Posts

Posted on

Happy Birthday, Pop

Hey, it’s my dad’s birthday.

He was born up in Marshall County, Minnesota, the same year that Warren Harding became president of the United States. Who’d ever have thought we’d get a president who’d make Harding look so harmless? But enough of the politics. Although Dad was born in Warren, the county seat and where the closest hospital is, Dad’s parents (Sjur Ingebretsson Brekke and Otilia Sieversen Brekke) lived in Alvarado, where my grandfather was pastor of the Lutheran parish from about 1917 through 1925 (he had at least one other congregation he served, too, at a rural church called Kongsvinger).

The area had a certain ethnic flavor: Alvarado was half Swedish, half Norwegian back then, and started out in the late 19th century with two different congregations. Services at Kongsvinger were said in Norwegian exclusively up through the 1930s. From Alvarado, the family moved to Chicago, where Sjur had attended seminary (on the site of Wrigley Field) after arriving in the United States in 1893, age 17, and where my grandmother’s very large family lived (she was the first child in her family born in the States, in October 1884). In Chicago, my dad became fluent in English (very useful), became a Cubs fan (not so useful), met my mom (indispensable development, from my point of view), played for the Chicago Bears (tuba, in the marching band they used to have perform; I’ve been working that line for decades), worked at Spiegel’s when it really was Spiegel’s, raised a big, challenging family of his own, and has generally been a remarkable, interesting, fun guy to be around.

OK, that’s it. Happy birthday, Dad!

Posted on

Sick and Crazy

The last couple of days, I was feeling like I was watching the wheels come off the world or something. The school hostages and a subway terror attack in Russia. More of the same in Israel. Nepalis slaughtered in Iraq and rioting against Muslims in Kathmandu. Meantime, our ruling party is celebrating the fact it’s put the terrorists to flight and is proclaiming its readiness to keep going for four more years. I don’t think they’re talking much about the cost, human or financial.

Then this evening, we were getting our dose of doctored reality from “The Daily Show.” I had failed my civic duty by neglecting to watch the Republican celebration of their Remaking of America — my neighbor Piero watched the speech, and at one point during the delivery went out on his front porch and just screamed — but I knew it would come up in a form I could swallow on “Daily.” And sure enough, they had a clever little parody of a Bush convention documentary, spiced up with lots of examples of mis-speakings and contradictions and outright untruths. At one point, there was a clip of Bush saying (pretty close to verbatim), “You can’t distinguish between Saddam Hussein and al Qaida when it comes to terrorism.”

That provoked my son Tom to get up angrily and leave the room, commenting, “I’m really sick of this country.” Boy, did I recognize that moment. I remember watching a Nixon speech when I was about his age and getting so mad that I spit on the television. Tom came back after a few minutes to explain why he was upset. Partly it’s the sense — fed by us to some extent, I’m sure, and also from some of his more thoughtful friends — that people are letting the whole Bush gang get away with a huge lie. Partly it’s frustration that he sees so many of his peers, even here in Berkeley, unwilling to pay attention, much less vote. And partly it’s the realization that what he’s seeing will affect his future, has already affected it.

I had nothing to say, really. It’s a hell of a world we’re leaving him.

Posted on

Guten Morgen, Herr President!

A nice line in the lede of San Francisco Chronicle’s story on our Austrian governor and his speech to the Republicans last night:

“New York — Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger, completing his transformation from muscular curiosity to political powerhouse, told a national television audience Tuesday that ‘America is back’ …”

gov_ASI can’t wait for the coming campaign to amend the Constitution so that the Austrian can run for president. And of course, that’s no joke: Two such proposed amendments have been introduced during this session of Congress: One that would allow those of foreign birth to be president after they’ve been citizens for 20 years, another with a 35-year citizenship and 14-year continuous residence requirement. The interesting thing, on first glance, anyway, is that the sponsors of the amendment resolutions include the very liberal (Democratic Reps. John Conyers of Michigan and Barney Frank of Massachusetts, for example) and the very conservative (Republican Sen. Orrin Hatch of Utah and Darrell Issa of California; Issa is the guy who made Schwarzenegger’s governorship possible by bankrolling the campaign to recall Gray Davis last year when it looked like it had stalled).

Now, the bipartisan lefty-righty support for the amendment doesn’t mean it’s going anywhere. Haven’t looked to see whether anyone has done any polling on the proposal, but the Associated Press did an informal survey of GOP delegates from Michigan earlier this week and found the idea got a cold reception.

My own feelings: I really loathe the notion of Schwarzenegger taking his bluster and borrowed “Saturday Night Live” and “Terminator” one-liners to national office. But I also believe that this country has been made great by immigrants; and that the original reasoning for excluding the foreign-born from the presidency — discussed in brief on Slate — is no longer valid. And of course, there’s the obvious point that we’ve gotten so far into the shallow end of our political talent pool — take a look at the Son of Texas ensconced at 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue now — that maybe it’s time to think about opening up the process a little.

