Good news and bad news

Good news first. After our recent decade-long bender of snapping up gargantuan gas-hog SUVs, Americans seem to have woken up to the fact that they've been hoodwinked by an auto industry that doesn't give a damn about anything beyond next quarter's balance sheet. Bigger doesn't look so much better anymore when gas is $4 a gallon and the polar ice caps are melting before our eyes. It's sad that it took the combination of the highest gas prices in history and overwhelming evidence of climate change to shock American consumers into changing their behavior, but whatever it takes.

As for the Smart Car, we saw a ton of them on a trip to Europe in 2003. And while I don't expect you'll be seeing many of them on the interstate, for urban environments they're an excellent option -- great gas mileage, highly maneuverable and able to squeeze into a parking space half the size of a Ford Expedition.

The bad news is, my baseball team is threatening to set a record for futility, in more ways than one. Having failed utterly to remake their roster over the winter, saddled with aging, mediocre overpaid free agents, and beset by injuries, the Giants have decided the solution to their problems lies in erasing every vestige of the man who almost single-handedly kept the franchise afloat for the last fifteen years. You know my feelings about Barry Bonds are about as mixed as mixed can be, but for Giants' ownership to suddenly disavow the man who kept the fans coming year after year to buy overpriced food and sit in overpriced seats to watch an underperforming team -- well, it's pretty much the definition of hypocrisy. Add that to what's looking like a sure-thing 100-loss season (110, anybody?), and you've got a recipe for a loooooong year at the ballpark. Or rather, not there.

Capitol characters

Speaking of mean people, I found this item pretty hilarious until I got to the part where the target of the roast is actually sponsoring the event. Either the Assemblywoman figures "if you can't beat 'em, join 'em," or she honestly doesn't get it. Hopefully the former...

Mean People Suck

Back to the funny real soon, I promise. In the meantime:

I’ve never been one for bumper stickers. It’s hard to fit anything meaningful in that small a space, and I’ve always liked the clean look on my vehicles anyhow. That said, I’ve been struck recently with the profundity of one of the more common bumper stickers around.

I have been fortunate in my life not to spend a lot of time around mean people – that is, people who get some kind of primal satisfaction from attacking others, whether physically or verbally. But I did have a recent experience with one that reminded me of the essential truth of this particular bumper sticker: mean people literally suck the energy and life right out of you. There is something about the absolute conviction with which they launch their negativity into the world that all too often convinces their target that it is somehow deserved.

The plain fact is that just about everyone – though I might make an exception for Dick Cheney – deserves some measure of respect. It’s just basic human courtesy; you operate from an assumption that the other person is worthy of respect until they prove otherwise.

Mean people don’t do that. They operate from the assumption that everyone is as insecure and self-interested and negatively charged as they are. And that’s why they suck.

Warning: irony-meter overload imminent...

Not one, but two senior officials in the California Republican Party exposed as illegal immigrants? You can't make this stuff up.

Stranger In Paradise

I've mentioned before my lasting affection for the works of Robert B. Parker. The funny thing is, some of his own biggest fans occasionally accuse the man of coasting. He does tend to write about the same sorts of things over and over again -- difficult relationships that somehow manage to persist; unorthdox families that are held together by love more than blood; men who live by a code of honor that makes them in some way brothers even if they're on opposite sides of the law. And let's not forget a personal favorite -- making fun of pompous bigots, and even then, trying to find the spark of humanity hidden within even those sorry examples of it.

All of which is to say, Parker's new Jesse Stone book Stranger In Paradise is just delicious. Once again he mines his own back catalog of characters, returning to one of the most memorable "villains" of the Stone series' earlier days, Wilson "Crow" Cromartie, and turning him into this series' equivalent of Hawk, the adversary-turned-brother-in-arms of Parker's long-running Spenser saga. Once again the dialogue is alternately snappy and penetrating, illuminating the characters thoroughly in ways pages of description never could.

Small-town police chief Stone is himself in fine form, a pillar of quiet strength and resourcefulness, humanized by a sneaky sense of humor and his personal Achilles' heels: alcohol, and his equally unsettled and imperfect ex-wife Jenn. The supporting characters -- mostly fellow police officers in the fictional town of Paradise -- get lots of play this time, too. It's another great yarn from a master, and makes me want to read the whole Stone series over again from the start.

