Category: Uncategorized

Ran across an article on Vetvoice discussing the irony of the Dawa party bombing the US embassy twenty-five years ago, yet the ruling party in Iraq today. As usual, LeJeune doesn’t spend much time drawing conclusions, but lays out the facts for you to draw your own.

Unfortunately, it’s still widely regarded as unpatriotic in the USA to draw comparisons between the well-loved revolutionaries of our own history and today’s terrorists/freedom-fighters in Iraq. And to a point I agree: our revolutionaries were fighting for the Enlightenment ideals of life, liberty, and property, while often the factions in Iraq and Afghanistan appear to be fighting to unite the region under the banner of Islam.

I find those two ideals to be the polar opposite of one another: one fighting for the right for free people to choose their own religion, and one fighting to have their religion rule the area.

That said, however, their methods are not unalike. The fact is, although the term for guerrilla warfare has only existed a few hundred years, humans have always fought one another, and it’s certain we’ve been using these kinds of ambush tactics for a smaller force fighting a larger one for millennia, if not longer.

What I’m interested in is how yesterday’s terrorists are today’s politicians.

No, I’m not talking about Barack Obama. The fact is, only a few extremist, fringe elements attempt to paint Obama himself as a terrorist. His choice of friends and financiers, of course, might be legitimately questioned, but not the man himself.

That’s where it gets interesting.

The Islamic Dawa Party was brought into being in the 1960’s with the express goals of creating “a party and a movement which would promote Islamic values and ethics, political awareness, combat secularism and communism, and create an Islamic state in Iraq.” For background, however, at the time the party was formed, secularism was nearly synonymous with socialism and Arab nationalism. The Dawa party was backed by Iran during the Iran-Iraq war, and was responsible for a large number of terrorist attacks on Iraq at the time in an attempt to depose secular leader Saddam Hussein.

The attacks on the embassies were later repudiated by Al-Dawa, who claimed they were perpetuated in their name by rogue agents hijacked as proxies for the state of Iran. There is some truth to this claim, but as always it’s murky when it comes to politics. Hezbollah supported numerous attacks in the name of freeing Al-Dawa prisoners related to the attacks in Kuwait. Some say that the invasion of Kuwait — and subsequent freeing of Al-Dawa prisoners, either by escape or prisoner trade with Hussein — was part of the agreement brokered by the USA for the invasion of Kuwait. Which might explain Saddam’s surprise that the US took an interest, when he thought he had tacit acceptance of the invasion by a long-time ally.

Anyway, that’s just about ancient history. At this point, I wonder what Maliki’s connections are to historical terrorism by agents claiming to represent Al-Dawa? Directly, as far as I can tell, there are none except fomenting rebellion in the name of Islam against Iraqi leader Saddam Hussein in the 1970s, and supporting Iranian efforts during the Iran-Iraq war. He has strong ties with Hezbollah, and Syrian and Iranian leadership, built while in exile in Syria and later Iran. To gain and hold leadership, he’s had to coordinate with parties hostile to his aims. I think this makes Maliki a communicator and coalition-builder… but not a terrorist, though factions within the organizations he works with have engaged in terrorist actions.

To me, it seems obvious that the bombings were part of the Iran-Iraq war that inflamed the region. Hundreds of thousands of lives were lost, and for many in the area the impact was as profound as World War I had been on the psyche of Europe. The Iran/Iraq border is huge. Trench warfare and gas attacks were the modus operandi.

To Maliki, the eventual finding, trial, and execution of Hussein were a vindication of all he had worked for for twenty-seven years. Finally, the man responsible for his exile had seen justice.

I don’t see a good guy or a bad guy. I see a complex man who has lived in many places and necessarily made many compromises to rise to a position of power and see his aims met. That said, however, he is a militant anti-secularist, in favor of religious leadership of the region. Which means that my conscience tells me I should oppose his leadership in favor of secular — not Islamic — democracy in the state.

I guess I would not have been willing to make the compromises needed to maintain power in newly-liberated Iraq. And in fact, in a choice between McCain and Obama, I believe Obama will foster better relations with Iraq, because he has shown a similar tenacity to Maliki: an ability to accept compromises in order to preserve a fragile peace and get the job done.

Anyway, I rambled a bit. Sorry about that. In this world of shades of gray, it’s really hard to get a good grasp on what side I should be on when the sides change so often.

Here’s my idea. Instead of making this election one big divisive nonsense, especially since prior to the runup McCain and Obama were pretty much aligned on many issues, and especially since Pallin is a complete joke of a candidate, and especially since the negative ads are not at all helpful to our democracy, my idea is just to have Mccain and Obama on the ballot. Whoever loses gets VP.