Historical ‘President Schwarzenegger?’ footnote: Shock site rotten.com notes in its long profile of the Austrian that during a House committee hearing several years ago, he was cited as the nightmare example of why foreigners should be barred from holding the highest office in the land:

Mr. MCDONALD: All right. I could give what I consider the definitive argument against the proposed amendment in two words: Arnold Schwarzenegger, but I have been allotted 5 minutes, so I will take the 5. I will explain the reference, if it does not follow.

[Later in the testimony…]
Mr. FRANK: Thank you. First, I would ask, Professor McDonald, I assume the reference to Arnold Schwarzenegger was to hold out the terrible prospect that he might get elected President.
Mr. MCDONALD: Yes.
Mr. FRANK: I think what I find is that that shows — the assumption is that there is no great discretion on the part of the public.
Mr. MCDONALD: They have elected a number of actors before to high office.
Mr. FRANK: Yes, they have, and I think they did a reasonable job, given their values. And I think that I am glad you brought it up, because it seems to me what we have here is, in the guise of a defense of the American citizens, a denigration of them; the notion that they somehow cannot be trusted to make these decisions.

Posted on

The Self-Promoting Life

More brilliant work from your trusted Number One source for brilliance (me, in case you didn’t know): I have another X Prize story on Wired News this morning. This one focuses on how much alarm is justified when someone wants to blast off in an untried spaceship:

“… The debate surrounding Toronto’s Brian Feeney and his planned space launch raises important questions: How much freedom will the new generation of space explorers have as they search for cheap ways to fly people into the heavens? In trying to break away from costly, slow, government-run methods of developing manned flight systems, how much risk will we tolerate?”

Posted on

Mr. Attorney General?

“Well, I’m sorry you’re such a straitened, strangulated little hernia of a man.”

That sentence just popped into my head. Now I have to find someone to apply it to. John Ashcroft, maybe.

Posted on

Infospigot: The Mailbag

Having an infinitely diverse readership — including the author’s blood relatives, plus the dozen or so people in the world to whom he’s offered no mortal offense, and maybe one or two others — this site receives an extraordinary range of suggestions about web sites and other apparitions that may deserve attention and approbation. (If you can follow all that, let me know what it means.)

From Infospigot’s bulging in-box, the following are offered for your wonderment:

vis_chem_area
Exhibit the First: Some dorm-room humor at the expense of the graphic artists at the Department of Homeland Security. (Thanks, Endo.)

Exhibit the Second: Dan Perkins, aka Tom Tomorrow, boils down the Bush vs. Kerry issue in six panels. (Thanks, Garth.)

Exhibit the Third: An example of why, Bush or no Bush, we’re a great country and always will be: Beer bottles made from aluminum. It’s almost enough to make Osama crack a cold one and toast the Great Satan. (Thanks, Lydell.)

Posted on

Mom

While I was riding my 100 miles yesterday, I was thinking about Mary Brekke, my mom, who died a year ago on August 29. I think all of us — my dad, my brothers John and Chris and my sister Ann — have been thinking about her a lot; of course, I believe we’re thinking about her all the time, just more so as the anniversary of her passing neared. I can’t really think of much to say beyond, “I miss you.” Dad had a great thing to say, though” “Listen. Dan, Mom’s with all of us.”

Yes, she is.

Posted on

Back on the Road

Yesterday, my friend Pete and I got on our bikes and rode the 100-mile route in the annual Tour of Napa Valley. No wine, no pate or cheese or anything like that. Just the bikes, bananas, sports food, and plenty of water. A year ago I was just coming off the ride of a lifetime, the 2003 Paris-Brest-Paris randonee, and kind of took my cycling fitness for granted. I’ve been thinking I’ll do another PBP-length ride (1,200 kilometers, roughly 750 miles, in an 90-hour time limit) next year — the Davis Bike Club’s Gold Rush. But though I finished with no big problems yesterday beyond a sore butt and some minor problems eating, I realized that the year that’s gone by and the 15 or so pounds I’ve gained since PBP has dramatically eroded my strength and that maybe it’s wise not to think too far into the future about huge demanding efforts like a 1,200k ride; even having done one, it’s a huge thing to contemplate.

Posted on

Infospigot: The Self-Promotion

Another story on Wired News today (here), this time about the da Vinci’s Project running into trouble getting insurance and having its launch permit slowed down as a result. The upshot is that even though da Vinci has announced an Oct. 2 launch date for the X Prize, it’s possible that not all the paperwork will be done on time to do it.

Posted on

Must Buy This Desk

Found in the midst of serious legitimate journalistic research: a window, or perhaps just an unglazed hole, onto that strange digital intersection where poverty-inspired comic writing meets the cult of Swedish home-office furniture. And remember to click on the “Ikea Jerker” link.

Via v-2 Organisation.