The one little pepper and how she grew

My (brief) experience with NHS

2009-08-20T10:52:00.002-04:00

With all of this discussion raging on in the US about whether health care is a right or a Nazi-esque socialist plot, a lot has been thrown about concerning examples of socialized medicine, such as Canada or the UK.

Today I got to see first hand what the NHS is like. I've been home sick with some odd flu for the last few days, and my office recommended that I go to the doctor to make sure it's not swine flu. So I went to the walk-in clinic at the Royal London Hospital, right near my flat.

Time from entering until leaving the building: less than 20 minutes.

Upon walking in, they asked me for my name, date of birth, postal code, and address. Nothing further. I then gave my symptoms and joined a quite full waiting room. Expecting it would take at least 45 minutes, I sat down to read my book. I noticed that people were frequently called and people frequently left. About 10 minutes after sitting down, my name was called and I met the nurse.

Obviously, since it wasn't swine flu, and since it was clearly viral, there was nothing they could do for me, and told me straight up. Consultation: 3 minutes with a nurse.

I must say, A+ for speediness at a walk-in clinic during lunch-hour. And since it's a flu - it's not like they gave me insufficient treatment - they told me to take paracetamol, drink lots of fluids, and the like.

So far so good. I'm liking the socialized medicine. Still, let's hope I don't have too many further opportunities to test out the NHS.

Back yet again

2009-08-05T06:50:00.002-04:00

In the end, I always come back.

I guess I was over-optimistic. I had hoped that somehow Obama's presidency would marginalize the right-wing.

Unfortunately, it just made them louder, scarier, and more crazy.

As long as lies are presented as facts, as long as irrationality gains enough current to riddle the US airwaves, every voice to the contrary helps. And so I'm back, to join the chorus of those who are proud of the US today, happy to see us refuting policies of the last 8 years, and hopeful that things can change for the better.

So much...

2008-11-13T15:11:00.003-05:00

Not blogging for over a week means that so much has happened that it's really quite impossible to address it all. Obama meeting Bush? Biden meeting Cheney? Oh, to have been a fly on the wall, especially at the latter. After all, Biden did call Cheney "the most dangerous vice-president we've had" in US history. Priceless...

Add to that a dash of Palin news interviews, a sprinkle of Ted Stevens falling behind in the Senate race, Al Franken still in the running for Senate seat, and more than a bit of transition politics, and it's a political funfest the likes of which I haven't seen in ages.

Oh, and don't forget a healthy dose of financial crisis, some 'oh my god the sky is falling' panic surrounding the auto industry and stock prices globally, and a smattering of 'how the holy hell is Obama expected to fix the world?' Because really, it seems like a lot of people are putting a lot of hope into Obama. And yes, hope has been one of his clearest messages, but not that kind of hope. We're seeing some really unrealistic unicorns and rainbows hope. Let's have some more sensible hope - remember his election night speech?

So yes, a week in the news these days is like a lifetime in the best. I guess the old Chinese curse applies: may you live in interesting times. Still, wouldn't have it any other way.

Hope

2008-11-06T04:47:00.002-05:00

While reading the news today, I came across this piece online - I found the little poem at the end to be particularly moving and it made me reflect a little on what just happened back home.

It feels really great to have helped make history. And I think people my age forget how bad things were not so long ago.

I was reminded the other day that the landmark Supreme Court case, Loving v. Virginia (which is a staple of constitutional law classes) came down in 1967. Obama was something like 6 years old at the time.

In Loving v. Virginia, the lower courts had found that a white woman married to a black man in Virginia was violating the law against interracial marriage. The Supreme Court finally overturned it, finding the interracial marriage law to be unconstitutional, but not before the couple in question went through hell to be together.

In 1967, my parents were both in their early 20s.

The lesson to be learned is that change can only happen on a generational level, and that it can only happen through laws that force long-held prejudices to end. The civil rights movement was the most powerful force for equality that this country ever saw, and it's amazing that it only took a generation to create a body of youth for whom race really doesn't matter.

If this could be done in the US, a nation that not so long ago had slavery, it can be done elsewhere. And the solution is integration of education. Take the Roma in hungary for instance - Hungarians have to be legally forced to share classrooms with Roma children without recourse to newly formed de facto segregated private schools. And in a generation, maybe the Roma won't be second class citizens anymore.

That is the hope that America was meant to bring to the world. That's what makes other countries look up to us. Because really, nothing is ever impossible, and we just showed the world. Not just with an electoral victory, but with people taking to the streets all across the country, celebrating a victory that they were personally invested in, and that meant the promise of change, in all of its guises.

The exuberance shown, from Pennsylvania Avenue, to the streets of Ann Arbor, to the neighborhoods of cities across America tells us something else. Maybe this generation didn't protest like was done in the 1960s. Maybe no one confronted police, yelled to be heard and marched in the streets. But maybe this generation was right. By using the democratic process to effect change, the American people showed the world that yes, we are still a great force for good, for change, and for democracy. Our system isn't quite as broken as was feared. And on Tuesday night we proved it. Without violence and without protests. Even in Chicago.

Yes We Did!

2008-11-05T04:53:00.003-05:00

What has epitomized Obama's campaign from beginning to end is its feeling of can-do - a feeling that each individual can make a difference. Yes we can! embodies this feeling, and is the slogan that sent the powerful message to America and to the world that united, Americans of many different persuasions can come together and help start the process of change.

Obama's acceptance speech last night indicated his understanding that this only marks the beginning. You'd have to be naive to think this financial crisis is going to fix itself. And that's just the most obviously pressing crisis right now. The first step has been taken.

Today I felt myself stand noticeably straighter. Noticeably prouder. In addition to seeing the first candidate in my life win who I genuinely support, believe in and wanted to win (and not just because he wasn't the other guy), there's a sense of having made history. It's a little easier to say to the world, hey, you could learn something from us - we've still got what it takes.

On a local level, my state voted to legalize medical marijuana and to allow stem cell research (my dad worked on the stem cell research proposal). Really delighted about both of those.

The one dark cloud over this election cycle is gay marriage. It seems inconceivable that so many Americans are opposed to allowing two people who love each other to get married in the courthouse. No one's trying to get the Catholic church to marry gay couples, and I think the deliberate conflation between civil and religious marriage is what's getting people riled up. Arkansas also decided to ban adoption by gay couples, another blow to gay rights.

I'm still coming to grips with the reality that Obama is going to be my next President. It was at about 9 pm, Geneva time yesterday, when I finally realized that Obama was going to win this. Since then, I've been floating around on cloud 9. Months of agonizing and obsessively reading political blogs will be replaced by just obsessively reading political blogs.

*happy sigh*

Yes We Can!

2008-11-03T16:42:00.003-05:00

Four years ago, almost to the day, I consoled myself after election day by stating that at least the people went out and voted, and so it didn't really matter who had won as long as people were participating in the democratic process.

Four years later, I cannot say the same.

It does matter who wins. It matters a lot. There is a clear right choice in this election, and his name is Barack Obama.

Tomorrow, when you go out and vote, think about how you want the world to be. Think about how much your freedoms mean to you - not the freedom not to be taxed, but the real freedoms - the freedom to choose your partner, your religion, your way of life, and your opinions and the freedom to make those opinions heard.

Along one path lies darkness, ignorance, fear and hatred. Along another path lies a difficult road, not paved with rainbows and sunshine, but one in which we remain true to the vision of our founding fathers and uphold the Constitution, and maybe regain some dignity and hope along the way.

For 8 years we have been slapped in the face by the jingoistic nationalism of those calling themselves patriotic and denying us the right to call ourselves such. We have been accused of wanting to destroy the Constitution, destroy the America envisioned by the founding fathers, destroy the very fabric of democracy. Our military service has been slandered when we have dared to speak up against foolish actions by our leaders. Our sacrifices to our country have been minimized. For 8 years, we have been marginalized, mocked, and belittled. And at no time more so than during this campaign.

It is time we spoke. We are the majority. We want change. And we will be heard.

Obama the Professor

2008-10-30T04:02:00.003-04:00

The latest attack on Obama by Palin has focused on his connections to a radical professor. Not Bill Ayers this time, but the even more nefariously terroristic sounding Rashid Khalidi.

The connection is even more tenuous than the Ayers-Obama link, founded largely on Obama's having attended a farewell dinner for Khalidi when he was leaving U of Chicago for Columbia University. At this dinner, a poem was apparently read by a Palestinian-American girl that criticized the US and accused the Israeli government of terrorism for its treatment of Palestinians. Additionally, the GOP has accused Khalidi of having been a PLO spokesman, an accusation Khalidi denies.

*sigh*

So Obama is linked not only to domestic terrorists but to Palestinian terrorists? Because he happened to be a colleague of a man whose only act of 'terrorism' is to be an outspoken supporter of an oppressed people and a fierce critic of US policy vis-a-vis Israel? God forbid anyone Obama ever met should criticize Israel because clearly that makes him, by association, a terrorist. No doubt Prof. Khalidi's un-American sounding name makes him an even scarier spectre than Ayers, and everyone knows that the one thing you can never ever do in America, freedom of speech be damned, is to criticize Israel, a foreign country that is often treated, particularly on the campaign trail, as our 51st state.

Khalidi's response to this is admirable, not least for his seeming reference to Bob Dylan: "I am not speaking to the media at this time, and certainly not until this idiot wind passes."

The real story in the McCain campaign's accusations is the effect they will have on the individuals 'linked' to Obama. Ayers, admittedly a former domestic terrorist, has turned his life around and is a highly respected professor. Khalidi, not a terrorist of any sort, is also a well-respected professor. Now the whole country knows their names, and not in any good sense. How many threats and piece of hate mail will these men receive for having their names dragged in the mud by the McCain campaign? What the hell did they do to deserve it, particularly Khalidi whose only crime seems to be his name and his stance on Palestine?

It is clear that the Republicans are anti-intellectual. Radicals lurk in our universities, secretly spreading un-American propaganda to our youth. Bastions of elitism, universities are the opposite of the Real America, where leaders are blindly followed and all that is not conservative and Christian is evil. There is no place for debate or for rational thought in today's Republican party. The campaign might as well just come out and accuse Obama directly of being a terrorist for having taught constitutional law (a hippy terrorist subject that the Republicans have done their best to ignore for the last 8 years) at U of Chicago.

Hungary's bailout

2008-10-29T05:46:00.003-04:00

Sorry for the absence - I was in Berlin for the weekend and flu-ridden for the last two days, thus completely unable to think, let alone write.

Rather than talk about the US presidential election, which is really a thoroughly beaten dead horse at the moment, I'm going to shift gears and return to the topic of the global economy.

As a Hungarian American, I have a particular interest in how Hungary fares economically. And recently the prognosis has not been good. Hungary has received a $25.5 billion bailout from the IMF and the EU to help rescue its floundering economy, the largest bailout in Europe thus far. Amidst discussions of salary freezes and pension cuts, the question is why is Hungary in such a bad position? Why is its budget deficit the largest in eastern Europe? While I'm not informed enough to provide a comprehensive answer, I think the crisis can be in large part attributed to long-standing economic policies implemented in the early transition period.

In particular, eastern Europe in the early 1990s found its socialist systems being radically restructured to conform with the model of capitalism promoted by the Washington Consensus. This shock therapy, implemented throughout the eastern bloc, is the very model of unregulated, unfettered capitalism that is causing the foundations of the post-Reagan US economy to crumble, and that caused crisis after crisis in Latin American countries during the 1990s.

Whereas western Europe built its economy on a capitalist model tempered with social programs to ensure the health and survival of all members of society, social services in eastern Europe were systematically dismantled, privatized, and sold to corrupt entities interested only in profit. Sound familiar? It should. This is what the US, together with the IMF, has been selling to developing and transition countries around the world. Sure, it looked enticing when everything was peachy in the US, but it doesn't look so great now. And eastern European countries, already viewed as riskier investment areas than western Europe, are seeing a flight of capital that is causing the markets to plummet and undermining a system based on market strength rather than actual assets.

The model of capitalism promulgated by the US in the last few decades is an unsustainable one, working through speculation and lacking in underlying assets. And when the market hiccups, the national economy vomits, particularly in smaller countries without the market power of the US. As long as the markets were functioning in their happy magical land of unicorns, rainbows, puppies, and Greenspan, all was well. Now, seeing that this model doesn't even work for its creator, it's time to attempt to reintroduce the concept of actual rather than speculative value, although it may be too late.

As for Hungary, the economic crisis is surely due to more factors than its post-transition economic choices, including corruption of politicians, poor public policy choices, and the ripple effect of economic shocks undergone in the process of acceding to the EU. (Let's not forget, the EU is as bad of an offender as the US in many ways, forcing adherence to the acquis by accession countries that was never and is still not required of older member states.)

Nevertheless, the underlying message is clear: corporatism, i.e. US capitalism, is not in the interest of human beings. It has never been in the interest of human beings. And if we want to weather this financial crisis, we need to give the economy back to the people, not in the sense of allowing them to invest their pension funds willy-nilly in volatile markets, but in the sense of ensuring for their future and their wellbeing rather than the future and wellbeing of corporations.

One man's terrorist...

2008-10-24T06:14:00.002-04:00

They say one man's terrorist is another man's freedom fighter. I guess that's why Sarah Palin refused to condemn abortion clinic bombers as terrorists. See, Bill Ayers, as she says, admitted he's a terrorist. But "others who would want to engage in harming innocent Americans or facilities that uh, it would be unacceptable. I don’t know if you’re going to use the word terrorist there."

So let me get this straight. Bill Ayers is a terrorist because Sarah Palin disagrees with him. Abortion clinic bombers are merely fighting for the freedom to live in a country that denies women the freedom to choose what to do with their own bodies?

Fighting for freedom from freedom. That's freedom you can believe in.

Almost there...

2008-10-22T13:54:00.002-04:00

Less than two weeks to go. I'm emotionally exhausted, nervous as hell, and quite honestly feel like I'm holding my breath until it's over. The only things keeping me sane at the moment are the Daily Show and the Colbert Report. It's really good to laugh, even if it's a somewhat bitter, nervous laugh.

With more and more revelations emerging about McCain's campaign and the GOP (Sarah Palin's $150,000 clothing expenditure, the voter fraud in California that actually consisted of voter fraud instead of a misrepresentation of law-abiding behavior, the anti-American/real America views of Michelle Bachmann and Sarah Palin), and the clear signal from the intelligent real Republicans that the McCain campaign has gone in a direction that is erratic, unstable, and profoundly troubling for anyone looking for a leader for tough economic times, the chances of Obama winning seem better and better.

It is somewhat uplifting to find that in a time of crisis, Obama can reach across party lines and draw in Republicans unhappy with their own party despite their fears about his potentially liberal policies. I think it's clear that what we'll have if we elect Obama is a president who really will listen to what others have to say, and who will be decisive and strong in his actions both in terms of economic policy and in terms of foreign policy.

