I've gotten to the point where it's 10:15, I'm done with the work I needed to do, I'm organized for tomorrow, the coffee pot is prepped for the morning, the kitchen is (relatively) clean, my teeth are brushed, and my bed is waiting. But what am I doing? Sitting up, listening to music, and writing the day away. While blogging isn't nearly as therapeutic for me as handwriting in a leather journal used to be, the chance to put nonsensical thoughts and ramblings to a "page" is one I look forward to. I've essentially been thinking for 14 hours straight, and my brain needs a break. Without cable, I'll resort to music, blogging, and the NFL gamecast of the Cowboys/Eagles game in the background. Eagles up 37-31 with 11:30 left in the 4th...
This weekend, the football gods were with me. The Terps beat #23 ranked Cal in fantastic fashion in Colli Park. I got to watch the whole game because UT's game was canceled for fear of Ike's wrath and ESPN was broadcasting it nationally. Looking at the sea of red made me sad, but phone calls and text messages from the ones I knew at the game made me feel close to the action. Sunday afternoon, Matt Cassel made his first start for the Pats and did well. The win was one not many predicted, as most of the regulars picked Favre's Jets to pick apart a Brady-less offense. I was reading during the game, but kept the handy gamecast in view on my desktop for updates. It's hard to cheer for lines on a graphic of a football field but somehow, I manage. Finally, my flag football team won its first game 7-6. I had a tackle or two, and somehow managed a bruise on my calf. While I care very little about the game going on now, I'm paying halfhearted attention so... 37-34 with 8 left in the 4th.
Ok, and now I'm sufficiently relaxed that I can go to bed thinking about something other than nuclear warfare, climate change, and electoral math. Oh, who am I kidding... Cowboys 1st and goal on the 5 with 5:55 left..
One other thing while I'm thinking about it, on the issue of hospitality. If you have guests, you need only have two things; clean towels and time. Other things, like extravagant plans for adventure and bottles of favorite wines are wonderful too, but the only things you really need are clean towels and time. Assuming your guests are people you like, the rest is easy. My mother is big on clean towels. And she's turned out to be a pretty good example. On that note, I go to bed. 41-37 Cowboys with 4:23 left in the 4th...
Monday, September 15, 2008
Friday, September 12, 2008
Madam Secretary
Wednesday evening, Former Secretary of State Madeline Albright spoke at the LBJ Library to inaugurate the new Masters in Global Policy Studies degree program at LBJ. First, she joined the students for an informal discussion in our student lounge and then, she spoke to faculty, staff, and other university members in a larger forum. Hearing her speak was inspirational and frightening at the same time. She represents one of the early women in this field, and she spoke about her relationships with foreign leaders, their representatives, and the men in the US government. Not surprisingly, she noted that she often had more trouble with American men then foreign men. The Americans, she said, had known her when she was making coffee or copies. She also talked about how you do have to work harder sometimes, you need education, and a world view. Specifically, it takes more than lipstick and you should know where the countries are. (The room erupted at this point). She was funny and told stories that only someone in her position could have experienced. She met Kim Jong-Il and was warned beforehand that he was both crazy and a pervert. Apparently he's not crazy.
She was inspiring because of all that she has achieved as a first woman in many of her positions. What was terrifying was the thought that there are no minds like hers left in our government. She was close to brokering a deal with North Korea on non-proliferation when Clinton left office and specifically because of Cheney's ABC policy (Anything But Clinton), it was abandoned. When the Washington Post had a story that Powell was continuing a Clinton foreign policy, he was dragged into the Oval Office and scolded. When Clinton left office, the North Koreans had the capability to build 1 or 2 nuclear weapons. Now, they probably make 9 or 10. The Bush administration created the Axis of Evil themselves, just so Cheney could play GI Joe with the American military. And now we're looking at 4 or 8 years of the hot hockey-mom show. It has so completely destroyed everything that women like Madeline Albright, Hilary Clinton, and my mother achieved to have a woman paraded on the national stage because she looks good in a suit.
I have already had two people push me almost completely to the edge about this, saying things like, "but you have to admit, for a woman of 44, she's cute". Or, "I hope my wife looks like that when she's 44". Seriously. These same people agree that she's completely unqualified for her position and is essentially a joke, but somehow she becomes less of a joke because she's good looking. This is exactly the opposite of helpful for women trying to actually get anything done. If you look good in a suit and can back it up with brains, wit, and real knowledge that's wonderful. But being attractive can't make an unqualified even slightly less distasteful. If McCain had hired a different woman, with an equally unimpressive resume, and she looked like Janet Reno, something tells me the Republican set wouldn't be so excited. Of course, McCain would never have done such a thing- he likes his beauty queens.
