eat

two things: 1. article from the asian times and 2. proposed questions for the presidential candidates from the nytimes
1.
Bush's UN speech, de-mythologizedBy Stephen Zunes
(Posted with permission from Foreign Policy in Focus)
Commentators in the mainstream US media seem genuinely perplexed over the polite but notably unenthusiastic reception given to President George W Bush's September 21 address before the United Nations General Assembly. Why wasn't a speech that emphasized such high ideals as democracy, the rule of law, and the threat of terrorism better received?
The answer may be found through a critical examination of the assumptions underlying the idealistic rhetoric of the US president's message. Below are a number of examples:
"We know that dictators are quick to choose aggression, while free nations strive to resolve differences in peace. We know that oppressive governments support terror, while free governments fight the terrorists in their midst."
Notwithstanding the clear moral preference of democracy over dictatorship, this formula fails to withstand closer scrutiny. There are many dictators in the past and present - as nasty as they may have been toward their own people - who have not engaged in acts of aggression against other nations and have not supported terrorists. Furthermore, the United States - one of the world's oldest democracies - has demonstrated through its invasion of Iraq, as well as its earlier invasions of Panama, Grenada and other countries, that it can certainly be "quick to choose aggression". Similarly, the decision by the Bush administration a few weeks ago to allow into the country a group of right-wing Cuban exiles who had been implicated in a series of attacks against civilian targets - including an attempt to set off a series of explosions in a crowded auditorium at a Panamanian university in 1998, and the blowing up of an airliner in Barbados in 1976 - as well as the active US support for the Contra terrorists who attacked civilian targets in Nicaragua during the 1980s - demonstrate that democracies do indeed allow "terrorists in their midst".
"We're determined to prevent proliferation, and to enforce the demands of the world [demanding that nations] fully comply with all Security Council resolutions."
In reality, US policy is not nearly as categorical as this statement implies. For example, since 1998, India and Pakistan have been in violation of UN Security Council Resolution 1172, which calls on these governments to cease their development of nuclear weapons and ballistic missiles. Since 1981, Israel has stood in violation of UN Security Council Resolution 487, which calls on that country's government to place its nuclear facilities under the trusteeship of the International Atomic Energy Agency. The US has repeatedly blocked the United Nations from enforcing those resolutions, even as it insisted that Iraqi non-compliance with similar resolutions required that the UN authorize an invasion of that country and the overthrow of its government. It appears that the Bush administration, like preceding Republican and Democratic administrations, is only concerned with UN resolutions regarding non-proliferation if the target of the resolution is a government they don't like. Such double standards make a mockery of law-based efforts toward non-proliferation, however, and will likely encourage, rather than discourage, regimes to develop weapons of mass destruction (WMD).
"The Russian children [in Beslan] did nothing to deserve such awful suffering, and fright, and death. The people of Madrid and Jerusalem and Istanbul and Baghdad have done nothing to deserve sudden and random murder. These acts violate the standards of justice in all cultures, and the principles of all religions. All civilized nations are in this struggle together, and all must fight the murderers."
All true. Yet the numbers of innocent civilians killed in recent years by US forces in Afghanistan and Iraq as well as by US-armed Israeli forces in the West Bank and Gaza Strip and by US-armed Turkish forces in Kurdistan have far surpassed those killed by all Middle Eastern terrorist groups combined. While a case can certainly be made that the killings of civilians by the US and its allies was, in most cases, not as wanton as the killings in these terrorist attacks, the callous disregard for civilian lives in many of these military operations did constitute clear violations of international humanitarian law.
"The dictator [Saddam Hussein] agreed in 1991, as a condition of a ceasefire, to fully comply with all Security Council resolutions - then ignored more than a decade of those resolutions. Finally, the Security Council promised serious consequences for his defiance. And the commitments we make must have meaning. When we say 'serious consequences', for the sake of peace, there must be serious consequences. And so a coalition of nations enforced the just demands of the world."
First of all, the majority of member states that voted in favor of UN Security Council Resolution 1441 - which warned of "serious consequences" for continued Iraqi non-compliance - explicitly stated that this was not an authorization for the use of force and that a subsequent resolution would be needed. The two times in its history that the UN Security Council has authorized the use of military force to enforce its resolution - in response to the North Korean invasion of South Korea in 1950 and to the Iraqi invasion of Kuwait in 1990 - such authorization was quite explicit.
Second, if one were to accept Bush's interpretation of "serious consequences" as simply another term for a foreign invasion of a sovereign nation, it is downright Orwellian to claim that such "serious consequences" must be inflicted "for the sake of peace".
Finally, at the time the US launched its invasion of Iraq, the Iraqi government had allowed United Nations inspectors back in with unfettered access to wherever they wanted to go whenever they wanted to, and they were in the process of confirming the fact that Iraq had indeed dismantled, destroyed, or otherwise rendered inoperable its proscribed weapons, delivery systems, and WMD programs. Therefore, the US-led invasion did not "enforce the just demands of the world" since the demands were already being enforced without the use of military force.
"More than 10 million Afghan citizens - over 4 million of them women - are now registered to vote in next month's presidential election. To any who still would question whether Muslim societies can be democratic societies, the Afghan people are giving their answer."
