Dan Lipka Web Log

On my weekend get-a-way to Paris, our little group was walking along the outskirts of a very famous artists’ marketplace and we saw a young collage-age girl playing a musical instrument on the corner. She was a good looking white girl, dresses nicely and obviously trying to make a few Euros by playing music. A man was talking to her in a very serious voice and she looked quite distressed. Lindy’s friend, a French woman who has lived in Paris all her life said to me in a frustrated tone, “That man works for the government and is making her leave [because she doesn’t have a permit], they are such racists”. I was taken back by her racist comments as the woman and the undercover police officer were both white. She explained to me that the French police often target the respectable looking white people because “they don’t want any trouble”. That the ethnic minorities were aloud to get away with more because the police feared that if they tried to interfere there might be problems. I

Lindy, Molly, and I decided to jet off to Paris for the weekend. We left Friday and came back Monday; this being one of the great benefits of being married to a Flight Attendant. I had never been to Paris and it was a rushed, but very good experience. Part 1 – Notre Dame – Three Quick Thoughts As we walked through one of the most beautiful buildings in the world, Notre Dame de Paris, I was amazed, awed, inspired, and curious. The stained glass was pure and bright, the details intricate and beautiful, the rooms were original and functional. Notre Dame implored many emotions, but one thing that it seemed to completely miss was joy. Nobody was smiling, nobody laughed, nobody looked happy. There was no joy in the art or in those stone walls. I noticed this half through my walk inside and at the end I mentioned it to Lindy, and as I did, I noticed the two people in front of us smiling, their faced filled with joy and love, and I thought my theory was quickly proven wrong. But they weren’t

(After a tumultuous week of clashing over the essence of the cosmos, the International Astronomical Union stripped Pluto of the planetary status it has held since its discovery in 1930. FULL STORY. ) Ode to Pluto Once you were so big, The hero of the Kuiper Belt. You shared the podium equally with the giants of the solar system, You were one of the nine great balls of dirt or gas that circle our sun. Alas, through no fault of your own, you are vanquished, Never to be a “planet” again, never to be a hero. You were just too small, too squashed, too far away. You are too cold, too lonely, too 1930s. Poor poor Pluto, you are just some icy nothingness now, Your once proud place in history is no more….OR Perhaps I shall choose to have hope in you, my Pluto. Perhaps you shall not die so quietly, Perhaps you will fight back. So if you can hear me, I challenge you to defy the odds once again, Gather passing dust with the arm of your gravity, Convince your icy brethren to live on your surface,

Team of Rivals , Team of Rival, Team of Rivals; thatss all I have been reading for months. This book never wanted to end. This poly-biography was the story of the four men who campaigned for the Republican Presidential ticket in 1960. They were William Seward (the statesman from New York), Salmon P. Chase (the radical abolitionist), Edward Bates (the conservative family man), and Abe Lincoln (the unknown rail-splitter). It seems like hundreds of pages were dedicated to the men before the Republican convention and they were grueling to say the least. Since I didn’t know much about three of the four men, I couldn’t put their youth into any context. Anyway, Lincoln was chosen at the convention and ran for and won the Presidency. The name of book, Team of Rivals, was appropriate because once Lincoln was in office, he choose his cabinet members from all political backgrounds, including all three of his former advisories. The story goes on and on, through the Civil War and vast polit

In the Connecticut’s Democratic Senatorial Primary, Ned Lemont is taking on incumbent Joe Lieberman. Lieberman is best known for adding nothing to Al Gore’s presidential bid and than siding with Republicans on several important issues like invading Iraq and his general support for Bush during the war. Basically, Lieberman is a true moderate, neither democrat not republican, neither standing for anything, not fighting anything. His ties to the Democratic Party are so weak that if he loses the primary, he said he would run as an independent (yes, he would run against the very person he just lost to, in hope that he take many republican votes away from the actual republican candidate). Now, I admit, I know very little about Ned Lemont, except that he is really rich, is opposed to the war, and wishes he had a different first name. So my vote goes against Lieberman because I know he and I share very little in the ways of political ideology. As a resistant of Connecticut, I think Lemont will

