Ciao!

The Kalamazoo Gazette has an article on The Space's closing.

Posted by Miguel at 09:46 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Peace through strength

The New York Times reports that Iraq agreed to dismantle its Al Samoud 2 missile system. This is a first major step for Iraq. Let there be no mistake, however, this was due primarily to America's hawkish stance. Perhaps war can be averted - by showing unrelenting resolve to resort to force if necessary.

Posted by Miguel at 05:29 PM | Permalink | Comments (3)

Another one bites the dust

Julius Strauss, Telegraph columnist, is the latest dove-turned-hawk.

Also, Gallup's polling service reports continued support for war in Iraq (59%) over opposition (37%). A significant number (38%) support war in Iraq even w/o UN approval. What's more, a UCLA grad student's study suggests protests actually increase support for war. Here's an excerpt:

Posted by Miguel at 01:31 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

More quality time

Poker night was a dramatic success (up $4.25, almost doubling my money). I came home, did a little dancing celebration w/ my cats.

I've missed Annie and Sophie lately. I've been gone so much, working on my dissertation draft. Sophie's become extremely moody, moping around the apartment w/ her high-pitched "prrreep!", and laxadaisicaly batting her jingle ball around the floor. I came home for a quick lunch today and caught her curled up inside one of my sweaters. For the past two days, Sophie's trotted alongside me like a sad puppy whenever I walk through the apartment.

Annie's been quiet, as usual. She's the alpha cat, and gets very jealous when I'm away or when people she doesn't know well are around. I also think she's been gaining weight again, so I'm watching her diet more closely again. No more pasta sauce! Last night I brushed her while I watched The Daily Show before falling asleep.

I need to remember to spend time w/ my girls -- playing w/ Sophie and brushing Annie. My lovely calico cat's clinically obese; she's not "playful".

Posted by Miguel at 12:36 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

WIDR's forum discussion for the Plan B Iraq debate is up. Here's a direct link.

Posted by Miguel at 02:52 PM | Permalink

Knowing is half the battle

If you remember GI Joe, you gotta read this brilliantly insightful analysis of one particular episode. Here's an excerpt:

Posted by Miguel at 01:56 PM | Permalink | Comments (1)

Make your own Space

Everyone knows by now that The Space, one of the best coffee shops in town, recently closed after the landlord sold the building. This is a sad time for Kalamazoo, no doubt about it. I'll miss The Space (though not the long walks in the snow to get there). I spent a lot of time there, both as a volunteer barista and as a patron. The Space did many good things: it served only organic, fair trade coffee; it provided a great place for all-ages music shows; and it had free wireless internet. But we need to keep its closing in perspective.

Posted by Miguel at 01:09 PM | Permalink | Comments (2)

Domain name troubles

If anyone tried to email me (or visit this website) a few hours ago and failed, there's a reason. I hate Network Solutions.

They neglected to inform me that my domain registration expired 19 February -- though I swear I'd reregistered it until 2004. That may also explain why my email was sporadically not working. It looks like everything's back up again.

On a separate note, my radio appearance on Bay's talk show was a success. Noah was very articulate and intelligent; our discussion was moderate, cordial, and fanaticism-free. Sarah did a great job screening calls and Bay was a wonderful on-air host, as usual. I think Bay's going to start a thread on the WIDR discussion forums; I'll post the link when it becomes available.

Posted by Miguel at 08:50 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Aargh!

I've mentioned before how much I hate Network Solutions. They make it almost impossible to deal w/ them (some of the worst customer support I've ever seen). Shortly after 5pm, my website went down. But it's more than just a website -- my email is down!

Apparently, I hadn't reregistered my domain (I swear I did) and so I had to (again!) try to contact Network Solutions. After an hour on hold (a speedy record for them) I got to talk to someone and worked out the problem. My domain supposed to be back up w/in 24 to 72 hours. This is my first post since then.

Posted by Miguel at 06:17 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Warmongering on-air

I'll be on Bay's radio show tonight, debating the Iraq issue on-air w/ Noah. I've never met Noah, though I know who he is. He's the hippie that rides a recumbent bicycle around town. He'll obviously argue against war; I'll make the case for military action. Tune in to 89.1FM WIDR from 7 to 8pm to see if the warmonger or the hippie wins. You can call the studio line (387-6303).

You can also listen online. Just paste http://wakko.cs.wmich.edu:8000 into your streaming MP3 player (if it doesn't work, it's not my fault).

