Whooah, MEXICO!

I just returned from a trip to Acapulco with my wife. It was a family affair really--7 of us all in our 30's--3 of which were her cousins and the rest of us spouses. We stayed at her cousin Miguel Angel's shiny new abode on a jungle hill overlooking the Pacific. It was a full on 3 day lock down party. I left the house once and that was to get more booze. There really was no reason to leave. We had a maid, a cook and a pool boy who took care of our every need. I was reprimanded for trying to get a beer by myself. Basically it was a 5 star vacation without the bill. It was a priveledged Mexican experience to which I have had little prior exposure.
I learned a thing or two as well. The first thing I learned was that if you have money and you drive around Mexico City, you want to drive a car that does not betray your social status and make you a target for thieves. Miguel Angel's driver picked us up in a non-descript Dodge sedan at the airport. I have to say I was expecting something a little more opulent when I learned we were to have a chauffeur. However, when we arrived in Cuernevaca (just outside Mexico City) at MA's house things started to make sense. In the garage were the requisite high end German autos you'd expect to see in such a setting which leads to the second thing I learned: if you live in Cuernevaca and you happen to be wealthy, you register your automobiles in Mexico City. That way the bandits will not bother to follow you home and rob you because they figure you are not a local.
We settled on the Porsche Cayenne for our ~3 hour drive to Acapulco. My wife and I both maintain that the Cayenne looks extremely similiar to the much cheaper Hyundai Santa Fe not that you'd ever get a Cayenne owner to agree. I can, however, vouch for the performance of the Cayenne as we hit a top speed of 120 mph and probably averaged no less than 100mph the whole way. We were able to drive in this manner due to the fact that the toll road to Acapulco is pretty deserted (and very beautiful by the way) as most people take the free road which is much longer, and we had a radar detector to alert us of any imminent Federale ambushes. The most unnerving thing about the whole trip was coming upon the numerous road crews with little to no warning. All of the sudden we would round the bend and there'd be a man in the middle of the road frantically waving his flag. The Cayenne slows down almost as fast as it accelerates. I wonder how many Mexican road workers die each year?
The third thing I learned is that I do not know as much Spanish as I think I do. I relearn this lesson every time I travel to a Spanish speaking country. Sure, I can order from a menu, ask where the nearest cantina is and string together a handful of random verbs, nouns and phrases I've learned over the years; but I am nowhere near fluent.
Having a bilingual wife has its benefits and drawbacks. The major benefit is I am able to listen to her speak for hours on end and attune my ear to Spanish and ask her any question pertaining to the numerous idioms that make the language unique. For example, I wanted to ask her cousin who was older--her or her sister? So I asked, "quien es mas vieja?" which directly translates as "who is more old?" This implies that the subject is old in the grandmother sense which I learned when my question was met with a small look of shock then laughter. Evidently the correct way to ask this question is "quien es mayor" who is major? Go figure. Well now I know, and I won't forget that lesson. The only drawback to having a bilingual wife is that I tend to rely on her to speak for me and translate instead of trying to figure it out for myself which makes me lazy, but I think in the end the benefits far outweigh the drawbacks. Give me 3 to 6 months immersed in Mexico and I will come out of it fluent. Now please, somebody, hand over the time.
So the days were spent lounging by the pool only to be interrupted by the occasional meal. The evenings were spent lounging by the pool only to be interrupted by the occasional meal. One of the guys with us has a profound appreciation for rock anthems of the 70's and early 80's. He had with him numerous CD's he had burned that had just about every song you thought you'd forgotten and would never hear again. Songs from bands and artists such as Styx, Steely Dan, Asia, Kansas, Peter Cetera, REO Speedwagon, Meat Loaf, Genesis and on and on. One night we listened to these CD's well into the morning hours. It's amazing how many lyrics to songs I had not heard in about 20 years I remembered. It was a tribute to the power the mind to be able to dust off long forgotten lyrics and recite them in real time.
The last evening was spent drinking tequila, howling at the moon and bustin' out traditional Mexican jams on the classical guitar, bongos, tambourines, clanking sticks and maracas of every shape and size. We proceeded to sing just about every folk tune in the land of Mexico. Two of my wife's cousins are quite talented, the rest of us just tried not to ruin their groove. I guess MA was impressed with my bongo skills because he gave them to me along with a bagful of other noisemakers. They won't go to waste!
Since I had the airline tickets I was charged with getting us out the door on time. 3:45p flight, 15 min to airport, leave the house around 2:40 no problem. We were about 1/3 of the the way there when I decided to look at the tickets again. Much to my horror our departure time was actually 3:25p. A quick look at the watch told me it was 3p--10 min to the airport still--oh man it's gonna be close! We literally slid into the plane like a base runner sliding into home on a squeeze play with 3 minutes to spare--much to the chagrin of the standby passengers just about to board ahead of us. Mexicans are notorious for being fashionably late, but even this was a little too close for the comfort of my wife and her cousin and husband who were on the same flight with us.
It was great getting to know some of my wife's cousins that I had never met. It was also great to reacquaint with the ones I had met in the past. Listening to them speak and relive tales of their youth eventhough I was only able to interpret the gist of the conversation was nice. I was able to weave together a mosaic in my mind's eye that painted a telling picture. One thing that I suspected but was proven on this trip: good music and food sprinkled with plenty of drink is an excellent way to combat a language barrier.

