I hear people complain about the injustice and the difficulties caused by the beginning of daylight savings time. I, on the other hand, couldn’t be happier about it.

I mean I hate having an hour cruelly plucked away from me in the middle of the night as much as anyone. And I get irked by the whole ’spring forward, fall back’ thing.

“How am I supposed to change the time?”
“It’s spring so we SPRING forward!”
“That’s wonderful but it doesn’t help me. Sunday Morning at 2:00 AM what time will it become?”
“What do you mean?”
“Will it be One or Three?”
“Three.”
“Why couldn’t you just say so.”

I guess I’m just to literal, but it’s much easier for me to remember what exactly it is I’m supposed to do, instead of have to decipher some cutesy little phrase.

Still, it’s worth the minor inconveniences.

The Beginning of Daylight Savings Time marks the end of my annual battle with the cold dark days of winter. Sure there will still be some cold, maybe even some snow, but it won’t last. Today I walked out of the gym at seven o’clock and it was still light. It gives me hope that summer will be here soon.

And I’m not a big fan of the Congress, but moving it 3 weeks earlier was brilliant. Way to go guys! Now if you can just address this stupid war and the failing economy, you’d be on the right track.

From me longer days signal the coming of spring. And spring means being outdoors. Camping, hiking, boating and backpacking. A few of my favorite things.

And suddenly, I don’t feel so bad.

This concept of a two year build up to the Presidential elections needs to be rethought. There is no reason for it. Of course, whenever I say that some asshat speaks out and says, ‘but I love this stuff.’ That’s the whole problem. I can’t help but believe that the only reason this process has spread out like this is to give CNN and FOXNews programming. That’s not a real good reason. There is no upside. It makes campaign insanely expensive driving the candidates into the waiting arms of the special interest groups. Meanwhile they all just dig up dirt about each other. This is a stupid system.

You would think that I would do something fun while I have all this time to myself. At least, you would think that if you didn’t know me. For fun, I’m broadcasting make believe radio on the internet. I suck. But I do take requests.

Other than that, I’ve just worked and watched Star Trek on DVR. I know, you’re jealous. You wanna be just like me. I’m sorry, but not everyone can handle this level of dork cool.

Oh… for the record, Expert Level on Guitar Hero II is fucking stupid hard.

First and foremost, thank you again to each and everyone of you that sponsored me. It really means a lot to me. In theory, the blogathon people will send you an email asking you to fulfill your pledge, but I’ll let you in on a secret. You can go to your profile at blogathon.org and click on edit next to this blog under “Your Pledges.” On that page you can simply push the button that says, “Fulfill this pledge directly with Freedom from Hunger now” and then fill out the Online Donation form at Freedom from Hunger.

I don’t really like to acknowledge it when I’m sick, I always want to think that I can just will it away, mind over matter style. But it doesn’t work that way. I have a sinus infection. And I don’t feel good at all. This made this blogathon much harder for me than it otherwise would have been. The headache that I had during the whole thing tested my patience and made me even grumpier than usual.

There are some aspects to the blogathon that really do irk me. I feel it could be better organized and designed to be much more inclusive to all participants. It also steams me that BE and Lewis get all kinds of plugs when they don’t even raise a cent for charity (at least not that I could see.) There were at least 2 stations involved with this blogathon were playing music and supporting charity.

In the waning moments of the blogathon, I had an epiphany. I am a lousy blogger. Occasionally, people try to swell my head by telling me that I am a good writer. Who knows, maybe I am, but that doesn’t making me a great blogger. I don’t need to be a great blogger, but I had never made that distinction before. The one thing I could do to be a better blogger is to post much more regularly. I’ll try. I’ve had some issues with this blog and I’ve been real tempted to scrap it. But I think I should keep it. I mean it’s over 3 year old, I’d hate to start over.

Who knows, after a good night sleep all this may seem very different to me.

I come home for lunch each day. I only live a few miles from work and I find it to be the easiest way to go.

I am counting my calories these days. With great success, I might add. I have lost 15 or so pounds in the last month. I have twenty some odd to go to reach my goal. I have a ham and turkey on rye with cheese, every day. Heated the toaster oven. I prefer hot meals, for some reason. It is about a 400 calorie meal and it is quite filling.

It must be annoying to people around me when I start talking about calorie this and gym that, but when you are focused on that stuff you think about it a lot. You have to. It is too easy for me to start rationalizing why I can eat this or that. So I stay focused. I eat (give or take) 1000 calories a day. They tell me that I need to eat more. They tell me that my metabolism will slow down to much. I think that they are full of shit and more interested in selling me stuff than they are in me just losing the weight.

My metabolism is fine, thank you very much. I go to the gym nearly every weekday. I get on the treadmill, walk for five minutes to warm up, run for thirty minutes and then walk for five more to cool down. Then I go work some of the weigh machines. I doubt I’ll ever build any muscle worth noting, but I’m told that building muscle burns fat. So I do what I can.

I think about this stuff at lunchtime, because it is the best defense I know against just breaking down and eating out. I have a goal, and I am focused.

Next weekend will be the first big payoff for my efforts. By bringing my weight down, I should have a lot my more energy and stamina when hiking. And since my robot like friend will be coming, I’ll need all the energy I can get.

Other thoughts:

I don’t hate my job today, nearly as much as I did yesterday. But I still don’t like it. If anyone knows of a company hiring Network Engineers in Florida, let me know. Thanks.

I truly hate blogging. Why I do keep doing it? I can’t find a better system for expressing myself. I used to think that blogging would be a truly free and open way to express yourself. It isn’t. People react to what you post. Those reactions influence how you post in the future, whether or not you want them to. And don’t think it’s just me. We wouldn’t get this infighting among bloggers (I’m sure you’ve seen it somewhere) if people weren’t sensitive to how people react.

If you want to get a real feel for the news, turn the volume off and the closed captioning on. You’ll be able to see how they repeat certain concepts over and over again. I never watch the news if I can avoid it, but when I’m on the treadmill I watch whatever is in front of me, often it is Fox News. Last night I saw them report on one guys theory about Sandy Berger destroying National Archive documents. I know nothing about this and I really don’t care, but in read the closed captioning it became clear that what was on the TV wasn’t exactly news.

To paraphrase, the segement went a little like this:

FoxNews: Did Sandy Berger steal documents from the National Archives to hide handwritten notes written by Bill Clinton and high level cabinet members? That’s what one expert believes. Tell us, did Berger steal and destroy these notes?
Expert: I believe he did. If there were handwritten notes and he destroyed them, there may be a cover up.
FN: So Berger could have been destroying handwritten notes, written in the margins.
Expert: Yes, the copies at the national archinves have no notes so he must have destroyed the originals to cover them up.
FN: Has the National Archives seen these notes.
Expert: They are unaware of any notes

Meanwhile, there is a graphic that says “Sandy Burglar” in the background the entire time. I don’t know or care about this, maybe the dude stole and covered up a loads of stuff. But that interview provided no proof of it. What it did do is repeat the accusation over and over again.

I used to worry about the government lying to us. Now they don’t have to. The cable news networks are there to confuse the issues for them.

Lunchtime is over. Maybe we’ll do this again sometime.

Yes. I am going to say Brian Billick should be coach of the year. He won’t be. But he should be.

You should understand that I don’t say this simply because I’m a Ravens fan. Honestly, I was one of the ones who last year was calling for Billick to be fired. The team was a disaster. Ray Lewis was injured and not speaking to anyone. Jamal Lewis was mad at the terms of his new deal. The Defense was openly criticizing the Offense for not be able to stay in games. There was no discipline. And Billick instead of addressing it, made excuses for it.

By the end of the season, most people felt that he would (and should) be fired. But Biscotti did something rarely seen in pro sports. He held a press conference, with Billick in attendance, and announced to the media that Billick would not be fired, but he expected changes. He went on to list them. Billick would stop being so arrogant. He would stop condescending to the media. He would be more connected to the team. He would listen to players. He would stop being soft in practices and at training camp.

I think all of us have probably had, at some point or another, a conversation with a boss where that boss outlined how we could be a better employee. It’s not fun, especially, the points that we know are right. I cannot image how it would feel to have that conversation happen in front of the entire world, should they be inclined to watch.

By the time you read this, Sean Payton of the Saints will have won the Coach of the Year honors. And what he has done as a rookie coach has been impressive. But he’s had some help. The other new arrivals in the Big Easy (Drew Brees, Reggie Bush, Marques Colston and Mark Simoneau) had a lot to do with the turn around season for the Saints.

The Ravens on the other hand haven’t changed much in the way of personnel. As a matter of fact the most significant change has been the addition of Steve McNair. But you have to understand that before signing McNair, Billick had to first admit he was wrong about Boller. Something he had been unwilling to do in the past.

Billick has done something most of could not have. He decided that he wanted to stay and he wanted to win, so he swallowed his pride (and in Billick’s case that is no small task) and made the changes demanded by Biscotti.

And the changes have paid off. The Ravens are the number two seed in the AFC and on top of the tough AFC North. They have an impressive 13-3 record, the best in team history. They swept the arch-rival Steelers and are favorites to make it to the AFC Championship Game.

Billick took a 6-10 team full of locker room divisions and sloppy play and turned them into a team that has every right to believe that they belong in the Super Bowl. He did it by putting his ego aside and doing what needed to be done. And for that he deserves Coach of the Year.

I’m in a shitty mood this morning. Of course, it is almost afternoon. This isn’t helping my mood out at all. But none of that matters.

From inside my skull:

I’ve been looking a bit at the new Vista OS. It’s pretty good, of course it ought to be after 5 years or so of development. I have been planning to make some changes to my ’supercomputer.’ Initially, I was thinking of putting some flavor of Ubuntu on it, but now I’m considering Vista. Linux or Vista? There are good reasons for both. I love the whole Open Source thing and the implied geekiness that goes with Linux, but Vista is new and shiny. Plus, sooner or later I’ll be supporting Vista at work, the more familiar I am with the better off I’ll be. At the moment, I’m totally undecided.

I can’t help thinking that we haven’t seen the worst of this Iraqi sitiuation yet.

There are all kinds of playoff implications in todays games. Not only in the NFL but in my Fantasy Football League. So in addition to the Ravens, I’ll be rooting for LT, Jerricho Cotchery and Eli Manning.

Monday Night Football presents me with a unique dilemma Assuming the Ravens win today. If Indy wins, the Ravens clinch the AFC North. If Cincy wins we clinch the Playoffs but not the AFCN. However we will move into Second Place in the overall standings in the AFC. I think I’ll just go with my gut here and root against Cincinattica.

I really need to go backpacking. This mild weather has only made this fact more obvious to me. Spring cannot get here fast enough.

The middle of next week will mark the shortest day of the year. I look forward to it, only so I can start seeing the days get longer again. All this darkness puts a hurting on my psyche.

I hurt my foot while running the other week. Nothing serious, but it does hurt when i put my weight on it. I kept running each day, hoping that it would work itself out. It did not. I believe that my sneakers were the culprit. So I switched shoes, but the pain is still there. And there is nothing more pathetic than seeing a middle aged guy hobbling along in a half run-half limp on the treadmill. I bought some new running shoes this weekend, which in the long run should help. My problem is what to do about the short term. I don’t run on the weekends, so it has had a chance to heal some, but if it still hurts tomorrow, I’ll have to make some choices. Either I just take a week off, I use the Elliptical Machines for a week (which will put less strain on my foot, but causes my knees problems,) or I just keep running. None of those are great options.

Every time I hear about Hilary Clinton getting ready to run for President, it makes me happy. Not for any particular reason, it just feels like a good thing.

I am sick of work. Luckily I’ll get the last week of the year off. Hopefully, I can come back re-charged.

Is privacy important?

The nature of this question keeps changing. Should we sacrifice a little privacy to make the world safer? To make it more convenient?

It seems that this question is no longer academic for me.

At work we got a new piece of equipment. A network analyzer to go with our firewall. Our Network Analyst, who is responsible for the firewall has been testing it out.

It seems that there is very little information that is hidden from him.

Oh. I know the information has always been there, for anyone with the right tools and enough time. But this has raised the stakes. He can read in near real time what you are saying on IM or what web page your are reading. Who you are logged in as.

If he were inclined, he could know just about anything I did on line, with no more effort than you are expending to read this blog.

He let our Network Engineers know about the capabilities of this device by reading verbatim an IM conversation between to of them.

The reaction in the room was unanimous: Fuck this.

Like I said, we know that nothing is safe or secret in the electronic world. We know that better than most people. We also know the pure volume of stuff happening on the network at any given moment should mean that whatever we do is just part of the noise.

Not anymore.

Of course, the argument always goes— if you have nothing to hide, you have nothing to fear.

Like most old arguments, it’s dead wrong.

Typical Chat conversation:

jeckles:dude
shutter:what’s up!
jeckles:that meeting was lame!
shutter:oh yeah?
jeckles:fuck yeah. you should have heard the dumbass shit that so and so was saying.
shutter:hahahhaha. I know so and so is such a tool… why do they invite him to those meetings
jeckles:to make me nuts, I think

Harmless. Just a little venting between co-workers. I’m sure it happens all the time. But what if ’so and so’ got access to the logs of the analyzer? Yeah. That would be bad.

And even if I refrained from criticizing or insulting anyone on IM, would it still be OK?

No.

Imagine if your boss offered you overtime to work on a project. You declined because you had plans for the weekend. You don’t tell your boss that your plans are to watch all 12 hours of LotR, its none of her business. But when you tell your buddy about your plans and she sees the logs…

What if some one was planning to quit? That’s not illegal or immoral, yet you wouldn’t want anyone at work to no about it before you told them.

The scenarios are endless. The fact remains that recording personal conversations is wrong. It’s probably legal, but what’s legal and what’s right often don’t line up.

There is a need to monitor what happens on a network and to control the kinds of traffic that is on the network. But there has to be a way to do it without spying on your own employees. I’d rather have IM blocked than monitored.

So what happened at work?

We downloaded and install a tool to encrypt our IM. Our Network Analysts blocked our IM. Our CIO said, “You guys can encrypt it? Send me the link.” Our Analyst backed off.

But this isn’t going to go away.

