Morning Coffee (83)

Good Morning, dear Coffee drinkers. I hope you’ve had a chance to sample the new addition to our Coffee breaks. The Liquamen is available for consumption primarily on the website. Please, give it a try.

The sole motivating factor for getting to work early is securing a decent parking space.

Romney vs. Putin:

Mitt Romney was apparently on the Glenn Beck program yesterday being interviewed. Beck asked him what he thought about Vladimir Putin being named the Time Person of the Year instead of General Petraeus. The man was positively flabbergasted, replying, “Oh, you are kidding. Did they put Vladimir Putin on the cover?” Apparently, he had no idea, because he stammered about Beck being serious about the whole thing.

Romney was disgusted, citing political prisoners and suspicious murders and the suspension of public dissent and the press. He was angry that Putin received the award in lieu of Petraeus.

He looked foolish, because as you know from drinking yesterday’s Coffee, doing good things is not a prerequisite. He looked even more foolish when he suggested that Raul Castro be the next Time POTY because he too is a dictator (never mind that Putin is an elected official).

Don’t get me wrong, Petraeus has done some remarkable things in Iraq, but Person of the Year he is not. He and Putin are similar in that their names begin with “P” and that they were charged with bringing a nation out of smoking ruins. The difference is, Russia was a superpower that had been atrophying for 16 years or so, and Putin single-handedly brought the country back from the brink and into respectability again. After the first Iraq War, Iraq was a fringe player in its own region, and even with all the success Petraeus has had, it isn’t anywhere close to being even a fringe player again; it is instead where other regional players go to play superpower. Both countries have abundant petroleum wealth, but Russia’s the one that’s able to take advantage of the high prices of oil, not Iraq. Both had mighty armed forces once. But while Iraq’s army can barley achieve a muster, Russia’s military is conducting long range nuclear bomber patrols and sending carrier battle groups in to the Mediterranean. If the POTY is about being influential in the world, Petraeus doesn’t hold a candle to Putin. Romney, like most Americans, is too focused on America to realize someone else can be more influential than one of their own, and he clearly has barley a notion of what the “award” is about. If this is as sophisticated as his understanding of foreign relations gets, we’re in trouble. Maybe he should stick to CEO positions and governorships.

Canterbury: Nativity a Fraud:

The Archbishop of Canterbury, Dr. Rowan Williams, has assailed the traditional view of the Nativity in a recent interview with Simon Mayo on BBC. This is not to say that he believes that none of it happened, he just contends the traditional view, replete with wise men, oxen and asses, snow and such, is extremely unlikely. Sounds terribly heretical, but it’s actually quite benign. The article on the Telegraph suggests that the interview was more radical than it was (as is my title line), but reading the transcripts, the Archbishop was merely saying that our contemporary view, as indicated on Christmas cards, doesn’t really line up with what the Gospels say. I found the topic interesting, but I also found the sensationalism of the Telegraph article compared to the interview itself to be equally interesting. You can read the article HERE and the interview HERE.

Morning Coffee Does its Best Impression of TMZ.com:

Who would have thought that a person named Spears would receive two sequential mentions in the regal Morning Coffee? Nobody, that’s who. But the news on Jamie Lynn Spears’ pregnancy has provided me with some amusement, I won’t lie. Yesterday, Lynne Spears, Jamie Lynn’s mother (who is a fantastic one by all accounts) announced that her book on parenting would be indefinitely suspended. I cannot imagine why, what with a whack-job like Britney and now a 16 year old pregnant daughter. The book was to be called, “Pop Culture Mom: A Real Story of Fame and Family in a Tabloid World.” I guess it was a “how-to” book about raising a good family while in the public eye. Perhaps this indefinite suspension will stave off an epidemic of teenage pregnancies and pop tart meltdowns in dozens, perhaps hundreds of families. Let’s see…how to raise a family…crazy eldest daughter who blows through $700,000 a month…check…16 year old daughter on the cusp of professional success who gets pregnant by her 18 year old boyfriend with whom she might have been living…check…divorce from husband…check. Quality family successfully raised!

The question about the law has been raised, since Casey Whateverhisnameis is 18 and Ms Spears merely 16 (turned in April). In many states, that’s statutory rape, even among consensual teenagers. I’m going to go out on a limb here and say that Ms Spears is a very old 16. Doesn’t make it right really, but she is. She makes far more money that 99% of 16 year olds, and has been exposed to money and that lifestyle for half her life. I doubt though, that anyone will be pressing charges on Casey What’shisname. We can say one thing though, at least Britney waited until she was 20 or 21 to engage in sex. I mean, that’s what she told us, right? It should also be mentioned that, failing bashing her baby’s head against a wall, Jamie Lynn will likely be a much better parent than her sister.

CNN.com has a whole huge article with input from readers on how they’re going to tell their kids. There’s a lot of “ground ‘em for life” sentiment, which is understandable. One woman says that Ms Spears is probably really scared and it’s good that she thought the problem through. I don’t think she’s the typical, naïve 16 year old (are there any of those left anyway?) The best answer I read was, “this is why I try to be the best dad I can be – so my kids will look to me as a role model and not these celebrities.” It would be nice if kids had their parents as role models, and it would be nice if they had role models outside the home. But it doesn’t appear to be the case anymore. Our rich, elite class have become pretty messed up. We have no sports stars, musicians, or actors for our kids to actually look up to and admire anymore. But at least we have our politicians.

Word of the Day: Tocsin (TOCK-sin): 1. An alarm bell, or the ringing of a bell for the purpose of alarm. 2. A warning. The Morning Coffee and its derivatives is a tocsin. Or is it a toxin?

On This Day in History: Vespasian enters Rome and claims the title of Emperor (69 CE). He was a general under Nero. Carl Sagan, astronomer, astrochemist, author, humanist and skeptic, died in 1996 at age 62. Sagan was a pioneer in exobiology and was an advocate of SETI. You might know of him only through movie, Contact, which was based on a novel he wrote. The man was a giant and his death (of a rare bone marrow disease) a brutal robbery committed against mankind’s brilliance. And for Luke, he and Apple didn’t see eye to eye.

“For me, it is far better to grasp the Universe as it really is than to persist in delusion, however satisfying and reassuring.”

“Somewhere, something incredible is waiting to be known.”

“Personally, I would be delighted if there were a life after death, especially if it permitted me to continue to learn about this world and others, if it gave me a chance to discover how history turns out.” – Carl Sagan. I’m right there with you, Carl.