Archive for November, 2008
Top 50 Film Commentaries
With both Milk and Frost/Nixon opening nationwide this coming weekend, I thought it would be fitting to take a look back at some of the best social or political commentaries to appear on the big screen.
Nutrition by Natalie (and Billy)
Recently I have been exploring the benefits of healthy eating. In my past, I have eaten like a typical American guy of my age: frozen pizzas, cheeseburgers, ice cream, cheese, BBQ ribs, salty snacks, etc. I am still struggling to get out of this phase of my life because I love eating some of those foods. One of the ironies for me of all this discovery is my perception that young liberals eat the healthiest. Young liberals appear to be more likely to be vegetarian or vegan and they appear to be more likely to accept a diversity of foods from around the world.
I have been learning a lot from a Texas gal named Natalie. Her website has a directory of about 50 videos that feature different subjects in nutrition.
This video is a general overview of what to eat on a daily basis. Natalie advocates following the Harvard Food Pyramid instead of the usual US Government’s pyramid.
Wedgies and Words
One of the most significant things I learned from traveling is that my thoughts are limited by the words in my language(s). You’ve probably heard the saying, “It’s hard to translate,” before. Some notions exist verbally in some languages and not others. Usually these translations involve subtleties, but sometimes it can be entire ideas, as well. If an idea is hard to translate from one language to another, imagine how hard it is to individually generate this idea if your language does not even have words to describe the idea!
A very crude personal illustration:
I was walking in Central Park with my German friend, when I found myself suffering from a wedgie. I asked him if we could stop a moment so I could pick it. Puzzled, he asked what a wedgie was. My explanation began, “Well, a wedgie is when your underwear gets shoved up your ass—and it usually happens while you are walking.” He paused a moment and then a lightbulb went off: “Oh, you mean, ‘Arsch frisst Hose!’” I then paused a moment, and said, “Yes, yes. ‘Ass eats pants.’” What was really astounding to me was that my whole life I considered the underwear as the “actor” in the wedgie process—the underwear shoves itself up the ass—, whereas my German friend saw the ass as the cause of the wedgie, while the underwear passively shoved by…
Moral of the story: the word “wedgie” is very limiting to explain the phenomenon of underwear being eaten by your ass.
**Shoutout to Billy Joe—who is finally getting his passport stamped for the first time this winter. I’m so happy for you!
Renegade Obama, meet Napoleon Sinatra
Secret Service codenames are, in a word, awesome. How cool that the most powerful people in the country are given Hollywood-worthy nicknames by their bodyguard teams?
Since learning that Obama’s Secret Service codename is “Renegade”, I thought it would be fun to check out all such codenames going back to when it all began. Here’s a thorough list.
Some noteworthy codenames:
JFK: Lancer. A cavalry nickname for a Camelot knight.
Ronald Reagan: Rawhide. For the former cowboy actor.
George H. W. Bush: Timberwolf. The codename is so much cooler than the man.
Besides sitting presidents, the Secret Service also has codenames for presidential candidates, VPs, members of the First Family, and even noteworthy individuals that may require their services. Some more fun examples:
Ted Kennedy: Sunburn. What?
John McCain: Phoenix. Mythology meets Arizona.
Hillary Clinton: Evergreen. Had that name since her First Lady days.
Prince Charles: Unicorn. Bwa ha ha ha!
Pope John Paul II: Halo. So cool.
Frank Sinatra: Napoleon. My personal favorite.
Some things I’m learning about girls
Lately I’ve been spending more time hanging out with girls. Most of the other young people in my practice group at work are girls and we have regular lunches and hang out at work. And this weekend my friends Katie (from the blog) and Erin are visiting DC. Below is a list of a few things I’ve recently learned about girls:
- There are some fancy shoes with “Nike Air Technology” made by Cole Haan that girls in Washington like.
- Girls have different length jeans because they need to be longer if they are wearing heels and if they are something called “skinny jeans” they cant wear tennis shoes with them. It’s much more complicated than I ever imagined.
- The girls staying with me packed a combined 9 shoes for the weekend.
- The girls staying with me dont dry their jeans because they shrink, and if they were even a tiny bit smaller they couldn’t get into them. There are evidently also length issues involved with drying jeans.
- You aren’t supposed to wear brown and black together.
- Shirts can be too dark for really dark jeans.
- A lot of fights can be avoided if I say “OK” or “I agree”
- Maternity leave is sweet.
- Girls judge other women about twenty thousand times more harshly than men judge women or other men.
- The type of pockets a girls jacket has can determine whether she wears a purse and what kind she takes.
- Women on average take 47 minutes to get ready.
- Girls dont mind having other girls in the bathroom when they are in the shower.
- Girls curl their eyelashes
- Sometimes girls wear tights under jeans to stay warm
- Girls carry bandaids with them. Erin said “sometimes I wear four on my heels.”
Fellow men of Urbanagora, perhaps you can add some of the things you’ve learned. Women of Urbanagora, please help us understand.
How’s your civics knowledge?
