On the Radio Again

I'll be on Alaska Public Radio's morning show from 1-2pm EDT, talking about the history and constitutional aspects of impeachment.

First Red Sox Nation, Then Colbert Nation

It's been an happy start to the week for a couple of the imagined communities which I'm proud to claim as my own. First, Sunday night, the Boston Red Sox staked a claim to being the team of this young milennium by winning their second World Series in four years. Then the latest polls out of South Carolina showed that Stephen Colbert is running in fifth place among Democratic presidential contenders. (Go to YouTube and watch the clip of Chris Dodd's face when Tim Russert tells him on Meet the Press that he's behind a TV comedian.) Colbert also apparently gains 13% of the vote nationally in a hypothetical three-way race with Hillary Clinton and Rudy Giuliani.

The Red Sox as the toast of baseball -- again! -- and the most talented TV/pop-culture empresario of our generation (yes he's better than Jon Stewart) at the top of his game... ya gotta love it!

My First Radio Appearance as a Cato Staffer

This evening at 6:15pm EDT I will be on the Chris Baker Show on KTRH (Houston) discussing the case of Medellin v. Texas. Live streaming audio at ktrh.com.

Argentina Week

This week I was able to enjoy two cultural experiences emanating from the country to which part of my soul belongs, Argentina.

First I attended one of the final performances of Mario Diament's Cita a Ciegas ("Blind Date"), an appropriately melancholy vignette of life in Buenos Aires with not-so-subtle evocations of Jorge Luis Borges -- one of my favorite writers. This play opened to rave reviews in Buenos Aires, and I'm delighted to live in a city where it can be performed in Spanish (and Argentine-accented Spanish at that!). This was actually my first time to the Gala Theatre, which is located at 14th and... way north in Columbia Heights. I came away impressed by the ambiance, and discovered a new neighborhood for myself besides.

The second event was another movie at the Latin American Film Festival, Ciudad en Celo ("City in Heat"). From the Festival's website:

[Hernan] Gaffet’s character-driven comic debut, a light intelligent comedy,
centers around Buenos Aires’s Garllington pub, the daily meeting place for
Daniel Kuzniecka, who has recently instigated a spectacular break-up with his
girlfriend, and his group of late thirty-something friends, all variously
unlucky in love. Into their group comes tango singer Dolores Sola, who’s one of
the guys but also a catalyst for some emotional maturing. Her torchy singing
adds spice to the movie’s cockeyed romance.

A little cheesy, but about right. Made me long for for long afternoons in Buenos Aires cafes...

Sweet Sunday

Sometimes you have one of those days that's just "lovely." This past Sunday, I was wakened at my usual PT time by the sunrise over the Potomac, casting all the monuments in a red-dawned silhouette. Then I went for PT, quite a long loop across the river, past Arlington National Cemetery, through Washington Harbor and Georgetown, and back.

Then it was time for a brunch of fresh cheese, bread, fruit, coffee, and the Sunday paper at the Marvelous Market off Wisconsin Ave. Then some strolling around the aforementioned monuments in the sweet Indian Summer afternoon.

Then a Princeton Club of Washington reception in the backyard of the Club's President's home, where my stories of "How I Spent My Summer Vacation" were a big hit. Then back home for the season premieres of the cartoons (The Simpsons, Family Guy, American Dad).

And off to sleep, for sure to dream...

Concerts Part II

Saturday night I journeyed up to the 9:30 Club, where I hadn't been in some time, to take in Iron & Wine, whom I refer to as "that soft-sounding guy from the Garden State soundtrack."

Turns out not only does he sing softly and mellifluously, but he looks like a young God. I don't mean Jesus, but rather the wide windswept face and flowing locks, just normal-hair-colored, not all-white. It was a good show.

I also discovered this new Jamaican food place called Tropicana Eatery, where I will now be going for a pre-game meal before every 9:30 concert. We had jerk and curried chicken (they were out of goat) with rice, beans, and fried plantains. Delicious. I don't recommend the chicken pattie, however, which we only got in the first place because the beef ones were just then being baked.

Concerts Part I

Continuing the theme of cultural-events-every-night-of-the-week, Friday I went to the Bob Dylan concert at Merriweather Post (which is a lovely outdoor venue halfway between DC and Baltimore). Traffic was ridiculous so it took us about two hours to get there, thereby missing the opening act and most of Elvis Costello.

Then came Bob. And he wa disappointing. I mean, I mainly went to be able to say to my grandkids that I've been to a Bob Dylan concert, but I kinda was hoping to be entertained as well. The problem was that he only sang one song I knew ("Everybody Must Get Stoned"). And everything he sang was completely incomprehensible. They should've had supertitles, like they do at the opera.

