time for a real update!

So basically I have neglected my blog for almost a month. Really, it's a pity, but you haven't missed so much. Basically, I was supposed to finish up with my history paper when I got back from Mainz and before my dad came to visit on the 17th, but I was kinda wore out, so I just sat around, killed time, went to bars and went skiing occasionally, once at Wildschonau, once at Garmisch-Partenkirchen Classic area, and with my cousin at Serfaus-Fiss-Ladus. I also went to bars a lot.

When my dad came, we went to Budapest, which was really super cool. Just like in Italy, it's hard to resist the urge to speak German back at people who speak another language to you. The most practical thing to do is to speak English very slowly and gesticulate wildly. Hungarian is CRAZY. I didn't pick up any of it, like I did a little with Italian. It really has nothing to do with any language I've ever heard. It's more like what someone who has never heard German would say German sounds like: super harsh and very very gutteral. Basically, the thing you do in Budapest is go to the baths. It's also a beautiful city with most of the buildings being restored from the late 19th century. There are some relics from the Soviet days too: all the cars in the subway system were from 1972, and it was quite obvious that they were Soviet vintage.

Since then, I've been back in Munich trying to get ready for the start of the next semester. I got my last paper out of the way, which was really a hassle. I just hope that I pass the class. It's really bizarre to be just starting back up right now. What an injustice. Anyway, I'll post photos as soon as I can find them. The weather has finally improved here, so I should be outside more, which will be a nice change of pace.

i promise

I'll do a real update soon enough. But for now, let the record show that Keira Knightley is really talented.

haha

Prince Poldi, der Tor-König. And the King of Kölner hearts.

By the way, what are the chances the boy is playing for Bayern next year? I say 55%. He won't be in the 2. Bundesliga.

sigh

I think I'm in love.

polygamy?

Katherine Kersten is at her inflammatory best this week in the Star Tribune (and how she still has a job there is beyond me). It's the age old argument against gay marriage:

But wait. What if a person loves two people, or three or more? If "one man-one woman" is a discriminatory limitation on the choice of a life partner, on what grounds can the state logically restrict marriage to two people? The fact is, once you adopt same-sex marriage -- legally changing the standard for marriage from one-man, one-woman to a "committed relationship" -- there is no principled way to prevent its extension to polygamy or other forms of "plural marriage" or partnership.

This argument is really completely invalid. Why? Because she fails to outline the reasons that polygamy shouldn't be legal. The problem with polygamy is not that it is an assault on our traditional values, or somehow in bad taste. The problem is that it's very strongly correlated to abusive and incestuous relationships. If you just think about the power dynamic at play when one man is married to several women, this makes complete sense. This logic does not at all apply to same sex marriage. There is no evidence of negative effects of gay marriage except for vague claims that it "weakens the institution of marriage."

los geht's: turin and florence

And yes it's TURIN. Not Torino. I don't want anybody saying Torino who doesn't also say Venezia, Firenze, Roma, Wien, Genova or Genf. Now on to business. Whatever it's called, screw this city. No mass transit to speak of. Nothing even that pretty. And the mountain venues were about two hours away. Seriously now.Coca-Cola of all companies welcomes us to Turin.
Waking up after sleeping in the park. Bad idea. Woke up covered in dog-shit as detailed below. If I can't find a room, I will definitely be sleeping in the train station next time.

Things were looking up on Sunday as we went to the 4 X 10 Cross-Country ski relay. However, I forgot my camera, so I can't bring back the promised pictures. It was quite the event; the Norwegians really had a ton of fans (one of them wore a set of antlers). But it was really the Italians' day at home. Zorzi got his revenge for 2002 by increasing the lead on Angerer as the fans chanted his name alternating with ITALIA! ITALIA! ITALIA! But down by 25 seconds, Angerer was really resigned to second. He just didn't have his World Cup leading form for the Olympics.

So in cross country, the two big stars fail (Bjoergen and Angerer) while Wilhelm and Greis became heroes on the sports stage. Seriously, everybody is obsessed with the biathletes now. They are on TV ALL THE TIME. When the anchors aren't bashing the soccer team for losing 4-1 to Italy yesterday, they are slobbering on Kati Wilhelm and Michael Greis.We were absolutely thrilled to be out of Turin. Here's the Florence Duomo (Cathedral).
The tower next to the Duomo. It costs 6 euro to go to the top of each.
Me in front of the Duomo.
View from the top of the DuomoVery flattering picture on top of the Duomo.
Lunch time.
This has to be the crappiest fountain ever. I mean it literally looks like a pile of shit.
Me and Niccolo Machiavelli.
Alia and Dante.
In front of David. No, you can't take pictures of the real David. And the real David is in a gallery with a bunch of mediocre counter-reformation art. Botticelli's Birth of Venus is in Florence too. It's in a gallery with a bunch of decent Italian Renassaince art. STOP LIVING IN THE PAST!

