Dan Lipka Web Log

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