American Civil War

Back in the year 2000, I became very interested in the history of the U.S. Civil War, which took place from 1861 to 1865. Early in 2000, my family and I stayed at a cabin in northern Georgia that had some very good books about this epic conflict between ideology, cultures, and regions. Later that year, I took a history class about the Civil War at the University of Florida, although I was disappointed in how it was presented. My best exposure to Civil War information was, however, from the excellent History Channel series Civil War Journal (which is still shown early in the morning sometimes).

The U.S. Civil War has been described as the “first modern war”, with the widespread use of exploding shells and the beginning of automatic weapons and submarines. In spite of this, the generals running the war’s operation too often employed outmoded methods of combat that more closely resembled the Napoleonic Wars from earlier in the century. In particular, the frontal charge was overused, to catastrophic ends, by both the Union and Confederate sides, in disparate battles such as Antietam, Fredericksburg, Gettysburg, and Cold Harbor. It wasn’t until later in the war that more effective tactics such as attrition, hit-and-run, and siege warfare began to define the parameters of the conflict.

Also, although the fighting itself became more modern and lethal, the level of common medical knowledge then was still woefully backward, with antibiotics unknown and sterile procedures unrecognized. Limb amputation was the common method of preventing infection from wounds that just a few decades later could be completely healed with penicillin. So, being wounded was a much graver matter for a soldier, with many of them dying later, in tented hospitals, long after they were wounded.

Someday I’d like to visit some of the most famous battlegrounds and retrace the two sides’ positions and movements. The sites I’m the most interested in are the aforementioned ones that featured misguided charges. I guess that one mistake in strategy hits me hard, because I’m also interested in World War I. And the military leaders in that conflict repeatedly and stupidly ordered insane, suicidal charges over the tops of trenches that decimated an entire generation of young men from Britain, France, and Germany! You would have thought that these “geniuses” would have learned from what had happened during the American Civil War. But, perhaps, they were so provincial in their prejudices that they couldn’t bring themselves to believe that anything of value could be learned from those “backward” Americans across the Atlantic!

The U.S. Civil War was about many things, but the most glaring factors were bringing the seceding states back into the Union, abolishing (or keeping) slavery as an institution, and the dispute over tariffs regarding the import of overseas agricultural products. But when the “rubber hit the road”, the war was mainly about plain, ordinary folks, who knew or cared little about these issues, fighting and dying for the interests of others. Which, unfortunately, is what war usually finds itself being reduced to.

Ahmadinejad's Columbia University Speech

The visit to New York this past week of Iranian president Mahmoud Ahmadiniejad, particularly his speech at Columbia University, has gotten a lot of press as well as talk radio discussion. He has denied the occurrence of the Jewish Holocaust during World War II, even going as far as sponsoring, on Iranian soil, an international conference for Holocaust-deniers. He has also expressed the desire to remove the nation of Israel from the map. His status as elected president of Iran is hardly legitimate, as electoral candidates in that country must be approved by a board of hard-line Islamic clerics before they can appear on the ballot and be allowed to campaign. And since most of the country, I believe, practices Islam in moderation, Mr. Ahmadinejad is only a representative of a minority there. But he is the one that Iran has presented as its president, and thus he is the one that we have to deal with. I believe that Columbia University did not have to invite him to speak there if they had thought he was too objectionable (some have made a comparison with him to Hitler, which I find exaggerated). But since they did invite him, though, they had, in my opinion the responsibility to show the tact and good grace that receiving an official visitor from abroad demands. This is called "diplomacy"! And diplomacy is precisely there for people and nations with which we find objections (and in the view of some, though not me, grounds for war). The president of Columbia University was offensive and unprofessional when he viciously criticized the Iranian president in his introductory speech. All this accomplishes is to change the ground rules for Americans who travel to countries with which we have substantial disagreements. How are they going to be treated now? Civility and diplomacy are the watchwords here. When I think of an institution such as Columbia University and then think of the president of that esteemed institution, I think of the enormous skill at using the English language that supremely educated people supposedly have attained. A skill, I might say, that should have enabled anyone there to express every single concern that they had, and in the greatest light of scrutiny, while avoid the crass, rude, and confrontational demeanor that had unfortunately been chosen instead.

To Ahmadinejad's credit, he didn't just walk off the stage (like some probably wished), but stayed on and "gutted it out". He then proceeded to tout lines that he had touted before, such as that Iran only wanted to develop nuclear technology for peaceful ends, that there were no homosexuals in Iran, that he loved the Jewish people, and that before Israel came into existence, the Palestinians there were at complete peace with the Jews. This in spite of the fact that the leader of the Palestinians during World War II actually endorsed Hitler's campaign to annihilate the Jews! In spite of Mr. Ahmadinejad's sometimes absurd statements, he should be welcomed as an Iranian with some political authority who finally wants to reach out to the West in dialogue. Isn't that something that we've wanted for a long time?

[The weekly "Newsbreak" segment that I've been presenting here on Saturdays is being moved to Mondays.]

Intuition

Golan Trevise, Isaac Asimov’s protagonist in his two outstanding science-fiction novels Foundation’s Edge and Foundation and Earth (the fourth and fifth of the Foundation series), was distinguished by a special characteristic: he had an uncanny ability to arrive at correct long-range decisions, apparently only by using his intuition. And this trait made him very sought-after by others with differing agendas. Another character, John Strapp, in the 1953 sci-fi short story Time is the Traitor by Alfred Bester, actually made a living giving out intuitively-derived decisions that he had built up an impressive track record on for their accuracy. The question that I’m posing is simply this: is this a real phenomenon, or just the product of some people’s imaginations?

You may have heard the proposition that there is a tendency for people to divert travel from places or vehicles for various reasons, only to find out later that catastrophic accidents had occurred that would have killed them had they not changed their plans. For example, it has been said the on the Tuesday morning of September 11, 2001, the World Trade Center had much fewer people in it than was normally the case. The factual basis for this is blurry, to say the least. But I do remember, in the days immediately following the terrorist attack on the towers, that the figures given in the media on the estimated dead and missing were much, much higher than the finally-arrived-at figures (by the thousands). The gist of this is that some people apparently have an intuitive sense that allows them to survive in this manner. My parents, for example, relished telling the story of their experience driving one night down a very foggy, lonely, unfamiliar central Florida country road. Suddenly my mother (to-be) yelled at my father (to-be), “Stop!!!”, and he slammed on the brakes. And a train suddenly went thundering by, just a few feet in front of their car! If that was a true example of intuition, then I suppose that I have a definite personal stake in this issue (to-be or not to-be, that is the question)!

If you accept the notion that there is something called “intuition” that enables people, in varying degrees, according to their talents, to foresee dangers (and opportunities) without any apparent clues, then that still leaves open a question: how is this so? Some would say that intuition is a paranormal ability that is psychic in nature, like clairvoyance. As a matter of fact, with some, “intuitive” is considered to be a synonym for “psychic”. Others (like me), on the other hand, don’t think that this is a necessary explanation. I believe that most of our mental processing takes place unconsciously, with decisions and solutions often seeming to pop out of nowhere, as if by magic. And I believe that we can take in subtle clues from our surroundings that we may not process consciously, but nevertheless have entered our subliminal awareness. The real mystery is when complicated strings of cause-and effect events transpire to produce actions that can only be explained as coincidental or “collectively” intuitive. But even here, I believe that we sometimes short-change the power of the natural human mind when we jump off and try to explain things through paranormal conjectures.

Favorite Songs of 2003

The year 2003 saw me listening mainly to three different radio stations for my music: 103.7-WRUF “Rock 104”, 100.5-WHHZ (later to be called “The Buzz”), and 105.9 WOCL “O-Rock” (Orlando). Here are the songs I liked the most from that year (as I lived it):

Can't Stop (Red Hot Chili Peppers)
No One Knows (Queens of the Stone Age)
Like A Stone (Audioslave)
Clocks (Coldplay)
Diamonds And Guns (Transplants)
All My Life (Foo Fighters)
Times Like These (Foo Fighters)
Got The Life (Korn)
Papercut (Linkin Park)
Somewhere I Belong (Linkin Park)
Cherub Rock (Smashing Pumpkins)
Honestly (Zwan)
Head Like A Hole (Nine Inch Nails)
Peacekeeper (Fleetwood Mac)
There There (Radiohead)
Tons Of Fun (unknown)
Feel Good Time (Pink)
Crawling (Linkin Park)
Faint (Linkin Park)
So Far Away (Staind)
Symphony Of Destruction (Megadeath)
Beautiful (Christina Aguilera)
Hey Ya (OutKast)
Trouble (Pink)
Bigger Than My Body (John Mayer)
It's My Life (No Doubt)
Moses (Coldplay)

My favorite song back in 2003 was the rambling There There by Radiohead. Right behind were the angry Head Like a Hole by Nine Inch Nails (I think all of their songs are angry) and So Far Away by Staind (my all-time favorite of theirs). Pink surprised me with her Feel Good Time (written by Beck), which was on the Charlie’s Angels movie soundtrack. The song Tons of Fun was played a lot on Rock-104, but the artist’s name eludes me. I believe it was a local band, though. Coldplay made a big impact with their big studio hit Clocks and their minor (but better) live hit Moses. In 2003, I rediscovered the band Linkin Park, realizing how much I liked their earlier hits Crawling and Papercut while appreciating their 2003 songs Somewhere I Belong and the incredible Faint. I was gratified to see Stevie Nicks back with Fleetwood Mac, cranking out the catchy Peacekeeper with her cohort Lindsay Buckingham. And the sweetest, emotional tearjerker award has to go to Christina Aguilera for her beautiful Beautiful!

