At Home In The Wasteland: September 2008 Archives

Dude, lindsayfincher.com is eight years old today!

Crazy, huh? I registered this domain name back in September 2000 (when I was a freshman at GDub) and have been spouting nonsense ever since! I'm sure there will be many more years of that to come. Like, when I'm 80 years old I'll be complaining about something, ya know?

Someone should bake me a cake.

Required reading: September 30, 2008 (American Exceptionalism edition)

I would highly recommend watching Bill Moyer's interview of Andrew J. Bacevich, the author of The Limits of Power: The End of American Exceptionalism. Bacevich is a graduate of West Point, retired Army colonel, and a Professor of International Relations at Boston University who speaks candidly of the problems facing our nation's economy and security. It is unfortunate that we don't have more Americans like Bacevich leading our country.

We're going to have a long argument about the Iraq War. We, Americans. Not unlike the way we had a very long argument about the Vietnam War. In fact, maybe the argument about the Vietnam War continues to the present day. And that argument is going to be - is going to cause us, I hope, to ask serious questions about where this war came from.
How did we come to be a nation in which we really thought that we could transform the greater Middle East with our army?

What have been the costs that have been imposed on this country? Hundreds of billions of dollars. Some projections, two to three trillion dollars. Where is that money coming from? How else could it have been spent? For what? Who bears the burden?

Who died? Who suffered loss? Who's in hospitals? Who's suffering from PTSD? And was it worth it? Now, there will be plenty of people who are going to say, "Absolutely, it was worth it. We overthrew this dictator." But I hope and pray that there will be many others who will make the argument that it wasn't worth it.

It was a fundamental mistake. It never should have been undertaking. And we're never going to do this kind of thing again. And that might be the moment when we look ourselves in the mirror. And we see what we have become. And perhaps undertake an effort to make those changes in the American way of life that will enable us to preserve for future generations that which we value most about the American way of life.

Ryan and I are "turistas extremos"

This is from the August 2, 2008 edition of Frontera, a Tijuana/San Diego based Spanish-language newspaper. Recognize that photo at the bottom? Yeah, that is Ryan and I in front of Chernobyl's infamous reactor four when we (along with Laura) toured the exclusion zone on July 4, 2007.

The entire article is behind a paywall now, but it did list my blog address and this blurb:

Lindsay Fincher es una californiana que visitó el reactor número 4, en su blog describió la experiencia en el lugar como “surrealista”.

From my three years of high school Spanish (which I've almost completely forgotten), it generally translates to "Lindsay Fincher is a Californian that visited reactor number four and in her blog described the experience as surreal" or whatever.

The funny thing about this? I had no idea this article existed until it showed up in my website stats. Figures.

Yep, this is what it's like to live in California

Garrison Keillor:

California is another country. You wake up in the morning and New York is already on its first coffee, and the first scandal has broken in Washington, one more Republican crony caught with his hand in the honey pot. It all feels very far away.
You wake up, your laptop is full of e-mails but you're in California so you don't have to reply to them. Your e-mailers imagine that you are busy attending some sort of Mayan fertility ceremony on a beach, bare-chested men whanging on little drums, dinging bells, naked children strewing blossoms in the surf, a priestess in a white caftan playing a Peruvian flute. Stereotypes live forever: Minnesota is cold, California is ditzy. Whereas the California I know is a land of gorgeously normal people, serious, reverent, clean, agile men and women, athletic nerds who love to surf and hike and shoot hoops and also read Frederick Buechner, listen to Bach. I grew up thinking you had to choose between smart and sexy; in California they think you can have it all.

They are less jittery than us flatlanders: Disaster does not terrify them. They roll with earthquakes, the landscape ripples, the china clinks, and so what, it's only an earthquake. Giant mudslides and brush fires -- you ride them out and you move on.

I hope they include flip-flop production in the forthcoming five year plan

Although I'm not quite sure I'd like flip flops produced by AIG. They are based in New York, after all.

Whoa, Nancy Pelosi's daily eating habits are even worse than mine!

I think it's fair to say that Pelosi has the best breakfast in our nation's capital:

As the presidential election looms, SAVEUR set out to discover what the newsmakers and news breakers in and near the Capital Beltway eat each morning. Here, politicians, government figures, and political journalists reveal their preferred early-hour fuel:
NANCY PELOSI, Speaker of the House of Representatives: Chocolate ice cream, but a chocolate doughnut will do in a pinch.

(Note: My breakfast this morning consisted of nachos and a Shirley Temple. Yes, I'm still 10 years old.)

Tina Fey as Palin, again

This time, a hilarious skit on the Palin-Couric interview.

"Every morning, when Alaskans wake up, one of the first things they do, is look outside to see if there are any Russians hanging around. And if there are, you gotta go up to them and ask, 'What are you doing here?' and if they can't give you a good reason, it's our responsibility to say, you know, 'Shoo! Get back over there!'''

Putin rearing his head over Alaska

Yep, pretty damn scary.

(Via boingboing.net)

Palin on Russia, again. OH DEAR GOD PLEASE MAKE IT STOP!!!

