What Else? ...The Moon Landing

Everyone in America has heard about the moon landing. Everyone in America knows that today's the fortieth anniversary. Everyone in America is reading up on that famous event today- right?

Well, sure. Lots of people are. But everyone? ...I don't think so. Some people are more busy reading up on more important things, like the news that Jon Gosselin didn't actually cheat on Kate and the sudden revelation that some bloggers have enough time and few enough scruples to post questionably obtained footage of Erin Andrews in her hotel room. And then of course there's the seemingly ever-present coverage of Michael Jackson's love child(ren)- I wonder how many millions the TV networks are making off of that never-before-heard development?

I won't deny that this stuff is interesting. Like every other good American citizen, I occasionally indulge myself by reading the "Entertainment" sections on the news websites. Entertainment. Yeah.

But today? Armstrong and Aldrin and everyone involved in making the moon landing happen would probably appreciate it if we also took a look at some lunar-related news. Here's a (long) article refuting pretty much every conspiracy theory ever concocted involving the landing:

http://www.braeunig.us/space/hoax.htm

Since I've never really read up on the conspiracy theories before, this article actually made me think about the possibility that the theories could be right-- but only for about a millisecond. I feel enough pride for Armstrong and pride plus pity for Aldrin (the second man to walk on the moon!) to believe NASA's story. Either way, this article seems to have its sources for both sides listed at the bottom of the page, so whether you  feel like becoming very, very educated about the moon landing or want to indulge in the conspiracy-theory kind of "Entertainment," go right ahead.

Buzz-izzle and the Rocket Experience

In honor of the 40th anniversary of the lunar landing, which was celebrated last night and will be again tonight at the National Air and Space Museum, Buzz Aldrin has released documentation of his latest career adventure: rap music.

Making of Buzz Aldrin's Rocket Experience w/ Snoop Dogg and Talib Kweli from Buzz Aldrin

The guy is 79 years old and still kicking it, jet-setting across the world, giving lectures, and pushing the government to commit to manned missions to Mars in the coming decade. Buzz is a beast in every way. He wrote the thesis for his Doctorate of Science at MIT on "Line-of-sight guidance techniques for manned orbital rendezvous", an unheard-of topic at the time, and then used that knowledge to dock Gemini 12 manually -- a feat mission control didn't think was possible -- when the computer system failed.

He is also a big proponent of world-wide cooperation and, according to my sources, wanted to include a line in his speech last night asking for Iran to be included in future US space missions, but was convinced against it.

REVIEW: SAPAN @ Capital Fringe Festival

The South Asian Performing Arts Network and Institute put on a production with Capital Fringe on Saturday, 11 July; with a family member working back stage and an interest in delicious Indian food Indian culture, I decided to make this show my introduction to the Capital Fringe Festival. Compared to the other, more decidedly chic venues in the festival, the United Methodist Church of Chinatown proved an strange choice (though it was clean, spacious, and comfortable) but since that was handed down from higher up, we won't hold that against them.

The show begins with three young women in flowing costumes dancing to the music of a three-person chorus and a harmonium. I don't know what it is about their chant-like melody or the soothing white noise of the harmonium, but the entire experience was deeply relaxing and almost spiritual. The opening act gives way to more singing, dancing, music, and costume changes, and culminating with a vibrant couple's dance in the style of a Bollywood musical. Each segment begins with a brief video introducing the instruments, theme, and the cultural significance of the act to follow. This really brings in the audience and makes an otherwise niche cultural show more accessible to the general audience.

The transitions were often quite long, featuring several minutes of darkened silence, and exhibiting a low level of organization, but the quality of the production more than compensates and makes this a fun and enjoyable show.

I had the chance to join most of the cast afterward at Ella's Wood Fired Pizza on 9th between F and G and can vouch that they are a fun, chill group of kids.

Obama's a Muslim and that woman needs a hobby.

Your bizarre news for the day.
1. Homeless stand in for lobbyists on Capitol Hill. Isn't there a dress code (or at least a whiff check) when you enter congressional hearings?

2. Republican congressman believes Obama's mom would have aborted him if given the opportunity. Poor taste, dude. And if you even bothered to open Freakonomics, you would know that mostly the poor and uneducated get abortions, not middle-class Ph.D's.

3. Fox News analyst calls the American hostage being held by the Taliban a liar, deserter, [collaborator] with the enemy, and believes that America would be much better off if they just killed him.

4. Teenage pregnancies and syphilis have risen sharply among a generation of American school girls who were urged to avoid sex before marriage under George Bush's evangelically-driven education policy. The number of Aids cases in adolescent boys has nearly doubled. And where is all this stuff happening the most? In the religious South. First Iraq and now this. Thanks GWB.

