The New Road

Two amazing videos from righties

Two amazing videos from the right wing this morning:

First up is Joe Scarborough who sounds straight out of the Michael Moore camp at this point. I don't think I've ever seen a news report this damning from left wing pundits. And Joe was a Republican congressman!

Talk about incendiary video followed up with brutal commentary. This piece is effective. And what's more it seems aimed at moderates and centrist-righties. Most of whom are already anti-Iraq war, but certainly this will help the cause. Joe has been leaning this way for months. But I think now we can officially call him flipped. Not only does he beat up on Bush, he brow beats one of his guests for not slamming Bush hard enough.

Second is video from Bill O'Reilly's trip to Iraq. The video speaks almost for itself. Though I would like to point out a few things. First, where he didn't go. Notice that he gets on a chopper, goes into the green zone, then presumably gets on a chopper to get back out. He never goes near the streets or near Iraqis. And even so, note how uncomfortable he is. He looks scared shitless in the helicopter. And he can't seem to field any genuine human interaction. Notice how stiff he is with the soldier in the hospital. And what's with the production value? I've seen amateur porn that's shot and edited better.

Infrared X-Ray

Check this out! Not only does this device scan underneath your flesh but it displays back onto the source so it's as if your looking through your own skin. How freaking cool is that!

Henry Rollins rant

Here is a cool Henry Rollins rant that Joe sent me. I can't help the feeling though that I'm now seeing people just pile on after the bully on the block has been taken down. It's possible that Henry Rollins has been vocal this entire time. So it's not an impression just of him. But I do find myself wondering where all of these people who are talking about Bush's failures today three years ago when his poll numbers were sky high. Our principles are worth fighting for even when the polls are against us.

Back into the pool

It's nice to get back into the pool. I wasn't as fast as I would have liked. I'm always a little slower first thing in the morning than when I get a rare chance to swim later in the day. But today I think it was more a combination of being rusty from a week off, and not being fully recovered from some food poisoning last Friday. I don't have any symptoms from it just walking around, but when I exert myself I feel weaker than I did a week ago.

Let me show you...

Megan has been playing a lot of Wii bowling lately. She is up to around a consistent 120 or so. Which is pretty good for a four year old. I on the other hand have been going down in score because I've been trying to perfect a hook shot. So Megan has been giving me advice. A couple of days ago she started saying, "Let me show you" before every one of her turns. Then if it turned out badly she would kind of hurumph, and wait for another turn. But then she hit a strike and was so happen when we was able to add the finishing line; "... how it's done."

"Let me show you... how it's done." My daughter's first trash talking. I'm so proud.

Damn I Miss The Pool

This week has gone more slowly than any I can recall. Why? Because I can't swim. And if you asked me six months ago if missing a public pool would torment me like days without food or sunshine, I would say you were nuts.

But here is where is sit. In the middle of an interminable week waiting for the pool to re-open. Waiting to get into the lukewarm water and push my own wake from side to side, clicking my lap counter, concentrating on my breathing. My hands cutting through the surface, cupping to hold pockets of bubbles as they slide away. Feeling the effortless glide on those rare laps when I get it all just right.

Damn... I miss the pool.

Nothing else feels like it. Not running, which sucks. Not the elliptical trainer, which would be hellishly dull were it not for the TV. Not biking, which I can't do because of the rain. Not even the Wii, which has recently caused one of our guests to strip off layers of clothes from the exertion.

Come Monday at 6AM I will own that lane. Every damn molecule of it from tip to tail. I'll find the forty second lap if it takes every muscle in my body to do it. And it will feel magnificent.

War costs

Bush is trying to get $100B in additional emergency funds for both wars. That would bring the total of war specific funds to $473B. Combining that with, oh, half, of the Pentagon budget ($443B) multiplied by 3 years. That comes out to, let me see now, just over a trillion. Which would put the amount spent on the Iraq and Afghanistan wars to just over $7 million dollars per soldier. And since front line troopers get about $20k - $30k (plus combat pay) a year only $90k of that $7M is actually paid to the soldier over those three years.

