This is ridiculous

It seems that every year for the last few years I've driven up to Edmonton in the dead of winter. I don't really plan on going up every year in the dead of winter (I'm no masochist), but somehow it always happens. And every year, I get at least a little taste of the cold stuff that makes me appreciate the liquid sunshine in Seattle all the more.


But this is effing ridiculous! 37 degrees be-effing-low! You gotta be kidding me!

Yesterday was cold, about -22. It was cold enough that the dashboard instuments on my car didn't work until about 10 minutes after I started the car. And it was cold enough that when I realized I'd left my gloves in the car overnight, I didn't bother putting them on for the 100 foot walk from the parking lot to my Mom's place. I had forgotten the tingling burning sensation of the flesh freezing in my fingertips. I wonder what today's going to be like and what other long-vanquished memories will return.

Meanwhile, the weather appears to quite pleasant for Sarah and Alvin's wedding in Lusaka. A mild 22 with a chance of showers. Don't let the mosquitos get you!

Best wishes to Alvin and Sarah on their special day!





Ps. For the Celsius-challenged among you, -37C is about -35F. Effing cold in any language, I'd say.

Obama's Speech

Watching Obama's Inauguration Day speech at my Mom's place in St. Albert, I was struck by all the usual things - the inauguration of the first black president; the millions of people in the crowd; the departure of the piece of human debris, George Bush, and the hope for a new beginning in a troubled time. But what struck me most was that Obama didn't pull out the rhetorical stops. He held the crowd in the palm of his hand, and he could have roused the rabble to heights never before seen, but he didn't. He gave a sober and compelling speech, and rather than cheering and screaming and fainting, the crowd seemed to hang on to his every word. He didn't deliver any Kennedyesque lines that will be repeated fifty years or a hundred years from now, but it was a great speech nonetheless.

I did like the beginning of the speech when he ripped W a new one, with W just a few feet away from him on the podium. But like everything else, I'm sure that the words just rolled through W's brain without leaving any effect. I thought the best parts came when he talked about: "...nations being judged by what they build, not by what they destroy..., ...Christians, Jews, Moslems, Hindus, and non-believers..., ...Gettysburg, Normandy, Khe Sanh..., and ...we'll take your hand if you unclench your fist..."

Obama came across, like he almost always does, as serene, competent and confident. He is not Superman, and I'm sure he'll make some terrible mistakes, but in my mind, he's exactly what we need right now.

The Inauguration

I'll be watching Obama's inauguration at my Mom's place. For as long as I can remember, Mom never expressed more than a passing interest in American politics, but from the beginning, she's taken an interest in Obama. She followed the campaign through the primaries and the election campaign, always rooting for him. She never cared that much for McCain, and I think that Sarah Palin really scared her a bit. But she really like Joe Biden (didn't I read somewhere that he really cleaned up on the older woman demographic?).

Even though my Mom is deeply religious, Bush's brand of bloodthirsty evangelicalism never resonated with her. Mom is more of the love-thy-neighbor, turn-the-other-cheek, love-thine-enemy type of Christian. She's from a Canadian generation that had nothing to do with the civil rights struggles and racism of the USA, but also never had any contact with any blacks. I think in her mind, blacks were a bit exotic, a bit strange, maybe even a bit scary. I think it's remarkable that Obama has captured her imagination and trust and support like no other presidential candidate ever has.

We'll both be happy at noon today when Bush is history, and Obama's time has come.

On the Road Again

Here's a shot of Mt. Robson, the highest mountain in the Canadian Rockies. Often it's shrouded in clouds, but yesterday the skies were crystal clear. It's a good-looking mountain, isn't it? I took it late yesterday afternoon on the way to Edmonton.

The roads and weather were good all the way except at about the 30 mile mark. I planned on getting an early start on the 14-hour drive to Edmonton, and managed to get away from the house by about 5:30. By six, I was stopped in the middle of I5 near Everett, watching nine tow trucks, two ambulances, and innumerable police cruisers pass by on the shoulder. After more than an hour of not moving, everyone got turned around (I don't think I've ever driven the wrong way on an interstate before) and re-routed through Everett. I don't know what happened, but some combination of early morning fog and ice on the bridges caused a massive pileup of some sort.

I'll be in Edmonton for a week, visiting with my Mom before taking her to Saskatoon for a visit. She'll stay there for a week or so, but I'll head back to Seattle via Calgary where I'll pick up Megan (the Elder) who's flying in to accompany me on the trip back to Seattle. We'll ski in the Banff area at Sunshine and Lake Louise and then head to Kamloops to ski at Sun Peaks. I haven't skied Lake Louise or Banff for at least 20 years, and I've never skied at Sun Peaks. And it will be totally new to Megan. I'm sure we'll have a great time.

