessly for making me waste my money on $ 4, Spin Doctor Tire levelers, and a pricey, mini-CO2 pump.

Today, I learned that I needed every single tool I bought, lo, so many weeks ago, right down to the tire levelers. Ben also patiently walked me through how to actually change a flat so I wasn't totally in the dark when the big day came.

I think I owe someone a beer.

The above photo was really all I had to work with, and it was absolutely all I needed - although I'll need a new tube since my spare is now on my tire.

This was the finished product. As you can see, Good as new.

In all, the flat set me back on about a half-hour on my commute. But I managed to arrive in plenty of time, and I had a new experience while biking.

I should also be quick to add how helpful my fellow cyclists were as they passed me going down Mountain. True, Mountain probably the most heavily-biked street in Tucson, Still, no less than two cyclists actually stopped to ask if I needed help, while many others slowed down to check on me before carrying on. I needed the experience of changing the flat myself, but it was nice to know that if I were really in a pinch, I could probably count on someone passing by to help me out.

And as corny as it sounds, the next time I pass a bike parked along the sidewalk, I'll probably check and see if they need help. Just in case.

City of Cyclists: Urban Planning, and Bike Infrastructure in Tucson

2011-05-30T15:26:00.001-07:00

After a week of riding under my belt, I've been thinking a lot about urban planning and how Tucson has incorporated bicycle infrastructure into its city design.

The obvious thing that strikes me when I go out for a ride is the amount of money Tucson has invested in its bicycle infrastructure. Tucson has massive bike lanes that run adjacent to Tucson's generally massive car lanes. The generous bike lane makes riding on even the busiest roads somewhat comfortable.

But most of these bike lanes were not remotely on the radar of city pooh-bahs when the City of Tucson was zoned and settled. So, the initial, albeit late, investment in bicycle infrastructure must have been fairly expensive, and somewhat painful.

The image below more or less typifies the bike lanes on major streets in the northern part of Tucson.

*Note: Photo below courtesy of Bruce's Bike Blog.

Sticker shock, notwithstanding, investing in bicycle infrastructure actually makes a lot of sense for urban areas. One practical, and cost-effective solution is to put some of the bloated four-lane roads on a "road diet" by converting them to two-lane roads with a center turn lane, and adding bike lanes on either side. This video explains the process in more detail. For cities in dire financial straits (viz., most cities), the idea is worth considering.

The second thing that strikes me about cycling is the notion of connectivity in urban planning. As you can see in the bike map below (full map available here), Tucson has done a phenomenal job of connecting the city from the east to the west. On the map, Green lanes are specially designated bike routes, or bikes only paths, while pink routes are streets with a shoulder of the road doubling as a bike lane.

Unfortunately, Tucson's connectivity is more or less limited by its east/west orientation. If you look at the map again, you will find very few green routes that run north/south past the Rillito River. If you live in the northern part of the city, there are precious few good options for making the trek southward.

I've managed to mitigate this by bumping along neighborhood routes until I hit the bike paths near the Rillito Race Track Park, but the difference in bicycle infrastructure between the north and south parts of the city are astonishing. As Tucson seeks to grow its bike-riding base, an obvious way to do this is to expand the number of bike routes, and paths running between the northern and southern parts of the city.

One final thing that strikes me about cycling is the demographic subset of people it attracts. Most of the people I pass on my rides around town are either students, avid cyclists, or people from extremely low income brackets. There is relatively little variation day to day.

Outside of lower income riders, those who bike are almost uniformly caucasian, and mostly male.

This makes for an interesting motley of people using Tucson's bike infrastructure, and leaves out an entire demographic of middle-class riders, and women that the city, presumably, wants to attract to riding. Last week, for example, I was riding along the Rillito bike path, and I came up behind a lycra-clad cyclist sporting an expensive Fuji road bike. He dutifully padded along behind a homeless guy on a Mongoose special from Walmart - all while I pedaled behind both of them en route to the school. It was a odd clash of cultures, in a democratizing sort of way. For various reasons, we were simply all enjoying a morning ride.

I think a part of the demographic disparity among riders may be accounted for in my discussion of connectivity above. A better connected system makes for a more used system, and Tucson hasn't made biking a feasible reality for people living in entire pockets of the city, many of whom would fall into the middle and upper middle classes. But really this is only a part of the explanation.

