Liquamen is a fermented Roman fish sauce, and the newest portion of the Morning Coffee. Liquamen was made by taking some fish, placing it in earthenware and covering it with salt, sealing it, and leaving it sit in the sun for a period of time. The white liquid that rises to the top is then strained through cloth. You now have liquamen. Sounds disgusting, but Romans loved it and it was mass produced in factories. No, it doesn't even remotely go with Coffee, but coffee was unknown to Romans, and I like Roman stuff. And it's my blog. Our Liquamen embodies my (fermented) thoughts throughout the day which may (or may not) directly supplement the day's Morning Coffee, but which might be unsuitable for the daily email.
This isn't in the general edition because I don't want political speculation of this type to included in the MC. And I don't want to be held to it since predictions of this sort are not my forte.
Hucka-Who? Hucka-BEE...
I think the Huckster might secure the Republican nomination. And unfortunately, I think he's about the only one, besides maybe Romney, who can compete in the general election.
I say this because, well, McCain is too old and too "mavricky". And he looks to be one step from death, which is not good in Presidential politics. Giuliani has a lot of personal issues that will not fly with the religious base, and he has a very vocal group of people in NY that do not like him. And these aren't nobodies. They're firefighters and the like; respected and admired people. And their power and influence can even be blamed on Giuliani and other right wingers - they turned them into heroes after 9/11. Thompson doesn't even want it; his campaign is falling apart and his staff is convinced that he listens only to his wife. The man has been to Iowa (which in my opinion has a disproportionate amount of say in our absurdly NON-democratic system) about five times (exaggeration). He also looks like death. Despite his vast charisma, I don't think his heart is in it. Ron Paul hasn't a prayer because other than his cadre of supporters ( i.e. cult), no one buys into him. Who else?...Nobody worth mentioning.
Reuters reports that Huckabee is now in a virtual tie with Guliani in a national Reuters/Zogby poll. He's done this with a fraction, and I do mean a fraction, of the money available to his rivals. He's spent some ridiculously low amount in Iowa, and is fairing very well in Iowa. How well? He's made up an 18 point deficit in a month. That is virtually unheard of. Now his rivals are taking aim at him, going ape shit over what they perceived as a Cross in an ad by Huckabee. They fear him, and they should. No one should doubt the power of the evangelical base, which can no longer be counted on to toe the party line after Bush and Company obliterated their loyalty. By this point in the election cycle, the Repub nominee is usually fairly certain; they leave the hemming and hawing to Democrats. No longer. The base is fractured; uncertain of who to vote for. Huckabee is supremely articulate and quite charismatic. And most importantly, he's one of them. He also seems to be qualified on the surface, having led a large congregation and held high leadership positions in his church (I don't know which one...who cares?) and was the governor of Arkansas. Let's not forget who else ascended to the Presidency after having been the governor of Ar-Kansas.
The Huck-Meister has chinks in his armor too, but none of them seem as bad as the chinks in the armor of other Repub candidates. This is especially true now that the momentum has shifted to Huckabee's campaign, and he now has the opportunity to control the message (at which he seems more than adept). Yes, he pardoned some (a few hundred) people, one of whom went on and killed someone in Missura (spelling intentional). Yes, he might want to deliver the US to Jesus. But he's expressed regret for the former, and the latter, which he can simply ignore or downplay to more secular voters, surely panders to his base. The largest gap in his armor might be this: a lot of the precincts that are expected to support Huckabee in Iowa are remote ones, and they may not be counted before the winner in Iowa are announced.
You may think I've forgotten "Oven" Mitt Romney. I haven't. The man's a Mormon. People don't get Mormons. They'll get Mormons a whole lot less once the Rove-ian tactics get busted out, which they will, and by Democrats off all people, if the man secures the Repub nomination. Of this I assure you. Dems know how effective Rove-ian tactics are from personal experience. Mormonism will be all that it is, all the while bare and exposed for public ridicule; it will also be even more of what it is not (if you catch my drift - layman's terms: it'll be one shade less evil than paganism, and two shades less evil than atheists and Satanists). Romney doesn't see the need to explain his religion, and the Mormons I've talked to seem to agree (I wonder why - they know it cripples his chances). So Americans perception (discerning as it is) of Mormonism will be at the whims of Democratic propaganda. Not good.
