Thanks fo a Grateful Nation

Today on the Senate floor Sen. Patty Murray (D-Wash) proposed an emergency supplemental amendment to add 1.42 billion dollars to the Veteran Affairs budget.

Earlier this year she proposed a similar amendment and was shot down by Republicans who claimed the VA was more than adequately funded. Murray defended her amendment then, claiming she had done the math and it was obvious to her that the VA would be in dire need for more funding if they did not act immediately. The Republican opposition argument was that the VA itself claimed it did not need anymore money. So why the change of heart? Well it appears that some Devry-esque accountant used 2002 troops numbers to estimate how many vets would need care. Their maximum for 2005 was 25,000, and as of this month they have already processed over 103,000.

Who says republicans have sole claim to the mantle 'Defenders of the Military'? Clearly that should be amended to 'Active Military'. A veteran of the Senate who simply completed a term will recieve their salary and benefits for life. Surely we can provide even the most modicum of care for our men and women who have risked their lives (not merely their hands to paper cuts). But I digress.

Now the chair of Veteran Affairs, Sen. Kay Bailey Hutchison (R-Tx) has come crawling back to Murray and asking to support her amendment, as are other Republican senators including Senators Craig (ID), Kyl (AZ) and Santorum (PA).

Speaking of Sen. Rick Santorum, the guy recently made a few waves in the political pond by hypothesizing that pedophilia is the product of increasing moral relativism. His specific example was Catholic priests, suggesting that it was no coincidence considering Massachusetts is one of the most liberal states. In his own words:

"It is startling that those in the media and academia appear most disturbed by this aberrant behavior, since they have zealously promoted moral relativism by sanctioning "private" moral matters such as alternative lifestyles. Priests, like all of us, are affected by culture. When the culture is sick, every element in it becomes infected. While it is no excuse for this scandal, it is no surprise that Boston, a seat of academic, political and cultural liberalism in America, lies at the center of the storm."

Rick, I hate to break to to you, but pedophilia is not anything new, especially in the Catholic church, and trying to make a correlation between it and the comparatively recent definition for cultural liberalism in society makes you come off as either defending the pedophiles (which I'm certain they appreciate) or just plain ignorant of any historical antecedents that pre-date Reagan.

This is the year 2005. Why the hell do we homos still have to defend ourselves against blanket accusations of pedophilia? Most pedophiles are heterosexual.

On one final an all important note, Patty Murray looks not unlike Chloe Sullivan from Smallville.

nostalgia ad nauseum

Last night Michael jokingly locked me out of the apartment when I stepped onto the back porch. He let me in when it looked like I was seriously contemplating jumping over the balcony (we're one story up). This sparked a conversation about the various times we'd been genuinely locked out in the past. When Daniel and I first got an apartment in 2002 neither of us had a car. I biked to work and he usually carpooled. The apartment had a front security door which required a 'do not duplicate' key, which we only had one of at the time. Daniel held onto it for reasons that escape me now. When I got off work the third night we had the place, Daniel wasn't home yet, so I biked down to his work, from 36th & Artic to 1st & Bragaw just to get the. It was worth it to spend an extra thirty minutes in the new apartment. The first time you have your own place, without any arbitrary administration to answer to, the sense of freedom is immense. It becomes your home, your sanctuary, regardless of whether you own the place or not.

Last night one of our neighbors had a rather large gathering and at some point they all began to spontaneously sing 'Lean on me'. I recalled one of my last parties at the Bering st. apartment when Carina and I began to sing the 'Star-Spangled Banner' and everyone joined in. A neighbor knocked on my door after we had finished. He asked "Did you guys just sing the National Anthem?" When I affirmed that indeed we had, he replied "Awesome!" We invited him in for beer but he declined.

I remember later that night Carina asked for a tour of my room and for no apparent reason she started kissing me. I assumed it was the alcohol, as she is well known for her excesses, but she whispered in my ear when we walked out into the hallway "I'm going to dare you to kiss me," referring of course to the game of Truth or Dare Phil and Daniel were organizing. After I completed my dare, Daniel asked her to decide which of us was the better kisser, having made out with her at a previous party. She studied us both and said "Definitely Aubrey." The hooting and hollering at that remark, as well as the multiple slaps to my back made me realize how lucky I was to have friends who were so eagerly accepting of my homosexuality. It might seem commonplace now, but I had experienced so much homophobia in the past that their loving encouragement had me in awe.

music, movies and some ass-kicking goodness

If you read the EU Constitution, you'd reject it too.

In other, less banal news, Batman Begins, Thirty Days, Stephen Malkamus and Guinness are all awesome.

