Attacking Ricky Stanzi

Um... this is uncomfortable territory for me. I've never been one to wave a flag and talk about how much I love America, but I am patriotic. I do love this country. I find it incredibly irritating at times, but I do love it. It's the land of the free, home of the brave all that good stuff. And I don't have a problem with people saying that out loud.

Iowa Quarterback Ricky Stanzi did and the Daily Iowan published what was pretty much a hatchet job on him for it (behold, said attempt to direct hatchet towards knees) and blatantly missed the mark.

First of all: he plays football. He's not running for Governor, he's not running for high office, he PLAYS FOOTBALL. And he LOVES AMERICA. Why does it matter if he says it out loud?

Second of all: subjecting the remarks of a Division I Quarterback to the politically correct psychobabble of academia is an exercise is preposterous ridiculousness only worthy of the Daily Iowan. Some highlights:

It's also important to note Stanzi speaks from a position of societal privilege. Even before he was the starting quarterback for a Division I football team, Stanzi's status as a straight, white male guaranteed he would be subjected to few of the social and structural impediments that women, minorities, and lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender citizens often have to overcome.

and... then there's this...

At its best, patriotism is a deep-seated love for the values and founding principles of one's country. For example, Martin Luther King Jr. was a true patriot, rhetorically rooting his heroic fight against socioeconomic injustice and white supremacy in the basic precepts of American democracy. He didn't tell African Americans to "take it on the chin" or just "keep moving forward"; King marched, spoke, and went to jail to ensure blacks would be accorded the same rights as white citizens.

Whoa. When did Martin Luther King Jr. show up? When did this become about civil rights? I'm very confused now. I don't think Stanzi was hating on MLK or Civil Rights, was he? Well, what did he actually say?

Stanzi recently told the Gazette his patriotism stems from his upbringing: "There was always an American flag hanging up in the house." He then went on to denigrate the "guys walking around in dresses" and the "hippies" that hang around the Pedestrian Mall. "There's the Ped Mall area down there, right in the middle. Those people are going nowhere. Those people are the people who don't like America," the senior quarterback said. Stanzi also said, "The people who are doing things right and working hard, they don't complain because there's no point in complaining. When something happens to you, you take it on the chin and keep moving forward."

Might he be saying that the denizens of the Ivory Tower of Academia might not be quite as patriotic as other Americans? I think he was... and I think there's a certain amount of truth to that. Not to say that liberal residents of a college town aren't patriotic- there's just more a tendency in liberal thinking these days to denigrate the country, especially when Republicans are in charge. Patriotism then is not at all about love of country, but about political gain.

As for the rest, well, the Protestant work ethic of persevering and working your ass off is one of the things that made America great...

The punchline to all of this, is of course Stanzi's admission that he didn't even vote in the last elections. So, why are we writing this editorial again? What was the point? Stanzi wasn't trying to be political- he just loves his country. If he was trying to be political, then some of the points of the editorial would be valid. But there's little to no evidence indicating that he was being political.

He plays football and he loves America. What's the problem? Well, apparently it's that he's a straight, white male who loves America. The Daily Iowan thus proving nearly all of Stanzi's points in one neatly wrapped editorial bundle.

(This becomes even more hysterically laughable when you vote in the little poll they posted on their website, asking if people had a problem with RIcky Stanzi's patriotic comments... by a margin of 3-1 the response was an overwhelming NO.)

JoeSco Fires A Warning Shot

http://www.politico.com/news/stories/1110/45687.html

MSNBC pundit and former GOP Congressman Joe Scarborough has written a truly scathing, blistering attack on Sarah Palin urging the rest of the GOP to 'man up' and take her on. JoeSco (yes, I am officially designating him that. Just for fun) seems to have issues with Palin's recent attacks on Presidents Bush and apparently, President Reagan (hadn't heard about this one). JoeSco slams Palin for being more interested in promoting reality television and her books than becoming a serious Presidential contender and is seriously ticked that she slammed the Bushies (blue bloods) and Reagan (for apparently being an actor.)

Now, don't get me wrong. I have a long list of issues with Sarah Palin and she has a lot of work to do if she wants to win the election, but JoeSco misses the mark on a couple of key points:

First, don't let the reality show fool you. Sarah Palin gets it. Sarah Palin gets it in the same way Ron Paul got it about small dollar fundraising in 2008 and in ways no one in the political establishment of either party has grasped yet. Elections aren't just about 'gravitas' and 'issues' anymore, to a large extent candidates are selling a vision, an idea and more importantly… a brand. Palin is using social media and reality television to introduce herself and talk to her conservative constituency directly without having every word she says wrung through a media filter of whatever ideological bias- and by doing so, she is building an untested (I say untested, because using the media to speak directly to voters in the way she's doing hasn't really been done before.) potential advantage in any potential nomination race.

That said, she has work to do: elections may be about media marketing more than voters these days (sad, but potentially true) but they are won and lost with the votes of independents- and right now she has to do a lot of work with independents. There's a gap that needs to be closed to take her from potential (and probable) GOP nominee to true Presidential contender. She's getting there, but she's not there yet.

Second, of course she's going to whack at the GOP establishment. Bush the Elder raised taxes and Bush the Younger expanded the size of government- two cardinal sins against conservatism. And while liberals had issues with Reagan's acting, her point with Reagan (though I haven't seen video on her supposed attack that outraged JoeSco so) might be this: being an actor didn't stop Reagan from being taken seriously as a candidate and a President, so why should she be subject to attacks from the GOPer Establishment for having a reality show? (Maybe, just maybe Reagan could be taken seriously because he was an ex-actor and a DUDE… hmmmmmm… I wonder.)

