The SoapBoxers

Rather than focusing on the many subjects I could have this month.  I felt that I had to share this information because I enjoyed learning about myself.  I hope that you’ll take this survey and really enjoy learning more about yourself too.

I hear the terms liberal, progressive, conservative and libertarian a lot in the news today.  Last week, while watching Glenn Beck, I took a survey that helped to (generally) place you in a category based on your political ideals.  If you’re interested in where you fit based on answering 10 questions, I suggest taking this survey:

http://www.nolanchart.com/survey.php

This will help confirm your beliefs, but could also leave you with several questions.  Allow me to explain.

I’ve always considered myself a hardcore conservative.  My brother-in-law once sent me the following pic to use for my web postings which I believed fit perfectly.

 

 [Editor’s note: image is from http://www.thoseshirts.com/hcr.html]

After taking this survey, it confirmed my conservative ideals, but it also indicated that I tent to lean somewhat libertarian as well.  At the end of the survey, it informed me that my selections indicate that I’m a Conservative Libertarian.  That was news to me.  That immediately concerned me though.

We all have our generalizations about groups and I’m no different.  I started wondering if that meant I needed to grow a beard, buy a cabin in the mountains and start stock piling fertilizer.  A libertarian?  When I think of Libertarians, I always thought of Ted Kaczynski, aka the Unabomber.

It helped reading information on several sites explaining what that meant for me.  Here are some general definitions as I understand them.

Libertarian – The word I would use to describe Libertarians is freedom.  I see their main stance is that they want to be left to do what they want as long as they are not harming anyone else.  They believe everyone else has the same rights that they do.  They are based on tolerance and acting responsibly.  One site used the phrase live and let live to describe Libertarians.  They believe in very limited government and don’t like government meddling.  Like Conservatives, traditions do play a big part in their ideals.  Think of the Gadsden flags, I think they fit closely with this group.

Conservatives – I believe the word of focus here should be tradition.  Conservatives believe in maintaining the values and beliefs that we have traditionally held.  In God We Trust should be on our currency, 2^nd Amendment Rights, use of force (military) to maintain peace, marriage is defined as a union between a man and a woman, etc.  Conservatives much like Libertarians believe in smaller government, lower taxes (trickle-down economics), strong (traditional) family values, etc.  Government is there out of necessity and it serves a purpose but it should not tell us how to live or restrict our freedoms.

Liberal – I would describe liberals as focusing on inclusion.  Liberal ideals believe in providing a good life for everyone.  They aren’t fans of the traditional values that Conservatives value and they look to make the world more inclusive for everyone in spite of what their values are.  Many of the traditions that Conservatives value tend to feel extreme to Liberals.  Our currency should not include God on it, whose God are we referring to?  Will that make others feel left out?  Think of the Ten Commandments monument that was removed from the courthouse in Montana.  Think of the colored Christmas lights on public land at Christmas time, Manger scenes at Christmas, etc.  I see liberals giving up their own rights so that they don’t feel like they’re stepping on anyone else’s rights.

Progressive – This term is mis-used today.  Progressive to me indicates someone who leans liberal, but they exercise it more strongly (liberal on steroids).  Some people use the term Progressive to describe socialist beliefs which isn’t accurate.  I see how that confusion would take place, but I think socialism is more extreme than progressiveness.  Progressives believe many of the same things that liberals do, but they’re willing to give up more to make it happen.  I think we see many more progressives in today’s world than liberals, although many people calling themselves progressives believe in socialism.  Progressives believe in big government, but they don’t want to give everything to the government as to Socialists.  I see progressives as throwing traditions out the door and starting fresh.  They definitely want to provide for others and can’t stand to see anyone not on the equal.  They believe that government has the obligation to provide for people.

Socialism – Give everything to the government and let the government work everything out.  They will provide food, medicine, housing and any other essentials that they determine necessary.  The government knows best and it is not your job to question that. You have the obligation to serve the community with the skills you have and you won’t necessarily be rewarded based on what that job is.  For example, my boss and I both work in Systems.  We would likely be given the same size home and allowed the same “stuff”, it doesn’t matter that he is a manager and in our current market would make $50,000 more than I do.  In a socialist system, we would receive the same thing.  (Sounds a lot like Unions where your compensation is based on time in grade and not performance)  The Nolan chart uses the term Statist, which I correlate to socialist. 

Of course, you can be blended versions of these categories.  Conservative Libertarian, Progressive Socialist, etc.  I fall into the category of Conservative Libertarian and I completely understand why.  I believe in many of the traditional beliefs that the country was founded on.  I am deeply religious and my religion is important to me.  The life of the unborn, the fact that our laws are founded on the bible and ten commandments, etc.  I also relate to the Libertarian party which floored me.  However, I now understand that they do have values which are important to me.  Small government, laws that don’t restrict my freedoms, live and let live as long as you’re not hurting others and low taxes.  Sometimes these values don’t mesh well with my conservative values and it’s interesting to see which one wins. 

