Another Coffee Cup

So Mr. President, have you seen Brokeback Mountain?

I don't know how I missed this earlier, but a few days ago on the 23rd, President Bush was visiting Manhattan, Kansas speaking at the state university there when someone from the audience asked if he had seen Brokeback Mountain. Bush seems caught off guard by the comment and doesn't really know how to react to it.

I guess it was pretty embarrassing for the administration, because several days later when Laura Bush and Education Secretary Spellings were in Mississippi, the CNN reporter on the scene--who I forgot already--mentioned that no one had yet asked the two if they had seen Brokeback Mountain.

So if you want to embarrass a president who claims he's a Westerner and a rancher, please mention a gay cowboy movie.

San Francisco Tip #124: Fort Point

If you want to see one of the coolest places in San Francisco, I recommend this place.

Fort Point is one of those places that not many people outside of the City know about. Probably because you can't really see it unless you look really hard. And once you're there, you have the best view of the Golden Gate Bridge.

Fort Point was built between 1853 to 1861 by the U.S. Army to guard the entrance of San Francisco Bay. Made of brick with multiple gun ports staring out into the Pacific and into the harbor, it is one of the only forts of its kind built on the entire North American West Coast. Built with the idea of protecting the city from the British and later the Confederates (who thankfully never came), the fort saw no military action, and after the turn of the century, became a depot and training center.

When the Golden Gate Bridge was built during the 1930s, several of the engineers plans included demolishing the fort altoether, since it lay right below where the bridge would lay. But a solution was found by building an arching overpass over the fort. Thanks to that plan, the fort is still here today.

Walking around the fort is like stepping back into time. Inside, several century old naval cannons aimed out at the ocean stand behind thick, thick brick walls. The soldiers and officers quarters are also open to visitors, where you snoop around in their sparse rooms. The federal National Park Service do their job by showing that this was not a comfortable place to be stationed at. It was cold, windy, relatively isolated, and probably at times, excruciatingly boring.

If you close your eyes, you can imagine soldiers in their Civil War-era blue uniforms, marching up and down the corridors and  the inner court of the fort, loading and unloading cannonballs, greasing their guns and drilling more, all at the same time with a howling wind and chill-to-the-bone air.

With the military long since gone and now a low-key tourist spot, it's probably one of the best places to get pictures of both the bridge and the City. Check it out.

Thoughts on the Canadian Election

According to Google Earth, my home here in Davis, California is approximately 678.43 miles from Canada. Or more specifically, a pair of small rocks sitting in the Juan de Fuca Strait just outside of Victoria, British Columbia is the closest piece of Canada (never mind consulates) that is close to me.

In other words, it's pretty damn far away.

Normally I don't read political weblogs. It's not that I don't like them, but rather that political blogs can skewer anything their authors wish to present. I can paste an article from a newspaper or other source I like, write a lot about it, argue for it, and there voila, press enter and publish it. I am sure there are many fine political blogs out there, Left and Right, Republican or Democrat, liberal or conservative, and I know I too have sometimes have done my share of politics here, but mainly I try to avoid it. Doing that kind of political discussion is simply way too easy, and just lacks the same bite or piece de resistance that other modes of media may have.

But forget all that: I'm going to talk about Canadian politics.

Now since I am an American, I cannot vote in their federal elections. Nor will I probably ever. But what's so interesting for me, as a political science major and as someone who knows the parliamentary and presidential systems, is just how interesting it is to watch from afar. Unlike the U.S., where we have two main catch-all parties and some minor ones in several state legislatures, Canada has four large parties nationally and many other ones in their provinces, each appealing for many different audiences.

On the federal level, you have the centrist Liberal Party--the governing party--who spent 75 out of the 100 years of the 20th century as governing the country. But presently they're in trouble, as allegations of financial corruption have become very public.

Then you have the Conservative Party. This party is a relative newcomer to the scene, created out of a unification of two other right-of-center parties, the old-time Progessive Conservatives and the Canadian Alliance. Currently they're ahead in the polls, and seemed poised to win more seats in Parliament tonight that might give them a government (or for us Americans, an administration).