innsbruck

Here's some pictures from the last three weeks for anybody who still reads my blog. I'll do it in chronological order, starting with the ski trip to Innsbruck. Alia and I skied four areas in four days, and shredded every single one of them.This is the town of Innsbruck. Our apartment wasn't really in town, which was probably a good thing considering going out at night plus the skiing definitely would have put me out of commission.Area 1: Patscherkofel. They basically have one run and one lift: the Olympic downhill run from 1964 and 1976, and a quad lift that goes to the top. Although we were on the same hallowed run that Franz Klammer shredded in '76 to win the gold medal, I did not come anywhere near his time. We got shredded to bits by little kids who were in ski racing schools. Jackasses.
The ghetto-ass SINGLE chairlift that runs to the top of Patscherkofel. Never seen anything like it. Nice view on top, and some cool bowls to ski though.The obligatory apres-Ski beer. In this case, Zipfer: Austria's finest.
Area two: Stubaier Gletscher (or as they advertise it, Happy Stuby). I have never seen anything like this. Just to get to the area from the parking lot, it was a fifteen minute gondola ride, and it was a sprawling, wide open area. Unbelievable.Me being happy on the Stubai.
Area 3: Axamer Lizum. Awesome, awesome, awesome. I thought this was definitely the best area we skied. It was easy to get around, the lines weren't too long, and the runs were good and well groomed. And we met some hilarious Australians: "I wish it was snowing so I could try and catch snowflakes on my tongue" Me: "But it's a nice view" Aussie: "But I don't have a camera, and you know the view's only as good as the shot you take of it.
More Axamer Lizum.
Area 4: Der Schlick. Basically, we couldn't see anything, there were a lot of crappy skiers and Alia almost got killed by a four year old. Not the best. But the student price was 18 euros, so I didn't feel ripped off.
Me in the whiteout at Schlick 2000.
This is how you kick it after skiing.
Wait... this is even better.

holy crap

If you read one entry, this should be it. I am now in Turin for the Olympics. Coming here was kind of a bad idea, to put it gently. Last night we slept in a park because there was no room at the Inn. We woke up and all of our stuff was covered in dog shit. Not only that, during the night we were awoken by the sound of a PA from the police. Fortunately, they did not want to kick us out, one simply needed to borrow our bushes to relieve himself.

Much love and much more later,
Chris.

innsbruck

Just back from Innsbruck where I had an amazing time shredding four different areas in four days. However, I'm crunched for time, so I don't think I'll be able to afford a real update until March when I get back from Turin-Milan-Florence-Mainz.

this is pretty unbelievable

According to MyDD, there's really a throw out the bums sentiment in Congressional Elections every year. It just so happens that a lot of times people don't know who the "bums" are (i.e. who controls Congress). So if you are in the majority and pick up seats in the House, it's not really a stamp of approval for the way you govern. It's more that people don't know you are governing.

you had to see it coming

This cartoon thing is obviously an indication of anti-Islam sentiment. Free speech advocates just need to shut up and look around at stuff like this. So if you are trying to make a statement about free speech, why do you pick the Muslims to offend? Because they're good guys and they can take shit?

Oh, and if you think the Danes shouldn't denounce the anti-Islam cartoons, then I hope you aren't offended by the Iranians publishing Holocaust cartoons.

the plan

Here's what's on tap for the semester break (or at least the month of February):

February 10: Take my last final. History. Arrggghhh.
February 11-15: Innsbruck to ski.
February 16: Night train to Turin.
February 19: Watching cross country ski race in Turin, then on to Milan.
February 20 or 21: Train from Milan to Florence.
February 23: Flying to Frankfurt. There's a big party in Mainz that I want to celebrate with Nico. Mainz is a city of 100,000, and 500,000 people are at the Karneval celebration.
February 27: Rosenmontag, big party and parade day.
February 28: Last day of Karneval (also Fat Tuesday).
March 1: Ash Wednesday, return to Munich with the train.
March 2-15: Write some papers for my classes.
March 16-19: My cousin comes to visit.
Sometime in later March: My dad comes to visit.

Whew. After that, I'll be free until April 24.

new blog

I find Skeptico to be awesome.

jawohl!

Brian's Abschiedsparty und Saufspielerei! Also, there's a shirt that goes with that hat.

cartoony riots

I think a lot of free speech absolutists supporting the Danish in this whole cartoon brouhaha are missing the point. Of course this type of speech ought to be protected, and acting violently is totally out of line. But it's pretty obvious that this stuff was designed to be intentionally offensive and provocative. It's some sort of statement against self-censorship, saying that if we don't exercise freedom of the press, it's useless and we will be suffocated by societal political correctness.

