2 +2 = ?

Recently, George Bush has been playing a new card in the rhetoric of selling the Iraq war thing. He's started telling us that Iraq is just like other wars, and that we should learn from our countries history before we call for withdrawal.

This is the height of his arrogance. This is Bush at his absolute cherry picking worst. And in many ways, this is Bush at his most sociopathic. He really is trying as hard as he possibly can to say that 2 + 2 = 5. Or maybe 11.

First, its completely insane for him to criticize others for not being attuned to the lessons of history in a general sense. How about an invasion that completely ignored the entire history of the area? No one who has read Middle Eastern History and wasn't specifically trying to make up reasons to invade could have thought this war would go well. In 2003, Swarthmore Professor John Turner told my class in no uncertain term that American policy was whitewashing the situation far too much, and that no one knew the chaos that was coming. Religion Matters. Beyond the whole Sunni-Shia thing, we have a truly miserable track record with installing "democratic" leaders in these countries, and we are really bad at picking horses. It's just complete hypocrisy for him to suddenly decide to become a student of history.

Second, its not the work of a balanced man to chastise us for misinterpreting the lessons we learned from Vietnam. Look, I wasn't even ALIVE for that freaking war, and I learned its lessons a lot better then Bush seems to. How about: you can't wage a war without telling your people what you are doing? Or how about: the only way you defeat a truly sunk in Guerilla war is to bomb the entire country into small bite-size pieces until the entire population is dead? But, as all things in this world, if you are looking for a lesson of merit from Vietnam, look no further then the all seeing, all knowing Wikipedia:

As General Maxwell Taylor, one of the principal architects of the war noted "first, we didn't know ourselves. We thought that we were going into another Korean war, but this was a different country. Secondly, we didn't know our South Vietnamese allies … And we knew less about North Vietnam. Who was Ho Chi Minh? Nobody really knew. So, until we know the enemy and know our allies and know ourselves, we'd better keep out of this kind of dirty business. It's very dangerous."

But bush is ignoring these lessons, citing instead the "terrible bloodbath" that resulted from us leaving Vietnam. I'm going to go ahead and take issue with this historical "fact" as well.

Firstly, terrible things did happen in the area of Vietnam directly post our withdrawal. But to blame the American's leaving on the Khmer Rouge is completely absurd. It was America's secret war in Cambodia that opened the door to them coming to power, but we never formally admitted that happened. We were responsible for most of those things. But staying longer? If you can find a historian that argues we would have been able to "win" (whatever that means) with more time and more troops, even if we DID have home support, I will be shocked.

So, what, we were going to bomb all of Cambodia to the ground, and kill all of them whilst defeating the north Vietnamese? No no and no. Lots of bad things happened under the banner of communism, but to connote that the Cambodian genocide was caused by our inability to "hold the course" in Vietnam is about the equivalent of blaming the Darfurian Genocide on our inability to hold the course in Somalia. The conflicts were different, they grew out of different things, and even staying in Vietnam wasn't going to make one tiny bit of difference to the Khmer Rouge in their push for power. Also, let us not forget that it was the Vietnamese government that we were supposedly fighting against that eventually deposed of the Khmer Rouge.

And, yes, there were thousands of south Vietnamese officers who where held. Some of them were killed. But that's not a lesson that applies to Iraq. I have idea what would happen if our troops pull out of Iraq, but I can tell you that if they do, there wont be an army waiting to roll into Baghdad and take over. No, there will be huge number of poorly organized, heavily armed militias. Will these militias calm down and disarm after the irritating piece of American grit is gone from behind their collective war scarred eye-lid? I don't know, but we have no reason to believe staying there is doing anyone any good at this point.

And look! The very Historian that Bush Cites in his recent comparisons in the past to Japan, Korea and Vietnam doesn't think the current analogy fits.

"They [war supporters] keep on doing this," said MIT professor John Dower. "They keep on hitting it and hitting it and hitting it and it's always more and more implausible, strange and in a fantasy world. They're desperately groping for a historical analogy, and their uses of history are really perverse."

I think that bit sort of sums it up for me. What's really wild is that George Orwell was only partially right. Even in a world of information, where ten minutes on wikipedia totally refutes every large point that Bush has made (read it yourself, he missed all the important lessons, and then made up some of his own) he is still able to preach a revised history. He is still able to stand up there and repeat that 2 + 2 = 5, and because he repeats it again and again, it starts to become fact. He really DOES control the rhetoric of the present, and as a really is using that to make us change the past. It doesn't equal five, by the way. It equals Four. And it's going to keep equaling four. I just hope that the generation who took us through the shit storm that was American involvement in Vietnam wakes up and remembers what actually happened.

Here's a prediction based on my own study of history: pretty soon, the shiny shell of democracy that Bush has been hiding behind will crack. We will realize that the current government is too disjointed, too partisan, too divided. Instead of letting the government under nouri al-maliki stumble along, we will use our considerable clout in America to put someone in charge who can get control. who might be a little Machiavellian, might cut a few corners, but in the end, will lead with a strong hand. Sure, he might suppress portions of the population, but sometimes you...

I give it a year before we run another CIA strong man back in, declare victory, and stop hearing the words "democracy" nearly as much. Because Bush is studying history now, and that's what his predecessors would have done.

Update: If you want to read the same article, only well written and with real references... click here

To start off this post, it would be best to familiarize your self with this article a little, and then read my rebuttal, something that I wrote a little while ago.

Lets talk a little about the accuracy of this article, as a valid criticism.

Toyota never claimed that the Prius gets 60 mpg. Their PR people claim that it CAN get 60 miles per gallon, but they also list its average at 45 mpg city and 53 mpg highway according to the test drive that my mom and I took. I don't think that should make the Prius open to criticism either way, because that is still one of the best on the road. The Hummer DOES NOT EVEN LIST its MPG. Go ahead. Look it up. General Motors does not provide official H2 fuel economy ratings, most reviews have observed high single to low double-digit mileage. So, head to head in terms of fuel efficiency, i think that makes a little difference.

Also, the estimate of 300,000 lifetime miles on the hummer is inaccurate, and potentially absurdly so. While the author doesn't cite all of his sources, that seems optimistic even for GM to be putting out. Every single thing Ive read about the hummer suggests the thing falls apart after 75,000 cause its made of cheap plastic.

But that's not the real point of the article. The real point is that Toyota is a socially irresponsible company because they use nickel from a shitty plant and they ship the batteries around the world, thus the Prius is a lie. Well, besides the fact that GM led the charge to kill the electric car a few years ago, they also got caught with their pants around their ankles when they realized they couldn't keep jobs in Michigan and other traditional American manufacturing plants. Instead, what did they do? they outsourced their jobs to other countries! where its cheaper. So, First Point: GM and other American auto manufacturers are unwilling to invest in the infrastructure to keep new techniques and new cars here. They didn't fight this battle, so I don't think its a fair critique of Toyota to blame them for shipping things when that's the only option.