Then you have the Bloc Quebecois, a separatist party based in--yes, you guessed it, Quebec--that has been around for a little more than 15 years and wants greater sovereignty for that province. They generally are to the Left.

Then finally you have the New Democratic Party, known mostly as the NDP. A Leftist party affiliated with the Socialist International, they are as close as a mainstream North American party can get to similar parties found in Western Europe.

If the polls are correct, the Conservatives will more than likely get a very (and I mean very) slim majority to have a Prime Minister. Much of this is due to the Liberals falling popularity over their Quebec financial scandal and the poor campaign they have run. Also, after nearly 14 years of Liberal rule, people maybe simply tired of Liberal governments and will vote for others, like the NDP and the smaller Green Party.

All of this is good news to the Right. Even though their party leader (and therefore defacto prime ministerial candidate) Stephen Harper is seen as largely lackluster, dull, and to the eyes of some, too close to American Republicans and their socially conservative agenda, the Conservatives just may have their first government since 1993. Disillusion with the Liberals will mean votes being split to other parties, and in some cases, may also just switch some voters from the center to the Right.

If the Liberals never had the Quebec financial scandal and were not in power for the last 14 years, we very well would otherwise write-off Stephen Harper and the Conservatives as being serious contenders. But 2006 seems to be their year. Combined with a strong campagin, plus weak Liberal credibility and general tiredness of their long rule proves that it isn't entirely necessary to have a strong, charismatic party leader to win an election. But it always does help.

And what about the United States? Well, from here in California, Canadian politics seems more as a Trivial Pursuit question than something that could otherwise directly affect people's lives. It'll be something that some people will see on C-Span when they flip through the channels tonight. Perhaps in the northern border states, the election will have more of an impact. But 678.43 miles away? Not so much.

Or really? Canada sits on one of the largest oil reserves in the world. With the increasing crises over Iran's nuclear program and veiled threats to turn off Western oil taps if tensions increase, oiled eyes will look elsewhere. If Canada gains a Conservative Prime Minister, or more really, a closer ally to Washington than the Liberal Party has been in the last five years, those 678.43 miles will seem a lot closer.

This brings into question the other parties--the Bloc Quebecois and the NDP. If both of those parties gain more seats in Parliament tonight at the Liberals expense, and the Conservatives do in fact win, then the Conservatives will not command a majority of seats to push a conservative agenda or a far closer relationship with Washington. Instead, they will have to find legislative allies to continue a government, or else face a no confidence vote that would bring yet another election.

We'll see.

Post-Graduate Life

Wow. UC Davis is done.

Complete.

Fin.

That's all folks.

I've worked myself all the way to this point, and after years of reading assigned books, writing essays, having group discussions, and presenting projects in front of an entire class, all of it came down to me in a funny-looking black tunic and hat, shaking hands with the chancellor, and receiving an envelope enclosing papers on joining the alumni association. Sadly, you don't get the diploma at the ceremony, but a few months later in mail.

It was a bit anti-climatic then, I have to admit. But thinking about it now, it was a good feeling. A friend of mine, who now works for the federal government, told me that the best part about graduating is not exactly having your name called out on the arena PA system, with your friends and family all shouting and screaming your name, and shaking hands with the chancellor, but rather that first moment of coming out onto the arena floor. Thousands of people seated above you, like spectators at a Roman coliseum, cheering you on with a jet roar of clapping hands and whoooops. They don't know who you are exactly. But they know they're cheering for the whole class. And that...well...is a great feeling.

And now comes life after college. The whole thing is done. It's the Real World. Gone are the days of going to class and taking notes during the lecture. In are the times of filing documents, taking phone calls, learning about pension and medical benefits, and working 8 to 5.

Houston, all coordinates are set to go.

But before I can get there, other things have to be put into order. Like finding a job in the first place. So far, I've turned in around six job applications all over the Davis area. If something doesn't materialize here, then Sacramento or San Francisco are always probabilities. They're big cities with big job markets. Maybe something there, or even here, or maybe somewhere else.

We'll see.