Either way, JoeSco should get some fire going in Republican bellies and make a race out of this. But he, like so many people seem to be underestimating Palin's potential and are playing silly games with expectations. If the argument against her is that she's a reality show bimbo with a thin resume and it turns out she can walk, talk and formulate policy ideas with all the rest of the boys, then ladies and gentlemen, that's the ballgame.

JoeSco should tread lightly- and maybe instead of defending the GOPer establishment he can poke Sarah with a stick and get her to cough up some gravitas and some policy ideas for the good people… good candidates are good for any party, even the Republicans, after all…

Federal Pay Freeze

President Obama gave a nod towards reality yesterday by announcing a pay freeze for all Federal employees. Republicans cautiously applauded and Democrats absolutely hate the idea from the Congressional leadership on through to the wilds of the interwebs and back again.

Pay is a tricky thing, especially for civil service jobs. The theory is that in order to attract the best and brightest, government jobs need a dollop of extra pay and benefits to get the smart people to come in and help out. I'm fine with that theory—and to be sure, there are government jobs we actually need. I saw a great metaphor on Huffington Post yesterday where a writer compared government to a tool (he was busy attacking Sarah Palin at the time) saying he wanted to use it to build something, rather than wreck something.

It's an odd, unique way of looking at government, but one worth exploring. We seemed to get locked into this duality that government is either good or inherently evil- and it ignores the fact that in limited, sensible ways government can be helpful and dare I say, even efficient.

The problem is that the people who will be cutting budgets sit at the top and you can bet they won't start cutting at the top. Which is why this pay freeze makes me ever-so-slightly nauseous- it's not the police officers, border patrol agents, nurses or civil servants out here in the boonies that are the problem. It's Congress and its bloated pay. It's the Undersecretary of Do Nothing Affairs that gets paid six figures and a truly obscene pension to do diddly squat that are the problem. They need to go first.

But they won't, because that's not how this country works. The people at the top protect themselves and us tiny people get hosed in the end.

That said: I'm sorta kinda OK with this pay freeze. I'm sure Governor Branstad will get around to announcing one here in Iowa and I'll be OK with that too. After all, I used to paid a lot less with shittier benefits working a morally questionable job for a telemarketing company in Coralville. If I can keep this job that challenges me, that I enjoy and that pays moderately well, all things considered, I'm willing to take one for the team.

Provided, of course, that Terry is too.

Wiki-Leaked

Well, the media is abuzz and governments are enraged over the latest document dump to come from Wikileaks. For those not in the know, basically Wikileaks published confidential information alleging governmental or corporate misconduct- supposedly, even though it seems to have a jones for making the American government look foolish as of late. The latest dump consists of nearly 250,000 State Department cables, supposedly confidential and highly embarrassing for the United States government…

Am I fascinated? Sure am… will probably peruse them at my leisure after work.

Do I care much? Sort of? It worries me that the United States government has such a blatant lack of control over confidential information.

Is there a remedy? That is a harder question. I think governments are going to have to invest time and money into playing catch-up with the internet age in this regard and hopefully they are doing just that, but in the meantime, criminal prosecutions would be helpful. I say that from a policy perspective. Philosophically, while anarchist thinkers like Bakunin and Kroptkin fascinate me, I'm not down with the whole 'no more secrets' things that Wikileaks apparently has going. It edges into the creepy, 'I used to be a hacker in the 70s but I got caught and Robert Redford ran away to Canada and now I'm back and I look like Gandhi but with a really weird haircut' type territory.

A Study In Frustration

So Iowa lost to Minnesota this weekend, losing by 3 to Minnesota and sending Hawk fans everywhere into the pits of despair and frustration as the late season flameout continued. People were pissed off (understandably, Minnesota being 2-6 at the time) and more to the point, people wanted to know why. There were real BCS hopes at the start of the season. We were coming off an Orange Bowl win. We had plenty of returning talent and it's a fair question: what the heck happened?

I suspect that there are far too many intangibles to know for sure, but looking at the past three seasons, what we see is a history of fantastically close games, some of which were won and some of which were lost. Let's consider:

2008, we were 9-4. We lost 4 games by a combined total of 12 points. We were less than two touchdowns away from being undefeated.

2009, we were 11-2. We lost 2 games by a combined total of 10 points. One touchdown and one field goal away from being undefeated but conversely, we also won four games (UNI, Arkansas State, Michigan and Michigan State) by a combined total of 8 points. That's a touchdown and a two point conversion away from turning 11-2 into potentially 7-6.

Which bring us to 2010, where we've lost 5 games by a combined total of 18 points.

Does it mean we're horrible? No, it doesn't. When you consider that Iowa is graduating 26 seniors this year, this time next year 7-5 might not look so bad. But what It does mean is that we seem to be operating on a weird cycle of some kind, where some years we lose close games and other years we win close games. What makes it frustrating is that 7-5 is not at all an accurate reflection of the season Iowa has had. The chips just didn't fall quite right this season. It happens.

So, Insight Bowl, Outback Bowl, Gator Bowl- bring 'em on, I say! I'll be buying my t-shirt and watching, beer in hand hoping Iowa can find a touch of redemption to ease the bitter disappointment of the season that wasn't.

