let it snow

as a humanities instructor who has been fighting the good fight for about 18 years, sounding the alarm that man-made global warming (MMGW) is a myth designed to infuse socialism into our midst, it’s been a lonely road at times. some colleagues in the science department have laughed and pitied me; sincere students have looked down their collective noses at the moron who should stick to talking about his own field of study; others have sworn that i hate the earth, the environment, al gore, life itself.

so, i must admit that when snow appeared in 49 states this week and one of the main voices in the MMGW movement made the concession “that the world was warmer in medieval times than now – suggesting global warming may not be a man-made phenomenon,” the cockles of my heart were quite warm, errr, i mean, ahem - cozy.

i do love the earth, the environment, life, clean water and air. maybe not al gore - though i don’t wish him ill, just that he be exposed for a greedy fraud. the acknowledgement that there have “been two periods which experienced similar warming, from 1910 to 1940 and from 1975 to 1998” and that these periods of warming “could be explained by natural phenomena” should put a dent in the marketing of those environmental indulgences better known as carbon off-sets. as i have discussed elsewhere on this blog, if you follow the money trail, it is easy to see that the MMGW Hoax is a way to redistribute wealth.

luckily, the hucksters are being revealed for what they are.

watch out for those who say the cold is made by MMGW and for those chicken littles who will, inevitably, claim that we’re about to face a new Man Made Ice Age.

but, in the mean time – bundle up, hunker down, stoke the fire. enjoy the next decade. make some snowmen, a snow angel or two, maybe make some snow-icecream. stick out your tongue – the snow tastes fine – even in february in the deep south.

music just doesn’t get any sweeter

savana lee and anthony crawford in foreground, Sugarcane Jane
craig riches and david trice on drums and bass, Leavin' Brothers Band


if you ever happen to find yourself on Fish River in Daphne, Alabama on a sleepy weekend afternoon, try to find your way to the picnic tables at Big Daddy’s. you’ll always find great food and a good time, but – if you’re lucky, you might just get to listen to one of the south’s best kept musical secrets–
Sugarcane Jane .

whether singing their original works (like Louisiana, Butterfly, and Sugar) or putting their down home sound on familiar classics (ranging from an incredibly playful and fun Hot Rod Lincoln to a spontaneous rendition of Roger Miller’s Dang Me or a dreamily mellow and psychedelic Midnight Rider), Sugarcane Jane’s appeal cuts across generations and appeals to a wide audience.

Alabama’s own Anthony Crawford and Savana Lee continue to work their musical alchemy creating sweet sounds that are assessable and easy, while at the same time intuitive and distinctly their own. if it’s your first time to hear Sugarcane Jane, you’ll find yourself saying, “wow. now, who are these guys? they’re good.” if your familiar with their work, you’ll overhear such comments and smile knowingly as you remember the exact time and place you first stumbled onto the band.

either way – when Sugarcane Jane plays, heads bob, feet tap, smiles spread, and hearts beat just a little faster. you’ll either fall in love with the band, or fall in love with the band again. it just can’t be helped.

so - if you’ve got a sweet tooth for great music and are ever in South Alabama around Fairhope, Daphne, or Gulf Shores, don’t hesitate to give Sugarcane Jane a listen. if you wait too long, the secret will have passed you by.

fruit of the (parcells) vine . . .

wow. what a football year. i must say, that as a dallas cowboy fan, i was disappointed they were not in the super bowl. but, as an nfc fan and a transplant to south mississippi, i could not have been more excited for the saints and the city of new orleans.

however, my greatest delight of the evening stemmed from the fact that i am a monster fan of bill parcells. as a teacher and motivator, parcells, in my book, is about as good as it gets. i was elated when dallas hired him and sad when he left.

just imagining the big tuna watching the game, masterfully coached by his protégé, sean payton. i can just almost see parcells' smile spreading across his face as the second half progressed. peyton did his mentor proud. i bet parcells was thinking to himself something along the lines of, “that’s my boy.”

as i thought about peyton and parcells and the link between the two, i kept hearing the words of Christ rattle around my brain. in john 5 he says, "I am the vine; you are the branches. If a man remains in me and I in him, he will bear much fruit; apart from me you can do nothing. 6If anyone does not remain in me, he is like a branch that is thrown away and withers; such branches are picked up, thrown into the fire and burned. 7If you remain in me and my words remain in you, ask whatever you wish, and it will be given you. 8This is to my Father's glory, that you bear much fruit, showing yourselves to be my disciples.”

would that i might do The Mentor proud.

remnants

“Whenever the people are well informed, they can be trusted with their own government; that whenever things get so far wrong as to attract their notice, they may be relied on to set them to rights.”
Thomas Jefferson

friends in low places

one of my heroes is a high school buddy of mine, will white. he was a year ahead of me, but took me under his wing as a freshman. we both played trumpet in the band; he took me on trips with his church youth group where i was introduced to rappelling, horse back riding, and camping out under the milky way in capitan gap, new mexico; we played pranks on folks and each other all the time. will was always one of the good guys.

one thing i always admired about will was his singular focus to become a pilot and fly planes for a mission organization. and that’s exactly what will did when he grew up. will and his family have been working in haiti for years, flying for mission aviation fellowship.


will’s duties include, providing transportation, supplies, housing, encouragement, and support for missionaries and national church workers in haiti. will is also the haiti program flight scheduler; in this role he takes requests by email and phone from local missionaries, teams coming from the US, and haitian pastors and christian worker, and coordinates them with the 3 aircraft and 7 pilots, as well as managing the ongoing maintenance schedule of the airplanes.

i was relieved last night when an email from will appeared in my inbox. he and his family are safe. his wife and kids are already back in the states, while will stayed behind, already involved in helping supplies get to the front lines.

if you get a second, while you’re praying for Haiti, include will and his family. they’re good folks doing good work.

Do you swear to tell the whole truth and nothing but the truth, so help you God?