I know, Kennedy won and he was Catholic, right? Right. How many movies feature Catholic priests and Catholic canon? Tons. They're everywhere. Name a horror movie from the 1980s and it likely featured a troubled priest fighting Satanic forces. Good or bad, we all know what Catholics are. I needn't even mention the fact that Catholicism predates Mormonism by about, oh, 1,800 years. Catholics needn't wage a PR campaign regarding their canon (pedophilia, yes; canon, no). Can you name a famous Mormon? Probably not. Name me 10 famous Catholics (just rattle off "Saint" and any random name ten times). Has any Mormon been involved in the Middle East peace talks? Not that you or I know of. Everyone knows that Mormons are nice people (missionaries), and that's about it. I rest my case on Mormonism vs. Catholicism in Presidential politics.
There's just a few weeks left of the first round of the nonsense that has become the Primary process; we will soon have a clear picture of the Republican nominee (and Democratic nominee too). From the Repub side, religion and perceived morality are going to play the defining role, I think. Far more so than any specific policy issues (those not already covered by religion). This will change in the general election (since the Moral One, whoever that is, will have been chosen), so perhaps now is the right time to think about policy issues too.
Showing posts with label Election. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Election. Show all posts
19 December 2007
15 December 2007
Morning Coffee (79)
Welcome to another weekend edition of the Morning Coffee. Weekend editions of the MC are like that coffee made from the beans that have gone through the digestive track of the palm civet: rare, expensive, and delicious. Also, it's not bad for something that you have to wade through the mental feces of other media in order to get it.
The Mitchell Report – Fingered by McNamee:
I had no real intention of discussing the Mitchell Report on the Morning Coffee, despite baseball being the only sport I watch. For those who don’t know, the Mitchell Report was commissioned by Major League Baseball to investigate the use of performance enhancing drugs by players, former and present. You can read the entire thing HERE. It’s actually somewhat interesting.
I love baseball, and I was a little worried about how I would feel about it after reading the report. I likened it somewhat to the strike of 1994 when fans abandoned the sport in droves. Luckily, after reading it, I still consider myself an avid fan. The sport has a problem, and hopefully the leadership and players are able to come to grips with that and make an effort to fix it.
Anyway, my point is not to get into a huge, long discussion about the Mitchell Report. I could, but I won’t. The Morning Coffee is not the place; maybe the City of
More Political Politicking by Pencil-Necked Politicians:
I know I said I’d try to keep politics out of the MC for a time, but this one is simply too good to pass up. Peggy Noonan of the Wall Street Journal wrote an article recently called “The Pulpit and the Potemkin Village.” You can read it HERE. I recommend it. She talks about how religion has become something of a defining factor in today’s Presidential politics and some other interesting things (if you do not know what a Potemkin village is…find out). Anyway, one passage struck me, as I touched on it in previous editions. In it, she talks about illegal immigration, specifically, but I think the gist can easily be applied to any issue.
“Hillary Clinton is not up at night worrying about the national-security implications of open borders in the age of terror. She's up at night worrying about whether to use Mr. Obama's position on driver's licenses for illegals against him in ads or push polls.”
This is precisely the point. Not one of these Presidential “hopefuls” actually worries about much of anything other than how to spin someone else’s “opinion/beliefs/ideas” and use them against them. I wonder if any of them, save perhaps Ron Paul and maybe Mike Huckabee (the former, crazy; the latter one shade shy of being a fundamentalist Christian), have any beliefs/opinions/ideas at all that aren’t provided to them by the latest polls or political strategists; Hillary may just be the worst offender.
You may point out the aforementioned Paul and Huckabee as having beliefs, and this is true. But beliefs alone do not make policies, and in both their cases, I think they are dangerous to that for which our country stands.
There are 300 million Americans in this country, and maybe 50 million illegal immigrants, and the best we can muster is the group of troglodytes that make up the Presidential Hopeful Class of 2008?
Here’s a side tidbit of information for you: Huckabee says that “American foreign policy needs to change its tone and attitude, open up, and reach out.” Probably true to a large extent. But then he goes on to say, “My administration will recognize that the
The Surreptitious Success of the Surge:
With glacial speed, mainstream media outlets have begun to report on the successes of the American fighting man and President Bush and General Petreaus’ Surge in
Many people might, however, think that this success is merely the nefarious efforts of al-Qaida; a sly way of undermining American politics and policies. However, al-Qaida, as indicated by their statements preceding the 2004 election, would prefer a Democrat as President. This is not to say that a Democrat would necessarily abandon the ridiculously named “War on Terror” once he (or she) was privy to the realities of the office of President, but al-Qaida would still prefer to not see a Republican in the White House in 2009. It is in al-Qaida in
Even Rep. John Murtha (D-PA), who has been one of Congress’ most vocal critics of the war, has said of the Surge, “it’s working”; said after he made a visit to Iraq in November. This comment has been latched upon by Republicans who are overjoyed that the Surge has won over such a critic. Murtha addressed the press after he returned from
I am not privy to the inner workings of the Bush mind, but I don’t think that he believed that the Surge would work as well as it has. I think he was just throwing some numbers at the problem and got lucky. His luck might have been to the detriment of our Armed Forces, but that’s an issue for another time…and for another President.
