Conspiracy Theories

I have an unhealthy obsession.  I'm obsessed with Conspiracy Theories.  I find it amazing that million of Americans spend millions of dollars on books, videos, lectures and products that are related to even the most absurd conspiracy theories out there.

Here is a list of my current favorite theories:

• Vaccination causes Autism (Nope. it doesn't.  Mercury doesn't either.  Vaccination saves lives.  Those who push this garbage are causing real, serious harm to the world.)
• 9/11 MIHOP/LIHOP.  (Nope, this is ridiculous on the face of it and there is absolutely ZERO actual evidence that either of these "theories" have any basis in reality.  You are insulting the memory of the people who died that day.  The US Government does enough bad things every day without the people having to invent things.  Just stop it.)
• JFK and the "Magic Bullet" (Oswald killed Kennedy.  On his own.  Read the damned Warren Commission report rather than the latest CT nuttiness.  It's an incredible piece of American history and incredibly detailed.)
• Chemtrails. (They are contrails.  Anyone who says differently is selling something or simply full of shit.  This one is so stupid that a skeptic went out and literally invented a new species of intelligent life called Sylphs and claimed that chemtrails were killing these "gentle, beautiful, invisible" creatures, as an example of how silly the theory was.  Shockingly and very sadly, the people who buy into the chemtrail theory now actually believe in Sylphs).
• Reptiloids. (Are you serious?  Does anyone actually believe this?  Sadly yes.)
• UFO. (Seriously people.  The universe is big. Really big.  The chances of an alien race being able to defeat the laws of physics and then deciding to come here are remote to say the least.  If they could do this, do you really think they would need to kidnap people to study?  How about just hitting a grave and doing a genetic sequencing?  Heck, why not just simply grab the entire Internet and have pretty much the sum total of human knowledge at their fingertips?  Nah, we'll kidnap some poor schmuck and study that guy.  Oh and we'll bring him back.  Our government can't balance a budget, but they can hide aliens?  Aliens can travel interstellar distances yet can't hide themselves from a cheap video camera? Please.)

This is just the beginning.  There are tons of them out there and I find the entire thing to be fascinating.  How and why are people so stupid and ignorant?  Why do people buy into this stuff?  I'll never understand it.  

Intimidation...

What do I find intimidating?  Not a lot actually.  I'm strong-willed, I've been in pressure filled situations and have fought back against seeming insurmountable odds and come out on top.  

There is one thing that I find intimidating though.  Talent.  I especially find it intimidating in areas where I lack any knowledge or ability.  I tend to creep back into my introvert state and allow myself to be intimidated into fading into the background rather than plowing on into a discussion or conversation about a given field, endeavor, etc.

I'm not quite sure why this is, I'm generally a very confident person, I can hold my own in discussions regarding varied and diverse topics, I'm knowledgeable about science, politics, literature, etc but when I come across someone who knows more or has natural ability in something, rather than doing what I really want to do I clam up and back off.

I want to talk to that person, to find out what makes them tick, and most especially to learn from them, to learn how they do what they do.  What are the tricks of the trade?  What methods can I apply to become better at that thing?

Writing is a perfect example.  I don't think I'm very good at it.  Mind you, I know I'm literate, I know that I can get a point across, I just don't think I do it particularly well.  I also know that I have a tendency towards belaboring a point.  OK a little bit more than a tendency.  I beat it into submission and then dismember it, pound the bones into dust and scatter the dust to the wind.  Then I really get started on it.  I need more focus, I need better self-control and I need talent.

So, if you ever want to shut me up, just start talking about an area that you feel you have real expertise in.  I'll just fade away, even in the face of a 13 year old who can throw a curveball.

Commuting Nightmare

So yesterday was the worst commute of my life.  A drive that is normally about 35 minutes was five and one half hours last night.  I left work at 1:30 to beat the snowstorm and spent the next 5.5 hours sitting in bumper to bumper traffic.  At no point did I ever get above 18MPH and that was for one glorious stretch of about 1/4 mile.

At about the 4 hour mark I really began to worry that I might wet myself or run out of gas or both.  At about 4:30 I started getting angry at everyone around me, 30 minutes after that I became resigned to my fate.  I ran through a large gamut of emotions.  