Barack Obama is probably a Progressive Socialist.  That helps explain why he relates to the liberals and progressives, but the socialist part of him is like nails on the chalk board to people like me.  Taxes drive me absolutely crazy.  “Spreading the wealth around” goes against every principle I have.  I lived in Illinois for a while and it nearly killed me each month paying our property taxes.  Now, we’re back in Colorado where the property taxes are more reasonable, but our tax structure is changing under the current government.  Colorado just implemented new taxes on food, candy, soda and internet sales.  Internet sales!!!  That is a big irritant for me because I shop online for everything.  This really upsets me, but fits with the liberal, progressive and/or socialist ideals.  High taxes lead to bigger government and the ability to provide for others that choose not to (and the few that can’t).

Squeaky…

This is Joe’s final post from Canada

Our 4th day began with an unfortunate phone call. Our excursion to go Heliskiing was postponed due to the poor visibility and low ceiling. We had our ski boots at the shop, so we headed up with our skis and skied the Blackcomb Mountain. We walked right onto the same gondola we waited for 30 minutes the day before. Not only was there no line there, we didn’t wait in line for a lift all day. Even the cafeteria wasn’t that packed. However, due to the gold medal hockey game starting at noon local time, there was a loud group watching.

The lack of people and the amount of terrain were spectacular. The visibility was the worst I’ve ever skied in. Most of the day we could only see at most 2-3 chairs infront of us. The cloud sublimated on our goggles like rain on a windshield. Even when the clouds shifted and allowed for better horizontal vision, there was no way to see the terrain or fall lines. The light was so flat, we fell many times because we thought we were going down hill when all of the sudden, we weren’t. It was very tough to ski the whole day in the “ready” position.

We decided to quit skiing at 2:30, so we skied to the bottom to pick up our shoes. When we got to the Heli shop where we left them, they had closed for the hockey game until 3:00. We couldn’t go back up because it took at least that long to get back on the gondola and get to another lift. We watched the end of the game on the big screen at the base. After it was over, we went to pick up our shoes. To avoid a $2 bus fee back to our hotel, we decided to ski with them to our hotel. We took the other gondola to the top of Whistler Mountain. When we got to our run to our hotel, we were told it was closed. They said it was too late in the day. Not only that, but because of the amount of material that still hadn’t been cleaned up from the Olympic ski racing, the gondola wouldn’t be open from our building to the top for the next two days. So much for having a ski-in/ski-out. We skied back to the village and took the bus back.

The day ended spectacularly with a soak in our hot tub and pool and dinner at the Mongolian grill in town. We were in bed early to wake up and check the conditions for heli-skiing in case we had to ski the regular mountain again. The low clouds had all blown out and the sun was eeking through the lightly overcast skies. We grabbed breakfast before heading out to the bus to the heliport. Because of the Games, the heliport had the same security check as the airport. There were also 3 pads occupied by the Canadian military for patrolling the valley. We went through a quick avalanche beacon training course then prepared for the day.

The trip went up 6,500 feet to an elevation of 8,500 took all of about 15 minutes. We went behind the Blackcomb ski area over glacial fields up to a point called Shark’s Tooth, named for obvious reasons. The landing spot on top was no more than 10′ x 14′. After unloading all the skis and the 4 skiers in our group, the chopper was off and we were left stading there on top of two separate glaciers. We skied off the Shark’s Tooth to the Tremor Glacier. Our big fat skis we rented kept us from breaking all the way through the crust into over 8 feet of snow. They also helped us transferring from turn to turn by acting as like a springboard to jump out of the snow. The turns were effortless and soft. The views were endless and breathtaking.

However, after two runs the snow started to warm up. Turns became more of a chore, and the next glaciers had more traversing and more steeps. A few crashes in the deep stuff really took a lot out of us. We made it through the last two runs and stopped for a lunch of sandwiches, juice boxes, soup, tea, and a desert bar. We took a few pictures, then headed back to the heliport. We decided to make it a cheaper night and stopped at the market for steaks, salad, and noodles. After a soak in the hot tub, we cooked them up and had a great meal and were ready for lounging by 6:00. A truly amazing day.

Editor’s note: We’re happy to announce the return of Johnny Goodman!

First off my apologies to the loyal (are there still any) readers of my column. Unfortunately Johnny Goodman hasn’t been feeling so good the last few months. A return of Hodgkin’s cancer, a couple of special trips down chemo lane, and a few weeks set aside to spend time in the hospital due to complications puts a lot in perspective. Through this entire struggle I have found out stuff about the human body that I never realized, and discovered they can put tubes and wires in such in places that are un-imaginable … but I digress.