War Crimes

I came across a couple of great analogies today in discussions about Bush's war crimes. The first came from that lovable blowhard windbag Chris Matthews. With a couple of guests he was talking about Bush's farewell press conference and the way he talked about 'disappointments' when asked about mistakes he'd made during his presidency. One of his big 'disappointments' was the lack of WMD's in Iraq. Matthews commented on the use of the word 'disappointment' as being an odd way of describing the feeling. Matthews said something to the effect that it was like someone shooting and killing a person in an alley because they thought that person had a gun, and then afterward being disappointed to find out the person was unarmed. I'd take that analogy a step further by saying that Bush not only murdered the guy in the alley for no good reason, he murdered the guy's wife and kids and all his neighbors, and then burned down the town he lived in.

The other came from Matt Iglesias, writing about Obama's apparent reluctance to persue Bush's war crimes, saying, "...he wanted to look forward, not back." Again using the murder analogy, Iglesias said that if John Yoo shot and killed someone on the street, no one would argue against prosecution by saying we should look forward not backward.

I'd take great satisfaction in seeing Bush and his cronies answer for their crimes.

Depression, Recession, Whatever...

I'm not very optimistic about a turnaround to the US financial meltdown any time soon. The fact that we got into this mess by borrowing and spending rather than saving and producing belies the solution of borrowing trillions more.

The Bush administration doubled the national debt from somewhere around 5 trillion to something in excess of 10 trillion. Borrowing another 2-3 trillion is going to help somehow? It's as if I was personally in debt up to my ears, and the solution is to lend me more money. And then to use that money to spend more. It's as if the purchase of say, a new car, would somehow make meeting my monthly mortgage payments easier. I guess I could argue that a new car would get me to work quicker and in more comfort, and that therefore I'd be more productive and make more money. Sounds a bit delusional, doesn't it?

I think there are some possible solutions, but none of them are getting much press, and not all of them involve borrowing more money. Here are a few that come to mind:

1. Slap a retroactive windfall tax on anyone who made more than a couple of million dollars in the financial sector over the last, let's say five, years. I don't know how much money would be raised, but it would have to be many billions of dollars. And the tax would have the added benefit of exacting some vengeance against some of the folks who've robbed us blind. Or maybe a better plan would be to have all those excess earnings forcibly traded for mortgage backed securities, collateralized debt obligations, and credit default swaps.

2. Impose a floor on the price of gasoline. If the floor was set at $4/gallon, with the current price at around $2, the feds would get $2 in tax. If the price goes above $4, the tax would be zero. I think the US consumes somewhere around 350 million gallons of gas per day. $2/gallon amounts to something like 1/4 trillion dollars per year. This tax would decrease consumption, encourage use of mass transit, decrease greenhouse gases, and raise a pile of money. We survived $4/gallon gas for a few weeks last summer, and I'm sure we could survive in the long run. The rest of the developed world has done OK with prices 2-3 times higher than what we pay.

3. Put a tax on securities transactions. The tax could be some fraction of a percent and would be insignificant to the average people and the average investor, but would hit speculators hard. The New York stock exchange trades an average of $55 billion/day. A quarter percent tax would raise around $34 billion/year.

4. Remove the cap on wages subject to FICA taxes. I wasn't able to find a definitive number on how much money this would raise, but it looks like it would be something on the order of $100 billion per year.

The above four things might raise something like a trillion dollars a year and would finance a big chunk of the proposed stimulous. IMHO, based mostly on my Fred Eaglesmith-like love of trains, that money should be spent on infrastructure projects like light rail and high speed transit systems.

There are a bunch of other things that can be done to heal the financial system. I'll address some of those in future posts.

Utilikilts and Parking

Here I am modeling the Christmas gift that Megan (the Elder) got for me. Cute, eh!?

I've always said I'm one of the best parallel parkers in the world. Here's proof from this morning. I even got a round of applause from pedestrians on the street who witnessed the event. And no, neither of the cars boxed me in after I'd driven into the spot.

The Wrestler

Hal and I went to see The Wrestler last night. It has received good reviews, but after seeing Grand Torino, decent reviews lost any cachet they ever had with me.

In the case of The Wrestler, the good reviews are totally justified, as are the raves for Mickey Rourke's performance. This is a well done, gritty movie without the cliches and the maudliness (maudlinity?) of Grand Torino. Most of it seems to be shot with hand held cameras which only add to the grainy, almost dirty feel of the film. This is a movie about a loser who tries to redeem himself by going "straight" with a dead-end job and trying to rekindle a lost relationship with his daughter, and trying to have a real relationship with a woman (a stripper brilliantly played by Marisa Tomei). But ultimately he can't escape the allure of the ring even though he's long past his prime.

This is a very good movie on par with Milk, and Mickey Rourke's performance is on par with that of Sean Pean. It'll be a close race to see who gets the Oscar.

Dinner and a Movie

Daughter Megan and I went for a dinner and a movie yesterday evening. We went to the Buenos Aires Grill in Belltown for dinner and then to see Grand Torino. Dinner was good, and with me ordering the mixed grill and Megan a filet, there was lots of it. (The leftovers are in a doggy bag in my fridge.) As is often the case with mixed grills, everything starts tasting the same after a few bites, and even though too much salt was used, overall it was a good meal and a pretty good deal. The empenadas we had for an appetizer were probably the best I've ever had.