Posted by Miguel at 01:37 PM | Permalink | Comments (2)

Fascism of the left

I found a disturbing article about how anti-war protesters in London deliberately excluded Iraqi protesters who came to support the military action w/ handmade signs and asked for a minute to speak, just a minute. They were rebuffed and most of their signs and such were confiscated. So in a protest on the Iraq issue, not one Iraqi was allowed to express his or her opinion. Not one. So much for caring about the Iraqi people. Here's an excerpt:

Posted by Miguel at 01:09 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Shane redeems himself

What happened on The Shield tonight? Vic almost broke apart at the seams (Claudette helped). Quintero played his trump card but Shane pulled an ace out of his sleeve and ended it -- as in dead. Danny got screwed in the process. Oh, and Dutch is now the talk of the town. He solved another crime and turned down Danny. And Aceveda's no longer watching Vic's back.

Next week is The Shield: Day One. It's a new episode, but set in the past. We're going to see the first day Vic arrived at the division. We're going to see the day Vic went bad.

I'm pooped; I'm off to bed.

Posted by Miguel at 12:36 AM | Permalink | Comments (1)

Children as ammunition

Blogger Joe Katzman reports a disturbing phenomenon: teachers harrassing soldiers' children. A Maine TV station reported that teachers were making comments to grade school children (ages 7-9) that their "mother of father is a bad person" because his/her National Guard unit was deployed to the Gulf. School officials didn't condemn the teachers' actions. Read the story, it's a sad reminder of the sort of unethical tactics used by many in the anti-war left. And it's not limited to Maine, an Australian parent posts a similar story.

Posted by Miguel at 05:23 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Inconsistencies

Here are two interesting quotes from John Pilger, a controversial anti-war journalist and filmmaker:

"No one can doubt its cruelty and atrocities, but comparisons with the Third Reich are ridiculous." -- John Pilger on the regime of Slobodan Milosevic, November 15, 1999.

"The current American elite is the Third Reich of our times." -- John Pilger on the government of George W. Bush, January 29, 2003.

Is this guy serious?

Here's a list of all the eighteen previous Security Council resolutions on Iraq (w/ links to their actual text). Here's the text of the proposed US-UK-Spain resolution. It contains eleven preambles (all recalling Iraq's failure to cooperate) and only two operative clauses:

OP1: Decides that Iraq has failed to take the final opportunity afforded to it [in] resolution 1441 (2002),

OP2: Decides to remain seized of the matter.

France, Germany, and Russia are opposed to "remain seized of the matter"?

Also, Instapundit has an interesting reflection on Machiavelli, the Bush-Blair policy tactic, and the nature of the Security Council poker game.

Posted by Miguel at 01:34 PM | Permalink | Comments (3)

Schizophrenia's calling me home

The Club Soda show wasn't much fun. Have I ever mentioned how much I hate frat boys? Yes, I know, that's a generalization. Not all frat boys are jackasses. And not all jackasses are frat boys. And I happen to be a member of a fraternity. But I still hate so-called "frat boys" and their stupid attitudes.

Posted by Miguel at 12:40 AM | Permalink | Comments (5)

It's over

I just heard from Brian Frian. The Space is closing. Tonight. It won't reopen. The landlord sold the building and just gave 30-days notice to vacate. There seems to be no contingency plan. The experiment's over.

Posted by Miguel at 07:51 PM | Permalink | Comments (1)

Man as a heroic being

Bill Whittle, an amazing blog essayists, wrote a very long piece on the value of confidence and its role in American foreign policy. This is but a very short excerpt (but the whole thing is amazing in its power and intelligence):

Posted by Miguel at 05:08 PM | Permalink

Rock-n-roll lifestyle

I hung out w/ The Prom a bit today. I was at The Space, doing some editing and outlining work on my dissertation draft. They'd been traipsing throughout Kalamazoo w/ Dan as their guide. We tramped down to Taco Bob's on the walking mall, not realize that a flash blizzard would soon be upon us. The food was good; the walk back was icy.

Posted by Miguel at 04:38 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Carissa's Prom

Last night's show at The Space was amazing. It was the Moped Army's 100 Member Party. Most of the gang was there, and most of us were dressed up to see The Prom.

I've been listening to The Prom's latest CD, Under the Same Stars (on Barsuk Records), quite a bit at The Space. It has a sort of Ben Folds Five sound. I was really surprised at how much more "rock" their live performance was.