Sports was a common theme that kept the fun times going during my hiatus. I was really knocked down with a number of issues right at the first of the year, allowing my hospital bed as a warm respite to watch a variety of college bowl and NFL playoff games.

The Olympics were a nice break. Even nicer that the neighbors to the north won the Hockey Gold Medal. I think Al Michaels said it best indicating that there was a lot of merriment in the streets of Vancouver but if the color would have been silver, the jubilation would not have been quite as great.

The Olympics in many ways have me reflect on my own struggles of going through cancer. There are good days, and bad days. There are high notes, and low notes. There are times where people overcome incredible odds, and times when they disappoint miserably.

The big winner this year has got to be curling. I cannot remember a single sport getting so much free publicity and coverage as Curling received this year in the Games. NFL stars, Face book pages, clothing sites, and I am sure a few other sites as well, will hopefully carry some momentum to more of the warmer reaches of our country as well as others in brining this sport to the next level of popularity.

Too much is made of the drama in all the prima donnas of the sport in my opinion. How many times can we see the tiara put on with the tears flowing. I like Lindsay Vonn but there has to be better stories to cover in depth, such as the US Men’s Bobsled team.

Overall the television coverage did another nice job this year and as the coverage wraps up, I find myself doing what I do every year when the Olympics are over … waiting for another 2 years to see the next games smothered all over of my TV screen.

What I am sick and tired of is the budget and tax debates that we have to go through every year. It doesn’t matter whether we are talking city, state or national politics. Whenever there is not enough money in the budget to cover every program, the only proposed cuts are in essential services (i.e. police, fire, military). The only solution is raising tax rates, not cutting other services or programs. What else is in the budget? Are all of the other line items in the city charter or in the state or federal constitution?

As an example, my state established a special levy tax to cover a shortfall in the roads budget. Okay, a specific tax for a specific purpose. This year, our governor wants to divert some of the money brought in by this special levy to pay for the state patrol. This was an interesting bait and switch. What in the over all budget is more important than funding the state patrol? I have actually requested a copy of the proposed budget, and I was informed that it would not be available until it was passed into law. A bit late I think!

I am not a member of the Tea Party, so I am not asking for tax cuts. I am not a libertarian, so I am not asking for the elimination of taxes either. There are legitimate reasons to have taxes and to raise those taxes. I am fiscally conservative. Just like in my own finances, if the money is not there, do not spend it. If I cannot afford something, I can not go to my boss and tell him I need a higher salary. Actually, I can, but I do not have the authority to force him to give it to me. If on the other hand, I offer to perform some additional service or make additional product, he will probably compensate me for that additional effort. So it should be with taxes.

We have basic taxes to fund necessary government functions. Any other activities that are desired by the community should come with a funding source so that the boss (tax payers) can decide if that activity is worth funding. Whether that is new taxes or some fee schedule would have to be decided at the time of implementation of the program. This is not an evaluation of the value of any specific program. There are things that have to be funded, but many of the activities that are in different public budgets are designed to “encourage” or “develop”. Although these programs may be good to have for the community, they are by definition non-essential. If the people want the program, they will accept a tax hike or fee. If that funding is insufficient, then the true costs will be exposed and the value of the program can be reviewed.

I really don’t have a problem with attaching each program, even the basic stuff, to specific taxes. If 2% is good enough to cover the fire department of a community of 1,000 people, the efficiencies of scale should make it good enough for a community of 100,000. This example is of course completely arbitrary, I have no idea what an actual tax rate against what commodity (land, property, income, sales) is necessary to fund a fire department. This may result in the reduction of activities supporting local parks or loss of the subsidy for sheep in South Dakota for wool army uniforms (not used since WWI), but it will make tax and budget discussions less divisive. All I am really asking for is transparency and an elimination of the scare tactics used to get tax hikes

Our  hero Joe checks in again.

This was our most physically taxing day yet.  We got up early to catch a charter bus at the airport.  It took a lot longer to get out of the city than we had hoped for.  The bus had to stop downtown as well, and people were walking up to the bus to try to buy tickets.  We bought our tickets for hundreds of dollars last summer, and they were allowing people to walk up and buy tickets for the same price, delaying our departure.  Luckily, our hotel was first on the list of drop-offs.

Because the alpine events were going on behind our hotel at Whistler, the area was limited entry and we had to catch a van from a spot lower in town.  Arriving at the hotel, our room wasn’t ready, so we had to leave our bags.  We are doing a heliskiing trip tomorrow, so we had to take our ski boots and check in for it a day early at the bottom of the main hill.

