what a way to start a year

So last night, I tried to shuttle between first night, Olympus Cove in the driving snow with rear-wheel drive, and back again in 30 minutes. And I almost made it. I was at 200 E and 300 S when the fireworks started. But we were all a bit sad that cell phones on vibrate didn't buzz and that the hill to the girl's house was so steep. But, we all made it safely into the New Year.

It's a big year for me: my wedding, my father's 60th, my sister's 30th and who knows what else. So to make up for the grumpyness that comes with plans gone awry, today was made pleasurable.

First, we went to Sage Cafe and ate with all the well-to-do Vegans. Next, we had the state's best hot chocolate; it was like a melted chocolate bar at the Coco Cafe. After that, it was off to Park City where it was snowing while it was a nice clear day down in the valley. We looked at consignment stores, art galaries, resturants and the like down Historic Main Street, slipping along the slushy sidewalks. My toes are still a bit damp but it was fun.

The Utes play in the first (and perhaps last) BCS bowl game tonight in 40 minutes. I am looking forward to them destorying Pitt. Hope everyone enjoyed their journey into 2005.

While you were distracted...

Another CIA head honcho was purged by ex-GOP Rep. Porter Goss. Jami A. Miscik, the head of the CIA's analytic division told her staff Tuesday that she was resigning effective February 4th. Having filled every other department with Yes Men and Women, Bush is now having his henchmen do the same at the CIA. Even though it would be in there best long-term interest to have an impartial agency which could give them an honest assessment of intelligence, the Bush Administration is a reality-shapping, not a reality-based, community. They wanted a rubber stamp on their plans to invade Iraq, and the damned Agency had the gall to ask questions and doubt the existance of a nuclear, let alone a biological weapons program.

"Every [director of central intelligence] has a desire to have his own team in place to implement his vision and to offer him counsel," Miscik said in the e-mail. "This is a natural evolution of the leadership of our intelligence profession." Very diplomatic of you.



Personally, I think there are a few agencies which should be beyond the President's reach: the Justice Department and the Intelligence Agencies. There is too much room for the political needs of a White House to interfere and ruin sound policy. Like how Gore wanted to handle Elan Gonzalez differently, or how Bush wants the CIA to invent facts for his wars.

I think the US Attorney General should be elected on his or her own like they are in most states. This way, it could be a grooming ground for politicans who want to run for president but happen to annoyingly be in Congress (which always kills a White House run since 1960). Also, this would ensure that the AG would be independent from the President as they should be. That way, when the White House does something questionable, there will be no need for a "independent council" and there will be no appearances of impropriety.

77,000 115,000 reasons

While America slumbers along this week, wallowing in the afterglow of a buying frenzy known as Christmas, tens of thousands of people are missing family members. George W. Bush is among them, riding his bicylce and clearing his beloved brush in that hot hell known as Waco Texas. Meanwhile, 43 is out consoling South Asians and being the statesman.

The Bush administration added $20 million to the paltry $15 Million in aid to the region, while they spent billions on a handful of people in the all important swing state of Flordia this winter.

The White House spinmachine said: "The president wanted to be fully briefed on our efforts. He didn't want to make a symbolic statement about 'We feel your pain.' "

Nice try in slamming Clinton "Actions speak louder than words," a top Bush aide said, describing the president's view of his appropriate role. Indeed they do, and his actions were not to go to the largest muslim country in the world and Al-Qeada hotspot Indonesia, but to clear brush and ride his bicycle.

sore all over

I went skiing with my future brother-in-law today, and while we didn't talk much, there was a good level of understanding. Per my calculations, it has been at least 2 years since the last time I skied, what with a trip to Coasta Rica and generally being a snow snob. Usually it has to have snowed, then be warm and sunny, but not too hot to make the snow slushy. But 80 inches at Alta were enough for me this time. In the morning I got a few Blacks under my belt and then had lunch after he finished with his lesson.