5. And this woman questions Obama's birth certificate, acts entitled, forces health care meeting to do the pledge of allegiance, and generally is a total bitch. I feel terrible for her miserable children and, undoubtedly, legion of cats who have to put up with her everyday.

Sanford puts back on his Bible Belt

Governor Mark Sanford continues in his attempts to win back the trust of the people of South Carolina. His latest attempt? An editorial written to "The State" (a newspaper out of South Carolina) in which he reaffirmed his faith in God and said that God will make him a better person. Of course, I'm no biblical scholar or even a church-goer but I fail to see how God could help you improve your own personal behavior. After all, He did give us all free will. And if Sanford was such a good Christian, he never would've been in this situation to begin with. "Thou shalt not commit adultery" is one of the ten commandments.

Hopefully the people of South Carolina will see that Sanford is just trying to use their religion to get back in their good graces. As much as I like writing about him, I just wish he'd go away.

I should do a whole blog post about religion, growing up in the South as a non-religious person has given me an interesting perspective on it. When I figure out how not to offend anyone by talking about religion, I'll do it.

Green... An Appropriate Subject, Right?

First of all, money isn't really green. Not if we're talking about the good old United States standard-issue dollar bill. It's more a kind of greenish grayish (and now, since the new bills came out, peachish) mixture that normally wouldn't look all that appealing, except for the numbers, curliques, watermarks, and patriotic propaganda that miraculously make it so.

Now,. that's a literal interpretation. But the thing about money is that it isn't green figuratively, either. I mean, look around- we're still (kind of, not really, but let's say so for dramatic effect) the richest country in the world, and how many chlorofluorocarbons do we have floating around our atmosphere?

I won't go into the tirade that goes on and on and on about how we could recycle more. Or about how we could try manufacturing cars with stricter emission standards. Or even about how we could just plain be a little more careful about life in general and we'd save our grandchildren from having to clean up quite so much of our mess. No, I won't go into that.

All I'll say, quite truthfully, is that we at Dartmouth are all about green, right? An alumna speaking at the Dartmouth Club of Long Island dinner a few weeks ago unraveled a rather graphic description of just how green every student's blood is. And she seems to be correct.

So, apart from the going-green programs I'm sure we all participate in- apart from the work organizations have done helping the world to go green, maybe we can each do something to make ourselves just a little greener...

Remembering Walter Cronkite

I'd like to say a few words about the late broadcasting legend, Walter Cronkite. I should first note that the title of my post is ironic as Cronkite has been retired from news anchoring for the entirety of my lifetime. But even so, I can clearly understand the affection people have for Cronkite and why contemporary opinion polls labeled him "the most trusted man in America". For Americans of an older generation, Cronkite's reputation was earned by two decades of authoritative news-casting, his affable demeanor, and his tremendous journalistic ethics. In remembering him, many have looked back to the historical moments he brought to the lives of Americans by virtue of his position. Chief among these is the Kennedy assassination.

Pundits have argued that Cronkite's greatness was in the emotion of his voice during that broadcast -- the pain of a common man forced to tell his country of the murder of its president -- choking back his own sadness to fulfill his journalistic duty. And while that is certainly true, that broadcast in particular was remarkable for what he did not say.

He did not embellish the truth. He did not plaster the story with adjectives. He did not call it tragic, even though it was. He did not insert his own commentary. Even in this apocalyptic moment, in the pit of his own despair, and in the darkness of a nation's uncertain future, Walter Cronkite simply read the news and left its meaning up to our interpretation.


He was the conduit between Americans and the world around them. He was the friendly man on the screen in the living room box. He was the last of his kind. He will be sorely missed.

And that's the way it is.

Bipartisanship, Or an Oh-So-New-and-Fresh Idea

Ah, bipartisanship... You're a castle in the air. But why? Why can't we all just put aside our differences- or at least pretend to put them aside, for the common good? Why must we scream at each other instead of saving our energy to end all of those wars, or cure AIDS, or work on the new healthcare reforms (all of which, incidentally, could use our energy)?

Well, there are some relatively credible reasons for our reluctance to cooperate with each other. Think certain life-and-death issues and the lack of certain basic Declaration-of-Independence freedoms. The Republicans believe that the Democrats are stealing all of the Republicans' money and robbing red-blooded entrepreneur-capitalists of their rightful gains. The Democrats believe that the Republicans are oppressing kindergardeners with anti-evolution propaganda and denying practically everyone (including gays, lesbians, minorities, women, and anyone not earning over $250,000 a year) their basic rights.

Some of this may be true.

However, there are also a lot of rather less impressive reasons behind the fierce face-offs between Democrats and Republicans. Take the I-can-lecture-longer-at-dinner-parties reason, or the I-want-my-extra-bonus-even-though-I'm-hiding-most-of-my-money-in-a-Swiss-bank-account-and-avoiding-tax-evasion-charges reason (there's irony). Then there's the ever-impressive my-friend-said-so, or the hey-George-Bush-is-cute (I've heard that one), or the good old just-because.

