Holiday remainders - picture edition

While getting paid sick leave for depression, it's best not have pictures posted like this on Facebook:

Meanwhile, this woman...

...used Facebook to hunt down someone who attacked her.

Ann and Mike are in Thailand this week, where they can apparently buy this:

Have you heard about Coke's new ecological bottle?

It's partly made of organic material so it uses less petroleum to produce. I doubt we're gonna see this in the land of oil.

And finally,

a graphic designer was asked to produce a logo with pie charts (for free). The back-and-forth e-mail is priceless. After you read this set you can read two dozen others for this guy. I've read most of them and wonder if his tactics might have worked with my problematic I-Phone.

Locals are less than 1% of the private workforce

I was told before arriving that you could spend an entire day out and about and never encounter an Emirati working. It took moving here to fully grasp that. From The National newspaper here's the quote of the day:

"Although nationals comprise a fifth of the UAE population, they account for less than one percent of the private sector workforce."

This led me to wonder, when have I ever encountered an Emirati working for a non-governmental agency or the cable/internet duopoly? I can only remember once at one of the stations I sent money home. A man was dressed as an Emirati, but that doesn't necessarily mean he was one.

Dubai financial crisis

I would love to discuss the current situation in Dubai at length. Unfortunately, that's not possible given the rules here. Here's what I can explain:

The Emirates is made up of seven "emirates" (the equivalent of states in the US). Abu Dhabi is the largest Emirate and the city of Abu Dhabi is the capital of the country. The Abu Dhabi emirate is also where most of the oil in this country lies. Hence, it has long been the richest and most prosperous of the Emirates (with an amazingly generous share-the-wealth program with the other Emirates... but that's a story for a different post).

Ten years ago the Emirate of Dubai realized that their emirate's oil money wouldn't last forever. Dubai's oil reserves may run out in the next decade. So they decided to diversify. In an incredibly ambitious endeavor they wanted Dubai to become a leading financial center, free trade zone, tourism hotspot and resort for the world's wealthiest. They also bought up assets from around the world. Two examples: The Queen Elizabeth 2 ocean liner and Dubai Ports (remember the uproar in the US when Dubai Ports offered to buy the maintenance contracts for New York and other major harbors?)

In a world of cheap money development soared in Dubai. By 2008 it was estimated that 20% of the world's building cranes were located in this one city. They built the huge indoor ski slope, built man-made islands in the Persian Gulf, and the world's tallest building.

All of this began to overshadow Abu Dhabi. Pause. Think about that.

As the financial crisis swept the world the foreign money invested in Dubai began to dry up quickly. Donald Trump was one of the first to hit the exit as he cancelled a major project. Many customers - businesses hoping to open and people hoping to buy million dollar sky rise apartments - simply vanished.

Now Dubai is having serious cash flow problems and is unable to make all of its payments. Because the development companies are largely owned by the government this is more than just a private company possibly going bankrupt, it is a sovereign state unable to pay its bills.

Other countries have faced the situation of not being able to pay bills. What makes this one unique is the size - $80 billion - and the fact that Abu Dhabi has more than enough money to cover this. After years of saving money and with current oil prices at $75/barrel the oil rich capital could bail out Dubai if it wanted to.

The Dubai announcement was at the beginning of a four day holiday. That bought them some time to sort things out. But hopes of Abu Dhabi riding in for a rescue were dashed when it was announced they'd be willing to buy Dubai assets on a "case-by-case basis." In other words, "We don't want your toxic assets. We'll cherry pick from the best."

On Monday the financial markets reopen in Dubai. I suspect no amount of Tums is helping investors sleep tonight.

Rip Van Winkle

I mostly took a break from life for the past two days. I've slept over 20 hours. In the weeks before this break I had become incredibly sleep deprived; tossing and turning until 3AM and getting up at 6:30 for work.

Shortly the blog (and life) will return to normal, but it's been a good break.

A year for farmers to be thankful?

This is a good article by a Missouri farmer. It does not romanticize farming but explains the realities of the modern farm. While I'm not surprised yields were good this year, I don't know if Missouri had to deal with all the fall rain like Iowa farmers.

