Friday, February 29, 2008

The Golden Compass by Philip Pullman

Another one of those stay up until it's finished books.

To be honest, I did start reading it a while ago when the movie was still playing in the theaters but since I wanted to follow my modus operandi and read the book after I saw the movie, I wasn't reading it whole-heartedly.

Having since thrown in the towel on the movie first, book second thing, I picked it up again after I finished Isaac's Storm and devoured it.

Pullman creates a familiar yet strange world. Texas is a country, Norway is Norroway. Animals talk.

And the heroine is 11 years old.

A la Harry Potter (must I mention Harry Potter?), this is no light-hearted romp. There is tragedy and darkness. But through it all, Lyra shines.

On to Book II . . .


Thursday, February 28, 2008

Jimmy Kimmel and Ben Affleck

Warning! This video is PG rated at best . . .

But oh so funny. I'm talking laugh out laugh funny.



I understand that it's kinda geeky and unsophisticated to be wowed by these sorts of things but I just can't help it.

Famous pals belt it out in Kimmel/Affleck clip

Wed Feb 27, 2008 12:14pm GMT

By Ann Donahue

LOS ANGELES (Billboard) - Never has an expression of love been so public -- or featured so many guys in cut-off jeans shorts -- or been so damn sincere.

The post-Academy Awards debut of Jimmy Kimmel's "I'm F---ing Ben Affleck" video on his late-night ABC talk show Sunday has tallied almost 500,000 views on YouTube less than 24 hours after it premiered.

The video, Kimmel's response to girlfriend Sarah Silverman's plaintive "I'm F---ing Matt Damon," which aired on the show's 5th anniversary special in January, features a host of musicians, "We Are the World"-style, singing about the glory of Kimmel's and Affleck's tawdry relationship.

Among those in on the gag: Joan Jett, Good Charlotte's Benji & Joel Madden, Perry Farrell, Macy Gray, Fall Out Boy's Pete Wentz, Huey Lewis and Josh Groban, who is featured in a heartfelt/obscene crescendo.

"From the minute Sarah's video with Matt played, revenge has been percolating in Jimmy's mind," says Jill Leiderman, the show's executive producer. "The Friday morning after it aired, Jimmy came in and said 'I need Ben Affleck.'"

Affleck's consent lead to Harrison Ford's involvement -- he was a fan of Silverman and Damon's video, apparently -- which then lead to Brad Pitt's cameo as the delivery guy who presents Affleck and Kimmel with a cake celebrating their love.

Head music booker Scott Igoe said that once Pitt was on board, he reached out to the musicians who had appeared previously on the show and had proven themselves to be good sports. Within 24 hours, he had the Maddens, Gray and Wentz on board -- and had really ticked off Ashlee Simpson, who wanted to participate but was unable to because she was on tour, he says.

"Basically, we devised the list: 'Who has been on the show in the past that we really like?'" Igoe says.

The music for the song was written by Kimmel's bandleader Cleto Escobedo, with the lyrics devised by Kimmel, Kimmel's brother, John, and the show's writing staff. The video was filmed in two days at the Hollywood Roosevelt Hotel, and at nearby Henson Studios, site of the "We Are the World" session.

"Half the e-mails I've gotten the day after have been from publicists so disappointed that their clients weren't in it," Igoe says, mentioning Faith Hill, Tim McGraw and Paul McCartney.

Whether the song will be released as an official download is up to ABC, Leiderman says, but she promises they'll make the appropriate inquiries to see if they can get a single put out.

Igoe, meanwhile, has his sight set on a bling-ier outcome. "Hey, if 'D--k in a Box' can win an Emmy, why can't we?" he asks.

Reuters/Billboard

Wednesday, February 27, 2008

Honesty Box or Bash Box?

This is just an invitation for trouble.

A lot of people are familiar with the story about Megan Meier, the Missouri 13 year old who committed suicide after allegedly being taunted on MySpace by "Josh Evans" a fake user created at least in part by Lori Drew, a neighborhood mother.

You would think that in the wake of this sort of thing, Facebook would be a bit more sensitive to the potential for abuse of an application like the Honesty Box.

What is the Honesty Box? It's a nasty little application which allows Facebook users to anonymously tell other users what they think of them.

Anonymously.

I mean, come on. You don't have to be a rocket scientist to realize that young (read immature) Facebook users aren't going to be using this application to say, "Hey, I have a crush on you!" Or at least not nearly as often as they will use it to say, "You creep me out" or worse. Way worse.

Did I mention that this is anonymous?

Who thought this was a good idea?

What is Honesty Box?

  • Send & Receive anonymous messages and discover what people really think of you
  • Reply to anonymous posters and flirt with your crushes

Frequently Asked Questions:

Who can write on your Honesty Box?
Any of your friends or network members.

Do you have to have Honesty Box to write on mine?
No. You don't have to install HB to write in other peoples' boxes. This is to keep the guessing game much harder - not only people with HB write in your box.

If you remove honesty box, do the comments you posted in other people's boxes stay?
Yes. Once you send a message, it's forever.

What's the pink and blue comments?
pink = a girl
blue = a boy
no color = not provided in the user's profile info

Are you going to reveal the names sometime?
No. We will never reveal who sent messages on Honesty Box, unless, in our sole judgment, the content of a message violates our Terms of Use and/or Privacy Policy.
Facebook is providing links to these applications as a courtesy, and makes no representations regarding the applications or any information related to them. Any questions regarding an application should be directed to the developer.

Bothered By an Honesty Box Message? - Procedure for filing a complaint

In rare instances, a very small minority of Facebook users will abuse the anonymity of Honesty Box. As per our Terms of Use, we do not tolerate any "Criminal or tortious activity, including child pornography, fraud, trafficking in obscene material, drug dealing, gambling, harassment, stalking, spamming…" etc.

