What's Up Chuck?

The Joy (and Travails) of Traveling

2011-05-27T20:44:00.000-07:00

An airline flight from hell. Robbed in Rome. Left behind by a tour bus on the way to Florence, Italy. All this and more coming shortly...

Murder

2009-06-07T16:08:00.000-07:00

A Broadway show that I think is under appreciated is Jekyll & Hyde by Steve Cuden, Frank Wildhorn, and Leslie Bricusse. This may be due in some part to the fact that Baywatcher and Knight Rider David Hasselhoff had the lead role when the show finally closed. He was, how shall I say it, NOT Robert Cuccioli or even Sebastian Bach, two others who played the lead.

Regardless of who played the lead, there were a bunch of good songs. For starters we have Facade:

There's a face that we wear
In the cold light of day -
It's society's mask,
It's society's way,
And the truth is
That it's all a facade!

There are preachers who kill!
There are killers who preach!
There are teachers who lie!
There are liars who teach!
Take yer pick, dear -
"Cause it's all a facade!

If we're not one, but two,
Are we evil or good?
Do we walk the fine line -
That we'd cross if we could?
Are we waiting -
To break through the facade?

Facade introduces the concept of "evil" and "good" coexisting. The subject is explored further in Good and Evil.

My philosophy
Any child can see -
"Good is evil -
And therefore
All evil is good"

How do you tell evil from good?
Evil does well - good not so good!
Evil's the one that is free everywhere -
Good is the one that they sell!
You must decide which is heaven -
Which is hell!

Evil is everywhere -
Good doesn't have a prayer!
Good is commendable -
Evil's dependable!
Evil is viable
Good's unreliable!
Good may be thankable!
Evil is bankable!

Where does it all lead? Murder, of course:

Try to ignore the influence of Mary Poppins in this scene...

Murder, murder -
It's a curse, man!
Murder, murder -
It's perverse, man!
Murder, murder -
Nothing's worse than
Bloody murder
In the night!

Murder, murder -
Or our doorstep!
Murder, murder -
So watch your step!
Murder, murder -
Take one more step,
You'll be murdered
In the night!

What drove me to Jeykll & Hyde was Jeffrey Feldman's article The Politics of Murder.

The violent killing of yet another American doctor at the hands of yet another right-wing political activist forces us to ask a crucial question: Why does the right-wing anti-abortion movement in America repeatedly give rise to people who see murder as a legitimate form of protest?

The answer does not lie in any single procedure (e.g. "late term abortions"), but in the violent rhetoric that defines a political movement.

The murderer of Dr. George Tiller is the product of a political movement that has so thoroughly expanded the definition of "murder" that it now includes everything and everyone who rejects or even questions the idea that a zygote is a citizen. Until that movement changes its focus, it will continue to give rise to activists who kill doctors.

...

No matter how many or how few late term abortions are performed, so long as the right-wing anti-abortion movement continues to fold dissent into an ever-expanding definition of "murder," then the right-wing will continue to give rise to activists who kill doctors.

These sentiments were echoed by Jane Ahlin in her column Abortion Debate: Poisonous Rhetoric, Mainstream Silence...

Be clear. No one wants to suppress free speech or compromise freedom of religion. But good people understand the power of language. And in a democratic society, good people don’t call other good people “murderers.”
...
As for the many Americans ambivalent on the abortion issue? Ambivalence is inadequate. Consider what common ground might look like, and insist on civility in achieving it.

Ambivalence IS inadequate. Insist on civility. We have a choice between good and evil. We can all do better. We must...

The Thrill of Victory, The Agony of the Feet

2009-05-17T06:30:00.001-07:00

We missed the cut.

By one stinking stroke.

I accept full responsibility. I will never forgive myself for voicing doubt over the amount of break on number four during the first round. At that point Lindsey was one under par and putting beautifully (she is ranked number three on tour with 28.462 average - not bad for a "rookie"). She saw two balls, I saw less.

It was two.

Then she was left with a downhill slider that didn't slide and in less than a minute went from one under to one over. It's just not fair.

Lindsey recovered from my blunder quickly, however, parring all but one hole on her way to an opening 38. A second 38 on the back put her in a solid position for Saturday.

Unfortunately that 38 on the back nine could have easily been a 36 or better.

Why? For starters the skies parted and we had over an inch of rain late Friday. Lindsey was just ready (as in already starting her backswing) to hit her approach shot on 15 when the horns sounded. Lightening, wind, heavy rain, hail, you name it, it was headed our way. As a result over 70 players had to complete the first round Saturday morning.

At 7:00am Saturday morning.

The temperature was a brisk 51 degrees the next morning, and it was made even brisker but an 18 mph wind straight out of the north. Lindsey hit her storm-interrupted approach shot, off a water soaked fairway, into the wind --- 20 feet from the cup. Expecting slow greens after all the rain we had, her first putt went a little long. No problem - Lindsey sank 4 and 5 footers all tournament (no wonder she's 3rd in putting), but this one rimmed out. From birdie to bogey. And an indication of how the day was to go.

So, we finished round one a little after 8:00am Saturday. Then, an an hour and a half later we started round two. Temperature still in the low 50's. Winds still in the high teens. Oh, and to compound misery (although we were playing in Kansas), we started on the back nine, by far the tougher of the two nines. Then it was bad bounces, no bounces, poor bounces, cruddy bounces, lip outs, you name it. Shortly after we started round 2 Lindsey had a shot absolutely clear a bunker, then hit a mound and bounce straight back into the sand. It's just not fair.

So, no thrill of victory.

Not this time.

Lindsey is a great competitor and as soon as she gets a decent caddy she'll do fine. As for the agony of the feet - my dogs are barkin'. My thighs are tingling. My quads are quivering. Well, you get the idea. I'm not real sure I could have gone another round. But, I figure I didn't do to badly for an old geezer of 64 with two grandkids (one of which will be a teenager this year). And, fortunately for me, a wonderful lady of 63 with two grandkids (one of which will be a teenager this year), picked up the bag for the completion of the first round so I only had to carry 18 and not 21 plus. Thanks, Sweetie. Now we're both pretty beat, but we just have this one question...

Anybody need a caddy?