Currently in Afghanistan, vote-buying, intimidation and the enormously disproportionate resources allocated to pro-government candidates raise serious questions as to how democratic these upcoming elections will be. Currently, there are more Afghan males registered to vote than there are eligible Afghan male voters; duplicate voting cards are commonplace and can be sold on the open market. The regime, which lacks solid control of much of the country outside the capital Kabul, was largely hand-picked by the US. The ongoing violence and chaos in the country, along with extremely high rates of illiteracy, raise serious questions as to whether the Western-style election the US is trying to set up will have any credibility among the Afghans themselves.
No one should question whether Muslim societies can be democratic societies (on the very day of Bush's speech, the world's most populous Muslim country, Indonesia, was holding a peaceful presidential runoff election - a fact he did not mention). However, Afghanistan under US domination, is no more a model of a democratic society than Afghanistan under Soviet domination 20 years ago was a model of a socialist society.
"A democratic Iraq has ruthless enemies, because terrorists know the stakes in that country. They know that a free Iraq in the heart of the Middle East will be a decisive blow against their ambitions for that region."
This assumes that the armed resistance in Iraq is not because a Western power invaded and occupied their country, failed to provide basic services and security, sold off key sectors of their economy to foreigners, and installed a puppet regime, but simply because its members don't want democracy. It also fails to explain why when other Middle Eastern states have taken even further steps toward democracy than Iraq, there has not been this kind of terror. Indeed, the opposite is true: For example, there was virtually no terrorism when Algeria democratized its political system in the late 1980s, but then saw an enormous rise in terrorism after a military coup short-circuited its democratic experiment at the end of 1991.
"Coalition forces now serving in Iraq are confronting the terrorists and foreign fighters so peaceful nations around the world will never have to face them within our own borders."
First of all, well over 90% of the fighting is by US forces, hardly a "coalition".
Second, there are indeed terrorists among the dozen or more opposition groups in Iraq, but the majority of the armed opposition has been targeting US occupation forces, not civilians, and therefore should not be considered terrorists. Similarly, there are foreign fighters among them, but most credible sources put the percentage of foreigners in the various resistance groups - terrorist and otherwise - at well under 5%.
Third, this idea that if the US withdrew, these terrorists would suddenly leave Iraq and start attacking the US and other countries is specious. This is simply a retread of the rationalization used during the Vietnam War that "if we don't fight them over there, we'll have to fight them here". Despite the US withdrawal and the communist victory nearly 30 years ago, the Vietnamese have yet to attack the US. The Vietnamese stopped killing Americans when American forces got out of Vietnam. One can similarly assume that the Iraqis will stop killing Americans when American forces get out of Iraq.
"For too long, many nations, including my own, tolerated, even excused, oppression in the Middle East in the name of stability. Oppression became common, but stability never arrived. We must take a different approach. We must help the reformers of the Middle East as they work for freedom, and strive to build a community of peaceful, democratic nations."
These are noble words, but the reality of US policy is very different: Under the Bush administration, US military aid, police training, and financial assistance to Middle Eastern governments that engage in patterns of gross and systematic human-rights violations has dramatically increased. Since the Bush administration came to office, thousands of reformers have been jailed, tortured, and murdered by governments supported by the United States.
"This commitment to democratic reform is essential to resolving the Arab-Israeli conflict. Peace will not be achieved by Palestinian rulers who intimidate opposition, tolerate corruption, and maintain ties to terrorist groups. The long-suffering Palestinian people deserve better. They deserve true leaders capable of creating and governing a free and peaceful Palestinian state."
This statement assumes that if Palestinian President Yasser Arafat and the Palestinian Authority cleaned up their act, Israel would allow the creation of a viable Palestinian state, which is the key requisite for peace. In reality, the right-wing Israeli government of Prime Minister Ariel Sharon, with the support of the United States, has embarked upon a plan to annex nearly half of the occupied territories and divide up the remainder into small, non-contiguous cantons surrounded by Israel, where the Israelis would control the borders, the airspace, the ports and the water resources. This will clearly make the establishment of a viable Palestinian state impossible, whatever the nature of the Palestinian leadership. Israel - again, with US support - has also rejected consideration of withdrawal from occupied Syrian territory, despite promises by the Damascus government of strict security guarantees.
It is important to remember that Kuwait's rulers during the early 1990s also intimidated opposition, tolerated corruption, and maintained ties to terrorist groups. That did not stop the United States, along with the rest of the international community, from demanding that Iraq end its occupation of that country. There are no such US demands, however, that Israel end its occupation.
Stephen Zunes is professor of politics and chair of the peace and justice studies program at the University of San Francisco. He serves as Middle East editor for the Foreign Policy in Focus project and is the author of Tinderbox: US Middle East Policy and the Roots of Terrorism (Common Courage Press, 2003)
2.
* questions for kerry
If President Bush next week were to announce an offensive against Falluja and other terrorist strongholds in the Sunni triangle, would you support it?
•
You have said that we cannot cut and run from Iraq and that we could "realistically aim to bring all our troops home within the next four years." But if you now consider the war to have been a mistake, how could you, as president, "ask a man to be the last man to die for a mistake''?
•
You've said that it is unacceptable to allow a second African genocide in a decade, this time in Sudan. You've also said you don't propose sending American troops to Sudan. If it becomes clear that the only way to stop the killing is through armed intervention by a coalition of the willing, led by United States troops but lacking the sanction of the United Nations Security Council, would you as president take such an action?
*