Him again??

Yes, more Obama. I honestly didn't mean for this to become either a political blog or an Obama fan site -- and rest assured baseball season is right around the corner, so subject matter will be diversifying again soon -- but two separate Obama-related articles caught my attention today.

First, the Pensito Review analyzes one of the secrets to Obama's success -- which, interestingly, parallels his principal similarity to Ronald Reagan. Both men are/were propelled by deeply held values and beliefs, and even those who might disagree with the way those values and beliefs translate into policy tend to admire the sincerity and conviction with which these two men express them. There's no real way to quantify things like integrity or inspiration, but they are exactly the elements that can turn a swell into a tidal wave.

Second and equally compelling, Newsweek profiles the anti-Hillary, the original, down-to-earth, and indelibly real Michelle Obama.

Whether or not these two turn out to be the next First Couple, they are both amazing and fascinating people.

Get a life, people

Sigh. Looks like the marriage protectors are at it again.

How bizarre is it that these people – ostensibly quote-unquote small government conservatives – can find nothing better to do than try to regulate the love lives of their fellow citizens? It’s like a particularly unfunny Monty Python sketch, without a dead parrot in sight.

The more these clowns throw around their aggressive rhetoric about “defending” marriage, the more they look like a bunch of closet cases who are afraid if they get hit on by someone of the same sex they might not be able to resist their true impulses.

In any case, I’m getting pretty tired of listening to their lunatic rants. The only threat marriage rights for gays could possibly pose to my marriage is that it might make it tougher to reserve a reception hall when my kids are ready to get married… now we’re talking serious stress!

The end of orthodoxy

It’s been amusing recently watching ideologues in both major parties twist themselves into a rage while invoking the name of Ronald Reagan.

For the Dems, the issue was Barack Obama’s candid assessment of Reagan:

“I think Ronald Reagan changed the trajectory of America in a way that Richard Nixon did not and in a way that Bill Clinton did not. He put us on a fundamentally different path because the country was ready for it… he just tapped into what people were already feeling, which was we want clarity, we want optimism, we want a return to that sense of dynamism and entrepreneurship that had been missing.”

Horrors! You mean Obama didn’t just stick to the Democratic orthodoxy of Reagan as the progenitor of all that is wrong in modern America? No, he didn’t. He spoke a broader truth about Reagan, one which party warhorses may not care to hear, especially coming from the mouth of one of their own, but which is nonetheless true. I might have disagreed with Ronald Reagan on just about every policy issue he ever touched, but there is no denying that he connected with the American people in a way no president has since. His innate optimism inspired people, even people (the so-called “Reagan Democrats”) who really should have been paying closer attention to his views before voting for him.

On the Republican side, John McCain has been raked over the coals -- and compared unfavorably to Reagan -- for his repeated failure over the years to bow to certain orthodoxies of the conservative movement. He believes global warming requires immediate attention and that our campaign financing rules are in dire need of reform. He wouldn't necessarily condemn either gays or illegal immigrants to being second-class citizens of the country in which they live. Et cetera.

What Obama and McCain have in common -- beside momentum in their respective primary contests -- is that they have both declined to bow down to the hardcore ideologues within their own party. In the process, they have each made small but important steps toward breaking free of party orthodoxies and charting a new path that attempts to bridge the bitter divide between the conservative and liberal extremes in America. The fact that these two figures are each ascendant in their respective parties speaks volumes about the voters’ desire for (here comes that word) change – as in, candidates who don’t just parrot the same old rigid party dogma, but actually think independently and speak their minds sincerely about the issues of the day.

Reagan once famously declared it morning in America. If the fall contest turns out to be Obama vs. McCain, it will indeed be a brand new day for American politics – and citizens of all philosophical stripes should welcome that.

Just do it.

Yesterday was my first day at a new job. Which means this morning I'm busy, tired, distracted and slightly overwhelmed. So what am I going to do?

Vote.