Life as a Tour Caddy

2009-05-15T18:05:00.001-07:00

Life as a Tour Caddy - Imagined:

Arrive at the golf course a half hour before tee time.
Park in the VIP parking ten yards from the first tee.
Pick up some free food and drinks reserved for the players (and their caddies).
Step inside the ropes.
Bask in the glory of your player as the players are announced. You can almost hear the announcement: On the first tee, from Sarasota, Florida, Lindsey Bergeon, Member of the winning 2007 NCAA Division II Women's Golf Championship team WITH her caddy, from Ellendale, North Dakota, winner of the 1962 Ellendale City Championship, currently residing at Lake Lotawana, Missouri, CHUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUCK COMSTOCK. Let's give them a big round of applause!
Watch as your player puts her first approach shot 15 feet from the cup.
Check the break from both sides and advise player of right to left break of one and one-half inches.
Watch as your player drops putt for a birdie on the first hole and thanks you for great read.
Repeat as needed for the next 53 holes.
Watch as your player drops final putt for a one-stroke victory.
Receive hug and 10% of the winnings for your great advice and help.

Life as a Tour Caddy - The Reality:

Arrive at the golf course a half hour before tee time.
Park in any parking you can find within a mile of the course.
Gaze longingly at the free food and drinks reserved for the players (and their caddies), but you're too busy making sure your player has everything she needs but NOT too much (14 clubs, max), and gets checked in on time and picks up her scorecard and her towel is wet, but not too wet, and plenty of tees and balls, and, on a day like today, an umbrella.
Step inside the ropes.
Double check everything as the players are announced, hardly hearing your player's name since this time you've counted 15 clubs and you're breaking out into a cold sweat since that is big, BIG penalty, and make sure you're to the right side of the golfers and about eight feet away and slightly to the rear and hope you can see where her drive lands.
Receive her club back and clean with the wet (but not too wet) towel, cover and place in bag. Oh, crap. Player has taken off like a shot and is 30 yards away and you have to practically run to catch up before she arrives at her tee shot and is ready for you to hand her the yardage book but not the scorecard book and be ready if she asks what direction the wind is coming from and how strong and how many clubs different.
Watch as your player puts her approach shot 15 feet from the cup. TRUE STORY.
Check the break from both sides and advise player of right to left break of one and one-half inches. TRUE STORY.
But then take a look from the other side of the cup and realize, oh, crap, IT BREAKS THE OTHER WAY. But this is the very first hole of your tour caddying career and you don't want to yell, STOP, STOP, I WAS WRONG, IT BREAKS LEFT TO RIGHT!
Watch as your player drop putt for a birdie and thanks you for great read. TRUE STORY.

How that ever happened, I'll never know. But it did. One under for the first three holes until a small hickup (okay, okay, I overruled my player's read and I was wrong for real) put her one over. She (we) got through the rest of the front nine with only one more bogey for a 38. Lindsey was only one over on the back nine before weather forced play to stop. We'll be back at it at 7:00am tomorrow to finish the last four holes, then go straight into the second round.

There were times today when I felt like the proverbial one-armed paper hanger. I'd forget to get the scorecard book out of my pocket after Lindsey putted out and then I'd have to be digging around for that while taking her putter and digging in the other pocket for the cover while trying not to distract the players still putting and since I was the only caddy trying to hold the flag stick and keep the flag from flapping and the wet (but not too wet) towel from flopping and getting Lindsey's driver out and uncovered and by now the scorecard book is ready to put away and it's time to get the yardage book out. Oh, crap. There she goes again. She's thirty yards away and it's time to catch up again. Whew.

Put all that together with the fact that I haven't walked 18 holes of golf since last summer, and even then I used a pull cart but today I'm carrying "the bag". Tougher than I expected? Yes. A great experience? You betcha. Priceless. For all the rest, there's MasterCard...

Is Facebook just for "feel good" stuff?

2009-04-14T16:31:00.000-07:00

Is Facebook just for "feel good" stuff?

Yeah, we post pictures of our cute kids and grandkids, and Easter and Christmas, and birthdays and baptisms and Bar Mitzvahs and Bat Mitzvahs and just old fashioned get-togethers with friends. Our witticisms and our friends' repartees. Oh, I'm so happy. I'm so sad. Hoping you're doing okay. I'm making cookies. Blah, blah, blah.

Now granted there is a time and a place for all this "feel good" stuff. But life is not always a bowl of chocolate covered cherries. There is some serious shit going on out there. Today I came across this article regarding Governor Palin's nomination of Wayne Anthony Ross for attorney general. Ross, a colorful lawyer and longtime Palin ally who sports his initials, W.A.R., on his Hummer’s vanity plates, allegedly declared during a speech before a 1991 gathering of the “father’s rights” group Dads Against Discrimination, “If a guy can’t rape his wife, who’s he gonna rape?”

Mr. Ross responded with a letter to legislative members. Excerpt:

If I recall correctly, the only time I ever addressed this group, if indeed I ever did address them, was at a Denny’s restaurant on either Benson and Denali or on Dimond and the Seward Highway. To my best recollection the only time I have been in the Denny’s on Benson and DeBarr was to attend meetings of the Armed Services YMCA...

"If I recall correctly...". "If indeed I ever...". "...either Benson and Denali or on Dimond and the Seward Highway." "To the best of my recollection...". "The only time...". Zeez, Mr. Ross, which is it? You're starting to sound like Alberto Gonzalez.

But, back to my original question: "Is Facebook just for "feel good" stuff?"

I've only been using Facebook for a few weeks but I like the ability to quickly post pictures and thoughts, and make comments, and just generally socialize. When I discovered the Facebook Share option I thought I'd died and gone to heaven (figuratively, of course). A nice little icon. A nice little description. Space for a comment (but not THAT much space). One click and you've linked a post to your profile.

Since I have a small circle of friends that periodically email each other articles we think may be of interest, I thought that Facebook would be the perfect way to share this stuff. No sending of emails and clogging up everyone's inbox. Friends receive notifications of your post. Friends can choose when to look at your posts. They can even turn off (hide) your posts. Fast. Convenient. Perfect.

Well, almost perfect. For starters I just discovered there is some kind of limit to the number of characters you can put in a comment. No warning. No explanation. You just can't type any more. Or, more to the point, you can type all you want but the next letter just replace the previous. Nice.

Also, no formatting allowed. No bold. No italic. No identation. No nuttin'.

Am I soured?

Yes, indeed.

Am I giving up?

Not completely.

I guess I'll do the big stuff here and just link to it on FB. We'll see how it goes...

Good luck, Sarah.