You literally start to feel trapped when it gets that bad.  There was no possibility of turning around or stopping.  Gas stations closed down.  Cars were abandoned.

Both my legs were asleep, my ass was numb, I hadn't eaten in 11 hours.  It has been years since I was so frustrated.  In the end I made it home.  I didn't realize how close I was to not making it until this morning when I filled my 14 gallon gas tank.  13.79 gallons on the fill up.  Another 10 minutes and I would have run out of gas.  I started with a half tank.  I traveled 16 total miles.

Absolutely Outraged.

I am completely outraged by the behavior of the CIA.  I'm an American. I love America.  I believe that America's role in the world is to be a beacon of freedom and hope.  I believe that our goal is to ensure justice in our society and that we have a responsibility to uphold these values.

The Bush administration (along with the entirety of the Republican Party and the so-called "moderates" who vote for Republicans and Bush) has done more to destroy my faith in America than I ever would have though possible.

We now know for a fact that our government was torturing people.   The CIA has effectively told us that this torture was so awful that rather than even risk that it might someday be leaked that the tapes of this torture had to be destroyed.  They failed to provide those tapes when they were required to do so.  We are told by the NY Times that these decisions were made at the "highest levels" within the CIA.  This means Porter Goss (then head of the CIA) and by extension President Bush.

They keep attempting to redefine the word torture by calling it "enhanced interrogation techniques."  However, waterboarding which is specifically mentioned as being used in these tapes has been explicitly defined as torture in a number of places including our own military manuals, the Geneva Conventions (to which we are signatories thus making them under our Constitution the "law of the land").  

We, the American people have allowed our government to get away with torture to this point.  We now know that our intelligence community is out of control and that the only solution to this is proper oversight.  Until Congress puts into place proper oversight laws we will be subject to "signing statements," evasion of oversight, outright lies to oversight agencies and in the above case, direct violation of the law.  

We need a President who will actually sign these laws and a Congress that will pass them.  This means we need people to stop voting for Republicans until such time as they can be shown to actually hold the values that make America great.  

The "values" they hold don't cut the mustard.  I don't need a government that tries to prevent Terri Schiavo from peacefully dying.  I don't need a government that tells women how to manage their own bodies.  I don't need a government that legislates how we live our lives in the bedroom.  I don't need a government that believes privacy is a thing of the past.   I don't need a government that feels it can ignore the 4th amendment.  I want a government that values science over superstition.  I want a government that doesn't fucking torture people.  I am absolutely outraged this morning.

Relaxing Vacations vs. Exhausting Vacations

Here is a concept I have been thinking about a lot recently.  In the American culture, a strong work ethic is basically considered to be one of the top virtues around.  Heck, the right-wing in this country has basically built their entire philosophy around the idea that the poor are only poor because they are "lazy."

I completely disagree with this, especially having grown up in a poor family and knowing that my parents were anything but lazy.  I myself have a very strong work ethic and rarely take more than 2 weeks/year off.

As a result of this I have mixed feelings about how to take vacations.

I recently took a vacation that was a whirlwind of activity with very little downtime (as an introvert I find any social interaction to be somewhat exhausting and this vacation was all about social interaction).  For more on this see: Top 5 Things Every Extrovert Should Know About Introverts.

As a result of this, I'm actually MORE tired at work this week then I was the week prior to "vacation."  Don't get me wrong, I had a wonderful time and still owe a post on the most amazing dinner of my life and am looking forward to writing it.  That said I feel like I need another vacation.  

I think this points to a larger problem within our culture.  In most modern post-industrial countries around the world, the average yearly allotment for vacation is 4-6 weeks.  In the US, it is two.  We are also often made to feel badly about taking sick time, our allotment for maternity leave is a joke and the manner in which we handle bereavement is an embarrassment.   

As I have gotten older (I'm 34, pretty much middle-aged at this point) I have come to realize that I actually need vacations where I do nothing but recharge.  This means parking my ass on a chair and reading.  For others, I'm sure it means other things.  To that end, I'm planning to propose to my wife.  I'm going to propose that our next vacation is somewhere warm, sunny and has a beach or a pool.  I propose that we park our asses in a deck chair and read five or six books over the span of a week.  We can go out to dinner at nice restaurants and drink some fine wines (de rigeur for Angela and I), we can even plan an activity or three.  But I want at least 3 days where I do as little as possible beyond maybe some swimming and hitting the hotel gym.  February or March sounds about right for this.  Before then, I'm going to take a nice long weekend (three, maybe four days) and sit on my comfy couch in my comfy living room and read and relax with my cats.

