I Resolve…

New Years’ resolutions always strike me as a bit strange. If you really think about it, we act as though a Sunday night were really significantly different from a Monday morning–significant enough that we resolve to change all the things we don’t like about ourselves.

If I decide on a New Year’s resolution, there’s a good chance that I’ll start working on it before New Year’s Day. But as a tip of the hat to traditions of old, here is my list of resolutions for 2007:

1. Stop being 15 minutes late everywhere I go.
2. Quit over committing to activities with friends and family to the point where I feel stressed out by things that should make me happy.
3. Make it up at least one 5.11 route.
4. Increase my geek quotient by becoming even more of a PHP whore.
5. Get more sleep.

I’m sure there are other things I can do to improve my happiness and well-being, but I’ll think of them later. Right now, I’m off to the gym to work on upper body and core strength for that 5.11 resolution.

I have an idea: let’s all get started on our resolutions at least a day early this year…

On Empathy, Saddam and Death

My friend Deborah commented on my last post about Saddam Hussein’s execution that, “sympathizing with saddam even for humane reasons is doing a major disservice to the memory of his victims.”

But I’d like to point out that there’s a difference between sympathy and empathy. I feel no sympathy for Saddam. If I had been able to stop his execution, I’m not sure I would have. But I do understand and feel the weight of what has been done by executing him. Evil or not, deserving or not, a violent death is always a sad thing. When it comes at the hands of the state, it is especially disturbing. Just as the deaths of Saddam’s victims-slaughtered at the hands of the state-is cruel and disturbing.

But being able to empathize with a condemned, albeit evil man does not render me incapable of empathy for his victims or their families. They all deserve our sadness and our prayers. In death and in the eyes of God, nobody is above any other no matter what they have done.

Call me half-witted for saying this, but I truly do believe that God will sort it out. Somewhere right now, Saddam could be honestly and humbly seeking forgiveness from those he slaughtered. Somewhere right now, the people into whose lives he brought enormous suffering could be giving him that forgiveness. I pray that it’s true for the sake of this messed-up, crazy world.

I recognize that this view may not be popular, and it’s not one I expect anyone to share. But I do hope you will at least respect it and give it some consideration.

Call Me a Bleeding Heart, but Saddam’s Execution Troubles Me

It’s not that I think he’s innocent. And if anyone deserves to die for his crimes, it’s Saddam Hussein. He’s an evil shit, no question.

But he’s still a human being. And he’s probably a very frightened one right about now. I imagine myself in his shoes and cringe at the idea of knowing that my death at the hands of the state is imminent and there’s nothing I can do about it. It’s a special kind of terror that most of us will never be unfortunate enough to know.

Yes, Saddam made his bed. But no matter how many inhuman things he’s done, he’s still a human being. And there’s something about giving the state the power to put any human being through that kind of terror–no matter what he has done–chills me to the very bone.

Travel Day

Andy and I are homebound today from Salt Lake City. See y’all on the flip side…

In the meantime, for your reading pleasure, learn more about how troops oppose a temporary increase in Iraq.

Introducing RSS Feeds for Individual Categories

Last week on the Blog Business Summit blog, I gave Matt Ward some advice about the when to provide RSS feeds for categories. In a nutshell, I told him that category feeds were better on blogs that covered a wide range of eclectic topics.

And then I realized, “TeresaCentric covers a wide range of eclectic topics. It should have category-based RSS feeds!”

It took me a while to find the proper PHP string and even longer to figure out how to style it so that those pretty little orange RSS buttons pop up next to all the categories, but now that I’m done, I’m pretty darn pleased with myself.

So for all of you non-techie types out there going, “PHP? CSS? I’m lost…” here’s the deal:

Let’s say you think Andy and I are geniuses when it comes to politics. You don’t give a shit what we have to say about baseball, but you LOVE our political writing. You could subscribe to the feeds for only the categories that interest you and ignore all the rest. That way, you only get information in your RSS reader that you find really, really interesting.