A Retrospective of the Bush Era

2009-02-05T16:11:00.000-08:00

My picks from the Harper's Index for February (A Retrospective of the Bush Era):

Percentage of Bush’s first 189 appointees who also served in his father’s administration: 42

Minimum number of Bush appointees who have regulated industries they used to represent as lobbyists: 98

Years before becoming energy secretary that Spencer Abraham cosponsored a bill to abolish the Department of Energy: 2

Estimated total calories members of Congress burned giving Bush’s 2002 State of the Union standing ovations: 22,000

Percentage of the amendments in the Bill of Rights that are violated by the USA PATRIOT Act, according to the ACLU: 50

Minimum number of laws that Bush signing statements have exempted his administration from following: 1,069

Estimated number of U.S. intelligence reports on Iraq that were based on information from a single defector: 100

Number of times the defector had ever been interviewed by U.S. intelligence agents: 0

Factor by which an Iraqi in 2006 was more likely to die than in the last year of the Saddam regime: 3.6

Factor by which the cause of death was more likely to be violence: 120

Chance that an Iraqi has fled his or her home since the beginning of the war: 1 in 6

Portion of Baghdad residents in 2007 who had a family member or friend wounded or killed since 2003: 3/4

Percentage of U.S. veterans from the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan who have filed for disability with the VA: 35

Chance that an Iraq war veteran who has served two or more tours now has post-traumatic stress disorder: 1 in 4

Number of all U.S. war veterans who have been denied Veterans Administration health care since 2003: 452,677

Date on which the White House announced it had stopped looking for WMDs in Iraq: 1/12/05

Number of vehicles in the motorcade that transports Bush to his regular bike ride in Maryland: 6

Estimated total miles he has ridden his bike as president: 5,400

Portion of his presidency he has spent at or en route to vacation spots: 1/3

Minimum number of times that Frederick Douglass was beaten in what is now Donald Rumsfeld’s vacation home: 25

Estimated number of juveniles whom the United States has detained as enemy combatants since 2002: 2,500

Minimum number of detainees who were tortured to death in U.S. custody: 8

Seconds it took a Maryland consultant in 2004 to pick a Diebold voting machine’s lock and remove its memory card: 10

Number of states John Kerry would have won in 2004 if votes by poor Americans were the only ones counted: 40

Number if votes by rich Americans were the only ones counted: 4

Portion of all U.S. income gains during the Bush Administration that have gone to the top 1 percent of earners: 3/4

Increase since 2000 in the number of Americans living at less than half the federal poverty level: 3,500,000

Percentage change since 2002 in the number of U.S. teens using illegal drugs: –9

Percentage change in the number of adults in their fifties doing so: +121

Number of times FDA officials met with consumer and patient groups as they revised drug-review policy in 2006: 5

Number of times they met with industry representatives: 113

Number of White House officials in 2006 and 2007 authorized to discuss pending criminal cases with the DOJ: 711

Number of Clinton officials ever authorized to do so: 4

Years since a White House official as senior as I. Lewis Libby had been indicted while in office: 130

Number of U.S. cities and towns that have passed resolutions calling for the impeachment of President Bush: 92

Days after Hurricane Katrina hit that Cheney’s office ordered an electric company to restore power to two oil pipelines: 1

Days after the hurricane that the White House authorized sending federal troops into New Orleans: 4

Estimated amount Bush-era policies will cost the U.S. in new debt and accrued obligations: $10,350,000,000,000 (see page 31)

Percentage change in U.S. discretionary spending during Bush’s presidency: +31

Percentage change during Reagan’s and Clinton’s, respectively: +16, +0.3

Ratio in 1999 of the number of U.S. federal employees to the number of private employees on government contracts: 15:6

Ratio in 2006: 14:15

Total value of U.S. government contracts in 2000 that were awarded without competitive bidding: $73,000,000,000

Total in 2007: $146,000,000,000

Number of the five directors of the No Child Left Behind reading program with financial ties to a curriculum they developed: 4

Amount by which the federal government has underfunded its estimated cost to implement NCLB: $71,000,000,000

Rank of Bush among U.S. presidents with the highest disapproval rating: 1

Average percentage of Americans who approved of the job Bush was doing during his second term: 37

Percentage of Russians today who approve of the direction their country took under Stalin: 37

Making Congress Moot

2008-12-26T01:04:00.001-08:00

From a recent email:

On Thu, Dec 25, 2008 at 11:29 PM, Ken wrote:

Chuck this is one you can appreciate........ good thing money grows on Christmas trees...
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sxBl9BXLom4

Ken,

Santa is talking to the wrong people.

As George Will explains in Making Congress Moot (emphasis mine):

A new Capitol Visitor Center recently opened, just in time for the transformation of the Capitol building into a tomb for the antiquated idea that the legislative branch matters. The center is supposed to enhance the experience of visitors to Congress, although why there are visitors is a mystery.

Congress's marginalization was brutally underscored when, after lawmakers did not authorize $14 billion for General Motors and Chrysler, the executive branch said, in effect: Congress's opinions are mildly interesting, so we will listen very nicely -- then go out and do precisely what we want.

On Friday the president gave the two automakers access to money Congress explicitly did not authorize. More money -- up to $17.4 billion -- than had been debated, thereby calling to mind Winston Churchill on naval appropriations: "The Admiralty had demanded six ships: the economists offered four: and we finally compromised on eight."

...The expansion of government entails an increasingly swollen executive branch and the steady enlargement of executive discretion. This inevitably means the eclipse of Congress and attenuation of the rule of law.

...The administration has not, however, confined its aggrandizement of executive power to national security matters. According to former representative Mickey Edwards in his book "Reclaiming Conservatism," the president has issued "signing statements" designating 1,100 provisions of new laws -- more designations than have been made by all prior presidents combined -- that he did not consider binding on him or any other executive branch official.

...Still, most of the administration's executive truculence has pertained to national security, where the case for broad prerogatives, although not as powerful as the administration supposes, is at least arguable. With the automakers, however, executive branch overreaching now extends to the essence of domestic policy -- spending -- and traduces a core constitutional principle, the separation of powers.

...Most members of the House and Senate want the automakers to get the money, so they probably are pleased that the administration has disregarded Congress's institutional dignity. History, however, teaches that it is difficult for Congress to be only intermittently invertebrate.

"intermittently invertebrate". How can you not love that. And that is from a conservative! Turns out that when Vice President Cheney told Sen. Patrick J. Leahy to "Fuck yourself" he was really referring to all of Congress.

I leave you with the words of recently deceased Harold Pinter from his Nobel Prize acceptance speech, Art, Truth & Politics, in 2005. Read the whole thing. He was clearly pissed:

As a citizen I must ask: What is true? What is false?