After hearing Madeline Albright speak, I was so energized that I went home and studied. But I still woke up the next morning knowing that McCain is leading in the polls, people are captivated by this ridiculous Palin nonsense, and that there's a serious chance Obama will lose. If McCain wins, and then he dies, and Sarah Palin is this country's first female president... That's what's terrifying.
She was inspiring because of all that she has achieved as a first woman in many of her positions. What was terrifying was the thought that there are no minds like hers left in our government. She was close to brokering a deal with North Korea on non-proliferation when Clinton left office and specifically because of Cheney's ABC policy (Anything But Clinton), it was abandoned. When the Washington Post had a story that Powell was continuing a Clinton foreign policy, he was dragged into the Oval Office and scolded. When Clinton left office, the North Koreans had the capability to build 1 or 2 nuclear weapons. Now, they probably make 9 or 10. The Bush administration created the Axis of Evil themselves, just so Cheney could play GI Joe with the American military. And now we're looking at 4 or 8 years of the hot hockey-mom show. It has so completely destroyed everything that women like Madeline Albright, Hilary Clinton, and my mother achieved to have a woman paraded on the national stage because she looks good in a suit.
I have already had two people push me almost completely to the edge about this, saying things like, "but you have to admit, for a woman of 44, she's cute". Or, "I hope my wife looks like that when she's 44". Seriously. These same people agree that she's completely unqualified for her position and is essentially a joke, but somehow she becomes less of a joke because she's good looking. This is exactly the opposite of helpful for women trying to actually get anything done. If you look good in a suit and can back it up with brains, wit, and real knowledge that's wonderful. But being attractive can't make an unqualified even slightly less distasteful. If McCain had hired a different woman, with an equally unimpressive resume, and she looked like Janet Reno, something tells me the Republican set wouldn't be so excited. Of course, McCain would never have done such a thing- he likes his beauty queens.
After hearing Madeline Albright speak, I was so energized that I went home and studied. But I still woke up the next morning knowing that McCain is leading in the polls, people are captivated by this ridiculous Palin nonsense, and that there's a serious chance Obama will lose. If McCain wins, and then he dies, and Sarah Palin is this country's first female president... That's what's terrifying.
Monday, September 8, 2008
You know how I feel about space...
Well maybe not everyone, but those closest to me know of my obsession with NASA, space science in general, and all things relating to exploration of the cosmos. So, after finding yesterday that an article about CERN's Large Hadron Collider was published on the morning of 9/11, I woke up this morning to see that CNN is reporting that a major first test for the LHC is being conducted tomorrow. 10 billion dollars and 25 years after planning began, the 17 mile long tunnel, buried 300 feet underground near Geneva, Switzerland is ready to circulate a beam of protons. My capacity to understand anything other than the jist of what all of this means is limited, but I do know the goal is eventually to simulate the environment that immediately followed the Big Bang. It's amazing stuff, and don't doubt that I will keep everyone up-to-date on the findings as I read them. The first link is the CNN article, the second is the experiment's homepage.
Coolest. Thing. EVER.
The Atlas Experiment
Coolest. Thing. EVER.
The Atlas Experiment
Sunday, September 7, 2008
Creative Procrastination
After a long lunch and a little library time, I watched a few minutes of Flight 93 which turned out to be a terrible idea except that it led me to some interesting NY Times archive searches. I looked up what was published in the Times on September 11, 2001. Science Times (it was a Tuesday) published an article about high-energy physicists building particle accelerators at CERN that may be able to produce miniature black holes on demand. It was odd to read the paper that was sitting on desks and doorsteps the morning that changed everyones lives. Then, wanting to stop thinking about 9/11, I looked up my birthday. The only remotely interesting article I could find from January 25, 1985 was an NCAA rule change to blocking rules. And a restaurant review. Anyway, this was an interesting exercise and I did find out that I was born on a Friday.
