Paul Stanley there is our 2006 jack-o-lantern. The guy on the right was carved by some friends of ours.

Happy Halloween.

Joey took his first trail walk on this perfect autumn weekend. It wasn’t too scary and it seems he’ll make a good hiking dog. Phoebe came along too, but Joey tended to stand between her and the camera.

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Want to make a fast friend by saving a greyhound in Central Texas? Check these pups out. Or go here to find a greyhound near you. You can also go here to find out why greyhounds are running for their lives.

If you have dogs who need proven leadership, go here to find a cat.

We lived in The Philippines from 1979-1982. I joined the Boy Scouts in ‘82 and the first big trip I went on was a reenactment of the Bataan Death March. The real march occured in 1942 when Japanese soldiers marched 10,000 American and Philippino prisoners of war to their deaths in one of the uglier events of the war.

We spent most of spring break with American scouts from all over the Far East Council as well as scouts from The Philippines and other Asian nations. We camped on the beach each night and each morning we were bused to where we had left off the previous day. The picture above is of a carabao, a kind of Philippine water buffalo, along with a few of the guys from the troop taking a break.

We saw a lot of the Phillipine countryside and one day walked through a village where heavily armed men - I’m talking ammo belts around their shoulders like Mexican revolutionaries - stood cradling their machine guns and smoking cigarettes while we hiked past. Our scoutmaster told us to just keep walking and “don’t stare.”

It was one of those experiences that has stayed with me, that made history come alive and through sore feet and tired legs, we all got a small taste of what those brave soldiers endured during World War II.

There are a few more pictures here, here, and here.

Update: I have now correctly spelled carabao. Thanks to Heather for reminding me of the difference in spelling between caribou and carabao. It would be odd to actually see caribou in The Philippines. But who knows, there is at least one tropical island that has polar bears.

Yes, I’m meme stealin’ from George, but I love the randomness of the ipod giant shuffle. I’ve had the thing for almost a year, but I’m nowhere near getting all of my CDs ripped and itunesified. I’m about halfway, though I think I’ve gotten most of the jazz (exluding all of the rarities, alt-takes, and obscurities from the all the Coltrane and Miles box sets), which is interesting since this comes out as a jazzless ten:

1. “Fake Plastic Trees” - Radiohead
2. “Didjeridoo” - Tortoise
3. “I Hung My Head” - Johnny Cash
4. “Si Tu Disais” - Calexico
5. “Good Advices” - REM
6. “You’re All I Need to Get By” - Marvin Gaye
7. “Lost in Bessemer” - Yo La Tengo
8. “One Bedroom” - The Sea and Cake
9. “The Book and the Canal” - Calexico
10. “Childhood’s End” - Pink Floyd
11. “Drug Test” - Yo La Tengo

Okay, I see now that that’s eleven. I suppose there’s a reason I don’t teach math.

Anyways, that’s what’s been playing the past hour or so.

When you go to the grocery store and they ask you, “Did you find everything all right?” what is the correct way to answer?

Do you say, “Yes. I was able to locate every item on my list.”?

Or do you say, “Yes. I had a pleasant shopping experience.”?

I’m never sure.

Oh boy, oh boy! My first batch of political junk mail arrived today. Let’s start with a nice crisp folding card stock piece with a matte finish from the Texas GOP. It suggests that I “Vote for Your Texas Republican Team” just above pictures of the very same Texas Republicans who have already demonstrated what amounts to either an inability or an unwillingness to govern.

The inside portion is a handy list of all the early polling locations in my county along with the times that the polls will be open as well as what appears to be a booger (an act of bioterror?) above the name of the public library in Round Rock. Well, that’s helpful (the info, not the booger), I thought until I read the message at the bottom:

By voting early for all Republicans, you can zip in and out and make sure your vote is counted for Texas’ future.

I guess if I vote for Democrats my vote won’t be counted for Texas’ future? Or will I just have to wait in a longer line? Well, I better vote a straight GOP ticket if I want to make sure my vote will count.