Truth in drama is forever elusive. You never quite find it but the search for it is compulsive. The search is clearly what drives the endeavor. The search is your task. More often than not you stumble upon the truth in the dark, colliding with it or just glimpsing an image or a shape which seems to correspond to the truth, often without realizing that you have done so. But the real truth is that there never is any such thing as one truth to be found in dramatic art. There are many. These truths challenge each other, recoil from each other, reflect each other, ignore each other, tease each other, are blind to each other. Sometimes you feel you have the truth of a moment in your hand, then it slips through your fingers and is lost. ...

Political language, as used by politicians, does not venture into any of this territory since the majority of politicians, on the evidence available to us, are interested not in truth but in power and in the maintenance of that power. To maintain that power it is essential that people remain in ignorance, that they live in ignorance of the truth, even the truth of their own lives. What surrounds us therefore is a vast tapestry of lies, upon which we feed.

Have a fantastic Friday. We're leaving for Florida Saturday. Hallelujah!

Chuck

Shame On You

2008-12-23T14:15:00.000-08:00

Bernard Madoff somehow managed to outPonzi Ponzi. Perhaps the good Rabbi Marc Gellman lost money. Perhaps not. It is hard to imagine a "man of the cloth" being so unforgiving, but a pig is still a pig regardless of lipstick or how many homes you own or country clubs you belong to or people you screw over. $50 billion is a lot of mullah. From A Rabbi's Open Letter to Madoff...

Dear Bernie Madoff:

I don't think you know what you have done.

Life inevitably inflicts upon us different kinds of wounds. Very few people can live connected lives and not occasionally fail those who depend upon them and trust them. However, these are failures not betrayals. They come from trying to do the right thing and not being able to do it. A betrayal is different than a failure. A betrayal is an intentional wounding. It is born of cruelty, not ignorance. Most of us know of failures and betrayals. What you have done, however, is to radically expand the scope and viciousness of betrayal. You betrayed not just your friends, but your closest friends. You betrayed the trust of those who entrusted you with everything they had saved. You betrayed charities whose good works you have extinguished in an afternoon. These betrayals are epic in their scope and dazzling in their utter lack of remorse or responsibility. There must be some new word invented to describe the way you have redefined betrayal. The Bible calls such things a toevah, "an abomination". It means an act so alien to our values and our natures that it cannot be understood or explained. You have committed an abomination. This is what you have done.
...You have not just made a bad calculation about how money works, you have made a bad calculation about how life works. You gave no value to what matters and all value to what does not matter at all. This is what you have done.

Shame on you Bernie Madoff. Shame on you.

The whole letter is well worth the read.

And now this,

The founder of an investment fund that lost $1.4 billion with Bernard Madoff was discovered dead Tuesday after committing suicide at his Manhattan office, marking a grim turn in a scandal that has left investors around the world in financial ruin.Rene-Thierry Magon de la Villehuchet, 65, was found sitting at his desk at about 8 a.m. with both wrists slashed, NYPD spokesman Paul Browne said. A box cutter was found on the floor along with a bottle of sleeping pills on his desk.

And don't forget The Bag Lady Papers:

...More than a decade ago, when I was in my late 40s, I handed over my life savings to Madoff’s firm. It was money I’d been tucking away since I was 16 years old, when I began working summers in Lord & Taylor, earning about $65 a week. Not a penny was inherited... I earned all of it myself, through a long string of jobs that included working as a cashier at Rosedale fish market in New York City in my 20s...
When I hung up with my friend, I turned on the TV and began to scour Google for news until the message became nauseatingly clear: Forty years of savings—the money I’d counted on to take me comfortably through the next 30 years—had likely evaporated in Madoff’s scheme.

THAT MOTHERFUCKER!! The soufflé fell.
...I began to think about my options: I’d have to sell the cottage in West Palm Beach immediately. I’d need to lay off Yolanda. I could cancel the newspaper subscriptions and read everything online. I only needed a cell phone. I’d have to stop taking taxis. And who could highlight my hair for almost no money? And how hard was it to give yourself a really good pedicure?

While on the one hand you think, "WTF?". "I'd need to lay off Yolanda"? And you handed over your life savings to one person? Give us a break.

On the other hand, it sounds like she worked hard for her money and her life will never be the same.

Heckofa job, Bernie.

On Being A Writer

2008-12-22T11:58:00.000-08:00

I like to fancy myself a "writer".

Yes, upon learning that my seatmate on a three-hour flight weighs in at just slightly less than a quarter of a ton and I will be unable to move my shoulders, arms or feet for the duration of the flight, and after asking "Just how many freaking calories do you have to stuff into that pie hole every hour in order to sustain that blubbery mass of human fat?", oh, I mean, "What kind of work do you do?", and after learning that this quivering blob of jelly is a sumo wrestler wannabe, and, finally, out of politeness asks, "What kind of work do you do?", I can respond, "Oh, I'm a writer". Oh, the joy...

Oh, I know I'm not a Hemingway or a Steinbeck or a Shakespeare. But when asked what kind of writing I do, I will respond, "Oh, everything". How-to books. Self-help books. Philosophy. Science. Romance. Biography. Bad checks. You name. I've written it. In my mind, at least.

My latest scientific endeavor is an examination of non-parallel universes. These universes actually intersect at various points and at various angles. The actual intersection can never by predicted. One day you're driving down the road and you suddenly realize you've been asleep at the wheel for some unknown amount of time and your vehicle is drifting off the road and you have to jerk the steering wheel to get back on track, and you think how lucky you were and, my god, you might have actually killed someone, and some idiot is probably going to say, "The hand of God kept you from disaster" but all the time you were in a universal-non-parallel-intersective event. Most unusual events can be attributed to this hpercapacative phenomenon.

Also bouncing around in my head is the outline for a romance novel concerning a young vampire who is just about to have lunch courtesy an amazingly beautiful girl when, you guessed it, a universal-non-parallel-intersective event occurs and instead of dining our young hero falls in love. This is going to be big, folks. I see movies, sequels, prequels, a TV series, spinoffs, related products, ad infinitum. My tentative title is "Sunset" or "Sunrise" or something along those lines.

Anyway, the idea of being a "writer" is appealing. Keeps my mind off the freaking cold. Just remember, It's Your Font, Do What You Want to Do. Writers seem to like to write in Times New Roman, at least in their word processing programs. Journals used to want stories submitted in Courier, but now Times New Roman is common in guidelines (alway… more → Between the Page and the Shelf).

