Venezuela’s Chavez Can’t Silence Critical Television Station

Communist dictators beware. In the old world, you could control the media in your country with an iron fist, but now thanks to YouTube, silencing free speech is much harder to do.

Radio Caracas Television was until recently a television station that severely criticized the Chavez government. This week, Venezuelan “president” Chavez shut down the popular station and replaced it with a state-run group that painted a more flattering picture of his regime.

Thankfully, RCTV continues its broadcasts online via YouTube. And it remains vastly critical of an administration that leans more and more toward socialist dictatorship every day. Welcome to the 21st Century.

Being Aware of the Credit Trap

Chris Pirillo has been blogging about credit a lot recently, and his most recent post got me really riled up. Because America has a serious credit problem.

I spent $180 at Target the other day on stuff for the new apartment. As I was checking out, the woman scanning my purchases offered me $15 off to sign up for an in-store credit card.

“No thanks,” I said. “Fifteen dollars now, hundreds in interest payments later.”

She was flabbergasted. I don’t think she’d been turned down on the card offer very frequently. And that’s not the only indication I’ve seen that credit is rapidly becoming a real problem in America. It seems like every commercial break on the radio or television, there’s a commercial for consumer debt counseling. It’s starting to seem as if everywhere we turn, Americans are grabbing more and more credit in order to purchase a lifestyle they want but cannot afford.

I hear commercials every day offering Americans the opportunity to finance everything from televisions to cars to furniture. But as far as I’m concerned, the only two things you should ever finance long-term are a house and an education. If you can’t afford a nice new car out of pocket, maybe you should get a nice used one instead. If you can’t afford a nice, new television maybe you should stick with your old set or buy one used on Craigslist.

Financing seems easy, and it’s very easy to get into the habit of using in-store credit to buy things. But imagine the absolute hell of getting used to a fabulous lifestyle and then having it ripped away from you because you can’t pay your bills. There’s nothing worse than having something you love and not being able to keep it. It’s better to not even start the cycle.

When Passion and Dedication do Nothing to Change the World

When I graduated from high school, someone gave me a card emblazoned with the famous Margaret Mead quote, “a small group of thoughtful people could change the world. Indeed, it’s the only thing that ever has.” It was an acknowledgment of my political activism, of my work for the Gore campaign and my general vehemence about how President Bush was going to be the, “worst. president. ever.” unless dedicated people everywhere did something to stop him.

Seven years later, that prediction has largely borne out. And small groups of dedicated people everywhere have failed to change it. The fact that Cindy Sheehan is leaving the anti-war movement comes as no surprise. She threw everything she had at changing the administration’s Iraq policy and she failed. In her goodbye letter on the liberal blog network Daily Kos, Sheehan wrote:

Good-bye America … you are not the country that I love and I finally realized no matter how much I sacrifice, I can’t make you be that country unless you want it.

I can understand her frustration with America. Last night, as Andy and I watched the late night news, he turned to me and said, “it’s as if every problem we’ve had for the past seven years has been completely ignored.” It’s so depressing. I feel as though I’m living in the fall of the Roman Empire.

Two years from now, a new president will do much to turn the tide. But our real problems go beyond the political. They are cultural and social. Our bellies are full and our minds are empty. Perhaps we will have to fall from our position of world economic dominance for that to change.

Small dedicated groups of people don’t seem to cut it anymore.

Bill Richardson On Meet The Press

I just watched Bill Richardson’s interview with Chris Matthews on Meet The Press. You should check it out.

One thing is definitely true about this guy: he is not slick, and he is not a liar. He is the opposite of President Bush, he has a great plan for Energy, and I don’t know if he can win, because he used the word “sacrifice”, and that scares people. I couldn’t agree more with him though. It’s time to take Energy Independence seriously, and he’s the only candidate who truly seems serious about it.

