BlogHers Act

Project #1: Choose a global issue—BlogHer’s red-hot issue for the year

Making a difference on a single global issue for the next 12 months

Project #2: Creating an Election ’08 Voter Manifesto

If you could tell the presidential candidates what is most important to you, what are the top four hot button issues you would ask them to address?

Deadline for post: June 15, 2007.

Project #1: Choosing a single global issue is mind-boggling. There are so many. Addressing worldwide poverty, fighting childhood illnesses such as malaria in developing countries, fighting for human rights, or world peace are all worthwhile goals. But I have to say taking care of our planet has got to be the most important issue. If our planet cannot sustain human life then everything else becomes irrelevant. So, do you define this single issue as global warming, pollution control, population control, or environmental protection? I believe global warming is a symptom, and like good medical care, you don’t just address the symptom, but you address the cause of the symptom. Global warming is caused by airborne pollutants, which are caused by various industries from many countries, including the United States and China. Global warming is a big issue, certainly not solvable in a year, but raising awareness of its importance at the global level is an achievable goal. That’s my vote.

Project #2:

1. Foreign Policy. I would like the ’08 candidates to address our foreign policy, specifically in regards to Iraq, but more generally. I would like our nation to return to its legacy foreign policy that eschewed preemptive war and relied on diplomacy to promote democracy and peace. I don’t believe you can gain new friends and allies by engaging in preemptive war. We need to bring our troops home now and end the war in Iraq. “Do as I say and not as I do” may work for an overbearing parent, but it doesn’t work when you try to export democracy. Indeed, exporting democracy is not necessarily the best way to create a peaceful alliance with other countries.


2. Health Care. Our entire medical/pharmaceutical/insurance industry pretends to offer healthcare. But in fact, its number one goal is to make money and usually this happens at the expense of the people the industry purports to serve. As our country ages, this problem will grow. Medical care should be affordable and accessible to all people. Alternative medical arts should be incorporated into traditional medical arts. (As a side issue, our health is also undermined by the powerful food industry that promotes unhealthful food and dietary choices. Effective education can help loose the bonds of the fast food/snack food/hormone and antibiotic laced meat and dairy products.)


3. Education. Public education should be available to all and it should be effective. Limit all class sizes (probably to 20), reduce the importance and number of standardized tests, increase salaries for teachers, reward creative thinking and peer mentoring for students, and help parents become supporters and advocates for their children.


4. Environment. Global warming is a “global” issue, but it needs to be a national issue, a state issue, and a local issue as well. This is an umbrella issue and it needs to include finding alternative energy sources, such as wave power, wind power, and solar power. Our remaining wilderness areas need protection.

Feel free to weigh in by leaving a comment!

BlogHer.org: Where the women bloggers are

Last week (actually 5 days and 8 hours ago, according to my listing) I joined BlogHer.org, an open consortium of women bloggers. Their motto “Where the women bloggers are” embraces the simplicity of their coherence: women blogging. Their membership of more than 11,000 grows each day. I was excited to join since I feel that the organizers are women who take blogging seriously, who write about serious issues but don’t exclude humor, and who are not limited by a political agenda or a woman-only exclusionary feel. Indeed, men are welcomed too. When you join, you can write a description of your blog and categorize it by picking one or more labels that apply to the topics you write about. My blog is sufficiently general that I had to choose multiple categories, such as Entertainment and Books, Health and Wellness, Politics and News, Sports and Fitness, and Travel Blogs.

If you go to any one of the above categories, I guarantee you’ll find a blog that’s interesting, well-written, and worth checking out. On the whole, I have found this organization to include a tremendous number of writers who think, feel, and express themselves with flair.

Here’s my BlogHer description.

If that isn't motivation enough for me to feel excited about joining, the BlogHer group came out last week with an incredible proposal, which they have named BlogHers Act. In their own words:

BlogHers Act will take on two things—

1. Making a difference on a single global cause
2. Identifying the top four issues that women online want the U.S. Presidential candidates to address in order to win our votes in the ‘08 Election.

Until June 15, BlogHers Act is soliciting opinions from their members on what this single global cause should be (global warming, world poverty, the Iraq war?) as well as the top four issues that the U.S. Presidential candidates should address. These are year-long initiatives that member bloggers will help address and act upon. So I have but a few days to weigh in and contribute. After June 15th, they’ll produce a survey based on the submitted ideas and then tally the survey results. The real action will start at their annual BlogHer Conference - '07.

Oh, no! Where did my nook go?

