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?