From our hotel, we caught a shuttle bus to the main base of Whistler.  There we checked in for our helicopter trip and then waited in line for the gondola to the Whistler Sliding Centre.  Approaching the village, the line looked extremely long.  It stretched all the way through a queue and into the shops and restaurants at the base.  Despite the length, it only took about 30 minutes to get on.

After arriving at the top, we were greeted with another long line, this time snaking through the snow at the bottom of a ski run.  I was glad I brought my water-proof hiking boots.  We went through security after standing in the snow for 40 minutes, now becoming pros by putting all our metal in our jackets and sending those through on the x-ray belts.  We were immediately greeted by the electric crowd and rumbling of the sleds pounding down the track.  We first ventured into the last turns, dubbed Thunderbird by the Canadians and “50/50” by the Americans because “it’s 50% you crash, 50% you don’t.”  After taking a few shots, we realized just how fast they go.  RIDICULOUSLY FAST!  I mean, you blink, you miss it, even on a big turn like that.  You have less than a second to get a good shot of the racers.

We then headed up the track toward the top.  It took us all of the 3rd Heat (first of the day) to get to the top.  We took pics all along the way, and stopped and watched quite a bit.  We snapped pics where the Georgian luger was killed (at the very bottom) and the different starting points for luge and women’s events along the way.  There was even a camera in the ice to get the sleds as the go over.  After getting to the top, there was another queue for the grand stands at the starting line.  We decided it would be good to get a seat there to watch the start in person and the rest of the race on the big screen.  It took about 40 minutes to get through that line, but got to watch the race while waiting for the last 10 minutes.  There was a 45 minute break between heats.

It was so exciting to cheer on both USA teams, and even more so to see the good guys win the gold.  A very energetic crowd, all the way down the track.  We then headed back down the track, which took 20 minutes, waited in line in the snow for the gondola, which took 25 minutes, and then did some shopping to avoid the other line to get on the bus.  Olympic items were already on sale here in Whistler, so we got some good deals on official merchandise.

A stop to get beer and a short bus ride back to the hotel to get into our room concluded the day on the mountain.  We walked across the street from the lodge and grabbed some darn good BBQ at Bob’s.  They were already taking down fencing and banners around the mountain, and most of the crowd we battled were no where to be found.  A nice relaxing day.

We have now concluded the Olympic portion of our trip, and are going to check out the skiing for the next three days.  I am so excited since it’s been snowing for almost a week.  Should be EPIC!

Joe continues to bring us coverage from Vancouver.

Today was Canada’s day.  I went deeper into the sea of red found out how much these people truly love their country.

I was able to sleep in a little today, not having any events in the morning.  Since we are close to the Richmond Oval, we walked down a block to check it out.  We were surprised to find a chrome statue of Stalin’s head nearby.  The building was beautiful, having wood joists and paneling with traditional glass, steel, and siding.  From there it was a long walk to the train station to make it down to town.  We decided to get off at the Olympic Village and snap a few photos of where the athletes live.  It wasn’t much, just a few apartment buildings with flags hanging out the windows based on which country was staying there.  We then walked over one of the main bridges to the city center.

The package of tickets I bought included a hospitality center pass, so we spent the afternoon watching the USA vs. Finland hockey game while getting tipsy and fed for free.  The Sheraton hosted it, and there were spectacular dishes.  King crab legs, leg of lamb, sea bass kabobs, crème brule, and so much more.

After the good guys shellacked the Fins, we decided to get out before the Canadian curling and hockey crowd showed up.  From there we walked to the Olympic Cauldron to take some pictures.  We bought some pins along the way from a few of the many vendors on the street.  As the day went on, the crowds increased, it seemed, exponentially.  We quickly got on the train to the east part of the city where the Pacific Coliseum was hosting the short track speed skating finals.  We got there early and had no real problem getting in.

Once inside, I realized how small it was.  It probably held 9,000 guests when bulging, and it was not this evening.  Despite it being a final and lots of the home country skating, there were a few open seats.  It was a disappointing night for the USA, as Apolo was DQed in the 500m and had to come from behind to get the bronze in the 5000m relay.  Katherine Reutter did well in winning the silver in the 1000m and was ecstatic with her result.

The building was quite electric though, probably one of the most energetic crowds I have ever been a part of.  The Canadians took the gold and bronze in 500m and the gold in 5000m, sending the crowd into a frenzy.  It was very interesting watching the event in person, because you got to see a lot of things you don’t on TV.