The Conference Dance Continues

While the prospects of a College Conference Apocalypse seemed to have faded, at least for now, with the Big 10 playing it conservative and being happy with just Nebraska and the Pac-10 content to become the Pac-12 and the Big 12 still existing, everyone can breathe a huge sigh of relief that we aren't plunging pell mell towards some hellacious mega-conference type of situation.

But while the big boys are done for now, the shuffling in the mid-majors continues:

Boise State, Fresno State and Nevada are hopping from the WAC to the Mountain West. TCU is joining Utah (leaving for the Pac-10) and BYU (leaving to be independent, for some reason) in leaving the MWC for, of all places The Big East. Why, I don't know. No offense to the Big East, but TCU is a damn good football program and this year, the Big East is not at all about Damn Good Football… it just seems really, really weird.

Hawaii and Utah State are pondering their next moves, with Hawaii potentially shifting to either the Big West or MWC and Utah State is playing the waiting game to see what the WAC does-- and the WAC seems to have its eye on UT-San Antonio, Texas State, North Texas or some weird combination of the three.

The Mountain West is obviously maneuvering to try and snag an automatic BCS bid, should another conference be invited to the Big Table. (Which would be surprising, to say the least.) And more or less, they've done a decent job of it. Consider what they're going to look like in two years:

Air Force

Colorado State

New Mexico

San Diego State

UNLV

Wyoming

Boise State

Fresno State

Nevada

The new additions of Boise, Fresno and Nevada bring a lot of voltage to the Conference… it would be still better had they managed to keep TCU, Utah and BYU but I think there's a lot of potential for growth here and a lot of weirdness that might get revisited a decade or so down the road. Colorado might find a berth in the Mountain West a lot sexier than being swallowed up and cast into the basement of the Pac-12. Utah might also rue their decision and the weirdness of TCU bolting to the Big East could come back to bite them as well. (I mean why join the Big East for an automatic BCS bid when you've consistently put your football program up there for an automatic bid without the benefit of a big conference behind you? Weird and jarring… I'm not a fan.) Looks like the Mountain West is set to up their game and if they do, they might well get that automatic BCS bid and be in a position to win back folks like BYU, Utah and TCU and maybe poach Colorado from the Pac-12. Then, suddenly a decent mid-major might look like a damn good major conference.

Either way, I think the Mountain West is on the rise.

On Food (Good, Bad and Otherwise)

Since people are going to be spending a large portion (hahahahahaha! Large portion, get it?) of their day eating, I thought I'd throw up a link to this frankly fascinating Newsweek article on the 'food gap' and how we can bridge the divide between those that have access to delicious and nutritious food and those that don't….

Behold (and read) the article, here.

OK, now that's done: I'm a fan of buying locally. We go to the Farmer's Market on a semi-regular basis and next year, I'd like to go more often, because well, it's important to support local growers and producers. But capitalism isn't always so friendly to these goals, mainly because the hard and fast truth of the matter is that buying organic, buying local, buying from a grocery store like New Pi or Whole Foods is damn expensive for a large chunk of the country. Then what we see is the stratification of food along class lines, with the rich who can afford to eat organic and have faaaaawncy veg getting it and the poor people being poorly nourished. (Which is what the above article talks about.)

Problem is, I'm not down with the 'holier than thou' attitude that so many 'locavores' seem to bring to the table. I mean, read the article… they get into fights with her husband's family because they insist on bringing their own, special organic apples to Thanksgiving. Who does that? Seriously now… one non-organic apple ain't going to kill you and at the end of the day, good food is good food. It drives me nuts when people wrap themselves in this pseudo-vegan cloak of righteousness and think we should tax soda, junk food and cut trans-fats out of food in the name of the collective good of the nation.

No, no, no… that's not the way to go. If you're serious about developing local markets and organic farming and spreading it wide, you need to get big retailers to catch on (like Wal Mart is) and make it affordable. Organic and locavorism will remain fads for the rich until the big corporations take it and make bank off it. That may seem like a sad reflection on the capitalist society we live in, but it's the way it works. (Same thing goes for 'green technologies'- when a big company figures out a way to make serious bank off this stuff, then it'll blow up in a major way.)

There's something else that goes right along with this issue though and that's the state of agriculture overall. We subsidize to beat heck and back all in the name of 'protecting the family farmer' and what do we get? Monocultures, GM and corporate farming everywhere we seem to look. I know it's not as simple as that- and I think it's ridiculous that I've lived most of my life in the farm state of farm states and don't really know all that much about agriculture (something I want to change.) If getting organic and local markets to pop in the overall economy rests on getting big corporations to see the potential for money in them, then overall sustainability in agriculture means we need an influx of innovation to change the way we do business in this country. So if I was Terry Branstad or Tom Vilsack, I'd be brushing up my Portuguese and heading south for a trip to the cerrado and Brazil.

That's right: Brazil. Brazil has gone from a food importer to a food exporter in a ridiculous amount of time and there's a genuine agricultural revolution going on down there that we should be learning about and watching very closely. Technology, innovation and changing entire paradigms have worked wonders for the Brazilians and could serve as a model for new agricultural revolutions here in the United States and beyond.

Changing the way we eat in this country, is therefore going to involve more than just preaching the wonders of organic produce and local markets. But it's certainly a discussion worth having and a subject that I'm dying to learn more about.

The Five Year Party

"College is an expensive waste of time for over half of those that go."