What should you take out of this? Two things.

Protect your privacy. If you think you have nothing to hide, you underestimate the ill will people can possess.

And if you IM me while I’m at work, assume what ever you type is being read. Cause it probably is.

I think I’ve mentioned that before.
That was Sarcasm. We both know I’ve said it again and again.

Blogging frustrates the shit out of me.

I started reading blogs four or five years ago. I had a few that I enjoyed. Of course, with the exception of WWdN, they are all gone.

I don’t read blogs to make friends. I rarely comment. I’m not really looking to interact with the blogger. What I enjoy is a glimpse into a stranger’s life. It is voyeurism of a sort. But it is different than peeping through window and trying to catch a glimpse of someone’s life. When you read a blog, you a peeping into a person’s life, not through the window, but through their own eyes.

That is one of the oddest things about this whole blog as community concept. When you interact with people out there in the real world, you derive a perception of that person. You see their body language, you observe how they interact with different people, you hear other people comment on that person, and most of all, you have your own direct interaction with them. The sum of these experiences (and more) is your mental sketch of this person.

But here in the blogoshere, it is whole different ball of wax. Your first impression of any blogger is based on a combination of how they see themselves and how they want to be seen. By the nature of the medium, bloggers give a false picture of themselves. No matter how honest they may be in their blogging, the way that they see themselves is going to be radically different than how we perceive them.

But that’s not the part that frustrates me. That was just a tangent. Sorry about that.

I don’t want to try to read hundreds of blogs. What I want to do is find a few that resonate with me and read them. And that’s what I do. But… and this is the part that frustrates me… I find a dozen blogs or so I enjoy and go read them. And after a while some of them will stop posting. Some of will them will become less interesting to me as the blogger begins to focus on different things. Of course, I understand that they can blog about whatever they want and they should. I am not reading because I am friends with that person but because I want something interesting to read. If what you write doesn’t interest me, well you’ve got nothing for me to read. And before you know it, I have nothing to read. Then I have to go find more to read.

I am subscribed to 44 blogs in Bloglines. Yet most of those update very infrequently. And when I sit down at my computer and want to read a blog there is nothing there for me.

So I will go find more, but that is a painful process. I can’t stand most blogs. I’ll parse through the shit looking for something worth reading.

And when I find it, that blog I want to read, I’ll just have to hope that I have a little time before it one fades away.

In case you don’t know… I have been doing this dumbass ‘Internet Radio Show’ for the last year or so. The imaginary Internet Radio Station that it aired on is going off the ‘air.’ If you want more information go here.

I guess all of this has me thinking about the nature the Internet, as I know it, and the nature of blogging. Which has been an ongoing theme for me. Who knows, maybe I’ll write something about this soon.

The Family and I went on road trip to the Lehigh Gap in Pennsylvania. We climbed the mountain and I took a couple hundred pictures. Maybe someday, I’ll find the time to organize and do something with all of these pictures I keep taking.

I still like my truck. It isn’t very fuel efficient and I guess that makes me a bad person, but I don’t drive far on any given day and I’ll gladly pay more to drive the vehicle I want to drive.

On a related note, I passed an SUV with a bumper sticker that said “High Gas Prices Stink!” I hate them.

I think I will carve a few pumpkins this year. I’m not half bad at it. I was going to link to the photos of last year’s attempts. But it looks like they were lost when BlogCafe went down. I’m sure I have them on this computer somewhere, but… Anyhow. I’ll find ‘em and include them.

I had no idea I liked the Grateful Dead so much. I’ve recently got a bunch of Dead to listen to. I like it. I wish I would have realized that while Jerry Garcia was still alive.

I have a headache.

I used to think that maybe I could be a writer. I got over it.

I am still struggling to figure out how I am supposed to do all the things I want to to do, in the time that I have to do them.

I think that North Korea possessing Nuclear technology may be the single greatest threat to the stability of our world.

I am glad I discovered the Sleuth Channel. Miami Vice is better than anything that the networks are offering these days. Between that, M*A*S*H on Hallmark, and Star Trek on G4; I have all the TV I need.

And as they say on M*A*S*H…

That is all.

Have you ever been truly hungry?

I don’t mean feeling like a creme filled doughnut would hit the spot. I mean true hunger. Have you ever gone days with out a meal? Have you ever been so poor, that you could not afford the basic food items needed for survival.

I have. For a brief period in my life, I went with out food because I simply did not have the money. I was never in any danger. I had my family to fall back on.

This year, according to the Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) of the United Nations, 11 million children around the world will not be that lucky. They have no one to fall back on. They live in extreme poverty. They live in areas ravaged by civil war. They will die from diarrhea, acute respiratory illness, malaria and measles because their bodies are too weak to survive these common illnesses. They are not victims of famine, they are victims of poverty and war. Food exists, but they cannot afford or get access to enough of it.

The solution to this problem is not simple. Freedom from Hunger believes that the solution lies in providing these communities with the resources to care for themselves. Freedom from Hunger is not about a handout. It is about change.

With training and assistance from Freedom from Hunger, local organizations can implement high-quality programs and become permanent resources to the poorest citizens of their countries.¹

So what did you have for dinner last night?

In this year’s blogathon I am sponsoring Freedom from Hunger.

You can help by sponsoring me. All I’m asking for is a few bucks. (Maybe what you planning on spending on dessert.) If you cannot help me monetarily, I understand. But do me a favor, send some friends this way and lets see if we can raise some money for a very good cause.

Please Sponsor Me to help fight Hunger.
***If you do sponsor me… let me know. I am hearing reports of the Blogathon site not updating. Thanks***

Did I mention that I hate people.
Why yes I did.

It’s not their fault however, I’m just incompatible with most of them.
I know the problem lies with me. I see the shit that is popular on TV and the Internet, and I hate it too.
Most of the time it doesn’t matter. But sometimes I can’t avoid it.

I hate the Internet, too.

I know. I know. You’re shocked and appalled.

How could you hate the Internet? You spend so much time on the Internet. You love it, you know you do.

Nope. I hate it. It’s not as confusing as it seems.

I hate the Internet because it falls so short of its potential. The Internet could great. Hell, it should be great. But is is not.

Take, for example, political blogs. You just cringed, didn’t you. (Hold that thought it’s going to help me prove my point.) Political Blogs should be awesome. Blogging on the Internet is something that is unregulated, uncensored, and unpressured by the influences of large corporations, lobbies or the government. You can say what ever you want on your blog. If you want to talk about politics, you can tell us what you really think about this issue or that one.

You could, but you don’t.

The political blogs I’ve read, with only a few exceptions, don’t offer up any unique insights or thoughtful discourse. They simply parrot whatever talking points are being distributed that week. Thousands of blogs, all saying the same thing.

I could rail about this for hours but the point is this.

I hate the Internet because it doesn’t even come close to living up to its promise.

I hate people.

I don’t want to. I want to be a people person. I can imagine me talking and having fun with all of these people, but they aren’t real people. They are interesting people who want to talk about things not just pratter on about TV or the weather. People who have opinions and are willing to defed them, but who also are looking to expand their horizons and therefore are willing to listen to different points of view. Me and my imaginary people would have such a great time.

Too bad they are not real.

Take tonight for example. My wife is having some sort of stupid candle party. Whatever. I know it wasn’t designed for me, I just planned to lay low and stay out of the way.

Of course I didn’t get out of work until after 6. Then my wife asked me to stop by the grocery store to pick a few last minute items for the party. I didn’t get home till just before 7, which is when the part started. All I wanted to do was change, grab something to eat and retreat to the geek cave.

Well that’s not going to happen. The party ladies are already showing up. To hell with it, I think, who needs to change. I’ll just grab some food and take the kids and retreat. Too late.

Lady I barely know: This is Jeckles.
Lady I’ve never fucking seen before: You’re Jeckles! I though you were Mrs Jeckles’ brother you two look alike!
Lady I barely know: Well Married people start to like a like!
Lady I’ve never fucking seen before: he he he
Lady I barely know:Jeckles look at hard I’ve slaving to prepare for your wife’s party.

I guess anyone who reads this will think it is no big deal…

Who fucking cares right? I do. What gives you the right to walk into my house and start babbling at me. If you have nothing to say, Shut Up! Why do you feel the need to flap your jaws and joke with me like we’ve been friends for ages.

At some point I had the Audacity to try to leave the Geek Cave. I just wanted some coffee. The door to the Geek Cave was barricaded with Candles. Once they got those clear, some person I don’t know yells out, Jeckles, you can’t just barge in to a room of women with out knocking.

Oh yea, you stupid cow, it’s my house. I own it. An why the fuck are you talking to me.

I really wish I could have some coffee.

I’m a dork.

I admit this freely. My hobby is the Internet (and backpacking.) I read blogs. I play on stupid forums. I listen to podcasts and Internet radio. I even do a stupid radio show myself.

It’s a stupid hobby. I know this. But I figure that it is no worse than getting all wrapped up in Lost or Desperate Housewives or, kill-me-first, American Idol. I could be writing the great American novel… but then again, maybe I have nothing to write anyway.

None of that matters. Hell none of this matters either.

The point.

There is no point, there never is.

The Internet should be better than the real world. People of like thoughts should be able to find each other and communicate. People should be able to express themselves freely. Information should be exchanged… freely.

But that’s not how it works a lot of the time.

It becomes just like the real world. Full of petty bickering. And stupid politics. Not like Red State/Blue State politics, but like office politics… only as it relates to … blogs, forums, chatrooms, whatever.

Fuck That.

Says a lot about human nature… doesn’t it? And I don’t like what I’m hearing.

Occasionally, people will ask me why I celebrate Christmas.  They know that I am an atheist.  What use do I have for Christmas?  The short answer is, I do it for the kids.  No reason to deprive them of all the things that go with Christmas, just because of my ideological hang ups.

But I have a confession.  Just between you and me.

I like Christmas.

Sort of.

On my terms anyhow.

The Christian Celebration of the birth of Christ… I can take it or leave it.

The modern secular celebration that extends from Thanksgiving to New Years, on the other hand, I can get in to.

There are a lot of things I like about Christmas Time, or maybe I should call it Xmas.  First of all, there is an emphasis on family and caring that is nice.  The gift buying is great for the economy, and getting a few nice gifts, makes me happy too.

But I think the thing that really makes me happy is the lights.  This is the darkest time of year.  The shortest day of the year is coming.  What better way to deal with this than to light every thing up.  Extra lights hung on the streets.  On Houses.  On Trees.  Lights everywhere.

It makes me feel good.  Xmas is great.  

A time when instead of going to work, I can stay home with my family.   What a great idea.  I think everyone can get behind that.

The more I think about it.  The American Celebration of Xmas is very secular.  And Commercial.  Santa Claus, as we picture him, has everything to do with the Coca Cola Corporation.  This doesn’t bother me at all.  It fits into our culture perfectly.

And when I see the occasional sign that says, “Don’t Forget The Reason for The Season.”  I smile to myself.  I think, maybe I have my own reasons…. and they aren’t half bad.

New Order - Republic I’ve got so many things bothering me right now; I don’t know which one to write about.

I guess I’ll start with the Scouts.

My son joined the Boy Scouts last spring.

Good for him. Of course, I have to go to the Meetings and hang out. I hate them.

A little background is probably in order. I was a Boy Scout when I was a kid. I loved it. It is one of the things from my childhood that I look back on and am happy with. It was great. We went camping. A lot. And when we did, the leaders let us kids be in charge of ourselves.

By that, I don’t mean that they let us do whatever we wanted to. Quite the opposite. They taught us what we supposed to do and how to do it. Then they expected us to take care of.

We camp with our patrols. The Patrols usually consist of 6 or so kids. One of those kids is designated as the Patrol Leader. The Patrol Leader would work with a patrol to come up with a menu and itinerary for the patrol that worked with the guidelines he had been given. He delegated responsibilities to the members of the patrol.

Everyone knew what he had to do and everyone did it because that was what had to happen. Not perfectly, not all the time, but the leaders guided us on how to work through the rough spots.

This is what turned me on to camping and backpacking. It was the first time in my life that I had been truly independent. Sometimes I think that it still is. It is quite an accomplishment for a group of teenage boys to go out in to the woods and manage to take care of themselves. It was a lot of work, but it was fun and we felt pride in our accomplishments.

When I was 15 we moved. The Troop in the area I had moved to was awful. When we went camping, the grown ups cooked our meals for us. They told us what to do and when to do it. We had a lot of time for goofing off. And I hated it. It wasn’t real camping. I knew how to take care of myself, maybe, in terms of camping, more than some of these leaders. I lost interest and stopped going to the meetings and working on merit badges. I was very close to Eagle, but I did not care. It did not seem like it would mean much to be an Eagle Scout from a Boy Scout Troop that actually cancelled a camping trip because of rain.

Anyhow. My son’s Troop.

The meetings have been disorganized. The kids are supposed to be in charge, but they obviously don’t know what they are supposed to be doing. I hate it. But I keep my mouth shut. They have more parent participation than any Troop I’ve ever heard of.

In time, the leaders of my son’s Troop figured out that I have a Scouting background. And that I go backpacking all the time. And they want me to be involved. At first, I resisted. It seemed like to much work. I didn’t want to help them run the Troop the way it is running now and I didn’t want to tell them that they had to change what they were doing.

As it turns out, not all of the parents are happy with the way things are going. They recruited me to be on ‘their’ side. They may regret it. Anyone who reads the shit I’ve written knows that I have strong opinions. My opinions on how a Scout Troop should work are very strong. It is going to be a mess.

This past weekend, I went on a campout with this Troop. The adults took care of everything. The Scouts threw snowballs at each other.

Jeckles, I told myself, you have to give them a chance. You can influence them. In time you can teach the leaders how to teach the kids.

So I stayed out of the way. I let things happen the way that they happen.

On Sunday, as it got close to time to go, I saw the adults working very hard to get everything stowed and put away. I saw Scout throwing snowballs. Then I noticed one Scout working on putting away some gear, it looked like he could use a hand. I went to the Scouts throwing snowballs and asked if a few of them could help the kid out.

They refused. And went back to throwing snowballs. I raised my voice, and used the inflection that I think of as my Dad voice. And demanded that they help. At that point, a few of them begrudgingly went to help. I was furious.