Piano on the Eights: 9/26

My piano lessons, for the past eight weeks, are continuing at a slow but steady pace. My main concern is instantly interpreting the notes as I read them off the printed music and transferring them through my fingers to the correct piano keys. I feel that I could have made more progress in this regard if I had spent more time daily at practice, but so far this has proven impractical for me. I'm still working on the major keys of C, F, and G.

I've covered a variety of pieces in my lessons and practice. Among these are Puff the Magic Dragon, Rocky Top, I'd Like to Teach the World to Sing, I've Been Wishin', Hayride!, Minuet and Trio, Sunflower Boogie, Chinese Water Lilies, and Climb Ev'ry Mountain. On the classical side, I've worked on simplified excerpts from Jeremiah Clarke's Trumpet Vouluntary and Trumpet Tune, Clementi's Sonatina, and Lizst's Hungarian Rhapsody No.2.

I've yet to make that important breakthrough I'm anticipating, where I suddenly seem to "get it" and begin to play more freely, adroitly and confidently. But I know it's coming! One problem that I (and surely many other beginning piano students) have is adjusting my fingering within a particular piece. Often this causes me to "lose my bearings", and I end up going back and forth with my eyes from the songbook to the piano, painstakingly plunking out each note in a slow, disconnected progression. It's certainly going to be a relief when I master this difficult area! But all in all, I'm just plodding along, enjoying the challenge, and looking forward to the day when I can play the piano according to my own standards! And I couldn't have a better teacher, who has imparted a great sense of confidence and hope to me (as well as correcting my many errors).

Football Jabberings

After three weeks in the National Football League season and a little more for college football, it's time to do a little appraisal of what's going on. My Miami Dolphins are 0-3, although they put up a pretty good fight in the first and third games. I don't know how long they can continue with quarterback Trent Green, who's made many mistakes over the course of the last three weeks. Sometimes it's prudent to just put someone else in there and see how they do! This tactic has worked in the Dolphins' past with quarterbacks David Woodley, Don Strock, and of course, Dan Marino being "promoted" and excelling in mid-season. It looks as if the New England Patriots are either really THAT good without the cheating or they've discovered a new way to cheat! The upshot is that they now look like a cinch to win the AFC East, with the rest of the pack looking to back into the playoffs as wild-cards. The other Florida AFC team, Jacksonville, is struggling a bit, although they did handle Denver last Sunday. The NFC South's Tampa Bay Buccaneers, with their much-improved offense featuring stars like Jeff Garcia, "Cadillac" Williams, and Ike Hilliard, are in the driver's seat to win their division. The Dallas Cowboys look like the team to beat in the NFC, as I earlier predicted. The biggest surprises as I see them so far is the unexpected toughness of the Houston Texans and Green Bay Packers. But it's been only three weeks, with thirteen more games to go in the regular season.

With college football, the University of Florida Gators, with superstar-sophomore quarterback Tim Tebow, are 4-0. But they've occasionally had trouble with their defense stopping weaker opponents in the second half. In particular, their pass rush is very deficient this year, and this has given opposing quarterbacks plenty of time to pick apart their secondary (sometimes with long bombs). One team that I've really caught notice of has been Boston College, which seems, at least so far, to be playing like a "Top Five" team. Let's see how far they can go! Of course, I'll be pulling for Florida State and Miami first in their Atlantic Coast Conference. Boston College is playing both teams at home in November. I'm happy to see former Gator coach Ron Zook beginning to succeed with his University of Illinois team. Some of the "big shots" in the Big Ten had better watch their backs! Another team to watch is South Florida in the Big East. They look like the team that has the best chance to knock off impressive West Virginia this year.

I see a scenario this year where more than five teams could finish the pre-bowl season undefeated (they're that much above the rest)! I'd like the Gators to be one of them, but even if they are, this won't necessarily be enough to guarantee them a shot to defend their national championship. I know one thing: this year, if you lose one game, then you might as well lower your sights and just shoot for your conference championship (or even just your conference divisional championship)!

Inserting Present Knowledge Into Memories

One of the myriad tricks that our human mind can play on itself is to relive the past through memory with all of the accumulated skills, knowledge, and experience of today. And then wonder why we behaved as we did back then! We automatically project our current status as “finished product” onto the past, but we also insert into our personal memories our more complete understandings of the context in which our life experiences took place. So, a slightly out of the ordinary, but ultimately forgettable civil defense drill I took in the first grade (without knowing then that it was a civil defense drill) becomes a bigger memory with the later knowledge that it took place during the Cuban Missile Crisis in 1962. My memories of my high school teachers are, today, very negative and critical. But if I were to remember my attitude toward them then (without inserting my present viewpoint into my memories), then I would recall that I just thought that’s how teachers normally went about doing their jobs.

Taking life as it comes at you is a totally different type of beast then the revised version that we hold dear to our memories. Historical revisionism is another example of this flaw in reasoning. Revisionism, especially the type that envisions vast conspiracies as having manipulated the trends and events of history, tends to make the faulty assumption that those powers who were behind the scenes had the same kind of relationship with time that the revisionist had: instead of taking on reality as it unfolds in the present, they are somehow able to create, from a “future” vantage point, an intricate network of “previous” actions and events inevitably leading to the current situations that the revisionists look back from. This is an absurd presumption, when you come to think about it. Just look at the latest conspiracy talk about the 9/11 attacks (especially the “inside job” angle). The so-called “insider” conspirators would have had no more of a clue to the future than anyone else would. Just look at a true conspiracy to see the kind of thing that really happens: the Watergate break-in and cover up was a conspiracy founded on secrecy among its participants that dismally unraveled on a grand scale and led to the fall of the Nixon Administration. Now that was a much more plausible model for a conspiracy.

I believe that this tendency to insert present knowledge into past memories is a natural human trait and makes itself known throughout the world in oral histories. For example, at the turn of the century, a missionary to a West African tribe who was an amateur astronomer once revealed to them that Sirius, the brightest star in the night sky, had a faint companion star (called the “Pup”). This tribe incorporated this knowledge into their oral history until, after a couple of generations, the knowledge of the existence of this invisible (to the unaided eye) star was something that, as far as they were concerned, had always been with them. In the early 1970s, Erich Von Daniken used their knowledge of the “Pup” star as evidence that ancient astronauts from space had come down to Earth in ancient times and bestowed this knowledge upon the natives. But an honest seeker of the truth would ask, “Which is the more plausible and simpler explanation”?

As a former President once said in a different context, we need to be kinder and gentler to ourselves when we look back upon our lives and anguish over some of our earlier decisions and actions. We tend to forget the enormous level of ignorance and uncertainty with which we must deal at every point of our present moments. Even now, I’m sure that I’m doing things about which, from a future vantage point, I’m likely to be scratching my head, wondering, “What was I thinking then ?”!!

Weight Loss and Maintenance

For the first half of my nearly fifty-one years on this planet, I was a thin person. And up until my mid-teens, an extremely thin person. So thin, in fact, that once, in the sixth grade, a classmate asked me point-blank whether I’d had polio! At the time, I thought he was joking with me, but now I believe he was serious. I’ve seen some photos of concentration camp survivors from World War II, and I’m not kidding when I say that my appearance was not that far from their’s. Every rib on my chest prominently stuck out, and I had an emaciated look about my body. It’s not that I was underfed: it’s simply that my metabolism was so high that my nervous energy quickly spent anything that I ate. As I grew older and began to progress into adulthood, however, my metabolism began to slow down. By the time I was 26, I had actually become slightly overweight, even though I had a very physically-active lifestyle. Since then, my weight has gone up and down like a yo-yo (varying between 140 and 205 pounds), with it being on the overweight side right now (for my 5'9" frame). Besides the fact that this isn’t good for my health, I also want to get back to running cross-country outdoors, and the shock of my excessive weight hitting the surface with each stride is not good for my legs and feet. So, I’ve begun, a few weeks ago, a weight-loss program that combines the following elements: eat more healthful foods, eat in measured amounts, drink plenty of water, and exercise. The exercise is something that I was already doing. Drinking more water is easy, too. The more difficult part is the eating. For I not only love foods like pizza, cheesecake, and popcorn, but I love eating them in large portions! It is in this area that I have to consciously change my lifestyle habits. To help with this, I have decided to publish, “on the eights”, as I have done with running, piano, and reading, my progress with weight-loss and maintenance on this blog (there’s nothing quite like a sense of public accountability). So, eight weeks from now, you’ll see another entry describing my progress in this endeavor. Here are my weights from the past few weeks:

DATE WEIGHT (LBS)
8/11 189.2
8/18 187.6
8/25 183.0
9/01 181.4
9/08 179.6
9/15 181.0
9/22 180.6

I am weighed once a week on Saturday mornings on very accurate scales, so the weights are pretty valid measurements of my progress. My personal goal is to get under 160 pounds and then permanently maintain it below that level.

