Academics?

I have been talking with Hot Mama this week about her professional opportunities and it has given me pause to think about my own path. Hot Mama is confronting what might be viewed by my partner Bubba as the "bullshit moment".

I say this with all sincerity that I firmly believe that education is a valuable contribution and choice as a path to follow. The problem is that in higher education, the commitment to education wanes as the need to generate revenue (at the behest of the dean and one's peers) waxes. This push and pull at the highest level of education has attracted something of an odd creature. That sort of person who is more interested in their grant portfolio than their job. This may sound odd to anyone outside the academy, but those of us in the know, know. That is to say that we no longer interest ourselves in the gregarious professor as the paragon of virtue in academics, we virtue the money whore.

This is a sad state of affairs - my own progression into private industry was largely facilitated by the knowledge that I was always viewed in my career as "OK" or "having potential". But then again, I like working with students and I don't like writing endless novels on esoterica. I, in short, like to either make a difference or get something done. It is the engineer in me. I got my undergrad degree in Chemical Engineering and then made the right turn (or left turn as many in the right wing would call it) into academics. I value much of my education in grad school and thereafter with a stint as a post-doc and a stint in a publicly funded research institute. But that totalled 9 years of my life and I was still viewed as "having potential".

Oddly, upon entry into the private sector, I get things done, I run a big lab (bigger than most academics and a much larger budget), I treat my lab people like grad students - I expect top-notch science and critical thought, and I get immense satisfaction and praise for the way I run my lab as well as interact with people. In short, I am acheiving scientific self-actualization. Hot Mama and I have discussed this at some length and we have concluded, in different phrasing, that praise, of any form, is seldom given in academics.

Imagine trying to become an expert in something in the total absence of praise and you will envision the state of academics today. I hope to float back one day into academics to teach and run a small lab. Basically, to educate the younger ones (and older ones too....I am not biased). But that is not pertinent today in the academic world. Education is the excuse for raising money via grants and whoring the grad students and post-docs for your own advancement.

Were I to have actually thought about this at an earlier stage, I would have left all together. But I stayed on and have "made it". But according to my peers in the academic world, I am a "cop out". Yes, the need to be an academic and submit to a paternalistic system where you have to spend a decade preening for the recommendation to get a position is at hand. And why bother? My father was tenured at the point I am at now. Most of my professional contacts who are in their 40s had a much easier time getting a prof job. But not the current crop of hopeful academics....we are expected to bring in money, and alot of it, immediately. And for what goal? Not to educate but as a money sluice. Disgusting. Layer on top of that the mantra of "academic freedom" (and when you are writing 4 grants a year for a few bucks...do you think you are free?) and you end up seeing the bullshit for what it is. Dysfunctional people looking askance of anyone who is not following their path of self-negation (i.e. if you go to the beach, you are not a "serious" person because you could be working). So sad.

The academic world has turned to the very dark side. Education is not valued in any shape or form. Money is. No wonder I retreated to the private world. I have a fully stocked lab, lots of great toys, a fantastic staff in lab and I can see what my work will become in real time. In short, I make a product that sells in the marketplace. The engineer in me loves it.

I suggest that anyone who wants to pursue a PhD now is crazy. I am. But one must remember that the PhD is all nostalgia now. It is not the way it once was. To climb to the top you cannot have a balanced life as the profs of yore did. You, simply, must be a capitalist who likes to write 10 grants for every 1 you might get. That is the reality. Can you imagine writing 10 big grants and praying for one?

Sounds like inefficiency to me. And parents pay 20K+ for their kids to interact with these messes? Get a masters and get out. My advice is freely given and I would suggest that anyone thinking about the heroic ideal of being an academic would think twice.

Hell, no one even calls me Doctor now. What was the point? Were I not crazy, I would have taken my own advice long ago and been better because of it. But I did not and I am very happy now. But I am lucky. Hot Mama will be too....but the price is high. Far too high for the normal person. To follow your academic heart, you must be part masochist and part sociopath now.

HRC.....vomit

While I feel that HRC may do some things that are right....they sure do alot that is wrong. Chris Crain brings up another item in a litany of things that HRC should be paying attention to and is not.

I bring this up, not only because Chris is right, but also because the HRC sponsored an LBGT oriented "debate" on gay issues (in LA....where else?) which was then recycled by the Advocate into a puff-piece on Hillary Clinton. I subscribed to the Advocate for Bubba, that must have been years ago! And they keep sending it to me with no renewal. Well the most recent issue, that came during my fab trip to Rehoboth , has Hillary on the front and lots of HRC plugs.

VOMIT.

Cross-marketing is a reality, I know - but come-the-fuck-on. The general election is 14 months away and the Advocate is doing a breathless article about Hillary at the behest of HRC. I threw the Advocate away immediately. Not even worthy of recycling. Pure rubbish. Am I to believe that gays are actually a political force in the nation? Maybe in the urban centers of Atlanta, NYC, DC, LA, SF, Chicago there is the need to pander to the gays - but at a nationwide level? Taking a nationwide view, the gays are trivial as a political force (i.e. the number of votes). But they do donate money and this is where the HRC is whoring the gays. We are being sold down the river for fundraising. And the gays play into this wholeheartedly.

Joe is using gay capital to become a lobbying force. Not using the bully-pulpit as should be done. Nope, he is doing slick marketing to the homos and then he parlays those dollars into access with Hillary.

Chris Crain's point was clear and simple. Gay rights are not being taken care of at a local level. I have seen Hillary and Barak and John Edwards in my own neighborhood in Des Moines - but not Joe. We should see Joe here because they just legalized Gay Marriage for 12 hours in Polk County,Iowa...until the inevitable judicial stay was put on it. So if Hillary can trot out here every week for this, that, and the other - why can't Joe do that? Particularly for the pipe dream "Gay Marriage" issue which HRC pimps endlessly. This is really fucking simple - HRC is not worried about the small skirmishes (Iowa??), they are worried about bribing DC politicians to effect change. And that requires bucks, lots and lots of bucks.