The Scouts have a Law. It states that a Scout is Trustworthy, Loyal, Helpful, and so on and so forth. And these Scouts refused to help. But I wasn’t mad at the kids so much as I was mad at the Troop. The kids reaction made it very clear to me that these kids had never been asked to help with anything during a campout.

I do not know how many trips like that I can go on.

What’s the point?

It is not polite to ask people to help you move.

I mean it is one thing if you are young and moving into your first apartment. Or your first apartment without roaches. Or even if you are moving into your first house.
But if you are moving into a bigger house, because you outgrew you other house.. again.
Hire movers.
And if there is a piano…

Maybe I’m wrong. Maybe it’s just my aching back speaking.

—–

Five days off from work was good. Of course, I had plans to get a bunch of stuff done. I did not. My free time mostly just slipped away from me while I diddled on the computer.

I did play with the Mango Radio.
I can now go ‘live’ at will.
I know that you don’t care. But I think it’s cool.

—–

Having gone back to work after essentially a week off, I have decided that I don’t like work. It’s not my job. It’s not bad as far as jobs go, but I don’t like it. I’d rather being doing something else. Making something. Creating something. Not just supporting systems that in turn make a larger system work. What the hell is that?

Being cranky and writing doesn’t go well together.

Be angry works, you pour your rage on to the paper, so to speak.

But being cranky…

It just doesn’t cut it.   You are over critical.  Nothing you write is good enough.  This shit isn’t good enough, but I am going to put up something today.  So this is it.

Maybe it’s the holidays.  Maybe it’s the time off work.  Not that I’d rather be at work, but time off work is that magical time that I would do all those things I can’t do because I’m busy working. But it doesn’t work out that way.

Maybe it’s this cold.

I don’t know.

But I am cranky.  And I can’t write.  This only makes me crankier.

There’s nothing like hitting that lace where everything just makes you more upset.

I could elaborate, but I don’t think I could get my meaning across.

Being cranky and writing doesn’t go well together.
    

Mango is fired up about Intelligent Design.  I’m not sure of it was the headlines from Dover or just right wing propaganda that has him fired up, but he is.  He asserts that Intelligent Design is not a theory and furthermore that making the case that Intelligent Design should be presented as an alternative theory to Evolution is akin to saying that Green Day should be offered up with Beethoven and Mozart in Music History class.

I’m not a scientist, hell I don’t even possess a college degree, but I won’t let that stop me from adding my take on this.  Let’s jump back a moment.  What is Intelligent Design or ID?  If you want a detailed answer, Mango and a-[e] can provide it.  I’ll state it simply.  ID is Creationism dressed in scientific trappings.  

Let me make a few statements before I continue.  I am an Atheist.  I’m sorry about that.  Some would tell you that my lack of belief makes me want to push that on others much the way the Faithful want to spread their faith.  I can only offer you my assurance that your faith or lack thereof is of no concern to me.  Having said that, I don’t think that Christianity and Evolution have to be at odds with one another.   The bible says God created man and the animals.  Evolution says that mutations occurred over time.  I know Christians who believe that those mutations may be the hand of God in the process. By pushing this small change or that one perhaps God did create us, they say.

It seems to me that evolution is not really a facet of biology, but a matter of math.  Applied probability.  Nothing is driving evolution.  It might be more appropriate to say that Evolution is demonstrated by Biology.  I point this out because I think Evolution is demonstrated in other places too, but I’ll get back to that later.

SC&A says, “There is ample scientific evidence that evolution is a fact of life. There is also ample evidence that there is much more. That evidence can be seen in the behavior of man. That behavior defies evolutionary ideals and principles” and Mango echoes the notion.  I contend that these statements are erroneous because there is no such thing as evolutionary ideals or behavior.  Man is successful as a species.  Largely due to his behavior.  I would say that man and his “counter-evolutionary behavior” are only more examples of evolution itself.

Evolution is not about behavior.  It is about patterns.  I may be the only person who sees it this way, but what the hell.  Like I said at the beginning I have no real expertise on the subject matter.

The question I find more interesting is this; why are people of faith so threatened by evolution?

They teach Earth Science in most schools systems.  And in those classes they teach that the Earth is much older than a literal view of the bible would allow for.  Yet, I’ve not heard much outrage about that.  What is about the Theory of Evolution that makes this Fundamentalist Christians want to take to the streets?

I’m too tired to dwell on the subject any long tonight so we’ll have to address that part later.

This notion of Class and Classism is still bouncing around my head.  Before I continue with this line of thought, I want to clarify a few things.  a-[e] wrote a piece that touched on some of these same notions.  He took exception to the way I broke out the classes.  I want to clarify that the classes that I am defining are social, not economic.  

To that end, although economically your average white collar middle manager is no where near the CEO of the corporation he works for; socially they follow the same mores and hold to the same basic values and beliefs.  We are not blind to the economics here, the economic status of individuals, will certainly have a lot to do with placement of an individual in the strata that exists within the Class.

That is same reason that I separate the Urban Poor from the Rural Working class.  They may find themselves in the same tax bracket, but they do not have much in common in regards to mores and values.  I label them as Urban and Rural, but these labels do not necessarily point to where the members of this Class Live.  These labels describe where the values these classes embrace came from.  There are people who are members of the Rural Working class who live in Suburban and Urban areas, but their values and mores would fit in rural Ohio or Texas.

Commenter, tantric siren, observes that I didn’t address the role education plays in promoting the class structure and by extension Classism.  I did not mention in that post, but I certainly will address it here.  The way we run our schools in this day and age has everything to do with the perpetuation of Classism in America.

The Public Schools serve to sort children into the proper class and keep them there.  I’m not talking about a teacher who believes that blacks are lazy.  I’m sure that happens, but what I’m talking about is actually built into the system.  Good teachers as well as bad teacher are promoting it.  It starts with the separating the ’smart’ kids from the ‘average’ kids.  This is done at a very young age.  The ’smart’ kids are separated from the others and get a more rigorous and challenging curriculum.

How are the smart kids picked out?  Some fancy testing?  No it is left to the teacher’s judgment.   I have all the respect in the world for those who choose to teach.  But neither that choice, nor the subsequent training, makes them qualified judges of intelligence.  I’m sure there are plenty who would argue this point with me.  But I feel strongly about this one.  How are the teachers making these assessments?  They are identifying the ’smart’ kids as though who are the better readers, have better math skills and those who are generally better prepared and follow instructions best.

One might think at first glance that this is a perfectly reasonable criterion for picking out the ’smart’ kids.  But let’s look a little deeper.  In grades 2, 3 and 4; can we really tell who has an aptitude for Math or English?  No, we cannot.  What we can see is performance.  I assert that what we are really measuring in this process is not aptitude or intelligence, but the  social  background of the child.  The schools ask that children come to kindergarten familiar with the alphabet and able to count and a couple of other basic things like that.  Children of Middle Class families will, in all likelihood, come very prepared.  On the other hand children from the Rural Working Class are much less likely to come to school with this background.  And children from families that are Urban Poor almost certainly will not be prepared at all.

As the children progress through school, the differences in Class continue to be emphasized.  The Children of the Middle Class will most likely get the most support and help at home with their school work.  Those parents are the most likely to go to Teacher Conferences and communicate with the teachers in a way that the teacher’s are comfortable with.  Even Johnny Middle Class is struggling with math, his parents will help the teacher to see what the problem is.  At the same time, Suzy Working Class may be having the same problem, but her parents, who know that they were never very ’smart’ at math, assume that there is no problem, Suzy just doesn’t get it.  Freddy Urban Poor’s parents on the other hand resent the schools system and ignore communication from the teachers.  

The result of all of this is that the Middle Class kids are filtered into the ’smart classes.’  The names change depending on time and place, but the concept is constant.  These students then receive the best recourses, the best teachers and the encouragement to go to college.  Why the ’smart’ kids get more while everyone else gets less, is also symptomatic of the role that class plays I education.  Common sense would tell us, that the ‘average’ and ‘dumb’ kids need more help and therefore more resources.  Unfortunately, schools are run by common sense, they are run by the Board of Education.  The Board members are elected officials, who have to publicly answer to the tax-payers.  And guess which class is most mobilized in local politics: the Middle Class, of course.  So the decisions of the Board reflect time and again the notion that the kids of the most influential members of community need to be taken care of.

Don’t think that this possible?  I assure you it is.  A local school system came up with a proposal to eliminate leveling, to mix the kids together and assure that they all received good instruction.  When the proposal was put in front of the Board of Education, parent after parent stood up to say that they did not want their kids, the ’smart’ kids, to have to be in the class room with those others.  The sentiment was, if we share the resources equally amongst all the children, it would cut into the ’smart’ kids’ chances at going to their chosen University.

In other words, they felt that it was fine to educate these other children, but not at the expense of their child receiving the finest education the system could provide.  The result of this, over time, has been that we have a system that has schools inside of schools; a school for the children of the Middle Class and a school for everyone else.  

Of course, there are exceptions.  There are children from the other classes who are bright and push themselves who end up in the top classes.  And there are Middle Class children who are unmotivated and maybe not so bright who drop down in to the ‘average’ classes.  But as a rule, this how it works for most.

Can this be fixed?  In theory, it would not be hard to implement.  All we need to do is give all children the same level of education.  But the reality is much more complicated.  The Middle Class controls the School Board, and they want to see this system perpetuated.  And even if some liberal minded members of the Middle Class could push through these reforms, it wouldn’t matter.  The Middle Class would pull their children from public education, and either home school or send them to private schools.  They would then demand Vouchers or fewer taxes spent on the schools, since they did not use them.  ”Why should we support these schools?” They would ask.  We have already seen this happen in the inner cities.  Without the support of the Middle Class, the schools fail.

I wish I had better answers.  I do not.  But it seems to me that many of us have been participating blindly in this system of Classism.  It is my hope that through awareness, some changes can be made.

There is something going on this country.  It has been flicking around the edges of my consciousness for a few years, I think.  But it is starting coming in to focus for me.

I have tossed this notion around with some people whose intelligence and opinions I respect .  It is slippery.  I want to present, but I don’t want to get bogged down in old arguments.  That’s part of the problem.  We are used to looking at this issue and that issue till we can’t see the big picture.  To be cliche, we can’t see the forest for the trees.

This problem that I see, I haven’t heard anyone address before. (Although I am sure they have, I simply just haven’t heard it.  Therefore I need to define my own terms, since I haven’t heard them defined before.)  

How to present this?  We’ll start here, but I think this is a large concept and will have be addressed in more than one post.  We’ll start with the notion of racism in America.  How would you feel if I told you that there was no institutional racism in America?  That except for a few bitter and under-educated individuals there is no racism? Hear me out.  If you have a list of example of racism, hold on to them for a second.  Let’s look at this from another angle.  I recently heard a quote that said something about Bush hating black people, in describing his response (or lack thereof) to the disaster in New Orleans.  As a matter of fact, it wouldn’t be too hard to put together a case that said that the Bush administration had presented policies that have harmed African-Americans.  But there would be a gaping hole in that argument.

Bush made Colin Powell the first black Secretary of  State, then he made Condi Rice the first black woman Secretary of State.  It is widely reported that Dr. Rice was one of Bush’s closest advisors during his first term.  If Bush has it in for the African American community, why has held these two individuals in such high regard?  Or more simply put, if we call Bush a racist he will not only deny it, but will go on to tell us about his friends that are black.

We see this kind of discrepancy all over the place.  How to explain it?  Perhaps were are looking at the problem all wrong.  Maybe it’s not about race, not about skin color.  What if we assert that it is about class?  If we say that the Bush administration has consistently implemented policies that are harmful to the lower classes in this country, does this ring truer? It’s getting closer.

How about if we don’t define our classes by economic terms?  If you took Macroeconomics you have heard about the classes in America.  Lower, Middle and the Upper.  Forget about them, for the purposes of this discussion, they are useless.  There are factory workers, Tool and Dye makers who make more money than most teachers.  Are they in the same class?  I wouldn’t say so.

Let’s define the classes in the United States as follows.  There are three classes.  I’ll name them like this, although I acknowledge the names aren’t perfectly representative of their members; the Elite Middle Class, the Urban Poor and the Rural Working Class.

The Elite Middle Class is the class who run this country.  It is composed of home owning, college educated, white-collar workers.  They are held together by a common set of core values.  Values that could described as White Anglo-Saxon Protestant  values.  But don’t be confused, this class is not about being white, Anglo-Saxon or Protestant. It’s about living with values and mores that the WASPs have traditionally held. What are the mores of the Elite Middle Class?  I could probably write a book to answer that question, but I won’t because I think that all of us understand them. They include the nuclear family, the notion of education as a means to better oneself, a work ethic that dictates that one must work himself to the bone to get a head (the so-called American Dream,) a whole bunch of implicitly understood rules of behavior that are referred to as manners, and countless others.  If you are having trouble picturing these mores, picture the Huxtables from the Cosby Show.  It doesn’t matter if you’re Black, Hispanic-Catholic, or a Russian Jew, as long as you act correctly.  Nearly all of our political and corporate leaders come from this group.  Liberal Democrats and Conservative Christian Republicans both come from this group.   They agree or more than they think, it just some of the details that they differ on.

The Urban Poor are largely African American, but not exclusively.  They are not a cohesive class like the Elite Middle class.  What they have in common is what they do not have.  They are poor, they do not own homes, they are uneducated, and they do not subscribe the mores of the Elite Middle Class.  Paternity is practically undefined in this class.  This is class that has evolved from centuries of communal living.  They have a very different notions about privacy and personal space.  

The Rural Working Class  are not necessary rural nor do they necessarily work.  Once again this group is defined by a certain set of values and mores.  The Rural Working Class holds many values in common with the Elite Middle Class but they lack much of what the Middle class has.  Home ownership is not as common.  Many of them own trailers or other properties that do not have the same investment potential as true home ownership, although they likely believe that it is the same.  Many of them hold jobs that do not require any formal education, custodial positions, manufacturing jobs.  Some of them will develop skills, but only skills that they can employ in their jobs, auto mechanics and tool and dye makers for example.  They view money as something to be dealt with immediately and most of them don’t trust banks for even the simplest of investments, Savings Accounts.  They are a group that is largely ignorant and gets much of its information on the rest of the world from what they are told at work, at church, the bar.  They are the NASCAR nation and the Bible Belt.  They are the voters who consistently put Republicans in office.

