Back to blogging...

All right... I'm back after a long absence and heading back to blogging. I'm expecting to deal with subject matter that might be a bit different than before--especially a bit more of an emphasis on current events in Latin America--but will still be commenting on elections around the world, domestic policy, and (occasionally) baseball, particularly on the business end of it.

My favorite quote... on YouTube

I found one of my favorite quotes on YouTube, though the audio quality is pretty bad. The President of the Spanish Republic, Manuel Azaña, as the Republic was clearly losing the war, gave a speech at Barcelona's Ayuntamiento (City Hall) in July 1938 and said the following (personally, I am surprised at the tone of voice that he used to deliver it, as I always considered it a more emotional and quiet quotation):



"Es obligación moral, sobre todo de los que padecen la guerra, cuando se acabe como nosotros queremos que se acabe, sacar de la lección y de la musa del escarmiento el mayor bien posible, y cuando la antorcha pase a otras manos, a otros hombres, a otras generaciones, que se acordaran, si alguna vez sienten que les hierve la sangre iracunda y otra vez el genio español vuelva a enfurecerse con la intolerancia y con el odio y con el apetito de destrucción, que piensen en los muertos y que escuchen su lección: la de esos hombres, que han caído embravecidos en la batalla luchando magnánimamente por un ideal grandioso y que ahora, abrigados en la tierra maternal, ya no tienen odio, ya no tienen rancor, y nos envían, con los destellos de su luz, tranquila y remota como la de una estrella, el mensaje de la patria eternal que dice a todos sus hijos: Paz, Piedad y Perdón."

The translation is as follows (mostly from Hugh Thomas, The Spanish Civil War, but I did the first couple clauses):
"It is a moral obligation, above all of those who suffer war, when it ends as we wish it to end, to take from the lesson and the muse of the punishment the greatest good possible, and when the torch passes to other hands, to other men, to other generations, let them remember, if they ever feel their blood boil and the Spanish temper is once more infuriated with intolerance, hatred, and destruction, let them think of the dead, and listen to their lesson: the lesson of those who have bravely fallen in battle, generously fighting for a great ideal, and who now, protected by their maternal soil, feel no hate or rancor, and who send us, with the sparkling of their light, tranquil and remote as that of a star, the message of the eternal fatherland which says to all its sons: Peace, Pity, and Pardon."

Business

There will be no posting until next Saturday at the earliest, as I am headed out of town for a while.

I'm alive!

Really. I'm not dead. However, I am caught in a whirlwind of a tornado of a twister of things, and it's really been enough for me to follow what's going on with the French and Belgian elections and everything over in Gaza, let alone comment or do any sort of strategic analysis. Once July hits, I should have things a little easier.

Computer problems lead to book use!

I've meant to comment on a number of pending issues, but instead I've had a lot of computer problems. My computer contracted some sort of bug that made the CPU run very slowly and wasn't picked up by any spyware/malware programs, so I ended up having to do a system recovery. Now I can't access my old documents through some sort of Windows quirk--they're sitting there, but I can't get into the directory!

While dealing with that, I've been able to catch up on some reading. I read large parts of Philip Short's Mao: A Life the other night, a book which I started a few months ago, and I've been reading parts of Chernow's Alexander Hamilton as well. Both appear to be excellent biographies of memorable figures in world history. Short describes Mao as a master politican during the years of the PRC, extremely sensitive to criticism, especially as he got older, but also extremely concerned with his legacy--a legacy which he ended up failing to protect (to the benefit of the Chinese). Hamilton, a remarkable figure, emerged from an impoverished background on the island of Nevis, and took advantage of the unique times he was in to be one of the most profound shapers of the United States and our current system. I'm looking forward now to completing both books in order. I also finished Doris Kearns Goodwin's Team of Rivals a couple of weeks ago; I will post some sort of review as soon as I catch up with life, and Windows XP.

