I kind of forgot that I still had a few stories to tell from Mexico.  Having grown up in California, it should be no surprise to anyone that I enjoy good Mexican food.  As a small aside, Taco Bell is not Mexican food by this (or really any objective) definition.  So I was looking forward to getting some good, authentic Mexican food, or as they call it down there, food.  Well, actually they call it comida, but that ruins the joke.

As it turns out, if you want really authentic food, you have to get off of Avenida Cinco, because that is the pedestrian avenue that sucks in all the tourists.  Don't get me wrong, they have some great food there too, but its not truly authentic... its still a little Americanized.  There is also a heavy Mayan influence in that region, and that shows up in the food too, which is not a bad thing.

But of all the things we ate down there, the one thing I had, which I loved the most, was the vanilla ice cream.  We had it at a couple different places, and every time I would have to say that it was the absolute best ice cream I've ever had in my life.  The vanilla was beyond compare!  We bought a few bottles of vanilla to bring back with us too.

The coffee down there was also outstanding.  And no, despite my addiction to it, we never went to a Starbucks... not that we didn't have the opportunity.  I think we counted at least 5 different ones on Avenida Cinco alone in Playa del Carmen.

When you're down in that part of Mexico, anything that comes from a bean is guaranteed to be the best you've ever had.

If you're not familiar, Reason Magazine is a publication put out by the Reason Foundation, a libertarian think tank.  I subscribed for the first time to their magazine last January after reading their online version for some time before that.  I decided that their articles and viewpoint were so good, that I wanted to support them more.  I have since let my subscription lapse.  Here is the story as to why.

Like any magazine, Reason begins sending you notices to resubscribe almost immediately after you get your first issue.  In fact, in the last six months of my subscription, I was receiving more notifications via postcard, letter, and email than I was receiving actual magazines.  Now call me crazy, but I actually prefer to get reasonably close to the renewal date before I actually resubscribe.  So I thought I'd wait until December or early January to do the deed.  That's when the phone calls started coming in.

Reason started calling me daily to resubscribe.  The first couple times, I just didn't have the time nor the inclination to talk at that time with someone.  They were very persistent.  When I did talk to someone at more length, she said: "Since we already have all your account information in our system, all I need you to do is say OK, and we'll resubscribe you.  OK?"  I considered that a very deceitful tactic, since ending the sentence with OK would normally cause someone to reflexively say OK, not to want another subscription, but to acknowledge hearing the question.  I said "No".  I had had enough.  I still got another call the next day after that, from a person who seemed to have no knowledge of the previous call.  They probably just have a big list they go through, and one telemarketer never talks to another.

I get plenty of magazines, and this is the first time I have been harassed like this to resubscribe.  And believe me, towards the end, I did in fact consider it harassment.  Now then, I have a strong feeling that the people on the other end of the line actually work for a company hired by Reason to resubscribe people, instead of Reason itself, but it really doesn't matter.  They are endorsing those tactics by continuing to use their service.

And so they have lost my subscription.  I will continue to read their articles online, but I won't pay a dollar for their magazine to come to my door.

Update: I emailed a link to this post to Reason Subscriber services, and got a pretty quick response from them.  They first told me they were investigating things, and confirmed that they used a 3rd party telemarketing services for subscription retention.  I have since been informed in a separate email from them that they have terminated their contract with that service, and that they don't condone the methods they were using.  Now I just have to consider whether I'm going to resubscribe or not.  Either way, its very encouraging that they take this so seriously.

A few days ago I recounted the story of getting back to the United States from Mexico... but I think it's appropriate to book end that story with what happened getting into Mexico the weekend before that.  Ally and I flew into Cancun, but our final destination was actually Playa del Carmen, which is about 50 miles south of Cancun.

After getting through customs (which was a piece of cake), we walked out into a large room the size of a small house which was filled on both sides with podiums, lined with people whose only job was to welcome you to Mexico and give you any information you needed, for free.  Everyone was exceedingly friendly, bilingual, and very knowledgeable.  Compare that to the welcome that people were getting here in the U.S. by the TSA, and the difference is very clear.

Now granted, we were flying into a tourist destination... so they knew we were spending money down there, and so they had every reason to do this, but I still couldn't help thinking of similar destinations in the United States.  I had a hard time thinking of any airport in the U.S. that might do anything similar... maybe Hawaii (though I've never been there).

