Book Review 15: Angry Wind

This was a great book that took me forever to finish! It wasn't because it was long, I just had a lot going on and I think Netflix is cutting into my reading time. Jeffrey Taylor, the author, sounds like an amazing person that speaks about as many languages as you could name. He uses his linguistic mastery to travel through remote parts of the world to speak with ordinary people to understand some of the most misunderstood areas of the globe. Previous books talk about places like Siberia but this one is on his journey through the Sahel.

The Sahel is the southern region of the Sahara were Arab Muslims meet Black Christians. Because Europeans ignored the obvious cultural differences when they drew the borders of these countries, each of these countries struggle with warfare between the opposing groups. He journeys through Chad, Nigeria, Niger, Mali, an Senegal in an admirable attempt to understand a very neglected part of the world.

I really appreciated this book because it taught me about an important global problem without being overly heavy or academic. Sometimes the best way to understand a country and its problems are through the eyes of the people who live there, not the experts. Any one perspective of the many people he talked to in the Sahel would probably be biased and not offer a fair account of the Sahel, but the culmination of opinions he gathered from a large number of different people paints a well-written picture of a fascinating region.

Four and a half out of five. You will learn something without feeling like you are learning something. Like the river rafting book I reviewed as book review number 1, you will feel like you are on an adventure while accumulating a new appreciation for a remote area of the world.

Update

so after a few days without internet we have it back miracle... where to start. i'm sure you've all missed me terribly.

Well first off after my 6-10 nfl picks week last week I went 12-2 for week 3. somehow I still lost the pool at work because I guessed the total points last night to be 41 and it was over so I went over. the other lady who guessed 35 won. i think that is a horse shit rule but i don't make the rules. that brings my season total to 26-20. this week i'm going to take that damn pot.

we had a really good weekend trip to visit jonny. we just drank a lot of fat tire and checked out some of the towns in the area. it was a blast.

so last night jonny came down here to watch the broncos on monday night. hell yes broncos. eat it grandma. that's all i have about that.

on sunday we had a family bday party - that was pretty fun. the highlight was losing to andrew at darts. i was the shit at darts in college and last night i lost to a guy who sees like 20/20000000.

that's it. i'm out.

Katrina Pics

Here are some awesome Katrina pics taken from the side of the road somewhere in Alabama. They are much better than the pics of the devastation you've been seeing on the news. Thanks mom for the forward.

Awesome...

Netflix over Cinemax

Yes I love Netflix. We are coming up on one month of service and we've gotten 19 movies for a nice low price with no running to the movie store and no late fees.

But some of you like movie channels better than Netflix so while I was sitting here bored on a Saturday afternoon let me share with you one of the real picks on Cinemax this evening.

If you really like your movie channels more than Netflix, you should watch Emmanuelle in Space tonight on Cinemax. Here is what the movie guide says word for word...

Emmanulle in Space: "The sexual tension is out of this world as the otherworldly Emmanuelle educates a group of aliens about the erotic nature of earthlings and later learns one of her "students" has fallen quite hard for a human being."

wow.
www.netflix.com

save yourselves.

NFL PICKS

The last few posts have been pretty serious, but this one is for the football fans.

Reflections on Week One: My record 8-8-0 (.500)

Wow what a week. Where to begin - How about with the Broncos. I am appalled and disgusted by their performance against the Dolphins. Any Broncos fan knows that the Broncos needed a strong September because the October schedule, including games against both of last year's Superbowl contenders, is incredibly tough. Rather than beat one of last year's weakest teams, we lost to the Dolphins and go into an important game against our fierce divisional rivals - the San Diego Chargers.

As for the other games, congrats GMA on the Cheifs whomping of the Jets. Oops - I shouldn't have picked the Cardinals to beat the Giants (lost 41-19).

My biggest question after week one - How did I pick every AFC game right except for DEN-MIA and every NFC game wrong except for WAS - CHI?? I am a true AFC fan but I'll try to do better this week.

Here are my Week II picks:

Baltimore (0-1) over Tennessee (0-1) - If the Ravens can hold Peyton Manning for almost an entire half they can definitley stop the offense of the weak Tennessee Titans.

Detroit (1-0) over Chicago (0-1) - Detroit held Green Bay to a league low 3 points last week and the Bears only managed to score 7 last week.

