My sister declares Jihad on Winter

Hallelujah

Thanks be to God. Alleluia, Alleluia!

Loose Ends

Aunt Sallie passes along a follow-up article to my post about race and snap decisions.

So maybe Implicit Association Tests don't really test true bias at all. That said, there is still plenty of evidence of persistent racial bias in this country. For a long time, researchers have done "salt and pepper" experiments where blacks and whites with similar or equivalent characteristics (other than race) are considered for jobs, loans, etc. If we really are a meritocracy, should Emily and Greg be more employable than Lakisha and Jamal, solely because the
former have "white-sounding" names?

Quote of the day:
James Naughton, canon for communications and advancement in the Episcopal Diocese of Washington, on the establishment of a new, Conservative Episcopal Province in the U.S.:

“I think this organization does not have much of a future... there are already a lot of churches in the United States for people who don’t want to worship with gays and lesbians. That’s not a market niche that is underserved.”

Vampire Weekend's Cape Cod Kwassa Kwassa is the catchiest song since Outkast's Hey Ya! There's a live version available from NPR here.

45 - 42

I am not a current (or former) Georgia Tech football player.
I do not give a dime to the Georgia Tech Athletic Association.
Many of my favorite people went to the University of Georgia -- which is an excellent center of higher learning.

Yet...There has been a smile plastered on my face since Saturday.

David beat Goliath (on the Philistines' home field).
The Trade School Nerds beat the Cool Kids from Athens.
An annual whipping might turn into a rivalry again.

This is the first year since we moved away from Georgia that Tech has beaten UGA in American football. I have always said that the Sunday after Tech-Georgia is the best day of the year to live in Texas (or Colorado). But yesterday that wasn't true -- yesterday would have been a very, very good day to be a Tech fan in the Promised Land.

Volatility is not Loss (or Gain)

I’m a little bummed that the bottom fell out of the real estate market right after we “bought” our first house (we don’t own a house, we have a mortgage). More to the point, it’s no fun watching the value of any asset decline.

But the title phrase of this post, “Volatility is not Loss,” should give us some comfort. It’s something that any financial planner will try to express, and I heard it uttered by a broker on the radio yesterday afternoon. It’s a good sentiment to remember in times like these. A paper profit or a paper loss is just that, you don’t make or lose money until you actually sell an asset.

Every asset is different, but for those linked to the larger economy, like a house in a major metropolitan area or a mutual fund with broad holdings, things may not be as bad as they seem. The current financial crisis might lead to a permanent revaluation of many assets, but it’s also possible that this is just another business cycle. What goes down will go up again.

On the other hand, that is little solace for those around us who are losing jobs, struggling to pay bills, and wondering what the future holds. As the seasons of Thanksgiving and Advent approach, I hope that I/we will be grateful for what we have and redouble our efforts to help anyone we can.

Shalom.

A Policy/Ethics Question

Florida recently passed a law requiring older drivers (+80) to have their eyes examined. (Please refrain from guffawing). The result as described here, was a statistically significant decrease in fatalities among these drivers. At least three factors were involved. Some drivers flunked the test and stopped driving; others got new prescriptions to pass the test, which made them better drivers; others just let their licenses expire because they knew they would fail.

In my mind this is a public policy success. Fatalities declined and a bunch of folks can see better. This begs the question: should this policy be directed at drivers of all ages, instead of just older drivers? My uninformed guess is that there would be some benefit, but not as much as for older drivers.

So how many lives would make it worth it? If it would save 5 lives, would YOU require everyone to have their eyes examined? 100 lives? 1000 lives?

Nickolas

Late last Spring, Elaine and I went to a cookout with some folks from church. It was a small group, and we were staked out near a playground where several children who were not affiliated with our group were playing. While I was preparing dessert, the following actual conversation occurred.

Young Boy – I need a S’more
Travis – I can’t give you a S’more, there are a bunch of kids around here, and I don’t have enough for everybody
Young Boy – But I NEED a S’more
Travis – Kid, I don’t KNOW you
Young Boy – I’m Nickolas
Travis – Well, Nickolas, I’m not going to give you a S’more. It looks like you just ate; you’re wearing your dinner on your shirt (his shirt was covered with ambiguous food stains).
Nickolas – That’s not my dinner, it’s my mess
Travis – Well, you can’t have S’more unless you ask your mom
Older Boy playing on playground – Mom lets him have anything he wants
Travis – I don’t care. Nickolas, if you want a S’more, you have to go ask your mom.

(Nickolas runs off, then returns)

Nickolas – She said I could have one
Travis – Okay (reluctantly gives Nickolas a S’more which he happily devours).

I totally understand if this text doesn’t leap off the page, but it is one of the most memorable conversations I’ve ever had. Elaine and I happily recount it regularly.

The kid was just so optimistic and so-good natured. The way he said, “I’m Nickolas,” as if I had been hearing about him for quite some time, or should have already known, as if a name encapsulated everything you need to know about someone.

I can’t help but worry that this kid has a lot of pain coming his way. Trusting strangers, wearing your heart on your sleeve, and appealing to people’s better angels is a recipe for disaster.

On the other hand, it’s pretty motivating. I want to live in Nickolas’s world – everybody’s a friend; tell people what you want; ignore snide remarks; expect the best.

I'm implicitly racist, but I love Barack Obama

So I was reading an op-ed in the NYT this morning
http://www.nytimes.com/2008/10/30/opinion/30kristof.html
which offered a link to the following:
https://implicit.harvard.edu/implicit/demo/

It's an "Implicit Association Test" attempting to test our unconscious associations with race (and the leading party candidates).