Update: Unfortunately my work on non-parallel universes is not entirely original. In fact:

Other kind of universes include, but are not limited to, the below:

almost parallel universes,
not so parallel universes,
rather unparallel universes,
really non-parallel universes,
universes that are not parallel at all,
ass-backwards universes,
bat-shit crazy universes,
buck-wild universes,
and the worst of all, perpendicular universes, which are what we're trying to discuss here.

There goes three minutes of work down the tubes. Dang.

I almost had this feeling I was channeling a certain Kenneth Schmierer.

Have a marvelous Monday,

Chuck

Chuck

2008-12-14T20:29:00.001-08:00

Chuck in Florida

Chuck in Misery

That's right, folks, the temperature here went from 61 to 38 in 60 minutes Sunday. And 61 to 21 in five hours. Yipes! It is currently 6 degrees with a wind chill of -9. The high today is forecast to be 16. Same two digits as yesterday (61) but a world of difference. A world of hurt. Could be worse. In Ellendale (North Dakota, my hometown - Mom is still there) it is -12 with a wind chill of -31. Double yipes! The high today will be -10. That's right. The HIGH. Did I ever tell you about the time when I was in high school and the temperature never, NEVER, got above zero the entire month of February? In the mean time, the high for Sarasota the next few days will be...

77

Oh, lord, what the hell am I doing?

15:53	NW 22 G 28	Overcast and Breezy	21
14:53	NW 17 G 23	Overcast	25
13:53	NW 18	Overcast	28
12:53	NW 18 G 25	Overcast	32
11:53	NW 17 G 23	Overcast	38
10:53	SW 24 G 32	Overcast and Breezy	61

Terrorism

2008-12-04T19:02:00.000-08:00

Pop quiz: Terrorism is another word for Islam. All Muslims want to kill all non-Muslims. To defeat terrorism all Muslims must be killed or converted. Black and white. End of discussion. True or false?

I am going to begin by saying that I am not a fan of Deepak Chopra. And I can already hear you saying, "What the heck does Deepak Chopra have to do with terrorism?" We'll get to that in a moment. First, why the heck aren't I a fan of Chopra? I've read two of his gazillion books (hey, he likes to write and the extra income helps pay for golf - what's not to like), one a self-help book, possibly Quantum Healing: Exploring the Frontiers of Mind/Body Medicine, but I can't swear to it, the other being Golf for Enlightenment: The Seven Lessons for the Game of Life which I CAN swear to having read for obvious reasons. I found both books to be uninspiring and I thought Chopra to be out-of-touch somehow. But that's probably just me. Let's get back to terrorism...

Apparently Mr. Chopra had the unmitigated gall (I love that phrase, but will agree it is overused) to suggest that certain actions of the United States of America have not only not decreased terrorism but may have increased terrorism. God forbid.

A certain Dorothy Rabinowitz then had the unmitigated gall (see - I told you) to characterize Mr. Chopra's comments as "blaming America" for the recent Mumbai terror assault. (See "Deepak Blames America") What did Deepak actually say? Something to this effect: "What happened in Mumbai", he told the interviewer, "was a product of the U.S. war on terrorism, that our policies, our foreign policies had alienated the Muslim population, that we had gone after the wrong people and inflamed moderates. And that inflammation then gets organized and appears as this disaster in Bombay."

Now I'm not so sure I agree with all of this statement, but Deepak certainly cannot be faulted for suggesting that the terrorism issue may be more complex than most people think.

Or, not.

At least not according to D. Rabinowitz.

Ms. Rabinowitz makes a valid point when she writes:

Nowhere in this citation of the root causes of Muslim terrorism was there any mention of Islamic fundamentalism -- the religious fanaticism that has sent fevered mobs rioting, burning and killing over alleged slights to the Quran or the prophet. Not to mention the countless others enlisted to blow themselves and others up in the name of God.

On the other hand, while never saying it, Ms. Rabinowitz certainly implies that IT AIN'T OUR ~~FUCKING~~ FAULT. WE ARE BLAMELESS. OUR GOD IS BETTER THAN YOUR GOD. NAH, NAH, NAH POO POO.

Mr. Chopra responds in A Fuller and More Personal Response to Dorothy Rabinowitz's Attack on Me in the Wall Street Journal:

When I first read Ms. Rabinowitz personal attacks on me as the lead article on the opinion page of the Wall Street Journal, I have to confess that my first reaction was that she was an ethnocentric racist and prejudiced bigot. After some reflection, I realized that she was probably more ignorant than bigoted.

A fine point, indeed. Not a "prejudiced bigot", but probably still "an ethnocentric racist"? Oh, and don't forget - "ignorant".

Later Chopra explains that he and others:

are attempting to create a critical mass of awareness to address the deeper causes of global instability including war and terrorism, climate change, social injustice, and radical poverty.

Why does this just resonate while Rabinowitz just fizzles? Care for more? How about this:

We live in a world were 50 percent of its population lives on less than two dollars a day and 20 percent lives on less than one dollar a day. We can't dismiss these as trivial facts if we want to understand the deeper causes of instability and violence in the world.

NIMBY! Well, okay, if The Great Bailout of 2008 does not work and The Great Recession (NOT Depression) lasts for ten years instead of ten weeks - maybe. But for now - well, if they had any sense those darn Muslims would have been born in America and been white and Christian and go to church three times a week although you'd never know it by their actions kind of folks.

Finally, again from Mr. Chopra:

Ms. Rabinowitz ought to realize that you can kill a terrorist, but that doesn't kill his ideology. And as long as that ideology has power and life, it will continue to regenerate new terrorists no matter how many terrorists you kill. The ideology of Islamic terrorism is barbaric, savage, brutal and primitive, yet still it is born in a context. That context is historical, cultural, religious, economic, and political. Refusing to understand that context, dooms us to an endless failed anti-terrorist policy.

An ideology can only be overcome through the creation of a new more appealing ideology. In order to accomplish that we need the participation and help of moderate Muslims throughout the world. There are between 1.6 to 1.8 billion Muslims in the world, and by far, most of them are the moderates we need to enlist in our efforts. We can't solve this global problem by branding almost 25% of the world's population as terrorists. I would hope Ms. Rabinowitz could recognize that this issue is far too serious of a problem for her to exploit it for her personal petty agenda. The Mumbai tragedy obviously gathered extensive international attention. Instead of channeling this global focus toward productive insight and solutions, Ms. Rabinowitz chose instead to direct the attention of this tragedy into a personal attack that can only further fan the flames of hatred and exacerbate the situation instead of helping it.

