And we're not invited...

I took the blue pill this morning.

The blue pill is my malaria medicine. I have to take it for four weeks after returning from Haiti. I practically bathed in bug spray during our mission but I did get a few mosquito bites. Malaria is one rabbit hole I do not want to go down.

I drove to work this morning in the normal construct. With the windows down, I enjoyed temperatures in the low sixties (in July!!) and listened to Morning Edition on NPR. One story which interested me discussed the new Iranian President, Hassan Rouhani and the ongoing problem of Iran.

This is not Rhode Island

Based on some lazy research this morning I found that Iran is reported to be the 18th-largest country in the world in terms of area at 636,372 square miles, with a population of around 77 million. The official name of The Country Formerly Known as Persia is The Islamic Republic of Iran.

They're a republic; we're a republic. We should get on like a house on fire, right?

Not according to Mark Dubowitz, the Executive Director of the Foundation for Defense of Democracies, a Washington, D.C.-based nonpartisan policy institute. Iran is vulnerable right now with a myriad of economic, social, and political issues affecting everyday living for the people on the street and the status of Iran as a country of influence, both regionally and globally.

Agent Dubowitz

Mr. Dubowitz therefore believes it is the perfect time to "go after" Iran's foreign exchange reserves, exports, and its currency, in order to bring the regime closer to the brink of economic collapse. The reason for taking Iran out behind the woodshed? To force the Supreme Leader, Ali Khamenei, to make meaningful concessions, most prominently with regard to Iran's nuclear program.

Iran is a plague and we are the cure?

Hubris: Noun; Excessive pride or self-confidence.

We need smart men and women in our government. We need smart men and women in positions of influence that allow us to shape national and foreign policies that both help America and allow us to help other nations - our global neighbors. So what message are we sending our children, our fellow Americans and our allies around the world by adopting a policy of economic earth scorching toward Iran?

Agent Smith - I mean Mr. Dubowitz - has worked in venture capital, technology management and law. He has a masters in international public policy from Johns Hopkins University's School of Advanced International Studies, and law and MBA degrees from the University of Toronto. The collective result of which has led him to believe that we can bully our neighbors into doing what we want them to do.

And what about Iran? What is their reaction to the sanction-o-rama that Mr. Dubowitz wants to escalate? Not surprisingly, we're not on the guest list for Mr. Rouhani's inauguration.

If I didn't know better, I'd think that I took the red pill this morning.

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Fell off cliff; still no bottom

Listening to NPR this morning, Steve Inskeep welcomed Michele Norris on Morning Edition. Ms. Norris used to co-host the opposite show - All Things Considered - in the afternoon. Lately she has been working on something called the Race Card project.

During the program segment, Ms. Norris highlighted how writer Ernest Hemingway is famously reported to have challenged some colleagues to write a short story using only six words. So the story goes, Hemingway urged his fellow writers to pony up $10, stating that if his assertion was true - if he could actually write a complete short story using only six words - he would take the pot. If he failed, he would match it.

Hemingway's story is purported to read:

Baby shoes for sale. never worn.

Although the veracity of the legend has never been fully confirmed, the exercise can certainly make for a challenging writing exercise. As Hemingway did, can you write a story with a beginning, middle and end using only six words?

My blogs are usually much longer than six words as I try to adequately articulate the points I'm trying to raise and explore.

To all my writer friends, and anyone else for that matter, please respond with your six words. Then we can all ponder the depth of each story...

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For that 'hard-to-buy-for' person...

I don't know what it is. Maybe it's age; maybe it's attitude. A few years back, you'd never find me listening to anything but music in my car.  With the advent of the CD and, more recently, the MP3 format, one might posit that radio as we know it would fade away like a weak signal on a lonely Arizona highway.

                                         Where's that station...

But as visitors to The Stream might have noticed, I occasionally derive inspiration from my daily doses of National Public Radio. Conservatives amongst my friends may be horrified to learn that I think NPR is a wonderful thing - with the possible exception of Terry Gross. Don't get me wrong, Ms. Gross is a great professional; I just don't personally appreciate the directions she takes in (some of) her interviews.

What about those gift ideas?

Right. Listening to Morning Edition on my drive in today, I heard a brief story about what a great cook Martin Ginsburg was. For the uninformed - which I was until about 6:20 this morning - Mr. Ginsburg is the not-so-well-known (late) husband of Supreme Court Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg. Forgive me for using the familiar, but Marty Ginsburg was apparently well known in his own right for many things, one of which was for being an excellent cook.

                  Justice and Mr. Ginsburg

All this is riveting I'm sure, but stay with me...what got my attention during this morning's segment wasn't the fact that Mr. Ginsburg was an accomplished chef; it wasn't that he was married to one of our Supreme Court justices; it wasn't even the fact that a bunch of people put together a cookbook to honor Mr. Ginsburg (on the occasion of his passing, may he rest in peace). What caused me to sit up and listen was the fact that you could buy said cookbook in the Supreme Court Gift shop.

Say what?

Now, after researching this a little further, it should be noted that the gift shop is actually entitled the Supreme Court Historical Society Gift shop...but that's sure not the way NPR put it out there this morning. Maybe I just missed the nuance.

In any case, as we draw near to the day on which we celebrate the birth of Jesus Christ (i.e. Christmas), some of you may be stuck for what to buy the person in your life who has everything, or never likes what you give them, or whatever.

Starting at the low end - there's actually a link in the left frame of the gift shop's website to gifts that are priced at $0 - $20. Something tells me none of these gifts are free ($0). Anyway, clicking on the link yields sixty-one gifts in that price range, ranging from Supreme Court Pencils (a bargain at 95 cents apiece) - complete with two-headed, gavel-shaped erasers...

                                       Work is now in session...

...to a key-keeper turtle for $19.95. I have no idea what this turtle is doing in the Supreme Court Historical Society gift shop. It doesn't have a logo or anything on it - it looks like the standard key-holding turtle you can buy at the hardware store and hide amongst your bushes in case you forget your house key...I don't know, maybe someone forgot the key to the Supreme Court one day and came up with this great idea...

There are several more price ranges to browse through, all of which have quite interesting items for those on a variety of budgets. But I thought I'd take a peak at what sort of top-of-the-line gear you could score for $500 and up...the highest price range available.

                                             These are sweet!

The next time I pick up a dress shirt, I'm going to be thinking about how cool it would be to have these sterling silver, solid 14kt. gold and gold plated cuff links holding my sleeves together. Then I'll remember the $595 price tag and enjoy my buttons.

The rest of the high-dollar gifts aren't nearly as exciting. For the princely sum of $1,000, you can actually join the Supreme Court Historical Society. And the benefits of membership? Mostly, getting copies of quarterly newsletters and a few other publications. Although you also receive an invitation to some swanky dinner once a year (for which you have to pay extra, I think). But hey, you also get 20% off on any item in the gift shop, so those cuff links are looking better already...

Feel free to browse and, by the way, you could pick up a copy of the tribute cookbook dedicated to Mr. Ginsburg - a tasty bargain at $24.95. But sadly, it's currently out of stock.

Merry Christmas!

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