Here are my test results:

"Your data suggests a moderate automatic preference for White people over Black people

Your data suggests a strong automatic preference for Barack Obama over John McCain"

(my emphasis)

Remember, the idea here is to open up the hood and look at visceral reactions, rather than something you have time to think about. It doesn't surprise me at all that I'm implicitly (moderately) pro-white -- I've had mostly positive experiences with white people, and my view of African-Americans has largely been formed by culture/media rather than personal relationships. Intellectually, I believe we are all God's children, and that there are no significant biological differences (other than appearance) between black and white folk, but my sub-conscious instinct is to prefer my own tribe.

I attribute my preference of Obama to self-conditioning. I really like Obama, so I associate him with positives. I see McCain as more of a tragic figure, so it's natural for me to associate him with negatives.

If my results are not idiosyncratic, if white people (who still have the majority of power in this country) exhibit an implicit preference for other whites, is this an argument in favor of affirmative action?

I think the main upshot is that we should not beat ourselves up over our unconscious bias, but we also should not overlook a potential disconnect between what we "think" and what we "feel". Furthermore, if we know we are biased against other groups, we should consider seeking out individuals in these groups to enter into relationship with.

The Jesus-move is to have a preferential option for the poor, the hurting, and the broken, regardless of race, ethnicity, or other demographic category. My base instinct is towards selfishness and preference for people who look and act like me -- the Jesus impulse has to be cultivated.

(Update: I took the test again and found no bias in preference for whites over blacks -- or vice versa -- and only a moderate Obama preference. But while the test is a fun tool, individual results aren't really the point. The important question is whether there is a pattern of subconscious racism in the population as a whole. I'm fairly agnostic to this question, but I'm willing to be convinced by good research one way or the other.)

Old people vote

I was at a retirement home this evening to attend a presentation. The presenter asked how many people had already voted. I think every hand went up. I don't know who's going to take the over-80 vote, but I think turnout will be high.


Along those lines, Elaine came across a good article about generational equity in the Washington Post last week. You might be able to access it at the following link: http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2008/10/21/AR2008102102252.html?referrer=emailarticle
If not, it is Robert Samuelson's column published on 10/22. You can get all of the New York Times and Washington Post content with free registration.

Sarah Vowell

Elaine and I went to Denver last night to attend a Sarah Vowell reading and book-signing at The Tattered Cover – the big independent bookstore in town. I haven’t actually read a Sarah Vowell book – she read from her newest The Wordy Shipmates – but her essays on This American Life are great, she’s sort of a Rock Star for nerds, and the event was free.


I came away impressed by her encyclopedic knowledge of her subject and her general style – which is to inject so much humor into history that you forget that you’re learning. The funniest/most poignant sequence of the night was when someone asked her how she felt about Sarah Palin injecting the phrase "city on a hill" into the presidential campaign. Vowell said she was saddened that Palin's reference was to Ronald Reagan rather than a more original source, like John Winthrop, or, you know, Jesus.


This recent interview in The Wall Street Journal covers a lot of what she said.

Even if you have presidential election overload ...

... you may enjoy the latest Frontline documentary: The Choice 2008. Personally, I cannot think of a single news source that provides in depth and objective information more consistently, and have recommended their online archive of documentaries to several friends and acquaintances. The latest installment interweaves biographical information on McCain and Obama, essentially ending (briefly and without much comment) at their VP picks. You can watch this program online, and it will be rebroadcast (on most stations) on Sunday, Oct. 26, and Monday, Nov. 3, 2008.

Buddy Says -- "You First Dan"

2 Questions:

1) Why is Dad wearing my shirt?

2) How many pans of biscuits will Mom have to bake to train the dogs to use the dog door.

The Morleys Wear Slippers

We spent last weekend in Chicago visiting our friends David and Nika.

Elaine likes to ride the train, so we took the California Zephyr from Denver to Chicago. I pretty much hated the train ride; it was rocky, there were very few electric outlets (which foiled my plan of watching movies all night), and I basically got no sleep whatsoever. Train travel could be great, but it’s not so great right now unless you’re taking a shorter trip or you can afford a sleeping car – which is way more expensive than flying.

Most of the weekend was spent wandering around town via long walks, bus, and train. We ate some great food ranging from David’s famous pancakes to vegan fast food (just as unhealthy as McDonald’s but without the animal products) to a giant Italian sausage deep dish pizza (that meal was sans our friends – see above). We walked through the Lincoln Park Zoo; checked out Hyde Park, including the U of Chicago Art Museum; saw some sketch theatre – Too Much Light Makes the Baby Go Blind by the Neo-Futurists; and went the Museum of Science and Industry – which is epic.

Mostly we just enjoyed being with friends that we don’t get to see often enough.

I wish I could write something profound about friendship and how wonderful it is to spend time with people that you feel comfortable being yourself around, but the words are escaping me.

It's a Different World

This picture was taken two weeks ago, less than two hours from our house. I don't think we're in Texas anymore.

The People Formerly Known as The Missions Committee

Busy times around here. The weather is too nice. Leaves are starting to turn and the nights are cool, but the days are sunny and warm. I finally kept some fish last weekend (they were stocked rainbows, the wild browns and cutthroat are just too beautiful to kill) and we ate trout and grits before church on Sunday -- delicious.