Vacation Update

The vacation has mostly been a whirlwind of wine and food.  We arrived on Tuesday and had a relaxing evening at my friend Noah's place in Atescedera CA where we finally met his girlfriend Nameeta (they have been together for over 3 years now and we still hadn't met her!).  She's terrific.  Intelligent, funny, and clearly the two make each other very happy.  

Noah's winery venture is coming along nicely, he has become friends with a number of local wine makers, some of who are among the best producers in the region.  His first batch of wine is in barrels now and should be ready for release in a few years.  He's planning to ramp up production each year from now and eventually open a tasting room.

On Wednesday we did tastings at Linne Calodo and Turley.  I'm going to copy out the tasting notes from the wines we tasted there verbatim.  These are boutique wineries with very small production runs, where to get the wine you have to be a part of the winery's list (you can smetimes find them via auction and some restaurants are on the list so get an allocation).

2006 Contrarian $36

68% Roussanne, 32% Viognier

"The grapes were destemmed and then soaked for 24 hours.  Pressed in 2 ton basket presses directly into the barrel, the win undergoes 100% malolactic conversion and is stirred on lees in 100% Neutral oak casks.  Blended two months prior to bottling, I think you will find this wine is ready to consume now or you can lay it down for a couple of years."

2005 Problem Child $45

71% Zinfandel, 17% Syrah, 12% Mourvedre

"The cool season of 2005 brought with it a change in flavors for Leona's Zinfandel; marked by an incredible white pepper nose and lush raspberry jelly.  This wine has reached the 5th dimension. At first glance you notice the earth and spice, followed by an explosion of fruit and mouth watering acidity."

2005 Slacker $38

65% Syrah, 35% Grenache

"While the label doesn't state it, the Slacker does contain Mourvedre. Imagine that! A wine named Slacker is mislabeled. The wine is bold, dark and fused with tannin. Flavors of pomegranate, blackberry, and sage intermingle with aromas of roasted coffee and toast.  Drink now or over the next 3-5 years."

and finally,

2005 Martyr $95

67% Mourvedre, 29% Syrah, 3% Grenache

"This wine reflects my own personal appreciation of Mourvedre.  As you may have noticed, almost every wine we produce has some portion of Mourvedre (AKA Mataro).  This grape intrigues me with both the way it grows and the flavor profile it produces.  The skin is thick and crunchy, the pulp is sweet, earthy and dense, and the seed is large and tannic.  All of these things combine to make a wine that is mildly floral, saturated in roasted meat flavors and leaves a finish that can be tasted for minutes to come.  120 cases produced.

I don't have the notes for Turley unfortunately, but they were also fantastic.

On Thursday we did a barrel tasting at Le Cuvier.  This tasting was great in that we met the wine maker himself who gave us a taste directly from the barrels for a number of wines that hadn't yet been released.  It was fascinating to hear how the wines are made, his philosophy of wine making, and particularly to be able to taste the progression of a wine from just barreled through almost ready to bottle.  The single most interesting aspect though was to taste the same exact blend of a new wine barreled in Neutral oak and in 100% American oak.  It was stunning to taste the contrast between the two.

On Thursday, Noah and Nameeta took us to their favorite restaurant, Passion Fish.   The food here was wonderful (yes I went badly off diet, but we had planned the trip and made the dinner reservations well in advance of starting the diet, and frankly, sometimes you simply have to treat yourself).  

Here we had this bottle:

Kistler Vineyards

2004 Sonoma Coast Pinot Noir

"Expressive, enticing aromas of black and red fruits, minerals and smoke.  Densely packed, supple and sweet, with lovely primary flavors accented by earth and mineral tones.  A really seamless wine which offers a superb concentration of sappy, primal crushed berry flavors and a long persistent finish.  Delicious now."

And then there was Friday night.  Friday night needs a post all to itself.  Suffice to say that we had the single best meal I have ever had and expect it will be the best meal I will ever have.