Cincinnati (1-0) over Minnesota (0-1) - Cincinnati is coming off a big win and Minnesota is coming off of a painful loss. I don't think one of these teams is better than the other so in this situation I'm going to pick the home team (CIN), especially since they are AFC.

New Orleans (1-0) over NY Giants (1-0) - This is a tough game to pick. Two mediocre teams. Do you go with the one who beat the crappy team 41-19 last week or the team who beat a potential Superbowl contender by a last minute field goal? You can't just go for the home team because it is a New Orleans home game being played on New York's field. My heart goes out to New Orleans and I think their cinderella story goes on one more game - go Saints.

Philadelphia (0-1) over San Francisco (1-0) - Philadelphia had a shitty game last week but they were in the Superbowl in January when the 49ers were sitting at home after an abysmal season. San Francisco doesn't have a chance.

St. Louis (0-1) over Arizona (0-1) - Does anyone really give a damn about this game? Kurt Warner plays his old team and they are going to make him regret leaving St. Louis for the biggest joke of a team in the league today.

Miami (1-0) over the New York Jets (0-1) - New York couldn't stop anything the Cheifs threw at them last week and Miami had the highest rated offense in the AFC last week (thanks to Denver). Miami's comeback season continues and Jets fans are going to hate themselves on Monday.

Kansas City (1-0) over Oakland (0-1) - Kansas City held the Jets and they can hold the Raiders too. Oakland won't be able to stop KC's running game and the Cheifs will beat the Raiders to make sure the Broncos don't sit at the bottom of the division alone.

Buffalo (1-0) over Tampa Bay (1-0) - I don't really know why I'm picking this one so I'm not going to bullshit. I just hate the NFC so I'll always pick the AFC team to win.

Indianapolis (1-0) over Jacksonville (1-0) - My sixth sense really tells me that Jacksonville can do this, but my head says that if the Jags let the Seahawks score almost 20 last week, they'll let the Colts score a lot more. Plus, the Colts are at home. Sorry Jags.

New England (1-0) over Carolina (0-1) - People say Carolina is a contender every year but the dissapoint every year. If the Saints can go into Carolina and win, so can the Pats.

Pittsburgh (1-0) over Houston (0-1) - This will be the biggest blowout of the week. I would bet on that.

Atlanta (1-0) over Seattle (0-1) - Atlanta will win this game and everyone will start talking about Atlanta like they are the best team in the NFC.

Green Bay (0-1) over Cleveland (0-1) - Green Bay had an awful game last week and their best received was injured last week, but the Browns won't go to Lambeau field and win in Green Bay's home opener.

San Diego (0-1) over Denver (0-1) - I love my team, but if Miami's rookie can tear holes in our run defense, what is Ladanian Tomilson, the best back in the league, going to do to us?? Add San Diego's strong tight end coming back and we're in trouble - even with all 5,280 feet we have on the Chargers. We are going to start the season 0-2 and the possibility of a 9-7 season will be greatly diminished.

Dallas (1-0) over Washington (1-0) - How did the Redskins only score 9 points agains the Bears? I'll give it to Dallas just for that.

That's it. Hopefully I'll do better this week than last week, but at least I'm over .500.

Katrina in Perspective...

I don't really want to say a lot about Katrina because it has been so ridiculously politicized. Perhaps the combination of this storm and Natalie Holloway is just the thing to break my addiction to cable news. However, a dear friend sent me an email that puts this storm in a little more perspective. It isn't the partisan crap that is coming out of the left and the right, but it is an honest look at what past presidents have done in the face of similar situations. I'm not putting it up here because I want to criticize the current president. I'm posting it because I think comparisons to the past are far more useful than the partisan rhetoric coming from both sides. Thanks James for the email and I hope you all take the time to read it.

Here's how OTHER leaders have handled a crisis likethis:

President: Nixon
Danger: Category-5 Hurricane Camille (August 1969)
Area: About the same area as that affected by Katrina
Response: Nixon prepared the National Guard 1 day inadvance, ordering rescue ships from Tampa, FL andHouston, TX to stand waiting along with over athousand regular military, 24+ helicopters to assistthe Coast Guard and National Guard about as soon asthe hurricane passed.

President: Bush the Elder
Danger: Hurricane Andrew (August 92)
Area: FloridaResponse: In the middle of a re-election campaign,Bush ceased campaigning the day before the hurricane,went to Washington, and assembled one of the largestmilitary forces ever mustered on U.S. soil. Seventhousand National Guard and 22,000 regular militarywere sent in with the necessary equipment shortlyafter the hurricane passed through.