Word of the Day: Draconian (adjective): 1. Pertaining to Draco, a lawgiver of
On This Day in History: The infamous Nero was born (37 CE). One of the greatest Byzantine Emperors, Basil II “The Bulgar Slayer” died (1025 CE) (imagine a
The Roman festival Consuales Ludi was held, which honored the god Consus, the god of counsel and the protector of the harvest which is being stored. Additionally, the Rape of the Sabine Women took place on this day.
“There is no security on this earth; there is only opportunity.” – General Douglas MacArthur
13 December 2007
Morning Coffee (78)
As I came into work today, I was listening to a massive mix CD I created a couple of years ago. It has just a shade over 100 tracks on it. Just after I got on base, a song by the German band The Scorpions called “Winds of Change” came on; perhaps you know it. It’s about, well, the winds of change; specifically the winds that swept Eastern Europe during the fall of the Soviet Union. The song itself, while good, is not nearly the best I’ve ever heard, but it evokes something in me that is hard to explain. Allow me, dear reader, to try. Can you imagine experiencing such…liberation? Can you imagine seeing and hearing, nay – living!, events such as those described in that song? Can you imagine the cool breeze from winds such as those felt in Lithuania, Estonia, Georgia, Moldova and Armenia; how refreshing it must have been? You’ve lived under the yoke of tyranny and ineptitude your entire life, and in the road ahead, you glimpse endless possibilities never before presented to you. It’s difficult to put ourselves in that place.
Another song captures for me the feelings of that moment in time, which I think was one of the most significant periods in the last 100 years (perhaps much longer) but this one is sung from a slightly different perspective. “Right Here, Right Now” by the British band Jesus Jones describes those events as an observer, not as living those events as did someone in East Germany, but watching them. Again, the overwhelming rush of relief. Perhaps, people then thought, we needn’t live in constant fear of nuclear war. What a weight that was lifted. The exuberance. Watching the world wake up from history. These songs, perhaps, put the world into perspective a little for me. They make me feel good to be alive. It pains me ever so slightly that I missed out on the chance to be a part of the awe-inspiring power of momentous, leviathan-esque events such as those. I knew even back then that I was witnessing things of significant, but precocious as I may have been at 10, I couldn’t have possibly fully comprehended what was happening. Nevertheless, I am pleased that I can sit where I am right now and read about the August Coup of 1991 and be amazed at those times.
I wish I could fully encapsulate and explain in succinct terms how these songs move me; perhaps they move you too. Or perhaps you’re dead, or simply too numbed from countless hours of “Heroes” and “American Idol” to feel good to be alive; to be alive where you are, when you are. I hope these songs, or something else, makes you wake up from history.
Political Nausea (cont):
For as much as I despise about politics, it sure seems I write about it a lot, no? All the above warm and fuzzy feelings about change and being alive drain from me like the blood from a slaughtered pig.
A top advisor in the Clinton campaign thinks that Democrats should give more thought to Obama’s admission of drug use. He said that Obama’s “spotty youth” could cause trouble for him if he were to secure the Democratic nomination. I don’t see what this has to do with anything. At least Obama had the cajones to admit that he did drugs. Bill claimed he didn’t inhale. Come on. For one, you’ll be hard pressed to find a large number of people who didn’t experiment with drugs back then and even now. And most of them grew up to be responsible adults. It goes back to not being able to make mistakes and learn from them. This sort of stuff tells our children, “Why bother ever growing up, and growing from your mistakes? If you make any mistakes, you might as well forget about ever becoming anything. You will forever be held back by the foolish things you might have done in your youth, especially if you admit them and speak candidly about them.” Obama was stupid for using drugs. But the man rose above what could have been a life of being a punk. Shouldn’t that be something to sort of celebrate? Especially for liberals like Hillary? In addition to pointing out the hypocrisy of liberals, this tactic serves to show us that Clinton has no vision beyond attacking Obama. Why not tell me more about what she believe, what her background is, why she’d make a good president? Her entire campaign seems to revolve around “electability” and how Obama has none and she has it all. But people are generally stupid, and despite the fact that they themselves probably used drugs and made mistakes, they’ll believe that drug use and other mistakes 30 years ago make a bad person in the now, and they’ll not nominate Obama even if he is more qualified for the job.
