Category: Politics

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Welcome to Berkeley

Wow. I’m here — is it like living in Wallingford? Not exactly. There’s a slightly chemically-induced relaxedness to Berkeley. I’m normally a somewhat relaxed person, but here I’m a positively-stressed-out type A. What’s really mind-boggling to me is that the new apartment I live in is the same geographic distance from San Francisco as Seattle is to Seatac.

Immediate observations:

  • Pedestrians are generally surprised and happy when I stop at an intersection to let them walk past. Drivers behind me are surprised and unhappy, but then they see my Washington license plates.
  • People are busier here. Everyone seems to be in a hurry to go somewhere, but maybe I’m just imagining that since I’m sort of in limbo until Saturday when the rest of everything I own gets here
  • The second time around has been a lot better mentally for me. Last summer, I moved here without really knowing anyone except Diana, and now I know dozens of people, and feel a bit part of
  • I’ve found karaoke in Berkeley.
  • Gas, rent, utilities are about 1/3 higher here.
  • BART rocks. Seattle’s monorail should be even nicer, when and if it gets built.
  • Would it kill the Bay Area to have a decent bowling alley? A man’s gotta bowl, you know.

All in all, it’s just the waiting to get set up here that’s the most stressful thing. I do miss Seattle and my friends and family, and the gang at Molly’s and the Twilight Exit. That, and Mom would have been 62 today. By this time next week, I should be laughing maniacally about the whole thing, if they haven’t come to take me away by then.

In other news, it seems that KB Toys is selling a George Dubya action figure with flight jacket, and people in India are boycotting and smashing containers of Coca-Cola and Pepsi because the drinks are contaminated with pesticides.

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American Action Market

Based on the Pentagon’s now-axed Policy Analysis Market (from 29 July) a group has created the American Action Market. From their site:

Some of the contracts traded on AAM will be based on objective data and observable events, as on a horse track, e.g.

  • the next White House lie to break into the news
  • the next country to which the White House will issue an ultimatum, and when
  • the next foreign leader to move from the CIA payroll to White House “most wanted” list
  • the lifespan of various DARPA projects, such as Total Information Awareness [site] and Babylon [site]
  • the first White House staffer to resign in disgrace, and when
  • the President’s approval rating on the day before Saddam is captured or killed

The American Prospect has a thought-provoking article on Bravo’s Queer Eye for the Straight Guy and Boy Meets Boy shows. Does this reduce the GLBT community to a superficial stereotype?

95% of what I own is packed in two crates on their way to Berkeley, California. I’ll be there Friday, but wow — it’s amazing to think about stuff, the space it takes up, the memories contained within each item, and the nonsense with stuff’s acquisition.

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Policy Analysis Market

The Pentagon’s commodity market trading system to predict future terrorist attacks came to a halt today. Brought about by the convicted John Poindexter, the system, called the Policy Analysis Market (site removed), would allow investors to bet on the likelihood of future terrorist events. The anonymity of the system could allow terrorists to profit from their own planned attacks. This dreadful idea was killed today in the Senate. Thankfully, the Democrats are rolling with this today, and Senator Joe Biden got to tear Paul Wolfowitz a new one in committee today. I wonder aloud how many more flagrant violations of the law are allowed before the Bush administration can be brought to task.

We don’t want to seem guilty of not being “on the same page” as other people for too long. Then – sliding through the months – we may wonder why we have lived.
from the article “The American Dissident” in the August 2003 issue of Harper’s Magazine

The US Senate wants to break up Amtrak.

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Run Arianna Run!

My friend Todd sent me the story of The Worst Waiter in Seattle — of course, that could only happen at the infamous Cafe Minnie’s, now closed on Broadway, but still for some reason open on lower Queen Anne. While you’re there, be sure to ask yourself, “Is it okay to hate Dale Chihuly?”

From the “It’s Always Nice to Hear Good News Once In A While” Department: the Senate votes to deny funding for the Terrorism Information Awareness Program.

Run Arianna Run!

Hey, and I got to design the look-and-feel for this! Happy happy joy joy!

