Ciao!

My first "nor'easter"

My first full, uneventful (which is good) day in Wilmington ended. While Andy was doing his corporate thing, I slept in. Then puttered about the apartment, played w/ the cats, enjoyed the wifi, and waited for him to come home early from work because of the "nor'easter" blizzard.

Posted by Miguel at 11:54 PM | Permalink | Comments (2)

A(nother) "democratic moment"?

Is a "fourth wave" of democracy starting? Events in Lebanon suggest it just might. A peaceful demonstration of Muslims & Christians against the Syrian-puppet regime looks like the recent "orange revolution" in Ukraine. And it's spilling over into Egypt now, too. Demonstration effect? Snowballing? What role does Iraq — and the recent elections there — play in all this?

Posted by Miguel at 02:26 PM | Permalink | Comments (3)

30 hours by train

Man, that was a long train ride. But it's nice to know Amtrak has 120v outlets next to every pair of seats. So Kaneda & Yoshi stayed powered up the whole way down.

Posted by Miguel at 11:29 PM | Permalink | Comments (6)

#6, to go please

How to score a free ride to the train station (and save a nine-block walk): Have friend order a sandwich from Jimmy John's to your house. While you order sandwich delivered to train station. W/ explicit orders to deliver friend's sandwich first. The conspiracy involves Jake, Bret, and a kind, anonymous Jimmy John's employee manning the phone.

My luggage is 50% papers to grade & drafts to proof. Should keep my 24hr train trip interesting. My biggest hope's to find electrical outlets in my cabin.

Posted by Miguel at 01:45 PM | Permalink | Comments (2)

13 songs & 1 thought

I posted a new iMix. Of the 6 hours of music I played today during my shift at Rocket Star? Only 13 songs are available on iTunes.

Posted by Miguel at 03:57 PM | Permalink | Comments (1)

Sick cats are no fun

Long night, w/ Sophie suddenly sick. Cleaning up cat vomit's never fun, especially after watching a watery eyed cat go into a weezing panic, spilling her insides all over herself. She finally stopped, and huddled by herself in a corner for the rest of the night. By morning, she was frisky, oblivious to anything. I hope it was just a freak thing, not a sign of worse to come.

Posted by Miguel at 04:37 PM | Permalink | Comments (5)

Mid-week randomness

I'm living in fear that my two classes will fall into open revolt in 2-3 weeks. I have my reasons. And it's partly my fault, of course. Time will tell.

Also, I finally got my STATA license from the oh-so-(in)efficient university computing services. About time. Now I can run some quick OLS (ordinary least squares) regression models of electoral data variables, and wrap up my MPSA paper. To be fair, I ran most of the models quite some time ago. But, STATA is, well, STATA, isn't it?

For some reason I still can't send email from the Rocket Star anymore, no matter what SMTP server I try bouncing from. Anyone else have this problem? Anyone have an idea what might've happened?

In the continuing Bolivian (and by "Bolivian" the press means, as always, La Paz) water madness: the mayors of El Alto & La Paz (Paredes & Del Granado, respectively) are considering a way to transition from a private water company (the French-owned Aguas del Illimani) to some sort of mixed private-public partnership. This has led FEJUVE to declare the two mayors "enemies of the people", a term rich w/ syndicalist meaning. Because, after all, there's no need to stop to consider such trivialities as "who will run the water infrastructure?" or "who will pay for expansion of basic services?" We'll see how it all turns out. Also, the exchange rate has gone up to Bs.8.06/$US.

Finally, if you've ever watched the show 24, this parody is hilarious. On so many levels.

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ADDENDUM: So last minute (I got the email today), that it's mostly just for me. Another university cross-disciplinary lunch-time colloquium tomorrow, noon to 1pm at 158 Bernhard Center. An anthropology presentation on US-Mexico "boundary-making".

Posted by Miguel at 09:20 PM | Permalink | Comments (1)

International relations is like summer camp

There's an interesting article in The Telegraph arguing the so-called Atlantic alliance is reduced to small talk. It revolves around this analogy:

"International relations are like ex-girlfriends: if you're still deluding yourself you can get her back, every encounter will perforce be fraught and turbulent; once you realise that's never gonna happen, you can meet for a quick decaf latte every six — make that 10 — months ..."