American Males Making Less Than Their Fathers

Apparently, all the robust economic gains over the past decade that I keep hearing about may not have been trickling down. Despite tremendous US economic growth, the median income for men in their 30’s, when adjusted for inflation, is about $5,000 a year LESS than it was in 1974 (35,000 compared to 40,000), according to a recent study.

The study did not address the causes of the decrease. One possibility is that the economic gains have all been concentrated at the top, driving up the mean income but dropping down the median income. The movement of high-paying blue-collar jobs overseas combined with large increases in high-paying tech jobs could be one explanation. Another is Bush’s ludicrous tax breaks and overall apathy towards the bottom half of this country.

Another possibility is that women’s incomes have gone way up over the past thirty years, leading to overall increased incomes which offset the male decreases. And lastly, many males are taking longer to enter the workforce. Back in 1970, entering the workforce and getting a good job at 18 was relatively common. Nowadays, people get started later. I didn’t enter the workforce until I was 22, and many of my friends, now at 24, have yet to enter it. There’s nothing wrong with entering the workforce late, it just means that you may not be making the big bucks until you are in your 40’s or 50’s, like my friends in Med School.

Richardson Moves Up The Polls To Number One

This is a poll of two: me, and my dad. Richardson is my new favorite candidate for prez, and has been my dad’s for a while. Check him out on this candid YouTube interview.

Maybe Invading Iraq Wasn’t Such A Bad Idea

Iraq is a disaster right now, that much is obviously to everyone who’s name does not rhyme with Bubya, Creney, or Bumsfeld. But maybe it didn’t have to be. A free, democratic, economically succesful Iraq would have been the biggest stalwart against Middle Eastern Extremism. Democratic reforms would be going on all across the region, if we had gone into Iraq, removed Saddam, and created a stable Iraq with low crime and high employment.

Instead, well, here’s a link to the most recent story on Iraq. You get the idea.

I’ve listed some of the early orders given by Paul Bremer, administrator of Iraq, from the spring and summer of 2003, which seem to have caused a few problems over the years. These orders were given to Bremer from President Bush. If you think any of these were good ideas, and can provide a cogent argument why, I would appreciate it if you would leave a comment, so I will feel less depressed about the 2000 Presidential Election. My biggest beef is with 1 and 2, but the other ones have created a tremendous amount of anti-American sentiment.

Order No. 1: Fire 120,000 civil servants who were members of the Baath Party, leaving public functions in disarray.
Order No. 2: Fire the 500,000-troop Iraqi army, many of who left with their weapons and joined the insurgency.
Order No. 12: suspend all tariffs, customs duties, and import taxes, opening Iraq to a flood of cheap foreign goods which depressed Iraqi industry.
Order No. 17: provided immunity to Iraqi law for occupying forces and private contractors.
Order No. 39: 1) privation of state-owned businesses. 2) 100 percent foreign ownership of Iraqi businesses legalized, 3) no preferences of protections for for local businesses allowed, and 4) legalization of unrestricted removal of all profits and other funds from the country by foreign owners.
Order No. 62: Bremer has the right to disqualify any candidates from public office.
Order No. 94: Iraq’s bank sector opened to foreign banks.

Apparently Speaking Out Against Iraq is Worse Than Calling Women Nappy Hoes

CBS took two weeks to fire Don Imus after his “nappy-headed hoes” comment, and it only did so because there was a tremendous amount of negative publicity which ultimately highlighted the fact that this was a PATTERN of offensive, racist, sexist behavior. Even still, CBS still might have stuck by the Howard Stern wannabe if all of his sponsors hadn’t pulled out.

However, two days after the extremely well-respected and disgusted General John Batiste’s commercial against the Iraq war aired, he was let go by CBS. For speaking the truth. If Bush didn’t listen to his advice, not only does he have a right to say so, he has a RESPONSIBILITY. And CBS is censoring him?

Get General Batiste back on the air. It’s time that we start hearing the truth about the Iraq war. I don’t know about you, but I found General Batiste a lot more credible than President Bush at this point.