Michael and I went to see 'Batman Begins' wednesday afternoon. It is in my opinion the best Batman movie ever made. It is the best movie I have seen in theaters this year, barely beating out 'Sin City' on my scale. Those two films also remain the only two I have enjoyed thus far. Star Wars and the Hitchhiker's guide to the Galaxy were huge disappointments for me.

Batman Begins left me with only two minor complaints, one was a major continuity error in the story line, and the other was the similarity to one of the plot lines to the first Batman movie. Neither of these were deal breakers for me, and I doubt anyone else will notice them. Christian Bale growls at the shady and unsavory members of the underworld exactly as I always imagined Batman does in the comic book. The Scarecrow's straight-laced exterior was lined with a perfect balance of detached sociopathy and poorly hidden malice as his alter ego that his transformation is not only believable, but successfully creepy. The gadgets and weaponry Bruce Wayne affords himself are far more believable than rubber suits with molded surfer nipples could ever have been, an in comparison even the original Batman seems terribly hokey to me now.

I intend to see at least once more in theaters, I recommend that you do the same.

Wednesday night brought with it beer, pizza, and Thirty Days, a new reality show from Morgan Spurlock (Super Size Me). The first episode featured Spurlock and his fiance Alex leaving New York city for Ohio and thirty days on minimum wage. They rent an apartment, get low paying jobs and try to make ends meet. I had a few complaints about this experiment, the first being that Heisenberg applied uberly. I guarantee you the presence of a camera crews was the only reason a landlord in a seedy neighborhood would agree to delay payment of a deposit, and the cameras most certainly had an influence on local business' willingness to higher the Spurlock's within an hour of applying. Later in the show, Morgan gets an convenient ache in his wrist after one day of landscaping, and this allows us to segue into the healthcare situation in America. He need not have done this, however, because fiance Alex endured a bladder infection the next day (which was far more realistic than Morgan's phantom pains). Still later, after meeting a 23 year old co-worker with four children (who did not actually state that his children lived with him), Morgan decided it would be fun to alter the experiment by inviting his niece and nephew to stay with him for a few days and see if he an Alex could afford them on minimum wage.

All in all, the experiment did not seem well thought out, and while I enjoyed it in terms of entertainment, because Morgan an Alex are nothing if not charismatic, the end product did not raise any truly compelling questions that are not already raised every day, and Spurlock did not offer any potential solution to the problems he encountered except to challenge us at home to try harder to live in someone else's shoes. I would only say to Morgan that many of us have tough shoes of our own to fill.

Last night, after a late lunch at Red Robin where I tossed back a few Guinness, Michael and I headed downtown to the Crystal Ballroom to see Stephen Malkamus and the Jicks. The two openers, Mary Wainwright and some death metal band were both mediocre, the death metal band more than Mary. They were essentially loud drums, loud electric bass and guitar with a frontman deepthroating the mic. Nothing special there, except the mic kept going out, but the dude kept pushing it into his mouth anyway, which was hilarious (for me). Mary Wainwright reminded me of the solo girl singer-guitarist that I avoid, such as Tori Amos, Ani DiFranco an Melissa Etheridge. Give me Dropkick Murphys, Black Sabbath, the Beastie Boys, Rage Against the Machine, anything but that self-indulgent crap. The only time she sounded good was when the backup band featured prominently, which wasn't often. She has potential if she can lay off the solo acoustic sappy songs. She did have an interesting voice which reminded me of a cross between the Sundays and Splendid. Stephen Malkamus was brilliant, though the few intermittent jam sessions did get a bit tedious. They zoomed through their planned set, and took requests from the audience. Their rendition of the Pixies' Debaser was awesome, and really got the otherwise relatively passive crowd jumping.

Now I just have to work out the logistic of getting to the Warped Tour in Deer Island, so I can see Dropkick Murphys.

biography of freedom

sing out loud

I can sing my way out of a paper bag and then some, but I commonly feel ashamed to croon to the best of my ability. Usually when I sing along to a song I intentionally sing loud an off-key. I'm not certain what this hangup stems from.

Sometimes I feel like Joseph of Arimathea, that I have (metaphysical) wounds that never fester, but never heal. I wonder, if I possessed a mirror with which to look at them, what would I see?

And the problem with such wounds is no one, not even myself, is aware of their exact location, so a lover or a friend might easily graze them unware of (and unresponsible for) the pain they caused.

I prefer to be alone because then I can never be hurt. I hardly ever feel lonely.

and the crowd goes mild

Interesting note: I am a homosexual, but a heterophile i.e. most of my friends are straight males (or straight females). In fact, while I have many acquaintances, I honestly do not have one gay friend.

