by Edmund Morris
You want to feel like you haven’t done a thing in your life? To help with that sort of apathy all you have to do is read this book. No one questions that Theodore Roosevelt helped shape the history of America at the turn of the century. But how did he come to be such a prominent figure in this nation’s history?
Apparently, by charging forward with the energy of a hurricane.
He turns himself from an asthmatic, sickly child into a Harvard man on the wrestling team. By age 21 he’s gotten his degree, published two books, one on the Naval History of the War of 1812, and one on bird calls, went to Columbia Law and shortly thereafter became an Assemblyman of the State of New York. During his time there he is known as the young dude, but one year later is minority leader, and in his third year is the majority leader of the house.
Later he is married, has a child, loses his first wife, travels to the Dakotas to hunt buffalo and while there decides to set up not one but two ranches. While there he writes a biography. Within a year, he is engaged to his childhood sweetheart, who over the years bears many children. Later, he runs for mayor of New York, loses, and in the interrim writes two political biographies and a few books on hunting, then begins his opus, The Winning of the West. Then he’s Civil Service Commissioner and proceeds to stamp out corruption in the Postal Service. He starts the Boone and Crockett Club to preserve parks and wildlife. Then he is Police Commissioner of New York City, during which time he turns one of the most corrupt departments into a model of efficiency, politeness, and faithful to the letters of the law. Then he becomes the Assistant Secretary to the Navy but the qualifier becomes more Acting than Assistant. Edmund Morris virtually convinces you that Roosevelt manipulated the country into the Spanish-American War — in which he summarily quit his job and became the Lt. Col. (and later on the colonel) of the 1st Volunteers or Roosevelt’s Rough Riders. He charges up the hills of San Juan and becomes a national hero. So much so that he is made governor of New York when he returns.
At this point he turns 40. At 41, the vice-president incumbent dies, and McKinley offers Roosevelt to take his place as running mate for McKinley’s second term. At 42, McKinley is assassinated, and Theodore Roosevelt becomes the youngest president of the United States of America.
Feeling shitty yet?
No? Here’s a timeline to ponder.
At this point the book ends and the second book, Theodore Rex, takes over and covers the seven years of his reign. Morris has yet to deliver the third book, of Roosevelt after the presidency and his death at age 60.
This book is fascinating, though it tends to portray Roosevelt in a very singular manner. I suppose considering the subject matter, this was unavoidable; Thedore Roosevelt was very much a singular man.

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Last night was fun. Kim and I had dinner at Isshin… well okay, I had dinner, she had three pieces of sushi and helped me polish off two sake bottles. As there was still some time to kill before the midnight showing of Ghostbusters, we took a stroll in Westwood that ended up being not much of a stroll as we ended up at the Westwood Brewing Company inside five minutes.
Had myself two glasses of Patron to Kim’s equal number of Glenlivets while listening to a young woman impress as with her singing voice in the upstairs bar.
We got to the theater on time, even beat Adeline and Ian by five seconds. Kim was off to look for them in line when I heard someone pssting behind me. I turn and wave to Adeline and Ian, and when I looked back I saw Kim still heading down the line. My eyes may be shot, but my hearing apparently rocks.
Only two groups of people came prepared. One a trio of guys wearing the jumpsuits but carrying no proton packs or traps; another who brought the cheapy proton packs you can get from Toys’R'Us for kids 3-10.
The movie started late. Yeah, yeah, midnight show IS late. Well, it started around one, as they let us in a half hour after the show’s supposed time then spent another half hour listening to the Nuart’s rep regale us with future shows and a raffle.
I got home at 3:40 in the morning, and spent a little bit of time just staying up reading.
Today I just kicked it with Han. He got Zelda in the mail but his Gamecube remained in transit. So after lunch at Royal Star I snagged my cube and plugged it into his TV, then popped Zelda in. Nothing makes you feel nostalgic like the opening bars to the main theme from the original game. Phil put it best, “”I’ve got goose bumps!”"
Memories of our youth continue to pull strongly at our hearts.
After checking it out we just watched the March Madness games, then Han went off with Charlie to see Elvis Costello at Royce Hall in UCLA. As for me, I came home and finished up Starlancer. Finally!

Midnight showing at the Nuart with Kim, Adeline, and Ian. Goonies never say die!

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One of the things I admire about the House of Lords and Commons in England is the constant use of debate and communication and the active participation of the Prime Minister, something our system of government does not have and results in the production of very few public orators of exceptional expertise.

Tony Blair’s speech on March 18 was very factual, very detailed in the history of diplomacy. While the world is more complicated and the reasons behind government action is varied (people like to bring up personal vendetta, oil, etc.), Blair’s speech simply states the diplomacy from the Gulf War up to today and why military action has resulted.

War is when diplomacy fails.

It is not right, nor wrong. It is the result of failure to find peace through words.

The irony is that the failure in diplomacy occurred within the UN more than it did in Iraq. And the failure is because the threat of force was nullified.

The UN Security Council removed itself as an effective negotiator for peace when one of its members unconditionally removed the threat of force. France may have its reasons, but in promising to veto any use of force after promising the use of force through previous Security Council resolutions is a good way of shooting yourself in the foot.

It’s a simple game of human nature. You approach a disagreement diplomatically, but there is no reason for your opponent to cooperate unless there is an underlying capability of threat. This threat can be represented in many ways, including the limiting of the exchange of goods (nations do sanctions and trade embargoes), the limiting of status (your boss does job promotions and awarding of title), and of course, force.

Force, by far, is the most compelling, and therefore the most effective. The difference between a bully and one who uses the threat of force in diplomacy should be obvious: a bully intimidates to achieve what he desires without regard for the opponent while a diplomat comes with the threat of force that is palpable but used to bargain to achieve compromise.