Is Dubya's little tour just so much post-break-up-catching-up? Talking about the alliance because, well, talking about it is all that's left? I’m not so sure. Primarily, because I think I'm not sure there ever was an "alliance" the way many think about it. Let me explain.

Alliances should be, at most, temporary. You join an alliance w/ some other country against some specific enemy or threat. So the analogy's faulty. Our allies aren't our girlfriends (or wives). They're our camp mates. We spend some time together working on some series of mutual tasks. Then gather around on the last day, exchange phone numbers, and promise we'll be "friends forever". We know it's not true, but we indulge each other, maybe exchange a few letters or long-distance phone calls. And then the long silence.

See, we were allies during the Cold War. Well. Mission accomplished. Cigars all around. This isn't about 9/11 & a change in the West. No. This is about Machiavellian realpolik & a post Cold War realignment that's been slowly working its way out.

Bottom line: Countries don't join any coalition because they're allies, but because they've mutual interests. Europe has an interest in being a world power (you know, like it was from 1500 to 1945). And that means indepedence.

Wanna know what world politics looks like in the contemporary world? Throw out the 1945-1990 paradigm; dust off an old history book, look in the index under "Europe, Concert of".

Posted by Miguel at 11:29 PM | Permalink | Comments (8)

Back in Bolivia

Things heat up again in Bolivia. Figures. The Aguas de Illimani story’s making rounds again, especially since the government may not be able to follow through on its knee-jerk, populist bluster about kicking out the French-owned company. JSB sent me this Times article. Here’s a reaction to said Times article from the lefty-but-honest Blog from Bolivia.

Posted by Miguel at 07:39 PM | Permalink | Comments (2)

Troubles, troubles

First, I wasn’t able to send email out. From anywhere. None of my settings changed, but I couldn’t send email out from either the campus wi-fi, or the Rocket Star wi-fi. Other people, it seems, were having the same trouble. We could receive email, but not send. Regardless of platform (Mac v. Windows), regardless of servers, and regardless of email client. Very odd. Nothing on slashdot.org about this. I could send webmail, and my Treo worked. But not through a wi-fi network on a laptop. Very, very weird. But it’s working at my home wi-fi network. Anyone have any idea what this was about? Or did this happen to anyone else?

Posted by Miguel at 07:09 PM | Permalink | Comments (2)

Free Arash & Mojtaba

Arash Sigarchi & Mojtaba Saminejad are in prison, in Iran. The two were jailed for doing what many of us do w/o much thought: they posted their opinions on a weblog. The small, burgeoining Iranian bloggosphere has fast become a target of crackdown measures from Iran’s mullahcracy. You can find out more about their cause from the Committee to Protect Bloggers (which started the cyber-awareness campaign). Here’s some background from the BBC.

Pass it on.

Posted by Miguel at 06:45 PM | Permalink

The land of credit cards

Just booked my Amtrak tickets to Wilmington DE to visit my little brother, who’s quickly climbing the Dupont corporate ladder. I leave Saturday, come back Thursday. That’s two 24-hour train trips for grading & finishing touches to my April conference paper. (Yes!)

While he’s at work, I may dash off to Philadelphia or other interesting nearby spots. Or just become a homebody, catch up on some reading, and play w/ his two cats. Anyone in Boston or NYC want me to come visit for an evening out?

Posted by Miguel at 09:12 PM | Permalink | Comments (1)

More thoughts on iTunes

Here are some sites that attempt to answer the question about my iTunes or not dilemma.

The Future of Music Coalition
iTunes Music Store & the Indie Artist
Under the Umbrella
Unique Hardware

Posted by Miguel at 03:21 PM | Permalink | Comments (4)

“Into the light I command thee”

Just got back from watching Constantine (aka “Hellblazer”), which wasn’t quite as bad as I’d expected. Certainly worth about $5. Rachel Weisz & Tilda Swinton were the highlights. Keanu Reeves is, we all know, a terrible actor. But this film carried him.

Posted by Miguel at 11:32 PM | Permalink

What is liberalism?

