Here are some favorite versions of the US national anthem I found collected on Rolling Stone's website. I like these for being really good or really bad, you be the judge.



Phish singing before a NJ Nets basketball game. Pretty good, eh? I saw them do an a capella Stars Spangled Banner on July 4, 2000 in Camden, NJ (across the river from Philly).



Marvin Gaye before the 1983 NBA All-Star Game



Hillary in Iowa earlier this year



Remember Rosanne singing at the San Diego baseball game a decade or two ago?

Happy (pick a country and celebrate it) Day!!!

I of course am American and proud to celebrate the Forth of July, but I feel I've also picked up a countries over the years and am proud to celebrate them as well. It's interesting to me that Canada Day (July 1st) and Bastille Day (July 14th) are so close to our "national birthday." Yesterday was even Independence Day for Belarus (which is where this incredible picture comes from). Early July is just a good time to celebrate patriotism and have fireworks I guess. Here are some thoughts about my three countries:

July 1st - Happy CANADA Day!

Canadians celebrate their patriotism on July 1st, the anniversary of the coming together of the confederation, making Canada a self-governing country; ie, slightly more independent from Britain than before. At the time, the country only consisted of three provinces: Canada (what is now Ontario and Quebec), New Brunswick and Nova Scotia. Another important date is July 1, 1982, when Canada gained even more independce from Britain. It's definitely its own country, a member of the G8, but when it's time for an election, it's the Queen's representative who does it. For a law to become final, it doesn't need signature by the Prime Minister, instead it needs "Royal Assent," a ceremony in which the Queen's representative literally nods her head from her "throne" in Parliament to approve the new legislation. I've personally attended such a ceremony and it's an ordeal loaded with tradition (and stuffiness).

July 14th - Happy Bastille Day!!

I don't claim France as my country, but I married one of their girls and root for their soccer team, so I owe it to them to learn about their national holiday which they actually call le Fete Nationale. It's celebrated to commemorate the storming of the Bastille prison in Paris in 1789 and one of the major events triggering the French Revolution and all that followed. Two interestnig tidbits about recent Bastille Day events: in 1998 the national soccer team won the World Cup on July 12, triggering what must have been a wild party. In 2002, shots were fired at then President Jacques Chirac, but he wasn't hit. I really don't know much else. I do love that photo of the Ave Champs de Mars though, the site of my 18km triumph in Paris.

July 4th - Happy Independence Day!!
Michael Gerson (a former GW Bush speechwriter, the one that wrote the phrase "axis of evil," and current Washington Post columnist) made a great point in today's paper. "It is typical of America that our great national day is not the celebration of a battle -- or, as in the case of France, the celebration of a riot. It is the celebration of a political act, embedded in a philosophic argument: that the rights of man are universal because they are rooted in the image of God." The spirit of the 4th of July reminds me a lot of the spirit of Thanksgiving, as I survey the "Lay of the Land," I realize I have a lot to be grateful for. Happy 4th.

FIFA Under 20 World Cup

The under 20 year old World Cup is in Canada this year and Sarah and I got to see two fantastic games here in Ottawa! The first part of the World Cup is the group phase where 24 teams are put into 6 groups of 4, each team playing the other 3 teams in their group 1 time. The best two teams from each group (and a couple 3rd place team) advance to a 16 team single elimination tournment. We saw all 4 teams of group E, first an exciting game between the Czech Republic and North Korea. Korea scored first, but the Czechs got two great goals in the second half and we thought they were going to win. But in the very last minute of play, the North Koreans were awarded a penalty shot and tied the game. Since it's not elimination games yet, and ties have an important impact on the standings, they don't play until someone wins.



The second game last night was Argentina vs Panama and it was easy to tell which country had more supporters! Check out this video I found on youtube made by a couple people who didn't seem to have planned on sitting in the Argentina section. I've got some of my own videos I'll post later.

T.L. Hamilton on the AP

My youngest step-sister Tiffany is a journalist for the Galveston Daily News in southeastern Texas. I can't remember exactly, but I think she's been there for about a year. In that time she's had many front page stories covering a wide range of issues and events. She recently had a story picked up by the Associated Press for the first time, and now it's been run by many papers throughout Texas, including the Dallas Morning News and the Houston Chronicle. She wrote about Mark Muhich, an artist who lived in SoHo in NYC but now lives in Texas, and creates his work using what most of us see as junk. The piece in the photos is entitled "9-11-01"

Have you seen these commercials for Gov. Bill Richardson's Presidential Campaign? He certainly does have an impressive resume and it is very significant that he's the first hispanic canidate with any shot, but his stock has dropped a little in my book lately. Perhaps he has to promise the moon because he's polling so low right now, but he says he can get universal health care legislation passed in his first year in office and do it without raising taxes. I'm pretty skeptical. All the other democrats, even those without any kind of plan out yet (which is everyone except Edwards and Obama) say it's going to take longer and will require at least repealing the Bush tax cuts. Richardson also says he would immediately withdraw troops and that no residual presence would be required in Iraq. This is a great thought, but also unrealistic. Joe Biden has taken a strong leadership role on this issue and he, as well as all the other canidates, admit that we'll have to maintain at least some kind of presence in Iraq for a long time, even in a support role after the bulk of the troops have left. All that being said, I think Richardson is a very strong leader with executive branch experience, international experience and no personal baggage (cough, cough, Hillary). I think he'd make a great choice for Vice Pres running mate.

