A Room with a View

One of my colleagues gave a talk for a pharmaceutical company last night at the Carnelian Room. It's on the 52nd Floor of the 555 California Street Building. The talk was good, the food was great, and the views were phenomenal. I took a few pictures -- they're taken through glass, but I think they get the feeling of "Wow!" across. They also get across the feeling that I need to get a better camera than my phone.

Looking southwest:


Now with the zoom on City Hall:


And to the southeast:

And zoom on the Bay Bridge:


Wednesday was so nice I couldn't bear to be in the gym. So I just walked around the Wharf/North Beach/Pac-Heights/Marina for a couple of hours before dinner. I happened to be at the aquatic park as the park police were closing it to swimming. I hung out until I got the story -- there is apparently a nippy young seal or sea lion biting swimmers. In the mean time, the sun started to set over the GG Bridge:

Tuesday, I walked to my pool match at the Mix. On the way, I noticed this:


I have yet to find anyone who can tell me why it would be purple and blue for November 14.
As for pool, I won 2 and lost 1 -- a pretty good night for me. My team won, so we advance in the tournament. Go Mix Cocktails!

Murtha v. Hoyer

Even with the election over, there is still a lot of politics to follow. Yesterday's tidbit was that Rep. John Murtha is going to challenge Rep. Steny Hoyer for the #2 position in leadership of the House of Representatives. Speaker-elect Pelosi (love that) has supported Rep. Murtha.

I tend to think that you "dance with the one who brung ya", so I lean towards Hoyer -- but that's not really my issue. What's cracking me up are the pundits and their litany of:

"Nancy Pelosi shouldn't let this happen"
"Why is she wading into this?"
"No future speaker wants this battle."
"This is a rookie mistake"

Right. This woman just engineered the take over of the House of Representatives as an anti-war liberal from San Francisco. As minority leader, she kept the democrats in lock step and made sure they were positioned to ride the historically predictable wave of discontent. Note that she supported Murtha without telling others they had to do the same. This battle is only happening because she wants it to happen.

Maybe she promised Murtha he could run in return for using his position as a veteran to back her plan for Iraq. Maybe she wants to show Alcee Hastings what happens when old ethics charges dog you. Maybe she wants to show give the newly elected, more conservative democrats a chance to vote. Maybe she wants to use the fight to see where the public stands on Iraq policy. Hell, anythings possible.

Except that Speaker-elect Pelosi wouldn't have a plan.

Addendum

Add Senator Lincoln Chafee to the list of class acts. After the last post, I went to cnn.com (mostly to see who won the Louisville/Rutgers game) to find that Sen. Chafee (www.ontheissues.com) felt that Tuesday's election did not support the further advancement of Mr. John Bolton as UN ambassador. In some ways I'm glad he lost to a Democrat Tuesday, but kudos to a man trying to represent his constituents instead of advancing his party's agenda. I might vote for him someday given the chance.

By the way, the Rutgers Scarlet Knights took down #3 Louisville 28-25. Fuhgettabouit! (www.sportsillustrated.com) In a week for the underdog, this was possibly the only thing less likely than the Democrats taking BOTH houses of congress. Go Knights -- I hope you make it to the BCS Championship!

Class Acts

I logged on with a plan in mind for this post, and it's already been sidetracked. I was watching Seinfeld as I logged in, and it turned out to be an episode with a cameo by Derek Jeter. (Photo www.sportsnetwork.com) None of the politicians to be mentioned are as classy (or as clutch, or as hot) as the Yankee's captain, but we must press on...

I tip my hat to Sen George Allen and Sen. Conrad Burns. They lost, they knew it, and they had the class and respect to concede rather than drag the election through weeks of recounts that would not change anything.

Don't get me wrong -- when you win the popular vote, you get to take it to the Supreme Court. And prove that it's all political by making five allegedly federalist judges usurp Florida's right to evaluate its own election. The hypocrisy of this still bugs me, obviously.

I'm hoping for one more class act, and his name is George W. Bush. I have tried on this Blog to be respectful of Mr. Bush and his office throughout serious disagreements. Unlike some folks on the extreme left, I don't think he's evil -- just misguided at times. If you remember 2000, he won as a "compassionate conservative" who wanted to cut taxes, but had more moderate views on other subjects and wanted to be a "uniter". Then he moved into a Washington run by K Street Republicans and ran to the far right with them. Especially after 9/11, when he seemed to feel he had a divine mission.