I previously picked this eclectic building for one of Encinitas charming “Nooks and Crannies.” So, here’s another question for you. What do you get when you cross the above nook with this—

Aah, some would say progress; others—loss of character.

Even in death I see a bit of pink paint on the pole. RIP

500 Career Saves for Trevor Hoffman

The Padres beat the Dodgers tonight 5-2 at home, but the story was not the win, it was yet another Trevor Time save. And it wasn’t just another save—it was number 500. Trevor stands alone with the best number of career saves ever. It was a sweet win against the Trolley Dodgers, against whom Trevor has earned 58 of those 500 saves. I only wish I had been there—these pictures are simply captured from my TV.

Congratulations, Trevor. Congratulations, Padres. Barry who?

Rock ‘n’ Roll Marathon

I never knew it was so much fun to run a marathon . . . (Actually, I do. I ran the San Francisco Marathon in 1979. I think it was fun. I don’t remember!) My daughter Sara (“Hare”) and her running buddy Patty (“Turtle”) ran the San Diego’s Rock ‘n’ Roll Marathon yesterday and had a fabulous time pounding the pavement. Sara confesses “I don’t think I would have finished without Patty encouraging me,” but you’d never know either one needed a push. I hung out at the finish line so I could see them cross. It’s a feel-good experience watching the runners near the end. Some are in pain, some are exuberant, some are barely lifting that one foot. Couples, friends, and family members hold hands for the last 20 yards. A few sprint, just to show they can.
The Rock ‘n’ Roll Marathon provides live race-day results. I could track Sara’s progress in the morning (10K, half-marathon, and 21-mile splits are reported on the website). I timed my arrival at the finish, navigating traffic, parking issues, and crowds entering the San Diego Marine Corp Training Depot (MCRD) as we all patiently waited in line for individual searches and screening similar to airport security checks.


Congratulations to Sara and Patty (and Taryn and Mary and David and John and . . . ) and all the other finishers who completed the 10th annual Rock ‘n’ Roll Marathon.

Is Global Warming a Liberal Cause?

Today I learned about a publishing company that seeks to counter what it sees as a left-leaning bent in children’s books—books that try to teach diversity or global responsibility, for example. The article is a Los Angeles Column One article appearing in today’s paper (Stephanie Simon, Los Angeles Times, Teaching kids right from left, June 1, 2007.) Among other topics, Kids Ahead imprint seeks to publish titles debunking global warming targeting the preteen market. Its parent company, World Ahead Publishing wants to counter The Down-to-Earth Guide To Global Warming which urges youngsters to take action to fight global warming, a Scholastic title due out in September. Brilliant! We can’t have children growing up being sensitive to our environment! Any action that results in government meddling in the lives of free Americans would be harmful to us, according to Eric Jackson, co-founder of World Ahead Publishing.

World Ahead Publishing is the publisher of the dubious and unconvincing title Thank You, President Bush. Check out the Amazon reviews (where reviewers tended to give it either a 5 or a 1—but nothing in between). Publishing that title robs World Ahead Publishing of all credibility. As a serious book, it is an ignoble propaganda tool. As a parody, it is a hilarious depiction of power gone wrong. Fodder for SNL skits. A sad tribute to the worst president ever.

But getting back to global warming: Since when is global warming a liberal cause? Global warming is fact. Perhaps, what to do about it can be viewed as a liberal or conservative cause. If Eric Jackson has his way, we will do nothing until the problem is solved by private enterprise (or we wait until the problem becomes unsolvable). Jackson sees any government involvement as a bad thing. If polar bears become extinct, so be it.

Isam Band ~ Stay Awhile

I have more previews and teasers (see my previous post Confessions of a Groupie) as the Stay Awhile CD gets closer to final production. The above photo may grace the back cover of the CD (or not, as there are other shots that also have possibilities).

The Isam Band is performing once again at the San Diego County Fair (Del Mar) on Saturday June 16 7:00-8:30PM at the O’Brien Stage and Sunday June 17 6:00-7:30PM at the Finish Line Stage. The band will perform both original tunes (many from the Stay Awhile CD) and covers.

Here’s another cut from the upcoming CD: I Fell In But I’ve Fallen (Out of Love). Check out the lamenting vocal echoes (background vocals provided by Sara Anderson and Lauren Widney) as the music plays out the theme

“Just when my love was turning up
The flame died in her eyes.”

See you at the fair!

There’s no such thing as a civil war

There is war and there is civility. These two cannot be connected.

My two recent posts on Washington D.C. and environs describe the National Portrait Gallery/American Art Museum (Patriotism and Peace) and biking on the Mt. Vernon Trail (My Butt is Sore But My Beer Is Cold).