There was a camera man in the middle of the ice for all the regular races, but not the relay.  The judges in suits wear track skates as well.  The gun they use is actually a red toy gun with a cord connected to it, like something you’d plug into your Wii.  The track is always the same length, but they can move the cones toward or away from the center based on how the judges think the ice condition is.  There are cone attendants, much like ball boys in tennis, who set each cone when knocked off or when the judges say.  They also go out with a bucket of water and pour it on liberally along the inside of the two corners.  There is often standing water along the cones during the race.

So much stuff you don’t pick up on when watching on TV.  Also, all during the event there is an announcer for not only the event you’re watching, but keeps you informed of other events going on, even putting it live on the jumbotron during breaks.  Very cool, considering the Canada vs. Slovakia game was on.

Leaving the venue we ran into our first travel delay.  Getting back to the train meant getting on a shuttle bus, and the line was about 20 min long.  We opted to take a regular bus route back to downtown.  I should mention that during the games, any event ticket holder can use any form of public transportation for free.  It took quite a while to get back, and when we got there, we found the place to be flooded with leaf-wearing loonies.

The hockey game had ended about 30 minutes before we got there, and people were already literally drunk with happiness that they’d be playing the USA on Sunday for a gold medal.  We got lots of dirty looks and “Go Canada!” chants in our face due to our American hockey jerseys and hats.  We decided to let them have it, since we are currently owning their podiums.  We ventured over to a Thai restaurant, and were promptly seated.  However, the service was incredibly slow due to just 2 or 3 servers.  We ended up spending over an hour there for just dinner.  We hurried over to the rail station, only to find another 20 minute line waiting to board.  We were able to return home, a little soaked by the day’s constant drizzle.

I picked up some interesting tidbits today.  Sochi, the next Winter Games host city, has their own building (“house”) and you can go inside and watch events and meet athletes.  It looks like Epcot Center from the outside.  They are expecting over 150,000 people to be downtown during the USA-Canada game on Sunday, not including the crowd attending.  This is a VERY conservative estimate.  There are over 39,000 people booked on flights leaving on Monday, and they expect the departure process to take about 4 hours for most people.  I also learned that Canada fans are very annoying when it comes to hockey.  However, unlike most fans, they are very emphatic only about their country, and still wish the best to whomever they’re playing next.

A truly spectacular day was had, and tomorrow I will be making the trip to Whistler to take on the Bobsleigh final.  Until then, Go USA!

Guest reporter Joe Neumann continues his adventures in Vancouver.

Vancouver Olympics – Day 1:
Wow, what a day.  I woke up in the Mile High City with the weather on the verge of snow, and ended the day in comfortable Vancouver after a very full day.  Upon arriving, I could tell this city was ready for a big party.  The airport had lots and lots of room for arrivals and customs checks.  Getting into the country was fairly simple.  I just filled out a declaration in Seattle before boarding our plane, and gave it to the agent at customs before getting my bag.  They had about 30 agents ready for us, and maybe 5 had visitors at them.  No wait at all.  The airport had been recently renovated, and was very ample for all arriving and departing passengers today.  I’d imagine it will be a zoo on Saturday and Sunday, though.

We checked into our rented apartment, and it is much better than anticipated.  Very close to the light rail, restaurants, the Richmond Oval, and the airport.  Very secure building and accessible owner.  We walked to the market and grabbed a Cranberry Turkey sandwich, which was pretty good and only C$4.  We got situated and headed downtown to pick up our tickets.  I was worried it would be very tough to find the ticket will call, and in fact it was pretty easy with knowing the vicinity of where it was supposed to be.  There were visitor booths all along the light rail and downtown area to help.  In addition, lots of tents and vendors were along all streets downtown, and two main streets were closed off, which made it easy to walk around.

Another thing I was initially concerned with was the security and general hospitality of the people in the city.  They were more than warming, welcoming “With Glowing Hearts” everywhere we went.  They were willing to help point us in the right direction, make small talk, and make us feel welcome.  Cops and security were plentiful on each street and venue, even in restaurants and shops.

After picking up our tickets, we checked out the city center around Robson street, which is fanfare central.  Not only were there lots of street performers and booths, but the city had entertainment venues set up around town.  They had hourly free shows at two stages, a zipline across the city center, and TV monitors all over the place showing live events.  Every spectator with a maple leaf on their shirt or sweater had their eyes glued to them during the Canada-USA Womens’ Hockey Final.

We migrated to the BC Place for our “Victory Ceremony” after wandering the city four a couple hours.  We were told to get there early, as it would take a while to get in.  There were over 20 security tents to handle the burden.  They did a full screen on each visitor just as if boarding a flight.  It didn’t take long since we were almost an hour early, and were able to make it to our seats about 30 minutes ahead of time.  Man, what a building!  This is the same venue where the opening ceremonies took place, and they only used 1/3 of it for the ceremony.