I hope this is useful to those of you who view this site through an RSS reader.

UPDATE 1/3/07: Matt Ward suggested that I replace the orange RSS buttons with little plus signs because they’re a little less assaultive on the eyes. Thoughts?

Dissent from Beyond: Ford Only Registered Iraq Disagreement Posthumously

I kind of wonder why Ford wasn’t willing to stand behind his beliefs while he was alive.

I know elder statesmen aren’t supposed to disagree with the president in public, but if Ford was willing to do it once he was dead, why couldn’t he do it while he was alive?

Maybe it has more resonance if the revelation is associated with his death. Or maybe it’s because he wasn’t willing to deal with the flak he’d take for throwing his post-presidential weight around like that.

Is John Edwards the New Howard Dean?

While reading Ezra Klein’s post about John Edwards’ declaration for the presidency I couldn’t help but remember Howard Dean’s declaration celebration just a few years ago. Like Edwards, Dean talked more about what we could do to help American than what he could do as its president. That’s why his campaign was always “Dean for America” not “Dean for President.”

I’m not sure if I’m going to support Edwards yet or not. I still have a lot of reading and research to do. I can tell you that I do appreciate his newfound sense of authenticity on the campaign trail. The fact that his rhetoric is reminiscent of Dean’s is a point in his favor. But my politics have changed significantly since the last presidential election. I’m not sure that I agree with the social spending side of the equation anymore. I’ll have to listen and think a bit more on this one.

Superstars Cripple Their Teams With Bloated Contracts

Lately, there has been a lot of talk in the NFL about the Colt’s defense, since it is ranked last in rush defense and it will likely keep the greatest offense of all-time out of the Super Bowl yet again. Peyton Manning has been frustrated with the team’s inability to go deep in the post-season while he is on pace to break virtually every passing record ever.

The Colts offense is beyond stacked. At $98 million for 7 years plus a $35 million signing bonus, Peyton Manning is the highest paid player in the NFL. But that’s not the worst of it. Peyton’s top receiver, Marvin Harrison, is pulling down 8 million this year, while his Offensive Tackle’s combined for 10 million. This is one very expensive offense. It should come as no surprise that there is not much money left over for defense.

So here is my questions: is the Colts poor defense Peyton Manning’s fault? If he is truly as serious about winning a Super Bowl as he says he is, should he take a pay cut? A drop in pay for Peyton could bring in the likes of Aaron Kampman, Julius Peppers, or DeMeco Ryans, and make the Colts virtually unbeatable.

If a superstar is a true competitor, should he play for less than he is worth in order to win? Or is it his right to demand all the money he can?

Personally, I think $70 million over 7 years with a $20 million signing bonus is more than enough money. I know that losing $35 million isn’t an easy thing, but if a Superstar in any league, be it Kevin Garnett, Alex Rodriguez, or Kobe Bryant are serious about winning, they either need to stop crippling their team financially, or shut up and lose graciously. Don’t blame the guy making $430,000 dollars a year when you could have had someone else.

On the other hand, I’ve never had $35 million I was asked to give up. You can buy a lot of video games with that kind of money.

On Relationships With Big Age Differences

Commenter Hannah, who is 19 and contemplating marriage to her 30 year-old boyfriend got me thinking a lot about age differences in relationships. It’s something I hadn’t really considered in a while, since Andy is almost precisely six months my senior.

Now, Andy and I are admittedly a little young to be in a committed relationship, but at least we’re going through the same life experiences at the same time. I can’t imagine being involved with someone so much older than me. That isn’t to say that I frown upon all relationships that have a substantial age difference. It’s just that I recognize their inherent challenges.

I guess the bottom line is that marriages succeed when both partners know exactly what they’re getting and exactly what the other person expects from the marriage. That’s doubly true in relationships with any additional obstacles: extreme youth at marriage, age differences, interracial marriages, military deployments, etc.