The real highlight of the evening, however, was Carissa's Weird (also from Seattle). Wow! It's usually a good bet that the band's amazing when the lead singer plays a solid body Epiphone. Imagine Black Heart Procession or Monoglot on speed. It was this gentle tidal wave of sound that just overpowered. Complexity wrapped up in stark simplicity. They instantly became one of my favorite bands to ever play at The Space. They're coming back again in May; don't miss them!

Posted by Miguel at 11:07 AM | Permalink | Comments (1)

The enlightened aristocracy

Robert Fisk's latest column in the UK's Independent is interesting. He's opposed to the upcoming war against Iraq. But he also points out that the trouble w/ much of the anti-war left is, well, its aristocratic arrogance. Here's an excerpt:

Posted by Miguel at 04:44 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

They weren't kidding

I feel like I have to apologize to Dan for dragging him out w/ me to see Gods and Generals. It was bad. Really bad. We walked out halfway through -- and I've never walked out of a movie. Ever.

Posted by Miguel at 12:18 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Stupid boobies

Cat came over last night and we watched a bit of TV. The National Geographic Channel had a program on birds of the Galapagos Islands. That's where Darwin found all those highly evolved birds, the springboard for his theory of evolution.

Posted by Miguel at 04:48 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Fascist mustaches

Here's something from one of my favorite blogs, The Bleat (James Lileks is a columnist for the Minneapolis Star-Tribune):

Posted by Miguel at 12:20 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Paris is nice

African dictator Mugabe is happy w/ Chirac for unilaterally forcing the EU to suspend a travel ban on the Zimbabwean strongman condemned by Amnesty International for his various human rights abuses. Mugabe is thrilled; it's nice to see France be so kind and accommodating to dictators.

"We've had tremendous hospitality, we felt at home," Mugabe told Radio France Internationale (RFI). "We leave with a very good impression of France."

Ah, the principled French.

Posted by Miguel at 08:08 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Letter from La Paz

I was going to write something about the Bolivian situation today. Instead, my good friend Daniel Bustillos beat me to the punch. I met Daniel when he was studying for his MBA in the US; his father was then Bolivia's political ambassador in Washington during the current president's first presidential term (1993-97). We've been good friends ever since. Below is an email he sent me from La Paz.

Posted by Miguel at 01:39 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Remember Abyssinia

UK's Telegraph published a column comparing the Iraq crisis w/ the 1935 crisis between the League of Nations and fascist Italy. Then, as now, Britain took a hawkish stance. Then, as now, France blocked attempts to use force -- even sanctions. Then, as now, France maneuvered to secure its own political and economic interests at the expense of concerted international efforts to enforce international order. With the League unwilling to antagonize Italy and risk war, Mussolini invaded Abyssinia (aka Ethiopia). After 1935, Japan, Italy, and Germany (the original "axis of evil") realized the League of Nations was meaningless and wouldn't prevent them from doing as they wished. Soon after, the League disbanded, relegated to the "dustbin of history." France successfully avoided war in 1935. War came, in the end, only four years later -- at the cost of 40 million lives.

Posted by Miguel at 05:01 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Age caught up w/ me

My all-nighter failed. I'm too old, it seems. I have to get a at least a few hours sleep; hopefully I can finish what I planned to write of my dissertation today, tomorrow. I did get a solid page written (and a not-so-solid second page), so it's not a total loss.

BTW, Cat has a really good post reflecting on the anniversary of Daniel Pearl's murder. Journalism can be a very dangerous -- though vitally important -- profession. As much as we may sometimes decry "media vultures", we should keep in mind the importance of news reporting (both local and international and everything in between).

Posted by Miguel at 04:45 AM | Permalink | Comments (1)

Costly mistakes

Poker night was miserable. And not just because I lost $8. The evening started OK. Then, a few hands into it, Chris won a huge pot at 7/27.

Posted by Miguel at 12:11 AM | Permalink | Comments (1)

Today, I am a Jew

Today is the anniversary of the murder of Daniel Pearl, the American journalist killed by Muslim extremists in Pakistan. His father wrote a column for The Wall Street Journal. Here's an excerpt:

Posted by Miguel at 09:55 AM | Permalink | Comments (2)

Those melancholy Danes

I'm looking for a Danish sofa for my living room. If you're wondering what Danish furniture looks like, it has sleek, simple, modern lines. I also like 1950s Swedish furniture (e.g. Svegards). If you see anything along those lines -- at Goodwill or a other used furniture store -- please let me know. I visit Retro once a week, but keep striking out.