They had videos playing while people found their seats, then two emcees played trivia with the crowd.  They had a few live bands from Manitoba (it was Manitoba Celebration Night) perform before the official festivities.  Then the real production started.  There was a simulcast with the Victory Ceremony in Whistler.  They showed a presentation at Whistler, followed by one at our venue in Vancouver.  It was very exciting to have the American National Anthem played first, as we had a gold and silver medalist in Nordic Combined.  The final presentation was for Womens’ Two-man Bobsleigh, and of course the building went crazy because Canada won gold and silver in that event.

After all medals were presented, a total of 5 presentations, they had a full-fledged concert by yet another musician from Manitoba, former member of the Guess Who, Burton Cummings.  It was just like a regular rock concert, with fancy lasers and light choreography.  He played some good songs, but most were unheard of by my father and I.  We left a little early, and grabbed dinner at a local sports bar.  The food was more than decent for the price, around C$12-30 for most dishes.  Beer on tap was cold and local.  It was a nice refresher.

The day wasn’t without some interesting tidbits though.  I sort of got the vibe before arriving, but at the moment, Canada doesn’t like hearing USA cheers.  We are slaughtering them in the medal count after they spent lots of money on a program called “Own the Podium.”  Walking by some people, you could hear “so glad we kept Americans off the podium in Womens Figure Skating” and people chanting “USA sucks” during the Womens’ Hockey Final.  Talking with a local, he said it is interesting that Canadians often complained that USA was loud and boisterous in winning, and now Canada is doing it since the games are on their turf.  He went on to mention that it seems forced and they aren’t very good at the role.

We also searched all over for USA Olympic Gear, and the only thing we found was Ralph Lauren Polo gear at a department store that was way over priced.  We also waited 30 minutes to get in the store because it is the official Olympic store.  If you were a Canadian at these games, you would have plenty of cool designs to chose from to represent your country.  If not, you better hope you brought something from home.

My first impression of the city and games was very, very good.  This town seems incredibly prepared, and there weren’t any hang ups getting from airport to event, or anything imbetween.  I am so ready for bed now.  I can’t wait to enjoy our hospitality center pass tomorrow and see Apolo Ohno’s performance in Short Track!

The Soap Boxers was able to send beat reporter Joe Neumann to Vancouver to cover the Olympics. Well, either that, or we found out that Joe was headed to Vancouver and asked if we could hitch our wagon to his trip.  We are happy to announce that Joe will be sending us several installments of his Olympic journal to share with our readers.

Joe is an engineer in his mid 20s who works at a remote mine in Northwest Alaska and spends time off in Denver, CO. He was born and raised in Denver, migrated to Rolla, Missouri for four years of school and spent time in rural Arkansas and Salt Lake City doing summer work. He enjoys skiing, golfing, bowling, and traveling/road trips. You can follow Joe on Twitter.

Without further ado, I turn to floor over to Joe.

Vancouver Olympics – Day 0
Today I spent preparing for my trip to see the 21st Winter Olympiad. This is my first trip to Canada, and my first time out of the country since before 2001. I fly quite frequently (about every other week), so I am curious to see how much longer the process will be going out and coming back into our country. This is also my first Olympic Games, and although I’ve been to some other big sporting events (MLB All-Star Game, World Series, College World Series), I am very excited to be in that new atmosphere.

Preparation for these games has been a lot harder than I expected. For one, all tickets are attached to a name and require photo ID for pick-up, and their email claims holders are subject to a photo ID check at the games. I guess this is to restrict scalping, but it makes it tough for travelers like me. They don’t assign seats until pick-up, and although I’m in the “A” group seating for both my events and the medal ceremony, I am a little worried they will not be as close as we would like.

Finding a place to stay was a chore in itself. When I first decided I wanted to go, I read lots of advice on the Olympic websites, and it all said the toughest thing to get was tickets to events, so make sure to get those first. Then get lodging, airfare, and other accommodations. I followed their advice and bought tickets as soon as possible in Feb 2009.

Then I started looking for lodging, and found most places wouldn’t take reservations until 9 months before the games (June 2009). The reason is because they allow the IOC and officials to make reservations in the time leading up to June. Of course, when I called in June, everything was completely booked in Vancouver. Whistler was a different story. Not only were there lots of rooms available, they weren’t that expensive. So I went another route and found a condo in Richmond, close to the Vancouver airport, that was being rented by the owner for the entire games. At a reasonable $550 a night (!), I decide it would be best to limit the time we are in Vancouver.

I found a place in Whistler for about $300 a night during the games and $250 after that. Considering I love to ski and have never skied outside my home state of Colorado, I thought this would be the perfect opportunity. I decided to stay an extra 3 nights and do some skiing. And I should mention that this isn’t just any lodge in the vicinity, it is a 4 star ski-in/ski-out resort at the bottom of the Alpine course (Creekside). That just shows you how expensive things are in Vancouver.

