Greg Sanders

Day 3: Dublin to Belfast (2009-07-09)

2009-07-10T19:10:18-04:00

Hello! This is not actually Greg. This is Greg’s wife. I have stolen the blog to write up a quick entry on our Dublin->Belfast train trip.

After some confusion regarding what bus route led to Connelly Station (one shopkeeper gave me walking directions, which would have been okay if we weren’t hauling luggage) we walked a few blocks, hopped a bus and reached the station.

The Enterprise train from Dublin to Belfast is pretty nice. It’s about your average sort of train ride, but there are a few neat touches like a map that lights up and shows your route. Greg’s a bigger train geek than I am, so I’ll let him add any additional points in a later entry. Along the way there was one really spectacular view of a huge valley with towns spread all across.

Belfast Central Station seemed bigger and more impressive than Conolly, although that could partly be because Dublin splits its train routes between two stations (we’ll use Heuston later when we go to Cork). Getting a bus to city central was quite easy (walk outside to marked stop, wait, find bus) and having all the buses end up at Donegall Square (right in front of city hall) meant it was always easy to find our way back on later trips.

We checked into the hotel and headed off to climb Cave Hill, which is wonderfully awesome and gets its own entry. It was also exhausting, so after we got back we grabbed a tasty dinner at Deane’s Deli (a bistro practically across the street from the hotel) and headed back to get some rest.

Dublin Day 2: Tour of the City, Trinity College, and Environs

2009-07-10T12:30:07-04:00

We slept in and then went to try to get an Emerald Rail pass which covers both the Republic of Ireland and Northern Ireland. It turns out that they are no longer available, but that cheap rail tickets are available online so we probably are ending up saving money even if we do a fair amount of trips in week 2. We then went on to do one of the double decker bus tours. I do wonder why such buses aren’t more common as transit in the U.S. They add capacity and are probably easier to drive than the double length buses. They’re also more fun, though I will admit that standing in the middle section of a double length bus is pretty neat.

After the tour we went on to see Trinity College (where you can’t walk on the grass, boo). That was a neat experience and the Book of Kells exhibit and the long library were both great but unsurprisingly unavailable for photos. I do think many of the scribes rather enjoyed their jobs, if the poems selected for the exhibit were any indication. The long library, which is two levels tall and decked out in attractive wood, had a neat exhibit on Napoleon and accounts of him from his time.

Afterwards we wandered around to the southeast and took in some of the government buildings and other landmarks. We had dinner at Fire restaurant; it was Kate’s choice and quite lovely. I’m considering putting up reviews when I have a bit more time afterwards or am bored on the train after finishing reading material.

We went kinda nuts with the pictures on the tour, so fair warning this day’s slideshow is long. We’ll probably do a condensed version sometime after we get home.

First day in Dublin (2009-07-07)

2009-07-08T06:14:29-04:00

We flew out Monday evening and arrived early in the morning in Dublin. Flight had some kids near us but otherwise wasn’t bad. I did finally get to watch “the Internationale” which was dark but enjoyable.

Our day was largely one of walking around and adjusting. We took the city bus into downtown and only had to walk a couple blocks to our hotel. After dropping off our bags we had an hour to kill until an early check-in and after talking to a couple shopkeepers got the consistent message that Grafton Street was the place to go to get a cell phone SIM card. While getting the occasional Shenmue flashback we followed their instructions and got our phone operational at a Vodefone shop. We then meandered back to the hotel and took an extended nap. (Side note: slideshow below is in reverse order).

We woke up late enough that we weren’t going to get much time at any exhibits. So we instead headed over to Bewley’s, a cafe recommended in our guidebook, and spent the evening wandering around southeastern Dublin. The city is a great one to wander, there’s many pedestrian thoroughfares and a lot of street level commerce. The Temple Bar district also has a notably diverse selection of restaurants. I don’t know if the number of nationalities it draws from is a result of trendiness or is common to the rest of the city.

[Update: Fixed slideshow so it points just to the day one pictures and not my overall photo stream. There’s enough pictures in that set alone.]

