Joe the Plumber

My mom told me this joke when I was a little girl. It kind of reminds me how a certain political candidate is using his new-found blue-collar friend. I feel bad for Joe the Plumber.

Suzy came home from school one day and announced "Mommy! I made a quarter today!"

Her mother said, "That's great! How did you do it?"

"The boys said if I climb the flag pole they'd give me a quarter. And boy do I know how to climb the flag pole."

"Oh honey. You know they just wanted to see your panties. Don't do that again."

"Ok, Mommy."

The next day, Suzy comes home from school announcing, "Mommy, Mommy! Today I made a whole green dollar!"

"I told you those boys just want to see your panties."

"Don't worry mommy, I didn't wear any panties."

It's debatable

For the first time in the McCain-Obama race, I watched an entire presidential debate last night. My reaction? Disturbed, appalled, and perplexed. I honestly don't understand how someone who cannot answer a question is allowed to progress so far in a political race. I think that in many ways all candidates are trying to at least appear to offer a better life for as many of their constituents as possible and that people have different perspectives on what might work to achieve that. Clearly, no one has 100% amazing foresight and everyone makes mistakes. We can't predict the future, as hard as we might try.

The point of signing up to be a leader is to have the ability to represent and make decisions on behalf of your constituency and to be able to convey policies, changes, relationships, etc. to the people you lead. This requires you to be able to understand other people and have them understand you. It's called "communication" in some circles. John McCain is incompetent. I thought it was an interesting strategy to underhandedly attack Obama's eloquence. What? You mean his ability to utter an entire sentence without getting distracted and to listen to and then actually answer a question? Or was it his ability to coherently talk about his own policy ideas and not just repeatedly attack his opponent with the same non sequitur argument?

If we end up with the "wrinkly white haired dude," I might have to go back to Costa Rica--or become a community organizer dead set on counter-acting the problems he and his cohort create. I suppose that would be a more positive way to deal with it.

What I really don't understand is how you can be "undecided". I think those people are lying.

OMG I Never Celebrated

Obama is now the presumptive nominee. Hilary made a really fantastic endorsement speech. I'm totally excited, but like the candidates, a little worn out from it all. I didn't really work that hard, but I thought really hard and I suppose I campaigned by talking to anyone drunk enough to listen while the primaries were still in play.

Now we just have to prove to the world (or enough of our American colleagues) that this old man is not the answer. (As if I would paste his name on my website -- come on.) I haven't decided exactly how I'm going to participate, but I'm sure Barack and his team of amazing change maker Web 2.0 social marketers have some ideas.

So what are you waiting for?

Coffee Cycle

french press my coffee
delicious morning beverage
i like it a lot

Like many days, today started with a fresh pot of French press coffee. Sadly, I cannot commute with my coffee because as I learned one day with a paper cup from the bagel store, I cannot drink and drive. Not even coffee. I spilled it all over myself including my new bad-ass fingerless gloves.

I saw a bike in a catalog today that comes with a travel mug holder. I'm sorry, but that's lame. What suburb are you riding in and why the hell do you need coffee while you ride if you're just going around the block? There are way too many potholes and assholes in NYC for that to be practical. Drink it when you get there and get over it.

Speaking of potholes, there are a lot of them, and my grubby little monster of a mountain bike takes them like a champ. However, I learned today that my bike is not only heavy, but exceptionally heavy. It weighs 35 pounds! So apparently, I've been taking the hills like a champ too. So even though my boss makes fun of me for being a slave to fashion, I'm getting myself a single speed road/track bike. I won't necessarily go fixed gear, but I definitely want something lighter and more maneuverable.

Ba-a-rack-O-ba-a-ma-a!

Harlem

Biked to Harlem via the Hudson River bike path. It was a beautiful day. One of those "I totally understand why they have those t-shirts -- I LOVE NEW YORK" kind of days. The trees are all in full bloom. Pink. White. Purple Green. Amazing.

I was headed to the demonstration protesting the gratuitous killing of Sean Bell. I don't really know much about the case, so I can't in good conscience comment on the right or wrongness of the aquittal, but I can say that either way, 50 shots seems excessive. So, with a journalist friend, I biked up there to see what was going on. We got there a little late for the actual demonstration. There were a few people with signs and flyers, but nothing really noteworthy. Or was it?

I think that the expectation is that the black community would be the folks who are outraged in this event since Sean Bell was black. However, the people sticking around to the bitter end were white, asian, latino, but not really a black presence.

Another thing came to pass while we were in Harlem. My friend's bike got a flat. So, we started asking people about a bike shop. The man at what I'm calling the "Jesus Table" suggested that we go to a man who sets up on the side of the road and fixes bikes for "the children". Sounded good to me, but I wasn't quite sure about the directions. So I asked someone else. This guy said he'd lived in Harlem for years, knew the neighborhood like his hand, and had never seen a bike shop. That's why (he said) that there was so much violence around -- people don't ride bikes here. So we decided to follow the directions of the Jesus Table man. And then we encountered "The Doctor". The Doctor was a barber-shop-esque setup in a garage where three or four guys sat waiting for customers surrounded by bikes.