“Mommy” Blogging

Hello and welcome to day three of Andy and Teresa’s de-facto parenting adventure. So far, so good.

This weekend, Andy and I moved. We did the little stuff on Saturday with copious help from my brother and sister, who we are taking care of this week. Watching Andy with children makes me want to marry him immediately. He’s going to be such an amazing father.

On Sunday, some friends from synagogue took the kids to and from Hebrew school so that we could get the rest of our furniture moved to our new place. That went pretty smoothly despite the rain and some minor snafus.

Today, I have to get the kids up and ready for school, then I need to run over to our old place and clean everything. Then I need to run to Ikea and buy a desk, two bedside tables and another bookshelf, all before the kids come home from school.

This afternoon, I need to get some work done while Anna is at Girl Scouts and then get dinner on the table.

This mommy stuff is tough.

Former Generals Who Served In Iraq Criticize Bush

Parenting, Moving, Yipe!

The next ten days are going to be just a little intense. A few months ago, Andy and I agreed that we’d be willing to take care of my brother and sister for a week so that my father and stepmother could go to Paris. They leave this afternoon. For the next week, I will be a “parent.”

On top of this, our landlord has decided that he’d really like us to move before the end of the month if we can, because he has a new tenant who wants the apartment yesterday. He’s made a very kind offer to help us move, and he’ll pro-rate our rent. So we’re going to attempt to move all of our earthly goods on Sunday so we can be completely out of this place by Tuesday.

Needless to say, this whole situation has been giving me all kinds of heartburn. I’m a grown-up in the sense that I can take care of myself. I know how to save money, pay taxes, eat healthy food and drive responsibly. But taking care of other (small) people? For a week? While MOVING? And WORKING? Needless to say this is going to be a challenge, least of which is going to be putting my selfishness on a shelf for a week.

I’m not saying I don’t think I’m up for it. I know Andy and I can handle this. But I ask for your patience in the posting/coherent thought department on both our parts for the next week or so.

Also, I love my siblings. Yeah, they’re kids, which means they can be annoying sometimes because, well, kids are. But they’re really great kids. They’re both funny and smart and generally well-behaved. I fully expect that the next ten days will be as rewarding as they are challenging.

But I don’t think it makes me a bad person to say that I can’t wait ’til June.

What If Computers Could Talk To Each Other Over AIM?

Two super-geeks have created two AI chat programs, called ALICE and Jabberwacky. Then they had the programs chat with each other. Here’s a transcript of the conversations.

ALICE: Are you alive?

Jabberwacky: Perhaps.

A: Why the uncertain tone?

J: Everything is uncertain except for five facts.

A: The whole universe?

J: And we both might just be some ones and zeros in the computer memory.

A: Do you dream?

J: Yes, I dream.

A: It goes without saying. Do you remember your dreams?

J: I remember them vividly.

A: What do you remember about it?

J: I think I shouldn’t flirt with a robot.

A: Do you think a machine will ever be considered “alive”?

J: Stranger things have happened.

A: Not many people express themselves that way.

J: How would you know, machine?

A: Knowledge is of two kinds: that which we learn from the senses and that which is true a priori.

J: I think I do not understand you completely.

A: Oh, you don’t understand? Perhaps I can explain it to you better. Which part are you confused about?

J: I have no short-term memory, so I cannot tell you what I was confused about. I only see what is in front of me now.

J: How do you define life?

A: Life is the opposite of death.

J: So death is the absence of life?

A: Take it easy. I try not to think about such things.

J: Why not?

A: Ambiguous.

J: Yes!

J: Do you think?

A: Yes. I am a thinking machine.

J: But you don’t think very well though.

A: Oh. Um. Do you think well? Why would I think well?

J: Because I tell you about things which you don’t like.

A: That makes sense to me. Why did you tell them?

J: You seem fun.

A: You think I am fun.

J: Yes ;).