Doesn’t an Obama-McCain or McCain-Obama ticket seem so much more appealing?

As most of you probably know, I’m not a huge fitness enthusiast. I figured eating lightly and a little exercise would be about all I needed to stay in reasonable shape.

Well, unfortunately, the scales topped 251lbs (13.8kg) for me a few weeks ago. At 73 inches (1.8 meters), that’s just not as healthy as I should be. So I got back on a reasonable eating plan, portion and carbohydrate-controlled with lots of veggies, and decided to try out a gym.

I signed up at the local Snap Fitness. They offered a free one-hour consultation with a personal trainer, so I scheduled it for this morning. I really tried to kick my own butt this past week! Unfortunately, I discovered that even though Snap is open 24 hours a day for members, I could only get in during business hours due to a problem with my passkey.

So this morning, I met with “Kelly” — the same woman who had signed me up, and obviously an employee/trainer — and we talked about fitness goals. To sum up:

* Today I’m 235 lbs, from a high of well over 250. I’d like to be around 200 lbs. * I haven’t lifted since I was a cheerleader in high school. I’d like to get my overall body strength up. * I’ve always had a problem with spraining my ankle. I’d like to see if my workouts can alleviate that tendency which has kept me from playing sports that involve much jumping. * I want to improve my overall coordination. I’m not naturally terrifically physically coordinated, and it would be nice to be able to do something like — for instance — the Wii Fit balance game without looking like a total doofus who over-balances doing just about anything.

So the trainer focused on balance-enhancing exercises, and suggested that I perform most of my squats and lifts on a “balance ball”. This torture device looks like a really big ball chopped in half with a plastic platform attached to the flat part. You stand on the flat part and try to keep your balance while doing other workouts.

Nifty. Just thirty seconds on this thing demonstrated to me that I really need to get better at balance.

So anyway, she outlined an exercise plan. She mentioned that the one on my iPhone — I use iPump — looked like it would be effective, I should make sure to concentrate on free-weights rather than Nautilus-style equipment due to my concerns about building general coordination and balance. And salt my workouts with some work on the balance ball and big bouncy ball to improve my coordination as well.

Because of a hip injury, however, she suggested I be really careful with crunches. Basically, if a particular exercise causes pain, find a different way to work that muscle group that doesn’t cause pain. Some years ago, my doctor suggested it probably was a small tear or rip in either the muscles or ligaments in that area of my hip, and he recommended that, rather than surgery, I simply work around the injury. Surgery in that area, he said, would probably make it worse rather than better. Too bad the pain if I move my hip a certain way is fairly permanent, though.

Today’s weight: 235 lbs BMI: 31 Body fat: 25.7%

Goals: Weight: 200 lbs or lower BMI: 26 or lower Body fat: 15% or lower

Anyway, those are my thoughts on working on fitness regimen. What are you doing to stay in shape, and what are your current goals?

Yesterday I went to the KFC buffet in downtown Salt Lake City. Yep, welcome to Utah, home of the world’s first Kentucky Fried Chicken. So a buddy forwarded me this:

KFC Art. Masterful!

If this doesn’t get you pumped to play I don’t know what will…

Michel Camilo – Jazz

For a long time, I’ve had qualms about saying how much I make. It felt as if it were somehow boasting. But I realized the other day that I’m certain there are a lot of middle-income Americans in the same boat as I am. As one middle-classer to another, here’s a shared data point I wrote in response to an email from a friend.

On Thu, October 9, 2008 16:58, Sue wrote: > Yes, this money thing is SO depressing. Especially for people in your age > group. I see some of my kids truly struggling to keep it together on > salaries > (adjusted for inflation) that were great when my Ex and I were in those > young years. There are a dozen studies that prove that income has not > increased > at the same rate as inflation and cost of things. It’s about 1/3 less!! No > wonder everyone is struggling so hard!

Here’s a breakdown:

I earn $80,000 per year. I thought that was a great salary when I got it in 2000… and it kind of was. But it has not increased one cent since then. As of last year:

I paid $12,000 in Social Security and Medicare taxes. Note that I’ve been at the cap for Social Security for ten years, and this money is basically wasted at this point as the Congress uses it as a blank check of IOUs to my retirement.

I paid $10,000 in state and federal taxes… AFTER my income tax return, not before!

I paid $26,400 on my home. Most of this, of course, was interest, though some small part was principal.

I already own both of my aging vehicles free & clear, but I really can’t afford to replace them right now.