It may also be that there's simply a perception among segments of the population that bike riding is just for recreation, or merely a form of transportation to take if there isn't another one available. Assuming this view is true of a bulk of the city's population, the lot has to fall on cycling advocates and city governments to promote alternative transportation and 'mainstream' it into the transportation system itself.

Interestingly, the Danes have managed to do this quite well in their largest, and capital city Copenhagen. The video below dubs Copenhagen the "City of Cyclists" and from the looks of it, they may well be right. Scores of people, from all walks of life, appear in the clip, using the city's bike infrastructure. Not only is the city well connected, but it has also somehow managed to capture the city's cycling imagination.

I'm not sure that Tucson will ever be like Copehagen (that's probably a good thing), but there are certainly opportunities for the city to make itself more bicycle friendly. It's been a interesting first week of riding.

Copenhagen - City of Cyclists from Copenhagenize on Vimeo.

MapMyRide App in Tucson

2011-05-27T21:05:00.001-07:00

I took a late afternoon bike ride to my wife's office down at the Tucson Medical Center, located at Craycroft and Grant.

Before I left to brave the 100 degree temps here in Tucson, I opted to download the MapMyRide App from the Apple App Store just to test it out. My expectations were fairly low, but at $1.99, I was in 'what-the-hell' mode anyway.

Turns out, not only does the MapMyRide app allow you to accurately keep track of time, mileage, and the like, but it also plays back a 3D video of your trip, and allows you to upload your various routes for future reference.

As a note of caution, make sure your phone is fully charged before you use it. The app uses your iPhone's GPS tracking system to plot your course, but as any AT&T customer knows, GPS will drain your battery life.

If you're phone is insufficiently charged, you may find yourself without a cell phone by the time you reach your destination. For example, my phone was at full charge when I left the house. Some thirty minutes later, it was down to a 50% charge.

Still, it was a good use of a buck, ninety-nine, and proved astonishingly accurate in helping me map my route. Every little turn, every little acceleration, and deceleration that I made was reflected on the final, '3-D video.' Just be mindful for trips of more than a half-hour - you may need to recharge your cell phone, once you've arrived at your destination.

Unrelated, but interestingly enough, my Schwinn, 17-Function bike computer (available on Amazon here) was spot on in recording my route, coming in with less than a 1/10th of a mile difference from the MapMyRide App. At less than $20, it wasn't a bad investment after all - even if stop lights seem to give it fits.

Below is a 3D re-enactment of my trip to TMC this afternoon. The video is courtesy of Google, and optimized for Safair, and Firefox browers with the Google Earth Plugin.

Unlike the Tucson weather, the app is too cool. (Sorry - I can't resist the terrible pun).

<a href="http://www.mapmyride.com/routes/view/35597222" _mce_href="http://www.mapmyride.com/routes/view/35597222">iMapMyRIDE+: May 27, 2011 4:26 PM</a> and more rides in Tucson, AZ on MapMyRIDE. <a href="http://www.mapmyride.com" _mce_href="http://www.mapmyride.com">Find ride</a>

Song of the Week: Bella Notte

2011-05-25T12:28:00.001-07:00

I'm only a bit embarrassed to select the following as my song of the week. Taken from Disney's Lady and the Tramp, and reincarnated this week by the mighty Fox Network's Glee, our song of the week underscores the inner sappiness of yours truly.

Bella Notte first graced audiences ears in the 1955 animated classic Lady and the Tramp. The nostalgic among us may recall the music and the scene where Lady and the Tramp share their first kiss over spaghetti.

Immediately, the music and the image became iconic, setting unrealistic romantic expectations for generations.

Despite, it's rather famous provenance, the song has not enjoyed great commercial success. A part of the song's history is a protracted legal battle in which recording artist Peggy Lee sued Disney over the rights to the song when it began marketing VHS cassettes in the late 80s. It's really a shame. A cover of the song by Dean Martin or Frank Sinatra would have been amazing.

As if to make up for is scant performance history, the song made an appearance recently on the hit show Glee as a part of the series season finale set in New York, New York. The scene in the program tries to capture a similar romantic vignette between the punctilious Rachel Berry and former star quarterback, now glee club member Finn Hudson. For those who care, Rollingstone has a summary of the episode here.