Friday, September 5, 2008
Work Hard, Play Hard
I guess I should take a few moments to talk about the real reason I'm here in Austin- graduate school. I've had most of my classes at least once, and the work is already piling up. I have about 400 pages of reading to do for Tuesday, and several assignments in the works. While this sounds ominous and actually makes my heart beat faster when I think of it (why am I wasting time blogging when I have reading to do..), I am loving every minute. Graduate school is nerd heaven. The reading is (mostly) fascinating, the professors are beyond brilliant, my classmates are seriously bright, and every single three-hour class I have had so far has passed more quickly than some of the less engaging 50 minute classes I had in college. Before class started, the GPSers (my degree is the Masters in Global Policy Studies, a new program) heard warnings from second-year MPAff (Masters in Public Affairs, the larger, older program) students about two professors who have leading roles in our program. They're cruel, rude, difficult, insensitive assholes, we were told. I am taking one of them for 2 of my courses and the other for 2 1-credit courses this semester. And I love both of them. They are brilliant, quick-witted, and challenging. That's fine with me. I'm convinced that no one went to school on the east coast, where every professor I had was an asshole. Dad told me that his students feel one of two ways about him, they either think he's an asshole or the greatest professor they've ever had. The good students love him, the lazy ones don't. Guess which side of that I'm going to try to land on. The warnings ended up doing me a service, since I was scared enough to be twice as prepared as necessary.
I don't have class today and I have a few errands to run, but I need to be in the library at some point. Tomorrow is flag football, UT football, and Austin nightlife. It's a work hard, play hard environment.
I don't have class today and I have a few errands to run, but I need to be in the library at some point. Tomorrow is flag football, UT football, and Austin nightlife. It's a work hard, play hard environment.
Tuesday, September 2, 2008
The gift that keeps on giving
This is one of those times that McCain should bind and gag his aides and throw them in the back of a truck for a while. Apparently the commander-in-chief of the Alaska National Guard makes foreign policy decisions. Someone needs to give this guy a civics lesson. It never ceases to amaze me how smug Republican advisers are. And stop naming your kids Tucker!! They all end up being assholes.
CNN's Campbell Brown interviews Tucker Bounds
CNN's Campbell Brown interviews Tucker Bounds
Go put your creed into your deed.
As a brief warning for those (few) who read these words for lighthearted analysis of my newly southern experiences, this is not lighthearted. This is what you might call an attempt at well-spoken ranting. It's 4am in Austin, I'm not sleeping, I can't quite bring myself to read my Analytical Methods textbook, and I'm furious.
Yesterday at around noon, I was walking out of the UT bookstore and called my dad. Just to say hi, talk to him about my weekend, and see how he and my mother were. He thought I had already heard about Sarah Palin's pregnant daughter and that I was calling to gloat. Since we both take any opportunity to be the other's liberal sounding board, this was a good assumption, but-not having cable and having been reading all morning- I was not in the loop. So he gives me the rough details and I practically have a party in the parking garage. It's Christmas morning for the democrats. A pro-life, conservative, family-values, Christian family has a 17-year old daughter who is five months pregnant. And the campaign admits that they are releasing the information because of the rampant internet rumors that Palin's infant son with Down syndrome is actually her daughter's as well and there has been some sort of massive cover-up of her first pregnancy.
First off, the latter is most certainly false since a 17-year old is highly unlikely to have a child with Down as a 44 year old. According to the March of Dimes, the risk of having a baby with Down is 1 in 1,250 at age 25, and that increases to 1 in 100 at age 40 and 1 in 30 at 45. 80% of Down syndrome babies are born to those under 35, but this is mostly because women under 35 have far more babies than those over 35. 35 is considered the age threshold for risk. So no, the Governor's infant child is not the son of her daughter but yes, her eldest daughter is pregnant at 17. Obama came out almost immediately saying that families were off limits and that he did not consider the pregnancy a part of the discussion. Great move, this is going to spin itself. Conservative governor can't keep track of her own daughter and she ends up pregnant because she has no idea what birth control is since even discussing that is the sin of sins. The hypocrisy speaks for itself. Or so I thought.
The GOP spin machine got to work on this so fast, it might be over before Gustav quits blowing shingles off newly-rebuilt homes in New Orleans. Evangelical leader Richard Land came to Palin's support saying that her daughter's decision to keep the baby was the "pro-life choice" and that "secular critics of the pro-life movement don't get it". James Dobson, founder of Focus on the Family also came to her support, saying that "being Christian doesn't mean you're perfect". My anxiety and blood pressure levels are soaring even quoting these men, but if I take a few deep breaths I think I will succeed in making my point.
