Michael Braun's Blog

Oh Diana, how my heart breaks for thee! It has been ten years since a wicked conspiracy swept you away from us, tore us from your loving grasp! What a human being you were! How majestic did you make us feel! You truly were the world’s greatest living person. How were thee great? Let me count the ways.

Responsible: you knew Charles was having an affair, yet you married him anyway! You knew that the monarchy wouldn’t be cool with how you acted, but you joined up anyway! You knew you would step on toes acting the way you did, but you did it anyway!

Great Mother: after your divorce, you never ran around the world acting the celebrity. You never carried on an affair with a man, instead of sticking around with your children! You truly knew where your priorities were.

Never Careless: you never got into a car driven by a drunk man and didn’t put on your seatbelt! How silly something like that would be!

And now you are dead. Look at this desolate world. Why, had you remained in it, your calm, quiet, demure manner would have changed everything! Bush would have never been elected. There would not be war in Iraq or genocide in Darfur. Harry wouldn’t have gone to that party in his Nazi outfit!

I’m going to a wedding with Lauren this weekend. For real. One of her friends from college is fixin’ to get hitched. Pam. She done wants ta marry her man, Jesse. So they gon’ do it. Plenty a people been tellin’ ‘em, you ain’t wan’ get married. Why buy the cow when you can get the milk for free? Because marriage is all about sex. ‘Cause the good lord said you can’t fuck till yer good and tied together forever and no way out!

The wedding’s up in Fond du Lac, at the bottom of Lake Winnebago. Should be a beautiful location. The weather looks lovely, and I’m sure our accommodations will be top-notch. See, Lauren’s in the wedding party (and what a party!) so we get like a mini-vacation, for just the price of Lauren standing up before a church and Jesus and everybody. Jesus is also a special guest. But not big-toed Jesus, as featured on that one church in Madison. Seriously, he’s got some big toes. Good deal, anyway. Lauren was a bridesmaid last summer as well. People love her so much they all gotta have her there on their special day. So special!

I haven’t been to a wedding in a good long while. Years and years it’s been. So I don’t really know what to expect. I also haven’t been in a church for at least a couple of years. And I haven’t been to a service in a church since god knows when. He keeps track, see, so he does know. All praise to him! You da man, JC!

So that’s it. We’re leaving tomorrow early afternoon for the rehearsal din-din. More sweet free stuff. It’s gon’ be a mighty chill Labor Day weekend.

Senator Larry Craig was arrested for “lewd conduct” in the bathroom of the Minneapolis Airport. He was charged with disorderly conduct, fined $500, and sentenced to 10 days in jail, though the sentence was stayed. This all happened on the congressional recess, and he didn’t tell anybody. Turns out that “lewd conduct” means soliciting sex in the men’s restroom. Unfortunately, his subtle solicitations (which included sliding his foot underneath the stall dividers to touch the foot of a man who happened to be a police officer) were recognized by the officer as a solicitation of sex.

So, here comes the fireworks. Senator Craig has said that he is NOT gay! So why would be be soliciting sex? That’s the question you are supposed to ask, and then answer by saying, he wouldn’t, it’s a travesty of justice! So why did he plead guilty and not tell anyone about it? Oh, well, he regrets that now. I bet he does.

Senator Craig: I’m not gay! Seriously, I’m not gay! Look at me! I’m a man; watch me lift these heavy objects. Could some fairy do that? Doubtful. Watch me fuck my wife! She loves it, I love it, the kids love it! Did I mention my kids? Could a gay impregnate a woman? Not likely! Did I mention that, contrary to popular belief, I am NOT gay?

Sure, sure, senator. We all believe you. Besides, would a gay man have such a conservative, anti-gay rights voting record? Ha!

I think there’s a tendency among people to assume that those people in positions of leadership, whether politicians, bosses, teachers, or parents, are there because of something they did right. We look at them to have the qualities that we should have. We expect them to be good at their jobs. Thus, when something goes wrong, we are apt to blame the situation. For example, Hurricane Katrina was such a huge scale disaster, what could Michael Brown, then head of FEMA, have done? Of course, in that example, Brown was forced to resign; it came out that he had no idea what he was doing. Inept is a nice word to describe the man.

