Author: Julia

local blogger writes boring post about cats

My parents are in North Carolina, and so this week I am at their house to feed the cats, water the plants, and perform the asundry household duties that did not depart with the residents of the house. (BTW, Harrisburg, this means we should hang out.)

To avoid having to drive back to Westminster every day to take care of my own cats, I’ve brought them with me. We (by “we” I mean “the cats and I”) had a fairly hellish hour and twenty minute drive during which they cried almost non-stop — interrupting themselves only to pant like they were dying. The air conditioning in my car isn’t working right now. I felt horribly guilty for putting them through such agony, but I kept telling them it would be worth it when we arrived because they’d have a whole new world to explore and we’d be on vacation! so we could just lie on the couch and cuddle, maybe fall asleep in the sun, and, most of all, enjoy the climate-controlled environment of my parents’ home.

When we finally arrived, I set up their litter box, put out some food and water, and let them out of their carriers. They ran into my sister’s room and hid under a chair. I sat in the hallway calling them until they came to see what the fuss was about. They sniffed everything. They peered through the windows at the cats lounging on the porch. They even ate a little. I sat on the floor with them for fifteen minutes until they were finally comfortable enough to sprawl out on their backs and start purring. I thought that was a good sign, so I got up and made myself something to eat. Apparently that was not okay.

That was four hours ago. They’ve been hiding under the hutch at the end of the hallway ever since. They poke their noses out when I sit in front of it, but despite my cajoling, they will not come out. I’ve tried to explain that there’s nothing to be afraid of — even that the furniture is more afraid of them than they are of it. But they won’t come out. I’ve pleaded with them to please come keep me company, I love them, I promise I won’t let anything hurt them, I won’t use the microwave or flush the toilet or do anything else that might make an unexpected noise. But they won’t come out.

It’s lonely here in this big house with no one around. I was looking forward to their company. I just have to keep reminding myself that they do love me — that their fear is not of me, but despite me. And although it’s dangerous to keep my hopes up, I have to believe that they will come out, and we will spend a wonderful week cuddling on the couch and sleeping in the sun. They’re just waiting for the right moment. In the meantime, I have a lot of laundry to do.

no roving charges

Patrick Fitzgerald has announced that Karl Rove won’t face charges related to the Plame leak. It seemed like something I should mention, but I don’t really know how to feel about it. I mean, it would be great to believe that he really had nothing to do with it, but the information had to come from somewhere.

But speaking of great mysteries, Jeffrey Nielsen, a Mormon and a professor at BYU, was recently fired for writing this editorial, in which he says, “I believe opposing gay marriage and seeking a constitutional amendment against it is immoral.” I was going to try to pull out some highlights, but the whole piece is great, so instead I’ll just recommend reading it.

missing votes

Many thanks to Tim Hodge for sending me the link to this Rolling Stone article penned by Bobby Kennedy, Jr about election fraud in 2004. And you thought this was a dead issue.

The article alleges that “in Ohio alone, at least 357,000 voters, the overwhelming majority of them Democratic, were prevented from casting ballots or did not have their votes counted in 2004 — more than enough to shift the results of an election decided by 118,601 votes.” These are not new allegations, but the thoroughness with which they are documented is new to me. Most striking in my mind are the various kinds of evidence accumulated.

Not only were the exit polls statistically almost impossibly far off in a number of places, but comparisons of votes for presidential candidates didn’t always resemble those cast for other related candidates and measures. That is, in 12 counties in Ohio, “a liberal black judge who supports gay rights and campaigned on a shoestring budget” pulled more votes than Kerry. By 10%. In the rest of the state, he outpolled her by 32%. Furthermore, “Statewide, the president outpolled Thomas Moyer, the Republican judge who defeated Connally, by twenty-one percent. Yet in the twelve questionable counties, Bush’s margin over Moyer was fifty percent.” According to Kennedy, “If Kerry had maintained his statewide margin over Connally in the twelve suspect counties…he would have bested her by 81,260 ballots. That’s a swing of 162,520 votes from Kerry to Bush — more than enough to alter the outcome.” Here’s a graphic overview.