Next Point: Why is this the only option? Toyota ships it parts all around the world because the places they ship them to are cheapest ways to get the things done the technology needs. If the U.S. car manufacturers would wake up and start creating these parts themselves, there would be no need to ship to china to create nickle foam. They could do it hear cheaper, and much much much more efficiently. If this author questioned why a company would want to spend a lot of money on moving parts around the world so that the batteries could be made correctly... They could also do it with better economic standards. The real problem is that people continue to fight hybrid cars and everything else tooth and nail, point to the INTERMEDIATE points along the way to a greater goal as reasons to halt the progress entirely. The reality is, with the info structure that the US could build in a few years, we could have better plants (and not need to outsource these jobs, because we would be the only ones with the technology)

GM is not the only problem, and I don't want to get into the same one on one dichotomy of Prius v. Hummer, because either way its completely not fair. But GM is a comparison that gets my dander up, because they are a company that has had the opportunity to create the very infrastructure that they would need to create smart energy efficient cars like the Prius HERE with American parts and American labor, cheaply and effectively. And they haven't, and worse, they have fought other companies who have tried. The comparison between the actual Hummer and the actual Prius, on the road and under the same conditions, is absurdly lopsided. The comparison between the infrastructure available to manufacture those two things is misleading, because one is in compete infancy, and one is the end of a long line of General Moters Crap.

In the end, a lot of the energy cost to to build the thing are due new high tech manufacturing processes for which environmentally sound and efficient supply does not exist. They are not, like GM, working with Eisenhower-era engines, parts, and plants. Bottom line is, the energy cost to build a Prius will go down when the manufacturing is further refined. Toyota will need sufficient incentive to invest in refining the supply lines, but I think the reception of the Prius has provided as much. After all, they end up footing the bill for their part's world travel.

The major point glossed over in the article seems to be that buying a Prius means investing in green cars. You are not only contributing to Toyota's ability to produce similar vehicles, but you force other companies to compete for that part of the market. Companies competing to be green would be great (companies competing to market their products as green is not). I believe that the Prius is a genuine step in the right direction, even if its not the final solution in terms of a perfect vehicle. Ever Prius that comes off the rack puts a little more pressure on people to buy the big, bad where as the hummer is obviously a big step backwards.

Now, with all that said, the example of buying something because it A) is a good product, but also because B) it forces the market to move toward making more good products available, shall now be known as the Prius consideration. Just so that my spell check can calm down and relax, I will be abbreviating that as PC to avoid writing the word Prius.

On to "Living the American Green"! I just spoke with a professor from my Alma matta who
thinks that the PC corollary can be used for the project. Basically, he says that we shouldn't even bother focusing on something as useless as home, or personal, energy gathering methods. Instead, if you want to invest in green energy, invest in real wind power. Buy the creds for a giant turbine on the top of a mountain, where its actually maxing out its potential, and by doing so force up the demand for your energy provider to invest in more larger wind turbines. Dabbling with the massively inefficient home stuff isn't the best way to spend the cash.

I think this is exactly the reason that LtAG can be great. The PC corollary is the kind of thing that, given a few episodes of production, we can make much much more real then writing about it on a sheet of paper. We can show, without a shadow of a doubt, that its true: investing in a wind Turbine and putting it in your back yard can barely power a microwave oven. We can also break down the Dollar amounts that you re-coup off your energy bill from having a Wind Turbine yourself, versus what the same amount of money would do to force the hand of your local energy Industry Giant.

What is, and continues to be, very important about this project is LtAG's "come learn with us" mentality. It might well be true that Solar is the only viable project for a suburban home owner looking to add on to their house, but knowing that it is true and demonstrating that it is true are two completely different things. This true/not true dichotomy seems obvious to some, (especially people well versed in the field) but less obvious and more exciting to a large portion of the population. We live in an age where people spend mind numbing amounts of time, energy and money to obfuscate exactly what is going on in all levels of our lives, and exactly what each option does or does not do is a valuable, even crucial part of the experiment. One of the amazing doors that a show like MythBusters opened for us is that failure, as long as its amusing and well written, is a perfectly acceptable reality. And if someone like me, who is relatively knowledgeable, and vaguely well read, still has doubt about each technology's effectiveness: well, it seems like our audience might not be so sure themselves. And the example of PC is exactly the sort of discussion we can have once the wind turbine fails to show any appreciable change.

Don't Read This. I'm Too Tired, and It Dosen't Make Sense

Perspective and Balance. I keep coming back to it. Perspective and balance.

I want to an interesting event tonight, basically a round table discussion about the role of the ethnic press in the media today, and about the minority reporters who straddle the world between the mainstream press and the ethnic press.

The whole crew was pretty dismissive of the Mainstream media, which I agree with, but the final discussion of the entire evening just reinforced what I had already learned in Shamanism at school: All that it takes to be good at News is what it takes to be good at Anthropology: you have to continually re analyze yourself, your subject, and the relationship between the two.

However, unlike Anthropology, Media adds another new wrinkle: Who, exactly, is the subject? Who are we watching? And how do you know if your even studying the right crew?

Let take, for example, the Fort Dix case. Big Hullabaloo, three of the men arrested were illegal immigrants, lots of this that and the other. Muslims plotting to attack an American army base. Crazy stuff. But no matter how well we hash and re-hash the story, no matter how much we interview enough people and get the right take on Albanians, and get the right take on Muslims...

Because the same week, there was a bunch of true blue Americans down in 'Bama who had grenades, lots of ammo, and were charged with planning to kill as many Mexicans as possible. No mention of terrorism there. No mention of it, really, in many American Main Stream news sources. This is a place where perspective fails.

But the real issue is: do I have the omniscience to ever pull good reporting from my White Southerner Perch? I mean, even if I do manage to guess at what the important news stories are, and even if I am aware of all the realities of reporting, and even if I get to the right place at the right time with the right mindset: Who knows if I'm talking to the right people? Or are there just so many opinions that my perspective and my internal balance wont be enough? How do you battle through?

I'm exhausted and full of self doubt. There is just too much to be constantly weighing every day when you start a new thought. Consciouses truly truly is a curse.

But I can say this with complete confidence: There is no way that another human being has been doing as much thinking about this issue and agonizing about this issue as I have. If there are point in this new Show hire process for having done the thought in what it takes to reach a larger population of ethnic audiences, I have done that thinking. I don't have any answers, but by god... I have perspective. And I have balance. And I don't think its enough to matter.

To Jobo, With Love

Some Quick Hits on Today's thoughts:

I don't have the energy to hold down a full time job, produce a once a week TV show, do anything physical, think about GRE's and Grad School, research Green Energy, and have a social life. I just don't. Something has to give. And I can't just drop the one of those that seems the least important to me right now.