And when we're yelling at each other for these amazingly intelligent reasons, it's time to rethink a few things. Straighten out our priorities. After all, President Lincoln was (supposedly) a Republican, and he freed (some of) the slaves (talk about making the liberals happy). And President Franklin Delanor Roosevelt was (supposedly) a Democrat, and he imprisoned thousands of Japanese Americans during World War Two (talk about making the conservatives happy- and violating basic human rights, but that's a different story).

So, really, aren't we all the same? Shouldn't we all just come together and celebrate our status as (ex?)imperialistic bipartisan capitalist aristocrats?

Well, no... I'm more of a realist than to expect that. But the starving and dying and miserable people of America and of the world would really appreciate it if we could put our differences (at least the silly ones) aside and work together to do something useful, like ending war and poverty. Sound good?

Let's try it.

RIP Walter Cronkite (1916-2009)

"And that's the way it is." 

Quick! Breaking News

In case you were all wondering, apparently Sarah Palin is still out there in the political scene. I know, right? I find it hard to believe, too... But these people are pretty serious. Check out this link:

http://www.palin4pres2012.com/

--Complete with descriptions of McCain's plots to overthrow Sarah Palin (I guess he resents the fact that she sunk his ship in the latest presidential election- her people don't seem too crazy about him either) and tidbits about the latest Democratic designs to steal all of your money.

Oh, and the sidebar advertisement showing a T-shirt depicting Obama with Mickey Mouse ears? I thought that was very mature.

A Blast from the past.

Al Franken on the Judiciary Committee before he was elected to the Senate. Phil Hartman does a spectacular Ted Kennedy.

A false sense of security.

My TV has been bombarding me with commercials for Brinks (now "Broadview") security systems, which is great because I wasn't feeling insecure enough without the TV reminding me what a danger strange, scary men are.

In case you haven't seen the spot it goes something like this: Kind-looking white lady returns into her house and immediately arms her home alarm system. Scary-looking, darker-skinned, and not recently shaven man breaks down door and menaces at woman, who promptly screams and retreats into her house. Cue: brinks alarm. Scary man runs away, phone rings, and Brinks sends in the cavalry.

This ad is kind of like an impressionist painting: it appears cogent when looked at quickly and from far away but a closer inspection reveals that the details are blurry. First, thieves spend a lot of time casing out their targets and know to strike during the day when suspicion is at its lowest. They will likely not kick down doors, instead opting to pick locks, disabling the systems, cutting phone and power lines, or gain entry through open windows and side doors. They will be after specific targets like cash, jewelry, and electronics and will make quick work of collecting them. Before the police are even dispatched, they will probably be long gone. Second, alarms are largely over rated. How many time have you heard a car alarm go off and not called the police? My guess is about every time. Professional thieves are likely not afraid of loud noises and will simply continue with their plan as quickly as possible. Three, only the most paranoid home owner would turn on their security system the moment they entered their house, instead choosing more likely to leave it off while home and on only during periods of extended absence. Third, in cases of malice towards the individuals of the house, a security alarm would be totally ineffective. One spot shows an ex-lover breaking into a woman's home, being scared away by Brinks's assuring siren. In that kind of case, the ex-lover would probably know about the alarm in advance (probably even how to disarm it) and would still have the time to harm, kill, or kidnap the victim before Brinks even calls. And last, the mere ownership of a security system gives home owners a false sense of confidence that will likely cause them to be more reckless in other areas of basic property protection.

Most would-be criminals would likely be deterred by the security sign posted out front, and those who aren't are going to be a lot more resilient again Brinks's loud noises and response phone calls. My advice, build a sturdier home. You won't need Brinks if it is physically impossible for a criminal to break-in in the first place.

The Hypocrite of South Carolina

"I reckon he's a hypocrite," the Democrat [State Senator Minority Leader John Land] said. "He goes before the Christian right and professes to be one thing and yet his conduct is something else. He goes before the people of the state and talks about his fiscal conservatism. But yet when you see him in action, he's going first class and spending the state taxpayers' money."

That quote sums up the entire Mark Sanford debacle pretty well. Over the last month, we have seen Sanford slowly exposed as a lying hypocrite who cheated on his wife and used taxpayer money to fly lavishly while admonishing other state officials for their spending habits. In all, Sanford spent $37,600 of taxpayer's money for his trips in which he flew first and business class while his staffers flew coach for a fraction of the cost.

Remember when Sanford said that the stimulus was an inefficient use of taxpayer's money? I guess paying for his trips was a better use of it. After all, who doesn't want to pay for their governor to travel abroad in style? For a man who took pride in his frugality and even once bragged about sleeping in a cot to save money, this seems out of character. Par the course for a hypocrite like Mark Sanford.