Howard Dean, current leader of the Democrat Party


All truths are easy to understand once they are discovered; the point is to discover them. GALILEO GALILEI

veterans’ day, 2009

my grandfather, johnny thomas poole, was an accountant; he was married to my grandmother for over fifty years; he had three daughters; and he was a veteran. he served in the united states army during world war ii. he was stationed france. until his death in 2004, this was about all we knew of his service.

he was the kind of guy who did not really talk much about it. he had a couple of stock stories that he would tell when pressed, but even these were not elaborate or detailed. they were sorta little vignettes really.

one was about staying in a private house where the women who cooked for them did not speak english. apparently when the soldiers requested pancakes and sausage for breakfast, they ended up with what sounds like some version of pigs-in-a-blanket (for a man who would not eat lasagna – “cain’t stand that EYE- talian food”, but would scarf it down if it were served as “hamburger pie,” this is no small detail).

another story johnny would refer to took place around the railroad yard where he was in charge of the organization of military equipment as it came off the boats and was being loaded on railroad cars to be dispersed to units around europe. one day the yard was being bombed, and johnny dove under a railroad car for cover and dislocated his shoulder of his tennis arm. until the end of his tennis playing years (which was in his seventies), whenever he would lose a tennis game (which was not often), he would blame it on his bum shoulder. the part of the story he always highlighted was the fact that he did not realize until the bombing was over that the car he dove under was an oil tanker that would have exploded and killed him had it been hit.

that was pretty much it as far as johnny’s firsthand narrative of his time in the service. occasionally, a new time life type book on wwii would appear on the book shelf. and occasionally, i’d find a picture in said book with a building circled and some marginalia scrawled in granddad’s hand – typically a date and a brief note like: “we stayed in this building for a week” or “this hotel had clean sheets.” stuff like that.

imagine the family’s surprise upon his death in 2004 when we were going through his paperwork and found his discharge papers. my granddad - the mild mannered accountant, father or three, grandfather of seven, sunday school teacher - the one who never talked about the war, was the recipient of not one, but two bronze stars. no one in the family had ever even heard about the medals let alone ever seen them. despite a little bit of digging, we have not been able to find out much about why johnny was twice awarded the bronze star. we have been able to find out that johnny was involved in the battle of the bulge, the single largest and bloodiest battle american troops experienced in this war .

it’s been five veterans’ days since i’ve been able to call johnny up and thank him for his service.

so – to all the johnnies out there – those who came before my grandfather and those who served after – thank you for what you do for us. and thank you for how you do it.

we sleep safe in our own beds because rough men stand ready in the night to visit violence on those who would do us harm.
george orwell

apple bobbin’ 09

fall is a great time of year. i love the change in weather, the passion of the football season, and the onset of the holiday season. one of my favorite holidays is halloween. it might be the nostalgia of the 1970’s when kids in my dallas suburb roamed the streets trick-or-treating without fear of the literal signs of the boogie men (bright orange jack-o-lantern graphic with the “no candy at this residence” notice ); maybe it was the strange way that my grandmother used to recite a cryptic poem about when little orphan annie came to her house to play around this time of year; it could be the fun of embracing an alter ego via costume if only for an evening; the cooler, crisper, chillier air; the traditions; the mystery; the surprise. it’s almost too much to try and bottle up.

so – let me just say that this year, my joy for halloween revolved around the big fun special k had at our annual halloween party. her wish for the party was that we have bobbing for apples. we had the dry version last year, but she insisted on “havin’ a bucket, with water.” so in the grand tradition of snap apple night (new foundland’s version of halloween) we had opportunities for folks to go “dooking” (scotch for “ducking”) for apples. as she was curious in the ways three year olds are want to be, we did a little research on apple bobbin’ and found out some pretty cool stuff. like - why apples as the fruit of choice? well – for one – they float . two – apples were used in the earliest bobbing games during the celtic harvest festival samhain (summer’s end) and are linked to love and fertility. an interesting aside, apparently, Agatha Christie has a book called, the hallowe’en party which revolves around the murder of a girl drowned in an apple bobbing tub.

special k was beside herself with glee at the chance for everyone to bob for apples. while she was unsuccessful, she was pretty tenacious and did try enough times to become thoroughly soaked.

happy halloween to you and yours. hope you don't get a rock.

an exercise in juxtaposition

"Let us consider the nature of true greatness in men. The people who can catch hold of men’s minds and feelings and inspire them to do things bigger than themselves are the people who are remembered in history. . . . those who stir feelings and imagination and make men struggle toward perfection."
-Henry Eyring






"Striving for success without hard work is like trying to harvest where you haven't planted."
-David Bly

the sugar does indeed taste so fine . . .

last weekend, my father-in-law and i went to the local american legion in search of adult beverages and the possibility of live music. and i must say, we hit the jackpot on both counts.

there just so happened to be a song-writers’ sing around in progress, and on stage we were privileged to hear a regional group called sugarcane jane . in short, they were fantastic.

the group is made up of anthony crawford and savana lee. crawford is one of the best guitarists i have ever witnessed in person. he has toured with neil young, played with roy acuff, and his songs have been sung by kenny rogers, lorrie morgan, and the nitty gritty dirt band. his voice is like the love child resulting from a tender affair between the intonations of neil young and the haunting tenors of del mccoury. savana, a loxley, alabama girl, was great as well. her voice and harmonies ranged from gentle and krauss-like to passionate shades of loretta lynn. the chemistry between lee and crawford was a thing of beauty to witness. after the show, i bought four of the cd’s they had available and immediately went to their web site to find future locations/dates where these two will be playing.

my father-in-law and i have enjoyed lots of local gigs across the southeast over the past ten years. we’ve seen some good acts here and there. enough that we’ve developed a question between ourselves: how good do you have to be? implying that the music business must be tough, because while some of these talented folks aren’t hitting it big, american idol et al is cranking consumption for the masses that just ain’t all that.

something tells me sugarcane jane just might be good enough. if you’re lucky enough to catch them live, you’ll see and hear what i mean.

never forget.

one of the things i miss most about living in texas is the annual state fair. and a big part of what i miss is the food offerings at the fair (did you know that snow cones debuted at the texas state fair?) one of my heros, abel gonzales, jr. (the creator of such delectables as texas fried cookie dough, fried peanut butter, jelly and banana sandwiches, and fried coke) has done it again. this october gonzales is introducing (drum roll please) . . . . . . . . . . . . . fried butter!