During the same trip, I also spent time in Fredericksburg, Virginia, an historical gem with both colonial period sites and civil war period battlegrounds and cemeteries.A beautiful spring day arrives with cherry trees blooming and dogwood bursting forth with color. Detached from such a day, you read of the bitter cold and the waves and waves of union soldiers marching up from the Rappahannock River, only to be cut down incessantly by confederate soldiers hidden and protected behind a stone wall on “Sunken Road.” Waves and waves means 30,000 men. 8,000 felled. Not one reached Marye’s Heights, where the confederate army defended the ridge. In one battle. In the bitter cold. December 13, 1862.All war is gruesome, but the American Civil War is particularly sobering for the hardships suffered by soldiers from both sides of the line. I strolled through both the Confederate Cemetery and the National Civil War Cemetery (only Union soldiers are interred). There is also a Fredericksburg Battlefield Visitor Center that explains the battle that took place in Fredericksburg on December 13, 1862. You go away with a feeling of sadness, yet you hope that humanity has learned the futility and destruction of war. You come to realize that war seems to be endemic to humanity. I would not have thought this a mere five years ago.
Both cemeteries hold the remains of unidentified soldiers (civil war soldiers did not wear dog tags). And so many of the markers in the National Cemetery contain an identity number, followed by a number indicating how many bodies are associated with that marker.

You leave the cemetery and once again return to Victorian-aged homes with inviting front porches in a peaceful American neighborhood.

Java-ites Love to Tinker

Last week was JavaOne where Paul and I spent 5 action-packed days and nights immersed in Java technology, socializing with other like-minded practitioners of the art of inventing, building, explaining, exploring, speaking, writing, and pontificating all things Java. This is the third year we’ve presented a hands-on lab, although this year was particularly challenging due to the last minute “request” to merge our lab with another. The result? Lab participants received in excess of 3 hours worth of instruction crammed into two hours. However, with nimble herding and crucial prebuilt steps, most of the attendees were able to chat (first part), slide (second part), and see the parrots (third part). The lab was truly a double dose of JSF and Ajax. The full lab, Building Ajax-Enabled JavaServer Faces Web Applications With jMaki, Dynamic Faces, and the NetBeans IDE, is available online.

In the process, our own experience was enhanced because we got to work with some great people. Chris Kutler (from whom I mined the above photo) writes more on the lab and JavaOne here and Winston’s blog lists the other Ajax-related labs that are available online.

Each year several new words or phrases pop up in more than just a few talks. This year I noticed two:

agnostic: not caring about the underlying system, framework, application, or language. Example: One goal of a robust Ajax technology library is to be browser agnostic.

DRY: don’t repeat yourself. This applies to almost all software engineering principals, since repetition means duplication of effort. This is not a new concept, but it certainly made the rounds in the technical presentations. (Duplication in the photo below equates to architectural artistry.)

My Butt is Sore But My Beer Is Cold

“At least your beer is cold,” and what else can you really say? Alternatively entitled “A Fun Activity in the Washington D.C. Environs,” let me suggest a great excursion for those who enjoy bike riding.

Daingerfield Island/Washington Sailing Marina is just south of Reagan Washington National Airport off Highway 1 at the junction of the Potomac River and Four Mile Run. There you can rent bicycles and ride along the Mount Vernon Trail, following the Potomac River either north to Theodore Roosevelt Island or south to Mount Vernon, George Washington’s home. The paved trail is shared by bikers, runners, skaters, walkers, and casual strollers, so on sunny weekend days you have to be alert for others.Gravelly Point is a short bike ride north from Daingerfield Island and offers an up-close and personal view of landing aircraft into Reagan National. I mean up-close. Park your bike and reach out and touch the aircraft. Get an appreciation for all the variables that go into landing a big hunk of steel.

We didn’t do that this time. Instead, we opted for the path south, a 25-mile roundtrip excursion to Mount Vernon (hence, the sore butt). The pathway is picturesque and mostly flat, with a small portion following Union Street in downtown Alexandria. The path follows the Potomac, taking you through Belle Haven Park, Dyke Marsh Preserve, Collingwood Picnic Area, and Riverside Park. After a final up-hill stretch, you reach Mount Vernon (where you can relax amongst the tourists or at least buy a beverage).The return trip fortunately ends at the sailing marina, where you can get a well-deserved cold beer, off-setting a bit the sore butt and stiff legs.

Get it straight, Mr. Cheney

And so titles a recent opinion piece in the Los Angeles Times (Opinion, April 24, 2007) authored by none other than George S. McGovern, former U.S. senator from South Dakota and Democratic nominee for president in 1972 (he lost to Nixon).