If it's no problem, we'd like to stop paying our bills for six months, OK?

I took this picture of the world's tallest building last January. It's back in the news today as the government backed companies building this building, the man-made islands and many other projects asked creditors to accept a six month freeze on payments.

With $80 billion at stake Dubai has already borrowed $10 billion with a promise of another $10 billion from oil rich Abu Dhabi, the capital of the Emirates. World markets were sent down.

I don't think it is a coincidence this announcement came at the start of a four day Muslim holiday and Thanksgiving in the US. This will give markets some time to digest how big (or hopefully not-so-big) news this is.

In the internal Emirati politics, it's clear Abu Dhabi isn't quite as willing to bail out Dubai as was previously believed.

What I'm thankful for...

I know all the things I'm supposed to write about being thankful for... friends & family still alive, the troops keeping us safe, the great country we were incredibly lucky to be born in, and, of course, Google... without which, life would have no meaning.

Instead I'm focusing today on being thankful that Gus has a loving home. These pics were sent to me this week from my parents.

Over 60 comments for one blog post?

I always want more comments on the blog. I was stunned to see that this post from last July had over 60 comments. What did I write that would generate all these comments. When I clicked on I saw two things: One, the post is a dud. Nothing worth commenting on, and two, all of the comments are in Japanese.

I tried using Google translator but it didn't tell me much.

Fortunately, I have a Japanese student in my class. So what are the comments? It's a review of Japanese porn sites. By the stat counter I don't get Japanese visitors. I have no idea how it started or why. Next week I'll delete that post and see what happens.

A nice dog treated as a zoo animal

It occurred to me as I saw this sad, malnourished animal that it's the first dog I've seen since I returned here in August. Imagine not seeing a dog in 3 months.

And I wish I hadn't seen this one. He was nice and gentle and showing all the signs of a dog who has been abused. Dogs are not loved here and this one lives only because he is a hunting breed (the name of the breed escapes me, but an American friend said it's related to Greyhounds). While they are supposed to be slim this dog is clearly underfed.

He was treated like a freak show with some just extending a finger to poke him to see a reaction. Some would be a little more kind and use two fingers to pet his forehead.

This was very tough for me.

*****

I spent most of the day on the women's campus as they held events for the National Day (the Emirates Independence Day). The actual holiday isn't until next week but since everyone will be on vacation they decided to celebrate early. The picture above was the negative part of the event. I'll get the rest of them up next week. I thought I'd get the negative out of the way tonight.

Why did I check?

Due to car repairs, buying the IPhone and sending a chunk of money back home to pay bills I decided not to go anywhere for this ten day holiday.

But that hasn't stopped me from checking fares. While US, Singapore and Kiev prices all rose as the holiday drew closer, for some reason, the fare for Nepal dropped. I could fly to Kathmandu for less than $400 on Friday. Given that the cost of visiting there is $20/day it would be a pretty cheap vacation.

Ugh.

Alexander Hamilton

I saw this a week ago and I’ve played it a dozen times since.  Think learning history can’t be interesting?  Take five minutes and watch this.

A common...

... and always unwelcome sight.

Sheep-in-Lexus

Taking a pet for a ride?

A friend took these pictures: Two sheep were loaded into a Lexus for their final trip. Later this week is the start of a religious holiday where the pair of luxury riders will become the main course.

I had no idea the trunk of a Lexus was so spacious.

From the classroom

I am teaching inventory management right now. (I know, exciting topic.) And here's part of today's lecture:

When I arrived in this country I had a hard time finding a shampoo I liked. Most are way too scented. After trying several I finally found one that had a little coconut scent and I liked it.

Now - obviously - I don't need much shampoo. Even though I wash my hair every day one bottle lasted me six months. When I went to buy more I saw that the shampoo I like was sold out. For the past two weeks I've been using tiny, tiny portions hoping not to run out. On Saturday I had no choice... my shampoo bottle was empty. When I went to Carrefoure... SURPRISE! Not only did they have my shampoo but they had an entire display of it.