Another column debating the increasing expense and general worthiness of a college education in these days of economic woe and difficulty. While I think higher education is in desperate need of an injection of new thinking now, as a posed to ten years down the road, when shrinking state budgets force them to be creative, I still think a college education is worthwhile- but maybe not right away after high school. Gap years are a fairly common practice in Europe, with students taking a year to usually travel abroad or just work and more importantly, it gives them time to think about what they want to do with themselves.

One of my cousins is about to make that choice- between Uni or a gap year or just finding a job and getting to it and she's going through what I went through and what thousands of young people go through each and every year. Sometimes, at 17 or 18, you genuinely don't know what you want to do with your life. And that's perfectly fine- but paying thousands of dollars just to go to college to 'find yourself' seems like a pretty dumb thing to do- especially if at the end of it all, you still don't know what you want to do with yourself.

Consider this statistic from the column: 70 percent of high school grads start college, but only half complete a degree within four years. So about half of the people actually are blessed with some focus, drive and ambition about where they want to go- but the other half? Not so much. And maybe that's OK- maybe people have a right to do what they want to do when they're young, but the fact is, we should be having this debate. We should be asking questions and we should be thinking of different ways to get people the education they need in as cost-efficient a way as possible.

Plus, learning is a lifelong process. Shouldn't knowledge be fundamentally free? I mean, what we're paying for is a piece of paper which tells employers that we can show up and focus on a task for any given period of time more than anything else. Does education have to be about job training? Or is it about intellectual and social growth? If it's the latter, why is it so damn expensive?

All questions worth asking…

Hot Lips Houlihan Strikes Again

So, about Korea...

Like Beijing, I am concerned, but not overly worried about a Second Korean War breaking out anytime soon. I think there are a number of things at work here worth mentioning- and a lot of policy wonks in the media out there have beaten me to the punch, but between the North wanting concessions from the international community AND the fact that Little Kim is taking over from Daddy Kim sometime soon (and yes, I think I am going to call him Lil' Kim from now on, just for fun) I think the North is playing games. Which wouldn't be all that bad, except when they play games, they use real live artillery shells and military forces.

But I would say to people who are wondering: watch China very, very closely and try and read between the lines. It's interesting, now that the US is sending an aircraft carrier to conduct joint exercises with the South Koreans, that Beijing is merely expressing 'concern.' In August, the PLA said sending the GW to the Yellow Sea 'threatened long-term damage to Sino-US relations.' There's a palpable difference in tone there over the exact same action we're taking… and it could mean that Beijing is pulling the leash on Pyongyang or it could mean that Beijing is trying to stay clear of a potential war and Pyongyang ain't listening to them no more.

Either way a cautious, restrained, 'let's all just calm down and get along' attitude from China is fine by me.

The other reason I'm concerned, but not overly worried: South Korea. South Korea is a G-20 economy and they are not going to start some shit unless they have no other choice. With a million-man (and probably well fed) army, North Korea can do a lot of damage to their economic infrastructure whereas they can't exactly return the favor to the North. If and when they have no other choice, they'll do what they have to do- but right now, they'll talk tough and take defensive measures, but they won't fire the first shot. (Popular Mechanics, bless them has some interesting articles on their site on the subject- but this one seems especially relevant.)

Thoughts On Groping

I suppose, since it's all trendy and all I have to weigh on the latest kerfuffle over airport security. Somehow, somewhere- I'm not quite sure when, the Transportation Security Agency debuted these full body scanners, which essentially take a picture of you that pretty clearly shows off your genitals. People were understandably less than thrilled about this.

The alternative? Apparently, its an enhanced patdown- and unless you've been living under a rock for the past month or so, I don't think I need to rehash the horror stories that have been played out ad naseum throughout the country.

Me: I say enough already. It's obvious that this is some kind of a crazy governmental mandated intersection of security obsession and political correctness. We have to be uber-prepared and we can't pick on people, because that might offend someone. (Heaven forbid!) Personally, the lack of judgment allotted to these security professionals is what makes me so angry. They're not allowed to say, 'hey, this 3 year old kid doesn't deserve a cavity search, because he's three years old'- no, they have to pat EVERYONE down. If you're going to trumpet the professionalism of your employees, it'd be nice if you let them exercise some independent judgment. I'm sorry, but the Israelis simply don't do it this way…

That said: there is a somewhat delicious irony that the very same people (from the rightward side of the ship o'fools) rushing us into wars in Afghanistan and Iraq, ramming through the Patriot Act, setting up Gitmo and doing god knows what else to our civil liberties in the aftermath of 9/11 are now the ones so outraged by the very security state they supported and helped to set up.

Experiment

Well, I've never actually done this before, so forgive me if it turns out all wrong or a little weird. What I'm doing right now is publishing direct to my blog from a Microsoft Word Document. For the purposes of work (yes, I'm at work- but only until 3 PM) it looks like I'm just typing out something random on a word document, without all the bother of logging in and etc, etc, etc.

I like this.

I suppose this is the traditional place to list some things I'm thankful for:

1. Family
   
2. My Wife
   
3. My Job
   
4. My Half-A-Novel (officially at the 50,000 word mark.)
   

There are more of course, but these cover the high points. Numbers 1-3 should be self-explanatory, but Number 4 has been giving me some trouble as of late. Between ESPNU's College Town becoming an all-consuming addiction for me (sad, but true) and the lack of sleep, fending off seasonal illness and the like, I seem to have lost my inspirational drive. I need a little bit more gas in the tank, so to speak- and I'm thinking I may take a week off, think things over and completely re-order what I'm working on.