If at any time you receive an upsetting, disturbing, frightening or harassing message, please do the following:

  1. DO NOT RESPOND IN ANY WAY—a non-response to a disturbing message is the best way to discourage its sender;
  2. CLICK ON "BLOCK USER" (This will prevent you from receiving anonymous messages from the person with that Facebook ID; also, we block from Honesty Box any user that is "ignored" by multiple Users); and
  3. If you wish never to receive such messages from any Facebook user, REMOVE HONESTY BOX FROM YOUR FACEBOOK ACCOUNT IMMEDIATELY.

In all but the most severe cases, the above actions should be sufficient, and you will not need to proceed any further. However, if a specific message or series of messages sinks to the level of criminal activity—i.e., someone threatens you with serious bodily harm, or engages in criminal stalking or harassm ent—you may wish to involve your local law enforcement to pursue criminal sanctions against the offending user.

Procedure for filing a complaint

As per our Terms of Use, we do not tolerate any "Criminal or tortious activity, including child pornography, fraud, trafficking in obscene material, drug dealing, gambling, harassment, incitement to suicide, stalking, spamming…" etc.

In those cases, we may reveal the identity of the offending Facebook user's account to law enforcement authorities at their request on a case-by-case basis. To have us do that, follow these instructions carefully; failure to do so may result in your complaint not being received properly for our review:
  1. YOU: Complain to your local police department or campus security office and provide them with a copy of this instruction page and a complete printout or screenshot of the Honesty Box conversation at issue; have them start an investigation (n.b. we will not provide any information to you directly).

  2. LAW ENFORCEMENT: Fax a cover letter and a verbatim copy of the Honesty Box conversation at issue (preferably the printout or a screenshot), along with a copy of a properly-issued subpoena, to
    • Fax: +1 617.723.2830, Attn: William F. Swiggart, Esq., Swiggart & Agin, LLC.
    • E-mail: abuse@honestybox.com

    The cover letter should identify the officer handling the investigation as well the preferred method of contacting the officer.

  3. HONESTY BOX: We will review the request and may, at our discretion, provide the information requested to the police.

Tuesday, February 26, 2008

Slacker laws

NPR did a story on the one year anniversary of San Francisco's mandatory paid sick leave law.

I don't know, maybe I am just a heartless woman.

I have very little patience with these sorts of things. Having employed a number of people who were less than dependable employees and less than conscientious or considerate of their co-workers, I see these sorts of laws as an invitation for abuse.

One of the justifications for these ridiculous laws is that it makes the workplace healthier because employees don't have to come to work sick and infect their co-workers. In my experience, the majority of the time that employees call in sick, they are not contagious. They are hung over or tired or have a migraine or a muscle strain. That is, if they're even under the weather at all and not just out playing.

San Francisco's law requires one hour of sick leave for every 30 hours worked. That works out to 72 hours per year. That's like an additional two weeks of vacation. That's just crazy.

In addition, since time off taken per the mandatory paid sick leave policy cannot be used for disciplinary reasons, the employer has no recourse in the case where an employee requests vacation time, is turned down due to staffing requirements and then calls in sick. Talk about interfering in the employer/employee relationship.

Also, since the mandatory paid sick leave can be carried over, the city of San Francisco has placed the employer in a position where it could be faced with paying out a lot of leave at a much higher rate of pay than the rate of pay at which it was earned.

My office gives 3 sick days and anywhere from one to four weeks of vacation. Employees can only carry over a maximum of one week of vacation. Any unused sick time is taken into account during the employee's annual review and the employee's dependability is reflected in his/her raise.

It is extremely rare for an employee who has a strong work ethic to use all of his/her sick days in a year. Most of the employees who are not hard workers do use all their sick days each year.

I have to say that if Aspen or Colorado passed a law requiring more sick leave, I would strongly suggest to the owners that they adjust the amount of vacation offered.

Really, it just comes down to the fact that this sort of government meddling isn't a good idea.

San Francisco Orders Paid Sick Leave for All.

For every 30 hours worked, an employee shall accrue one hour of paid sick leave. There is a cap of 40 hours of accrued paid sick leave for employees of employers for which fewer than 10 persons (including full-time, part-time, and temporary employees) work for compensation during a given week. For employees of other employers, there is a cap of 72 hours of accrued paid sick leave. An employee’s accrued paid sick leave carries over from year to year. Employees are entitled to paid sick leave for their own medical care and also to aid or care for a family member or designated person.


Monday, February 25, 2008

Live blogging the Oscars (sorta)

(since we have to travel to watch TV, we came in towards the end of the Kristin Chenoweth number)

Kristin Chenoweth just showed me why women should do the queen's wave (can you say upper arm flap?).

Forrest Whitaker is a funny looking guy.

Jon Stewart's baby award didn't work.

I don't know which one was Halle Berry.

Marion Cotillard was refreshing and I really liked her dress.

Ooops to Jon McLaughlin's funny face during his first close-up. But otherwise, he looks almost as good as he did when we saw him live at BellyUp Aspen, although I do have to say that the t-shirt and jeans look suits him better.

Ok, there must be a leak or something. Both Colin Farrell and John Travolta slipped on their approach to the podium. Colin Farrell played it better.

Wow, what was that about? How cool that they let Marketa Irglova return to the stage to say her thank yous after she got shut out by her co-winner, Glen Hansard.

Ok, I don't like Cameron Diaz' dress but I like her attitude. Can you say Cinematography? Also, she and Renee Zellwiger have both got a set of guns on them. (I said guns, not jugs!)

Classy touch with the pause before commercial after the in memoriam.

I know I don't know what I'm talkin' about but some of these award winners should have practiced their acceptance speeches more.

We have the technology. Kinda corny but kinda cool, using soldiers in Baghdad to present the award for Best Documentary Short Film.

Googling Freeheld. Can't get into the website because of too much traffic.

Finally got in to Freeheld. Looks really good.

Go Juno! I love that Diablo Cody won.

But everyone walks off the stage in the same direction. How come everyone tries to walk off the stage in the wrong direction?