The piece is a straightforward chastisement of a Cheney attack on the Democratic Party. McGovern provides a concise and relevant comparison of the Iraq War with the Vietnam War, the fiscal irresponsibility of the Bush-Cheney administration, the truth-challenged path we were offered to justify invading Iraq, and the morally corrupt team currently occupying the White House.

McGovern also has an interview in the current issue of Rolling Stone Magazine (Fortieth Anniversary). While McGovern lost the 1972 bid to become president, peace and the Vietnam War was a major platform issue of his campaign. Like the Iraq War, the Vietnam War was a civil war and our participation in it was immoral since that country posed no threat to us.

A telling quote from the Rolling Stone interview is

“I take a lot of satisfaction in the fact that, even though we lost [the 1972 campaign], we helped end the war in Vietnam. My campaign made it impossible for that war to continue.”

Of course, not long after his re-election Nixon resigned under threat of impeachment. Offering us a comparison between the Nixon administration and the current administration, McGovern writes

“It is my firm belief that the Cheney-Bush team has committed offenses that are worse than those that drove Nixon, Vice President Spiro Agnew and Attorney General John Mitchell from office after 1972. . . . I expect to see Cheney and Bush forced to resign their offices before 2008 is over.”

Patriotism and Peace

Washington D.C. is a city you can get around in. I used a combination of the Virginia commuter train from Fredericksburg, the metro, and my own two feet. As I strolled downtown Washington D. C., I turned the corner on G Street and saw Yoko Ono’s Imagine Peace billboard beaming out from the Verizon Center. It will be on display through April 29.
Washington D.C. makes me patriotic. I decided to visit the National Portrait Gallery and the American Art Museum, both housed in the Smithsonian Donald W. Reynolds Center for American Art and Portraiture. The building has been recently renovated. It is the original Patent Office Building and said to be a “masterpiece of Greek Revival design.” It was constructed between 1836 and 1868. You can read more about this amazing building and its history here.

This is two museums in one, and as such, demands multiple visits to absorb all that it has to offer. Here is a sample from the Smithsonian American Art Museum entitled 'October' (1867, artist John Whetter Ehninger).
Like many D.C. museums, this one is free, although its hours, 11:30Am – 7:00PM, are a bit odd. (Okay, I admit it. I showed up at 9:00AM thinking I could perhaps visit a second museum later in the day.)

The building itself is stunning, with a sweeping staircase and an upper floor with vaulted ceilings.

My first interest, however, was the America’s Presidents exhibition, the only complete collection of presidential portraits outside the White House. Each portrait also includes a plaque telling you something about the president. Here is a portrait of James Monroe (1816, artist John Vanderlyn).

It’s interesting to go through. You realize there are some presidents you don’t think about very much—when’s the last time you thought about Millard Fillmore (13th, not nominated for a second term) or William Henry Harrison (9th, died in office and served only one month) or even Chester A. Arthur (21st, not nominated for a second term)?

Things change a bit when you get to presidents who served during your lifetime. Everybody remembers where they were or what they were doing when Kennedy got shot (okay, if you were alive you remember).

You remember the disgrace of Nixon (“I am not a crook!”) and the fact that he is the only president (so far) who has resigned. His portrait in the gallery is admittedly small, but tasteful and certainly flattering. He is credited for opening relationships with China. His successor, Gerald Ford, is the only president not elected either vice president or president (he was appointed vice president when Agnew resigned and succeeded Nixon when Nixon resigned). Ford pardoned Nixon and gave amnesty to the Vietnam War resisters.

What kind of portrait and what little tidbit are “they” going to write about the current Bush? (One website kindly noted that he once owned part interest in the Texas Rangers baseball team. Is that an accomplishment?) And if Buchanan is signaled out as being a contender for Worst President Ever because he helped start a civil war . . . wait! Didn’t Bush start a civil war in Iraq?

Let’s not belabor the obvious. On a more patriotic note, here is a license plate speak mural in the American Art section that displays the Preamble to the Constitution (Preamble, 1987, Mike Wilkins, sculptor). You can see the real thing (the real Preamble and the real Constitution) in the National Archives.

God Bless America.

Stop and Smell the Ranunculi

Over 50 acres spread across a coastal hillside above Interstate 5 in Carlsbad (southern California) erupt every spring into splashy ribbons of color. The Ranunculus bulbs bloom early March to May. Actually, very few of the flowers are sold—these plants are primarily grown to harvest the bulbs (approximately 200,000 bulbs per acre).