President: Clinton
Danger: Category-3 Hurricane Floyd (September 1999)
Area: Virginia and Carolinas
Response: Meeting with China's president Jiang in NewZealand, Clinton immediately declared thehurricane-affected areas as federal disasters,allowing the military and National Guard to move inand help. Clinton flew home immediately, one daybefore the hurricane hit, to help coordinate therescue.

President: Bush the Lesser
Danger: Category-5 Hurricane Katrina (August 2005)
Area: Gulf Coast
Response: National Guard troops are down about 8,000members because they are in Iraq with much of thenecessary rescue equipment needed. Bush was onvacation, riding his bike for two hours the day beforethe hurricane lands. On the day Katrina landed, Bushattended a birthday party for John McCain. The leveesbegan to crack. While emergency 1.5-ton sandbags wereready to be placed to steady the levee and absorbwater, there were insufficient numbers of helicoptersand pilots to set them before the levees break. Nagin,the mayor of NO, pleaded for federal-level assistanceand got none. Bush went to San Diego to play guitarwith a country singer and end his vacation early --but not until the next day, because he had tickets toa San Diego Padres game.

I would love your comments on this, especially from those of you who remember the impacts and reactions to these other storms. I wasn't old enough (and didnt pay enough attention to the news) to reflect on these other storms but I am interested in what you guys who watched the aftermaths of Camille, Andrew, or Floyd think about this email.

Say a Prayer...

Everybody say a quick prayer for the family of Kurtis Arcala, the 1,896th American casualty in Iraq and the first from my high school graduating class. As he lived two streets down from us and rode the same bus, he was one of my first friends when I moved to Palmer in 8th grade. We ran with different groups and weren't close all through high school, but this is still terrible news that brings Iraq a little closer to home.

He died on September 11 - four years to the day all those in my graduating class who joined the military to earn money for college woke up to the realization that they were now committed to more than they knew they'd signed on for.

I just can't stop wondering how they felt that morning when they woke up to a war that nobody expected. It would be easy to be afraid or regret their decisions to join, which many of them had made only a few weeks earlier. However, those that I've kept in touch with face their duty and unexpected sacrifice with pride and honor. They embraced the chance to serve the country and I'm sure they are all stronger people than they were when I saw them last in May 2001.

Here is a link to the article if you are interested. There was one in the Anchorage Daily News yesterday but for some reason those pricks have decided that they need anyone who wants to view an article to register first.
http://frontiersman.com/

Blame Canada? No blame John Gibson.

Somehow I found myself watching John Gibson's show on FOXNEWS today when I couldn't believe what I was hearing. John had the Canadian Ambassador to the United States and they were talking about the huge amount of aid Canada is giving and the fact that the Canadian rescue team from Vancouver, BC arrived in New Orleans before any of the United States military. Instead of being grateful for Canada's assistance, especially when our own troops were so late getting into the city, John Gibson had the audacity to claim that Canada only acted so quickly in an attempt to embarrass the Bush administration.
Wow. How the hell does this guy stay on TV. Probably because there are a bunch of Americans out there that agree with him. It is frustrating for me to hear that type of ridiculous crap on TV, but as long as he can get people to say, "Yeah, those Canadian assholes only helped us out so quickly to make us look stupid" he'll stay on TV.

I don't really care how you vote. The fact that Canada's emergency recovery team arrived before the American military is a shame. However, it is more of a shame that some Americans are so blinded by their love of Bush that they would rather scorn our neighbors to the north for their speedy assistance than thank them.

After Katrina...

I know we are all completely focused on Hurricane Katrina right now, but hurricane season is just now reaching its historical height. As you can see in this picture there are three storms brewing in the Atlantic right now. Maria (northernmost), and Nate (central) pose no threat to land but experts predict Hurricane Ophelia will circle clockwise and turn around to strike central Florida. I hope we are a little more prepared for this one...

I wonder if we will learn anything from Katrina but I fear that we will not. This storm was an act of God and there is no where to point our fingers. It is natural after tragedies to try to explain them away until they make some sort of sense because that feels a lot better than just wondering why, but look at what this is doing. Anyone interested in psychology can rattle off the stages of grief and anger is one of them. In this case there is nowhere to direct our collective anger. As a result, people are pointing at each other. It is either the fault of Bush's slow action or the looters and shooters are to blame. The Republicans were too focused in Iraq and the Democrats are too busy pointing fingers at Republicans. The far right says God punished this "sin city" and are thankful that mardi gras flashings and girls gone wild movies are on hiatus. The far left says God has nothing to do with this and that this was a result of global warming and rising ocean temperatures from the human release greenhouse gases.