One bottle lasts me six months. Given that I don't know when I'll ever be able to buy it again I bought 3 sets of bottles. I now have enough shampoo to last me 2 years.

I explained to my students that the product "there one day, gone the next" is not common in the US (except when shopping at Sam's Club).

Photography tip: Natural light

People look better, more natural when illuminated by diffused natural light. In this case the light source was my large windows in the front room. Mike (posing ominously here) took the rest of the pics.

I'm not sure if this is a reenactment of a HS senior picture...

Mary is one of my favorite of Ann's friends. She's got a warm personality that - as you can see - radiates. She teaches writing in a country where students want to learn writing even less than American students. By all accounts she's a great teacher and I'm glad Mike was able to capture her personality.

Thanksgiving prep

I made bacon extra crispy to go in the mashed potatoes and chewy for the broccoli casserole. In total I made four pounds although I probably only used three for the guests. By the time dinner was served I thought, "Why am I not hungry?" The pound of bacon in my stomach gurgled and I had my answer.

Thanksgiving 2009

Thanks to the large front room we were able to easily accommodate 18 people.

What made the event a success was the friendly, relaxed atmosphere. Some of the food was great. Some was OK. Some was a mystery. Lesson for the day? A good gravy masks many mistakes. My mashed potatoes and broccoli cheese were less than stellar but put some great gravy on it and it became scrumptulicious.

For the first time I had an excuse to use my ridiculously large hallway. Always thinking in terms of workflow, I created a beverage line, a main course table and a desert table. I credit the Coke machine for making the party better; nobody felt obligated to ask if it was OK to get something more to drink when they saw a large, fully stocked Coke refrigerator!

A good neighbor

This disturbingly fuzzy picture is stuffing provided by my neighbor across the street. He's from Dubuque and couldn't attend my Thanksgiving because he had already made plans. He brought over the stuffing to wish me well.

What a very Iowa thing to do.

A new career?

I could be the most bad ass lunch lady ever.

Al Ain Raceway

After Thanksgiving a bunch of us went to the racetrack.

Although the track is large with a lot turns, with 19 people racing there was a lot of passing getting bunched up.

I'm proud to say I did not come in last. I also did not place in the top 14.

This is me after I spun out trying to take a turn too fast. The jump suits were supposed to cover the entire body. Mine kept riding up my leg. It was very distracting.

Give me more time and I'll come up with a better excuse.

Kidney beans in a green bean casserole?

I consider green bean casserole a staple of Thanksgiving - below turkey but above yams. The guest bringing green bean casserole brought 3 bean salad and, basically, 3 bean cooked casserole.

Do we do things so differently in Iowa? In Iowa, green bean casserole has, you know, green beans.

Thanksgiving 2009

Thanksgiving went great! It was a relaxing dinner. Many people didn't know each other but it was an incredibly positive, friendly atmosphere. I couldn't have asked for it to have gone better... except well, I got rushed and put too much soup in the broccoli casserole and too little milk in the mashed potatoes.

Chris - the person who has hosted in years past - brought the turkey and made incredible turkey gravy... and I rarely like turkey gravy. Her secret? To get extra broth she boiled a chicken the night before to create a large amount of chicken stock. After she mixed with the turkey drippings she added spices from the old Simon & Garfunkel song. Ann and her sang it and I swear I've never heard it.

Chris also played the part of host, directing people, making sure the bowl of cranberries was refilled, etc... which was great! I like throwing parties. I like doing the pre-work and don't really mind the cleanup. I just don't like playing host, so the two of us made a good team.

I'd love to show some pictures from the day but once again, none of my card readers are working. I've purchased four in the past year. They're not expensive but I'd have no problem paying more for one that wouldn't break.

In other words, pictures will have to wait for tomorrow.

Thanksgiving preperation

It's officially t-minus 12 hours and counting until I have 20+ guests at my place for Thanksgiving. In a story of EXCELLENT CUSTOMER SERVICE the woman at the pork shop who saw my panic of no bacon took down my phone number and requested an early delivery. It came in at 10PM Thursday night. I got the call and now my broccoli cheese and mashed potatoes will be at the bacony best.

