Got to see Nanci Pelosi speak at the Mark Hopkins hotel during my lunch hour today. I really have to hand it to the Commonwealth Club of California. I also feel a story coming on so let me back up a bit.
When I lived in Vietnam I had access to a lot of governmental types, Ambassadors, Consulate Generals and so on. The debates were high level and I learned so much about the complexities and realities of many different subjects.
When I returned to the United States and turned on that which is currently passing for news here I felt disheartened to say the least. Most discourse here is superficial, biased and what I would characterize as a finger painting of the Mona Lisa. Most international affairs are complicated but the likes of Glen Beck and other talking heads really dumb it down to gain viewership.
Then I found the Commonwealth Club. This is a non-partisan forum which features internationally renowned speakers and makes them accessible to the general public! My first thought was that I did not have the influence to attend such events and that they were only for the elite. I was wrong.
Today, I got to see the Speaker of the House, Nanci Pelosi. Now politics aside, the last time I saw someone at such a high level I was in Vietnam. She spoke mostly about Healthcare and the question of the day was from a “Rockefeller Republican,” who is fiscally conservative but “Socially Liberal.” This person asked how she would respond to someone like him regarding the Healthcare bill. Her response was “Take back your party!”
This drew a lot of laughs from the audience and was something I agreed with. The Republicans are not “bad” per se but in recent years have been hijacked by the likes of Palin, Beck and Limbaugh. I look forward to the days when the party is not dominated by extremists because I am really an independent at heart and could go either way depending on the issue and logic involved. The trouble is that the views on the right have become so abhorrent and their mouthpiece “Faux News” is despicable. The Republican party needs to stop being the “Party of No” and get back on track.
If they cannot do that then I would welcome good, honest debate which is certainly not happening at the moment. Bring back civility to the national discourse and becoming an independent might be more of an option for me.
Changing gears, I think I will also have to write a post on the best Iphone camera app. The picture above was taken with the Iphone and I’m still looking for a great app that can zoom appropriately. There is no way I am going to start wearing a camera around my neck and it’s either a camera phone or no picture at all.
Re: iPhone app.
If you find something useful let me know. Chances are you won’t. The quality of an image depends to a large extent on the amount of light entering the camera. No software will be able to change the physical properties of what you are holding between your hands. Digital zoom simply canibalizes the image in hand by showing a smaller part of it but not adding anything to it in terms of quality.