Rachel really likes Helen Mirren's dress. I'm not liking what it does to her hips.

Nothing else really seemed worth commenting on . . .

Sunday, February 24, 2008

Boot Hill

Most ski mountains or at least all the Aspen ski mountains are studded with shrines.

Aspen Mountain has the Jerry Garcia shrine, Snowmass has the Hunter S. Thompson shrine, Buttermilk has the John Denver Shrine.

According to Sanctuaries in the Snow, The Shrines of Aspen/Snowmass, there are 30 known shrines on our mountains.

Known to whom? It all depends on who you know.

Believe me, there are more.

For example:

In August of 2005, Steve was working on Aspen Highlands Trail Crew. That summer a huge project was ongoing to put in a new lift, the Deep Temerity lift. The lift was going to open up a slew of new territory below the Grand Traverse and one of the many tasks of the trail crew was to cut these new runs.

This means taking chain saws into fantastically steep terrain and felling and cutting up very large trees.

Steve was doing so one day when the chain saw he was operating hit a knot and kicked back on him. Since he was cutting a particularly large log, he had an extra long blade on the chain saw so when it kicked back, instead of clearing his foot as it would have if he was running the regular blade, it caught his left foot right in the instep. He had heavy duty work boots on but still, we're talking a chain saw here.

He radio'd his co-workers and then proceeded to self-evacuate by hiking up a little less than 1000 feet to the work truck.

After a full recovery, with a couple of hiccups, one of Steve's co-workers created a shrine to Steve's injury, Boot Hill, and on Saturday, Steve took me to it. It's a little more than half way down G.L.E. (Greatest Line Ever) and consists of a bench with the offending chain embedded in it. Due to the unbelievable amounts of snow this winter, the chain was snow-covered but that didn't stop us from taking pictures. Steve also saved the bloody boot (yuck!) and he's going to add that to the shrine if I remind him to take it in.

I'll be glad to get it out of my shed.

Saturday, February 23, 2008

The Awakening

Wow.

I don't know how I feel about this.

They've moved The Awakening.

While I haven't seen it since Steve and Rachel and I visited DC in 2002 (Rachel did go to see it when she was in DC for LeadAmerica in 2006), I visited it frequently when I lived in DC. I have vivid memories of going out there with my college roommate, Shirley and my best friend, Leah. We put Shirley in the giant's mouth and took her picture and years later, did the same with Rachel. We climbed on his foot and his arm and his hand and his leg.

Hains Point seemed the perfect place for it. A little remote perhaps but what a great pay off at the end of the point. With the expanse of grass, the river on three sides and the planes taking off just the other side of the river, it seemed just the place that a giant might have settled in for a nap. A 27 year nap.

Now, it'll be in Prince George's County, the waterfront centerpiece of a new development, well-placed to be the focal point of memories for a whole new generation. And it'll feel as right for them as its placement at Hains Point felt for me.

It makes me want to go dig out all my old photos . . .

Moving Day For "The Awakening"

By Anita Huslin

After resting in place for nearly 30 years -- if that can be said of a figure that eternally struggles to climb from the earth -- the cast aluminum sculpture known as "The Awakening" left its home Wednesday from the southernmost tip of Washington's Hains Point.


Workers begin to excavate The Awakening. (Getty Images)


With the assistance of three trucks, three cranes, one barge and a pair of small front-end loaders, the iconic sculpture was removed from its spot on national parkland in the District to be taken to a white sand beach on the eastern shore of the Potomac River.

The District's loss will be the gain of Prince George's County, where the sculpture now becomes the property of Milton Peterson, who plans to display it at his new National Harbor development. Peterson bought the large figure last year from the Sculpture Foundation, which has held it at the behest of its creator, J. Seward Johnson.

Over the years, Johnson has said in interviews that he was surprised his creation so captivated a city that had largely thought of public sculpture as soldiers on horses, or bronze statesmen in suit coats.

He offered no further explanation for his work, and let the public project its own stories on the figure. It arrived in the spring of 1980, one of more than 88 sculptures invited to the nation's capital for The Eleventh International Sculpture Conference. They adorned Rock Creek Park, the back lawn of the White House, even the entrance of the Forrestal Building on Independence Avenue NW.

At night, one artist lit the skies over Washington with a laser painting of the pyramid that adorns U.S. dollar bills; the image of the mysterious eye cast onto the side of the Washington Monument.

Other pieces included such oddities as a squashed suburban house, with its perfectly mowed lawn flattened out in front of it. Another stood like a steaming vat of primordial mist on the lawn of the Botanic Garden.

People stopped and wondered, pondered what the artists were thinking. Amid the sometimes inscrutable creations, The Awakening laid at Hains Point like an upended turtle, beckoning children and adults alike to stand and stare, sit in his upturned palm, try to scale his knee as it pointed skyward, and climb into his gaping maw, the giant's teeth somehow more welcoming than threatening, perhaps because of their perfect alignment.

On Tuesday, work crews arrived at the site to dig through a foot of wood chips and several inches of soil to get to the steel I-beams that anchored each of the five aluminum pieces of sculpture. Using large 13/16 wrenches, they loosened each bolt by hand, to make sure they could be removed in the frigid temperatures Wednesday morning, when crews returned for the move.

The first crews arrived before 4 a.m., to begin detaching the five body parts from their steel anchors. The heaviest -- the knee -- weighs about 1,400 pounds, while the giant's right arm, which claws upward toward the sky, weighs slightly less. The hand and arm weigh the least -- at about 600 pounds each, while the head is about 1,000 pounds, construction officials said.

For each, the removal process was the same. First, Kevlar belts were stretched around the pieces to lift then out of the ground and on top of bales of hale cushioned by inflated inner tubes. They there were hoisted by crane onto the back of a flatbed truck.

"They said there's another foot buried somewhere here," joked Gene Covell, who is overseeing the work for K.W. Miller. One could imagine the missing appendage was still buried under the giant's upturned left knee.

