The United States of Stereotypes... Enjoy!

(hat tip to the Huffington post)

Take That! Newsweek...

(Hat tip to  JoeMyGod)

Earlier this year,  Newsweek  Magazine ran a piece  entitled  "America's Dying Cities..."   One of the cities it named  was  Grand Rapids, Michigan, which came in at  number ten on  their list,

Being from  Madison, Wisconsin originally,  I normally would not mind the national media  engaging in a bit of Michigan bashing, but this seemed to be hitting below the belt.

Many cities in the U.S. are struggling to  recover from the  recession , but to  label a city as "dying"  is a bit much.

The good people of Grand Rapids seem to agree.  They responded to  Newsweek's  death notice for their city  with the following  video.

Now I know  lots of people  who really hate this song, (I'm not none of them, but I will grant that is one of those tunes that should be forever banned in Karaoke  bars..)   But you have to give props to the folks in Grand Rapids.   The video is brilliant....

The Obama's Are In Town....

Reaching Out to an Old Friend...

Back in 1995  at  the University of Wisconsin  I met  a remarkable  man named Kevin Robinson.  He was at UW on a fellowship to the UW Law School.   We  hit it off immediately, our mutual  love of politics led to a great friendship and hours of spirited debate.  

 When our paths parted in  1997  we promised to keep in touch.  Over the years  this became something of a running joke,  as we invariably would lose touch and track of each other  for  two or three years, then one of us would  stumble upon the other's contact info and fire off a note  or voice message.  This would lead to hours on the phone or  instant messenger catching up.  

Today,  I was going through some old emails  and found a chat log  from my last conversation with Kevin in late 2008.   Smiling to myself  I thought,  "well, it's been two and half years, time to catch up!"  Remembering that Kevin was teaching at  Bryn Mawr College,  I went to the Bryn Mawr website to track down Kevin's email ...

What I found on the Bryn Mawr website was this..

Posted February 12, 2010

The Bryn Mawr College community is struggling to come to terms with the loss of Assistant Professor of Social Work and Social Research Kevin J. Robinson, who died unexpectedly last weekend at the age of 40. The community was notified with an e-mail from President Jane McAuliffe, who described Robinson as a “treasured colleague” whose loss is deeply felt.

Dean Darlyne Bailey of Bryn Mawr’s Graduate School of Social Work and Social Research has announced that the College will host a memorial event to celebrate Robinson’s life and work on Sunday, March 14, from 2 to 4 p.m. in Thomas Great Hall. members of the Robinson family will join the Bryn Mawr community as it remembers him.

A small funeral service for family, friends, and fellowship will be held on Friday, Feb. 19, at 7 p.m. at the Watkins, Garrett and Woods Mortuary, 1011 Augusta Street, Greenville, South Carolina 

Robinson’s sunny, gregarious personality and unusual ability to forge meaningful connections with others made him especially well suited to community-based participatory research (CBPR), his preferred method of study. In CBPR, researchers consult members of the populations they propose to study before framing research questions and designing experimental protocols.

“The community drives the research,” Robinson explained in an interview two years ago. “They set the priorities and have an interest in the findings and the dissemination of the findings.”

At the time of his death, Robinson was at work on a project funded by the Centers for Disease Control, in which he partnered with the Philadelphia Health Management Corporation and the The Colours Organization, Inc., a service and advocacy group for LGBT communities of color in Philadelphia. 

Its hard to  describe the range of emotions I have been feeling this afternoon.   Shock,  sadness, and yes, intense guilt  for  allowing  too much time to go by before I reached out to an old friend.    As I sit here  and type this,  I can almost hear  Kevin say  "David Paul... don't get  all deep and moody on me!"    Yet  it's  damn hard not to... 

What  stands out most for me today is the painful truth that in this age of  Social Media,  "keeping in touch" can't  be  a matter of   Facebook Friends,   Twitter Following  or  Linkedin Connections.   It  has to be real, it has to be personal  and it has to be human.

If you have a friend in your life who you haven't spoken with recently,  a wonderful friend who  tends to  pass in and out of  your "real time" life every so often like a comet on an irregular trajectory.   Please,   take a moment  grab that comet by the tail and pull it in  for a hug,  a phone call,  or even just a "hello" over a cup of coffee.  Don't allow that friendship to slip out of reach. 