****************************************
More info on the Tintin Movie.

Getting more excited about this movie. Seems like good people are combining to work on it. And the fact that they are going to do three movies excites me for some reason, like they will give the time to the thing that I (in my nerdy focus) believes that it should get.

It does look like the article will answer the first part of my concerns: What will it look like?

Jackson said WETA will stay true to Remi's original designs in bringing the cast of Tintin to life, but that the characters won't look cartoonish.

"Instead," Jackson said, "we're making them look photorealistic; the fibers of their clothing, the pores of their skin and each individual hair. They look exactly like real people — but real Herge people!"

That. Is. Cool.

*************************************************
To bad the NBA has no testicles, and hates its fans. You never like to see a thug break the rules and then get rewarded for it. I really really hope that the rest of the Suns throw together a great effort tomorrow and somehow pull off the win, but you got to feel like Robert Horry cheated to get the Spurs a championship. As someone who has liked and defended the Spurs style of play for a long time, this sucks. Go Suns.

**************************************************
And finally, after reading a lot of Vitriol from people that I like on the left about Jerry Falwell's death this morning, and bracing myself for the great man anthologies that are sure to come from the right, I have some thoughts:

1. I hate Jerry Falwell. Really hate him. Hate the fact that he, allegedly spoke for me and for where I am from, hate his hypocrisies, despise his stance on almost all issues, but also hate that he allowed people to lump Christians and people from the conservative south together as frothing lunatics, and thus discount them. He, more then anyone I can think of this side of Karl Rove, is directly responsible for the fact that no one listens to anything the other side says anymore. I challenge anyone to come up with a more Machiavellian and cut throat person that will still be hailed by many Americans as a good and moral person.
   
2. I do not like celebrating death. Disgrace, fine. Failure, sure. But Death seems weird to me. So I guess, at the end of the day, I'm not glad he's dead, I'm really just sorry that he ever lived. I wish that he had never had come along and polarized America to the point that his Legacy is damn near immortal.
   
3. I think its crucial to remember that Fundamentalism cripples people. I honestly do not understand, from the bottom of my heart, how Jerry Falwell could claim that the prophet Muhammad was a terrorist, while continuing on the path he chose.
   
4. Working hard at something, and believing fervently in what you do is not enough for you to be a good person. Its a great start, but you have to avoid being evil.
   
5. A pretty great quote from another reverend that I find a lot of solace in seems like a good closer. Clearly, I need to follow this advice myself, because I can't forgive Falwell at all. But I don't get how he and MLK fall under the umbrella of the Christian God.
   

   “It’s not only necessary to know how to go about loving your enemies, but also to go down into the question of why we should love our enemies. I think the first reason that we should love our enemies, and I think this was at the very center of Jesus’ thinking, is this: that hate for hate only intensifies the existence of hate and evil in the universe. If I hit you and you hit me and I hit you back and you hit me back and go on, you see, that goes on ad infinitum. It just never ends. Somewhere somebody must have a little sense, and that’s the strong person. The strong person is the person who can cut off the chain of hate, the chain of evil. “

Living the American Green

The beginnings of a Business Plan. What else do we need in our opening statement?

Our project, called "Living the American Green" (LtAG), will critically evaluate the green movement in the united states with the goal of shifting people's perceptions about "living green." Americans still view Green energy as a fringe part of everyday life, as something that does not apply to the suburban commuter or the small town Mom and Pop store. While they may be wrong about this, the proponents of green energy also overstate their claims of energy savings and environmental goodwill. We will create an internet media channel dedicated to unpacking these issues by documenting our own attempts to "Green" an energy inefficient average American suburban home. We hope to convey our successes, our failures, and our thoughts throughout the project, while creating a human example of the amounts of effort and money that would go into installing alternative energy sources in your home.

Regardless of the personal sentiments of the participants, it is our stated goal to approach the project with skepticism. This, combined with a sense of humor and a general spirit of exploration, will make the show palatable to an audience who are not currently convinced that Alternative Energy applies to them.

Central to our efforts of reaching a large audience will be creating fun, entertaining, and humorous documentation of our efforts for distribution through our website. "Living the American Green" will not be shrill or lecture at the audience. While straight forward lecturing might be effective for some, we believe that it misses a very large and very important part of the American population. In lieu of lecturing to our audience from a conclusive standpoint, we invite viewers to learn and laugh with us as we apply various "green" living solutions to our own living situation. Part product review, part myth-busting, part reality TV, we plan to expose, confirm, and appreciate the green movement as it applies to American suburbia.

The Project Plan: LtAG will begin when we move into an unmodified suburban house picked out for its size and general energy inefficiency. We will try and find a house that fits the classic definition of a “McMansion.” We will first live in the house for a month or two to get a basic control reading of the amount of energy the house uses.

We will then begin modifying the house along two basic green lines:

A) Energy Types: Wind, Solar, Hydro (if at all possible) and Biomass power in a series of head to head comparisons. In this branch of the project, we will try and isolate exactly how much energy production each of these energy types is capable of producing in an environment not specifically cultured for their success. We will also try and experiment with different models and options commercially available within each energy source.

B) Energy Efficiency: Insulation, moderation, more efficient devices, etc. In the second Branch of LtAG, we will try and come to grips with the different ways you can improve on the energy you are already using, as well as get a hands on idea of what it means to use a little more or a little less Wattage per Hour. After we have been in the house for a few months, we will be completely removing ourselves from the grid to dramatize the situation a little and raise the hypothetical stakes of the project.

These hands on demonstrations both make our project something that many home owners will easily identify with, as well as help them parse through some of the different options available by seeing how much work they are and what they actually realize.

For the Project, we will have 6 people living full time in the house: 3 as permanent staff and 3 as live in commuters and support staff. The Three permanent members will be: a researcher/writer, A technology/engineer (for the installation and maintenance of the different energy sources) and a web support/video editing person. The three support staff will all keep personal track of their energy use, as well as write down thoughts and tribulations around living a green life. Potentially on of the three commuters could also be a live in person in charge of publicity/community/financial issues. All of these rolls are subject to crossover as needed, and all 6 of our staff will also be doubling as the subjects for our documentary work.

Today, we are playing the GRE Game. Today was Angry to make up for Yesterday.

Which of the following is the best example of "Irony"?
A) The man in charge of 16 Billion Dollars of U.S. Aid, much of which is being spent on Aids prevention through ABSTINENCE ONLY programs, is caught ordering hookers.

B) A.G. breaks multiple Laws, obstructs justice.