The Afternoon we skied down bright greens and I tried to instruct what has become somewhat second-nature to me as I have been skiing since I was six. Sore all over, we left at 4:30 and joined the malstrom down the canyon and went to dinner at my parents house with my Uncle Aunt and cousins in from Washington DC. It was pretty fun and I got fudge out of it.

Here is my quote of the day: "While you're watching it, you don't realize how confused you are, because it either makes sense from moment to moment or, when it doesn't, you're distracted by the sex. Life is like that." -Roger Ebert on Bad Education.

On the flip side

I hope you all had a nice weekend. Mine was great but I am excited to go back to my regular life of living on my own with my fiancee. Staying at my parents house makes me feel like a child, especially with my sister here to boss me around.

Her and my mom are trying out the bridesmaid dresses that my fiancee has picked out at David's Bridal, the perfect place when each bridesmaid is in another state. My groomsmen will do the male equivalent- Men's Warehouse.

Amidst the news blackout, a real story surfaced: the terrible Tsunami in South Asia and how preventable many of the 24,000 deaths were. If India, Sri Lanka, and Indonesia (another other poorer neighboring nations like Bangladesh) had the same system for the Indian Ocean that they have in the Pacific where these things are more frequent, they would have had 15 minutes to evacuate the coasts.

The countries that bore the brunt of Sunday's tsunami had no notice of what was coming but the earthquake, the largest for 40 years, had been monitored by the Pacific Tsunami Warning Centre in Honolulu.

"We don't have contacts in our address book for anybody in that part of the world," National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration director Charles McCreery said.

The other story that is important is that Democracy triumphed over Cronyism and Corruption in the Ukraine with the Yushenko victory. Of course, there will be court challenges. Everyone wants to be like the Americans these days in some ways.

In Hollywood liberal news, Michael Moore is aiming his camera at Big Pharma after his unsuccessful attempt to dethrone Bush. "At least six drug companies have releases internal communications telling their employees to be ware of the scruffy baseball cap wearing filmmaker." AKA don't talk to him or you are fired. Like Jon Stewart and co., I never get why people go on camera with Moore who oppose his views. When was the last time they came off well?

As Jon Stewart says, "They like to be on the TeeVee."

Eve and Hark

Well I hope you all are enjoying the weekend and Christmasness. My dad and I went up to Big Cottonwood Canyon and snowshoed up day creek, a short but steep climb. We went about 3 miles in total and saw about 10 people in total as well. Most of the time, it was just father-son bonding time. Not that we chatted, mostly it was huffing and puffing up the revenes in 17-23 degree clear skies. Say what you will about Utah's politics (and Lord knows I have), but the scenery here is specatular and reminds me why I love it here. I drank about 70 ounces of water on the trip thanks to my parents fancy Camelbaks. Afterwards, we ate a hearty lunch and plopped down to watch the NFL game.

What a life. My sister got Dankso shoes with my grandmother via my car (which I co-own with my fiancee). It was one of the best moments of my life when my sister was begging to use it...it is tough being a little brother to a bossy big sister, and then marrying one. My mom went to her Pilates class in the morning too.

Tonight we go to my Father's female cousin's house (don't ask me to remember all those twice removed things) for our annual rotating family christmas party. My uncle Stewart and his family are in town from DC so it will be more fun than usual. My nuclear family is on help-mode as it is our year to host next year.

Depending on who hosts, the party can be very formal and fancy or very whatever. This one will be nice, but still have an air of whatever. We do a book exchange (of new books) and someone is assigned the job of Santa, or nowadays, elf. Part of the game of the night is too make sure some people in the family don't get too drunk and the race to make it to Saint Mark's midnight mass. Since these relatives live on Walker Lane and we have to help with the clean up, I doubt we will be able to make it, which will make me upset. I love singing Christmas carols, even if I am tone-deaf.

My personal favorite is "We three kings" because it has a funky beat, followed by "Hark! The herald Angels sing" as the best closer of all time. When I was a kid, I used to think that it was "Hark, the herdald angel, sings" and I thought Hark was such a terrible name. Gabreil's cool, but Hark?