Elaine and I are going to attend our first Church Outreach Committee meeting next week, which jogged my brain about the following link, which was passed along by our friend Laura from a guy named Brant Hansen's blog. Anyways, it's short and it's fantastic. If you are a church attender, a former church attender, or someone who knows a church attender, it's worth a read.


http://branthansen.typepad.com/letters_from_kamp_krusty/2007/06/the_people_form.html

Alpine Lake Fishing

Colorado summer happiness is a mild and sunny day, hiking past this:



To get here:



And be met with:



And to be the ONLY angler on the lake. It took an hour or so to catch my first fish, but after that, this was a regular occurrence:



Then we had a little rain shower, a little soft hail. We packed up our stuff, hiked back to the car, then went to Idaho Springs and ate a tasty pizza.

Oh Happy Day.

Is there a middle ground in the abortion debate?

Timothy Shriver writes a good piece about the abortion debate for Newsweek/The Washington Post --

http://newsweek.washingtonpost.com/onfaith/religionfromtheheart/2008/09/pro_trig.html


Here are some thoughts of my own:


As a whole, people who believe life begins at conception are going to vote overwhelmingly for McCain this fall. Despite some earlier equivocations, McCain is presenting himself as stridently pro-life; Obama is clearly pro-choice.


But is Roe v Wade really in any danger of being overturned? As long as abortion is legal, pro-life candidates get a cache of votes from pro-life voters without having to represent any of their other interests. Would the majority of politicians that benefit from this arrangement really be anxious to give up such a strategic advantage? If elected officials cared as much about the issue as single-minded voters, wouldn’t Senators filibuster at every opportunity? Wouldn’t Representatives attach riders to every bill?


Nothing would fire up feminists like restricting women’s reproductive choices. News stories about botched back-alley abortions would flood the media. More unwanted children would further strain a safety net already full of holes.


Every abortion is a tragedy. But the best way to reduce abortion is not to reduce supply, but to eliminate demand, to change hearts and minds, to convince everyone to enjoy sex only in the context of committed, loving marriages. Barring that, there are going to continue to be unwanted pregnancies, some of which will end in abortion – legal or otherwise.


The person sitting in the Oval Office probably won’t make a big difference on these issues. John McCain would certainly be more apt to appoint pro-life judges, but there will only be incremental changes in the regulation of abortion in the foreseeable future.

Despite my general skepticism of the political process, I have the slightest bit of hope that Barack Obama could lift the level of discourse in this country. You cannot win a debate until people are actually talking to each other. If people are more engaged, if there is a greater sense of community, inclusiveness, and shared purpose, then maybe we could begin to break the vicious cycles of poverty and personal irresponsibility that feed the abortion industry.


I repeat: abortion is a tragedy. But so is militarism, inadequate healthcare, profligate energy use, a failing education system, and personal and corporate unwillingness to do more for the least of these inside AND outside our borders.

Obama plays loose with the facts

I love me some Obama. If you want to debate who should be president, I’d love to talk.

But it’s important to hold your friends’ feet to the fire too, so I’ll point out a couple of things from Obama’s speech that were dishonest. First, if you read the text of Obama’s speech it will be clear that it was not John McCain who called the country a “nation of whiners,” but an advisor (Phil Gramm), but the language was purposely obfuscated to make it sound like McCain made the comment. Second, Obama claimed that McCain defined middle class as anyone making “less than five million dollars a year.” This was in reference to McCain’s answer to the question “what is the definition of rich” at the recent Saddleback forum. I thought McCain was actually pretty nuanced on that issue, he tried to point out that some of the least happy people he knew were quite well off. This could very well be because John McCain doesn’t know any poor people, but I digress.

Um…The Al-Jazeera visit did not go well

As promised, Elaine and I walked past the Buffalo Rose last night where Al-Jazeera interviewed some Golden residents re: the election. There were plenty of people in the bar, but the spectacle was out front where folks were holding signs that said things like: “God forgives, we don’t” and generally being rowdy.

As I looked on in quiet disappointment – denigrating Muslims for not eating pork and conflating Al-Jazeera with Al-Qaeda are not the ways to win friends in the Middle East – I noticed a reporter jotting notes. I almost walked up to him and said, “Don’t sensationalize this; it’s just a handful of ill-informed and possibly even well-meaning folks that want some attention.” But I didn’t.

Well it turned out that the guy was Dana Milbank from the Washington Post and he wrote about the incident in a pretty non-flattering tone in today’s paper. http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2008/08/27/AR2008082703977.html?referrer=emailarticle

And, in a particularly ironic twist, the only coverage of Golden I could find on the Al-Jazeera website was pretty positive.

“On this second day of the Democratic convention, it was off to the small city of Golden, 24km west of Denver. The city sits in the foothills of the Rocky Mountains – just 21 square kilometres nestled in a valley along Clear Creek. Small shops and offices line the streets, and people warmly say hello to each other. When they see our crew, some tell us they're glad to have a chance to tell the world what they think about this political season. The overwhelming message – people are hungry for a renewed sense of economic and psychological security – and they're very keen to see what both Barack Obama and John McCain have to offer them.”
http://english.aljazeera.net/news/americas/2008/08/200882516620749740.html

After we walked by the protest I fished in the creek for a while (I long-released a couple) and Elaine went to the library to knit with a group of needleworkers. When I stopped in to say hi, I noticed that one of the regulars, a girl who wears a headscarf – and is a member of the family who owns the Lebanese place that is probably the best restaurant in town – wasn’t in attendance. If she stayed home because she didn’t feel like it was safe to be out among the protesters, then shame on Golden, and shame on me for not doing more about it.