C) Support our Troops Congress forgets to check conditions at Troop Hospital, Large Fungal Colonies grow on the walls of Walter Reed
(Editors note: I find it completely infuriating that no one is talking about this anymore. How is it not still a big deal? Support the god damn troops, or stop saying it on all your press conferences. Those are your options)

D) Rice leads press charge accusing Nancy Pelosi of being a traitor for visiting Syria. Promptly Visits Syria, and speaks with Iranian representatives.

E1) Man masterminds a war that effectively destroys America's world standing. Is immediately put in charge of the World bank
E2) Come into world bank on anti corruption platform, transfers girlfriend to new job, gives her 60K in raises and guarantees her good reviews regardless of performance.

Others receiving votes. Not specific, as much as Ironic based on circumstance, both past and present: Dana Perino:
"Perino went on to claim that no one at the White House has ever 'played the patriotism card' against the Democrats in the Iraq debate."

George W. Bush, in 2000, swears to uphold the law.

Please Watch These

If you ever, EVER take advice from me about anything, please watch these two clips.

The first one comes from Boy1 Via Aunt3 (a cryptic scoring system that only a few people in the world will understand). But it gives me so much hope. And so much happiness. And if you make it through the Jon Stewart one, watch the TalkingPointsMemo guy. These people are thoughtful. They are articulate. And they understand the game being played, and how to engage in that game.

You will be a better person, and better able to participate in a democracy if you watch this half hour PBS show.

Next up is Hometown Baghdad. I've had the great pleasure to meet and speak with one of the producers on this program (I wish I could expand on that thought, but it would violate my no-proper-nouns clause in the blog)

This, represents for me, all that is great about journalism in the new world of the Internet. It portrays the humanity of people living in Iraq, and disabuses us of that easy notion that they are all numbers on an ever growing death count. Even more so because they are SO MUCH like me. And they are strong and interesting... anyway, another reason that this week, the Bush Junta isn't rattling my cage. You know why? Because greatness does exist in the face of everything they have come up with, and we will overcome. Voices from Iraq that matter.

And, just so you don't think I have lost my sense of outrage: Glenn Beck is on a Straight Roll these days. The CNN commentator, last week compared America leaving Iraq to the moral equivalent of Slavery. (and I'm not paraphrasing here. he said exactly that).

And now, this week, he is playing my least favorite card ever: that someone is basically the same as Hitler. But who, might you ask, raised Glenn's Ire? Check this out:

"Al Gore's not going to be rounding up Jews and exterminating them," Beck is careful to explain. "It is the same tactic, however. The goal is different. The goal is globalization. The goal is global carbon tax. The goal is the United Nations running the world. That is the goal. Back in the 1930s, the goal was get rid of all of the Jews and have one global government ... You got to have an enemy to fight. And when you have an enemy to fight, then you can unite the entire world behind you, and you seize power. That was Hitler's plan. His enemy: the Jew. Al Gore's enemy, the U.N.'s enemy: global warming ... Then you get the scientists -- eugenics. You get the scientists -- global warming. Then you have to discredit the scientists who say, 'That's not right.' And you must silence all dissenting voices. That's what Hitler did."

Damn James. Thats some harsh words. Remember Jon Stewart. Remember Jon Stewart.

So...

Anyone know any good Grad Schools for public policy? Specifically, in the Venn Diagram overlap where public policy hits Alternative Energy? Suggestions appreciated.

Remember: My Grades weren't that good, and my brain has been muddied after two years of not thinking academically, (and maybe drinking a little,) so we might not be talking "Top O' the Line".

<<>>

I think I found one...
http://www.columbia.edu/cu/mpaenvironment/

Real Green, Real World

I still think that the commune is viable, but after some lengthy conversations with my Father and the honorable Anthony Gonzales, (potentially not his real name) the realization might have to change somewhat.

As everyone has been pointing out, the concept thus far will cost a lot of money. Not even counting the operating costs, you’re looking at a whole bunch of money to build 5 free standing buildings. Plus, the real world applicability of a stand along cabin leaves something to be desired. Turns out, most of us don’t actually live in tiny little cabins off in the middle of nowhere.

While I accept this point, I have been loath to give up my commune in the woods type theory. But then, AG raised a very valid alternative: Wouldn’t it be better, anyway, to see if we can convert a McMansion? Quite a few people live in these large, horribly energy inefficient monstrosities, and you can find one much easier then you can find the perfect piece of land to put up the compound I was envisioning before. Plus, the suburban reality seems more applicable to many then the start from scratch builder commune. And the real kicker: at the end of the day, the house is an asset that other people might actually want. We could even sell the thing!

It’s even more like a greenhouse Real World. We have 5 or 6 people living in this house: A writer, a video man, an internet man, and a techie/builder are our crew of four, plus a few others for the sake of more help. The “others” in this category we imagine would have outside jobs, or be in school or some such, and would be living there and using energy more along the lines of an average person. They wouldn’t be in the house 24/7, and would provide a different level of context for us in comparing to your average consumer.

So, now the plan looks like this: Purchase a house, and live in it for a month or two (or three?) to get an idea of how it was operating. How much power the house used, with what results, etc. After we had a basic control point, we would start installing different energy systems. Say, Solar for a month stretch, then Wind for a month stretch, then Bio-Fuel for a month. We would set up the systems so that they could be the only things powering the house during given periods, so that for a month, we would operate with as much power as each source would provide.

After taking it through the monthly cycle a few times, we could start with the overhauling of the house in different ways, and see how much of a difference things like good insulation, smart windows and intelligent energy use made. Side projects would also be encouraged, so that by year two, one of our commuters might be driving a bio-fueled car, and we might have a greenhouse with some home-grown out back (that’s Tomatoes, for those wondering). However, these side projects should not detract from the overall message of what I hypothesize we will find: that it really doesn’t take that much effort to make your house from a drafty wreck into an energy efficient juggernaut.

The entire project would be recorded on a website, which is sort of the centerpiece of what the public sees. Daily thoughts, information on each product, results and suggestions on how to do it yourself, with many different levels of complexity (E.G: the main page is simple, but the rabbit hole goes as deep as you want to follow it). Utilization of web Video is a must.

The eventual goal is to become the single widest ranging website for everything green energy, while simultaneously making it fun, accessible, and manageable in its scope. The new and improved commune plan actually gets to the goals of the old commune even more directly, because it makes it something that a larger range of people can relate to. Plus, there are more finite goals, because it will be interesting to see if any combo of energy sources plus general work on a house can change it from the poorly constructed and energy inefficient behemoth into something completely self sufficient and possibly even capable of producing net energy gain.

Tragedy

This is a hypocritical posting.

Below, I will accuse people, in a round about way, of using the Tragedy of Virginia Tech to advance their own political agenda, and that they forget about the reality of the fact that it is a tragic event of epic epic proportions.

Then, that is what I will do (not talk about the tragedy, use it as a jumping off block, etc.)