I thought this quiz was and its results were pretty cool. Embarrassingly, I got two wrong: No. 10 (brain fart) and No. 33 (kind of a dumb question, if you ask me).
I’ve never understood why civics was eliminated from high scroll curricula. Along with making Election Day a national holiday, it’s probably the easiest and best step we could take toward a more involved and educated citizenry. We devote a whole semester to teaching students to drive, but can’t spend a few hours on how to vote.
Anyone actually have a civics class, in high school or otherwise?
Way Back Machine
For those of you keeping score at home, the stock market today plummeted down to its lowest point since 1997. Ok. Thats a lie. Its about 30 off that low (right now we are in 2003 territory), but screw it, close enough, especially when you factor in inflation.
As a means of providing context, here are some songs from the last time the Dow was at this point. Songs that I find to have some particular significance in this particular economy.
Narcissistic Jerks And The Parties That Love Them
So Joe Lieberman gets to keep his gavel. Can someone tell me why Harry Reid still has a job? Lieberman will keep his chairmanship of the Homeland Security Committee and Armed Services Subcommittee. But in a stirring show of wussitude, they stripped him from the Environment and Public Works Committee. Ouch. I bet that very nearly stung a little.
I can’t understand why the Democrats chose to do this. The obvious answer is they have no spine. But honestly, I still think they don’t need this guy. God knows Connecticut thinks it can do without him. A new pole shows 61% of voters disapprove of his performance and 48% saying they’d definitely vote for someone else, with another 18% saying they’d consider someone else.
This is the guy who, when asked if Obama was a Marxist said, that’s a good question. He spoke at the RNC saying that Obama voted against funding for troops in the field. He pushed the Bill Ayres connection, said Obama was not ready to lead, that he put party ahead of country, and that Obama was the candidate of Hammas.
In one move, the Democrats have lost the ability to crack the whip on its own membership the way the Republicans have done so well over the past eight years. By forgiving Joe Lieberman for what was a very public betrayal of the party that brought him to Washington in the first place, they have eliminated the chance that there will be any repercussions for party members who deviate in the future. And this is not Lieberman’s first betrayal. Two years ago he got all the heavy hitters, including Barack Obama, to come to Connecticut to campaign for him. In exchange, he agreed to honor the primary results. When he lost, he went back on his word and ran as an independent. It has often been said that in the Senate you are only as good as your word. This puts Joe Lieberman’s value right around that of a festering bucket of afterbirth.
Which puts Lieberman about $0.23 shy of Harry Reid, whose only response to opposition, despite being in the majority, is to shrug and say, well, I tried.
Except you didn’t did you Senator? I mean, my god. Someone threatens to filibuster and you say, ok, you win. How about making them actually filibuster? No one does that anymore, the whole Mr. Smith collapsing at the podium thing. Someone says that if legislation goes forward they will filibuster, and Harry Reid, having all the moral fiber and strength of character as a piece of damp cardboard, he just shrugs and gives up instead of making them actually filibuster. I’ve had infections with greater tenacity than you!
It’s like the DNC has Battered Wife Syndrome. They’ve been kicked around so much the only response they can muster is to curl up in a ball and weep, completely incapable of extricating themselves from the hellish downward spiral in which they live. When that sort of thing happens to a single person, it is tragic. When it happens to an entire party, it is pathetic.
Senator Reid: I call upon you to either grow a pair, or resign so that you might be replaced with something more useful, such as one of the pieces of furniture in your office.
Ok. Now that I’ve gotten that out, yes, I admit that it’s a lot harder for the Senate to bust Lieberman’s balls when Barack Obama has publicly forgiven him and asked that everyone move on. Then again, after running a campaign that promised an end to work together in the best interests of the country, he didn’t have much of a choice.
And one can argue that as long as Lieberman has his chairmanship, the Democrats still have something to hold over his head to keep him in line. The thing is, I don’t think they’ll ever pull the trigger on that one. This Congress hasn’t exactly been all that big on accountability, so the odds that they’ll actually hold his proverbial feet to the metaphorical fire are virtually nil.
Will Obama Continue Bush’s Secret Spying Agenda?
Is it conceivable that Obama will continue the secret surveillance tactics of the Bush Administration? Despite claims from my colleagues on the blog that Obama’s views on all things from puppies to Iran are perfectly clear and thoroughly outlined in his position papers, it appears that Obama’s views on NSA operations are unknown.
An article in today’s New York Times recounts Obama’s contradictory and confusing history with NSA operation legislation:
As a presidential candidate, he condemned the N.S.A. operation as illegal, and threatened to filibuster a bill that would grant the government expanded surveillance powers and provide immunity to phone companies that helped in the Bush administration’s program of wiretapping without warrants. But Mr. Obama switched positions and ultimately supported the measure in the Senate, angering liberal supporters who accused him of bowing to pressure from the right.
Too Much Technology?
After last week’s Chief column, I decided to go a little lighter on this one. Here is today’s column about our dependence on technology- does it enrich our lives? Or are we all destined for social self-withdrawal? Read more…