Another interesting note about the guy we talked with in the tourist information area.  The first thing he asked was: "¿Habla español?"  To which I responded, "Un poco".  To which he responded, "Learn Spanish".  That was also the last thing he said to us before he left.  Of course, my Spanish was a lot better when I left than when I got there.  Immersion in the language tends to spark memory pretty well.

I recieved the following invitation today:

Commuter rail has become a major issue in southeastern Wisconsin, and a new study by Reason Foundation has added more information to the debate. You are cordially invited to hear transportation policy expert Tom Rubin, the author of Reason's study Kenosha-Racine-Milwaukee (KRM) Corridor Transit Service Options: An Investigation and Analysis, speak on Friday, January 16 at 10:00 a.m. at the Milwaukee County Courthouse, room 203b, located at 901 N. Ninth Street in Milwaukee. This presentation is open to the public.

I'm not sure I'll be able to get off work in order to attend, but the presentation is open to the public if you would like to.  You can find the study here.

Ally and I got back from Mexico last night after spending most of the day traveling.  While on the planes traveling down to Mexico, and also while in Mexico I read F.A. Hayek's classic, The Road to Serfdom, and also started re-reading Atlas Shrugged, by Ayn Rand.  It should be no surprise then, that an incident that happened while in the Atlanta airport seemed to bring the principles in those two books into sharp focus.

The initial leg of our flight home was from Cancun to Atlanta.  In Atlanta, we had to go through immigration, and also get our bags and go through customs, before rechecking our bags and heading off for the next leg of our trip (which happened to be to Detroit).  We were actually late leaving Cancun because of "diplomatic paperwork issues" according to the pilot.  That left us a tight turnaround to make our plane for Detroit when we finally landed in Atlanta.

We made it through immigration pretty quickly, and then headed down to the international baggage claim area to get our bags (we each had one).  Ally's came up reasonably fast... and mine didn't.  As bag after bag came up the conveyer belt, and time kept ticking away, we became increasingly worried that we'd miss our flight.  Ally had to work the next day, so I finally handed her the boarding passes she'd need and told her to go.  I told her I'd wait as long as I thought I could, and then I'd try to make the flight with my bag.  So she headed off through customs.

I then went over to talk to a very nice woman from Delta who was working in the baggage area and explained the situation.  She immediately called down to where the trucks were to find the status of the bags from our flight.  She then stood with me while we waited for the rest of the trucks to come, and called down occasionally.  She even went over to look for my bag at a different carrousel where a flight with a similar number had come from to see if it was there.  Finally she told me to go, and that they could put my bag through customs for me, and I'd get it the next day, but it was better to make my flight.

So I headed through customs.  Just as the woman at the customs desk said "Welcome Home", she then turned to me and said, "Wait, where's your baggage?"  I explained the situation, which caught the ear of her supervisor.  He then walked me back to the carrousel, asked another Delta employee if all the bags had dropped from our flight (he said no) and I was ordered to wait there for my bag.  I had 15 minutes left to catch my plane at that point (which included heading through security again).

The friendly Delta woman found me again, and waited with me, calling down occasionally again.  Only 1 truck was left, but it had multiple flights worth of bags so odds were mine wasn't on it.  Finally, with abut 5 minutes left, the carrousel stopped turning, she turned to me and said "GO!" and I ran back to customs where she waved to the customs folks and they let me through.

It was at this point that I thank God I'm in shape.  I sprinted with my back pack to the security check point, where I went to the TSA official at the head of the line and said "I have 4 minutes to catch my flight!" and he put me  in the "expedited" line.  At that point I called out to the 10 people ahead of me and said "I have 4 minutes to catch my flight, does anyone mind if I skip ahead?!"  They all moved over without a word and I moved to the head of the line, took off my shoes and put everything on the conveyer belt to go through X-Ray.

That's when the TSA official behind the X-Ray machine started openly laughing and mocking me in front of everyone, and to his coworker.  He kept taunting me with "Oh, poor baby is going to miss his plane.  Poor thing is worried he'll miss his plane.  Such a poor boy".  I wanted to shout "Fuck you lazy government bastard!"... but my goal at that point was to make my plane, not get flagged as needing extra scrutiny and a body cavity search.

I put my shoes back on without tying them, grabbed all my stuff and sprinted the half mile to my gate where it was just about to start boarding (thankfully it was 10 minutes late due to weather), where I met back up with Ally.

Ally had a slightly different experience.  When she got through customs fine and as she went to recheck her bag, she kept asking where she needed to put it.  She was directed by a TSA official to place it over in one pile, where she reconfirmed with the TSA official there that it was the correct place for her bag.  She then went through security to the gate, feeling uneasy about the whole thing because it all seemed so disorganized.

