Guano?

Here's some great commentary on the current suit questioning Obama's status as a natural-born citizen from Huffington Post:

WILLIAMS: The question is what is a natural-born citizen? That's never been legally defined.

Yes! That's because the founders didn't envision the totally batshit citizens we have now!

Clean Coal Ad

This ad is from Al Gore's Reality Coalition. Do you think it's effective? I'm not so sure. It asserts there's no such thing as clean coal, without giving evidence. I just saw it while I was watching This Week. I may not disagree, but I feel like the ad and the accompanying website talk down to the reader/viewer, not trusting we can handle actual information.

Knowing a bit about coal-fired generation, building new coal plants that would allow older ones to be shut down would help the environment. Given that a full one half of US electricity is produced through coal and that we have a lot of coal in the ground, what is Gore's suggestion as an alternative? The US needs a short term solution to its power issue, which can not be satisfied only through alternatives.

20,000 troops on our streets

This makes me uncomfortable. This makes me think also of the on-going issue in Iraq on the different roles for the military and the police.

The U.S. military expects to have 20,000 uniformed troops inside the United States by 2011 trained to help state and local officials respond to a nuclear terrorist attack or other domestic catastrophe, according to Pentagon officials.

There are critics of the change, in the military and among civil liberties groups and libertarians who express concern that the new homeland emphasis threatens to strain the military and possibly undermine the Posse Comitatus Act, a 130-year-old federal law restricting the military's role in domestic law enforcement.

Thoughts? Wade? Ron?

Floods in Venice

George and I were in Venice for our honeymoon about a month and a half ago. Now, it's having near-record-breaking floods - more than 1.5 meters of water (that's 4.5 feet.) Here are some pictures.

UNESCO has been warning for some time that due to rising water levels and subsidence of the land, Venice could be subject to daily floods in the future.

There is always talk of a major project in the lagoon which would consist of barriers that would rise out of the water to keep the flood waters out. It is very controversial and I'm not sure if it is moving forward or not.

Happy Thanksgiving!

There are so many things to be thankful for today:

• Friends and family.
  
• My friend Dhruv was not in Mumbai yesterday.
• The yummy deliciousness of Thanksgiving dinner.
• My new husband (almost 2 months!)
• My mother's return to health.
  

Things to acknowledge about the world's imperfection:

• Your family gathering will not be all harmony. It is simply not human nature for everyone to get along all the time.
• It makes me sad to think of the 100 families that are grieving today in India and wondering where this will lead.

Morning Brief

I'm going to tell you my secret source for valuable and important news: The Morning Brief by Foreign Policy magazine. You can sign up for a daily email here.

My only concern with spreading the word is that now you'll know where I get my material and I'll have to be more industrious from now on. ;-)

Iran Pictures

We don't get too many images of Iran other than political or religious leaders looking stern. I ran across this album of stunning pictures, primarily of architecture and women. It is beautiful.




Visiting Iran

New Projects

Today is a big day!
I gave my notice 2 weeks ago to the job that was sapping my strength and energy. Today is my first (week) day of freedom.
Part of my reason for leaving was that there are so many other things I want to get done which were impossible when my day was filled with doing things I didn't want to do.

So, the new mission:
Get a capital campaign going for my charter school
Write some articles exploring energy and policy
Explore some options of what I want to do in the next chapter of life
Get the body into shape - it's not getting any younger

And the difference is that all of these things sound exciting, interesting, like they'll give me energy rather than draining it all.

Illiberal Democracy

To borrow the title of Fareed Zakaria's book, the passage of Proposition 8 in California was a textbook case of what he called Illiberal Democracy. Direct democracy is usually not better democracy, especially when the majority is voting on rights for a minority. That is, instead, the tyranny of the majority.

Liberal democracy puts safeguards into place for the rights of minority groups. The State of California has failed its gay and lesbian citizens.

Confidence over Competence

I was always taught that if you don't know something that the best response is, "I don't know, but I'll look into it for you." And on the other hand, I've recently been told by my boss that I don't come across to the client with enough certitude about our solutions. I know enough to know that I don't know everything.

I've been thinking a lot lately about the crisis of too-much-confidence in our country and culture. It seeps into every corner of life, from business culture to politics.

Perhaps the greatest manifestation of this is George W. Bush, who didn't need to ask questions, get intelligence or see the other angle because of absolute confidence. Sarah Palin perhaps took this to such an extreme of Confidence over Competence that we'll pull back from this madness. When did confidence become the supreme virtue?

Well, here are a few words from a BBC news article, as well.

[L]ife's not like that and people know that. We know in our heart that it's not black and white ... and yet we pretend with the public that it's absolutely this policy and it will deliver what we want. Politics needs to change in that respect." But will it? Is it imaginable that a prime minister could stand up one day and say: "Look, I think this will work, and I'm going to give it a try, but frankly, I'm not sure."

Some parts of public life also function, less noisily, with subtlety and honesty about the real dilemmas. But we tend to hear less of them than the trumpet blasts of self-assurance. Is it the public that demands certainty, craving bedtime stories to help us sleep soundly rather than face up to the rather obvious fact that the future - and to some extent the present - is unknown? Or is it the fault of journalists who would rip into any minister who confessed to being unsure?

Some years ago, the former Archbishop of York John Hapgood suggested - with one eye on the politics of the time - that the lust for certainty could be a sin.

Slide show of Honeymoon pictures

Obama gets it!

