Apt. 11D

Weekend Journal

Every couple should have at least one thing in common. One thing, that no matter how disparate their temperments or interests, makes them friends and partners for life.

For Steve and I, it's always about travel. We are excellent travel companions. We both love exploring new places, eating new foods, and just plain roaming about. We will eat anything. We travel light. We will talk to anyone. We could very easily be this couple.

With the arrival of the little savages, we have to be content with tamer locales than we would like, but there's still much exploring and eating to be done. Last week, Steve found a cheapy deal on a hotel in Washington, DC. $99 for a downtown hotel with a pool for the kids.

The morning after Thanksgiving, we threw some things in a bag and drove off. Even luckier for us, we have two kids that also love to travel. As I was running around the house, shutting off the computers and locating the camera, they had already set themselves up in the backseat of the Toyota with their books, videos, and games. They had made little nests for themselves in the backseat and were waiting patiently for the car to shove off.

It was just a day and half trip, so we were very bad friends and didn't contact some old buddies or new buddies. We went to the Air and Space Museum, walked around the Mall, ate some excellent Chinese food, watched the workmen assembling the stage for inauguration. The city was nearly empty, so we had the museums to ourselves.

We also checked out the Phillips Gallery (thanks, Jim, for the tip). We loved the place, despite their reaction to children. The guards went into high alert mode when we entered. One guy nervously demanded that we hold Ian's hand for the entire time that we were in the museum. We had a guard within five feet of us for our entire visit. Sometimes more than one. For all art thieves, may I suggest using a family of antsy boys as a diversion.

And they needn't have bothered. The boys were completely uninterested in the art. We would walk into a room and they would promptly swoon on one of the benches in the center of the room waiting for the pain to end. I tried to coax Jonah into looking at the paintings, by asking him questions like "So, what do you think is going on here? If you were a judge, which painting would you give first price?" He didn't take the bait, so I went for the guilt. "Jonah, I do all sorts of things with you that I don't enjoy, so now it's your turn." He was shocked that I didn't enjoy our visit to see Thomas the Tank Engine.

It was a good trip. We saw enough of the museums to want more. As we were driving away, Steve saw a sign for an exhibit on Champlain and whined that he wanted to go. In rather random places, I got ideas for future projects and for rearranging the furniture in the living room. We were terribly impressed with DC's Metro system.

The boys did a great job of being portable, except for the time that Jonah was daydreaming and almost didn't make it off the subway on time. Or the time that Ian really wanted and expected X to happen, but Y happened instead. Minor stuff.

I have a very busy week ahead of me. The last throws of the semester and some paper deadlines. It was good to get away.

Mumbai, Transition Time, Turkey Time, DC

Horrific events in India yesterday. (And, look, there's already a wikipedia page.) E-mails were exchanged with family members and friends who stayed in that beautiful hotel in the past. Man's inhumanity to man.

We talked about it all over turkey with my folks yesterday. We all agreed that it was strange that we hoped that it was an Al Qaeda attack and not Pakistani militants. Better a terrorist attack than a war between India and Pakistan.

We talked about if these events happened now, because we are in transition time. Is the world more vulnerable as power shifts from Bush to Obama. Should we have a shorter transition time? Do we have two presidents right now or zero?

We also talked about how good my mom's turkey was, how Ian ate his body weight in mashed potatoes, how every meal should have three starches, and how fortunate that we were all together yesterday.

Then my folks made me watch FOX News for a while. Gotta love the way that the right is now framing the Bush presidency. They are describing him as the great martyred president who stood by his beliefs and kept the nation safe, despite overwhelming public opinion. That's a man.

Already heading off to DC for our last minute trip. I still have to find the cell phone charger and hit the post office.

Enjoy your leftovers today.

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Thanksgiving Plans?

I'm at the office polishing off tiny chores - 3 student recommendations, a paper review, printing up papers using the office printer toner. I'm thinking about busting out of here in a minute. Is it too late to squeeze in a haircut?