HRC is just a lobby like the AFL-CIO and Teachers' Union which whores their membership to the Democrats. If Joe cannot schlep his bony ass out here to the hinterlands for a cause that HRC is "so committed" to when Hillary and Barak are endlessly making their appearences, then what is the point?

This begs the question "But who is providing these bucks"? I would posit that it is all those homos I saw in Rehoboth this past weekend. HRC has done a wonderful job of taking money from homos and turning those pocket-picking events into a status symbol. While this may be the norm, this does not mean that it is acceptable. I refuse to believe that the HRC pimped via the Advocate for Hillary was not planned. And planned 14 months in advance? If it was July 2008, do you think that Hillary would be on the cover of the Advocate? Surely not. Joe is using the gay capital to score a coup with Hillary before the campaign starts in earnest. He gets his access with the dollars of the gays wanting to look good at the all-important HRC events but he does not get that access at the correct time. Hillary can be on the cover of the Advocate now because it doesn't matter at this point in the election cycle. Let's do a little experiment - let's see how gay positive Hillary is in the summer of 2008....I'll guess that when the votes REALLY start to matter, the 1% of the nation who is gay will not be as interesting. At that point, the real dollars and the real votes will be prioritized. Meanwhile, what about the day-to-day gay issues?

The strategy is so overt that it borders on a travesty. But rich queens will pay Joe to rub elbows with Hillary at the initial phases of the cycle. Will the gays hold Joe's feet to the fire when push comes to shove next summer? Don't hold your breath.

We need a national gay organization that stands up for us 365 days of the year. Not playing cat and mouse with the election cycle. Gay rights are human rights. We all are familiar with the Equal Protection Clause and our basis for political discourse should radiate from this facet of the law, not fund raising cycles or the whims of the political climate. Chris Crain's blog entry was a clear example of that.....when your leaders are busy sucking the dick of any politician who will whip it out, then you are reduced to being a lobby. And not in the good way. You become a whore.

Shame on you Joe.

Beachy days

I just returned to Iowa from a ultra-fab beach vacation. The weather was stunning....low 80s, nice breeze and crystal clear blue skies. It was the best weather that only September at the beach can offer. Jimbo was our herder and Bruce Weber. He got some amazing photos when trooping about Rehoboth.

Our trip:
I flew out first thing Saturday and fetched Jimbo from his Shaw lair. I had to deal with the no left turn drama on New York Avenue which was the one hindrance of the day....I had to go 30 minutes out of my way and deep into the ghetto because I missed the First Street exit onto North Capitol.
Jimbo was ready to go with the Big Girl Rehoboth Mix 2007 and lots of banter for the drive. DC was Africa hot but by the time we got to the pool party at Rehoboth, the front had passed and we had nice dry air push in. We had drinks by the pool and caught up with Jimbo's buds....good times. Off to the guest house and who should be staying in the room at the end of the hall but MakersMark. Love him!!!

Rehoboth Guest House was our staging area....fab place and the manager Tom Napier-Collins was perfection. We got primped up and headed out for cocktails at Aqua...lots of DC gay attitude. But that is why God made cocktails...to make most gay people tolerable. We decided to skip dinner and head back for wardrobe change #2 and a quick set of cocktails on the patio...MakersMark brought hooch....we giggled on the veranda and had cocktails awaiting an appropriate time to go to the Double L's. Around 11:30 we rolled into the Double L's and promptly kept cocktailing. Delicate Flower was in rare form and Jimbo was prowling for hot Cavemens.....MakersMark and I stayed in the corner and chatted. Well Jimbo and MakersMark did not last too long - they were headed home around 12:30. DF left for some recreation with a beefy buy in a Navy T-shirt. That left me alone - I was targeted by some couple who had a guest that they wanted to unload for the night....so I talked with a very nice guy forEVER until our valet (Jim - from NYC - was doing valet service) returned to liberate me from polite chit-chat.

I then had cocktails with the valet on the veranda and Joe joined us...he was a very nice boy from PA.

Well I was awoken the next morning when DF entered and we sat in bed chatting. MakersMark heard the chatter and hopped in bed....we were giggling which awoke Jimbo. Jimbo came down and informed us that all he could hear was "Blah Blah Blah Cocktail Cocktail Cocktail Blah Blah Blah."

We semi-hustled to get to the beach and had a delightful time Sunday morning on the beach. Jimbo informed us that we needed to eat so we had lunch in gay-town and returned for a stunning afternoon of sun and fun. We cruised a really hot guy named Joe all afternoon and caught up on our gossip. Sadly, the crab dip was not as fresh as it ought to have been and we all had some intestinal issues. MakersMark was taken down for the night but the rest of us powered through for more drinks at Aqua and the Double L's.

We all slept like logs Sunday after bidding DF farewell...he had to work.

Monday was gorgeous. Absolutely gorgeous. We went down to Poodle Beach and Jimbo was working some woofy guy the next towel over. MakersMark and I just sat under the umbrellas and strolled the beach. It was truly a fantastic day.

We finished up with cocktails at Blue Moon Monday night and dinner and then more cocktails where I proceeded to get picked up by a straight couple. Nothing happened but it was definitely the guy doing the picking up and the wife was just going along with it. The weird thing was that it was Monday and they had gotten married on Saturday. They were on the honeymoon and he was already trying to pick up a third.

Sounds like that marriage is going to be a mess.