The new International Criminal Court has gained the support of many European nations. In a recent statement to the American Bar Association, you asserted that the Bush administration has been "ham-handed" in its approach to the court and has "needlessly alienated" allies on the issue. But you don't say much else - merely that you would "carefully consider the full range of U.S. interests at stake with respect to the court as we review our policy and fashion a more constructive approach."
Do you intend to ask the Senate to ratify the treaty and join the court? How would you ensure that the court respects good-faith differences in war-fighting doctrine? How, in the meantime, would you prevent the court from asserting criminal jurisdiction, without American consent, over members of the United States military deployed abroad?
•
After the 1998 bombings of American Embassies in East Africa, President Bill Clinton ordered missile strikes against Osama bin Laden's training camps in Afghanistan. Should we have responded more vigorously then, and to the bombing of the Navy destroyer Cole in 2000? Was there any additional military option before 9/11 that would have made sense?
•
The former head of Saddam Hussein's nuclear centrifuge program, Mahdi Obeidi, says that Iraq's nuclear program "could have been reinstituted at the snap of Saddam Hussein's fingers." Now in the United States, Mr. Obeidi says that Mr. Hussein continued to back a long-range missile project and harbored "the illusion in his mind that he had a nuclear program," constrained only by economic sanctions.
But economic sanctions against Iraq would almost certainly have been lifted by the United Nations once arms inspections were completed. How then could we have guarded against Mr. Hussein's reckless intentions? If you were president, would you have judged regime change a bad policy, assuming that legal requirements were met?
*
might you explain the apparent abrupt change in policy of Libya; the unexpected removal of Abdul Qadeer Khan, the father of Pakistan's atomic bomb; and the about-face in Saudi Arabia - and what precise plans do you have to induce similar such positive changes in attitude in Iran, Lebanon and Syria?
•
In January, you promised to be a president who "reduces the overall need for deployment of American forces in the globe - and I mean North Korea, Germany and the rest of the world." More recently, however, you have chastised President Bush for saying that he will do precisely that, suggesting that his "hastily announced plan raises more doubts about our intentions and our commitments than it provides real answers." As president, would you send those departing American troops back into Germany and on the Korean Peninsula to restore previous levels? And if not, why?
•
President Bush was the first American president to isolate Yasir Arafat. Do you agree with the president's radical step of ostracizing Mr. Arafat? If so, would you also ensure that he is no longer a party to the Middle East peace negotiations?
* questions for bush
You say that we are winning in Iraq. Senator Chuck Hagel, a Republican, says, "We're in deep trouble." Gen. John P. Abizaid is asking for more troops. Secretary of State Colin Powell admits the insurgency is getting worse. The C.I.A. is pessimistic. Billions of dollars that were earmarked for reconstruction have been diverted for security. Insurgent attacks have quadrupled. Deaths of coalition troops are up. Significant chunks of Iraq are under enemy control. You have no viable military plan to make sure the January elections proceed peacefully and no political plan to reconcile competing factions. Your argument for re-election is that this is too dangerous a time to change direction. But since the direction is obviously wrong, don't we at least need to change drivers?
•
How has the Iraq war made us safer, if it transformed Iraq from a place whose military was surrounded and contained, into what you have repeatedly called the "central front" in the war on terror?
•
Your exit strategy for Iraq begins with successful elections in January. And yet there are many obstacles to those elections, especially in areas where the insurgents hold power. Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld says it doesn't matter if the people in certain regions are unable to vote. Secretary Powell says elections will not be credible unless all Iraqis take part. Do you agree with Secretary Rumsfeld that partial elections are acceptable, or with Secretary Powell that the elections must be nationwide?
•
You have proclaimed that "freedom is on the march" around the globe, but freedom in Russia is in rapid retreat. During the 2000 campaign, you blasted President Vladimir Putin of Russia for "killing children" in Chechnya. Mr. Putin has now been fighting terrorism for years and failing dismally. What lessons do you draw from Russia's experience when considering our own options for fighting terror?
•
Compared with when you took office, are we more safe or less safe on the Korean Peninsula? What concrete progress have you made during the past in preventing North Korea from building nuclear weapons?
*
There are reports coming out of Iraq that your administration plans to conduct military crackdowns on insurgent areas after the election in the United States, to regain control before the Iraqi elections in January. Is that your plan, and do you think that attacking Iraqi cities, as we have done in Falluja and Najaf, is in the long-term interest of the United States?
•
Iran is building up its nuclear capabilities and has had a hand in terrorist attacks on Americans. Iran is harboring leaders of Al Qaeda and has effectively suppressed democratic forces. Under what circumstances would you authorize military action, including an invasion, to achieve regime change in Iran?
•
On March 11, bombs went off in commuter trains in Madrid, killing 200 people. How hard do you think it would be for such an attack to be mounted in the United States? What steps have been taken to improve security on trains in this country and what more needs to be done in general to defend America against attacks?
*
Do you really believe that there are fewer terrorists plotting against America today than there were before you began the invasion of Iraq?
•
Your version of Christianity supports and blesses preventive war. What relation is this to the Christianity preached by the pope and by mainstream Protestants who oppose preventive war?
•
Since you obviously did not anticipate the troubles in Iraq, what do you plan to do to the incompetent advisers who misled you and are responsible for the deaths of more than 1,000 American G.I.'s and 20,000 Iraqi civilians? Or do you not see an accountability problem? President John F. Kennedy fired the people who led him into the Bay of Pigs. Why do you not do likewise?

