Both of Us .org

Yet another Democrat has bowed to a Republican whiny tantrum. This time it was California representative Peter Stark. Last week he was speaking on the house floor about S-CHIP (health care for children) and the war in Iraq. He was frustrated that Bush vetoed a bipartisan bill designed to increase the number of children in the USA that could be covered by a successful program. Instead of spending an extra 35 billion dollars to insure several millions of children, 200 billion dollars goes to an effort in Iraq. Starks was threatened censure in the House and has been roundly chastised by members of the Republican party for the following words.

"You don’t have money to fund the war or children,” Mr. Stark told Republicans last week. “But you’re going to spend it to blow up innocent people, if we can get enough kids to grow old enough for you to send to Iraq to get their heads blown off for the president’s amusement.”

Are these words offensive enough to merit censure in the house of representatives, or merely a strong statement about the reality of the policies of Bush and the Republican party? Most Americans would agree that we are confused as a nation if we choose to spend so many billions of dollars to blow things up and run an imperial colony in the Middle East, rather than focusing on our own children and making sure they have health care.

Even more disappointing is Democrat submission to Republican temper tantrums. Democrats do not seem to understand what it means to take a position and fight for it. Republicans say crazy thing all the time and get away with it; see Cheney, Bush, Rumsfeld, Limbaugh, Coulter etc.

The latest polls show only 25%of Americans think Bush is doing a good job as president. Yet with this overwhelming evidence that Americans are fed up with Bush and his party's policies, Democrats remain timid. Democrats listen to their advisers and focus groups rather than realizing there is a ground swell of resentment regarding the last 6+ years of Republican malfeasance governance.

Democrats should rise up, speak truth, and propose policy without fear of reprisal. If you hold an opinion, you should be able to stand strong in the face of criticism and fight for what you believe in. Stand up to your opposition if they complain their feelings are hurt because you were honest with them regarding the insanity of their policies. If Democrats constantly censor themselves, nothing will change. It is possible to tell Republicans that their policies are wrong and still be respectful.

I fear the Democrats behave this way in hopes of offending the fewest number of persons as possible. Republicans behavior is designed to solidify their base of voters. Clearly it works better to feed 'red meat' to your base to ensure they vote for you, rather than tap dancing around issues, neither impressing nor inspiring anyone. At times like these I really miss the strong progressive leader we once had here in Minnesota, Paul Wellstone.

Labels: politics

Today I took some pictures with my mobile phone so I could try to sell some furniture we are storing for friends. In the process I downloaded all the photos stored on my phone and came across a few that came out very nicely.

The pictures here were taken at the Great Minnesota Get-Together, also known as the Minnesota State Fair. We went one Saturday evening with JB's sister and enjoyed each others company and the not so healthy food on offer there. The hundreds of thousands of people that visit St. Paul for the Fair are representative of the diversity of our state, from lily white farmers parading their sheep in the Sheep Barn to middle class suburbanites checking out the Arts and Crafts Building, to ethnically diverse neighbors from our neighborhood in Northeast Minneapolis investigating the thrills of the Midway.

In these photos, the moon was rising as we passed under the chair lifts. I took these photos with the moon in the background. I hope you enjoy these images even posted months after the Fair went quiet and dark.

Labels: Minnesota

Brewing and bottling your own beer is enjoyable and rewarding. For the past year, I have been an amateur brewer. I have had great success making my own beer and sharing it with friends. The process is surprisingly simple and the ingredients and equipment necessary to brew beer is inexpensive and easy to obtain. So far I have purchased all of my equipment and supplies through a small local brewing supply store, Northern Brewer in St. Paul, MN. They have a good selection of starter kits, and they also sell via their website. It is hard to screw up beer made from their ready to make kits which always contain instructions as well as necessary malt sugars and yeast. Some kits also contain specialty grains, herbs, and other things to add to your brew such as honey.

People are often surprised at the high quality and great flavors of beer that you can produce yourself. At this point I have tried around twelve different kit offerings. I have also branched out and am brewing mead (honey wine) in addition to beer.

Question I frequently get from friends are:

Q: How much beer do you get and how much does it cost to make it?

A: Beer is generally made at home in five gallon batches. The reusable equipment will cost about an initial $100, and the ingredients for each five gallon batch will cost between $20 and $45 dollars depending on the ingredients if you buy them in a kit or a bit less if you buy the ingredients separately.

Q: How long does it take?

A: Four weeks ago I brewed ten gallons of beer, this weekend I bottled it, and two weeks from now, this beer will be ready to consume. That means this batch took 6 weeks. Other more complex or higher alcohol level beers can take longer, up to six months.

Q: How much work is it?

A: The biggest investment in crafting your own beer is in time. The brewing process takes about 3 hours from start to finish including clean up for a single five gallon batch. Racking beer, which is transferring it from one carboy to another, might take half-an-hour to an hour depending on how many batches you are racking. The bottling process will also take an hour to two hours depending on your methods. I am fortunate to have a dishwasher that can wash and sanitize my bottles, I know some people that do it all by hand.