Not that the number of $7M alone isn't astonishing. But what I find even more amazing is that now the Pentagon is saying that they can't manage to put another 40,000 soldiers in Iraq. The overhead of paying the contractors and the gouging of the military industrial complex is now effecting our ability to make strategic deployment decisions in the best national interest of this country.

When I heard about the the Pentagon's double down strategy, I shook my head. Early estimates put the number of troops required to secure Iraq after the war at a half million. So doubling to 280,000 wouldn't do the job. But then I found out that double down really just meant an additional 20-40,000 troops. And that, is just a pathetic PR move that will change nothing on the ground (other than the US body count) and merely delay our inevitable withdrawl.

Wii Movie Settings

As it turns out, the Wii can play home movies as well as show pictures from your digital camera. The only trick is to get the movie in the right format, which is not as easy as it may see. Even though the manual says that the Wii supports Quicktime, it only actually supports a particular type of codec.

Here are the Quicktime Pro settings that I have found work:

I have no idea what 90% of that crap means, but it works.

Once you've exported the movie you move it onto the SD card, pop it into the Wii, and have fun. You can even rotate the movies, apply effects, and play them backwards.

Divisive in-action

Here is an interesting video by Michelle Malkin about Coultermania. Which she describes as the hatred of the left towards Ann Coulter. True enough, I hate her. But what I find interesting about the video is that she doesn't talk about the content of the book, or what Ann is saying, beyond it's value as a way to infuriate liberals. You see, it's not about what you say. It's about the effect what you say has on people. The point is to divide.

And it's not just Ann and Michelle, it's the whole conservative spin machine, all the way up to Karl Rove. I hear story after story from insiders about how Karl wants this policy or position, not because it will help people or solve real problems, but because it will divide people. Why divide? Because you can get people to vote along divides.

Take abortion as an example. Every conservative talker in the country talks about abortion every day. And every election cycle they drag it out for another go around. Why? Because it divides people. It's not about actually changing the law. Hell, conservatives have been in power for 12 years. And they have had the oval office for six. And still, no real change in abortion policy.

This is why this country is in the shape it's in. Conservatives have spent the last two decades creating partisan divides. As opposed to spending any time actually fixing what's broken.

Republicans call themselves the 'party of ideas'. I'm beginning to agree. Ideas instead of action. And in particular, ideas upon which you are I disagree so that they can so more discord.

What a jip

I went ice skating last Thursday and I found it so fun that I wanted to take Megan over the weekend. Lori helpfully pointed out in the paper that in Fremont a small seasonal rink had opened. So I took Megan. Getting her all revved up and excited along the way (which didn't take much). So we get there and I find that it's really just an inch of modular plastic put onto the road surface and sprayed with oil. Yes, you could use real skates, but you could also just walk on it.

What a jip! And what got me even more riled was the fact that the owner probably knows that people will be getting their kids excited, and that they won't want to leave once they get there because it would just break the kids hearts. So here we were, paying $5 each to skate on plastic, get oil slicks on our hands and plastic shavings on our knees. Ugh.

After that I took Megan to lunch and to a real ice skating rink in Foster City. She really enjoyed that. She picked up the ice chips and make them into snowballs. And she enjoyed just watching the kids skate. We had a much better time there.

In the future I will certainly make sure that when they say 'ice skating' that they really mean it. Actually, I'd like to see that article in the paper one more time to see if they said 'ice skating' or just 'skating'. Because the picture and the text certainly made it seem like ice was involved, and I don't remember any mention of plastic.

Apocalypto

I decided to put aside my preconceptions and see Apocalypto last night. I found it very entertaining. The violence was nowhere near as bad as I had been lead to believe. Certainly not as bad as the torturous bloodbath that was Passion Of The Christ. And I didn't have a problem with the subtitles or the native language. Though others quietly read the lines for people with them who couldn't read.