pimps up

klinker and paul, it's always good to hear your insight.

to klinker:

was eli whitney a black man. did my teacher lie to me.

klinker, you seem to suggest that ethnic cultural categories are mutually exclusive. therefore, christianity is not a part of ethnic culture. or maybe it is if we consider ethnic modifications of christianity.

it has elsewhere been suggested that whoever invents something has ownership of the proceeding culture. people will argue that x isn’t white culture because they didn’t create it. i’m sure people can think of many things that white culture commandeered or co-opted. on the converse, white's invented basketball. do whites own it forever. do middle easterners own christianity. that seems ridiculous.

i wasn’t creating a taxonomy in my list of white culture, but if i did, i imagine the nomenclature would be similar to that of dogs. i was listing things that i identify as my culture. i guess that means i was claiming that my culture is white culture. i don’t know what i think about that claim.

affiliating white culture with privilege is not too generic for my point. white privilege might be the only variable that unites all whites in commonality and therefore, what can define white culture with a greater degree of accuracy. reductio ad absurdum.

i would say power sits as king of the mountain.
poor men oppress women.

*

to paul:

does invention equal cultural ownership. whites invented basketball. blacks have made significant contributions to the game and have elevated the game to its current state. who’s culture is it. did whites' patent on basketball run out. can culture not be reproduced, transmitted, or distributed without the prior written consent of the cultural owner. how do we decide cultural ownership. through culture battles. whoever is better at the culture owns it.

i am white and i have my own culture. how are these two reconciled. i really don’t give a shit. i don't feel any need or longing for white culture. yet, when someone says there is no such thing as white culture, i feel compelled to remonstrate. i don't know why. maybe i feel that denying the existence of white culture obfuscates the complexity and evolution of white culture. “there is no white culture” has negative undertones. it hints that white people don't have culture. look at all those desultory white people living manque lives. poor jude. (just kidding jude. i figure if i occasionally throw a jab, you might put down that stats book and comment)

*
in other news. login, inc. is relocating to oakdale. that sucks for me. i had a nice seven mile bike ride to work and easy bus access for the days i didn't bike. are the days of our one-car household over. can i continue to take the bus with shitty reverse commute schedules to and from suburbia.

*

and just to let everyone know, if i call you a bitch while i am arguing vociferously against you and your cockamamie ideas, i’m just practicing my ad hominem skills in honor of the presidential campaign.

have you ever been circumcised

i posted this on jude's site.

there is no such thing as white culture?! that’s bullshit. talk about a fucking pigeonhole. white culture is:

farming corn and soybeans, raising livestock, milking dairy cows. it is football, basketball, and baseball. it is band, orchestra, and choir. it is christianity. it is meat, potatoes, and a vegetable. it is casseroles and potlucks. it is demure behavior. it is hunting pheasants, deer, and ducks. it is rock and roll, country, and folk music. it is innovation and enterprise. it is FM radio, transistors, air conditioners, the airplane, vulcanized rubber, the light bulb, the telegraph, the sewing machine, the cotton gin, vaccinations making life better.

rebuttals
a. these are not uniquely white
b. others were denied the opportunity for such creation

then how exclusive is culture. how do you define culture. how do you assign cultural ownership of something. do people claim culture or does culture claim people.

sometimes it seems the only culture accorded to whites is the culture of oppression. this oppressive, colonial, imperial, racist past of whiteness has prevented or nullified any possible claims of white culture. the one most exclusive commonality of whites was the advantage of white skin. there was an affinity in whiteness. welcome racists to my hotel, my restaurant, my restroom, my drinking fountain.

what happens when a part 1 of a culture A is adopted by culture B.
is part 1 no longer part of culture A.
and if culture A + culture B = culture C
then is part 1 only a part of culture C.

*

tuesday's truism

heterosexual marriages (as opposed to homosexual marriages) are valid because they produce children. infertile couples and old people should not be allowed to be legally married. if you are married and neither infertile nor beyond your ability to produce children, but yet you don’t have children, you will be blamed for underpopulation.

*

i forgot to mention that the worst best team in the nfl beat the hapless bears on sunday. i watched the game at klinker's new apartment. we were sitting on the couch together and klinker picked up a large pocketknife from the table and asked me if i had ever been circumcised. don't worry, i'm unscathed.

bolder trot

running
week total - 65
monday nearly killed me. i wanted to do a long run and i decided i would run out to lake harriet and back along minnehaha parkway. i didn't take into consideration how far this route would be. well, it was eighteen.
on saturday i ran the bolder dash 10k.

i couldn’t find official results, so here are my estimations
1. some runner from gear 34:35
2. kirt goetzke 35:07
3. me 35:15

splits
5:33, 5:36, 5:34, 5:44, 5:47, 5:37, 1:20
i realized that i was going too fast for comfort at the 5k, so i slowed down. the gear guy and kirt pulled away. the gear guy pulled away from kirt. kirt really sucks at running hills. so i made up a little ground at the end of the race. after the race i asked kirt if he was running twin cities marathon next sunday. of course he is, but he had some racing to do in the meantime. the bolder dash 5k coming up in half an hour and then a 10k-5k double the next day. after that, he could focus on twin cities. wow. i was happy with my race, but maybe a little disappointed i didn't choose to feel the big hurt. i went for a run yesterday and felt like i hadn't raced, so that's a good sign. i usually always have stressed calves the next day. i guess i didn't go fast enough.

all proceeds of the race went to bolder options, a non-profit organization that matches at-risk youth with adult mentors to run or bike together, as well as work on homework. good stuff.

carleton ran at the roy griak invitational at the university of minnesota on saturday. impressive results.

