Tag Archives: United States

On Supporting President Obama

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And all of us have to have a conversation. . . .  and we’ve got to do so at a time when the economy is in a tough situation.

President Barack Obama, 20 September 2010

Our world is complicated. Even limiting the scope of inquiry to the social and economic factors most profoundly affecting the contemporary American economy: our world is complicated. Our world is so complicated, in fact, that it took more than a year of analysis for economists at the National Bureau of Economic Research to determine that the “Great Recession” ended in June of 2009. Our world is more complicated still: on the very day when such timely news was announced,  President Obama met with a roomful of his fellow citizens to talk about our personal economic lives as well as the greater American economy. He began by downplaying NBER’s announcement, stating “obviously for the millions of people who are still out of work, people who have seen their home values decline, people who are struggling to pay the bills day to day, [the recession is] still very real for them.”

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Differences of opinion

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I went to the Sharpton rally with a few friends and after it fell behind schedule (as all liberal events tend to do), we headed down to the Mall to support DC Vote folks and engage in discourse with people who hold differing views.

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Exciting Weekend Ahead: The Tea Partiers are Coming

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The Tea Partiers are coming, the Tea Partiers are coming!

I am very excited about this opportunity to engage people from outside my narrow-minded neighborhood in intelligent discourse about the role of immigration in contemporary society. I might even get to meet one of those 19-percenters who hope to remove our foreign-born President* from office. (In the interest of full disclosure, I am pretty sure that I was born in Colorado, but I don’t have any newspaper clippings with my birth announcement, so I hope that they can see past my Canadian relatives and that we can talk like real Americans.)

As of right now, I am planning on meeting misguided people at the metro station and politely requesting that they not take advantage of my tax dollars on their way home–they should instead take a pedi-cab or a foreign-oil-fueled vehicle back to their hotels. Because this will only help inform their decisions on the way back, I have submitted a suggestion to Metro to add a special surcharge for all farecard-based travel this Saturday (after all, if someone has a SmartTrip Metro card, they are probably already subsidizing the system with their tax dollars) to offset any tax-payer subsidized taint of the transit system; I don’t want some innocent tea-partier to unknowingly encourage taxation during their visit!

Unfortunately, I have made a grave error in my plans for this weekend. I invited an immigrant. He is a nice guy, but, as an immigrant, he has taken an American job from the lovely people who will be gathering at the Lincoln memorial. Perhaps if I ask him to wear a pin that says “I am a Canadian and I am sorry for taking an American job. If you have a master’s degree in foreign relations, we can discuss how to return what is rightfully yours,” we might be able to get another American employed. It would be unfortunate for my friend to be deported, but one ought to be consistent!

*Normally, I would not footnote what I consider obvious sarcasm respectful disagreement over facts, but in light of the intense debate over this issue, please let me state unequivocally that the Earth is an irregular sphere, Newton’s description of gravity is pretty good for my daily life, and President Obama was born in the United States.

Nicholas Merrill, a Hero

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Hero is an overused word. In this case, it is appropriate.

Seven years ago, when Nicholas was the CEO of an Internet Service Provider in New York, the FBI brought him a  National Security Letter demanding a significant amount of information about several of his customers, and

although the letter’s gag order “was totally clear that they were saying that I couldn’t speak to a lawyer” about it, he immediately contacted his personal attorney, and together they went to the ACLU in New York, which agreed to represent him.

via Wired

A Question for Skeptics

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Recently, I have been thinking a lot about skepticism: what does it mean to be skeptical, what makes for legitimate skepticism, etc.  I believe that skepticism can be a good and healthy thing–the very act of reasoning out a theory helps a person to better understand that idea, as well as the various values that surround it. As a small child, I marveled at the logistical impracticality that Santa would face in driving his sleigh from house to house, all over the world. What if a kid couldn’t fall asleep–how would Santa detect this state from a distance and reroute his trip on the fly? It simply seemed too far fetched. Eventually I determined that Santa must subcontract with local service providers, a determination that did not in any way impact the joy I felt opening presents on Christmas morning. After all, Santa still knew that I had been relatively good throughout the year. I say relatively, as surely Santa understood the challenge to ‘goodness’ posed by my ever-so-difficult brother.

These days, I am always a little dubious about moral proclamations by politicians. (Me thinks thou dost protest too much.) All too often, those screaming at the top of their lungs (whether Spitzer or Foley, Edwards or Sanford, Haggard) do so because they feel guilty about their own actions and seek redemption through the damnation of others. They simply want to protect their current position.

Like farm conglomerates and the high fructose corn syrup commercials. Or the oil companies and their alternative energy research–the budget for which can be dwarfed by the money they spend advertising such research. Or the alcohol, tobacco, and firearm lobbies and their “have a hell of a lot of fun with our products, but use them responsibly” work.

Fine, I get what they are doing and why they are doing it.

And I get why some people may be skeptical of global climate change. But I don’t understand their reasoning.

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Throw your hands up and Shout

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The Mall is filled with thousands (10s? 100s?) of people cheerful, clapping, joyful. We are united by hope, we share the audacity to dream that the country might be made better again. It won’t be easy, but with all of us working together: it can be done. (Confidence!)

And I think I just heard Otis Day’s rendition of Shout. This is an incredible day.

Really good corn

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Every once on a while, conditions conspire and come together to bring really good corn into this world. You know the type: sweet, easily schucked, juice kernels. Corn like this is manna from heaven. I have never found corn this good in a restaurant. Only at a farm can someone get food this tasty. The closest I’ve ever encountered outside of a farm was at Moto (an amazing meal I shared with my brother, paid for by staying on his couch instead of a hotel for four nights while on business.) But given the science experiments that go on there, I’m not sure that it ought to count!

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And this weekend, we ate excellent corn. The only way to cook it is to lightly steam it. With okay corn, you may be best to put it on a grill-get the extra flavor through the carbon and extreme heat. But this corn? Never.

 

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I found that a light dusting with pink rock salt brought out the corn’s sweetness.  Anyway, the corn, excellent weather, and good friends made for a wonderful beach weekend.