I've only seen two episodes of Glee, but the cast's performance of the song was just terrific. The music is romantic just as a New York evening should be, while the lyrics typify a forthright ode to enchantment itself. Sung by a men's quartet, everything from the harmony to the tempo is perfect about this song. When the performance concluded, I had cold chills. It's just that stunning.

I've embedded the Glee performance of the song below. A music only version can be found here, and here. Lyrics follow after the jump. Enjoy!

Bella Notte
As performed by the Cast of Glee

Oh, this is the night
It's a beautiful night
And we call it bella notte

Look at the skies
They have stars in their eyes
On this lovely bella notte

Side by side with your loved one
You'll find enchantment here

The night will weave it's magic spell
When the one you love is near

Oh this is the night and heavens are right
On this lovely bella notte

This is the night
It's a beautiful night
And they call it bella notte

Look at the skies
They have stars in their eyes
On this lovely belle notte

Side by side with your loved one
You'll find enchantment here

The night will weave it's magic spell
When the one you love is near

Oh this is the night and heavens are right
On this lovely bella notte

First Bike Ride in Tucson

2011-05-23T14:02:00.001-07:00

I just completed my first spin around Tucson on the new bike. Seeing as it's a balmy 93 degrees today with a chance of rain, one might rightly question the wisdom of such a trip.

Most of my morning was spent fighting with the u-lock mount on the Kryptonite lock I bought. Once this was completed, I did battle with the bike computer I picked up to track my stats. The remainder of my morning was spent selecting a route and praying I didn't have a flat.

Interestingly, the challenging part of the route was the straightaway a long Mountain Avenue. For those not from Tucson, the street is a fairly wide boulevard with a huge bike lane on either side. It's also incredibly flat so there was a lot of opportunity for me to build my calf and hamstring muscles, pedaling for some 3.5 miles.

Seeing as the most active thing I've done in months is play Call of Duty, I was naturally pretty exhausted by the time I reached the Student Union.

I didn't have the courage to snap photos along the route, but I did capture a few stills of my stats once I sat down here in the Student Union.They'll be laughable to anyone who is an experienced rider. But given that it was my first ride in Tucson, and given that I had no idea where I was going, it didn't turn out too bad.

I'm alive at any rate. All's well that ends well.The trip took only about twice as long as it would have by car. Door to door, the whole it took me 53 minutes, this presumably includes having to stop twice along the way to consult Google Maps.

My top speed was 19.4 miles per hours. I achieved this feat as I descended a one of the many scary hills in between Skyline and River Road. Only a couple of hills were scary. Mostly, the foothill neighborhoods were just confusing. I may need to rethink this leg of the trip.

The route covered some 8.9 miles from my front door to the bike racks outside the Union. In all, not a bad afternoon. I plan to get some research done now, before making the trek north. I enjoyed the bike's simple functionality, and the fact that I can take a very purposefully trip on it within the time frame it would normally take me otherwise.

The hard part, of course, will be the trip home, which is basically all up hill...

The Zombie Apocalypse

2011-05-20T20:43:00.001-07:00

With some religious fanatics predicting the end of the world tomorrow, the cheeky bastards at the CDC added a set of helpful tips for dealing with the inevitable "Zombie Apocalypse" that follows.

The site reads:

There are all kinds of emergencies out there that we can prepare for. Take a zombie apocalypse for example. That’s right, I said z-o-m-b-i-e a-p-o-c-a-l-y-p-s-e. You may laugh now, but when it happens you’ll be happy you read this, and hey, maybe you’ll even learn a thing or two about how to prepare for a real emergency.

Apparently, the tips were so popular, it crashed the CDC website.

[Link]

Personally, I think this basic list would have been more helpful for dealing with zombies, but I suppose water and non-perishable foods are a good thing to have on hand as well.

Too funny.

When Socialists Embrace Capitalism

2011-05-19T11:38:00.001-07:00

As if you couldn't tell - when a socialist United States Senator gets caught selling a book at corporate behemoth (gasp) Barnes & Noble by a free market crusader, hilarity ensues.

The result is a wonderfully awkward conversation, chock-full of stuttering, pauses, and logically inconsistent backpedaling. Here, the Human Events 'reporter' questions Sen. Sanders about his plans for the book's profits (assuming there are any), and presses him to dedicate his copy of the book to "Capitalism."

To his credit, Sen. Sanders obliged the reporter with a signature to Capitalism, even giving it his 'best wishes'.

Too funny.