Well said, Mr. Chopra.

Deepak Chopra's son, Gotham, also takes up the defense in his article, My Response to Dorothy Rabinowitz and the WSJ. Gotham lays out just a few of the actions taken by the US which could explain a lot about why we're in the pickle we're in. His article may in fact be better than his father's. If you're short on time (who isn't) just read Gotham's piece.

I have more respect for Deepak and his family knowing a little bit more about what they have experienced. Would that the people running our "war on terror" could learn a little bit from them too. And Ms. Rabinowitz might get her head out of ~~her~~ the sand...

To Music (and Robert Herrick)

2008-11-16T19:19:00.000-08:00

Melt, melt my pains
With thy soft strains;
That, having ease me given,
With full delight
I leave this light,
And take my flight
For Heaven.

Not bad for poetry that's over three hundred years old, eh? Harper's No Comment post highlights Herrick's To Music, to becalm his Fever (ca. 1660) and notes that:

Of the seventeenth century English poets, Herrick’s work has the closest inherent relationship to music. It is melodious, and most of his poems (excepting perhaps the more religiously themed ones) have the character of song about them. Among his contemporaries, in fact, Herrick is called “the songwriter,” and settings of some of his poems survive (unfortunately for him, the poetry is much better than the music.) Still reading this particularly beautiful effort (note especially: “Fall on me like the silent dew, / Or like those maiden showers/ Which, by the peep of day, do strew/ A baptism o’er the flowers.” The construction and language are wonderful), I think immediately of John Dowland’s songs, especially the Second and Third Books. There is an inescapably downbeat angle to them, but they are beautiful, lyrical and thematically very close to Herrick.

Listen to John Dowland’s Lachrymae Pavane as performed by Winston Arblaster in the Bishop’s Chapel, Wells, England—there are no lyrics for this “dance of tears,” so imagine Herrick’s appeal to the curative power of music.

2008-11-07T18:57:00.001-08:00

Michael Hirsh of Newsweek writes:

Goodbye, Anti-intellectualism, Brains are back!

After eight years of proud incuriosity and anti-intellectualism, we now have a leader who values nuance and careful thought.

What Obama's election means, above all, is that brains are back. Sense and pragmatism and the idea of considering-all-the-options are back. Studying one's enemies and thinking through strategic problems are back. Cultural understanding is back. Yahooism and jingoism and junk science about global warming and shabby legal reasoning about torture are out. The national culture of flag-pin shallowness that guided our foreign policy is gone with the wind. And for this reason as much as any, perhaps I can renew my pride in being an American.

...after nearly eight years of a president who could barely form a coherent sentence, much less a strategic thought. We can finally go back to respecting logic and reason and studiousness under a president who doesn't seem to care much about what is "left," "right" or ideologically pure. Or what he thinks God is saying to him. A guy who keeps religion in its proper place—in the pew.

One tragedy of the Bush administration is the amount of American brainpower and talent that went unused, the options that went unconsidered, because they were seen to lack ideological purity.

Scott Horton write in the The Daily Beast:

Palin's Mole at The Times

The one and only -- William Kristol!

In October 13, Kristol’s criticism reached the boiling point. “Fire the campaign,” he thundered. “What McCain needs to do is junk the whole thing and start over. Shut down the rapid responses, end the frantic e-mails, bench the spinning surrogates, stop putting up new TV and Internet ads every minute. In fact, pull all the ads—they’re doing no good anyway. Use that money for televised town halls and half-hour addresses in prime time.” Among the McCain tactics that had failed, he acknowledged, were the very ones he had advocated just two weeks earlier.

As I reported previously, Kristol was instrumental in convincing the McCain campaign to select Sarah Palin, and he stood tenaciously by his candidate. He used his position as a media figure—at the Weekly Standard, on Fox News, and in his valued column at the New York Times—to advance his vision of the campaign’s interests.

This raises an obvious question for The New York Times: should Bill Kristol’s contract as an opinion columnist be renewed when it runs up at year’s end? There is no problem with the conservative viewpoint advanced in his pieces—he was after all hired as a replacement for a conservative voice, William Safire. Still, the Times must be concerned about Kristol’s intervention in the campaign he was writing about. Simply put, the pundit meddled in the campaign he was commenting on.

Personal comment: Yes, this is the same Bill Kristol who so expertly predicted on December 17, 2006 on Fox News Sunday, "If [Hillary Clinton] gets a race against John Edwards and Barack Obama, she's going to be the nominee. Gore is the only threat to her ... Barack Obama is not going to beat Hillary Clinton in a single democratic primary. I'll predict that right now."

Shouldn't be much of a loss for the NYT and maybe the RNC will bar him for life.

Scott Horton again, this time in Harper's:

Something’s Odd in Alaska

It ain't over till it's over. Regarding some odd election results in Alaska --

The more likely answer is that someone has lost track of a very substantial part of the Alaska vote. Moreover, the disappeared votes appear to be disproportionately drawn from the Democratic column. Alaska, as John McCain taught us, has a long record of corrupt politics. Seems that this doesn’t stop with gratis home makeovers and bridges to nowhere.

Obama: America's Putin

2008-11-07T10:19:00.000-08:00

Oh. My. God.

Did Charles Krauthammer really say Obama ran "a brilliant general election campaign"? He did.

Which is not to say that Obama did not run a brilliant general election campaign. He did. In its tactically perfect minimalism, it was as well conceived and well executed as the electrifying, highflying, magic carpet ride of his primary victory. By the time of his Denver convention, Obama understood that he had to dispense with the magic and make himself kitchen-table real, accessible and, above all, reassuring. He did that. And when the economic tsunami hit, he understood that all he had to do was get out of the way. He did that too.

And not only that, but Obama is Clinton and Putin rolled into one.

With him we get a president with the political intelligence of a Bill Clinton harnessed to the steely self-discipline of a Vladimir Putin. (I say this admiringly.) With these qualities, Obama will now bestride the political stage as largely as did Reagan.

Excuses

2007-12-15T10:22:00.000-08:00

I suppose it is a natural part of growing older, not that I have any personal experience with that mind you, that you begin to compare the world as you knew it when you were growing up with the world today. In most instances the former pretty much sucks compared to the latter. We heard our parents saying the same thing, probably much the same way they heard it from their parents. Oh, "the good old days"...