Oh, and Merriweather ran out of food, other than hot dogs and popcorn. At least the beer, while expensive, was free-flowing...

American Film Renaissance

Last week I snagged VIP tix to two movies in the American Film Renaissance (AFR) festival. AFR's motto is "the art of freedom," and its films contain various libertarian currents.

The first was "The Call of the Entrepreneur," which explained the role that entrepreneurs play in economic growth by weaving together the stories of a Michigan farmer, a New York banker, and a Hong Kong media magnate. Remarkable, and there was even a sizeable shout-out to Hayek. Well done, Acton Institute.

The second was "Weirdsville," and this movie was definitely weird. Set in a small town in Ontario (represent!), it follows the one-night travails of some small-time drug addicts. A pretty funny flick -- best part involved midgets dressed in full-on medieval regalia -- but not sure where it fit into the theme of the festival...

The after-parties on both nights were well put-together, the first at Poste Moderne Brasserie in Chinatown and the second at Blue Gin in Georgetown. A good time had by all.

I'd Rather Be Blogging

My new employer is gonna try to sponsor me for a green card, so I've gotten a lot of homework from the immigration lawyers to make this happen. Putting together a CV, documenting everything on it, soliciting letters from employers in just the right way, etc. It's like, everything I do at work, I'm thinking, I should be using this time to do green card stuff. But the green card stuff is so boring (and depressing -- what if it doesn't work, can't afford to get my hopes up when they've been dashed so many times before).

I wonder what my life would be like -- what I'd be like -- if I hadn't been dealing with this huge psychological hit all these years. And yet... maybe this time it will work. It would be awesome. And it would certainly take a lot of pressure off my dating life.

Mission Statement

So where am I taking this blog now that I'm back from Iraq? Good question.

My rate of posting has obviously trailed off precipitously since I left "The Big Dirty." Most of this has to do with how busy I've been transitioning out of one job and into another. Plus I haven't actually spent any weekends at home, having gone to NY for the US Open finals and to Miami for a friend's much-belated 30th birthday party.

It's also partly due to my trying to figure out what I want to write about here. Clearly I'm not devoted to Iraq 24-7 any more. Nor is there any reason for me to post constitutional/legal stuff here -- because I should save that for op-eds and other writing/research that I do in my new career as a recovering lawyer (and even the Cato blog).

So I think I'll stick to what I had in mind when I first envisioned blogging many months ago: This blog will be devoted to my observations from living in Purple America. Purple America, of course, is a state of mind, and represents the confluence of seemingly incongruous cultural and political affinities. My tastes and values reflect that. And that's what I'll be writing about.

Beer and Pizza

About half and hour ago I got back from Cato's weekly Friday happy hour. The media people run it and, apparently, there's always a theme. Tonight's theme was "back to school."

That is, back to college. So there was beer and pizza and wings. And wine for some reason (did girls drink that in college?). Unfortunately, I arrived 10 whole minutes after the thing started -- had been reading the recently released transcript of the Khalid Sheikh Mohammed testimony -- so there were but a few slices left, and almost nothing that wasn't vegetarian. (Why do people always order too much vegetarian? Why is it always us carnivores who are left with nothing appetizing to eat? But I digress...)

A few Coronas and some scintillating conversations in various languages later, I returned to my office to provide you, dear reader, with this (and the previous) blogpost.

The Trip Home Part III

[More on the never-ending journey -- which it seemed like, given all the sleeping in hangars, tents, and planes, plus showering and changing socks once in five days, etc.]

There had been an issue earlier regarding my need to have my passport stamped because I was coming in on a new visa so I could work at Cato. Fort Benning doesn't typically do immigration paperwork, other than stamping diplomatic/government passports for visiting dignitaries/military officers, so they were gonna call in a DHS official specially for me, but now that I was on the R&R flight to Atlanta that would not be necessary.

Instead I breezed through customs, thanks in no small part to my "handler," and proceeded to the Avis rental counter (Hertz was out of cars if you can believe it) to get a ride to go to Benning and drop off my army-issued protective gear.

"Thank you for your service," I heard from an early-40s soccer mom type as I exited the Avis counter with my rental car keys. I was in uniform, you see -- not having had a chance to change and, in any event, still being in transit till I got home later that day -- and naturally the untrained eye wouldn't pick up the civilian designation on my rank badge. I didn't know how to respond, so I smirked sheepishly like a teenager commended on some achievement. ("Aw shucks ma'am it was nothing.") After that I was prepared, responding to every such entreaty -- and there were several -- with "my honor, ma'am/sir." (Not worth explaining that I wasn't actually in the army, etc.)