We rolled out this morning and I flew back to Iowa. A great time had by all and I feel the most relaxed I have felt in YEARS. September on the East Coast is always good but we luckily got some of the most amazing weather.

SIGH....back to work tomorrow!

Beach Holiday

At long last, a beach holiday.

Children, it has come to pass that I have finally gotten my East Coast Fall beach holiday. I grew up fishing with my dad at the beach in the Fall and we would also go for long weekends at the beach with the whole family.

Blue skies, warm temps and two of my favorites will be with me this weekend. Of course, everyone knows Jimbo. Also making a hit and run appearance will be my ski buddy, Delicate Flower. DF has the unfortunate problem that no one thinks he is gay...I still don't. So I told him he is going to have to work on projecting his gayness....he promised to unleash the "hair burner"....before DF was a respected economist, this girl was like Truvy in Steel Magnolias...burning hair and dishing gossip.

Here is the forecast:

Tonight: Partly cloudy, with a low around 65. South wind 6 to 8 mph becoming west.

Sunday: Sunny, with a high near 77. North wind between 10 and 13 mph.

Sunday Night: Clear, with a low around 55. North wind between 6 and 8 mph.

Monday: Sunny, with a high near 79. North wind around 9 mph becoming southeast.

Monday Night: Mostly clear, with a low around 64.

Tuesday: Sunny, with a high near 81.

So if you are in Rehoboth, look for the furry (Jimbo and DF) and fairy (me) combo to be tearing up Poodle Beach.

OUT???

Jeez...I thought I was OK with being gay. But I have had to butch it up for two days with a bunch of breeders (real breeders in the agronomy aspect) and I am a bit lost.
I had to tour Kansas with a bunch of breeders the past two days and walk fields and talk about traits. I found it very revealing in many aspects.


One aspect is that I learned ALOT. Quite interesting to see how a potential field product makes it to the market. Another was how out of place that I felt. I have been pretty open about being a homo. But today, I was peppered by questions about being married and kids. Not being 25 or 30, you cannot slide by with anything. Marriage and family are the reality in the heartland. Oh what have I gotten myself into?

Luckily I know about fishing and hiking and rugby. That buys time. But how much? Will I be the rarity in my world....a gay guy who likes it out in the field??

It will all come out in due time. But I was not ready to come out today to a bunch of hard core heteros. Gay pride yes.....but sensibility also. I really confronted how hard it is to be a homo in the heartland.

Rehomo

Well my long awaited beach holiday is just about here. I have to go to Kansas tonight and tomorrow to look at dying plants, come back for a quick day of work on Friday and then jet out DC. I'll pick up a car, pick up Jimbo and his new, fab dance cha-cha disc and we will jet out to Rehoboth for a weekend of sun, fun, and boys. Weather is looking good too!

Perhaps we will see you on the deck at the Blue Moon!!!

Intersections

Hey all...I had Hot Mama up for a wonderful weekend visit in the DSM. She is up here exploring some professional opportunities and visiting with Bubba and I. Hot Mama and I talked alot about leaving the academic world. My departure after 9 years was swift by many people's standards but necessitated by the instability at the institute where I worked in DC and the departure of my boss for a faculty job.

Hot Mama's discussions reminded me that I may not have thought through every aspect of the academic/private division. But it does occur to me that I definitely stayed in academics, in part, because of the romantic view of the professor. Teaches class, helps educate bright young minds, runs a small focused lab, etc.

Interestingly, Hot Mama and I discussed that you never actually got to see that romantic principle at work in big labs at big universities.

She is mulling over alot right now....but one book was of particular help for me and Hot Mama is reading it now too which is called"So What are you going to do with that" A must read for anyone who is a bit lost after waging the academic wars and wanting more sanity in their life.


On the other side of the metaphorical block, we have Jimbo who is fighting wars of a more urban nature. The gentrification wars. He was discussing with me this week how he has gotten some major negative feedback about his blog posting a few weeks back regarding the kids who hang out on the block, all dress alike, don't seem to be employed, and the occassional gunfire that does enrupt seems to always come from that same area......

Well Jimbo had people pulling that victimization non-sense and my favorite is the historical card - Shaw is a historically black neighborhood. Well, identity politics tends to crack quickly where large sums of money are to be made and Jimbo and his ilk are the pioneers that are taking owners capital and converting a neglected area into a place that is habitable by all (who have the money).

Here is the rub, which you probably picked up in the last paragraph. Jimbo is not going to earn a dime for his efforts and will not see a rent reduction in trying to get the community going in the right direction. No, people who rent in the city are being forced into marginal areas (well where else are you going to move? a closet in logan for twice the price?) to do the gentrification and the owners reap the rewards.

It is nothing new nor nothing to get exercised about...simple capitalism. However, like Hot Mama and her struggles with the nostalgia of the professorship, Jimbo seems to be confronting an analogous problem. Living in the city is great and living in edgy neighborhoods can be exciting and meaningful - but at some point, you get too old to keep moving and making neighborhoods livable that will then become too expensive for you to continue living in.

Bubba got a good job yesterday too.....

Intersections.....lots of people in my life are having large cosmic forces come together now. It will make for an interesting last part of the year.

My Young Science Geek Days

Well, if you did not know, I am a bit of a geek. I try to hide it well but there was a time when the two halves of my budding self (gay and geek) intersected into a sweet spot. Luckily pop culture was there to provide an outlet.

In the early 80s, there was a bubble of hot sci-fi guys - not like the geeky Dr. Who shit, but the more virile sort that spoke to us geeks who weren't going to be programmers.

My pantheon!