The Same Old Men…

I was watching the coverage of President Ford’s passing today on television and noticed something striking: our country has been run by the same old men for a long time. Donald Rumsfeld, Dick Cheney and Brent Scowcroft–to name a few–served in some capacity in the Ford administration.

And Ford’s running mate in his 1976 bid for the presidency? Bob Dole.

Perhaps we need some new, young blood in this country. Maybe Barak Obama is the answer. He’s largely untested, but he’s young and he has some long overdue fresh ideas. My in-laws gave me his The Audacity of Hope as a Christmas gift, so I’ll check it out and report back about whether I think he’s up to the task. I’m starting to think that this is a distinct possibility.

Wikiasari: Open Source Search

I learned via search guru John Battelle that Wikipedia founder Jimmy Wales intends to bring collective human intelligence to bear on search by launching Wikiasari, the open source, community-run search engine.

Maybe it’s time for Google to step up to the bat and become the thing that kills it by opening up their closely guarded secret sauce to the outside world or allowing users to reorder search results that don’t strike their fancy.

It looks like Wales is betting that Google’s not going to do that. After all, opening the kimono even a bit would be a threat to Google’s command and control mentality toward search results. How 2006 of them!

On Sharing Items in Google Reader

I absolutely love the shared items feature of Google Reader, which I learned about through Robert Scoble. Now Robert (and Steve Rubel and others) is saying that Google Reader is the next Digg and I’m, pretty much on board with that statement.

After all, there’s so much cool stuff out there that I don’t always have time to blog about, but I can at least hit Shift+S and share it on my link blog.

What I really wish is that they would allow you to create more than one shared page per reader account so that I could share some articles to a professional feed, some to a personal feed, and some to both.

Why I Never Did American Idol

I’m going to sound like I’m bragging here, but I can sing. I can sing my butt off. Really. When people hear me sing, they tell me that I should try out for American Idol. “You could go all the way,” they tell me. And yes, I could. But I realized a long time ago that American Idol is what an agent of mine once called a “dream sucker.” They take advantage of your dream of doing what you love, getting recognized and making bank. They co-opt your face, your voice, and your art. They suck you dry. Only the best artists–like Kelly Clarkson and Carrie Underwood–survive the post-Idol quagmire.

Deborah posted today about Leona Lewis, who is fresh off a win on the British singing challenge, X-Factor. Guess who is behind X-Factor? That’s right, Simon Cowell. Guess what song they gave Ms. Lewis to for her first single? That’s right, that insipid tune (iTunes) that nearly killed Kelly Clarkson’s career before it even got off the ground: “A Moment Like This.”

That’s why I never did American Idol. Because they’ll take a woman with the voice of an siren, the face of a angel and the body of a goddess and give her an outdated sloppy-seconds first single. They care more about their brand than they do about backing talented artists. They always have and they always will.

Hilarious Fundy Christian Comics

I’m not going to waste my time arguing with their ideology, but you have to check out the comics for a serious laugh. This has to be one of their worse marketing efforts, since they’re generally good at speaking kids’ language. But these read like old Archie comics. Have you heard any kid in the past 20 years actually address his father as “pops”? I didn’t think so…

If you really want a giggle, check out the statistics they use in their site intro. They mention that the Supreme Court barred prayer from schools in 1963, and then proceeded to quote a bunch of statistics about STDs, gun violence in schools, and other horrible stuff. They think we’re stupid enough to assume a cause and effect relationship between those pieces of information just because they’re presented together. But they don’t offer any scientific data that links the 1963 decision to any uptick in violence, STDs or any other problems among American teenagers.

I ask kids who put stock in these comics: do you really want to get your information about God and how to live your life from a group that obviously doesn’t respect your intelligence?

