We said smile

Our daughter is a ham. We said smile, this is what we got.

We said smile

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A letter from Chuck

I write to senators and congressmen a lot. Only two have written back. I once wrote to Senator Inhofe telling him to start taking global warming seriously. His response was to say that since China didn't, then why should we.

A sitting US Senator essentially used the grade school kid excuse of "he did it too" in his response to me. Well, at least he responded. But since Senator Inhofe is from Oklahoma, and I'm now a voting citizen of the State of New York, it matters more to me that Senator Schumer has responded to an e-mail I sent him about FISA.

I basically asked Chuck to not allow retroactive immunity to telecoms. His response:

Dear Mr. Hames:

Thank you for contacting me to express your views regarding the Senate bill to amend the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act (FISA). I share your concerns about expanding wiretapping authority without providing adequate safeguards as well as granting retroactive immunity to telecommunications companies.

With the rise of mobile phones and other technological changes, there is widespread agreement within the intelligence community that FISA needs to be updated. I believe that we must give the intelligence community the tools necessary to protect our country. However, I also believe that the rules for intelligence collection must be clear and fair, and that we need independent oversight to ensure that these rules are not abused. This is why I voted in favor of several amendments that would have improved the FISA Amendments Act by clarifying surveillance rules, adding better safeguards, and requiring more independent oversight. Unfortunately, these amendments failed.

I also think that it would be unwise to grant blanket retroactive immunity to telecommunications companies facing lawsuits based on their alleged assistance with government surveillance. I have reviewed classified information pertinent to the government’s warrantless wiretapping program, and have consistently opposed retroactive immunity for the telecommunications industry. I voted against granting immunity both in the Judiciary Committee and on the Senate floor. I believe that it should be up to the courts, not Congress, to decide whether any telecommunications company that assisted the government was acting legally. The existing lawsuits raise serious constitutional questions, and our federal courts are traditionally the final arbiters of such questions. If Congress steps in to grant immunity now, the country may never know whether President Bush overstepped his authority. If the courts are allowed to exercise their judgment, we will be better prepared to resolve similar controversies in the future.

I could not in good conscience support the final Senate version of the FISA Amendments Act. It would grant blanket retroactive immunity for telecommunications companies and give the government new surveillance authorities without adequate safeguards. Nevertheless, the bill passed the Senate and is currently in conference to negotiate the differences between the House and Senate versions. It is my hope that Congress and the President will soon agree on a responsible compromise measure that provides new tools for our intelligence community along with robust privacy protections and independent court oversight.

Thank you for contacting me about this important issue. Please do not hesitate to contact me in the future if I can ever be of assistance to you on this, or any other matter.

Sincerely,

Charles E. Schumer
United States Senator

I added the bolded link that points out that FISA has been updated 50 times since it was enacted, so I'm not sure what he means about updating FISA.

But more to the point, this is where it's come to. From his letter: "I believe that it should be up to the courts, not Congress, to decide whether any telecommunications company that assisted the government was acting legally."

The three equal branches of government isn't something we should believe in, is it?

Congress makes laws, the President signs them in, and the judiciary adjudicates them. Congress can change laws, but it should not step in and retroactively change them before they come in front of the courts.

And that's really what retroactive immunity means. It means that before the courts rule on whether telecoms broke the law, congress would change it. That would negate the role of the third co-equal branch of government. I'm glad that Senator Schumer believes this is the right course, but that it's come to this is a testament of the times we live in.

I'll never win the Lottery

Just testing my ability to be so wrong, so soon. I said the whole Asian wing of curling wouldn't win in Men's curling. Yesterday.

Today:

China Shocks Canadian Men in World Curling Championship.

In other news, I think the Iraq war will go on forever, John McCain will win the White House and the Republicans will win back their majority.

Asian teams at the worlds

This is going to sound sexist and a bit revisionist, but I did start this after the Women's worlds and kept forgetting to finish it.

At this year's women's world championships, China won silver and Japan won bronze. It's been hailed as a triumph of the asian pros. Meaning, the women from China and Japan don't have day jobs. They just curl (sort of like us back in juniors).

The thinking here is this: if you can simply curl all the time, you'll get good. it's the Rockstar curling theory. Take players, have them throw rocks 8 hours a day, and they can win.

In women's. The women's game of curling is different. I'm not sure why, but I am sure it's different. First of all, Men can throw it a lot harder. The guy currently representing Canada throws it harder, with more accuracy, than any player on the planet. Period. I would wager that the next 1000 people who throw it hard, and accurate, are men.

That makes it different. But there's another element that makes it different, because throwing it hard doesn't mean wins (see Howard, Glenn).