I'll just say this: I know my friends at V-tech are safe, and a day after the fact, I am already completely besieged at my work by thoughts about the results of this event, and the things that come next. So please take that as a starting point.

Now: Working in close connection to the world of news, the fallout and discussion angles from the tragedy at Virginia Tech became clear within hours of learning about the event. My inbox was flooded with people pitching themselves as guest – About gun control, and how students could have protected themselves from this crazy man if they were packin’ heat.

Lets set aside for a moment the objections that I see as obvious to this line of thinking: Namely, that if an entire college the size of Virginia Tech were armed every day around campus, I would imagine that the constant state of “cold war” (everyone being afraid to use a gun, because others have them) would be subject to a series of violent hotspots. I know that in my college experience, I’m really glad that emotional outbursts at a drunken frat party couldn’t have involved hotheads with pistols. And what about the poor fellow who didn’t want a gun? Would he, like china in the 70’s in my cold war analogy, have to pack heat just to stay safe? (Right… I said I was setting that ASIDE)

What I was interested in was how fast this event became the subject of people agendas. The NRA was motivated and on this as a talking point in under six hours. And it wasn’t just one organization. I got six different people who were sitting around waiting for a tragedy to occur so they could pimp the importance of the second amendment, and advocate that every man, woman and child hold on to a weapon.

For me, this necessitates looking at why the 2^nd amendment is in the constitution. I think America breaks down into two types of people: the first amendmenters, who think that words and Ideas have the power to keep us “free” and the second amendmenters, who put their final faith in the power of violence to protect themselves. However, I think that people who really believe in the second amendment (and here I cite some old school Nelson County country mofo’s) dig the right to bear arms for the same reason that our founding fathers put it into the constitution: So that we could protect ourselves if push came to shove and the Government came to our houses in the night with the black masks on to oppress us and take away our rights. (In other words, when the first amendment breaks down, you got the second amendment to kick ass, right?)

Now, the first official statement from the Bush White house went something like this: “The shooting is a terrible tragedy. We pray for the families. We still support American’s right to own guns.” This is, of course, a rough paraphrase.

But here’s my question: Is Bush aware that the reason the 2^nd amendment exists (again, this is in my opinion) is to overthrow corrupt governments like his? Isn’t the whole reason for the Bill of Rights to keep those extra bits of power out of the hands of the Government? And, irony of his statements aside, how does this extend to the rights of students to defend themselves from other students?

I really don’t think that the 2^nd amendment has anything to do with us being able to defend ourselves from criminals. I just don’t think it works that way. In a society where anyone can walk into a store and come back with an assault weapon, or at the very least , something semi automatic, as this kid seams to have had, I don’t think there is any way to protect yourself. The fact of the matter is, even if those kids at Virginia Tech had been armed, the kid still would have gone crazy, and he still would have set out to hurt people. The machismo “I could have shot him first” response is the exact reason that I would never want to attend a college where everyone was armed.

A gun will always be an offensive weapon. It’s the great social equalizer. It means that no matter what happens, this kid would probably be able to kill someone, and he did it the way he did because guns were easy to get, and have somehow become an acceptable way to settle things in certain parts of our culture. It seems like an easy out to me, to say that Guns caused an incident like the tragedy on the Tech campus, but it seems like a MUCH bigger out to say that more guns could have prevented this situation.

I think we are going to keep hearing stories like the professor who thought Cho’s writing was disturbing enough to mention it to others. The lesson, as always, is that humanity could have been applied to a situation if someone had picked up on clues, and a tragedy might have been averted. But, probably not, because this kid might have just been truly crazy (like Timothy McVeigh is truly crazy. Like Osama Bin Laden is truly a sociopath) and he might have found a way to hurt people regardless.

And, lets face it. I have no idea what our founding fathers were thinking. They were some crazy bastards, and they fought duels for honor all the time. But I still think that the goal for the 2^nd amendment was not to protect yourself from some insane outlier. Those things are there so that we would have the same technology as the Government in case they came for us. Why else do you mandate something as legal in a culture in which (back in the day) everyone was armed to the teeth already? It was to protect against someone becoming a King.

Side Note, or "going back to that Aside from before": lets look at what life was like when everyone in America had a gun. There were still lawless places. Significantly more in fact. And the places where everyone has guns here (see: Cities, Inner) people are still getting killed on the regular. Might makes right, and if I know you have a gun, doesn’t that mean I just shoot you before you get a chance to get it out? I don’t think any of you (except maybe the afore mentioned Hard Core Nelson Boys) are ready for a day when the whim of the people willing to use the force behind a gun becomes the rule of law. I just don’t think you cultured sissy punks are ready to actually shoot someone before he shoots you over a traffic incident. I know for a fact that I’m not.

Now, if Bush was serious about the right to bear arms, and he wasn’t worried about the people making a play for his seat of power, he would give everyone a tank. THEN we would be safe.

Note

I also just brought over the old Live Journal from blog 1.

The Airplane Disaster

And its now published under March 1st, 2007 so as not to clog up the works of the current stuff. The thing is freaking long.

One Million little questions

The real question behind the entire commune concept rests with money. Where do you get it? Who gives it to you? How do you guarantee these mysterious backers some sort of product when its all said and done? And, most importantly, how much does it all cost?

Now, I don’t know who reads this. I used to think no one did, but then there was that incident with the ol’ job that convinced me that many people might well be stumbling their way here, so im putting it out there in two parts:

How much does it cost to put up a building? Does anyone have any actual numbers here? (Dad, I’m looking at you. Is there some magical number that a standard contractor asks for a standard square footage on a house? Can you even ballpark it without a floor plan of the different houses? What part of the cost of building is materials, and how much is design and labor?) I don’t even know what sort of assumptions I allowed to make!

Second question, once I have my imaginary number, is: from whom? How does one start going about funding a project like this? Who does one ask? Is it magazines? Government grants? If anyone out there has a clue where THEY would start looking, let me know. I’m looking, but not in the right places yet.

As I think about it now, I keep coming up with huge huge numbers for my operating budget for a few year long process. So, should I A)break it down into segments and try and get people/companies to sign on as they go? Or, B) come out with a large number and keep it in peoples heads the entire time? Crazy amount of hypothetical, really, but I’m open for suggestions on how I should proceed. Adam, want to help me mock up what buildings we would need?

Aqua Teen Hunger Force

Straight up Amazing. I was fortunate enough to go to the world premier (that's right, they called it the WORLD premier) tonight, and it was straight up absurd. My intrepid traveling companion S.D. and I were nearly overwhelmed at the red carpet, complete with a life size costumed Fry, Shake, Meatball, and ?Baby Stewie?? Once inside, we actually had to check our bags, and go through a metal detector to make sure we aren't trying to tape the show and make cash off it. Cell phones were not only turned off, they were taken from us by force. S.D. was attacked by a roving pack of animators. It was a crazy scene,

But its cool: free popcorn, and every person associated with the movie was there. As a lowly press person, I had no special treatment, and they didn't invite me to the after party, but it worked out. I absconded with a piece of memorabilia non the less.