When you think about it, the democratic system that gives us so much -- freedom, opportunity, assistance, protection -- demands very little from us in return. I'm happy to listen to anyone's complaints about how things are going in America, regardless of their political views, just as long as they've made that one little bit of personal effort to make a difference, to make their voice heard -- to make a change.

Just do it. Vote.

Lies, damned lies, and presidents

I demand a recount -- he told more than that just in the State of the Union...

Beyond the pale

I mentioned this blog to an acquaintance the other day and she allowed as to how she'd considered starting one herself, but was afraid she'd end up posting one rant after another, to her eventual regret. It's certainly a temptation, but one I've tried to resist -- so far.

Sometimes, though, a rant is simply what's called for.

The tragedy in the Heath Ledger story seems obvious on its face -- young, talented actor and father passes away without warning. The appropriate responses are contemplation of one's mortality, sincere condolences to the family left behind, and respectful silence.

Appropriate, that is, unless you're a screaming fundamentalist nutjob.

Yep, the Phelps clan and their "church" -- the same hatemongering, spittle-spewing little Hitlers who've been protesting at soldiers' funerals, claiming the deaths of American soldiers are the acts of a vengeful God punishing America for tolerating homosexuality -- are planning to protest at Ledger's funeral, because he had the temerity to portray a gay man in a movie.

It's just about the most disgusting, immoral, anti-family, un-American and, yes, un-Christian behavior imaginable. This much seems certain -- if these SOBs are right about the existence of Hell, when the time comes they're going to be the hottest show in town.

Birthday wishes

The Rev. Martin Luther King Jr. delivered so many remarkable, inspirational statements in his lifetime that it's hard to pick just one to highlight on the day we have set aside to honor his memory and achievements. Still, his letter from the Birmingham Jail, reprinted in this morning's Sacramento Bee, is one of history's most pointed and profound arguments for nonviolent resistance to oppression.

I only wish on this day that there was a political candidate able to reach inside themselves and deliver that sort of principled eloquence, that kind of wise, unyielding and inspirational call to action. Oh, wait: there is.

Waist deep in the Big Muddy

There is one principal reason that, despite being a Political Science major and dedicated/opinionated follower of current events, I would not recommend politics as an avocation to anyone I care about: it's a dirty, dirty, dirty game. Just ask John McCain and Barack Obama.

Strange days indeed

Today's headlines feel like an episode of "News of the Weird," even when they aren't trying to be. First, for the geek squad we'll include the thinnest notebook ever. (Too thin for a CD drive? Hmm...) Then we move to the cops pepper-spraying and arresting unruly sports fans... at a tennis match. And of course we also had the Dems struggling to play nice, while the Reeps fell into complete disarray. Meanwhile, California voters may be grouchy about any number of things, but they still love their celebrity guv. In the Dept. of Strange Bedfellows, we find the ACLU leaping to the defense of Sen. Larry Craig. And finally, it seems the problems we are experiencing with health care for humans are merely the tip of the iceberg.

Ah, but then there's the news you really care about (if you live in my household, anyway). Unfortunately, Sam Warburg's terrific run at the Australian Open came to an end yesterday as he fell 6-4, 7-6(4), 6-2 in a hard-fought match with the impressive Jo-Wilfried Tsonga. Regardless, Sam's four straight wins will give him a nice bump in next week's rankings and a nice check to take home. A great way to start 2008!

Shameless nepotism : a plug

My nephew Sam Warburg is in his second year on the pro tennis tour and is currently ranked #172 in the world. Or at least he was, until he won three straight qualifying matches to get into the main draw of the Australian Open and then on Monday won his first-round match against #97 in the world, Juan Pablo Brzezicki. Coming off his first-ever match play win in a Grand Slam tournament, Sam is set to go up against Jo-Wilfried Tsonga, ranked #38, at 3:00 pm Pacific today. Watch for scores here and don't forget to check ESPN2 for possible coverage. His new ranking will come out next week here -- and it will jump quite a bit. Meanwhile, GO SAM!

Like Nixon to China?

I do love irony, so it didn't take long to grasp the significance of this story: "Solider: Policy on gays may be shifting.”