Saturday Newsbreak: 9/22

--Iranian president Mahmoud Ahmadinejad has expressed plans to visit the site of the World Trade Center and lay a wreath there on his upcoming trip to speak at the United Nations in New York. And, naturally, a lot of people aren’t too happy with that. This includes faltering Presidential candidate, Republican Mitt Romney, who’s taken up Ahmadinejad’s visit as a safe campaign issue to rant indignantly about. Then, not to be outdone, candidates John McCain and Fred Thompson felt compelled to make tough, “brave” statements putting down the Iranian president. Ahmadinejad has denied the Jewish Holocaust during World War II and accused the European nations who have strict anti-holocaust-denial laws of using the issue to have European Jews immigrate to Israel. This denial of proven history on the part of Ahmadinejad has given him many enemies in the West. But he is the official leader of Iran, a large, important nation which the US and the United Nations as a body are trying to dissuade from developing nuclear weapons. To me, in spite of all of this individual’s personal shortcomings, he should be welcomed at the site to pay his respects. I believe that symbolic acts such as this one, or the American ping-pong team’s visit to China in 1971, can be ground-breakers, opening previously-locked doors and leading to greater mutual understanding and reconciliation. Both Iran and the United States have long lists of grievances that they harbor against each other. I believe that, at some time in the future, these two great nations will become allies. But first, one step at a time!

--The small Louisiana town of Jena is in the national spotlight for a ridiculous escalation of petty racial feuds, starting with who got to sit under a certain tree, of all things! With each affront, the other side would increase its response until we now have a situation where people’s freedoms and lives are at stake. My take on what happened there is that there is some residual white-supremacist “throwback” sentiment in Jena among some whites who believe that blacks have to stay in their “place”. But this is the 21st century, and such attitudes need to be firmly countered. The situation there, as I saw it, was that the white offenders in the conflict had their wrists slapped lightly, while black offenders were imprisoned and charged with serious felony crimes (even though they were minors). I’m glad that this conflict has achieved national attention and that many went there to express their views. But in the midst of all this, regardless of which position one holds, there was still a serious physical assault committed that needs legal redress.

--We’ve had here, for the last couple of days in north-central Florida, some really turbulent weather. On the satellite map, it looked like a tropical storm, but the sustained winds weren’t strong enough to merit a name for it. It’s has quickly swung around in the Gulf of Mexico, strengthened slightly, and then dumped a lot of nasty weather on the Gulf coast in the Florida panhandle.

--I picked up the University of Florida’s Independent Florida Alligator newspaper yesterday to get a sense of what’s going on down there on campus. The big buzz is still about student Andrew Meyer’s Taser incident at John Kerry’s campus visit. Both the newspaper’s editor and editorial cartoonist each quoted the same two nationally-known commentators in expressing their negative opinions of Meyer. And which distinguished opinion-makers did they cite? Jon Stewart and Stephen Colbert of Comedy Central! If this is the direction that journalism is going, maybe I should just start reading The Onion for my news!

--The Florida Gators football team has shown, at least so far this year, that it is one of the premier squads in the country. Tim Tebow, their sophomore quarterback, seems to be increasingly the object of hero worship among the “Gator Nation”, something that’s a bit unsettling to me. Gator coach Urban Meyer has never stuck around with a team long enough to coach it in his third year (and really test how well his own recruits have developed). So, we’re in a sort of uncharted territory, but so far it looks very promising. Very tough LSU (at their stadium) is going to be UF’s opponent on October 6, though!

Unintended Consequences

Although he can be awfully obnoxious at times, Fox News big shot Bill O’Reilly does get one thing right: he devotes much of his time decrying something he calls “unintended consequences”. With him, of course, it’s usually related to his “culture wars” or politicians who don’t tow his line on a particular issue. But unintended consequences can have either positive or negative outcomes (or both). Here are some examples:

--Aviation pioneer Steve Fossett recently disappeared in his small plane somewhere in the northern mountainous Nevada wilderness. Because of this, a wide search has been underway to discover his fate and to possibly rescue him. Although at this writing, he hasn’t been found, eight other crashed planes have been found as a consequence of the search. And quite possibly one of the planes was flown by a man who disappeared in 1964, leaving a (then) four-year old son, who is now living in the Gainesville area.

--During the 1970s, the Nixon Administration tried to have former Beatle John Lennon deported from the U.S., but the efforts were futile and Lennon was able to stay in his adopted country. But in December 1980, he was assassinated in his favorite city, New York.

--When Buddy Holly, the Big Bopper, and Waylon Jennings were on tour during the late 1950s, they once had an opportunity to travel on a small plane. But there wasn’t enough room for the three of them, so they flipped to see who had to stay behind. Waylon lost, and because of that, he survived the fate of his two friends when the plane later crashed.

--President Bush ordered the invasion of Iraq in March 2003 under the banner of fighting terrorism, but the subsequent occupation has had the opposite effect, with militant and pro-terrorist movements such as Al-Qaeda, Hamas, and Hezbollah experiencing unprecedented popularity in sections of the Muslim world (partially in opposition to the US occupation of Muslim Iraq). And diverting resources into Iraq from Afghanistan, where we had been pursuing the Al-Qaeda leadership, has created the situation where the Taliban there is resurgent and Bin-Laden, complete with his newly-dyed beard, is sending out arrogant videos taunting us. He is a premeditated mass murderer, but one of our government officials recently dismissed him as “irrelevant”.

--During the 1970s, when the Space Shuttle was up for initial funding, there was a plan for a sturdy, highly protective outer casing to the Shuttle. Instead, in order to save money, a cheaper and highly inferior tile-system was funded. And now, after the Columbia disaster a few years ago, we all have to hold our breaths every time the Shuttle takes off or lands, just in case some dinky little piece of crud hits the ship and damages it to where it can’t withstand reentry.

--First, the Democrats in Florida, thinking they were so smart, voted to move their presidential primary ahead of the others. Then the national Party declared that the results of such a primary would not produce any voting delegates. Now, because of that, many Florida Democratic voters are thinking of boycotting the primary altogether. And because of that, they won’t vote on an important state-wide property tax referendum that is on the ballot on that same primary election day.

--Back in late 1990, Congress was debating whether or not to support President Bush’s (#41) proposed military action to remove the Iraqis from Kuwait. Senator Al Gore was one who was teetering with his vote. Finally, he voted with the President (and against most of his Party). Two years later, Gore was picked by Bill Clinton as a pro-defense running mate and was elected as his Vice-President. I believe that some of the ambitious Democrats, such as Hillary Clinton and John Edwards (who was still in the Senate), took this “lesson” and supported the authorization-of-force bill that was passed in late 2002. Only this time it backfired on them. And it may well have cost Edwards the nomination (and possibly the Presidency) in 2004.

--After the 2000 Presidential Election, Democratic lawyers descended on three South Florida counties (Dade, Broward, and Palm Beach) to try to manipulate the recounts to favor their candidate Al Gore (trying to count formerly rejected ballots in those counties, all three of which went for Gore) and tip the statewide balance in favor of him. Doing this, though, had the unintended consequence of delaying the more fair statewide recount and pushing litigation to the point where the US Supreme Court intervened (in my lay opinion, incorrectly) and handed the Election to Bush.

I ‘m not sure exactly what lessons can be learned from the previous examples, except that we only fool ourselves when we believe that we can manipulate and control our futures with our pet assumptions and strategies. Because, after all, “stuff” happens (to put it euphemistically), and there are too many variables in our world and lives for us to be as overconfident as we sometimes are about our destinies.

