Sarah L. H. Palin will you please go now!

Sarah L. H. Palin will you please go now!
The time has come.
The time has come.
The time is now.
Just go. Go. Go! I don't care where.
You can go by moose. You can go by bear.
Sarah L. H. Palin, you could fly through O'Hare!
You can go on a snowmobile. You can go on skis.
You can wear your lipstick. But please go. Please!
I don't care. You can go by bike.
You can go
on a giant elephant
if you like.
If you like you can go in an old red shoe.
Just go, go, GO! Please do, do, DO!
Sarah L. H. Palin
I don't care how.
Sarah L. H. Palin will you please 
GO NOW!
You can go by Prius. You can go with Phish.
You can fly across a Bridge to Nowhere, if you wish.
You are scaring all the states that are blues.
Every time you're on CBS Evening News.
Sarah L. H. Palin don't you know
The time has come
to go, go, GO!
Get on your way, please, Sarah P.!
You very much annoy the freakin' heck out of me.
You can take the Straight Talk Express.
Please leave this awful election year mess,
To be just only an historical footnote,
Rather than a Democratic get-out-the-vote!
I don't care how you go. Just git!
Sarah L. H. Palin! I don't care how.
Sarah L. H. Palin
will you please GO NOW!
I said
GO
and go I meant . . .
The time had come
 so . . . so Sarah went?

(With apologies to Dr. Seuss & Art Buchwald)

Sorry posting has been light the past, um, month... Between a very healthy course load and drinking wine with a straw, Alden's been a touch busy.  We'll try and ramp it up again here at Whiskey Tango Farley...

XTHXBYE

Rain, rain, go away.

It is raining in DC.  There is a hurricane or something.  So to bring some laughter to your doorstep, here's some humor:

Alden doesn't have much to say this morning (afternoon?) so he will read Thucydides all day and hope the sprit moves him later.  So he will just leave you with a couple of YouTube classics.

Also, if you haven't seen the Jim Henson exhibit at the Smithsonian yet, it is amazing, and very much worth a visit. 

And in the "I want that boat category," just incase you were wondering what else Alden would like for Festivus:

It is clear that Alden just learned how to embed video in Blogger and it is still quite novel for him...  We promise to return to insightful geopolitical-economic-sociological observations soon.  But weekends are for some fun, no?

I want that boat!

Wow, so Alden woke up this morning from a healthy ten hour slumber and soon found himself with a deep, deep desire.  To borrow a favorite line from Napoleon Dynamite:  "I want that boat!"

(H/T: Noah at Danger Room)

Alden didn't intend to re-start Whiskey Tango Farley like this... but come ON, that video is just awesome.  The original idea for today's post was to raise awareness of a dangerous and very annoying trend that has gained considerable popularity in recent times: Astroturfing.

Alden learned of this practice during Prof. Visser's Political Psychology class in the autumn of 2004.  "Astroturfing" is the creation of a fake grassroots movement that attempts to legitimize the agenda of a political or corporate interest by making it seem way more popular than it might actually be.  It is a facet of a public relations campaign that can often (brilliantly) influence and persuade voters, consumers, or policy maker in supporting the cause or product being sold by the Astroturfing entity.

But for Alden, the fear of someone attempting to Astroturf him (attempting to manipulate his views and values through covert means) just makes him ignore the various NGO-looking things that advertise on TV or in the magazines that he reads.  Alden already hates commercials, and he usually mutes them or ignores them unless they are selling beer or cars.

So with the recent political (and rather astroturfing-looking) campaigns, such as one.org or wecansolveit.org, Alden chooses Rational Ignorance:  don't care about it because doing so is a waste of time because the knowledge will not benefit him at all, probably.

So in this political season, Alden politely asks you all to be especially wary of advertisements.  Who knows who is backing them?  A political or corporate entity? A well-meaning group of politically minded citizens?  Or does it even matter?  Perhaps these boundaries are so blurred that we should just ignore everything politically oriented and try and find out how much Alden can get for one of his kidneys, and is it enough for a dolphin boat?

You stay classy, San Diego.

PS:  The Onion also had a great little piece on the Astroturfing plague.

And we're back!

Dear loyal Whiskey Tango Farley readers:

We're back.  Alden is back in the District of Columbia, and he is back in school.  And Whiskey Tango Farley is back!  