It seems that as the Iraqi conflict drags on, the all-volunteer U.S. military can no longer afford to pick and choose which otherwise fit-to-serve soldiers it will keep. As a practical matter, it appears that all willing and able Americans are now being permitted to remain in the service of their country, regardless of sexual orientation.

So yes, as a friend put it last night, it now appears to be an indisputable fact that “George W. Bush is responsible for allowing gays in the military.”

A long road ahead

Well, New Hampshire sure made things interesting on both sides of the presidential primary process. And the happiest people in the nation today? Thanks to our pay-to-play campaign system, that would be a dead heat between political fundraisers and television advertising salespeople.

Where reality and fiction blur

Time to address the biggest story of the new year so far (and no, I'm not talking about The Return Of Jon).

Barack Obama won the Iowa caucuses and appears to have big mo in the upcoming New Hampshire primary. The reasons why are complex but fascinating. Yes, as an Illinois senator he had an advantage in Iowa. Yes, he put together a great ground game with highly disciplined field organizers. Yes, Clinton and Edwards each have significant deficits of one sort or another that handicap their ability to sustain momentum.

What seems to be driving the Obama surge, though, is something so unimaginable in postmodern, hyper-cynical, 24/7 ironic America that it has columnists as sage and grounded as Frank Rich and Bob Herbert sounding positively giddy.

Obama seems to inspire people.

Yes, he's young and less experienced than many of the other candidates. No, he doesn't have all the answers. But unlike his competition, he doesn't necessarily pretend to. He doesn't claim to be more than he is -- a man whose profile embodies the multiracial nation America has become, and whose vision seems grounded in genuine affection for and belief in its promise. And that, coupled with a flair for self-deprecating humor and his notable skills as a public speaker, seems to be generating a wave of affection and yes, inspiration with him at its center. People really are tired of slimy lowball negative politics, and Obama offers a breath of fresh air.

There are of course still plenty of doubters, but really, the question of experience seems to have more traction than the most obvious question Obama's candidacy has presented to America -- the question of race.

And here's where my train of thought takes a turn for the fantastic. I decry the dumbing-down of television-sedated middle America as much as anyone, but really, you discount the pervasive nature of pop culture at your peril. I believe Obama has more than just Oprah to thank, though, for the fact that his appeal is reaching middle American homes that might not have been open to the idea of a nonwhite president just ten years ago.

Back in 2001 the producers of the TV drama 24 were searching for an actor who could project real moral authority in the role of Senator David Palmer, who during season one was was running for president. They probably already knew he would win the race and become president in season two and beyond. And they couldn't have chosen a better actor for the role than Dennis Haysbert.

It's tempting to think a co-starring role in an over-the-top spy thriller TV serial couldn't possibly change that many minds. But can anyone really doubt the role Will & Grace played in acclimating middle America to the idea of gay men as three-dimensional human beings deserving of fair and equal treatment? In the case of 24, for four years one of television's highest-rated dramas featured, with virtually no self-consciousness, an upright, eloquent and often formidable African-American president as the show's conscience and moral center.

There's no way to measure the effect that portrayal had on the nation's consciousness. But as one who believes in the power of our society's storytellers to influence not just the imagination, but our collective reality, I think Obama owes the 24 team as big a debt as he does Oprah. As for Haysbert himself, now there's a celebrity endorsement that would be rich with layers of meaning...

Happy(-ish) New Year

It's a new year and so far all we have to show for it is:

• Polls showing it's still anyone's race in the Iowa Caucus, especially on the Dem side.
• David Letterman and Conan O'Brien wearing "strike beards." (With scary pictures.)
  
• Nick Hornby's great young adult novel Slam (yes I finished it and yes it's wonderful).
  
• And the worst news of all: the San Francisco Giants have accomplished virtually nothing in what was supposed to be a substantial offseason makeover. Sigh.
  

R.I.P.

I was ready to wake up this morning and drop another funny on you, but I'm afraid all attempts at lightness or humor fled when I signed on and discovered a true horror: the assassination of Benazir Bhutto. A candidate in the scheduled Jan. 8 parliamentary elections in Pakistan, she served as the first female leader of a Muslim nation from 1988 through 1990, and was a brave advocate for democracy in a region that has known precious little of it. Pakistan weeps, and so should we.