There's speculation that Obama may appoint a Climate Czar, someone based at the White House who will be responsible to pulling together energy and the environment, as well as seeing the bigger picture on how this relates to the economy.

Hallelujah!

In no other country...

The fact that we elected Barack Obama last night is amazing, but let us also remember the magnificence of the American system of government.
As Obama has said from the beginning, "In no other country would my story be possible." And in addition, in very few other countries is a peaceful handover of power possible.

In an article discussing Kenya's declaration of a day of celebration (hey, how come we don't get a day off?), the following:

Tendai Biti, an opposition leader in Zimbabwe, said Obama's victory was inspiring and so was the concession by John McCain, whose fellow Republican George W. Bush will leave the White House on Jan. 20.
"If in Africa, incumbents would accept defeat and would graciously depart from the seat of power, this would be a different continent, and indeed Zimbabwe would be a different place," said Biti, whose party is deadlocked in power-sharing talks with Zimbabwean President Robert Mugabe.

 

Obama-mercial

I missed the Obama 30-minute piece last night and I can't really find any scoop on it. Did anyone watch it? How was it? Please enlighten me.

The Candidates on Energy

This article from Wharton compares the energy priorities for both Obama and McCain. As you can tell from their advertising, they are not that far away from each other except for the Palin-inspired "Drill, baby, drill" part.

U.S. presidential candidates John McCain and Barak Obama clash over tax and foreign policy, but their energy proposals are more alike than their campaign rhetoric suggests. Both offer to reduce global warming with a cap-and-trade program, "clean coal" technology and expanded use of wind and other renewable energy. But no matter who wins, energy prices are likely to climb.

There are some differences: Obama emphasizes renewable energy to reduce dependence on foreign oil, while McCain puts more faith in drilling. Obama is less enamored of nuclear power than McCain. Obama supports subsidies for ethanol production while McCain would cancel them and open the market to foreign competitors. Environmentalists tend to favor Obama, while business groups favor McCain.

Whoever wins, it will be nice to have an energy policy that wasn't drafted behind closed doors by Cheney and a secret list of oil cronies.

Honeymoon Pictures

Ah, here we are overlooking the Grand Canal.

Can you believe the Bridge of Sighs has been turned into an advertisement for a car?

George having a coffee in our neighborhood.

It's our honeymoon - how could we not go on a gondola ride at sunset?

A giant glass abacus in Murano - how cool.

Arctic Trade

There's so much news and analysis of both the economy and the elections that I'm not going to compete, but find for you, my faithful followers, other interesting stuff.
There's an article in the Atlantic Monthly talking about the new trade routes that are/will be opening up across the Arctic. It's being compared to the Suez or Panama Canal in terms of allowing ease of trade and transport.

Of course, this will also lead to enormous changes in the economies and ecologies of the entire Arctic.

Venice was marvelous

The honeymoon was wonderful. Venice was wonderful. I had have loved Venice for ages, but I think that George really fell in love with the place.
Typical day in Venice:

• Get up late
• make some coffee, think about what to do for the day
• stroll over to the vapporetto to take us somewhere marvelous
• find some lunch, maybe grilled fish with a half carafe of wine
  
• wander around, look at buildings, glass, the canals
  
• have an aperitivo, a spritz with Aperol
• home for an afternoon nap?
• decide which neighborhood to hit for dinner
• stroll around

I suggested to George that I should stay in Venice while he flew home to teach his class and then return. Alas. This part of the honeymoon is over. I know the honeymoon phase will last much longer.....

We're on our way to the honeymoon.....

Apathy is Deadly

Here's a great website, created by my favorite Ohio State student, George's son: Apathy is Deadly. It has great templates and directions for sending letters about Darfur, foreign aid and climate change to your elected officials.

The sage's strategy

Words from Warren Buffett...

I've been buying American stocks. This is my personal account I'm talking about, in which I previously owned nothing but United States government bonds. (This description leaves aside my Berkshire Hathaway holdings, which are all committed to philanthropy.) If prices keep looking attractive, my non-Berkshire net worth will soon be 100 percent in United States equities.

Why?

A simple rule dictates my buying: Be fearful when others are greedy, and be greedy when others are fearful. And most certainly, fear is now widespread, gripping even seasoned investors. To be sure, investors are right to be wary of highly leveraged entities or businesses in weak competitive positions. But fears regarding the long-term prosperity of the nation's many sound companies make no sense. These businesses will indeed suffer earnings hiccups, as they always have. But most major companies will be setting new profit records 5, 10 and 20 years from now.

Train of thought

Hat tip to Marcelino.

Mom is home!

Thanks to all of you who've been asking after my mother. She came home yesterday after 5 full weeks in the hospital.

God on Trial

A state senator in Nebraska brought a suit against God.

He said God has made terroristic threats against the senator and his constituents in Omaha, inspired fear and caused "widespread death, destruction and terrorization of millions upon millions of the Earth's inhabitants."

Chambers has said he filed the lawsuit to make the point that everyone should have access to the courts regardless of whether they are rich or poor.

While I'm not exactly sure I follow his full logic on access, the idea is not new. There's a very moving scene in an Elie Wiesel book where the community elders in the concentration camp put God on trial for allowing the persecution and holocaust. If I recall correctly, they find God guilty of negligence.

What's your opinion? Can we/should we call God to account?

Married!

I've been away from my blog for a week now. I've been a little busy!