So how do we use this example to look at the rest of our leaders? Well, how about Alberto Gonzales, the soon-to-be former Attorney General? Here’s a man who ascended to the top of the justice system in the US quite quickly, an outsider who used his loyalty to gain confidence and trust of the president. But, when he got into the position, he toed the line on all political positions of the president, going so far as to fire federal prosecutors as a way to send a message about the importance of politics in the position. He brought Bush’s divisive policies right into our legal system, strongly insisting on the death penalty even in cases where it was sure to be extremely controversial, even cruel. In time, the Justice Department fell into disarray. Good people resigned, and Gonzales failed to attract other good people to fill those positions. In the end, he failed as a leader. It wasn’t the difficulty of the job, just his own inability to perform.

The same can be said for Karl Rove, who did orchestrate 3 big wins for Bush, but in the end, left the administration on very shaky ground and failed to unite the Congress to get big legislation passed. Donald Rumsfeld is another. He designed a brilliant takeover of Iraq, getting us quickly into the country and overthrowing it. But he couldn’t see anywhere past that and proved himself to be exceptionally short-sighted when it came to anticipating what was next. Dick Cheney is another. A shrewd, very intelligent man, with lots of experience, who can’t be trusted in any position sure to be regarded as the most powerful, and possibly most evil, vice-president in the nation’s history. And then there’s Bush himself, a man who couldn’t be bothered to read reports that stated Al Qaeda was determined to attack inside the US using hijacked planes. Oops!

Who knows how history will judge these people, but I think that they offer an important lesson now. Those people around you who are in leadership roles do not deserve a free pass. They need your help to understand how they are doing. So, let’s make sure to elect a Democrat in 2008!

On Saturday, a day with most beautiful weather, Lauren and I grabbed a blanket and a couple of New Yorkers (magazines, not residents) and headed down to campus, to sit in front of Kronsage Hall on the grassy knoll. We looked at the lake, read our magazines, and relaxed. It was perfect! In fact, it was so perfect, I began to ponder – why didn’t I do this more often back when I was in school?

The answer, of course, is that it was only so wonderful because I had something to compare it against. When you’re in school, every day is already like sitting on a blanket by the lake. You can take a nap almost any time you want. You don’t have to make time to run errands. Your weekends aren’t much different than your week days. Essentially, it’s like some kind of heaven. But alas! I never knew how good it was until I left. At least now I get to enjoy sitting on a blanket by the lake in a way that I had never enjoyed before. Hopefully summer sticks around thru September so I can enjoy that again.

Other than that, the weekend was quiet. Lauren and I saw the movie ‘Superbad’ on Friday. It was good. I think I liked it more than she did, though she was certainly laughing. Some parts were rather predictable and seemed to follow a format that I was familiar with (parts reminded me of ‘Harold and Kumar Go to White Castle’, though I am sure movies older than that used similar devices). Overall, an enjoyable comedy. On Sunday, we went up to see Lauren’s grandma in Oshkosh. Another enjoyable trip. Oshkosh has a nice public museum, if you are into that kind of thing. It’s in an old mansion, which was quite lovely. They’ve got an old clock that parades the apostles past Christ on the hour, every hour. While the others turn towards ol’ JC and bow, Judas turns away. Oh Judas! Why! “It doesn’t help us if you’re inconsistent. They only need a small excuse to put us all away.” “Who are you to criticize her? Who are you to despise her?”

So, there you have it. The weekend come and gone.

You heard it here first. He’s done! He’s out! He’s walking out the door (sometime in the future)! He’ll be shortly spending more time with his family, whether they want him or not! Finally the Bush Administration is free from manipulative liars! Oh wait…

I knew it was too good to be true when MTV and Microsoft announced a partnership for Microsoft’s Urge Music Store. It started when some artist (can’t recall who) heavily promoted by MTV ended up with exclusive content on not Urge, but the iTunes Music Store. How Microsoft forgot to write something prohibiting that in their agreement with MTV, I’ll never understand. But now MTV has agreed to a deal with RealNetworks and Verizon to do the same thing.