Is John McCain playing some kind of sick joke on our country? Did any of his campaign aides actually, uh, talk to Sarah Palin before they selected her as his running mate?

Here is the second part of Palin's interview with Katie Couric. I gotta say, in terms of hilarity, this is the best one yet. You really have to watch it to get the full effect.

Couric: You've cited Alaska's proximity to Russia as part of your foreign policy experience. What did you mean by that?

Sarah Palin: That Alaska has a very narrow maritime border between a foreign country, Russia, and, on our other side, the land-boundary that we have with Canada.

Uh, thanks for the geography lesson. Again. I think we've already established that Alaska and Russia share a maritime border BUT HOW DOES THAT TRANSLATE INTO FOREIGN POLICY EXPERIENCE?!?!

Palin: It's funny that a comment like that was kinda made to … I don't know, you know … reporters.
Couric: Mocked?

Palin: Mocked, yeah I guess that's the word, mocked.

Uh, you know what's really funny? That you cite Russia's proximity to Alaska whenever someone asks you about your foreign policy experience. Your comment deserves to be mocked because it was stupid.

Couric: Well, explain to me why that enhances your foreign-policy credentials.
Palin: Well, it certainly does, because our, our next-door neighbors are foreign countries, there in the state that I am the executive of. And there…

Whiskey Tango Foxtrot, over?

Couric: Have you ever been involved in any negotiations, for example, with the Russians?
Palin: We have trade missions back and forth, we do. It's very important when you consider even national security issues with Russia. As Putin rears his head and comes into the air space of the United States of America, where do they go? It's Alaska. It's just right over the border. It is from Alaska that we send those out to make sure that an eye is being kept on this very powerful nation, Russia, because they are right next to, they are right next to our state.

Whoa, whoa, whoa...Russia is right next to your state? That's interesting. I haven't heard that before. For your next interview, can you bring along a globe, too? That would be very helpful.

Thank you, Sarah Palin. I never thought someone could make Dan Quayle look like a freakin' genius, but you have proven me wrong!

"You pucked with the wrong ice president"

Let's hope this stays fiction:

(H/T EJ)

Hard decision

Anderson Cooper or Keith Olbermann? I'm inclined to go with Olbermann due to his passionate monologues and fondness for pink ties, but I still love AC's hurricane coverage.

Corporate Twittering?

I've just started playing around with Twitter...no strong feelings about it either way yet, for now it's just another social networking tool to keep up with. Anyways, last night I Twittered "thinks Trader Joe's carnitas were made by god himself" (they are in the deli section...throw some carnitas in corn tortillas, add avocado and salsa, and you have a delicious and easy to prepare dinner. Trust me on this one).

Nine minutes after Twittering, I received this e-mail:

TJ's is on top of things. I love you guys.

Yeah, metaphorically

A senior campaign aide who agreed to speak on the condition of anonymity admitted that Palin's knowledge of Russia may be limited to the way someone from Miami might obtain a general feel for Latin America.
“It is very much being able to look off the tip of Alaska,” the aide said. “Metaphorically, I'm talking about.”

That sound you hear is my brain exploding.

Hey, someone send Comrade Bush a copy of the 2008 GOP Platform

We do not support government bailouts of private institutions. Government interference in the markets exacerbates problems in the marketplace and causes the free market to take longer to correct itself. We believe in the free market as the best tool to sustained prosperity and opportunity for all.

What's up with that?

Dude, the adults left the building YEARS ago

Paul Krugman:

The whole premise of the bailout push has been “We’re the grownups, we know what we’re doing, just trust us.” Sorry, but that’s how Colin Powell sold the Iraq war. Fool me once, shame on you, fool me twice … you shouldn’t get fooled.
And that, by the way, is why Paulson’s whopper about oversight matters. On one hand, the secretary poses as the adult providing supervision, with no need to explain his decisions; on the other, caught with his hand in the cookie jar, he offers childish excuses.

No more taking this administration on faith — and Paulson’s performance over the last few days has made it clear that yes, he is a Bush administration official, with the trademark inability to take responsibility for his own actions.

Palin goes to New York

I was going to write a snarky post about Palin's field trip to the UN, but this image from the NY Daily News will suffice:

(H/T to Lauren)

"You were raised by a single mother on food stamps — where does a guy with eight houses who was legacied into Annapolis get off calling you an elitist?"

Damn, I miss Aaron Sorkin:

BARTLET: Because the idea of American exceptionalism doesn’t extend to Americans being exceptional. If you excelled academically and are able to casually use 690 SAT words then you might as well have the press shoot video of you giving the finger to the Statue of Liberty while the Dixie Chicks sing the University of the Taliban fight song. The people who want English to be the official language of the United States are uncomfortable with their leaders being fluent in it.

Proof of life!

PR damage control in full effect:

GW Colonials everywhere, past and present, can rest assured that even though the Hippo may be an endangered species, it will be safe at GW.

(I stole these photos off Facebook)

"My country has had crisis that has caused the need for large transfer of funds of 800 billion dollars US. If you would assist me in this transfer, it would be most profitable to you."

Paulson bailout or Nigerian e-mail scam?

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September 30, 2008