Priority Paralysis

Obama's Speech
5th Anniversary of the Iraq War
Market Meltdown
Pakistan
Farley

There's so much stuff I'd like to write a bit about that it's hard to focus on any one thing and I've been suffering from what could be called Priority Paralysis. So I'll just take the shotgun approach and see if I can hit anything.

Obama never ceases to amaze me. The speech he gave yesterday was masterful and showed that oratory is not dead. Can you imagine having a president who writes his own speeches and delivers them perfectly in tone and cadence? Yesterday's speech wasn't one of those soaring epic speeches that energizes a crowd in a stadium and makes young women faint. It was a thoughtful and well-reasoned argument that addressed many of the thoughts on race that most of us have but few of us will express in polite company. Even though the speech transcended politics as usual, it won't help him with the right-wing commentariat, and it probably won't help him with a sizeable chunk of the white working class. But for thoughtful people concerned about the future of race relations in America, he hit a home run. What can Hillary possibly say in response? (I'm sure she or her surrogates will find something ugly to say)

Five years after the invasion of Iraq, there is no end in sight. The surge has only worked because the US is bribing it's former Sunni enemies, Baghdad neighborhoods have been ethnically cleansed, and the Mahdi Army is sticking to its self-declared cease-fire. The south is run by Shiite militias and the north is run by the Kurds. In areas in between, like Mosul, violence is worse than ever. Millions of Iraqis have fled the country, and millions more are internally displaced. Other than the fact that violence in Baghdad is down, it's hard to see anything good out of the surge. By any measure, the "government" in Iraq has failed to produce any stability. For a thoughtful analysis of the news by a Middle East expert, check out Juan Cole's blog.

The stock market continues its wild gyrations even though the Fed has used every tool in the box to try and fix it. In my generally pessimistic view, they will soon run out of tools, and the US economy will have a major recession, if not a depression. Or maybe a Japanese-style stagnation. Remember the go-go years of the late 80's and early 90's when real estate in Tokyo was selling for zillions of dollars per square foot and the Japanese were buying everything in sight? Twenty years later, the Japanese stock market has still not recovered. And if anyone is wondering what the subprime mortgage market mess that started all this last year is really all about, here's a link to the best and most entertaining explanation I've seen yet.

There were elections in Pakistan a few weeks ago, and there are the usual allegations of voter fraud and rigged results. I heard a report on NPR (and everyone knows that if it was on NPR it must be true) this morning that said the only things holding Pakistan together are cricket and the military. For something truly scary, think of an Islamic Republic that hates America and already has the bomb.


And now on to lighter stuff. Here's Farley in all his glory. So far, he's been a great dog. Already pretty much house-broken and very loving. Not at all like the psychotic Eddie. I am a bit concerned that he hasn't eaten much in the last couple of days, but maybe he's just got a bit of a nervous stomach from all the recent changes in his life. I'm taking him on his first visit to Angus' old vet today to have him checked out, have a chip implanted, and to get his shots updated.

The Farley Has Landed

2550 miles, 41.8 hours behind the wheel, 122.5 gallons of gas, and 2-1/4 pounds of Spitz sunflower seeds later, I'm back here in Seattle. The mileage works out to about 20.8 miles per gallon, and the seedage (?) works out to about 1133 miles per pound, or for you Canadians out there, 3988 km/kg.

Farley slept most of the way here, so he's busy checking out his new digs and looking for things to chew. Those things can include people's toes and cords plugged into wall sockets. He's obviously got some learning to do, but it seems he's recognizing his name, and he came pretty much house-broken. On balance, I think he's ahead of the curve.


Here's Marian bonding with the new Friesen Family member. He's a lot bigger than I expected him to be, but he's also a bit older than I thought. His birthday is December 26th, so he's already almost 12 weeks old.

Here he is taking a walk at near Mt. Robson.

Correction from last my post via Sarah... I couldn't believe it was four years ago that I was in Zambia for a good reason. It is only three years! And to think I used to be good at math!

Zambia Revisted and Farley

I revisited Zambia today by giving four slide shows and lectures as an introduction to sub Saharan Africa for Caroline's African studies unit. It had been a while since I looked at the photos and re-lived the trip from four years ago. Holy Cow! Has it really been that long ago?? In any case, giving the slide show brought back a lot of fond memories. I really wanted to go dressed up as an African explorer, complete with safari clothes and a pith helmet. Finding the clothes was no problem, but finding a pith helmet in Seattle was impossible. You might say that Seattle is pith-poor!

And now.... some breaking news.... Farley the Whoodle will soon be joining the Friesen household!

Can you pick him out of the lineup?

Well neither can I, but here he is in all his glory!

I'll be leaving dark and early tomorrow AM to drive to Edmonton, and then on to Saskatoon to pick him up. I'll be taking my Mom to Saskatoon with me. We'll stay for a couple of days; visit some long-lost (to me) relatives; pick up Farley, and buy some of my favorite Mennonite sausage before heading back to Edmonton on Saturday. If the roads are good and all goes according to plan, I should be back here in Seattle with my wiggly bundle of joy late Sunday night.

Crystal Mountain

Here are a few shots from a great day of skiing at Crystal Mountain yesterday. The sun poked through on a regular basis, and there was lots of snow.

Feeling rich from the Costco/American Express rebate I received last week, I bought a new camera. These are the first shots.

Unbeknownst to me, Megan and Chris were up there.

Also unknown to me, the entire Romanian crew were on the mountain! I didn't get a shot of all of them, but here are two. Megan (the elder) and Eric.