For $20 we got the flat fixed, tightened the brakes, straightened out the rim, and got back on the road.

The most surprising thing? The philosophy lessons. I'll admit it. I'm a little limited in what I think that most people think about religion. I think that sometimes people take things literally and I'm not down with that.

However, I overheard a woman talking on the phone with someone about tackling problems by setting the right frame of mind and letting things happen from there -- making the mind the most important, or at least the beginning, part. Then, the man who fixed the bike told us he had had 2 strokes, 2 heart attacks, spent 2 years in a wheel chair, and had beaten cancer. He attributed his current health to faith and an internalization of the divine. Deep.

10+ miles by bike. Cultural experience. Good company along the way. And guacamole and homemade lasagna when we returned home. Beautiful day.

Daring Adventure or Nothing At All

I've never been a quote person. I've never thought it necessary to associate myself with a quotation of someone else's. However, I was recently, at least momentarily changed. At least for now, I'm really interested in risk and how that plays into everyday life. The rock climbing taught me a lot about managing risk in a really real, in-your-face kind of way, but other things that are a little less tangible have come up in my life and in the world around me. I look at running a presidential campaign as mitigating risk after risk and learning how to take one when needed. Foreign policy. Farm bill. Farmers on strike in Argentina. Al-Qaida.

So when I saw this quote on someone else's g-chat, I had to adopt it for my own propaganda and added it as a signature to the end of my emails. Usually I find the Quote People annoying. So judge if you must. I think it's a good thing to reflect on every once in a while.

"Security is mostly a superstition. It does not exist in nature, nor do the children of men as a whole experience it. Avoiding danger is no safer in the long run than outright exposure. Life is either a daring adventure or nothing at all." Helen Keller

Modeling and Modeling

The article linked above explains the shitty market in terms of its reliance on findings in 19th century botany and the presumption that acts in the market are random. Um... duh! My previous post about dealing with the delicate psyche of a beauty school student is not so unlike the conundrum of dealing with a fickle, emotions-based market. Is this really so surprising?

The article points out that risk models (quantitative computer models used by financial institutions to keep themselves out of just the hot water that they're in) failed to predict the explosion in the mortgage market. However, another kind of risk model, one I'm more familiar with, is one that is a little more qualitative. The kind of work I'm involved with looks at the risks to our society/environment via information about a company's impact on those parts of our lives, not pure, simple financial implications. The Christian Science Monitor has something to say about why funds like that did a little better amid all of this torture in the mortgage crisis. Kinda makes you think that those factors might indicate financial risk as well. Maybe the financial risk didn't come directly from the company, but how do you like having a saggy ass economy.

It's late. This is terrible. Sorry.

It's not a race. It's a race.

I wish we had a better shorthand term for the election. The linguistics involved with "running" a campaign or "race" make it all too close to sport -- to a game.

This is not a game. This is the future of our nation and the well-being of its people. We need a leader who is focused, determined, honest and willing and able to take a risk when necessary.

Barack Obama exhibits honesty, sincerity, and a willingness to express what he believes to be the truth, whether that is what people are asking for or not. You're not going to agree with every single decision that any of the candidates make. I'd much rather know where those points lie than to expect the candidate to do one thing when he or she does the other depending on what mood he or she thinks the American people are in.

A campaign shouldn't be about strategy -- it should be about honesty. How am I supposed to figure out which candidate I trust to lead my nation if all they are doing is strategizing to get my vote instead of telling and showing me who they are, how they lead, and what they believe in?

As a candidate your job, nay, your mission, is to accurately present yourself in order to help people get to know you as a leader and let them decide which candidate fits best with their own goals and beliefs. As incumbent, you listen to the people who chose you to lead them and help make the goals of those people real.

My goals for this nation include broad themes like equal access to education, freedom from persecution, fair treatment, clean environment, etc. For the most part, the democratic candidates agree on the goals, but where they differ is in implementation.

What's brilliant about Obama's campaign and leadership style is that he has delegated not only to his staff, but to all of us. He puts it on the American people to stand up and make a difference. He is already leading us by encouraging and empowering us to lead ourselves. That's freedom and equality in balance--not easy.

We have a lot of work to do. The current president and his administration have left us a big mess including a national debt that is quickly outgrowing even its larger-than-life Times Square home. We need someone who can delegate. We need someone who is running for office on principles -- on his or her own principles -- not running on what the "other guy" isn't doing right -- not running on what they think people want to hear. We don't have time or energy for simply attacking other candidates.

YES WE CAN! Sí, se puede!

Find 35 Minutes

You must. Because there is a speech out there worth listening to. Listen while you're cooking dinner or getting ready for work or download it to your ipod and listen to it on the train. Or read it.

Never have I heard such a soberly delivered speech incite me to action more strongly.

Yes. I'm talking about Obama's speech today on the topic of race -- but really on the topic of unity of this nation -- a consistent theme along his path to the presidency.

Like my objections to the blog mentioned in a previous post, he encourages us to divorce the idea that race is something that defines our differences:

"For the African-American community, that path means embracing the burdens of our past without becoming victims of our past . . . it also means binding our particular grievances - for better health care, and better schools, and better jobs - to the larger aspirations of all Americans . . ."