I see these fields every year and every time I drive by I tell myself, "Gee, I should go walk among these blooms and take a few photos."

The coastal area around Carlsbad (site of the Ranunculus flower fields) and Encinitas (self-proclaimed flower capital of the world) boasts greenhouses and flower fields to rival The Netherlands. Property values, however, have put a strain on the maintainability of flower growing. I have seen more than a few greenhouses in my area leveled to make room for new housing developments.


And again I tell myself, "Gee, I should go walk among these blooms and take a few photos."


Fortunately, the Flower Fields in Carlsbad have evolved into a tourist attraction—they charge admission if you want to walk the fields, admire the blooms, and take pictures. If turning the fields into a tourist destination (hey, Legoland is right around the corner) saves them from becoming housing slab, I’m happy to pay.

And so I did walk among these blooms and take a few photos.

When you visit, you'll get a brochure explaining the history of these flowers, the history of the fields, and more than you'll ever want to know about Edwin Frazee and his Ranunculus flowers. Through selection and breeding by said Frazee, the flowers today are multi-petaled and boast 16 different shades—before today I did not know that.

But don't stop and smell the ranunculi—these beauts have no fragrance.

Sassy Sorrel

I confess that I had never heard of sorrel until I picked up a couple plants at my local nursery to add to my nascent vegetable garden. Sorrel has a lemony tartness that startled me and I started searching for interesting recipes. I currently have two favorites: Sorrel Soup and Sorrel Salsa, both from Rosso and Lukins New Basics Cookbook. I modified the Sorrel Soup to make it vegan (substitute olive oil for butter and use vegetable stock instead of chicken stock), but the salsa recipe is already vegan-friendly. The soup includes onions, garlic, sorrel leaves (of course), stock, pepper, nutmeg, and cayenne pepper. It’s a purée and can be served hot or cold (I prefer hot). The salsa is great for a party appetizer (serve it with crackers) or to accompany fish (uh, sometimes I eat fish). It is simply made with sorrel leaves, chopped tomatoes, red onion, olive oil, fresh lemon juice, and salt and pepper.

And for a literary reference, in Émile Zola’s Germinal: ‘Oh, the soup!’ said Maheude wearily, ‘that means picking sorrel and pulling some leeks . . .’ (’Tis incubating in the Book Club Possibility Bin.)
Recipe: Sorrel Soup

Boobarry Night at PETCO

Compared to last year’s flying syringes, Boobarry Night this year was rather tame. Low scoring, low hitting, it was all about executing the baseball script. With a strange mixture of ex-Padres (Bochy, Flannery, Roberts and others) and traditional Giant foes (Durham and Vizquel both made hit-robbing plays, as well as Roberts’ amazing running catch to the wall in center field), the night took on a “Who are we” and “Who are you” feeling. Barry was a non-factor, even watching him rattle about the left-field corner chasing down Greenie’s double in the 7th (it was a solid double even without the rattling). Kahlil Greene’s long hit proved to be the start of the lone run of the game, helped along by Russell Branyan’s walk and Jose Cruz Jr.’s sacrifice bunt to move the runners up a base, putting Greene on third. Jeff Blum, frequently good for game-shaping offense, delivered a sacrifice fly to score Greene. His long-out fly ball was barely foul, but perhaps too close to let drop by Winn in right field.

Padre starter Chris Young went seven innings (good for the win) and the Padre bull pen continued their scoreless innings stretch (20 2/3 innings and counting), with Cla Meredith and Trevor Hoffman posting zeros each for an inning. Giant pitching was also excellent, with Giant Cain throwing a two-hitter but taking the loss.

For me, two moments stand out from last night. One, it was really nice (really, really) to have a manager call for a bunt (note: non-pitcher up at bat) with two on and no outs: a game-winning decision, no doubt. Bud Black is not Bruce Bochy. Two, long-time Padre player, coach, and announcer Tim Flannery coaching third base for the Giants, seemed uncomfortable during the raucous Trevor Time, a celebrated Padre home field tradition before Trevor takes the mound in a save situation. Our seats just on the left-field side of third (and aided by binocs) revealed a bit of pacing and squirming from Tim during Hells Bells.

The other nicety about this year’s Padres? Two sets of brothers populate the roster: Marcus and Brian Giles and Glenn and Trevor Hoffman. From the right field bleacher seats where I was sitting on Sunday (thanks for the tickets, Rob), a very cool site line shows Giles number 24 in the foreground and Giles number 22 at second. I wish I had carted a long lens on Sunday to frame that image!