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The Drunk Deacon

From Drudge - note the number of stitches:

OU fan accused of gruesome injury to man clad in UT shirt

By SEAN MURPHY

The Associated Press

OKLAHOMA CITY -- To some University of Oklahoma football fans, there are things that just aren't done in the heart of Sooner Nation, and one of them is to walk into a bar wearing a Texas Longhorns T-shirt.

That's exactly what touched off a bloody skirmish that left a University of Texas fan nearly castrated and an Oklahoma fan facing aggravated assault charges that could put him in prison for up to five years.

The case has set off a raging debate in this football-crazed region about the extreme passions behind a bitter rivalry. Some legal observers even question whether this case could ever truly have an impartial jury.

"I've actually heard callers on talk radio say that this guy deserved what he got for wearing a Texas T-shirt into a bar in the middle of Sooner country," said Irven Box, an attorney in this city 20 miles from OU's campus in Norman.

Police say Brian Christopher Thomas, 32, walked into Henry Hudson's Pub on June 17 wearing a Longhorns T-shirt and quickly became the focus of football trash talk from another regular, Sooners fan Allen Michael Beckett, 53.

Thomas told police that when he went to the bar to pay his tab, Beckett grabbed him in the crotch, pulled him to the ground and wouldn't let go, even as other bar patrons tried to break it up.

It took more than 60 stitches to close the wound, and police interviewed Thomas at a nearby hospital.

Beckett's attorney, Billy Bock, concedes that his client commented about Thomas' shirt but said that it was just good-natured ribbing and that he apologized to Thomas when it appeared to upset the Texas fan. Later, Bock said, Thomas approached his client at the bar and threatened him.

Thomas' attorney disputes Beckett's version. "That's total malarkey," Hughes said. "My client never said a word to him. He got up to pay and when he paid and left a tip, the guy grabbed him."

Beckett, a church deacon, federal auditor and former Army combat veteran, has pleaded not guilty. His next court appearance comes Oct. 4, two days before the Sooners and Longhorns tangle in their annual football game at the Cotton Bowl in Dallas .

Wednesday beef

Well I don't have to troll the net for skin this week....the Paperboy did it for me.
Track and Field types and I think the Paperboy got them all!!!

Some perfect specimens of Caveman!

That wacky Cyd

Cyd Z at Outsports worked himself a funny little deal, check this link for more on the Gay-Straight Fantasy Football Challenge.

The straight names looker gayer than the gay names....the "Romosexuals" anyone?
I can only presume this is a pun on Tony Romo who is apparently banging Carrie Underwood.

Here is a picture of Tony Romo with Carrie.

Hennepin County Minnesota Sux Donkey Dix

Can you beleive this? From Reuters via Drudge.

Court grants Sen. Craig hearing on sex charge

CHICAGO (Reuters) - A Minnesota court on Tuesday granted U.S. Sen. Larry Craig a hearing on his request to let him take back the guilty plea he made after his arrest in a men's room sex sting.

The Hennepin County District Court said the hearing would be held on September 26 at a courthouse in Edina, a town near Minneapolis -- just days before the September 30 deadline the Idaho Republican set for himself to resign if his name is not cleared.

The announcement came a day after lawyers for the three-term senator filed a motion in court saying he pleaded guilty to the charge against him because he panicked under intense anxiety and fear of publicity, and is innocent of wrongdoing.

Craig, 62, pleaded guilty to disorderly conduct in August, was ordered to pay $575 and given a 10-day suspended sentence.

He was arrested on June 11 at the Minneapolis airport by an undercover officer who said Craig peeked into his stall, sat down in the stall next to him, tapped his foot and later brushed it against his and reached his hand under the divider in an effort to solicit a sexual encounter.

Under pressure from Republicans, who lost control of Congress last year following a string of scandals, Craig announced his intention to resign effective September 30, but indicated he might not do so if he could clear his name.

Reaganomics 2.0

A funny thing happened this week while reading the WSJ. I saw the clarification of that was wrong with Reaganomics 1.0. This came in the form of a series of articles about how Scotland was using tax cuts to stimulate the economy - with one small adjustment (called Reaganomics 2.0) - that educating people was also required.

Tax cuts are fantastic for stimulation of an economy - it opens up capital to be spent on other areas of R&D or other forms of development. No problem there. But the problem arises quickly as to who will drive this expansion?

We need educated people to force this economy along as it does not occur because of tax cuts. The right-ish view is that tax cuts offer the salve alone. SO NOT TRUE. Someone has to run this company and others have to implement the new initiatives.

So I have always wondered, how can one have tax cuts and growth? The tax cut, in and of itself, does not educate anyone. The reduction in revenues to the state only allows additional allocations to the company. But who will work to push this capital investment forward and how will we pay for this?

Education costs money. Alot of money. And most is wasted on those that will never drive the economy. But Reaganomics 1.0 assumed that these educated people would come from....anyone? Oh, property taxes that fund local education at the secondary level...but this level of education never drives the "knowledge economy" forward. It is higher education that does....and funded at the Federal level.

So I find it odd that the WSJ lauds Scotland for the dual approach - tax cuts are great. But how do you fund the people who will drive the economy forward? If the right-ish culture likes to spend lavishly on the defense of the country (the largest entitlement program in America) then ought it not also include the knowledge based curricula?

Much hay has been made of the re-jiggering of the Reagan philosophy...but to make anything of value requires some investment. Capitalism rests upon this axiom. To make money you must spend some capital.

Tax cuts are fine. No problem there. But you must also have the workforce to implement the capital to some productive end. Herein lies the rub. Tax monies, for all their waste (and it is alot in alot of different areas), do provide a value to our economy - they sink capital into the promising future of training people to do something. And to bring value to the American economy, those trained people need to be able to do something more than be literate. They need to synthesize novel ideas into products.