In addition to exit polls and down-ticket candidate performance, Kennedy also cites evidence relating to actions taken by Blackwell, a GOP “strike force” targeting minority voter registrations, other bureaucratic (and probably illegal) barriers to registration, election workers refusing to give out provisional ballots, inequitable distribution of voting machines causing long lines in Democratic areas, faulty equipment, and questionable recounts.

It’s all very disturbing, not only because of the outcome, but because one has to then wonder — what can we do about this? After the 2000 election, an “Election Assistance Commission” was set up “to oversee ongoing reform of American voting.” Rolling Stone has a disheartening interview with the first chair of that commission, Republican DeForest Soaries.

Also from Rolling Stone, Howard Dean says:

What are we going to do about it? It’s frustrating because we don’t control the levers of power. This is going to be a very critical election in 2006. We’re very aware that there’s huge potential for additional mischief in 2006. We have no doubt that some of the folks who were active in vote suppression will be active again. It’s very, very difficult to deal with it. We just have to keep pushing forward doing the best we can. The real question is why the mainstream media won’t write about this.

every other year

Democratic Sen. Edward Kennedy of Massachusetts, the only state that has legalized gay marriage, said the Republican leadership “is asking us to spend time writing bigotry into the Constitution. A vote for it is a vote against civil unions, against domestic partnership, against all other efforts for states to treat gays and lesbians fairly under the law.”

In response, Hatch said: “Does he really want to suggest that over half of the United States Senate is a crew of bigots?” (from the Washington Post)

I don’t know if Kennedy “really wants to suggest” that, but I’d be willing to suggest that almost half of the United States Senate is willing to pander to bigots. As a matter of fact, I think they suggested it themselves by even bringing this to the floor. The motion to end debate was 49-48 — 11 votes short of what was needed to move to an “up or down” vote. I was pleased to see that Specter voted against it.

But that’s all normal election year politics. Here’s something which might actually be worse. In Ohio, the infamous Kenneth Blackwell (the guy who, in 2004, “instructed county boards of elections to reject any registrations on paper of less than 80-pound stock”) is underfire for implementing rules that appear to have hindering voter registration as their goal. It’s hard to say if this is just him, or if the legislature passed a stupid law, but as the NY Times points out, Blackwell is running for governor, and “Mr. Blackwell should hand over responsibility for elections to a decision maker whose only loyalty is to the voters and the law.”

unity next?

A little over two years ago I wrote about a book entitled The Radical Center, by Michael Halstead and Ted Lind. Shortly after I read that book, I added Andrei Cherny’s The Next Deal to my Amazon wishlist, and shortly after that I received it as a gift. And on Friday, I finally read it.

Although the book is subtitled (at least in some editions) “The Future of Public Life in the Information Age”, more than half of it is devoted to tracing the historical origins of the Progressive movement, and only introduces proposals for the future in the last third or so of the book. That’s okay. I’m no expert in American political history, but I was already fairly familiar with most of what Cherny recounts. Even so, I found Cherny’s take fascinating, particularly the parallels he draws between the rise of the Progressive movement in response to the Industrial Revolution, and the needed rise for a new movement in response to the Information Revolution.

The book is a few years old, and was written prior to the 2000 election (I believe it was published in December 2000), so it’s maybe a whole lot more optimistic than it would be were it written today. Nonetheless, although we’re no longer in the euphoria of a balanced budget or an administration clearly trying to move the country forward, I was reminded that the fundamental underpinnings of our society are not so different from what they were five and a half years ago. While terrorism and national security and Iraq will always be part of the discussion in ways they weren’t in 2000, our key domestic issues remain largely unchanged — despite the fact that politicians continue to ignore them.

When Cherny does talk about contemporary politics, his emphasis is on citizen and choice-centered policies — and then adds an interesting twist and proposes mandatory service, either civilian or military, of all 18ish year-olds. With the exception of the last idea — which I’m having trouble wrapping my brain around enough to even be able to seriously consider — Cherny’s proposals about education, Social Security, and healthcare are, I think, all moving in the right direction. The specific proposals, though, are not the main reason I’d recommend reading the book. Rather, I recommend reading it for the history lesson, and for the reminder that we should be evaluating 2008 candidates on more than their stance on Iraq and abortion.