:::SPOILER ALERT:::
(only not really, cause you can't spoil it!)
I loved this movie. It was AMAZING. The writers and animators did a great job, even down to the "please be polite and don't litter in the aisles" opening song. Spectacular. However, I would not recommend the movie to those who have not watched the show. Cause that's all it is. One larger, longer, version of the show. I confess that going in I was concerned, because the traditional show really can't hold a plot line for more then ten minutes, and even then they kill three of the characters per episode. But I needn't have worried. They didn't even try for a feature length storyline! You probably have 15-20 minutes of "plot" all movie long. There are enough flashbacks, false stories, and odd time travels that the whole movie played like a well conceived episode of the TV show.

The movie attempts to explain where our hero's came from: Why IS there a giant shake, fries and a meatball? and what the HELL do all of those opening and closing scene's really mean?
Well, those questions really aren't answered. I really do feel like the movie is a big F-U to the world of movie watchers. In joke after in joke. Stupid punch line after stupid punch line. And, of course, I have never laughed harder.

Adam, your going to freaking love it.

Really amazing stuff out of our Fearless Prez Leader today. After the Supreme court ruled that the EPA has to do their job, the New York Times is reporting that Bush remains un phased:

A day after the Supreme Court ruled that the federal government had the authority to regulate heat-trapping gases, President Bush said he thought that the measures he had taken so far were sufficient.

Why, might you ask? Well, our Fearless Leader is employing the tactics usually reserved for 8 year olds who don’t want to do something. "but Moooooommm, Justin doesn’t have to help set the table! Why do I?" He is taking his cues directly from China, insisting that they be the ones to regulate themselves before he is willing to go along with any sort of emissions standards.

“Whatever we do,” he said, “must be in concert with what happens internationally.” He added, “Unless there is an accord with China, China will produce greenhouse gases that will offset anything we do in a brief period of time.”

Amazing. You know, M. Bush, China also has a pretty terrible human rights record. Why do WE have to stop abusing our people? they still get to, and in the long run, why does it matter that we don’t? Oh, wait. I remember. Because that’s the stupidest, most childish thing that the leader of the free world could possibly say. YOUR the LEADER of the FREE WORLD. Start acting like it, and step up and take a leadership position! Sure, its true that on a global scale, China has the ability to hurt global warming a lot going forward. But you don't think our complaints about their pollution might come from a slightly stronger standpoint if we were not in the bottom half ourselves?

For the love of God, M. Bush. And I understand you love him. This is what a lobbyist from the COAL MINING INDUSTRY had to say in the same New York Times article. This, remember, is the dirtiest form of energy production out there:

“It’s incumbent on everyone to roll their sleeves up, if they haven’t already, to deal seriously with this problem,” said Luke Popovich of the National Mining Association, the trade group for the coal mine operators who will be at the center of the lobbying. “If pain concentrates the mind, there will be more concentration on the issue now.”

Good Show team. Good Show

Some thoughts on a commune, specific and global:

Will the idea of the commune experiment actually be applicable to others as a model? A few people have suggested that the whole difficulty of the Green-izing of America is that the differences in situations make any one example moot. Here is why I don’t think this will be true:

At any given point, I (a relatively motivated, yet occasionally overwhelmed individual with something of an eco-conscience) feel completely lost about what alternative energy sources are useful, how much each one provides under what conditions, etc. I think that a study in one environmental condition can really put all the claims that green energy make into the light of personal experience. This doesn’t mean that anything can be said for sure about other situations and conditions, but it does mean that a final study or book we create can be used as an anchor in an otherwise complicated and unknown world. The claims of people selling solar power or wind power vary dramatically depending on who is doing the talking. What I don’t know, and want to know, is a range: How much work, how much energy results, how does it actually change over the course of the year, etc. Sure, our experiment is not going to answer all these questions, but it can act as a blue print for other people, and give them a range with which to experiment themselves, as well as some troubleshooting help to figure things out along the way.

Its easy to say, but I think any data we can create would be possible to extrapolate to other situations. We should hash out as much as possible the specific conditions that we are dealing with where ever our commune ends up, and you can use that to make a guess for yourself down the road. Our wind chart says X, yours says Y, but they are close together on the overall range. Our solar house was dealing with an average temperature of 42 degrees over the course of the spring, your house deals with 35 degrees, but you know how much energy we used for heat so you can factor in a larger number. There would be a Margin of Error, but not a large enough one to make the whole process not useful.

Now, some links and thinks:

The Supreme Court finally ruled on the EPA, essentially forcing them to do their job. I confess to being a little confused as to how this argument was still going on. I don’t even think the republican party or the oil companies are as far behind the times as the Bush administration. The EPA made the argument that they couldn’t Protect the Environment… because it would interfere with the jurisdiction of the transportation department? Really? What ARE they allowed to do then?

Anyway, this seems like one of those things that needs to happen, if only to remind us how far away we really are from getting to where need to be in terms of government support of alternative energy.

http://www.nytimes.com/aponline/business/AP-Scotus-Greenhouse-Gase.html?_r=1&hp&oref=slogin

And here is some quality pie in the sky type stuff. This is the logical extreme of green energy in the city:
http://nymag.com/news/features/30020/
How sweet is that? Its like a SimCity 2000 building. And its only 2007!

The New Plan

I'm sure that this is old enough as to make me terminally uncool as a blogger for just finding it now. Good thing I'm not a blogger. Just some dude with a blog.

http://www.irregulartimes.com/secedenow.html

In five years, we can all see what a disaster side A is without Side B. And Vise Versa. Sure, its a grand social experiment, but im willing to wager that the people sneaking over the border to come visit the Blue nation for a crazy Saturday night outweigh the people going into the Red nation to join their military. On the other hand, they will probably occupy/firebomb our dens of homosexual sin within a few weeks anyway. Or send in an occupying force.

Really, the possibilities are endless. Freaking amazing article though. What do you think would happen?

Tintin: The movie

Before reading this post, you should follow the link here, and give yourself a sense of context.
http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/n/a/2007/03/08/entertainment/e220124S64.DTL

Then, you should be for warned that the following is a nerdy diatribe of epic and probably incriminating proportions. You should probably also know that Herge is the author of the original Tintin Comics. Though you might have gotten that from the above article...