It’s the classic cool kid/nerdy kid breakup. Microsoft must have been in awe when they heard MTV was going to be hanging out with them. “Wha… who… are you talking to me? Me? The dungeons and dragons computer nerd with the thick glasses?” Yah, you, says MTV, help me with this homework. Okay, sure!, says Microsoft. Then they did MTV’s bidding. But it was too good to last. MTV found someone cooler to play with. Turns out that while the nerd could get straight As in class, they couldn’t do anything to get MTV a leg up in the real world, where the sophisticated college guy always wins the high school girl.

So Apple continues to reign supreme and MTV will once again try to be cool. I doubt it will happen, but even if MTV’s support of the new music service leads to decreased Apple Music Store sales, it will still probably lead to an uptick of iPod sales. So sad for Microsoft and their toy music player Zune. *Nerdy snort laugh* “Zune is such a cool name; all the kids will like us if we have a cool name. And Urge, what an awesome name for a music store! Let’s get some sweet techno tracks to play in the background!” Poor Microsoft: I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again, stick to what you’re good at. Stick to creating illegal monopolies.

So, the resignation of Karl Rove (effective at the end of the month) went seemingly unnoticed in this blog. I assure you, I noticed it, but I didn’t see any real reason to write. The man whom many have called Bush’s brain (well, there was a book by this title anyway; pretty good – let me know if you want to borrow it) is set to be Bush’s ex-brain, leaving Bush effectively brain-dead. But what is Rove’s true legacy? Where will he fit in the view of the Bush presidency in the future?

1. Rove ain’t nothing special. He made Bush a polarizing figure, known for bringing politics into everything. For what reason does a political advisor need national security clearance? Why does he need to view top secret materials? He’s a political advisor! Stupid. If any political advisor or player deserves support, it’s Bill Clinton and crew. Clinton enjoyed high ratings even at the height of the Lewinski scandal. Bush can’t get above 30% for over the last year. What kind of successful advisor would think his advice is worth anything after those ratings persist? True, he was great at manipulating 9/11 for Republicans benefit, until people realized that Republicans are pieces of shit. Then he went down in flames, orchestrating an election during which Republicans lost both houses of Congress.

2. If not for 9/11… Rove wouldn’t have been credited with anything. He’s got no real policy experience. He can’t get a bill passed on a controversial subject like Social Security or Immigration. Any time he tries to go against conservative Republican values, he’s voted down, especially after Bush’s popularity waned. So true, he got the hearts and minds of Americans to fear terrorism, leading to Republican victories in 2002 and 2004, but what if 9/11 hadn’t happened? Bush would have been viewed as a do-nothing president who may not have been re-elected in 2004.

3. Rove is done in politics. He can’t continue. No one can afford to hire him any longer. Maybe some local guy, but that’s it. His rise to the top is over, because of his over-reaching, psycho-conservative views. He effectively politicked himself out of future employment. I guess he can still hang with buddy George, but that’s about it. They can both go be unpopular together.

So ta-ta, Karl Rove. I never liked you, and now most of America feels the same way. Go do your rat-fucking (what Nixon cronies called their political tricks) somewhere else. We don’t want you hanging ’round here anymore.

So supposedly Michael Vick, soon to be former quarter back for the Atlanta Falcons, is a monster. His friends (soon to be former) allege that not only did he finance and support a large scale (we’re talking across states!) dog-fighting ring, he also killed dogs that did not win. But not only did he kill the dogs. His friends say he hung and drowned these dogs! Michael Vick lynched dogs?

C’mon! This is not believable. Those snitch-ass friends of his have got to be lying. I can imagine the conversation now.

Investigator: So, you were involved in a dog-fighting ring, huh? And Michael Vick was involved as well?
Suspect: That’s right.
I: How involved was he?
S: He provided money and the land, but not much else.
I: I said, you Black sonovabitch, how involved was he?
S: Umm… he… he ran the ring! He was in charge!
I: And what else, you big-lipped animal?
S: Umm… he killed dogs! He loved killing dogs! He would shoot them if they didn’t win.
I: Shoot them? Just shoot them, Sambo?
S: Ummm.. hang ‘em! And drown ‘em!