Interesting observations, you may be thinking, but so what?

Back to my original question, about Racism.  What if what we are seeing isn’t racism.  What if it is classism.  I know it’s not a real word.  But it will have to do.  What if I assert that the Bush administration has consistently pursued policies that are harmful to the Urban Poor.  What if I further more assert that while the Administration’s policies do not benefit the Rural Working Class much they are presented in such a way that the Rural Working Class believes that they have benefited, tax cuts for example.  Do these assertion ring more true than the assertion that the Bush Administration is racist?  I think that they do.  It is no longer a paradox that Bush has placed African Americans high in his cabinet.  It doesn’t matter that they are African American, because regardless of how they got there, both Condaleeza Rice and Colin Powell are members of the Elite Middle Class.

So what does all this have to do with anything?  It had to do with this.  For the last few decades, certain members of the Elite Middle Class have been acting to elevate and isolate the Elite Middle Class, but keeping the Urban Poor impoverished, ignorant and at war with each other, while at the manipulating the fears and ignorance of the Rural Working Class to achieve their aims.

Why should I care?  I’m a member of the Elite Middle Class (although there are many who are more elite than I am.)  I benefit from these policies.  Why should I rock the boat?  For two reasons: First I do not want to be the beneficiary of another’s suffering.  I don’t want to see people get swept aside ignored just because there are different.  Second, it won’t work long term.  History shows that time and again, when the gulf between haves and the have-nots gets too large the have-nots will topple the haves.  Just ask Tsar Nicholas II or Louis XVI.  

This is problem that needs to be addressed and the time is now.  The first step will be to remove those from power who support policies of Classism.  As I said a thousand or so words ago, this is a big concept and will take more than one post to fully realize it.  So I leave you with these thoughts for now, with the  promise that we will continue this conversation.

I’m not having a very good week.  

It has been busy.  Stupid Busy.

My wife was out of town Saturday till Wednesday.  This made me a Single dad for a few days.  It was fun in some ways. But mostly it just wore me out.  And Tuesday after a shitty day at work, I really missed not having my best friend around to tell all about it.

Work.  Work has been … stressful.  I am in the business of Tech Support.  And there are times when it is a very thankless job.  Times like this month.  I do onsite support.  If your computer stops working, and you call the help desk, and the help desk can’t resolve your issue over the phone; I’m the guy who will show up and fix it.  

Most of the time it’s great.  I show up, do my thing and everyone’s happy.  People are so happy to get this stuff fixed.  It makes me feel good.  When I’m not closing calls, I’m working on projects: setting up servers, trying new technology, and brainstorming with the other engineers.  For me it is the perfect job.  I get to plenty of interesting and smart work, but I also have an excuse to get out of the office and avoiding the politics.

But sometimes, like now, the call volume gets high.  People wait times go up.  Then it’s harder.  I try to make the best of it.  I challenge myself to get the calls closed.  I work longer hours.  But the users… the users can make the job hell.

The users, who can’t be bothered to use the helpdesk, yet want you to take a look at their problem.  They have no appreciation for how badly that sets me back and for how much it screws things up for people who actually follow procedure and use the Help Desk.  I have calls that are almost a month old, but you want me to drop everything at look at your new problem ‘while I’m here.’  

The users, who have an axe to grind with their boss, because the boss hasn’t given them the computer or software they want.  Or because they Hate the IT department.  They are angry because when they started their career they didn’t use computers but computers have been thrust on them.  And they are sure that every time the computer doesn’t do what they expect it to it’s because we did something to mess with it.

The users, who did something stupid to their computer and expect you to fix it, ‘I     know we’re no supposed to download games from the Internet but… can you get all the spyware off of my PC with out removing my games?’

The thing that brings me down is the rudeness.  I’ve been yelled out, accused of preventing people from doing their jobs, and treated just generally like shit.  Just for showing up to fix the problem.

I could tell you tales of the crap I have had to endure, but I don’t really feel like it.  I will tell you this: If your computer gives you a hard time and someone comes to fix it, say ‘thank you’ to him (or her!)  Even if the last tech that came, screwed things up worse.  Even if you think you should get a better computer or that the computer has just made your job harder.  Even if you had to wait too long for them to show up.  Even if the help desk was terrible and the people you spoke to on the phone were idiots.  When the onsite tech shows up and fixes it; smile, be glad they came at all, be glad it’s now fixed, and say thank you.  It makes a difference.  Trust me, on this one.    

Should I make a bunch of excuses for my lacking of posting?  I didn’t think so either.  It doesn’t make for good reading, and it’s nothing you haven’t heard before.

I am very hooked on wiki.  If you’ve never heard of it, learn more here.  Mango has set up a wiki in conjunction with Mango Radio.  I’ve had a lot of fun writing articles for it.  I hope people start editing it; I think that would be wild.  And speaking of Mango Radio, it’s true; I do have a show on there.  Yes, the geek is recording a radio show.  It ‘airs’ Thursday Mornings.  Should you check it out?  Well, ask yourself this question: Do you want to listen to thoughtful commentary and quality music?  If the answer is yes, I recommend NPR.  If the answer is no, you might enjoy my show.  Especially, if four letter words and nonsensical diatribes sound like a good time to you.  If you want to learn more go here and here.  If not, that’s ok too.

Everyone and her brother are whining about gas prices.  Which makes me want to scream—”Shut Up!”  Yes, they have gone up a lot.  No, it’s not a crisis.  Are you old enough to remember gas lines?  Signs saying “No Gas Today.”  If you are, then you should see that this isn’t a crisis at all.  How can be so sure?  Three things spring to mind.

First, until the last month or so, gas prices have not increased at anywhere near the rate of inflation.  This is what I would call a correction.  Gas prices weren’t going to stay artificially low forever.  Just be happy, that it lasted as long as it did.

Secondly, I know this isn’t an emergency, because if it were, you wouldn’t still be driving an SUV.  And if you’re not, I bet you know 10 people who are.  Here are the rules.  If you drive an SUV, stop whining about gas prices.  You knew it wasn’t fuel-efficient when you bought it.  Suck it up.  I think you can afford it.  You might not want to, but life’s not fair.  If you own a Hummer, shut up.  You were begging for this to happen, you know you were.  It’s been over a quarter century since the “Energy Crisis” of the 70’s.  We have known with out any doubt, that oil is a resource that is limited.  That alternatives and efficiency were necessary.  We’ve know that, but said ‘I like driving an SUV, so I’ll ignore what should be common sense.’  As I was driving yesterday, i saw plenty of motorcycles out riding for fun.  If gas prices were really too high; I think they would have chose to stay in.

Lastly, let’s ask ourselves, what is really going on here?  Why did the price start rise now?  I’m sure that economists and political scientist can (and probably are on the cable new channels) offer many and conflicting opinions on this.  The other day, the answer hit me like a ton of bricks.  Bush, W to his friends, has been trying to get Congress to allow the oil companies to drill in the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge, since he took office.  So far he has been unsuccessful.  I bet that if a bill proposing that, with the promise of lower gas prices, is introduced now…  To a Republican Congress…  With pressure from the Airlines and the Manufacturing industries (who are getting hit by this much harder than you and your SUV are…) I bet it passes.

Or maybe I’ve got it all wrong.  What do you think?

Why do you blog? Why do I blog? These are questions, for me at least, are not as simple as they seem. I would like to say I blog because it gives me an opportunity to express myself and it helps me to organize my thoughts.

But that’s not quite right. A notebook would satisfy that. Blogging has the added bonus of readers and feedback. And we’re all desperate for the feedback. We want people to comment. We want people to read what are writing.

But here’s the part that makes the whole thing a little odd. Most people don’t read blogs. Most of the people who do read blogs are people who keep blogs. It becomes a bit of a mutual admiration society. You read my blog and I’ll read yours.

One day, I stumble on to this blog. And this guy is trashing some other blog. And I think to myself, how juvenile. But I kept reading. It was really funny. And kept going back. He made fun of all kinds of stuff. But mostly he made fun of himself. As I kept reading, I saw that this Mango wasn’t just a class clown. He had another side to him. He saw things around him, at work, on the news, on the street; and he found himself outraged. So he vented about it on the blog. With his usual humor.

Mango quit blogging today. And I’m a bit sad about it. But the truth is this. I’m sad and you may be sad too, but “trust me the next day you (and everyone else) would be fine. Trust me, blogs are not all that. We all have bigger things to blog about than to read about.” The quote, of course, is from Mango (from an interview Mango did on one HG’s sites.)

And he’s right. I’ve looked forward to his new posts for a while now, but my life won’t change in any real way. I’ll find something else to read. I always do. Some of favorite bloggers are gone or very inactive. Cleo Love, Surly Snobby, Reaz, and Robyn have all moved on. But I have found Ruksak and Hermes to read.

I do consider Mango a friend of sorts. Which is odd, because I wouldn’t know him if he walked past me on the street. But I’d recognize his humor and intelligence in a heartbeat. Our relationship has grown beyond simple reading each other’s blogs. (One of the biggest compliments I ever got in this blogging business was to learn that not only had I been reading Mango’s blog, he was reading mine.) I’ve listened to Mango Radio, there are a group of songs that I will always consider Mango songs. He’s contributed to the SBC. I’ve contributed to The Mangozine. And I imagine we’ll stay in touch, with or with out a Mango blog.

As a matter of fact. I’ll make a standing invitation right now. Mango next time you are in the greater Baltimore area, look me up.

Thanks for the stories, Mango! (That Minnie Mouse one maybe the single funniest thing I’ve ever read.)

I know that I am supposed to like the 4th of July. It’s one of those holiday, like Thanksgiving, that everyone likes. And I do enjoy myself, but as I look around I find that I am disturbed by what I see.

The first thing I see is the excessive jingoism. I know, I know. It’s independence day, there is supposed to be jingoism. It’s just that the Republican Party has adopted flag waving as it’s platform. As a result, being surrounded by people waving flags and chanting ‘USA,USA!’ makes me feel like I’m at the Republican National Convention. But if that was the only thing, I’d be Ok.

It’s the rest of it. Americans celebrate the Birth of their Nation by eating too much, drinking too much, and then setting off pyrotechnics, that are in most cases, highly illegal in their respective states. Let’s look at this a little closer.

We eat, we drink, we eat some more. OK. I’ll admit it. I over-eat on holidays too. So we’ll get to the part that really bugs me. The drinking. I confess, I don’t drink. I think it is a very bad idea. And trust me, I speak from experience here. This is a day set aside to mark the courage of our founding fathers. They saw inequity in British rule. And they did something about it. The put their lives at risk. They put their way of life at risk. They didn’t sit around and whine. They didn’t sue. They acted. Not just protesting what the British were doing, but saying, “Hey! Here’s a better way.” That I can be proud of. When I see some one slurring their way through Proud to be an American, I find myself feeling not so proud.

And don’t even get me started on those people who need drink, while in the company of children. I’m sure that most people who read this will simply dismiss my discomfort with that. “Hey Geek, go to a Meeting if it bothers you.” But it burns me up. If you and your friends want to drink yourselves silly, I suppose it okay with me. Promise you won’t be driving and I’ll deal with it. But if you are going to have a Family event, why bring the booze? Do you really want your kids to see you slurring and stumbling? I know I don’t want my kids to see you doing it.

And the fireworks. I’ve got nothing against fireworks per se, but the last few days, I’ve story after story about people shooting off their own illegal fireworks. And how they managed to keep the cops from catching them. I find it odd, that this seems to be universally okay with everyone. If I announced that I was going to knock over a bank for the 4th, it would raise some eyebrows. You’re right, that’s not a good comparison. The fireworks represent a victimless crime. They also represents the ‘me’ attitude that has made Americans so popular abroad. Well, it’s against the law, but I really want to shoot them off. ‘Proud to be an American, where at least I know I’m free!’

And now that I’ve thought this out some more, I suppose that this is an appropriate way to celebrate America. I just wish it wasn’t.

OK. I’m a little early for the Fourth. I just wanted a chance to get in a thought I had. Probably a very un-original one.

For the Fourth this year, I think that everyone should burn a flag. Yes sir, an American Flag. Why? Do I hate America? No! I love America (although, there are days I can leave the Americans behind.) These idiots in Congress have passed a bill proposing that a Flag Burning Ban Amendment to the Constitution. I think Flag Burning is a pretty disrespectful thing to do, personally. If you are planning to burn a flag, I hope you are ready for the uproar it will cause.

But don’t ban it. If you or I or anyone else is so upset with this country, or the current administration, or whatever; that they want to burn a flag. Let them. Yes, it’s desecration. It’s also a protest. And this country is all about protest. We celebrate the fact that some of our founding fathers broke into a ship and destroyed who knows how much perfectly good tea. Breaking and entering? Destruction of property? No. Protest.

If burning a flag is the way you feel the need to protest. Go for it. I will promptly assume you are a looney and will avoid contact with you, but I don’t want to see you in jail over it.

The Congress has spent its time crafting this inane amendment proposal. Amazing. They can’t get a handle on gasoline prices. They can’t control this little disaster in Iraq. But thank goodness they have the time to worry about lunatics burning flags. Just what we need, another reason to throw people in jail.

I am told that bills like this are passed all the time. I am told it is nothing to worry about because it will never become a Constitutional Amendment, even if it gets past the Senate. But I am worried about it. The Congress has better things to work on. I’m sure of it.

So maybe it’s time to send a message. A protest perhaps. Maybe we should light our flags on fire to celebrate the Fourth of July. Personally, I can’t think of a more American celebration.

It’s like a slap in the face. I over-slept. I jumped out of bed and got myself together and ran out the door. I started the car and turned on the radio.

And Mike Greenberg told me not about baseball, basketball or football. He told me that there had been attack on London. The London Underground. ESPN Radio wasn’t going to cut it this morning. As I changed the station to NPR, my mind raced and my emotions vacillated. How bad is it? Are we in danger? How can this still be happening.