Ireland travel prelude

2009-07-05T23:25:04-04:00

So, after a delightful Fourth of July and wedding, I’m leaving for Ireland tomorrow. Currently we’re planning to spend most of our time in Dublin (and at location a day trip away) with a few nights in Cork and in Northern Ireland at Belfast.

So, while internet access and inclination to post may be spotty, I should soon have some good pictures and stories. If you have any recommendations please drop them in email or via comment. Similarly, if you’d like a post card, drop me an email with your address. I can’t imagine being overwhelmed by reader comments, but just to be safe, that offer is limited to the first five respondents.

Iran vs. Honduras

2009-07-03T08:41:06-04:00

There’s recently been a coup in Honduras. The specifics are odd and seem mitigating, after the military ousted the President the legislature removed him from office and the Supreme Court had been actively countermanding his orders, mostly notably his firing of the head of the military.

Nonetheless, the event has been universally condemned in the Organization of American States and the U.N., properly in my view. Nonetheless, via Austan Mogharabi of the Democratic Piece, Daniel Larsen critiques our meddling and compares it with our more limited criticism of the Iranian electoral theft and crackdown. Larson makes the fair point that our bad history doesn’t only apply to Iran:

U.S. intervention in Honduras has been no less than it has been in Iran. Indeed, it has been far greater. At least six times in the 20th century beginning in 1907, U.S. forces were deployed in Honduras. For fear that the U.S. might be seen to be replicating the error of 1953, Obama has kept his distance from the Iranian dispute. As ever, Central American nations’ past resentments about frequent U.S. intervention count for little or nothing, and so Obama has dived right in. [Emphasis mine]

I completely agree that U.S. forces should not be used here. The President hasn’t even officially declared it a coup pending OAS negotiations. Such a declaration would cut off U.S. aid. Similarly he hasn’t met with the ousted President who as I said above seems like he should have been ousted, albeit by legal means.

So why the tougher line on what can be accurately described as a more benign coup?

Honduras is part of a region with nigh universal democracy and international organizations that reinforce those norms.
Honduras has a much closer relationship with the U.S. and thus is more open to non-violent influence.
Iran is a great power, Honduras is not. I’m not realist, but yes, that sort of thing does factor in. Ignoring such a factor can tend to get people killed.

I think point #1 is the most important. Note the highlighted text above, we’re not getting out ahead of Central Americans, we’re following a more aggressive Organization of American States (which also consists of South and North Americans, but it’s unanimous so it isn’t as if we’re outvoting them). This is not the President’s first Latin American challenge. The first one was dealing with Cuba and the OAS. Sec. Clinton handled that one well and a move towards full normalization of Cuba into the OAS was thwarted while at the same time the historic barriers based on communism rather than authoritarianism were removed. I do support re-engaging with Cuba diplomatically and economically, but we shouldn’t treat it the same a democratic regimes.

I have no objection to the President being removed from power. I don’t even object if the legislature has to stretch some to do it. I’m now fairly supportive of the impeachment of U.S. President Andrew Johnson (although he wasn’t convicted and removed). He was impeached not so much for crimes as ineptitude. I can live with that. What wouldn’t be okay would be if the military removed him and then Congress impeached him. I expect the ultimate resolution will be essentially a mediated do-over with essentially the same result.

Leaving Iraqs Cities

2009-06-30T23:22:09-04:00

The U.S. has been pulling out of Iraq’s cities to meet the July 1st Status of Forces Agreement (SOFA) deadline. This actually is the start of an odd period in our withdrawal, most of what we can do effectively is in the cities but the draw down is still proceeding along slowly.