Since I don’t want this, our beloved Morning Coffee, to turn into a chronic political missive (of which we have enough), I will try to avoid political issues, despite my overwhelming urge to comment on the insanity. However, I reserve the right to comment if I must.
American Anorexia in the Middle East:
I don’t normally quote large amounts of text in the Morning Coffee. I like you to taste what I’ve brewed, rather than another. I’m possessive like that, I guess. But a portion of Thomas L. Friedman’s recent article in the New York Times, “Losing Weight in the Gulf”, was simply too good to pass up. Friedman wrote the critically acclaimed book, “The World is Flat.”
“Growing up in Minnesota, one of my favorite things was going to the state fair each summer and watching the guy who would guess your weight within 5 pounds. If you fooled him, you won a stuffed animal.
Out here on the Persian Gulf, where small countries learn quickly how to survive large predators, they’ve developed a similar skill: They can calculate a country’s power within 5 pounds, just by looking at it. If they’re wrong, they end up as a stuffed animal.
Right now, the Arab Gulf states are all sizing up America, their protector, and are wondering just how much Uncle Sam weighs in the standoff with Iran — and whether it will be enough to keep Iran at bay.
The Gulf Arabs feel like they have this neighbor who has been a drug dealer for 18 years. Recently, this neighbor has been very visibly growing poppies for heroin in his backyard in violation of the law. He’s also been buying bigger and better trucks to deliver drugs. You can see them parked in his driveway.
In the past year, though, because of increased police patrols and all the neighbors threatening to do something, this suspicious character has shut down the laboratory in his basement to convert poppies into heroin. In the wake of that, the police declared that he is no longer a drug dealer.
“But wait,” say the Gulf Arabs, “he’s still growing poppies. He was using them for heroin right up to 2003. Now he says he’s in the flower business. He’s not in the flower business. He’s dealing drugs. And he’s still expanding the truck fleet to deliver them. How can you say he’s no longer a drug dealer?”
Sorry, say the police. We have a very technical, legal definition of drug-dealing, and your neighbor no longer fits it.
That’s basically what has happened between the U.S. and Iran — just substitute enriched uranium for poppies. Now, Bush officials are trying to tell everyone: “No, no, Iran is still dangerous. You have to keep the coalition together to get Tehran to stop enriching uranium.” But in a world where everyone is looking for an excuse to do business with Iran, not to sanction it, we’ve lost leverage. Everyone in the neighborhood can smell it — and it worries them.”
So clear a caveman could understand the issues. The article is, as you might have guessed, about our problems with Iran, specifically the whole NIE thing. The NIE has resulted in the total collapse of US leverage against Iran. Russia and China have been dreaming of a chance to quash the possibility of strict sanctions against Iran, and low and behold, they’ve got the chance, and we gave it to them. The perception is now that Iran poses no threat to anything. The problem is, they’re still running their centrifuges. “That is the hardest part of building nuclear weapons, and Iran is still doing it,” says Gary Samore, director of studies at the Council on Foreign Relations and former Clinton administration expert on proliferation.
Iran is still in violation of UN proliferation rules (enriching uranium, testing long-range missiles). Iran agreed to these rules. Israeli officials estimate that the Iranians will have a viable nuclear weapon by 2010 – which may seem like a long time from now. French President Sarkozy is still very skeptical and worries about war in the Middle East. This will not be the last you hear about this issue, from me or otherwise, I’m sure.
Word of the Day: Cacophony (noun): 1. Harsh or discordant sound; dissonance. 2. The use of harsh or discordant sounds in literary composition. When I think of Presidential elections, I think of a cacophony.
On This Day in History: The Council of Trent, a response to the Protestant Reformation, begins (1545). Read about it, it’s pretty interesting. Tellus, the Roman goddess personifying the Earth was worshiped on the Esquiline Hill in Rome, and a table was spread for Ceres, the god of agriculture.