I dare say it's something in the noggin, but I've sat with really accomplished women's curlers who've talked in a smart way about the game. Women just think a bit different.

It's not a bad thing. I'm sorta glad Autumn will think a bit different than I do.

I've said all this for this reason: Asian teams will no medal at the men's world championship for a while. They might get so technically good that they can make a lot of shots, but in the men's game, that's only part of the battle. The other part is calling the right one. There's a bigger cost in Men's curling to the wrong shot being called than there is in women's curling.

I'm not sure why, but there is.

I think the Bear will get his world's, but you have to think there's a bit of pressure on him.

Something special or something normal

I asked this question on Twitter. I find myself using it more and more. But here's the thing: Autumn went poopy on the potty again last night. it's becoming more and more a normal thing. We treat it like it's amazing. But I wonder:

Should we treat a poopy as ordinary or extraordinary?

There are 13 stripes on a US flag

I choked. Flat out, chokage.

Now, before i go on, I should tell you that after waiting for almost 2 hours, I finally got called in for my interview. Autumn and mommy were with me.

So he calls me into the same room that Rhona and i went in after we got married. That's the interview that they confirm I didn't marry her for a green card. They want pictures of the wedding, of the honeymoon, of our lives together.

This time, he jumped right into my application. I had to read a sentence, and then right one that he dictated. Then he began asking me all sorts of questions like: ever been arrested, ever lied to the Government, ever been part of a terrorist group, etc, when all of a sudden, he starts the TEST.

Rhona gave me the test about 2 months ago. There are 100 questions that they pull 10 from. To pass, one needs 6 correct. When doing that test, I got 96 of 100 right.

"How many stripes on the flag?"

I choked. I knew it was 13. But for some reason, the only number that popped inot my head was 50.

"50", I said, off to a bad start.

Thinking about it now, I wonder if the next questions are dependent on whether you get it right or wrong becuse the next question was "How many states in the union".

The next one was who is the governor of New York State? I didn't know the dudes name, but they accepted the other guy. The one who just got caught with his pants down.

Anyway, like I said, I got 9 our of 10 and my citizenship. The swearing in ceremony is May 15th at 8:00AM.

Weird

No idea what this is. But weird. Even weirder, the HamesWeb mini-putt game.

Ketchup!

Autumn loves Ketchup. The thing is though, it breaks one of the rules that I think are really important, it has High Fructose Corn Syrup. (HFCS)

There really isn't a worse sweetener you can put in your body, but it's in everything. I just finished reading a book called In Defense of Food. In in Mr Pollan talks about the average amount of calories an American gets from corn. it's something like 10%. A day.

And it's not like we're having corn on the cob two times a day. It's the HFCS in everything we eat.

So a few months ago, we were in Brampton giving Autumn Ketchup. I looked on the ingredients and noticed that HFCS isn't in Canadian Ketchup. Weird. Anyway, Rhona found some Ketchup here in the US that doesn't have HFCS, so we're all set.

But I think Americans are beginning to notice that the food we eat is a little weirder. Check out this clip from a recent Raptors game:

Two kids

In sports-speak, we're changing our defense from a prevent zone defense to a straight man-on-man defense.

Right now, if Autumn is in the room with both of us, one of us can be on her, while the other one can play back up defense. It's somewhat necessary. Turn around for 10 seconds, and she's dancing on a chair, or a table, or the dining room table.

Or she's nine-tenths up the stairs ready to jump on the spare bed ("Autumn's bed", she calls it).

And when "The Captain" comes? (that's our working nickname until we settle on his name).

Crikey.

See, I remember those days. Of no sleep. Crazy poops. This what we're in for while we sit and watch her.

Back to the sports. We're going to be man-on-man. And in some instances, when either mommy or daddy are out, we'll be one person on two.

Now, admittedly, when they are new, the littles need food, sleep, and a clean diaper. They aren't mobile, and outside of the fact that they need food and a clean diaper every three hours (or so), they aren't that much trouble.

We have the swing. We'll be using it again. Hopefully, without spit up.



Point is: we're ready. We're scared, excited, nervous, elated, worried, thrilled, and most definitely done. This is it. Two.

What happens now

If you occasionally read this blog, thanks. Plus, I need your help. Clearly, I wasn't thinking when I created this blog. What I wasn't thinking is that my little squiggly dudes would penetrate another egg.

But one did. And that means if I update little dudes progress here, it'll be weird for him. It's a hand-me-down blog.

So I need ideas. Got any?

the two little girls

Some close-ups, taking in our new living room, with the sun beating in. Taken Yesterday.