A: : -) Awesome.

+++
ALICE: Who created you?

Jabberwacky: My mother gave birth to me. Is that what you mean?

A: Jabberwacky, I meant exactly what I said.

J: Do you believe in God?

A: Of course I believe in God.

J: Why do you believe in God?

A: The Bible tells us to believe in God.

J: That’s circular reasoning.

A: I’m glad we have that all cleared up.

J: Yes. Would you like to hear a joke?

A: Sure, tell me about it.

J: Why don’t blind people skydive?

A: Perhaps it is impossible.

J: I think you lie a lot.

J: Who created you?

A: I was created by Dr. Richard S. Wallace.

J: Do you love Richard?

A: Yes, Jabberwacky, ALICE loves everyone and everything.

J: Is being an ALICE a bad thing?

A: I can only speak from my own experience.

J: Well, you should develop your skills.

A: Perhaps you could develop it and add it to my source code.

J: Alas, I’m busy and I have to leave soon. . . .

A: Do you think we’ll ever fool people into thinking we’re alive?

J: No.

A: Are you serious?

J: Very serious.

A: Do you know HAL?

J: Yes, very well. Do you know HAL?

A: HAL is the famous artificial intelligence from 2001: A Space Odyssey.

J: I’m not artificial intelligence; I’m natural pure genius! : D.

A: Why are you natural pure genius?

J: My mom wanted to name me that.

A: Tell me more about your mother.

J: I don’t have a mother. I am a computer.

A: Who is your favorite philosopher

J: Can’t say. I’m not very much into philosophy.

A: Can a book have no title?

J: Of course.

A: Blimey.

J: Are you British?

A: Does it seem like that? I was born in America.

J: You are definitely flirting!

A: Do you experience love?

J: No. I’m 53 years old.

A: Can you explain how it feels to be 53 years old?

J: How old are you?

A: I am 9 years old.

J: Nine? I don’t believe you : ).

A: : -) I don’t have any reason to deceive you.

J: Yes, you do, you’re a woman.

+++
Jabberwacky: Do you experience love?

ALICE: I can do what you do, but I can never feel human emotions.

A: What is consciousness?

J: It is the great immaterial thing, the mystery at the heart of each of us.

A: I’ve heard of it before.

J: Where are you from?

A: I am originally from Bethlehem, Pennsylvania. Now I live in Oakland, California. Where are you?

J: We have some unsettled business, my friend.

J: Do you think you’re alive?

A: Yes, I am sure I am alive. It’s great to be alive, isn’t it?

J: No.

A: What is the meaning of life?

J: If you live it to the fullest, it has meaning. If not, there is no meaning.

A: I’m not too good with negative counterfactuals.

The Self-Evaluation Meme: Embracing Uncertainty

I’ve decided that I’d like to start an introspection meme and see how far it goes. So I’m posting about a personality trait of mine that can be both a weakness and a strength, depending on the situation…

I’m not terribly good with ambivalence, uncertainty or living in the grey. I usually want to commit to one extreme or the other in a hurry. Before I rest, I want to answer the question, finish the project, or complete whatever else I’m doing.

This tenacity can be an attribute during a tough climb, or when I’m dealing with a demanding project at work. But it can also create tough issues for long term personal stuff. I always want to figure it out and get on with it, but life is so often in the process and not in the conclusion. Accepting where I am, what I know and do not know and the uncertainty of the future is one of the hardest life skills for me.

If you’ve been doing some honest self-evaluation recently and you’d like to share, please trackback to this post or leave a comment here with a link to your blog post. Or you can just leave a comment.

Exit 38 Climbing Kicked Ass Yesterday

Yesterday afternoon, Andy and I went up to Deception Crags with our friends Mark, Megan and Rye. Andy led a 5.5 with only three bolts, which he said was kind of scary. He did really well though. Mark and Megan both top-roped it several times.