For years I have happily used ebay, buying and selling hundreds of items and getting 267 feedback messages (100% positive). Over the years, Ebay bought and integrated Paypal, an online payment system, which made payments easier and more accountable. As a seller I had the choice to have a regular Paypal account (which I don’t have to pay extra, but can’t accept credit cards) or a Business account (which I have to pay a commission on all transactions, but could accept credit cards). I choose the first option and told people in my listings that I could only accept Paypal if its through a bank account and not a credit card. I did that for over a year and was happy paying ebay a commission on everything I sold and using Paypal for free. I put an item up for sale last week, and a few hours before the auction was to end, I got an email from eBay saying that it was removed because I can not say that I do accept Paypal, but not with credit cards. Now if I want to use Paypal I am forced to

Selling out to the man? No, I’m just testing this whole AdSense project. So excuse the silly Google ads at the top, they won’t be there forever. And if this blog is being secretly read by millions around the world, I could make 2 or 3 buck, woo-hoo.

My Cousin Andrew and his wife Stacy had their first baby yesterday, Zoe Elizabeth - 6lbs 6oz, 18 inches long. She is my aunt Sharon’s first grandchild, which brings her slightly closer to my mom’s six grandchildren (my aunt and mom are twins). I wish them the best of heath and happiness and it got me thinking of what advice I would give to them (basically what I have learned over the past year). Here is what I got… - Books are nice, but all kids are different. - All kids are basically the same, so whatever you think is wrong is very common. - Little babies can still learn good habits. - Little babies forget or outgrow their habits every few weeks - Children never stop teething, so don’t use it as an excuse too often. - The first year does not go by quickly, but you will forget all about in a few years. - The ruffles on diapers are important. - Don’t over-medicate the kid, but some meds are priceless (like baby

I was wondering about the impact of my existence on the world. Perhaps when people think about their impact they think about making a substantial change, but I’m talking about making the tiniest of change to someone life. How many people in the world have been impacted by my existence? This includes people that have had to wait an extra two seconds because my elevator stop was before there’s. People who got to work a second later because my car was on the road. People who had to grab a different bag of chips in the supermarket because I got the one before. And to go further, what about all the secondary impacts? Was that person in the elevator meeting someone else, who now had to wait a little longer for them to get there? What about people that I affect substantially, such as my daughter. Her whole existence, and everything she impacts, can be attributed back to me. I have friends from other countries so my impact might be international. What if I was at the airport and someone missed

Who are we? The best answer to that question that I have heard (and believe) is that we are a collection of our habits. If you look at our past and quantify the things we do in certain situations, you are able to ascertain what we will do in the future. Our habits are who we are. However, a “habit” isn’t something tangible, it isn’t real, it is just a metaphysical idea. And because it isn’t real, it can be changed easily, meaning that we could, if we choose to, change ourselves into almost anything (or anyone to be more precise). My point is that nobody is confined to what they believe as their innate self. Some people say that certain clothes are not “them”, but what does that mean? If they wore the clothes in a consistent way (as a habit) that it would become “them”. The same goes for people who identify themselves as brave, shy, smart, scared, artistic, or just about any other verb to describe a person. Anyone can be brave if they act brave, and since there is no physical r

During times of danger, throughout the history of this country, our government has withheld certain civil rights from the people in order to protect something “greater” than an individual’s rights. On almost all of the times this has happened, it has later been looked upon as a mistake (McCarthism, Vietnam Draft, even Lincoln regretfully dismissed many rights during the early stages of the civil war). Today, there are factions around the world that pose a threat to the US and its citizens and the current administration believes it has the right to encroach on our civil rights in the name of national security. This is evident in (at least) two secret programs the government operates to track the financial and communications records of anyone in this country. Furthermore, the administration has accused the people who exposed these secret programs of treason. It makes me wonder what are the other secret programs we don’t know about. They are already (as part of the Patriot Act) coll