Matt Taibbi on you and I

Matt Taibbi started the Buffalo beast and then bolted from Buffalo. Too bad. But we can still read his articles, and still think for a few minutes, we had him all to ourselves.

Check this out. This is the American electorate, Generation Squeeb.

On the eve of another war

This is all about Politics. But it's important. And it's about Autumn, so I'm throwing in pictures of her.

For a number of reasons, I happen to think the US will engage in a conflict with Iran this year. And as 5 years of this war in iraq passes, with the 'troop and treasure' losses more staggering than is imaginable, we find ourselves in a most frustrating place.

Namely: The American people seem to overwhelmingly want the War in Iraq to end. Whereas, the Bush Administration seems bent on escalating the war to include Iran.


It's a baffling situation. But I guess this is the thing: if it's true Americans don't want war in Iraq (and some of them didn't want war in Afghanistan), then surely they mustn't want War in Iran.

But alas, the problem is, when the US went to war in Iraq, it appeared the majority of Americans wanted it. I remember sitting on a couch talking to someone I would call a pacifist poet, listening to her tell me what a monster Saddam Hussein was.

The thing is, he was a monster. And I was arguing to let him stay in power. So I found myself in the impossible position of explaining that even though he was a monster, it was not reason to justify war. It was a position that seemed perilously close to defending him.

It wasn't. It was a position that says there are monsters all over the world (including perhaps, in Iran). But the important question is this: is it America's responsibility to cleanse the world of monsters?


And another question emerged: was attention was being paid to this monster because of oil and anger? The administration cared about oil -- that isn't a conspiracy theory. When they invaded, they shored up the oil fields and left the Museums and Hospitals open and subject to looting.


The anger was from the American people. The events of 911 were still fresh in their minds. Thus, you get this, a well thought out response, five years after, to people who switched.

"People who supported the invasion of Iraq were fatuous, bloodthirsty, ahistorical, immoral, politically naive, callous, unthinking, reprehensible morons--to the man. The proper attitude is contrition, silence, and contemplation. Making a gaudy spectacle of having "supported" something so awful, even if only to show how smart you were to change your mind when you noticed things going south, is disgusting."

So here we are. Five years into a war we don't want. Six years into a war that we have forgotten. And possibly on the eve of another war.

And the question is, what to do? Will Autumn's life really be one lived in a perpetual war that she will spend her life paying for?

Poopy on the potty

We really tried to underplay Autumn's first poopy on the potty. We knew not to get our hopes up.

Since that day back in the beginning of February, she's gone pee-pee on the potty a lot. And she even points to her little bum and says "poopy potty." But we've never had a follow-up poopy.

Well, this morning she went. A nice clean log on her potty. I was in bed because the bridge was closed for about half an hour last night and I was just sitting on it waiting to get back home from curling. So I'm tired.

But I heard mom yelling poopy! And then I was witness to a site that in my wild dreams, I would never see.

I jumped out of bed, and go to the door in time to see Autumn running down the hall with her potty in her hands, adorned with the aforementioned piece of poop, screaming 'daddy, poopy.' and holding it up for me to see.

Priceless.

I looked at her poopy (she clearly wanted me to), congratulated her on it (good poopy peanut) and then helped her flush it. As the toilet flushed, she waved and said "bye-bye poopy."

I gotta be honest. I love this poopy thing. Her going on the potty is guaranteed entertainment.

Food photography

One place I worked at in Toronto there was a food photographer in the building. I learned a little bit about food photography in talking to him. He told me that you don't use real food in food photography. indeed. Here's a site from Germany that put together the package and the real thing. 

PUNDO3000.com/werbunggegenrealitaet

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Uh oh

I haven't talked a lot about politics lately. Like the Main Stream Press, the war in Iraq has gone off the front pages. what has also gone off the front pages is the possible strike on Iran.

With nukes.

This month has been bad for those who hope beyond hope that President Bush will not invade, attack, or otherwise bomb Iran before he gets out of office.

First, the guy who was most against war with Iran 'retired'. Adm. William Fallon, the commander of U.S. Central Command, which oversees the Middle East, has decided to retire early. He had gone on the record as saying there would be no war with Iran on his watch. In his retirement announcement he said:

"Recent press reports suggesting a disconnect between my views and the President's policy objectives have become a distraction at a critical time and hamper efforts in the CENTCOM region,"

Uh oh.

Next, a Saudi newspaper reports that Saudi Arabia is preparing for nuclear fall out. Saudi Arabia is very close to Iran in terms of geography. And since the papers are government controlled, this is most likely a tactic of some sort. It didn't get picked up by the mainstream press here. Oh, and the Saudi preparation came after the Vepp paid them a visit.