Your man at the DNC (or at least within several blocks)

So I went to see the hoopla today. I rode the bus from Golden to Denver and went to a forum convened by the Progressive Democrats of America (http://www.pdamerica.org/).

The first panel discussed immigration. The two takeaway points were:

A) There are two types of factors that lead to immigration, push factors – that is crummy conditions in other countries – and pull factors – opportunities that exist in the U.S. that don’t exist elsewhere. Immigration policy has largely dealt with the pull side, busting U.S. employers for violations (when it’s politically expedient). But what about push factors? Are we making good-faith efforts to help Latin American countries thrive? The panelists argued that U.S. imposed neo-liberal economic policy, so-called “free trade,” and American military support for corrupt regimes have created de-stabilized conditions that cause people to leave their homes.

B) All people, citizens or not, have a vested interest in immigration policy. If we normalize the idea that some people are illegal human beings because they didn’t have the good fortune to be born here, and we pursue them aggressively (think police raids with lots of guns), then we begin to think of a world where civil liberties are contingent as normal. First they came for the janitors, but I was silent...

The second panel discussed economic justice. The highlight was Jim McGovern, U.S. Rep from Massachusetts who was remarkably candid about poverty and hunger in the United States. There was lots of talk about a new New Deal, such as a modern Civilian Conservation Corps to repair the American infrastructure. The other panelists were the heads of Public Citizen’s Global Trade Watch (http://www.citizen.org/trade/) and the Front Range Economic Strategy Center (http://fresc.org/). They were pro-Union and anti-WTO, and frankly, a little glib.

This was the truest of the true believers, there was lots of hugging and some painfully sincere acoustic musical performances. On the whole though, I was pretty impressed. I like passionate people, even if I don’t agree with everything they say. Sean Penn was there. Aloha Mr. Hand.

I bailed on the third panel and went off in search of the free speech zone. I was secretly hoping to get caught up in a march for something cool – religious freedom in China or equal pay for equal work or fully funded children’s health care – but it didn’t happen. I couldn’t get within several hundred yards of the convention center. The friendly policemen with machine guns told me how to get to the designated protest area, but it was a total joke. There was a stage and a live microphone, but the place was dead empty. Literally, it was me and some lady looking at each other and asking “where are the protesters?’ Kind of scary.

Hillary

I have never been a Hillary Clinton fan before, but I thought she did a really good job tonight. I heard some pundits say afterwards that they thought she could have gone further to renounce her comments in the primary about Obama's lack of experience, but I thought she made it abundantly clear that the distance between her and Obama is much closer than her and McCain. Obama and McCain both said at the Saddleback forum that "it's not about me." Clinton said the same thing, and time will only tell if her supporters will heed her call to fall in line behind Obama.

Susan Faludi wrote in the New York Times today about the Clinton die hards. I thought her most interesting comment was on the lack of women in the political pipeline. For instance, state legislatures are still overwhelmingly male. My take on this is that its about egoism. You have to think pretty highly of yourself to run for elected office, and many men (and women) have a hard time with confident and brash women. The sin of the electorate is not that we punish arrogance in women, but that we accept it and reward it in men.

What's the solution? Term limits and public financing for a start. More turnover means more opportunity and public financing would allow principled people to run without selling their souls to moneyed interests.

The Honorable Michelle Obama Package

Earlier today I decided to look at the DNC schedule to see what they meant by prime time. The schedule did not fully answer my question, but did raise two more:

• Who decided that all elected officials are honorable, and all regular joes are not?


• Since when is Michelle Obama a package, and not a person?

Alvin in the Wild

Now that I live somewhere that has chipmunks, I like to classify them as Alvins, Simons, or Theodores. This one

is definitely an Alvin. After my friend Cathy and I stopped for lunch about 4 miles into Rocky Mountain National Park, he audaciously tried to get to our food from every angle. Unfortunately for him, we don't feed wildlife. We suggested he go to the trail head where someone left part of a PB&J and half a graham cracker on top of a rock.

Weather Forecast

According to the radio, we have a slight chance today for a "weak tornado." Is there such a thing?

Come on Ex-Hurricane Fay, pour and pour and pour (gently) on North Georgia. They need it.

Fundraisers…how I loathe them

Last week I was accosted by some members of the Golden High ninth grade football team who were selling raffle tickets for a team fundraiser. As someone who has mixed emotions about football (modern gladiators, injury potential, blah, blah, blah) I did not buy any tickets.

I utterly detest typical kids fundraisers – that is the raffle ticket/bumper sticker/magazine/scented candle/wrapping paper/candy bar variety. You expend a ton of effort to sell junk that no one wants at highly inflated prices, and in most instances the margins are small, usually because you’re making some fundraising company very wealthy. I can well remember high pressure presentations trying to turn my classmates and me into junior snake oil salesmen so that we could “earn” crummy prizes.

Mercifully, mom and dad were pretty cool about it. They hated buying the junk that other kids were selling, so instead of making me and Melissa take part, they usually just quietly made a small donation to the PTA or little league or debate club or whatever. Sometimes there were side benefits – like the time we got to eat a case of chocolate bars instead of selling them.

I also remember a couple of exceptions to our fundraiser boycott. For a while, Melissa was a world class Girl Scout cookie salesperson, and dad even helped out the cause by taking a sign-up form to work – a rare piercing of the work/home veil.