“I follow the Moskva, down to Gorky Park, listening to the winds of change. An August summer night, soldiers passing by, listening to the winds of change…the future’s in the air, blowing with the winds of change.” – “Winds of Change”, Scorpions.
“A woman on the radio talks about revolution when it’s already passed her by. Bob Dylan didn’t have this to sing about, you know it feels good to be alive. I saw the decade in when it seemed the world could change in a blink of an eye. And if anything then there’s your sign of the times. I was alive and I waited for this: right here, right now…watching the world wake up from history.” – “Right Here, Right Now”, Jesus Jones.
12 December 2007
Morning Coffee (77)
Yesterday’s Morning Coffee was terrible. See, the first half was brewed with success, but then the Coffee filter developed a gaping hole, and all the incoherent grounds spilled forth into the pot. My apologies. Try as I may, one should not expect Pulitzer Prize worthy brew every day.
Ahmadine-Blog:
Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad is a fellow blogger, as reports the New York Times. This is rife with irony. The President of Iran blogging in a country where most people cannot blog at all; censorship is so widespread in Iran that Mahmoud’s own blog was actually blocked for a whole day. Interestingly, his blog allows for the posting of comments, all of which are first reviewed before being posted. Obviously. If you were to read this blog, you would notice that comments by Westerners are generally more biting than those from Iranians, which generally praise Mahmoud and his government. You’d think, “Wow, they do allow some free thought and criticism.” Then you’d think, “Wow, Iranians love this guy.” Then you’d take a sip of Morning Coffee and realize that that is exactly what Mahmoud had in mind when he started this little propaganda device. Allowing angry tirades by (inarticulate) Americans merely illustrates Mahmoud’s point that we are belligerent war-mongers, and it shows that Mahmoud is capable of standing dissent. Allowing loving Persian praise, by people that live in Iran with a firsthand perspective, shows that he’s not as bad as we make him out to be. Nothing that goes on his blog is posted without being massaged, and that is the beauty of this sort of propaganda. Frankly, all of the comments posted could have been written by Iranian officials; there’s no way to know for sure.
One of Mahmoud’s posts refers to the prodigious freedoms that average Iranians have, such as the right of students to protest. He says, “It was a joyous feeling to see a small group insult the elected president of people fearlessly amid a majority.” Look closely at that sentence. The verbiage is very interesting. “Small group; insult; elected; of people; amid a majority.” I get the idea that the protesters’ opinions are on the fringe, and that they were allowed to insult the elected leader, despite incurring the ridicule of the majority, is a great thing. These students may very well have protested fearlessly, but if that was the case it was more the result of naiveté than a genuine right to dissent. Mahmoud has an odd way of showing joy over dissent in his country; most of the students involved are now in prison.
I found one comment mildly amusing though. Ibrahim Sadegh-al thanked the president for creating more jobs with his visionary economic policies. Before these policies, there were only two gas stations in Ibrahim’s town, and only one was open at any given time. Now Ibrahim says there are 3,000 people selling fuel. Can anyone say, “black market?”
Political Nausea:
I’m really to the point where I become physically and psychologically ill when I read about politics. No, scratch that. It’s not politics with which I have a problem, since that is an abstract. It’s the practitioners of politics that make me ill. Below are a few issues, none of which I’ll bloviate about for long.
Is it me, or has the election cycle become so dragged out that it seems to have actually started before any of the candidates were born? It’s becoming analogous to Christmas: it starts earlier and earlier every year. This leaves politicians plenty of time to actually do their jobs, since they have to begin running for the next election immediately after being elected.
I read an article that stated that most of Hillary Clinton’s supporters are with her simply because of Bill Clinton. Then I thought, “Boy, I’d really feel crappy if people were voting for me because of their adulation for my spouse.” But you know what? I’ll bet it doesn’t even matter to Hillary, or anyone else seeking power, er, public office. She, for example, doesn’t seem to have an original idea in her head. She was oh-so-close to power, and now wants to experience it for herself. Whatever happened to those reluctant leaders, leaders who assumed the mantle not because they wanted power, but because they were needed? The colonies would have made Washington a virtual king, but he retired. Then you have the famous Cincinnatus, called to Roman service to save the city, he was given absolute power and could have ruled as a dictator for life, but he returned to his life as a farmer. Now we’re left with power drunk morons who will do nearly anything to gain and keep power; who would rather die in office than relinquish that power and who long ago became void of any desire or ability to effect positive change. They feel as if they’re the shepherds and we are but the flock, and it is their duty to grip and wield the power we gave them because we haven’t the ability or comprehension to do it ourselves. We have, in essence, an aristocracy. Why do you think term limits will never exist for our Congress? Fields become unproductive if crops are not rotated and the earth tilled and turned over from time to time. Leadership is no different.