NPR had made way for the BBC. Tony Blair was speaking. He announced that he would leave the G8 conference to deal with situation. But he would return tonight. He spoke eloquently. He seemed in control of the situation.

My mind is still racing. My emotions are still all over the place. I feel compassion those whose lives have been turned upside down for this. I feel a sense of responsibility. The Brits have been the most supportive of the U.S. even when we’ve been off the mark. They are paying for that support now.

I am angry. Al Queda should be destroyed by now. The full force of the United States should be enough to capture its leaders, to freeze its assets, to find their bases and destroy them. But these things have not happened. They have not happened because we can not bring down the full force of the United States on Al Queda. We are all wrapped up in Iraq. A place we were supposed to make better, bring democracy to. A place that just signed a Pact with Iran. A country that we have declared an Axis of Evil. A country that may have nuclear weapons.

There are real problems out there. There are real threats. Threats that are bigger than WMDs that don’t exist. Bigger than flag burning and gay marriage. Bigger than abortion. Bigger than screwing up Social Security worse than it already is. This country needs to start dealing with those problems. I heard dozens of analysts say that we would look back and say that 9/11 was the day that everything changed. I’m looking back now and everything seems the same.

How many times must disaster strike before things really do change? 9/11. 3/11. 7/7. We need a solid plan to deal with terrorists. We need to leave the “wedge” issues and simply deal with the real issues.

Tonight my thoughts and my heart is with those in England.

OK. I think I have made clear my thoughts on morals as opposed to religion. But the second part of this is the idea of what the schools should be responsible for. Not only that, but what they are capable of. a-[e] covers this very nicely. Mango has also put his two cents in. I encourage to read their posts as well.

Several commenters on the last post put forth the idea that some children have no resource outside of the schools to teach them morals. This is true and it is tragic. But I am troubled by this notion that because you have a hard time at home, the schools are responsible to make up for all of those shortcomings. It would be nice, but the schools cannot give these kids what there are truly lacking, because the schools are incapable of love. I know… I’ve seen … situation where a teacher can make a huge impact a child. Unfortunately there is know way to create a formula for these kinds of things.

I have the opportunity to be in classrooms upon occasion. I am not a teacher. I am not there because of my kid. I am there to work on a computer or a printer or that kind of thing. The point is I end up being a kind of neutral observer. As I wait for a computer to reboot (or re-image for that matter,) I really don’t have anything better to do but to observe what is going on in the classroom around me. These are pretty normal classrooms, there are no dramatics here with guns or gangs. Nonetheless, I see often enough situations that make me wonder about the effectiveness of what we are teaching.

My observations have led to the conclusion that the schools in general are incapable of teaching morals or values or anything like that. There are two points to be made here. The schools are teaching too much as it is. Adding morals to the list is not going to help the situation. Secondly, after much reflection, I am not sure that morals can be taught.

Of course, you know I will elaborate.

I am not a secularist. I do not wish to spread my secular ideas to others. I do not agree with all secular ideas. There has been a liberal/secular movement in education for the last few decades. The schools teach all kinds of liberal/secular junk. Sex education is just the beginning. They teach kids about their emotions how to be empathetic. They teach kids about the environment. They teach all kinds of things. Yet, kids still graduate from high school and go on to be insensitive, to be polluters, to accidentally get pregnant.

The schools are trying to hard. We try teach algebra to everyone. If you are going to go to school, graduate and go out in to the world as a salesmen, a respectable career, you do not need algebra. Solid arithmetic is what you need. The ability to budget and the to write a check. Algebra? We need to simplify. Especially before high school. Let’s focus on three “R’s” as they say. Let’s focus on the basics. I know, that’s not fun. That’s not interesting. But, who said school should be fun? For all the effort they put into trying to make learning fun, my kid still finds school to be, well, boring. Let’s face it. School will never compete with video games.

I don’t know what anyone else thinks, but the way I say it the school has one basic responsibility: to give everyone a base set of knowledge before they go out into the world. The ability to read. The ability to express your thoughts in writing. The ability to perform arithmetic. A basic understanding of our history. A basic understanding of the literature that has come before. That’s all.

Many of you will disagree with me about this. That’s Ok. It doesn’t change anything. You still shouldn’t morals values in school, because you can’t teach morals. This is because lack of moral behavior does not usually come from a lack of understanding of what is right and what is wrong. It comes from a disregard of what is right and what is wrong.

You can tell some one, again and again and again that something is wrong. This will not prevent them from doing that. Trust me on this, there is a middle school kid living in my house. These kids that come from these tragic backgrounds will have no motivation to follow any moral instruction that is given to them. Hell, even kids from middle class homes will challenge moral instruction as the enter puberty and adolescence.

I maintain, as I said in my last post, that if the schools are going to get kids to behave morally, the need set standards and hold them to them. PB commented:

Although, I believe that setting expectations for students, and holding them to those expectations, will at the same time, teach “character.” I’m assuming, of course, the expectations you are referring to would be along the lines of: do your own work, respect the property of others, come prepared and on time, be respectful of teachers and administrators, etc. All of these expectations seem to be reflective of the underlying moral/ethical code of conduct that has been adopted by our society.

That is exactly what I mean. Unfortunately, at this time in history, the schools are unable to hold children accountable for much of anything. Ironically, it’s the parents who won’t stand for it.

Upon occasion, when I want to read something well thought out and well written, I go to Sigmund, Carl and Alfred. Yesterday, he wrote about religion and schools. A lot of people got exciting because he pondered, “What exactly is the harm in teaching Creationism?” He made some good points about the state of schools today, but by the time I got done reading it, I wanted to shout at my monitor,”Religion is NOT the same as Moral!”

This is going to be full of MY opinions. If you find them distasteful. Go away. Right now. Go read a mommy blog. I’m willing to hear what you think, if you’ve read what I’ve written and have a thought about it please leave a comment. If you just want to tell me that I’m wrong. Don’t.

Let’s clear the air. I’m an atheist. Sometimes, I soften that statement by saying that I’m agnostic, but the truth is I don’t believe. Sorry. I really am. I’ve looked hard and long at the concept of god and at various religions. I just don’t see it. SC&A implied that secularism/atheism is a religion in its own right. I could not disagree more. If you believe in God, I not only have no problem with that. I envy you. I really do. I know people whose faith is deep and that seems to make them very happy. I do not wish sway anyone from their beliefs. Believe what you want.

I do not see myself as a secularist. I am a moral person. I take my morals very seriously. I know what is right and I do my best to live my life that way. It is possible that I will burn in hell because I do not believe, but it will not be because I have acted poorly. As a matter of fact, that is the point about religion that does me in every time.

The last time I went to church was Easter Sunday, 2001. I went to make my Mom happy. I brought the Wife and Kids. It was very nice. Pretty Flowers. Beautiful hymns. And then Pastor Dave went in to his Sermon. Usually Methodists are ridiculed for being safe, boring, and have Church services that end promptly after 60 minutes. But Pastor Dave was inspired. He went on about how this time of year, Easter Time, is the best time of year for Christians. It’s not to be a good person. It’s about believing. It’s about Christ, Pastor Dave extolled. I just sat there steaming. Why isn’t it enough just to be a good person?

I never went to church again. It is likely that I never will. But I am a moral person. I’ve read large portions of the Bible. Especially the Gospels. I think that the example that Jesus gave is very good place to start. Turn the other cheek, Judge not, Love all men. Good stuff. That Jesus was a pretty good guy. Why is it so important that I believe that he died and that rose from the dead?

And of course, if Pastor Dave is correct, that must mean that Gandhi is in Hell. And I refuse to believe that a God who would sacrifice his own flesh in order to forgive our sins, would ignore the noble deeds of a man, just because he did not happen to believe. That doesn’t sit well with at all.

Morals and Religion are not the same. We can all agree on that I think. Why then do morals and religion get all tied together. It is because Morals are not black and white. Oh sure, don’t kill, don’t steal, don’t lie — those must be universal morals. I think not. I see plenty of killing being done in the name of God or Allah theses days. Is it moral to steal to feed your family. If you knew your mother had one year to live, but she would feel no pain during that time and would die in he sleep. Would you hide that truth from her? Would it be moral?

No, my friends, morality is not black and white. But if we agreed on Christian Morals, then we could look to the bible, the pastor, the Pope for clarification on these issues. I teach my children morals. My morals. Sometimes I use Jesus as an example. Sometimes the Buddha. Other times I use Cal Ripken or Miguel Tejada.

I do not want to see morality taught in school. First of all, is the morality that you would teach, the morals I would have my children learn. Is the morality I would teach, the moral your children should learn? Secondly, even if we could all agree on the curriculum, they’d screw it up. Remember the New Math? My brother was taught the New Math. Poor guy is thirty years old and cannot do long division.

The schools would be well served to focus on teaching kids Math, English, History. Teach them. Set expectations. Hold them to those expectations. You don’t need to teach them about character. You need to demand it. You do not need to teach morality. You do not need to teach Creationism. Hell, you don’t need to teach evolution. I have all kinds of thoughts on education, but I’ll spare you… for now.

That’s the way I see it. If you have a thoughtful comment, I would love to hear it.

I was driving down the road this weekend, minding my own business. Of course, you never hear of some one who was driving along nosing in to everyone else’s business. Regardless, I saw a bumper sticker. It proudly announced “BOYCOTT FRANCE.” I began to think about that. Why would I boycott France. I’m not crazy about the French. They seem kind of snooty and pretentious. Their history leaves some thing to be desired. But what have they done to me? Nothing.

Oh, I think I know why that guy wanted me to Boycott France. It must be because the French didn’t want us to invade Iraq. Neither did the Germans. Why not boycott them too. Nope, just the French. Let’s see, what exactly did the French do to us. They didn’t want to help us invade another sovereign country. And they said that we shouldn’t do that. Wow. Now there is a reason to be mad. Did they threaten to send fighter planes to stop us. Did they threaten us in anyway way? I would understand this hostility towards the French if they had said (in an accent from Monty Python’s Holy Grail,) “Hey you stoopid Americans, don’t attack Iraq. Go and boil your
bottoms, sons of a silly person. I blow my nose at you, so-called Double-You, you and all your silly American kaniggets. I don’t want to talk to you no more, you empty headed animal food trough water! I fart in your general direction! You mother was a hamster and your father smelt of elderberries!”

But they didn’t do anything to us, that I can see. They just told us we were wrong. And for that I should boycott them? What about India and Pakistan. They developed Nuclear Weapons. WMD if you will. Why not boycott them? Or China? They have violated all kinds of human rights. Shouldn’t we boycott the Chinese? How about Saudi Arabia. They have cultivated all kinds of terrorists. Maybe we should boycott them?

But no. It’s France we want to worry about. Typical, small minded reaction. Some one told us we were wrong and we can’t have that. Not only do we want to be able to do whatever we want to. We need everyone to agree with us. And besides, if our reasons for attacking were flimsy, it was for the best if we were paying more attention to whether or not the French approved, rather than take a hard look at what we were doing.

A couple of years ago, when this nonsense began, I found the Boycott France thing to be pointless. But I see it in a different light now. And that is because the French were right. We shouldn’t have invaded Iraq. There wasn’t enough evidence of WMD to support it. Perhaps, instead of ridiculing them, we should have listened.

I wish there was a way to make you say how my thought process works. It is akin to free association bred with stream of consciousness. I never actually stop thinking about one thing and start thinking about another. The most visible example of this is on the occasions that me and both of my brothers are in the same room. We will hold conversations in that fashion. Conversing seamlessly about sports, politics, movies, books and who know what else. Each of us able to follow the others segues without any trouble. I’ve been told that is very frustrated for any one else who happens to be in the room, because they can’t understand how one minute we were talking about football, and then Star Wars and now Social Security.

I describe this to you so you can when I tell you that this made think of that, you will not think that I am trying to show any link, moral or allegory. OK. Good.

This morning, I was thinking about a certain issue that has been hogging the headlines and webspace of many blogs including the one you are reading now. I was wondering what if she was conscious in there? What would she think of us. Would she be grateful for the outpouring of support? Would she be appalled at the behavior of her loved ones. Would she be thinking “let me die!” Of course, we’ll never know what is going on in there.

That train thought reminded me of a book, I once read, Johnny Got His Gun. It’s the story of a soldier who has return from World War I so damaged that he is unable to communicate at all. Eventually he finds enough strength to communicate with the outside world by moving head and using Morse Code. The message he sent ….”Kill Me.” This book was published in 1938, but gained a lot its popularity during the Vietnam Conflict. A movie was made in 1971. Johnny Got His Gun, received it’s most exposure in 1988 when Metallica used clips from the movie in the music video for the song One.

The point of the book is not a question of euthanasia. It is an anti-war book. Written before there was such a thing as a anti-war movement. It is simple, stark, in it’s description of the horror of war. What could be more horrible than a young man who’s life is over even though his heart still beats. I think we need a reminder that war is horrible. We seem to have forgot… again. If you get a chance, it’s a good read.

Schiavo, Johnny Got His Gun, Metallica, Iraq. You see what I mean.

So here I sit, enjoying my 5 day weekend. I’m listening to Jesus Christ Superstar. I do this every Good Friday. I guess that is a little twisted, but some how it seems appropriate.

If you are not familiar with Superstar, it is the story of Jesus Christs’ last days, taking the plot mostly from the Gospels. The twist is that Judas is the central character. Judas is not evil in Webber’s Masterpiece, he’s just confused. Very confused. What makes it complete is the music. Even though the music was composed in the early 70’s it doesn’t sound dated. It a very rock and roll sound, incorporated into this opera. It is a true opera every word is sung.

I went to see the Revival Version of Superstar in DC last year. It was awesome. The stage settings and costumes we designed to imply that the Roman centurions were fascist stormtroopers and the Jesus and his Apostles were “insurgents” of some sort. It was very shocking and moving to watch the Romans dressed in flak jackets and full riot gear, come arrest and beat Jesus. This set and interpretation was designed in 2000, but it made me think of the violence in Iraq and Israel. It was overwhelming, I everyone in the place was reduced to tears. Not in that chick flick tear jerker way, but just being so overwhelmed by what you are seeing that it evokes a very strong emotional response. I am not religious at all, but seeing Jesus put on the cross and then having the cross lifted above the stage was beyond intense.