Marc Lynch has a good write-up of the current conditions in Iraq. Things don’t look that good, but that doesn’t mean that the American departure, as mandated in the SOFA by popular demand, isn’t going to happen:

Iraqi politics are going to continue to face all kinds of problems, as every analyst under the moon has pointed out. The Arab-Kurd issue, the continuing problems with government capacity, budget problems, and a host of unresolved issues remain. I think that the refugee/IDP issue remains the largest unresolved and virtually untouched issue facing Iraq -- those millions of people uprooted from their homes by force or fear who have few prospects of returning to their original homes, are largely disenfranchised in the emerging Iraqi political system, and who are almost completely unserved by Iraqi state institutions. But slowing down the American drawdown would not materially improve any of these issues. The best thing the U.S. can do is to continue to demonstrate its clear, credible commitment to withdraw on the agreed-upon timeline, and do what it can to help Iraqis adjust to the new realities.

I quite agree. I wonder if July 1st will end up as a national holiday in Iraq. I suspect it might if only in an attempt to boost the legitimacy of the Maliki government in the interim before we’re out completely.

Went to see Distant Worlds tonight

2009-06-27T23:45:35-04:00

Distant Worlds is concert series playing music by Nobuo Uematu from the Final Fantasy games conducted by Arnie Roth. Tonight the Baltimore Symphony Orchestra and Handel Choir of Baltimore provided the musicians. It was quite lovely, they did the mainstay but also went well beyond them notably performing the Opera (well, mini Opera) from FF VI “Maria and Draco.” That was my favorite part, but it was an outstanding evening. I’m tired now, so that’s all the description I’m putting up for the moment. Also, getting married in less than a week, so expect light posting.

The road to sexual serfdom? Not happening.

2009-06-26T14:47:00-04:00

I’ve been enjoying the new Atlantic Ideas Report which I picked up because I like Conor Friedersdorf’s posts over at the American Scene. It may soon show up in my opposition category on the blog roll. In any event, Friedersdorf is present interviewing James Poulos and there’s a fun bit about a Pink Police state that’s about as silly as it sounds.

So citizens of a Pink Police State (I should say subjects) are apt to surrender more and more political liberty in exchange for more and more cultural or 'personal' license. And the government of a Pink Police State tends to monopolize and totalize administrative control while carving out a permissive playpen for the people. This tradeoff has a creepy economic component. Already, in places like Russia, China, the Gulf states, and Singapore, we see the machinations of a new 'laboratory of autocracy', as oppressive regimes grant wealthy residents de facto privileges to all the sin money can buy. As I've asked in our own context, however, how many hipsters are too poor to party?… There's more to worry about when we see China's youth consent en masse to equality in servitude in the shadow of Macau, Earth's biggest gambling mecca. Of course the freaky environs of Dubai are a stone's throw from the real Mecca.

Polous develops a nominally similar idea in his article on “The Sex Vote” that sexual liberation can lead to the death of political liberty (note: risqué line art), which I think refers to the concept of classical little-r highly participatory republican citizenship.

Unlike the liberal, democratizing attitude toward the open-ended pursuit of erotic liberty, the traditional libertarian attitude at least recognizes that the arena of the erotic is as competitive as any other status-conferring activity and will foster the inevitable rise of a sexual elite...

The traditional libertarian can accept this inequality of outcomes; not so the liberal. Where the unfettered “market”—in this case, the space of sexual liberty—does not correct for inequalities and externalities, they will conclude the state should step in.

Poulos states that “[t]he Pink Police State is a more extreme version of a regime I use to taunt my libertarian friends in my essay on 'The Sex Vote'” but instead it seems as if he’s arguing that focusing on sexual freedom is the road to sexual serfdom and government enforced sex equality (not to be confused with equality between the sexes). That doesn’t really make sense to me, the Pink Police state models, Russia, parts of China, Singapore, aren’t providing traditional liberalism or equality so why would they try to pursue some sort of sex equality that undermined bargain with the rich? If liberalism really had these impulses on a wide spread scale, why isn’t he citing examples in Europe or Scandinavia? The cute line about how no one is too poor to be a hipster elides the fact that hipster-ism by definition cannot be available to the population as a whole. If everyone does something, it isn’t hip.