But I'm thankful that I've gotten this far with it- and hopefully this time next year, I'll be all done with it.

The Sports Weekend Of The Year

Well, I'd have to check, but I'm guessing this weekend was the busiest sports weekend of the entire year and it had its share of disappointments and triumphs to go around:

City High lost to Dowling Catholic in the 4A State Football Title Game, Regina won the 2A title and Solon won the 3A title- giving Johnson County 2 out of the 3 football titles they were going for.

Iowa lost to Ohio State by 3. Again. For the second year in a row. In almost the exact same way we lost to both Northwestern and Wisconsin. By blowing a late 4th Quarter lead... not the send off the Seniors were looking for, I think. (But in some perspective- if memory serves, in 2008 we lost some close games by not a lot of points and in 2009 we won some close games by not a lot of points and now, the circle sweeps around again and we lose some close games by not a lot of points. We go up, we go down. Doesn't mean we suck- in fact, this year, we had a damn good season and there's a lot to celebrate here!)

The Iowa Women won at Carver Hawkeye, the Iowa Men lost to Xavier but won their consolation game against Alabama- the basketball season is getting revved up and it looks to be a fun and exciting one!

Wrestling opened their season with the Iowa City Duels and won. Surprise, surprise...

Education and Innovation

Went to see the Hawkeyes kick some ass last night with The Quiet Man and on the way back, we got jawing about education and how the spiralling costs of college will eventually price a large chunk of the middle class out of the market, so to speak. But leaving that aside, I started wondering about the dearth of innovation in the economy right now and how economic prosperity rests upon creativity and innovation more than anything else.

The Missus showed me this video and I found it fascinating and thought provoking, plus a neat little bit of animation... so kids, watch and discuss amongst yourselves. You never know where the next big idea is going to come from.

Farewell To An Iowa Icon...

Was listening to the radio yesterday on my way down to pick up the Missus, when Iowa Public Radio ran a piece looking back at the history of Veterans Memorial Auditorium in Des Moines,which is slowly being turned into a ballroom/ampitheater type venue... it was an interesting piece, looking way, way back to when the place first opened and talking about the Girls' State Basketball Tournament, the State Wrestling Meet and concerts from the like of Elvis, Janis Joplin and Ozzy Osbourne (I did not know that Ozzy bit the head off the bat in Des Moines! Very cool.)

Either way, it got me a little nostalgic for my high school days and made me wish that I would have trucked down there with some friends to see a game or two- something, so I'd have some tangible memory of the place.

End Of The Crazy Train

After controversy erupted over college kids drinking their product by the gallon, the Federal Government started sniffing around and now, the makers of hyper-caffinated, very alcoholic Four Loko are announcing that they're taking the caffeine out of their product from now on.

Let us all now pause to celebrate yet another massively stupid action by the Federal Government.

Massively stupid? Yes, and I'm not just saying this because I enjoyed Four Loko far more than I did it's distant cousin/counterpart Joose, but because we still seem to be operating under the notion that banning something is going to keep kids from acting like damn fools when it comes to alcohol. The real solution to this is changing our drinking culture, but we can't do that through legislation and I've yet to hear a compelling way to accomplish that.

Plus, as long as there is vodka and Red Bull on the market, kids can create their own version of Four Loko and drink themselves just as silly.

There's Gonna Be A Weddin'

Yes, Prince William and Kate Middleton got engaged yesterday. If you're reading this here for the first time, then where the hell have you been for the past twenty-four hours? (And I'm deeply flattered that you come here for all your news needs...)

Anyway, the sheer nauseating amount of coverage is starting to annoy me. I mean, we get it. They're engaged. Hooray! Now, let's move on with our lives just a wee bit and let them actually plan the wedding, but no, I expect we'll be inflicted with non-stop updates on their every movement and after they're hitched? Well damn, then there's going to be a pregnancy watch...

But in general, I approve of this. They took their time (maybe a little too much time) making this decision, which is somewhat sensible, given the highly public nature of their marriage and any anachronistic ancient idiocy about the heir to the throne marrying a chaste, virginal girl seems to have been thrown out as well (another wise, wise move on the part of the Queen, though I expect if she would have insisted on it, Wills would have told her to get stuffed- privately, of course.) So all in all, I like this and I couldn't be happier for both of them- best of luck and congratulations!

Just When You Thought It Was Safe...

...the shenanigans for 2012 are getting underway already. Does that make anyone else want to drink heavily? Well, pass the whiskey, kids, because, although it's presumed that President Obama will go for a second term, the situation on the GOP side of the aisle is murky at worst and has all the makings of a bloodbath at best and Republicans, its expected, will line up for a shot at President Obama in 2012 and the line is already forming...

Gingrich is in.

Jindal is out.

There's a weird story at Huffington Post about NY Mayor Michael Bloomberg and former Florida Congressman Joe Scarborough launching an independent bid, either together or separately (it's not entirely clear.)

Palin is (probably) in- if Bristol Palin can oust Brandy on DWTS, then anything is possible. If she gets past Jennifer Grey and Kyle Massey to take the Mirror Ball Trophy, everyone should stop laughing, because it'll be clear evidence that there are serious Palin fans out there. (And it's making people crrrrrrrazy!)