BTW, I'm watching an anti-Chirac tirade on The Daily Show. I'm not ashamed to admit that I get much of my current events news from Jon Stewart and company. Tonight's feature story was of a crazy libertarian heading a "guns for tots" campaign to distribute toy guns to Harlem kids. The guy is for real. Oh, and he's white. Bad idea? Yep.

Posted by Miguel at 01:12 AM | Permalink | Comments (2)

Powell-Rice 2004

I made considerable progress on my dissertation today; that makes me excited. I'm not done w/ the polished writing part -- but it'll amount to a solid 3-4 pages of single-spaced text. Not too bad. Essentially, I found a good way to embed my case study of Bolivia into the regional and theoretical literature while also tying it into my four major hypotheses. I'm a dork, I know (and tons of caffeine doesn't help any). But I'm very excited. I'd just gotten over my writer's block when I had to drop everything to grade a ton of papers and exams. But now I'm back!

Posted by Miguel at 12:23 AM | Permalink | Comments (2)

Taliban! the musical

Bollywood star Manisha Koirala stars in a new Indian musical about the Taliban's Afghanistan (directed by Ujjal Chattopadhyaya). The movie's based on the life of Sushmita Bandhopadhya (who wrote the original script), a Hindu pharmacist who moved to Afghanistan to live w/ her new husband. She was repeatedly harassed and beaten, and eventually sentenced to death for refusing to convert to Islam. If you like Bollywood films (nickname for the Indian film industry), you might want to check out Escape from Taliban (the movie's actual title). There's sure to be lots of outrageously overdramatic dancing and singing. A 9/11 movie is also in the works.

Posted by Miguel at 04:17 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Follow the money

The Wall Street Journal published an opinion piece by Khidhir Hamza, a recent Iraqi defector. Hamza previously worked on Iraq's nuclear weapons program. He implicates France, Germany, and Russia for selling — and continuing to sell — illicit material to Hussein's government. He argues that that's the main reason those countries oppose US involvement. Take it with a grain of salt, sure, but there's been long-standing evidence of illicit arms sales to Iraq from certain European countries — perhaps in exchange for oil?

Posted by Miguel at 02:29 PM | Permalink | Comments (3)

Poor Kangaroo Jack

Thomas Friedman and Amos Oz have two good opinion columns in the New York Times today. Friedman supports war against Hussein even though he dislikes the Bush's government's handling of the crisis. Oz opposes war -- and gives good reasons (no, he doesn't think its about oil) -- but worries about the anti-war movement's anti-semitism.

Blogger Ken Layne posted an interesting satire on protest counting. Of course, numbers don't make a cause right (or wrong) -- and it's even harder to estimate protest crowds that come from inflated estimates. But the highest estimates (1.5 million) suggest that no more Americans protested the war over the weekend than went to see Kangaroo Jack (which bombed at the box office). Four million went skiing or snowboarding, 46 million ate at McDonald's, and 200,000 went to the Daytona races.

Posted by Miguel at 11:07 AM | Permalink | Comments (1)

Dutch is back

The Shield was intense. I don't want to spoil it for those of you that missed it ... but let's just say that Vic is insane, Shane actually shows a touch of moral fiber (but just a touch), we learn the meaning of super-ego, and get a preview of a really, really nasty episode to come next week. If you're not watching The Shield ... what's wrong w/ you?!

I'm going to bed pretty soon. I've been online looking for home electronics; I'm pretty sold on a 20'' TV, DVD player, and speakers I saw on Circuit City's website ($188 total sounds good). Maybe this weekend I'll get to go shopping for all these things. Then maybe I can start hosting Shield night?

Tomorrow, my friend Moataz is giving a rehearsal job talk in the political science department. He's interviewing for a job at Central Michigan University. I was an undergrad there, six years ago. After his talk, we're going out for coffee and chess. I'll see if I can give him any tips on how to wow over my old profs.

Oh, yeah, my little brother Andy just redesigned his website (including his weblog). You should check it out; he's snowed in out East and didn't get to his DuPont cubicle for two days. Now, if only Sam would start blogging ...

Posted by Miguel at 12:42 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Goodbye, Joe

Joe Millionaire was good last night, but not amazing. I guessed right on two counts: Joe picked Zora (the only non-gold digger) and the two of them were given some money (one million to split) as a reward. But now they're showing another episode next week. Of what? Show's over. FOX is really trying to milk this show for all it's worth.