He's made the case (or the reminder, if you will) that "legalized discrimination" through generations of exclusion from property ownership, unions, police and fire departments and other means of amassing wealth has caused a divide between black America and the rest of America, and that a lack of other community bonds and services have exacerbated the problem.

He talks about deep-seated resentment in both the white and black communities. How both are destructive unless dealt with in an honest, progressive way.

And like he continues to run his campaign, he encourages all people to make small steps. You don't have to become a large scale community leader to make a difference. You don't have to donate the maximum to the campaign. You don't have to make politics your second job. You don't even have to write a blog post about it. You do what you can, because you can, and because there's only one place to start.

Even if you're not voting for Obama, please vote.

Stuff (relatively) Wealthy People Like

There's a blog out there called "Stuff White People Like" which aims to poke fun at white people by waxing anthropologic about their quirky, illogical, or silly desires. (You can google it. I'm not linking.) However, these include wanting multilingual children, Priuses, modern furniture, and hating corporations. These are not the desires of white people. They are the desires of relatively wealthy people and I'm a little disgusted that it is encouraging people to conflate the ideas of being white and being well-off. Don't get me (entirely) wrong: it's funny and I find myself identifying with the posts. I'm just offended by the title and the "white" theme... am I just not getting it? Am I overcompensating for my own latent racism?

The Great Equalizer

Despite many differences in occupation, age, race, culture, politics, etc. in my neighborhood, the laundromat is different. Everyone is there to get down to business. Everyone is wearing their least attractive clothes (i.e. the things that don't need to be washed until next time). Everyone understands that you don't want them to see your underwear and you don't want to see theirs. Everyone has to deal with the same broken or stupidly programmed machines. Everyone has to watch the same stupid movies on the televisions. It's nice to have some unity and some neighborly bonding -- even if it's while you're avoiding eye contact.

Is it March 4th yet?

I really wish the Texas and Ohio primaries were already done and we knew the result.

I also wish the candidates would stop being so nasty. The kids on the elephant team don't get as much press, but they also don't get caught up in bullshit debates about whose mamma did what to whom or whatever petty crap they fight about.

I wish the whole superdelegate system were fair and accurate. Somehow, I think it falls short of those lofty goals.

I wish I understood why it takes over 4 months to complete a primary/caucus season when it only takes 1 day for a general election.

Green Consumerism, Investing, Living, etc.

I think it's not just me. And I think it's not just the people I work and am friends with. I think that people all over the country and the world are starting (and continuing) to seriously reconsider some of the ways we choose to live. That's a good thing. However, like any mass movement, the mass-ive version is less attractive than the original idea -- it gets a little watered down.

Sometimes that's a good thing. Not everyone can wear haute couture (because we can't all look like 14 year old girly boys forever), but nearly everyone can wear prêt-à-porter. Likewise, not everyone is ready to commit to keeping a worm bin and going off the grid, but they can make changes like recycling, switching to CFL light bulbs, and turning off the water while they brush. When great masses of people take small steps, it's as or more powerful than when a few take some giant leaps.

All of this focus on the environment is welcome in my book, but it has its limitations. What is the environment if not the place where we (and many other forms of life) live? The thing that environmentalism, as it is typically defined, leaves out is the social system.

Environmental factors like carbon emission, chemical pollution, energy use, etc. are relatively easy to measure with the tools of science and therefore easier for us to attach numbers to and wrap our minds around. However, those factors don't exist in a vacuum. They exist in a very messy world of societies, states, emotions, and other human realities. Social issues like poverty, community unity, education, justice, labor rights, and diversity are not so easy to measure. Sure we can get data on these issues, but they're much messier and more interconnected. Plus, improvements might take a while to show up in the numbers. But this doesn't make them less important. Just because science/math can't test for them as individual variables doesn't mean that they don't exist.

That's why I like the concept of sustainability. It's not as limiting to "green" things as our typical definition of environment. But if we start using that word to replace just the scientifically measured side, we'll miss something.

If you're interested in other concepts of what we call environment, No Impact Man has some great posts about the philosophy behind what he calls "human health, happiness, and security." He also has some great things to say about bringing the environmental discussion home -- to air pollution on your street -- not just polar bears trying to find icebergs.

I clearly need to read more fiction.

State of the Union

Well, if I'd had any money for beer, I would have played a drinking game for President Bush's last State of the Union address, using the word "terror" or any of its derivatives as the trigger for tipping the cup. If I had done this, I would be too drunk to write this post right now.

Also, did anyone else notice the absence of the word "war" in the speech, despite the fact that most of the speech was about the war in Iraq? I believe he referred to it as the "mission." Sick.

Oh, and did you know that Nukular Power doesn't have any emissions? (just tons of toxic waste that we don't know how to safely dispose of and steaming hot water runoff that damages fragile ecosystems)

Can't someone at least teach him (and his daddy) how to say the word?

I'm sure I have other commentary, but will save it for later.


A final note on my budget: I was afraid that I might have accidentally under estimated the amount of money I spent over the course of the month, but upon review, it looks like I actually over estimated the amount, so I did have the money to buy beer after all.