Grolsh pop top bottles are by far the easiest bottles to use. You don't have to worry about traditional bottle capping because they have a capping mechanism that works great.

Growlers are another easy alternative for bottling. Growlers are jugs specially designed to carry beer. Growlers are available from many brew pubs that will sell you their beer to take with you and consume at home. Local brew pubs that sell growlers include Town Hall Brewery in Minneapolis, Great Waters Brewery in St. Paul, and Barley John's Brew Pub in New Brighton.

Homebrewing is an interesting, economical, and pleasurable option for anyone who enjoys beer and is considering trying something new.

Labels: beer

How does one prevent the gradual slide towards close-mindedness that seems to afflict many people as they grow older? Each of us has likely shared conversation with someone older than ourselves, who is nostolgic for days long past; peaceful carefree days when none of the problems we have today occured.

I fear becoming one of these persons as I grow older. I wonder about why, when, and how fast I might change. I am approaching forty years of age. Could the changes already be taking place as we speak? Will I one day be looking at my neighborhood with respect and pride, and the next day see it as a place filled with scary people and frightening technology?

This is not an indictment of elderly people. Rather it is my observation of the way the mind begins to change as some people age. A few symptoms of this 'aging disease' include; reflecting on an imagined past that is overly simplified and factually incorrect, disdain for current cultural trends, inflating the severity of current events, and presenting the overall attitude is that "things today are terribly worse than when I was young."

Thankfully, I do not associate many of these symptoms with my day-to-day thoughts. I concede that I often think popular culture is annoying, however I felt the same about popular culture in the 80's and 90's. I realize that societal problems exist today, but recognize there were other problems in the past and there will be different problems in the future. Today's problems are not significantly greater than problems of the past. The past held good times and some not so good times.

Do I want to go back to grade school or high school? Would I want to return to my college days or my mid 20's or early 30's again because those days were somehow better? In a general sense no, reality dictates forward progress through life. I cherish memories of my past and look forward to improving life in the present and future. I might cherry-pick some moments of my past to re-live or reminisce about youthful days of few responsibilities, but I will not damn the present because of experiences I had in the past.

One possible cause of the sour attitude of some older folks might be that society has left them behind. Perhaps some older people build bubbles of reality that may artificially lock them into one period of time. Years may peacefully pass until one day events occur which break their bubble and force in some reality. This event can be harsh and frightening, difficult to understand in light of the artificial bubble world. Further, there may be a realization that cultural norms have moved so far and so fast that one can no longer integrate oneself into the present. This could make one frustrated, angry, intolerant, and basically detached from much of what the present has to offer.

One possible preventative measure to avoid this dead end, is to remain engaged in the present. On a local level, getting to know new neighbors as they move in and staying involved with persons you have known for long time. Make new friendships to supplement your old friendships. Remain open-minded to new technology and the changes this technology brings to how the world runs. Change sometimes improves things.

This last point brings to mind the frustration that introducing roundabouts has caused to some with people in this area. They complain about the new traffic patterns without regard to the fact they will actually improve how cars get through a busy intersection.

Don't let far away events or isolated incidences dictate what you think about young people or society at large. Our world is a big place with more and more people born into it every day. Strange events and horrible tragedies are beamed into our living rooms or computer screens. We see these things more because such information is so easily transmitted now, however these bizarre and horrible things have been occurring since humans have walked the earth.

In short, I hope to stay young at mind as long as possible.

Labels: perspective, politics

I want to thank my friend, roller derby ninja, and soccer playing buddy April Soylent Mean for finding the Queen of the Scottish Fairies.

The comic above, much like the film Ma Vie en Rose "My Life in Pink" explores a child that embraces a gender outside of the binary "norm."

Growing up in a family where I was for many years the only boy in a family of seven sisters, I can remember wanting to be able to use lip gloss and wear high-healed shoes like my sisters and knowing from disapproving looks from my parents and siblings that this was not acceptable. Eventually, in grade school and middle school I got the feminine parts of my personality beaten out of me by macho Italian classmates in Catholic school.

If you have a spare moment check out the Queen of the Scottish Fairies link above, or put Ma Vie en Rose in your Netflicks que.

Labels: gender, politics

We have two computers at home. One occupies our office/screening room, and the other graces the guest bedroom. The office computer runs Windows XP, the operating system familiar to most people. The computer in guest bedroom however runs on Ubuntu.

"What is Ubuntu?" you might ask. Ubuntu is an operating system based on the Linux kernel and is free and open source software. This means that this computer operating system and the software on it is not owned by anyone and is free, both free as in beer (monetarily free) and free as in speech (free of copyrights and patents).

The guests that have stayed with us have used Ubuntu with no problems. It has free office software on it OpenOffice and the web browser Firefox. Most Windows programs that you can think of have free and open source alternatives that are included in Ubuntu.

If you are thinking of ditching Windows, you can give Ubuntu a try by downloading or ordering a free copy of the software. You can run it off your CD drive to take it for a test drive and it will not harm your Windows installation. The new version comes out in two weeks, but why wait?

Labels: computers