Favorite Songs of 2004

As I go back further in time in examining my favorite songs from the past, I run across some songs, in increasing frequency, that actually were hits in earlier years. Sometimes the gap between a song’s popularity and my choice of it as a favorite can be as long as twenty years or more! And although that isn’t the case with any of the tunes for 2004, there may be a couple that had come out the previous year or two which took me a while to notice. Here are 2004’s best (to me):

Fallen (Sarah McLachlan)
My Immortal (Evanescence)
Fortunes Faded (Red Hot Chili Peppers)
Almost Honest (Megadeath)
Megalomaniac (Incubus)
Lying From You (Linkin Park)
Ride (The Vines)
Float On (Modest Mouse)
Talk Shows on Mute (Incubus)
Ch-Check It Out (Beastie Boys)
Maps (The Yeah Yeah Yeahs)
Followed the Waves (Melissa auf der Maur)
Here and Now (Letters to Cleo)
Take Me Out (Franz Ferdinand)
Move Ya Body (Nina Sky)
The Way You Move (OutKast)
Duality (Slipknot)
Underwear Goes Inside the Pants (Lazyboy)
Are You Gonna Be My Girl (Jet)
Mosh (Eminem)
American Idiot (Green Day)
Boulevard of Broken Dreams (Green Day)
Counting the Days (Collective Soul)
This Fire (Franz Ferdinand)
Look What You've Done (Jet)
12:51 (The Strokes)
Coin-Operated Boy (Dresden Dolls)
Misfit (Elefant)
Nowhere Again (Secret Machines)
Primitive (Ambulance)
No Phone (Cake)

Until late summer/early fall, 2004, there weren’t very many notable songs. The big song from that time was Sarah McLachlan’s beautiful ballad Fallen. Then, sometime around September, I began to listen to 100.5-WHHZ (“The Buzz”) in earnest (I had been listening to it sporadically for about a year). The quality of music put out by this independent/alternative rock station was amazing and refreshing. There was a plethora of great songs from the last part of 2004, from Ride by the Vines, with its simple garage-band sound, to the Strokes with their enduring 12:51 (my #19 all-time favorite). Bands with female lead singers were also featured, such as Maps by the Yeah Yeah Yeahs and Here and Now by Letters to Cleo. Two novelty songs, Underwear Goes Inside the Pants by Lazyboy, and Coin-Operated Boy by the Dresden Dolls, were interesting and funny. My favorite song (back then) for 2004 was Jet’s tribute to the Beatles, Look What You’ve Done, with 12:51, Ride, This Fire (by Franz Ferdinand), and Primitive (by Ambulance) following close behind. And Cake’s No Phone was a fitting, funny tribute to all of those times in my life when I’ve had quite enough of the world, wanting no more than to just shut it out for a while, spend a little quiet time in solitary contemplation, and of course, turn off the phone!

Police Excesses

The day before yesterday (9/17), Massachusetts Senator and almost-President John Kerry came to the University of Florida campus to speak and answer audience questions. The speech was held in a relatively small auditorium and, according to the pictures I've seen of the event, was rather sparsely attended. Kerry's appearance went smoothly until the very end, when a UF student, Andrew Meyer, rushed to the questioner's microphone and began to rant to Kerry about various issues, including Kerry's acceptance of the 2004 Election results, his supposed membership in Yale's Skull and Bones, and the lack of any move to impeach Bush. Finally, after a couple of minutes (as I heard it told), Meyer's microphone was cut off and he was told to stop. But he wouldn't, and the University Police who were present rushed to him, grabbed him, partially handcuffed him, and Tasered him. Finally, they dragged him down the aisle in front of Kerry and the "crowd" into the lobby while the Senator tried to respectfully address Meyer's concerns and urge the audience to be calm.

From what I've seen and read about this incident, it clearly looks as if the police grossly overreacted to Meyer, even though they displayed the typical, perfunctory "politeness" at the beginning of the interaction that the police are trained for. And then, since that didn't work, attack! As a matter of fact, this bears a slight resemblance to the exaggerated portrayal of "cops gone wild" at the close of The Blues Brothers! But, unfortunately, this isn't an isolated incident. Mr. Meyer seemed disruptive and obnoxious, but not dangerous to anyone. And certainly undeserving of Tasering.

A few years ago, in Florida, a woman who obviously had been drinking, had pulled off the road in her car and had passed out (pretty sensible of her, I might say, to pull off the road first). She had a gun in her lap (that part wasn't so cool) and the car was locked up. A policeman noticed the car, looked inside, and called up for "reinforcements". The police, with guns drawn and pointed at her, then proceeded to try to break open the window to get to her (instead of just patiently waiting for her to revive). Naturally, she awoke, startled, and instinctively reached for the gun on her lap. To which our public protectors, the police, responded by shooting her to death. To the best of my recollection, those police involved in this incident were exonerated in the woman's death.

I know that it's a good thing to have police to protect us from unsavory elements in our society. But when they begin to regard everybody as a potential criminal, they become a danger unto themselves. Once, in the early 1980s, I was living in an apartment next to a big field. One night, I decided to take a pleasant walk across the field to buy some Krispy Kreme doughnuts from the shop on the other side. When I got to the middle of the field, I stopped for a few minutes and gazed up at the night sky, something that I was in the habit of doing. After I had bought my doughnuts and was crossing back through the field, I noticed a slow-cruising police car in the adjacent parking lot. As I crossed the field, this car seemed to be going awfully slow, and seemed to be interested in me. And it was, following me all the way back to my apartment and then flashing its headlights directly at me as I opened the door to my apartment. To me, this was police harassment. After getting inside, I immediately called the police and lodged a complaint over the phone, but nothing, of course, ever came of it. But I know that, even though I had done nothing wrong, if that policeman on that evening had decided to provoke something stronger against me, than it would have come down in court as his word against mine, and his spin of the events would have prevailed.

I'll be the first person to admit that the profession of law enforcement is very demanding, stressful and dangerous. It's also very necessary, and I do appreciate the sacrifices that police personnel have made for us. I just think that sometimes they go over the line and regard the people out there as criminals to be caught instead of citizens to be protected.

Safety Hatch

I am an avid fan of the first two Star Trek TV series, along with the movies that accompanied them. In Star Trek 2: The Wrath of Khan, Captain Kirk and Mr. Spock are having a seemingly casual exchange of words before Kirk is beamed down with his party deep underneath the surface of a planet (with Spock left in charge of the Enterprise). One of the things Kirk said to Spock was the cryptic comment, “Hours seem like days.” Later on, Kirk and his party are marooned under the planet’s surface while his ship is off fighting the ruthless Khan (who can eavesdrop on Kirk and Spock’s radio transmissions). While everyone around him is talking about the strategies they will employ to survive in their new home, Kirk casually opens his communicator, says over it to Spock, “Ready to beam up”, and suddenly everyone is back on board the Enterprise! This happened because Kirk and Spock had their own private code that automatically kicked in at a certain specified time (that no one else knew about, friend or foe).

In a roundabout way, this is what many of us need in our own lives: a private “code” whereby at a certain, specified time (at regular waking intervals), we automatically stop what we’re doing (at least in our minds) and reappraise the directions we are going in. And to listen to our emotional and physical states as well.

Many years ago, I once read a small book written by a jogger who described his own experiences and strategies with his running. One thing that he did and which he recommended was, at certain stages of his running, he would say to himself “safety hatch”, and that would be the time in which he would try to appraise objectively where he was at with his running so far.

The sort of thing that I have been describing so far is designed to “break the limiting patterns” of one’s life (as self-improvement guru Anthony Robbins has described). What if, I take an arbitrary time, say, at :40 past the hour, and use it briefly to evaluate the past hour and determine any corrections that need to be made? Wouldn’t this be a good strategy for anybody, and wouldn’t it go a long way to prevent bad situations from developing? Just a thought that may be worth considering and developing!

Reverse Opinions

Back when I was in high school, some of my friends were deeply into playing chess. And they were good, real good! Although I couldn’t hold a candle to them playing the game, I enjoyed watching them play from time to time. Sometimes they would, as a practice tool, reverse the rules of the game to where the object was to place one’s pieces in positions in which the opponent would be forced to capture them (by that game’s rules). The object was to lose all of one’s pieces first (with the kings being capturable). This game, which I believed they called “Take Me” (because that’s what was called out when a piece had to be taken), was in reality reverse chess. And it evidently strengthened the players so that they had a much better perspective on different situations and strategies when they played the regular game.

In the same spirit, for all of the great opinionated people out there, be they politicians, academicians, bloggers, media commentators, authors, editors, think-tank eggheads, or others who have strong views that they insist on releasing onto the world, I have a proposition. Why don’t you set aside a specially-designated time or space within your medium and express “reverse opinions”? This would mean taking issues or personalities that you have strong opinions on and deliberately taking the opposite position from what you’re accustomed to. High school and college debate teams often undergo the same process, so that a debater may have to argue in favor of a position that he or she personally disagrees with.

An “exercise” such as “reverse opinions” is a good way to try to get inside the heads of one’s ideological, political, and religious adversaries, at least long enough to see where they are coming from. And who knows, this may sometimes sway opinions in a new direction. I’m afraid, though, that this is exactly one of the major fears that would prevent people from trying this. But I believe that the major reason standing in the way of opinion-givers practicing with “reverse opinions” is that many of them are personally incapable of accepting that those with opposing views merit their attention, unless it involves ridiculing their cultural backgrounds or branding them with epithets implying that they are stupid, evil, ambitious, simplistic, elitist, naïve, or culturally backward (or any combination of these).