As for the details of his travels, he hasn't exactly been forthcoming with details regarding his trips to Argentina. His staff is only releasing emails from his state account and in many of these released emails, he directs people to email him at his Comcast account. Hopefully, the state can subpoena the Comcast account as part of their investigation into his spending habits.

All in all, Sanford has only reimbursed the state for $3,300 of his travel expenses. Hopefully the State of South Carolina can get some more of that money back so they can use it to benefit its citizens and not their hypocritical governor.

Selective Memory and Texas Hold'em

Selective memory seems to be increasingly popular these days. Like Facebook stalking, it began its career masquerading as a social faux pas and has now become a large part of the lives of the most sophisticated, intelligent, Hamilton-beloved people on the planet- the citizens of the United States of America.

It's a shock to discover that that illustrious body has fallen so far. Imagine! A world in which the American public debates the relative merits and negative attributes of an Alaskan governor's haircut and forgets- oops!- some silly things that used to be important, such as a few wars with rising death tolls and the impending threat of nuclear devastation.

Well, guess what, folks? Look around and you'll see that that description's not far from the mark. The plague of selective memory is here- and seems to have taken over the whole known world (or at least the whole known world with the time to cruise the Internet searching for free samples of Cialis).

This wouldn't be quite so shocking if I wasn't quite aware that every red-blooded, patriotic American knows the cardinal rule of any good card game. Never forget the cards you've seen- and most of all, never forget the cards you're playing.

Take Texas hold'em. Five cards out on the table for all to see. In this case those would be Afghanistan, Iraq, North Korea, Iran, and for a hoot let's throw in the complete wreck of a job this country does feeding and educating its poor. Shouldn't our fine-historied citizens be able to remember those five simple things? Especially when they're right in front of their faces? (A neighbor's son who just died in Afghanistan. A second cousin who joined the National Guard and ended up in Iraq...)

But they don't. We don't. And I sure wish we were only playing Texas hold'em for marbles because as is, we're playing with our lives and the welfare of our country and of the world. And it looks like we're losing, because we keep forgetting which cards are on the table.

Time to step it up, America.

"ConDENscending"- Boxer dukes it out

Quite a tense video. Mr. Harry C. Alford of the Black Chamber of Commerce charges Senator Boxer (D-CA) with racism for quoting another black community leader, but, in doing so, he reveals his own prejudice in thinking that Boxer (and presumably any other white senator) would only have a black witness testify as a token for his or her race. Sergeant Race Card plays an ignoble act of false indignation and real desperation in his attempt to undermine criticism of his position and questionable expertise.

As much as the GOP is playing this up -- saying that Boxer was being condescending towards a black man -- Boxer came off pretty well. It's not like SGT. Race Card ma'am-ed her or anything...

Vittergate 2

In addition to using my dry-cleaner, LGB has learned that Senator David Vitter (R-LA) also shares my grocer. Milano cookies, crest toothpaste, and Ben & Jerry's Heath Bar Crunch rounded out this big-shot's shopping. Someone's got a sweet tooth.

And yet again, despite the fact that I'm in there every single day, the kindly Asian lady who works the cash machine asked to see my ID.

Sounds like a wild after-party for the Senate Judiciary Committee

Your bizarre news for the day:

1. Iowa man smears poop on door, "defies the basic morals of the community."

2. New Hampshire man buys most expensive cigarettes in history of man-kind.

3. Bride's bouquet crashes plane in Italy. Bride and groom somehow not involved.

4. Joe Biden out-gaffed by Senator Jeff Session's cocaine habit.

This Week on "The Governor and the Restless"...........

The Sanfords are going to Florida!

Governor Mark Sanford will be vacationing with his wife in Florida in an attempt to repair his marriage. An admirable idea but what would a Sanford vacation be without a little bit of irresponsibility? Before leaving, the Governor skipped a meeting with a key economic advisor that was scheduled to allow them to discuss the worsening economy. This meeting was pretty important because South Carolina's unemployment rate is 11.6% and not showing any signs of improvement.

Here's some advice, if you can't fully commit to the people of South Carolina, quit your job Governor and focus on your marriage. It seems like you're struggling with being a governor and a husband so pick one and stick with it.

Thought of the day.

After watching the first two days of the Sotomayor hearings and in preparation of its last day today, I am left with one clear thought: If I hear one more question about her "wise Latina" remark, I'm going to punch the dumb republican cracker who asks it.

Bang Bang Maxwell

Well it looks like the constant police presence that surrounds my apartment on fortified Capitol Hill got a bit of action today. Within minutes of me leaving a Senate hearing (and spotting Vitter with his dry-cleaning), at 5PM U.S. Capitol Police shot and killed an armed motorist on the north (Senate) side of the Capitol. Sotomayor hearings briefly went into lock down.