I have listened to this Rock Opera every Good Friday for the last 15 years. The appeal of it for me is not only the music, but the way the libretto turns the relation between Jesus and Judas on its head:

Jesus
Peter will deny me in just a few hours
Three times will deny me - and that’s not all I see
One of you here dining, one of my twelve chosen
Will leave to betray me -
Judas
Cut out the dramatics! You know very well who -
Jesus
Why don’t you go do it?
Judas
You want me to do it!
Jesus
Hurry they are waiting
Judas
If you knew why I do it . . .
Jesus
I don’t care why you do it!
Judas
To think I admired you
For now I despise you
Jesus
You liar - you Judas
Judas
You wanted me to do it!
What if I just stayed here
And ruined your ambition?
Christ you deserve it!
Jesus
Hurry you fool, hurry and go,
Save me your speeches
I don’t want to know - Go! Go!

Not exactly Sunday School.

You’re right. I’m sure it will be more like 17 cents. Grubby nickels and pennies that were pulled out of the sofa and the cup holder in my car. I’m sorry about that, but it’s what I’ve got to offer.

With apologies to a-[e], mango, punditz and everyone who has already blogged about this subject, I want to say a few things about Terri Schiavo. I do not know if this woman should live or die. One could make an argument that she is incapable of keeping herself alive, so the natural thing is to let her die. One could just as easily make the case that we have the ability to keep her alive, and since life is precious, we should take advantage of that.

I can empathize with her husband. I have read many attacks on this man. When some one you love is a vegetable, then you may attack him. No one knows what this woman’s state of awareness is, but he is very aware. The woman he married, the person he was presumably in love with is gone, forever. But there is this shell of a person, who looks like his wife, who legally is his wife remains. Part of the grieving process is to let go. How can he let go when she lingers? He wants to remember his wife as a real person, not a husk.

On the hand, I can’t exactly criticize the parents. I do not want to see my sons die. I fully have every expectation that they will outlive me. But I can only imagine that if something happened to one of them, that I would not give them up easily. That I would hold on to any shred of hope, even if it defied all rational thought.

You see, I don’t have an opinion on this, because it’s none of my business. I am sad that the husband and the parents find themselves pitted against each other, but still who am I to take sides. I don’t know any of them or anything about this, not really. So why am writing about?

The same reason you are talking about it, everyone is. It has became an “issue.” Beware of issues. Really why is it an issue? Do you know? It’s not because some one’s life is in the balance. People die all the time, and it’s not even newsworthy. Almost 20,000 civilians have died in Iraq, but that’s only Page 5 news. Below the fold. So why is this an issue?

I’ll tell you. Abortion. I know, what does a woman who is living off of a tube have to do with unborn babies? The religious right realized a couple of years ago that they would not be able to get Roe v Wade overturned in court. Not even with conservative judges. So they have been on a mission. A mission to legislate life over death in any case that pops up. Congress is not involved with Terri Schiavo because they have compassion for her. Jeb Bush is not concerned about Terri Schiavo. They are using her. Posting pictures of her blank face all over the place. To set a precedent. That if she can live then, legally she must. If that precedent is set. It can be applied to Roe v Wade at some future point.

I’m not saying that abortion is good. I’m not saying this woman should die. What I am saying is this: it is sick to use this woman and her parents and her husband in this way. It is sad that they had to go to court to have her fate decided. It is an abomination that politicians from both sides of the aisle are using these people to further their own agendas. Terri Schiavo is not a victim, she is hopefully beyond suffering. Her husband, her parents on the other hand, are victimized every time a politician or journalist capitalizes on this “issue.”

The few people who actually read this blog and know me in the real world are usually surprised that I don’t write about politics more. Truthfully, I’m a little surprised. The reason for this is because of the way politics is handled in the blogosphere. Think of a political blog you like. Now ask yourself, does it offer any thoughts or insights in to the complex world of politics, or does it simply bash what the other guys think?

It seems like most political blogs aren’t really political, they are knit pickers. Want to know what is wrong with the Democrats, go to a “Right Wing” blog. Want hear the latest on why Bush is a scumbag, go to a “Progressive Blog.” Want to hear answers? Want to see an open debate willing to hear opposing views? Want a dialogue? Good Luck. (Actually, if you want these things go read Anti-Everything; an exception to the rule for sure.)The point is this, the blogosphere (and the real world for that matter) don’t seem to be interested in addressing the issues that face us. What we do is pick a side. Are you for or against the Death Penalty? Gun Control? Abortion? Pick a side and stick to it. Never mind the fact that the world is more complex than that. You can be opposed to war and still find yourself willing to fight for something. You can be atheist and support peoples right to worship what they believe in. You can be devoutly religious and respect the fact that the government is not the appropriate place for you message.

My beliefs do not mirror the platform of the DNC, they do however line up much closer to the Democrats than the Republicans. It is very frustrating that when I assert an opinion of a political nature to told how I think because I’m a liberal, or worse yet that I can’t think a thing because I’m a liberal.

I will probably continue to air my politics here upon occasion. I do try to be real careful and make sure that I am voicing my opinion and not one I’ve heard. Sometimes it easier to just have the opinions you’ve heard elsewhere. Anyway I think that may be the problem with so called Political Blogs. They don’t often express a new thought, they parrot each other and the cable news channels. It’s bad enough that the Cable news networks repeat themselves all day, don’t make me read it while I’m surfing blogs.

I am a little nervous about starting my new job tomorrow. Not very nervous, I did my homework, I researched my decision, I want to work there. I’m not scared that I won’t do well or that I won’t fit in. I am confident about those things. Its those other little unknowns. Where is the best place to park? Where is the bathroom? Will I get the hairy eyeball if I accidentally drop the f*bomb? These are things that will all be cleared up in the next day or two. Its just this is the first time in four years I’ll be going to work unsure about all these little things. So the stress might also be making me a little cranky, that and this cold I seem to have. I’m probably not much fun to be around right now.

I am going hiking this weekend. Just a short trip this time. 2 miles or so up the mountain and then spend the night and back down the mountain in the morning. A little cold weather camping. And I still don’t have any snow shoes. Of course this time it look like I won’t need them.

I watched a good movie last night, at least it seemed good through the cough medicine haze. It was called Girl with Pearl Earring. It was one of those subtle art-house kind of films. If you don’t like that kind you won’t like this one. But I am a dork for those artsy kind of films so I enjoyed. Scarlett Johansson is incredible. After seeing her in this film and Lost in Translation, I think she is one my favorite actresses. The basic idea of the movie is the (fictional, I think) story behind Johannes Vermeer’s painting Girl with Pearl Earring. The story itself is quite simple, but it is the subtle interactions between the characters that tell the real story. And the cinematography is sensational, light and color is emphasized again and again with obvious respect to the painter’s eye. Like I said, if you’re into that kind of thing, give it look.

wikipedia defines fascism as: any system of government resembling Mussolini’s, that
exalts nation and sometimes race above the individual,
uses violence and modern techniques of propaganda and censorship to forcibly suppress political opposition,
engages in severe economic and social regimentation.
engages in corporatism¹

“Strength lies not in defense but in attack.”
- Adolf Hitler

“The gravest danger to freedom lies at the crossroads of radicalism and technology. When the spread of chemical and biological and nuclear weapons, along with ballistic missile technology - when that occurs, even weak states and small groups could attain a catastrophic power to strike great nations. Our enemies have declared this very intention, and have been caught seeking these terrible weapons. They want the capability to blackmail us, or to harm us, or to harm our friends - and we will oppose them with all our power.”
- George W. Bush

“America will never seek a permission slip to defend the security of our people.”
- George W. Bush

¹Corporatism is used in reference to tendencies in politics for legislators and administrations to be influenced or dominated by the interests of business enterprises (limited liability corporations). From Wikipedia.

Quotes:

He already has other weapons of mass destruction. But a nuclear weapon, two or three our four years from now — I don’t care where it is, when it is — to have that happen in a volatile region like the Middle East is most certainly a future that we cannot tolerate. — Dr. Condoleeza Rice, 13 Nov 2002

I have to say that I have never, ever, lost respect for the truth in the service of anything —Dr. Condoleeza Rice, 18 Jan 2005

Dr. Rice, there were no WMD, and there was no nuclear capability. And now look at the fine mess where in. Now that you are the Secretary of State, you’ve got you’re work cut out for you. Good Luck.

Headlines:

37 Troops Die on Deadliest Day in Iraq

Bush Asks Patience From U.S. on Iraq War

U.S. military too eager to help Iraqis vote

Bush urges Iraqis to defy rebels

Election Tensions in Kirkuk Could Spread

Top U.S. Commander: Iraq Forces Not Ready

U.S. Hostage Pleads as Iraq’s Wounds Deepen

Added war costs push deficit forecast over $400 billion

PS: For information about Alberto Gonzales and his position on torture go here

The other day I was out running errands and I saw something that was odd. It was a lady picking up her dry cleaning in her Pajamas. I see stuff like this all the time. Why would you leave your house without getting dressed? At the risk of sounding stuffy, I have to say this is nuts. If you are going to leave your house, then get dressed. Have some self-respect. People will see you, why wouldn’t you want them to see you looking your best.

This has crept in the workplace. Where I work we have a casual dress code. This means Docker style pants and a decent shirt, in theory. Of course, we are manufacturing plant so many of the office staff have to go on the shop floor. So they were jeans. And T-shirts are permitted if they have the company logo on them. The result is a lot of office employees dressed in blues jeans and t-shirts, even those that couldn’t get to the shop floor with a map. So what, you might ask. On the surface, it doesn’t seem to matter. As long as we are all working, why shouldn’t we be comfortable, right? Wrong. Work isn’t about comfort, it’s about work. Casual dress, leads to casual attitude. People at my job (and yours too, I bet) are very comfortable. They feel comfortable criticizing this and that they don’t like. They hold conversations across several cubes. Just yell out what ever you feel like. All these things by themselves are not big, but when you put them all together you have a relaxed environment (read: chaotic)that isn’t conducive to working effectively.

I see it when I go out to eat. The servers, for some reason they are no longing waiting only serving, more often than not are in jeans and a t-shirt. And they are very casual with the customers. It makes me cringe every time a server tells me that my order make take a while because they are understaffed. Why would you tell me that? Just smile, tell me my food will be out when it’s ready. If it’s a nice place, I’ll likely be content to sit and converse with whomever I’m out with. But when you plant the idea in my head that there is a problem, I can’t help but start looking at this problem myself. When I go to a retail store, the clerks (well dressed in jeans and a t-shirt) won’t even stop the conversation that they having to help me. I find it very disturbing to be standing there while the two young ladies talk about their escapades from the night before. Wow, you drank too much and then found yourself in Jimmy’s bed? Gee, didn’t want to know that. Now could you explain to me what the difference between these two items is. You can’t? What exactly are they paying you to do?

I know I sound like a stodgy old man when I say this stuff. When I was younger folks would wear a Hat and a Jacket to go to the Baseball game. And there was real customer service. And kids wore belt and kept their pants pulled up, too! But I think that these are syptoms of a big problem in this country. Lowered expectations. You can’t expect a teenager to know anything about the product he is “selling.” We’ll just have her ring it up. The consumer will have to do their own research. We can’t expect peple to dress nice for work, isn’t enough that show up. We can’t even expect people to get dressed in the morning to run their errands, they’ll just be coming right back home when their done.

Once again, you ma be asking, so what? By continually lowering outr expectation, we continually get an inferior product, result, experince, whatever. Is it any wonder that this nation of lowered expecations has a president who can’t be bother to speak correctly. Who doesn’t do his homework before invading a nation. Who can’t take responsibility for his mistakes. Who refuses to learn from the mistakes of the past. A man who only wants to represent those who agree with him and his way a life. You can’t expect him to do all that, jeez isn’t enough that he stands for freedom and liberty, makes bold decisons, and keeps us safe from terrorists? I think its time to raise our expectations.

Last night as I was flipping through the movie channels hoping to find something good and interesting to watch, I stumbled across Das Experiment on Starz Cinema. It was a German film that seems to have been inspired by the Prison Experiment done at Stanford in the 1970’s. It was in German but if you don’t mind subtitles it is well worth watching. The basic idea is this: 20 men volunteer for an experiment for which they will be paid. 12 of them are to be prisoners and 8 to be guards. The guards are strictly told that there will be no violence used, but that it is their critical task to maintain order. Of course, the guards become more totalitarian and the prisoners become more subdued, but with some dramatic twists.

This film was released in 2001. Which made some of the imagery in this film even more shocking to me. I couldn’t help but draw some comparisons to Abu Ghraib. The movie illustrated that this is the kind of thing that will happen when guards are under-trained and not adequately supervised. Which seems to have been the case in Abu Ghraib. The Stanford study is over 30 years old now, but apparently we can’t learn from this information.

Even without looking at the political side of it, this film was well worth watching. It was very well done and very thought provoking (at least I thought so.)

Good news: I got an A in my ASP.NET class. A 99.4 percent to be precise. It’s good to be succussful at something. It’s also good to see some validation for all of my hard work in this class.

Dumb News: George W Bush is Time’s Man of the Year. Nuff said.

We got most of the Christmas shopping done this weekend. That’s a load of my chest. I get mixed emotions about Christmas. I’m not religious at all, so that aspect of it does nothing for me. But of course, there are many aspects of Christmas, in this day and age, that are removed from religion. I celebrate it mostly because the kids enjoy it and my mother would be mortified if I outright ignored it. I tend to ignore the religous bits and focus on things I agree with: Peace on Earth, Giving, So on and so forth.

There are more reports of Torture from Iraq. Can we do more to enrage the people of the Middle East? or the rest of the world for that matter.

I’ve been keeping up with my diet of keeping my daily caloric intake under 1500 calories. After 3 weeks, I’ve lost 26 pounds. I’m happy that the wieght is coming off. I’m disturbed that after losing 26 pounds and looking in the mirror, there is obviously more to lose.