Similarly, when an hour later, on the interstate near Columbus, Ga., a copper flagged me for going 81 in a 55 zone (I honestly thought it was 70), it was probably my uniform that got him to downgrade it to 65 -- but who knows really how they exercise their discretion -- saving me points and notification to the DC authorities.

Anyhow, I got back to Benning, navigated the bureaucracy to be able to drop off my body armor and helmet -- normally one would have to wait to make formation at 0730 the next morning to accomplish this task, but, of course, I was a VIP -- had lunch with the lieutenant who had previously been my escort, and drove back up to Atlanta to catch my flight home to DC.

At the airport the security guys waived me to the first class lane, and I mentioned that I wasn't actually in the Army. "Well," the senior one said, "you're in uniform, you're comin' from Iraq, and you look beat, so go on right ahead." Fantastic.

I came home, again uneventfully, took a shower and went to bed. It was good to be back from Iraq!

The Greatest Love of All

On Tuesday night I attended the premiere of this year's Latin American Film Festival, the 18th Annual such event in DC. The event started with a reception in the atrium of the Inter-American Development Bank (IADB) and continued with the screening of the award-winning Brazilian film, O Maior Amor do Mundo ("The Greatest Love of All").

This sweet movie tells of a middle-aged professor who makes a triumphant return to Rio while battling terminal brain cancer. He ends up on a journey through time and urbanity to find out about (and find) the mother who abandoned him at birth. The acting is just right, the cinematography stark. I recommend it.

The Trip Home Part II

Almost three weeks have passed since I returned from Iraq and I still haven't finished telling the tale of my trip back. As you can imagine, catching up on being away for two months, not to mention changing jobs and careers, has taken up what would other be prime blogging time. Even as bloggable material has never been better.

Ah well, when I started this thing I promised myself that I would not let it make me feel guilty about not writing. My other writing tasks (professional work, op-eds, a book proposal, etc.) already do enough of that and I don't want this to become another concern in the back of my mind. Nevertheless, when I have something to say in this space, I'll say it.

So, about the trip home... Kuwait is basically worse than Iraq if you don't count the security risk. It's a few degrees hotter, a few grains sandier, and just generally more austere. My billet was the upper bunk -- with no sheets -- of a super-air-conditioned tent that sleeps 16. There are hundreds of these tents sprawling across the desert at Ali Al Salem Airbase. Actually, "sprawl" is the wrong term, because it would not be possible to lay them out in a more orderly grid.

Beside the rows of tents are trailers containing showers and bathrooms, segregated by sex. Behind all the trailers are the MWR facilities (two gyms, a basketball court, a beach volleyball court, two recreation rooms with multiple movie/video game consoles) and outdoor "mall." The latter is pretty impressive, housing not only a McDonald's, KFC, and Green Beans Coffee, but a jewelry store, Middle Eastern bazaar, laundry/dry cleaner, and a couple of other establishments I'm forgetting. All the comforts of home, more or less. Then beside that complex is the DFAC. Standard fare there, just like Baghdad.

After passing out on my bunk (and somehow not freezing to death), I awoke in time to make the 0900 stand-by manifest for the R&R flight. They found me a seat! Which meant I had exactly four hours to PT, eat, re-pack my gear, and show up in the "big tent" to begin the travel process to Atlanta. All this I did, and began reading Randy Barnett's Restoring the Lost Constitution.

The remaining process was drawn-out but fairly painless. Scanning out my CAC card, unpacking and re-packing both my duffels (security check), sitting down to read and watch a movie on the big-screen TV in a "departure lounge," and then making the final formation of my "army career," as the chaplain wished us godspeed and we boarded a series of buses that would take us to Kuwait International Airport (about 75 minutes away).

We boarded a "World Airlines" jet, which seemed to have the same interior design and features as the ATA plane I came in on, and were wheels up in no time. After a brief layover in Leipzig (my first time in the former East Germany), we uneventfully arrived in Atlanta airport.

An Alternative History of the Global War on Terror

On Monday I went to AEI's first Bradley Lecture of the season, where Lynne Olson gave a talk on her book, Troublesome Young Men, about the backbenchers' rebellion that ousted Neville Chamberlain and installed Winston Churchill as PM in May 1940.

Equally interestingly, earlier that day Newt Gingrich gave a fascinating speech with his vision of what the last six years might have looked like had the administration (and rest of the government and country) taken the Islamofascist threat as seriously as is deserves to be taken. The above link has video, audio, and an as-prepared draft of the speech. Ah, Newt, if only your style of governance had been a little smarter -- you coulda still been the Speaker during 9/11.