The movie was a different matter. I like Clint Eastwood, and I thought that if the reviews were at all accurate, I'd really enjoy this movie. At best it was OK. The theme of a grumpy and bitter old man finding redemption could have been done a lot better without the really crappy acting by the two main Hmong characters; without Eastwood's snarling and growling (one of each would have been sufficient); without the stereotypical young red-haired Irish priest; and without the hackneyed and cliched ending. The good parts all occured in the first half of the movie with a multitude of pretty funny Archie Bunker-like racial slurs delivered by Eastwood's character. This is a 6.5/10 at best. This movie can wait until it comes out on Netflix.

A New Computer

Gosh, they're giving these things away. Yesterday I bought an HP G60-23OUS laptop for $499.99 after rebates! This thing has a 16" screen, a 230G hard drive, and 3G of RAM. It's got an Intel Dual-Core processor (even though I'm told it's the bottom of the Dual-Core line), DVD/CD, webcam, and all the usual things. I don't see how anyone can possibly be making money on this thing.

This all started on Saturday when I was helping Megan (the Elder) pick out a computer. This is the exact computer she ended up buying. I've been getting frustrated with my good old Sony Vaio, with sticking keys and a larded up operating system that I had to reboot twice a day. I had vowed that I'd buy a Mac next time, so I went to the local Apple store to check them out. Apple certainly has their retail sales system down pat. When you walk in the store, a knowledgable and friendly associate assists you (without getting pushy) and tells you everything you'd ever want to know. (If you actually buy something, they are also your cashier, using a wireless doo-dad to ring up your sale and email you the receipt) I liked their base laptop, and would have bought it, but just couldn't justify $1299 for a cool computer v. $499 for a not-so-cool computer. After seeing Megan's HP in action, Apple's cool just wasn't worth $800. And besides, if I had a Mac, I'd no longer have anything to bash my Microsoft-employee friends about.

Speaking of Microsoft... Vista isn't nearly as bad as one would think from the publicity and Mac ads. So far the transfer and set up has gone very smoothly. Vista even found the printer on my wireless network without me even asking! The only thing that got me cursing a bit was trying to figure out a way to transfer my address book from Outlook to the Windows Mail program included with Vista. It took me an hour to figure it out. I'm sure there's an easier way to do it, but if there is an easy way, it's well hidden.

So, here's my first blog post on the new computer. Can you tell the difference?

Ps. I still plan on doing a recap of 2008 and my predictions for 2009. I'll try to get around to it in a few days.

Crystal Mountain and Gaza

Caroline and I went skiing yesterday at Crystal Mountain. It was a bit sketchy driving the last 20 miles or so, but all-in-all the roads were in pretty decent shape. When we got there, it was snowing, creating almost whiteout conditions. I hate skiing in those conditions and even considered turning around and going home, but we stuck it out, and I'm glad we did. After all, I had to at least try out my new rig of Atomic skis, Scarpa boots and Fritschi bindings. It snowed on and off all day, but the sun actually came out for a while in the morning. And was there ever snow! Only the easiest green runs showed any sign of grooming; most everything else was knee to waist-deep powder.






Powder can be hard to ski in (especially for lousy intermediate skiers like me), requiring a different technique than on packed and groomed surfaces. Anyway, we had a lot of fun, even though I did one semi-serious face-plant, popping out of my bindings, and then spent the next half-hour trying to find my skis in the deep snow. Now at least I know what the long florescent ribbons attached to some skis are for.

So today my thighs are pretty sore, but it was well worth it. The new skis worked great, but I'm still, and probably always will be a lousy intermediate skier. I can hardly wait to get out there again.



I just don't get the point of the Israeli invasion of Gaza. Supposedly it's purpose is to stop the launch of rockets from Gaza to Southern Israel that have killed four Israelis in the last few weeks. The bombing of Gaza alone has killed over 400 Palestinians, and the Israelis brag that 88% of those killed are Hamas fighters. That still leaves over 40 civilians killed. Where's the proportionality? The rockets from Gaza are notoriously inaccurate, and if they actually hit anything, it's a random event. I think a better response from Israel would be to launch a random rocket for every one that Hamas launches. Yes, innocent civilians would be hurt, but the scale would be similar to the damage in Israel.

Israel unilaterally pulled out of Gaza over three years ago, forcibly uprooting Jewish settlements that had been there for 30 years, and handing the area over to the Palestinian Authority. They got nothing in return. After the Palestinian elections of 2006, Hamas won in Gaza, and forcibly took over the area from Fatah in 2007. Since then, Gaza has been locked down, and nothing but humanitarian aid has been allowed in.

So does Israel want to go back to being the occupiers they were in September of 2005? It didn't work then. What's changed to make them think it will work now? There are no easy answers to the questions of Israel and Palestine, but this adventure is a really stupid. I can't see any good coming of it.