If the interrogation went on any further, I’m sure it would have been revealed that Vick kicked puppies as well. Probably that he ate the dogs too, after lynching them, and even had sex with male dogs to make them angrier. Those allegations aren’t much more ridiculous than the idea that he lynched dogs.

So, okay, maybe I’m being too easy on Michael Vick. If he really did hang dogs – even if they are the mangiest, ugliest, fighting-est dogs on the planet, who no one could love, and who would be put down by the humane society – he’s sick! He’s a psychopath. He should be put in jail and get counseling. But if he just funded the fights, maybe shot a couple of dogs, and had a good time, it’s the South! If Dale Earnhardt Jr. did it, they’d say it was part of his culture as a good ol’ boy.

Anyway, unless they can show otherwise, I say fine Vick some money and move on. The NFL can decide how much of a liability Vick is and act accordingly. I don’t care about what the NFL does; they have to protect their business interests. But seriously – jail time for running a dog fighting ring? We need that cell space for marijuana smokers.

Oh yawn. I haven’t been the best blogger as of late. That doesn’t necessarily mean I’ve been doing anything exciting or time consuming, but whatever. I guess there’s been some stuff going on. Lauren and I booked a hotel in Rome, right in the Historical region, very close to the Colosseum and the Roman Forum. So we’re excited about that. Other than that, it’s been same old, same old.

I wanted to write quickly about M.I.A.’s new album, which came out yesterday. I bought it from the iTunes Music Store and was pretty disappointed. Most critics haven’t listened to my opinion and have given the album rave reviews. But they aren’t focusing on what I’m focusing on. I love her first album because of it’s DIY nature. She made all the beats herself on a simple sequencer, and the results were incredible. They also seem to ignore the lyrics. On her first album, she had a perfect blend of images from commercialism to terrorism, often resulting in an apt description of life today in the world, and America’s influence in it.

Semi-9 and snipered him
On that wall they posted him
They cornered him
And then just murdered him

He got Colgate on his teeth
And Reebok classics on his feet
At a factory he does Nike
And then he helps the family

A perfect description of terrorists in the US and England. We see a man, working hard to support his family, engaging in commercialism, who also happens to be associated with terrorism, or at least a radical faction of Islam. He’s cornered and murdered for this. Dark! Brilliant! No one was making music like this. But her new album fails to keep it going.

Instead of relying on her own talents, M.I.A. went round the world to find producers she could work with. The beats are good, but they aren’t her own. They’ve got more complexity, making the album sound a lot like regular electronica, which has long used samples from other cultures’ music. The beats end up sounding like a lot of what we’ve heard before. And M.I.A. seems to drop off lyrically too. She loses some of the complexity and intricacy of her first album.

Now, I’m only listened to the album around 3 times, which, by my own standards, is not nearly enough to get a true feel for it. So it’s possible that I could get into it. But every time I’ve listened to it so far, the only thing it makes me want to do is put on her first album, which I’ve listened to at least 40 times, turn up the volume, and relish in her genius.

I thought Ben Bernanke would be a good head of the Federal Reserve. He’s got good credentials, Greenspan thought that he would do well, and I was ready for a change. Plus, he seemed like he’d really target inflation, often a negative downside to a rapidly growing economy. But his reaction to some recent market instability has been totally off base, in my opinion, and has left me with doubts about his abilities.