The pro-life movement is so wildly out of touch with what exactly it is that goes on in this country's high schools, it makes me nutty. Sarah Palin, along with many of her fellow conservatives, favors abstinence-only education. Meaning no sex-ed, no birth control, no STD awareness. Just say no. Her daughter obviously ignored her warnings that having sex before she was married makes her a sinner (or worse) and wound up pregnant. I seriously doubt that it was a one-time thing, and I also seriously doubt that Bristol Palin is the only daughter of a conservative, pro-life politician to ever get pregnant. (I don't feel like googling this right now, but I'm comfortable with the assumption that this has happened before). Let me make this clear: I am not blaming Bristol Palin for her actions, and I'm not condemning her for keeping the baby. These are decisions that are extremely personal and should be made without interference from government. However, let's think about what could have been done to avoid such a situation, which those on both sides of the aisle can agree is less than ideal.
Common sense tells us that if you are educated about something, you will do it more safely. This is why we have driver's ed. Federal law requires kids to take some sort of driver's education class before they get their licenses. Curriculum varies from state to state, but it is generally accepted that in order to obtain the right to drive a vehicle, you should be educated about road signs, speed limits, and the consequences of driving under the influence or otherwise recklessly. How on earth do we expect children to navigate the far more complicated issue of sex with no direction at all? And I'm going to go ahead and make another assumption about teenagers and sex. They are having it. Lots of it. According to the National Campaign for the Prevention of Teen and Unwanted Pregnancy, the trend is downward, but only slightly, with 46.8% of teens 15-19 reporting having had sex at least once in 2005, down from 54.1% in 1991. I have not had a whole lot of time to look more deeply into these statistics but the NCPTUP was a link from the CDC website, so I am going to take their numbers and method as legitimate for now. It's almost 5am and I have class in 4 hours so I want to stop writing and make coffee and read for class, and get to my point. Which is that the pro-choice movement doesn't want to kill babies.
I wish that abortion was so rare that its proponents didn't need massive political machines to keep Roe v. Wade from being overturned. I wish that the number of women becoming pregnant when they did not want or intend to have a child was so low that you rarely knew someone who had been in such a position. I wish that women and men were so well-educated from such a young age about sex that by the time they got around to taking that step for themselves, they had chosen their method(s) of birth control based on what they were comfortable with and what felt safest. Educating children about having sex does not make them have sex. Hormones, peer-pressure, and biology make children have sex. The "Just Say No" thing works for drugs (well, not really but...) because drugs are both illegal and extremely dangerous. Sex is neither. Pro-choice America is not out of touch with traditional values, we're just rational. Kids are going to have sex, so why not be sure they do it safely. Having a child at 17 is not a blessing. It is a drastic, unintended, and entirely preventable outcome of having sex. If I could speak to her, I would ask Sarah Palin if she thinks loving her child even though she got knocked up proves her a good Christian. Sarah Palin isn't a hero for having a 17-year old daughter that got pregnant and decided to keep the baby and marry the father, she's a poster-child for self-righteousness. This does not a hero make, Ms. Palin.
The title of this post is an Emerson quote. He is my go-to quote guy, and a favorite author. And while I haven't a religion, or creed, that I might describe as my own, I know this: my parents raised me to make smart decisions, to think about the world critically, and to be loyal, generous, and fair. My beliefs, both political and existential, are an extension of those values. How I behave every day is an extension of my beliefs. I try to keep the level of hypocrisy in my life to a minimum. It is far too exhausting to do otherwise.
Yesterday at around noon, I was walking out of the UT bookstore and called my dad. Just to say hi, talk to him about my weekend, and see how he and my mother were. He thought I had already heard about Sarah Palin's pregnant daughter and that I was calling to gloat. Since we both take any opportunity to be the other's liberal sounding board, this was a good assumption, but-not having cable and having been reading all morning- I was not in the loop. So he gives me the rough details and I practically have a party in the parking garage. It's Christmas morning for the democrats. A pro-life, conservative, family-values, Christian family has a 17-year old daughter who is five months pregnant. And the campaign admits that they are releasing the information because of the rampant internet rumors that Palin's infant son with Down syndrome is actually her daughter's as well and there has been some sort of massive cover-up of her first pregnancy.