"Right, the mysterious foot," said Bob Johnson, whose cranes lifted the pieces onto the trucks.

The crews have worked for the Peterson Companies on various projects before. Though the founder, Milt Peterson, has been known to climb on a piece of construction equipment himself to show crews what he wants, this project is probably the most unusual he's ever had them done, said Covell.

"He has a lot of ideas that people say are crazy, but we get along great because I get it," Covell said.

After they removed the sculpture pieces from the site, trucks transported them in a convoy with police escort to National Harbor, near Oxon Hill. There, the trucks drove down to a pier, where a crane offloaded the pieces onto a barge. Later Wednesday, the barge will then be pushed downriver a short distance, to the sculpture's new shorefront home.

There, each of the sculpture pieces will be re-bolted onto concrete footings sunken into the white sand, which was delivered by about 52 trucks, each one carrying about 20 tons of sand.

The sculpture will be the centerpiece of National Harbor, the largest non-casino, mixed-used development on the Eastern seaboard. In April, Nashville-based Gaylord Entertainment Company will open its newest hotel and convention center. The Gaylord National will help anchor a development that will also feature stores, offices, restaurants and entertainment venues in the National Harbor portion of the project.

Visitors will be able to sit at water-view restaurant tables and watch the sun set behind The Awakening on the Potomac.

"It's going to look great there," said Keith Payne, a member of the Miller crew. "Better even than it did on Hains Point. It's going to make that place a destination."

Its creator, J. Seward Johnson, is expected to come to National Harbor for the grand opening this spring.

"I hate to see it move but I'm glad to see that it'll still be in the Washington area," said David M. Furchgott, who was director of the 1980 sculpture conference and is now president of International Arts and Artists. "It's a work that will hold its own wherever it is. And if you think about it -- sculpture is something that's a community marker in many place -- and this will certainly continue to be that."

By Dan Beyers | February 20, 2008; 12:10 PM ET Hospitality

Friday, February 22, 2008

Isaac's Storm by Erik Larson

Engrossing.

Another of those books that I picked up to read for a few minutes before falling asleep, only to put it down much later, having finished it.

Isaac Cline was one of the early forecasters with the US government as it was attempting to establish its weather service. To someone accustomed to all the bells and whistles available to weather forecasters today, it was quite eye opening to read about the science of meteorology in its infancy. It was commonly held that attempting to predict the weather was folly.

Larson ably brings together the myriad factors which combined to allow the hurricane of 1900 to blindside Galveston. He discusses how the US government's contempt for and racism towards the Cubans, who had vastly greater experience with hurricanes, set the stage for the misjudgments regarding the path of the hurricane or even whether or not the hurricane was a hurricane.

By plumbing the perspectives and experiences of sea captains in the hurricane's path, Larson adds a layer of appreciation for the extent to which the storm was unforeseen. Larson also weaves in the personal story of Isaac and his brother, Joseph, whose relationship was yet another casualty of the storm.

Well-researched, the book also stands as a treatise on the phenomenon of hurricanes.

Thursday, February 21, 2008

Hey, I know him!

Yesterday, as I visited NPR's main web page, I was very excited to find Kevin Connolly featured front and center (no, not the lady with the rainbow 'fro!)

What great exposure.

That's so cool.


Wednesday, February 20, 2008

Why do I care?

I don't know.

But I do.

Steve told me today that his dad told him that Barack Obama smokes.

At first I didn't understand.

We were listening to NPR's report on Obama winning Hawaii and Wisconsin and I thought Steve meant that Obama was smoking Clinton.

When I did grasp what Steve was trying to tell me, I was startled. I had my usual reaction to surprising news, I immediately went to Google.

What I turned up seemed mostly dated, stories, articles and posts with dates in 2006 and 2007 which stated that yes, Barack smokes, but nothing recent which confirmed that he's still a smoker. Finally, buried on page 4 of the Google search results, I found a link to an article dated April of 2007 which states that Barack told David Letterman that he had quit.

Is he still a former smoker? I can't say.

And this bothers me.

If he has in fact quit and remains smoke free, I find this admirable.

But if he smokes . . .

Not so much.

Paradoxically, I find Obama's admission that he experimented with marijuana and cocaine honest and acceptable. I find humor in the fact that Reason Magazine says that a

recent New York Times report suggests the leading candidate for the Democratic presidential nomination misled the public about his history of drug use—by making it seem more impressive than it really was.

To paraphrase the old Virginia Slims' tag line, "(We've) come a long way, baby."

Tuesday, February 19, 2008

Other People's Love Letters, edited by Bill Shapiro

After happening upon and illicitly reading a girlfriend's love letter, Bill Shapiro became intensely interested in love letters, what they say about a relationship at a given moment, why people write them, why people save them and why people don't.

He wondered about real people's love letters, those love letters that captured all the complications of love.

So he asked people to share their love letters with him. And they did.

Some of the letters are sweet, some are sad, some are angry.

The voyeur in me enjoyed reading them but since all of the letters published were published with the author's consent, the voyeur in me was left wondering about the others, the ones for which the authors withheld consent, what they were like . . .

Monday, February 18, 2008

Andy Goldsworthy

I pay attention.

I pay attention to things that are going on here in Aspen, community events, concerts, movies, talks, etc.

So, I was paying attention on Friday and discovered that Andy Goldsworthy was going to be at the Aspen Institute for a reception on Saturday and a talk on Sunday.

Andy Goldsworthy is a British artist living in Scotland (thus he's often referred to as a Scottish artist) who creates sculpture and environmental art, that is art using materials found in the environment around him.

I first became acquainted with him when a friend of Steve's lent us the DVD, Rivers and Tides. Rivers and Tides is a documentary which spotlights Andy Goldsworthy and his creative technique. Steve found it so inspiring that he immediately went out in our backyard and created an ice sculpture using the large icicles we grow every winter.