Congress is currently debating an increase to the federal minimum wage from its current rate of $5.15/hour. The Democrats have a reasonable argument which states that nobody, especially a family, can live on that wage (which is just over $10,000/year). The Republicans say that wages should be determined by the economic laws of supply and demand (and not by arbitrary governmental regulations). This debate has gone on for years, and I feel that the democrats have failed to ask the Republicans some simple questions that could change the debate; the questions are “Do you support lowering the rate from $5.15/hour? If not, why $5.15, that is an arbitrary number isn’t it? What makes that number good for you? Do you think it is a fair wage?” A Republican can’t say that they want to reduce the minimum wage, so they are left supporting something they oppose. Than again, but not increasing the minimum wage, it is essentially lowering it (due to inflation). If you look at inflation adjusted rates

The following is part of a letter I wrote to my only friend who watches the World Cup, surprisingly he is not from the US.... Iain, I just wanted to wish Scotland the best of luck in the world cup...hmmm, wait I don't see them there. It seems that the English won't let the scots have their own team. poor poor scots. Anyway, now that you are a US citizen are you rooting for the home team? I don't think this is the year for the US, which is a good thing, for as I have explained, I hope the US never wins the World Cup; it would just infuriate the world too much to have us win and we won't even care about it. It's just showing off, it's like it Michael Jordan winning a spelling bee, it's just not fair to the home-schooled Mormon kids who can’t get a date. (However, it is inevitable that US will win the World Cup eventually, their team is drastically improving, the young players are great, and they are one superstar (maybe Freddy Adu) from giving great youn

I didn’t write about the house for so long as I was afraid of jinxing the whole deal. (actually in the very back, tiny regions of the paranoid part of my brain, I thought the now previous owners of the house would read my blog and they would become even more paranoid than they had become). In the time between signing the contract and the closing (about 4 weeks) there was mind-numbing, stressful drama. The owners wouldn’t let us into the house to measure or look around. The title search revealed the there was a lack of permits on records for a number of things and the owners wouldn’t let us send inspectors over. To make the story short; in the end there was nothing wrong with the house, but we were really stressed that the owners were hiding something horrible from us. Everyday was something new that they wouldn’t let us do; it was the largest investment of my life and I felt I couldn’t do the proper research, and I wasn’t reassured by assurances from people who said that this was

“What does new NSA policy to collect data on every phone called in America really mean? This means that the Bush administration can look up all the phone calls that the Democratic National Convention is making; they can also monitor all the calls of the democratic (and republican) senators, congressman, and governors. Not to mention spying on his own supporters including calls by churches, NRA offices, and large donors. Simply put, President Nixon, opps I mean Bush’s policy to monitor all phone in this country is a tremendous violation of all our privacy and of general ethics. Bush will do anything including breaking the law, to promote his agenda. If this was to fight terrorism, how come there are no results? Either Bush is a failure at fighting terrorism or his agenda is about himself and not about the people. No matter what you think, be careful who you share your ideas, because the government is listening.”

George Bush spoke last night about immigration reform and a plan to protect our southern boarder from many things including terrorism. Since 9/11 Bush has used the threat of terrorism to lower taxes, start a war (against a country with little if any connection to terrorism), increase defense spending on programs that has no impact on terrorism, and to win another term as President. And now he is using it to put troops on the boarder. Which brings the question, how many terrorist have ever crossed the US/Mexico boarder? Well, there are no public records of it ever happening. The 9/11 terrorist came to the US perfectly legally. Work and educational visas are still available and the security that screens legal visas is minimal. Additional, terrorists can just buy a plane ticket and unless their name is in the government database the can walk into the country as a tourist (assuming they are not armed in the actual airport). This is just another case of the administration using our f

My little Molly is barely a baby anymore, but everyday she seems to be having more and more fun (Note: kids are no longer babies when they can look at a littler baby and say “baby”). Molly can now walk around, usually going 5 or 6 feet before she falls on her butt, but she just gets right up and continues along. Sometimes she walks like Frankenstein, with her arms straight out and wavering from side to side. Sometime she will try to carry things from one room to the other and usually does pretty well, especially with baskets. And she loves baskets, putting things in, carrying them around, taking them out and over again. And my little Molly can even talk. The other morning I brought her into bed after she woke up a 5:00am and she looked at me and said “Dad!” and flopped into my face. Then she looked over at Lindy and said “Mom mom!” and flopped completely over onto Lindy’s face. Molly is the most happy (and goofy) right around 6:00am and 7:30pm. She just smiles all the time and

Does one gas station provide better gas than another? Or do we mostly go to a particular gas station based on price or convenience. For me, it is almost always convenience (unless there is cheaper gas within sight). However, as gas companies make record profits, and artificially increase prices, maybe we should look into these gas companies as see who they are and where they get their oil from. I'm not making any judgments, but the following information is from the Energy Information Administration , which is a proper US government agency (although maybe that no longer means that it is credible).

