I finally finished Al Franken's latest book, And the Lying Liars Who Tell Them. While I found it to be a great book and very informative, it was also disheartening. It makes me worry about the typical American voter, who they listen to, what they believe, and what it means for next years elections. At the same time, maybe this is the incentive I need to become more actively involved in politics. It was my desire to "make a difference" that drove me to get involved with Seattle Works, now maybe it's time for me to continue that theme into politics.
No, I have no interest in holding political office. I would however be interested in being a "Josh" from The West Wing.
Something to consider as the new year approaches.
Welcome to Anchorage, Alaska, where the temperature is in the single digits and over 30 inches of snow (20 inches since Friday) has fallen in the month of December. Not a record snowfall yet but definitely close.
I received my first Christmas present about 30 hours early today, when I was sitting on the airplane watching passengers walk down the aisle. A 300+ lb. man was approaching and the seat next to me was empty. When he passed by my row, saying I breathed a sigh of relief is an understatement. Later in the flight I walked towards the rear of the plane and noticed that he had managed to defy the laws of physics by squeezing into a single seat.
Another interesting character on my flight was a white kid with the biggest afro I've ever seen. Does he have any idea how ridiculous he looks? I was tempted to whip out my camera phone to take a picture as proof.
In my cursory glance of the Anchorage Daily News, I didn't see any mention of the scandal involving Alaskan Senator Ted Stevens. Admittedly he's done a lot for the state of Alaska, but he's leveraged his public position to make a fortune. Since it might be a long time before both chambers of Congress implement higher ethics standards, maybe this is an argument for term limits. Limit their opportunities to use their positions for personal gain.
So Mad Cow Disease has been discovered in Washington state. I think it was only a matter of time. In some ways, the US beef industry brought this on themselves. Even after the risks were identified years ago, the industry continued the practice of feeding animals ground up other animals--which is how the disease is spread. The animal was a "downer" meaning that it was too sick to walk to the slaughterhouse. I've seen a picture of a "downer" being carried to the slaughterhouse on a forklift. I'm not ready to go vegetarian yet but it might be time to start buying organic beef.
I've watched Return of the King twice now and it's an amazing movie. Wednesday, I took the day off to watch it with a group of friend--that may go down as my best day off ever. I watched it a second time on Friday on a company outing. To call it epic may be an understatement. It's among the best movies I've ever seen--definitely the best action/adventure movie.
I've been feeling a bit under the weather since Sunday morning. I was worried that it was the flu but it hasn't gotten very bad--hopefully it's just a cold. Influenza is now widespread in the state of Washington according to the CDC. I finally got around to scheduling an appointment to get a flu shot last week but the appointment wasn't until this morning so I was concerned that I was too late. Right after I scheduled my appointment came the news that the manufacturers had run out of influenza vaccine. Another problem is that the predominant strain of influenza right now was not included in the vaccine so the efficacy of the vaccine is in question.
More than 36,000 people die in the U.S. each year due to complications from influenza. Immunizing the entire U.S. population would probably cost around $4 billion and save a majority of those lives. Our federal goverment is going to spend around $40 billion on homeland security. Will that save 10 times as many lives?
The big political news of the week is that Al Gore is now endorsing Howard Dean. I initially believed that Dean could not beat Bush but I'm not so sure anymore. The ground swell of support for Dean just keeps growing. I'm going to spend some more time learning what he's about.
Once again, too much time has elapsed since my last post. Seems like my life is kind of out of order now--nothing bad, it's just that I feel very disorganized and the list of projects is growing.
I spent Thanksgiving at my cousin's house. Dinner was great but I feel bad that I didn't cook anything.
I went skiing on Sunday at Crystal. The snow wasn't great but the weather was. According to my new Suunto Altimax altimeter watch, I skiied about 19K vertical feet--pretty good for my first day of the season.
Heard the dirt coming out of Neil Bush's divorce? (brother of "W")