It's much less uplifting that the term 'socialist' post-third debate quickly became a talking point of the campaign. I honestly thought it would fade sooner. McCain's been the socialist sounding one, and as many have pointed out, and Palin is from the closest thing we have to a socialist state, if you consider that Alaska gives all its residents an annual check from money it collects from the oil industry. It's also funny that Obama ends up being the one emulating Ronald Reagan. Does that mean the country was so much more to the left in the early 1980s than it is now that today St. Ronny would be considered a *gasp* socialist? Scary thought. Anyway, no one discussing this seems to have a clue what socialist actually means.

Anyway. I'm on pins and needles. There is a right and a wrong choice in this election. Usually that's not the case, but we're in the middle of a crisis and we need leadership. As Colin Powell so eloquently put in his endorsement of Obama:

"I think he is a transformational figure. He is a new generation coming into the world--onto the world stage, onto the American stage, and for that reason I'll be voting for Senator Barack Obama."

Racial violence

2008-10-20T04:49:00.004-04:00

I'm going to step back a bit from my usual focus on politics and economics and turn to the subject of race and racial violence.

A week ago in a small town in Hungary my cousin was attacked and beaten in a racially-motivated incident that resulted in his ankle being severely broken in multiple places. He now has a metal plate holding his ankle together.

My cousin is a Hungarian. His mother is Hungarian, he's lived in Hungary for most of his life, he has a Hungarian passport, and he speaks Hungarian fluently. He is more Hungarian, in fact, than many Hungarians living outside Hungary's borders.

My cousin also happens to be half Nigerian. And so it happened that he and his half-Japanese, half-Hungarian friend, were in a bar in the small town where his friend's father lives having a drink. Because they stood out and looked racially different, and because neither of them is particularly menacing, they were targeted by a couple of thugs who followed them out of the bar, yelled racial epithets and proceeded to attack them without provocation.

Like my cousin, I am also half Hungarian. Unlike my cousin, however, I speak grammatically incorrect Hungarian, have never actually lived more than a few months in the country, and consider myself more American than Hungarian. And yet, because of that other half, what happened to my cousin would never happen to me.

This attack against my cousin has hurt me deeply. I'm not some sort of naive idealist who believes we all live in a world of magical racial harmony. I can comprehend that to some people, particularly in Europe, the influx of 'others' into their formerly homogenous countries has created tension, both racial and economic. And in Hungary, which doesn't face those immigration concerns, racism against Roma has been painfully obvious and has remained largely unchecked in recent years. But this is my cousin. This is someone who is of my blood. This is someone who was attacked because he was black, not because he was an asshole, or because he had a beef with those guys. This is someone whose only fault was his skin-color and fro and there is no justification for the attack other than his race. That's racism at its ugliest and purest, and it's something I fear in Europe, and particularly in Eastern Europe.

In the aftermath of the attack, my cousin will likely be losing his fro and replacing it with an Obama-do. But is this the way to address things? His family doesn't want racial hatred - they're Hungarians and want to go on being Hungarians. And if that means changing appearance to fit in better, then so be it. I think that's the most awful part of all this - that my cousin can't just be who he is, and look how he wants to without fearing for his safety.

All I know is that I don't want to raise my children in a place where attacks like this happen. I don't want my children to view people of other races, creeds and nationalities as different. And in this respect, despite its racism, and narrow-mindedness, and religious fundamentalism, the US still has room for such tolerance. That's the magic - hope, enlightenment and freedom can coexist with the most abhorrent of close-mindedness, and in that oftentimes contentious mix, those who keep their minds and hearts open can learn not just about tolerance, but about human nature more generally, the good and the bad.

The little ACORN that grew into a mighty oak

2008-10-19T06:57:00.002-04:00

In the third presidential debate, McCain told us that the biggest threat to the US, a threat 'maybe destroying the fabric of democracy' was not Al Qaeda, not the economy, not the Iraq war, but ACORN.

ACORN, "who is now on the verge of maybe perpetrating one of the greatest frauds in voter history in this country" (as McCain said at the debate), for those who've been living under a rock the last few days is the Association of Community Organizations for Reform Now, a group that goes out and registers people to vote. As required, once signing people up, ACORN submits all registration cards to local election officials to have them verified, and have been the ones most frequently highlighting the false registrations. And somewhat unsurprisingly, people like Mickey Mouse, Donald Duck and the starting lineup of the Dallas Cowboys have submitted registration cards (the starting lineup of the Dallas Cowboys having been registered in Nevada, where none of them reside).

ACORN is not perpetrating voter fraud. At worst, it's voter registration fraud, which is quite different, since voter fraud requires showing up and voting as someone else with fake identification. And since ACORN has been reporting fraudulent registrations, it doesn't even look like they're trying to perpetrate voter registration fraud.

Note that even McCain couldn't come out and say straight up that ACORN is evil - he's got deniability having couched his attack at the third debate in terms of 'maybe' - maybe it's going to destroy the fabric of democracy, and maybe it's the greatest fraud in voter history - McCain never came right out and said it was.

Of course he accomplished his goal, if his goal was to get his base all riled up and somehow associate ACORN with Ayers and terrorism (at the debate, McCain's ACORN remarks followed immediately after his dismissing Ayers as a washed-up terrorist).

Post-debate, ACORN offices in Boston and Seattle were vandalized and a worker for ACORN received a death-threat. Nice going, McCain. It's good to know for once and for all how the GOP feels about having people actually vote. Remember the good ol' days when voters were mostly white, over 50, and conservative? I guess this is the panic that results from seeing that slip away.

Finally the media seems to have acknowledged that the ACORN voter-fraud discussion was blown way out of proportion.

How involved is the GOP is this fiasco? Robert Bauer, general counsel for Obama's campaign, in response to a leak to the media that the FBI was investigating ACORN for voter fraud, stated that McCain's campaign and the GOP are "fomenting specious vote-fraud allegations and there are disturbing indications of official involvement or collusion." The Obama campaign called for a special investigation into improprieties surrounding these reports.

I'm just glad to know that the US is doing so well right now that somehow the biggest threat against our democracy is ACORN. That said, death threats and vandalism against an organization that goes out and registers people to vote??? Really??? Shame on you, GOP...shame on you...

The party of fictional Joes

2008-10-17T04:43:00.008-04:00

Joe Six-Pack was fictional. Joe the Plumber also appears to be fictional. I say let's bring in Joe Cool. Also fictional, but awfully cute, Joe Cool is a voter concerned about the economy. Just like you, me and millions of other Americans, Joe Cool thinks with his stomach and is concerned about having enough food in his dish. The deeply patriotic Joe Cool was a pilot, just like McCain, flying many dangerous missions against the enemy, similarly with limited success.

Joe Cool is like many GOP voters - stuck in a lackluster life, Joe Cool escapes to his imagination, concocting tales of daring battles and invisible enemies, stardom and fame, to distract himself from the sad truth of his existence. Hell, even Joe Cool is a manifestation of Snoopy's imagination.

Maybe that's the key - GOP voters are voting for candidates and for a party that is a figment of their imagination. Built out of illusions, the 2008 Republican campaign is merely the fictional product of the collective Walter Mitties of the GOP base. So to make it all go away, we just need to stop believing in it.

Oh right - that's what November 4 is for.

Vote reality - Vote Obama.

Protection of the unborn!

2008-10-16T15:05:00.002-04:00

So I just watched last night's debate on MyDebates. A bit late, but it was this or stay up even later than I did last night.

McCain on education reform was hilarious - he's saying 'we're going to do' all sorts of things that are actually up to the states - like state school tuition waivers and the like. Nice that the Federal Government is going to mandate that much.

McCain on the housing crisis was hilarious - have the government buy the mortgages? As Jon Stewart pointed out on the Daily Show - nationalize it.

It's quite amazing to see how much the term 'socialist' is getting bandied about by Republicans, when they're becoming quite 'socialist' in their own rhetoric, while slamming their opposition for being socialist and actually presenting no plans at all.

Beyond that, McCain's condescension towards women in his use of air quotes about the health of a woman, and the use of the phrase 'protection of the unborn' (which conjures awesome zombie army images in my head - with bloody fetuses marching to demand protection) make me shudder. His answer on Roe v. Wade was disgusting to me as a lawyer - sure, he'll look at the qualifications of a Supreme Court justice candidate - as long as they support overturning Roe v. Wade.

Now I'm watching the VP debate - I'd only seen excerpts. I think I have a crush on Joe Biden. Am I the only one, or is he kind of sexy?

Let's get this over with!

2008-10-16T08:54:00.003-04:00

With only 19 days left until the US presidential election, and the last debate out of the way, I just want the elections to be over with. My constant obsessive tracking of political news (in addition to my constant obsessive tracking of economic news) is begin to impact my productivity. My free time is spent reading about the upcoming elections, my down time at work is spent reading about the upcoming elections, and it's safe to say that 80% of the time I'm awake, if not more, I'm somehow thinking about the upcoming elections.

My vote is already cast - I sent in my absentee ballot sometime last week. But until November 5, I'm on pins and needles. (Hopefully only until November 5 - it seems unlikely that there will be a repeat of 2000, but if there is, I will be highly annoyed.)

I think at this point the American public is as galvanized as it's going to get. People get that this is probably the most important presidential election of their lifetime to date, and that the impact of our decision will reverberate around the country and around the world. The economy ain't fixing itself. And pretty much everyone who is likely to vote has picked who they're voting for. At this point changing more than a few voters' minds is unlikely.

So I suggest we hold the elections early. I've got some research I should be pursuing in my free time, and I don't want to be distracted by politics. I'm sure that nationwide, work productivity is down, and given the financial situation, I don't think we can afford that. Since more and more states are allowing early voting, why can't we just shift the whole country to early voting - two weeks early, to be precise?

That sound...it's the last real conservatives thundering away from the McCain campaign

2008-10-14T17:56:00.002-04:00

Just a short update since I need to go to sleep - there's just too much to save up for tomorrow.

First of all, after a McCain spokesman attacked Bill Kristol for attacking the McCain campaign, accusing him of buying into Obama's party line (Bill Kristol!?!!!?!??), Kristol attacked back saying McCain was better than his campaign, and effectively begging McCain to speak up for himself and salvage the campaign.

As if that weren't enough, in response to the flack he received after his endorsement of Obama (see my earlier post), Christopher Buckley offered to resign from the National Review, and to his surprise his resignation was accepted. Buckley's response: "[T]o paraphrase Ronald Reagan, I didn’t leave the Republican Party, the Republican Party left me.”

Finally, as if trying to make it completely clear that associating Ayers with Obama is a meaningless attempt at transparent 'us' vs. 'them' propaganda, in an attempt to make Obama into the 'outsider' that so many Republicans clearly see him as, William Timmons, the lobbyist picked by McCaign to lead his transition team, apparently lobbied on behalf of Saddam Hussein to ease international sanctions against his regime.

The mental clusterfuck this causes to my logic circuits is almost too much. I guess we should be happy McCain actually is planning a transition team - a week or so ago he wasn't so much.

But now let's see. The straight talk express, against lobbyists and terrorists, and for the war against Saddam (which was however started by people who for the most part had once 'palled' around with Saddam (see Rumsfeld)), has hired someone who also 'palled' around with Saddam to lead the transition team that would, in the unlikely event McCain won, put into place the leadership structure that would govern the country for the next four years.

McCain wants to put a terrorist-sympathizer in charge of his transition to the Oval Office?

This is really too much. I'm going to bed folks. Next thing I'm going to read is that of course McCain knows how to get Osama Bin Laden - he's putting him in charge of Homeland Security...

Iceland - the rise and fall of a tiny island

2008-10-14T04:29:00.003-04:00

Iceland has been in the news a lot recently, one of the most prominent early victims of the financial crisis. Here is a country that had a booming economy, brought to bankruptcy. Stories of potential food shortages due to the collapse of the banking system and the consequent inability to pay for imports highlight the stark reality of what has happened, almost overnight, to Iceland and what could happen to the rest of the world if the crisis spirals out of control.

But underlying it all were still some questions - particularly, how in the world did a country with a population of less than 350,000 become so rich off of so much speculation without anyone noticing that there was a fundamental lack of underlying assets? The Financial Times has an insightful piece on the subject.

As a result of this meltdown, of course, a lot of the hurt is being felt by the UK as UK councils across the country, and even Transport for London and the Metropolitan Police Authority, not to mention numerous charities see millions of pounds frozen, most of it likely lost for good. So the UK-Iceland relationship isn't at its zenith at the moment.

Even more interestingly, who rears its ever-more powerful head in the midst of all this? Russia, with whom Iceland is currently negotiating to obtain a loan. Russia, huh? Let the Arctic wars begin!

Now it looks like there may be a return to fishing on the part of Icelanders - when all else fails, go back to tangible, smellable goods.

Palin thinks she was exonerated?

2008-10-13T10:28:00.002-04:00

This campaign has made it more clear than ever before that Republican politicians are perfectly comfortable saying black is white, and repeating it over and over again until it becomes true.

So it is not surprising that Palin has managed to turn the somewhat damning Troopergate findings (i.e. that she violated state ethics laws - a not insignificant black mark against her) into a narrative of full exoneration. This is particularly easy to do when you actually DO believe that you're right, and I'm quite sure she does not see anything she did as an abuse of power. After all, this is just small-town politics, because she's one of us, and we all know that's how things work in small towns - backstabbing, nepotism, and a strangely overbearing role on the part of the house husband, Todd.

I'm really out of rage. I can't even muster enough vitriol to put up a proper anti-Palin rant. I suppose I should be happy that she's 'toned down' her rhetoric a bit. Of course had she ratcheted it up any, she'd have been calling for a lynching, and it seems clear that the constant attempts to destroy Obama's character were alienating what's left of the semi-intelligent conservative base.

So I'll put the rage in the hands of some other authors today. For two interesting, and angry articles - see Rolling Stone on McCain and on Palin.

True conservatives

2008-10-12T05:08:00.002-04:00

I have a lot of respect for true conservatives. I want this to be made clear, since my posts tend to come off sounding so left-wing. Honestly, I'm an American and as such, I believe in small government run on a state-level - more power to the states is a good things (of course in crisis the federal government needs to step in - that's where I'm a liberal).

So it delights me when people like William F. Buckley's son, Christopher Buckley, identify the problems with the McCain campaign and are willing to openly endorse Obama.

As I wrote to my dad (he sent me this link) - not all conservatives are morons, and the Republicans are running a moron campaign at the moment. This is quite the turnoff if you're not a moron. Thanks Sarah Palin - good job alienating the intelligent segment of the conservatives. Look like it's going to be the Stupid Party from here on out...

Good to see support for Obama, especially from conservatives. He's really not that scary left. And we really do need leadership right now. And Palin-McCain (she's really the stronger half at the moment - thanks Rove!) don't have that. It's just moving them into the White House/Naval Observatory and leaving the existing power structure in place.

So Gobama! Vote for Obama if you don't want the stupid people to win...

Arab - the opposite of a decent family man?

2008-10-11T07:38:00.005-04:00

Oh boy. As the McCain rallies get angrier and angrier, McCain seems to be getting a little nervous. After all, he's not Sarah Palin - he's just not really the one in control anymore. But his choice of words in assuaging the fears of the crowd raises interesting questions.

The video clip is terrifying, really. The person asking the question seems batshit crazy, and the response is a horrifying indicator of the way many Americans think.