It's been an expensive party to throw. As I checked out of one store I thought, "Ok, I've now spent more the price of the plane ticket to the Ukraine..." A few more bills and I realized my share of the hotel bills have been covered.

I'm sure I could have contributed less, but it's my first big party. I don't want guests leaving thinking, "Wow, coming here was a mistake...."

Anyhow, it's well past 1am... I need to go to sleep and, best of all, I'm actually tired.

Update: Despite the headline, I do know how to spell "preparation."

Byzantine

My friend Robby gave me the book Truman on audio before I left the US. Now that I finally have IPhone I was able to listen to while during commutes. There's one line I simply didn't understand. In the run-up to the 1944 Democratic convention there was a movement to dump Vice President (and Iowa boy) Henry Wallace. Of the names being considered Truman made it clear he didn't want the position and Roosevelt gave no indication where he was leaning... and kept putting off any comment.

Author David McCullough wrote that Roosevelt chose Truman in a "Byzantine manner." Huh?

The closest definition I could find is this:

"...characterized by elaborate scheming and intrigue, esp. for gaining political power or favor..."

That still doesn't really tell me what byzantine means. Is it good, bad, or just very political? Roosevelt was president so it wasn't him seeking power and McCullough argues that nobody wanted the Vice Presidency less than Truman. Please give me your interpretation.

MMMVELOPES!

Bacon flavored envelopes. I gonna have to get me some.

*****

I am very mad at myself right now. I waited until today to buy bacon for Thanksgiving. Of course, there was none in and won't be before Friday's gathering. I've been kicking myself all day.

My bacon-garlic-cheese mashed potatoes won't be the same and neither will the broccoli-cheese-mushroom soup-onions-bacon casserole. Ugh.

Disturbing fact of the day

The US Army has had 140 suicides this year... which is just below the 142 killed in Iraq from all of the armed forces.

If you click on the second link you'll see that compared to previous years, 142 is tragic, but thankfully lower than in previous years.

Blog update

A year ago I added a stat counter to the blog. It counts:

• Pageloads - which is simply the number of times a browser opens the blog. It's meaningless because I could sit here all day and click refresh and the number would go up.
• Unique visitors - This counts all the visitors to the blog.
• Returning visitors - All who come to the blog more than once.

This is the "useless" page loads graph. Some days I'll have some odd place - New York, Canada, Germany - come to my blog 200 times. The visits are likely not real humans. I've noticed many blogs show the page loads on their blog. The numbers are highly inflated and fake. I'm sure they are the same guys who add several inches when talking about their anatomy.

(The W's along the bottom are for "week." These graphs are from week 46 of 2008 when I installed the stat tracker to week 46 of 2009 which ended this past weekend.)

Here are the unique visitors per week. For reasons I don't understand the blog became much more popular four weeks ago and set a record of 660 visitors last week.

The number of returning visitors is more predictable. Last week I had 336 returning visitors. That doesn't mean I have 336 regular readers because someone who checks the blog every day would count 7 times. Since I know some check once or twice a week and others only at work, it's hard to know how many actual regular readers there are.

And finally, here's a look at returning readers on a daily basis for the past two months.

Looks like huge variation from one day to the next, right? Each Saturday blog readership is down almost 50% from the weekdays... so a daily chart will look like steep mountains.

What does any of this mean? I don't know. The blog has tremendously helpful for me. Living in the UAE can be a lot of fun but it can also be stressful. Blogging has become my way of processing my world. I've never been able to stick with a journal or diary and I'm surprised I've kept at this for 15 months. The stat tracker has helped. I don't need millions thousands hundreds of readers to be happy but it's good to know a few people read it.

Twitter: Path to stardom?

CBS is going to base a new reality show(?) sitcom(?) on the Twitters of "Shit my dad says."

Hmm. It's too bad my dad is a nice, quiet and polite guy. I'm not outrageous enough to get a TV contract on my own...

...however, a student told me today that they are starting a new TV channel here and are looking for content. He's doing an interview show. He said he'd like me to be the first guest and, "You'll be famous. I plan to interview like Barbara Walters. Everyone will want to see it."