The reasons and explanations for this storm are not clear to me and I don't expect them to be clear to anyone other than those consumed by the anger and blame that comes with grief and sorrow. What does seem clear to me is that anger, a natural human reaction to loss, is not doing anything to help this country or those in need right now. There are no culprits in caves and shadows on the far side of the world to hold accountable. Their is no clear cause but there is a crystal clear course we must take now. We have to rebuild and save the people there and the anger-filled void of cause and reason cannot obstruct our country's necessary reaction to this tragedy.

T.G.I.F.S.

T.G.I.F.S. - Thank God it's Football Season!!!

I know I'm writing at halftime, but anyone who knows me already knew that I'd pick the Pats to decimate the Raiders. I hate the Raiders.

I'm very excited for the Broncos season opener against the Dolphins. The Broncos have lost the last six they've played in Miami, but not this time. Denver is too good and Miami is too bad. Screw the Dolphins. That's all I have to say about that.

I'm going to keep track of my picks and my record this season so here are my picks for this week. Feel free to fight me on them.

Week 1

Pats over Raiders
Cheifs over Jets
Jags over Seahawks
Bengals over Browns
Panthers over Saints
Bills over Texans
Redskins over Bears
Steelers over Titans
Vikings over Bucs
BRONCOS over DOLPHINS
Rams over 49ers
Chargers over Cowboys
Cardinals over Giants
Packers over Detroit
Colts over Ravens
Eagles over Falcons

Season Record - 0-0-0 (.000)

More Sky Shots

You people don't seem to like to comment on my sky shots but I see some cool things from my deck. Let's see if you like these any better...

We have sunrise this morning and a rainbow at dusk last night.

Double Rainbow

Well the weather was kind of crappy so no hiking today but the place looks amazing. As I was finishing dinner and downing a good beer out of a frosted mug I saw a double rainbow outside and decided to take pictures. I'm Adobe Photoshop stupid, otherwise I'd try to bring out the color a little more. Here are a couple pictures.

Happy Bday to Me

Yesterday was quite possibly the laziest birthday I've ever had in my life but that's what made it perfect.

Kelly and I wanted to go camping but it's Labor Day weekend and there are probably more people in the mountains than in the city. I was really tired after getting up early for the balloon classic on Saturday so I slept in and didn't wake up until Kelly woke me up with breakfast in bed!

After that we stayed around the apartment watching movies and playing games. We didn't need to go anywhere to enjoy ourselves. We rarely get full days off with eachother so it was great to just hang out.

Kelly made some enchilladas for dinner and she made German chocolate cake. Yum. She bought some beer so we could use the cool pilsner glasses we got at the wedding and that was pretty cool.

Did you know the Broncos logo is all over cases of beer in Colorado. That only made my Bud Light that much sweeter.

Today we should be going hiking after all of that eating yesterday. If we do, I'll take some pics and share them.

The Balloon Classic Glow

Part of the big balloon classic (see my earlier post for the race) is the glow. At night all of the balloons gather in the park and put new burners on that put out more light and less heat. This way the balloons and temporarily glow without rising. Here are the pictures. Leave comments if you like.





I'm probably done with the balloon classic because I think they just repeat this on Sunday and Monday. Tomorrow I think we are going to hike... Have a good night everybody.

Google Earth Test...

A satelitte view of my 4 14er hike, courtesy of Google Earth. The words are fuzzy in this view, but click on it to enlarge the image. We started at Kite Lake and went to Democrat to Cameron to Lincoln back to Cameron to Bross to Kite Lake. The ridge in the foreground on this side of Wheeler Lake is the Continental Divide.

how cool is this?

Colorado Balloon Festival

Why the hell would I get up at 5:30 on a Saturday? Well, last weekend I did it to climb 14ers but today I did it to go down and see the Colorado Balloon Festival. Every Labor Day weekend they take off from Memorial Park in downtown Colorado Springs all three days. They expect 250,000 people there this weekend so I went down to take some pictures.

Canadian Geese on a small lake near the park.

One of the nearly 100 balloons that lifted off from Memorial Park this morning.