Annecy was one of my very favorite places in France. Nestled along the mountains bordering Swiss, this resort town feels pretty close to paradise.


One of the biggest highlights of France for me was running 18km with l'Arc de Triomphe as my finish line. What an amazing feeling that was to run up the Champs-Elysee where I've seen the Tour de France finish on tv. This is a video taken from our car as we drove around l'arc de triomphe. This is the most insane roundabout in the world, something like 5 or 6 lanes without any lane markings! It's a total free for all as people can get off or on at 5 or 6 points off the circle.


Another favorite spot in France (obviously) was the Eiffel Tower. Isn't Sarah the most beautiful woman ever?

Final thoughts

Sarah and I are a week into our 5k/10k training and it's going really well. I'm really proud of her and feel very good pushing my limits. I am not worrying as much about distance this time around as I am about pushing myself to run distances I can comfortably do, ie, 3-5 miles, considerably faster than before. So far so good. I did a 5 mile run today with the middle three miles at a much quicker pace, running them in 26min. Compare that to the 31 min it usually took me during my half marathon training. I feel pretty good about that. One other final thought is that in total during my training, I ran 470km, 292.11miles, in 3,085 minutes, or just over 51 hours. That ends up being about 11 marathons, averaging around 4 hours 30 min per marathon. Not fast at all, but a good start, right?

Us in Paris

I love this picture of us in Paris

Race pictures

This is the ad for the 10k/5k run that Sarah and I have signed up for in Fayetteville, North Carolina on August 18th. We started training this week and feel really good (though I can really feel all the junk food I ate since the half marathon! Speaking of the half, check out my favorite pics from their official website where you can buy photos of me running if you like: me crossing the Alexandra Bridge (just before the 10k mark-can you tell by the smirk on my face that I saw the cameraman?), running down the canal (around the 12km mark I guess), looking at the jumbotron just before crossing the finish line (can you see the difference an extra 10k makes?) and crossing the line! The clock on the left is from the start of the full marathon (7:00am), while the one on the right was the time since the start of the half (around 8:30). Since it took 8 min to get to the starting line, my actual official time was 2:22:41.9, instead of the 2:30:24 seen in the photo. This is signficant since my goal was 2:30. Of course this is not fast at all. Out of 7,761 runners, I came in 6,125th place, meaning 80% ran faster than me, or that I ran faster than 20%. Out of 3,336 men, I came in 3066th, so 92% of the men ran faster times than me. Of the 361 men 25-29, I came in 343rd, in the bottom 5%. I actually enjoy these stats, as they reinforce to me that I wasn't competing with anyone but myself, and how glad I am that I didn't lose!

Ottawa Marathon

Check out this video following the leaders of the Ottawa Marathon 2 weeks ago. The half marathon course I ran along was mostly the same, except we didn't go as far south (out into the country).

Click here to see official photos of me running the race, including me crossing the finish line.

Positive direction in Iraq?

If you've been reading my blog over the years then you know I don't support Pres. Bush on most issues (though I have admired his recent courage on teaming up with democrat leaders to update the immigration laws despite taking a severe beating from republicans over it). Of course the issue that I disagree with most strongly about, to the point that I am very made and resentful of the price he's made our country pay, is the Iraq war. Imagine if the guy who won the popular vote in 2000, Al Gore, was President. Can you really imagine that this week would mark the death of our 3,500th soldier? No way. Even still, there have been a couple developments lately that give me hope that Bush might change directions. It's true that he vetoed congressional funding which including withdrawal timelines, but I'm not sure that was the right approach anyway. It's also true that when the Baker-Hamilton report came out last December he missed the opportunity of bi-partisan support for stepping down and changing direction by increasing troop levels by more than 20,000. But now that we're 5 months into his surge and most accounts show that it's not working, and he's got angry Republicans afraid of losing their seats in 2008 over this war, he'd be smart to find away to back out of this while saving some face. Which is why it has caught my attention that he's created a position nicknamed the "war czar," which will be a high level advisor who will focus solely on managing Iraq and Afghanistan and will report to him on a daily basis. Of course, isn't that the job of the Secretary of Defense or National Security Advisor? Pretty much, except they have a whole lot on their plate as well, and this person wouldn't have anything else. I also found it interesting that he's creating this position 4 years into the war and that as he put out feelers, everyone was turning him down. One of the most encouraging things I've heard from his White House is that he eventually nominated Lt. Gen. Douglas E. Lute, a well respected military leader who is actually on record as opposing the troop surge. He essentially re-affirmed that position during his hearing before the Senate Armed Services Committee yesterday and said it's clear that things are not going in the right direction and that if nothing changes, things will only get worse. The most remarkable thing about the hearing was hearing a Republican Senator quote an intelligence briefing which stated that our presence in Iraq is actually creating more members of Al-Qaeda than are being removed! The predictions I made 3-4 years ago are now so evident that leading Republicans are mentioning them! Anyway, the fact that Bush has nominated Lute as his point man on Iraq signals to me that he wants a change in direction and wants the political cover to make it possible. Bush can make the adjustments that need to be made and make it seem like he's trusting the advice of his military leader, rather than backing out or running away. The other encouraging sign is that at a recent press conference, Bush brought up the Baker-Hamilton report multiple times, perhaps signalling that he's ready to use that bi-partisan report as political cover as well. The next big opportunity to make a change will be in September as the current funding bill expires. I hope he does make changes, and it looks slightly possible he will, but then again, very little he does suprises me anymore.