I explained over and over that I wouldn't be a great guest; I'm way too boring.

Stay tuned.

Student quote of the day

Last year my boss kindly let me focus on getting adjusted and didn't ask me to advise students registering for classes. As I'm now a "veteran" I've been meeting with students for the past week.

Student: This is your first time advising, isn't it?
Me: Yes.
Student: It shows.

I laughed so hard I nearly fell out of my chair. Literally. It's a first to have a student with near perfect English also able to make such a cutting comment. I almost felt like I was back home dealing with students in the US.

My advisee realized she had insulted me and started to apologize. I interrupted her:

Me: It's OK... I know I'm new. I'm trying not to screw this up. What made it so obvious to you?
Student: You are asking questions. Our previous advisors sign our papers and we leave.

Oh.

Journalism, Fox style

Just when you think Fox can’t top itself…

What happens when Fox’s biggest blowhard interviews CNN’s former biggest blowhard?  You get the question:  “Do you think Obama is the devil?”

Seriously.

This is the fair and balanced we’ve come to expect from Fox.

It’s worth repeating:  Obama’s best friends are his enemies.

Sandwich, fries and a salad

A friend ordered a Philly with fries and a salad... and that was the salad she got.

Vanity plates, Emirates style

In the Emirates you can pay extra for a lower numbered license plate.  I've heard the two digit ones cost thousands of dollars... which is probably found in the seat cushions of a Lexus SUV.  


Update:  Check comments for a correction of this post...

Harkin flexes his muscles

My fellow political geeks will appreciate this story.  I'm not a huge Harkin fan, but my party (and state) could do worse in who is leading the fight on healthcare.  

Dealing with Du - a customer service saga

I know, many of you thought my printing my Du problems on a large piece of paper seemed lame... and it was. The problem is that customers have no power here. I can't force Du to take my phone back. Short of stomping my feet and turning my face red there's really nothing I can do to Du.

But the paper did cause some action. I spent over an hour on the phone yesterday with them and was told again and again that they were working on my problem and it would be fixed very soon.

Today is the 21st day since I bought the phone and I went back to the store.

The store employs customer service reps and I've come to know them all. I'm pretty sure they wish they had never met me.

CSR: I see the problem has escalated to the right technical team. It should be fixed within a day or two.

Me: Do you have any idea how many times I've heard that in the past 21 days?

CSR: At least ten times.

Me: Ten times here and as many times on phone assistance.

CSR: There's nothing more I can do.

Me: Yes, there is. You can give me a data card. Give me 200 MB of data to tide me over until you fix this.

He spoke with a colleague for a few minutes. I remained standing at the counter. He then started helping other customers. I decided to remain standing there. After ten minutes of him avoiding eye contact he reached in the drawer and gave me a data card.

What's so odd is that this was the easy solution three weeks ago!

******

Favorite moment of the ordeal so far: While speaking with a CSR on the phone I asked to speak to a manager. She put me on hold and came back to say that all the managers were in a meeting. I said, "Really? Not a single manager available? OK, I'll wait. I have nothing to do for several hours so you can put me on hold and I'll wait for a manager."

"One minute, sir..."

Two minutes later a "manager" came on the phone... who was also no help...

It takes living in this country to appreciate customer service in the US.

Could you use this toilet?

This is one I had to check on Snopes and it's real. Imagine entering a mirrored cubicle like this...

... and it's a bathroom.
You can see everyone passing by you but they can't see you. Could you use this toilet? My first reaction was, "That would be great!" Then I had to admit I'd get stage fright.

In the old Kinnick stadium the bathrooms had long tub urinals. At halftime hundreds of guys would be lined up. No matter how bad I had to go by the time I'd get to the front it just wouldn't happen. I'd close my eyes and picture anything to get the flow going. More than once I had to walk away choking back tears because I, umm, couldn't perform.

There are few worse feelings of failure than an inability to perform one of life's most basic functions.

Failed science projects

Andrew Sullivan brought my attention to these 35 Amazing Science Projects.

I'm not sure which one is more warped... I'd have to say the lower one wins if you get try to read the "Types of sex."