Balloons take off from downtown Colorado Springs and head south east.

A balloon passed low enough over the water to cast a reflection on the small lake.

We'll be back later today to see some other events. Why go camping when half the city is camping. Better to stay in a half-empty city for cool events I haven't seen before right?

Book Review 14: Collapse

My first book review on this blog was Jared Diamond's Guns, Germs, and Steel and now the 14th is his much anticipated sequel - Collapse.

Guns, Germs, and Steel was highly acclaimed and even won a Pulitzer Prize, but I didn't put it at the top of the list for what I've read this summer. Diamond made some very strong points in the beginning of the book but didn't follow by building on those points. Rather, he kept restating them with example after example until his book fades into redundancy. I hoped this book wouldn't follow a similar fate, but unfortunately it did.

While Guns, Germs, and Steel uses biology and geography to explain the various rises of civilizations across the world Collapse talks about their failures. Rather than focus solely on natural factors as Guns, Germs, and Steel tended to do, Diamond places responsibility on the failure of civilizations on people who either did not respect or understand the fragility of the environments around them. This book carries a strong message and is an interesting history of societies as distant as Greenland and Easter Island but also as local as the Anasazi in southern Colorado. However, because environmentalism is so politicized and partisan right now I think his message could be perceived as politically rather than anthropologically motivated.

I don't want liberals to embrace this as proof that America is destroying the world and I don't want conservatives to write it off as environmentalist tree-hugger propoganda. Learn the lessons of the past and then decide for yourself how to apply what you learned to our current condition. Whether you are interested in the future or the past, the environment or past cultures, this book will be an interesting read. Unfortuneatly he has more examples than points so his book does tend to slide into redundancy earlier than I prefer - but that's just my humble opinion.

Book Review 13: The Future of Freedom

What if I told you a country was led by non-elected officials who were appointed for life and could overrule the decisions of elected representative bodies of the country's government. Now, this is not some authoritarian dictatorship. It is the United States Supreme Court, the most respected branch of the American federal government. As much as we love democracy in America, isn't it ironic that we have the most respect for the least democratic part of government?



I haven't put a book review on for a while, but never fear, I have been reading. My 13th book of the summer was Fareed Zakaria's "The Future of Freedom." I finished this book sometime in the first week of August. This book makes some very interesting points that are worth consideration by every freedom loving American - and especially those that think democracy needs to spread through the rest of the world like wildfire.

The spread of democracy doesn't sound like a bad thing until you start to consider what that entails. Democracy suggests the right to vote for elected officials and possibly even direct election for some policies (similar to ballot measures in the United States). The First World loves the cause of democratization, but what are the effects of this "noble?" cause?

The ethnically divisive failed states that are targeted for democratization might be some of the worst states to implement democracy in. Let's take Iraq. The minority Sunnis led the state ever since the British created it, but now that Iraq has democracy the Sunnis will find themselves disadvantaged and possibly even oppressed. In a less democratic society Iraqi politicians may be able to compromise and make agreements like millions of citizens cannot. Democracy in Iraq may in fact be impeding an agreement that has a better chance of securing lasting peace in Iraq.

Now, I'm not hating on democracy and neither is the author of this book. Rather, the author recognizes that democracy is becoming ever more democratic and that may not be a constructive development. In the United States Congressmen can't deal like they used to because 24 hour news coverage has put more pressure on legislators to vote in accordance with their constituents rather than vote for what is best for the country. The growing number of ballot measures and the results of these polls show that the increase in democracy may be hampering another treasured American trait - freedom. Think about it. The majority doesn't want gays to marry. The majority doesn't want people to smoke marijuana for medicinal purposes or choose their own right to be euthanized at the end of an unnaturally prolonged life. I'm not taking a stand on any of these issues right now so don't take it that way. I'm just showing that democracy may not always lead to freedom.

Is there any doubt that the increasingly democratic American democracy has something to do with the extreme partisanship that exists in America today? Because legislators are so exposed to public view and oversight with the development of polls, constant news coverage, and special interest groups, they must work harder to look out for themselves, thus spending less time working for compromise with the other side to find the common good.

You may not really care about what I have to say about random political theory like this, but I assure you it is both important and applicable. Just take a look at New Orleans. Would Congress be going back and forth so much about saying what is being done wrong and right if they weren't under constant watch and already thinking about the next elections? I doubt it.

Of course the tough part is coming with a solution...