Three cheers for tax cuts. But those cuts must be taken in the broader view of how our economy is structured. If you are not willing to invest in the building blocks, then how can you expect the economy to be driven forward? Education costs money. Period.

I'm glad to see that Reaganomics 1.0 has learned this painfully obvious lesson and progressed to the more elightened 2.0 version. Learning, while widely viewed as wasteful, is a necessary opportunity cost. If you don't learn the people, which people will push us forward?

I'll just venture that it is not outsorcing....while this may work in the short term view of Wall Street, it weakens our country. Education is a valuable waste of money. If that were not true, then why is the government spending so much on basic research? Cut taxes, sure - but don't cut them to satisfy short term gains in earnings for long term losses to other countries. If Scotland sees this, ought not we?

Shock and Awe

I find myself a bit at a loss regarding the reports this week about the "surge" in Iraq. WSJ has reported widely this week that the surge, notably in Anbar province, has been accompanied by cash dispersals to the leaders of the tribes in provinces. While a little cash never hurts, it was shocking to me to find that the cash amounts to tens of MILLIONS of dollars in suitcases (dispersed by the Marines).

Let's just get this straight. The surge is being heralded by the right-ish press as being effective - but the cost is bribing the very people who were using the Marines (who are delivering the money in bundles) as target practice in the very recent past. So let's do a little experiment - let's cut off the cash and see if the "surge" is working. Very crafty of this administration to bring together a much heralded surge with a surge in cash to the leaders - this bribe effectively halting (temporarily) the dismemberment of American GIs.

It is disturbing to me on many levels that the bribes are in place now - and not years ago. Years ago we could be waging and economic war to placate the factions that might be lulled, flush with cash, into getting along with each other and supporting the central government. But the current development is taking place as a direct payment (under the table) from the US to the terrorists. Perhaps the tribesmen are not true terrorists, rather they are playing the sides against the middle, but if I had a son or daughter who was killed in Anbar a year ago - what would be a reasonable reaction?

This is organized crime - effectively a Mob style operation. I give you money and you give me cover. It would be remiss of me to say that this is not the prevailing model in the Mideast. Egypt is paid money every year (and no closer to democracy than in the 70s) via "foreign aid" to leave Isreal alone, overtly. Jordan is in the same boat. Our fair Jimmy Carter set this up and it has been carried on for decades by both parties.

We can pick out other clear examples of our money going to bribe good "overt" behavior while failing to scratch the surface. Saudi Arabia and Venezuala are paramount in this regard. Why do we fail to translate a clear message to these two totalitarian states (one a monarchy and the other a facist/populist state) as we did with South Africa and its segregationist past? Or Pakistan with its military dictatorship?

I find it very taxing to feel compelled to be nationalistic about the US when our actions are so clearly antagonistic to the pursuit of democracy. Should we buy oil from the nationalized Saudi oil congolmerate? Should we buy refined gasoline from Venezuala when they have such clear Marxist tendancies? Should we continue to pay Egypt to behave when they have been in a "state of emergency" for the past 20+ years?

These tendencies of the government to harbor antagonistic states and coddle them while also denouncing Iraq, Iran, N Korea, et al. strikes me as peculiar. But more peculiar is the fact that the same Marines who were being shot at last year in Anbar are now delivering cash to the tribal leaders who now are our "allies".

The surge in Iraq is masquerading as a mob-style operation to buy time. It is no coincidence that the violence has tempered dramatically while the cash payments (in suitcases) have increased.

Ought we bribe the Iraqis??? Well if it was a good idea, it would have happened at the opening of the war, right? Or is the bribery a clear sign that we need cover, for a time, to get through 2008?

Neither party in government has taken this on in a clear way or offered a clear path. But if we have to bribe our enemies in Iraq, as we do around the globe (China anyone??), ought we just say that this is the only way forward in a rough and tumble world. Extortion like this occurs only in the vacuum, much like the mob operates.

Home of the free and land of the brave? I fear it is much more capitalistic than that. Such altruistic thoughts are better left in speeches.

Iowa visitors

Well Bubba and I figured that when we moved to the heartland, no one would ever come to visit us....Des Moines (The DSM) not the middle of nowhere, but west of town, you can see it.

So we took a month or two to get settled and that phase has ended and now we are having guests!!!
1. Hot mama is staying with us this weekend for a quick visit. Love Hot Mama - she is fresh back from a fun wedding and has the hankering for some beef - I hope the Midwest will not disappoint.
2. The 'rents are coming in October for a visit. My dad grew up in the Midwest, the oldest of eight, was acutally born 1.5 hrs east of The DSM. Apparently I have a million second and third cousins all over eastern Iowa - although I would never know them if I saw them. He is kind of excited about cruising about Iowa. Mom will love to see my cat and do some shopping at the Farmer's Market.
3. Delicate Flower has just made his reservations for Thanksgiving!!! So excited. I'll take him down to the Saddle for a night of cocktails at the bar where you "never have to ask for a double".

Perhaps this picture below will be DF after a night of the high life in The DSM????
Anyone know who is passed out? It is not me...This was a pic from the summer that was passed along to me which I have hesitated putting on the web. DF, my conscience in this regard, said that I should post it.

It is Fall...

I have been discussing the impending Fall weather....after a day that started with a temp around 60 and dropped the rest of the day with steady rain, Fall is here.

As an East coast person, 50 degrees in mid-September is unheard of. More like late October. Lows at the end of the week will be in the low 40s with upper 30s just to the north. Children, what have I gotten myself into?

Snow at Halloween? Bubba might just have an open revolt if that happens.

I bought some new and very fab Fall clothes which I got to wear some of today. Lots of rusty-orange colors. With the weather, felt very nice to change gears. One week ago, it was a low of almost 80 and sticky...what a difference a week makes!