Why I Chose to Cycle

2011-05-18T14:13:00.001-07:00

After many weeks of hemming and hawing, I finally decided to take the plunge and give commuting by bicycle a shot.

The move is purely pragmatic, so let not your hearts be troubled. I won't be buying organic or driving a hybrid anytime soon. Neither action will save the planet anyway.

So Why Cycle?

With gasoline, nigh, $4 per gallon, and but a lone pick up truck between me and the wife, cycling seemed like a reasonably inexpensive alternative form of transportation. Whether this proves true is a separate matter. More on this later.

I realize that I'm not alone in this regard. According to USA Today, bike sales are booming across the country, while even the fattest, and laziest among us succumb to the evil that is big oil.

Interestingly, this sales spike translates into only a modest increase in actual cycling. But at least we haven't gone the way of the Brits. One in six of their poor, little prats can't ride a bicycle at all. God bless America.

A second reason I wanted to give cycling the old college try is a matter of simple exercise. After spending the past few weeks on exams, and traveling, it's safe to say I could stand to "get back in shape" - which is really just a polite way of saying that I need to lose some weight.

The problem is that I'm generally not fond of exercise. While I am a thumb warrior on Call of Duty (5th prestige!), my L.A. Fitness membership has gone unused since about November. Being the reasonable chap that I am, I figured if I can incorporate exercise/fitness into my routine, then I might be less inclined to hate it. Enter cycling, and my seven mile commute.

Last, I am curious to see what all the fuss is about. Tucson has dropped a considerable chunk of change on its bicycle infrastructure. But, as Andy Clarke, President of the League of American Bicyclists noted, much of this is used by lycra-clad cyclists, sporting $3,000 bikes. And poor students. Given that my own foray is somewhat by choice (like my lycra-clad friends), and somewhat of necessity (like my colleagues at the U of A), I'm curious to see how friendly Tucson, and its drivers are to cyclists who ride for commuting purposes rather than recreation.

To be sure, I realize the severe weaknesses of this plan.

For starters, this is the hottest time of the year to begin two-wheeling around town. In fact, I have it on good authority that there are coals in hell next to the Devil himself (or herself) that are cooler than Tucson is during July.

Second, I've never done this before. Given that local cyclists have annual "Rides of Silence" for cyclists who have been killed by cars, maybe Tucson isn't the safest place to learn how to commute by bicycle.

Last, I'm not sure that cycling is actually a less expensive way to get around town. At least not so far.

But life is what happens while you're doing something else, and the benefits seem to out weight the costs, so away we go.

My Bike

Readers may recall that I had a lengthy dilemma in deciding whether to bike at all (see here, and here), and ultimately a separate dilemma regarding what bike to buy (see here).

I wanted something that looked vintage and minimalist, that could navigate the hilly terrain near my house, that could handle a 7+ mile commute - all on the budget of a poor graduate student.

After visits to local bike shops, and BICAS, I discovered that the nice bikes were out of my price range, while the rebuilt bikes did not meet my terrain and distance needs.

Brief aside, this is really quite a good argument for some entrepreneur to open up a used bike shop, selling refurbished, reasonably priced bikes. I'm not sure I'm that person. But for those looking to make money, the idea is yours, gratis.

In the end, I'm a bit embarrassed to say that my journey took me to Cash America's Super Pawn Shop where a source from BICAS told me that they had road bikes for sale at half-off.

The pawn shop seemed a bit sketchy. But, being the cheap bastard that I am, even this did not subsume my desire to find a bargain.

And, sure enough, I found my bike nestled among a throng of bicycles outside the shop, all marked at half-off. For the curious, they also sell gold!

My steed ended up being a 2009 Schwinn Fastback with Shimano derailleurs and brakes, and a super light, aluminum frame. It cost me all of $67 thanks to the good folks at Super Pawn. The bike normally retails for $432.08 on Amazon, and $499.99 on Ebay, meaning I saved either $365.08 or $432.99 - but who's counting.

What makes me question the cost effectiveness of cycling, however, is the money I spent getting my bike road-ready.

I should say from the outset, that I am not complaining about the actual prices. I took my bike immediately from the pawn shop to There and Back Bicycles to let owner Steve Vihel take a shot at fixing it up. Steve did a great job, and charged eminently reasonable prices for all of his services. But the bike just needed lots of fixing up.