MABB posed an interesting question about liberalism. I weighed in w/ some comments (scroll down & read up, his comments are in reverse chronological order). But I’ve decided to put up a brief explanation of what liberalism has, historically, been:

Posted by Miguel at 10:41 PM | Permalink | Comments (4)

The iTunes dilemma

To buy a CD, or to buy from iTunes? That is the question. I can get an entire Club 8 album from iTunes for $9.99. And I get it now, instantly, as soon as the tracks download. Alternatively, I can order the CD from Darla Records for $12.60 (plus shipping). I get it in a few days, but I get the album art, liner notes, a physical CD, and the joy of filing it next to the other Club 8 CDs in my collection.

Posted by Miguel at 05:36 PM | Permalink | Comments (5)

Why we need ethics

"In order to live, man must act; in order to act, he must make choices; in order to make choices, he must define a code of values; in order to define a code of values, he must know what he is and where he is — i.e. he must know his own nature (including his means of knowledge) and the nature of the universe in which he acts — i.e. he needs metaphysics, epistemology, ethics, which means: philosophy. He cannot escape from this need; his only alternative is whether the philosophy guiding him is to be chosen by his mind or by chance."

Ayn Rand was born 100 years ago this month.

Posted by Miguel at 05:18 PM | Permalink | Comments (3)

Rock the stats away

Seems the University Computing Center sold me a license-less STATA. So. Um. No STATA for me today? Let’s hope they generate a license code for me tomorrow. But I figure I’ll at least come up w/ a brief list of the variables I want to compile, for when I get my STATA license. Here’s the list so far:

Posted by Miguel at 06:49 PM | Permalink

Winter's back

I’m starring out my office window, watching the snow swirl about between Friedmann & Moore Halls. It’s that thick, billowy snow made up from small snowflakes that link up together, like tiny little sprites holding hands to dance about the grey sky. As much snow’s going up, into the air, as down, into the a soft landing on the pavement. I’m just glad I wore my parka again.

Posted by Miguel at 04:39 PM | Permalink | Comments (2)

I am my own means of production

Turned in my grant proposal; it’s finished. Now I can take a deep breath, and plunge back into statistical analysis of disaggregated electoral data. But not tomorrow, not tomorrow. I need a day to get back into “living” and enjoy myself a bit.

Posted by Miguel at 10:24 PM | Permalink | Comments (3)

Happy Valentine's Day

A very happy Valentine's Day to all the couples I know (and to all my single friends, too). You know who you are.

Posted by Miguel at 05:48 PM | Permalink | Comments (2)

I'm gonna go w/ my gut, instead

This'll be a long two days, as I rush to finish my dissertation completion fellowship application (due Tuesday, 5pm). It's almost done, but there's always a touch more here/there to go. And since I can, I'm waiting until after Tuesday's 345 ends, at 4pm, to walk it up to the Grad College.

Posted by Miguel at 09:14 PM | Permalink | Comments (5)

Happy ears

In the mail from March Records today, some new & old (back catalog) goodies:

Posted by Miguel at 07:38 PM | Permalink | Comments (5)

Learning from students

I recently asked my 105 students to find 5 "political" blogs, and write brief summaries about them (e.g. are they "linkers" or "thinkers"?, are they left or right? how credible/reliable do they seem?). The found some interesting ones outside my blogroll, here's a few of the best (so far, I'm half through grading):

Posted by Miguel at 07:16 PM | Permalink

iPod enters my iLife

The pre-meeting brown bag colloquia I attended was interesting. An insightful presentation by a geographer on the effect on Mexico's banking structure on individual people's savings in the Yucatan. Lots of data. And, of course, there's always an anthro person who's (let's just say) an "entertaining" audience member. I'm excited to see what the anthros'll think of my presentation, sometime in April (or March?).

Posted by Miguel at 04:09 PM | Permalink

My life according to The Smiths

Are you male or female: This Charming Man
Describe yourself: Handsome Devil
How do some people feel about you: Bigmouth Strikes Again
How do you feel about yourself: I Started Something I Couldn't Finish
Describe your ex girlfriend/boyfriend: Girl Afraid
Describe your current girlfriend/boyfriend: Last Night I Dreamt That Somebody Loved Me
Describe where you want to be: A Rush And A Push And The Land Is Ours
Describe what you want to be: Sweet And Tender Hooligan
Describe how you live: Oscillate Wildly
Describe how you love: There Is A Light That Never Goes Out
Share a few words of wisdom: Some Girls Are Bigger Than Others

Posted by Miguel at 10:58 AM | Permalink | Comments (3)

Time for bed

Didn't get as much writing as I'd have liked, though I've enough notes to breeze through all the rest of Chapter 1 (minus the "imagined communities" bit) in a week or so. But I sat on a green couch, listening to The Album Leaf & Le Mans and plugged away until now.