My deepest  (albeit belated) condolences  to all who were blessed to have had Kevin in their lives.  I know I was.

Put on Your "rapture jammies" kids! The end is neigh!

In  all the  news  of  Wills and Kate getting married, Osama Bin Laden getting what he deserved, and various and sundry  Republican  wannabees  deciding NOT to run  for President;  I have been woefully remiss in mentioning the BIGGEST news story of them all!

*ahem*   THE WORLD IS GOING TO END   THIS SATURDAY!!  ....   No really.    Seriously,  a crazy guy said so on the internet, so it must be true!



Here we go again...   Harold Camping, (the loony tune 'Lurch the Adams Family Butler',  of Wingnut Radio,) is saying  (again) the world is going to end.  But wait it gets better!    Apparently  the  REASON the end of the world is happening now, is  because  San Francisco  is full of  .....   THE GAYS!



(via JoeMyGod)
The San Francisco Chronicle reports today that End Times proponent Harold Camping credits gay pride events and same-sex marriage for hastening the arrival of Saturday's rapture. Camping also says that 200 million Christians (only) will ascend to heaven in three days (time zone by time zone, beginning at 6PM, you'll recall) with the rest of us to be turned into pillars of salt, destroyed by earthquake, or burned alive in a hail of sulfur. All that will take place over the next five months because the Earth itself isn't scheduled to explode until October 21st.

The funny bit? When I hear or read nonsense like this, part me thinks, "wait.... we all get five months where the world will be  free of all the rapture wing nuts? Cool!" 

 In all seriousness, I can actually understand why these people are so eager for the world to end. The real world scares these people, a lot. I mean think of it, Women voting, freedom of expression and thought all over the place. All that "science stuff" that contradicts their views on ....well, everything. On top of all of that, there's this black guy in White House!

So, I guess if I was a bigoted,  reality-challenged half-literate moron, who believed the Earth is only 6000 years old, and was convinced the Human Race started with two fully formed people named Adam and Eve.  Who rode around a garden on dinosaurs chatting it up with talking snakes?  The 21rst Century would probably scare the crap out of me too.

So to my friends in the SF Bay Area, when you see Harold Camping and his tens of devoted followers, camped out in downtown Oakland, all  waiting to get "Beamed Up" to wing nut never-never land.  Smile as you walk by and say "Have a nice trip!" You'll make their day. Which is a warm memory they all are going to need, when the world is still here, come Sunday Morning.   

Take it away  Criswell....

The American Right Wing and "Obama Derangement Syndrome"

It might actually be funny if it wasn't the truth...

Yeah, I know... I haven't posted in a while...

Getting settled  here in London,  finding my way around at my new company  and just  life  in general has  gotten in the way of  posting.  Sorry about that.    Needless to say   there  has been lots of news.

Being an ex-pat again is an interesting experience.   Watching  things  in the U.S.  from  this side of the Atlantic is always  both a new, and  enlightening perspective.    As the  bigoted, hate-filled  Moron-a-thon  that is  the GOP Presidential Primary season  gets under way,  We take moment to  introduce our GOP 2012 hopefuls...

We have examined previously the glorious bucket of extra-crispy crazy that is former Arkansas Governor Mike Huckabee. His latest bit of fun and mentally unbalanced frolic is his own warped version of "School House Rock" where kids can learn Huckabee's own personal version of American revisionist history. The videos are neo-con schlock on a scale so nutty that it has to be seen to be believed.

   
UK politics here in even  at its nuttiest  is nowhere  near  as insane as what now passes  for  normal in the  American GOP

UPDATE - Mike Huckabigot   rides the  WAAAAAmmmublance   about how  he can't run for President, because the vast overwhelming majority of the  reality based world realizes  he is a complete nutjob.

Oh joy

Sent from my Verizon Wireless BlackBerry

Lawrence O'Donnell on the Differences Between Presidents

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Cue the Painful Squirming on the Right...

 It's a tough day to be an Obama Hater.... But you have to give the wing nuts credit for tryin....
(via Huffington Post)

WASHINGTON -- Most reactions from Republican leaders to news of Osama bin Laden’s death emphasized the U.S. military’s role or praised former President George W. Bush, while downplaying President Obama’s role in the seismic event...