What blew me away was the scope of the production and the dedication to detail. The detail in the city scenes, incredible. And the makeup and body work. Wow. One thing that might have brought down on the production cost was that the last act of the movie, which is about 45 minutes, is mainly a jungle hunt.

Overall, an enjoyable movie. Certainly not for the whole family. Though at my local theater, of course, I saw kids in the 3-4 year old range brought along to view the hearts pulled from living bodies and the beheadings.

Wii mania

Now I'm beginning to feel lucky that I got my Wii when I did. On Friday I went to a game store to see if they had extra remotes (they had none), only to find about fifteen people waiting on the floor in the corner. I asked if it was a "Wii line" and the guy behind the counter said yes. He said that the people had heard that there was a rumor the store would be getting more, and came in. He went on to say that neither he nor the manager actually knew of any coming in. So these people were waiting to sit and wait all day, on a rumor.

On a related note a friend of mine found three Wiimotes actually in stock in a store he was visiting and bought all of them immediately (giving two to Lori and I as Christmas presents). It's like panning for gold to find this stuff.

Official Iraq violence reporting

One of the factoids that came out of the Iraq Study Group was that incidents of violence were being systematically under-reported by the Pentagon. Specifically that only violent acts that caused casualties were being reported. So an IED that went off where nobody was hurt... doesn't count. They took one day as an example and where the Pentagon reported 73 acts of violence, there were really 1,100 reported incidents of actual violence. The situation is obviously far far worse than we have been led to believe, and that's even after the official version, which was awful already.

Iraq

It's been a while, but I'm going to talk about Iraq again. For whatever reason I keep thinking back to the time of the Coalition Provisional Authority and how we squandered a year after the 'end of combat operations'. Why? Oh, yeah, because it's a story of Republican cronyism.

Anywho, we invade, we win, and then what? Nobody knows. So they create this thing called the Coalition Provisional Authority to govern. But who to bring in, right? Can't be liberals, can't be bureaucrats, has to be good Republican stock. So where do they go? Republican campaign staffers and Heritage Foundation folks.

Generall speaking... Kids. Literally. Kids. Like 20 somethings. And they give these kids the keys to the kingdom. The money, the plans, the whole deal. No government experience required. Just the right ideology. Because what Iraqis need more than electricity is the assurance that they won't be allowed to do stem cell research.

One particular story is illustrative of all of this; car traffic in Baghdad always has been a kind of controlled chaos. There are no real rules. But you can be fined by these ad-hoc cops who would pocket most of the fine. It's bribery and what not. But it works for Baghdad and has for a long time.

In comes one of these Heritage Foundation kids, and he sees this and is just dumbfounded. It's not the American way. It's not the way that Baghdad, this flowering beacon of neo-conservatism, should be.

So he takes it upon himself to rewrite, or I should say write, a new Iraqi traffic code. In the green zone. Without actually consulting any Iraqis. He just holes up in his office, and lays out these rules and plans. Even better he based it on the Massachusetts drivings laws. Because God only knows that Boston is where the best driving happens.

What becomes of his masterwork? It's rolled out here and there. Quickly abandoned in favor of the old, chaotic, but workable system. And when his year is up, boom, he is gone. Buh, bye. "Glad I could help."

One would hope that the gentlemen at least had learned what the expression "If it ain't broke don't fix it" meant.

But all that is in the past, right? Not really. That story is a microcosm of the macrocosm. It strongly echoes in what we are trying to do today. The administration just doesn't seem to grasp that what we are seeing today is the continuation of a Sunni/Shiite feud that has been going on for generations. We don't understand the history and the culture. It's the same thing that happened in Vietnam. And we are getting killed in Iraq in just as pointless and futile way as we were in Vietnam.

