BROKEN WINDOWS

Wednesday, January 7, 2004

We're back!! And we're actually settled. For a few days at least. We're in Chicago for a week, then we drive down to NOLA for the spring semester. We've spent much of the past twenty-four hours cleaning house, doing laundry, and waiting for the Sears repair guy to come and look at our humidifier. What a life!

Here are a few photos of our trip. We had a fantastic time, as you'd expect. From New Year's in Baja to the wedding in Pasadena, every event was marked by wonderful food (we eat REALLY well in Baja) and stimulating conversation.

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Here's America's wall. With all of the discussion over Israel's proposed wall to separate itself from Palastinians, perhaps they will look to ours for inspiration. This picture is actually of the old wall. There is another about an eighth of a mile north that is futuristic, prison-like. It's a series of scattered steel pillars topped with concertina wire. Imagine looking out of your house each morning at this!

What a view.

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What we see when we drive from San Diego down to San Quintin. This is north of Ensenada. The day was particularly clear; normally the curvatures of the earth jutting into the water are obscured with fog.

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And the view out the back of our little Baja cottage. The lagoon stretches around to the west into a marshland area, and then back around to the ocean. We take a nine-mile dirt road to the house. It's often easier to drive in the wash on the side of the road than on the road itself.

There seems to have been an influx of money into the area recently. The road had been recently graded and many of the shops in town were freshly painted. Also, there was at least one new restaurant: San Quintin Chow Mein, painted red and gold. There has been an increase in Chinese immigration to northern Mexico the past five years or so, which I suppose the new chow mein restaurant reflects. The maquiladoras pay so much more than their Chinese counterparts that workers are willing to sail for days to get here to earn 42 pesos a day. Perhaps the immigration will slow down in the coming years; many of the factories are closing in Mexico and opening in China to match that Wal-Mart promise of cheaper cheaper cheaper.

2:15:15 PM |

Santa, Baja-style. In the background, a window littered with stickers, a fresco of Castro smoking a cigar, and a lipsticked beauty advertising cigarettes.

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Cristo Salva! The mountain speaks.

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Our friend's daughter spins at the wedding reception. She spun herself dizzy over and over again to the amusement of everyone. The wedding was great fun, of course. They are close friends. Two desserts: a rum-soaked fruitcake decorated with sugar elephants made by my friend's mother-in-law, and two beautiful "piece monte," French profiterole mountains. Delicieux!

