Protesters at the convention. Here’s why.

A nice hallway scene at the convention center.

 

A view of the exhibit floor. It was really pretty huge. Surprisingly, we only used 1/2 to 1/3 of the floor space at the convention center for exhibits. We did, however, use all the meeting rooms (around the edges, on 2 floors) almost all the time. This convention is too #$@% big.

Weeeed in the wiiiiind…

well, not exactly, but I have spent a buttload of time on this stupid proposal. I mean the Department of Homeland Security proposal. After a furious re-submission period over the last few weeks (occupying lots and lots of time I would have preferred to spend doing other things), just this morning we were informed that funding had been “delayed.” For at least two years. So, feel free to do the research if you like, but on your own dime.

To recap:

Spring 2007 – Original proposal
Summer 2007 – Tweaking, re-submitting, etc.
Fall 2007 – see “Summer 2007″
February 2007 – Awarded $300,000 per year, for 6 years
March 2007 – Psych! Suckers! No money for you.
March 2007 – Re-awarded $75,000 per year for 3 years
April 2007 – Lots more frantic writing, rescaling projects to the smaller amount
May 2007 – Award reduced to $75,000 per year for 2 years
May 2007 – Award “delayed” until 2010
May 2007 – DHS can bite me

This was taken last Saturday, on a teeny dredge island in the Laguna Madre, between Port Mansfield and South Padre Island, TX. Every time I see sights like this — kayak beached while lucky owner(s) hang out in outdoorsy leisure — I feel definite envy for the owner. Well, on Saturday, I was that guy. In your face, mindless urban drudgery!

The freedom in the photo also presents something of a contrast with my current feelings, which stem from being forced to produce documents and answer the questions of a frighteningly unchecked national police force to justify my fully law-abiding travel.

I’m here in Harlingen, TX at Valley International Airport (code: VIA, but note that the code HRL still works for some travel sites… heh heh). Not a bad little place. 2 or 3 times bigger than my home airport of McAllen International (MFE), and nearly an hour away, but HRL has Southwest, which saves me between $100 and $150 on this flight. Yay!

Unlike some days, I got through security with no problems (yay!). However, unlike any day in my experience, we just had half a dozen TSA agents put on their uber-creepy blue latex gloves and roam through the gate area, asking to see everyone’s boarding passes. What? They were nice about it, and very businesslike, but I am also convinced I absolutely had no choice. I suspect the niceness lasts exactly as long as you do what they tell you.

I grew up during the Cold War. The Soviet Union was a freaking scary monster. I am still convinced of this. Republicans built long and lucrative careers by reminding us of the Soviet threat to the freedoms and privacy we enjoyed as Americans.

Ironic, then, that a perhaps-unprecedented increase in centralized government authority (especially, it would seem, police authority) and, as a result, steepest reduction in American freedoms have been driven by a Republican presidency and congress. Who would have guessed? Me, I would have thought it would be the Kennedys, and that the Republicans would try to stop them. Boy was I wrong.

I saw a bumper sticker on my way here. It said, “Had enough? Vote Democrat.”

Yes, comrade, my papers are in order.  Am I free to go?

Another year has come and gone, and here I am writing another online Christmas letter to everyone instead of sending cards like considerate people do. Oh well. I married Alex so she could compensate for such deficits in my personality. (Note: Since writing this, I have migrated my photos to Flickr, so the photo links are all broken. Maybe I’ll fix them, someday).

Here’s how this newsletter works (feel free to skip sections that do not interest you):

1. Christmas Message
2. Things that have happened this year.

Note that you can click the text links or the pictures for extra information. Clicking names of places usually takes you to a map. Clicking pictures will take you to the large version of the picture. Pictures will open in a separate browser window.

Confused? Just click some stuff and see what happens.

Christmas Message

As most of you know, Alex and I are Christian, so Merry Christmas! But if you’re celebrating Hanukkah, Kwanzaa, Pagan Winter Feast, or just Many Days Off Work, we wish you fondest and warmest times, as well.

Although we recognize that Christ was probably not born in December, and we are skeptical of the reality of elves, we are happy for the opportunity to join with others in celebrating Jesus’ life and acts. And we’re glad, in general, for the chance to just pause with the rest of the world, Christian or not, and enjoy a few days with friends and family.

So, Happy Holidays. If you’re reading this, we love you. Lots.

Year In Review

The year has been busy, and full of bad news, good news, and just news. Some of the bad news is that Alex and I still do not live together. She lives in Hamilton, Ontario (just north of Buffalo, NY), and I live in Edinburg, TX (just south of everything). We are working very hard to get in the same place this year, but jobs, education and citizenship issues make this a sticky business. We’ll try to keep you informed. For updates (inconsistent, sometimes incoherent, but often with pictures), just check this website from time to time: www.bobbyfiend.com. It’s my personal blog and I try to give some sort of account of what’s happening in my life, on a semi-regular basis. Of course, if that’s not the kind of thing you want to read about, I recommend staying away from this website.