Speculation already abounded Sunday night that bin Laden’s death by U.S. Navy SEALS in Pakistan would be a huge political boon for Obama. Republicans tried to give the president just enough credit, without giving him too much.  

Republican leaders in Congress varied in how they credited the president.

Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) did not mention the president, saying that America was “grateful for the heroic efforts of the many men and women around the world who have fought and who are still fighting to protect the world from terrorism. Though they may never make the headlines, we are ever mindful of their many sacrifices.”

House Speaker John Boehner (R-Ohio) thanked Obama after the military and additionally thanked Bush.   House Majority Leader Eric Cantor (R-Va.) said Obama had “followed the vigilance of President Bush in bringing Bin Laden to justice.”

Bush himself said Obama had called him Sunday evening to share the news and that he had “congratulated him and the men and women of our military and intelligence communities who devoted their lives to this mission.”    

Obama, in his nine-minute speech from the White House Sunday evening, mentioned Bush only once, remarking that Bush had expressed after 9/11 that the U.S. war against al Qaeda was not a war against Islam.
--------------------------------------------------------
So let's take just a moment to remember the "vigilance" of  former President George W. Bush....

Osama Bin Laden is Dead

"I've never wished a man dead, but I have read some obituaries with great pleasure." -Mark Twain

President Obama addresses the nation and the world...



The news of the  operation in Pakistan  that  finally  took out the  world's  number one terrorist, was greeted here in  London  with  a sense of relief.   Also, with a undercurrent of  concern that the  scenes of  jubilant  celebration  in the United States, while completely  understandable, could serve as  a rallying cry and recruitment tool for  Al-Queda leaders  who  are still at large.    That being said,  I for one  am quite happy the bastard is dead.

The President's speech hit all the right notes.   President Obama payed tribute to those who died,  those who served and continue to serve and  restated the  truth that  the United States is not at war with Islam.  Taking care to again  draw the distinction  between violent extremists,  and  a religion  that billions of people around the world, including in the United States,  peacefully follow.

Yet even  now,  there  are  people in the United States who just cannot get past their personal hatred of President Obama and the Democratic Party.  A former university classmate of mine, and neo-conservative blogger  just  couldn't help himself,   when he  posted on Facebook  how he was glad  President Obama  hadn't  "given up on the War on Terror, like many in his party wanted him to."   

There is no way you can  respond to something that irrational, that mindlessly  partisan  and  that  demonstrably  false.  So  you shake your head,  click  "unfriend"  and join the rest of the world in the reality-based community.



As much as the scenes of  celebrations in New York might make some people uncomfortable;  the sense of euphoria at "ground zero" is understandable.

I remember 9/11/01  very well.   I was actually on an airplane.   I was flying from Chicago to Houston for work, when about 20 minutes into the flight we suddenly turned around and returned to  Chicago.   The pilot assured us  there was nothing wrong with the plane, but that the FAA was grounding all air traffic.   Everyone onboard assumed it was a problem with the  Air Traffic Control system at Chicago's Midway and O'Hare airports, which had experienced problems earlier in the week.  It wasn't until we got into the terminal,  we saw CNN and  found out what had happened.

So  with so many people around the world,  I am relieved and  happy to hear  the news that Osama Bin Laden is gone.   At the same time,  mindful that  the violent extremist ideology  he championed,  is still very much alive.  We owe it to those who have died  to  continue to be vigilant.  

Yet if today's  news  shows us anything,  it is  proof  that  the aims and tactics of terror groups like Al-Qaeda  will, in the end,  only result in the terrorists own violent demise.

Royal Wedding Thoughts...

Well  here is the  photo.   We waited along the Mall with thousands and thousands of  other people after swearing we wouldn't get anywhere  near Central London today.  Yeah, well...   How often does London throw this big of a party?

First the Wedding.  It went off without a hitch.  The weather forecast said it was going to rain.  It didn't.   Anti-monarchist protesters  said they were going to be out in force.  The weren't.   Pundits  said the crowds would be unmanageable and  unruly, and nothing could have been further from the truth.  

 It's hard  not to get caught up in the hype of an event this big.   The global audience  that watched  these two people get married today  was estimated at over  two billion.  Why?

