I spent my Thanksgiving in Redwood Shores, a nice little town next to Redwood City (town motto: Voted Climate Best By Government Test) that also happens to be home to Oracle and some other high tech outfits. That's my uncle, Myles, and I on the left. It was a good time. The atmosphere was very intimate, and this allowed us all to converse freely.Of course, being in Northern California, and because we are in an election year, politics came up. The subject of Rumsfeld's being charged by a foreign court and the threat of impeachment came up in conversation. Now, every good conversationalist knows that there are two absolute taboos for polite dinner conversation: Religion & Politics. Needless to say, I ignored this rule (and usually I'm so very good at being diplomatic ...) and made a little argument against American citizens being tried in foreign courts. If anything, I conceded, he should be tried here before anywhere else. My dinner companions were generally on board with the idea, though I think some of them saw me as some sort of "Red Stater" isolationist (which, honestly, I kind of am, sans The Red State stuff -- I'm a total Independent (go figure)).
On that note, I'll take a moment to remark on the very odd political climate that is Northern California. Such a liberal place, while still retaining such "hoity-toityness", it seems a real contradiction. My uncle, by the way, is predicting very good things for the country in the next 2 - 4 years, because of the Democratic controlled houses. He is sad that I have grown up under the Republicans. "You've never seen how good it can really be!" He says. Sadly, I am kind of indifferent. I vote, I do what I can in that arena, but then I take my hands off. Because, really, what's the point of getting all steamed up over it? What can I do about things? I realize (and you can call me jaded) that the political machine in American is much, much too large for me to have any direct personal affect on. Or, if that is not the case, well then, I am just kind of lazy. So it goes.