So, for those of you who don’t know, I wrote the final paper for my history major about Tintin. To sum it up: I think Tintin is useful as a historical snapshot because Herge captures, not necessarily the countries and the people that Tintin visits, but the Belgian CONCEPTIONS of what those characters might look at. This is mostly in reference to Herge’s early stuff, because as the European conception of the other became more P.C. during and after the World War, so did he evolve as an author. Anyway, I mostly tackled his first few books, and the early evolution of him as a writer, but I also tried to get into why Tintin succeeded as a character and as a series of stories. (A huge part of this was Herge's talent as an artist, and as a researcher for visual accuracy) Thus, the new movie that Spielberg’s company is tackling is fantastically exciting… But also fraught with peril for a nerd like me.

Tintin as a character embodies a certain series of things, but he never really shows much of a character beyond these basic concepts. He’s the boy scout motto writ large: helpful, trustworthy, smart, honest, hardworking. He hates cheaters, liars, and any sort of foul play. His curiosity gets him in trouble, but his intelligence and quick thinking get him out again (plus a good dose of luck). I would say his success is what made Superman an early success. He had all the qualities anyone (read: any young boy in Tintin’s case) could want, so everyone could read a little of themselves into him. Perfect for a Cartoon Hero who’s main role was allowing Herge to explore countries and criminals without leaving his comfy chair back in Belgium.

However, Tintin never shows powerful human emotion. For every bit he is Superman, he’s no Batman. His Pathos rating is a big ol Zero. He’s never jealous, and only rarely angry (and never irrationally so, its always if someone violates the boy scout creed). He cries only twice, and both in the same book: Tintin in Tibet, in two frames, both when he thinks his friend Chang might be dead. He is, essentially incredibly boring.

Also, all of his friends are male. There’s a drunk (and vaguely creepy) sea Captain, who might be a father figure or a foil for Tintin’s straight arrow nature. There is an absent minded and hard of hearing professor. There are two blundering detectives, who are never on the right track. After Herge gets over his race issues and starts writing characters of other backgrounds (after Tintin and the Blue Dragon, and the introduction of Chang), there are a series of well connected leaders from each of the countries that Tintin visits that are impressed by his honesty and forthrightness and treat him as a friend. I can’t think of many females in that cast, but there might be a few I’m forgetting. There is the Opera singer, and there’s a beautiful Gypsy woman, but each of these people are already in love with someone who is not Tintin. In fact, I never got the impression that Herge realized that Tintin was male. He’s so bland as to be asexual, and the closest I think he gets is with his growing friendship with the Chang. And that’s a HUGE stretch.

So, the question is, can a character with literally no emotional depth, and no interest in sexual appeal be a Hollywood character? Clearly, they can (See: Reeves, Keanu) but I don’t see a way that a straight interpretation of Tintin really works in live action. Just Blockbusting this thing up with special effects and making him into an Indiana Jones character wont work, hes not original enough, with out Herge's amazing artwork, for the stories to keep their heads above water. Can you imagine a Hardy Boys movie? Oh god, please no. This leaves us with, as I see it, two options.

One: Stay the hell away from live action, and spruce up all the other characters around him so that he is a blank canvas and the rest of the characters are interacting on him. This is basically the model that the Comic book takes, but I just have this feeling that this isn’t revolutionary enough for Spielberg. I can’t see him really interested in a faithful rendition of the Tintin stories, because im not sure that puts enough of his stamp. Bland character, different foible types bouncing off him, getting him in trouble, only to have him save the day. So, unless he totally re-invents how animation looks or works, not sure that any one adventure story is going to be enough. He would have to inject something really cool and revolutionary to the style.

Or Two, and this is the bit that I find exciting, imbue Tintin with a psychological explanation for the ways that he interacts with the universe. Fill in some back story (clearly what they will have to do to give the story any Hollywood arch at all) and tell us why he never really connects with anyone around him. Create a character that is curious and interested in traveling the world, and who is driven by a sense of fair play, but who is completely unable to display powerful emotion. I realize that I am describing a movie that I will hate when I see it, because it’s a nearly Herculean task, but wouldn’t it be cool if we got a movie that established the emotionless hero, but then delved into what made him tick? I don’t know that you can capture each and every book, or the wanderlust that Herge had as an author, in one movie, so why not go in a totally different direction? Why not assume that we have read the books, and try and figure out why Tintin will throw himself into a river to save a drowning boy, but never really consider a woman? I’m prepared for something totally different, but if I was given a movie with the background of Tintin, I would try and capture what happens to the Boy scout who, at the end of the day, chooses to keep going home alone with his dog Snowy and move away from equally strong and likable characters. There is only room for one hero in Herge’s Tintin, and I want to know why.

Plan B

We live in an age where everyone has things done for them with remarkable speed. Want to find a hotel? There are three million websites that will compare everything for you from the bounce of a bed to the attractiveness of the room service crew (those things are not connected. Jeeze. This is a rigorous scientific document). Want to buy a car? There are fifteen million ways to search for all the gizmos and gadgets that will work for you. And don’t even get me started on the wide world of resources available to you if you want to start gardening, modeling, or (as I’ve recently learned) collecting tropical Fi…. Sharks.

But for some reason, the wide world of Green energy remains mostly untapped. There are just beginning to be a large number of products out there that might be available for household use. Might be able to save you energy, might be able to lower that bill, and, who knows, might reduce your personal Carbon Emission to something a little closer to what god and nature intended. But, and lets be honest here, the process of greening up your home is a lot of work. It's an incredibly daunting project to just know where to start and how to go about installing everything and keeping it running, let alone optimizing things to your particular condition/situation. I myself often forget to turn out lights, and have been known to leave my computer running for weeks! And I know that just keeping the place from falling apart is more then enough for anyone. That’s why I am going to start a project that will, scientifically, OBJECTIVELY decipher how hard it is to add a lil bit of Green to your life. And you don't have to give up the Big screen TV. (OK, the big screen might have to go, but I promise that the general way of life shall remain unchanged. mmmm, except those pants. those need to go too.)

I will catalogue and control how much energy is gained from different easy to use alternative energy sources. I will figure out what works, what is difficult to install, what takes maintenance, and what runs like a dream as soon as its in. Ill record watts per day, break downs per month, and repair costs per year. Ill know what generates more in different temperatures, and which systems take an Engineering degree to install. The whole time, I (and by this point, its really clear that I mean WE, because this will be a lot of work, and I’m Lazy) will stay on top of the costs of each, while also tracking and researching the newest and greenest of energy resources, so that by the end of the project I can say objectively what works the best and what combination of green energy you can use to make you feel like a better person. (I actually know the answer already. Eat Right and exercise more. But we’ve been ignoring that for generations, why stop now??)

I will also have a Video Camera, so that I can sell out to MTV and spend the rest of my life relaxing in the comfort of my horribly energy inefficient McMansion while I feed Empire Penguin meat to my Pit-bull named “Nuge”. Ahh, to dream the impossible dream.

Read on to discover the basic outline of what the project will look like.

1.) Step one: Start a Commune

2.) Step two: ???

