I hear a lot of people talking about problems with life here and the economy and unemployment and I understand that things are hard on a lot of people these days both because of their own doing as well as simple bad luck. But I also think that it is important to always keep a little perspective and understand that for 95% of the people in this country your worst day is better than a normal day for a staggering number of people in the world.
For example:
There was this Canadian-Namibian high school exchange program that came to Gobabis for 6 weeks or so to work on various small projects. The center piece of their work was to build tin shacks for four families that were living essentially in shelters made from cardboard and plastic bags.
This is a shot of the four shacks they constructed at the ribbon cutting ceremony.
This is the interior shot of one of the shacks.
These shacks are simply metal walls and roof over a concrete slab. Front door to back wall is approx 6 feet. Side to side maybe 12 feet. So lets say roughly 72 sq ft of concrete slab with metal walls. No electricity, no sewage (they would dig a pit latrine outside), water available from a tap prob half a mile away.
The four families that got these were extremely happy and in some cases moved to tears. Perspective
Posted in: Africa, Peace Corps.
Tagged: Gobabis · Namibia · Sad · tin shacks
The fact that Sen Specter has switched parties, as he mentions in his statement, isnt as important for the balance of power in the senate as much as it is indicative of the general failure and lack of leadership within the republican party. The two big political parties in America function best when they are run by moderate leadership that can mobilize the ideological extremes of their party without letting those extremes take over the controls.
There was a great article in Vanity Fair this past month that talks about the power of Rush Limbaugh within the GOP now and the unique position he finds himself in now:
Indeed, the extraordinary thing Rush has done, something arguably never before accomplished in the history of the co-dependent relationship of media and politics, is manage to keep his media day job while assuming something rather close to direct political power. Every other entertainer who has discovered a political mission—from Ronald Reagan to Sonny Bono to Al Franken—has had to quit show business and run for office. Not Rush.
And this is the real problem. Essentially the Republican party is being taken over and run not in a measured reasoned way but with a corrupted message that plays only to the extremes that are well out of step with the rest of the country. (HT Hey Jenny Slater) What that poll and commentary clearly show is that the party is in feedback loop where the very conservative base gains power driving moderates from the party, further increasing the power of the base and dragging the party even more to the right.
In looking at what I believe is best for the country I have always aligned myself on the “Right” side of the debate. I believe in smaller government that sets and enforces standards and makes our free market economy a little bit of a nicer place. I believe in States rights and that on many of the hot button issues that the Federal Government should defer to the States, especially on social issues. Of course being prolife, pro stem cell, pro evolution, anti death penalty, anti war on drugs puts me out of step with most any political party.
Fundamentally I feel like I want to be a republican and I certainly dont agree with the majority of the platform of the democratic party but I simply cannot stand the rampant anti-intellectualism and knee jerk FoxNews/24 hour news cycle reactionary persona that the party has acquired.
And this is also why you see Arlen Specter change parties today. It is not because there has been some fundamental change in his thinking (he has always sat basically in the center)but the fact that the party has moved so far away from him as well as the fact that Pennsylvania has a closed primary system that saw many republicans switch their party affiliation last year to vote in the presidential primary that was a weee bit contested. Many of these voters have not changed their affiliation back further concentrating the power of very conservative voters in the closed republican primary. Thus it was pretty clear that while Specter is still in a great position to win the general election he had little chance of winning the republican nomination.
This switch does bring the possibility of 60 into play which im sure will give Hannity and crew lots to yell about.
Posted in: Politics.
Tagged: Arlen Specter · Fox News · REpublicans · Rush · sadness · Senate · Vanity Fair
Miley looking to the future and possible Oscars thanks to the big opening of the Hannah Montana movie?
Maybe according to the LaTimes, who obviously had a bored editor/writer who had an opening figure to report and wanted to get a little more play.
In realityland of course once Miley turns 22 or so and cant sell her shtick to 12 year olds anymore she will fade away with her millions…
Posted in: Uncategorized.
Tagged: Hannah Montana · I hate people · Kill me now · Miley · Miley Cyrus · Oscars
I know Nancy Pelosi is not Jim Cramer and that the Speaker of the House commands more respect for the office, and I also imagine that there were a number of agreements reached before Speaker Pelosi came on his show, but Jon Stewart’s interview with Speaker Pelosi tonight was the biggest bunch of crap that I have seen on the Daily Show in a long time.
Stewart was pulling punches left and right and didnt press her on a single issue when she gave half answers to softball questions. I sat there watching that and couldnt help but think: “What’s the point.” All that interview showed was that Nancy Pelosi can promote some talking points.