To be honest?  I really am not sure. There are the obvious reasons.  It's a live history lesson..  The British Monarchy  is living history. To steal the quote from the movie  "The Queen"; it is an unbroken line going back over a thousand years. It's hard not be  fascinated watching  this institution change and adapt  to  the  21rst Century.

You can argue the issue of  how ridiculous  the idea of  hereditary  privilege is  in this day and age, and many here in London are.   London's  biggest talk radio station  LBC 97.3 FM, had no shortage of callers on  both sides of this issue.  With the majority of callers expressing  enthusiastic support, for the  Royals, and  what  today's pomp and pageantry  has done for the morale of the whole nation.    But there were other callers who were just adamant in saying they feel it's crazy to keep paying millions of pounds a year to support a group of people who's only qualification is having been born into the Windsor family.

Yet  if you are going to argue  strictly from the perspective of cost, today pretty much killed that argument.    The cost  to the British taxpayer,  (of which I am now one..)  to maintain the Monarchy is around  70 million pounds a year.    Estimates of  how much money this wedding has  generated for the British economy so far is  low-balled around  six hundred million pounds.  Not a bad  ROI. (Return On Investment.)

If nothing else,  I am totally behind anything that gives British composer John Rutter an excuse to compose new music.  His  new piece  "The Anthem"  commissioned  especially for today's ceremony was amazing.




So at least for today, the debate over the merits and costs of a Constitutional Monarchy was put aside.   Billions of people all around the world,  joined  the over one million people in Central London, (including this new Londoner),  in wishing "Wills and Kate"  all the best.

Why the "Birthers" Will Never Accept Reality...

Rachel tells it like it is..

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Anyone who still is flogging this  issue is either an idiot, a racist  or simply full of shit.

Headline : Cranky Nutjob Soils Adult Diaper Over DOMA...

Ah... Pat Robertson, the comedy gift that keeps on giving. (hat tip to JoeMyGod)



Lets be clear. Pat Robertson is not a Christian. Oh he is very good at claiming to be. But there is very little coming out of his mouth, that bears any relation to the words of Jesus Christ. Pat Robertson's religion is in fact, Pat Robertson. Pat is a dedicated disciple of his own bigotry and opportunism.

Pat Robertson’s one true God is the money and conservative political power, that peddling hatred has earned him over the years.

Lest we forget just how anti-American this lunatic actually is, let's revisit one of his greatest hits. Here with his favorite backup wacko,  Jerry Falwell.  Pat and Jerry  manage to blame everyone but Osama Bin Laden for the attacks of 9-11.

It long past time for this bitter and sadly demented old man to be taken aside, given something soft to chew and put to bed. The only "higher calling" Pat Roberson is interested in serving, is himself.

The ridiculously mis-named "Defense of Marriage Act"  (DOMA),  is an affront to ALL Americans. I love how Conservatives like Robertson love to champion protests against companies like Disney and Apple for the their progressive stances, but when Progressives do the EXACT SAME THING, to protest business that support bigotry and discrimination, that is just "unbelievable".

I am not going to wast time and blog space going through the facts on how EVERYTHING Pat Robertson and his assorted ilk, have said about same sex marriage is a complete lie. If you really want to read through it all, feel free to go here.

I do have hope that eventually the United States will grow up and leave behind the likes of Robertson and his fellow snake-oil salesmen of hate.  In the meantime,   the rest of the Western World still looks at us and shakes it's head.

Hear That Odd Popping Sound?

It's the heads "birthers"  exploding all over the United States....

via Talking Points Memo...
Hoping to end a long-running "controversy" over whether he was born in the United States, the White House released President Barack Obama's long-form birth certificate on Wednesday.

"The President believed the distraction over his birth certificate wasn't good for the country. It may have been good politics and good TV, but it was bad for the American people and distracting from the many challenges we face as a country," the White House's Dan Pfeiffer wrote in a blog post.

"Therefore, the President directed his counsel to review the legal authority for seeking access to the long form certificate and to request on that basis that the Hawaii State Department of Health make an exception to release a copy of his long form birth certificate," wrote Pfeiffer. "They granted that exception in part because of the tremendous volume of requests they had been getting."