can it get any closer to heaven on this side of the grave?

i hope babe’s fried chicken learns how to fix fried butter and serves it as an appetizer.

quick - name that animal . . .

welcome back, james!!!!!!!

tomorrow is a great day. one of my all-time favorite politicians will be released from the federal pen. so look out washington. if he were to run for anything, i’d vote for him. and since half the jokers in that town are crooks what ain’t been caught yet anyways, why not give old j.t. a crack at sorting out some of the mess. the people need a wordsmith of the common man to go toe to toe with THE ONE. check out these golden oldies:









now that he’s out of jail, his art work should be going on sale in legit markets. if you’re interested in that sort of thing, j. t. has got some pretty cool stuff. my personal favorite is his madonna and child painting.

things that make you go, "hmmmmmmmmm."

before viewing the following clip, ask yourself the following questions:

“am i happy with the service i get from the united states post office?”

“why does the cost of postage keep going up, but the service of the us post office remain the same or get worse?”

“when was the last time the us post office turned a fiscal profit?”

according to jo cerra's article in the new york times , the us post office lost 5 BILLION dollars in 2007, 2.4 BILLION dollars in 2008, and is on track to lose 7 BILLION dollars in 2009.

with these thoughts in mind, witness the rhetorical mastery that is THE ONE.

one of my favorite happenings is when god reveals glimpses of himself in unanticipated or unexpected places or/and events. maybe i should not be so startled or surprised, but when it happens, i feel the most like a child on christmas morning than at any other time. one such event occurred last friday night at the beau rivage hotel and casino in biloxi, mississippi.

my lovely and gracious wife and i are not big fans of the boats, but we did want to catch the los lonely boys in concert. so, we booked a room, burned through a roll of nickels at the one-armed-bandits, ate some pretty good food, and set off to hear what turned out to be a great concert.

i knew the los lonely boys were going to be good, but had no idea that they were going to be THAT good. the three brothers ( henry, jojo, and ringo garza) brought it for roughly 70 minutes, came back for a one song encore that turned into a two song encore that morphed into another twenty minutes split between stevie wonder’s superstition and jimi hendrix’s voodoo child. Wow. pretty much the whole concert was amped a bit more than their studio work; in fact, the pace and volume of the concert revealed a whole other side of the band.

but i digress - - - about twenty minutes into the show, for one brief moment, the boys slowed the pace a bit. henry dedicated a song to “all of us here tonight who might have done that one little thing in our life we might regret,” and then they played forgiven.

it’s not like i haven’t heard the song before or haven’t ever contemplated the spiritual journey of the band whose albums include titles like forgiven and scacred.

maybe it was the venue – a casino – with vice in all its forms available. maybe it was the brazen act of witness in a secular forum. whatever it was, in the roughly 3 minutes it took for the los lonely boys to perform forgiven, the arena was almost completely silent, and i was taken into the presence of god in a powerful and palpable way.

and it was pretty cool to know that the answer to the song’s question, “Can I be forgiven?” is a resounding, “YES!”



Take it away. Take it away.
Take away these feelings cuz they're bringing me down.
Cuz I can't breathe. Feels like I can't breathe.
Feels just like this whole world's coming down on me.

Oh, can I be Forgiven for all I have done?

Can you set me free? Can you set me free?
Set me free from all this pain life's done to me.

If you can hear me praying, then I'll ask one more time.

Can you take it away, Lord? Oh, can I be forgiven?
Can you take it away, Lord? Help me change my ways of living.
[ Forgiven lyrics from http://www.lyricsyoulove.com/ ]

Oh, can I be forgiven for all I have done?
Is there time for me? Is there still time for me?
Time to change whatever I've got left of me.

If you can hear me praying, then I'll ask one more time.

Can you take it away, Lord? Oh, can I be forgiven?
Can you take it away, Lord? Help me change my ways of living.

three cheers for journalistic integrity!

sometimes there are things in this world that just defy logic. but if we focus on the little things, we might be able to right the world before it is too late. one such area i’d like folks to consider is in the daily reporting of the temperature. yesterday, the weatherman reported that it was 100 degrees, with a heat index was 108degrees. if i understand it right, a heat index is “what it feels like” outside. is this to say that the weather is an emotional state of mind? no. can weather be manipulated by, say, oprah? no. so, why not just report the truth? i mean the temperature is not like a forecast – “there’s a 50% chance of thunder showers in the afternoon.” no one really cares about the accuracy rating of a forecast anyway because the odds of the weathermen being right is less than even. so why not be frank about absolutes such as the temperature. either it is or it isn’t 108. if it is, just say, “it’s 108 degrees outside.” if they’re not sure, just get in the ball park. simply say, “it’s freakin’ hot out there. be careful and make sure you hydrate.” we can take it. and maybe, if we can get the weather reported with some honesty, that attitude might spill over into other areas of journalism.

viva texas rangers!

wow! it may be only an ephemeral moment, but i’m going to enjoy it. the texas baseball rangers are in first place! IN MAY for crying out loud! GO BOYS, GO!!!!

i'm a sucker for a good ad and a good beer

"Great men are never sufficiently shown but in struggles." Edmund Burke

The following is a letter from Andrew McCarthy to Attorney General Holder concerning a request to participate in President Obama's Task Force on Detention Policy. Wow. If only we had conservative politicians running with the cojones of Mr. McCarthy.


May 1, 2009


By email (to the Counterterrorism Division) and by regular mail:

The Honorable Eric H. Holder, Jr.
Attorney General of the United States
United States Department of Justice
950 Pennsylvania Avenue, NW
Washington, D.C. 20530-0001

Dear Attorney General Holder:

This letter is respectfully submitted to inform you that I must decline the invitation to participate in the May 4 roundtable meeting the President’s Task Force on Detention Policy is convening with current and former prosecutors involved in international terrorism cases. An invitation was extended to me by trial lawyers from the Counterterrorism Section, who are members of the Task Force, which you are leading.