Which brings me to my next topic: Unity08. From their website:

We’re a movement to take our country back from polarizing politics. In 2008, we’ll select and elect a Unity Ticket to the White House— one Democrat, one Republican, in whatever order, or independents committed to a Unity team.

The idea, as I understand it, is to force the major parties to focus on those issues that actually matter most to Americans, rather than pandering to the extremes of both sides. Also from their website:

Unity08 divides issues facing the country into two categories: Crucial Issues – on which America’s future safety and welfare depend; and Important Issues – which, while vital to some, will not, in our judgment, determine the fate or future of the United States.

In our opinion, Crucial Issues include: Global terrorism, our national debt, our dependence on foreign oil, the emergence of India and China as strategic competitors and/or allies, nuclear proliferation, global climate change, the corruption of Washington’s lobbying system, the education of our young, the health care of all, and the disappearance of the American Dream for so many of our people.

By contrast, we consider gun control, abortion and gay marriage important issues, worthy of debate and discussion in a free society, but not issues that should dominate or even crowd our national agenda.

In our opinion – since the disintegration of the Soviet Union – our political system seems to have focused more attention on the “important issues” than the “crucial issues.” One result: The political parties have been built to address the interests of their “base” but have failed to address the realities that impact most Americans.

Will this work? Who knows. But it is getting plenty of coverage in both mainstream outlets and the blogosphere. And as Newsweek’s Jonathan Alter points out, “With an issue as eye-glazing as the deficit, a wacky, jug-eared Texan named Ross Perot received 19 percent of the vote in 1992 and 7 percent in 1996. He did it with “Larry King Live” and an 800 number.”

too spicy

A few minutes ago as I loaded up the stats page for this blog, I thought, “I think I check my own stats more than I read the newspaper. I wish I could say I learned more this way.” Anyway. All of the googled terms which have led people to the site for the month of June referred to Pho Pasteur, which I mentioned in the blog’s very early days. It turns out that this is because there was a fire there on Tuesday night. There aren’t many details.

PennLive doesn’t keep articles for very long, so here’s the link to Wednesday’s story, but here’s a PDF that’ll remain up.

A WGAL article implies that the restaurant had closed — as if for good — but based on the PennLive/Patriot article, I think it was just closed for Memorial Day.

Anyone know anything else?

being human

I chased the sunset tonight for the first time in many months, and for the first time ever in Maryland. It was not the most spectacular sunset I’ve ever seen, but it was an overwhelmingly positive experience. An adventure, even, since, unlike in Central PA, I don’t know anything about Maryland geography.

A general rule: if you don’t know where you’re going, leave early. This doesn’t apply to sunset chasing.

Another rule: the sooner you leave, the sooner you’ll get back. Also does not apply to sunset chasing. If you leave a full hour before the sun is going to hit the horizon, you can be very far away by the time you’re ready to start meandering back east.

I, for example, made it to Waynesboro, PA, before I decided it was time to start looking in earnest for a return route.

On the way to Waynesboro, though, I passed through Catoctin Mountain Park, which I have wanted to visit for some time. It was gorgeous. I need to go back sometime when it’s not, you know, dusk.

On the way to Catoctin Mountain Park, I passed through seemingly endless farmlands and a handful of cute little towns that are probably a lot less cute if you live there. The farmlands were also beautiful, and somehow subtly different from PA. The proximity to the mountains made the land even rolling-er than the rolling hills I love in Central PA. There’s also something just a touch more southern about it, maybe simply in terms of the architecture, but I had to remind myself a few times that I wasn’t really that far from home.

My deadline for what I’ve been calling “become a human being again” — being ready to re-enter the world after recuperating from the semester and reassembling my life in terms of things like vacuuming the floors, doing laundry, etc — was this weekend. I still need to mop the kitchen floor, but other than that, I’m pretty much human again. Last night, on my way home from my parents’ house, I thought I was going to be able to meet the deadline perfectly with a sunset chase. Alas, I was a few minutes too late. Doing it tonight, from my pseudo-home, may have been even better.

now you see me

So… CNN has a headline that says, “Scientists may be able to make magic like Harry Potter“.