Plans for the holidays? My folks' house for Thanksgiving and then off to DC. Periodically, I get the overwhelming feeling that if I don't get out of New Jersey, my head will explode. So, Steve got a deal at the Hilton in DC and we're off for a quickie trip. We might take in some museums. We may spend all day in bed watching Harry Potter movies and eating room service. Not entirely sure yet.

Whatcha doing?

Policy Realignment?

There are certain periods of American history when we can observe party realignments. Party realignments are when large groups of people switch political parties and that switch remains in effect for decades. FDR's election is often cited as a realigning election.

Within political science, there are people who get a little too involved with party realignments looking for patterns and methods for predicting future realignments. It's at this point that my eyes get glassy and my head clunks against my desk. This line of scholarship is not my cup of tea.

Henry points to the recent work by Paul Pierson that takes party realignment literature in a much more interesting and sensible direction. Pierson argues that there are periods of time when the policy options switch. When one group of policy decisions that would previously be thought of as unthinkable, suddenly become doable. 

Henry thinks that we may be entering a period of policy realignment.

So the more interesting question over the next number of years is whether or not we are seeing a policy realignment taking place. My strong prediction, thanks to the current economic meltdown, is ‘yes.’ We are likely to see a substantial shift in policy over the next several years, so that forms of state intervention that were previously unthinkable start to look routine. Not only is the Obama administration going to be, by any reasonable definition, a strongly left-leaning administration, but its successor in 2012, whether Democratic or Republican, is likely to be left-leaning too.

I completely agree.

Neurological Diversity

Every semester, I teach Introduction to Political Theory. It's a survey class where we rip through Western History and discuss a dozen different political theorists from Plato to Malcolm X. Before we get into the reading for the day, I show one or two powerpoint slides with a brief bio of the theorist.

Fish In a Barrel

As a rule, I don't usually post about stupid things I read on the Internet. Mostly because it's just way too easy. And, also because there's just not enough time. The ratio of smart to stupid on the Internet is rather lopsided.

But I can't resist it today. First, there's some lovely insider bitchiness about a former blogger. I really hated that guy.

Second, Rob Farley has plucked a great quote from Power Line.

Obama thinks he is a good talker, but he is often undisciplined when he speaks. He needs to understand that as President, his words will be scrutinized and will have impact whether he intends it or not. In this regard, President Bush is an excellent model; Obama should take a lesson from his example. Bush never gets sloppy when he is speaking publicly. He chooses his words with care and precision, which is why his style sometimes seems halting. In the eight years he has been President, it is remarkable how few gaffes or verbal blunders he has committed. If Obama doesn't raise his standards, he will exceed Bush's total before he is inaugurated.

I spent three hours at Michelle Malkin's blog last night harvesting data. I haven't recovered yet.

Tabloid Talk

The 2008 election has been extraordinary for many reasons. First African-American president. First serious female candidate. Higher levels of voting turnout. All that stuff.

But this election was also extraordinary, because the tabloids turned their gaze away from Jolie/Aniston for a fraction of a second. Celebrity and politics merged with the photogenic Obamas and Palins. People magazine covers and paparazzi shots at the pool.

The tabloids never paid much mind to the Bush family. They're not a terribly good looking bunch. The Clintons were only interesting when the chubby girl with a g-string got involved. So, it's been awfully fun to check out Perez Hilton or watch the Insider and get my politics served up with a dollop of whip cream.

With the Obamas hiding out for a few weeks and Palin consulting with high powered Hollywood agents, the tabloids have returned to Jolie/Aniston for a few weeks. Even the New York Times has a piece on how Angie manipulates her image.

Fast Blogging v. Slow Blogging

Atlantic Monthly is the only print publication whose numbers went up last year. A good part of their success has to go to their bloggers and extensive use multi-media.

In this video, Sullivan and Ambinder discuss the frenetic pace of blogging.

On the flip side, here's a group of people who are devotees of the slow blogging movement. Sounds like an oximoron to me.

Pink and Blue Explosion

Via Sullivan, Korean artist, Jeongmee Yoon photographed children who would only wear and buy gender specific clothes and toys.

27 Votes

Nate Silver reports that Al Franken will win the recount by 27 votes. OMG!