And then there was the time in elementary school when I was hell-bent on raising $25 for the children’s hospital – not because of any great virtue on my part, but because I coveted the T-shirt that came with such a generous effort. That was back when a walk-a-thon was a walk-a-thon. You asked people to sign up to support you on the basis of how many miles you would walk on a fifteen mile course. There were actually stations where a volunteer would check off that you had passed certain mile markers. To make my goal – and get my T-shirt – I had to walk the whole course, but because I was all of about 10 years-old at the time, mom had to walk the whole course with me. She dragged my sorry, chubby little self the last 5 miles, maybe even further. She even tried to buy me a popsicle with our emergency quarters – although, if I recall, they were sold out of anything you could buy for 50 cents. All in the name of making sure that I finished what I started and didn’t let those people down who I’d told that I would walk 15 miles.

God bless Katie Hale.

You can call me Al…Jazeera

We have lived in Austin -- an island of blue in a sea of red. We have lived in Houston -- a crazily libertarian place where a five minute walk could take you past schools, churches, adult bookstores, flop houses, and mansions. Now we live in Golden, which is pretty Ozzie and Harriet. Sure, we have our motorcycle mamas, kayakers, and ski bums, but this ain’t no Boulder, and you get the sense that people like it that way.

So imagine my surprise when I heard that during the Democratic National Convention Al-Jazeera (the Qatar-based Arabic/Islamic media giant) will be broadcasting from our little hamlet. http://politicswest.com/28026/al_jazeeras_slice_west_during_dnc_feature_golden

I don’t know much about Al-Jazeera beyond what I’ve picked up from other media – I know that they catch flak for giving a platform to bad guys, but their website doesn’t look too crazy. Their analysis of American voters http://english.aljazeera.net/news/americas/2008/08/200888225515777102.html is pretty interesting.

At any rate, I might have to walk by the Buffalo Rose the night that Al-J is in the house, just to see how the regulars interact with the camera folk. Golden will be beamed around the world; I hope we don't do anything silly.

Update: The City of Golden's "Letter to Citizens"
http://ci.golden.co.us/News.asp?NewsID=581

Walking the neighbors' dogs

Miles:



Bill:

The other night we needed to return a couple of items to the library. While we were headed towards town, we stopped by to ask our friends down the street (Robb and Anne) if their dogs -- Bill and Miles -- would like to join us for our walk. It took Anne a minute to figure out we were serious, but of course we were.

It was a nice walk; the dogs were really good at spotting rabbits. Elaine and I like dogs, but they sure are a hassle, so it’s really nice to have neighbors that are happy to share their pets. It’s kind of like being a grandparent.

Anyways, if you like animals, but you don't have the time, money, or disposition to own one, there is likely someone living near you who would be happy to let you walk, pet, or play with their pet. Just ask.

(Travis)

Trivia and Web page of the Week

The estimated mass of the earth is 5,940,000,000,000,000,000,000 metric tons, which might be a handy fact to know the next time you need to formulate a "Your mama's so fat..." taunt.

Who says bigger is better? Check out the Small House Society.
http://www.resourcesforlife.com/small-house-society

Trivia and Web page of the week

Trivia


The circumference of the largest hail stone recorded in the U.S. was 18.75 ( http://www.noaanews.noaa.gov/stories/s2008.htm). Think that would leave a ding on your car?


Web Page


If you want to have a site bookmarked with sunrise and sunset data, here's one --

Sunrise and Sunset information from the U.S. Navy http://aa.usno.navy.mil/data/docs/RS_OneDay.html

Are we in Europe?

One of the first things you'll notice in driving around Golden is the prominence of Roundabouts, primarily on South Golden Rd. I was pretty ambivalent about them at first. It's nice to not have to stop at lights when the roads are empty, but it can be kind of a pain to cross as a pedestrian if traffic is busy. Mainly, I assumed that the reason for their presence was as much aesthetic as anything else.

I was pleasantly surprised by an article in the Golden Informer -- our city government newsletter -- that detailed the benefits of roundabouts. If you want to read it, the article is on page 7 of http://www.ci.golden.co.us/files/Informer-July2008_LowResWeb.pdf

Basically roundabouts have 2 main benefits over traffic signals:

1) They reduce car speed through an intersection
2) They pretty much eliminate the possibility of a T-Bone collision

The proof is in the pudding. From the article cited above: "The average reduction in accidents after a roundabout replaces a traffic signal is 35% to 60%. On South Golden Road, there has been an accident reduction of 66%, and an injury reduction of 95%."

Wow.

Who needs Round Up?

Thank you little bunny for eating the weeds that grow in our driveway cracks.

Why did the Rocky Mountain Veal cross the road?

To get to our next-door-neighbor's back yard.

A mule deer with two fawns has taken residence next door -- actually in the backyard next door. My grandfather fought a life-long battle with deer who wreaked havoc on his garden, but our gardening is pretty limited right now (a few basil plants, a few chard) so we're enjoying the company. Buddy and Dan the dog, eat your hearts out.

Mutton Bustin'

Golden’s big community festival – Buffalo Bill Days – happened this past weekend. We checked out the music on Friday and Saturday nights, ate at the Firemen’s pancake breakfast on Saturday morning, and attended the community worship service on Sunday. (To our friends back in Texas, the band on Saturday night was the Dallas-based country act 1100 Springs, and they were pretty darn good.)