Wii: Mission accomplished

It took getting up at 1AM to get in line by 2AM but I was able to buy a Wii console at Wal-Mart this morning. Even arriving at 2AM I was 25th in line. Early on I thought my chances were bad to get one. When I called around to other Wal-Marts they only had 17 or so each. But the store I went to wouldn't say. At 5AM a manager came out to say they had 31 and people started haggling to buy line position. The 22nd position went for $100.

The line experience was a little better and worse than the last line I was in. But that was thirteen years ago in Miami when I was waiting for tickets for The Stones on their "Steel Wheels" tour. It was a lot warmer back then. But the line etiquette was a little harsher. On the Wii line an early guy passed out numbers so that everyone knew where they stood. So I didn't worry about heading off at one point to take a bio-break. One downside though was an obnoxious guy who had two spots and sold one. When the crowd complained he boasted that he 'was packing'. What an idiot.

My friend Joe who was in line for the initial release said that most of the folks in his line were going to sell theirs online to make a quick buck. In my line though everyone I talked to was going to keep theirs. It's interesting to note how the mindset has changed and now people really want them, as opposed to thinking of them as commodities.

Rumor has it that Best Buy and Circuit City are going to sell stuff on Sunday. I doubt I will wait in that line again. But I would like another Wii-mote, and they are as hard to come by as the console.

Great Barrier Reef swim

The pool where Lori and I do laps is running a "Great Barrier Reef swim" starting on December 21st and running until April 4th. The goal is to swim 37.5 miles during that time period. It comes out to a little less than 3 miles a week, which is less than what Lori and I already swim.

I'll be tracking my progress at the pool but also on the indicator at the top of the blog. I'll probably finish it pretty early since I'm swimming around 6.5 miles a week nowadays.

BTW, don't worry, I won't be hitting you guys up for any donations. This is just a fitness goals type swim. I don't think there is any charity involvement.

SkyMaul

I looked inside the book on this parody of the crappy SkyMall catalogs that you get on planes. I couldn't stop laughing. Awesome.

Megan: Future fitness nazi

While Megan was getting on her socks and shoes before I took her to school I figured I could get in a set of light weights. Now this isn't big stuff. I'm talking little 7lb aerobics weights that I use with high reps just to keep my biceps up. But she was fascinated, and after I was done I went to put them down and she said, "Now go like this." As she spun her arms around in little circles to her sides. So I did that... and it hurt like hell. So I stopped, and she said, "Now like this..." And she twisted her torso with her arms stretched way out, like some carnival ride. And I tried that... And it hurt even more.

As a reward I let her play with two of Lori's very light 2lb weights and she had some fun exercising with those on the way to school.

I can totally see Megan as one of those drill sergeant fitness instructor types. Like the types who run spinning classes with linearly increasing levels of effort with no breaks... then do it all so effortlessly that you wish you hate little missiles you could fire out of your eyes that would blow them away.

I'm trying to do as much of my home exercise in front of Megan as I can. Or at least in a spot where Megan knows that I am exercising. Primarily because my parents never showed me how they exercised. I suppose that's because they really didn't exercise at all until my Mom got into Jim Fixx. And then it was just, "I'm going for a run, back in a while." Without any talk of how, or why, or what progress was made. So as an adult I had very little knowledge to draw on about how, where, and when to work out, what effort to expend, how often, or what I should see as a result of all of it.

My sister was the only person in our family to do any type of 'workout video' stuff. It was Jane Fonda and I used to give her all kinds of crap for it. Years later of course the tables have turned and I ended up turning her onto Billy Blanks and Tae Bo and now she has six pack abs and preternatural balance that she uses for 'machine gun kicks'.

Aside: I've found the secret to good balance on exercises like the machine gun kick (which has you kicking from a T position with your chest going in one way and one leg going the other all being supported by one leg.. then kicking hard with your leg in the air) is to keep the support leg bent fairly significantly. In fact, slightly bending your knees is really key for balance of any sort. Come to think of it, I can't think of a good circumstance for keeping your knees locked.