The invitation email (of April 14) indicates that the meeting is part of an ongoing effort to identify lawful policies on the detention and disposition of alien enemy combatants -- or what the Department now calls “individuals captured or apprehended in connection with armed conflicts and counterterrorism operations.” I admire the lawyers of the Counterterrorism Division, and I do not question their good faith. Nevertheless, it is quite clear -- most recently, from your provocative remarks on Wednesday in Germany -- that the Obama administration has already settled on a policy of releasing trained jihadists (including releasing some of them into the United States). Whatever the good intentions of the organizers, the meeting will obviously be used by the administration to claim that its policy was arrived at in consultation with current and former government officials experienced in terrorism cases and national security issues. I deeply disagree with this policy, which I believe is a violation of federal law and a betrayal of the president’s first obligation to protect the American people. Under the circumstances, I think the better course is to register my dissent, rather than be used as a prop.
Moreover, in light of public statements by both you and the President, it is dismayingly clear that, under your leadership, the Justice Department takes the position that a lawyer who in good faith offers legal advice to government policy makers—like the government lawyers who offered good faith advice on interrogation policy—may be subject to investigation and prosecution for the content of that advice, in addition to empty but professionally damaging accusations of ethical misconduct. Given that stance, any prudent lawyer would have to hesitate before offering advice to the government.

Beyond that, as elucidated in my writing (including my proposal for a new national security court, which I understand the Task Force has perused), I believe alien enemy combatants should be detained at Guantanamo Bay (or a facility like it) until the conclusion of hostilities. This national defense measure is deeply rooted in the venerable laws of war and was reaffirmed by the Supreme Court in the 2004 Hamdi case. Yet, as recently as Wednesday, you asserted that, in your considered judgment, such notions violate America’s “commitment to the rule of law.” Indeed, you elaborated, “Nothing symbolizes our [administration’s] new course more than our decision to close the prison at Guantanamo Bay&hellip. President Obama believes, and I strongly agree, that Guantanamo has come to represent a time and an approach that we want to put behind us: a disregard for our centuries-long respect for the rule of law.”

Given your policy of conducting ruinous criminal and ethics investigations of lawyers over the advice they offer the government, and your specific position that the wartime detention I would endorse is tantamount to a violation of law, it makes little sense for me to attend the Task Force meeting. After all, my choice would be to remain silent or risk jeopardizing myself.

For what it may be worth, I will say this much. For eight years, we have had a robust debate in the United States about how to handle alien terrorists captured during a defensive war authorized by Congress after nearly 3000 of our fellow Americans were annihilated. Essentially, there have been two camps. One calls for prosecution in the civilian criminal justice system, the strategy used throughout the 1990s. The other calls for a military justice approach of combatant detention and war-crimes prosecutions by military commission. Because each theory has its downsides, many commentators, myself included, have proposed a third way: a hybrid system, designed for the realities of modern international terrorism—a new system that would address the needs to protect our classified defense secrets and to assure Americans, as well as our allies, that we are detaining the right people.
There are differences in these various proposals. But their proponents, and adherents to both the military and civilian justice approaches, have all agreed on at least one thing: Foreign terrorists trained to execute mass-murder attacks cannot simply be released while the war ensues and Americans are still being targeted. We have already released too many jihadists who, as night follows day, have resumed plotting to kill Americans. Indeed, according to recent reports, a released Guantanamo detainee is now leading Taliban combat operations in Afghanistan, where President Obama has just sent additional American forces.
The Obama campaign smeared Guantanamo Bay as a human rights blight. Consistent with that hyperbolic rhetoric, the President began his administration by promising to close the detention camp within a year. The President did this even though he and you (a) agree Gitmo is a top-flight prison facility, (b) acknowledge that our nation is still at war, and (c) concede that many Gitmo detainees are extremely dangerous terrorists who cannot be tried under civilian court rules. Patently, the commitment to close Guantanamo Bay within a year was made without a plan for what to do with these detainees who cannot be tried. Consequently, the Detention Policy Task Force is not an effort to arrive at the best policy. It is an effort to justify a bad policy that has already been adopted: to wit, the Obama administration policy to release trained terrorists outright if that’s what it takes to close Gitmo by January.

Obviously, I am powerless to stop the administration from releasing top al Qaeda operatives who planned mass-murder attacks against American cities—like Binyam Mohammed (the accomplice of “Dirty Bomber” Jose Padilla) whom the administration recently transferred to Britain, where he is now at liberty and living on public assistance. I am similarly powerless to stop the administration from admitting into the United States such alien jihadists as the 17 remaining Uighur detainees. According to National Intelligence Director Dennis Blair, the Uighurs will apparently live freely, on American taxpayer assistance, despite the facts that they are affiliated with a terrorist organization and have received terrorist paramilitary training. Under federal immigration law (the 2005 REAL ID Act), those facts render them excludable from theUnited States. The Uighurs’ impending release is thus a remarkable development given the Obama administration’s propensity to deride its predecessor’s purported insensitivity to the rule of law.

I am, in addition, powerless to stop the President, as he takes these reckless steps, from touting his Detention Policy Task Force as a demonstration of his national security seriousness. But I can decline to participate in the charade.
Finally, let me repeat that I respect and admire the dedication of Justice Department lawyers, whom I have tirelessly defended since I retired in 2003 as a chief assistant U.S. attorney in the Southern District of New York. It was a unique honor to serve for nearly twenty years as a federal prosecutor, under administrations of both parties. It was as proud a day as I have ever had when the trial team I led was awarded the Attorney General’s Exceptional Service Award in 1996, after we secured the convictions of Sheikh Omar Abdel Rahman and his underlings for waging a terrorist war against the United States. I particularly appreciated receiving the award from Attorney General Reno—as I recounted in Willful Blindness, my book about the case, without her steadfastness against opposition from short-sighted government officials who wanted to release him, the “blind sheikh” would never have been indicted, much less convicted and so deservedly sentenced to life-imprisonment. In any event, I’ve always believed defending our nation is a duty of citizenship, not ideology. Thus, my conservative political views aside, I’ve made myself available to liberal and conservative groups, to Democrats and Republicans, who’ve thought tapping my experience would be beneficial. It pains me to decline your invitation, but the attendant circumstances leave no other option.
Very truly yours,