Double uh oh.

And finally this:

"Gen David Petraeus told the BBC he thought Tehran had trained, equipped and funded insurgents who fired the barrage of mortars and rockets."

To recap: The guy in the army who said we wouldn't bomb Iran on his watch has left the building. Saudi Arabia is preparing for nuclear fall-out. The guy leading the troops in Iraq has just blamed Iran for an attack in Iraq.

That's the kind of stuff that gets one thinking the USA is about to nuke another country. Crikey, we're buggered.

Easter

She's not yet two years old, so we weren't sure what this whole easter egg thing would turn out to be. However, I 'hid' some eggs for her and brought her downstairs to hunt. She understands more than I think she does, but it's still suprising to say to her, find an egg, and watch her begin the search.



She found the first couple easily. They were just little plastic eggs with things in them. Mom had placed some peeps ("Birdies" Autumn yelled), some cookies, and some chocolate in the eggs. when she found the ones with cookies, she screamed cookies!



Then Gramma and Grampa came over, and we had a nice feast. Autumn played with her grandparents, and then hammed it up for them. She's awesome when we have visitors.



Hope you had as happy an easter as we did.

Everybody knows that Zombies eat brains

An unexpected night of sleep

I had asked Autumn to sleep through the night for my birthday. And it occurs to me now that I should have been specific, but I'm not complaining.

See, she slept through the night last night. When she started the sleep, it was my birthday, so I get where she's coming from and thank her profusely.

Buying Organic

Ever wonder what big conglomerate owns your organic food brand?

Take a look. And consider buying local.

on sleeping

This is the thing: Autumn is no longer sleeping like a champion. In fact, if sleeping was an Olympic event, I doubt she would even qualify for the Olympics.

Last night I really wanted Autumn to sleep through the night. She didn't. And it's hard to know what to do. See, back to the analogy above -- if the Oluympics are staged in our bed, she would be a medalist. She sleeps like a friggin champion in our bed.

But really. We can't keep that up. Even though there's lots of room, we can't have her in our bed every night. It's not a sustainable solution.

So, we try to let her cry it out. Let her solve it herself. And when she doesn't, we bring her into our room. She's exhausted, we're exhausted, and we all crash.

Sleep. You would think it's easier.

The bad ice at the Brier

The final of the brier was played on bad ice. Bad can mean a lot of things to a lot of people, but it was soft, and picky. But more than that, it was inconsistent to the point that not too many people knew where to put the broom. And these guys know where to put the broom.

Richie joked about it a little late in the game telling Glenn that he had no real idea where to put the broom. On the other side, Martin didn't know either, missing run backs and half-rock doubles at a rate that is alarming for a guy who can hit like he can.

Still, when someone raises the issue of bad ice, the normal response is this: both teams had to play on it. And that's true, but irrelevant. Imagine for a second that the 16th, 17th, and 18th greens at Augusta had huge potholes in them. Now imagine that the potholes appear after you shoot. You could argue that all players have to play on it, but inconsistent ice gives inconsistent results to both teams.

I know that my analogy is impossible. But it's also impossible to adequately explain why the refrain that both teams have to play on it isn't really true. It's obviously literally true, but bad ice is bad ice, and it wrecks the game.

If you're team Howard this morning, you're probably wishing that you could have Glenn's draw for two in the third end back. Somehow John Morris knew it was 5 seconds heavier on that side, so that one is on Team Howard.

That single point gave life to the Albertans and sucked it from the Ontarians. And even though they seemed jokey and loose, even they had to begin to wonder WTF.

Glenn has been in 8 brier finals. And he's won 2 of them. Four of those finals were with Russ, Middaugh and corner -- arguably the greatest team in the history of curling. What other team can boast that all players on it skipped their way to the Brier?

The Ontario front end has now been to 4 briers, and 4 brier finals. They are 1-4. Richard Hart has the least amount of Brier experience, but is now 1-3 in Brier finals.

Seriously, with stats like that, when the "greatest drawer in history" misses a draw to the four in the 3rd end of the brier final, even the most positive guy must just look to the roof and wonder WTF. And the bad ice made it almost impossible to bounce back.

So it goes. Alberta and Ontario play in a final that most predicted. We hoped for a game for the ages, instead we got a huge disappointment. Too bad, really.

Two more weird calls

This is BC versus Ontario in the 3-4 game.


I called this screen shot, "What are you guarding?" because I wondered, what are they guarding? The simple fact is, there is only one shot available at this point and it's the run back of the red center guard. It was Ontario's second vice rock, had Ontario had hammer.