I’ll gladly concede that liberals are concerned with inequality in ways that Libertarians are not. That will always be a source of tensions. In the odd fictional example Poulos cites in the sex votes we liberals certainly would be willing to take away a child criminally neglected because the parent was too busy having sex. We’d also be willing to provide birth control or adoption services to avoid that problem in the first place. But on the whole the argument never really grapples with the fact that on the variety of sexual issues in the U.S. at least, liberals are the ones pushing for more freedom. On the whole it can be a fun thing to discuss, hence this post, but I don’t really see how this argument is applicable outside of sci-fi discussions.

Patience

2009-06-26T09:23:08-04:00

Ezra Klein has a good post describing how a victory with health care reform or climate change could work. The underlying strategy gets to a Mark Schmitt piece back in November titled the audacity of patience.

Here's a fact: We will not save health care this year… We might pass legislation improving the health-care system, expanding coverage to tens of millions of people, and instituting some needed delivery-side reforms. We might pass a bill that begins to clamp down on the carbon we emit. But, as Tim Fernholz argues, it doesn't end here. After eight years of stasis on these issues, it begins here…

Mark doesn't mention this explicitly, but another force for revisiting legislation is that, sometimes, things work. And then we make them bigger. Medicaid, for instance, has grown over the years. So too has Social Security. And S-CHIP. And, for that matter, the FDIC. Passing legislation doesn't settle the argument over its worth. But seeing it in action can often go a ways towards answering the question. And if the answer is that this approach appears to ease the problem at an acceptable cost, we often build on it.

Decisive moments do happen and there are costs to missing them. Also, maintaining pressure from the left is key to keeping the President working at the long game rather than settling into a new status quo. However, I think in human nature strongly inclines us to see decisive moments as a way around the frustrations of complexity and waiting. I think the same holds for Iran. It does appear the protests are diminishing for now as a natural consequence of the government showing unity and a willingness to deploy force.

The Islamic Republic has been delegitimized to an important extent, that said the Myanmar regime has managed to hold on quite some time after losing an election. I don’t think Iran’s leadership has the unity of Burma or the potential to establish performance legitimacy as the PRC has after Tiananmen. Iran also has a notable and destabilizing youth bulge. These factors make me think there will be other opportunities. Winning will ultimately require some combination of friends in high places or splintering/outgunning the Basij and the Iranian Revolutionary Guard.

What’s the U.S. role in this? Tricky, but we can’t make it about us. Ultimately I’m still open to talking to the government because I’m open to talking to anyone. That said, this greatly reinforces the importance of directly engaging the Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei and not the farce of a President. (Someone on the Post Op-ed page was arguing for that, but I can’t remember who so I can’t cite. I think it might have been Jim Hoagland, who was correct to chide the administration for a specific comment that Mousavi would likely mean a similar foreign policy, but on the whole I think that the misstep was an exception in an otherwise tuned policy.)

Thoughts out to those involved with the Metro collision and their families

2009-06-23T00:20:12-04:00

The pictures are horrifying, there’s six dead and six in critical care as well as seventy some injured. Given the way that one car was torn apart that number doesn’t come as a surprise. Even so, this is definitely a rare exception.

This was my line, but the trains were apparently inbound (news on that was unclear for a while), I don’t think I know anyone on the trains but I may see some of them going the other way when I take my ride home. Nonetheless, these riders are my people and I do feel proud of how they responded.

Lena H. Sun and Maria Gold did a good job with the story and for me the last comment was one of the most telling:

Afterward, passengers talked about coincidences, little things that had taken them just out of harm's way. Savannah Green, 16, usually walks to the front car of the train to be closer to the exit at her destination. But yesterday, she was "too lazy" and got in the third car. She was not injured.

Most any longtime commuter probably considered for a moment whether they’d have been on the car in question. I normally ride in middle of inbound trains and nearer to the front of outgoing ones.

As the title says, my condolences to those who lost loved ones and my thoughts with those that were injured. Thank you to all the responders, both those on the train that helped and the professionals that worked to get everyone out. I’m grateful you’re looking out for us.