First, we had a lot of trouble with subprime mortgages and whatnot. I wrote about all that here. This has kept instability in the markets, even as they continued to soar to new heights. But when a French bank (BNP Paribas) said that it too was being affected by the mortgage mess, things got tricky. Banks felt like they weren’t able to borrow the kind of money they needed from each other to keep their assets flowing (liquidity, that’s called). This is something that can put the brakes on economic growth very quickly (if banks can’t make loans, how can people get money to start businesses to make products for others to buy – a basic example). The Fed reacted by pumping a lot of cash into the market, letting lending institutions know that they can borrow the money from the government so they can keep the economy flowing. That seemed to solve problems for a while, but investors still seemed unsure of the future. Yesterday, the Dow dropped 300 points before recovering almost all its losses in the last couple hours before the close. So the Fed decided to cut the primary discount rate from 6.25% to 5.75%. The discount rate bases its calculation on future value of money rather than on present value. By lowering this, it means banks can lend more now without having to hold more money to cover the future growth of the money. This was quite a surprise, but did the trick. The markets are rising once again.

If Bernanke can keep down inflation, then lowering this rate shouldn’t hurt banks in the long-term. So everything could be fine. But I believe he has ignored one crucial fact – dangerous practices (throwing aside any risk management) have gotten lenders into the mess we see today. While no one wants to see the economy slow down due to a few irresponsible parties, we have to question whether the market was due for a correction in the first place. If people are defaulting on their loans, is this a problem with the terms of the loan or of the economy as a whole? Are investors playing off each others hopes, using rampant optimism to make money, driving the markets higher and higher, or are those stocks accurately valued? How much too of the rise in stock prices is due to the buyouts from private equity firms snatching up large volumes of stock? A reduced supply leads to increased demand, thus raising prices.

So maybe Bernanke is right; a few people shouldn’t drag down the markets and start an economic slowdown, especially when we are really riding high. Or maybe the market is overvalued. But whatever is going on, it is not good to see these unpredictable changes from the Fed. I urge Bernanke to not make any more emergency interest cuts. If you think you need to cut rates, do it at the regularly scheduled time. That will give better signals to investors and hopefully slow down market growth while not hurting the overall economy. None of us want that.

For whatever reason, ever since I first saw Levi play Harvest Moon on the original PlayStation, I’ve been fascinated with the game. While I haven’t personally owned it on any big screen system (and won’t for a while, as there is not yet a version out for the Wii), I have enjoyed the GameBoy Advance version. When they released a version for the DS, it got disappointing reviews and subsequently I did not purchase it. But I heard about a new game in the works – Rune Factory: A Fantasy Harvest Moon. When it shipped on Tuesday, I placed my reserve and was able to pick it up yesterday. While I haven’t played much, it looks awesome!

The graphics are nicely updated from the GBA version, with simple 3D modeling. The characters are more diverse and the area to explore greatly expanded. The farming parts are quite similar to previous Harvest Moon titles, but there is a lot more story held within this game. There are caves to explore, monsters to fight (and capture), along with regular farming duties. So while the general purpose may be the same – make money, get married, run the farm – there seems to be a lot more to do.

The controls are better too, though I wish you could use the stylus to move around the screen, like in Animal Crossing or the new Zelda. The simplest feature is a highlighted box, showing you the square of land upon which your action will fall. In previous Harvest Moon titles, it was often difficult to tell what square of land you were going to, say, hit with your hoe, leading to tilled soil with seeds being chopped up. Quite frustrating. This alone makes the game exceed previous titles.

So, even though I haven’t played for more than an hour, it already seems like, with the increased volume of things to do, the game will keep me enraptured for hours. I like it when games have a simple minded purpose, but with a nice storyline built in. But… does my purchase of this game further put me into the category of enemy of gaming? Or, does it redeem me?

Presidential candidate and Arizona senator John McCain has a new book out about making tough decisions. He goes back thru history to discuss hard decisions made by our leaders in the past. He undoubtedly also talks about tough decisions that he’s had to make, including one that will cost him the presidency – supporting the war in Iraq.

While I think McCain is commendable for not changing his position with the political wind (he knows it’s exceptionally unpopular to talk about continuing the war until “victory”), and while I do not doubt that he does believe we can “win”, I think he’s a fool for not looking at facts.

It is clear that we are not winning in Iraq. We cannot stop a guerilla insurgency, some of whom seem hell bent on killing any- and everyone. Not only have been been unable to stop suicide bombings that target markets and mosques, we cannot stop the damage to the country’s infrastructure. Just today, a suicide bomber driving a tanker truck blew up a bridge connecting Baghdad to cities north.