However, the fact that the author chose to rail on Muslims says something. I mean, would it be OK to publish cartoons about the Holocaust in the mainstream press? That seems like it would really make a statement. I don't buy the idea that we need really offensive speech to make sure we aren't suffocated by political correctness. Furthermore, the broad support of the cartoonist under the guise of "free speech" indicates to me a pretty strong anti-Muslim undercurrent.

super!

I went to an American sports bar and watched the Super Bowl this morning. Everybody's talking about the horrible officiating. The offensive pass interference call against the 'hacks and Rothlisberger's touchdown were definitely questionable, and the holding call that set up the interception was an abysmal call. My biggest problem was just how the refs had to make it feel like the game was being fixed. Why did the line judge have to run in and begin to signal fourth down before he signalled touchdown? Why did the referee basically let the DB call that offensive PI call?

And yes, I do think that holding call might have cost the Seahawks the game. Without that call, it's almost certainly 17-14 for them, and they definitely have a chance. But then there's the pick, and the aweful call against Hasselbeck, and the Randal-El to Ward. Game, set, match.

i'm pissed

I'm angry because Wonkette left Wonkette!

sorry

Erik points out that I've been pretty lackadaisical about posting pictures of myself in really awesome places. So here I am to try and correct some of that, and promise to do better going forward.A Beck's commercial in Garmisch-Partenkirchen.
The Alps are really very pretty.
The scene at the end of the day at the bottom of the hill.

Now here's some other outdated shit:
Me in Nuremberg for the Christmas Market. I don't think I was supposed to be in the picture.
Lauren and Alia ride the kiddie carousel. They were the only ones older than nine on the thing, and none of the little kids really seemed to enjoy it this much.
Munich's Christmas Market.
Awww.

Hope this helps. I'll try to do better in the future, although my postings will be more sporadic, as I'll be travelling around a lot.

sotu thoughts

Well, my background is US politics, so I'll crap something out about Bush's POS SOTU. First of all, the focus on energy is pretty ridiculous. There's no way he's going to work for energy independence; it's just not in the interest of the interests that control the government. Plus, Bush is wrong (hey, there's a new one!). It's not about making ethanol viable as fuel within a certain amount of time, it's about making ethanol or whatever competitive against foreign oil. Matt Yglesias nails this point: if you are trying to reduce dependence on oil you need to tax it and not subsidize it.

In other State of the Union news, it has come to my attention that Cindy Sheehan's done. It's not that her fifteen minutes of fame are up, it's that she's entirely destroyed her calling card. She was supposed to just be a mom that was looking for an explanation for poor little Casey. Now it turns out she's pretty much a walking, talking, America-hating liberal stereotype. She's got ulterior motives up the ass. Anyone who calls Bush a terrorist is just being a stupid flamebaiter. Even liberal Jon Stewart has the good sense to smack down this crap.

we can't negotiate with these people!

Apparently, the appearence of this cartoon in some Danish newspaper is causing people in the Middle East to burn Danish flags and has caused Hamas to order a boycott of Danish products. There's also a bounty on the poor artists head.

This raises two questions, for me. If the good ol' U.S. of A is the "Great Satan" and Israel is the "Little Satan," what does that make Denmark? And more importantly, since when was Denmark ever worth holding a grudge against?

awesome

Kickin' back with a Beck's after skiing at Garmisch Partenkirchen. Sweet.

libertarians are stoopid

I was just watching Colbert's interview with John Stossel (whoever the hell that is) and I was struck by how dumb libertarians are. He said that we don't need an FAA because the free market would somehow determine a way to prevent airplanes from crashing into each other in the air, since it would be bad for airline profits if they killed their customers. Uhhh, John, not exactly. The whole point is that the level of risk a company is willing to take of people dying is higher than the risk society is willing to take. An airplane manufacturer won't rush an airplane into production because they want people to die, but their risk calculations are different from that of the public. If rushing an airline into production means a five percent risk of an avoidable plane crash in the next 20 years, but will ensure a manufacturers solvency, that might be something they are willing to live with. The public, including me, and by extension the government, will not allow it.

blech

I'm not entirely sure why I still read this website. The reasoning is specious and ridiculous. Yes, New York City and other places are declining in population in comparison to, say, South Carolina. Yes, abortion may be largely responsible for this decline. But is population growth really much of a goal for New York City? Should Democrats and people in blue states just have a bunch of kids in order to sway the political order? Apparently Republicans think that piss-poor quality of life is OK as long as there are more little Republicans.

wow. just wow.

I'll update for real sometime later this week, but something too good to pass up just came to my attention.

Hat tip.