The highlight of the weekend was mutton-bustin’. For the uninitiated, this is an event where kids between 40 and 60 pounds don long-sleeved shirts, blue jeans, flak jackets, and helmets and then attempt to ride sheep – sheep that are rather unenthusiastic about the prospects of being ridden by 40 to 60 pound children. There were a few nasty falls and more than a few tears shed, but I don’t think any of the kids or the sheep were irreparably harmed. Mostly, it was hilarious.

Trivia and Web page of the week

The first of a continuing series.

Trivia:

Here's a bar bet you'll always win: Who ran the first 4-minute mile?
Answer: Derek Ibbotson. It's well known that the first runner to break the 4-minute mile barrier was Roger Bannister, but Ibbotson was the first to record a time of 4:00.00 minutes in competition.

Website:

If you're really trying to pinch pennies, you can compare gas prices before you head to the pump.

http://www.gasbuddy.com/

The Golden Bowl -- Ayes and Buts

Elaine and I have been spending a lot of time at the bowling alley down the street. We’ve actually only bowled once, but the Golden Bowl has so much more to offer. As the picture in the post below indicates, the Golden Bowl has a bar with some seriously cheap beer. They have a couple of crummy pool tables, a dart board, a juke box, a free-to-use ping pong table, and good-natured karaoke on Friday and Saturday nights. There is also a surprisingly good Chinese restaurant inside the Golden Bowl – sort of like Chinese food at a mall, but a solid step up.

But the real reason we’ve been spending so much time at the bowling alley is that they have free Texas Hold’em on Tuesday and Friday nights. I’ve never bought a lottery ticket, much less been to a casino – I’ve always been afraid that I might like gambling a little too much if I ever started – but I generally enjoy just about any form of competition. Free Hold’em is actually a pretty dumb game; when folks are playing with imaginary money, there isn’t much skill involved. Nonetheless, we’ve had our share of success – 1 first place finish for Elaine, 2 firsts and a third for me – which gets paid off in bowling alley gift certificates. More importantly, it’s been a good way to meet local folks from all walks of life. I hope that as we become further integrated into Golden we find better things to do that playing free poker on a regular basis, but it seems likely that the Golden Bowl will continue to be a regular fixture on our social calendar.

Amusing Anecdote:

Poker gets played at 2 or 3 tables of ten players and a dealer. Brian is our preferred dealer, but they’re all pretty nice. One dealer is an attractive woman named Jolene.

One night Brian was complaining that there weren’t many players interested in sitting at his table. Barbara, one of our favorite compatriots, remarked that the younger guys wanted to sit close to Jolene – for obvious reasons. Barbara went on to lament that the guys probably weren’t even noticing Jolene’s best physical feature, her big brown eyes. At that point, Shawn, a recent transplant from North Carolina, drawled, “I’ve noticed them; I’m an eyes man.......

eyes and butts.”

Good times.

College Kids + Giant Brewery =

Kindred Spirits

NYT has a piece covering a controversy over some high school kids setting up a wiffle ball field in a "vacant" lot in Greenwich, Connecticut.
http://www.nytimes.com/2008/07/10/nyregion/10towns.html?em&ex=1215835200&en=c84dff99e1e7a1fd&ei=5087%0A

Hey, I'm sympathetic to all parties concerned here, including the disaffected home owners, but surely they can find a compromise that allows wiffle ball to continue in some form.

(As is my wont, I will now make a provocative, if not completely fair comparison.) If state and local governments can spend millions of dollars luring professional sports teams, they have to find a way to accommodate something as simple and beautiful as a bunch of minimally-organized kids playing wiffle ball.

Godspeed little doodle.

Falling Behind

Robert Frank’s Falling Behind is an elegant and compelling description of how rising economic inequality hurts Americans. In the preface, Frank poses two thought experiments:

1. Would you prefer World A -- where you have a 3,000 sq. ft. house and all other houses are 2,000 sq. ft. or World B -- where you have a 4,000 sq. ft. house and everyone else has a 6,000 sq. ft. house?

2. Would you prefer World C -- where you get 4 weeks of vacation per year and all of your coworkers get 6 or World D -- where you get 2 weeks of vacation per year and all of your coworkers get 1?

Frank finds that most people would prefer World A, where they have a relatively large house, and World C, where they get absolutely more vacation.

Hence, a dichotomy: Some items are strongly linked to their context, these Frank deems positional goods; other items simply follow a dictum of more is better – like vacation time.

The central argument of the book is laid out in 4 propositions:

1) Context matters in some domains more than others

2) Sometimes, positional arms races occur

3) Positional arms races divert resources from non-positional goods, causing welfare loss

4) For middle class families, losses from positional arms races have been made worse by inequality

Here is one example of how the argument plays out: Parents want their kids to go to good schools. Good schools are related to good neighborhoods which are related to high house prices. Therefore, a family might reasonably sacrifice other important types of spending (travel, gifts to charity, recreation) to buy a house that they can barely afford. But here’s the rub, only half of all students can go to above average schools. If everyone reacts equivalently - buying a more expensive house to get their child into a better school district - everyone’s child goes to the same quality school as before, but there are lot fewer resources to devote to other things that make us happy.