We also know that Iraqis do not want us in their country. Furthermore, while their government may pay lip service to us, they are barely functioning as a government, frequently falling apart into shouting matches between sides with different religious beliefs. The military does not want to be there either, whether they believe the war to be just or not. I can’t imagine any soldier is right now excited about the possibility of going to Iraq. Potential soldiers can’t be excited either, as military recruiting is way down.

But McCain stands firm that we must stay in Iraq. He’s even called for sending more troops! Amazing that he sticks to his guns, but sickening that he wants to be president. We’ve had one president who refuses to look at the facts and understand what’s really going on. Do we need another? McCain may be less conservative than other Republican candidates on some social issues, but it seems like the lesser of two evils would be a president who would help to restore America’s image abroad rather than one determined to keep killing US troops (not to mention Iraqi civilians) in a fruitless and unjust war.

Good thing McCain can’t raise money lately and is slipping in the polls. He might win the primary; crazy things do happen. But he’ll never win the election.

This post originally written August 12, 2007.

I have returned alive from another foray into the deathtrap known as Algoma’s Shanty Days. No, silly!, it’s no deathtrap, unless you’re talking about potential boredom. The possibilities for that are endless.

I decided to go on Saturday, rather than heading north on Friday, as I did last year. This was a good plan. I picked Zach up at his house around 12. We drove into town, avoiding the parade and parked not too far away. We walked towards the parade route, to a location where Tony’s mom Mary had been last year. Lo and behold she was there again. We enjoyed a good chat with her, and some chatting with Tony’s older brother Bill. Knowing that the parade was going to be destitute of entertainment, we walked to the grounds to grad some lunch. I had some chicken on a stick, which was pretty tasty.

After this, the day become hazy. We walked around, ran into some people we knew, including Nick Rankin and fiance Betsy and Dave DeMeuse. At some point in time, we were back at Zach’s place, where we looked at some video games and played with dogs and cats (well, just one dog). Around 5:30, we headed back, running into Levi Straka as he turned into his driveway. By running into, I mean, spotting, rather than physically hitting. Anyway, he mentioned that there was to be some activities going on at his place later that night. We took note and continued back to the grounds.

We saw a few more people of interest, including Connie Neuzil, but that was about it. So rather than sit around, we got some ice cream and walked up to the high school. After messing around with some heavy football equipment, we walked back to Shanty Days (now, mind you, this is some serious distance). Finding that about as void of people we wanted to talk to, we headed to Levi’s place. Once there, we watched a fair amount of beer pong, played some hacky-sack, and chatted. I took Zach home around 9:45 and then drove to Mishicot.

Overall, I was disappointed to not see more former high school classmates, but I guess that’s how it goes sometimes. Whereas for me, returning to Algoma is a treat, those who do it more often must feel the opposite. Too bad, really, because I could have done with some more socializing. Next year perhaps, or at my upcoming 5 year high school reunion.

First, let me make something clear.

1. I believe Barry Bonds took steroids. Just like Lance Armstrong did. Neither ever tested positive, but both achieved noteworthy athletic accomplishments and increased their physical strength over a short period of time during a period of rapid growth in steroid technology. Both were also surrounded by other people using steroids.
2. If I took steroids, I could not hit a homerun or bicycle the Tour de France (and I certainly couldn’t set a record in homeruns hit or Tours won in a row).
3. I don’t care that athletes take steroids. If the promoters of sports do not want their employees to take steroids, then they should do whatever to stop it. But personally, I don’t see anything wrong with it. We can overclock processors without harming the computer, so why can’t we increase our body’s ability to perform under carefully controlled medical supervision?

Second, Lauren and I are going to Rome in October! We bought our tickets just a couple of days ago. We had been looking to go to Europe sometime in the fall and finally settled on Rome. It’s got the history we were looking for – lots of old buildings, museums, and so on. But it’s also a vibrant city, so not somewhere we are likely to wish there was more to see. It won out over Ireland and Eastern Europe. Too bad the exchange rate is so bad!