Winter and Spring

January is always a little depressing, as Alex and I have to separate after a month together. We got to see each other a couple of times before May, and I was even in Quebec City for a conference, but that was without Alex (it’s surprising how far apart some of these cities are). I was as sick as a dog the whole time, so it’s just as well. Alex got to go to St. Johns, Newfoundland (which is a million miles from anything) for a different conference, and brought back enough pictures and stories to make me want to go back with her, someday. During the summer. Not the winter.

The semester kept me busy. I seemed to be traveling every other weekend. I made about half a dozen trips, what with visiting Alex and academic responsibilities. In between, I tried to keep my classes and research moving, which is not as easy as I had always imagined it would be. My sweetie, during this time period, was working on her dissertation, (a process I can sympathize with) and also c0-starring in two plays: The Night of the Iguana and Oedipus Rex. Later, in the summer, she and I both helped out (she as an actor and I as a stagehand) in a community production of Good Night Desdemona, Good Morning Juliet.

At the end of Spring, I flew up to Canada (as is my wont), breathed a huge sigh of relief, and settled in for a summer of teaching and hanging out with my wife–something I’m not taking for granted, quite yet (give me another year or two…).

Summer

Summers for the last two years have been my relief periods. Not because of the work load, although it’s reduced somewhat, but because I get to spend three months with my wife. This year, like last, we hung out in her un-air-conditioned third-floor apartment while the temperature inside climbed to about 100 degrees sometimes. Odd that I’m hotter in Ontario during the summer than I would be in my fully-air-conditioned apartment in Texas.

We both enjoyed our academic work (I was teaching an online class and doing research; Alex was still slaving away on the dissertation), and enjoyed just being around each other. We even played some hockey, which was a definite first for me. Good times.

The last half of the summer was a crazy round of travel. We spent a week at Alex’s parents’ lovely cottage, about 3 hours north of Toronto, with our friends Amanda, Scott and Brad, as well as Alex’s brothers, sister, their significant others, her in-laws, niece and nephews, and parents. It was a wonderful time, and it’s hard not to fill this entire page with photos from that experience. While we were there, we played disc golf (hooray!) at a course in South River, and spent a day paddling a canoe in Algonquin Park. I’d go back in a second.

After Northern Ontario, we drove quickly back to Southern Ontario, then flew to the wedding of my friend Scott and his bride, Lisha, in the mountains near Pike’s Peak, Colorado. It was gorgeous up there! Alex and I are keeping an eye out for academic jobs in the area ;).Directly on the heels of this trip–meaning we didn’t even go home first–we flew to Washington and visited my delightful cousin Sharon and her family, then headed to Idaho for the Rogers Family Reunion. We were, honestly, a little concerned at the somewhat low attendance, but within an hour we were enjoying ourselves immensely. Especially fun was playing with our nieces and nephews, most of whom Alex had never met, and all of whom had grown up tons since the last time I saw them. I love them all dearly, and hope to get to hang out with them more, in the future. So, my siblings need to visit me in Texas more often. And bring your kids.

As you might have guessed, after the Colorado-Washington-Idaho trip, it was back to Ontario, whirlwind unpacking-then-packing, and down to Texas to start the school year once again, and lose my wife for another semester.

Fall

Fall is exciting and depressing at the same time. Academics like Alex and I tend to have a hopeful, happy feeling at the beginning of every school year, but we also have to leave each other after three months spent getting used to living together (almost like real married people!). So, to ease the pain, Alex goes down with me to Texas and hangs out for a couple of weeks or more, and we get to be a normal husband and wife for a little longer. This time, we got adventurous (her idea) and camped on the beach at South Padre Island. It was a wonderful experience, although I’ve heard since that it may not be entirely safe, despite the fact that it’s a state park. So, deep sigh, we probably won’t be doing that again any time soon, at least just the two of us. But we enjoyed the experience immensely, and we love the beach. We found great peace in putting our folding chairs in the shallow breakers and zoning out for hours while the waves tickled our feet.

It seems that right after Alex left I got a new cat. Sigh. Not that I needed one. His name is Moses (because he came out of the reeds), and I found him near a reservoir outside Edinburg. The whole story is explained if you click here. Anyway, now I have two cats. And they both live with my sweetie in Canada, because it’s impractical to get care for them when I leave for a week or a month or a summer. Despite his unplanned appearance, I still like Moses. Good cat. And I miss both my feline monsters when I’m in Texas.