Check out the birth certificate:

A Conversation with a "Birther"

Radio Host Michaelangelo Signorile  had a call on  his show  from a man in Alabama who is convinced that  Barack Obama is not an American.   The call is  a stark examination of   how  no facts, no amount of proof, no birth certificate will EVER  satisfy these people.   They are desperate to believe that  the Obama Presidency is the result of some vast  conspiracy.

This call to the show from Winston in Alabama confirms why the birther conspiracy will never go away, a fascinating look at why crazy beliefs endure. Even after all the facts were explained to Winston, and after he appeared to agree that the facts were right, he still held doubts that President Obama was born in this country.

What's clear to me is that birthers have other reasons for which they dislike the president, even hate him -- and some of those reasons are too ugly, perhaps, for them to even admit to themselves. Hence, they cling to this conspiracy even after it's disproved.

London is not ready...

Not by a long shot.

A bit more than a year out from the biggest logistical challenge London has faced since the Battle of Britain, what is painfully clear to even the casual observer is just how "not ready" this city is to host the Olympics.

Tourists tend to praise London's public transit system. Before I lived here I would regularly lament the failings of the Chicago Transit Authority and the San Francisco BART and MUNI systems, wishing they could "be more like the trains in London."

I take it all back.

To the ELevated trains of Chicago's Red Line I humbly beg your forgiveness. To my beloved BART and MUNI trains from SF Civic Center station, I take every sarcastic remark I ever made, chew and swallow them. You are marvels of urban engineering and models of efficiency compared to "the Tube".

I now know why as a visitor, I always thought. London Transport worked so well. For the most part, visitors only really use the tube in Central London (zones 1 or 2).  Also tourists usually are not on trains at Rush Hour. Around 6pm they're at their hotels getting ready to go out to dinner or theaters/clubs in the West End.

London Trains seem to do pretty well if all you need is to get from Earls Court to Leicester Square during off-peak travel times. Beyond that? It's one big game of "signal failure roulette".

Let's pause here for just a moment to address that great all-purpose excuse for any major problem with trains in and around  greater London...

"Signal Failure".

Back in the 1970's on the now legendary British scifi TV show "Doctor Who", whenever actor Jon Pertwee couldn't pronounce a particularly technical phrase in the script; he'd substitute the phrase "reverse the polarity of the neutron flow", in place of whatever it was he didn't want to try to say.



I'm convinced "signal failure" is London Transport's version of this. I moved to London on April 8th, and EVERY DAY I have been here, there has been an announcement of "signal failure" at one or more points on the Train System.

So as stand writing this on my blackberry in the stifling heat of yet another idled Jubilee line train; I can't help but pose the question:

If London can't manage to keep its train running through an average rush hour commute, how on earth will this city cope with the world's biggest sporting event?

Sent from my Verizon Wireless BlackBerry

VERY Cool Time-lapse Video

San Francisco to Paris  in  two minutes..   very cool!  (Hat tip to Andrew Sullivan)


SF to Paris in Two Minutes from Beep Show on Vimeo.

New Chapters....

Hey there folks, 

Well the move is done.  I arrived in London this afternoon and  Eric and I made it home  with all four bags relatively easily.   Its  been an exhausting  and  emotional week.   Leaving  my job at Kaiser Permanente  on Wednesday, and  getting everything  moved out my  San Francisco apartment, sadly didn't leave a lot of time for  goodbye's.  To  all the folks who have emailed  saying;  "What?!?  You've left!"  I am sorry there wasn't any extra time. 

This move would have never  happened on time without help from  some of  the most  amazing people in my life.   My Sister and Brother-in-Law  Leah & Jean Georges Demathieu  were miracle workers helping clear out my apartment.  Also,  I never would have been  ready  and able to move without the help of Rudy Guerrero,  the most amazing friend anyone could ever ask for, who helped haul and lug and carry and  was an amazing  source of morale support through this whole daunting process.

Saying  goodbye  to  San Francisco was very bittersweet.   Finally being able to move  here to London and start the  next chapter of my life  is wonderful,  yet at the same time it is  odd to leave  a city and  people that has been home for  seven years.     

So as my  (now former) co-workers  at  KP  Learning and Development  like to say...  Onwards!

Brilliant... Just watch it.

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