Posted by Miguel at 06:41 PM | Permalink | Comments (1)

What would Camus do?

More French "multilateralism" (from Reuters) after the EU meeting that decided to present Iraq w/ an utlimatum:

Posted by Miguel at 01:07 PM | Permalink | Comments (3)

Back to politics

I try to avoid the issue of Iraq, but I can't. It's become a significant part of my life; I care about this issue that much. But I try to be balanced and (perhaps egotistically) informative. Here's a link (via Instapundit) of a cross-blog debate on the issue. The hawk side weighs in here; the doves weigh in here.

Posted by Miguel at 01:26 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Progress

I've converted my dining room into a personal reading space. It gets amazing light in the day from the two corner windows. I might pitch the brown bookshelves (I've had them for years) and replace them w/ one long, low, white bookshelf to act as a room partition. What do you think? Mostly, I love the open feeling this room has.

I can't wait to start working on the rest of my apartment. The kitchen'll be a snap. The bedroom's mostly done. But I now have this wide open living area -- and I want to keep it as bare and wide open as possible.

Posted by Miguel at 12:54 PM | Permalink | Comments (1)

S.C. 1441

I found the complete text of the now-famous Security Council Resolution 1441 (the current resolution dealing w/ Iraq). The resolution mentions the more than a dozen resolutions demanding Iraqi cooperation (and pointing out Iraq's failure to comply w/ each of those resolutions) since 1990. Pay close attention to these clauses (it's written in the jargon of UN resolutions):

Recalling that in its resolution 687 (1991) the Council declared that a ceasefire would be based on acceptance by Iraq of the provisions of that resolution, including the obligations on Iraq contained therein

This part of the resolution's preamble reminds Iraq that the Gulf War (which it began) is not truly over; it ended in a cease-fire that required full Iraqi disarmament and compliance (it's consistently failed). The cease-fire resolution was 661.

2. Decides, while acknowledging paragraph 1 above, to afford Iraq, by this resolution, a final opportunity to comply with its disarmament obligations under relevant resolutions of the Council; and accordingly decides to set up an enhanced inspection regime with the aim of bringing to full and verified completion the disarmament process established by resolution 687 (1991) and subsequent resolutions of the Council

Note that this operative clause refers to resolution 1441 as Iraq's final opportunity to comply. How many final chances are we going to give Iraq?

Posted by Miguel at 09:16 AM | Permalink | Comments (1)

300 and counting

Simpsons was great, as always. Two new episodes back to back to mark the 300th episode anniversary. The Simpsons is now the longest-running comedy in television history. And they keep staying on the ball and amazing. We watched it at Dave's place, talking about the moped expo Dan and Dave attended in Ohio over the weekend between comercial breaks

Miss Allison Spicer has volunteered to be my interior designer. We're going to figure out how to remake my apartment sometime this week or next. I'm excited. Have I mentioned that she has great taste?

The night's winding down. I think I'll go get some coffee w/ Cat and call it a night.

Tomorrow I plan to wake up early and work diligently on my dissertation. I have catching up to do (delayed while grading exams and essays) and I have to figure out what to do about the recent Bolivian crisis. It's turned around, but still touch and go.

Posted by Miguel at 09:20 PM | Permalink | Comments (2)

3,000 march in Iraq

In an article in the UK's Telegraph, Iraq's foreign minister (Naji Sabri) flatly rejects the French-German proposal for more time and UN peacekeepers (apparently, Iraq doesn't want to give peace a chance either). Also, Bulgaria comes out not only in support of Turkey, but also highlighting France's attempt to bully it into the "axis of weasels" camp. Here's a brief excerpt:

Posted by Miguel at 03:15 PM | Permalink | Comments (2)

It's begun

I've started seriously redesigning my apartment. Finally. I tossed out the black couch and transformed my dining room into a reading room. Hopefully Miss Allison Spicer can help me w/ the complete redesign (she is, after all, an interior designer w/ impecable taste). I'll post pictures when it's all finished. I hope to have most of the brute work (moving furniture around) finished before Simpsons at 8.

Posted by Miguel at 01:23 PM | Permalink | Comments (2)

On pacifism

I respect pacifists; they have powerful moral convictions. But. If we assume that people are entitled to their own personal, ethical decisions, then pacifism cannot be the determined policy of a political state. There are several reasons.