Frank’s main policy suggestion is to replace the current income tax system with a progressive tax on consumption – i.e. income minus savings. Such a tax would de-incentivize conspicuous consumption broadly, as opposed to excise taxes which tend to transfer ridiculous spending from one domain to another. Charitable contributions, expenditures on health care or education, or other activities could be exempted from the consumption tax. This approach seems quite reasonable to me. It makes little sense to tax something that is good – i.e. work via income – when we could tax things with negative consequences – e.g. energy use or positional consumption.

Falling Behind is short and insightful; if you’re library has a copy of it, I highly suggest it.

Joke of the day

What do engineers use for birth control?

Their personalities

(As told to us by a couple of Boeing engineers that have three kids, so I guess it's not that effective.)

Also, if you haven't seen the Engineer's Guide to Cats, I thoroughly recommend it -- http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mHXBL6bzAR4

Golf Course Dress Codes

Collared shirts required; shorts must be Bermuda length; no denim or cut-offs

Presumably, the purpose of a golf course dress code is to keep the riff-raff out, but don't the greens fees achieve the same purpose? I like rules, but I prefer them to be meaningful rather than symbolic, especially when the symbolism is snobbery. Isn't the better rule that golfers be respectful of others and the facility? Is the correlation between dressing well and behaving well on the golf course really all that high?

Down with golf course dress codes at public courses. If I can vote in a t-shirt, I ought to be able to play golf in one.

On the other hand, up with dress codes, and especially uniforms, at schools (public and otherwise). The case that clothing is a way for kids to "express themselves" is overblown. In my experience, the way kids dress mainly expresses the size of their parents' bank accounts, or at least their willingness to spend conspicuously on fashion. Uniforms can (partially) shield economically disadvantaged kids from being ridiculed. More generally, they subvert a positional goods arms race in which families devote an increasing share of resources to things that hold little inherent value (nod to Robert Frank).

"Clothes make the man. Naked people have little or no influence on society."
-- Mark Twain

Rob and Deanne -- The Full Toast

I was supposed to give a toast at Rob’s wedding this past weekend, but when the appropriate time came, the room got a little dusty and onion-y, so I gave a much-abbreviated version. Here’s the full one -

When I met Rob, we were both clueless freshmen from the burbs trying to make a go of it at Georgia Tech. Rob was a quiet guy, but he had a good sense of humor, and if you wanted to put together a pizza order, you could always count on him to chip in.

Our sophomore year, we roomed together, and it was probably the best year of my life. Rob nursed me through a melodramatic breakup with my high school sweetheart then had a ringside seat as I began to woo the love of my life, Elaine.

I learned a lot about Rob that year. In addition to being a fun and funny guy, he’s smart and patient. He’s a loyal son and brother. He’s incredibly giving. On the other hand, his taste in movies is mediocre, he’s a remarkably bad basketball player, and his man-love for Tom Glavine is a little creepy.


By the time our junior year rolled around, I was really looking forward to spending more time with Rob, but it wasn’t to be. He moved home that year to be closer to his ailing father, and it is a great tragedy that Mr. King isn’t here today to enjoy this celebration.

Those last years at Georgia Tech we didn’t see Rob as much we would have liked, but we did learn the depth of his love and caring. Since we’ve left Georgia, I only get to see Rob once or twice a year now, but invariably, those are highlights of my year.

Elaine and I were visiting Atlanta last 4^th of July and tagged along for Rob and DeAnne’s second date. It was clear even at that stage that they were a good match. DeAnne has a great mix of sweetness and sass that complement Rob perfectly. Over the Christmas holidays, DeAnne endured “Idiot Fest” – our annual New Year’s bacchanalia where Rob, John, Garrick, and assorted other friends act like we’re about 5 years old. DeAnne pitched and umpired the wiffle ball game, making ample use of here well-honed teacher voice. Keeping the peace and her sanity were no small feats.

Rob and DeAnne are special people, and we are happy that they have found each other and are lucky that they are in our lives.


To Rob and DeAnne

May your days be long
May your home be full of joy
May your love grow ever stronger
And may your hearts grow together as one

Counterevidence to my theory that people basically stink -- Part 1 of a continuing series (hopefully)

In Garrison Keillor's dichotomy of the world into "Dark Lutherans" and "Light Lutherans," I am decidedly in the "Dark Lutheran" corner. My basic position is that people suck. We're selfish and nasty and mean, and when we occasionally do good things, that can usually be explained by the fact that we like to feel good about ourselves, not that we're actually good.

Nonetheless, I do like to find the rare example of ideas or people that make me the world better. Here are 4:

1) Rifle Falls State Park has 7 "walk-in campsites." They are all within a half-mile of the parking lot, so it's not a major backpacking expeditition. Nonetheless, it could be a challenge for a normal car-camper to lug her stuff from the car to a site. Lo and behold, somebody (presumably the Parks department, but maybe a Good Samaritan) has placed a garden cart at the trail entrance. What's amazing to me is that the cart seems to be well used -- which means it has been there for a while without being defaced or stolen. Hooray.

2) Salt Lake City has giant city blocks; I'm not sure, maybe it's a Mormon thing -- like the street naming conventions. At any rate, some crosswalks are in the middle of blocks, and there are no stoplights to provide cover for pedestrians. Someone had the good sense to place crossing-guard style flags at these crosswalks so that a pedestrian can at least make it obvious to drivers that she is there. Once again, the idea is great, but the fact that no one has stolen or defaced all the flags is also a minor miracle.