Small Lake City

This is what my mom calls it, and I think it is a great name. Because, at least where I shop and live my life, I tend to run into people that I know from elsewhere, like when I go to the airport.

Of course, this is happening all over the country, as people are cloistering themselves into ever-bluer/redder communities, even within Red or Blue states. This self-isolation and "purification" I think is a natural, if not an unfortunenate, human tendency. This is the kind of thing leads down the road to Civil War and Genocide.

Not that me shopping at CostCo will eventually lead me to join into a Holy War against Wal-Mart shoppers, but you get my point.

Posting will likely go down this weekend but I hope everyone enjoy Christmas or the fact that others are enjoying Christmas (like no lines at the movies or ski resorts, etc.)!

Home for the holidays

Well, I don't have to go far, but it seems like a world away. Tonight I am going up with my fiancee to my parents for dinner and then dropping her off in the morning at the airport. She goes home to Chicago, and I will go back up to my parents, this time for the weekend (and Christmas).

We all these holiday traditions in my family, most of which I am looking forward too. Also, my sister is coming in tonight for the weekend which is cool since I haven't seen her in so long.

Speaking of which, I saw a kid from High School at the local bagel shop today (where I got a coffee) whom I had wondered about. He was the type of kid who wasn't school smart but you could tell is actually quite brilliant and creative. Appearantly he has patented (or is trying to do so) a music machine for DJs and performs up in Park City with this device. He and friends are trying to attract attention from the entertainment industry when the Sundance Film Festival starts in a month and a half (which of course is mainly in Park City, UT and not in Vail, CO as my East Coast friends think). I wish him the best of luck. He was one of those guys who, even though he lived in his parent's basement for a couple years and didn't go to college (as far as I know) was pretty smart and ambitious in his own way.

Certainly, he is a lot smarter than some of the over-degreed and under-accomplished people I know from all walks of life. I hope I really don't fit into either catagory.

Eight is enough?

A squeaker up in the northwest: WA AG Christine Gregoire (D) is now up 8 votes over St. Sen. Dino Rossi (R) in the recount for governor. Hypocritically, the state party now is asking Rossi to concede, despite the fact that they thought 42 or so votes was "a tie" last time. Now of course, this is after the recount of the recount. And this isn't even counting the 500+ erroneously not counted King Co. Votes (which presumably will break for Gregoire at the rate of 58% or so). But still...Let's see what the WA supreme court says today (I'm watching it on C-SPAN now). In any event, I hope this woman wins, but what a nail biter.

And you thought 537 votes was close...

trying to go without TV

We have come so dependant on the idiot box that our whole lives revolve around it: our language, our culture, our schedule. And it annoys me too that us folks in fly over country have to watch TV on someone else's schedule: either the Northeast or California. It is funny how the blue states dictate when "primetime" is. TiVo was practically meant for that vast swath of land between the coasts.

I find that TV makes me more upset than happy most of the time. Although it occationally makes me laugh, and for that I am greatful. But there is so much watering down of people, issues, and events that drives me nuts. It is as if our television has to be like our beer.

When I was in Europe they too focused on the mundane, but also spend a sigiificant portion of time talking about what was happening in Africa or the Middle East and the US. And it didn't take a military invasion for these people to learn about other parts of the world. Part of it is that, even when they do the weather report, they are reminded how close they are to Africa and Turkey and Russia. Their geography forces them to be conscious of more of the world than nearby states or Canada, or Mexico. The closest we get to that is a discussion of "El Nino" and a blurb about a horriffic set of deaths in China or Japan or some place along the ring of fire. But then the subtext of newscasters is, "well there are plenty of them Asians anyway, no big loss." Of course, when 5 idiots living along the Missippi in Missouri die in a flood, it makes national headlines, as if their lives are more precious than those who died in a Tsunami.