Clash of the Titans

&

VS.

Rupert Murdoch has built an incredible media empire that includes Fox, Fox News, the Wall Street Journal and several tabloids. He recently decided that the majority of the content from his news sites should go behind a pay wall. Unless you're a paid subscriber you won't get it.

Hmm. Many years ago I read the New York Times columnists every day. I even had my political economy class read one conservative and one liberal columnist. To try to raise money, the Times put them behind a pay wall. I stopped reading. A year later they realized it was a failure and stopped it. I haven't gone back to regular reading.

The article explains what Murdoch is doing, but what is most interesting is the comments. Every single comment thinks it's a bad idea.

Dealing with Du

I purchased an IPhone on October 27th. I haven't written much about it on the blog because the phone hasn't worked. The problem is not the phone, it's the phone company, Du. I keep going to the office and calling their help number and I'm told time again that a technician would be in touch within 48 hours.

Tonight I tried a slightly different approach: I summarized my story in very bold print and took it to the office. I handed a copy to each of the five employees plus an extra one for the manager, who was not present.

I was promised I would get a call in the morning.

I have to admit I was tempted to cough and sneeze on each piece of paper, but alas, I can't be that mean.

NYU Prof says "Going Muslim" should replace "Going Postal"

A right-wing Professor at NYU is doing wonders for US - Middle East relations.

And we don't want to be like you, either!

I'm pretty sure most Californians appreciate not being like Iowans. I know I'm happy that we're not like California when it comes to the state budget. California's budget deficit is 49% of the total budget. Meaning, they are spending almost twice what they are taking in. Iowa's shortfall of 13% looks pretty good by comparison. In fact, if you read through this report from Pew you'll see that Iowa fairs pretty well on a number of fronts.

In the past Iowa often suffered more than other states in a recession, primarily because of our dependence on one industry: Agriculture. The early 1980's was a double whammy as ag and our manufacturing jobs were both devastated. This time Iowa is fairing better because our state's economy has diversified and Iowa didn't have the housing bubble other states had.

Your internal organs as you've never seen them before

Nothin' disturbing about that.

Wishing Levi would bare his soul

It's a big week for those of us who love all things Palin: Levi just completed his photo shoot for Playgirl and Sarah's book is unveiled on Monday... complete with a full hour of Oprah. After taking swipes at Levi for most of 2009, Palin plays nice in her book and the Oprah show.

Why? Levi's been saying for weeks that he's got dirt on Palin so bad it would crush her. When told she was nice in the Oprah interview Levi said,

"She's being smart. She knows what I got on her. It's a smart move on her part."

Before I started writing this post I made some popcorn. I'm certainly going to need more popcorn from home before this story is over.

Massaman curry

The Thai restaurant was great. I'm not a huge fan of Thai iced tea (it tastes like tea + milk), but I loved trying Massaman curry. I'd never had it before it had a strong peanut taste.

I also had some very spicy soup. I thought it caused a sore throat. In reality the sore throat was coming either way and the spicy soup just sped it up.

In search of the truth - A Cedar Rapidian's Odyssey

This story has it all:

• Sex voyeurism
• A dinosaur-like creature in Africa
• $40,000 spent to travel the world in search of the truth
• Cover-ups and conspiracies
• Forged documents
• and a comment about Starbucks that caused a united team to break up

And from the first paragraph of the deposition:

"My name is Lucas Daniel Smith. I am 29 years old (DOB 01.04.1980). I was born in the state of Iowa. My hometown is Cedar Rapids, Iowa."

What???

In turns out that the intellectual arm of the birthers (those who believe Obama was born in Africa) was born in CR. Wow. If you have time I urge you to read the deposition. It's... umm. Well, it's something.

Not so lucky

I hoped my sore throat yesterday was the result of spicy food. It wasn't. I apparently had a sore throat coming and the spicy food helped bring it along.

Today I'm pretty miserable. Sore throats are my Achilles heal. I become a large crying baby when I have a bad sore throat. I'd rather have two weeks of diarrhea than a day with a bad sore throat. And given the past two months, I can make that comparison accurately.