If you want to try a machine gun kick don't be surprised if your first time out you can only do one or two, or none. It's very hard. Only now, after five months of training, can I do fairly long sets of them. And even now I tend to bounce around a little.

BTW, if you can get through Billy's Advanced Bootcamp DVD then I consider you a living god. I can't do it. I think Jenny gets through most of it. But the bands portion in the middle... crazy.

An early history in health and fitness can help in the long run.

Shut Up and Sing

Lori and I spent a small fortune to see "Shut Up and Sing" at an art house theater in Berkeley last night. I enjoyed it. It was an interesting mix of a concert film and a political story of protest and the effect of that protest.

I was slightly annoyed by the story not being told in a linear fashion. Though I understand that the story itself contains very few juicy tidbits. So the director would have to space them out to make the story compelling. And the death threats, and Natalie's very palpable concern for her life (which leads to some of the most dramatic content of the film) happened fairly early on in a straight time line. But was presented later in the film for dramatic effect.

And while I enjoyed the insight into the banter between the three main performers I found that only a few scenes actually lifted the veil to show their true feelings. One scene comes to mind though is where Emily breaks down talking about how she would quit it all if it would alleviate Natalie of her feelings of guilt for detonating their country career.

Another thing I found lacking was almost any scene were we caught the girls talking about the statement and having any real debate about it's validity, their support for it, and their positioning of it. In fact, Natalie comes off as this ceaselessly strong character who seems to know what to do from the get-go. When you can see that the whole situation took a serious toll on her. Clearly their livelihoods, and the jobs of all of the support team for the band were on the line from the moment the controversy started. And we never get to see so much as a debate about what to do. Even though in the beginning their were clearly fractures in their initial response on an individual basis. How did that get worked out?

As for the Freepers and the protest morons. It's what you would expect. These are people that believe strongly in whatever any Republican does. And I can respect that confidence even if I think it's both deeply misguided and very misplaced.

On a related note... at this point there are three categories of people that bother me when it comes to the situation we find our country in:

• People who strongly supported Bush and the war, but now are ambivalent about it: Either continue your support, or fight against the war. But don't one day call a person a traitor and then the next day say that politics is just too dirty and try to distance yourself from it. If it was so important to make sure that everyone supported a just war, it follows that it's equally important to fight against and unjust war.
• People who were always ambivalent and uninformed about the war: That's just wrong. This war is serious. We could easily become involved in a regional war between Saudi Arabia and Iran for control of Iraq at this point. And on the economic side we have spent ourselves into an unprecedented debt with the Chinese to fund our involvement in Iraq's civil war. It's all too important to not care about.
• People who strongly supported the war, but now don't and who don't want to apologize or fight to end the war: My example would be Pat Buchanan. They had video of him calling the girls the "Dixie Twits" during one of his many pro-administration/pro-war rants. Compare that to him on the talking heads this weekend saying that Iraq is definitely in a civil war that could well turn into a regional war. Thanks for joining the reality based community Pat. But could you please bring the rest of your herd along with you? if you are a thought leader it's your responsibility to let people know that you have changed your mind, let them know why, and try to get them on the right path. To do otherwise is nothing but gutless.

I've been wrong before on Iraq, and I have admitted that. I took Collin Powell seriously when he presented to the UN. I believed that Iraq had some WMDs. I stated at the time that it wasn't worth going to war over at that time. Which I still stand by. I thought at the time, and still think, that Al Qaeda in Afghanistan should have been our primary target. And that we should have use covert action to just kill him. Preferably just a few days after the 9/11 attacks.

So there were elements of my analysis that were wrong, and I admitted that. Why is it so hard for my friends on the right to do the same. It's as if they decided at the age of 13 that from now on everything they knew and thought was right, and never need to change. Which, from my point of view, is just intellectual death. You might as well turn off your brain... Anyway, I digress.