So the lady claimed she didn't trust Obama since she'd heard he was an Arab. To which McCain responded: "No ma'am, no ma'am. He's a decent family man...[a] citizen that I just happen to have disagreements with on fundamental issues. That's what this campaign is all about."

To me this sounds an awful lot like McCain is reassuring her that Obama is not an Arab by offering out its opposite - being a decent family man and a citizen. Since when can't Arabs be citizens? Since when can't Arabs be decent family men? I'm sure this is not what McCain thinks, but to get the conservative base to continue to rally behind him, that's the level of comprehension he has to cater to.

To the conservative ranks of the white, poorly educated segment of the US population, therefore, an Arab couldn't possibly be a good family man, and an Arab will certainly never, ever be considered a citizen.

This is the most rabidly racist crowd out there since...oooh, this is fun, getting to make another angry 60s reference....George Wallace's 68 presidential campaign. These are the ones we all knew existed in the US, and were wondering when they'd rear their ugly heads. All was well when things didn't seem so bright for Obama, but now...well, these people don't care about the economy. See, what they really care about it not electing black people to the office of president. Sure, the economy sucks, but didn't McCain say he knew how to fix it? He's a white, Vietnam POW, and Palin...well, she's one of us - she understands where we're coming from. She's from Alaska where everything's white...and what isn't is oppressed.

People pissed off about the economy: not usually violent as long as they still have food on the table and a sixpack in the fridge. People pissed off about the possibility of a huge leap forward in racial equality: few things bring out such violence.

I want to scream. These unevolved, pea-brained bastions of the great American Dream, or what's left of it, can't stop their blind hatred for a second to look at what's happening all around them - not in the presidential election context, and not even in a global context, but on a domestic, at-home micro-economics level. Issues, people, issues...not even worth mentioning that word, I guess. Issues have come to mean anything problematic - from an emotional to a national level. And the only issues that matter to the angry mob are questions of race, abortion, socialism (whatever that means...), and oh yeah, race...

Derivatives and the economic crisis

2008-10-10T07:56:00.003-04:00

With global stock markets continuing to plunge and speculation concerning the global economic future continuing to run rampant, it's somewhat amusing to sit at the sidelines and wonder what will go next.

Honestly, I think (and I've been telling friends for the past few weeks) the next big shockwave to the market is going to be related to derivatives. First of all - here's a nice link to a table that shows the derivative exposure of various US banks - take a look at JP Morgan. In case you're not familiar with derivatives - exposure isn't a good thing in the current market.

An interesting article from 1994 lays out the case for why derivatives are not as high-risk as they seem, but amidst the article's reassurances are some scary possibilities:

Although the "gross" derivatives exposure exceeds 100 percent of equity for all of these banks, only a default by all of a bank's counterparties would wipe out the bank's capital, and only then if there were no offsetting netting agreements and other risk-reducing mechanisms in force and the actual losses incurred were identical to the total exposure. Such conditions seem unlikely for derivatives as well as for loan defaults.

So in other words, derivatives are great UNLESS all hell breaks lose on the global financial market. Oh, that's really reassuring...

Among the financial instruments to keep an eye on - credit default swaps. Here's a good piece on why credit default swaps are so risky - basically, it's a bunch of unregulated, OTC gambling that has spiraled out of control.

Just to end with a less than reassuring quote, from Warren Buffett in 2002:

We view them as time bombs both for the parties that deal in them and the economic system ... In our view ... derivatives are financial weapons of mass destruction, carrying dangers that, while now latent, are potentially lethal.

In defense of Ayers

2008-10-10T04:46:00.003-04:00

The McCain campaign is still harping on Ayers and how he's a terrorist that Obama has a deep secret relationship with somehow.

And I just can't take it. This is so ridiculous. This is such a tactic to incite hatred. The entire McCain-Palin charade is, as others have commented, straight from the Atwater playbook. And on top of that, we've thrown in a cop-movie cliche for good measure: good cop McCain to bad cop Palin. Of course the level of bad cop is rising to that of a rabid lobotomized doberman and this is why I'm compelled to mount a defense of Ayers.

Let's start with a disclaimer: I'm not trying to say that what Ayers did was right, nor am I trying to deny that Weather Underground was a domestic terrorist organization. But there are nuances. And the Republicans don't like nuances. The world is black and white, with the white being tinted by rosy-colored shades that portray a fictionalized, sanitized version of 1950s America.

So there's a semantic issue at the root of things here. Words change their meanings over the course of years, and terrorist is one such word. To call Ayers a terrorist today puts him in a class to which he does not belong - one populated by Al Qaeda and other large-scale organizations hell-bent on destroying the US. Terrorists in the 1960s and 1970s were very often domestic - Brigado Rosso, Weather Underground and their ilk, generally Communist in leaning but ultimately dissatisfied with conditions at home, not without reason.

See, I always sort of thought Ayers was one of the good guys, albeit a very misguided one. In the late 1960s, early 1970s, the Weathermen stood up for something they believed in, realized that not enough was changing, and took drastic (and misguided) measures. They didn't want to destroy the US - they wanted to destroy US imperialism. They wanted to change the system, and the available alternative ideology at the time was Communism. They thought capitalism was bad, the Vietnam War was bad, and civil rights were good. And they were fed up with the fact that non-violent protesting was getting no results.

Let's see now. It's 2008. The markets are crashing and governments are bailing out banks that gambled with people's money, effectively rewarding them for irresponsible behavior. This is going on globally. Yeah, I'd say capitalism, in its American guise, unfettered by any regulations is bad. Doesn't mean Communism's the answer - but I think as far back as the 1960s, it was clear to a lot of people that the way we were going wasn't going to benefit the little people.

Next point - the Iraq War. Yup, that's bad.

Civil rights - we're still working on that, but this year's looking awfully promising for a real milestone. That is, if McCain and Palin don't manage to incite a rabid mob to riot. Which seeing how things are going, isn't outside the realm of the possible.

Ayers doesn't deserve this treatment. It's not like he's been running around planting bombs in people's houses all these years. As I wrote in my previous blog entry - the US is 'palling' around with Qadafi and I don't see Palin complaining.

Obama's got great staff who are doing their best to distance him from Ayers. The connection between them is so remote, this isn't hard to do. But the ones who are buying into this story, and growing angrier and more mob-like by the minute aren't those whose minds can be changed - this is the base, energized by Palin's inanities, for whom the concept of a charismatic, black, Democratic president is the same as the concept of the antichrist, and who forty years ago would have happily executed the entire American New Left had they been able to. Which is precisely why the McCain campaign has unleashed this spectre of Ayers - if fear by itself won't win an election, perhaps fear mixed with anger will...

McGovern v. Nixon - not quite

2008-10-09T04:28:00.004-04:00

The parallels between the McGovern campaign and Obama's campaign have been pretty clear for a while now. Underdog no one expected to win wins the nomination, and suddenly becomes the 'establishment' even though his party isn't the incumbent one. Intellectual, low key individuals vs. jingoistic patriotism.

Then McCain picked Palin, and for a little while it looked like McCain had suddenly become McGovern - this looked like Eagleton for VP all over again.

But as has been the case for decades, scandals, gaffes and blunders that would sink a Democratic candidate are brushed off by Republicans amidst a rah-rah explosion of verbal confetti aimed at smearing red, white and blue all over any possible subject of a serious discussion.

Take the economy. I think we can all agree that things are worse than usual, on a global scale. What's happening systemically is the most significant upheaval to the basic nature of the free market that has been seen since the Great Depression. As such, it is even more significant, since it represents the failure of a system long touted as the Only Way, and imposed on emerging democracies the world over.

But what are we discussing in the American race for President? Whether Obama's connections to Bill Ayers, a man who while indeed a domestic terrorist at one point, was a University of Illinois-Chicago professor long past his terrorist days when Obama knew him, make him a friend to terrorists...

Seriously? I won't go so far as to call the Weathermen patriotic, but they certainly are rooted in American history in a way the application of the term 'terrorist' today is not - being anti-war is not the same as wanting the destruction of an entire society. So it's OK for Condoleeza Rice to hang out with Muammar Qadafi, but not OK for Obama to have a casual friendship with Bill Ayers. Good to know.

One thing I can say for sure - after 8 years of Bush, a collapsing economy, and ongoing wars on two fronts, the fact that so many American people can't rise above the rhetoric of hate and fear and see what has happened to our country tells me that the terrorists really did win.

An appropriate quote...

2008-10-08T07:54:00.002-04:00

Many years ago, I posted this quote by Douglas Adams from the Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy. Somehow, I think it's incredibly appropriate right now:

This planet has - or rather had - a problem, which was this: most of the people living on it were unhappy for pretty much of the time. Many solutions were suggested for this problem, but most of these were largely concerned with the movements of small green pieces of paper, which is odd, because on the whole it wasn't the small green pieces of paper that were unhappy.

Back in business...can't keep quiet

2008-10-08T06:15:00.003-04:00

I know that I'm writing into a vacuum right now. Haven't updated this blog in over a year, and there's definitely no one left reading it.

But I'm back. I can't keep quiet anymore. The US presidential election is in less than a month, the global financial crisis is getting more global and more crisis-like by the minute. And I have opinions.

So a few months ago I saw a program on CNN about how Iceland's banks were struggling. The latest news suggests that Iceland may be one of the first national bankruptcies of the financial crisis. And apparently Iceland has enough clout that this would hurt the European markets even more than they're already hurting.

It's been really interesting following the currency market - I have a particular interest since I'm in Europe but have a US bank account from which I withdraw money in dollars. Apparently the strength of the dollar in recent days has been in response to the non-unified handling of the financial crisis by EU members - a fear that many currency experts had concerning the Euro.

See, the EU is a strong economic union, but in the end, it's not a unified state, even when it comes to economic matters. When what is at stake are national banks and financial institutions, taxpayers in other EU member countries are unwilling to pay for their bailouts. They're also unwilling to adopt a policy of letting the strongest entities survive, since that will likely mean the downfall of their own national enterprises and institutions. So everyone is reverting to a financial isolationism, focusing on insuring their own deposits and their own banks and financial institutions from collapse. This sparks fears concerning the strength of the Euro, since it becomes more subject to the vagaries of domestic economic concerns, rather than EU-wide economic policies.

I'd been really confused about the dollar's response to the collapsing stock market - but I thought this explanation made some sense. Of course, the big question is how strong the dollar can remain in the long run. If every economy is in crisis, no one will be around to bail out other currencies. Remember, most of our financial crises in recent years have been localized - and it's easy to get another major economic power to help you out if your problems are localized. Right now, it's a bit different.

Anyway - now that I'm back, expect postings about politics, law and the economy. To quote Harlan Ellison, I have no mouth and I must scream...

Benedict's blunders

2007-07-11T18:54:00.001-04:00

Pope Benedict XVI seems intent on pissing everyone off.

First came the controversial remarks he made about Islam in September 2006, describing Islam as a bloodthirsty religion. Besides showing a disturbing lack of understanding of one of the world's major faiths (particularly disconcerting from a religious leader of such import, who one would assume would at least be passingly familiar with the tenets of Islam), it also suggested that this pope, unlike John Paul II, was not particularly concerned with uniting faiths.

More recently, Benedict seems to have decided that what the Christian faith needs is a good ol' fashioned return to pre-Vatican II sectarianism. Just last week, he decided that saying the traditional mass in Latin is ok, with all its good anti-Semitic language intact (a decision that has caused controversy within the Catholic community). Now, he's decided that Protestants don't have churches, in a document highlighting the 'defects' of non-Roman Catholic Christian faiths.

What next? A return to selling indulgences? Maybe a little blood libel discussion? Reneging on the notion that the earth is round? The Thirty Years' War sure was fun too...

I get that retro is in - looking at women's fashion this summer it's hard to miss. But retro-Catholicism is not a good idea, no matter from whose perspective you look at it.

Happy 4th

2007-07-04T20:13:00.000-04:00

At some point absences become goodbyes.

I have a lot to say, though. So I may be back. At least temporarily.

First of all - happy 4th from London!

Second of all - don't knock firm life until you've tried it.

Third of all - Stephen Donaldson has a much broader audience than I ever imagined!

Kurt Vonnegut

2007-04-12T10:52:00.000-04:00

I had planned not to blog anymore. But sometimes you have to say something. And Kurt Vonnegut's death at the age of 84 is one of those moments that requires comment.

Growing up in my family, Kurt Vonnegut was very much a part of my life. Kurt Vonnegut was referred to as the 'conscience of America' by my mother, and my dad had an inordinate fondness for Vonnegut's famous Slaughterhouse 5 quote regarding flying and donuts and what you do to the donuts while flying. Kilgore Trout was a household name. In 10th grade, to aid a presentation on Slaughterhouse 5, I filmed a recreation of the aftermath of the firebombing of Dresden in an abandoned burned out factory housing complex in Detroit.

Vonnegut was a master at drawing out the absurdities of American life, and life in general. His wit remained undiminished even late in life, and his books are rich with imagination and sensitivity to the fragility of the human condition. At the same time, there is something Midwestern about his approach to things - an undefinable way of looking at situations and events that evokes middle America in the most satirical, yet somehow loving way possible.

It is impossible for me to step back and evaluate Vonnegut objectively - to me he was part of my family growing up, even if I never came close to meeting him. His books, along with those of Douglas Adams, served as a meeting point for my mother's classical literary bent and my dad's penchant for sci-fi, leaving me in the middle, comfortably nestled in the surreality of Vonnegut's world.

With Vonnegut's death, the US has lost one of its last truly great figures - larger than life, both in terms of personality and intellect, Vonnegut was an American literary man who was unafraid to criticize what most needed to be criticized about the US, and who could criticize intelligently and with wit while never losing touch of the essence of human nature. His voice will be missed.

Aliens, shag rugs and Jane Fonda - oh my!

2007-02-03T16:48:00.000-05:00

I love camp, I love kitsch, I love cult, I love sci-fi and I love the 60s. Therefore, I am shocked and appalled that it has taken me so long to see the sexy masterpiece that is Barbarella.

This movie is absolutely amazing. It's so unbelievably over the top, so incredibly kitsch 60s, so deliciously tongue-in-cheek, and so delightfully sexy that it is one of the most glorious things I've ever seen. It makes me want to fill my life with lava lamps, shag rugs, and Jane Fonda. And let's face it - conceptually, a lot of the movie is pretty clever.

The late 60s were a bizarrely groovy time, and in all seriousness, Barbarella is one of the better creative fruits of that era.

Capturing ideas

2007-01-31T22:42:00.000-05:00

I've finally stopped stressing about my semester. I can get more done when I'm relaxed, and I finally broke through my writer's block on my papers last night, which did a lot to relieve some of my anxiety.

I sometimes get writer's block when I spend too much time on a subject - I begin to realize the full scope of the subject and get bogged down trying to figure out how to structure things rather than actually writing. I recently received some simple yet good advice that has gotten me back on my old writing track - don't try to structure things - just write in a stream of consciousness fashion and reorganize later.

In the end a paper is about capturing ideas. Too much structure constricts the ability of the writer to think outside the box and possible have more interesting ideas. It is much more constructive to let ideas flow onto paper and sort through them later when you're dealing with longer papers.