Very excited about a trip to Rehoboth with Jimbo in a few weeks. We are going to have a nice Saturday to Tuesday trip to the beach and will be staying in Gay Central. My banana hammock has been washed and pressed and I have a few back issues of the New Yorker to catch up on. I only hope the late and sunny days of autumn will be with us. I spent many a day growing up at the beach in the Fall in NC - some of those late Sept and early Oct days were so clear and brilliant, it was like a movie.

It will also be nice to visit with Jimbo and have some R&R time to chat and catch up. There will likely be a few blog entries that will come from our exploits! Delicate Flower may make a showing and she is always good at stirring up the pot o' trouble.

NFL!!!!

Finally, after a 8 long months, NFL is finally back in season.

This is a nice pic from the last preseason game which took place on this past Thursday. Indianapolis easily trounced New Orleans. The pic is of Peyton Manning (QB-Indy) talking with the SUPER-DREAMY Drew Brees (QB- NO).

All those cavemen lovers out there, today Brian Urlacher was looking fetching in the black Bears outfit - sadly Da Bears lost to San Diego in a mess of a game. Chris Cooley was also in fine form as the Skins took out Miami - there are two pics below of Cooley in short shorts. All of this goes to show that even butch straight men can have embarassingly gay moments!!







And the dreamiest of all current QBs, none other than Eli Manning, is starting tonight in the top game of the day (Giants vs. Dallas). Hot Mama - you need to get to NY and land this man!!!

That's my hoof

Very important!

Planet Unicorn Episode 5 is now available! Its a good one.

You can also download the ringtone!

Madison County

Hey Y'all

Well I mentioned yesterday that fall was coming and guess what appeared on the lawn this morning....a ton of yellow leaves from the walnut tree. I came down to get my coffee this morning and the weather was cool, cloudy and leaves were fluttering down from the trees. Bubba and Linus are going for a walk now and Bubba is in long sleeves. While I thought fall was coming..in fact it would appear that Fall is here.

Tomorrow's forecast is textbook: Showery with some breeze and a high of 60. I might need to wear a sweater!!

Well Bubba and I wandered about yesterday on one of the prettiest days I have encountered in a quite awhile. I bought a new (to me) 2005 Jeep Grand Cherokee this past week (it is totally tricked out and fab) and so I wanted to drive it about. So we went to the farmer's market, drove out by work and then out to a small town to the west called Dallas Center which has a good bar with food. We didn't get any food - the cook was not having a good day - but the drive through the Iowa corn and soybean fields was very nice. We also bought a new ottoman to match our new living room set that is coming in October, and went and saw my wine boyfriend the tony grocery store in Des Moines. His name is Ben and he has informal tastings on Saturday and is cute as can be.

I'm very into wine at the moment (the cosmos were getting banal) and I am exploring three different varietals at the moment.....
1. A world tour of Sauvignon Blanc
2. A comparison between German and Alsacian Reislings
3. The hybrid wines here in Iowa

I had a shockingly good Sav Blanc last night from Chile - I was talking on the phone with a friend out in New York at the time and I, briefly, was focused only on the wine - this wine is that notable. Ben has been assisting me in a tour of the world and yesterday we landed in Chile. While New Zealand makes the best and most consistent of the Sav Blancs and California is the worst (barely quaffable in my opinion) - there are alot of other regions that are working with this grape.

South Africans tend to be very much grapefruit, Argentinian tend more towards the California side with a very strong acid and weaker fruit (not good), Chileans have, in the past, been a mixed bag, and French is not in sufficient supply to really dive in and get a feel..plus the French rarely make a varietal wine anyways.

Anyhoo....Ben raved this particular Sav Blanc from Chile called Cono Sur. Delightful!! The notes that I took on it include:
Full body, excellent balance of fruit and acid, crisp but full - all notes are in harmony.

Now I have drank alot of Sav Blanc in my days and I don't know that I have ever encountered a 10 buck bottle of wine that I would say this about. The only other Sav Blanc that has come close is a New Zealand one called "Bradgate" which you can get at the fab little gay wine shop in Dupont. Careful when buying this....it is a smooth wine that you will drink without even noticing. We polished off three bottles one night in DC without even thinking about it.

So the whole point of this entry is to say that Bubba and I are taking the Cherokee down to Madison County (remember the book - the bridges of Madison County - it is the same) to check out a winery there and maybe see a bridge or two.

I'll report back in a few weeks on some Iowa wines of note.

My first arch-nemsis

I had my first all out gay tantrum at work yesterday.

One notable quote "I KNOW she did not just call one of my employees and think she could tell them what to do - That is MY job."

Kind of had some wild mood swings this week - think it is the impending arrival of Fall. Here in the Midwest, the rains came thru Thusday night and yesterday was a mix of clouds and sun and coolish. Today is a perfect football day - cool morning, crystal blue sky, bright yellowish sunlight, and a very light breeze. These are the days that you have to take off the day from work for....when I was a post-doc I would do that.

I was in Atlanta at the time and I had a long drive to UGA....some mornings the weather in Spring was so pretty that it was a crime to go to work. So I would get my lungs full of a few breaths of that fresh Spring air and pronounce it too pretty to go to work.

For those of you who don't know me personally, I love to move around. I can't sit still very long and I love to see what is going on. So those days in the ATL, I would drive around and get coffee, walk in the park, shop, etc. Due to our technological advances, we often separate ourselves from the weather - which is good for the most part. But I can only imagine what the Native Americans would have thought on a day like today - probably had a specific word for it too. Not us Americans....its just another day to work or errands....I often rate days on their perfection and today is the prettiest day I have seen since (oddly) July 2 - which is the day that we left DC to move here. The weather in DC was nice but not particularly notable - but once you crossed the foothills and got into central Maryland - the weather was gorgeous. So today is a top ten weather day for 2007. And likely a top 5 when I stop to think about it.

