The Buzz

Krikor Daglian
December 20, 2000

Now that this whole election matter has been easily and amicably resolved (hmmm), the presidential cycle moves back into familiar territory. Pres-elect Bush has been steadily rolling out his nominees and appointments, as expected, while editors, pundits, politicians and those who wish they were all or any of those, are rolling out their ideas for what the Bush presidency should be. As might be expected, everyone is trying to influence Bush's course, the more liberal out there are trying to slide him towards the center, as the more right pull him in the other direction. This tug of war was quite apparent in The New York Times last Friday the 15th. The Times, which endorsed Gore, featured an editorial suggesting, perhaps wishfully, that Bush's best path is to be more moderate than a straight reading of his platform would make one expect. It argued, among other things, that Bush's tax plan has little support in Congress, and that school vouchers have recently been rejected by the courts and the citizens of states which put them on as ballot initiatives. They have followed that up with additional editorials since Friday about where Bush should stand on the environment, how he shouldn't "rush" missile defense, and how he should wait on moving his tax plan forward until the economy recovers.

Facing the Times editors last Friday was an piece by conservative Gary Bauer giving Bush his two cents (thus depleting the all money Bauer had from his last campaign) Urging Bush to resist the pull of the left to compromise, Bauer reminded Bush that the president-elect's main support came from conservatives, and suggested that Bush shouldn't abandon them in an attempt to compromise. The author went on to describe the step Bush should take, and while most of it was what you'd expect from a known conservative, it was still strange to see him arguing that "once in office, Mr. Bush should immediately repeal a long list of executive orders President Clinton issued over eight years. These fiats have hurt economic growth, by over-regulating small businesses..." Now, wait a second - haven't we just seen the end of the Greatest Peacetime Economic Boom in History (^tm)? How much more heated could the economy have been, and wouldn't the Fed have just cooled it down anyway?

It's about a month until the Bush presidency begins. The path he'll take is unclear, and we'll see whether he'll stumble out of the gates like quite a few recent presidents (Kennedy, Ford, Reagan, Clinton) or manage to find a way to please his supporters and be a "unifier".

Little did I suspect how fashionable I would become in New York City when I decided to buy a North Face jacket in Maine. Having gone to school up in the frozen north for four years, I had become accustomed to seeing people wear the hot winter and outdoors label on my campus, to the point where so many people had them it became a bit of a self-depreciative, "everybody here is the same" joke at school.

In fact, I didn't buy a North Face product until after I had graduated. On the way home from homecoming weekend, perhaps inspired by the regalia at my alma mater (and an impending winter without a winter jacket), I picked up a handsome blue and black number.

I figured that I would have nothing to fear wearing it back in NY, where everybody seems to wear black leather jackets (or any type of jacket as long as it's black), but low and behold, I see numerous people wearing North Face gear every day on my long ride on the downtown A train. Fashion is weird: clothes made specifically for the outdoors (the aforementioned jackets, Timberland boots) are now common items of urban wear in this city.

Kung Fu online. Battlemail is a great way to communicate over email. Once you've downloaded the software (Windows only,unfortunately), you can fght your friends in an e-mail battle of Kung Fu. You select a series of offensive and defensive moves and, once you both e-mail your moves to the server, you get an animated battle based on the moves you chose. The graphics are well done, and the retro-70's theme is very cool. (Check out the guy with the 'fro.)