The original impetus for this website was that Alden would be traveling in a pretty wild part of the world and the mass-group-email thing didn't really appeal to him.  And most of his friends use Google Reader or some other RSS feeder, so Whiskey Tango Farley would be just as effective as group emails, but less in your face blah-blah-look-at-me-I'm-traveling.  Also, the Syrian government reads everyone's emails, so Alden felt that maybe more candid (and funny) observations could be shared via a quasi-anonymous blog with less chance of finding himself chatting with the mukhabarat.  Given his propensity for drunk and disorderly conduct while in foreign countries, the less he ran into the police, the better.

So now Alden is back in DC.  The School for Advanced International Studies is back in session, and one of Alden's favorite things about all his recent book learnin' is that he has further fine-tuned his Bull Shit Filter.

So prepare yourself: Whiskey Tango Farley will attempt to be a regularly updated source of Alden's patient rants regarding economics, politics, society, and anything else he feels ought to be of general interest.  We will travel together through expansive fields of rent-seeking and creative destruction towards a glorious escape from autarky.  (Does that even make sense?) There will be laughter; there will be tears. But what we are working towards are insightful little posts that make the reader go, "Huh. That's cool. But Alden must have too much time on his hands to have thought of that; has he started any of his term papers yet?"

Alden also got a shout-out at P$'s awesome blog today because he has a dangerous curiosity of private military contractors.  The shout-out made him feel warm and fuzzy.

So coming soon, to an RSS feeder near you, will be Whiskey Tango Farley with a slightly new focus.  Get excited.

Side Note:  Alden's enjoyed writing in the third person, but he isn't wedded to it.  If you feel strongly one way or the other, he will accept votes for the next 72 hours.

Qlden vs. The CDG Computer

Alrighty... Alden planned on adding a post during his nice long layover in Paris Chuck De G. airport, but the computer has a horrible french keyboard with lots of letters and buttons in the wrong place! (Which he only realized after buying time on a CDG computer!)

What is written above, written as it usually would be on a god fearing American computer, appears as such:

Qlrighty::: Qlden plqnned on qdding q post during his nice long lqyover in Pqris Chuck De G: qirport but the co;puter hqs q horrible french keyboqrd zith lots of letters qnd butto,s in the zrong plqce1 9ahich he only reqliwed qfter buying ti,e on q CDG co,puter1)

Qlden*s giving up qnd just typing qzqy qt this point qs he nor,qlly zould; so just deql; ok§

The flight fro, Q,,qn aqs pretty eqsy; but the plqne; qn Qirbus 320 zqs entirely unco,portqble for Qlden*s blessedly tqll frq,: Qir Frqnce didnùt fqil in provifing q terrible egg breqkfqst: it zqs very unedible. Q auiche; zith BQCON111 zqs found in CDG; its only redeq,ing aqulity thus fqr::: it hqs been tzo ,onths since Qlden*s hqd qny bqcon; qnd he indeed loves bqcon:

ok; qcutqlly; this is just silly; the butto,s qre too ,essed up; there zill be ,ore qdded lqter zhen Qlden is less exhqsutesd; qnd hqs q nor,ql co,puter::: Ti,e to go find so,e duty free bowwe:::

Heading home!

Ok folks, Alden is heading home today! Well, technically tomorrow, but at 1:45 am, so that feels like it is part of today, right?

So what's this guy been up to? Alden's been relaxing on the Dead Sea, then he got to Jerash- Some Roman ruins north of Amman. It is always crazy seeing Roman ruins in the Middle East...

Then two full days of shopping with his mother. This involved going to lots and lots and lots of handicraft shops- environmentally friendly & sustainable development eco-tourism co-op's for female empowerment. They had all sorts of handicrafts and entirely unreasonable prices. Wow. It was very crunchy and Vegan and such.

But Alden didn't complain much; there is duty-free liqour as his reward.

This need's to be short- Alden's hungry- but here's one of the best things he's seen thus far: A taxi with a customized shifter- this thing had a little button on the top, much like a fighter plane, that HONKED THE HORN. Yes, just in case you are shifting gears and cannot wait a second longer, it was possible to honk the horn via the shifter. Amazing.

Alright, pray to St. Christopher- Alden's off to the airport!

(More to come once back in the US...!)