8. 252 Carleton (26:48, 2:14:00)
========================================
1 8 Dan Bucy 4 25:46
2 44 Steve Harris 3 26:49
3 50 Chris Lundberg 4 26:54
4 61 Adam Williamson 3 27:01
5 89 John Nowinski 1 27:30
6 (122) Quentin Kennedy 1 28:06
7 (136) Ruben Woodruff 2 28:21

*

what am i saying about this quote from bush: "my inclination was to support the government and the war until proven wrong, and that only came later, as i realized we could not explain the mission, had no exit strategy, and did not seem to be fighting to win." i am surprised bush arrived at those conclusions about vietnam. the mission was perfectly lucid, stop the spread of communism. i'm sure the exit strategy was to leave victorious. victory was to defeat the viet cong, establish a strong south vietnam as a bulwark against communism, station troops there, and go home. so, when bush said of vietnam, "we could not explain the mission," what exactly did he mean.

a. communism did not pose a significant threat
b. the costs of war outweighed the benefits
c. pacifist tie-dyed hippies whipped americans into a anti-war frenzy, forcing the military to abandon victory

what does it take to prove a war wrong.

was the mission in iraq clear. yes. were there justifications. yes. was i willing to die for those justifications. no, but i pray.

oil and middle east history link.

*

in other news

we are accepting resumes for the sales position at my work. apparently someone studied mid-evil history at the university of minnesota. nice.

estas muy religioso

i would like to call the attention of my hundreds of readers to the comment section.

*
in other news

this excerpt in bob herbert's nytimes editorial. in president george w. bush's autobiography, "A Charge to Keep: My Journey to the White House," he comments on his vietnam war stance. "My inclination was to support the government and the war until proven wrong, and that only came later, as I realized we could not explain the mission, had no exit strategy, and did not seem to be fighting to win." that's great.

has anyone been keeping an eye on hurricane jeanne. that bitch is crazy. she turned north and was headed harmlessly into the middle of the atlantic when all of a sudden jeanne remembered, i didn't hit florida, florida has never been hit by four hurricanes in one season, i'm going for the glory. and let's not forget about hurricane karl. that fucker just grazed iceland. kofi, don't feel too safe.

it is time that we realize that these are not ordinary hurricanes. set naivete aside, they are terrorist hurricanes, recruited after the u.s. invaded iraq.

you tell me

here's a noteworthy clipping from the sunday star tribune:

voter turnout declines with income

$75,000 and over: 74%
$50,000-$74,999: 69%
$35,000-$49,999: 62%
$25,000-$34,999: 58%
$15,000-$24,999: 51%
less than $15,000: 38%

source: inequality.org tabulations of u.s. census bureau data, 2000 election

what does this say about poor people
a. they are complacent
b. they are dumb

local news is amazing. in scotland, a man's cow wondered away from the farm and stranded itself on a precarious seaside cliff. the man called in helicopters and was tying a harness around his cow when he slipped and fell into the sea. he was okay, but that's some crazy shit.

klinker, i saw your comments. good stuff. you have a gift.

but i digress

here's an article from the asian times written by noam chomsky. noam talks about how the u.s. kicks ass and how we will continue to kick ass. noam also shares his confusion, and mine, about the umbrage other countries take from our proliferation.

the subject of ass kicking provides me with a segue to my political platform, which features ass kicking. as president of the united states i will kick anyone's ass who lifts a finger against america. even if you desire to lift your finger, i will unleash the holiness of the u.s. military upon your ass. don't think because you are a country, we cannot legally kick your ass because countries don't have asses. i'm talking about collective ass, collective feet, and coalition boots.

speaking of ass, ikea opened recently right beside the mall of america. thank you ikea for cheap furniture and furnishings. the two most important purchases marye and i made were the guest bed and the seven-foot corduroy couch. so, if you are in minneapolis and need a place to stay, ask ziyad first, and if he doesn't want you, i will begrudgingly let you stay the night.

steppenwolf is rad

i recently finished reading steppenwolf by hermann hesse. it was an enjoyable read. harry haller is the steppenwolf, an individual torn between self as wolf and self as man. really he is torn among a thousand selves, a thousand identities, a thousand natures. the steppenwolf is on one hand demure, sociable, and intellectual, listening to classical music and schooled in classics and philosophy, and on the other hand the steppenwolf is incredibly disgusted with everything human, desperately antisocial, and uncontrollably destructive. then the steppenwolf meets a very unique girl. before you know it the steppenwolf is dancing and reveling in sex. way to go steppenwolf. the book ends with a crazy, jazzy, dance club party followed by a series of drug-induced revelations. i have also read siddhartha by hermann hesse. it's nice to compare the two.

tuesday's truism: homosexuality is not natural, much like abominable floral pattern polyester shirts, pacemakers, twinkies, and nuclear weapons.