As for other weather phenominom, we occationally have "the inversion" in Salt Lake during the winter. This is when High Pressure traps all our pollution in the Salt Lake Valley (I watch the weather on TV). As a result we realize what selfish pigs we are for having to drive ourselves everywhere instead of using public transit, walking, or living closer together. After all, the Los Angeles Valley is about the same size, but they have quite a few more people living there. Of course, more people don't think about this and just complain about it, as if they had no part in it. Personally, I like the wake up call that the inversion brings, but my Parents and my Aunt and Uncle like to brag about how they literally live above it.

See, my parents live in Emigration Canyon at about 5,500 feet. So every winter morning this time of year they get to drive into the gunk. My Aunt and Uncle experience the submergence much later in their commute because they live in Park City, which is higher up and further away.

So like I said, I am trying to go without TV today and as much as possible in the coming days. So far, I have vaccumed up the living room and kitchen, listened to David Sedaris on NPR.org archives and read some "Dress Your Family in Corduroy and Denim" stories (as well as read online and talked to my grandmother. Give me strength.

Still Donnie Fowler for DNC

I was just endorsing him based on his letter that was posted on MyDD before. Now I am much more excited about him after watching him on C-SPAN (thanks Kos). Go to his website and read up. I bet you will like what you see.

nothing doin'

Today is the beginning of a week of nothing, which is nice I guess, but the silence of activity is deafing. So it looks like I am going to have to invent some tasks and come up with things to get family members for Christmas, including myself.

Other than being pretty poor these days with lots of expenses and only one salary, I feel so blessed with all the necessary and unnecessary conforts, it is hard to find things I really would like or need. Especially when there are fellow citizens getting shot at who have no proper armor.

My Christmas wishes were that there would be no more Rumsfeld, no more Cheney, no more Bush. But so far, so bad. I guess there is always New Year's.

Black yourself out

Sometimes I wish I didn't read the news. I tried today by watching football and going Christmas shopping. But then a saw how many people died in Najaf and the preminition that more death and violence will come as we get closer to January 30th.

Now there is no law school for several weeks to distrast me from watching the world spiral out of control (and into the toliet). At least there is Christmas and my family stuff to do. I recommend that everyone finds something to do until the 30th. After that, Bush's next puppet government will be in place (or else they will find some irregularities or some other reasons to null the vote).

So how about those Colts?

Pharma v. Reality

The pharmaceutical industry would have you believe, via their ads and drug reps in every hospital, that they are constantly innovating and discovering new, important medicines to help humanity. But in reality, they only look for the next Viagra: a blockbuster drug that will keep them afloat until they find the next sure-money winner.

According to the Times, "The number of new drugs approved by the Food and Drug Administration has declined sharply since the mid-1990's, falling from 53 in 1996 to 21 in 2003, even as the industry has nearly doubled its annual spending on drug development, to about $33 billion."

Supposedly the companies claim to have doubled their R&D budgets, but their marketing and lobbying budgets are still much bigger. For example, in Merck's (who has been the subject of all the bad Vioxx news) 2003 Annual Report, the company spent $10,710,200,000 on Marketing (with Administrative costs built in) while spending only $3,279,900,000 on Research and Development (I included their acquired R&D as well). That's about a 70-30 split on their costs.

Of course, this is only one company, but I bet if you look at the industry as a whole, the numbers are similar. And these companies wonder why they aren't finding any new hot drugs. Maybe it is because they are too worried about holding on to their market share and profits and less about true innovation. This despite the cozy relationship between the GOP-controlled congress, the Bush FDA, and big Pharma.

If I had my druthers, prescription drugs would be prohibited from advertising on TV (modeled after the rules for cigarettes), and their lobbying of doctors would similarly be severely curtailed. I have no troubles with advertising products like Advil, where each company is trying to keep its brand name awareness up and is in fierce competition with each other. But patients shouldn't be pushed into thinking they need more pills. Nor should doctors be pushed into giving out these pills if they a) aren't needed b) aren't safe c) more costly than drugs that work fine for the patient and are already out/gone generic.