So what has changed between 1950 and 2007? Really. Technology for starters. Our family didn't have a television until I was in grade school. My first records (you remember, the things before CD's?) were 78 RPM and the size of dinner plates. My mom had to buy us a state-of-the-art phonograph player (you remember, the thing before iPods?) just so we could get Long-Playing, 33 1/3 RPM records the size of large dinner plates. Our telephones were big black things with a rotary "dial". My grandkids are so sick of hearing me talk about this stuff.

Speaking of telephones, remember the first "portable" phones? They were the size of World War II walkie-talkies. Maybe they were WW II walkie-talkies. Walkie-talkies? Think about it. Roll it around on your tongue. Who the hell came up with that name - the same people that brought us Teletubbies? Side note: what we think of as a walkie-talkie is more properly a handie-talkie and was patented by Motorola, the now-parent company of the small software outfit my son works for.

Okay, everyone knows 2007 technology kicks 1950 technology's butt. And that's okay with me as I sit in my easy chair with my wireless notebook in my lap writing (and spell-checking as I go) thoughts that my friends all over these United States of America will be able to read in just a matter of moments. Shortly I plan to take my current portable phone out of my pocket, flip up the cover which contains a one megapixel camera with 4x zoom, gaze lovingly at my son and grandchildren displayed in a small, tv-like screen, click on my calendar to see where I need to be today, pull up my personal phone directory and call one of my golfing buddies in Florida (hope he's not out on the course) and ask him how he likes his GPS-based range finder that can be mapped to any of over 10,000 golf courses in the world and is accurate to within a yard. Yes, I'll take 2007 technology.

But other things in the current world aren't going so well. Climate change, drought in the Southeast, fire ants, hurricanes - some things I don't have much control over. A senseless war in Iraq, a semi-sensible war in Afghanistan that no one seems to care about, plunging house prices, spiraling national debt, a government that is probably just more incompetent than corrupt - some things I might be able to do something about but it's going to be a hard row to hoe. Oh, please, don't get me started on ho, ho, ho's.

Then there's what's happening to our society. Kids that just don't give a f***. Adults that do give a f***, oftentimes when they shouldn't be (just ask soon-to-be-former Kansas Attorney General Paul Morrison). And now eighty plus baseball players stand accused of using steroids. My, my, my, what is the world coming to?

Thomas Sowell writes Say It Ain't So, Joe in NRO and there's a lot of talk about the “black sox scandal,” the deliberate throwing of the 1919 World Series. But within that discussion this jumped out at me:

That was long before we became so sophisticated that we learned to come up with excuses for those who violate rules and additional excuses for those who refuse to impose penalties.

Can this be why kids just don't give a f*** and adults too frequently do? There are no penalties, no consequences. I know I wouldn't get away with behaving the way that many kids do in school today - I would have gotten the crap beaten out of me by my dad and my ears burned off by my mom. Today's parents threaten a lawsuit if the school admin threatens their poor, pampered offspring because the only time the parents see their children is when there is a disciplinary problem and because that is the only time the parents see their children and they want their "together time" to be pleasant and happy, they automatically defend them. It's nuts.

Sowell ends by saying:

There is still some lingering hope of sanity in the baseball writers’ refusal to vote Mark McGwire into the Baseball Hall of Fame, despite his tremendous career achievements. Keeping known rule-breakers out of Cooperstown would be a lot more effective deterrent than putting asterisks alongside their records, to be disregarded by those who are “non-judgmental.”
Unfortunately Senator George Mitchell’s report on steroid use in the major leagues and its recommendations are of the let-bygones-be-bygones approach that has spread the disregard of rules throughout the whole society, from student cheaters to career criminals.

Amen.

Thanksgiving 2007

2007-11-25T17:13:00.000-08:00

Quick, now. Who were the first settlers in America?

No, no. Besides the "Native" Americans.

The first to stay around for awhile. To plant. To Harvest. Dare I say it - procreate. Maybe even ferment a few hops?

Gimme me your best guess.

The Pilgrims, you say? Plymouth, Massachusetts? Late in 1620?

Not even close.

Even the English had established a colony in Jamestown (Virginia) in 1607 a full thirteen years earlier.

Having now spent some time in Florida, Pat and I now know that St. Augustine is the oldest continuously occupied European-established city, and the oldest port, in the continental United States, established in 1565, FIFTY-FIVE YEARS before the "Pilgrims". And, having just returned from Hilton Head, we now know that Beaufort (South Carolina) beat St. Augustine by three years but has not been "continuously occupied". Details, details...

However, I'm guessing that the average man on the street (not a woman, of course, they're much smarter), would say "Pilgrims", or maybe just "Pilgrim" if they've recently seen a John Wayne movie. Particularly at Thanksgiving our thoughts are all with the KU Jayhawks (tough one, guys)... oops, I mean, our thoughts are with those "Pilgrims" who celebrated, if not the first Thanksgiving, one of the first (the first perhaps being at Berkeley Plantation, Virginia, in 1619). The "Pilgrims" made it a tradition, however, and so here we are today, fat, debauched (debauched?), and happy...

Things you may have known but have probably forgotten about the "Pilgrims":

- The people who would come to be known as the Pilgrims attempted to leave England in 1607, not for America, but for Amsterdam. They chartered a boat but it turned out to be a "sting" operation and all were arrested upon boarding.

- In a second departure attempt in the spring of 1608, arrangements were made with a Dutch merchant to pick up church members along the Humber estuary at Immingham near Grimsby, Lincolnshire. The men had boarded the ship, at which time the sailors spotted an armed contingent approaching. The ship quickly departed before the women and children could board; the stranded members were rounded up but then released without charges.

- In July 1620, after successfully establishing themselves in the Netherlands, the Pilgrims decided to give America a shot. They purchased two ships, the Speedwell (ever heard of that one?) and, (ta, da) the Mayflower. Soon after departing, the Speedwell crew reported that their ship was taking in water, so both ships were diverted to Dartmouth, Devon. There it was inspected for leaks and sealed, but a second attempt to depart also failed, bringing them only so far as Plymouth, Devon. It was decided that Speedwell was untrustworthy, and it was sold. It would later be learned that crew members had deliberately caused the ship to leak, allowing them to abandon their year-long commitments. The ship's master and some of the crew did transfer to the Mayflower for the trip to America.

- The reduced party finally sailed successfully on September 6, 1620. Initially the trip went smoothly, but under way they were met with strong winds and storms. One of these caused a main beam to crack, and although they were more than half the way to their destination, the possibility of turning back was considered. Using a "great iron screw" (probably a piece of house construction equipment) brought along by the colonists, they repaired the ship sufficiently to continue. One passenger, John Howland, was washed overboard in the storm but caught a rope and was rescued.

