Thursday, December 28, 2006

38

President Gerald Ford passed away this week and that's very sad for his family and admirers. I don't hold any bad feelings toward the former president, but I find the laudatory overload in the media a bit much. By most accounts, President Ford was an affable and intelligent man who served his country when his country needed him. But I got two rather large problems with this man's legacy:

  1. The pardoning of President Nixon was not the best thing for the country, despite what the great wise men of Washington (Broder, Woodward, et. al.) say. It may have calmed things down inside the Beltway, but it brought no closure for the rest of the country. Over thirty years after Nixon left the White House, we are still debating Nixon's conduct. By contrast, consider the OJ trial: other than the occasional celebrity sighting of OJ in some bar or shopping mall, we don't talk about that mess anymore. Why? Because there was a trial and a verdict. No matter how you felt about the outcome of that trial, our legal process was allowed to operate as intended. This allowed the country to move on. President Ford circumvented this process and set one man above the law. That's as un-american as it gets, IMHO. In this light, I don't think it's a stretch to say that Nixon's pardon encouraged and enabled the conduct of the current occupant of the White House.

  2. In 1975, Indonesia occupied East Timor and killed over 200,000 people in the process. What did President Ford have to do with that? Well, he gave the government of Indonesia permission. You can read the high-level details here. You could argue that Kissinger had more to do with this tragedy than Ford, but Ford was president, not Kissinger. Ford could have persuaded the Indonesian government to go a different way, but he did not. The reasons don't matter much to me; those 200,000 dead people do. That blood stains President Ford's hands; I hope that his God is a forgiving one.

So, how will I remember President Ford? Fair to middlin', I guess. He may have been kind and intelligent and civil, but he made some large mistakes that still reverberate today. I guess you can say that about most presidents.

Tuesday, December 19, 2006

can't believe [they] got so far with a head so empty

I shouldn't care about this story at all, but since I attended an Episcopal college and have a number of friends who are members of the Episcopal church, I find myself drawn to it nonetheless. My feelings are those of sadness and resignation: it seems like bigotry and intolerance are not going to go away as quickly as some of us might like.

And to those Episcopalians who bristle at my use of the word bigot, let me ask you a question: What would you call discrimination against women and homosexuals?

Gotta Work on This...

I'm not a well-travelled fellow. Bad fellow, no biscuit!

The World:



create your own visited country map
or check our Venice travel guide

The Country:



create your own personalized map of the USA
or check out ourCalifornia travel guide

Monday, December 18, 2006

A Teaser!

Coming in 2007...



"Bride and Doom"

Monday, December 11, 2006

Check Out These Speculations


  • Pinochet is dead. Good riddance to bad rubbish. He brought terrorism to my hometown in 1976 with the assassination of Orlando Letelier and his aide by a car bomb in downtown D.C.

  • Big Box Stores scare me. I accompanied my Dad to Costco yesterday to pick up a new microwave and assorted other household items. I hadn't been in one of those kinds of stores in several years. Wow. Scary. Too many people. Too many juxtaposed items (meat not more than thirty feet away from garden hoses). Just too much. Call me old fashioned, but I'll gladly go to the grocery store, the hardware store, and the liquor store separately.

  • Baking is upon us in earnest. This weekend, Sweetie mixed together about 5 batches of cookie dough which is now chilling nicely in the fridge. I experimented with my Mom's cranberry cake recipe by baking it in smaller sizes. After two batches, we figured out how to make "mini-cakes" successfully. Look for these in a holiday gift basket near you.

Monday, December 04, 2006

30 Questions!

It's like 20 questions, with a bonus!

1. In two words, explain what ended your last relationship? Distance & Longing

2. When was the last time you shaved your legs? The last time I performed in drag... um, over ten years ago, I think.

3. What were you doing this morning at 8am? Hard at work.

4. What were you doing 15 minutes ago? See #3.

5. Are you any good at math? Nope.

6. Your prom night? Which one? I had 4...

7. Do you have any famous relatives? I'm pretty sure that Reese Witherspoon is a distant cousin. But I'm still trying to verify that.

8. Have you ever taken out a loan to pay for school? Hell yes. Undergrad is paid off; working on the grad.

9. Do you know the words to your MySpace song? I have no MySpace page.

10. Last thing received in the mail? Shoes from Zappos!

11. How many different beverages have you drank today? Coffee and water.

12. Do you ever leave messages on people's answering machines? Sometimes, but I try to keep them brief.

13. First concert? Billy Idol

14. Do you draw your name in the sand when you go to the beach? Yes, right next to the sand castle.

18. Do you like the ocean? Yes

19. Have you ever received one of those big tins of 3 different kinds of popcorn for Christmas? Not for a while.

20. Have you ever been to a planetarium? Yes

22. Something you are excited about? Acting and Theater, Politics, History, Cooking

23. What is your favorite flavor of JELLO? Peach. It was my Mom's favorite during her chemotherapy.

24. Are any of your great-grandparents still alive? No

25. Describe your keychain? A brass fob with the word "STAR" on it. A gift from my Mom years ago.

26. Where do you keep your change? My pocket and then our piggie at home.

27. When was the last time you spoke in front of a large group of people? I gave a presentation at the TAG Conference in Baltimore.

28. What kind of winter coat do you have? A surplus Navy pea coat.

29. What do you think of the person you copied this from? Goddess of grammar and wine.

30. Do you sleep with the door to your room open or closed? Open