Update: Prop 77

GOOD NEWS! Let's put it to a vote!

From the WSJ editorial section today:
Lockyer OverruledAugust 17, 2005; Page A10
California's Supreme Court decision Friday to restore a redistricting measure to the November special election ballot is bad news for state Attorney General Bill Lockyer, who was trying to have it removed on a technicality. But the ruling is very good news for anyone fed up with the state's rigged system for electing lawmakers.
In California, incumbents draw their own district lines, which has made elections as suspenseful as professional wrestling. Of 153 state and Congressional races last November, not one seat changed party hands. Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger has made redistricting reform a centerpiece of his agenda, and nearly one million Californians signed a ballot initiative, known as Proposition 77, to turn redistricting over to an independent panel of retired judges.
Mr. Lockyer, a Democrat in cahoots with legislators who oppose the reform, sued to remove the initiative from the ballot, citing minor wording discrepancies between the version submitted to his office and the one shown to voters to collect signatures. He claimed such sins as substituting the word "appoint" for "select" constituted fatal flaws that would endanger "public confidence in the initiative process" if left unchecked.
When these columns criticized his move, Mr. Lockyer sent us a letter suggesting he was merely trying to protect voters from devious populists. Well, not quite, said the state's high court. "We conclude that it would not be appropriate to deny the electorate the opportunity to vote on Proposition 77 on Nov. 8, 2005, on the basis of such discrepancies," said the court in a 4-2 decision. Mr. Lockyer's antics underscore the desperation of politicians out to prevent competitive elections. There will be more between now and November.

Iraq Unfiltered

Most people realize intuitively if not overtly that "if it bleeds it leads" is the mantra of the mainstream media (MSM). Being a reporter in a war zone is a hazardous affair, and I can understand one's desire to hole up in a hotel room in the Green Zone and pass off rumors and the like as bona fide news stories in order to meet deadlines; and I believe the majority of the population will swallow these stories without too much thought or question. If one listens to only the MSM day in and day out, one may be left with an impression that does not necessarily square with the reality of the situation on the ground. This may or may not be the intent of the reporter, but that's the subject of another blog entry. Fortunately there exists a cadre of independent journalists in Iraq that truly risk their lives each day in order to give the world an alternative and unedited version of what is really going on. Michael Yon is one if them. His blog is the best I've found yet on the subject. I strongly encourage you to check it out and support him if you are able.