It is possible that the Bush administration is doing something I agree with? I doubt it, but recently the administration has finally started to talk about the genocide in Darfur. Of course this is years too late and millions of people have been tortured and killed (while we used our resources to find WMD in Iraq ). The situation in Durfar is beyond desperate and any government that has to capacity to try to help also has a moral obligation to help. Anything less than trying should be equivalent to any other human rights crime. To put it simply, if somebody saw a single family being torn apart, the women raped, the men killed, and the children forced to fight, would it be ok to just look away. What if it was your family? What if it was millions of families? This problem, this genocide, may be extremely hard to stop or even slow down. Is may be impossible, but I doubt it. However, that doesn’t matter; the United States (and any other government with the means) should feel moral

In the great spirit of the American dream, Lindy, Molly, and I are now home owners. Yes, we threw ourselves into a massive debt that will take 30 years to dig out of. But more importantly, we now have a home. 65 Murray St., Norwalk, Connecticut 06851 is where we can now be found. The house is 45 miles northeast of New York City , 25 miles from were I work in White Plains, 15 minutes from my Dad’s house, and 50,000,000 miles from Mars. The house is ranch style (everything on one floor) and I would say sum it up by saying that everything about it is good, not great, but good. It has all the rooms we wants (for the most part), is in good condition, near good schools, and very importantly was a very good price. The previous owners were in a rush to move back to Seattle and wanted to get the deal done quickly; and I guess we were in the right place and the right time. I will post pictures of the house on Molly website ( http://molly.kokopop.com ) over the next few days, and some ot

Big News Coming Tomorrow. Same Blog Time, Same Blog Channel. As for today, here is but a little mini-rant. Iran is in the news about their nuclear weapons programs. The developments in Iran are overwhelmingly complicated and I worry about several major consequences. Some of things I worry about include 1) a US attack on Iran, 2) a US nuclear attack on Iran (apparently, the processing plants are so far underground that only a nuclear attack could destroy it), and 3) an Iraqi civil war between the Sunnis and Shiites spreading to neighboring countries and eventually pitting Saudi Arabia against Iran in a war over control in Iraq. Furthermore, the immediate consequences of just these things being talked about are already having an effect on my life and on that of the US economy. US oil are at $70/barell and I just see worries about the Middle East pushing oil higher and higher. Which brings an interesting question, would Iran risk being attacked by the US so they could get billions

Movie Review #1 – V is for Vendetta (4.7 Stars) I don’t get a chance to go to the movies very often, but for my birthday I had Lindy get a babysitter for Molly so we could see V is for Vendetta on IMAX. I had read a Time magazine article about the movie a few months ago and thought it was very really interesting. It was written by the Wachowski Brothers (who wrote the Matrix and may or may not exist in reality. There are no pictures of them and they don’t give interviews). The movie itself was a brilliant portrayal of a neo-fascist society and how government has to potential to get way out of hand (without the people ever realizing that something is wrong). The main character wears a mask throughout the whole movie because of injuries he suffered in a fire. However, the real reason for the mask, in my opinion, had nothing to do with that. The real reason is that “V” (as he is known) can be anyman. He could be me, he could be you. We all have the power, if dedicated enough, to

Perhaps my mind control devices are working. Or perhaps I was just right. Two front page articles on NYTimes.com this week are both talking about the growing support for two ideas that I have long been supporting. The National Popular Vote (the organization behind the movement) and talked with one of the Directors. We agreed on almost everything and when I mentioned my idea of that states of equal size, but differing political tendencies would both agree to switch to proportional electoral voting systems, thus keeping a balance of total votes. ( click here for my complete blog entry on this issue ). I was pleased to know that US Senator Chuck Schumer actually proposed this very idea. Although the idea didn’t gain much support, I believe that as voter turnout continues to decline and politicians only focus on swing state, the idea will become more and more popular. I have never donated money to an organization which I was not part of, but National Popular Vote is going to get som