If you look back at his rise to power in Texas and his "compassionate conservatism", it was largely the result of working with a Democratic legislature. Together, they did some allegedly good things for Texas. I'm hoping President Bush can return to his roots and work with a Democratic legislature to similarly move America forward. Already, he seems willing to work on the minimum wage and immigration, issues on which he had disagreed with the more conservative element of his party. And Sec. Rumsfeld's departure should be seen as an Olive Branch if ever there were one.

It is now up to Speaker-Elect Pelosi and Senator Reid to advance issues for the next two years instead of bludgeoning/investigating the president and his staff in the hopes of improving their chance for victory in 2008. (Sadly, this doctored picture from www.allhatnocattle.net is the only shot I could find of them together.) There is a chance here for real dialog and progress, and shame on any obstructionists from either party. The electorate set the compass Tuesday -- someone just needs to lead us further down the path.

To the Non-Believers

I was one of you.

I was fairly certain that the Democrats would take over the House of Representatives tonight. Last night I predicted it (on the blog), this morning I voted for it, and this evening I raised a glass to Speaker Pelosi.

But I never really thought we'd get the Senate. As I go to bed, though, we have won in Missouri, and are up in Montana and Virginia. I'm keeping my fingers crossed through the recount. The magic number is 51.

For those of you who wonder if I'm topical, read yesterday's blog. Then look at today's Newsweek cover:


As we said when rooting for the Steelers..."Ya Gotta Believe"

Not so Holy Shit

"I was raised Catholic."

That's what I usually tell people who ask me about my religion. It conveys my religious/cultural upbringing, as well as letting people know that I don't go to church anymore.
Most people leave it at that, but some keep going:

"But are you still Catholic?"

"I think so, but you might have to ask Pope Benedict," has been my pat answer.

After seeing this piece of trash in USA today I may be leaning towards a flat"No."

This was produced by Catholic Answers Action at www.caaction.com. First of all, I'm not even sure Catholic Answers Action qualifies as a phrase, but this is a minor problem. In 2/3 of a page, they detail "Your Role as a Catholic Voter". Apparently, there are 5 Non-Negotiable Issues:

1. Abortion
2. Euthanasia
3. Embryonic Stem Cell Research
4. Human Cloning
5. Homosexual "Marriage" (Their quotes, not mine)

Needless to say, they are against all of the above. These issues are "intrinsically evil and must never be promoted by law...fundamentally conflict with the moral law and can never be performed under any circumstances".

For each, they cite an argument and a church document. Interestingly, or not, only abortion and euthanasia can quote an encyclical (papal teaching) -- the others cite releases from the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith (run by Cardinal Ratzinger prior to his elevation -- and oddly, now run by a former SF bishop). None of them -- note NONE of them -- are protected by ex cathedra papal infallibility. For those of you keeping score, the only two infallible teachings are: (1) the Immaculate Conception of Mary (without original sin) and (2) the Assumption of Mary (body and soul) to heaven. The rest is still open for argument and changing with the times.

Before going any further, can we agree that allowing something and promoting something are two different things? Allowing abortion, gay marriage, etc., does not promote them. I usually vote for "pro-choice" (terrible term, by the way) candidates, but it would be the rare circumstance that I wouldn't try to avert, much less promote, an abortion.

On a lighter note, the biblical reference against homosexuality is usually Leviticus 18:22:
'Do not have sex with a man as you would with a woman.' Believe me -- I don't!

As to the issues, it amazes me that the 5 Non-Negotiable issues are things that Jesus never even mentioned. Obviously, there are reasonable extrapolations from His teachings, and this is necessary as times and technology change. There were some bigger issues that He did mention, thought, that the caaction.com conveniently left out of their list. I'll list 3:

1) War
2) Poverty
3) Capital Punishment

They were ready for this, and mentioned these issues at the end of the ad: "There may be a legitimate diversity of opinion evenamong waging war and applying the death penalty, but not howeverwith regard to abortion and euthanasia." This is from a piece by then Cardinal Ratzinger himself, neither an encyclical nor a CDF writing. And it covers only 2 of their 5 points. Poorly.

As to war, there is a Catholic "Just War Doctrine", which does allow violence by a state in certain circumstances. Unfortunately for Catholic Answers Action, Pope John Paul II himself condemned the Iraq War as unjust. As the CAA seems to prefer other voices:

"It is necessary that the community of nations makes the decision, not a particular power...the concept of a 'preventive war' does not appear in the Catechism of the Catholic Church"

Who was this sage? None other than John Cardinal Ratzinger, now Pope Benedict, himself.

As to capital punishment, there may be some wiggle room, but not much. Execution is only appropriate..."in cases of absolute necessity, in other words, when it would not be possible otherwise to defend society. Today, however, as a result of steady immprovement in the organization of the penal system, such cases are very rare, if not practically nonexistent."
--John Paul II.