gomacgomacgomacgomac

liz connors, marye, and i traveled down to st. olaf on saturday to watch the olie invitational. competition was sparse and times were very slow. stolaf beat mac by two points. the course was very wet, and muddy in places. the mercury wasn't high, but the sun was intense. it was great to watch and doubly so to see macalester run like whippets. i must give credit to the women, even though i don't know a single runner, because they edged the st. olaf empire by one point. coach daymont was rocketing around the course in a john deere gator with such fury that she didn't even realize she ran over a few old people. i don't feel bad, they were rude old people.

individual results

team results

2. 36 Macalester (27:34 2:17:47)
========================================
1 2 Bo Rydze SR 27:00
2 4 Dylan Keith SO 27:11
3 6 Roscoe Sopiwnik JR 27:40
4 8 Eric Olson SR 27:44
5 16 Tim Stendahl JR 28:12
6 (20) Thomas Hammer SO 28:25
7 (26) Matt Wegmann FR 28:41

nebraska 24 - pittsburgh 17
it was a W and on that note, nebraska will go republican because people think they are voting for wins.

i finished last week with 55 miles. the highlight of the week was a 16 mile run home from work on thursday. i ran across the robert street bridge and turned onto the high bridge right route down along the river. i continued under the 35e bridge and on to the mendota bridge and fort snelling. i did a lap around pike island, where the minnesota river tributes the mississippi, and then headed home via minnehaha park. this coming saturday i plan to run the boulder dash 10k in minneapolis. this could be the beginning of my dominance of little know minnesota road races. however, i'm sure the legendary but elusive kirt goetzke will be there.

the vikings play the eagles tonight. if terrell owens gains over 150 yards in the first half, i will turn off the tv before he has sex with himself. can you imagine terrell owens having a conversation with himself. i can. "you are incredibly muscular." "why yes i am. you can call me mr. flex." "that's sexy, i want to make out with you." "no, i want to make out with you." "no i want to..." and so on until owens tarries long enough at the pool to miss the game, assuring the vikings victory.

now for the unfortunate sports news. st. thomas defeated macalester, in soccer, ending macalester's miac unbeaten streak.

it seems that all i talk about on mondays is sports. for a change of pace, i will dedicate every tuesday to discussing why gays scare the living shit out of me. and in the weeks leading up to the election, i will continue to reveal my rectitudinous platform.

who knew it was this easy

last time i implied that as president of the united states i could cut taxes by eighty percent. my email inbox was so full with message from voters that i wish i had gmail. responses ran the gamut: “your crazy,” “please lower my taxes, please,” “how,” “you have my vote,” “i've been waiting for a candidate like you for all my life,” “will you be my lover.” let's be honest, it was a gamut of praise.

the social security act is something we can blame on president franklin roosevelt. but since people nowadays have never heard of him, we will blame clinton. bush proposes an ownership society, and that includes ownership of your retirement savings. i have already talked about how much social security costs us. it's time to cut taxes by eliminating social security. but it won't be easy because social security is a mistake that we have to pay for, a debt that we have to pay off. so, as president, i would immediately stop the accrual of social security benefits to all individuals and pay out benefits to all those to whom benefits are due under the old system. of course, this will require those in future generations to pay for someone else's retirement while being guaranteed that no one will do the same for them in the future. i call it sacrifice for a tax-free tomorrow. as the years go by, the american people will thank me for reducing the onerous taxes collected to pay for social security. americans will thank me for putting dollars back in their rightful, responsible hands. and with those dollars back in the taxpayers hands, americans will save for luxurious retirements, as parsimony is the touchstone of american culture.

health and human services, another huge waste of taxpayer money. i say let's cut medicare and medicaid. now don't get all excited. people will be able to pay for it with health savings accounts, which are tax free. that means hard working americans can avoid shitloads of taxes on money contributed to this savings account. as we all know, americans pay so much in taxes, this shelter will provide more than enough to pay for an individuals health care costs.

the national debt is also bill clinton's fault. if he didn't commit adultery, we probably wouldn't have the national debt. but again, we must pay for his costly mistakes. with social security and health and human services out of the budget, eliminating the national debt should be easy, and when it is gone, taxes will be reduced to all-time lows.

after i have cut all these taxes, the market economy will become a virile bull with huge testicles. every person will be making so much god damn money that a five percent flat tax will pay for everything, including a bigger military.

a rising tide lifts all boats, but of course some people will miss the boat. i’m a compassionate man, i know that. hopefully they will be funneled into the prison-industrial complex, whatever that is. anyway, these prisons will become economic development cornerstones in impoverished rural areas.

i am ben and i approve this message.

where does it all go

i have been looking at the u.s. government's budget.

federal government outlays by agency
2004 estimates

1. health and human services - 539 billion
2. social security administration (on-budget + off-budget) - 530 billion
3. treasury - 391 billion
4. defense-military - 358 billion

next highest spending category
agriculture - 74 billion

to get percentages we could use total outlays, which equal 2.229 trillion, but that total is deceptive because of undistributed offsetting receipts which reduced the total outlays to that number. anyway, if we do want to use that total number, here is where our money goes by percent to the top five spending categories: 24.2, 23.8, 17.5, 16.0, and 3.3%.

i found a pie chart of health and human services expenditures in 2001 by percent.

medicare: 51.9%
medicaid: 29.6%
discretionary: 10.8%
TANF: 3.8%
children's mandatory: 3.4%
other: 0.5%

and i found 2004 estimates for social security administration spending categories.

