Wednesday     January 12, 2005   12:44 am

Pete Wilson is a TV news anchor for the local news in the San Francisco Bay Area. He also has a talk radio show on one of my favorite stations. I miss bay area radio so sometimes I listen while I'm at work. It makes me feel connected.

Yesterday he had several subjects open, and one of them had to do with criticism of Bush for the US response to the tsumani disaster. So I sent Pete an email stating my opinion. He ended his first hour by mentioning a line or two of what I wrote, and then opened the second hour of his show by responding to the letter (1:36, 1.4 MB mp3).

I'm happy to say that I was wrong about Bush, and that the US responded more quickly than I had imagined. However, I still don't understand why Bush waited 3 days (rather than the 4 I cited below) to make a public statement. In a time of humanitarian crisis I would think he would want to make the most of the situation, and assure the American public, and the world, that he's on top of the situation. So I'm happy we responded quickly, but I don't get the feeling that Bush really took the lead. Pete seemed to acknowledge that.

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Sunday     January 9, 2005   12:21 pm

One of the things I'll remember about Bush is his 7 minute pause, reading a book with kids, while people were dying in New York. It's hard to explain that 7 minutes. I put myself in his shoes and try to imagine what I would have done. People will defend him by asking what could he have done that would have helped the situation anyway? The obvious answer to that is that he could have done anything but nothing.

When reports of the recent tsunami first started coming in, and it was clear that tens of thousands of people were dead, and there would be tens of thousands unaccounted for, it was clear to me that the world would respond, and that the US should respond.

But for 4 days there was no response from Bush. The day after it happened, it was clear to me that the affected regions could use help in the way of food, water and infrastructure, informatics to connect survivors and track the dead, means to efficiently collect, catalog, and dispose of bodies. Even a small fraction of our military could respond and make an impact in these areas. I'm sure there are other task forces for addressing these same issues.

But the Whitehouse was silent. Here was a chance for George Bush to make a positive impression in the world. We claim to be good guys applying our military might to invade Iraq and save the people and the rest of the world from a cruel dictator, while at the same time claiming that it has nothing to do with oil. The tsunami was a huge humanitarian crisis with no obvious economic advantage to us. It offered George Bush a chance to save face for our nation, and offer a sense of consistency. He claims that Jesus is his favorite philosopher, and that he consults a "higher authority" to inform his leadership. Would God have wanted him to remain silent for 4 days?

Instead he embarrassed us as a nation. The American people would want to offer their help. Amazon.com alone had raised several million dollars before there was an announcement from the Whitehouse. The original figure of 15 million dollars in aid was a joke. By the time George Bush finally opened his mouth and made a statement, the figure had been raised to 35 million, but Spain - a country a fraction of our size with no where near our resources or GNP - had put forth 88 million in aid.

When I heard that figure I had to laugh. I knew we spent that much in just a few hours to fight the war in Iraq.

George was blowing it again. The American people are generous. And I know that over time the aid that we offer to the tsunami crisis will reflect that. However it's very frustrating to have a leader who seems to get in the way, fumbling to get it right in the face of obvious solutions, rather than picking up the reigns and leading the charge in the first place.

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Friday     December 24, 2004   10:58 am

Pasta Salad

Ingredients:
16 oz Rotelli
3-4 medium tomatoes, diced (about 2 cups)
3 bell peppers (1 red, 1 green, 1 yellow)
1 bunch of green onions (5 or 6)
1/4 to 1/2 red onion
Capers
Calamata Olives

Dressing:
2/3 cup olive oil
1/3 cup mix (80% red wine vinegar, 10% balsamic, 10% water)

Salt and Pepper

Optional:
juice of one lemon
lemon zest
romano cheese

Preparation:
Boil the pasta al dente in salted water and drain. Allow the pasta to cool slightly before tossing in all the ingredients. Use the lemon rind to grate some lemon zest over the pasta. Grate some Romano cheese over the top.

How to prepare the Calamata olives: Place an olive on the cutting board. Using a coffee cup, slam the bottom of the cup over the olive. The olive skin will split and the pit can be easily removed. Alternatively you can place the side of a large knife over the olive and tap it with your hand to split the olive. It's easy to process many olives quickly by breaking the process into two steps - split the olives first, then remove the pits.

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Friday     December 24, 2004   12:44 am

Fettuccine with jumbo shrimp, garlic and olive oil

If you like sauted shrimp, garlic, olive oil, and fettuccine, here is a simple recipe that is quick and easy to prepare.

Ingredients:

7 jumbo shrimp (about 1/4 pound), that have been de-veined, rinsed, and the shells peeled off
a few cloves of garlic, finely minced.
1 Tablespoon butter
2 Tablespoons virgin olive oil

Bring salted water to a boil and place a quarter-sized bundle of fettuccine in the water.

heat the oil and butter in a skillet over medium heat and toss in the shrimp
when the shrimp begin to cook throw in the garlic
add salt and pepper
saute the shrimp on each side

when the shrimp are almost done, drain the pasta
toss the pasta into the pan
flip the pasta around in the pan to make sure it gets coated with the olive oil and butter
sprinkle in lemmon juice to taste (2 Tbl spoons?)
add salt and pepper to taste

Take to a warmed plate
grate some fresh parmesan over the top

Notes: The amount of all the ingredients should be adjusted to your taste. It's tempting to cook too much pasta, but keep it small as the recipe is meant to be simple and the pasta is meant to complement the few peices of shrimp and soak up the butter and olive oil. It only takes a few minutes to saute the shrimp so time the pasta so that it finishes cooking as the shrimp is finishing. Cook the pasta al dente, drain all the water, and throw it into the pan before it gets sticky.

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Thursday     December 16, 2004   12:00 am

I watched the final episode of the apprentice tonight. Two candidates remaining, and I wasn't very impressed with either one of them. It's not that they weren't impressive. They were both highly qualified and successful at what they do. But perhaps I've been spoiled by television wherein I expect the people at the end of a competition to be both highly qualified as well as completely aesthetically appealing, at least in terms of having a compelling personality. But these two candidates, Jen and Kelly, didn't meet that criteria for me. Jen had impressive laurels, but she didn't strike me as having much intitiative or willingness to take chances. She seemed like the kind of person who was really good at having people do things for her. Kelly had a good record of success on the show, and in his business life before the show, but when it came to leadership he seemed to lack the kind of energy that he could be used to motivate people to be more effective. There were two previous contestants who struck me as more qualified or attractive than the final candidates (Pamela, and Bradford), and it felt strange to have the show ending and not understand how the two people at the end had really come to be the two best choices for an apprentice to Donald Trump. I wondered why I felt judgemental about Jen and Kelly. It brings me no joy to sit back and criticise when I may not have the same qualities I accuse others of not having.

Something that surprised me about the season, and about many of the people who were left towards the end, was how much time and energy they could spend bickering about petty things of no real consequence. How could people so focused on success be consumed with such trite and trivial things? One of the reasons I watch the apprentice is because I like observing what elements lend themselves to success in various situations. Sometimes I learn things, sometimes it's just painful to watch because I see people screwing things up and success arises from the arbitrary.

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