Now I just wanna crawl into bed, sleep in 'til 10, before heading off to a Latin America colloquia, followed by a meeting w/ my dissertation committee (w/ a stop to print & xerox the new pages, notes, and outlines for them).

Posted by Miguel at 02:12 AM | Permalink

Ciao! is back online

After two snarky tiffs w/ the tech support people, Ciao! is back up. My webhost (fatcow.com) moved to a new platform. Which they've done before. But this time they changed their cgi-bin paths. I, of course, didn't realize this. But it's all fixed now. Yippee!

Oh, and I got my first Sarah Bentley haircut today. Was it worth $25? I'm still not sure on that. But some say I look "dashing".

Posted by Miguel at 07:41 PM | Permalink | Comments (4)

Palmer House, anyone?

Calling the Palmer House to book my room for 6-10 April (4 nights), I was disconnected towards the end. Now it seems I might have booked an extra room. Anyone else want it? I'll call to cancel the extra room on Tuesday, so let me me know before then.

Posted by Miguel at 12:21 PM | Permalink | Comments (1)

End of semester goals

In order of priority:

Posted by Miguel at 02:38 AM | Permalink | Comments (2)

Research question

I'm finally happy w/ the way I've worded my research question (at dBlog). Perhaps the hardest four paragraphs I've ever written. How do you sum up an entire research agenda, spanning years, into something so short? Especially when the real world forces you to reconsider your entire previous conceptualization of the case, the methodology, the research question, and the relevant data & variables.

Posted by Miguel at 06:05 PM | Permalink | Comments (2)

But I'm not that old!

I just got an AARP membership application form in the mail. What's up w/ that? Then again, I do get a magazine. And I do love shuffleboard, dominos, and Jeopardy!

Posted by Miguel at 09:54 PM | Permalink | Comments (2)

Let the fun begin

Just got back my student evaluations from last semester. Looks like my year away from teaching didn't slow me down much. I was actually a bit worried about that. But I guess the fact that a dozen of my 250 students deliberately signed up for another semester w/ me in 345 says something. Overall? Encouraging. Especially early in a long 9-to-9 Monday.

And now, in 105, we're finally getting into logical fallacies. And y'all know how much I loves my logical fallacies. We're starting simple: ipse dixit and non sequitur.

Oh, and Battlestar Galactica repeat at 10pm. The second part to last week's cliffhanger.

Posted by Miguel at 01:36 PM | Permalink | Comments (3)

My grad school experience

Steph wanted me to describe my early grad school experience, since she's now applying to grad programs herself. What can I say? It has it's own set of rhythms, social patterns, joys, and frustrations. I guess I'll go chronologically.

Posted by Miguel at 01:03 PM | Permalink | Comments (10)

Today

Found the articles I was looking for, which sparked an intense two-hour editing process focused on altering two paragraphs on historical institutionalism. This is the paradox of dissertation writing: It took me about the same amount of time to edit two existing paragraphs as it took me to hammer out five entire (single-spaced) pages.

Spent much of the rest of the day reading/writing at Rocket Star. At midnight, Dan & I are watching The Hidden Fortress, the Kurosawa classic that inspired Lucas' Star Wars.

I've been home 30 minutes in the last 36 hours.

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DOH!: Those articles I copied at the library? Turns out three were reprinted in an edited volume sitting on my bookshelf at home. Damn. Another was in another volume, also at home. Double damn. The ones I didn't bother copying? In the volume I thought I had at home, but didn't. Triple damn.

Posted by Miguel at 11:44 PM | Permalink | Comments (3)

Yesterday

Spent most of the day w/ Dan, which was a nice change of pace; we used to spend most of every day together before I left for Bolivia. I'm glad I was able to help him (finally!) extricate himself out of a bad situation. My friends don't deserve to be treated that way. Hopefully the nice weather keeps up, metaphorically.