It's really a pretty fascinating story and you can read more here. For more on Thanksgiving, see here.

And so, in conclusion, I must say how very thankful I am for my wife, my life, my child, my grandchildren, my parents, my grandparents, the producer, the director, the writers, the stagehands... Uhhh. Got carried away there.

But this Thanksgiving I am probably most thankful that after ten days in ICU with a very, very nasty case of pneumonia, my brother is back home again and on the mend. Get well soon, bro...

Cured In The Checkout Line?

2007-11-21T18:00:00.000-08:00

Since the forecast is for snow later today, Pat and I headed for Price Chopper this morning to gather provisions for a possible snow-in. We needed some salmon ("Good Source of Omega 3") which although farm-raised (can't you just picture that in North Dakota?) was from Canada instead of South America ("Support Your Local Continent"), an unfrozen turkey for tomorrow, more beer and various and sundry (is that redundant?) other items.

Between the tuna and the toilet paper I passed a guy that look vaguely familiar. I tried to steal a longer look hoping it wasn't some complete stranger who might misconstrue my eye contact. Turns out he was stealing a longer look at me also, indicating the possibility we did in fact know one another.

I realized it was someone I had played golf with this last summer, and I guess he figured it out too since he smiled and we both said, "Hey, how ya doin'?". I even remembered his name since I had recently seen it in an e-letter from the golf course I work at during the summer. The guy's name was Jeff and he won the Senior Club Championship while we were away in Florida this fall. We passed and were on to our respective provisioning.

Between the bread and the beer I saw him again and stopped to congratulate him on winning the club championship. He asked if I was going to play in the Turkey Trot, the annual Thanksgiving golf tournament at Adams Pointe. I sadly told him, "No", and in fact had left my golf clubs in Florida due to some hand problems I was having. He asked what the problem was and I told him about the near constant pain across the backs of my hands and the tingling and slight numbness.

He said, "Are you a Christian?".

"What?", I replied.

"Are you a Christian?".

My senses primed for a joke.

None came.

Now, how does one answer a question like that while in the checkout line of the local grocery store?

The only way possible - tell the truth. "No", I said.

As was shortly clear to me, my answer to this question was merely of passing curiosity to Jeff. He grabbed my hands right there in the checkout line and began to pray: "God, remove the pain from these hands, in Jesus name, Amen", "Sweet Jesus, heal these hands and let them hurt no more. Amen".

Now let's get this straight. Jeff is about 6' 2" and is almost a scratch golfer (shoots right around par), and is an imposing figure, kinda like my friend G.R. I'll have to admit I felt a little sheepish. After a few more rounds of amens, Jeff asked if my pain had gone away. "Unfortunately, no", I replied.

"Well, since you do not have faith I'm doing this all with my faith, so it may take a little longer", he said, and he tried a few more hallelujahs. "Pain gone?", he asked. "Well, maybe a little", I fibbed. I hate to disappoint people. I know his heart is in the right place. What would you have me do?

I know, I know - tell the truth.

Well, excuse me all to pieces, but between not wanting to disappoint and the sheer shock of what was happening to me, I lied. And here I thought I was living just as good a life as G.R. only to discover that when under pressure I would (gasp) sin. Boy, I'm in trouble now.

I'll let you know how the hands feel tomorrow...

Searching & Waiting

2007-11-11T03:09:00.000-08:00

Yes, I am searching.

And, I am waiting.

Like Lawrence Ferlinghetti...

I am waiting for the Second Coming
and I am waiting
for a religious revival
to sweep through the state of Arizona
and I am waiting
for the Grapes of Wrath to be stored
and I am waiting
for them to prove
that God is really American
and I am seriously waiting
for Billy Graham and Elvis Presley
to exchange roles seriously
and I am waiting
to see God on television
piped onto church altars
if only they can find
the right channel
to tune in on
and I am waiting
for the Last Supper to be served again
with a strange new appetizer
and I am perpetually awaiting
a rebirth of wonder

I am waiting
to get some intimations
of immortality
by recollecting my early childhood
and I am waiting
for the green mornings to come again
youth’s dumb green fields come back again
and I am waiting
for some strains of unpremeditated art
to shake my typewriter
and I am waiting to write
the great indelible poem
and I am waiting
for the last long careless rapture
and I am perpetually waiting
for the fleeing lovers on the Grecian Urn
to catch each other up at last
and embrace
and I am waiting
perpetually and forever
a renaissance of wonder

(See here for more about Lawrence Ferlinghetti and a link to the complete poem.)

Actually, all I'd like is the Answer to Life, the Universe, and Everything.

And it is not 42.

I am searching for faith. And while I'm searching I am waiting. "I am waiting perpetually and forever a renaissance of wonder". I am inspired by my friends, my enemies, my parents, my wife, my child and my grandchildren. Oh, and Don Quixote, who was also a bit of a searcher and a dreamer:

It is the mission of each true knight...
His duty... nay, his privilege!
To dream the impossible dream,
To fight the unbeatable foe,
To bear with unbearable sorrow
To run where the brave dare not go;
To right the unrightable wrong.

To love, pure and chaste, from afar,
To try, when your arms are too weary,
To reach the unreachable star!

This is my Quest to follow that star,
No matter how hopeless, no matter how far,
To fight for the right
Without question or pause,
To be willing to march into hell
For a heavenly cause!

And I know, if I'll only be true
To this glorious Quest,
That my heart will lie peaceful and calm
When I'm laid to my rest.

And the world will be better for this,
That one man, scorned and covered with scars,
Still strove, with his last ounce of courage,
To reach the unreachable stars!

Now that is inspiring! "To reach the unreachable stars". Wow. But, what if "faith" is unfounded? What then? Perhaps it is just the "glorious quest". To "dream the impossible dream". That's what I hope to pursue in these postings.

And yet another dreamer...

Imagine there's no Heaven
It's easy if you try
No hell below us
Above us only sky
Imagine all the people
Living for today

Imagine there's no countries
It isn't hard to do
Nothing to kill or die for
And no religion too
Imagine all the people
Living life in peace

Imagine no possessions
I wonder if you can
No need for greed or hunger
A brotherhood of man
Imagine all the people
Sharing all the world

You may say that I'm a dreamer
But I'm not the only one
I hope someday you'll join us
And the world will live as one

John Lennon, 1971

Now that I've broken probably every copyright possible (and perhaps a few that are impossible), I'll end this post. The search (and the wait) continues...

Happy Birthday, Craig!