OASI (old-age and survivors insurance): $417 billion
DI (disability insurance): $80 billion
SSI (supplemented security income): $37 billion

the main programs we spend money on are social security, the national debt, the military, medicare, and medicaid.

next time i will discuss my platform for eliminating each one of these fiscal burdens.

i got screwed

book review
the turn of the screw
by henry james 1843-1916

so i have several lists of books i want to read. one of those lists is a list of classics, books that have probably found their way into a high school english class curriculum. the turn of the screw by henry james happened to be on my classics list, as was daisy miller, which is also by henry james. let me get to the point: never read this book.

you may want to tune out here, but i will go on to briefly entertain myself.

a young woman is appointed governess of two young, innocent children, miles and flora. the governess is in charge of the country estate in england, as the children's guardian is always away on business and wants never to be bothered. miles was dismissed from school but no one knows why. the children are sweet and innocent, little cherubs. then two evil apparitions appear, one as the deceased governess miss jessel and the other as the deceased valet peter quint. the governess is the only one to see the spirits. she suspects the children are playing with the incarnations and she wants to protect the children. but how does she address the issue when victorians can't get past the conventions of propriety. i don't know, let's talk about what might be happening without really talking about what might be happening, and let's talk about it for over a hundred pages. anyway, flora gets sick and miles dies. and to tell you the truth, i was overcome with happiness because it marked the end of the book.

so there is a vain attempt in the book to imply unimaginable, measureless evil and horror. but nothing fucking happens. i’m serious, nothing. i can't really convey how frustrating this book was. imagine that you have a headache and ask a friend for a couple ibuprofen. in lieu of the ibuprofen and unbeknownst to you, your friend gives you two viagra tablets and you end up with a painful six-hour erection. that's what this book is all about.

on an unrelated note, to vote for john kerry is to vote to die.
so remember: dulce et decorum est pro patria mori.

that's gotta feel good

in late may marye and i planted tomatoes, green beans, and peppers in a small garden plot between our garage and the alley. despite the unusually cool minnesota summer, the tomatoes and beans flourished, obscuring the peppers. the green beans were a climbing variety that tenaciously wrapped around everything within its grasp. the tomato plants grew so large that they ripped the cages out of the earth, snapped the poles they were tied to, and fell into the alley. well, we got a letter from the city of minneapolis demanding that we remove the tomatoes from the alley or else. apparently the rapacious plants had started attacking small children. one mother barely saved her infant, but the stroller wasn't so lucky. i don't care, the tomatoes are delectable.

jude, it should be an exciting next few days for you. i was thinking that you could take a road trip down to gulfport later this week. hang out on the beach. relax.

i forgot to tell everyone (jude, i hope it's okay if i refer to you as everyone) that i ran into pete dillon, dashing 2004 macalester graduate. he was biking home from his job at the minnesota mining and manufacturing company and i was running home from work when we met. i enjoyed the chat with him. pete is applying to several grad schools, most of them in mississippi. wait, actually, he said they were in california. pete also told me he had romantic camping trip up north that brought a fire to his loins. as pete put it "i got poison oak on my dick." and he really did. there lies one of the risks of skinny-dipping.

is it okay to cry

southern mississippi 21 - nebraska 17 (in lincoln)

fire the coach.

cross country results from luther:

7. Macalester

9 Bo Rydze, Sr 20:51 5:13
22 Roscoe Sopiwnik, Jr 21:18 5:19
35 Eric Olson, Sr 21:38 5:24
38 Dylan Keith, So 21:45 5:26
52 Tom Hammer, So 22:02 5:30
74 Jordan Selbo, Jr 22:53 5:43
82 Derek Loudermilk, Sr 23:30 5:52

Time = 1:47:32 Places = 156

3. Macalester JV

13 Matt Wegmann, Fr 22:09 5:32
14 Robert Rosenthal, Fr 22:16 5:34
19 Nate Crider, Fr 22:33 5:38
23 Said Guled, So 22:37 5:39
31 Zak Morrow, Fr 23:00 5:45
39 Kyle Braam, Fr 23:24 5:51
45 Ben Pederson, So 23:28 5:52

Time = 1:52:33 Places = 100

vikings 35 - cowboys 17

dante culpepper was amazing. the vikings defense was and is amazingly bad. i will have to tune in each week to see if the offense is less than perfect and if the defense is less than horrible. i predict now that the vikings will either beat the packers twice or win the super bowl.

show me the dead canadians

it's about time that i posted the huskers schedule, just in time to alert you before they deplume the golden eagles. that's right jude. just hope we don't make you look like the scots.

Huskers Schedule

Sep 11 vs Southern Miss
Sep 18 at Pittsburgh
Oct 2 vs Kansas
Oct 9 at Texas Tech
Oct 16 vs Baylor
Oct 23 at Kansas State
Oct 30 vs Missouri (Homecoming)
Nov 6 at Iowa State
Nov 13 at Oklahoma
Nov 26 vs Colorado
Big 12 Championship opponent TBA
National Championship opponent TBA

so, last night marye traveled down to mankato to give a presentation in a community forum. she was representing mark dayton, norm coleman had a representative there too. they each gave a thirty minute informative speech about health care and what their respective senator supported. then the floor was opened for questions. the presenting coleman staffer was not the only coleman staffer there. others had tried to inconspicuously plant themselves in the audience, where they proceeded to drum home their points by asking particular questions.