If BC doesn't throw a rock, they are running back the red guard. If BC throws the rock where they want to (indicated on this screen shot), they are simply offering up a guard that Ontario can use. BC threw the guard almost to the spot drawn here and Richie made the run back.

And just so we're sure, I would never have left Glenn the little shot through the port for 3 later in the game. In playing the out-turn guard BC left a situation whereby Glenn had a shot to win the game that had no consequences. If Glenn misses, he still gets one and still has control.

The BC team should have looked over and noticed they were playing Glenn freakin Howard. The call to guard one side of the sheet is the kind of call you might make on Wednesday night Curling. you leave certain people that shot knowing it's hard and they won't make it. You don't leave the greatest pure thrower of the curling stone that shot, because he makes it.

I know the BC guys are young, and they don't spiel much, but how someone on that team didn't even ask if the hole was there is beyond me. Someone should have at least pointed out that they've been watching Glenn Howard make awesome shots for 20 years and that maybe he's got this one in him. It's the same as the shot I talked about above. Both guards are about not looking at what you're leaving. And that's inexcusable when you think about who they are leaving the shot for.

The last shot of the 1-2 game

You're Pat Simmons. You play the entire last end for one thing, a draw to the four foot to win. Then, the other guy throws it on the four foot.

So you have to think about it. You think about how this simple nose hit will get you to the brier final.

I'm not going to second guess Pat Simmons. He's been to Briers, won cash spiels. He's good. But here's what I would have done. I would have made sure to ice the shot in such a way that it can be swept the whole time. Give tight ice, don't overthrow it, and let the sweepers pound it all the way home. Pat's a great player and can make the shot, and he got really unlucky. But by throwing it a little heavy, it meant the sweepers couldn't sweep it, and that left a chance at a pick.

Like I said, a pick is unlucky. Saskatchewan deserved to win that game. But they also put themselves in a position to lose. And that's on them.

Florida shots

So, we were lucky enough to return to Florida for another week. It is not so much that we LOVE the state of Florida, but rather we like spending time with grandad, nanny, bobby and old college friends.

We didn't spend a lot of time on the beach, but Autumn had a busy fun-filled week. Zoos, boat rides looking at dolphins, picking shells, playgrounds, swimming in the pool, and most importantly hanging with Nanny and Grandad. I was thankful for some down time and enjoyed reading silly crime fiction novels and resting my bones :)

Here are a few images from our week.... bring on the summer!

The fine line between good and great

Watch the teams that we knew should win at the brier this week, and you notice some things. Here they are in no particular order:

The sweepers sweep very close to each other and the rock.
When there's a discussion on the shot, all members of the team are in on it, and the front-end can and will talk the back-end into shots
Sweepers switch on come arounds and for hit and rolls (the guy closest to the rock is on the side of the roll)

Add to that the mystique of some of these teams, and I think they start the game up one with the hammer. Mentally speaking, of course.

Autumn, hamming it up

I told her to smile. This is what I got.

How big is this game?

This morning at 10:30AM est, Howard plays Martin. If you're the guy making the schedule, and you look at Ontario with the reigning world champion, and Alberta with three of the best teams on the planet, don't you think you might have said something when this game was put on Thursday morning?

I know. You're in Winnipeg so you know that most people will call in sick (or call in well, saying to their boss, "dude, it's howard v Martin) which in Winnipeg is most likely code for "take the week off".

But still. Other people have most-likely chimed in about this, pointing out that this is the kind of match up that's made for the evening late in the week. It didn't take a rocket scientist to predict that these two provinces would have teams near the top.

But whatever. Not living in Winnipeg, I have stuff going on this morning and can't watch. I'll watch it later though, on demand.

And for the record, I don't think this game really matters. Both of these teams will be there at the end, and a win by one over the other will not amount to a hill of beans come Sunday.

Lead's first stone, first end

There are two options. A real tight guard, or a rock no more than half in the top-four.

If the guard is too high (like half way), the other guy has the broom up for the come around a second after the rock comes to stop. Get the guard real tight, then the other guy will have to make a come around that's closer to tee-line, thus 'chocking' off the rings as you see here below. Manitoba threw the yellow guard, Alberta made the come around and then Manitoba freezes to it, chocking off the rings.


Likewise, if you call it in the house, and the rock goes top twelve or anywhere tee-line or behind, then the other guy throws the guard.

What's really fun about this brier is watching that first rock and seeing how the end progresses based on where that first stone ends up. I admit it, I'm a geek, and I should get back to work.