On second thought, I think it would be fine if drug companies raise the public's awareness of their advances generally i.e. "Is your arthritis giving you trouble? Talk to your doctor today. There are many new and exciting products which can relieve your pain with just one pill a day and little side effects...." You get the idea. How about they spend 50% of their budget on R&D? That sounds reasonable, not that I would legislate that but I just feel it is wrong for them to whine when it is their own dumb decisions that placed them where they are today.

Stick a fork in me...

Cause I am done! That's right, last final was done at 5PM...well I turned it in early because I ran out of stuff to say. After that, I was in a mad dash to my fiancee's office party, where there was an open bar, hot wings, and burgers. They even had TVs in the urinals. Brilliant! Next, I went back to dress up more for the law school holiday party. First a pre-party at one of my friend's houses, a bit more intoxicatation....then off to the Sky Bar downtown. We danced, sweated, caught out drunken classmates before they fell on the ground and shouted "We've done" about a billion times. But boy did it feel great. One of my fiancee's college alumnae board members came with us and she had a great time too. It is too bad they allow smoking in clubs and bars. It really ruins the whole experience for me: I have to immediately wash my clothes and shower and get the sting out of my eyes. Plus, it smells and gives you cancer, but who's complaining? Not me.

Tomorrow I may wake up feeling a bit bad, but I earned this little excursion for all the work I have done this month. Now I just have Christmas shopping, Advent, and family Christmas parties to worry about. Plus the usual clean the car get groceries stuff. I have to say, I like my class. The people are great, kind, and very smart. If any of them are reading now, I would like to tell them they are all doing great and not to worry. After all, there is nothing you can do about it now anyway.

SUU prof. fired for swearing

Southern Utah University Professor Stephen Roberts was fired for using the f-word in a heated class discussion Oct. 12 over a supreme court case. At the time, he appologized to the student and class, but he stupidly swore during his peer review process.

SUU students picked Roberds as their 2003-04 Professor of the Year. Last week he gave the Cedar City-based university's Grace A. Tanner Distinguished Faculty Lecture.

"We have gone through policies and procedures, and based on a variety of things, the decision was made that a contract for the 2005-06 academic year not be granted to Professor Roberds," said Dean Decker, dean of SUU's College of Humanities and Social Sciences. Decker sent Roberds a letter saying his contract with the southwest Utah school would not be renewed.

Dean Decker claims that Roberds' ouster had nothing to do with the tenure process or the professor's recent use of the obscenity during a classroom discussion. Yeah right.

Decker placed Roberds on paid administrative leave with full benefits for the next six months - the balance of his current contract, which ends on June 30, 2005, saying "He will not be teaching classes during the spring semester. We have fully credentialed faculty to teach the classes that Dr. Roberds was scheduled to teach."

While Cedar City is a conservative area, there just seems no justification for firing someone on such a frivilious charge. It seems he was a liberal in a conservative region and clashed with the administration. I haven't looked through the school's speech code but I seriously doubt that is something which a student would be let go for, let alone a professor. Hope he comes up to the U and teaches here or a more liberal school where he won't be afraid of speaking. I say, sue the a-holes (that was meant to be ironic)

Blog des Tages: Anonymous Law Professor

This means Blog of the Day:Anonymous Law Professor. I just find Deutsch a more effecient way of writing things some times, sorry.

Anyway this is a great blog. I wonder who this professor is and if mine really feels this way about us. Sample post:

My first-year students take my exam in the next few days. I don't want to say exactly when, but I promised them that if they e-mailed me by this evening, I'd answer their questions by mid-morning tomorrow.

Unfortunately for them, my tri-weekly professorial poker game got a little rowdy and I had too much to drink. There are now 28 e-mails in my law school in-box. I can't answer just a few and be fair to all, and well, I'm not going to answer them all. Anyway, by not responding, it'll teach them to figure out earlier in the term which concepts they don't understand.

So as I click delete, delete, delete, I can only help but think of those pretty von Trapps singing, So long, farewell, auf weidersehn, good bye...