1:55:32 PM |

This Crazy World We Live In	8/24/05
Casey, the Ring, and S	8/24/05
The National Civil Rights Museum, Memphis, Tennessee	8/23/05
Back in the cool air of Chicago	8/23/05
A few yummy stories...	8/21/05
Friday Baja Blogging, on a Saturday	8/20/05
The vigil, a tattered flag, and S	8/19/05
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That poem from Monday night...	8/18/05
Lives blown apart and the lessons of war	8/16/05
Help Find Muaz Haffar	8/16/05
The rain in New Orleans	8/15/05
Cindy Sheehan, Day 7	8/13/05
A few photos and reflections	8/13/05
Cindy Sheehan tells it how it is	8/12/05
Friday Baja Blogging	8/12/05
The Most Powerful Woman in America	8/11/05
A Father and A Son	8/10/05
The Power of One Mother in Crawford, Texas	8/10/05
Meanwhile, in Iraq...	8/10/05
Good news!	8/9/05
Unbelievable: Martial Law No Longer Plan B	8/8/05
Dreams and houses and granite precipices	8/8/05
60 Years Ago Today	8/6/05
Friday Baja Blogging	8/5/05
The possibility of a Spartacus nation	8/5/05
Dark thoughts and a guide	8/4/05
The blues and all that matters	8/4/05
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What I'm Reading, etc.	7/31/05
A few pictures from Columbus Avenue, San Francisco	7/30/05
A failed experiment and a west coast fortnight	7/25/05
La Loteria: Help Me Create a Web-based Exquisite Corpse	7/25/05
Sadako's 1000 Cranes and a Count of Days	7/25/05
Bouphonia on Julie Powell's Editorial on Organics	7/25/05
Hillary in 2008? Why not?	7/24/05
Friday Baja Blogging	7/22/05
Off to Jail Away from Jail	7/21/05
Orwell, Kafka. Kafka, Orwell. Mingle amongst yourselves.	7/21/05
The insult of "I heart Gitmo" and the administration's "support" of women's rights	7/20/05
The definition of "morally bankrupt"	7/19/05
Guess what? It is possible...	7/18/05
Atheist? I'm not an atheist! God forbid!!	7/18/05
George Lakoff, Framing, and the Democrats' Core Values	7/17/05
The Cult of Personality: We've Fallen for it Again	7/17/05
Ignorance Leading to Fear Leading to Descrimination in NYC	7/17/05
How the cycle begins, how it is perpetuated	7/16/05
Speak truth to power? You must be out of your mind...	7/16/05
Preach it, Sister Vowell	7/16/05
A few links to follow up on the Christian Fascism thing....	7/16/05
"Not in the Name of Islam"	7/16/05
Doc's thoughtful question and a couple of other reads	7/16/05
Friday Baja Blogging	7/15/05
The rise of Christian Fascism: the Blue Voice on Pat Robertson's anti-semitism	7/15/05
Operation Truth needs our help	7/14/05
"Am I Next?": The endless tragedy of a futile mission	7/14/05
Hey France: Happy Independence Day, Y'all	7/14/05
The compounded tragedy of a young man's murder	7/14/05
Seven more...	7/14/05
Word of the Day for Wednesday July 13, 2005	7/13/05
Will someone please get Tom Friedman a dictionary?	7/13/05
Jeremy's rant on Op Truth	7/12/05
Karl Rove has got to go	7/12/05
Beauty and the injection of violence	7/11/05
Excellent Sunday Reading	7/10/05
"The Stain of Torture"	7/9/05
Swerve Left on how to stop terrorism	7/9/05
Where they came from, who they killed	7/9/05
A love of violence and a fear of death	7/9/05
A few worth your time today	7/8/05
Friday Baja Blogging	7/8/05
From the vault	7/8/05
I can't believe it	7/8/05
The sudden rupture of nostalgia	7/7/05
"What is truth?"	7/7/05
What a dark day	7/7/05
Yep.	7/7/05
Morgan Spurlock's "30 Days" Is Genius	7/6/05
And then we jail the journalists...	7/6/05
Eric Alterman goes off on Stingy America	7/6/05
Sarah Vowell in the New York Times	7/6/05
Exvotos and Giving Thanks	7/5/05
Thank our Liberal Ancestors Today	7/4/05
It's hard for me to celebrate independence this year	7/4/05
The warped use of rhetoric to defend the indefensible	7/4/05
"Remember Petey"	7/3/05
The Bush Administration: Balancing Facts with Fiction since 2001	7/3/05
To all the keyboard kommandos out there in cyberspace	7/3/05
The casualties of war	7/2/05
"Criminal suspects are treated better..."	7/1/05
Friday Baja Blogging	7/1/05
My short-lived fantasy	6/30/05
Rieckhoff on Bush	6/30/05
Our war against an "abstract noun" and our glorification of warriorship	6/30/05
"I can't forget the dead."	6/30/05
Coincidence?	6/30/05
"The Live Bait Approach to National Security"	6/29/05
Onward, Armchair Soldiers! May God Bless You All!	6/29/05