Posted by Miguel at 03:53 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Channel blogging

I couldn't sleep last night (noisy neighbors), so I started flipping through TV channels. I discovered the best dating show ever. It's called Love by Design and it's on HGTV (Home & Garden Television).

Posted by Miguel at 02:23 PM | Permalink | Comments (1)

V-day felicitations

Annie and Sophie have a special holiday message for all their friends. You need Flash to see it properly; and crank up your speakers for this other one.

And I guess I too have Valentine's wishes to everyone out there. You know who you are; I don't need to name names. There's an odd show at The Space tonight. Berwer's playing (hard obnoxious rawk), a cake walk w/ the musical stylings of the Greg Schweser Cake Walk Band, and a showing of the locally-made independent film The Archfiend in the Underbrush. I'm thinking of showing up; you should, too.

Why am I posting so much today? I'm working a shift at The Space (noon to six). You should come down and buy some coffee and keep me company.

Posted by Miguel at 03:23 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Goni's dilemma

The situation in Bolivia is only slowly returning to normal (NYTimes, BBC). Yesterday, another 10 dead and 64 wounded in looting and confrontation against the military.

Tanks and armored vehicles dominate the once-peaceful Plaza Murillo. I remember strolling in the sunlight, feeding pigeons, listening to the kaleidoscope sound of children and street venders and taxis. Now it's a militarized zone.

Posted by Miguel at 02:23 PM | Permalink | Comments (3)

An Iraqi doctor speaks

This letter just ran in UK's The Guardian. It was written by Dr. B Khalaf, an Iraqi emmigré:

Posted by Miguel at 01:17 PM | Permalink | Comments (2)

Sam Huntington was right

The Prague Post published an interesting column by Jeremy Hurewitz. He asks a simple question: If the left opposes war, what does it support? Here's an excerpt:

Posted by Miguel at 03:13 AM | Permalink | Comments (1)

Bon appétite

I missed poker night; sorry guys. Instead, I had dinner w/ Cat (cute blonde neighbor). I cooked soysage w/ tahini sauce and gemelli pasta. That was followed by a peach Chardonnay and (Cat made this) ice cream w/ raspberries and amaretto sauce (yum!). Great conversation, as always.

Posted by Miguel at 02:27 AM | Permalink | Comments (1)

Todo es mierda

I've been too busy to keep up w/ the Bolivian news. And usually nothing really remarkable happens (aside from the incessant protests from coca growers). Yesterday, however, there was a major protest that ended in 15 dead and at least 73 wounded. It was horrible.

Posted by Miguel at 07:04 PM | Permalink

The Shield update

This is a special post for Bill and J. Edmund, who can't watch The Shield in Japan and England (respectively). So, you wanna know what's up w/ Vic Mackey and crew? Here ya go (or read the better-written popMatters review):

Posted by Miguel at 09:34 AM | Permalink | Comments (2)

Frog legs, anyone?

If anyone's interested in some French-bashing, there's a slew of letters in The New York Post. Of course, some of the letters also support France, which is fair.

I know that things French aren't very popular right about now (at least among a great portion of the American population, according to Gallup). However, the French people -- like all other people -- come in good and bad variants. I don't like the current French foreign policy (heck, most of the time it's pretty bad). And I don't mind a good ribbing here and there. But there are (still) some great things about France. Here's a short list (feel free to add others):

Croissants, Albert Camus, Victor Hugo, the Marquis de Lafayette, crêpes, fondue, Alexis de Tocqueville, Matisse, Renoir, Motobecane, the Maquis (French Resistence during Second World War), cabernet souvignon, Paris, Notre Dame Cathedral, the Louvre, Roussea, Voltaire, the Enlightenment (good God! don't forget that), the metric system, the phrase "raison d'étre" and other "chic" phrases, Gustave Eiffel (an artistic engineer), Monet, Pascal, Joan of Arc, the Renaissance, the "Declaration of the Rights of Man and the Citizen", the Statue of Liberty (the best gift this country ever received from another nation), Diderot, Honoré de Balzac, Emile Zola, Claude Debussy, Henri de Saint-Simon, Edith Piaf, Amélie (one of the best movies ever), Audrey Toutou, french kissing, Chanel No 5, great pop music, film noir, berets, the bistro, the French press (for coffee).

Posted by Miguel at 08:06 PM | Permalink | Comments (12)

Bulldog no more

Rod Liddle has a wonderfully well-thought-out anti-American column in The Guardian. I'm not being sarcastic; I'm being objective. He points out that Britain shouldn't be overly eager to side w/ us simply for loyalty's sake. That's more than fair. I think every country should follow it's own self-interest in international affairs. So should we.