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No lutefisk outsourcing

At TomPaine.com, Ralph Nader writes about the last 40 years export of millions of jobs overseas in the name of free trade. It really is no secret that IT jobs being outsourced overseas is reminiscent of Detroit’s export of automotive jobs from its Michigan plants to cheaper states, and then eventually to Mexico and other countries with a cheaper labor force and lax environmental laws. This race-to-the-bottom is covered in detail at Washtech.

Yay! The Ballard Seafood Festival! Lutefisk, anyone? July 26th and 27th in Seattle’s favorite neighborhood. It looks like polka!

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DMCA in the Key of E, F

This was probably one of the best spoofs I’ve seen in a while: Metallica Sue Canadian Band over E, F Chords. Still, I wonder if the Digital Millenium Copyright Act will get so silly as to have key provisions overturned so as to enable a fairer version of fair use.

I’m quite happy to see what I’ve thought all along: what an empty experience consumerism can be, and that experience is portrayed quite well through ‘Are You Watching The Shopping Channel?‘

A great anti-war statement through a familiar metaphor? Operation Hidden Agenda playing cards. Similar to the Iraqi cards passed around to the military, these cards talk feature key members of the Bush administration and their role in war and behind-the-scenes dealing with regard to oil profits.

The White House email system endured a Denial-of-Service attack. One can no longer email president@whitehouse.gov, but now must fill out a form, indicating if the sender agrees with current administration policies. Yow.

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Recession… over?

Oh, my God. The recession is over. Could this be a typo? I mean, there’s, well… this recession going on. Who is smoking what when? Ah, I give up.

Back from the dead: WebVan… I mean, Home Grocer.

Oh, cool! 80s commercials.

In other news, I found a place to live in Berkeley: the second floor of a hacienda-like structure a few blocks from the North Berkeley BART stop. That, and my apartment has been rented. Hooah.

Buy my friend Mary’s car!
It’s quite lovely.

Queer Eye for the Straight Guy was perhaps the most fun I’ve had watching television in a long time. Watch it next Tuesday at 10pm PST. That, and BANZAI!

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BANZAI!

Oh. My. God. The Fox network is getting BANZAI. When you click on the site, please avert your eyes at first, as the color scheme is quite wacky.

I’m very much in favor of New York’s recent ban of soft drinks and sweets in the elementary and junior-high schools, especially with our nation’s obesity epidemic. Sure, kids can get sweets really easily anyway, but the road to early-onset diabetes shouldn’t be a federally-mandated program. Now, Kraft Foods, currently under a lawsuit claiming Oreo’s contain a life-threatening ingredient, is limiting the size of its snack foods to do its part towards fighting the obesity epidemic in the United States. Still, avoiding this prepackaged crap altogether does wonders for human health.

The American Traveler International Apology T-shirt makes a great gift for the activist in the family.

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Powerhouse Prostate Tour

I got to walk through a giant colon in San Francisco this weekend!

“Well aware I am that the colorectal cancer cause is noble and good and hence the Colossal Colon Tour was decent and right, sort of, but also not, it’s also just a little weird, as it was, you know, a giant crawl-thru colon, and you don’t exactly see The Voluminous Vagina Tour or the Stupendous Skin Cancer Tour or the Bulbous Breast Tour or the Powerhouse Prostate Tour featuring a giant bulb-like fortress thing kids can romp around in a like one of those inflatable toy castles. But hey, maybe you should.”
Mark Morford, on the giant colon, in his SF Gate “Morning Fix” column

Ralph Nader made an appearance on CNN’s Crossfire today, and James Carville was probably the angriest I’ve every seen him with a guest, insisting that Ralph Nader stole the election from Gore. While that assumption is an easy way out, maybe it has more to do with the way the Florida election was mishandled (see Unprecendented: The 2002 Presidential Election). Even Pat Buchanan admitted that some primarily Jewish counties most likely didn’t vote for him.

Butterfly ballot

The Stranger is reporting this week that Sorry Charlie’s, one of Seattle’s endangered piano bars, might be saved from an outside investor.