If you been reading, you know that this election has bothered me. I’m not one to sit in a funk, if I can avoid it. I distracted myself from by reading On the Beaten Path. It is the story of the author’s hike from Georgia to Maine on the Appalachian Trail. I loved this book. I’ve never “thru-hiked” But I have put in almost 300 miles on the AT. I’ve also met a lot of thru-hikers out there. The book was wonderful. It not only described the trials of walking over 2000 miles, it delved into the psyche of these people who decide to abandon everything for 6 months and hike the trail. If you have ever been curious about the AT and thru-hiking, give it a read.

Reading the book, of course, got me to thinking of many times out on the trail. Especially the thru-hikers I have met. Back in June, I met so many northbounders and I can’t help but wonder how many of them finished. They would have to be done by now if they were going to be able to finish.

If you know of the status of any the following thru-hikers let me know. They answered to the trail names:

Chuggs
Skywalker
TBott
Goose
Saffron
Puck Finn
Nine Monkeys
Buck Wilde
Mountain Squid

They knew me by the trail name of Hawkeye (and my companion Short-Term).

There were many more than that, but my mind is too cluttered to recall all of the names. I hope that they were successful in reaching Katahdin, in Maine. I hope that someday I get a chance to make the same trip. Until then I’ll just keep hiking the AT a weekend at a time.

I should let it go. George W Bush was lawfully elected to the office of the President by the majority of the People in this country. I disagree with them. But that’s the thing about democracy. The will of the people rules the day.

Oh. I know it’s not that simple. I’m stuck on one thing here. It really upsets me. Values. If you think strategically we had to do something in Iraq, I disagree, but I understand. If you believe that massive tax cuts for everyone including the very rich will help spur the economy, I see where you are coming from. I beg to differ, but I understand your position. But I am confused about how people voted for values and somehow George W Bush won because of this.

I am not trying to be divisive or condescending to anyone’s view. I am truly confused. And, frankly, quite upset. I am a registered Democrat. Would you like to know why? Too bad, I’ll tell you anyway.

I come from a Republican Family. I learned Republican type things as a kid. In high school I joined an after-school club called the Progressive Politics Club. We debated the burning issues of the day. Gay Rights. Death Penalty. Abortion. Taxes. The Environment. I loved it. I got a chance to really show off how well I knew these issues. I parroted the views I had heard from Republicans and made it clear I was quite the Conservative. Then a terrible thing happened. All the liberals graduated. The next year, first couple of meetings sucked. All of us conservatives sat around and agreed with each other.

I couldn’t take it, so I volunteered to argue the liberal position, as the Devil’s Advocate, in order to flesh out the discussion. Over the course of the next few months, an amazing thing happened. As I gave the liberal stance on the death penalty, I realized that I did not think it was right for anyone, not even the government to take a human life. As I argued the pro choice opinion I realized that the issue was complicated, and while I felt that (and still do) abortions were wrong, the reality of it was that the government, especially the Federal government is ill- equipped to legislate that. There is a lot of grey area when it comes to abortion, and setting a federal law would potentially leave a rape victim force to bear the child of her attacker or force a woman ill-equipped for mother hood to carry her child to term only to abandon it or raise it in abhorrent conditions. As I looked at the other side of these issues, I realized that my values dictated that I register as a Democrat.

The values I hold dear are: Respect for Human Life. Compassion for the Poor. Protecting the Environment so that the wilderness that I have loved since I was a child will remain forever. The Equality of all Men and Women, no matter what they think, or do. No matter where they come from or what culture they embrace or what there religion is. Honesty. The belief that we are world citizens and should abide by the same rules as everyone else. To respect others, no matter what.

I looked at my values and I looked the Bush Administration’s record over the last 4 years. I felt that they had not lived up to my values. John Kerry Embraced many of my values so I voted for him. And he lost. OK. But now I keep hearing how Bush won because of “moral values” and I don’t get it. It’s said as though “moral values” is a tangible, well-defined doctrine. I searched WikiPedia for “moral values” but it had nothing for me. I don’t see how 59,459,765 people can have the same exact morals. It seems to be tied to religion, but that doesn’t make sense to me either. The Protestants can’t even decide whether the want to have their Trespasses forgiven or their Debts. There are differences. Values are personal. My values and your values are not the same. Not exactly. And that’s OK. Hell, it’s good. But what I am hearing is that somehow a vote for Bush was a vote for “Moral Values”. Values like discriminating against Gays, Muslims and Arabs perhaps?

Like I said, I’m not trying to be flip or rude or disrespectful. (Come back later and I’ll do my best to be all of those things.) Right now I am very upset. I am a moral person. Yet, there is this notion that the only moral vote was for Bush. It sounds like the Red State people really believe that.

Having explained how I feel, I’m asking for comments. From everyone. Red or Blue. Help me with this. I can’t believe that all Red State folks are bigots. Help me understand this. I want to believe that this isn’t as polarized as it feels right now. I don’t care if people agree with me. But I don’t like having my moral fiber challenged.

You may have heard about the “documentary” that Sinclair Broadcasting intends to force on its affiliates, I won’t get into the details of that right now. What I want to talk about is Jon Lieberman. Jon got fired by Sinclair this week, because he spoke out against this “documentary.” When I saw this on the local news last night after the game I was stunned. Not because Sinclair would do that, but because I know Jon, or at least I did. We worked fast food together when we were in high school. He was in the same class as my little brother. Later I was amused to see his face on TV giving a serious news report. And I was happy to see him succeed in his broadcasting career.

When I heard why he got fired, I could not have been prouder to say that I know him. Reporters are supposed to stand up for the Truth. And he did. I wish I had a phone number or an email address for him. I would let him know that I think he did the right thing and that I’m proud of him. But I don’t so I’ll simply state right here:

My hat is off to you Jon!

My dad is back home. I went to see him tonight and I’m glad I did. I feel better having sat and talked with him for a while. I don’t know why, but the whole karma thing I could be in trouble. I know I caused those nice folks a lot of worry in my day.

I don’t care about the debates. I want to, but I just can’t get interested. My mind is made up, I’ve done my homework, I don’t believe I will hear anything in these debates that will sway my opinion. I’ll just get mad. I feel bad about it, but the way life has been going recently, I can’t bring myself to watch grown men insult each other.

I am hooked on LaunchCast. Why wouldn’t I be? It appeals to my inner-egomaniac. I tell it what songs I like and how much I like them and it gives me music based on those opinions. Anything that asks me my opinion and then reacts favorably based on said opinions is a good thing! I have been rating away and my station is pretty consistently playing music I like. About the only thing that would make it better is if it would work on Firefox.

Here’s a little Irony to keep you satisfied. The Lone Star Iconoclast (the newspaper of Crawford, Texas) has endorsed John Kerry for President of the United States.

For all of you that need to do more “hands-free” browsing on your computer… try this.

It almost Friday. I’ve got to stay late at work and upgrade our ERP server. Should be a blast!

Remember when you were a teenager? That feeling that you knew exactly where you were going? You knew exactly how it was gonna work out. And it was gonna be easy. Sure, grown-ups tried to tell you that nothing is ever easy and that you need to work hard, but you did not listen. You knew better. You knew it was gonna be different for you. Those rules did not apply to you.

How did that work out? Are you where you thought you would be? Is life anything like what you expected it to be? I do not think so. It is so hard to understand how all this works when you are young. Sometimes, I still struggle with it. Can you imagine how hard it would have been if you were an actor. You had starred in a critically acclaimed motion picture. You were part of the cast of a huge syndicated series on TV. Would those stubborn teenage moments still cause problems?

They would if you were Wil Wheaton. Yes, Wil Wheaton from Stand by Me. Yes, Wil Wheaton who played Wesley Crusher on Star Trek: The Next Generation. Why am I writing about Wil Wheaton? Because I just finished reading his book — Just a Geek.

You have to understand, Wil and I go way back. It started back in 1986, when my parents would not let me watch Stand by Me just because it was rated R. I knew it had to be the coolest movie. All the others kids were talking about it. And when I finally got to see it (over at some other kid’s house) it did not disappoint. Gordy was my favorite character. I am sure everyone has seen the movie, so I will not go in to it. But that was just the beginning.

Wil and I ran into each other again in 1987, when Star Trek:TNG went on the air. Wesley Crusher, boy wonder, was allowed to roam all over the Enterprise. I hated him. First of all, I was quite the Star Trek expert and at the time I was not too sure about this Next Generation thing, but I was real sure about one thing. Star Fleet would not tolerate some kid sitting on the bridge, tinkering in engineering hanging out with officers. It made me mad, it was not realistic at all. Yes, I was actually mad because a show about People Flying Around in Space portrayed a child on the ship in an unrealistic way. Hey, I was 15 what did I know. I hated Wesley for another reason, although I was not aware of it at the time, I was very jealous of Wesley. He got to be on the Enterprise! Not only that, but he had every opportunity. He got to learn engineering with the brightest engineers in Star Fleet. He got to see Command from Picard and Riker. He got advice from Guinan. If I had had those opportunities, I would have looked like a boy genius too! Anyhow, after Wesley went off with the Traveler, I did not see Wil again for a long time. And, actually I did not really know Wil, I had never met him, but it seemed like I knew those guys, Picard, Worf, Data, Riker, and even Wesley.

The next time I ran into Wil Wheaton was a couple of years ago. And in the strangest the place— the Internet. I had read an article about Aggregate News Readers and thought they sounded cool. I downloaded a free one off the internet and used it to collect headlines from CNET and such. In the process, I discovered blogs and I discovered one authored by (you guessed it) Wil Wheaton. I started reading it and was blown away. This guy was … well … just a guy. I kept reading, I could not help it. I found that I was getting to Wil more than I could have thought possible, considering I have still never met him. It is partly because of his blog that I started this one. When ST:TNG came out on TNN (now Spike,) I found I looked at Wesley very differently. Maybe because, I was no longer a teenager or maybe, because I felt like I knew the guy played Wesley. Maybe, because my son was sitting there watching with me. And suddenly Wesley was not a punk he was a Role Model.

This brings us back to Wil Wheaton’s book: Just a Geek. I loved it. The book is difficult to categorize. It is not really a biography. It is not fiction. It is sort of the story of Wil Wheaton dot Net. It is also the story of Wil Wheaton coming to terms with his decision to leave Star Trek, and his discovery of himself as an adult. This does not sound that compelling, I guess, but it is. I found that I could relate. This is odd, because I’ve never been a famous actor. But I have done things I regret very much and I have had to learn to live with that. I, also, have had to adjust to the fact that I am just a geek and learn that that is ok.

The book is delightful to read. Wil has a talent for bringing a story to life. And he is funny. I got several odd looks from the kids as I laughed out loud while reading it. Wil opens himself up in an almost painful way. The honesty of some the stories he relates made me want yell, “No Wil, don’t do it!” But, I was powerless to help him, and I could feel the hurt that he experienced. To be honest it was a little uncomfortable to see him so vulnerable. It always is uncomfortable to see someone’s vulnerabilities like that. What is remarkable, is that he chose to share those moments with everyone. This has just reinforced this notion that Wil is an old friend, even though he is only marginally aware of my existence.

Should you read the book? Yes! If that was not persuasive enough, then here is my recommendation. Go to WWdN, read some entries. If you find that you enjoy that site, I am certain you will enjoy his book.

I had originally named this post: alt.wesley.crusher die.die.die, referring to a newsgroup from the Usenet, back when that was cool. It just cracks me up that people bothered to hate Wesley that much. Like I said I hated Wesley, but I never felt the need to organize a group about it. I think it can only be viewed as flattering that the Wesley character attracted enough attention to find its way into the history of the internet. I changed because it seemed so negative, and if wanted negative I would talk about Bush :)

It’s funny how things get twisted around. As I talk to people at work and elsewhere about family life as it comes up. I find myself feeling guilty. Why? Because it seems that most people are unhappy with their marriages. I am not. I couldn’t be happier with my marriage. I won’t get all yucky by going in to that, but I’m truly happy. As I find myself in conversations where folk go on about how their ex is doing them in or how that can’t stand to be around their spouse I fell as though I can’t participate. What I am supposed to say? Gee guys, my wife and I have lots of funny together. That would be like rubbing their noses in it. So I stay quiet and end up feeling a little guilty that I have something they do not. But I can live with that :)

There has been a lot of talk about this reliever for Texas pitching the chair in to the stands, and what is acceptable fan behavior. Its this simple, Frank Francisco has no excuse for his behavior. None. On the other hand, fans are rude. In every game, at every stadium, there are fans behaving like buffoons embarrassing themselves and everyone around them. I hate to take my children to sporting events for just that reason. How twisted is that? I’d like to blame this behavior on the beer flowing at these events, but that’s only part of the problem. What it comes down to is this, as a culture we have lowered our standards. Just walk into any retail store, its almost impossible to get a sales person to pay attention to you. It makes me cringe every time a waitress tells me sorry about the wait we are understaffed. That’s not customer service, don’t tell me about your problems, just smile and say here’s your dinner and I’d probably wouldn’t have even thought about the wait. But customer service is no longer part of the job, we’ve lowered our standards.

Mozilla has just released Firefox 1.0. If you aren’t happy with IE you might want to give it a try. I just downloaded it and so far so good. One noticeable improvement over previous versions — I can now listen online to ESPN radio.com with out having to use IE. There is also a feature that identifies when a page has RSS feeds available but the “live” bookmarks that go with that seem to be hit or miss.

Long week at work this week. Ironic. It was only a 4 day week. It was a good week, made some progress on several projects. Also found out that our General Manger is leaving us to go to a larger division. That makes me sad, he’s a good guy and I know he has faith in my abilities. It will be fine, though, the guy taking over for him is pretty good too.

I found a great article (via onegoodmove.) It is authored by Garrison Keillor of Home prairie Companion fame. The gist of is that the Republican Party has moved from a mainstream Party in the 1950’s to the Ultra-Right wing hate machine that it is today. Of course, he says it better than I could ever dream of. He’s hit the nail right on the head. Both of my parents were raised Republican. They are registered Republicans to this day, but the party has left them behind. When they weren’t looking they became moderate Democrats, although they still resist admitting it.