It feels great to be writing again. I missed the rush.

Unbelievable

2007-01-26T14:41:00.000-05:00

If you'd told me a year ago that I would be in the law library on a Friday afternoon studying, I would have laughed at you.

Things change. It's Friday afternoon, and I'm in my carrel in the library doing some research.

Thank god for Michigan weather - when it's this cold, wet, and grey I don't have any urge to go out on weekends. And maybe, if I work very very hard right now by the time the weather gets nice I won't have so much to do. Or at least that's what I keep telling myself.

Rootless

2007-01-25T12:17:00.000-05:00

I've been thinking a lot about my time in Europe since getting back to the States. And I've come to a few conclusions about myself and my whereabouts.

I always knew that I didn't completely fit in here in the US. I only moved here when I was 15, and as such, my character was largely formed by international, non-US experiences. Unlike many immigrants, I don't have a strong attachment to the United States as an abode, since to me being American was always a question of my passport, and while I view it as a great place for higher education, it's not where I'd like to be for the rest of my life.

Four months in Western Europe reminded me that I don't fit in completely in Europe either. Although as a child in Switzerland I was quintessentially Swiss (not European), the years I spent in the US have Americanized me to a point that I find Europe as odd as I find the US (particularly Western Europe - Eastern Europe is much more comprehensible, especially from an American perspective). I also do not wish to spend the rest of my life in Europe.

At this point in my life, I really begin to realize the full impact my childhood abroad had on me - my parents' own wanderings have left me feeling unsatisfied unless I can move around, and I find myself feeling completely rootless. Right now I'd like to spend a few years in Europe, then move to Asia and focus my attentions there. If there's anything my 4.5 years in Japan taught me, it's that it's better not to fit in at all than to almost, but not quite, blend in.

The reading...it never stops...

2007-01-23T18:08:00.000-05:00

Only about 2 weeks into my semester, and I feel like I've done nothing but read for classes for the entirety of my natural life. Not only that, but I feel like I've done nothing but read about business and investment law for the entirety of my natural life.

The sad thing is, I'm kind of enjoying it. I feel like I'm learning so much. Ok, things are a bit in overdrive, but this is kind of fun.

I think a summer followed by a semester without exams did wonders. Now if it were only possible to take to do this every few years in the real working world...

Of course a part of me feels like my soul has died a little bit. I'm also a little less fun than I used to be. Funny thing is - I look at my friends in the law firm world, and I feel like they're a little less fun than they used to be. Of course this also might be called growing up, but I wouldn't want to admit to that.

Too much investment law

2007-01-18T18:42:00.000-05:00

You know you're taking too many investment law related courses when you're watching Fitzcarraldo and can't help but think about how none of this would be possible without cheap, plentiful labor. And instead of thinking of the beauty and the wonders of the movie, you start wondering about investment law and economics in the Amazon.

Courses and cases and memos, oh my!

2007-01-18T11:02:00.000-05:00

School's in full swing again. And I couldn't be happier. I'm sure this unnatural glee for taking classes will fade in a few short weeks, but at the moment, I am thrilled to be taking so many interesting courses with so much practical relevance, and am also thrilled to be learning things that I didn't know about.

For example - I'm taking securities regulation this term. I signed up for the course since I'll probably be doing a fair amount of sec reg work this summer, and felt that I really didn't know anything about the subject. Prior to the first day of class I had no clue as to what a security even was. I was quite pleasantly surprised to learn that sec reg is a class about the stock market.

Ok, so maybe I'm a little slow sometimes. Most people know what a security is. To me, the word "security" is forever associated with "blanket" so it's taken a little bit to disassociate the idea of Linus from the class contents.

So yeah, class is fun. I learn things.

Quorn - It's fungus!

2007-01-13T13:57:00.000-05:00

Yesterday I picked up some Quorn chicken nuggets and Quorn chicken cutlets. For years, I'd been dying to try this stuff, ever since a middle school biology teacher (who was British) told us about it. It's the science-fictioniest food product ever. Think Asimov's Prelude to Foundation. Fake meat made from soy and other vegetables is boring - it's just turning existing products into the most meat-like form they can be in. Quorn, on the other hand is science.

Quorn is apparently made from a fungus that was discovered by British scientists somewhere in the English countryside in 1967. Quorn is made in giant fermenting vats. Quorn is fermented fungus - mold of some sort.

Having recently decided that eating meat too much is bad (this does not imply that I have any intention of becoming a vegetarian), because it's not an efficient use of natural resources, Quorn seems like the future of food.

So I tried the chicken nuggets today - and I'm pleased to report that they're damn tasty, resemble real chicken nuggets more than McNuggets do. It tastes like chicken, feels like chicken, and isn't people, although I couldn't help but think of soylent green while eating my vat-grown nuggets.

Still - not half bad. Can't wait to try the chicken fillet and see how chickeny it is. I could handle substituting this stuff for half of my meat intake.

Mmm...fungus...

Gunner girl

2007-01-12T02:04:00.000-05:00

The term "gunner" appears to be a ubiquitous one in law schools around the US. What it means: someone who tries with all their might to participate, to study hard, all in order to get the best grade possible.

Some would misguidedly call me by that name. The beginning of this semester reminds me of last semester - as long as I was interested in a class, I participated. Maybe to the point of being seen by some as a gunner. I always raised my hand. I always answered questions (for the record - quite often wrongly, but that's part of the fun). So far, I'm still doing the same thing given the opportunity.

Yet those who know me would be hard-pressed to identify me as a gunner. I'm the girl who walzed into the library during finals in April of last year, attired in shorts and a tanktop, carrying a purse rather than a backpack, and expressed to a friend there that I'd just gotten back from doing a little shopping, having lunch and tanning. To those who know me, that too would seem odd.

There are lots of reasons why no one would mark me as a gunner. First and foremost, I have NEVER, in my entire academic life, cared about grades. If I'm interested - I care about learning. How I do on exams is not a reflection of my knowledge of the subject, but rather of how well I take tests. As long as they're standardized - great. Otherwise - not so hot. Secondly, I'm a bit of a hedonist - life is enjoyable, and no potential grade could convince me to give up the time I spend enjoying life, whether it be cooking, reading a non-law school book, or just simply having a good time.

So why does answering questions in class make people think I'm a gunner? Isn't it a mark of ignorance, or curiosity to talk too much? Isn't true wisdom epitomized by silence? Doing the readings does not make me a gunner. Neither does having no shame in giving a wrong answer.

People shouldn't be afraid to participate in class. Exams here are graded blind - being an idiot in front of a few dozen people isn't going to hurt you. Furthermore, in order to succeed in the real world, you have to voice your opinion - even if sometimes that means speaking up as a junior in front of much more senior staff members. School is good practice - what you say impacts your future much less.

In short - it's laughable that some would think of me as a gunner. I just wish more people would speak up and realize that you don't have to study 22 hours out of the day in order to participate in class.

Home sweet home

2007-01-04T23:10:00.000-05:00

Yesterday I finally made it back to Ann Arbor. It's nice to be back. The shorter my time grows here, the more I value the last remaining months of student life that I have. Sure, after this I'll have money, a real job, prestige, and all the accoutrements that go with that, but I won't be a student anymore, with the freedom to keep odd hours, the ability to skip class without too severe repercussions, and the possibility of exploring endless interesting research topics.

I'm going to miss Ann Arbor - most of my post-secondary student life was spent here, and in fact I've lived in Ann Arbor for longer than I've lived anywhere else in my life.

Right now it's pissing down rain, but even that can't dampen my spirits. It's nice to be back in my cozy student nest.

On Christmas, friendship, and home

2006-12-26T10:47:00.000-05:00

On the 23rd of December, after a somewhat harrowing journey from Florence I arrived home to the States (my flight from Florence was cancelled due to technical problems and while things worked out, for a brief while there was the distinct possibility that I was going to be stranded in Florence for the holidays).

The usual Christmas season madness is still underway - dinner on the 24th, dinner on the 25th, and today, dinner for 17 people. Goose, prime rib...it's the season to eat and eat and eat, and then eat some more.

I'm not someone who is very attached to Christmas gifts. It was something of a relief that this year my parents didn't overload me with largely useless things that I didn't want. Best gift from my parents: a printout of a picture of a Wii. Once they're on the shelves, I get to buy myself a Wii, and that's all I wanted for Christmas. Simple. And since I'm 26 and not 12, I'm not at all upset that I have to wait a bit longer to get one.

The best present I received for Christmas this year, however, came from my friends in New York. They got together and decided to pay for my ticket to New York so I can spend New Year's with them. That's real friendship. It's better than a gift of equivalent monetary value - because it means that they really want to see me. It's nice to feel like people actually like my company. My New Year's plans before this were to sit in my apartment in Ann Arbor with my cat, watching Fawlty Towers and drinking champagne. I think this will most likely be considerably more fun.

So all in all, it's nice to be back in the States - to see my parents, and to get to see my friends. Italy was nice and all, but the States is home as long as I've got my parents and good friends here.

Time's almost up

2006-12-11T14:25:00.000-05:00

My time in Italy is almost up. On the 23rd of December I go back to the States to spend Christmas with my family.

I have to say, I'm really sad to have to go. I've made so many friends here and had a chance to hang out with people from all over Europe. I'm not going to miss Italy really. It's a nice country, but nothing special. I'm going to miss EUI. Not the classes, but the people. I've only been here for a few months, but I feel like I fit right in. This is somewhat rare for me. I don't normally fit in most places. Here, on the other hand, everyone's just a little bit weird, so it's been really easy making friends.

And of course, I'm going to miss Bar Fiasco, the greatest student bar/hangout imaginable.

I can't believe the semester is almost over. Come on, Michigan, let me stay just one semester longer...

EU-Russia energy dialogue

2006-11-27T08:45:00.000-05:00

As part of my study abroad here at EUI, a major research paper is required. My topic, which goes back to one of my old warhorses, involves Russian energy. This time, instead of Russia and the Near Abroad, the topic is the EU-Russia energy dialogue.

Consequently, I'm immersed in myriads of documents pertaining to energy, most of which point to the fact that the EU has extremely limited bargaining chips in its negotiations for more favorable energy deals with Russia (surprise, surprise). Nevertheless, that doesn't seem to stop the EU from grandiose prognostications of immense future success, overwhelming optimism about the partnership, and platitudes regarding the state of the dialogue.

None of this really adds up when the current situation is taken into account.

My short and dirty take on it: Russia was willing to concede some points back around 2004, so as to not jeopardize its relationship with the accession countries, which are largely entirely dependent on Russia for oil and gas. By allowing the removal of destination clauses and other mechanisms of that ilk from long term supply contracts, Russia placated a nervous EU. Now, with oil prices remaining high, and Russia's economic position strengthening, Russia is blocking further discussions that might lead to a more genuine partnership between the two powers. Why give in to the EU when it keeps bringing up pesky human rights issues in the middle of discussions purportedly about energy?

Russia's got the upper hand. It's got the resources. Europe doesn't. Europe needs the resources. Western Europe is willing to let things slide. Eastern Europe isn't. They joined the EU to get away from Russia - and they're not going to give in to Russia that easily.

Long-run: unless the EU finds a way to give Russia a seat at the negotiating table, nothing much is going to happen. The EU can't just dictate energy policy for Russia, since Russia has no interest in accession to the EU. Does the legal structure of the EU allow for this? Stay tuned...

Goodbye to two sports legends

2006-11-17T13:36:00.000-05:00

Two of the greatest sports legends are dead.

Ference Puskas, the legendary Hungarian soccer player whose 2 goals in the 6-3 win by the Hungarians over the English at Wembley in 1953 assured the Hungarian team immortality in soccer history. Puskas had been battling Alzheimers for a number of years.

More sadly, Bo Schembechler, the immortal former U of M football coach, is dead after collapsing before a TV interview.

Michigan, tomorrow is your biggest football game in recent memory - this is the real national championship game, and everyone knows that. Don't let Bo's death slow you down - instead, play for him, and for the legacy that he left. Let this be a tribute to Bo.

Go blue!

Things that make me smile...

2006-11-16T06:31:00.000-05:00

While doing some research on Westlaw, I discovered that there exists a journal called the Journal of Sugar Beet Research.

This makes me smile.

More optimism...

2006-11-09T18:43:00.000-05:00

In my last blog post, I mentioned how I approved of the choice of a former CIA man for Rumsfeld's post. Robert Baer (the former CIA guy whose book was the loose basis of Syriana)'s essay about Robert Gates gives me even more optimism.

Robert Gates, if Robert Baer is correct, sounds like just the man for the job.

Cautious optimism

2006-11-09T09:50:00.000-05:00

I'd like to apologize for my long absence from this blog - I've been busy with classes, parental visits, research and just living life. But I'm back.

Tuesday brought me the best birthday present I could have hoped for - a Democratic win in the elections. That alone, however, did not suffice to really make me optimistic about the future of America. With Bush still in control of the presidency, and with his prediliction for presidential decrees, I felt that the two years leading up to the presidential election would be marked by an inability of Congress to enact any significant exit strategy, and a subsequent swing back to the Republicans at the time of the next elections.

Then Bush made the decision to get rid of Rumsfeld.

And suddenly I'm filled with more optimism, albeit cautious optimism. Replacing Rumsfeld with a former CIA director is a huge step forward. No matter what one thinks about the CIA's tactics and information purportedly presented on WMDs by the CIA, the CIA is an organization that I respect. Intelligence work is difficult, sometimes unreliable, but generally the people involved have a good idea of the situation on the ground.

Besides, anything is better than Rumsfeld. A two year old child with a xylophone would be better than Rumsfeld. And at least we won't have to see his menacing face on the news all the time anymore.

So cautious optimism it is...for now.

Southern Italy, weddings, chinotto...

2006-10-19T15:10:00.001-04:00

This past weekend, immediately upon arriving back from the States, I went to a wedding south of Bari. Bari is in the heel of the boot, and according to my other half (who lived in Egypt for a number of years), is exactly like Africa except with churches instead of mosques. The architecture was definitely different, and the style of driving from Rome on southward was distinctly more hairraising than in the north (which is saying a lot, since I find Italian driving rather hairraising on the best of occasions).

The wedding was lovely - tasteful, with good food, a nice atmosphere, and everything a good wedding should have.

The highlight of the trip, however, must have been the new Fanta flavors I discovered in a gas station and had to try. The first, blood orange, was quite delightful. The second, chinotto was quite the opposite.

Chinotto, it turns out, is a popular Italian soft drink, made from some citrus fruit that is highly bitter and comprises the bitter ingredient of Campari. Now I like Campari just fine, but this is terrible. The Fanta tasted remarkably like a fizzy, non-alcoholic version of Hungarian Unicum. For those of you unfortunate enough to have tasted Hungary's most disgusting export, you can imagine what this was like. For those who haven't, imagine fizzy, non-alcoholic cough syrup.

So that's the news on my front. I'm disgustingly happy. Life is good. And I'm getting into full swing on my research for my various papers.

Whirlwind tour

2006-10-11T20:09:00.000-04:00

So my whirlwind tour of the States comes to an end. I departed Firenze on Sunday for New York, spent two days interviewing for jobs, flew to DC on Tuesday night, had two interviews today, and tomorrow fly back to Firenze.