Oddly, it's from the same encyclical, Evangelium Vitae, the CAA cite for their positions on abortion and euthanasia. Hard to see how they skipped that part. If you'd like a better authority, how about:

"Love your enemies and pray for those who persecute you." Matthew 5:44

Not exactly a ringing endorsement of the death penalty, is it. Or war, for that matter.

In discussing poverty, we'll stay with Jesus for a moment. He loved to discuss poverty -- in the New Testament 1 of every 16 verses is about poverty. (Jim Wallis, God's Politics, p. 212. Good book if you like this stuff) Let's look at that tally of comments by Jesus again:

Abortion = 0
Euthanasia = 0
Stem Cells = 0
Cloning = 0
Homosexual Marriage = 0
Taking Care of the Poor = Thousands

Hmmm. How did poverty not make the non-negotiable list? Must have had a poor lobbyist. In the end though, the arguments above, while to point, are unnecessary. Catholicism is based on the Old Testament and the teachings of Jesus Christ. Jesus wasn't vague about what was important.

"The Lord our God is one Lord; and you shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, and with all your soul, and with all your mind, and with all your strength...You shall love your neighbor as yourself.' There is no other commandment greater than these." (Mark 12:28-31)

Combine that with "Do not judge, or you, too, will be judged" (Matt 7:1) and "He that is without sin among you, let him first cast a stone" (John 8:7) and you may just have to re-order your list.

Not judging, BTW, doesn't mean you can't have an opinion, and make it clear with your vote. I, for instance, think that a leopard doesn't change his spots. If you run as a moderate, then run to the right -- only to fail and become a moderate again -- I'm guessing you'll govern from the right again if given the chance. So I'll be voting for someone other than the gubernator, who apparently doesn't think legislation is the right way to change things (like gay marriage).

Happy election day! I'm not sure she best represents the entire democratic party, but here's to my congresswoman, future Speaker Pelosi -- Salud!

Have an Exit Row, as Long as You're Not a Terrorist

I'm back from Hawaii and back at work this week, so I was planning to say I'd get caught up on my blogging. That was until I had one of the best dates EVER last night. Not that this was too hard, given that the last two include a guy whose somewhat suicidal and one who called me 3 days later to say he was going to "take it to the next level" with someone else. What am I, a Sega game?

I'm hoping to see my gentleman from last night again soon. So this may be all I get to this week.

This trip to Hawaii was for a conference called "The War on Pain". The conference was in Maui, but I wanted to leave open the option of going to Honolulu to look for a place to live if I took the Hawaii job. I originally booked to one-way flights, then changed one of them late. In the end I flew round trip from Oakland to Maui, but apparently I had already raised some flags.

On my flight out of Oakland, I got the full pat down and carry-on bag check. What cracked me up was the way back. I was in line in Maui and an agent asked for my name. When I gave it to her, she said:

"You're on my list. Please step over here."

This time, one of the TSA guys took my checked bag and opened it up to search in front of me. While he was doing this, I heard the agents trying to "open up" a new seat for me, which was odd, given I hadn't asked for a change. I don't know if it was the MD in my reservation (I try not to throw it around, but I'll take any airline perk I can get), but they moved me to an exit row.

Then I got the pat down again on my way through security, and all the explosive checks. BTW - this bothers me NOT AT ALL -- the way I bought my tickets was unusual, and I'm glad they did a little extra checking. Everyone from the airlines and TSA was professional, pleasant, and helpful. And I enjoyed my exit row seat.

A few pictures from the recent Hawaii trips, beginning with Oahu

Sunset from the east side of Oahu:
Mountains on Oahu:
From my window in Maui (the Marriot):
The beach between the Marriot and the Grand Wailea:
Little Beach, the gay/nude beach on Maui. If you try to find it, get good directions:
Sue was is Maui at the same time as I was, and stayed at the Westin. It seemed much more hip than the resorts, and is probably where I would stay if I weren't going to a conference. These are the flamingos (live) from their garden/pool area:

A waterfall in the garden at the Grand Wailea. The place was ridiculous:
Wednesday, I went to Maui's only winery -- it's up toward the crater on the west side of the island. They make pineapple wine, which actually wan't bad. It took me 50' to get there, only to realize that I could see my hotel from the road up. They tell me that it was only 2 miles away, but there were no direct roads through the private property. I think the large white building is the Grand Wailea, where I spent 3 nights.
Don't forget to vote. If you live in California, I suggest voting for a governor who didn't veto a bill to legalize gay marriage. Aloha and Mahalo!