Evolutionary Trees

One of the things that I am interested in is determining when and where different species arose from others, and under what kinds of circumstances the transformations took place. To be sure, a great part of my understanding of this process can be accomplished by studying a textbook about evolution. But I’d like to know how the different species of animal and plant life arose, as well as the limits to this knowledge that biological scientists are faced with. For example, what is the origin of the common American opossum, the house cat, or the mockingbird (our Florida “State Bird”)? Do the species that they “split” from still exist, when and where did the splits occur, and what caused the splits? Tens of thousands of distinct species of currently existing animal life have already been enumerated. And many more extinct species as well. What, in detail, are their relationships with each other? I’d like to get hold of a “family tree” for species that show where they came from. But more than that, I’d like to have access to a source that reveals the “nodes” of time in which species evolved from others, and the degree of successful research toward explaining these changes.

Understanding general principles of evolution is one thing: knowing details is another. By analogy, I may learn all sorts of principles pertaining to the field of astronomy, but what if I want to learn specific information about, say, Vega, the Orion Nebula, or M88? This is the sort of question I am asking about the origin of species. I guess that, so far, I haven’t been looking in the right places for my answers! Does anybody out there in blog-land have any suggestions? I can’t believe that materials don’t exist that provide exactly the kind of species-evolutionary trees I am searching for!

Saturday Newsbreak: 9/15

--The recent discovery of someone, apparently working for the NFL’s New England Patriots, videotaping the defensive signals of their opponent, the New York Jets (in flagrant violation of stated NFL rules), has caused many people to rethink just how legitimate this team’s phenomenal success (three Super Bowl victories) has been in the last few years. Being a Miami Dolphins fan, I wonder myself how much this cheating contributed to my team missing the playoffs, especially in the 2002 and 2005 seasons. But the truth is that this type of speculation can develop into a sort of mind trap that can lead to one doubting the legitimacy of anything. Better to say that the world always has had within it an element of corruption, and that, hopefully, offenders with be caught often enough and punished effectively enough to lend the different institutions involved a general sense of legitimacy. Other than that, there’s not much more that one could reasonably hope for. Anyway, it will be interesting to see how the Patriot’s “vaunting” offense, led by overbearing, arrogant quarterback Tom Brady, fares in the ensuing weeks without their “advantage”!

--On a more ominous note, Humberto developed from a tropical depression to full-blown hurricane in the record time of 18 hours and then immediately slammed into the Texas-Louisiana coast. This may be a portent of things to come this hurricane season, now that the La Niña effect is in full swing out in the Pacific. We may be in for a rough couple of months!

--Presidential candidate Fred Thompson seems to have chosen the strategy of generalities and fuzziness as a proven method of gaining his party’s nomination and, ultimately, the Presidency itself. Proven, because two previous Republican candidates initially won their offices the same way: Richard Nixon and George W. Bush.

--Last Wednesday, another strong earthquake, with 8.4 intensity, occurred in the Indian Ocean near Indonesia’s populous island of Sumatra. They, as you probably know, were stricken with a horrible tsunami a couple of years ago, bringing mass loss of live and devastation. But the tsunami wave from this quake went almost totally in the opposite direction from Sumatra’s shore. I rather doubt that my advice will be taken, but I’m going to give it anyway. To those in Sumatra living near the shore: take the hint, pack up your belongings, and head for the hills!

--A recent French-language newspaper carried an editorial cartoon with a variation of the oft-asked question, “What were you doing on 9/11?” In this cartoon, the question is being posed to mass murderer, monster Osama bin Laden, who is shown sitting in a comfortable chair in his cave hideout, surrounded by henchmen and holding a sheet titled “attack plans”. Bin Laden answers the question by stating, “Exactly the same thing!” But according to my own government, he is no longer relevant. If that’s the case, then why don’t we just release all of our own convicted murderers as well, since we’re apparently letting this creep off the hook?!

Recent Universal Studios Trip

Orlando’s Universal Studios and Islands of Adventure are two of my top three favorite theme parks to visit (along with Tampa’s Busch Gardens). Last month, my family and I paid a day-long visit there, for the first time since 2003. I wish we had been able to spend more time on our visit, since there are so many things to do at these two fine parks. But we did purchase fifteen-month passes, so more visits are in the works. Still, even though we had purchased special “express” passes, the experience we had there was hectic and whirlwind.

Universal’s express pass system is, in my opinion, much superior to Walt Disney World’s ride “appointment” system. Although express passes do cost a little more (unless you stay at one of Universal’s hotels, and then they are complimentary) while Disney’s system is “free”, you really do save a lot more time waiting in lines at Universal than Disney. And this was true for our visit last month as well. Upon entering the park, starting in Islands of Adventure, we rushed over to the Incredible Hulk Coaster, a green monster that propels the riders off like a rocket. This multi-looping steel coaster is fun to ride, as well as to watch others ride. Next, we rode Doctor Doom’s Fear Fall, a ride set on a very tall tower along the length of which riders are raised and lowered quickly and repeatedly. Both Fear Fall and the Hulk Coaster are visible from well outside the park. After that, we went to the Spiderman ride, which I sat out (I wasn’t very impressed with it as so many others were when I rode it back in 2003). Then we went down the “road”, bypassing Popeye’s Bilge-Rat Barge (an extremely wet round-raft-rapids ride) and getting on Dudley Do-Right’s Ripsaw Falls “canoe” ride. I really enjoyed this one, although the last time I had ridden it in 2003, I had ripped my pants sitting down in it. Hence, I’ve called it “Rip-pants Falls”! Following that, we trudged on in the heat to Jurassic Park, where we rode their exciting boat ride with its long, dark, steep tunnel-drop at the end. Then, we staggered in the ever-oppressive heat over to the Dueling Dragons coasters, two intertwined steel coasters (“Fire” and “Ice”) that sweep their hanging passengers to within feet of each other and which are, to me, the best rides in Islands of Adventure. We managed to go through two more attractions there (Poseidon’s Fury and the Cat in the Hat) before we had to retreat to an air-conditioned restaurant for lunch (and air-conditioning): the Hard Rock Café.

After our respite, we sauntered over next door to Universal Studios, where we found more crowds and even more brutal mid-summer afternoon heat. We rode Revenge of the Mummy (which hadn’t yet appeared in 2003). This was the best ride at Universal Studios by far! We then struggled, like parched travelers in a desert, over to the Men in Black ride, where we encountered their ridiculous locker system. You see, on every other ride at Universal, they didn’t care too much about what you did with your possessions: that was your problem. But in order to ride Men in Black, you had to put any loose possessions in a locker (after waiting in a stupidly long line to procure one). Finally, after a series of hassles there, we went on the ride, which I found moderately enjoyable, but which others in my family liked a lot more. When we got out of that one (and bought a picture of us on the ride “zapping” aliens), we started to go over to one of my favorite Universal rides, which was their Back to the Future ride. Only one problem: they had closed down that ride and were constructing a new ride based on the TV series The Simpson’s. What a major bummer! We were all about to collapse from the stifling heat, so we decided to ride on one more ride (the thoroughly enjoyable E.T. Adventure) and then head back to our hotel. Just when we arrived at E.T., it began to rain, and when the ride was over, we walked outside into a downpour/lightning storm. After standing under a shelter for several minutes, we decided to just walk on back in the middle of the storm! Which turned out to be quite pleasant, especially compared to our previous “desert” experience!

On this latest trip to Universal, we tried to do too much in too little time. But back in July, 2003, we stayed at one of their hotels (The Royal Pacific, which I highly recommend) and enjoyed five days at the parks, a much more pleasant and meaningful experience! I think our future trips there are going to require a little more planning and common sense on our part!

Favorite Songs of 2005

During 2005, I was totally immersed, musically speaking, in listening to independent/alternative rock on 100.5 WHHZ “The Buzz””. And that’s where, with very few exceptions, all of the songs on this list come from! Oh, by the way, this (and future) lists are based on my favorites as I lived through each year back then, and not on how I feel about the songs now. The further back in time I go, the more difference this distinction will make. Here are my favorites from 2005:

Ocean Breathes Salty (Modest Mouse)
The End Has No End (Strokes)
Bam Thwok (Pixies)
Walk Idiot Walk (Hives)
Breakin’ (The Music)
Walking With a Ghost (Tegan and Sara)
All Because of You (U2)
Right Right Now Now (Beastie Boys)
Finding Out True Love is Blind (Louis IV)
New Slang (The Shins)
Chocolate (Snow Patrol)
Since You’ve Been Gone (Kelly Clarkson)
Holiday (Green Day)
Sitting Waiting Wishing (Jack Johnson)
Combat Baby (Metric)
Spitting Games (Snow Patrol)
E-Pro (Beck)
Galvanize (Chemical Brothers)
TKO (Le Tigre)
An Honest Mistake (The Bravery)
Evil (Interpol)
Good is Good (Sheryl Crow)
Speed of Sound (Coldplay)
Two Timing Touch & Broken Bones (Hives)
Bleed Like Me (Garbage)
Girl (Beck)
Banquet (Block Party)
Bandages (Hot Hot Heat)
Love in a Trash Can (Raveonettes)
LSF (Lost Souls Forever) (Kasabian)
Soul Meets Body (Deathcab for Cutie)
Bang Theory (World Leader Pretend)
The Engine Driver (Decembrists)
Only (Nine Inch Nails)
Reptilia (Strokes)


My favorite of the bunch is Soul Meets Body by Deathcab for Cutie. Close behind it, though, is the sister act Tegan and Sara’s inspired Walking With a Ghost and Snow Patrol’s throbbing Chocolate. Kasabian contributed to my favorites with their cryptic LSF (see their video for it; it goes well with the song). Nine Inch Nails has an entry as well with their overtly angry, covertly “self-improvement” (at least the way I interpret it) song Only. Rounding out my “favorites of my favorites” for 2005 are two great ones by the Strokes: The End Has No End and Reptilia (which has quite possibly the best “performance” video I’ve seen to date)!