All I can really say was that I was quite disappointed in the Daily Show tonight.
Posted in: Uncategorized.
Tagged: Daily Show · disappointment · economy · Jon Stewart · Nancy Pelosi
Being someone that follows Georgia sports news way too closely and reads the blogs and message boards and occasionally writes a blog or two about it myself, I readily admit that it is very easy to get caught up in the 24 hour news cycle and when the slightest thing goes wrong jump on the doom and gloom bandwagon. And that bandwagon has currently been getting pretty full in the wake of Georgia getting burned (sort of) by Mike Anderson. Reports seem to indicate that an official deal was never offered, but there were clearly discussions and Anderson seems to have been our top candidate for the job, and he has seemingly turned down an extra $700,000 per year to remain at Missouri. And frankly I cant blame him since he has a far better chance of winning a national championship in the next 3 years or so at Missouri than he does at Georgia.
The fact of the matter is that the Georgia program is in about as bad a shape as a program can be in without being on probation, and whomever comes in will probably be looking at a minimum of two years before they can get back to the NCAA Tournament. Of course given the talent pool in the state of Georgia the potential upside to the Georgia job is almost limitless. But as others have pointed out, the 14 million over 7 years that we were rumored to be ready to offer Anderson would have equalled what we have paid our basketball coaches over the past 30+ years combined. Basketball has always, and frankly will always, be secondary to football at the University of Georgia. But that does not mean that we cannot be successful in both sports. What is clear now is that after years of neglect the athletic department has started to make a major commitment to improving the basketball program at Georgia. The facilities have been upgraded and Damon Evans has made it clear that improving the basketball program is a priority. Of course the current search does not seem to be going well.
It is of course hard to judge a coaching search before it is over, and I caution everyone to take a moment to step back, take a breath and be a little more patient. Would I have liked to have seen us get Anderson, absolutely. Does it appear that Georgia despite hiring a search firm and having two months to put together a game plan for a top candidate things are not coming together as we would have liked them too. That being said I think the program has another week to get something together before it really starts to look bad.
At least at this point Damon deserves the benefit of the doubt and for us to trust their process.
Posted in: uga.
Tagged: basketball · coaching search · Damon Evans
And another week goes by without a new post. Of course I have somewhat of an excuse this past weeks since I spent a good bit of time travelling without a laptop. I was travelling to visit the Nicholas School of the Environment at Duke University where I am planning on pursuing a Master’s degree in Environmental Management as well as a Master’s of Forestry.
How exactly I have gotten over the past ten years from wanting to be a lawyer, then to working in nonproliferation, to working on HIV/AIDS in Africa, to now working on environmental issues is a little beyond me. But I believe that I am moving in the right direction toward what I want to be doing as well as responding to what the market is looking for at the moment.
More on this later.
For now, new pic up at Kalahari Sky
Posted in: Kalahari Sky.
All this fervor over the bonus money that is being paid out is really starting to get on my nerves. Yes it looks bad, and 165 million seems like a lot of money especially if you got wiped out (of course this again would be symptomatic of a problem with how you were investing to begin with… but I digress), but on that level 165 Million is very little. And as a percentage of the bailout it is nothing. Absolutely freakin nothing.
Maths:
165 / 170 000 = 0.000970588235
.09%
.09% is what everyone in congress and on the news is getting thier panties in a wad about.
XKCD is spot on with this:
Yes in some ways it is symptomatic of what was wrong with Wall Street and one wonders how you can give out bonuses if you need to be bailed out but this is a trivial issue when you look at the larger picture. This isnt missing the forest for the trees, this is missing the forest for a blade of grass. (though with deficit projections and all the other stupid stuff Obama is doing, the Late Show? Really? Or say the pledge to bar lobbyists from working for him means most of the most qualified people in Washington are locked out of his administration…)
Of course if you cant understand what is really going on and you are making less than $100,000, 165 Million seems like a lot of money and something to rally around.
People make me depressed…
On a lighter note, Kalahari Sky is updated.
Posted in: Politics.
Tagged: bailout · Obama · stupid · xkcd
Still not super happy with this theme and set up but it is getting closer to what I am looking for. New photo up at Kalahari Sky
Posted in: Kalahari Sky, frustrated.
Tagged: Kalahari Sky · Site Changes
26/m who tore that horn off a live water buffalo on a backpacking trip while I was stationed in Namibia saving children infected with HIV/AIDS.