My wife’s birthday was this week, also. And bonehead that I am, I didn’t realize it until after I got to work. And to make it even worse, I was kind of giving her a hard time that morning about taking care of this or that. A couple of emails and phone calls apologizing and wishing a happy birthday helped some, taking her out to dinner helped some more, getting her the laptop she has wanted didn’t hurt either. I still feel like a complete heel. We get so busy, people just shouldn’t have birthdays during the week.

I’m still feeling a little beat up from the hiking trip last weekend. I’ve been walking around real gingerly, try to keep my sore toes from making contact with my shoe. Thank goodness its the weekend and I can be shoeless or in sandals.

I still have 4 Gmail invites here that I’ willing to give away. If you are interested, leave a comment with your email address. I’ll send an email just to make sure you’re still interested (and to make sure you’re for real … I’m just funny like that.) When you reply I’ll send the invite.

Actually, I’m sick of the conservative tactic of slinging mud in all directions and seeing what sticks. They did it for 8 years with the Clintons. And they are up to it again. Back in February, The Drudge Report claimed to have a story that John Kerry had cheated on wife with an intern and then had hid her away in Africa. It spread like wildfire over various right wing outlets. It was revealed shortly thereafter that the story was complete bunk. Now, it is the Swift Boat guys. And they are spread ridiculous lies. Of course they play on some small nuggets of truth, but their falsehoods continue to spread. Michelle Malkin tries to take these insane claims to the mainstream on MSNBC. Luckily Chris Matthews holds her to task and demands that she give a source for claiming that maybe Kerry shot himself. She does not. You’ve got to see it to believe it. (Malkin feels she was set up, decide for yourself.)

In all fairness, it does seem that Kerry’s Purple Hearts are not for the most extreme injuries. I, for one, will not question the Navy’s wisdom on how they hand out Purple Hearts. And I don’t care how small the injury is, I won’t claim to comprehend what it would be like to shot at and injured while in defense of my country.

So I’m already fired up about this and then yesterday I see this headline: “Vietnam Vet Says Has No Proof for Claim Kerry Lied” It seems to me that this whole swift boat thing is not proof that Kerry isn’t what he claims, but that it is nothing more than a bunch of guys (who either don’t like Kerry personally or don’t want him to be president) saying that they never saw a bullet hit him. I’ve never seen Barry Bonds hit a homerun either. Should we take away the records?

I don’t know if I can express in words how mad this makes me. Were there aspects of Kerry’s tour in Vietnam that were screwy? Probably, it was a screwy war. If Purple Hearts were given out more freely during that conflict, who are we to question it. Perhaps it has to do with the fact that young men were fighting a war that, increasingly, we could not win. Yet, they kept putting themselves in harm’s way. That is bravery and that is patriotism.

If it is all bunk, you might ask, where do they find all these veterans? I’d imagine it is not that hard. I’m sure many of them felt betrayed by Kerry leading Vietnam Veterans Against the War and testifying to the Congress. I have no doubt that these guys are all Republicans and fans of Dubya. Of course, the Swifties have no direct ties to Bush campaign; everyone is very clear about that. Of course, I don’t believe that for one second. And neither do you.

This brings me to my final point. Every Bush supporter I’ve spoken to goes to great length to tell me how he is a man of principle and integrity. I hope that is true. And I hope that Dubya has the integrity to call on these Swifties to stop sling mud about Kerry’s service. You don’t get to award yourself a Purple Heart (or a Silver Star or a Bronze Star.) The more the Swifties attempt to discredit Kerry the more they take away from all of the others who have served in that conflict and were awarded Purple Hearts (and Silver Stars and Bronze Stars.)

Prove me wrong Mr. President, and do the right thing.

My tastes in movies is a little funny, I guess. I consider Pulp Fiction great but think 2Fast 2Furious is dumb and Caddyshack is funny as hell to me but I find Jim Kerry obnoxious. I’m very picky about movies so it is a treat when I find one that truly entertains me. Last night on HBO i caught Bend It Like Beckham. I thought it was very good. The simplest way to explain it may be to say that it was a cross between My Big Fat Greek Wedding, Sixteen Candles, and every sports movie ever made. If you are looking for something a little smarter than average American flick, you might want to check it out.

I finished the DaVinci Code today. Pretty good read. I felt a bit of let down when I was done with due to all of attention it received. For me, I found it very interesting, but not as shocking as I’m sure some people did. Over the years, I’ve read about all kind of crazy secret societies and conspiracy theories. I won’t claim that I’ve heard of all the theories and stuff in the book. As a matter of fact I’d never heard of the Grail as an allegory before, but I’ve heard of enough things like this, I wasn’t surprised by any those twists. If you want hear about really wild conspiracies, then the Illuminati is your secret society. But wait — I’ve said too much. Don’t tell the Freemasons. Nonetheless, it was a good read. If you are one of three people who actually procrastinated longer than me on reading this book, Go get it and read it! It’s an enjoyable read.

Yahoo News–Iraqi Peace Mission Najaf Baghdad Blast Kills 7

I’m not paying as much attention to this as I should, I can’t help it — the whole thing just upsets me. It seems to me that the situation in Iraq is going no where. These headlines could be recycled from last month or the month before that. I can only attribute this to a lack of planning. How else can you explain the same problems happening over and over again. If this mess was being managed you’d think we would see some progress. Like I said I really don’t have enough information to say this authoritatively, but when I see headlines like that they make so mad. We are negotiating with Moqtada al-Sadr, we negotiated a truce with him this spring. Obviously, that didn’t turn out to well. So why are we negotiating with him now? Anyway, just had to get that out of my system.

That was the theme of John Kerry’s Convention Speech. My mind is still reeling, I literally just finished watching the speech. As I have mentioned I am not a party line Democrat, and I had not been completely sold on Kerry. During the primaries I was a Wesley Clark supporter. So I was watching tonight to see what Kerry had to say. Keep in mind, he could have stood up there and bombed and he’d still get my vote. I will vote George W. Bush out of office.
I have to say, I’m impressed with Kerry. The speech really moved me in a lot of ways. Not that I agree with everything he had to say. I think that some of the healthcare promises he made were probably unrealistic, although admirable.
What really struck me was that he really went out there and attacked some issues that Republicans have hijacked the last couple of decades. It seems to me that the Democratic Party has shied away from certain issues allow the Republicans to call them their own. Issues, like defense, “family values,” faith, even patriotism. John Kerry had no trouble taking those right back.
I want to comment on a couple of quotes from the speech in particular.

“And on my first day in office, I will send a message to every man and woman in our armed forces: You will never be asked to fight a war without a plan to win the peace.”

This is powerful. It praises the soldiers and condemns the war all in one powerful statement. This is exactly the message we need to be sending. There is a war going on and we can’t ignore because we don’t care for the bloodshed. I was a complete pacifist from the time I was age 16 until September 11, 2001. That was the first time I ever saw a reason to take force against anyone. I still abhor violence. But this country is too great to allow anyone to threaten it.

“As President, I will fight a smarter, more effective war on terror. We will deploy every tool in our arsenal: our economic as well as our military might; our principles as well as our firepower.”

This is exactly the kind of balance we need in foreign policy. Too many on the left responded to this unjust and unnecessary war by advocating pacifism. But the fact is although Saddam was not a threat Al Queda is.

“Our purpose now is to reclaim democracy itself. We are here to affirm that when Americans stand up and speak their minds and say America can do better, that is not a challenge to patriotism; it is the heart and soul of patriotism.”

Thank You. I am so sick of the neocons acting as though any thought that differs from theirs in un-American, un-patriotic. And I’m glad that Kerry didn’t tiptoe around it. He came out and called them on it. And I hope that it helps to reveal the weakness of their positions to the American people

“That flag doesn’t belong to any president. It doesn’t belong to any ideology and it doesn’t belong to any political party. It belongs to all the American people.”

Strong, powerful, positive statement. And again it cuts to trappings that the right has been using. The wave the flag fast and furious. To the point where I don’t have flag hanging at my house. Not because I don’t love America. But I feel as though I am some how supporting these neocons by doing so. So I say take it back, John Kerry. Take back the American flag for every one not just for Republicans.

“Our plan will cut the deficit in half in four years by ending tax giveaways that are nothing more than corporate welfare and will make government live by the rule that every family has to follow: pay as you go. And let me tell you what we won’t do: we won’t raise taxes on the middle class. You’ve heard a lot of false charges about this in recent months. So let me say straight out what I will do as President: I will cut middle class taxes. I will reduce the tax burden on small business. And I will roll back the tax cuts for the wealthiest individuals who make over $200,000 a year, so we can invest in job creation, health care and education.”

Fiscal responsibility. We must have it. We are the most powerful country in the world but we will not remain there by being in debt. And the first step to cutting the debt is to cut deficit spending. And now let the Republicans accuse us of taxing to much. Kerry spelled it right out. We will tax, but TNT the middle class, but those who make the most in this country, those with annual incomes over $200,000.00. That’s a lot of scratch. I won’t feel sorry for those guys paying more taxes, will you?

These are just my initial reactions, I’ll need to read the speech again and let what I’ve heard tonight sink in. But, I know this. I am squarely behind John Kerry right now. Not just as the guy to get Bush out. But as a leader.

News - Krispy Kreme Says It’s Facing SEC Inquiry

Say it isn’t so! I mean when I hear that some spooky energy conglomerate like Enron is up to no good, it doesn’t suprise me. But when something as wholesome and good as yummy donuts are involved with questionable business practices, it’s enough to break my heart. The only negative news I want to hear about donuts is that they make you fat.

Blogging

Well, I’ve been doing this blog for two whole weeks now. And of course in true geek fashion I’m all over it. I spent way too much time this weekend working on the layout and I even snuck in a post from work today. But it is a good thing. I’ve done a little writing here and there but I’ve not stuck with it. I’ve thought for years that I should keep a journal, but never had the discipline. So what’s different about the blogging? Two things.

First, you can tweak it. Its a toy. Change the layout, change the template, monkey with the code. Now that’s more fun than a dusty old journal any day.

The other reason Blogging is better: Instant Publishing. I mean when I write I always imagine that some one will read it. I picture some sort of audience. When you keep a journal, who are you going to show it to? Your Family? You Coworkers? No. They already know much of what your writing. They may have been part of some of the incidents you are relaying. Its no good. Ahhh… but this. This anyone might read. I’m not advertising this to my coworkers or my family. My wife has the address but no real interest in reading my thoughts, bad enough she has to hear me rant in person, why would she want to read them.

I’m not doing this so people will read it that’s not really the goal here. I’m doing this because it good for me. My mind is full of ideas that swirl around and it feels good to try straighten them out and put down on this virtual paper here. But it helps to know that some one might read what I’m writing. There’s some validation in that.

Which brings to me an interesting point. It would appear that some one has actually visited this site. Kind of exciting. According to StatCounter around 5:00 pm yesterday someone came to my site. Cool.

Site Design

I’m getting rid of the expand/hide buttons. I like the idea, but I don’t like the fact that they default to everything hidden. So until I can bother t figure out how to change it they’re out of here.

Linux
Sometime I get a complex of sorts that I’m not a very good geek since I work primarily with Windows. Its not that I don’t like Linux. I think it is very cool. But right now, its a Microsoft environment that pay the bills. And then I say to myself: “I’ll use Linux at so that I can get better at it” But the reality is I work hard, and sometimes I just don’t feel like working a using a computer. There are plenty of Linux users who take an attitude that makes me feel like they think I don’t know much about computers because I work on Windows. But come on guys. Its not like I’m configuring ini files in Windows 95. I’m rolling out Group Policies to an Active Directories Domain. I’m managing IP messaging that sends our shipping and billing info directly to customers. Very high tech stuff. No knock on Linux. Not at all. There are lots of places for it. And I have no doubt that its usage will grow. But the modern Windows Operating Systems are very capable and very useful in many environments.

See I feel better for saying that. If anyone is actually read this, please feel free to comment and give me you opinion. I don’t mind people disagreeing with me, as long as they don’t tell me what I’m supposed to think.

It seems that everywhere I turn I have some one coming to me and asking about all the “pop ups” on their PC. Of course its spyware. Its everywhere and it is insidious. I have run across everything, The notorious Gator, Bonzia Buddy, 2020 search, WhenUSearch, and on and on it goes. One was devious that when you rebooted the PC it left a hidden registry entry that searched to make sure its files where there, if anything was missing it directed the PC to its install files on the internet and re-installed itself.

This is outrageous. This is very much virus and worm type behavior, but the Anti-Virus companies have been very hands off with these. Only now are they offering a solution, but it is not included with the AV Client. And the part that makes me the most angry: people most be buying junk from those pop up ads. Otherwise these companies would give up.
How do I deal with them? First of all, I don’t download crap from the internet except from reputable sources. (If have to download something from a site I do not trust, I don’t do it on my work PC or the main PC at my house.) Second, I am aware of the way my PC should behave. As soon as it does something unexpected, I drop everything and look into it. I am amazed at how many people keep using their PC’s and just shrug off changes. “I don’t know why my home page changed to that.” “I’m not sure when that toolbar first showed up in the browser.” Finally, I use AdAware and Spybot S+D to fix any thing that does slip in.

The real answer to this problem is that people must be educated as to what they are doing and the consequences of their actions. We have all this great technology at everyone’s fingertips. And its all very easy to use. So people just go out and don’t consider that maybe some of the stuff on the internet may be harmful or malicious. You read about cases of phishing nearly everyday. Uneducated computer users are just victims of waiting to happen. I hope that these trends slow down and users realize that it is in their interest to learn more about what’s going on. So till then I’ll keep educating who I can.

Yahoo! News - Filipino Truck Driver Freed in Iraq

I’m glad a life was spared here, but I can’t help but be furious at the Filipino government over this. This can only encourage these terrorist to kidnap more people to try and get more countries to pull out of Iraq and isolate the United States. Every country that gives in to the demands of these criminals in turn gives them more strength. I am gravely concerned that this situation will get much worse before it gets better.

I have to say that I am very satisfied with the way this turned out. The very rich and powerful have become accustomed to manipulating the system to their advantage and I am glad to see Stewart held accountable for her actions. On the other hand, in the grand scheme of things what she did wasn’t that big of a deal so I feel 5 months is an appropriate sentence.