On Ignorance and Globalism

After running errands in downtown Portland, I sauntered past a small table covered in leaflets and other political material. Affixed to the front were two large pieces of white butcher paper, and written on both were the following:

The EU constitution failed, therefore Globalism is dead!

and

The Founding Fathers fought against free trade!

After scoffing at the stand, as I walked towards the MAX station I realized my rant about it would be better served if I possesed a leaflet or two. So I turned around and approached the booth, looking for the operator. There were three guys loitering around it, all mid twenties. I inquired after the owner of the booth, and one of the pack spoke up. He was dressed attire I can only describe as Moby-esque. Very clean. Very bland. Very quasi-intellectual. I asked him who produced the publications, and he told me it was none other than LaRouche the Douche. Our conversation from that point went a little something like a dis:

Aubrey: So, why are you against free trade?

QI Dude: Well, it makes people poor, and the economists all say that it will fail. the EU constitution failed, so globalism will fail.

Aubrey: Have you read the constitution that failed? have you read any of the previous drafts? Do you know why the current proposed constitution failed?

QI Dude: No (to all)

Aubrey: Have you ever been to Europe? Have you ever been overseas at all? Have you ever seen first hand the effects of globalization except what you've read in Z magazine?

QI Dude: I don't need to. I believe what I've read is true.

Aubrey: Do you have a degree in Economics? Do you major in Economics?

QI Dude: Oh, no, man I hope to never be that brainwashed.

Aubrey: Exactly what about free trade do you disagree with?

QI Dude: Well, you know Adam Smith right?

Aubrey: Yes I know Smith. I've read Wealth of Nations several times. Have you ever read it?

QI Dude: No

Aubrey: Have you ever read 'Principals of Political Economy' by John Stuart Mill?

QI Dude: No, you don't have to read every book in existence to know that globalization is bad.

Aubrey: Right, but have you read any? Can you give me one Adam Smith quote?

QI Dude: Well, he was all supply and demand, and economists all say that globalization will fail.

Aubrey: You know what? I only wanted to know who was running this booth. And now I know.

In my view, there is no more ignorant or irresponsible a political view than to be anti-globalization. To be anti-free trade in certain instances is one thing, as is being against NAFTA and the WTO and certain of their policies. But to be just completely and arbitrarily against it for no other reason than the vaguely touted argument that makes poor people poor is ridiculously stupid at best.

When you see the demonstrations (and riots) against Globalization, what they're complaining about is that imports of products from outside a country can displace local industry and put local workers out of business. Which is true.

But the argument in favor is that in the long run it is better for all products to be made where they can be made best and most efficiently, because in the long run more people will benefit more overall because of it. In zones where relatively free trade has existed, that has been the result: old industries were often displaced or even shut down, but new ones arose to replace them and overall everyone did much better.

But it does cause short term displacement and short term pain; people do lose their jobs. The argument is whether that price is too high a one to pay. The demonstrators think it is; I disagree.

But if we, as a nation, are going to embrace the economic policy of globalization (also known as "free trade") then we have to realize that it goes both ways. Sometimes the industries which will be displaced will be ours. The clothing industry has been facing that one for years; the US hardly makes clothes any more. We import all of that. By the same token, shoes are no longer made here. The US doesn't make televisions, or most low-grade consumer electronics.

And when those changes took place, there was screaming, and demands for protection of those industries. But while there may have been some efforts in those directions, they were mostly resisted -- and we now have a very low unemployment rate (even during this time of recession) and a very high per-capita GDP.

So when I read that catfish producers in the Mississippi delta are complaining about the fact that their product is being displaced by fish from Viet Nam, I have a hard time feeling sympathetic. That's what happens.

At least they're not actually trying to limit imports. Instead, they're requiring labeling changes; the Viet Nam fish has to be called "Basa" or "Basa catfish". (Next they'll require that all the native catfish be delivered with an American Flag sticker, just so that we all know it's patriotically-produced-product.)

After the Philippine "People Power" revolution kicked out Marcos, a group of American congresspeople went to visit Cory Aquino and asked her what the US could to help? Aid? Loans? She responded that she didn't want any of those things. What she wanted was for the US to open its sugar market and stop limiting Philippine imports. Alas, it didn't happen. (Because of Archer Daniels Midland, but that's a different story.) But it should have because she was right..

The best way for us to create a peaceful world is to increase prosperity everywhere. The best way to get nations to participate in free trade is to let them benefit from it. The best way to help the people of the Third World is to give them jobs, so they can support themselves. Sometimes that means that the US will export jobs. That is good; we should do so even though it causes short term pain here. We'll find something else to work on. Viet Nam is a desperately poor nation and it needs to come up with things to sell overseas; if we can help them by eating their fish and drinking their coffee (another cash-crop they've started producing in quantity) then all the better.

Been there

done that