3) There's a restaurant in Salt Lake City called One World Everybody Eats http://www.oneworldeverybodyeats.com/ It's organic, local (when possible), and there are no set prices -- you pay what you think the meal is worth. Furthermore, they provide a daily staple -- when we visited it was rice and beans -- for which they expect no payment, so, truly, everybody can eat. If you want a full meal and have no scratch, an hour's worth of work gets you a plate. The food also happens to be quite tasty.

4) Workshop Houston http://www.workshophouston.org/ is a favorite nonprofit from our Lone Star days. We were first acquainted with their bike shop where anybody can come and use their array of specialty tools and get expert help on repair and maintenance -- for free. Better still, any kid or adult that doesn't have a bike can build their own (using donated components) after first repairing a donated bike for a nonprofit. The bike shop was cool enough but they've also expanded to include instruction in welding, fashion design, music production, and academics.

The thing that strikes me about all of these things is how replicable they could be. If we horded less and shared more, we would all be so much richer. But the instinct to own and control is strong; that's why these examples are all the exception rather than the rule. (Travis)

The Essence of Faith?

If you have a discussion about climate change among folks that believe there might be a problem (you know, like scientists or people that trust scientists) the conversation almost always turns to a variation of the tragedy of the commons. What's the point of the U.S. enacting policies to slow emissions if every cut we could possibly make would be more than offset by China, India, or some other country that had the bad fortune to develop AFTER we started to understand the impacts of burning fossil fuels?

At a personal level, the problem is the same. I know plenty of people (for instance, me) who intellectually understand that meat is an ecological and moral disaster -- turning grain into meat is biologically inefficient and it raises the price of grain for people who need rice, corn, and wheat to survive. But most of us go on our merry way eating Big Macs and ballpark brats or organic buffalo and wild salmon. The simple fact is that if I stop eating meat entirely or if I consume beef three times a day, it won't tip the scales in determining whether there are food riots in Haiti.

In discussing this with Elaine, she pointed out that doing the right thing, even if it won't matter and nobody notices, is at the heart of Christian faith (and ethical living in general). As is so often the case, she's right. If we lived our lives as if God (or our grandmother) were watching us, encouraging us to be our best, to think about the consequences of our actions, and to act out our convictions, we still might not save the planet, but we would nourish our souls.

Selfishness and distraction prevent us from recognizing opportunities to do the right thing, much less actually following through, but I have to believe that unseen kindness and personal sacrifice matter. I have to believe that.

You Know It's Flag Day When ...

So a few days before Memorial Day, a small hole appeared in our yard, which I thought was odd. Early that Saturday morning a large flag was placed in the hole; riddle solved. Same deal on Flag Day. I guess it's a City of Golden thing, since the flags fly up and down our street. Or maybe it's the flag fairies, as we've never actually seen anyone place or remove the flags.

On the subject of flags, Colorado's got a good one (though the Texas state flag might be the best in the Union). (Travis)

Picture of the Day ... Spring at Mt. Galbraith Open Space Park

Barack Obama

I am really surprised that Barack Obama is the Democratic nominee.

My favorite candidates usually get knocked out in the primaries -- Skinny Al Gore in 1988, Paul Tsongas in 1992, Bradley and Original McCain in 2000, Dean in 2004. (I did have the privilege of voting for Dole in 1996, but he ended up hocking viagra instead of being President.) So I'm thrilled that I'll get the opportunity to follow the Obama campaign over the summer and vote for him in the Fall.

Here are some things I like about Obama:

He seems comfortable in his own skin. He has a self-confidence that will allow him to seek input when he needs it and make hard decisions when necessary.

He's a fantastic orator. The U.S. is going to be up against some difficult issues in the next 4 years (climate change, peak oil, challenges to American hegemony); we're going to need a calm voice to soothe our fears and inspirational words to guide us towards action.

He's young and hip. McCain's so old he might break a hip.

He has experiences that broaden his world view. He's lived in Indonesia and visited relatives in Africa. These are profound, personal experiences that will allow him to take the widest possible view when evaluating the ramifications of U.S. policies.

I'm sure the guy has a lot of faults too. You have to be a bit ruthless and have an enormous ego to rise so far, so fast. His association with Reverend Wright does not bother me (I'm just glad Obama loves Jesus) -- the chuminess with Rezko and his vote for the farm bill are more troubling.

I have no idea what will happen in November. I fear that in the privacy of the voting booth a lot of white folks are going to have a hard time pulling the lever for a dark skinned-basketball playing-Harvard educated-erudite speaking- gutter-ball throwing Chicagoan. But then again, I didn't think he'd make it this far.

Gobama.

Early Impressions of Colorado (especially Golden)

The natural beauty is astonishing.

The state squirrel of Colorado is the rabbit; there are bunnies everywhere.

Some stereotypes hold quite a bit of truth. The people who live out here (the West) are friendly, but really independent. Sure, there's beer-league softball and community groups, but a very large percentage of recreational activity is of an individual nature -- skiing, cycling, climbing, kayaking, fishing. It makes me particularly wistful for the groups I have enjoyed being a part of (church groups and frisbee teams in Austin and Houston, in particular). I guess when you live in a place this majestic, a lot of folks make friends with nature.

The Denver Art Museum (free on the first Saturday of the month) is great. It's huge, non-pretentious, and there are lots of comfortable places to sit.

In a hotel lobby in Colorado Springs I heard a guy refer to James Dobson's "Focus on the Family," simply as "Focus," like it was so ingrained in society that you could shorten the name and still expect everyone to know what you were talking about. That little bit of eavesdropping made me happy that we live in Golden instead of Colorado Springs.