Oh wait, I'll answer just this one; she's cute.

Funny, yet worrisome.

The biggest waste of money I can think of

Unsurprisingly, yet another balistic missile defense attempt failed yesterday. According to the LA Times, this boondoggle costs "$130 billion and is scheduled to tally $50 billion more over the next five years." Now before conservatives reading this say, "you are weak on defense!" I would like to point out that the cold war ended 15 years ago. There is no need to protect ourselves from ballistic missiles coming in from Russia and really not against China for another 20 years (maybe North Korea in 5-10 years but that's pretty generous). Also, is it not more cost effective to simply take away North Korea's nukes than to build the impossible machine?

The thing that really gets me about the whole thing is that this money could be better spent, even on the same purpose-- protecting our country from attack. Bin Laden and his friends are not going to hijack a missle silo, they are going to buy a warhead and smuggle it into Canada, Mexico, or the US, most likely via a ship containers since only 5% of them get checked. Then they can just drive into a big city (San Diego or Seattle, for example) and blow up the device. It won't kill as many people as a balistic missle would, but the point is to scare the sh*t out of us, not max out the number of dead people.

We could spend some of that 50 billion on protecting ex-USSR loose nukes, which will be secured at the current rate in the next 15 years. We could spend some of that money getting into North Korea and sabotoging their missile silos and nuclear fission thingies. Are they really stupid enought to try to attack us? Maybe they would try going for the South Koreans, but we would get the Chinese on board with such caldestine operations and are pretty good at reigning in their little buddies. And I bet we would still have money left over to buy more protective gear for our troops in Iraq and Afghanistan.

Plus, it doesn't work, and I have yet to read any scientist who believes it could work. Sure, my DLC friends say it is a good idea, and so do the people at the Penagon, but both are getting money and smoozing from the defense contractors, not exactly unbiased parties. Missle Defense is a religion among Reaganite GOPers (which is now most of them), you can't reason with them, but for the rest of you, it just makes no sense.

oops!

Well something happened to my computer the other day, I am still not sure what, and I was out for whole days running "check disk" and taking its sweet time about it. Finally, I took it down to the computer guys at the law school and after about 30 minutes they finally got my computer back out of its slumber. You never know how vital a thing is until you don't have it. And I was about to poop my pants because I had all the answers I had writen to half of my Contract test on this little guy, which is like a day's worth of work. Plus, it had my professor's sort-of-helpful comments to them so I knew what to do next (in theory). Man, am I ever greatful for the tech guys in the basement. Now I am on an uninstalling spree.

Reform!

Its the new Win! Democrats have finally embraced reform in their rhetoric, now it is time to see if their DNC chair and platform will match it.

The DLC's Ed Kilgore has some starters that Democrats from all sides can agree on (and so should Republicans like McCain, Lugar, etc.) He names Election Reform (a real Help American Vote Act), Redistricting Reform (no more protectionism), and Ethics and Lobbying Reform (deep six the K Street project).

Now I agree with all of those but I think we need to go further on Election reform: Federalize the elections. No more 2 million different ways to vote with incompetent volunteers, etc. American politicans talk a good game when it comes to how much they value democracy, but we spend money on it like it is an unwanted, illegitimate child who just showed up from Vietnam (appologies to David Sedaris). There should be one system, controlled by a FEC with teeth and real administrators (not party hacks). Recounts should not be county by county, state by state, but federally done (via one recount and contest law for all federal elections). I don't care if these poll workers are unionized, but it might help in terms of their competence.

While we are at it, let's have real Intelligence Reform, Procurement reform(Why don't we have enough flack jackets? But plenty of B1 bombers), Government Accounting and Spending reform (Missle Defense and the Army Corps of Engineers, GAO, etc.), Tax reform (make it more progressive and simplier) We should be getting good ideas from the states and building them into our platform.

Think of how well McCain and Perot did, there is a huge "The government needs reform" constituency out there. Let's have at it.