/S/
Andrew C. McCarthy
cc: Sylvia T. Kaser and John DePue
National Security Division, Counterterrorism Section

my own dr.s frankenstien: albert marsh and william hoskins

the above is a result of a quiz which rae ann, she of i'm a hoe, not to be mistaken for a rake or a shovel fame, turned me onto. i'll leave it to both of the viewing audience members who know me as to whether or not the results of the quiz are accurate. i must confess, i was stunned upon discovering that i have been labeled a toaster. you too can find your inner inanimate object here .

happy hour indeed!

i though about calling this photo this little light of mine, but it sounded kinda sacrilegious. so, i'll just call it, papa's a pretty cool dude 'cause he took me to sonic.

the wojtowicz's, franklin, and douglass

patrick, melissa, and gabrielle wojtowicz have become my newest heroes. after reading an article about them in the 4/14/09 issue of USA Today (having trouble linking to the article - sorry) and a subsequent article by peggy noonan , I decided to check out the wojtowicz’s blog (i can't figure out why this link says the blog doesn't exist, but when it says that true north doesn't exist, click on true north and it will take you to none other than true north).

these guys figured it out. as patrick says in the USA Today article, “The idea of living a fuller, more satisfying life seems simple to us now. . . . We would basically buy stuff to feel good. . . . When that stuff stopped filling the voids we had, we started analyzing what it was that we were really missing. . . . Money, cash, credit, maybe they don’t matter. Maybe, just maybe, it is those things that impede our ability to be truly happy.”

patrick is right. and the path the wojtowicz family are on embodies ben franklin’s ideas of self-reliance, specifically virtues #4, #5, and #6: resolution, frugality, and industry. i hope and pray, that the wojtowiczs are indicative of a whole movement back to an agrarian life style. if they are, and if there is a shift in american culture back to an agrarian mind set, maybe an unintended consequence of BIG GOVERNMENT’s meddling in the american way of life could be a positive.

in his Self-Made Man lecture of 1859, frederick douglass said, “Self-made men are the men . . . who they are, without the aid of any of the favoring conditions by which other men usually rise in the world and achieve great results. . . . They are the men who, in a world of schools, academics, colleges, and other institutions of learning, are often compelled by unfriendly circumstances to acquire their education elsewhere and, amidst unfavorable conditions, to hew out for themselves a way to success, and thus to become the architects of their own good fortunes. . . . If they have traveled far, they have made the road on which they have traveled. If they have ascended high, they have built their own ladder. . . . I am certain that there is nothing good, great or desirable which man can possess in this world, that does not come by some kind of labor, either physical or mental, moral or spiritual. A man may, at times, get something for nothing, but it will, in his hands, amount to nothing. What is true in the world of matter is equally true in the world of the mind. Without culture there can be no growth; without exertion, no acquisition; without friction, no polish; without labor, no knowledge; without action, no progress and without conflict, no victory. The man who lies down a fool at night, hoping that he will waken wise in the morning, will rise up in the morning as he laid down in the evening.”

i think franklin and douglass would've been proud of the wojtowic family.

hard-working hands gain control, but lazy hands do slave labor. Proverbs 12:24

go get 'em america!

god bless the new crop of sons and daughters of liberty who are participating tomorrow in the tea parties around the country! may your voices be heard!

a stack of money with eyes, a gecko, and a karaoke singer walk into a bar . . .

this video is for my daughter who really likes all things geico. hopefully, she will not grow up with some sort of unhealthy paranoia.

tell me tommy boy; what is it good for?

as an amateur ornithologist, my ears perked up when i heard about the newest cyber space rage - tweeting. or is it twitting? or twittering? anyway - as a technological neanderthal, i’m doing well to figure out how to post a blog every now and then, much less tweet every two seconds. how does one keep up with tweeting and why? i mean, when i don’t blog for weeks at a time, it occurs to me to go to confession. which is strange. but if stephen king can crank out books a year, shouldn’t i be able to crank out blogs a month? so along comes the twitter. which i still have not gotten a straight answer about from my students. which alerts me to the fact that tweeting or twittering or whatever is either a) so new they don’t even know what it’s good for, or b) it’s not really good for anything. anyone besides the cartoon network got any insight for those of us being left behind?

Bob Dylan once said, “A hero is someone who understands the responsibility that comes with his freedom.” It seems South Carolina’s governor, Mark Sanford almost gets Zimbo’s drift; he sorta understands James Madison's observation that "I cannot undertake to lay my finger on that article of the Constitution which granted a right to Congress of expending, on objects of benevolence, the money of their constituents." So, should Mr. Sanford get half of an “‘atta boy!” for rejecting "some" of the stimulus bill? for almost saying,"No" to the stimulus package? Sanford rightly avers that “The name of the game is staying true to the principles that got you into politics in the first place _ and letting the chips fall where they may." So why not apply this to a total rejection of the stimulus bill? would that there were governors out there who had the strength and courage to follow all the way through with their principles.

ezra, the seer

ezra taft benson was the secretary of agriculture in the eisenhower administration. i’m not sure how popular he was then, but i wish there were more wise politicians with some cajones like ezra’s around today. i understand he actually was a prophet in the lds organization. i think that's what the bookend weirdness of the second clip is all about. after listening to a few of his words, it seems maybe he did have a touch of the sight. certainly, he was on the mark politically.

can you hear me now?

america - how much more can you take? when are you going to listen and realize what's going down? wake up out there. the wool is being pulled over your eyes as the following quote and clip illustrate.

from the press conference last night, obama says: "I know that there are a lot of folks out there who've been saying, 'Oh, this is pork, and this is money that's going to be wasted,' and et cetera, et cetera. Understand, this bill does not have a single earmark in it, which is unprecedented for a bill of this size. ... There aren't individual pork projects that members of Congress are putting into this bill."

the bold italics are mine for emphasis in light of the following clip.

