Amazing Race Season 9 – Episode 3

The hippies (BJ & Tyler) are playing better than anyone yet – in any season. They’re playfulness at the beginning of this episode – greeting everyone at the zip line by jumping on their cars – is what this is race is all about.

“I was hoping we wouldn’t have to go to Russia.” – Lake

Seriously? We were just talking about how St. Petersburg is on our list of places to go.
Lake, I fear the worst of you is yet to come.

Roadblock – Who wants to take the plunge
Jen’s doing this one. Sure, she’ll mock me the entire way, but we gotta split these up. She sealed her fate with this commentary:

“It’s only 10 meters, I would dive. I wouldn’t do anything fancy, but I’d dive.”

Detour – Scrub or Scour
Scrub for us. On first glance, it sounds like we’d be more in control of our progress. I’m not a big fan of the random-box challenges. No skill, only patience required. Patience in the Amazing Race is on a short fuse.

Blah. Ending the episode without a pitstop. Feels so, empty.

First Crack 75. Jen and Garrick Talk About Being New Parents

On a drive this past weekend, Jen thought it was time we talked about being new parents.

Everything you’d expect is in here; guilt, funny clothes, guilt, awkwardness, diapers, mommy-and-me classes, dad-and-son catch, and thoughts on starting solid foods.

Yes, we’re still armchair parents at heart.

Listen to Jen and Garrick Talk About Being New Parents [35 min]

Startbucks

Based on Greg Olsen’s Going Bedouin article, “Startbucks” defines a small team of entrepreneurs, 3-5 people, working on the next great business from geographically disparate coffee houses, collaborating via internet access.

In the Experience Economy, this is free office space for the price of coffee (in contrast to free coffee for the price of office space).

Based on this history of this blog, I get one made-up-word a year. That’s cool. Like the others, I submitted this one to pseudodictionary.com. I’ll update this post if/when it’s accepted.

Update 1 Apr 2006: Startbucks is now in the pseudodictionary

First Crack 74. Uplifting the AmigoFish with Dave Slusher

As part of the Dave Slusher 2006 Over-Exposure Tour, Dave and I talked about his AmigoFish and the Uplifter.org projects.

Upfront I talk about:

Dave and I talk about:

I throw in a song from Jeremy Messersmith and then we talk Uplifter.

Listen to Uplifting the AmigoFish with Dave Slusher [45 min]

Four Articles Encouraging Impeachment of George W. Bush

The Center for Constitutional Rights recently released Articles of Impeachment Against George W. Bush, a $10, 144-page paperback they’re encouraging you purchase for your House Representative (that’s where impeachment hearings need to start).

From Onnesha Roychoudhuri’s interview at Alternet.org, here’s the basics of the 4 articles:

  1. Warrantless wiretapping of Americans in the U.S.

    “This constitutes a violation of the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act (FISA) which prohibits and makes criminal any wiretapping without a warrant.”

  2. Falsifications used to justify the Iraq war.

    “You reference any particular day and the administration was making statements that Iraq has a relationship to 9/11, al Qaida and Osama bin Laden; that Iraq had weapons of mass destruction. In the one and a half years leading up to the war, the time during which they were making these statements, they knew that they were false.”

  3. Torture, arbitrary long-term detentions, disappearances and special trial.

    “Our law is very clear on these things. You can’t torture people, you can’t commit war crimes, you can’t send people to countries where they’re tortured and you can’t set up special courts for trial. The Geneva Conventions are a part of our law…”

  4. All of the prior three articles together

    “If you look at these things together, you see that they are essentially destroying our republic and our democracy. They are destroying the constitutional structure of our government. Therefore, he should be impeached.”

Wow. This list even leaves out Bush’s poor handling of Katrina, Enron, Plame, and the Dubai Port deal.

Impeachment hearings for Clinton were initiated for crimes not at all related to our national security. Everything on this list is a national security and constitutional issue.

Not good for Bush. Not good at all.

Based on a quick Google News search, 4 towns in Vermont, San Francisco, and 28 of the 435 House Reps have voted for investigating grounds for impeachment.

Of those 28 Reps – MNs own Martin O. Sabo. Rock the House, Martin.

Patriot Act Misuse – Ignorance or Opportunism

Thanks to Bruce Schneier for pointing me to Mark Steyn’s excellent ‘Long war’ is Breaking Down into Tedium column in the Sun Times.

Steyn lists out some actually happened examples of companies and financial institutions invoking the Patriot Act without reason. Given the complexities of most legislation and the Asking Questions = Unpatriotic attitude of the current administration, I can see how this could happen.

Fortunately, Steyn provides ammunition if you suspect overly-zealous corporations are misusing the security bill:

“…we have a policy of reporting all erroneous invocations of the Patriot Act to the Department of Homeland Security on the grounds that such invocations weaken the rationale for the act, and thereby undermine public support for genuine anti-terrorism measures and thus constitute a threat to America’s national security.”

What’s the Opposite of Tarjey?

When we lived in Evanston, there was this Target just a few blocks away. Stuff on the floor, expired milk in the aisle, very un-Target-like.

We got into the habit of asking people about whether or not a particular Target was “good.” We came back up here for a wedding and asked the clerk at the hotel where the closest Target was and if it was good.

She looks at us flatly, “All Targets are good.”

That may be. The Targhetto Project over at Magnetbox uses Twin Cities income and home sale data to calculate which one might be less so.

My local ranks: 145