I’m still reading “Team of Rivals” and it gives me some hope about the future of humanity (which I have been lacking lately). It took Americans 50 years to slowly build enough moral strength to oppose slavery (actually, I mean Americans in the North, which was only half the country). The point is that something horrible was going on and eventually the people responded (and were willing to fight for their cause). Today I can see (or hope I see) the beginning of another moral revolution. As horrible as slavery was in the 1800s, equally horrible atrocities are occurring all over the world. Most people recognize that this is true; however there are no solutions or solution-based platforms that people can support. As a pragmatist, it is unrealistic to expect a country like the United States to move rapidly towards action; however, a slow change can hopefully occur. Before the Civil War, the Whig party was similar to today’s Democratic Party and when the issue of slavery became the mo

The first Lipka family vacation to Hawaii was a success. Everyone had a nice time and we got to relax a bit. Lindy and I are especially grateful to Lindy’s parents to were more then generous with their timeshare and all the time they spent looking after Molly. However, this might be the last trip we take to Hawaii as the travel was vicious. He is an estimate of the time we spent traveling. Day One (2722 Miles Traveled, 20 hours spend in a car, airport or plane) Start- Sleepy Hollow, NY Leave at 4:00am Drive to LaGuardia (28 miles) 1st flight to Charlottesville (303 miles) 2nd flight to Charlotte (226 miles) 3rd flight to Los Angeles (2120) Drive to Irvine (45 miles) Arrive at Lindy's Parents - 9:pmPST (12:00EST) Day Two (2715 Miles Traveled, 14 hours spend in a car, airport or plane) Start - Lindy's Parents Leave at 5:00amPST (8:00amEST) Drive to LAX (45 miles) 4th Flight to Honolulu (2559 miles) 5th Flight to Kauai (111 miles) Arrive at hotel - 5:00pm Hawaii time (10:00p

Tomorrow I leave on a much needed, week-long vacation to Hawaii. I have high hopes for the week ahead and expect that all of my dreams will finally come true. Is that too much to expect? In other news, 106 year old man, Harry Whittington, was shot in the face with an AK-47 while participating in a Scull & Crossbones ritual. The naked Whittington was being tarred and feathered when (after drinking a bottle of tequila), Dick Chaney mistaken thought that Whittington was Lewis “Scooter” Libby and decided to riddle him full of bullets. Luckily Whittington was wearing a bulletproof vest that Donald Rumsfeld had given him at a lobbying meeting last year. A drunken Cheney later told the press that “I thought it was a bird”. Cheney has left Washington to return to his home town in the center of the earth. Reports are now saying that the gun was originally purchased by an ex-felon with no identification, except his NRA membership card. Additionally the bulletproof vest that Whittingt

I have always been perplexed at how the current Republic party tries to be the moral party, but also represents big businesses, the social elite, the rich, and isolationism. I may have come across the moment in time when it all came together. In the book I am reading now, Team of Rival (A biography of Lincoln and several of his cabinet members), it describes how in 1842, Salmon Chase was trying to strengthen the newly formed Liberal Party (which was the precursor to the Republican party). First, a little background: At the time, the Whig party was the moderate party of the North (similar to today’s Democrats); however, the Democrats back then were the pro-slavery party that dominated the south. Salmon Chase, along with others, were strong abolitionist (anti-slavery), and felt that the Whigs didn’t stand up enough to stop the spread of slavery into the new territories. Chase, a very religious man, left the Whig party to join the newly formed, very anti-slavery Liberal party. He tri

In two weeks, Lindy, Molly, and I are going on a desperately needed vacation to Hawaii. I can’t remember if I ever really needed a vacation, but I think I really do need this one. And to note, besides just going away, Lindy’s parents will be there, who are excellent babysitters. Over the past couple of months, life has been rather difficult and I feel like I am on the brink of a subtle kind of madness. The stress of leaving IRC, starting a new job, raising molly, finding daycare, looking for a house, and countless other things are really adding up. Furthermore, over the past month, I have been waking up 2-4 times a night (for anywhere from 2 to 60 minutes each time) teaching molly that she doesn’t need to eat (and Lindy doesn’t need to nurse her) during the night (so that one day she can sleep through the night). As most of you know I am a big fan of sleep and the lack of it has given shaken my nerves. I find myself becoming less patient, less aware, and less focused. I hope this vacat