Christopher Hitchens

I recently witnessed a C-Span interview with renowned author/editor Christopher Hitchens. I must be really out of touch with the “intelligentsia”, because up until this show, I had never heard of him. He is certainly an interesting character, to say the least.

Christopher Hitchens is currently an editor with Vanity Fair and writes for Free Inquiry, a magazine promoting skepticism. He has been a very outspoken individual on the subjects of socialism (he was an advocate of Trotskyism), religion (he is an anti-organized-religion atheist), and the Iraq War (he supported it, to his leftist colleagues’ dismay). In everything, he has a very blunt, direct, albeit honest style has its appeal, regardless of the merit of his expressed opinions. Hitchens is currently featured in a Newsweek magazine article highlighting his long-time criticism of Mother Teresa’s legacy in Calcutta, India. Hitchens believed that she hurt the people she was supposedly serving by exalting their poverty while simultaneously keeping the women there in an oppressed state by opposing any contraception and emphasizing their subservient role. He has stated that to believe that a God responsible for the creation of the entire universe is attentive to a believer’s individual prayers is extremely narcissistic and unhealthy. He has characterized Billy Graham as “evil”, particularly in his recruitment of young people to a belief system that Hitchens says Graham no longer believed in. He accused Graham of being a convenient public relations buffer between Presidents and their troubles that they accrued in office. Hitchens is merciless with his denunciations of Mormonism and Scientology. But he saves his greatest criticism for extremist Islam. Hitchens believes that the followers of Al-Qaeda and other extremist Islamic groups are bent on world domination, and to see the recent terror attacks and wars as a reaction to perceived Western or Israeli “aggression” is delusional and dangerous. This is why he has supported President Bush’s decision to invade Iraq, a view that has distanced him from other leftist intellectuals. Hitchens also has claimed that, although Bush has claimed adherence to evangelistic Christianity, he has done more than any other President in actually bringing about a more secular society. After 9/11, Hitchens, originally a British subject, filed for citizenship here and has become an American citizen.

Christopher Hitchens, with his denunciations of organized religion, sounds like he is standing up for people who are in the face of manipulation and abuse. But his admiration of Leon Trotsky, who is culpable in the mass murder of thousands, if not millions, is inexcusable. I am personally tired of people who exalt characters such as Trotsky, Che Guevara, and Mao Zedong, all of whom believed that the ends justified the means and that, and that in order to effect a revolutionary change in society, many would have to die (and did).

I found, by watching this interview, that Christopher Hitchens is an honest, albeit arrogant and sometimes rather obnoxious person who tends to act as if he is sitting on the throne of judgment, in charge of dispensing verdicts regarding those whose lives he has crossed. Ironically, I believe that his style is very attractive to a more passive, sheep-like audience that tends to look for aggressive personalities who see the world in stark black and white terms. And to me, this is a sort of paradox about Hitchens: while being so cut-and-dry with his opinions, he is also a confirmed skeptic. Skepticism as a philosophy, though, would seem to demand a more subtle and measured approach than that which Hitchens applies. That aside, agree or disagree, he is an interesting, different voice. And although he is at times brutal with his opinions, he does, to his credit, back them up with his reasons for them.

Rehearsing

I believe in the value of rehearsing. By that, I don’t just mean running through a musical or theatrical performance in advance to make sure everything’s all right: this strategy is useful in any area of life in which I have something ahead of me that needs to be done.

Suppose I want to do some writing when I get home from work instead of just crashing in my recliner with the remote to vegetate in front of the TV set. Instead, it would behoove me, while at work or driving home, to consciously visualize myself going through the necessary steps that I would need to take upon entering my home, with me finally imagining myself sitting and writing (instead of “sinking”). If I need to make an important phone call, it’s good that I go through the items (in my head) that need to be said, in order to ensure that I don’t miss saying important things when I am actually on the phone. If I have a long list of chores to do over the span of a few hours, going through the list and seeing me accomplishing each task can help to prioritize my actions as the day unfolds. Just before my piano class, rehearsing the assigned pieces, as well as the anticipated next ones, will make the class go more smoothly and effectively. I can, in the comfort and safety of my own home, rehearse how I will react to rude, aggressive, and distracted drivers on the road so that I won’t succumb to road rage when those inevitable offenses spring up while I’m actually driving. If I’m going out to eat, it’s a good idea to see myself beforehand selecting, ordering, and eating the more healthful foods from the menu, and then walking out of the restaurant feeling satisfied with my meal.

Humans tend to act from inertia: that is, we tend to repeat the same behavioral patterns simply for the sake of repeating them! And this is where rehearsing can help to break the limiting pattern of bad habits by substituting a more constructive pattern (even if it is only based on an imaginary experience) for the undesirable pattern. Thinking ahead to challenging areas of my life to do this is in itself not a habitual, fun thing. So, in order to get this helpful habit going, I guess I’m going to have to rehearse rehearsing!

Bible Observations: Genesis 1 and 2

The church that I attend with my family has an excellent, devoted pastor whose calling is the missions field. At any given time there are projects going on at different places scattered over the world that my church is actively involved in. Another area that my pastor emphasizes is that we read the Bible from cover to cover. The Bible is, according to my own church doctrine, perfect and without error. I believe that he meant for us to read the Bible reverently, with this in mind. But it didn’t take me very long in my reading (which naturally started with Genesis Chapter One) to find areas that are confusing, to say the least.

Genesis 1-2 is about God’s role as the creator of the universe, earth, life, and humans, as well as the beginning of the story of the first man and woman (Adam and Eve) and their initial placement within the Garden of Eden. So far, so good. Whether or not the events told in these two chapters actually happened as described is something that anyone is welcome to speculate on. But my problem is that I see some apparent contradictions within the text:

--In Genesis 1:3-5, on the first day, God created “light”. After separating light from darkness, He named the light “day” and the darkness “night”. But it wasn’t until the fourth day, in Genesis 1:16-18 when God created the Sun! And the plants, which depend directly on sunlight for survival, were created the day before!

--All of Genesis 1 and Genesis 2:1-2 deal with God’s six days of creation and seventh day of rest. Plants were created on the third day and man was created on the sixth. But in Genesis 2:4-6, it is revealed that before there were any plants, God formed man from the earth! [Although it must be said that this passage may have just been referring to plants cultivated in fields by people.]

Now, by bringing these “glitches” out, I mean no disrespect toward the religions whose adherents strongly believe everything that is in the Bible is 100% accurate. I’m simply asking someone out there to reconcile the discrepancies that I see here. After all, if the people who are targets of missions work start reading their Bibles, I wouldn’t want them to get tripped up “coming out of the gate”.

All that aside, I didn’t begin to read the Bible just to nitpick. For me, Genesis 1 presented the then-revolutionary idea that there was one God who created everything, as opposed to the multitudes of Gods that people of the time worshipped, and which were represented by man-made objects or natural objects like planets, the sun, volcanoes, the sea, the weather, the Earth, or a multitude of other things. And Genesis 2 brought forth an important concept on which everything else in the Bible is based: God is personal, and seeks relationship with humans both individually and collectively.

Choosing One's Own Battles

In this sometimes dog-eat-dog life, many issues can come up during the course of a day that appear to demand some kind of response. Whether it’s out in traffic, in the workplace, at home, at school, out shopping, or any other foreseeable situation, transgressions will often occur that will bring on an urge for correction and an assertive response. But from where I stand, if I were to react to every “wrong” done to me, then all I would ever be doing would be “reacting”! It seems that I must learn to choose my battles, which means that I must train myself to consciously forgo redress for minor offenses while concentrating on strategies that enable me to handle the most important situations. Whenever I think of someone, either in public life or in a fictional work, who is a success story, I discover that this individual most always sees ahead to the big issues while letting petty, trivial matters brush by.

But in order to accomplish this, I must carefully identify reactive behavior on my part as it happens and consciously work to eliminate it. One helpful way is to rehearse in advance situations that are most likely to provoke unsought “battles” and act out (in my mind) ways to get around them without becoming entrenched in petty conflicts.

One of Steven Covey’s Seven Habits of Highly Effective People is “Begin with the end in mind”. That is, get a lifetime perspective in what you really want to accomplish in your life. Now contrast that with the assorted distractions and humiliations you put up with and spend too much time and energy thinking about and acting upon. Well, I’ve had it with that! From now on, I’m choosing my own battles! Life is too precious and short to spend dwelling on trivial offenses and trivial people. My priorities rest with the health, welfare, and happiness of my family and myself.