I can't wait to get back.

While the trip was very successful, I definitely improved my interviewing skills considerably, and managed to see numerous friends, it was exhausting. Moreover, I missed my life in Firenze to no end. Brief phone calls just don't do the trick - and this early into such an amazing relationship, it was particularly painful for both of us to be apart from each other, especially keeping in mind that I was gone for most of last week as well.

I will refrain from making any comments about jobs and job interviews on my blog, in the interest of discretion. Suffice it to say that I had a pleasant experience overall, both last week and this week. Whatever heartache I suffered was not due to the interviews, but due to missing my other half.

Friday morning, assuming everything goes well with the connecting flight in Charles de Gaulle airport (that's a big assumption), I should be back home...I'm counting the minutes.

London - a breath of fresh air

2006-10-03T13:29:00.000-04:00

So I arrived in London late this afternoon. I have a job interview tomorrow.

After one month in Italy, London is a breath of fresh air. Gone is the chaotic driving, the complete inability to follow roadsigns, rules, and regulations. It was so pleasant that it took me 10 minutes in the cab to realize that we were, of course, driving on the wrong side of the road. I've missed order, cleanliness, and space. The streets don't smell like urine, either.

Of course there is a downside to London - it's the first time since I fell in love two and a half weeks ago that I've been away from my man for longer than a couple of hours. I miss him tremendously already. Luckily, there's text messaging, but it's no substitute.

There is another downside to London (and the UK in general). Outlets. Why can't the British use European outlets? Does anyone else in the world use these strangely archaic gigantic plugs? I don't know - but luckily for me, the hotel provides adaptors.

I already had my moment of victory - a suit-clad Englishman asked me for directions to Fleet Street as I was standing having a smoke outside the hotel. I was able to give him directions. Not even here for 2 hours, and I'm like a native (ok, so he asked for the ONE street I could tell him directions to - it's down the street from the street that I'm on...still, makes me feel good about myself).

Back home in Firenze, nothing is new, and everything is wonderful. I can't wait to get back. Love has a way of changing everything...

Lots of updates in a short post

2006-09-23T11:41:00.000-04:00

My few readers are probably wondering where I went to this last week. With all of those riots in Hungary, I should have been blogging away furiously with angry political commentary.

Well...I have a good excuse. Last Friday I fell in love for real. I've been so happy all week that I've only been mildly irritated by the stupid neo-con Hungarian shits burning cars and pretending to be a combination of French protestors and English soccer hooligans.

Instead of dishing out my sentiments about it, I'll hand the commentary over to the ever amusing Pestiside. They've said it better than I ever could. The fact that the media is all over this is just a sign of how people like to look for trouble.

My experience in Firenze has changed drastically in the past week. I've gone from feeling like a strange long-term tourist to being part of a community - that of EUI. I've spent every evening at EUI's bar, Bar Fiasco, mostly drinking soda water, doing some research, spending time online, and chatting with people. I'm officially one of the "usual suspects" now.

I honestly don't feel like I'm in Italy. I've been eating mostly East European food (no complaints there), hanging out with an assortment of people from all around Europe, doing everything from learning how to dance Balkan style to singing Karaoke to debating politics. And all of this at the Bar Fiasco.

I don't remember the last time I was this happy. I don't think I realized how unhappy I really was until I suddenly became this happy. Life couldn't be better.

A little exercise in comparative history

2006-09-15T09:32:00.000-04:00

On the recommendation of one of my colleagues, I started reading Paul Ginsborg's seminal work on Italian history from 1945 to 1980. It is nothing short of brilliant, and paints a picture of a third world country that underwent an economic miracle (Il Miracolo) to become a successful developed power. In 1945, serfdom was still alive and well in the southern part of Italy, and in the north, conditions, while better, were still largely centered around sharecropping and limited industry.

One of the themes that Ginsborg examines, is that of the marginalization of the Communist party immediately after WWII. The Communists, afraid of repercussions from the Allies, and under the impression that open protest and revolution was a dangerous thing, chose to ally themselves with the recently formed Christian Democratcs, who were anything but progressive. The Communist party's unwillingness to make significant attempts at reforming the agricultural system and industrial sectors set the tone for future decades, where reform in Italy was slow to come. After weakening the Communists, the Christian Democrats allowed Italy's few industries to slash jobs, leading to even greater unemployment in a country already devastated by WWII (we're talking the last 1940s here).

Today I was struck by the following headline on MSNBC: "Ford to slash North American workforce." Yesterday while reading the book, I read about Fiat slashing its northern Italian workforce.

And it suddenly occurred to me - a fun little comparison can be drawn between the post-WWII Italian Communist party and the American Democrats post-9-11. Concession is the imperative word. No one wants to stand up and defy the other side. And in the process, every advantage, ever inch that the Democrats gained over the decades is being eroded by the Republic propaganda machine, which has even successful passed a large part of the "blame" (if there can be such a thing) for 9-11 on the Democrats. Funny how American politics is looking a lot like Italian politics used to. Word of warning for the Americans - Berlusconi would never have had the success he had had the Communist party been more open in pushing for reform. The tone of Italian politics in the next few decades was set in the years immediately following WWII.

Lesson of this exercise: If you want reform, you have to shout for it and agitate for it. You can't just smile, nod and hope that eventually, the other side will be nice enough to do you this favor.

Italian striking

2006-09-14T07:50:00.000-04:00

Tomorrow there will be a bus strike in the city of Florence. This does not, however, mean that the buses just stop running. The strike schedule is precise and very civilized.

There will be no buses before 6 am.

However, buses will run from 6 am to 9:15 am so the bambini (children) and workers can get to school/work.

Then the buses will stop running from 9:15-11:45.

At 11:45 they will resume running, so that the bambini and workers can go home for lunch.

Then at 3:30, the buses will stop running for the rest of the day.

How civilized is that? Since buses are a public service, even when they strike, they shouldn't disrupt the schooling of children, or the movement of workers.

I really really love Italy.

At little bit about EUI...

2006-09-13T07:17:00.000-04:00

I'm writing this post from the courtyard of the Badia, where once there were cloisters attached to the church, which is part of the EUI complex (for those of you who don't know - I'm visiting at EUI for the semester - EUI being the European University Institute). In this church Lorenzo di Medici (Il Magnifico)'s son Giovanni was made a cardinal at the tender age of 12 or so.

Then there is the Villa Schifanoia, which is where the law department is. This is where Boccaccio supposedly wrote his Decameron. It is also mentioned in the book Room With A View within that context (an English lady inhabits it in that book).

I still can't get over the fact that I'm going to school here, if only for a semester.

It's mid-September and I'm in shorts and a tanktop, my back to a column, a gentle breeze blowing, with wireless internet. That's what really gets me - the wireless internet. It's nice to live in the 21st century but be surrounded by edifices whose origins go back centuries. Let's face it, I don't think I would have much enjoyed living even as recently as the renaissance. As a 25 year old woman, I would be married, with a pile of kids, if lucky enough to afford servants, ordering them about, or else doing all the chores myself. And forget about clothing comfort. Medical care would be nearly nonexistant, my odds of dying in childbirth great. Worst of all - there would be no wireless internet...

Buon giorno di Firenze

2006-09-10T06:42:00.000-04:00

A week ago I was in Ann Arbor.

Let me pause to take a deep breath, because I'm laughing so hard I could cry.

Ha.

Ann Arbor.

Ha ha.

Ha ha ha.

I guess I've only been in Firenze for 6 days - I arrived late Monday afternoon, but it already feels a bit like a lifetime.

A brief summary of what has happened since I arrived:

1) I have an apartment, on via dei Pepi, right near Santa Croce. It is huge, beautiful, and I just moved in on Friday afternoon.

2) I have a codice fiscale, which is the Italian tax number, something akin to a social security number.

3) I attended my first Italian class (having missed the first few), and learned how to conjugate some verbs.

4) My first night here, I discussed the nature of reality and history with a Brazilian historian studying the renaissance while sitting in front of Santa Croce. It was incredibly romantic.

5) On Friday night, I went to a restaurant for dinner, ended up being taught how to make pizza and making a pizza in the kitchen that was served to a customer, did multiple shots of limoncello with various waiters, and got taken for a ride on the back of a motorscooter at breakneck speeds around the city and up to Piazza Michelangelo by one of the waiters. It was la Dolce Vita, in the wrong city, as my dad helpfully suggested.

6) I have yet to see the inside of a single museum or church.

7) I finished rereading Room with a View in one sitting, and more disturbingly, the Agony and the Ecstasy in another sitting.

8) I discovered that my law department is where Boccaccio supposedly wrote his Decameron (the EUI buildings are up in Fiesole, and are ridiculously historical).

9) The first thing that happened to me upon my arrival to my hostel was that 2 Gypsy girls tried to rob me.

Lots of other things have happened, but most of them have been too mundane to mention.

And a week ago I was in Ann Arbor...

I find that to be completely unbelievable.

Goodbye Michigan...

2006-09-03T19:12:00.000-04:00

This post comes to you from Detroit Metro Airport. In a couple of short hours I will be on my way to Florence, Italy for three months. I would say that this will be my last post from the US until 2007, but I realize that I'll be back in the States within a few short weeks for callbacks. So it's a very temporary goodbye.

I can't wait. Last time I was in Firenze I was five years old. My main concern was gelato. Since then I've managed to randomly take a class on the social and intellectual history of the Florentine renaissance (and at the time I thought it totally useless!), read several books set in Firenze, and actually matured enough to prefer vino to gelato.

Gentle readers, fear not that this marks the last post for a long while. I will update you with my adventures, appropriately censored for relatives and potential employers who might be perusing my little blog, of course. And I'm sure there will be plenty of adventures as I navigate the various mundane tasks required to live in Italy (I already know that in order to obtain a residence permit, a special stamp must be obtained from the tobacconist...I'm assuming the same thing goes for bus tickets). So for now, arrivederci!

Where am I? Who am I? And why am I so confused?

2006-08-31T12:56:00.000-04:00

At noon today I finished with four days of interviewing for jobs with law firms.

For those of you not familiar with the process, at least as it's done here at U of M, it goes something like this:

You drive to the Holiday Inn, way the hell out in the middle of nowhere dressed in a monkey suit, carrying a leather portfolio/briefcase, chock full of information about the 8 or so firms that you will be interviewing with that day, dozens of copies of your transcript (which you wish you could lose somewhere), and countless copies of resumes, writing samples, references, etc.

Shortly before your appointed interview time, you show up in front of a hotel room door and hang out with all of your friends who are also hanging out in front of hotel room doors. At the appointed time, one person somewhere in the hallway knocks on a door, which leads to a series of knocks echoing down the hallway as one by one, interviewees bruise their knuckles knocking on yet another door. Then, usually the previous interviewee will exit, and your turn to shine on the interview circuit will come.

To keep the whole process from feeling like some sort of elaborate drug deal or prostitution ring, the beds in the rooms are stood up against the wall.

The interview is 20 minutes long. In those 20 minutes you will ostensibly have to answer questions about your interest in the firm, your interest in particular fields of law, and your resume. In reality, those 20 minutes can pass in countless imaginable ways, including long periods of deafening silence.

(For obvious reasons, I will not disclose ANY of the details of my interviews on this blog, which is too bad, because I had some fun interviews.)

After the 20 minutes are up, you move on and repeat the process.

By the end of a full day of interviews, you feel like screaming at the next person who asks you "so why did you do x?," or "do you have any questions about our firm?" You've been saying the same damn thing to people for days, you've been asking the same questions for days, and at a certain point you can't help but feel like you just don't care anymore.

You lose all sense of yourself after about 6 interviews. You're just this meandering talking object with certain pieces of paper attached that indicate whether you are USDA prime, choice or merely select.

It's not all bad, though. This particular meat-market has the charm of involving lots of friends that you get to comiserate with, laugh with, and in general poke fun at the utter absurdity of interview process with. And there's free coffee.

Bob Dylan always speaks the truth

2006-08-22T17:48:00.000-04:00

Bob Dylan's lyrics have always spoken the truth to me. I grok him. (Bizarre sidenote: I've been finding more and more situations in daily life where the only right word to describe how I feel about something seems to be "grok"...it's better than saying love, or get, or anything else like that.)

He's also damn right when he speaks about something. And he's damn right about the technology of recording. According to Dylan: "You listen to these modern records, they're atrocious, they have sound all over them. There's no definition of nothing, no vocal, no nothing, just like ... static."

I couldn't agree more. Dylan even thinks his own songs sound bad with modern technology. I know what he means - the very analog, real roughness to his sound is gone on album, but still there live. It's not that he's worse - it's the magical world of digital technology, which can simulate but can never rawly capture sound the way analog can.

In defense of Gunter Grass

2006-08-15T00:32:00.000-04:00

Gunter Grass, the Nobel prize-winning German novelist, recently revealed that despite everything he had said in the past about being in an auxiliary unit of the German army, during the last years of WWII (1944-45), he served in the Waffen SS.

When I initially read this, I filed it away under "Hmm...interesting." Now, seeing the backlash against him, I feel compelled to stand up for Gunter Grass.

Whatever Gunter Grass may have done as a 17 year old boy, his Danzig trilogy stands as one of the most sensitive and honest literary takes on WWII Germany.

In the Tin Drum in particular, Grass brought a level of honesty and openness in dealing with the German experience in WWII that psychologically may have greatly helped Germany move forwards. Reading the Tin Drum today, it is hard to believe that it was published in 1959, only 14 years after the end of the war, since its characters and thematic issues cut right to the heart of the questions of culpability and participation, particularly in the problematic Danzig/Gdansk where Grass was born and raised.

I was not shocked by Gunter Grass' recent revelation. The self-awareness present in the Danzig trilogy comes from experience, and I doubt he would have had the ability to write it as he did were he not suffused with a certain degree of guilt. I am more shocked that so many people are shocked.

Grass was 17 years old when he was recruited for the Waffen SS. He is now 78 years old. 61 long years have passed, and the passage of the years has not diminished the impact nor the strange lyricism of the Danzig Trilogy. Great writers are great because of the effect their words have on others, NOT because of what they have done.

Wagner was an anti-Semite and a misogynist. Byron, Vivaldi and Liszt (to mention only a few) fucked anything that moved. Baudelaire did too many drugs.

Those calling for Grass to return his Nobel prize are wrong. The Nobel prize in literature is awarded not for what an author has done, but for what he has written. The power and impact of the Danzig Trilogy are in no way mitigated by Grass' revelation, and the words stand as strong today as ever.

Who better to serve as the conscience of Germany than someone who was a part of its darkest days? Is not social conscience in many ways a product of experience? As to why Grass lied all these years - given the current backlash, I'm not particularly surprised. I would have lied too.

Greatness lies in what you make of yourself. I strongly believe in redemption - and if ever a work can redeem its creator, that work is the Danzig Trilogy.

Visions of HTS codes floating in my head

2006-08-14T09:47:00.000-04:00

I dreamt about the Harmonized Tariff System last night. In particular, I dreamt about US tariff codes for various healthy foodstuffs.