the postman was right about the wretched stone

of course one of the benefits of watching the super bowl is the commercials. however, one commercial in particular was quite haunting.



initially, this commercial made me think of mike judge’s idiocracy (which is a great satire on what happens to a culture that abandons literacy). in the imaginary future of idiocracy, the number one show on television in the year 2506 is owww, my balls. the fictional sit-com revolves around a single theme: how the protagonist’s testicles are assaulted and abused as he carries out his daily routines. after thinking of judge’s vision, i recalled reading neil postman’s great book, amusing ourselves to death: public discourse in the age of show business. in the book, postman reminds us that television’s entertainment value is a type of huxleyian “soma” which lulls folks into a blissful ignorance which translates into a voluntary relinquishment of their rights to the government. if television is a gateway drug and the internet is crack, what sort of drug is hulu? the future is now. and we need to detoxify ourselves. we’ve medicated ourselves into a state of consciousness from which we might never awake. before it's too late, turn off the visual media and read chris van alsberg's the wretched stone to your kids.

we don't need no stinking stimulus . . .

The following is a list of 41 modern-day political heroes who should be applauded for looking out for the American people’s best interests. These 41 brave senators voted against S. Amdt 3983 and H. R. 5140, the so-called Recovery Rebates and Economic Stimulus for the American People Act of 2008. God bless these 41 members and help them to remain strong in their convictions.

Alphabetical by Senator Name:
Alexander (R-TN), Nay
Allard (R-CO), Nay
Barrasso (R-WY), Nay
Bennett (R-UT), Nay
Bond (R-MO), Nay
Brownback (R-KS), Nay
Bunning (R-KY), Nay
Burr (R-NC), Nay
Chambliss (R-GA), Nay
Coburn (R-OK), Nay
Cochran (R-MS), Nay
Corker (R-TN), Nay
Cornyn (R-TX), Nay
Craig (R-ID), Nay
Crapo (R-ID), Nay
DeMint (R-SC), Nay
Ensign (R-NV), Nay
Enzi (R-WY), Nay
Graham (R-SC), Nay
Gregg (R-NH), Nay
Hagel (R-NE), Nay
Hatch (R-UT), Nay
Hutchison (R-TX), Nay
Inhofe (R-OK), Nay
Isakson (R-GA), Nay
Kyl (R-AZ), Nay
Lugar (R-IN), Nay
Martinez (R-FL), Nay
McConnell (R-KY), Nay
Murkowski (R-AK), Nay
Reid (D-NV), Nay
Roberts (R-KS), Nay
Sessions (R-AL), Nay
Shelby (R-AL), Nay
Stevens (R-AK), Nay
Sununu (R-NH), Nay
Thune (R-SD), Nay
Vitter (R-LA), Nay
Voinovich (R-OH), Nay
Warner (R-VA), Nay
Wicker (R-MS), Nay

Of note: *McCain (R-AZ), Not voting

the audacity of hope . . .

i love the super bowl for lots of reasons, but one of the draws for me is the cool commercials. in this season of really creative advertisements, the following, in my opinion, will be hard to top this sunday. if i needed someone to advertise something for me, i’d do my best to hire the folks who put this spot together. it’s simple. it’s subtle. it’s effective. no matter which side of the issue you take, it is difficult to muster any sort of negative response to the presentation of this ad. this is the kind of smart thinking we need more of. this is the sort of moving spirit that can win the day.

i'd pay a dollar to see that at the carnival

sometimes i see things that i just can’t help staring at. it’s rude. it’s impolite. i try not to do it in public. but in the privacy of my own home, it doesn’t seem to hurt much. in these waning days of the football season, i’ve been watching a ton of football fluff on the various sports channels (particularly a series on the nfl network called missing rings). i’ve also been sucked into another show called playbook which is described by the nfl network as a program that uses “exclusive access to coaching film” to “give fans an in -depth look at the match-ups and how each team looks to exploit the other.” as a football junkie, one might assume that i tune into the show to learn the ins and outs of competing teams. but, no-sir. i tune in for one reason. to stare at brian baldinger’s right digitus minimus. i can’t help it. indeed, i found myself this past season actually seeking out games on fox that baldinger was calling even though i didn’t care a jot nor a tiddle about either team on the field, all the while ignoring the fact that baldinger is one of my least favorite color commentators. i would mute the tv and hope the network would cut away from game action and show the booth just so i could catch a glimpse of baldinger’s right digitus quintus. his right fourth finger colloquially is so jacked up that it makes me feel like a vicarious arthritic barometer. if i’m visually locked into his digitus V, i can accurately report the atmospheric pressure and predict high pressure fronts with some modicum of accuracy.

it was when a commercial break came on that my hypnotic lock on baldinger’s pinkie was interrupted and i realized that my habit of staring in-house was indeed dangerous. my daughter, who is a very live wire of a three year old, had been lying silently and statuesquely on the couch beside me with her head in my lap. this is so unusual and out of character for her that asked her if she felt well. she assured me that she was ok. and then went silent again. i should have known something was up, that this was indeed my child. after a couple of minutes she said, “hey, papa. why do you have a charlotte’s web inside your nose?”

“i don’t know, buddy,” i said, “but it is really not polite to stare.”

quality entertainment

i’m not really sure who this guy is or what his story is, but it’s proof that quality entertainment can be made from christian perspective (i’m making a huge assumption that this guy is indeed a Christian). anyone know anything about this tim hawkins guy?

mad about madmen

very rarely do i experience envy. it is one of the seven deadlies that doesn’t really phase me too much. but, on occasion, when i witness the creative genius of folks, i must admit, i get twinges of jealousy. in such moments, i wish and hope and pray for just one given moment sometime in my life when i could be that good at something - anything. whenever i hear night rider’s lament, or my colleague, trevor hunt, play the classical guitar, or witness dr. joyce applegate teach a field biology class, i can’t help but think to myself, “is there, or will there ever be any one thing i’m that good at?”