Saturday Newsbreak: 9/8

--Yesterday's Gainesville Sun carried the headline that the sudden emergence of the La Niña effect in parts of the Pacific, with its cooling of the waters there, may bring on an upsurge in the current Atlantic hurricane season, which is at its halfway point. And to emphasize this point, the meteorologists on The Weather Channel keep pointing to a spot (on the weather map) in the mid-Atlantic that looks to me like almost nothing, acting as if they expect it to erupt into a Class-Five hurricane now that their La Niña has "kicked in". Sometimes I get the feeling that they are disappointed when a tropical storm fails to develop (as if they feel that they owe the viewers an apology). Frankly, my take on it is that it won't hurt my feelings one bit if we don't get another tropical storm or hurricane the rest of the season! Unfortunately, this latest system has just been named as Subtropical Storm Gabrielle and may hit the Carolina coast.

--The same edition of the Sun estimates the death toll in Central America from Hurricane Felix at 98 so far. On page five. After an article comparing how toddlers and apes learn (the apes were better than the humans in math). And after more crucial Paris Hilton and Britney Spears news.

--Television actor, former Tennessee Senator and pro-Nixon Watergate hearings counsel Fred Thompson has just announced he is running for President. The fanfare surrounding his "proclamation" reminds me of Aladdin's alter ego "Prince Ali" as he made his grand entrance (with a little help from "Genie"). Although I don't believe that Mr. Thompson would make a very good President, he looks like the instant top challenger to leader Rudy Giuliani's bid to capture the Republican nomination (are all of the others going to start running for "Running Mate" soon?). The new entrant in the race has, in my opinion, a caustic, arrogant know-it-all air about him that makes me want to completely tune him out. But let's just see how far "Prince Fred" gets before he says something asinine that derails his campaign (I hope)!

--Speaking of the Presidential campaign, there seem to be two candidates, one for each major party, that are using the campaign primarily as a forum to espouse their strongly-held views, with little or no hope at actually winning. Ohio Congressman Dennis Kucinich is waving the progressive-left banner in the Democratic campaign, raising the Iraq War and social welfare issues while putting rival Democratic candidates on the defensive for straying from his "line" too much. On the Republican side, Colorado Representative Tom Tancredo is performing the mirror function, raising conservative issues (especially illegal immigration) that tend to put some of his rivals on the spot in their debates. As I believe that the campaign shouldn't even be going on yet, at least some of the important issues are being forced open for discussion by "candidates" like these. Which is constructive, regardless of what one thinks of them and their positions on different issues.

--The professional football season (NFL, that is) begins in full this weekend, with my Dolphins playing against the Washington Redskins. Unlike many others, I have high hopes for Miami this season. They may or may not win the division, but they at least should be in the thick of the running for a wild-card playoff spot.

--I was disappointed that the Florida State Seminole football team failed to beat Clemson this past Monday. But the season is very young, and they did show some promise in the second half of that game. The Florida Gators will try to get a full game in against Troy State this evening (last week's game was called due to lightning with eight minutes to go in the game). The most interesting game, as I see it, is going to be Louisiana State against Virginia Tech. Unlike probably most Gator fans, I'm pulling for the LSU Tigers in this one. Another interesting matchup will be the University of Miami Hurricanes vs. the Oklahoma Sooners.

Lessons Learned

Here are a few things that my wife has taught me over the past twenty-one years that we've been married:

--Whether the times in my life are good or bad, having someone I care for (and who cares for me) to share them with is more important than the experiences themselves.

--I do have interesting things to say that are worth listening to (because she listens to me).

--Close, enduring relationships are very important to have.

--It’s more important to express yourself honestly than to tailor yourself to fit the prevailing opinions.

--The world can be a wonderful place; why not reach out and take part in it?

--Things that are worthwhile are worth maintaining.

--Listening in a relationship is more important than talking.

--Differences between couples can serve to complement one with the other to make a stronger union.

--Similarities between couples can strengthen the bonds of communication and intimacy.

--A tender touch means a great deal.

--My life must show some degree of significance in order that a woman with such outer and inner beauty would love and care for me the way she has.

--Above all, she has taught me that which is truly beautiful, gracious, and enduring: our life together (for the past twenty-one years)!!

School is still in session!!!

Favorite Songs of 2006

2006 was a year dominated by independent and alternative songs (at least as far as I’m concerned). Here’s the list of my favorites (in very rough chronological order, with the artists in parentheses).

Hypnotize (System of a Down)
Reason is Treason (Kasabian)
Bigtime (Soundtrack of Our Lives)
Precious (Depeche Mode)
Dare (Gorillaz)
Juice Box (The Strokes)
Heart in a Cage (The Strokes)
Jacqueline (Franz Ferdinand)
Every Day is Exactly the Same (Nine Inch Nails)
Speak Easy (311)
I Turn My Camera On (Spoon)
Worldwide Suicide (Pearl Jam)
Gold Lion (The Yeah Yeah Yeahs)
If You Talk Too Much My Head Will Explode (People in Planes)
I Dare You (Shinedown)
Vicarious (Tool)
The Slow Descent Into Alcoholism (The New Pornographers)
Spanish Techno (The New Pornographers)
I’ll Follow You Into the Dark (Deathcab for Cutie)
Out of the Way (The Vines)
This Year (Mountain Goats)
Molly’s Chambers (Kings of Leon)
God’s Gonna Cut You Down (Johnny Cash)
Miss Murder (AFI)
Wonder Boy (Tenacious D)
Best of Jill Hives (Guided by Voices)
Spooky Action (Dear and Glorious Physician)
Knight of Cydonia (Muse)
Nausea (Beck)
Le Disko (Shiny Toy Guns)
Sugar (Ladytron)
White Unicorn (Wolfmother)

My top favorite song of 2006 was Tool’s Vicarious which, no matter how many times I heard it, I never tired of. In fact, my appreciation of this disturbing indictment of people who take joy in observing the suffering of others has only grown with each successive hearing. My #2 song for 2006 was Reason is Treason by Kasabian, a relentless, driving tune that I’ve heard has been featured on the TV series The OC (which I’ve never seen). Spoon's I Turn My Camera On, with a very strong bass and catchy beat, has been on a TV commercial. Another of my favorites for the year was the politically-incorrectly titled The Slow Descent Into Alcoholism by the politically-incorrectly named band the New Pornographers. This Year, by the Mountain Goats, contained the funniest line, “I am going to make it through this year if it kills me”! Come to think of it, the entire Tenacious D song Wonder Boy cracks me up! And the Strokes who, along with Kasabian, are in my opinion the two best bands currently around, came out with two winners: Heart in a Cage and the screaming-loud Juice Box. The best emotional tear-jerker was Shinedown's I Dare You.

Blog Musings

--You may have noticed that, after reading a few entries in this blog, it is not primarily informative in nature. Nor is it a very visually-oriented blog, either. Simply put, Alone in the Clouds All Blue is an expression of my reflections on different issues that come up from time to time, with a perspective that is usually either autobiographical or allegorical in nature. Often, to make a point, I will delve back in time to my youth to find a supporting example. Or, I may take a current news story and spin off of that. But you won’t find me analyzing in detail people I know or the different areas that I am presently personally connected to, be it job, church, family, or neighbors. Not that some aspects of these may come up in passing while discussing something else: I simply believe that it isn’t prudent to be indiscrete about what’s going on right now in my life (plus, I believe in the privacy of others).

--As for comments, I know for a fact that it isn’t so hard for a reader to just send one stating agreement or dissent with a particular entry. It can be done anonymously, or even contain a request that it not be published (which I would honor). If ever you do decide to make a comment, it will not be automatically published in the blog: I will read it first before publishing it. Comments with profanity or baseless name-calling are discouraged. Those with the sender’s e-mail address included within the body of the comment will not be published, in the interests of that person’s privacy. And neither will spam be published.

--I am not exactly a person predisposed to be what you might call a “true believer” in things. It seems that, once I feel inclined to support one side or another in a debate over an issue or public figure, then I instinctively try to discern the opposing arguments to my adopted position. Although this may seem to be oh-so-fair and high-minded, it doesn’t exactly make for a highly-charged, passionate blog, either! But I’m not going to write stuff I don’t believe, just to get people to read it.

--Once, a few weeks ago, I wrote an entry about an anti-government (whether Republican OR Democrat) talk-show host who had fallen on hard times, but was making a comeback. For that article, I received an anonymous comment charging that host with a certain form of bigotry. Upon investigating the source, I agreed with the commentator, for the quotes he or she sited were true. But later, I felt that this talk-show host had made those comments twelve years ago and nothing has come out since (to my knowledge). So in the interest of fairness, I withdrew the entries pertaining to this person. But if that commentator has anything else to contribute, I would welcome any more input.

--Another aspect to this blog is that I am using it to hold myself to some self-improvement projects I am undertaking, such as piano, running, reading, and learning some foreign languages. It’s been said that publicly proclaiming a personal endeavor is a big step toward ensuring its eventual success, and that’s why I write about mine on this blog.