Goldsworthy is permanently connected with the Aspen Institute by virtue of his Stone River installation which not only graces the Aspen Institute grounds but actually continues right through the Doerr-Hosier Center. Goldsworthy said that he was especially excited to see it in all of its snow covered glory this weekend.

Steve and I missed the reception on Saturday but made Sunday's talk. Since we couldn't get there until after Steve got off work, there were some stressful moments where we were running late, the Institute's parking was full and so we had to park and take a shuttle which had to wait for every straggler imaginable. But I practiced my deep breathing techniques and managed not to perform.

It all worked out. Although we walked in late, we found seats in the back almost immediately. The Doerr-Hosier Center is quite state of the art with large flat screen monitors and speakers well placed throughout the room. Even though we were in the back, Steve could hear quite well which is always a plus.

Goldsworthy is witty and humorous and he's openly provides much insight into how and why he creates.

He currently has a show at the Aspen Institute entitled Two Creeks which consists entirely of photographs of what he calls his ephemeral art created in Hunter Creek and Woody Creek here in the Roaring Fork Valley.

Hunter Creek is right outside my back door and all I could think was where was I while all this art was being created.

Then I found out that the exhibit opened on 12/21/07.

Maybe I don't pay as much attention as I think I do.

Sunday, February 17, 2008

The Jefferson Bible, The Life and Morals of Jesus by Thomas Jefferson

In compiling a stripped down version of the New Testament, Jefferson omits all supernatural references and compiles excerpts from all four Gospels into one chronological tome.

Jefferson admired Jesus' system of morals and abhorred what he saw as the corruption of the doctrines of Jesus so he set out to ". . . place the character of Jesus in its true and high light, as no impostor Himself, but a great Reformer of the Hebrew code of religion . . ."

Thus, The Jefferson Bible is familiar and yet strange. It ends, abruptly for those of us acquainted with the supposed divinity of Jesus, with his burial.

For Jefferson, the point was not what Jesus' followers made of his life and death but what Jesus himself did and said.

They [Jefferson's views of Christianity] are the result of a life of inquiry and reflection, and very different from that anti-Christian system imputed to me by those who know nothing of my opinions. To the corruptions of Christianity I am indeed opposed, but not to the genuine precepts of Jesus himself. I am a Christian, in the only sense in which he wished anyone to be: sincerely attached to his doctrines in preference to all others, ascribing to himself every human excellence, and believing he never claimed any other.

Saturday, February 16, 2008

Where's the beef?

Maybe this is why I keep leaning towards Hillary:

Inspiration vs. Substance
Thursday, Feb. 07, 2008 By JOE KLEIN


"We are the ones we've been waiting for," Barack Obama said in yet another memorable election-night speech on Super-Confusing Tuesday. "We are the change that we seek." Waiting to hear what Obama has to say — win, lose or tie — has become the most anticipated event of any given primary night. The man's use of pronouns (never I), of inspirational language and of poetic meter — "WE are the CHANGE that we SEEK" — is unprecedented in recent memory. Yes, Ronald Reagan could give great set-piece speeches on grand occasions, and so could John F. Kennedy, but Obama's ability to toss one off, different each week, is simply breathtaking. His New Hampshire concession speech, with the refrain "Yes, We Can," was turned into a brilliant music video featuring an array of young, hip, talented and beautiful celebrities. The video, stark in black-and-white, raised an existential question for Democrats: How can you not be moved by this? How can you vote against the future?

And yet there was something just a wee bit creepy about the mass messianism — "We are the ones we've been waiting for" — of the Super Tuesday speech and the recent turn of the Obama campaign. "This time can be different because this campaign for the presidency of the United States of America is different. It's different not because of me. It's different because of you." That is not just maddeningly vague but also disingenuous: the campaign is entirely about Obama and his ability to inspire. Rather than focusing on any specific issue or cause — other than an amorphous desire for change — the message is becoming dangerously self-referential. The Obama campaign all too often is about how wonderful the Obama campaign is.

That is not unprecedented. It has echoes of Howard Dean's 2004 primary effort, although in Dean's case the propellant was substance, not rhetoric — the candidate's early courageous voice against the war. But Dean soon found that wasn't enough. In June 2003 he told me he needed to broaden his movement, reach out past the young and the academic and find a greater array of issues that could inspire working people. He never quite found that second act, and his campaign became about process, not substance: the hundreds of thousands of supporters signing up on the Internet, the millions of dollars raised. He lost track of the rest of the world; his campaign was about ... his campaign.

Obama would never be so tone-deaf, but he is facing a similar ceiling, a similar inability to speak to the working people of the Democratic Party (at least, those who are not African American) or find an issue, a specific issue, that distinguishes him from his opponent. And his opponent, Hillary Clinton, has proved herself tough, specific and reliable — qualities that become increasingly important as the economy teeters and as worries about the future gather in the land.

This has become an odd campaign for Democrats. There is good news ... and fear. The good news is that this time the people seem far more interested in their party than in the Republicans. On Super Tuesday, at least 15,417,521 voted Democratic, and 9,181,297 voted Republican. And more good news: both Obama and Clinton are very good candidates who hold similar positions on most issues, moderates who intend to reach out to Republicans after they are elected — although, given Clinton's undeserved reputation as a partisan operative, that may be a tougher sell for her than for Obama. But this is not a struggle for the ideological soul of the party. It may, however, be a struggle for the party's demographic soul — older voters vs. younger, information-age workers vs. industrial and service workers, wine vs. beer. There is also — and I will try to tread lightly here — the classic high school girl/boy differential: the note-taking, front-row girl grind vs. the charismatic, last-minute-cramming, preening male finesse artist. Both Clinton and Obama have difficulties reaching across those divides, and that is where the fear resides: neither candidate may prove strong or broad enough. As this campaign progresses, their weaknesses — the reasons for their inability to put away this nomination — are going to become more apparent than their strengths.