one of these envious moments creeped into my thoughts as i watched an episode of madmen. it’s a snappy show about a madison advertising agency, sterling cooper, set in the late 50’s early 60’s. john hamm plays don draper, the main character and sterling cooper’s top advertising gun. in an episode called the wheel, a single scene struck me as quite stunning and beautiful in its forceful simplicity. the craft of creating great television is evidenced here. i must admit that i was envious of talent and abilities on display in the writing, the acting, and the directing. enjoy.

one toke over the line, sweet jesus, one toke over the line *

as a “university” church with a congregation that ranges from degreed professionals to folks off the street and everything in between, you’re liable to hear a spectrum of thoughts during any given bible study. moderate, fundamental, conservative, sometimes just plain nuts. but no one ever seems to stomp out angry or with hurt feelings, which is what i really enjoy about this particular gathering of folks. and you gotta show up week to week, because you just might miss something. you can never quite pin-point when or how god’s going to manifest himself.

last night’s bible study examined the virgin birth narrative presented by only two gospels, matthew and luke. lines of thinking and questioning arose from our crowd in a fairly typical manner for the group: how is jesus of the line of david if joseph is not the biological father? wouldn’t mary probably know how the birds and the bees work, and, if so, why’s she asking the angel about the basics of biology? the ex nihilo idea of genesis manifested in the womb? how does the dirt of adam’s “birth” become dna, and did god, the father, use miraculous means to introduce the y chromosome into mary’s fetus? some good heavy theological lifting going on.

the spirited back and forth was good natured banter and did provoke lots of good thought. and yet a din of sorts, a static created by the conversation, clouded the room.

and that’s when i caught a glimpse of The Sublime.

during a collective breath which provided an opportune pause in our voices, a gentleman in the back said in a calm, sure, steady voice just loud enough for everyone to hear: “if you pray to god and you truly believe that the creator of the universe hears you, you’re already over the line. you already ARE a mystic.”

* brewer and shipley

what country do you think this is?*

lately, it seems the gop has attempted to have life imitate art. unfortunately, they chose the theater of the absurd to immolate in the last election cycle. and clearly, even after the election, some folks in the party still don’t get it. this is poignantly illustrated by congressman joe knollenberg (republican, michigan) at around the three minute mark of the following clip. note knollenberg’s answer to cavuto’s question, “where do you draw the line with our money?” joe’s answer is not unlike the clock in perandello’s play , the bald soprano, which strikes the hour twenty-nine in one scene and “as many times as it wants” in another. there’s a disconnect here that is becoming more and more bizarre as the calendar turns.



*garage attendant - ferris bueller's day off

pic from dia de los muertos

click to enlarge scary skull face

fashion trends in the deep south

as an instructor on a college campus, i see a range of fashion year to year, season to season. every now and again, a fad or trend will surface that piques my curiosity as to how and why said fashion evolved. currently, a bizarre trend grips our deep south campus where the temperatures during the months of october and november average around 85 degrees for highs and about 45 degrees for lows. on any given day, more than half the co-eds are wearing shorts accented by snow boots with fuzzy trim. are these folks hot or cold? when is the last time it snowed on this campus? does the bookstore carry odor-eaters? is the circulation in their extremities poor while their core temperatures remain above average? is this look popular in current pop culture? is this a statement on the alleged global warming? what would mr. blackwell think of this look, god rest his soul? while not as troubling as the billed cap worn cock-eyed or as strange as a toboggan with a bill, i do wonder what these young folks are thinking as they dress for the day. probably the same thing i was thinking during the early 1980’s while sporting argyle patterns suited only for exclusive links courses or pastel tee-shirts and white jackets with the sleeves rolled up a la the set of miami vice. huaraches and mullets, anyone?

the signs are everywhere. . .we just need to see them

“Dagny, the whole world’s in a terrible state right now. I don’t know what’s wrong with it, but something’s very wrong. Men have to get together and find a way out. But who’s to decide which way to take, unless it’s the majority? I guess that’s the only fair method of deciding, I don’t see any other. I suppose somebody’s got to be sacrificed. If it turned out to be me, I have no right to complain. The right’s on their side. Men have to get together.”
She made an effort to speak calmly; she was trembling with anger. “If that’s the price of getting together, then I’ll be damned if I want to live on the same earth with any human beings! If the rest of them can survive only by destroying us, then why should we wish them to survive? Nothing can make self-immolation proper. Nothing can give them the right to turn men into sacrificial animals. Nothing can make it moral to destroy the best. One can’t be punished for being good. One can’t be penalized for ability. If that’s right, then we’d better start slaughtering one another, because there isn’t any right at all in the world!”
He did not answer. He looked at her helplessly.
“If it’s that kind of world, how can we live in it?” she asked.
“I don’t know . . .” he whispered.
“Dan, do you really think it’s right? In all truth, deep down, do you think it’s right?”
He closed his eyes. “No,” he said. Then he looked at her and she saw a look of torture for the first time. “That’s what I’ve been sitting here trying to understand. I know that I ought to think it’s right – but I can’t. It’s as if my tongue wouldn’t turn to say it. I keep seeing every tie of track down there, every signal light, every bridge, every night that I spent when . . .” His head dropped down on his arms. “Oh God, it’s so damn unjust!”
“Dan,” she said through her teeth, “fight it.”
He raised his head. His eyes were empty. “No,” he said. “It would be wrong. I’m just selfish.”
“Oh, damn that rotten tripe! You know better than that!”
“I don’t know . . .” His voice was very tired. “I’ve been sitting here, trying to think about it . . . I don’t know what is right anymore. . . .” He added, “I don’t think I care.”
She knew suddenly that all further words were useless and that Dan Conway would never be a man of action again. She did not know what made her certain of it. She said, wondering, “You’ve never given up in the face of a battle before.”
“No, I guess I haven’t. . . .” He spoke with a quiet, indifferent astonishment. “I’ve fought storms and floods and rock slides and rail fissure. . . . I knew how to do it, and I liked doing it. . . . But this kind of battle – it’s one I can’t fight.”
“Why?”
“I don’t know. Who knows why the world is what it is?”