Some might be thinking, why would you chose to go to these games? Well, I sort of have a business connection. I work for Teck Resources, which some of you might recognize because we are the company that is supplying the metals for all the medals in these games and the Paralympics. Not only are we providing the medals, but we held the contest for the design, so you can blame us for the big metal potato chips. We have also been under some scrutiny because it is the first time a portion of the medals has come from recycled scrap metals, specifically those from electronics. While I am proud of that fact, some “traditionalists” think they should be specially mined from ore deposits just for Olympic medals.

Our company has done a great job of using their status as “Official Supplier” to generate lots of interest in its workforce. We first learned of the agreement in 2007, and immediately Teck announced that we would be able to nominate co-workers in different areas of excellence to win trips to both the 2008 Beijing Olympics and the 2010 Vancouver Games. In addition, they’ve held raffle-style contests to win trips to both games, and even be a torch bearer.

The mine I work at in Alaska produces mostly zinc, about 20% lead, and less than 1% silver. A portion of that silver went into the gold (because gold metals are 98% silver with a pure gold coating) and silver medals. We produce way more than is needed for the medals, so it was no big deal for us. I should say, we don’t have any operating tin mines, so that metal was purchased on the open market and blended with copper from another one of our mines to make the bronze. Overall, I am very proud to be associated with these games, and be an employee of Teck.

So as I write this, my father and I are about 14 hours from landing in Vancouver. I will have another entry about my first impression of the city, how busy it is, how easy to find food, and how entertaining a medal ceremony really is tomorrow. Have a good evening, and go USA!

A week ago today an act of domestic terrorism occurred in Austin, Texas, when Joseph Stack flew a plane into an office complex housing an IRS field office. That’s right I called it a terrorist act, which is what it is. Maybe those of you on the right feel that no it can’t be terrorism. After all he’s not muslim or doesn’t have a funny sounding name, or that he’s one of us. Call it whatever you want and live in your own reality, but the fact of the matter is that it was a terrorist act.

The American Heritage Dictionary defines terrorism as “the unlawful use or threatened use of force or violence by a person or an organized group against people or property with the intention of intimidating or coercing societies or governments, often for ideological or political reasons.”

A dictionary definition not good enough for you? How about the legal interpretation of it under United States law – “premeditated, politically motivated violence perpetrated against non-combatant targets.”

The argument here from the right would be that it isn’t terrorism, he was just someone disgruntled with the IRS, don’t we all hate the IRS? However the truth of the matter Stack’s actions were well premeditated and against a non-combatant target with the express intention to coerce people and government to change their action through his own political and ideological reasons. Sounds like terrorism to me. We have a winner.

Where’s the premeditation and ideology you ask? Well its quite clear in is manifesto of a suicide note he decided to post on his business website. Looking into the source code it became clear that the note had been originally written two days prior to the incident and revised a whopping 27 times before its final draft status to be posted that day before he decided to stick it to the man. The little piece has the usual ramblings of the right wing loon, government bailouts, tax laws, the Catholic church, big government, 9/11as the reasons things come to this. However also in the ramblings is a call for violent revolt hoping that his actions that day will cause other people to take such action against the government as well.

Sounds like premeditation and clear coercion based on political idealism to me.

It’s nothing new that we don’t like to call a spade a spade in these circumstances when a white man in America does an act of terrorism, heck Newt Gingrich and others sympathised with Timothy McVeigh.

Looks like history repeats itself as just earlier this week Iowa Congressman Steve King decided to come out and score points with the fringe nutjobs by sympathizing with Mr. Stack and his views and his actions and declaring they were justified because it will be a “happy day in America” when the IRS is gone. He also noted that Stack would not have had a target if we just would have abolished the IRS when he stated they should and Stack’s actions were noble. Granted the Congressman later came out with the usual my words have been taken out of context defense, but they were not as there is video evidence of it. Thanks for playing Congressman. The noble action I think should come out of this is for the voters of Iowa to vote his pandering arse out of office in November.

Anyways it is clear to me that someone spouting “violence is the only answer” and calling for others to do the same is just as much of an incitation to terror as Alalhu Akbar. Call it what it was TERRORISM.

And now for the bad nuts of the past month, other than Rep. King in no particular order…

Bad Nut No. 1: Former Republican Congressman Tom Tancredo

In his opening address to the Tea Party Convention he stated amongst many other idiotic and appalling things, that if we would have still had literacy test like they used to in the south then we would not have to had to deal with a President Obama, because if it was not for non white people he would not have been elected. For one thing Mr. Tancredo I would love to have an actual civics literacy test as a requirement when one registers to vote, because 99.9% of the teabaggers would fail. However the literacy tests you speak of wanting to return had nothing to deal with literacy of government and more of something like how many bubbles are in a bar of soap? And white people didn’t have to take the test.