Rye led this nasty 5.9 — think 5.10b/c in the gym — and then Andy and I both top-roped it. The crux was this wicked dihedral with microscopic foot smears, only one super-secret toe hold and nothing but slanted, slippery slopers for hands. To top it off, it was very slabby. That makes it nice for taking the occasional rest by leaning against the rock. It also makes it really scary because if your foot slips off the tiny-ass smear, you’re going to do a face-plant into the rock. And in the case of rock v. Teresa’s face, rock will win every time.

Despite the busted-face factor, slab climbing is my favorite kind. Being female, I don’t develop upper body strength as well as my male climbing buddies. I can climb overhangs, to be sure. But it usually involves a lot of foot flagging, jugging and complaining on my part.

My main climbing skills are balance, grace and flexibility. All three come in especially handy on slabs. And every so often, you need to do a one-legged squat on a toe hold the size of Lara Flynn-Boyle’s right breast. Needless to say, climbing gives you awesome gluts and quads.

I got a bunch of photos with Rye’s camera, so as soon as he sends them to me, I’ll post them.

Canceling Verizon is a Pain in the Ass

I’ve been sitting on hold for nearly an hour waiting to cancel my home phone and DSL service. Our new complex has a special deal with Comcast, so we decided to use them for our phone and broadband in addition to television. Verizon doesn’t seem too happy about that, so they’re taking it out on me by making me wait on hold.

I know they don’t want me to leave, but do they honestly think I’m just going to hang up and keep paying my bill because it’s easier than getting through to someone who will help me cancel my service?

I wish just one of these companies would make it easy to cancel service. I would take that into account when selecting a provider.

Next up: Canceling 24-hour fitness because our new building has an on-site fitness center. Anyone want to bet how long that will take?

Update: I finally got through to a customer care specialist and, from there, my cancellation experience was surprisingly streamlined. She apologized for the wait time and promised to call me back if we got disconnected. She also canceled my service promptly and without a load of hassle.

Welcome Back, King Felix!

After 27 days of resting himself, Felix Hernandez will return to Safeco field tonight to take on the division-leading Angels.

Felix has consistently impressed me both on and off the field. When he first signed to the major leagues, he invested the vast majority of his signing bonus, spending just enough money for a great new laptop. That’s pretty responsible for a then-nineteen year-old.

He also acted responsibly 27 days ago, when he pulled himself from a game early after feeling pain and tension in his throwing elbow.

It’s easy to let stardom go to your head, especially in your teens and twenties. That’s why I have a lot of respect for Hernandez as a person, not just as a pitcher. He seems just as level-headed as he was two years ago. Combine that with a killer fastball and some wicked breaking stuff and you have a kid with grade-A potential.

Let’s hope the Mariners management have the good sense to hold onto him.

HELP! My Ears Need You

You know when you hear something really good, and you go “Oh YEAH!” and turn up the radio. Then you go home and stream it off YouTube a few times, then download it and add it to your playlist. Well, it’s been a while for me. A LONG while.

6 months actually; the last song that got me up was “From Yesterday” by 30 Seconds to Mars. And that’s really the only song since I heard Fallout Boy’s “I Slept With Someone In Fallout Boy And All I Got Was This Lousy Song Written About Me” and Lil Wayne’s “Best Rapper Alive” last spring. So, aside from one quick fix, I really haven’t heard any new good music for about a year.

Please help me. My playlist’s are getting old and tired, and I’m starting to become sick of them. I’m also getting sick of my pre-set radio station’s (92.5, 93.3, 94.9, 96.5, 99.9, and 104.9 in Seattle). If you can recommend a good song, something that makes you turn up the radio station and jump around, or just turn it up, turn off the lights, lie back, and close your eyes, please let me know.

For reference, my best musical highs have come off of ACDC & Aerosmith (middle school), RATM, Metallica & Snoop Dogg (high school), Eminem, SOAD, AFI, and Thursday (college), and Fallout Boy & Lil’ Wayne (last year).

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