Wow.

Just, wow.

Read the article (linked above) and then tell me you're not saying the exact same thing I am. Wow. I mean, wow- really? Was there some tiny smoke-filled back room where the adderoll dealers met with the plagiarizers and did their unethical deeds? Did I miss that? Where is that? I'd like to know, just out of sheer intellectual curiosity- I'd like to know and more to the point, I'd like to meet some of the people that use these services, because really?

I'm sorry- I'm having a little trouble wrapping my head around this concept. Maybe I actually paid attention and gave a shit in high school- god, that would be such a relief to learn, since it really felt like high school was a giant waste of my time in many ways, but at least it was free. Why on Earth would you drop a shitload of money into college if you're not even going to do it yourself?

Granted, the writer makes a point: lazy rich kids are always going to be lazy rich kids and the virtue of having money is that you can pay other people to do EVERYTHING. Personally, I think that undermines the whole human experience, but then again I'm poor and naive. Isn't the glory of living in the journey? In the accomplishments you achieve as a human being, no matter how small or how large? I have 47,000 words of a novel written. That's something. I have a Master's Thesis on a shelf in a library somewhere in Mankato,Minnesota- that too is something. In this whole mess of beans we call a world out there, I managed to meet a wonderful woman I want to grow old with. That's something.

What's the point of anything if you're just going to pay other people to do it for you? Maybe it's an outgrowth of the new conglomeration of corporatism and capitalism that seems to have America in a vise... but it just seems like such a massive waste. How can people think like this?

I'm confused.

James Blunt Stopped WWIII?

With his amazing, mind-blowing musical talents? I have to admit, I blinked when I saw this headline a little bit and thought 'what?' I mean, this is James Blunt who sings the sappy love songs and melts the hearts of women everywhere- not my favorite musical artist, that much is certain, but I give the guy some props, because he does have a good voice.

But I read the article (here) and discovered that Mr. Sappy Love Song was in the British Army for awhile and his unit had actually been ordered to take Pristina Airport from the Russians when the international community stormed into Kosovo in 1999. (Does anyone remember this? NATO gets troops on the ground, then the Ruskies pulled a fast one, took the airport before NATO did and people flipped their shit!) Apparently British General Mike Jackson told onetime Presidential Candidate General Wesley Clark that he wasn't going to start World War III by taking the Airport by force. Given what I would imagine to be massive confusion on the ground, that was probably a good thing on General Jackson's part.

Uber-random that Blunt was there though...

ESPNU College Town

I broke down. I admit it. I'm glad it wasn't Farmville, but it might as well be. I started playing ESPNU College Town on Facebook and I'm hooked.

Welcome to the Digital Age, I guess...

(By the way, if anyone reading this wants to be my fan, I'd appreciate it. I'm affiliated with the University of Iowa and the name of my sunny, modest little campus is Territorial State.)

The Students, They're Pissed Off

British cuts are taking hold and like the French, the British have taken to the streets- this time, it's the students, protesting plans to raise tuition fees and cut higher education by 40%. 50,000 students and lecturers marched through London and the protest was marred by violence, as windows were broken and flares were thrown in to the ruling Conservative Party's HQ in Central London.

I have to admit, I'm both impressed and kind of cynical about the whole thing. Major points to the British Students for the moxie to get organized and do it- double bonus points for trashing the ruling elite's HQ: if that was the kind of thing American students did on a semi-regular basis, I can guarantee you that tuition costs wouldn't be exploding so much. It'd be the kind of thing that would attract some attention, that's for sure.

I'm cynical, because the British are in a tizzy over plans to raise fees to 6,000 to 9,000 pounds a year. That's roughly $9600-$14502 and it's sort of laughable, because your average American student graduates with something like $23,500 in debt- that's 14,500 pounds. The one hundred most expensive college in the US range from roughly $46,000 to $54,000 a year in tuition or 28,546 to 33,500 pounds a year, so welcome to the cold hard reality of paying for a University education, kids. The days of wine and roses are over and done with and it could be a lot worse.

C-C-C-Cuts!

The Debt Commission released its initial report today and people are either extremely unhappy and not bothering to hide it or somewhat lukewarm to their proposals, because they're going to risk pissing off an awful lot of people if they adopt any particular combination of them.

First of all, I'm glad to learn that there was a Debt Commission in the first place- at least someone had some spark of a good idea somewhere in Washington D.C. but even if it is a Presidential Blue Ribbon Window Dressing, someone has to put these ideas to paper and someone has to start the debate, because one way or another, we're going to have to trim the size of government to get out of this. The British have already come to that realization (more on that in the next post) and we're not going to be far behind, I think.

Second of all, to the meat and potatoes: what has everyone in a tizzy? Behold, this link to the Huffington Post. But basically, they're talking about raising the retirement age, cutting Medicare benefits and the defense budget- all manner of truly nasty things that will piss a lot of people off. Paul Krugman weighed in with this pithy quote:

So you’re going to tell janitors to work until they’re 70 because lawyers are living longer than ever.

He has a point- but I have an answer: why do the lawyers need social security to begin with? Shouldn't they have gobs of cash saved up for retirement? So yes, it's a point, but let's means test for Social Security- like welfare, the idea should be not to be on Social Security but to have it there if you need it- that's what I think of when I think of a 'safety net.'

Raising the retirement age is inevitable. I've long accepted that- after all, I'm going to live longer and I have to work my ass to pay for the retirement of all the Boomers, so it'll probably be longer. No problem there.