So for those of you in the East, some FANTASTIC weather is headed your way. Unless Gabrielle has a difference of opinion. Keep an eye on Weatherwoof's blog for details.

Unusal satellite pattern

Included is a very odd pattern in the satellite image from this morning (enhanced in lucky charms colors for Jimbo - his favorite cereal).

The enhanced clouds bisect the ConUS (Continental US) right through Illinois. Underneath these clouds are extended complexes of rain and thunder. Particularly interesting was that last night the line passed through Des Moines (with hours of heavy rain and thunder) but this was elongated along an east to west axis. Now the precipitation has run into the strong high over New England and runs along a north to south axis. The high is particularly strong - look how clear the Atlantic coast is.

As you can tell from the cloud patterns, it looks like the rain has become like a bug and the high pressure is the windshield...SPLAT!

Hey Weatherwoof - you got any proper meteorological terms for that??

Some other features to note:
1. The edges of Felix are observed on the bottom of image in Mexico
2. The remnants of Henriette (the Pacific hurricane) are swirling through Oklahoma and merging (following the prevailing SW to NE wind flow) with the cold front that is running north to south.
3. A subtropical feature out by Bermuda has been forecast to develop and circulate back towards the US as the high pressure departs the Northeast. I seriously doubt this will happen but this area of disturbed weather has sat south and west of Bermuda for days.

I was gay before I wasn't gay

In a John Kerry-esque flip-flop, Larry Craig - the admitted, and CONVICTED, bathroom prowler is now on the offensive! While trying some silly direct action maneuver to buy him some time, you may find the last sentence of this article of significant interest.

From the site Seattlepi.com via Drugde.

I have an excerpt below:

Craig supporters call for boycott of Minneapolis airport

THE ASSOCIATED PRESS

BATTLE GROUND, Wash. -- Supporters of Sen. Larry Craig with the American Land Rights Association are calling for a boycott of the Minneapolis-Saint Paul Airport.

The Battle Ground (Washington) based association says airport police who arrested the senator in a men's room sex sting are responsible for weakening private property rights in the West. Craig is a Republican member of the Senate Energy and Natural Resources Committee.

The American Land Rights Association, which has an office in Washington, D-C, advocates for the use of federal lands and against what it calls federal "land grabs."

The association says the airport should apologize to Craig for what it calls "ambushing" the senator.

Craig is trying to withdraw his guilty plea in the Minnesota case, and if he can do that he would change his mind about resigning.

Mercy - I would love to go back and get some of my own admitted transgressions removed from the official record. But then again, I thought that in America, once you are tried and convicted - you need a reason to appeal. It strikes me as particularly odd that a Senator of this land who pleaded guilty willingly in a plea deal is now trying to wiggle out of this.

How can it make sense to have a Senator saying "I was guilty before I was innocent".

These are the types of people that give gays a bad name. Not alot of people agreed with Michelangelo Signorile outing high profile people in the 80s. But I believe that his intent was to uncover the hypocrisy of people in trying to have it both ways - I want to be gay but I don't want to suffer the repercussions of being gay.

Larry Craig was skulking about bathrooms trying to get some action and everyone who has ever been in a bathroom where this shit goes on KNOWS that it is not an accident. Hopefully someone can come up with a little blue shirt with a big stain to nail this coffin shut and send this fucker back to Idaho to the Mormons and right-wing nut jobs.

Dean and Felix - Deja vu all over again

As Weatherwoof recently posted about his fascination with hurricanes, I will follow up with a fetish about how entrenched weather patterns may be one year and then be replaced by a new pattern (or more commonly, none at all) the next year.

Dean and Felix are showing how short term fixing in weather features can have disastrous consequences for those who live in the way of the storms that are controlled/steered by these patterns. Hurricane Dean and Felix are the latest examples of this. They have followed a very similar path and fate as they churned across the Caribbean basin and explode into major hurricanes south of Jamaica and make landfall in roughly similar places. Belize, normally a quiet place with respect to tropical storms, is getting rocked this year by two huge storms within a few weeks. The same features that produced the heavy rains in Iowa also are pushing these hurricanes along a more southern trajectory and blocking their entry into the Gulf of Mexico.

Two years ago, a fixed pattern allowed Rita and Katrina to exhibit similar behaviors. The year before that it was Jeanne and Frances on the east coast of Florida. Like Belize, the east coast of Florida usually watches the hurricanes pass to the east.

While there are prevailing patterns that repeat year to year - one such pattern is the June hurricanes that form in the Gulf and go inland across the Piedmont of Georgia and the Carolinas, and another such pattern are the Cape Verde storms that take 2 weeks to move from Africa and move up the East Coast hitting NC or New England - in individual years, some unique temporal patterns pop up.