Petraeus/Crocker Testimony

Today is my second day at my new job at Cato. Yesterday I was too busy getting settled and such to follow the big hearings on the Hill but today I'm happy as a clam with live streaming video on cnn.com. (I brought in the TV I had in my old office, but the cable connection in my office is covered so i haven't been able to hook up yet.)

It's a unique feeling to have witnessed some of the lead-up and prep for this testimony during my time in Iraq -- and now to see the results. I feel privileged, humbled, and a part of history.

Dinner at Dino's

Last night I met a friend -- a reporter planning to embed in Iraq at some point -- for dinner at Dino, the famous Cleveland Park eatery. It was really nice. Because we met right at 7:30, we were able to order the three-courses-for-$24 deal (good Sun-Thurs if you order before 7:30). I had this bulgur wheat and bean salad, followed by lamb pasta. Scrumptious. And some nice Malbec, with ants crawling across the bottle ("Hormigas"). Cheese in lieu of dessert as third course. Wonderful. This type of food, combined with the PT regime I've combined since returning from Iraq, has me feeling quite healthy.

The Trip Home Part I

It has now been a week since I arrived back in the good ol' U.S. of A. At this time last week I was hurtling in my rental car from Atlanta airport to Fort Benning, where I would spend all of three hours (turning in my body armor and having lunch with my escort from that first week at Benning).

The journey began late Tuesday night, August 28. I was told to show up at the Rhino station an hour ahead of "manifest call," which was supposed to be at midnight. (Rhinos are those armor-plated RVs that lumber down the road in convoys with support from Humvees.) So, after having one final cigar with my boss, I took my duffels (with the aid of a naval petty officer and Aussie sergeant), and walked over. At midnight they took down our names, eventually filling seven Rhinos.

Then we waited. And waited. At one point I caught myself watching most of "Turner & Hooch," the Tom Hanks/canine comedy from the 80s on the TV conveniently set up there for all of us "loiterers" at the "bus station." Finally at about 2:30am we boarded the Rhinos and set off for Camp Victory, whence I would be whisked to BIAP (Baghdad International Airport, pronounced "bi-op").

The trio down Route Irish (named after Notre Dame) was uneventful except for two rounds of tracer fire that were shot been the lead Humvee and first Rhino. Well, not exactly between, more like over. It was odd, and a bit frightening, but in the end did not seem aimed. After picking up my bags at our destination -- all passengers formed bucket-brigades to get them off the tractor-trailer -- I was taken to BIAP for some more waiting.

It turns out the first formation was at 10:35am, so I had a long and fitful night of "sleep" on the airport gate-style chairs set up in a hangar-style tent (which was air conditioned, thank God). After showing up at formation, I managed to grab a standby seat on a flight that would be departing "sometime after 1." So I went over to the DFAC, had my last meal in Iraq, then came back and... waited.

At 3:15 they called our flight, so we put on our body armor and marched over and onto the C-130. This flight was manned by a Japanese crew for some reason, and said crew didn't like people have ammunition magazines on them. So everyone, including and especially soldiers, surrendered their ammo into a sort of lost and found box for safekeeping.

As expected, it was HOT in the plane, and it seemed that everything I was wearing was soon drenched in sweat. The flight down to Kuwait was uneventful -- though this was about 24 hours after the Congressional delegation, flying the same route, was fired upon.

Upon arrival at Ali al Salem Airbase in Kuwait, I couldn't believe that it was somehow hotter and brighter than Iraq. Nevertheless, I was able to quickly shed my body armor, pack it into my spare duffel, and leave all that by the bunk I was assigned in another large air conditioned tent (capacity: 16 bunks). I found out that the "Freedom Flight" to Benning on which I was booked wouldn't be leaving till Saturday Sept.1, but that if I showed up the next morning (Aug.30) at 9, I could maybe get a standby seat on the "R&R" (because soldiers were going home for 15 or 18 days of R&R) flight to Atlanta. This I planned to do. After a quick shower and some food (and a change into shorts from my ACUs!) I felt like a new man.

Also, The Sky Is Blue

An apparently serious article -- on CNN.com, not The Onion -- reports that men place a high value on good looks when choosing a mate.

Gosh I hope that study wasn't funded with taxpayer money.

Best. Law Firm Recruiting Site. Ever.

I've heard of Choate, Hall & Stewart, but only obliquely because their only office is in Boston. Nevertheless, they've come up with the best recruiting presentation I've ever seen -- better than I imagined possible. Almost makes me regret my imminent departure from legal practice and want to apply for a job there. Almost.