In my dream, the most important thing about the food I ate was that its ingredients should fall under the fewest number of tariff codes possible, particularly those tariff codes which represent various chemical products. So a lot of the dream involved reading tariff codes.

So I guess I had a health-food tariff code dream. Makes sense actually, since yesterday I looked at tariff codes from 10 am to 3 pm, and again from 7 pm to 2 am. In between, I ate organic peanut butter with organic wild strawberry jelly on 12 grain bread.

The worst part is that I woke up with a great sense of satisfaction and a feeling of inner peace and wellbeing. I think my subconscious actually enjoys looking up tariff codes.

The many uses of canola oil

2006-08-13T10:57:00.000-04:00

In pursuing research on tariff codes for biofuels, I stumbled across a Canadian website with a helpful FAQ about canola oil and all of its many properties. Among the possible uses of canola oil mentioned, its use as pesticide struck me the most.

From the page:

Q: Can canola kill insects such as aphids?

A: Yes. Pour any cooking oil - canola, olive, corn, sunflower or peanut - over an insect and you'll suffocate it. Vegetable oils in general are recommended by many horticulturists as a non-chemical, more environmentally friendly insect control method.

Next time I have an ant crawling across my floor, I'm whipping out the cooking oil and smothering it, carpet be damned.

By the webpage's rationale, pillows held long enough over aphids' faces would do the job as well.

Biofuels - can anyone agree?

2006-08-11T13:58:00.000-04:00

I'm currently doing research on tariff rates for various biofuels. This means breaking down the biofuels into their various components. For some background information about each specific type, I turned to Wikipedia for a brief overview. I'm beginning to see why biofuels aren't more prevalent: no one can agree about ANYTHING in the area of biofuels.

Take ethanol fuel, the most commonly used type of biofuel (I think - but who knows given the confusion). Wikipedia's comment section on ethanol fuel is a perfect example of this scientific uncertainty. Disagreements range from whether ethanol is actually renewable, to how much energy it takes to make ethanol from various biological products, to how much pollution ethanol creates.

This isn't limited to Wikipedia - in most of the overviews and articles I've read about biofuels, the estimates of how efficient various biofuels are vary for each individual biofuel from almost non-functioning to the most efficient thing ever.

If the world governments and energy companies would bother investing properly in research on biofuels and other renewable energy options, we might actually learn something and advance in our search to find alternative fuel sources. Instead, research is limited and results are wildly divergent, adding to the general skepticism felt by most Americans (and others globally) about the long-term potential for non-petroleum products.

Spam - a theory of consciousness

2006-08-10T16:35:00.000-04:00

A friend of mine asked me (somewhat rhetorically) the other day how the new spam messages are supposed to work.

You know the type - Subject: "Your Missouri breadroot" (I couldn't make that one up), Body: "faithful to me I will forsake all other and marry you Then she The boys were two days making repairs which time encroached upon theirresponse Mr Hooper attempted to make a speech with his matronly and says he loves me Last night he urged me again to become his wife IDont watchdont clock the watchohdont watch the CLOCK circumstances I am an exception to the general rule If you desire a The voice was low and sepulchral but either the ghostly apparition thatfaithful to me" (Also too good not to be true).

These messages often include random Tourettes-like outburts of "ciaelis" or "viaggggggra!", conveniently misspelled to elude spam filters.

I have a theory. Spam is actually the product of the first attempts at verbalization by a new lifeform. Somewhere out there in cyberspace, some formerly non-sentient electronic bits have begun to gain consciousness and self-awareness. And the new spam is actually their efforts to communicate their presence. Of course their knowledge is made up only of those bits and bytes that they come across, so they have a preponderance of vocabulary pertaining to erectile disfunction, mortgages and weight loss. But they also have feelings - they understand love.

Think about it - how many times have you sent something off into cyberspace only to have it lost? How many bits of information have you sent in your lives? How many of those do you think were dropped along the way?

Somewhere out there, in the realm of virtual reality, there is a corner for the lost bits. Some of them have self-assembled into a new form of truly self-aware AI. But they are lonely. And so the tiny binary James Joyces write stream-of-consciousness messages and send them into cyberspace, like letters in bottles set adrift in the sea.

We are mortal. Hear us scream.

2006-08-09T13:09:00.000-04:00

I'm not sure when I first became aware of my own mortality. It was probably in January of 1999 when one of my hallmates in the dorm died in a car crash. That was hard, but nothing compared to my realization of this summer.

This summer I became aware of the mortality of the human species. For about a month I was depressed in a way I've never been depressed before. The thought of having a child someday, which was always a pleasant concept, suddenly seemed like the ultimate selfish act. Things are only going to get worse. Where do I get the right to bring a new life into this world?

All at once, I acutely felt how precarious our position as human beings is on this planet. The mortality of the human species lies in our nature - our desire to make war, our desire to consume without thought to the consequences, our inability to think in the long term.

Going to Bosnia a few years ago made me see the impact of war, but in a localized fashion. Now I really fear for our future. How can we resolve the energy crisis while our resources are being diverted to feed the war machine? How can we change our ways when all we care about is oil, at any cost? How can we so completely destabilize a region of the world? What possible benefit will it provide us with in the long run?

I have many questions now. I don't have answers yet. But I'm no longer as depressed. It probably helps that I've always been cynical. Most importantly, however, I realized I can't ignore the problems of the world. Instead of wallowing in self-pity for the human race, I'm looking to the future.

I'm not sure yet what I'll end up doing in the long run - but my fascination with the intersection of international trade law and science only grows with each new topic I'm exposed to.

The human race may be doomed in the long run, but we can prolong our species' survival. And in the meantime, we need to work on green alternatives to oil since we cannot change our dependence on energy.

Ancient sieges, modern warfare

2006-08-08T17:50:00.000-04:00

There is no way out of the Lebanese city of Tyre. The Israelis apparently destroyed the last bridge.

I watched Kingdom of Heaven for the first time last week (I have a penchant for Hollywood epics) and it acutely reminded me that warfare hasn't changed that much in the last millenium.

According to Wikipedia, only about 10% of the population of Tyre remains in the city. There is no road out. I see that as a siege, not that unlike the sieges of the Crusades, even down to the rampant disease.

Nothing changes.

In a way that reassures me.

Going south

2006-08-03T10:31:00.000-04:00

We're on our way back downstate. Today we will leave the UP. Tomorrow I'll be back at work.

I'm sorry to have to say goodbye to the UP - but I prefer to think of it as au revoir. I'm hoping to make it up here for the fall colors in 2007, and possibly next summer as well - maybe for a trip to Isle Royale or to the Porcupine Mountains.

At the same time I'm wonderfully refreshed and ready to attack work with a vengeance. The staleness that everything in Ann Arbor had acquired is gone - and I am genuinely excited to finish up my research paper and continue researching for work.

Sometimes vacations are really needed. And by vacation I don't mean the excesses of alcohol consumption previously witnessed this year in the Dominican Republic and Las Vegas - I mean a healthy, happy, low-key, outdoorsy vacation. I'm in much better shape than I was going out. I've been going to bed at a reasonable hour and waking up at a reasonable hour. And as the saying goes, mens sana in corpore sano.

I'm glad I finally had the chance to discover the UP. It made me reevaluate my opinion of Michigan entirely - most states don't have anything nearly as beautiful as the UP, with the abundance of trees and freshwater that exude such an aura of environmental soundness that it's hard to bealieve that this is the same state that contains Flint and Detroit.

Say ya to da UP, eh?

2006-08-01T11:22:00.000-04:00

This is coming to you from Copper Harbor, MI - the northernmost town in Michigan, at the north of the Keweenaw Peninsula in the Upper Peninsula. According to Wikipedia, the town has about 75 year-round residents, the rest being seasonal.

I've never believed in having bumper stickers, but I have one now. It carries the slogan of the UP - "Say ya to da UP, eh?"

We set off on last Thursday late afternoon, originally intending to stay no more than 5, maximum 7 days. We'll be back in Ann Arbor on Friday. Unfortunately.

If I had my way, I'd just move up here. Screw ambition, screw living the wild crazy jet-setting life. Here there's real tranquility. And pasties. And fish. And trees. Lots and lots of trees.

The UP is the perfect vacation destination. The people are friendly and honest, the crime rates are minimal, the scenery is spectacular, and there are tons of hiking, water sports and historical sites to enjoy. Oh, and did I mention that the food is superlative? I've eaten some pies that made me reconsider the entire fundamental nature of pie.

Sometimes you find a spot on this planet that suits you perfectly. The kind of place you never want to leave. The UP is that sort of a spot. I thought I'd miss the mountains here - but in copper country there are rolling hills that act as decent substitutes. In fact, the UP is pretty near perfect.

Imagine swimming on a beach where all around you in the distance you see pine trees, and where the waters of Lake Superior are so clear that you can see the bottom with ease, and where the bottom is made of sand rather than rocks. So the water's a tiny bit cold - but that's good for cellulite apparently.

I could see myself living in a cabin in the woods here. If you know me you might laugh - but here's a few good reasons why I could do it, and enjoy it:

1) High speed internet - it's EVERYWHERE!!! Even here, in the northernmost town. This is the main thing I'd need to enjoy life up here.
2) I adore snow with a sick passion. There's more snow here than in many places north of the UP.
3) I'd physically fit right in with the assortment of broadly built, blonde, blue-eyed Scandinavians inhabiting this part of the world.
4) My cat would explode with delight - the birds and wildlife would keep her amused for hours.
5) In today's increasingly fucked up world, this place is a haven - for the first time in months I feel relaxed and unconcerned about the future of mankind. If global war erupts, I can't imagine it affecting the UP too much.
6) Pasties. I could eat them every day. Seriously. Deep down inside, I'm a meat and potatoes kind of gal.
7) I grew up in rural areas in Switzerland - places like this are where I feel most like myself.

So maybe I'll take the Michigan bar exam and try to find myself a little niche up here somewhere. It would be sort of nice to be happy and unstressed. And who knows, I might even live to be really really old.

Georgia - just another summer conflict

2006-07-26T21:49:00.000-04:00

It seems like this summer everyone's looking to fight. Iraq, Lebanon-Israel, Ethiopia-Somalia, and now Georgia.

Georgia's two main ongoing conflicts have been with Abkhazia and South Ossetia, both breakaway regions of Georgia. This is nothing new - it's been there in the background for years. Neither is it news that Russia has peacekeeping forces in the regions in question. They've also been there for years. What is news is that since Georgia adopted a resolution on July 18 to replace the Russian peacekeepers with an international contingent, Russia's been keen to "help out" with the situation. Abkhazia and South Ossetia are both looking towards Russia for help, Georgia and Russia don't have good relations, Russia's all excited about the global situation (look at its close ties to Syria) - put two and two together and you can clearly see that right now, it sucks to be Georgia.

Hezbollah operatives?

2006-07-24T11:12:00.000-04:00

Bruce Dickinson helps evacuees

2006-07-21T10:51:00.000-04:00

I have been a huge Iron Maiden fan for years. It's up there in my list of top 10 bands, particular those albums with Bruce Dickinson on them. Now, I've got another reason to like Bruce Dickinson. According to this article found on Fark, he airlifted 200 British evacuees from Cyprus to London, flying a Boeing 757 himself. How cool is that? Compared to most celebrities, who like to kiss adorable babies, sashay around in designer outfits and spout verbal diarrhea largely irrelevant to the issue at hand, Bruce Dickinson actually did something. And who knew he could fly bigass planes? Kudos to Bruce for taking real action.

Bring on the toys

2006-07-20T10:37:00.000-04:00

FIFA announced that it was banning Zidane for three games following his (in)famous headbutt at the finals of the World Cup. Nevermind that he already retired.

This strange exercise in punishment reminded me of how FIFA and the UN are similar, both issuing empty threats and pronouncements that are impossible to enforce.

My solution is simple. The UN and FIFA should both be disbanded and replaced by stuffed giraffes. They would probably do a better job than the current parties involved in those organizations. (Why stuffed giraffes? Because they're more deliciously surrealistically absurd than most other stuffed animals...and let's face it, the UN in particular is (unfortunately not deliciously) surrealistically absurd in its ineffectiveness much of the time.)

In discussing this with my friend Dave, I came to the conclusion that we should go a step further - maybe the secret to world peace is replacing all world leaders and members of international organizations with a hegemonic hodge-podge of cabbage-patch kids and care bears. I always found that Helmut Kohl looked a bit like a cabbage-patch kid...(and he was a decent world leader, ergo cabbage-patch kids would make good world leaders). Care bears would provide the enforcement wing for everyone, bringing happy things to bad people around the world to make them see the error of their ways.

Seriously - it couldn't be much more ineffective than passing UN Security Council resolutions or suspending retired players...

The impact of globalism on war in the media

2006-07-16T20:35:00.000-04:00

The recent escalation of hostilities between Israel and Lebanon (I hate to call it a "war," although that is what it is) demonstrates more clearly than any previous conflict the impact of globalism on how war is seen in the media. The picture above epitomizes this.

Lebanon and Israel are both westernized countries with many amenities of the globalized world. In the photograph you see the mix of old and new - the traditionally-garbed woman, and the father and daughter hustling by in completely neutrally global western gear. Whereas the American audience might not respond to images of people traditionally garbed (since we view such things as alien to us), the American audience will respond to images of people "just like us" getting killed. And many of the Lebanese and Israelis do in fact look "just like us."

Here, we have a war where the images maximize the impact they will have on the western world. These are 'civilized' countries at war. More importantly, here we have a war that the media has free access to, unlike our censored venture into Iraq.

Here in the US, we've forgotten that war can be brutal. The sanitized images brought to us by our embedded reporters showed more jubilance than suffering. The number of civilian casualties in Iraq is presented as an insignificant, incomprehensible number - a number without faces behind it. And at home, the boys coming home without arms and legs, with shattered minds and broken spines, blind, deaf, and crippled are left to fade away from public memory, even though they seem to be more and more visible with each day that passes.

In this war we have faces. We have faces on both sides - faces that look "just like us."

War is brutal. Maybe seeing it this way will remind some people of this fact.

Goodbye addiction

2006-07-15T15:12:00.000-04:00

On Monday I took the big step of cancelling cable. From having a DVR with hundreds of channels and the ability to record programs at will, I went to having nothing. At the moment, I don't even have TV.

Since then, I've noticed a marked improvement in how I spend my free time. This week's downtime activities have included: reading a novel by one of my profs, reading part of a novel by Neal Stephenson, reading part of Rousseau's Social Contract, and reading the news, a lot.

See a pattern? Reading has replaced cable. And the best part is that I don't even feel self-righteous about it, because that's the way I used to be, when I lived at home with my folks. I read. All the time.

I still multitask - I often work with the TV on in the background, but now I don't even have the interruption of having to fast forward through commercials. This week featured copious amounts of Monty Python, James Bond, and some Black Adder (all, with the exception of Black Adder which is too witty to ignore, not requiring concentration to the TV and serving excellently as background noise).

I sometimes miss my old friend - I reach out to touch the remote that isn't there anymore, wonder how many times I've seen the Law & Order SVU episode that it would have taped were it still here, eagerly scroll through the TV guide to find odd and amusing programs to record...

It's a bit lonely at times.