When we got to Milwaukee, my bag was there, and her's wasn't.

The whole experience brought into focus all the principles I was seeing in those books.  The Delta employee, trying to do a good job for the company she worked for, went the extra mile in helping me in the baggage area.  And though I don't know for sure, I am convinced that the reason I had my bag when I arrived was because it eventually came through, and she put it through customs so it would make the plane.

The TSA officials, who have no incentive to actually help any travelers, or make sure that air travel is smooth, not only did a poor job and lost Ally's bag, but were openly mocking of those they were supposed to be serving, instead of helping them.  A lost bag, or an offended traveler, doesn't effect the bottom line of the TSA nor his job, and so they may choose to do as they wish.

Of course, Delta is now extremely high on my list of good airlines because of this experience, and as you might expect, I have little respect for the TSA.  Unfortunately, I have no choice but to deal with the TSA every time I fly, no matter how horrible of a job they do.

"Nothing makes conditions more unbearable than the knowledge that no effort of ours can change them; and even if we should never have the strength of mind to make the necessary sacrifice, the knowledge that we could escape if we only stove hard enough makes many otherwise intolerable positions bearable" - F.A. Hayek

Alright folks... I'm outa here for a while.  The lovely Miss Ally and I are off to Mexico for a week of sun and relaxing.  If I'm feeling generous, then I'll try to pack some sun to bring home for the rest of you.  I'm not bringing a computer, so don't expect anything here until we get back.  Enjoy the snow for us.

Happy New Years everyone! I hope that you can look back with fond memories on everything that has happened in the last year, like I have, and that you can look forward to a year surrounded by good friends, family, happiness and love.  (Photo by Waldo Jaquith)

In what has become somewhat of a Christmas tradition here, I present to you a Charlie Brown Christmas... Scrubs style:

"You have to give love to get love.  So start giving."

Merry Christmas Everyone!

To all my Jewish readers, and especially to my sister Karen and her family, Happy Hanukkah!

So as the end of the year approaches, I've got a lot that's going on.  Besides the usual project crunches at my client, and the craziness that normally occurs around the holidays, I've also got some additional items on my plate.

First, I've been working on a new website for myself to feature some of my photographic work.  As I work out the bugs in the code, and add a few more features here and there, you'll be hearing more about it.  For now, it's just taking up my time.  Secondly, I've just secured a new apartment, and I'll be moving in January or February.  I'll still be in Wauwatosa, just in a much better place.  And finally, Ms Ally and I will be off to Mexico for a week in January for a much needed vacation, and respite from the snow.

None of this will keep me from blogging mind you (except for being in Mexico), but it may explain why my posting could become more infrequent or sporadic in the next couple of months.

This video lecture was actually floating around a few months ago, but I just got around to watching it (well, actually listening to it) today.  It's by a law professor and former defense attorney, as well as a Virginia Beach Police Officer.  It's about 45 minutes long, and the general conclusion from both is that you should never talk to a police officer.  Even if you're completely innocent.  Just don't do it.  Nothing good can come of it.  But I'll let you watch and decide:

As part of my current re-evaluation of my computing systems, backup processes, and so forth, I've also started to take serious efforts at securing some of my data.  Along with those efforts, I wanted to make sure that all of you were aware that I do use PGP for sending secure email.  If any of you ever feel the need, you can download my public key from the PGP server.  You can also find a link to my PGP key on the left side of my blog.

Have a safe and enjoyable Thanksgiving with everyone you hold dear... well... except the turkey.  I don't think the turkey enjoy's the day too much, but at least I enjoy the turkey.

Thank you to all who have served.

Who will be the first female President of the United States... Nancy Pelosi perhaps?  Consider this absolutely crazy conspiracy theory, that as a Libertarian, naturally popped into my head when I read this story...

1. Barack Obama receives millions of dollars in fraudulent campaign donations in clear violation of the BCRA, both from over-the-limit domestic sources and from illegal foreign sources.
2. RNC files complaint with FEC.
3. Barack Obama still wins election while investigation continues.
4. Barack Obama is inagurated.
5. Obama's campaign found guilty of violating BCRA... what one may call a "high crime" or "misdemeanor".
6. Obama and Biden impeached for violations of BCRA during election (Biden is equally guilty since he is a member of the campaign).
7. Nancy Pelosi, as Speaker of the House, becomes President of the United States.

Discuss.