"i'm really scared about the quality of drugs coming into the united states. people are getting sick and dying from these drugs. i'm filled with trepidation. norm coleman doesn't support drug reimportation. why does dayton. how is he protecting us."

you said it yourself. drug reimportation. we export fda-approved drugs to canada at cheap prices, then u.s. citizens buy back these u.s. drugs from canada. if the drugs are bad, show me the dead canadians. i know there are bad drugs out there too. still, show me the dead canadians.

what if we made the health care system more efficient by having the government provide more coverage, especially for very rare, unfortunate, and expensive occurrences which affect high-risk people. then we could lower health care costs. "but that would require shooting jesus with an assault weapon. what i'm trying to say is: that would require raising taxes." but what if the new system saves citizens more money total than the old system. "i don't care (screaming). just don't raise my taxes you pinko."

coleman is in favor of health savings accounts. i don't know much about HSAs (and in fact i don't know much about anything. everyone should take that for granted. and since i've mentioned it now, i will now continue with authority for the entire future of this blog) but they remind me of my simple ira, into which i direct five percent of my income before taxes. i don't know what kind of restrictions are placed on HSAs and how the government would keep rich people like me from abusing the system. all i see is a tax shelter for my benjamins. anyway, i need to check out the medicare modernization act sometime. so do you.

now a little more about how i use my gps watch:
the main screen that i look at when i'm running has a chronograph, current pace, and total distance. i programmed the watch to automatically take splits every mile. another screen option shows a map of where you have run so far and what direction you are going. another screen option allows you to customize three variables, so you can display grade, elevation, calories expended, speed, overall pace, etc. after i complete a run, i save it and then view the run in the training history menu section. you see the pace you average for the run, a map takes you through your splits one by one. the other feature that i enjoy is the navigation function. you can mark any location where you currently stand and save it on the watch. when i was in the netherlands, i programmed amsterdam, the haag, rotterdam, and other cities into the watch. all these cities are within a twenty mile radius of marye's family over there. dense. but anyway, you can look up all the locations in the watch and it tells you how far you are from them based on where you are currently standing. the watch has software too. i just downloaded the software today and in turn downloaded the watch data onto the computer. the software is not advanced. it's basically better visualization of what is on the watch. it's nice to see a graph of pace over distance. elevation over a distance would be fun too but minnesota is pancake flat.

sebas, welcome back to the states. i hope grad school goes well. kofi, good luck with the move this weekend. how the hell are you going to watch vikings games in london.

quarter century

born september 7, 1979.

kofi amoo-gottfried and espn. brothers separated at birth, thankfully reunited. happy birthday you two.

running update

i have started training again, creeping up on the mileage little by little. three weeks at 15, three weeks at 25, three weeks at 35, then 45, 27, and this week 45. the plan is to run until my right knee loses all cartilage, until my femur slides off my tibia, or until the torsional stress on my ankle turns my right foot ninety degrees to the side. to assist my motivation i purchased a new toy from garmin, the forerunner gps watch. it was the cheapest gps unit i could find and i prefer it, as an oversized watch, to other models that come as a watch and additional unit, which must be strapped to your upper arm. i'll write more about the watch later. anyway, i had a good twelve mile run sunday morning in a nebraska. my body is responding by angiogenesis. myoglobin and mitochondria are multiplying. my aerobic enzymes are swimming around bitch slapping lactic acid. that's right.

in other news, i believe sebastian sanchez de lozada is back in the states. slozada@brandeis.edu

and on an important note, if i happen to offend with my blog, remember this:

i'm just kidding. not really. but i am.

i travel so far

okay, time to throw something up on the ole blog.

i flew nwa into phoenix the last friday of august. my high school friend troy conyers lives in gilbert, which holds the distinction of being the fastest growing city in united states. the occasion for the phoenix rendezvous was to celebrate the last of schultz's bachelor days; he is getting married november 20. troy was a great host, providing us with a backyard pool and a keggerator. to make your own keggerator, buy another refrigerator or clear the useless contents out of your existing one. place the keg of your choice in the frige, along with carbon canister. drill a hole in the frige door and install a tap. place pint glasses in the freezer. enjoy. troy and i spent the day saturday awaiting schultz's arrival that night. i went for a run early, then we played frisbee golf and hit the driving range. of course, these activities were interspersed with couch time with cold beer in hand, the only way to beat the heat. sunday morning we had an 8:20 tee time at the tpc scottsdale golf course. we played 36 holes of golf. the first course is called the desert course and the second course is called the stadium course, home of the phoenix open. it was sweet.

on september first i went to a twins game versus the rangers. i missed the run scored by texas in the top of the first. anyway, stewart tied the game in the bottom of the first with a home run. texas scored again to go up 2-1. the twins waited to rally until the bottom of the eighth. drama. hunter strikes out. morneau doubles. ford singles. guzman singles, morneau scores, ford advances to third. then i think ojeda was the second out. tiffee, batting 1.000 for his mlb career steps to the plate and doubles. ford and guzman score and the twins are up 4-2. the starting pitchers were mulholland and park. park pitched a good game but cordero got pounded. crain pitched about two innings and then nathan finished. it was a great game.

i spent labor day weekend in nebraska. we dug potatoes, onions, and carrots. we picked green beans and a few strawberries. i also killed a cow with my bare hands and had steak for dinner. it was awesome.

that's all there is time for from here.

klinker, ronald, ben, ziyad

debut

jude, here it is. i have created my own blog, mainly to spur you on to create the sippi lovin blog.