The biggest cost was an Velo Orange Saddle, made of Australian cowhide, with a chrome-plated rail finish. The saddle, its attendant care products, seat cover, seat leash, and the brown bar wrap I bought for the handlebars to match the saddle ran $125.96.

This was, absolutely, not a necessity. While I settled for a newer road bike, I still wanted something that looked somewhat like a classic, vintage bike. As you can see from the living room photo at the top, I think it turned out quite well.

The total cost for a mechanical tune-up, and bike maintenance, ended up being less than $200 - and this included the cost of a new tire, tune-up, new cables, new tubes, housing, installation, and labor. I also had two, additional final expenses for a Kryptonite Kryptolok Mini U Lock, and a 7ft Sunlite Cable. After all, it would be a shame to have my bike stolen after all of Steve's effort.

My complaint about the cost effectiveness is really about the upfront cost that I had to spend on the bike. The initial purchase was $67, but with the saddle and maintenance factored in, the entire bike ended up costing some $366.99. In sum, my quibble is that the maintenance costs, and upgrades I made were 5x's the price that I originally paid for the bike.

But, even this expenditure was less than what I would have paid retail for a brand new Schwinn on Amazon, and a new bike wouldn't be nearly so cool. Although, I still need to buy a helmet, a mini air pump, extra tubes in case of a flat, and lights.

Summary

I'm still pressed to finish my exams, having left in the middle of them to return to Oklahoma and be with my sister last week. So, I hope to take the bike for a proper spin over the weekend - once I acquire a helmet, lights, etc.

Right now, I'm a little disappointed in the upfront costs associated with cycling. I was elated to spend $67 on the bike. I was less than elated at spending five times that amount to get it road-ready. Maybe I will earn back my investment over time?

Mostly, I am excited to see what it's like to commute around Tucson. I've spent the past few years mocking cyclists, and the past few weeks trying to learn basic traffic rules for bikes. It's been quite the turn around.

I guess I see this going two ways. I'll either love it - for all of the reasons people love bikes. Or I'll hate it - for all the reasons people hate bikes. I understand this isn't terribly insightful. But it does reflect that commuters are rarely ambivalent about sharing the road bicycles.

I assume this will be a running category of posts, so stay tuned for updates!

Handicapping the Western Conference Finals: OKC Thunder v. Dallas Mavericks

2011-05-17T00:02:00.001-07:00

Admittedly, I've been a fairly dormant fan of the Oklahoma City Thunder for most of the NBA season. I attribute this (mostly) to the fact that OKC Thunder games are notoriously hard to come by here in Arizona.

But, after a recent trip to the Sooner State, I'm fully on the Thunder's playoffs bandwagon (or Sooner Schooner) that I started driving way back in 2006. Yes, for my money, the OKC Thunder are surely the heirs of the 1990s Chicago Bulls, while young Kevin Duran is clearly the latest incarnation of Michael Jordan himself.

The chattering class in Oklahoma city is, of course, also quite optimistic about the Thunder's prospects. I, on the other hand, am truthfully still a bit befuddled about the franchise's mascot.

Then again, I'm not nearly so pessimistic about the Thunder's prospects as the New York Times was cira. 2008. According to the NYT, Oklahoma is lucky to have running water and electricity. I suspect Paul Krugman's head would explode if he knew the internet had made its way to the Oklahoma hills. (Someone please, pass along the good word to Paul).

That said, and it's worth repeating, THE OKLAHOMA CITY THUNDER ARE IN THE WESTERN CONFERENCE FINALS!

Yes, you read that right.

Oklahoma City has an NBA basketball team.
Said team is in the Western Conference Finals!
Said team is one series away from competing against the Miami Heat for the World Championship.*

*N.B., does anyone honestly think the Bulls will pull this series out? No disrespect to Michael Jordan, but not even all the ghosts of-championships-past combined could stop LeBron James and the Miami Heat.

I won't try to 'out sports' the sports writers. A complete write-up of the series can be found at the link below. It's biased. Comes from an Oklahoma City Thunder blog. You'll forgive the indiscretion, hopefully. We don't feign objectivity around here - even if we do pride ourselves on rationality.

[Link]

Seeing as no sports fan is objective, yours truly is looking forward to a smash-mouth opening, tomorrow night. And for no other reason than arbitrariness, I'm picking the Thunder in six games.

Go Thunder!