First off, the latter is most certainly false since a 17-year old is highly unlikely to have a child with Down as a 44 year old. According to the March of Dimes, the risk of having a baby with Down is 1 in 1,250 at age 25, and that increases to 1 in 100 at age 40 and 1 in 30 at 45. 80% of Down syndrome babies are born to those under 35, but this is mostly because women under 35 have far more babies than those over 35. 35 is considered the age threshold for risk. So no, the Governor's infant child is not the son of her daughter but yes, her eldest daughter is pregnant at 17. Obama came out almost immediately saying that families were off limits and that he did not consider the pregnancy a part of the discussion. Great move, this is going to spin itself. Conservative governor can't keep track of her own daughter and she ends up pregnant because she has no idea what birth control is since even discussing that is the sin of sins. The hypocrisy speaks for itself. Or so I thought.
The GOP spin machine got to work on this so fast, it might be over before Gustav quits blowing shingles off newly-rebuilt homes in New Orleans. Evangelical leader Richard Land came to Palin's support saying that her daughter's decision to keep the baby was the "pro-life choice" and that "secular critics of the pro-life movement don't get it". James Dobson, founder of Focus on the Family also came to her support, saying that "being Christian doesn't mean you're perfect". My anxiety and blood pressure levels are soaring even quoting these men, but if I take a few deep breaths I think I will succeed in making my point.
The pro-life movement is so wildly out of touch with what exactly it is that goes on in this country's high schools, it makes me nutty. Sarah Palin, along with many of her fellow conservatives, favors abstinence-only education. Meaning no sex-ed, no birth control, no STD awareness. Just say no. Her daughter obviously ignored her warnings that having sex before she was married makes her a sinner (or worse) and wound up pregnant. I seriously doubt that it was a one-time thing, and I also seriously doubt that Bristol Palin is the only daughter of a conservative, pro-life politician to ever get pregnant. (I don't feel like googling this right now, but I'm comfortable with the assumption that this has happened before). Let me make this clear: I am not blaming Bristol Palin for her actions, and I'm not condemning her for keeping the baby. These are decisions that are extremely personal and should be made without interference from government. However, let's think about what could have been done to avoid such a situation, which those on both sides of the aisle can agree is less than ideal.
Common sense tells us that if you are educated about something, you will do it more safely. This is why we have driver's ed. Federal law requires kids to take some sort of driver's education class before they get their licenses. Curriculum varies from state to state, but it is generally accepted that in order to obtain the right to drive a vehicle, you should be educated about road signs, speed limits, and the consequences of driving under the influence or otherwise recklessly. How on earth do we expect children to navigate the far more complicated issue of sex with no direction at all? And I'm going to go ahead and make another assumption about teenagers and sex. They are having it. Lots of it. According to the National Campaign for the Prevention of Teen and Unwanted Pregnancy, the trend is downward, but only slightly, with 46.8% of teens 15-19 reporting having had sex at least once in 2005, down from 54.1% in 1991. I have not had a whole lot of time to look more deeply into these statistics but the NCPTUP was a link from the CDC website, so I am going to take their numbers and method as legitimate for now. It's almost 5am and I have class in 4 hours so I want to stop writing and make coffee and read for class, and get to my point. Which is that the pro-choice movement doesn't want to kill babies.
I wish that abortion was so rare that its proponents didn't need massive political machines to keep Roe v. Wade from being overturned. I wish that the number of women becoming pregnant when they did not want or intend to have a child was so low that you rarely knew someone who had been in such a position. I wish that women and men were so well-educated from such a young age about sex that by the time they got around to taking that step for themselves, they had chosen their method(s) of birth control based on what they were comfortable with and what felt safest. Educating children about having sex does not make them have sex. Hormones, peer-pressure, and biology make children have sex. The "Just Say No" thing works for drugs (well, not really but...) because drugs are both illegal and extremely dangerous. Sex is neither. Pro-choice America is not out of touch with traditional values, we're just rational. Kids are going to have sex, so why not be sure they do it safely. Having a child at 17 is not a blessing. It is a drastic, unintended, and entirely preventable outcome of having sex. If I could speak to her, I would ask Sarah Palin if she thinks loving her child even though she got knocked up proves her a good Christian. Sarah Palin isn't a hero for having a 17-year old daughter that got pregnant and decided to keep the baby and marry the father, she's a poster-child for self-righteousness. This does not a hero make, Ms. Palin.
The title of this post is an Emerson quote. He is my go-to quote guy, and a favorite author. And while I haven't a religion, or creed, that I might describe as my own, I know this: my parents raised me to make smart decisions, to think about the world critically, and to be loyal, generous, and fair. My beliefs, both political and existential, are an extension of those values. How I behave every day is an extension of my beliefs. I try to keep the level of hypocrisy in my life to a minimum. It is far too exhausting to do otherwise.
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