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.

Steve, the FBI is here to see you

I can't express the thousand things that flashed in my mind the first time I heard that. It happened often enough that I came to think, "You know it's just a reference check... You know it's just a reference check..." Fortunately, that's what they all were. Students applied for jobs with some form of military clearance and I was listed as part of their background check.

A couple of weeks ago a former student contacted me about being a reference. I said, "Sure, if they'll take me..." Alas, they did not. His references have to be living in the US.

Facebook quote of the day

One of my former students posted this as his status:

"I think one of the greatest things about modern America is the computerization of medical records. As a volunteer sheriff I can look up anyone's psychiatric records or surgical histories. Yeast infections... there a huge number of yeast infections in this county. Probably because we're downriver from that old bread factory..."

It's not like this guy to make stuff up in postings, but it is a bit hard to believe any county would let him be a volunteer sheriff, whatever the hell that is.

It can only happen to me

I am proud that I've lived near a Cinnabon for 15 months and resisted their cinnamony, chocolatey greatness. Today I greatly needed a sugar high and caved.

It's a very long story that I hope to succinctly summarize: Two weeks ago I bought the new IPhone. It's been a royal pain. The data plan (read: Internet) has not worked since the day I bought it. Today I spent another 2 hours in the du office and the tech guy spent 45 minutes on the phone with the main office. The problem has been identified and will, maybe someday soon, be fixed.

Why couldn't they figure it out sooner? Because the problem I had was one that nobody in the country has had before.

"That," I said, "is the story of my life."

You said how much?

Well over a month ago I mailed a DVD back to the couple whose wedding I photographed in August. (I left a raw copy of all of the pics with them in case, you know, my plane crashed.) It took the photoshop guy here a month to get them processed and I mailed it shortly after returning from Ukraine.

I found out it never arrived.

So, I've been trying to send it through DHL/FedEx for the past week. I've checked pretty much every day and the office has been closed. Today it was open and I thought, "Finally!"

I asked how much it was to ship it to the US and the guy replied, "385 dirham." That's $105. "You can't be serious!" was my reply. Oh, but he was. He gave me a breakdown of prices and it was all too real. I know it's wrong to shoot the messenger but I couldn't resist saying, "Gee, no wonder DHL went out of business in the US."

*****

Here's what makes it particularly ridiculous: If I send money home the company that mails the checks charges $15 to send it by... you guessed... DHL. And I add whatever I want to the envelope.

So I went to that place with the intention of mailing $50 home and throwing in the DVD's. The lights were on. The sign on the door said, "Open," but the doors were locked and I couldn't see anyone inside.

I'll try again tomorrow. I wouldn't want Amanda & Peter to miss seeing how excited their guests were at their reception.

Bonus Weekend remainders

Beauty queen Carrie Prejean became famous by saying homosexuality is against God’s will, but her breast implants should be paid for by the California pageant.  The right rallied to her side as she was dumped as Ms. California.  She sued and in court they played the tape of her, umm, well it’s a solo sex tape. As TMZ reported, it took the court about 15 seconds to drop her case.

Every election cycle Newsweek sends reporters behind the scenes to cover the campaigns.  They get great access because of the promise to not let anything they learn leak until after the campaign.  One guy covering Hillary and Huckabee in 2007-08 eventually gave it all up.  His story is a good one for political junkies.

The Denver Post followed a young man from recruitment to getting deployed to returning home.  It doesn’t take long to read and the pictures are stunningly candid.

And finally, have you ever had a bottle of wine you wanted to open but didn’t have a corkscrew?  I know I have.  Little did I know that all I need was a shoe and a wall. 

The first minute is the guy stumbling around drunk.  The payoff at the end is worth it.  I found this video on the Daily What.  Soon to be a blog of the week.

Where I live

In May I moved to a nice, new apartment very far from downtown Al Ain.

You won't see my place when you click on the link below. Zoom out two notches and you should see an "A" on the left side of the screen. You can zoom down on the A and the patch of sand you see is where they built my apartment. All the sand you see above there is still there. I literally live right next to the desert.

Here's the link.

What would you have done?

While at the mall yesterday I purchased milk and a couple of salads. After the accident - and taking 5 hours to get back home in 90 degree heat - I chose to throw the milk away. The salads were OK after a couple of hours in the fridge.

Was the milk worth keeping? Given my run-ins with food poisoning I wasn't willing to risk it, but would you have kept it?

Aww, man, why is this guy from Iowa?

Steve King makes a name for himself again:

Rep. King contemplates wrapping Capitol building with health care bill. Ten minutes after Majority Leader Steny Hoyer (D-M.D.) took to the House floor to relay the tale of a young boy who died because a tooth infection went untreated and spread to his brain, Rep. Steve King (R-Iowa) was trying to literally wrap the Capitol building with the legislation.

The House, on Saturday, began what should be a lengthy process of debating and voting on the final language of reform. But not everyone was willing to simply sit through the event. Outside, King and others were leading a mob of angry tea-party protesters in a round of bizarre and disruptive shenanigans.

About 20 feet off the House floor, at the entrance to the lawn in front of the Capitol building, King and two colleagues were wielding a massive copy of the 1,900-page bill, rolled up around a wooden poll. A man accompanying a clearly excited King, suggested that they wrap the legislation around the building.

"Let's do it," he proclaimed. "Let's wrap the building."

A security guard, looking on disapprovingly, patiently urged them not to try. "You can't do that sir," he said. "You can't do that.

Read more at: http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2009/11/07/house-health-care-vote-br_n_349468.html&cp

Nooo!