The Tragedy of Bush's flawed argument	6/29/05
So thankful for email...	6/28/05
Thank you, mom. I needed that reminder.	6/28/05
Too much worry	6/28/05
Paul Rieckoff on Bush's Ft. Bragg Speech	6/28/05
"Amid the Turmoil, Iraqis...Turn to Books"	6/28/05
China's cyber wall	6/28/05
Sam Hamill on Poetry, War, and Protest	6/28/05
Afghanistan, still broken	6/28/05
Thank you, Washington Post, for keeping on the DSMs	6/28/05
The Nightmare	6/27/05
Deconstructing Michael: Ignatieff on the Butcher's Block	6/27/05
It's about trust	6/27/05
Michael Smith on Downing Street, from the LA TImes	6/24/05
Tom Friedman, the Left's David Brooks	6/24/05
Fighting Myself	6/24/05
Our new reality of the absurd	6/23/05
Quagmire? There's no quagmire!!	6/23/05
Photos from S: Asadabad	6/23/05
Karl Rove on the Downing Street documents	6/23/05
"I only feel bitter disappointment"	6/23/05
In the swing of things	6/23/05
Sorry...light posts for another couple of days	6/20/05
Knock, knock. There's still a war on.	6/20/05
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Granta's "What we think of America" and Mishra's article on jihadists	6/17/05
The Chicago Tribune is pathetic	6/17/05
Joe Conason on the press's coverage of the Downing Street Memos	6/17/05
Chalk another one up for our good neighbors, KBR	6/16/05
Operation Truth's Jeremy Lewis on the Downing Street Memo	6/16/05
Email from S	6/16/05
Downing Street Live Chat: Read it, Please!	6/16/05
The "Colombiazacion" of Mexico, the "Mexicanization" of the US	6/16/05
Downing Street Memo Live Chat -- Right Now	6/16/05
Check it out! Sgt. Zach in the news!	6/15/05
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HanniBolton Lecter at Zen Comix	6/15/05
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A few funny searches	6/14/05
Why the Downing Street Memo is important	6/14/05
Praying at the graves of al qaeda "martyrs"	6/14/05
Howard Dean in Chicago	6/13/05
"What is life worth?"	6/13/05
The NY Times: on the road to obsolescence	6/13/05
Back in J-Bad	6/13/05
The most important story of our time	6/12/05
The reality on the ground: training ANA and Iraqi troops	6/11/05
"Yellow is not our color"	6/11/05
The ever-growing disconnect	6/11/05
What I Miss	6/10/05
Why I hate Colin Powell	6/9/05
Photos from Afghanistan -- Around Jalalabad	6/9/05
It's too much to ask	6/9/05
Thank you John Conyers	6/9/05
This has got to stop.	6/9/05
Photos from Iraq on Operation Truth's website	6/8/05
Reality Check, Please	6/8/05
The Ideological Battle of our Time	6/8/05
Making Waves, Not Ripples: Thank you, Sgt. Zach	6/6/05
Who I am -- an attempt to keep me in the blogosphere	5/31/05
Too much bitter in that pie.	5/28/05
Maybe more funds for PTSD; meanwhile, "part-timers" get no coverage.	5/27/05
Inventor of Freedom Fries Chokes on His Own Creation	5/25/05
Leadership, anyone?	5/24/05
More evidence...	5/24/05
Watch today's edition of Democracy Now!	5/23/05
Truth obscured, again	5/23/05
"Maybe lying's not a big deal anymore"	5/23/05
Civil War?	5/19/05
"let's remember what it means to send people to war"	5/18/05
The only thing I can offer	5/17/05
"a democracy can die of too many lies"	5/17/05
That heartbreaking photo...	5/15/05
Oops	5/15/05
Our Excellent Support...	5/15/05
Complete and utter insanity...	5/15/05
"Identity Crisis" Indeed	5/15/05
The Stop-Loss: What it really means to soldiers	5/14/05
Help vets with PTSD: contribute to Operation Truth	5/14/05
What the hell is going on?!!	5/14/05
News from the war America forgot	5/12/05
Comments are back!	5/11/05
A Soldier's Thoughts...brilliant Iraq soldier blog	5/10/05
Our out-to-lunch press...	5/10/05
"A Deadly Guessing Game"	5/10/05
Cindy Sheehan's Mother's Day Letter	5/9/05
"The Marines' Flawed Body Armor"	5/9/05
Some New Orleans pictures...	5/9/05
Forty-eight soldiers dead	4/30/05
Photos from Afghanistan	4/30/05
Afghan Irrigation System -- from S	4/30/05
The Worry	4/27/05
Our Lady of the Kennedy Underpass, Chicago	4/24/05
A few outrages from the road...live from Mississippi	4/24/05
Where are the feel-good, hippie-type christians?	4/22/05
"Think About How Crazy All of This Is"	4/22/05
A Litany of Bad News	4/20/05
Thank you, Rhye	4/19/05
Heil Papa	4/19/05
No news to report...right?	4/19/05
I've had it with bigotry	4/19/05