Note to Seattle, Leave Decisions on Homelessness up to the Advocates

Seattle has embarked on an ambitious ten-year plan to end homelessness. The new social engineering program calls for a drastic change in services to the homeless. Previously, service providers could allocate money as they saw fit. But now, the city says they’ll lose public funding unless they shift away from providing emergency shelter and hygiene and towards getting people into jobs and permanent housing.

The government needs to stop over-regulating groups that provide services to the homeless. It’s true that some people benefit from existing programs that help them get back on their feet. But those people are already motivated to seek those programs out. Meanwhile, homeless people who are simply incapable of holding it together will not benefit from a policy-driven kick in the ass.

Since when is it the government’s place to force anyone to fix his life? Homeless people who want to get off the streets need to take personal responsibility for making it happen. Those who can’t or won’t take personal responsibility should be given basic services like shelter from the cold and a hot meal. I support government spending to prevent human beings from freezing and starving. I do not support government spending that forces people to either fix their lives or freeze/starve.

Obviously, this new plan is well-intentioned. Whoever came up with it trusted his own judgment over and above that of the people who spend their lives serving the homeless. But by placing undue constraints on funding for these programs, he took discretion out of the hands of people who understand the problem best: the service providers. Ideally, they should have the power to decide on the correct mix of basic services and self-improvement programs. It’s simply not the city’s place to decide.
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A Lonely Jew on Christmas..Or Not

This time of year, lots of folks get to pontificating on the real meaning of Christmas. I have the privilege of being both an outsider and an insider to the whole thing, so I’m going to feel free to throw my two cents in.

This Christmas is the first that I have not spent with my mother’s side of the family in my 23 years of living. They’re all congregated in Ocean Shores, having a wild time. They’re playing poker and opening presents. And apparently my uncle decided that my family really needed a sixth dog to add to the mix, so he got my aunt a shi-tzu puppy.

Meanwhile, I’m here in Salt Lake City with Andy’s family enjoying a Sparrow family Christmas, which is infinitely quieter but just as much fun. We went to a candlelight service at the Unitarian church–yes, Salt Lake City has Unitarians–and the minister was talking about how Christmas reminds us not to let the light of hope go out in our lives. I take real comfort in that, despite my Jewishness.

There was a time in my life when I didn’t believe that love would ever find me. I lost the hope of ever knowing what it meant to have a partner, a best friend and a lover. I was desperately lonely. Meeting Andy wasn’t the clichéd answer to all my problems. Even after we started to take baby steps toward falling in love, I was still uncertain of my worth as a person. Being in a relationship didn’t fix me, but Andy did help me to fix myself. He taught me some valuable life skills that I had been missing, and I like to think that I taught him a thing or two.

Relationships aren’t perfect. They’ll never make you whole if you feel empty. Having the love of someone else won’t ever replace genuine self-respect. But a good relationship always makes that self-respect possible. It won’t make you happy if you’re not happy, but a good relationship will make it possible for you to make yourself happy.

So if there’s a true meaning of Christmas, it’s not to let hope go out. Love exists. A better world is possible if we make it possible.

What Have They Done with My Music?

In the course of one commercial break from the Saints-Giants game, I have seen two deeply disturbing commercials. The first–for the Hummer H2–licensed the theme music from the original Star Trek. Normally, I wouldn’t have a problem with a car commercial that used Trek music, because that would generally be awesome. But everyone knows that the Federation would never have approved of the resource-guzzling, conspicuous consumption of the Humvee. They were all about idealism and some advanced form of communism that eliminated the need for money without explaining how they did it. Humvees in the 24th century? Unlikely.

And then, I saw Christina Aguilera’s Candyman licensed to sell all the new “flavors” of LG’s Chocolate, which is by all accounts a horrible excuse for a phone/mp3 player. Why would Christina sell her song to promote such a horrible product? It’s so wrong!

Or maybe I’m just so relaxed and happy down here in Salt Lake City that I’m looking for things to complain about…

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