Losing to Northwestern?

Northwestern?

The Kool-aid was sweet. I'm used to Iowa doing this early in the fall, not late in the fall.

Update: Returning to the real news story of the day... if somehow healthcare reform passes in the House, I'll call it a good day.

Unfortunately for me, it is already tomorrow. And I have a long day ahead.

Weekend remainders

When it come to healthcare, everything in the US is much, much more expensive.

Democrats came very close to winning to winning the NY City race, but the White House didn't want to disrespect Bloomberg.

I'm not a fan of Maureen Dowd, but her take on Rush is worth reading.

This is not helpful: Right wingers are attacking Islam because of the guy who went nuts at Ft. Hood. This guy is no more a good Muslim than Timothy McVeigh was a good Christian.

Sigourney Weaver joins the cast of Cedar Rapids? Umm, what is "Cedar Rapids" about? Here's the best I have found: It's a movie of a group of small town insurance people headed to CR for a convention. Hmm, considering the AFLAC meetings I went to last year, I could be in this movie.

And finally, if my Republican friends are looking for good news they should subscribe to the Weekly Standard.

Beyond the red card

In soccer a player can be thrown out of the game for bad sportsmanship.  This girl should be thrown in jail.

From the annals of the mechanically challenged

Years ago I came to grips with the fact I have no mechanical ability... a fact that came up again today as I bought a floor lamp. I have given up putting it together. My Bangladeshi McGyvor is coming tomorrow to work on some other stuff and I'll add this task.

Post accident thoughts

First, the fact that my car got repaired on the spot is remarkable. More remarkable is that it happened on Friday - the religious day. Laborers get only one day off per week and it's Friday.

Second, the utter frustration of not being able to communicate is what I expected life to be like here every day. I thought I would often be lost and helpless. In reality, it's the other way around. For most workers English is the common language and those that don't speak English are the ones often left in the dark.

The exception to that rule is dealing with government agencies or one of the many company monopolies. There, Arabic seems to be the only language spoken. That's why I suggested a "Rent an Emirati" business would do well.

If I had to learn a language here it probably wouldn't be Arabic but Urdu. That's the language shared by many of the workers from Pakistan and India. A colleague said he gets much better vegetables at a lower price when he is able to talk to the merchants in their native tongue.

The reality is that I won't learn either language; there's simply no need. I had a former student ready to come translate for me if it appeared the cops were going to find me at fault. In lieu of learning the language it's nice to have friends who can bail me out.

Blog of the week - Pictures of Al Ain

Last night I stumbled across this blog that posts random photos of the city I live in.

The blog reminds me that I really have to post more pictures of this place. It can be a funny place to live.

Not how I planned to spend my day

So I'm sitting at the mall talking with a guy from Dubuque who has lived in the Emirates for 12 years. We're talking about the crazy drivers and he said he's been lucky to have only been hit once in his 12 years...

Ten minutes later - as I'm pulling out of the mall - I got hit. It was all in slow motion. The car was coming around a curve and I saw that he wasn't turning his wheel. He wasn't going very fast but bam, he hit the front driver's side of my car.

The guy spoke no English. I called the police and the cop who showed up spoke no English. The guy who hit me tried to claim it was my fault and the cop on the scene tried to indicate that it was my fault. I said, "Let's go to the police station."

At the police station we finally found a guy who spoke a little English. At first I was told the accident was both of our faults or it would have to go to court. I said, "Let's go to court." When they realized I wasn't going to back down the cop explained that the guy who hit me has no insurance. The fine for no insurance is huge. If we go to court he will certainly have to pay the fine.

I said, "If my car gets fixed, all is well." It took hours but I was able to contact Ann & Mike's mechanic who took my car to get the alignment fixed and the little dent below taken care of.

The fact the kid tried to blame me for the accident made me mad but I decided it wasn't worth pursuing. He paid for the fixes and I'm back home.

Today's the first time my lack of speaking Arabic has posed a problem. I was concerned for quite a while that somehow the cops would believe I was at fault. That's why I kept saying, "Let's go to court!"

Celery

I can't remember what celery costs in the US, but my memory is that it's cheap. I paid $3.50 for this here and was told it usually much more expensive.

A victim of my own success

I have a great schedule this semester. I am teaching five classes - two Operations Management and three Principles of Management. Last week I learned that I have six sections of Principles of Management next term.

It's a class I like, but have you ever tried to say the same thing six times in 48 hours and make it sound interesting?

Coming back from the US in August I assumed I was teaching six classes this fall. Four of Principles and two of Operations. Due to unforeseen circumstances one of the Principles was dropped and both of my Operations classes were changed literally during the first week of the semester.

In other words, for three of my classes I walked into class, gave them my syllabus and said, "Hey, I'm your professor" but the next week I was not their professor.

A few students in the Operations classes switched sections to be in my new sections. Most did not.

Today I learned from the two teaching those sections that they are going through hell. Their students are saying, "We signed up for this class because we thought Dr. Steve* was teaching the course." They had had me for the Principles course and expected the Operations course to be similar.

It was a pleasant confrontation, but I had to say, "On my midterm less than 15% got an A. I am not an easy teacher." I felt the need to reassert with my colleagues that any student sentiment has nothing to do with the final grade... in a country where where learning something is a nice idea, but just give me a good grade.

One said to me, "Next semester everyone will want to take it from you."

Oh, joy. So I can't teach the course because students will want to take it from me. That's logical.

*I have never referred to myself as having a Ph.D. and certainly never called myself "Dr. Steve." It's a cultural thing; all teachers at the university are referred to as "Doctor."