Lolcat of the Week

2011-05-16T16:27:00.001-07:00

Apologies readers for the relative paucity of posts over the past week. As this post indicates, I was in Oklahoma welcoming my first Nephew into the world. I'm glad to say that he is doing well, and that my sister is doing just fine too.

By way of update, the Lolcat of the Week below basically sums up my life for the next year or so. Classes here in Arizona have ended along with my year in residence at the University of Arizona, James E. Rogers College of Law.

This summer will find me beginning work on my dissertation. With a bit of luck, I should walk with my doctorate of juridicial science next May.

Another interesting thing about this summer is that I plan to being work as a Research Fellow for Prof. Ray Austin of the the Indigenous Peoples Law and Policy Program. I won't scoop his work, but former Justice Austin is working on an interesting historical project that should be a real contribution to the field.

I realize how vague that is on second blush, but I will try to post updates of the work as time goes by.

Having returned from Oklahoma late last night, it's clear the winds of change are blowing strong in the desert. Something about welcoming a baby Nephew drive home this reality even more. But I have much work to do.

As Robert Frost said,

And miles to go before I sleep.
And miles to go before I sleep.

see more Lolcats and funny pictures, and check out our Socially Awkward Penguin lolz!

Ridiculous.

2011-05-14T19:31:00.001-07:00

[Link]

- Posted using BlogPress from my iPhone

Pray for Huck

2011-05-12T10:45:00.000-07:00

Great website for Huckabee fans called,

prayforhuckabee.com.

Fans of the former governor set up the site, which allows supporters to pray with Huck as he considers a presidential bid.

I suppose the site (and Huck's endorsement of it), can be written off as political grandstanding.

But, assuming it is sincere (which I do), it strikes me as an eminently practical thing to do - even as one prays for President Obama, and our Nation's leadership generally.

HT: Real Clear Politics.

Pax Plena

Book Review Coming Soon

The Most Depressing Day of the Year?

Top Ten Posts of 2011

Silent Nights

On Significance

My Thoughts on Tim Tebow

Slight Self-Call, and Plug for a Friend

Fighting the Grinch

Wishing You a Happy Thanksgiving

Some Thoughts from Locke

New Pit Bull Documentary Campaign

Book Review: Jesus, My Father, The CIA, and Me

Book Reviews for November and December

Bad Idea of the Month

Surprise Guest Post

Book Review: The Scrapbook of Frankie Pratt - a novel in pictures

A Dispatch from Taos

Exploring Northern AZ

Book Review Update: The Scrapbook of Frankie Pratt

OU v. Texas 2011

The Meaningful Life

Fall in Tucson

Lolcat of the Week

Pax Plena Update

Book Review Coming Soon

Christmas in September?

September in the Rain

Faith in Humanity: Restored

Book Review: Irma Voth

Just a Typical, Tucson Bike Ride

Lolcat of the Week

My Trip to Costco

Thoughts on Blogging, and Time

Lolcat of the Week

Tucson's Newest Cyclist

Next Book Review: Irma Voth

Approaches to Finding Contentment

My Beta Fish Died Today

An Obligatory Post About Rick Perry

Lolcat of the Week

Love

Little Pricks

Lolcat of the Week

The Flying Pigeon Commercial

What Meltdown?

Rick Perry's Prayer Event

What a Wonderful World

My First Bike Wreck

Rock Bottom

Rubio v. Kerry, Debt Ceiling Debate

The Macabre Exercise of Predicting Your Own Death

Before and After Workout Exhibit

Best Political Use of a Country Music Song

Ready for the 2012 Olympics!?

Apple Store Hijinks

Debt Debate: Boehner v. Obama

America's Debt Visualized

Storms in the Distance

Contessa Brewer Gets Pwnd

Huntsman Featured in Esquire Magazine

Memories of Harry Potter

Feces: It Is What It Is

Some Thoughts on the Debt Ceiling

Bike Ride Along the Rillito River

What Makes a Novel Good?

Quiet Friday Nights

I Hate It When This Happens...

Why I Love America

Remembering Hemingway: Fifty Years Later

Lolcat of the Week 2

I Need a Vacation

Obama 2012: Dead in the Water?

Song of the Week: Free the Toronto Nine

FYI: Huntsman Likes Tacos

Lolcat of the Week

A Tale of Two Huntsmans

The History of the Penny Loafer

Things To Do at DFW Airport

Huntsman's Campaign Rollout