Clinton's strengths are most apparent in debates, which is why she is pressing to have one each week. She simply knows more than Obama does. In recent weeks, she has been far more likely to take questions from the press and public than Obama is. That appeals to voters more interested in results than in inspiration; it especially appeals to the middle-class women, juggling job and family, who are the demographic heart of the Democratic Party. Clinton's weaknesses are intractable. They are wrapped up in her husband, who nearly ruined her campaign in the two weeks after Iowa but seems to have been relegated to the back of the bus in recent days. And they are wrapped up in her age. She is a baby boomer, of a generation that has been notably obnoxious and unsuccessful in the public arena. Perhaps the most dreadful baby-boom political legacy has been the overconsulted, fanatically tactical, poll-driven campaign — and Clinton has suffered whenever she has emphasized tactics over substance. Her lame attempts to "go negative" on Obama have been almost entirely counterproductive. Her husband's attempts to paint Obama as a "race" candidate — his resort to the most toxic sort of old-fashioned politics — only reinforced the strangely desperate nature of their campaign. It was the very opposite of "Yes, We Can" politics.

Obama's strength is inspiration, and it's also his weakness. In the recent past, Democrats have favored candidates who offer meaty, detailed policy prescriptions — usually to the party's detriment — and that is not Obama's game. After his Iowa victory, his stump speech had become a soufflé untroubled by much substance of any sort. He has rectified that, to some extent. He now spends some time talking about the laments of average Americans he has met along the way; then he dives into a litany of solutions he has proposed to address the laments. But those are not nearly so convincing as Clinton's versions of the same; of course, Clinton has a tragic deficit when it comes to inspiration.

There is an odd, anachronistic formality to Obama's stump speech: it is always the same. It sets his audiences afire, but it does not reach very far beyond them. It is no accident that Obama is nearly invincible in caucus states, where the ability to mobilize a hard core of activists is key — but not so strong in primaries, where more diverse masses of people are involved. He should be very worried that this nomination is likely to be decided in the big working-class primary states of Ohio, Texas and Pennsylvania.

Then again, one of Obama's most effective lines is about the "craziness" of trying the same old thing in Washington "over and over and over again, and somehow expecting a different result." The first politician I ever heard use that line — weirdly attributed to everyone from Benjamin Franklin to Albert Einstein — was Bill Clinton. It is a sad but inescapable fact of this election that Bill and Hillary Clinton have now become "the same old thing" they once railed against. In a country where freshness is fetishized — and where a staggering 70% of the public is upset with the way things are today — the "same old thing" is not the place to be. Unless, of course, the next new thing turns out to be a mirage.

Because of an editing error, the original version of this story distorted Joe Klein's characterization of Howard Dean's 2004 primary effort. A sentence in the third paragraph has been changed accordingly .

Friday, February 15, 2008

I'm so sick of the Bush administration's cavalier attitude towards my civil liberties

This morning I was getting quite annoyed listening to Mike McConnell, the Director of National Intelligence on NPR's Morning Edition.

So annoyed that I was arguing with the radio.

He kept saying stupid stuff like we shouldn't publicly debate FISA because how FISA operates shouldn't be public and that the telecom companies need immunity from prosecution for breaking the law because they didn't break the law.

Um, this is the guy whose title includes the word intelligence?

Then, this afternoon I was cheering at the radio when I heard that the House had recessed without addressing the FISA renewal. Steny Hoyer, Nancy Pelosi and Rahm Emanuel have stood up to Bush and told him that his fearmongering won't pressure them into passing a bad law.

"The president knows full well that he has all the authority he needs to protect the American people," said Pelosi, who referred to Franklin Roosevelt's admonition about fearing only fear itself. "President Bush tells the American people that he has nothing to offer but fear, and I'm afraid that his fearmongering of this bill is not constructive."


"This is not about protecting Americans. The president just wants to protect American telephone companies," Rep. Rahm Emanuel of Illinois, head of the House Democratic Caucus, said Friday.


THE DEBATES WE HAVE BEEN HAVING OVER THE PAST FEW DAYS ARE CONSEQUENTIAL AND ABOUT THE MOST IMPORTANT THING THAT THIS BODY DOES. AND THAT IS UPHOLD THE LAW, NOT JUST PASS THE LAW, UPHOLD THE LAW. AND AS I SAID A LITTLE EARLIER IN THIS DEBATE, PART OF THAT WAS OVERSEEING THE EXECUTIVE DEPARTMENT TO ENSURE THAT THEY EXECUTE OUR LAWS APPROPRIATELY AND LEGALLY, AND THE CONGRESS HAS BEEN GIVEN UNDER THE CONSTITUTION THE AUTHORITY TO SEEK INFORMATION. THE JUDICIARY COMMITTEE HAS SOUGHT INFORMATION, AND THAT INFORMATION HAS NOT BEEN FORTHCOMING. THE CONGRESS, AS MR. BOEHNER SAID, CANNOT DO ITS JOB. IF THE CONGRESS SIMPLY FAILS TO ASSERT ITS CONSTITUTIONAL ROLE.


Go Dems.

What he said.

And him, too:

If the executive branch comes to a private company and asks it to do something illegal, the executive branch has powerful ways of making the company see things its way. Being on the good side of the incumbent administration is a good place to be.

But still, companies will think twice about cooperating with illegal requests if they're sure that doing so will come around and bite them in the ass in the long run. But if you create the situation the Bush administration is proposing -- where failure to comply with illegal requests has negative consequences, but agreeing to comply with illegal requests lets you off scot free -- then no company going forward is going to have any reason to refuse to comply with any sort of illegal requests. In essence, the immunity provision would gut whatever other restrictions the new FISA law might contain.

Thursday, February 14, 2008

Vacation Days

Steve's friend Danny who lived here 20+ years ago is visiting with his girlfriend so what better excuse for taking a few days off work?

That and the fact that the snow is epic.

Danny & Steve decided to learn to snowboard which meant that, for once, Christine and I were the fast ones.