The Drudge Report cites internal DNC officials who state that Mike Huckabee shall not be subject to attack ads until after he secures the nomination for President. They view him as being easily defeated in the general election, and are waiting until he is nominated to unleash their assault. They also claim to have a lot more on him than pardons and HIV faux pas. The leak could be that they’re scared of him though, and are merely bluffing. Either way, I retch.
Mitt Romney says that attacking someone’s religion is “really going too far.” Okay, maybe attacking a religion is going too far, but why is questioning someone’s religion a taboo? The majority of Americans don’t the first thing about Mormonism, and what they do know is not likely to be very objective, so it’s entirely reasonable that he get, and answer, questions posed to him about it. But we all know that beliefs are unquestionable. Same with feelings. “I know that (X), but this is the way I feel (Y)…and I believe this.” This pretty much automatically makes any challenge impossible. People must be allowed to have their beliefs and feeling no matter how illogical and/or stupid they may be. Americans have a right to know what sort of beliefs are espoused by Mormonism, and the man who aspires to be the first Mormon President has a duty to supply those answers; to articulate how his faith will “inform” his leadership.
Shooting Spree Update:
It appears that Jeanne Assam, the security guard whose pistol hand was steadied by God, might not have actually killed Matthew Murray. The coroner has ruled Murray’s death was the result of suicide, despite him being struck multiple times by Assam. It turns out Murray shot himself in the head. I am curious as to the location of the bullet wounds from Assam’s pistol. I guess God wasn’t too steadying after all. Well, perhaps steadying was God’s effort, but imparting accuracy just wasn’t his bag.
Also of note, Assam was fired from her job as a police officer in 1997 for lying during an investigation into whether or not she swore at a bus driver. Tsk, tsk.
Prior to the shooting, Murray had left messages on an internet forum stating that he wanted to kill Christians. Apparently, the language he used was almost identical to that used by the late Eric Harris. Interesting…
Word of the Day: Dishabille (dis-uh-BEEL) (noun): 1. The state of being careless or partially dressed. 2. Casual or lounging attire. 3. An intentionally careless or casual manner.
On This Day in History: Crusaders lay siege to and breech the walls of Ma’arrat al-Numan and kill about 20,000 inhabitants. Then, observing their lack of sufficient food, they decide to dine on the inhabitants flesh to ward off that pesky hunger (1098).
"But I think attacking someone's religion is really going too far. It's just not the American way, and I think people will reject that." – Mitt Romney on the “Today Show.” Said while thinking to himself that The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints is the only true church and that everyone in the room, and most Americans, will be unable to reach the highest levels of heaven.11 December 2007
Morning Coffee (76)
What a day today, eh? Great weather for this time of year, cool but not cold, cloudy, humid. I like it. The day would be utterly perfect if I were, say, sitting on the porch of a nice cabin in the mountains somewhere, sipping piping hot Morning Coffee.
I cannot really enjoy the weather though, as I’m stuck in a windowless building. So why so joyous? I’ll tell you why I’m nearly positively giddy. Led Zeppelin played a live show for the first time in 20 years last night. That is unbelievable. I’ll be the first to admit that I am not a huge, gigantic fan of the iconic band. Perhaps you’ve noticed that everyone loves Zeppelin, but other than baby boomers and musicians, almost no one knows why. Same thing with the Beatles. I appreciate their talent and their music, but have always gravitated away from the “in” thing. Nevertheless, as a fan of music, I am stoked that these guys played last night. It’s like something you never thought would ever happen actually happened. I knew they were going to perform, as it was announced. But the reality didn’t sink in until I read a Hollywood Reporter article reviewing the performance, which by all accounts was fantastic. Obviously, John Bonham, who died in 1980 wasn’t there, but his son joined the remaining original members, who proved they haven’t lost a step in 20 years. It’s amazing that a band goes that long without playing together, then comes back together and plays so well. Plant’s voice has apparently not been degraded by age either.