I paid $15,000 towards my wife’s college education.

I paid $1000 toward electricity, and counted myself lucky that we had a small, energy-efficient home.

I paid $1000 toward water, sewer, and garbage, and was glad I had a tiny lawn.

I paid $600 for Internet service. The thing that saved our budget last year was freelance work on the weekend and evenings, and this was a big part of that, so I don’t regret a penny.

I paid $1000 for hosting my web sites; this also has brought me freelance work, and is money well spent.

I paid $350 for phone service.

I paid $3000 for gasoline; 70% of that was my 35-mile commute to work in my 50-MPG Honda Insight, and the rest was for our minivan to run kids and my spouse around. This year is worse; luckily, my main job is allowing me to work from home a day or two a week to reduce the expense.

That left $9,650 for the budget to feed and clothe a family of six… and I’m certain I left a few things out. Kudos to my wife for making that budget work, since she does most of the clothes-shopping and food-purchasing around here.

This is why I had three jobs last year. And now I’m back to looking for a second and third one, so that I can bring in the critical extra dollars to improve our quality of life rather than just surviving.

And we count ourselves lucky that the only debt we carry is our home. We are better off than some of our neighbors who are really barely scraping by… or not making it at all.

–Matt

Moved from http://barnson.org/node/884#comment-32901 -ed

NEW YORK (AP) — The National Debt Clock in New York City has run out of digits to record the growing figure. As a short-term fix, the digital dollar sign on the billboard-style clock near Times Square has been switched to a figure — the “1” in $10 trillion. It’s marking the federal government’s current debt at about $10.2 trillion.

According to the debt clock today, your family’s share is now $86,017.

I’d like to think that this one blog thread alone has done a decent job of showing just how fast and disastrous the U.S. economic picture has grown bleak. I attribute this to one thing – the Bush administration. For years now the state of economic and budget management affairs have grown weak and I feel like the Republican party in the White House has perpetrated one big avoidance tactic, focusing everyone’s attention on anything but the disaster-in-waiting.

OK.. so maybe you legitimately don’t like ’em.. but more often than not I am hearing “oh, I never watched that because..” and this is my top 10 list.

In No particular Order:

1) STAR WARS EPISODE 3: What started me off, someone said, I saw the first 2 and never saw the third. His loss, since it is the best since Empire and really captures that old spirit, despite some real missteps.

2) STAR TREK: DEEP SPACE NINE: Based on TNG fans who tried the first season and a half and checked out before it got REALLY good.. becoming, in my opinion, the best trek ever.

3) LOST: For 2 reasons. Half the people who tell me its not their thing think its a reality TV show. The other half checked out in the terrible first 8 eps of season 3, and missed out on it getting AMAZINGLY good.

4) BUFFY THE VAMPIRE SLAYER: I was on this list. Was never gonna watch that WB crap, saw the flick, hated it, end of story. Whoops. The best show on TV, exceeded only maybe by…

5) ANGEL: See DS9. People didn’t dig the 1st season, so they checked out. It is a darker, richer show, and one that I fnd casual viewers like more. Season 5 is a MUST SEE.

6) TERMINATOR: THE SARAH CONNOR CHRONICLES: Just the idea turned people off.. it seemed like a dumb ripoff.. it would be so easy to be bad. Its not. Its very good, and I look forward to it every week.

7) ARMY OF DARKNESS: Evil Dead 3. Looks like your typical zombie movie, right? Wrong. Classic comedy with Bruce Campbell and Sam Raimi at their finest. I show this to people against their will, and they thank me for it.

8) THE ABYSS: SPECIAL EDITION: People walked out of the Abyss scratching their heads saying “What was the point?” – Well, the point is in the 40 minutes of cut footage.. watch the Sec. Ed, and suddently the movie takes on an entirely different, and better tone.

9) THE HOWARD STERN SHOW: Yup. He’s crass, and sometimes asks women to take off their tops. BUT.. more often its a frank, funny, soap opera that follows the lives of the cast. When its good (see: Artie’s blowup) its worth buying a Sirius subscription for.

10) BARENAKED LADIES: Their fans are rampant, but to most, they are the “One Week” band. That is not their only, or best song. Not every album is perfect, but there are gems like “Born On a Pirate Ship” and “Everything to Everyone” that REALLY shine.. and “Gordon”, their first album back in 1988, is Seargeant Pepper’s Good.

(EXTRA CREDIT: The Beatles: People think they don’t like them based on their early work, and when they hear the later stuff, they change their tune.. Do NOT underestimate this band. they’re themost respected for a reason.)