Choosing your constituency

My grandfather accumulated a lot of wisdom in his 99 years on this earth. When he chose to share it--usually over a cocktail at happy hour--I would listen eagerly and try to retain as much as possible. Some of the more memorable things he said are the following: on finance-- "there's no friend like money in the bank." On health and ageing: "moderation is the key." On religion--"Religion is no damn good" On women--"if you stand women on their heads they all look the same." Much of what he said was tongue and cheek as he had a wonderful sense of wit and humor, but the one thing that he said that has resonated most with me over the years has to do with politics: "our government is not perfect, but it's the best damn government out there." That's worth remembering from time to time.
In my home state of California, Gov. Schwarzenegger is in the process of trying to break the gridlock that has maintained status quo for better or for worse (mostly worse) for at least the past decade. One of the measures he is in the process of getting on the ballot for the upcoming special election is Prop. 77, the redistricting-reform measure. This would take congressional redistricting out of the hands of lawmakers and put it in the hands of a panel of retired judges. As it exists now, basically congressmen can choose their constitituency through a process called gerrymandering. This all but assures perpetual re-election as evidenced by the fact that not one single seat changed hands in the last election among the CA congressional delegation.

The WSJ has more today in their editorial section:
A sharply split 2-1 decision by the California Court of Appeal regarding
the fate of Prop. 77, the redistricting-reform ballot measure, speaks to the
intense politicization of the state's initiative process. Prop. 77's proponents
have filed an emergency application to ask the California Supreme Court to
preserve the ballot measure.
In 2001, state Republicans and Democrats (aided by technology which allowed a whole new level of voter profiling) struck a brazen deal to draw districts: This resulted in an election where for the first time in modern California history not one seat changed party hands. Prop. 77 calls for immediate reform by mandating an independent panel to draw districts
impartially.
Democratic Attorney General Bill Lockyer and his confederates in
the legislative leadership have attempted to characterize what were essentially
clerical mistakes surrounding Prop. 77 as some kind of conspiracy between the
proponents, Arnold Schwarzenegger, and a million Californians. Frankly, if the
legislative chairs want to investigate a conspiracy, they should start with the
AG's own bizarre legal renderings: For months, he used his authority to write
title and ballot summaries in a partisan fashion to discredit Gov.
Schwarzenegger's reform package. His characterization of a general budget
spending cap measure as "School Funding, School Spending" was such a blatant
attempt to stir up voter concern over education that he was forced to rewrite
summary and title. When questioned by the press about the redistricting
proposition, the AG offered that while he'd always been a proponent of removing
redistricting power from the hands of the legislature when he was a state senate
leader, he thought Prop. 77 was "kooky."
The AG's campaign against this measure smacks of Wonderland: "First the verdict then the trial." In the wake of the Court of Appeal decision, there is talk of copycat lawsuits challenging the plethora of initiatives which have become law. And flying through California's
buzz-circuit was a story -- which may be apocryphal -- that in D.C., on hearing
of the ruling favorable to the AG, the most right-wing GOP member of the
California delegation as well as its most liberal Democrat, both leading
opponents of fair redistricting, were seen embracing.
The special election this fall is more than a clash between Gov. Schwarzenegger and his Janissaries versus the Democratic legislature. It is potentially the Second Act of the
Recall -- the second stage of a revolution to reclaim sovereignty.
(Mr. Mundell is chairman of Californians for Fair Redistricting.)

Gerrymandering is like putting the fox in charge of the hen house. Governing should be about consensus, but with an incumbent solidly entrenched through gerrymandering it makes a candidate mount a more radical campaign than may be necessary. In their quest for votes it forces them to gravitate more to the fringes--be it the left or the right--rather than towards the middle where compromise and consensus rule the day.

If anybody wonders if AG Lockyer has ulterior motives in his blatant obstructionism, remember that he has his eye on the governorship. He's also the one who said the following after the collapse of Enron in June 2001: "I would love to personally escort (Kennneth) Lay to an 8-by-10 cell that he could share with a tattooed dude who says, 'Hi, my name is Spike, honey.'".

There you have it. The California Attorney General officialy sanctions prison rape in the penal system.

This is when I remind myself, "it's not perfect, but it's the best damn government out there." Sometimes I'm not so sure.