So I stocked up on vitamin C, zinc, and Tylenol. I'm going to do my best to sleep the next two days away and drink a lot of water. I've had some really sick students lately so I hope if I'm good during the early stages of this cold/flu I can keep it from becoming too bad.

Or maybe a little lucky

At this moment there was supposed to be over 20 people at my apartment celebrating Thanksgiving. We moved it back to November 20th.* The way I feel right now I am very happy I don't have to fake feeling well and risk getting others sick.

* Why not celebrate Thanksgiving, you know, ON Thanksgiving? We have a 10 day vacation during that time and a lot of people are leaving the country.

The dangers of Thai food

I went to Dubai for the day and had Thai for dinner because there aren't many options where I live. The food was good but somehow a hot pepper scraped the back of my throat. It created an instant nasty sore throat. I've never had anything like that happen before.

I got home a little after 11 tonight and unbelievably can't find any Tylenol or aspirin in the place. I know I've bought some. I know it should be somewhere but after looking for over an hour I've given up. It's left me in a cranky, whiny mood.

Earlier today (now yesterday since it's 1AM here) I heard an interesting story of branding camels. The story will have to wait. I hope I wake up and the pain is gone.

Iowa’s next senator?

I’m a Democrat and a realist. The odds of any Democrat beating Chuck Grassley are 10:1 at best.

I have a special affinity for Roxanne Conlin – one of the nation’s first US attorneys and the first woman to be nominated to run for governor of Iowa in 1982. She lost, largely due to a bogus issue… her farming husband lost money and didn’t pay income tax. Never mind that many farmers lost money in 1982 and didn’t pay income tax.

This ad is excellent:

If Chuck had seriously negotiated on healthcare and worked for a compromise I’d have probably supported him in 2010. Instead he got spooked by the tea-baggers at his town hall meetings in August and chose to quit. So I’ll support whichever Don Quixote my party nominates next June.

Who knows? Maybe she’ll knock this Grassley windmill over.

Creepy wedding photos

Karey sent this link to creepy wedding photos. It's a funny website. I was particularly drawn to this photo:

In college Mike a friend rented porn with the title "Flintbones." Frickin' hilarious. To this day I walk along and say, "Bam! Bam! -  Bam! Bam!" and crack up.

Using abortion to kill healthcare reform

I appreciate it when adversaries are blunt. The right has decided to go all-in on the anti-abortion amendment to the healthcare bill:

"The Democrats will never go for it. But above all else, we must remember the strategy must be to kill the bill, not improve it."

Pushing the anti-abortion amendment is to create a "poison pill" - something that would cause enough Democrats to vote against it that the overall bill would die.

In pure politics it's pretty good. Sadly, I think my fellow Democrats will fall into the trap that's been laid for them.

I hate it when I don't understand

A student was wearing this t-shirt today. Any ideas what it means?

Conservative Christian Group: Ban Muslims from the military

Sometimes I think there are people in the US who want the US to be hated in the Middle East:

The more devout a Muslim is, the more of a threat he is to national security. Devout Muslims, who accept the teaching of the Prophet as divinely inspired, believe it is their duty to kill infidels.

Umm, no. Just as I hope Christianity is not judged by how its crazies interpret the Bible, Islam should not be judged by how theirs interpret the Koran.

I do have to admit a prejudice: When I arrived the very religious - with those long, scraggly beards - kinda freaked me out. I've had several as students and to a man, each has been the nicest, most polite guys I've ever met. Unlike many of their classmates they never whine or complain. They come on time and don't disrupt class. It's also next to impossible to get them to engage in class conversation, but that's an acceptable trade-off.

Sunsets

Sunsets are spectacular in this country as there are often no clouds but enough of a haze that the sun melts into the horizon. Living in the boonies, I drive on a road next to the open desert and the view is stunning in the late afternoon.

I imagine sunrises are also amazing. If I ever wake up for one and go outside I'll let you know.

Dining outside

The college had a meeting followed by an outdoor buffet. I sat next to a guy who worked at Southern Illinois for several years. He said, "I'll bet nobody's eating outside in Iowa tonight."

Nope, I bet not.