I haven't read the whole report, primarily because I don't particular want to be bored to death by legalese for hours at a time and end up wanting to poke my eye out with a spoon- but there's waste a plenty to be had in our government. The Defense Department has plenty to go around. If our education system is predicated on the idea of local and state control, does the Department of Education need to be the size it is? And Homeland Security needs a serious rethink- and the entrenched bureaucracy needs to be swept out the door. That's the real battle that I'm waiting to see- we need (and despite what Conservatives would have us believe, we want- ask a Senior fulminating against government waste if we should cut Social Security and that inherent contradiction will be made clear) a certain amount of government- just efficient, cost-effective government, which we for sure don't have know.

The latest plan of 'quantitative easing' by the Fed (whatever the hell that means) is proving to be less than popular internationally, so I expect cuts of some kind will be forthcoming- probably painful ones.

80 MPH is NOT High Speed

Quick, tell me which is faster: 80 mph or 200 mph? If you picked the latter choice, then congratulations are in order, because you seemed to have stumbled onto a truth that seems to be eluding many levels of our glorious government at the present time. 80 mph is not in any way, shape or form, a high speed- at least not where trains are concerned. Yet, we see in the news that Transportation Secretary Ray LaHood is telling new GOP Governors in Wisconsin and Ohio 'no trains, no money.' Because between the Ohio project ($400 million) and the Wisconsin project ($810 million) you would have thought that anyone willing to put so much money into something they insist on calling high speed rail would have checked to see just how fast the thing would actually go...

They obviously didn't. Don't get me wrong: I think it's ridiculous that a country that put a man on the moon can't seem to develop an efficient, fast and effective passenger rail service. I long for the day when one exists and will happily patronize it when it does. But in the meantime the fact remains that Amtrak spends more money than it makes and these sub-par, sorry excuses for high-speed rail projects will, if built, merely add to that yearly loss and become gigantic white elephants, all because the government can't seem to grasp the idea that a job worth doing is one doing right the first time.

So, to Governors Elect Kasich, Walker and Branstad, I'm asking: stand up for real high speed rail and tell the Feds to keep their money- and tell them when they're interested in building an actual, fast, efficient passenger rail system you'll be interested in hearing their proposals.

Redistricting: The Aftermath

With Republicans controlling statehouses at levels not seen since 1928, the interesting partisan battle next year is going to be that of redistricting. With the census every ten years, and the House stuck at 435 seats, that means that populations shifts mean that some states will lose seats and others will gain them. All of which got me thinking... now that Branstad is back in charge. What will happen if Iowa loses another Congressional District? (I mean, I'm hoping we don't, but who can blame us young people if we head for the hills. Especially after the charming antics of Bob Vander Plaats and the Iowa Family Policy Center this past election.)

I'd say the most likely scenario is the break-up of District 3. It'd make no sense to break up up District One and 3 is geographically placed at the center of the state, making it easy for the 2nd, 1st and 4th Districts to absorb what they can. I laid out the following scenario...

Break-up District 3:

Poweshiek
Iowa
Mahaska
Keokuk
Lucas
Monroe
...to Second District

31038 votes
16452 GOP
14585 DEM

new baseline: 250416
comes out 120498 REP, 129917 DEM- Loebsack keeps his seat

Grundy
Tama
Benton
...to first District

20141 votes
11577 REP
8564 DEM

new baseline: 224048
comes out 112495 DEM, 111553 REP- Braley keeps his seat, but only just.

Polk
Jasper
Marion
...to 4th District

179389 votes
REP: 82477
DEM: 96912

new baseline: 405465 votes
comes out 234601 REP, 170864 DEM- Latham would keep this one.

This analysis is flawed on a couple of points. First of all, I don't know if we're going to lose a seat- and if so, I don't know how they'll redraw things. Second of all, I based this on vote totals off of NBC News- which is a spectacularly flawed way of doing things, considering the fact that any election under new lines would be in 2012, a Presidential Election year- which would mean higher turnout, which would throw all these numbers way off. Different elections mean different moods, different candidates and different issues- but playing out my what-if...

If we do lose a seat and split up the 3rd District, then Boswell would be toast under this plan and Daley would be vulnerable. Miller-Meeks would still lose, but again, I have to wonder whether she put too many eggs in Linn and Johnson Counties. She did exactly what she needed to in both these counties-- keep it close in Linn, respectable in Johnson- but what she neglected was to run up the score in Des Moines, Lee and Wapello Counties... she needed big 10 point wins like she got in Muscatine County to have a real shot and the chips didn't fall her way. Under this scenario, the Second District would pick up a healthy chunk of rural counties which would trend Republican. But with the vote totals... still wouldn't get the job done.

But keep an eye on the coming redistricting battle... it might be interesting. And better yet- hope that Iowa keeps its 5 seats!

The Second District: Aftermath

Well, I was somewhat surprised at the result- a 5 point win is far from a drubbing, but I for one, given the money that was pouring into the District in support of Miller-Meeks expected this to be a lot closer than it actually turned out to be. So what happened? This did:

Miller-Meeks carried:
Appanoose
Cedar
Davis
Henry
Louisa
Muscatine
Van Buren
Wapello
Washington
and Wayne Counties

Loebsack carried:
Des Moines
Jefferson
Johnson
Lee
and Linn Counties...