--Out of the millions upon millions of blogs out there, if you happen to lay your eyes upon this one, I sincerely hope you enjoy reading it and returning at future dates, my valued reader!

Iraqi Parliament Vacation

Much fuss has been made both in the American media and by our politicians of the month-long summer “vacation” being taken by the Iraqi Parliament. After all, it has been said, our brave soldiers over there aren’t getting any vacations: they are putting their lives on the line every day, and what do the Iraqi leaders do? Instead of taking up crucial reconciliation legislation, they take off!

On the surface of it, this argument seems powerful enough to add one more good reason for the U.S. to withdraw from Iraq and let them handle their own problems. But consider the following. Except for the U.S. and Coalition military, who goes out openly into Iraqi anymore (besides the Iraqi people themselves, of course)? Where are the families and friends of these “vacationing” Iraqi politicians living, but Iraq itself, which is full of terrorists, insurgents, kidnappers, and miscellaneous people with axes to grind? Where do the Iraqi leaders go on “vacation”? To the French Riviera? Walt Disney World? Wally’s World? No, they go to Iraq, their home country. Some vacation, right? But the way the U.S. media reports it, you’d think they were just copping out on their responsibilities. I wonder how our leaders over here in America would act if, with every decision that was made, there was some armed faction somewhere around with a mile-long list of grievances and grudges ready to exact revenge on any politician (and their loved ones) who dared to vote against their perceived interests? And yet that is the situation that Iraq’s elected leaders find themselves in today, not just having to worry about violence being carried out against them by their political opponents, but also violence being carried out from behind their own “lines” if they should made too bold of a move toward reconciliation with opponents.

As for our soldiers over there, when they finally do get a break, they certainly won’t have to spend it in Iraq! And their families are over here, not there. Yes, while over there, they are certainly in harm’s way and deserve the support and admiration of all of us, regardless of our views about the war itself. But they have a place to come back to when their time of service ends. The Iraqis don’t.

Having said this, I think that the Iraqi Parliament was gravely mistaken in taken their recess this summer. The members, just by dint of being elected, are already marked in public by both their supporters and enemies. The sooner they are able to bring about reconciliation, then the sooner the political process within their beloved nation will be carried out in a more peaceful, constructive manner, with non-violent dissent replacing terror. Now, President Bush has gone to Iraq to try to stir up some action among the politicians there. Hopefully, they’ll respond positively and begin to act to bring their country together in peace.

Running on the Eights: 9/3

In July, I seemed to be making a lot of progress with my running, most of it on the treadmill. Still, I wanted to get outside and run on a course. But it was difficult adapting myself to the shock of the hard, stationary ground. On July 21, I ran two miles around a local running track, keeping to the grass on the straightaways, and I thought I did all right, until I got home, that is. Then, my right foot began to hurt a lot. Apparently, the hard jolting of my running tore some tissue connecting my right leg to my foot (around the front). I had to cease running until I felt comfortable to resume on August 18, this time strictly on the treadmill. I've since been more gradual in building up my distance on each run. My injury, I believe, was due not only to my diffuculty in adapting myself to running on the ground, but also to two other factors. One, I am a bit overweight, especially in terms of my optimum running weight. I'm going to have to lose about 25 pounds to get to my desired level (which I'm currently working on). Two, I was running on light running shoes with very little cushioning. Before resuming "ground" running, I need to purchase a pair of very comfortable, cushiony shoes. And avoid hard surfaces, running just on grass or dirt paths. Here is my running (and cross-trainer) record for the past eight weeks:

DATE DAY MILES TIME SURFACE
7-11--we---1.00---9:11 --asphalt
7-13--fr----3.11--26:55 --treadmill
7-15--su---0.67---6:00 --cross-trainer (level 10)
7-21--sa---2.00--19:11 --asphalt/grass
7-24--tu---0.65---6:00-- cross-trainer (level 10)
8-13--mo--0.71---6:00 --cross-trainer (level 10)
8-18--sa---0.25---2:00 --treadmill
8-21--tu---0.50---3:55 -----"
8-23--th---1.00---7:49 -----"
8-26--su---1.05---8:39 -----"
8-28--tu---1.05---8:27 -----"
8-30--th---1.05---8:21----- "
9-02--su---1.20---9:41----- "

Bicycling

When I was a kid, I was not a bicycle rider. We had one old bike in our utility room, which I sometimes practiced trying to ride in the back yard. But it wasn’t until I was seventeen that I actually purchased an inexpensive bicycle (all of the bikes I’ve had were very cheap) and began riding around. And for the next twenty-some odd years, I was hooked on riding bicycles.

Like I said, I never invested much money in bicycling, nor did I ever join a bicycling club. So, some others might say that I wasn’t “serious” about this hobby. But I saw bicycling as more than a fun activity: it was a totally legitimate form of transportation that I often used for going back and forth to work, school, shopping as well as for enjoying the outdoors. There is a certain take on life that one gets when riding slow enough for the surrounding scenery to imprint itself more deeply, both in terms of sight, sounds, and smells. A bicyclist has the opportunity not only to look around at things off from the road much more than a motorist: he or she can also stop “on a dime” and get off the bike to explore a suddenly interesting area that comes up. Or just walk the bicycle though (and park in) areas that no motor vehicles are allowed. Also, in the past I’ve enjoyed riding my bicycle past long lines of stationary traffic, whether due to rush hour conditions or for a University of Florida football game (or Gator Growl, their annual homecoming pep rally/show).

I am glad that my home town of Gainesville, Florida is a relatively bicycle-aware community that has invested a lot in make the town bicycle-friendly, especially with its bike-paths. But I’ve noticed during the past few years that we seem to be plagued with an increasing amount of aggressive motorists whose actions dramatically increase the danger of accidents to bicyclists. Distracted drivers, another increasingly disturbing phenomenon, often weave off the road and onto specially designated bicycle lanes. It can get a little scary these days riding along the side of the road on a two-wheeler!

For the past few years, I haven’t ridden my bicycle very much. Part of this is due to the exigencies of living, but part is also due to just getting out of the habit. Bicycling is a very good cardiovascular activity that can build up leg stamina as well, without exposing the legs and feet to the strains and potential injury that other higher impact activities like running carry with them. I’m thinking of getting my old bike out and riding around a bit (while being very wary of the local aggressive and distracted motorists). But although running can be a bit of a shock to the body, I’m continuing with that as well.

Saturday Newsbreak: 9/1

--Last June, Idaho Senator Larry Craig pleaded guilty to a public disturbance charge, based on his conduct at a Minneapolis, Minnesota airport restroom. It seems that there had been complaints that men were secretly meeting other men for sex there. There were supposedly secret signals that they would give each other through the stalls, such as tapping in code, which would apparently go unnoticed by legitimate restroom users. An undercover police operation had already netted several arrests when Craig was arrested. I don’t know which is more disgusting and creepy: going to a public restroom (which can be pretty disgusting and creepy in itself) and being around others using it for sex, or going there and having a cop hiding in a stall, waiting to spring on people if they accidentally make a “wrong” move! Anyway, Senator Craig is expected to resign.

--Speaking of the Senate, Republican John Warner, long-time Virginia Senator and former husband of Elizabeth Taylor, announced that he won’t run for reelection next year, retiring in January 2009. He always struck me as being a reasonable fellow, even when I disagreed with his conclusions. The US Senate (and I) will greatly miss his presence on the Senate floor. He has been a joy to listen to!

--A man sentenced to death in Florida for the rape and murder of a 94-year old woman in 1977 apparently will be executed, in spite of the fact that he has become a widely-recognized poet. Please understand that I don’t support the death penalty, for numerous reasons. And the sentence is being carried out thirty years after the crime? That aside, it makes me cringe with anger that some people think that this individual deserves preferential treatment over others sentenced to death because he’s become an academically-recognized writer. The same voices calling out for the commutation of his death sentence are silent in regard to the other “less literary-worthy” condemned people awaiting their fates.

--Today marks the first full weekend of NCAA college football. The University of Florida Gators open at home today against Western Kentucky. The most interesting games will be Tennessee vs. California, Florida State vs. Clemson (on Monday), Georgia Tech vs. Notre Dame, and Georgia vs. Oklahoma State. Unlike many of my fellow Gator fans, I always root for UF rivals whenever they play outside our Southeastern Conference. I also root for Florida State and Miami (except when they play against the Gators).

--It appears that NASA has spearheaded much of the scientific research about the severity of global warming. A new report from them has raised more alarm about this phenomenon. I’ve come to the conclusion, naysayers around me and in the media notwithstanding, that this is truly a major danger confronting us on a planetary scale. But I think that many people have rationalized the recent spikes in worldwide temperatures as being part of a natural long-term cycle, something that would be hard to categorically refute until it would be too late to avert major environmental disasters. Our Governor, Republican Charlie Crist has been a refreshing surprise in that he’s embraced the global warming evidence and supports efforts to save the planet from a dismal future.