Aqaba, Wadi Rum, Dana, Dead Sea, oh my!

Ok, sorry people, Alden's been on the road!

Let's keep ourselves in order for clarity's sake: But first: Alden is healthy and has no broken bones, dispite himself.

Petra day 2:

Hike up to above the Treasury (aka the Indiana Jones building) for some stunning Alpha-Male poses. Pictures to be sent very soon, Inshallah! Then drive "TO AQABA!" (If you haven't seen Lawrance of Arabia, you might not understand the hilarity of screaming that quote every 15 minutes so or in the little POS Hyundai Alden rented...)

Aqaba! A really, very, extremely hot (weather-wise) town on the Red sea. Lots of new developments- impossible to find the beaches mentioned in the out-of-date Lonely Planet. Dinner obtained at a sea food restaurant. Sea food is eaten. YUM.

Aqaba day 2: Sit on the beach all day! Woohoo! Down at the Royal Jordanian Diving Club (really not that exclusive if they let Alden in, eh?) a day at the beach was had. This was nice to recover from the extremely physical days at Petra. There was a huge US Navy ship docked nearby, and soon young navy guys and gals started rolling into the diving club. They wasted no time at all in locating the beach bar. Go Team America!

Side ntoe: Foodstuffs were obtained at the local Safeway (crazy!).

Then- To Wadi Rum! This was Lawrence of Arabia's hide-out during the Arab Revolt. Stunning place. Alden and Mother found housing at "Beit Ali" and promtly rented ATVs to go dune bashing for a couple of hours.

Lesson learned: If you are going too fast on an ATV (Alden discovered they top out at nearly 60 mph) and you find yourself nearing a dune's drop-off of unknown height, don't go down it. But should you fly off a dune at a very fast speed, make sure you are able to roll faster than the ATV. If you are agile and blessed with the tawny thighs of a jungle cat, like Alden, you might roll faster than the ATV, but you will certainly lose your shoes (like in a cartoon) as you roll down the dune (faster than the ATV, remember that!). You then will get a little lecture from the ATV guide about not going so fast. But, Good Times! No broken bones!

Then Alden and Mother (who was clever enough not to crash her ATV) headed into Wadi Rum Village, to rent camels. This is not a comfortable means of transport. After 2 hours, Alden's legs hurt in the way they hurt after running 10 miles, in the rain, during the Cherry Blossom Festival. Seriously, after thousands of years, the best saddle was a hunk of wood? Yikes, it hurt. But beer helps this go away...

Wadi Rum day #2: Rent a Jeep! (With a driver who knows where he's going, naturally.)

After sleeping in a bit, Adlen and Mother head into Wadi Rum to hire a jeep for an 8 hour tour. He times it perfectly (what else would you expect from this guy?) so that the tour ends at a "sun-set spot" exactly before sun-set. Brilliant. And it was! Wadi Rum is indeed best viewed from the back of a pick-up truck jeep thing (with a cloth cover for shade). Simply stunning. Alden had a great time- scrambling up a couple of rock bridges, and hikes, during jeep tour pauses; good times were had. There isn't too much wild life- a few camels, lizards, and very blue birds. And indeed, the sun setting over Wadi Rum was the type of thing that inspires poets. Wow.

Then- To Dana Nature Reserve. Alden will be honest, he would have skipped this place if Team Awesome hadn't recommended it. Great suggestion, Team Awesome! Like Wadi Rum, Dana is really, really quiet. Alden loves the quiet; quite the contrast to "honk first, break second" Damascus! After a siesta, a good afternoon walk around Dana- up a nice little mountain for a "view point" which really understates the absolute beauty of the place! Alden and Mother stayed at a nice little hotel in the middle of the 15th century ruins of Dana village. Excellent place to view the sun setting down the valley of Dana.

Then- To the Dead Sea! So to really rough it, Alden and Mother are staying at the Dead Sea Marriott. This place is great. Alden quickly made friends with the bartenders who gave him several complementary beers this evening as he viewed the sun setting over the Dead Sea. (So Alden likes watching the sun set, ok?) The Dead Sea is still very salty since the last time he visited in July. Soon Alden will find his way to the "Sports Bar" to find a steak and ESPN.

It has been a good time in Jordan thus far, and a full day at the Dead Sea Marriott tomorrow! Woohoo!