Posted by Miguel at 06:56 PM | Permalink

Immigrant song

Blogger Suman Palit posted this:

Posted by Miguel at 04:07 PM | Permalink

Guilty pleasures

Dan, Dave, Nate, and I were playing Risk at The Space before going to watch The Shield. And then, bam! A snowstorm erupted and sent us scrambling for cover. We got 4-8 inches w/in an hour and winds over 35mph. Wow. It's settled down to a "mild" blizzard now.

Posted by Miguel at 11:33 PM | Permalink | Comments (1)

Silver linings

Blogger Sofia Sideshow makes a good point for encouraging anti-war protests.

On an unrelated note, the Franco-German-Belgian tripple alliance preventing NATO from reinforcing Turkey in case it's attacked is working. Greece has now expressly stated that it'll support its ancient foe, Turkey. The two countries have been uneasy NATO members; they've had several skirmishes in the past few years. For Greece to come to Turkey's defense because of the principle that it's a NATO ally is a major step towards Balkan stability. And when Bulgaria, Albania, Croatia, and Macedonia join in, wow! See, the "axis of weasels" aren't so bad. They're promoting peace and understanding between old enemies. Hurray!

Posted by Miguel at 06:43 PM | Permalink | Comments (1)

The TV spotlight

Whether Iraq is or isn't linked to Bin Laden is unclear. But today's Aljazeera broadcast included a videotaped statement from Bin Laden saying that he's in "partnership" w/ Iraq. Here's the New York Times version. Smoking gun, anyone?

Of course, every time we focus too much on Hussein, Bin Laden pops up to remind us he's just as loco (and vice versa). I think they just love the media attention. They say there's no such thing as bad publicity.

Posted by Miguel at 04:25 PM | Permalink | Comments (5)

No jury for me

My first day of jury duty was a bust. I wasn't called in for any cases, so I used the time to grade exams (ironically, on American judicial process). The jury pool was released around noon, so I walked to The Space for a glazed donut and coffee lunch.

Posted by Miguel at 12:25 PM | Permalink | Comments (1)

French ironies

I'm skeptical of "old" Europe's pretensions toward international pluralism. Especially w/ the recent Turkey crisis. Germany, France, and Belgium are refusing defensive deployments to help protect Turkey in case the Iraqis attack them. Turkey happens to be the only predominantly Muslim NATO member and is requesting help from its allies to secure its borders (but hey, what's a defensive military alliance for?). Which brings up the interesting question: Why have these countries also consistently blocked Turkey's request to join the European Union? I guess it's OK to use Turks as cannon fodder, but not as equal economic partners.

Posted by Miguel at 07:05 PM | Permalink | Comments (9)

Squirrel research

If you're wondering about the benefits of a top notch college education: Two Harvard graduate students are diligently at work on their rodent performance evaluation.

Grading's almost finished. I'm going to go home now, hang out w/ my cats, read my new issue of MacAddict, and go to bed. I'll wrap up the last of the grading on campus tomorrow.

Posted by Miguel at 10:49 PM | Permalink | Comments (1)

Not spirited away

I'm seriously behind on grading, so I'm not going to see Spirited Away at The Little Theater this afternoon. Too bad; I was really looking forward to seeing it. But I still have 30-some papers to grade, and I hope to get them all finished before The Simpsons (or at least enough so that I can finish the rest soon after and go to bed early for a change).

Posted by Miguel at 04:39 PM | Permalink | Comments (2)

Hawks defend doves

Apparently, the The New York Sun published an editorial supporting New York City's decision to obstruct anti-war protesters. Of course, The Sun is wrong. Dead wrong. Eugene Volokh (a pro-war hawk) wrote a scathing critique of The Sun's warped reasoning. Here's an excerpt:

Posted by Miguel at 09:35 PM | Permalink

Reason #43

I didn't realize there's an "art" show opening at The Space today. I used quotation marks because I'm not sure the "pieces" qualify as art that deserves an opening reception. It's all really amateurish and could've been done by mildly talented middle-schoolers.

Posted by Miguel at 06:19 PM | Permalink | Comments (1)

Know when to fold 'em

Poker night went well. I was up about two dollars early in the evening, then two games of 7/27 dropped me to about $3. But a beautiful straight flush started my comeback and I finished up 60 cents. Not too shabby.