Notes on San Diego

As I mentioned a while back, I took a vacation to San Diego a couple of weeks ago. I figured a couple of comments were in order:

First, there is a light-rail system, called the Trolley. Started in 1981, the Trolley is now 51 miles long, but of course, since it's a transit system built into a preexisting city, and a spread-out one at that, its utility is limited. Some of the stations don't seem to be close to anything, in particular, and you can't get to the beach or airport by trolley. I had a difficult time understanding the termination of the Blue Line and Green Line at Old Town. The Blue Line comes north from San Ysidro and terminates at Old Town, while the Green Line runs east from Old Town to Santee. I'm sure there is some traffic-pattern reason for doing so, but I have no idea what it was, and it was inconvenient for me, thereby making it a bad thing...

According to the Wiki article, plans are underway to run a line up to La Jolla, which would have really cut down the time on our trip to the UCSD campus. We bought the four-day passes for $15, which were a decent value considering we stayed (relatively) close to a trolley station and the passes are also valid on the bus.

Part of the Old Town station.


The other comment I have is on Petco Park. We went on the tour (very entertaining and informative). My favorite feature of the park is the integration of the historic Western Metal Supply building... followed up by the fact that Padres owner John Moores (who got his start in software in Houston) owns pretty much all the buildings around it.


All in all, despite the needed improvements to the transit system, San Diego is a great city and I hope to be back sooner rather than later. (And hey, compared to Seattle or Houston, it's tough for me to really say anything negative about transit!)

City frustrations

Some cities are apparently well run.

And then there is the Houston website.

I will leave the complaints about potholes, random road closures, and other such infrastructure troubles (as well as overall cluttered unsightliness, pollution and socioeconomic problems) aside for now. I want to discuss the website, the portal through which people connect to the city.

Houston's website is here. Note something about the drop-down menus on the front page. Yes, they go behind the pictures. They've been doing that for a while now.

I had a car accident today (got rear-ended by a guy on the interstate while stopped in traffic). Apparently, here the police don't come out... you go to a substation with the info to file the report. I don't know if that's common in larger cities so I have no comment on it. I went to the website to search for a station close to me (actually, I googled "Houston Police Department" and wound up at the police website, which is part of the main website). Note first that the police website uses a rather unattractive older template (only the front page of the website has really been changed). The left sidebar scrolls even though it doesn't take up the entire page, and it is unclear whether it refers to the police or the entire city (I'm pretty sure it's the latter).

I then spent a long time trying to find the listings of police stations. You'd think one of the top choices would be to know this. But no... although you can view crime statistics, there's no link for "find a station." At length I did find it (through the "Contact HPD" button--here it is). Note that the listings state that the storefront in Neartown is open 24 hours. So, of course, I drove there, and it is open 6 am to 10 pm. I arrived around 10:08 and will have a return trip early tomorrow morning.

Right.

For reference, here are some other cities which seem to have decent web designers... Seattle, New York, Chicago...

In this day and age, if you're a U.S. city and you don't have a good website, what are the odds of things being better once you actually get there? This complaint might seem petty, but as you might guess it's part of a pattern of rather greater frustration.

My short absence

I haven't posted for a while... unfortunately the (my job-related) real world has impinged somewhat on my ability to comment here.

For the next week I will be on a needed vacation on the beaches of San Diego--highs projected in the low 70s. So I will have little to say about elections in the meantime, but look forward to returning a bit rejuvenated!

My political compass

I found my political compass... I'm a social libertarian and on the economic left... again, no surprises!

Economic -3.75, Social -4.41

That puts me next to Gandhi, Mandela and the Dalai Lama. Good place to be in, I guess. Most world leaders, policy-wise, come out in the economic-right and social-authoritarian quadrant (that is, the opposite one from me). Interestingly, none of the "economic right" i.e. more neoliberal leaders are at all on the "social libertarian" side of the bar, though I suppose it could be a matter of where you put that bar.

I'd also be curious to know where world leaders stand personally, without political constraints...

Political typology

According to Pew's political typology, I am a "liberal." No surprise there...

It states that 17 percent of the public are liberals; 19 percent of registered voters are liberals.