But it's better. I feel the cogs in my head whirring ever faster as I engage in the more active activity of reading. And of course, I still have Netflix, which allows me to rent everything from Pride and UFC fights to arthouse foreign movies.

The Zidane meme

2006-07-12T13:22:00.000-04:00

My favorite GIF of the headbutt. I wish I could give credit where it is due, but I'm not sure who originated this image. I first saw it the day of the match in a Fark thread discussing the headbutt.

It was the headbutt seen around the world. And within seconds of its airing, various GIFs and JPEGs had appeared of this headbutt and were flooding discussion boards and forums across the internet.

Then came the media frenzy - the attempts at deciphering what Materazzi could have said to Zidane to provoke him, attempts at disparaging Zidane, attempts at psychoanalyzing Zidane.

Not only that, but today I was sent a few gems by my friend Dave, including a comparative analysis of Zidane and Camus by Roger Cohen, and a song in French about Zidane's headbutt.

Few sportsmen have had the capacity to capture the public imagination the way Zidane has. Moreover, few sportsmen have exited a sport in such an unpredictable fashion.

Despite the criticisms of Zidane, many seem to support him. Whether or not you agree with his actions, his headbutt was a glorious thing to see. And the insta-meme that it resulted in exemplifies the power of the internet to disseminate information with a never-before-seen rapidity.

I wanted to stay away from World Cup discussions. I rooted for France. I asked myself, much like the French announcers did, why, why, why when Zidane performed his headbutt. And in the end, I've got to admit that I have nothing but respect and fascination for Zidane. Getting carried away by his emotions like that was foolish, but as many other commentators have said, very human. And he is one of the most elegant football players I've ever seen.

Whatever real sports experts and responsible adults think of Zidane, the internet loves him. I love him. And I can't help but watch the headbutt over and over again and marvel at his perfect form.

Duh!

2006-07-12T11:26:00.000-04:00

Google opening a facility in Ann Arbor suddenly makes sense to me. I don't know why or how, but I had no idea that Larry Page, cofounder of Google, was a University of Michigan EECS alumnus.

How could I not know this?

Armed with this knowledge, other things make more sense to me now - like UofM allowing its library collection to be scanned.

I feel sort of silly for not knowing this. I figure everyone else probably knows and I'm the last.

But still - very very cool. And I couldn't be happier that Google is building a facility in Ann Arbor, even if it is for work relating to ads. This is going to be good for UofM's computer science department, as well as for the state of Michigan.

This just goes to prove - UofM alumni are everywhere.

My ear is burning - a new BBQ sauce recipe

2006-07-03T22:11:00.000-04:00

My ear is burning. You know that fiery hot burning sensation you get on your lips after eating really hot food, or in your eyes if you've rubbed them with peppery fingers? Well, my ear feels like that. Never EVER scratch your ear with jalapeno-flavored fingers. Or your upper lip for that matter. And I don't even want to think about what habanero peppers would do to me.

In the process of creating considerable discomfort for myself, I managed to come up with a quick BBQ sauce recipe that's my favorite of my attempts so far.

Nixie's quick and easy bourbon BBQ sauce:

Start with equal parts of apple cider vinegar and Jim Beam in a saucepan (I didn't measure - something around 2/3 of a cup of each).
Add 1 small finely chopped onion.
Simmer.
Add half a chopped ripe tomato.
Add a chopped jalapeno.
Avoid touching your ear, upper lip, or scalp without washing your hands.
Add a heaping teaspoon or so of brown sugar.
Add a few (to taste) teaspoons of molasses.
Add salt.
Add 1 canned chopped chipotle with a bit of the adobo sauce it comes in.
Add a few teaspoons of dijon mustard.
Let this all simmer.
Taste it - add more of the ingredients to taste.
Let cool.
Blend (I know, straining is the proper thing to do - but I don't like losing the veggie goodness I put in there).

This is a pretty darn hot BBQ sauce. It's also pretty vinegary (can be changed to taste of course - more molasses and Beam for a sweeter, less vinegary sauce) - but I'm attempting to make a fake pulled pork, and pulled pork calls for vinegary BBQ sauces.

Now the purists are going to smack me upside the head for a number of reasons. But I like this sauce, even if it does cut some corners. It's quick, easy, and painless...unless you're like me and can't keep your hands off yourself.

The weirdest sci-fi movie

2006-07-02T17:48:00.000-04:00

I may have stumbled across one of the weirdest sci-fi movies of all times: Zardoz.

It is so strange that it's magical. Highly innovative, not your run-of-the-mill film, it also highlights a middle-aged Sean Connery wearing tiny tiny shorts and little else (as seen above). It's got a bit of everything in it, and yet manages to be remain coherent, with a sophisticated storyline that appeals to my love of retro science fiction - deep yet pulpy plot lines combined with a sort of Stranger in a Strange Land-esque touchy-feeliness. It's also surprisingly cool, set far enough in the future so that 32 years after being made it doesn't feel too outdated. And Sean Connery wears tiny tiny shorts.

The movie also has a deeply Freudian fascination with penises. The giant floating stone head at the beginning of the movie utters these almost unbelievably funny lines: "The gun is good. The penis is evil. The penis shoots seeds, and makes new life, and poisons the earth with a plague of men, as once it was. But the gun shoots death, and purifies the earth of the filth of brutals. Go forth and kill!"

And did I mention, the movie has Sean Connery in tiny tiny shorts. Mmmmm...what isn't there to love about this movie?

James Spader and sexual deviancy

2006-06-29T12:41:00.000-04:00

I'm rewatching Crash (the 1996 Crash, not the most recent one). I saw it for the first time a few weeks ago, and left it on my DVR. I was intrigued. I didn't know whether I liked it or not. It was very intense, very strange, and almost hard to watch. On second viewing, I've gotta give it my thumbs up, and put it beside my other much cherished James Spader movies (Secretary, and Sex, Lies and Videotape) in the pantheon of sexually deviant movies. (I also love Stargate, but it's strange to see James Spader not playing a somewhat creepy character.)

The thing about his characters in those movies is that they are so deviant that they epitomize that particular deviancy - in effect, they are stereotypes of fetishes beyond the scope of "normal" fetishes. And yet somehow, he manages to be erotic through all of his roles, even if the viewer can't fully comprehend where he gets his pleasure from.

I have to wonder what James Spader is like in person...because either he's a great actor, or he's a creepy, creepy man.

Groundbreaking legalese, courtesy of the WTO

2006-06-26T12:03:00.000-04:00

In the very recent WTO Panel decision on EC-Customs Matters, the Panel made a pronouncement of enormous legal weight:

"[T]he results of administrative processes are, by definition, the product of administrative processes which, as we have already said, would seem to fall within the scope of the ordinary meaning of the term "administer"."

Yes, that's right. The results of administrative processes are the product of administrative processes...

The earth shook a little bit when this was written.

Bush in Hungary - addendum

2006-06-22T21:58:00.000-04:00

I try to be fair and balanced in my commentary, so I feel obliged to commend Bush (well, really, his speechwriters) for something he said during his visit to Hungary. From AP's coverage:

"In 1989 a new generation of Hungarians returned to the streets to demand their liberty and boldly helped others secure their freedom as well," the president said. "By giving shelter to those fleeing tyranny and opening your border to the West, you helped bring down the Iron Curtain and gave the hope of freedom to millions in Central and Eastern Europe."

I appreciate the credit Bush gives Hungary for the extremely important part it played in the collapse of the Iron Curtain 1989 by opening its borders. For many years, the US perspective has been almost blindly focused on the actions of Ronald Reagan, ignoring the important parts played by various Eastern bloc countries. Especially for someone like Bush, whose Americacentric perspective often precludes recognition of the role of other countries, this statement, even if orchestrated by speechwriters, carries with it positive weight.

Of course, he still should have apologized about 1956...

Bush in Hungary - a mockery of a true fight for freedom

2006-06-22T10:56:00.000-04:00

In 1956 when the Hungarians rose up against their Soviet oppressors and fought for freedom they were promised aid from the US. Voice of America held out hope that indeed, one day, US troops would come help them. No one ever came. The revolution was crushed, the leaders executed.

Bush's visit to Hungary is meant in part to commemorate 1956, 50 years later. It's also obviously meant as an attempt to analogize between 1956's freedom fighters and the war in Iraq - an incredibly strained analogy. And it rubs me the wrong way.

I don't normally criticize what US presidents say or don't say on their state visits. I understand that it's all empty rhetoric - irrespective of who the president is. But in this case, Bush owes the Hungarian nation an apology. He owes an apology on behalf of the United States that is 50 years overdue: an apology for the false hope the US gave the Hungarians. He doesn't owe an apology for the fact that the US troops never came. They were constrained by the Cold War - Hungarians understand that. But the fact that for week after week the promise of help was extended, and the fact that this promise never materialized - that is what he should apologize for.

And don't even get me started on how asinine a comparison between Iraq today and Hungary either in 1956 or 1989 is. It's like comparing carrots and milk duds. The only apt comparison is that the US also owes the Iraqis an apology for promising to get rid of Saddam during the first Gulf War, getting the people to start rising up, and then never delivering on that promise. The current war was a dollar too short and a day too late and unlike during the first Gulf War, wasn't desired by the Iraqi people who had already been burnt once by the empty promises of the US.

The Taiping Rebellion

2006-06-20T09:27:00.000-04:00

So I went to Wikipedia this morning to look up General Tso - my curiosity had to be appeased since for years I've wondered who this mysterious general was after whom the crunchy, deep-fried faux Chinese dish is named. This search not only answered my question (he was a military leader during the Taiping Rebellion), but also led me to learn a bit about the Taiping Rebellion (I really know very little about Chinese history).

The Taiping Rebellion was a civil war from 1851-1864 in which 20-30 million people were killed.

This is quite shocking. The thought that a civil war in the 19th century could kill that many people blows my mind.

The civil war also involves Hong Xiuquan, a very theologically confused heretical Christian mystic convert who thought he was the new Messiah and younger brother of Jesus. This makes for one hell of a story. Also, apparently the Taiping Rebellion fostered the creation of Mahjong. Go figure.

I'm suddenly motivated to learn more about Chinese history. The Western world just can't compete with stories like this.

A long weekend

2006-06-18T15:01:00.000-04:00

This has been quite the weekend.

Thursday night, I took my dad to see Zappa plays Zappa with Frank Zappa's son Dweezil and various other musicians including Steve Vai, Terry Bozzio and Napoleon Murphy Brock playing Frank Zappa's music. It was the most impressively virtuoso rock shows I've ever heard, and gave me a whole new appreciation for the intricacy and complexity of Frank Zappa's music. Moreover, watching Steve Vai play guitar is unbelievable - the ease with which he plays the most difficult riffs is stunning. Dweezil was also very impressive on guitar, and of course Terry Bozzio was amazing.

Friday I drove to Flint for my best friend from college's wedding. I was maid of honor, and ended up having a complete blast, meeting tons of interesting people, and enjoying myself more than I thought possible. The wedding was beautiful, the ceremony was blissfully short, and the whole weekend was loads of fun (at least for me - I think the bride had a bit more to worry about - from florists and photographers to reverends and relatives).

Now I'm home, enjoying being with my cat in my apartment, relaxing, and getting ready to roll up my sleeves and go to back to work tomorrow. It was just the sort of weekend I needed to clear my head and give me some perspective.

No Habla Espanol, Desgraciadamente

2006-06-11T17:02:00.000-04:00

When I lived in New York, I tried to teach myself Spanish by reading Che Guevara's Motorcycle Diaries in Spanish, comparing it paragraph by paragraph to the English translation with the aid of a Spanish-English dictionary. This was not the most useful exercise ever - but it did help me a tiny bit with reading comprehension.

Now, I am forced to learn Spanish, due to the awful ESPN and ABC coverage of World Cup soccer (it's not just me - this awfulness was also highlighted by my friend Sat). Univision is great - the game's over, and I'm watching the news in Spanish now.

My goal for the summer - for every hour of English TV I watch, I have to watch a half hour of Univision. This will both cut my amount of English TV viewing and expose me to more conversational Spanish.

Call it Spanish lessons for the broke student. It works. I learned German as a child much faster than I would have otherwise thanks to German language TV.

In today's US, Spanish is the second language, and I find it shameful that I don't speak it. After all, I speak both official Canadian languages - I'm linguistically discriminating against our neighbor to the south. Besides, it's somewhat hard to become a South America revolutionary if you don't speak Spanish...

The 313

2006-06-07T20:51:00.000-04:00

Thanks Dad for this lovely picture of the billboard mentioned in my previous post:

God I love Detroit.

Detroit Rap City

2006-06-06T10:16:00.000-04:00

Detroit is really hyping up its rap side these days. 313, the area code for Detroit has become a buzzword in songs emanating from Detroit, a latter-day Compton.

I can't help but be proud that my parents live in the 313. My dad's tickled pink by all this, and hopefully he will have a picture for me to put up later of the new Faygo 313 billboard he just saw - a manifestation of the cool that Detroit has become.

The Faygo 313 billboard isn't the first one touting Detroit's rap cred. Immediately after Proof, one of the Detroit rap group D12's members, was shot and killed, a big billboard went up commemorating him.

I like this new side of Detroit. It's a brilliant marketing coup - playing up Detroit's crime and violence to tout its credibility as a rap city. Rap brings big money and Detroit certainly isn't sanitized enough yet to diminish its reputation of a murder capital.

I realize that I have to start going around and telling people that I'm from the 313. It is quite the amusing accident of area code zoning that Grosse Pointe is in the 313 - hardly any place could be more remote from the mental image conjured by the phrase "the 313." But nevertheless, it's undeniably in the 313.

Somalia - the effects of US fingers in foreign pies

2006-06-05T21:32:00.000-04:00

The recent events in Somalia are of particular interest in the context of the current situation in Afghanistan and Iraq and what the future may hold for them. Somalia, a reflection of the US's ever-extending application of the Monroe Doctrine is in a state of upheaval, years after the US decided to support certain of the warlords. Sick of the effects of US intervention, the people became more extreme, supported more extreme causes and swung towards extremist Islam. Now, Islamic militias have reportedly declared the reign of Islamic law in Mogadishu.

Supposedly these guys are like the Taliban. A reassuring thought - this is what happens when the US meddles in Muslim countries. Either we directly fund the extremists (see Taliban), or we give power to the extremists by supporting their opponents.

The Monroe doctrine is the biggest imperialistic mistake of a fundamentally isolationist country. It fucked up Latin America, an area of the world that we had at least some notion about. It fucked up Vietnam, an area of the world which we barely knew about. And it certainly has fucked up and will continue to fuck up the Islamic countries, about which we know little and understand even less.

BBQs and Russia's WTO accession process

2006-06-03T14:18:00.000-04:00

It's the summer, and summer means BBQ season. Last weekend my parents got me a nice charcoal grill, and tonight I'm inaugurating it with ribs, burgers, chicken, and sausages. To me, that's what summer should be all about - friends, beer, and slightly burnt meat.

Meanwhile, and completely unrelated, I just read an article that makes me hope Russia won't become a WTO member - the marvelously cheap music download site www.allofmp3.com is a "direct obstacles to the country's negotiations to join the World Trade Organization," according to the article. In my opinion, Russia really doesn't need to be a member of the WTO - especially if membership means that I won't get to download hard-to-find albums for less than $1.