Hearing Voices = Bad:
Speaking of voices, Matthew Murray, the man who went on a shooting spree at two religious installations in Colorado, had a history of hearing voices. Hearing voices and he performing a couple of “dark rock songs” (Linkin Park/Marilyn Manson) at a work related concert that made other workers “pretty scared” resulted in him getting kicked out of a missionary training program five years ago. A bunkmate of his, Richard Werner, apparently thought he was a strange dude. What I find interesting is that the first thing Werner said to his wife when this happened was, “I know who did it. It’s Matthew…It was so obvious.” Really, Dick? Then why didn’t you maybe try to help five years ago? I hope that this rests on his conscience. People like that annoy me. “The moment it happened, I knew it was Bob. He was just weird, hearing voices and all.” Weird doesn’t mean crazy-murderer, obviously. But generally, when someone exhibits that level of weirdness, hearing voices and the voices telling a person that they like another person (in this case, Matt’s voices telling Matt that they liked Dick so Dick had nothing to worry about), well, that perhaps merits a psych consult, and it is irresponsible that Dick seemingly did nothing. Well, maybe Dick prayed for him. However, there’s not a lot of scientific evidence that prayer heals psychosis; despite God’s abundance of power, he generally neglects to act.
Jeanne Assam was the security guard that shot Matt. She is a former Minneapolis police officer who apparently worked in a pretty bad neighborhood, and had to draw her gun many times. She gives full credit to God in her shooting of Matthew. She says, “It seemed like it was me, the gunman, and God.” It was God that made her strong, and steadied her hand, and helped her confront Matthew, despite him appearing to be twice her size (see yesterday’s MC) and more heavily armed. None of this can be remotely attributed to the years of experience and training as a police officer. I’m being facetious, of course, since it all can be attributed to just that. She did what she was taught to do, and did it admirably. Why not give credit where credit’s due? She also had the presence of mind to beef up security after hearing about the attack on the missionary center, but offers no explanation as to whether or not that was also divinely inspired.
“Huckabeenian” Folly:
Mike Huckabee has been in the news a lot lately, much to his chagrin, I’m sure. That’s what happens when you suddenly become a front runner for your party’s Presidential nomination. Recently, he’s proclaimed that the nation needs to return to Jesus and what not, or the Republic will fall. He’s also taken some heat for all the pardons and commutations of sentences he issued (a lot of them – check out the convicted rapist he freed who subsequently murdered a woman in Missouri) while Arkansas’ governor. He finds homosexuality an “aberrant, unnatural, sinful way of life,” remarks that he still stands by.
While none of the above will garner him my vote, I am impressed by one notion the man has put forth recently, even if he doesn’t realize it and even if he’s been getting the most negative press for it: his refusal to recant his decades old statement about the quarantining HIV patients. My praise is not for his position on HIV patients. I think his idea was stupid, even 20 years ago. We knew that HIV was not passed like TB even then. I’m not even impressed by his sticking to his guns, because he was wrong then. Not the sort of wrong he would have been in 1981, when we knew nothing about the disease. That would have been forgivable; we quarantine TB patients and others for public safety, and we would do so with a disease that we knew nothing about. I am assuming that his policy on AIDS patients was driven to a degree by his religious feelings on homosexuals. His feelings were probably that AIDS was a “gay cancer” and possibly a punishment from God for living in sin (yes, people believed this in the early days of AIDS).
So why am I impressed? I’m impressed with the notion that a man can make a choice or decision 20 years ago, when he was younger and inexperienced, and have that choice be wrong. And maybe the man can even grow from it. I’m not talking expressly about Huckabee. I’m talking in general. It seems today that a Presidential candidate can never have been wrong about anything in his entire life, from the time he was in kindergarten until the present. We have our sights set, mostly for us by others, on the perfect, infallible candidate. One candidate advertises not his own policies, but the mistakes of his adversary a dozen years ago. Generally, the adversary never actually acknowledges that he made a mistake, because having conviction and sticking by his beliefs is somehow seen as better than owning up to something and saying, “You know what, back then I thought it was the right decision, but having the benefit of hindsight, I can see that I mucked it up.” Instead, one must stand by their mistakes as vigorously as their successes. I know, I know, if someone were to say that, the unwashed masses would think that he might mess something up while in the White House, because we know that anyone who can attain that high office is nearly perfect in their decision making.
Huckabee handled this situation better than most…sort of. He sort of got it right when he said “we didn’t know back then” and “I would not have made that decision in 2007 with the information we now have available.” But he still mucked it up by giving us a load of crap about not knowing then, because we all did.