The idea is “to steer light and other forms of electromagnetic radiation around an object, rendering it as invisible as something tucked into a hole in space.”

At the end of the article, John Pendry is quoted as saying, “To be realistic, it’s going to be fairly thick. Cloak is a misnomer. ‘Shield’ might be more appropriate.”

I don’t mean to reveal myself as a massive geek or anything (I’m sure you’d be shocked), but why is Harry Potter getting credit for this? Star Trek anyone?

oba oba harrisburg

Johanna was in town this weekend, so we made plans to check out Brasilian Jazz band Oba Oba Brasil at Jackie Blue. First, though, we headed to Moe’s Southwest Grill at the “Shoppes at Susquehanna” (the new shopping center near Cracker Barrel — and the old EarthLink building — off Progress Avenue). I was craving Mexican food, and knew that sating such a craving would be nearly impossible in Harrisburg, but since I’d never been to Moe’s, I was hopeful.

Moe’s is a narrow storefront, in the Quizno’s or even Subway tradition. That is, the customer spends a while trying to figure out the menu — in this case further complicated by the bizarre names given to each item — then orders it from the person on the other side of the counter. Regardless of what the customer has ordered, though, the employee will walk the customer through the preparation of their order piece by piece. I, for example, ordered an “Other Lewinsky”, a taco which differs from “The Full Monty” in that it comes with guacamole and sour cream. When, however, we reached that point on the assembly line, the preparer asked if I would like guacamole and sour cream. While I appreciate the greater customization available with this system, I would have preferred not to have to figure out the menu if I was going to have to make every decision again a minute later anyway. A much simpler system would be to list the main categories — burrito, taco, quesadilla, and fajita — and gather information on an as-needed basis. It occurs to me that this is how Chipotle does it. It’s a better system.

The Moe’s system, though, did result in me getting what I wanted, and that’s all that really counts. Almost. My taco was good. It was better than anything I’ve ever had at El Rodeo, and probably even better than what I’ve had at Herbie’s. I haven’t had enough Herbie’s experience to have the disdain for them that I do for El Rodeo, though. Anyway, my taco was good. Except that the meat and beans were really salty. Oddly salty. Johanna pointed out that, even more oddly, the guacamole was too salty. This undermined the freshness that is vital to this kind of cuisine, and made a significant difference for me. Don’t get me wrong — I’ll probably go back — and Moe’s is now the best option for grabbing a little-closer-to-authentic taco in Harrisburg. It’s even better than Taco Bell.

After the salty meat, Johanna and I headed into the city to the aforementioned Jackie Blue to see the aforementioned Oba Oba Brasil, which has no web presence of its own, but is closely related (in terms of band members, not so much style) to Chester Attic. Oba Oba Brasil features Frederico on percussion, and also includes Monica Carr, Brent Shallcross, Dan Stief, and, of course, Erik and Fred Otteson. This was the group’s second performance together, although Dan, Erik, and Fred are also 3/4ths of Chester Attic.

It was a blast. Jackie Blue was packed — although not uncomfortably so — and Fred mentions in today’s entry that it was “the biggest revenue night the restaurant / bar had ever had.” I imagine that’s a record that won’t stand for long, as Jackie Blue is a great place. It’s a great combination of classy, fun, and laid back, and is completely unrecognizable from its previous incarnation as Double Jack’s. I haven’t eaten there, but I’ve heard only good things about the food. The mojitos were good.

The music was good, too. Very good. Johanna and I danced, although not nearly as well as the Brasilians — and even some non-Brasilians — also present and dancing. I think I say this every time I try to write about anything musical, but — I’m not musical, and so I can’t give a critical analysis of the evening, but I *can* say that it was a good time and definitely worth repeating. The group is playing at Suba, the tapas bar at Mangia Qui, this coming Saturday. I highly recommend checking it out.