Work is work. I’m finally collecting data on a project that should have been done half a year ago, and I’ve applied for two more grants–one small and the other very large (10 universities, about 100 investigators, and tens of millions of dollars from the Department of Homeland Security). I keep busy with our little Psychology Department’s hopes for a PhD program, advising students, teaching classes, and working on my research. It’s a little more than your average full-time job, but I don’t mind. I’m trying to build up some momentum that will carry me a while when Alex and I finally live together and I feel like having true 40-hour work weeks for a bit.

In October, I was invited to be part of a university expedition to Monterrey, Nuevo Le�n, M�xico. About 20 of us met with some officials of a couple of universities down there, and that is turning into an interesting collaborative experience. I hope I get to do some cross-border research, cause Monterrey is a very cool place. I’m looking forward to going back.

Alex and I are on the job market, and it’s an unpleasant experience. Academic politics are active, sometimes irritating, and often confusing. I’m reminded of my father, quoting Napoleon, telling me not to assume malice when incompetence is the more likely answer… We don’t know if Alex will get the job she has applied for at UTPA (where I work), or if we will both be offered jobs at one of the half-dozen places we both applied to, together. I love my work, but I’ll give it up if I can be with my wife. If none of our plans pan out, we’ll be thinking fast. Plan C might be a bit creative. We’ll have to wait and see.

Alex has stayed busy, trying to regulate her very disobedient sleeping schedule, working tirelessly on her dissertation, playing hockey, and even rehearsing for another play (she’s Lady MacBeth). I think she’s at her best when she’s got a few irons in the fire. We have kept in touch as much as possible, visited once or twice this semester, and are now together for nearly a month, which is lovely. Phone calls and seeing each other once a month don’t really cut it, sometimes.

It’s the winter holiday season, now, and that has always been a time to try to reconnect with family and friends I don’t talk to very much. I’ve always been terrible at keeping lines of communication open, so I hope you’ll forgive me for the generic flavor of this message, and know that I still care about you. Happy Holidays.

by M.F. Luder
November 16, 2007

The intelligence community is defending the addition of non-mainstream Caucasian Protestant groups to its racial-ethnic-religious profiling guidelines. In a press conference this morning, national security associate director John C. McGrathnick described surveillance and cataloguing of “pre-fundamentalist Caucasian Protestants” as a natural next step in the progression of demographic profiling by police agencies. Under the new practices national and local agencies, from the FBI and NSA to community police forces, will be required to maintain lists of “potential asymmetricalities” in American communities. Individuals and groups placed on these lists will for the first time include Caucasians and Protestant Christians whose lifestyles and religious beliefs fall outside the norm, under the rationale that non-mainstream religious and cultural groups are at higher risk for producing terrorists and other national security threats.

“It’s not just a case of keeping tabs on people who are different,” says McGrathnick. “It’s a matter of priorities. Non-mainstream religious and cultural groups frequently have beliefs and ways of life where adhering to the American status quo is not the most important value. It’s simple logic. If you believe that God, or Jesus, or Buddha, or whoever, is more important than being a good neighbor, and a law-abiding citizen, then it’s a no-brainer that you’re a potential threat to this nation.”

Under the new guidelines, for example, Free Methodist groups in Washington State are not considered high-risk groups, while Free Baptists in Alabama are. Last-wave New-age Acolytes in Southern California are not on the list, but Latter-day Saints in Southern Utah are.

The degree of devotion that individuals show to their “alternative ideologies” is also an important factor in whether or not they will be subject to police scrutiny.

“We are not nearly as concerned, as a security-minded nation, about the tendencies of individuals whose behavior patterns show little influence from their alternative ideologies,” said McGrathnick.

Thus, Reform Jewish synagogues are not being catalogued, while Hasidic Synagogues are high on the list.

“When you come to understand just how much of daily life is influenced by some of these alternative ideologies, you begin to comprehend the level of security threat such people represent to this nation,” said Angela Merdin, Assistant Secretary of National Security Matters. “We are finally facing the glaring fact of White political-religious extremism in this country. Timothy McVeigh, Ted Kaczynski, Eric Rudolph, Jim Jones, David Koresh, the Ruby Ridge incident… the list goes on and on. If those kinds of people are able to exist in this country, then we’ve clearly got a problem with certain groups and mindsets.”

Although Merdin has described the demographic profiling as “nothing for ordinary citizens to be concerned about,” she also hinted that individuals and communities listed as potential threats may be required to maintain their own registration with national and local police agencies in the future, or face legal consequences such as permit revocation or financial asset seizure.

Civil liberties groups have already voiced strong protests, several promising lawsuits. However, according to Alan Jackman of the Civil Defense Action Group, there is a concern that these efforts are doomed due to “…the American public’s willingness to rubber-stamp anything with ‘national security’ in the title, since 2001.”

The above is a totally fictitious parody, and any resemblance to real people or events is purely coincidental, just like in the movies (luckily, so is this, at least for a little while, although similar plans have been proposed in other U.S. cities). I wrote this less to make definitive statements than to keep thinking about the questions.