Quite the role reversal.

Danny & Steve went out Tuesday at Buttermilk, then the four of us were out all day yesterday and again today on Ajax.

It snowed 7+ inches last night and continued to snow throughout the day today so it was nice.

No, I mean it was NICE.

By the end of the day, my thighs were so sore. I'm almost glad that I have to work tomorrow. They're all talking about skiing/riding Highlands and maybe even hiking the Bowl.

I've got a friend visiting from Breckenridge on Saturday so I need to have something left.

Wednesday, February 13, 2008

My husband's an artist

We have an ice column attached to our house.

An ice column is probably not the best thing to have attached to one's house.

Yesterday, it was pretty warm (say, almost 40 degrees) in town here so it seemed like a good opportunity to remove some of the ice on the walkway and perhaps to remove the ice column.

Yeah.

The ice column isn't going anywhere.

But, in messing with it, we did discover that it is basically hollow.

So, since we can't remove it, Steve decided to pour food coloring in it.

Green food coloring, because red food coloring might look too much like blood.

What can I say? My husband's an artist.

We're probably going to freak out the neighbors.

Tuesday, February 12, 2008

This is so cool!

I want one.

I've already put my name on the waiting list.

It's a wireless router for the car. From what I can gather, it works off of cellular technology so, while it's not quite as fast as DSL, it's got great coverage.

Talk about being able to work remotely.

Now I just have to get over the motion sickness thing.

Monday, February 11, 2008

Waaaah!

Last time I really posted about this was over a year ago.

I don't like to complain about my headaches.

I mean, so many others have it so much worse.

My headaches aren't bad enough for me to invest any real energy in any life altering behaviors but they are omnipresent.

I'd say, in my considered medical opinion ("I'm not a doctor but I play one on TV" or should I say, at the office?) that I suffer (suffer??), ok, experience a combination of chronic daily headaches and migraines.

I don't know when they started. It seems like they've always been with me. I do recall that they were obvious enough when I was practicing law in the late 80s/early 90s that I actually saw a neurologist and had a CAT scan to be sure that I didn't have a brain tumor.

Nope, no brain tumor.

Just this annoying, daily pain.

Unlike many migraine sufferers, I rarely get nauseous. So, count me lucky??

I am highly functioning, despite the ever present pain.

And, yet . . .

It does affect my behavior. I can be a bear when the pain is particularly bad.

My daughter is acutely tuned into it.

But I can also proudly say that she presents me to her friends as an example of functioning through the pain, rather than being sidelined by it.

Anyhow, all of this is really just a way to inform you that the New York Time, yes, The New York Times, is sponsoring a migraine blog.

And I'm writing this through a haze of migraine induced and wine exacerbated malaise.

So sorry if it's not really making any sense . . .

Sunday, February 10, 2008

The Remo Turn

Yet another consequence of record snowfall is that safety measures on the various mountains need to be adjusted.

On Highlands, there's a safety net on a turn on a catwalk known as the Tomba Turn (referencing alpine skier Alberto Tomba's 98 Winter Olympics crash into a safety net). On the other side of the net is a cliff with a long, virtually vertical drop off. Due to the amount of snow, the existing net was approximately three feet tall.

Rather ineffectual.

So, Steve, who is known at patrol as Remo, initiated and piloted a project to reconstruct the safety net to better serve its original purpose.

The net is now 10+ feet tall and quite bomber.

The turn is now being called the Remo Turn.

Today's PostSecret Favorite

Awwww.
But, no, really.

Saturday, February 09, 2008

Kansas goes for Huckabee

Of course they did.
Image Credit

Friday, February 08, 2008

Sebastian Junger

I'm a good wife.

The Aspen Writers' Foundation has a series every year called Winter Words, a series of "singular events (which) feature award winning and bestselling authors who bring their books to life during readings and talks."

Last year, Rachel and I went to see Lisa See, author of Snow Flower and the Secret Fan.

This year, among others, Sebastian Junger and Richard Russo are appearing, Richard Russo being one of Steve's favorite authors.

So, being that I'm such a good wife, I bought Steve tickets, two tickets for each of the two aforementioned authors and told him he could invite whomever he wanted.

Last night, for the Sebastian Junger event, whomever he wanted was me.

It was very interesting. Steve and I lucked into front row seats in a rather small auditorium. Junger was fresh from Afghanistan where's he's shadowing a unit and writing articles for Vanity Fair. He did a short reading from his next, yet to be published, yet to be submitted article which painted quite a vivid picture of the circumstances these soldiers are facing.

He also talked about getting started as a journalist and an author. He has a similar story to Steve, in that he was working as an arborist and accidentally put a chainsaw to his leg. He got a bit too detailed in his description of his injury for my comfort and I was very close to passing out right in front of him. Of course, it doesn't take much detail at all to get me to that point.

Junger has an intriguing journalistic philosophy, which boils down to describing what he sees as accurately as possible. He repeats it like a mantra, using it to refocus himself when he gets bogged down. I enjoyed hearing him speak about that, about fear and about the process of choosing his book subjects.

He's quite personable and speaks well extemporaneously, as was well-evidenced during the question and answer session.

Image credit

Thursday, February 07, 2008

A Violent Disturbance in a Small Compass

I lied.

I said I was going to caucus Tuesday night.

But I didn't.

And I'm kinda glad.

I would have found it extremely frustrating.

Why, you ask? (I know you didn't really but just pretend.)

Well, because the organizers drastically underestimated the attendance. The most they've ever had turn up for such an event has been 100. So they more than doubled that and planned for 250.

They got north of 500.

The room was too small and was maxed. It was shoulder to shoulder and for the past two days, the papers have been full of grumblings regarding what a fiasco it was. More than 50 people left without even voting.

If I had attended, I would have been one of them. I don't deal well in such situations.