Ok, let’s take a look at the next one. It’s from Republican Lt. Governor David Dewhurst. He’d like me to vote for him so that he can lead the effort to pass Jessica’s Law. The flyer ticks off all the ways sex offenders would be punished and has a picture of Jessica Lunsford who was raped and murdered by a previously convicted sex offender. This sounds good to me, and I applaud Mr Dewhurst for wanting to protect kids, but why, Mr. Dewhurst, haven’t you done anything about this already?

You’ve been the lieutenant governor, which means you’ve been in charge of the senate, for the past four years in a state completely controlled by your party. Was redistricting more important to you than protecting kids from sex predators? Well, Sir, I appreciate your concern for this issue, but I think I’ll vote for someone who hasn’t already squandered her time in office, thank you.

Now that the Texas GOP and the Dewhurst campaign have each wasted a few pennies trying to convince me that they care deeply about their party this state, I will apply the final insult… off to the RECYCLING BIN!

<evil laugh>BWAAAA-HAAAAA-HAAAA</evil laugh>

When I was a debate coach, one of my female students had a reputation for shredding her opponents’ cases so badly that they were afraid to debate her. At one tournament she came out of a round just giddy and full of adrenaline. I asked how the round went, and she proudly stated, ”Mr. Brush. I made a boy cry.”

Perhaps that’s what my congressman John Carter (R) fears. Last Friday I wrote about his unwillingness to defend his record. To recap, Carter has on several occasions refused to debate his Democratic opponent Mary Beth Harrell because she has not yet “earned the right” to debate him.

The next morning, an Austin American-Statesman article suggested that the reason for not debating is not fear, but actually strategy:

“There’s nothing good that can happen as a result of debating your opponent when you’re an incumbent,” said Sean Theriault, an assistant professor of government at the University of Texas. “The only thing you do is give your challenger a chance to appear on the same stage as you, which equalizes the playing field.”

The article mentions three other incumbents: Mike McCaul (R), Lamar Smith (R) and Lloyd Doggett (D) all of whom represent parts of Austin and central Texas, who, like Carter, refuse to engage in this most basic of democratic events. It’s a shame that candidates aren’t required to face their opponents and let ideas clash considering that the clash of ideas is supposed to be the key tool for developing policy in a democratic system.

They can call it strategy or scheduling conflicts all they want, but from here it looks like arrogance or, worse, cowardice. If it is strategy, it is a truly shameful one.

As Mary Beth Harrell said of Carter: “It tells you everything you need to know about my opponent,” Harrell said. “They’re saying they think he can’t win if he shows up at a forum. It’s not about what’s best for voters, it’s all about winning.”

The last thing these people want is to be considered as anything other than cogs in their respective party machinery. If they face off with their opponents people like me might actually weigh the candidates individually. In Doggett’s case (before redistricting he was my congressman) he would do well and would probably earn a greater share of the votes.

In the case of Carter, it seems that he would be found lacking. It is as if he only wants us to know that he is the R in this race, his only selling point being that he will be a willing GOP rubberstamp for the failed policies of the Bush administration.

It’s a shame that an incumbent can get away with this craven behavior.

Truly pathetic.

I decided to try out Slate’s Green Challenge co-sponsored by Treehugger. It’s described as an eight week carbon diet:

For the next eight weeks, Slate, in collaboration with eco-Web site treehugger, invites you to consider your own individual contribution to global warming—and challenges you to go on a carbon diet. The goal is to reduce the amount of CO2 that you put into the atmosphere by 20 percent.

You start with a test that estimates your individual carbon load. I used my car (not the hybrid my wife drives) and came out with a carbon load of 18,274 lbs, which is the equivalent of 1.79 cars. According to the results page for my test, the US average is 44,312 lbs per person so I’m not doing too bad there. I guess it helps to already be aware of some of these things.

Each week for the next eight weeks, I’ll log in and make a series of ‘pledges’ to do things that will reduce the carbon load in a specific area. This week it’s transportation. I will keep my tires inflated, make sure the air filter in the car is clean once a month, and drive 25 fewer miles per month by combining errands. I also realized that I can save 10 miles per week by taking an alternate route to work. If I do these things, I can supposedly take the equivalent of .25 cars off the road.