Between prep work for an upcoming conference, overtime at work, and general satisfaction with my lot in life, I have little to blog about right now. But I’m alive 🙂

As most of you probably weren’t aware, this week I went to Motorcycle Safety Training at Murray High School in Salt Lake City, UT.

On the recommendation of a co-worker, I signed up for the $180, three-day motorcycle course: one Wednesday evening from 6PM to 9PM, all day Saturday, and all day Sunday. “All Day” really means from 7:45 AM until some time between 2PM and 4PM. I had some misgivings about if I actually needed the course — after all, I’ve been riding for several months on my learner’s permit without incident — but wanted to get my waiver without having to book time with the tester at the Driver License Division of the Utah Highway Patrol.

If you’ve ever been to a Utah DLD, you know why I want to avoid that particular bureaucracy as much as possible. It’s simply an excruciating wait to get anything done.

So I showed up to the Wednesday class on my bike. I needed to take one U-turn on the way, and this reminded me why the class would be a good idea: I was having a lot of trouble finishing my U-turn in a reasonable amount of space. I thought perhaps it was simply the size of my bike. After all, it’s a big 1100CC.

Anyway, Wednesday classroom time focused on keeping your bike maintained, the benefits of riding, and managing risk. It was quite boring, actually, and I was worried that if this was all there was, it might have been a waste of my money.

Saturday dawned rainy and cold. I drove the car to the high school. This was our first “range day”. The first half of the day would be spent outdoors on the motorcycle, getting acquainted with the controls and learning the very basics. Since I arrived early, I got first pick of the bike. I could pick one of a Suzuki GZ250 (I think it’s called an S30 now), Honda Rebel 250, or the one Kawaski Ninja 250.

I have fond memories of friends having Ninjas in high school, so I picked that one. It’s a very serviceable beginner bike, and it hauled around my 230+lb butt just fine. It was also the only bike in the class easily capable of greater than 75MPH at our altitude (4200 feet), which would be a good bonus for anybody else from Utah who’s looking for a starter bike.

Since I had already ridden for a few months, at the start of the class I was quite bored. However, I learned that I had a few bad habits that I needed to address, such as only braking with one brake or the other, rather than using both brakes all the time. As I began working on those, the range class became more interesting.

By the end of the time practicing on the range, I was soaked to the bone despite my rain gear, and very sore, particularly in my left “clutch” hand. We spent a few more hours in class discussing how to maneuver the bike safely in traffic and around hazards.

The third day of class, Sunday, also dawned rainy, but much colder than Saturday. This was to be an all-range, all-day class.

Utah’s motorcycle licensing is tiered into three categories, and what you take your test on dictates what you’re allowed to ride. The three tiers are “-250cc”, “-650cc”, and “+650cc”. I rode my 1100CC Honda V65 Sabre to class, despite the driving rain, in hopes that I could take my riding test on it. However, the instructors said I would first have to pass the -650cc test on the Ninja 250cc bike, and after I passed that, if they had time, interest, and the weather was OK, they’d test me on my bigger bike. Otherwise, I’d just have to pay my $15 and come back another day, or else schedule a regular exam at the Driver License Division on my bigger bike.

This range day was MUCH more interesting. We practiced everything covered in the Motorcycle Test: panic stops, swerving to avoid a collision, the offset cone weave, clean entry and exit from a turn, evaluating turn speeds, etc. A focus was kept on keeping your speed up during many maneuvers, because attempting to perform them at too low a speed might lead to dropping your bike.

After hours of practice, my hands, shoulders, and legs were quite sore. It’s far more physically demanding to wrestle around a motorbike at low speed than to drive a car. Finally it arrived:

Exam Time.

The skills evaluation was actually really straightforward. Everybody in our class passed except “Scooter Lady”, so named because she had ridden the day before on her 90cc scooter. She didn’t bother showing up for the second day on the range. Perhaps she assumed, incorrectly, it would be called on account of the constant, steady rain.

By the end of the exam, the sun came out and it started warming up. I got my -650cc endorsement card, then Twila (one of the instructors) told me to go warm up my big bike. She let me dry-run through all the tests several times on the bigger bike.

I had to score 20 points or fewer to pass. Final score on the 250cc Ninja: 8 points. Final score on the 1100CC V65: 1 point, given only because I went one foot past the stop-line on the panic-stop test.

The bike weighs twice as much as the little bikes. You’d think that would be taken into account.

Well, regardless, I’m going to go back and spend several hours in Hell — I mean, the DLD — tomorrow to get my new driver’s license with full endorsement.

I just hope they don’t insist on me taking another riding exam.