My understanding of the caucus process is that it's supposed to allow for discussion and the free flow of ideas. It doesn't sound like anything was flowing freely at the Democratic caucus in Aspen on Tuesday night. The organizers are putting a positive spin on it, sayings things like "It's one fo the pleasures and joys of direct democracy." The attendees have been a bit more uncomplimentary. There are also accusations that Hilary supporters were treated rather poorly.

To be honest, I was feeling like a slacker for not attending.

That is, until I read the newspaper coverage.

Image Credit

Wednesday, February 06, 2008

Atonement by Ian McEwan

I found the book less confusing and easier to follow than the movie. This is possibly because I saw the movie first, but more likely because the book with its internal dialogue is better able to communicate a sense of time. While both the book and movie use flashbacks to flesh out episodes from various characters' perspectives, the artifice is clearer and works better in the book.

The book is broken up into three parts and an epilogue. Since I knew the plot, I struggled through Part One with a feeling of dread. The inescapability of it all almost prompted me to put the book down more than once.

Yet, once I reached Part Two, I was engrossed. As usual, the book, being so much richer than the movie in communicating motivations and thought processes, provided a degree of detail which made Cecelia, Robbie and Briony, among others, easier to understand. Being privy to Briony's sentiments and emotions allowed me to more fully understand her actions.

I basically read Parts Two and Three and the Epilogue straight through last night. While I liked the movie's epilogue, I liked the book's epilogue better. I understand that including it would have made the movie too long but I enjoyed the additional resolution it portrayed.

I'm not sure that I'll read any additional Ian McEwan. I'm not sure that his point of view, his darkness, is something I'm entirely comfortable with. But that's probably the point.

Tuesday, February 05, 2008

Hillary or Barack?

I think I'm a Hillary supporter.

I say this because, although I claim that I can't decide between the two, when Barack won Iowa, I was disappointed and when Hillary won New Hampshire, I was pleased.

And yet, I'm thinking that, in large part for the same reasons laid out in Obama more likely to beat McCain, I'm going to vote for Barack.

(Aside - Blogger's spell check doesn't know what to do with Barack or Obama. I'm thinking it better figure it out.)

Rachel finds this extremely frustrating. With the idealism of youth, she thinks that Hillary would be a better president than Barack and that that's all that should matter. She struggles with the concept that Hillary might be too polarizing a figure and might solidify too much opposition to be able to win a general election.

I'm undecided but, being still a bit shell shocked from the last two elections, want to do everything I can to stack the odds for a Democratic win in November.

Monday, February 04, 2008

Who knew?

Historically, throughout all of my moves and concomitant various voter registrations, I have always registered as an Independent.

Fear of commitment or something.

I got one of those automated calls yesterday from Barack Obama's campaign asking me or Steve to caucus for Obama.

I started thinking about it and vaguely recalled that possibly, a few years ago, due to some screwy district attorney election, I had actually committed to a party, thinking that I'd go back to being an Independent later.

Then, inertia set in.

And, I couldn't remember which party I had committed to . . .

So, I went to Barack Obama's Colorado website to find out where the Democratic caucus for Aspen is. What I found there was a poorly disguised attempt to collect my phone number and email address so I bailed out.

And went to the Pitkin County website where, I found a link entitled Am I registered to vote?

And, after entering a half dozen permutations of my name, I found out that yes, I am (which, of course, I already knew) but more importantly that I'm a registered Democrat.

Who knew?

So, guess who's going to caucus on Tuesday night?

Sunday, February 03, 2008

Case closed?

Maybe, just maybe, we/they/someone in charge knows who stole our stuff.

Both papers have had headlines for two days about a young and not very bright couple, now in custody, who have been ripping people off from Oregon to Denver for about a month.

Jeremy Wayne Nichols, 34, and Leslie Christine Castle, 24, are their names. They had the bright idea to pick a motel in Denver known for its drug activity so when the police were conducting a routine check, the front desk clerk singled them out as acting suspiciously. A check of their plates turned up a stolen vehicle and just like that, their little party came to an end.

Bummers.

So, I'll call Sergeant Bill Linn on Monday morning. I'm not thinking that we'll get anything back quickly even if it turns out these two are our culprits. But it'll be satisfying to know they're going to have to face the music.

And if it turns out it wasn't them, oh well.

Image Credit

Saturday, February 02, 2008

I'm not complaining

Really.

Just commenting.

As anyone who's been paying attention knows, we're having a record year. They're harkening back to the early 80s for comparisons and saying that we probably even beating those records.

We're skiing stuff that you never ski. Some of the local hard corps have even skied Red Mountain which is south facing and too sun beaten to hold enough snow to ski. But this year, they're finding six foot stashes.

The other day, some guy feel into an abandoned mine (admittedly roped off) in an area of the Mine Dumps on Aspen Mountain that never gets skied.

The City of Aspen has run out of places to put all the snow they're clearing from the streets. This in a city with a lot of experience in clearing and storing snow.

And Punxsutawney Phil saw his shadow today.

It's epic. And fabulous.

But,

We've lived in our house for just over 5 years now. Obviously, since this is the biggest snow year since the early 80s or beyond, this is the biggest snow year since we've owned our house.

We had heard from our neighbors that some of them had roof leakage problems. We always considered ourselves lucky since we didn't seem to suffer the same fate.

Well, not so fast. It took an epic snow year but we've discovered our roof leaks. We no longer feel left out of this cohort of which I'd rather not be a member.

Can you say ice dams? This is why Steve is currently up a ladder in the dark clearing snow off the lower roofs. Hopefully, this will solve our problem.

Do you think I'm being overly optimistic?

Friday, February 01, 2008

Buy me presents!

Today is the Feast Day of St. Brigid of Ireland.

As far as I'm concerned, this means it's also my feast day.

Not that I'm really all that tuned in to what one does on a feast day.

But it seems to me as good a reason as any, and a better reason than some, to demand attention.

And she's got a pretty cool cross.

We're just going to overlook the fact that I spell my name differently.

We're also going to overlook the fact that technically this is my middle name.