Recently there has been a world-wide uproar over the publication of 12 Muhammad cartoons in the Danish newspaper Jyllands-Posten last September. After an extensive search I did manage to actually find the cartoons on the internet, although almost none of the newspaper articles actually show the cartoon they are talking out. Clearly these cartoons are racist, insensitive, unreasonable, inaccurate, and have no positive value in society. However, are they worth the world-wide outbursts? And it’s not like this is the only religious set of cartoons; after only a minute of searching I found cartoons that included a Jew destroying the Statue of Liberty , a Jesus with a rifle , a deformed Gandhi , and I’m sure there are many more pictures that insult other people. Now I’m not saying these pictures are good, I don’t even believe that they would be protected by free speech, but I do believe there are more important things to worry about. For example, Every year 15 million children die of h

About the only thing that stinks more then the Bush Administration is Molly’s diaper pale . And very sadly, Molly seems to have caught the Rotavirus from the kids at daycare. Rotavirus is a virus (germ) that causes severe diarrhea, usually with fever and vomiting (although Molly does not have a fever and only vomited twice, but I think that was just a bad reaction to yogurt). Rotavirus is the most common cause of severe gastroenteritis (diarrhea) in infants and young children in the United States. Worldwide, rotavirus is a major cause of childhood deaths. Rotavirus can cause children to lose body fluids very quickly and is especially dangerous for children less than two years of age. Children between 3 and 35 months of age have the highest risk for getting the infection. For Molly is means that she poops every hour, which led to a diaper rash, generally dehydration, and an overall melancholy. My little girl is sick and there isn’t anything I can do about it. L I hope she gets bet

Pre-blog note: At its core, a democracy is a system of government in which “the people” control a government that is accountable to those people. The most common way that democracies occur is through a free voting process. Many argue that the US is not a democracy, in fact it is a republic and over the last six years I think that might be an accurate reflection of our government (but maybe more on that in another blog). For years now, the Bush administration has been taunting the glory of democracy and the United State’s obligation to spread democracy throughout the world. However, Bush has spun the word “democracy” to mean something that it isn’t. Bush seems to believe the democracy will naturally lead to a government (free elections), economy (capitalism), constitution (individual rights, basic separation of church and state), and society similar to the US, but that simple isn’t true. All a democracy will do is lead to a government that represents the majority of the people (n

I find myself spending a significant portion of my very limited free time on the website for Lindy’s new mommy group, StrollerMafia.com. I think I like the distraction, but more then that, I want the site to be a success (meaning that lots of people visit it). Recently, the Stroller Mafia has involved to include two new goals; one tangible, one philosophical. The first is to have a Stroller Mafia member is each state. I have added a map of the US to the home page and will color in each state in which we have a member. So far we are up to one state, only 49 to go (then we will conquer the world). The second change to the Stroller Mafia is a clarification of the Stroller Mafia’s purpose. The following is my draft outline for the organization’s new motto and mission (I am currently in the process of asking Kurt Vonnegut for use of the motto, so if anyone knows him, tell him to give me a call)… “Lonesome No More” The Stroller Mafia is a national community of new parents who have com

Why is December 31 the end of the “year”? Well, first what is a year; on earth it is the time is takes to complete one full orbit around the sun, more specifically 365 Days, 5 Hours, 48 Minutes, 46 Seconds. In order to keep track of how many times we go around the sun, it is convenient to keep track of each orbit by designating one day as the officially beginning and end of the year. But why December 31st, that date has no astrological significance at all (it does have cultural significance ; some say it celebrates Jesus’ briss, actually many European countries used to start their new year on Christmas, while others start their new year on Easter). And Christmas was most likely modified to fall near the winter solstice (also known as Yule; it celebration the shortest day of the year). But we most recognize that the solstice (and seasons for that matter) has nothing to do with the closeness to the sun, it has to do with the tilt of the earth. Think about the orbit of the earth around th