We need to abandon our unrealistic expectations of our Presidential candidates, because they will all let us down. See George Bush for example. I’m not let down, because I expected some sort of nonsense when he was elected (and I voted for him). We also need to be okay with people having made mistakes (to an extent – massacring people is not a forgivable mistake, for example). I see someone who’s made mistakes and has been forced to learn from them as a better candidate than someone who’s allegedly never made one. Assuming that they really didn’t, how do we know how they’d respond to such high responsibility? Have they grown into the job at all? No one is born with the skills necessary to be our President. And we should, in my worthless opinion, be skeptical of anyone claiming, even obliquely, infallibility.
I want to make it vitally clear, which is sad, that I am not condoning Huckabee’s ill-advised statements on AIDS patients. I am using his round-about admission of being wrong as an example to illustrate a point that it seems that no one can ever admit to being wrong.
Word of the Day: Artifice (noun): 1. Cleverness or skill; ingenuity; inventiveness. 2. An ingenious or artful device or expedient. 3. An artful trick or stratagem. 4. Trickery; craftiness; insincere or deceptive behavior. A politician’s dream word.
On This Day in History: Germany and Italy declare war on the United States (1941). Also, the Roman festival in honor of Sol Indiges, a sun deity. Later in the Empire, today Romans would have also celebrated Septimontium, which was a festival for the Seven Hills of Rome. This festival was supposed to be held in September, but as time went on, the Roman calendar became somewhat inaccurate.
“Once we realize that imperfect understanding is the human condition, there is no shame in being wrong, only in failing to correct our mistakes.” – George Soros.
“The man who says "I may be wrong, but--" does not believe there can be any such possibility.” – Frank “Kin” Hubbard.
Today’s Morning Coffee is like man: imperfect; flawed.01 November 2006
Morning Coffee (01)
I'm thinking of doing maybe a daily (perhaps weekly) morning update. Sort of a "what I'm thinking about" while I drink my coffee. It's not that I'm arrogant enough to think that what goes on in my head is so important that everyone should know. It's merely a couple of thoughts or ideas to get the mind going. Topics will stay within the professional realm for the most part.
First things first: Jen, I miss your coffee. In fact, this whole thing is named in honor of your coffee. You rarely ever make a bad pot, and that can be blamed on our fickle coffee maker. But sometimes you make this coffee that is so "spot on" that it must be the nectar of the gods. Well, the intel gods anyway. Trust me folks, I know my way around a coffee maker, but this woman is in another class.
11 Sep 2001. I was just thinking about it this morning. Some guy in the office mentioned that movie United 93 or whatever; guess that's why. The first thing I thought about was the flags. All the flags on virtually every vehicle on the road in the weeks after that day. Flags hanging from over-passes, shop windows, trees, you name it and it likely had a flag on it. You remember that? Well, after that I remembered the day, during which I was at Naval Air Station Fallon, NV. I recounted the events of that day in my head: the wake-up call from my Lieutenant, the call to my wife, watching the television with her on the other end of the phone, seeing those towers collapse. Then it gets embarrassing. Yeah, I cried a little. It was the first time (of maybe three of four times) you saw/heard me cry Jen. But beyond that emotion of saddness, I felt "the rush." I felt the rush of current, crisis intelligence. It is, to me, the best drug out there. It is similar to the hot flush of passion, but with less edge and more focus - in that you can still think (i.e. you're not acting on mostly instinct), if that makes any sense. The only thing that was better was the whole birthing process with Jen and my son (I mean 09-10 Aug 2004). Some of you in the "to" line know what I'm talking about. Some of you have yet to feel the euphoria, and imminent withdrawal pains of this rush. You will know it when you feel it though.
I felt that rush a lot over the next few weeks.
Election Day is next Tuesday. Don't forget to vote. I know that you're all diligent Americans who know the importance of this responsibility, but I'm going to remind you anyway. I don't care who you vote for, so long as you vote for who you think will do the best job. Let your conscience and intellect (not your party) be your guide.
Finally, I hope everyone had a Happy (and safe) Halloween. It was my semi-anniversary, and all in all, a pretty good night (thanks Jen!). I demand that everyone have a good day, or at least as good as humanly possible. If you want to be taken off the Morning Coffee distro list, let me know. If you think of someone who might need an add, let me know that too (since I cannot access my private email, I have no one's address). And by the way, this is the First Edition, so save it. Might be worth something (when I become either famous or infamous).
Word of the Day: Prevaricate (intransitive verb): to depart from or evade the truth; to speak with equivocation.
On this Day in History: US tests first hydrogen bomb (1952).
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