On the way home, stopped at Athena Bookshop to pick up the much-recommended Reading Lolita In Tehran, as well as new Moleskine notebooks.

Followed by dinner at University Roadhouse w/ some other PhD candidates. Sometimes revolving around things from the younger set like: "Do you think I can write my proposal in a month or two?" And Meli & I looking at each other, then laughing out: "It might take you six months just to form a committee." I'm glad we can at least laugh about these things. Grad school's certainly not for the faint hearted.

Went up to Waldo Library to find some articles. Closed. The library, apparently, closes at 5pm. I guess I should know this, since I've been back a while. But how does anyone justify closing the library of a Research I (Carnegie Foundation) university at 5pm on a Friday? I was later told this was a compromise, instead of closing all weekend long. What? I think I'm going to start an "impeach president Bailey" petition. Real soon. Seems, the university's also strong-arming anyone who supports Bring Back Track (we don't have a track & field team anymore).

Since I didn't bring backup reading materials, I joined a pickup Scrabble game at Rocket Star.

Then off to Crow's Nest w/ two Joshes, a Bay, and a Nick. Before watching The Karate Kid. And loving it. Be sure to watch the DVD's special featurettes after. Now Bay can listen to Sweep The Leg Johnny w/o missing out.

Now I'm of to a shower, and try to make it to campus before the library closes again. At least today it stays open 'til at 6pm.

Posted by Miguel at 03:52 PM | Permalink | Comments (3)

Why SOTU doesn't really matter

There's been some question about my statement that presidential SOTUs (State of the Unions) shouldn't really matter much. I'd like to (briefly) defend that position.

We often overestimate the power of the president. Unlike presidents in, say, Latin America, the US president has very little power. By that, I mean that the US president has a lot of power in the world because he's the US president. But he has very little power, vis à vis the legislature (or the courts), when compared to other presidents around the world (one of the world's strongest presidents is the French). And most prime ministers are stronger (as executive), vis à vis their legislatures, than most presidents.

The US president doesn't have the power to disband the legislature. Or the power to call for early elections. He has no special prerogative over certain areas of legislation (e.g. many presidents have direct power over macro-economic matters, which are no longer in the hands of the legislature at all). Even over the military, where he exercises the most power, Congressional oversight is extensive, as is the fact that, while the president can order the military to do pretty much anything (except go to war) w/o immediate legislative approval, the military's budget is entirely in the hands of Congress. In short, the president is pretty much restricted to signing or vetoing whatever legislation Congress puts on his desk.

He can plead them to do this or that. He can use his personal influence, charisma, or whatever cards he has at his disposal (but legislators have their own cards, too). But he can only say "yes" or "no" to Congress-approved legislation. And few presidents are fond of using their veto power. More often than not, a bill that's close enough to what they want, is good enough to sign.

What this means, is that SOTU's nothing more than a presidential wish list. A shopping list. Except the person doing the shopping can decide that, no, we're not getting snack food, and I think 2% milk is better than skim, etc. And all the president can do is take the bag of groceries & put them away in the cupboard, or ask the legislature to go shopping again. More often than not, it's not worth the trouble. Sure, it's not the brand of cereal you like. But it's already in the house, you might as well put it in the cupboard; no sense asking the legislature to drive all the way back to the store.

And even if the president has a majority in the legislature, keep in mind that US parties are weakly organized. Especially compared to other country's parties (e.g the tightly disciplined Euroepan parties). In part, because every politician's elected individually; there are no party lists. So party IDs are mostly just labels, useful to most people, but not much substance behind them. And the labels mean different things in different places to different people.

US political parties are just giant potlucks. There are two big tents, and people go to one potluck or the other. Some people always go to the one w/ the frank & beans. Some people will only go to the vegan one. But lots of people might go back & forth, depending on their mood, the music selection, where their friends go, etc. And no one at either tent can kick anyone else out. You go to the red tent, or the blue tent. If most people at the red tent want to listen to country music, well, you can stay & listen, or go to the blue tent. It's up to you.