How the diplomats handled these tools of negotiation these last 12 years is debatable, but no one can question that diplomacy was attempted. Calling the US a big bully that just shoves aside international support is not as justified as many would lead you to believe, because many have remained ignorant of the history of negotiation.

The real question, therefore, lies in the patience of the world. How willing are we to continue this dance? The United States government has apparently tired of it, and much of this is due to the events of September 11.

Meanwhile, most Americans who oppose the war are divided. There are those who feel that war is never an option, and to them I say you have nullified your effectiveness. We have not achieved Utopia quite yet, nor have we Transcended. We are still human, and we try to be humane, but it is this very reason why the threat and use of force is so effective.

There are those who feel that war is an option but we require international support. I am more in agreement with these people, but I also see that now that we have delivered an ultimatum we must follow through with it. Diplomacy failed, and now we must carry out the results of that failure. I wish the UN as a whole gave support for the actions taken by our country and the individual nations that support us, but by castrating itself it has essentially forced the issue. You can make a very strong argument that the military action taking place right now is directly because of the Security Council’s political deadlock among its members.

So, do I condone war? Yes. I condone its use as a tool for diplomacy and that it must be used if that tool is to be an effective one.

Do I condone this war? Begrudgingly. I would have liked to see diplomacy win out, but the actions of our government, of the Security Council members, and of Iraq have unfortunately, in my mind, lead inevitably to the actions of today. I would not have condoned war at this time, but we gave an ultimatum, and now we need to carry it out, or we will invalidate all our efforts for peace.

When will the threat of force no longer be used by the diplomat of a nation? When a world government and a world constitution is developed to protect the rights of a nation as much as our Constitution and Bill of Rights protects the rights of the invidividual. This will not happen for some time, and until that time, the threat of the gun will remain a tool of the diplomat.

But until that time?

“”Speak softly and carry a big stick; you will go far.”"

So I’m playing Metroid Prime as the rain continues to fall on the unprepared, terrified Los Angeles.

My ever faithful computer continues to point to “”energy sources,”" which invariably always mean, “”Save your game before facing the big ass monster.”"

So I’m in this big dome where another “”energy source”" lies in wait. Nothing but a bunch of rocks. When the rocks start to move, I can’t help but laugh and think, I get to fight Gorignak!

You know? Gorignak.

Gorignak! Gorignak! Gorignak! Rock! Rock!

“”Go for the eyes like in Episode 22!”"
“”It doesn’t have any eyes, Tommy!”"
“”Go for the mouth or the throat, its vulnerable spots!”"
“”It’s a rock, it doesn’t have any vulnerable spots!”"
“”I know! You construct a weapon. Look around you — can you form some sort of rudimentary lathe?”"

Of course, I didn’t have Tony Shalhoub as Tech Sergeant Chen to digitize me back to the ship. No, I had to fight the thing. Ah, well. At least I got a spider ball out of it (the famed “”energy source”").

I go through what seems like six rooms of the Magmoor Caverns in Metroid Prime, desperately looking for a save point… THEN I DIE.

Aaaaah!

The peanut gallery is open. You fools can go ahead and comment on the blogs. Don’t say I never listen to your whiny little requests.

So I’m playing Syberia and I’m doing pretty well (solved three puzzles) when bam! I’m dropped to desktop… and I haven’t saved once.

Argh!

Goddamn virtual memory problem!

The game is certainly intriguing, and I’ve missed playing adventure games so I was doubly excited. But now I’m frustrated because I have to replay my first steps as the coders of the game apparently don’t manage game memory very well… the brain drain on PC gaming to console gaming is sad indeed.

Still. Nice game. And I found a patch… should’ve installed that before starting; I usually do, but I just didn’t do it this time around — and paid for it.

As for Metroid Prime, I got down to the Ruins and found a save point. My left index finger was tired (I tend to strafe walk, it’s sort of an instinct for a Quake-trained player to do, even in a game without mouse look) so I called it quits for now.

So now I’ve got two new games to play on top of two books to read. This should tide me over to April when I head off for my vacation in Finland.

After which I sit down and go crazy playing The Legend of Zelda: The Wind Waker. Look! I joined the 21st century!

Metroid Prime!

I’m debating whether or not to buy a Gamecube tonight. It’s gonna be one of those impulse decision buys. I’m gonna get off the freeway and I can either turn left and head down Sawtelle the 500 yards to home. Or I go straight and turn into the Best Buy parking lot.

Tempting tempting tempting. Buy a Gamecube, get a free game (Metroid Prime, thank you), reserve a copy of Zelda while I’m at it.

Of course, I just found out today the phone company is belatedly charging me a reconnect fee for a bill I paid last January, but they want evidence of the letter they sent (we are having a dispute about due dates). For god’s sake it was last January! How the hell am I supposed to know where I put that letter!? So I’m probably out $30.

Bastards.

This all wouldn’t be happening if they got around to processing my automatic bill payment back in friggin’ November. Straw. Camel. Back. Today, they said they could have processed the auto billpay over the phone… and that they could do it even in November. Gee, thanks for informing me of this now when you’ve weaseled $30 from me.

Ta ma de.

Anyhow, we’ll see how I feel when I hit that off ramp.

I mean, I’m still in the process of reading two books (Conniff’s Natural History of the Rich: A Field Guide and Morris’ The Rise of Theofore Roosevelt), I still play the odd game of Counter-Strike (though it’s getting rather pointless seeing as I can literally see my reflexes slowing down as the months go by…MONTHS), and I dunno, I do have other forms of entertainment lying around (there are 300 DVD discs in my house, that alone is a ridiculous amount of entertainment hours right there).

But yeah, I might get one anyway.

One of the perks of being single is the ability to direct your disposable income wholly unto yourself. Consider it a consolation prize.