I could take more had I been willing to ride trains (Nope. I live in Texas.), carpool (with whom?), purchase carbon offsets (not sure I trust that one), and buy a hybrid in the next six months. The hybrid would be nice - we love ours - but reality is reality and greyhounds are big dogs and I need something that can haul them all. I’ve got a Honda CR-V and it’s great and gets decent mpg, but I’ll probably wait on the hybrid until hybrid CR-Vs come along. Honda sales people say it’ll be in a year or two.

Here are some other transportation things you can do courtesy of Slate:

• Keep your tires properly inflated by checking them regularly when you fill up at the gas station. Environmental Defense notes that 32 million U.S. vehicles ride on at least two under-inflated tires, wasting 500 million gallons of gas each year.
• Drive 65 miles per hour instead of 75. This increases fuel efficiency by 15 percent, thereby reducing emissions. And speeding tickets.
• It seems almost too obvious to point out, but idling cars get zero miles per gallon. According to the Department of Energy, no more than 30 seconds of idling is needed to warm up a car, even on cold winter days.
• Cutting your driving by a few miles each day stops tons of CO2 from entering the air each year. Could you walk or bike to do that nearby errand? Could you carpool or commute by mass transit—even just one day a week?

So, there it is. If I keep my pledges, I will have reduced my carbon load by 14% or 2558 lbs. If my math is right (a large if), I only have to lose 6% more carbon, but I’ll go for as much as I can. Won’t you join me?

Yesterday, The Austin American Statesman gave its endorsement to Rick Perry in an editorial that was, shall we say, less than ardent:

We would be more enthusiastic in recommending Perry’s re-election if we were sure that the governor will follow the direction he set for himself the past 18 months. Our reservations notwithstanding, Perry, 56, is the best of the five-candidate lot.  

The best part of the editorial is actually the headline, which is - get this - “Perry best fits Texas’ need for serious leadership.” After a quick check to make sure I wasn’t reading The Onion, I realized that the Statesman really was endorsing a man whose performance doesn’t exactly inspire the phrase ’serious leader.’

Maybe I’m missing something here, but the man who sent a budget of 0’s to the legislature, who only truly committed himself to one issue in the past six years - congressional redistricting re-gerrymandering, who only made school finance a priority when the courts forced him to isn’t the most serious of leaders. Leaders, after all, lead, but Perry typically follows, and the people whose orders he follows? Grover Norquist, James Leininger, and Tom DeLay. You can tell a lot about a guy by the company he keeps.

The only thing Perry has succeeded in doing is acting on school finance and only because the courts forced him to deal with it, and ‘deal with it’ is about all that was accomplished. True, the last eighteen months have been better than the previous four years in the same way that a cold is better than the flu, but why not support a candidate who doesn’t have this kind of record of poor leadership, a candidate who would actually work with both parties rather than just the Republican majority?

A Democrat, Libertarian or Independent would have to govern in a bipartisan way. It simply makes no sense to return an empty suit governor to power when there are four other candidates any one of whom could easily clear the low bar set by Perry.

I can’t for the life of me figure out why the Statesman picked Perry unless, perhaps, they haven’t been reading their own paper for the past six years. Of course, they also choose Bush. Twice. Fool me once… oh, never mind, now that I think about it, I’m not at all surprised.

One year ago today, Action Phoebe, the hound of adventure, came to live with us. Over the past year, she’s learned to go for walks, got an education, had a few baths, and made herself at home. She came to us as a spooky greyhound, but she’s come out of her shell so much that people have remarked that she’s turned into a lab.

Her real birthday is November 8th when she’ll turn 3, but we celebrated today with a long walk down the trail near our house and perhaps, later, they’ll enjoy a bowl of Frosty Paws. She’s a great dog, but then aren’t they all?

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Want to make a fast friend by saving a greyhound in Central Texas? Check these pups out. Or go here to find a greyhound near you. You can also go here to find out why greyhounds are running for their lives.

If you have dogs who need proven leadership, go here to find a cat.