Grading is going very, very slow. I'm hoping to get close to finishing the essays today (I'll have to finish them tomorrow). Tonight, there's a Moped Army benefit show at 10pm at The Space w/ three bands: Drako Shadow, OME, and Edward. Should be fun.

Posted by Miguel at 01:53 PM | Permalink | Comments (1)

I'll take a Guinness

The last few stragglers are working on their exam and I'm waiting on them. I now have about 80 four-page papers and another 100+ short essay exams to grade. By next week. I'm not really looking forward to this bout of grading.

Posted by Miguel at 03:45 PM | Permalink | Comments (9)

Katie Couric had it wrong

Mark Steyn thinks maybe we should quit the UN. He may be right. His article in Britain's The Spectator is moving. After all, the UN seems to have sunk into irrelevance. Libya's Gaddafi now heads the UN Human Rights Commission. In May, Iraq (yes, that Iraq) assumes leadership of the UN Conference on Disarmament. So what's the point?

Here's a (lengthy) excerpt:

Posted by Miguel at 12:51 PM | Permalink | Comments (2)

Swarm and Destroy

Some of my friends (John and Jaakan) made a really good documentary of the Moped Army. It's going to be shown at the Kalamazoo Shorts Film Festival at the Little Theater this Saturday (15 February) at 8pm. Here's the official movie trailer.

Posted by Miguel at 06:05 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Good night

Today was a pretty good, tiredness notwithstanding. Let's see, I woke up just in time to get to campus to collect over 100 four-page essays I have to grade w/in a few days. Thursday I collect over 100 exams. This week is all about grading.

Posted by Miguel at 11:51 PM | Permalink | Comments (1)

Build higher

An article in The New York Times today unveiled two finalist architectural designs for a new World Trade Center. I'm really excited to see what's built. Both new designs envision the tallest skycraper in the world. The original WTC was built by Minoru Yamasaki. The greatest post 9/11 victory for Western civilization will come when the Atlantic skyline of New York City is mended.

Posted by Miguel at 02:31 PM | Permalink

Go Russia!

Here's a great article from The Christian Science Monitor on space exploration in the immediate future. Russia will lead. They're not afraid of continuing, and are already launching a rocket Sunday to resupply the International Space Station (here's the cooler Boeing page). Although operating a bankrupt space program, Russians are confident that space exploration can -- and should -- continue. They're willing to do their part.

Posted by Miguel at 05:11 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

To Mars and beyond

No doubt we'll be reading, hearing, and seeing lots of politicians, bureaucrats, and media personalities ask whether we should re-evaluate our space program. After all, seven people died in the Columbia disaster. Is the cost of space exploration too high? No.

Posted by Miguel at 03:23 PM | Permalink | Comments (2)

Back to politics

I've stepped away from politically charged posts for a while. But here's one I couldn't pass up. It's from Julie Burchill, a life-long socialist, and published in London's very left-wing The Guardian. I've decided to post her entire column:

Posted by Miguel at 02:37 PM | Permalink | Comments (2)

Country coffee

The phone woke me up this morning. Brian needed someone to fill a shift at The Space at the last minute. I think I was too groggy to realize I'd agreed. I'll admit I started my shift in a crabby mood. Things weren't fully stocked, I was hungry and tired, and anti-war protesters kept coming in (some w/ their children) on their way to make a difference. They ordered special malted mochas and espresso drinks to keep them satisfied while protesting our demand that a brutal authoritarian regime disarm.

Posted by Miguel at 01:20 PM | Permalink | Comments (4)

Suburban assault vehicle

Dan and I drove out to Portage today alongside a Hummer. Now, I'm sure the Hummer's brilliant for what it was designed as: a tactical assault and weapons platform. But 40-year-old soccer moms don't need to drive bright yellow armored vehicles to the mall.

Posted by Miguel at 07:49 PM | Permalink | Comments (3)

My cats lose a litter box

I've just rearranged my life. My desk and TV are in my bedroom, consolidating most of my furniture into one room. I've also put my bed frame back together. I learned that I'm too old to sleep w/ just a mattress on the floor (which reminds me, I've not seen my chiropractor in a while).

Posted by Miguel at 07:27 PM | Permalink | Comments (1)

Shalom, Columbia

We lost another space shuttle today. The White House has already ruled out terrorism, even though the shuttle carried the first Israeli astronaut. I suspect they're right, and I appreciate not jumping the gun in these tense times.

Posted by Miguel at 12:51 PM | Permalink | Comments (3)