Ayn Rand, Atlas Shrugged

more halloween goodness!

here's special K in her wilbur (pronounced "YIL-bur") costume. we went to our halloween party as the cast of charlotte's web. big al was a stunningly beautiful charlotte and i had my own gutter rat take on templeton. a good time was had by all. as soon as ms lundy forwards the digital pics, we'll post more.

halloween treats!

as always, halloween was a blast! this year was especially memorable since my daughter was able to have BIG fun in all the festivities – halloween party at our house, carnival at the school, trick or treating in the neighborhood. lots of candy and good times. this is one of the early pics we got back from the disco tent at the school carnival. thanks, laura, for snapping it and sending it our way!

some voting season fodder . . .

Some quotes to ponder as the election hour draws nigh. For more, check out Walter Williams’ list of quotes from
Framers and the Constitution.

"Congress has not unlimited powers to provide for the general welfare, but only those specifically enumerated."
--Thomas Jefferson, Letter to Albert Gallatin, 1817

"If Congress can determine what constitutes the general welfare and can appropriate money for its advancement, where is the limitation to carrying into execution whatever can be effected by money?"
-- South Carolina Senator William Draden 1828

"We still find the greedy hand of government thrusting itself into every corner and crevice of industry, and grasping at the spoil of the multitude. Invention is continually exercised to furnish new pretenses for revenue and taxation. It watches prosperity as its prey and permits none to escape without a tribute."
-- Thomas Paine

"If Congress can do whatever in their discretion can be done by money, and will promote the general welfare, the government is no longer a limited one possessing enumerated powers, but an indefinite one subject to particular exceptions." James Madison, "Letter to Edmund Pendleton," -- James Madison, January 21, 1792, in The Papers of James Madison, vol. 14, Robert A Rutland et. al., ed (Charlottesvile: University Press of Virginia,1984).

"It could probably be shown by facts and figures that there is no distinctly native American criminal class except Congress."
-- Mark Twain, 1894

pay no attention to the heat miser behind the curtain . . .

while cruising the blogosphere, i stumbled upon a thoughtful, humorous, and spot-on blog by lobos motl. motl is a physicist living in the czech republic who takes on the global warming hoax in the reference frame . motl's notion of “the gore effect” is quite funny as are the documents surrounding the arrival of gore at harvard to give a speech on global warming; note the local low temp of 25 degrees which was last seen on October 22, 1883. kudos to motl! preach it, bro, preach it!

politics makes stange bedfellows . . .

not everyone in the democrat party has forgotten their roots. note the echos of jfk in lynn forester de rothschild's comments.

"Our tax system still siphons out of the private economy too large a share of personal and business purchasing power and reduces the incentive for risk, investment and effort – thereby aborting our recoveries and stifling our national growth rate."
– John F. Kennedy, Nov. 20, 1962, press conference

"Our present tax system ... exerts too heavy a drag on growth ... It reduces the financial incentives for personal effort, investment, and risk-taking ... The present tax load ... distorts economic judgments and channels an undue amount of energy into efforts to avoid tax liabilities."
– John F. Kennedy, Jan. 24, 1963, message to Congress on tax reduction and reform, House Doc. 43, 88th Congress, 1st Session.

is this what folks want?

is this really what folks want out there?

along with the obvious joys of being a first time parent come some unexpected pains. one of the least anticipated side effects of becoming a parent, in my experience, is the immediate ability to empathize and be moved by the relationships of other parent/child relationships going on around me. for the past year the lives of three sets of parents and children in particular have moved me in ways i did not believe possible.

in one instance a son discovered the body of his elderly mother who had been brutally murdered with a hammer by a crack addict that, when caught, turned out to be an old high school acquaintance .

in another situation, an expectant mother of naturally occurring quadruplets has battled for almost two years for the lives of her daughters. she lost three of the girls in the delivery process and continues to face challenges with her daughter who fights everyday to recover from being delivered prematurely.

last week, some friends of our family lost their eleven year old son to cancer. he fought the disease in a heroic way.

each of the folks involved taught me things about strength, perseverance, and grace. but the lessons, i think, were heightened for me because of the relationship i have with my own daughter.

since her arrival, one of my favorite hobbies, going to the movies, has been curbed a bit. we tend to see about the same amount of movies as we did before; they are just viewed via netflix about six months to a couple of years behind the curve of the general populous. last night, we saw bella, a film from 2006 written and directed by alejandro gomez monteverde. this quite film portrayed the strength, perseverance, and grace of its central characters in such a powerful way that i spent most of the film watching the screen through a blur of tears. if you missed it on the big screen – take the time to watch it. share it with someone. and hug your kids. squeeze ‘em just a little bit tighter than you might normally do.

Ben Franklin famously said, “Those who would give up essential liberty to purchase a little temporary safety, deserve neither liberty nor safety.” A big thank you to those in the Senate* who tried to abide by Franklin’s wisdom when they voted “no” for the bail out attempt. God give representatives in the House the same courage and wisdom to thwart this bill tomorrow.

* Allard (R) Barasso (R) Brownback (R) Bunning (R) Cantwell (D)
Cochran (R) Crapo (R) DeMint (R) Dole (R) Dorgan (D)
Enzi (R) Feingold (D) Inhofe (R) Johnson (D) Landrieu (D)
Nelson (FL) (D) Roberts (R) Sanders (I) Sessions (R) Shelby (R)
Stabenow (D) Tester (D) Vitter (R) Wicker (R) Wyden (D)

economics 101

lots of ideas floating around out there on the financial crisis and what to do about it. we need to get back to the basics. spend less that you make. save for a rainy day. help those who truely need help. we've lost most of these concepts along the way somewhere, from the individual to the nanny state that the us government has become. after lots of reading and careful consideration of which one article to pass on to both of my readers out there, i've settled on martin masse's piece in the national post. in his article
Bailout Marks Karl Marx's Comeback, masse argues correctly, i think, that out of fear we are about to adopt marx's proposal number five which, in effect, puts the government in charge of centralized credit. wow. we are actually considering giving this over to a bunch of yahoos that can't even make a profit in their own cafeteria. short term pain is worth the long term loss of liberty. while this is an uncomfortable choice, it should not be a tough choice.