And. More importantly. There are elections every two years for the legislature. So. The president has just asked the legislature to follow his plan. But each representative or senator has his/her own plan. And it involves getting reelected. Or moving up ('08 is just around the corner). Their first loyalty? Their constituents (because that's where the votes are). That's you & me.

Focusing on presidential politics is dangerous. Because it misrepresents the system, leading to dashed expectations. We shouldn't pin all our hopes on the one part of government that can do the least to fulfill our expectations.

Posted by Miguel at 01:04 PM | Permalink | Comments (3)

February heat wave

It's 40^o F (about 3^o C) outside. Wow! I'm no longer wearing a sweater (still wearing a parka, just in case). Of course a cold snap's coming back any day now. Any day. But right now it's sunny & warm & pleasant. Not so much for walking, since the snow's turned to much. But still.

Makes me want to bring out Lucia or The Motron. Makes me wish either was running at the end of last season. The buzzing is already taking over the streets.

Posted by Miguel at 04:06 PM | Permalink | Comments (1)

SOTU (they're all the same)

I'm not gonna post my reaction to Dubya's SOTU. Mostly because, on the whole, no one should really care about it. It's just the pre-game peptalk. Who cares what you want to do. The important thing is what you can or can't deliver. Because Congress isn't Santa Claus or the Tooth Fairy or the Easter Bunny.

Posted by Miguel at 11:21 AM | Permalink | Comments (7)

(The role of) media

My friend Simon wrote a really good critical evaluation of Vice Magazine. Certainly worth thinking about.

Posted by Miguel at 06:29 PM | Permalink | Comments (3)

Retractions?

This is perhaps the funniest (or saddest?) thing I've ever seen, in terms of over-zealous media being duped by not fact-checking sources. Seems an online group claiming to be Islamic militants had a picture of a captured American GI, threatening to execute him in 72 hours, blah, blah. The Associated Press, Reuters, CNN, and others ran the story (w/ the "can't verify at this time" caveat added later). Turns out. Er. Maybe it was a mistake. Because. Um. The picture was a GI Joe action figure. Oops.

Posted by Miguel at 07:31 PM | Permalink | Comments (4)

Play for today

One of the main reasons I don't do a lot of work at home, is that it's difficult to read/write when one cat insists on sitting on top of whatever it is you're reading/writing, while the other keeps peeping around one shoulder to the next. The lap one is Annie. Who's so comfortably lazy, that I can (if necessary) just move things around, shifting her, w/o waking her up (she has no objection to me subconsciously tapping her head w/ a pen while I think).

Anyhow. I'm almost done w/ laundry, about to jump in the shower, and make myself lunch. Then off to campus, hoping my chatterbox landlady fixes my apartment's heat before I return.

Today I want to: finish grading my 105 quizes, go over & record the participation assignments to hand back, prep for Thursday's 345, and write two pages. Then maybe shoot a game or two of eight-ball. Any takers?

Also, The Karate Kid was finally released on DVD. It arrives via Netflix today or tomorrow. Did you know my friend Bay has never seen The Karate Kid? I know, it's hard to believe.

Posted by Miguel at 11:10 AM | Permalink | Comments (4)

Reasons for optimism

Should we be optimistic about Iraqi democracy? Three reasons: Germany, Italy, Japan.

"As Philippe Schmitter, Laurence Whitehead, and others have pointed out, the most frequent context within which a transition from authoritarian rule has begun in recent decades has been military defeat in an international conflict. Moreover, the factor which most probabilistically assured a democratic outcome to the transition was occupation by a foreign power which was itself a political democracy."

Guillermo O'Donnell and Philippe Schmitter, 1986, Transitions From Authoritarian Rule: Tentative Conclusions About Uncertain Democracies (p. 17-18).

And for the rest of the region?

"A fifth factor contributing to [democratization] may be variously termed demonstration effect, contagion, diffusion, emulation, snowballing, or perhaps even the domino effect. Successful democratization occurs in one country and this encourages democratization in other countries, either because they seem to face similar problems whatever these problems are, or because the country that has democratized is powerful and/or is viewed as a political and cultural model."

Samuel P. Huntingon, 1991, The Third Wave: Democratization In The Late Twentieth Century (p. 100).

Posted by Miguel at 12:07 AM | Permalink | Comments (6)