3.) Step three: PROFIT!

The concept looks like this: A main house (built like a regular commune type structure), with four cabin satellites around the outside. Each Cabin runs on a different type Alternative Energy source, and supports a like number of people for a set amount of time. We find out what its like to live under these conditions, when we "stop having fun, and start to get REAL". No, sorry, I got carried away there for a moment.

A definition of Green Energy, as described by the all-seeing-all-knowing Wikipedia is as follows:

“Green energy includes natural energetic processes which can be harnessed with little pollution. Anaerobic digestion, geothermal power, wind power, small-scale hydropower, solar power, biomass power, tidal power and wave power fall under such a category. Some versions may also include power derived from the incineration of waste.”

For the sake of an easily linked article, we can assume that the definitions of these things, as broad as they are, are the categories that I am going to use as demarcations.

We can also eliminate a few of the runners in this discussion: We won’t have access to the scale technology to successfully run Anaerobic Digestion, and neither will we have the infrastructure for incineration as an energy source. These two are out. We are also probably not going to be able to locate near enough to an ocean to have a legitimate shot at Tidal Power, and Wave Power is pretty much on boats only, as I understand it. These two, for the sake of this discussion, are also out. Geothermal Power, also dependant on massive amounts of heat generated in a single place, is also not practical for this discussion.

This leaves, as basic building blocks for my experiment, the following: Wind Power., Solar Power, Bio-Mass Energy and Small Scale Hydro-Electric Power. Wind, water, sun and… stuff. For the sake of this project, that leaves us with 4 Cabins, each trying to get to the point of supporting 2 people full time for 1 year. Thus, we are looking at 8 people, with a potential support/research staff of up to 2 more: living in the main house, and working on different forms of insulation etc. Variable cast: 8-10.

Each house has the express goal of creating enough energy to allow two people to live in relative comfort. The goal is not minimalist living, but rather luxurious living with minimalist tactics. Thus, we would make each cabin into a one bedroom apartment, with a larger common room/kitchen and a smaller sleeping area. We would attempt to equip each with running water, a fully equipped kitchen and bathroom, a television and a P.C. We would build each house within a budget, and hopefully insulate in such a way as be both the energy efficient and most cost effective. (if it were a really good experiment, we would run three cabins with each type of energy source, and record different levels of insulation as well. We are almost certainly not able to perform to that level of scientific rigidity.)

We will do our best, over the course of this experiment, to share equal time spent in each cabin. (E.G. people living there, cooking there, watching TV there, throwing parties there, etc.) And we will try to remove as many of the nearly limitless other variables that will be thrust onto the scene as we possibly can.

More (hopefully much) to come.

Sometimes I become upset about my place in life, and start to believe that I am basic, even boring in my simplicity. But then, I think about the small events that spatter my day, Pollock-esq, with drama and intrigue. Frankly, sometimes more life is more exciting then I would like. Take for example:

That moment every day when I speak to someone who has a complaint. Let’s imagine that they have expressed the problem, and lets say I have answered it, to the best of my ability. Sometimes answers are better then others, but either way, I eventually have to pause. My point is made and I lapse into silence. (Of course, there are those that do not allow me to even get to this point, but they are not drama. They are not intrigue. They are just anger, with a touch of stupidity.) Regardless, the pause must come. And this is the crucial moment: will the caller be pleased with my response, or is their own agenda stronger then anything I could say? It's a tense moment. If the first word out of their mouth changes the tenor of the discussion, or moves its phase, then all is well. However, if they pause, or bluster for a second, it often means that their brain is deleting what I tell them and they about to launch into the same diatribe again. It’s as if they re-connect to the heart of their original argument, and, like Popeye and his spinach, are reenergized to return to the fight. My arguments are brushed aside like the Lilliputians who foolishly have landed a few blows on King Kong: for a moment it appears that the beast has fallen, but in fact it has just gathered its strength for another more violent upheaval.

Sometimes, this moment is a passing grade on my success at answering questions. Other times, it is failing one. And still others are rendered moot by the grade giver, a sweeping incomplete as I realize that my answer was subsumed in the massive cloud of their own internal logic, sucked in one end alive and well and spit out the other, a loose fish skeleton wrapped in oily newspaper. Regardless though, it is packed with the great strength

Or that other moment.

Scene: Subway. The crush of people getting off the train, heading for the stairs.

Pontius is in line, but sees a small woman in front of him, literally half his size, angling in for the spot on the stairs. He pauses for a moment, she glances up and is past. The whole thing takes less then a second.

What I will never understand about the New York attitude is the Challenge that was in that woman’s eyes. She was small, under 5 ft 4, Latina, with a flat face and a frizz of hair under some sort of loose wrap. And she looked at me as if to say: you might be able to walk down these stairs, mi amigo, but know that if you do, I’m taking a testicle. I swear to god, her eyes said that to me. I didn’t really understand. I mean, I was trying to convey a sense of community, comradely, and general You-go-first-atude, but that was just destroyed by her frost! And at the end of the day, I had every intention of allowing her to go first. It just felt like my good deed was minimized by the fact that, offered or no, her eyes conveyed the understanding that she Would be going first, regardless of how I felt about it. This, frankly, was not a good feeling. How can I develop a sense of community when a little old woman looks at me like she would be perfectly happy to force me to lick the third rail? The moment in which she passed me, I was literally frozen in fear. It took me the rest of the walk home to stop checking behind me to see if she was coming after me with a baseball bat. If that’s not drama, I don’t know what is.

Or this one

There I am plowing through the end of my day, answering questions and entering data. Suddenly, a single sentence on the radio catches my attention. What was said? I couldn’t tell you, but when I return to my screen, there is a completely unknown thing there facing me.

MM: pldg RN, OP at $50, p07norah added to acct.

I feel a little ripple of fear in my gut. What do these strange letters mean? I believe that I have typed them, but it’s almost as though they are something completely new, beyond what I could have created on my own. I am angry at these letters and numbers. There they are, staring at me, chins jutted collectively in the air. I can almost here them, pounding on their chests, yelling: Here I am! And they are. But I don’t know why. The logic that once connected those pixels is completely absent and I am left parsing the different parts. MM? an expression of lust? Or an appliance warming up? Ask not for whom the refrigerator hums, it hums for thee. Then there is the illicit Dollar sign, that sexy capitalist S -- $. There is intrigue there, and a callous coldness as well. And what is this hint to a woman, hiding behind more inexplicable numbers? She is laughing at me, this Norah, and I resent it. After a few seconds, the meaning beings to filter back into this strange code, and I am able to take a deep breath and forge ahead again. But for the rest of the day, the things I type and the people that I speak to are tinged with the strange fear of illiteracy, and the chance at once again being plunged into the confusing world where I can only feel my way through hieroglyphs and signs.