While the popular press make a fair amount of noise about climate change and the effects resulting in more intense and damaging storms, it would be interesting to note some things:

1. The largest storm, in terms of shear area, that has been observed in the Atlantic was Hurricane Dog in 1950 - it did not make landfall but passed near Nantucket.
2. The most dangerous storm in America occured in Galveston at the turn of the previous century killing thousands.
3. The lowest pressure recorded was Wilma in 2004 which just beat Gilbert in 1988 which, in turn, just beat the 1938 Labor Day hurricane in the Keys. Many storms now are being monitored several times a day by hurricane hunters (starting in earnest in the 1980s) and this would suggest that previous storms, if measured in a similar fashion, may have had similar drops in pressure in remote areas. These data were not captured due purely to unadvanced detection methods. The 1935 hurricane minimum pressure stood for 50+ years as a record, before falling to Gilbert (which destroyed Cancun with a direct hit).
4. While category 5 hurricanes (top of the Saffir-Simpson scale) can develop in any given year, the striking of land at Cat 5 is rare - particularly in America. The 1935 hurricane, Camille in 1968 and Andrew (borderline Cat 5) in 1992 are the rare cases of landfall at peak intensity. Recently, Ivan, Katrina, and Wilma were all monster storms which weakened prior to landfall. Had the levees held in New Orleans, Katrina would have been relegated to local lore - much like Fran in NC in 1997, Hugo passing directly over Charleston in 1989, Allen in Texas in 1980, Betsy in New Orleans in 1965, and so on.
5. Frequency is so variable as to defy prediction. While 2004 and 2005 were rather active years - 2006 was uneventful. Until August, 2007 was likewise uneventful. Hurricanes, which run in cycles like sunspots, are not good barometers of the effects of climate change. One is better off sticking to glaciers in the Alps or ice on the Arctic as they are relatively static and easier to monitor.

Jimbo's weather question

Jimbo put out a 411 to Weatherwoof and I to explain the Upper Midwest monsoon event in mid-August that he encountered on his visit home.

Here is a long-winded answer. (Weatherwoof - hop in and comment if needed).

As you might remember, it rained every day for about a week just north of Des Moines across into southern MN, southern WI, and northern IL in the middle of August. The heavy rain was not, in and of itself, odd, however the duration of the event was particularly notable. This is generally because the weather in the Midwest, if raining, tends to be quite dynamic. Rain or snow often means that a large front is passing by and those fronts tend not to linger up here in the middle of the country - they do their business and keep on trucking. Additionally, as there are no large bodies of water nearby, the amount of moisture to work with is generally not "juicy" to borrow some lingo from the weather geeks.

So what happened was this:
1. A very humid dome of high pressure was parked over the Central part of the country. High pressure systems are areas of weather where the air is sinking from high altitude to low. In the winter, they tend to bring cold air down from aloft on the right side of the high which then rotates clockwise and warms on the left side of the high. In the summer they can be cool or warm, depending upon the condition of the air above. With radiation from the sun, air aloft can become quite warm and sinking air is quite dry which can make being under a high pressure a rather warm event, in some cases.

I digress.

The high pressure that was parked in the middle of the country was returning warm and humid air from the Gulf of Mexico up into the High Plains and Upper Midwest. This static pattern allowed for the build-up of the juicy air far longer than normal. This sort of pattern is expected across the southeast in the summer where a Bermuda High pattern does the same thing from Florida up to New England.

2. There was a very persistent high pressure that was locked in place in Central Canada. These two systems developed a bit of a Mexican Stand-off where the colder Canadian air mass wouldn't budge and the American high pressure was likewise fixed. Where the warm air from the American high was returning from the Gulf into the Plains, it met the cooler, denser Canadian air. This warm air was shoved up into the atmosphere and the resultant compression of the air and cooling as it was elevated led to the formation of clouds and rain. Normally these fronts bobble and wobble which spreads the rain out, rarely are they truly static. Well this event proved to be a unique in that each day the front never moved and the American high pressure kept pumping juicy air. Hence, the front was draped along an axis from Omaha across to Chicago with the rain occurring to the north. Additionally, the summer jet stream was wedged right between these two highs and would send along little ripples of energy along this axis which would enhance thunderstorm formation and lead to torrential downpours.

This pattern was similar to the one that happened in Texas in June where there was a long period (weeks) of rain across the hill country. One will also see this pattern in New England in the summer when the Bermuda High meets a stubborn Canadian high.

Another interesting aspect of this was the narrowness of the precipitation. During that entire week, Des Moines got a few inches of rain and just 60-100 miles to the north, those counties received upwards of 15 inches of rain. Remarkable to see.

Back in the saddle

Hi All

Well as promised I am back from my summer hiatus. The infamous paper is still not done but it is getting there.

So time to get back to posting:

Some festive things that have happened of late...

1. Planet Unicorn - Comes in 4 episodes on Youtube. Silly fun and work safe. It is a must visit. The link is for episodes 1 and 2 - see the remix in episode 4.

2. Kelly has released a hit single - LET ME BORROW THAT TOP. Jimbo passed this along. Not for work.

3. Bubba and I went wine tasting in Southern Iowa. Yup, there is a sentence I never expected to type but they do make wines in Iowa. Some are actually quite nice. The grapes are made from hybrids that can tolerate the cold winters and shorter growing season. Also alot of Muscat style grapes from North American grape stocks. Not my favorite taste - but can be interesting. We went to Summerset Winery in Indianola - they were having live music outside and it was PACKED. Some homos were there too. Bubba and I pronounced it good.

4. I had a fab trip to Rehobeth with my old neighbors in DC. We had a festive day trip and it corresponded with the 100 degree heat. The city was horribly hot but the beach was perfect. I look SO tan. Got to see some gays too which is good.

5. I love my job. Love. Love. Love. Such a good move for me.

6. Bubba got his entertainment center. I had to bribe him to move to Iowa....well, I paid up. 42 inch 1080p plasma, PS3 (can play Blu-Ray at 1080p), phat Yamaha reciever with sub-woofer and surround sound speakers. Bubba has his man-space almost done! The movies are amazing on this.

7. I'm going to post more regularly but I think that I am going to make my entries a little less preachy and a little more about the ephermeral things about life. Now that I am making money and have a job where I get some respect, I am losing alot of my overt bitter side. Yoga helps too....so there will still be weather and the occasianal rant - but much of the stuff will be softer.

Hope everyone had a great Labor Day weekend. Fall starts tomorrow!