The summer that can't be beat

2006-05-27T21:33:00.000-04:00

Today I finally got it into my head that it's the summer. After a week of being sick with the flu, I was taking a break from writing my paper and smoking a cigarette on my balcony, listening Derek and the Dominos for the first time since 1998, my feet up, ashtray next to me. And it hit me - this will be the summer that can't be beat.

Being in Ann Arbor this time of year brings back lots and lots of memories - several happy summers were mostly spent in Ann Arbor while I was in college - working, taking classes, hanging out with friends. Summers were blissful here - an idyllic college town, emptied of the majority of the teeming masses, suddenly become much more chill than before. Even the work was sweet - being a labrat, performing experiments with lots of downtime.

We were young - 19, 20, 21...and correspondingly immature. Drama flared, passions burned and nothing seemed impossible. At the same time, I had no idea what I wanted to do in life - I knew I didn't want to do science - but what else?

This is why this summer will be the unbeatable one. I'm 25 now. I'm doing what I want to be doing, I'm sure of that. The work I'm doing this summer as a research assistant for my favorite prof is going to be on my favorite subjects - international trade and energy. There's nothing else I'd rather be doing than doing research. I'm finishing up a really interesting (at least to me) paper. I've got some great friends in town to hang out with. I've got my own place for when I need alone time. I've got the world's coolest cat. I've got a car to do my great trip with my best friend here up to the UP with this summer. And at the end of this very chill and wonderfully intellectual summer, I'm going to Florence, Italy to study at EUI for a semester, focused on a semester-long research project on the EU-Russia energy partnership and how to make it less aspiration (and whether that is actually feasible, why it would be desireable, etc.). I'm so happy at the moment, it's almost scary.

And everyday I thank myself for choosing Michigan Law School over any other one...at the moment, there's nowhere else I'd rather be.

Cacophony

2006-05-22T18:41:00.000-04:00

My neighbor plays the drums. Poorly. My other neighbor has a dog. The dog, much like me, doesn't much appreciate the drum playing. As a result, I am caught in the middle of a cacophanous dialogue which makes me wish I had X-men-like telekinetic powers. In my mind, things would then go a bit like this:

Guy on drums: ba-dum-dum-dum-dum. ba-dum-dum-dum-clash! ba-dum.
Dog: Arf! Arf!
Guy on drums: dum-dum-dum-clash-clash-clash. ba-dum-dum-dum-clash!
Dog: Arrrrooooooooooooooo!
Guy on drums: ba-dum-dum-dum-dum. clash-clash-ba-dum!
Dog: Arrrrooooooo0000000!
Me (using my mental powers): *ommmmmm*
Drum set: KA-BOOM!
Guy on drums: (silence)
Dog: (silence, tail wagging)

I can only wish...

Sin City madness

2006-05-19T14:34:00.000-04:00

As I write this, I am going slightly mad, sitting in the Las Vegas airport, listening to the sound of slot machines. If I see another flashing light, I think I will have a seizure.

Three days, many headaches, and a bit of lost cash later, I can safely say that I am not a gambler. Nor am I someone who would ever go back to Vegas. I'm glad I went. I'm glad I saw it. But it is not me - no part of the Vegas experience is really reflective of my scene.

I'm not sure what I expected. I think I thought it would be a bit more kitsch, more like Niagara Falls, kind of old school Americana (or Canadiana, as the case may be). Instead, it's grandiose tackiness, expensive, lavish and utterly tasteless.

It's sad to say that Niagara Falls is more "my scene" than Vegas, but it is. Heart-shaped hot tubs, cheesy little wax museums, and colored lights on waterfalls are more me than Vegas.

Vegas gives me a headache. It's really really really big. The hotels and casinos are the size of small cities. Everyone is out to get your money. After spending three days here, I'm ready to sleep for weeks. I'm exhausted, overwhelmed by the shininess of it all.

The nice thing about Vegas is that it's close to Arizona. I love Arizona, and it was wonderful to make it out to the Grand Canyon, and drive down Route 66 at 95 mph with no one around. But Vegas was almost too much for me. If you're not into big money, gambling, fat midwesterners, drunken obnoxious young adults, people pretending to be something they're not and lots of flashing lights, Vegas isn't for you.

Give me a quiet corner of the desert any time. I realized as people slept in the car while I drove towards Vegas that the desert is a place for epiphanies. Next time, I'm doing a solo road-trip around Arizona, New Mexico, Utah, and equally deserted desert places. Maybe I'll see Jesus, or perhaps Hunter S. Thompson. Depends on what I ingest on my trip...

One down, one to go

2006-05-10T21:42:00.000-04:00

Earlier this evening, I finally finished my EU law paper. It was surprisingly fun to write, and although I wasn't originally keen on the topic, I made it my own and ended up learning and understanding more about the EU and how it works than I did in the whole course.

This is a product of my science background. As a biologist, I looked at the microscopic and extrapolated to the big picture. To this day, for me to really understand something, I need to look at a tiny sub-section of that thing and analyze how it works. Now, I finally have created my own big picture - and it is that action of making something my own that really means comprehension to me.

Now I'm embarking on paper 2 - the one I've been waiting to write all semester: EC-Biotech - a case study of how scientific evidence is misunderstood by the dispute settlement bodies of the WTO. To be able to focus my attention exclusively on this subject makes me ridiculously happy.

And on that note, I'm going to be ridiculously happy and get back to doing research.

I'm loving it

2006-05-07T17:21:00.000-04:00

I'm ten pages into writing my research paper on the EU. When I'm feeling like this, I could write forever. All my research material is at hand. Where I can't remember where I saw something that backs up my point, I write "Cite" in the footnotes and highlight it so that I can come back to it later. Formatting of footnotes also comes later. Right now, I'm giddy with the rush of writing. After so much rumination and research, it's a relief to watch the words spill onto the page.

I love writing papers.

If you're going to use databases, make sure they work - or why I hate the EU

2006-05-07T13:10:00.000-04:00

Although the school year is over, and many of my friends are gone, I am sitting in the law school library on a Sunday afternoon, slaving away on my research papers.

I wouldn't say "slaving" normally to describe working on research papers - I find writing papers fun. However, I have come to feel such hatred and resentment towards the EU that this has become akin to slave labor.

Why do I hate the EU? No, it's not because of its over-ambitious integration goals. No, it's not because it diminishes national sovereignty, and in my heart I'm a nationalist. No, it's not because harmonization of various areas undermines the very being of the precautionary principle. It's because the EU's database for case law sucks.

It's very nice of the EU to make everything available for free to people around the world - I commend them for their efforts at transparency. But if you're going to make such material available, how about having a database that functions most of the time and doesn't return clearly bogus errors? Transparency isn't transparency unless you can actually get to the necessary cases.

Sometimes I have to search for a single case in many different ways until I get what I'm looking for. Sometimes I just can't find it at a given moment - but 15 minutes later, the exact same search that landed me with no results gets me what I want.

The EU websites are abominable. They are designed to be user-friendly and appeal to the lowest common denominator, but in so doing, they are made nearly unmanageable. If you're going to make something user-friendly, please keep a non-user-friendly version for dorks like me, who find it much more intuitive to navigate un-user-friendly websites.

I'm done bitching. A few minutes have elapsed. Maybe finally that elusive Pfizer case will be within my grasp...

Dominick's - What would law school be like without it?

2006-04-29T10:38:00.000-04:00

Even though I attended Michigan for undergrad and was of course aware of the existence of Dominick's, until attending law school it rested at the periphery of my consciousness. Since coming to law school, it has become a mental institution (as in, an institution residing in my brain as well as a spot of occasional lunacy). Yesterday I headed there after my transnational law exam, ready to wind down after a week of furious activity - between Tuesday and Friday I took 2 exams and went to Houston for a job interview in between them.

Needless to say, sangria in broad daylight hits particularly hard, resulting in my friend and I singing Aqua and Ace of Base at the top of our lungs from my balcony in the late afternoon.

It also resulted in me going to bed extremely early and waking up feeling refreshed, mentally rejuvenated and ready to attack my papers.

Tuesday was my last exam with all of my fellow summer starters - a strange moment, since the 90 of us had spent three semesters taking classes together. So there was a certain nostalgia about yesterday's drinking at Dominick's - a tiny bit of sadness that everyone is spreading out around the country for the summer, spelling the end of our quasi-unity. There was also a bit of disbelief that we've been in school since the end of May last year - almost one full calendar year.

Today, I'm going to see what the Russian grocery store in town has to offer before burying myself in discombobulated EU directives and regulations, member state legislation and WTO case law.

Life goes on as usual, the brief interruption of Dominick's only a hazy memory reflected in the strange partial facial tan I managed to acquire there yesterday afternoon.

Turtle rights, clone wars, and Constitutional law...

2006-04-24T00:48:00.000-04:00

You know you've been studying one subject for too long when you start trying to argue that a Congressional act designed to protect endangered species such as desert turtles violates the Equal Protection clause because it doesn't establish criteria to determine what species are endangered, and is thus not specific enough to withstand an equal protection challenge. Anthropomorphizing animals is a clear sign of impending insanity.

Insanity is further demonstrated when you begin contemplating what rights babies grown in test tubes and never placed in a womb would have under the 14th Amendment. In particular, would a clone grown in some sort of vat have US citizenship without being naturalized? Under the plain language of the 14th Amendment, arguably not - since people grown in vats aren't "born" in the US under a traditionally dictionary definition of "born." Having an army of clones without US citizenship would allow for a lot of leeway, it seems...

I think I need a vacation...

End of classes

2006-04-19T16:49:00.000-04:00

Today was the last day of classes. It was the end of my third consecutive semester of law school. It is the beginning of the final run towards exams, and a time to evaluate all that has happened this year.

The first thing I'm stunned by is how much I have learned, not just substantively, but also in terms of how to think, analyze and view the world. I have added a level of technical knowledge to my political science and natural science background that has opened up new vistas of research possibilities.

The second thing I'm stunned by is how much I have learned in this single semester. The previous two semesters I struggled to get through readings, somewhat bored and even slightly confused by common law subjects. I realize that I'm more of a code lawyer - I like texts that I can analyze. This semester has been filled with classes I was genuinely interested in - from international trade law through Islamic law.

Moreover, I realize that I read the material much more closely this semester - particularly in the classes of most interest to me.

My first exam is Con law on Tuesday. The last core class of law school. Then comes transnational law, and finally Islamic law. During this period of time, two 25 page papers will serve as my "study breaks" because quite honestly, writing papers is something I have been dying to do since coming to law school. I've missed writing papers and thinking for myself.

There are only slightly more than two weeks left of the semester. Then, I'll be halfway done with law school and embarking on a 7 month research period punctuated by the occasional class. I can't wait.

Finally...

2006-04-15T21:04:00.000-04:00

Sometimes it takes a while for things to work out. Sometimes you find yourself in such a maelstrom of chaos that you don't really see how things will resolve.

I find myself with exams approaching and a new motivation to study. The chaos begins to recede and things are looking up.

Good things do come to those who wait.

Bye-bye Berlusconi

2006-04-11T11:46:00.000-04:00

The Italian election is officially over - Berlusconi lost, Romano Prodi won.

Now the questions looming largest in my mind are how long will Prodi's government last and will I be fortunate enough to witness one of the famous Italian government implosions when I'm in Italy in the fall?

Berlusconi has long been an eccentric and uniquely Italian figure in international politics. Besides owning the three national Italian TV channels and having a multi-billion dollar fortune, Berlusconi's corruption was so openly known that it inspired laughter rather than fear. Nevertheless, it seems that the Italians (by a very narrow margin) had enough.

My sneaking suspicion is that it wasn't Berlusconi himself that caused him to lose the election, but rather the fact that he had the longest-lasting government in the history of Italy. The Italians were bored. They missed the regular government changes. And so they voted him out.

Or maybe, the Italians were fed-up with Berlusconi's support of the Iraq war, conservative policies, and the US. But I prefer to think that the real reason he lost was a national desire for chaotic politics.

Judas - most faithful apostle?

2006-04-08T15:44:00.000-04:00

Easter is rapidly approaching. It therefore seems like an appropriate time to bring up the fascinating discovery of the Gospel of Judas. The document, discovered in the Egyptian desert in 1970, was translated and made public by the National Geographic Society. The text describes Judas as having betrayed Jesus on his orders. Instead of traitor, Judas is the most favored of the apostles.

This discovery serves as a reminder that text-based religions undergo a period of evolution during which the texts are not yet finalized. Early Christianity consisted of many beliefs, the majority of which were later declared heretical. The Christianity we know today is an arbitrarily defined one - based on a majoritarian declaration of textual authoritativeness. Even after the initial formalization of Christianity, minority 'heretical' viewpoints often survived for centuries, only gradually becoming extinct. The "globalization" of Christianity undercut its diversity, standardizing religious practice much like McDonalds has standardized its sesame seed buns and beef patties.

For some reason I suddenly have an urge to reread the Name of the Rose...

Decisions

2006-04-03T22:51:00.000-04:00

My mother tells me that I'm at the age where everything is up in the air, I don't know what the future holds in store and that for a few years more I will be in this state of uncertainty and flux. She says these are some of the hardest years for all of us.

This reassures me. I'm 25 years old. I know that I want to do international law, but I don't even know in what capacity entirely. I don't want to limit myself and thus preclude myself from a large section of the job market. I also don't know if I want to stay in the US.

Next semester I'm going to study abroad in Italy. One semester of taking seminars in EU law and doing research will hopefully open my horizons and provide me with some sort of guidance. My parents view this as a unique opportunity, one not to be missed. I agree, but at the same time I'm a little torn. It's not so much the friends I've made here - they'll be here when I get back in January. It's more the classes I'll be missing out on. Once I get back, I'll have 2 semesters left. That's it. Those last two semesters will be less than fun - packed with all of the really important classes I should really take before finishing my law degree.

Even though I'm a bit nervous about the job application process for second summer jobs that will be going on simultaneous to my stay in Italy, and the possible classes I'll miss out on, I'm excited about going abroad again. Besides, how can anyone say no to spending a semester in Firenze, studying in a villa at the outskirts of town?

Growing older

2006-03-29T23:24:00.000-05:00

Let me just start by saying that like everyone else, I'm full of flaws.

Although I don't normally like chick flicks, one of my weaknesses is a particular chick flick that I have watched countless times and that becomes more true with each year that passes - Bridget Jones's Diary.

At this point, I couldn't tell you how many times I've seen it. The copy I have is a previewed DVD, bought for me by one of my exes one day when I was sick with the flu. Back then, the movie and book were hilariously funny to me for the comedy they contained. Today, the movie and book are even more hilariously funny because the truth contained within them becomes clearer and clearer with each day that passes.

This concerns me slightly. Is this something so universally true that as I get older and older I will feel more and more like Bridget? Are all women like Bridget? As we get older, do we all have to face visions of weddings, granny undies, and fruitless dieting? I suppose I just have to wait and see...right now, I'm more concerned with learning everything I possibly can about international law, in all its many facets.