Bad Nut No. 2: Lauren Ashley, Miss Beverly Hills in the 2010 Miss California Pageant

Move over Carrie Prejean. There is a new new flavor of the week in nutcase beauty queens seeking their fifteen minutes now that yours is well up. In a statement on same sex marriage Ashley stated that homosexuality is wrong because God says so and those who do will be put to death and then went on to quote a passage from Leviticus. “If man lies with mankind as he would lie with a woman, both of them have committed an abomination. They shall surely be put to death and their blood shall be upon them.” I guess God is all for boob jobs and swimsuits though? Ah the religious right, so picky and choosy with the biblical references that count.

Bad Nut No. 3: Politicians and People who joked, statused, tweeted, etc about the recent snowfalls in DC.

Not really a surprising thing, but it seemed to be the favorite thing of everyone on the right to do lately. Stuff like “Where in the World is Al Gore when global warming is debunked.” For one, a single occurence does not prove or disprove anything on the subject. But “Global Warming” is more the catchphrase put on the more basic terminology of climate change. Which a shift towards amounts of snow not seen before (if it were to be a continuing trend) in an entire season would be. Or maybe something like an unseasonably warm period wrecking havoc for Olympic organizers at the start of this years games. Didn’t see many tweets from the left about this proving global warming.

Pecking Order

The pecking order on the playground determines who is the strongest and who is the weakest and who is that crazy red headed child that you just don’t want to fight as he has been known to bite.  The rules of engagement on the playground are fairly simple.  Don’t start a fight with anyone higher than you on the pecking order, don’t start a fight with someone too much lower as this is looked upon as bullying and never ever start a fight with that red headed kid.  As all children know this “order” on the playground is essential not to encourage or create conflict but to avoid it.  In the real world we have examples of this such as the mutual assured destruction theory that the nuclear proliferation brought to the world as the US and former USSR accumulated more nuclear weapons then anyone would ever need.

So where am I going with all of this in terms of Middle East politics?  Well, I read the discussion between Syria and Israel the other day with both sides threatening to crush the other in all out war and suddenly realized that the Middle East pecking order has been disturbed.  For the better part of the last 30 years it has been clear to countries such as Syria that Israel was not to be challenged in all out war.  This thinking came about after some wars that ended very badly for Arab states such as Syria were fought in 40s-70s. At that time the pecking order was well established and maintained until now.  As a side note, depending on who you are you may either see Israel as fairly high on the pecking order due to military strength or the red headed child due to their nuclear weapons and dire need to survive at any cost but for a long time now I don’t think anyone saw them as the weakling that you all took turns beating on.

So how did our precious pecking order become unraveled?  I blame guerilla warfare and terrorism.  It has long been established that even a strong army such as Israel or the US or back in the day the USSR has a lot of difficulty waging war in non-conventional fashion.  When you can just roll out the tanks and drop a bunch of bombs I would argue that these three armies had no equal in war but as we found out in Vietnam, Afghanistan (US and USSR wars), Iraq, Lebanon and many others these armies are not nearly as dominant when there are no tanks on the other side. 

Trying to fight a war when the enemy hides behind human shields, puts no value on life (their own, the enemies or civilians) and generally does not meet you on a field of battle is very difficult.  The examples set in recent engagements such as Lebanon has created a false sense of confidence in countries like Syria that they too can take on the Israeli army.  To me this may be even a bigger problem than the current terrorist problem as all out war between Israel and its neighbors always leads to a lot of death, no resolutions and now that all of these countries have more advanced weapons it can lead to “mutual assured destruction”.  Maybe not in the sense of nuclear war but in the sense that the infrastructure damage and loss of life that a big Middle Eastern war threatens may not be something Israel or the poorer Arab countries may ever recover from.

For right or for wrong I think the pecking order in the Middle East is critical for peace in the larger sense of the word.  While it is peace based more on fear or understanding of your enemy’s power it never the less accomplishes the goal.  I am not sure what the solution is and I don’t want to advocate war but I see two ways to re-establish the pecking order.  One, Israel should stage a pre-emptive strike and make a statement that will remind some of its neighbors what the pecking order is.  Two, a bigger kid needs to move onto the block and establish that if any beatings go on it will be only them beating on someone else.  Obviously in my analogy the bigger kid is the US.  Neither option is pretty and I don’t expect a lot of support for either but I have not come up with a third alternative.  I know one thing, talking has never solved anything in the Middle East so I have ruled that option out.