Eric (an expert skier, ski instructor, and Crystal aficionado) took Megan and me on some runs we never would have never found on our own. Megan and I are both nowhere near his level of ability, but she wanted to do what she described as a "Green Diamond" run, i.e., an easy "Most Difficult" run. Well, we ended up on a near vertical run, through the trees, in thick and not quite slushy snow that used to be knee deep powder. We made it down unscathed, but it wasn't pretty. I was so concerned about catching an edge in the heavy snow that I felt I couldn't stop or turn at will. I ended up side-slipping most of the way down. Megan did better than I did and wanted to do it again, but there was no way I wanted to do it again! We ended the day on a few easier runs that renewed my shaken faith in my dubious-at-best skiing ability.

Clinton v. Obama as Daffy v. Bugs

Having been a Bugs Bunny fan forever, I loved this piece in Slate comparing Clinton and Obama to Daffy Duck and Bugs Bunny. The thesis is that Obama is Bugs, never losing his cool, always seeming to know what's going on and how to befuddle his opponents. Clinton is Daffy Duck, forever raging at the unfairness of the world with tantrums and bulging eyes. The article is funny, and oddly enough, has a fair bit of truth to it.

I hope that, as in the cartoons, Bugs wins in the end.

Clinton v. Obama

Well, it looks like Clinton has bragging rights after winning 3 of 4 primaries last night. By most counts, the delegate count won't change much, but that won't stop Clinton from crowing about her comeback. I must admit a bit of grudging admiration for Clinton's ability to hang on in the face of an opponent like Obama, and if she wins the nomination fair and square, she'll get my vote. If she pulls some dirty tricks like trying to seat the Michigan and Florida delegates, I'll revert to my ABC (Anybody But Clinton) status and vote for Nader.

One thing that I haven't heard anything about is what happens to Edwards' delegates. He must have several hundred, but they don't appear in any delegate count I've seen. Do they get to vote their conscience, or can Edwards pledge them? I don't know.

I also wonder how effective the Limbaugh strategy has been. Even though I can barely stand the sound of his voice, I listen to him once in a while just to see what the whacko fringe is up to. He is openly advocating that conservatives vote for Clinton in the Democratic primaries on the theory that the race will tear the Democrats apart, and besides, since half the people in the US already hate Hillary, she'll be a lot easier to beat in the general election.

And then there's the Canadian component to last night's vote. It's not often one hears anything about Canada in US news, but the news that an Obama rep met with a Canadian official in Chicago and basically told him that Obama was just kidding about NAFTA, certainly didn't help him. I doubt that Harper had anything to do with leaking the memo, but it's an interesting twist nonetheless.

Romania & Budapest

I made the mistake of crashing early last night, so I've been awake, bright-eyed and bushy-tailed since 2AM! What better time to catch up on my blog! So here goes.

We stared out in Bucharest, which unlike a lot of the rest of Romania, is flat as the plains of Saskatchewan. When flying in from Brussels, I woke up to look out the window, and thought there must be some mistake. The plane could have been landing near Saskatoon! Fortunately, I had not been lied to, and there were indeed mountains in Romania.


From Bucharest, we drove north to Sinaia, a lovely resort town nestled in a valley and surrounded by mountains and several small ski restorts. We spent five days there, skiing in four different areas. From there we headed further north to Harghita, a predominantly Hungarian area east of Targu Mures. We spent two days there, skiing in the fog. We drove back to Bucharest and dropped off another one of our crew to fly back to the States. We also left our guide Addi behind, and were on our own. We travelled to Sighisoara, a lovely but somewhat decrepit medieval town. From there we had planned on taking a train to Budapest, but a train workers strike in Hungary caused us to change our plans. We spent another night in Sighisoara, and then took a 14 hour bus ride to Budapest.

We didn't spend much time in Bucharest, but we did manage a quick tour, including a drive-by of the world's second-largest building. (The first being the Pentagon in Washington, DC)


This was our first look at a gorgeous fairy tale castle in Sinaia.


The snow conditions were only OK, with some icy spots, but the mountains and scenery were breath-taking!


And of course, we were very well fed. But be forewarned, this is not the land for vegetarians!


And there were gypsies, tramps, and probably even a few thieves.


Sheep had the right-of-way on this main road.



This is the main "road" into the ski area at Harghita.


We had chains, but of course, they were the wrong size. Trying to keep them on with zip-ties met with only limited success. Getting up there was a bit of a struggle. After we finally got the van moving, Addi didn't dare stop, so we ended up walking most the last couple of miles to the lodge.




The Romanians are famous for their woodwork. Many of the farms and homes had ornately carved wooden gates and fences. Cool!



And the Romanians are certainly capable of innovation. This vehicle is not only a "car," but also a mobile chainsaw!


Most of urban Romania is very much like other parts of Eastern Europe I've been to, but once you get off the beaten track, real horsepower is still very much in vogue.



This shot was taken just off the town square of Sighisoara. Like the guidebook said, there were lots of stray dogs, but they all seemed friendly enough, and didn't cause us any trouble.


And yes, I did get some culture!. In Budapest, we saw The Marriage of Figaro, and I managed to stay awake through most of it. I was disappointed in that I had expected to hear more of the music from the early days, i.e., the Bugs Bunny years, of my music appreciation experience.


This is Budapest's Holocaust Memorial. It was quite beautiful and moving. The individual leaves of the tree represent actual victims of the horror.



This is the shore of the Danube nearest the Jewish Ghetto in Budapest. Near the end of the war, gangs would invade the ghetto, dragging out victims who were then thrown into the river. The bronzed shoes are a reminder of the victims.



Budapest in a beautiful city that needs a return vist. We only scratched the surface on this trip.