Several things jumped out at me when looking at the breakdown. First of all, Miller-Meeks barely edged out a win in Wapello County, where her hometown of Ottumwa is- if you're running in the Second District, you have to know that you need to keep it respectable in Johnson, close in Linn and sweep pretty much everything else if you want a serious shot. You can't eke out wins in places like Wapello County- and you need the margins that she saw in Muscatine County (a 10 point drubbing of Loebsack) if you want to really stay in it.

What probably killed her most of all though was Des Moines and Lee Counties. You have to win places like Burlington, Ft. Madison and Keokuk if you want to win this district and although the results were close, again, given the population edge in Johnson and Linn that favors Loebsack, you can't afford to eke out wins in these counties. Jefferson County going Loebsack's way surprised me at first, but then I noticed that it was the home of Fairfield and Vedic City. Can't seen the Maharishi crowd being hip to Republican talking points, so that's OK.

Ultimately I'd say if you're going to concede Johnson County to Loebsack, you need to keep it very close in Linn County and pick up Muscatine and Des Moines Counties (Muscatine and Burlington) by large margins if you want a serious shot. Push your margins up as far as you can in Linn, and run up the score in places like Wapello and everywhere else you're strong and this could have been a different race. But ultimately, I'd say losing Lee and Des Moines Counties probably proved fatal to Miller-Meeks, but not humiliatingly so. The only question is: does Miller-Meeks have one more campaign left in her? 2012 should answer that question once and for all...

Albums2010 #30: Ace Of Spaces

I'm not a huge heavy metal fan, but for Motörhead, I have to make an exception. Headed by Hard Rock pioneer Ian Klimster (better known as Lemmy) they helped revitalize heavy metal and change the genre at the start of the 80s-- with a dash of punk rock thrown into their music they helped to pioneer speed and thrash metal and generally rock so hard that they put other bands to shame.

I first stumbled into Motörhead courtesy of a piece in Rolling Stone some months back which profiled lead singer Lemmy Klimster, who proved to be a fascinating guy. First of all, my old man has long had an obscure love for the psychedlic British rock band Hawkwind and lo and behold Lemmy was actually kicked out of Hawkwind for doing too many drugs- which needless to say was apparently a very impressive feat back in the day. So that got my attention. The rest of the metal world seems to hold the guy in extremely high regard (Ozzy and company speak of him with great reverence) and that caught my attention as well.

But, as always, it's the music that matters and happily Motörhead delivers all the goods and then some. Believe it or not, one of my chief complaints about hard rock and/or metal music is that honestly, some of it is too loud and unintelligible for my taste- but Motörhead is the perfect balance between rock, roll, noise and music. I don't know if that makes sense or not, but let me take another run at it: good music has melody and isn't just noise and this band delivers the perfect balance of bad-assery and rock n'roll. These guys are loud, proud and don't give a damn and it makes for one helluva album to listen to- 'Ace of Spades' is one of the greatest rock n'roll songs of all time and one of my all time personal favorites to be completely honest with everyone- it's fast, hard and blows your face clean off.

Overall: If you're looking for the original pioneers of hard, kickass rock, then this album is a must-own, must-have, must-listen-too at all costs. For realz, kiddos if you like to rock hard and you've never heard of/listened to Motörhead then you are for sure missing out on something amazing. Rectify this situation and do so damn fast. You won't regret it.

2,438 Words

Day One of NANOWRIMO was very productive. I've had the Prologue to this particular story floating around in my head for the better part of a month or so, so it came easy, but the old problem that had faced me before is rearing its ugly head once again. Basically, I want to tell the story of my Two Day War (it's a long story, for a synopsis and the like, go check the NANOWRIMO site- I've got the username tnixon0908 and all the details are there. Friend me too, if you're a fellow NANO'er!) and my story is long, complicated and bounces around a lot.

Hence, the problem. I want to get into the heads of my characters and see what they're feeling but at the same time, I don't want to waste too much time. This story moves fast and I want the narrative to match the speed of the events I'm describing, but at the same time I want to develop characters as well... it's a strange dilemma and one that I'm not entirely sure how I'm going to work out- but we'll see tomorrow when I start to get into the meat and potatoes of my narrative.

I'll post on NANO again in a week or so... if you're writing in NANO, good luck and if not, what are you waiting for?

Bonehead Sports Move of the Decade

The Minnesota Vikings (apparently it seems more specifically, Minnesota's Coach Brad Childress) have committed one of the greatest acts of self-immolation in sports history today when they waived (cut) Randy Moss for being a little too cocky and a little too candid at a post-game press conference following Minnesota's defeat at the hands of New England yesterday.

I give up. No seriously, coddled Brett Favre for the sake of his precious streak was irritating enough- but this is sheer lunacy on the part of Childress. With Percy Harvin hurt, Minnesota is in sore need of receivers of which Moss is arguably one of the best out there. Brett Favre did not have a horrible day on Sunday and if he doesn't get too ambitious might be able to salvage something in the way of a season for the Vikings, but we need people who can catch the ball and more to the point we need a quarterback who is more consistent at throwing. Moss can't be blamed if the quarterback is throwing uncatchable balls...

Plus, really, it sounds like it was the press conference that did it. Moss has been a cocky bastard his whole career and that's not a secret to anyone in the NFL. If you weren't prepared to deal with his 'tude, why piss away the money and the draft pick to bring him to Minnesota?

So Dear Santa, for Christmas I'd like a new Coach and a new Quarterback!