My Personal Top 20 Favorite Songs in 2011

I go by the name Billy Irwin, not Billy Pilgrim. Still, at least musically speaking, since 2009 I have become quite "unstuck in time" regarding my favorite songs for each year. The reason is quite simple, really: for the past three years or so, when I become interested in a particular act, I amass its collection of songs from years gone by and then discover some gems often residing deep within albums, some of them recorded and released long ago. In January of 2011, I started with my continuing exploration of Radiohead's music. Then, as the year progressed, I followed, in succession, Spoon, Arcade Fire, and Gorillaz. Finally, toward the end of 2011, I rediscovered The Police and their incredible five studio albums from 1978 to 1983 (with consistently, eerily appropriate lyrics for the times we now live in). Scattered throughout the year, I listened to my old favorites Sufjan Stevens, Regina Spektor, Beck, and Metric. Plus, I acquired the latest Linkin Park album, the cerebral A Thousand Suns, which I highly recommend. There was only one song on my year's favorites list that I actually heard by listening to broadcast radio: DeVotchKa's 100 Other Lovers. So, at least temporally speaking, my 2011 favorites are spread out a bit over the years (even going back to 1982). Well, here goes my list:

1 To Binge by Gorillaz
2 Soft Rock Star by Metric
3 Neon Bible by Arcade Fire
4 100 Other Lovers by DeVotchKa
5 Last Living Souls by Gorillaz
6 These Are My Twisted Words by Radiohead
7 Rebellion (Lies) by Arcade Fire
8 Stylo by Gorillaz
9 Darkness by The Police
10 My Mathematical Mind by Spoon
11 Man Research (Clapper) by Gorillaz
12 Goodnight Laura by Spoon
13 Earthquake Weather by Beck
14 Windowsill by Arcade Fire
15 The Ghost of You Lingers by Spoon
16 Rehash by Gorillaz
17 Blackout by Linkin Park
18 Revolving Doors by Gorillaz
19 Little by Little by Radiohead
20 Don't Let It Get You Down by Spoon

My personal choice for musical artist(s) of the year? That shouldn't be too difficult to discern, just looking at the above list. It's Gorillaz!

Change of Half-Marathon Plans

I have decided to do an about-face with my immediate half-marathon plans. Instead of running around my neighborhood and its surroundings on my own for 13.1 miles on Saturday (12/31), I am entering the DeLeon Springs Half-Marathon for Sunday morning, New Years Day. Although this will entail a bit of a drive (DeLeon Springs is a few miles from Daytona Beach in western Volusia County), I will enjoy the benefit of having the preceding night off from work. So, I will be able to rest up some before heading off to run this event.

Although doing this ends the idea of running a half-marathon each calendar month, I am instead running in a public race. Sounds like it will be a lot of fun, assuming, of course, that it doesn't rain. Then again, that might turn out to be fun, too...

One Last Shot at a December Half-Marathon

Now it's getting to the end of December and I am wondering whether I couldn't fit in one half-marathon run anyway, in spite of the fact that I missed that Jacksonville race on December 18. No, it wouldn't be an official, public race. And no, I wouldn't "get" to spend forty-plus dollars for the privilege of running in it: it would be free. I would simply step out of my front door and run my own personally designed half-marathon course around my neighborhood (and some adjacent locations) as I have done many times in the past. So that is what I am thinking of doing...

Saturday, December 31, as far as my employer is concerned, is my official "New Years Day" holiday. And so I am off from work and free to stretch out a nice, long run into the afternoon. If I am to accomplish this run and continue my string of "one half-marathon per month", it will be that day...or no day. Actually, it's pretty nice that my work situation gives me this one last opportunity: a heavy December work load was the primary reason I wasn't able to run that Jacksonville half-marathon earlier this month.

I suppose that it was inevitable, anyway, that I would live through months without the opportunity to run public half-marathon races. From April through October, this event is pretty much closed off to me, due to the fact that I live in generally-hot Florida and they just don't schedule long-distance running events for most of the year. And I have a job and don't have the luxury of just hopping on a plane whenever I get the whim to run in a race more remote (although I think that would be a cool thing to try at least once). So, after the more local events are through in March, I'll either have to run my own private half-marathons or tone down my running to a shorter distance.

Soldiers For Jesus

There is a curious, tight bond between evangelical Christians and the militarism of the United States in the past few years, especially that aspect which involves mortal combat in Iraq and Afghanistan. On one level, it makes some sense: Christianity promotes, at least in theory, the idea of selfless sacrifice. And soldiers either patrolling a hostile, foreign environment or engaging in open fighting are definitely putting themselves in harm's way, an act that could be realistically regarded as selfless. But they are also killing people whom Christianity regards as being lost, i.e. those who don't accept Jesus as their savior. If a believer, a TRUE believer in Christianity and its doctrine of eternal life after death being possible ONLY by accepting Jesus as savior, enlists in one of the armed services and goes overseas to fight and kill the "lost", then isn't that a sort of blasphemy? Isn't that soldier condemning, according to his or her own confessed belief system, the fallen enemy to eternal damnation? So I ask, isn't there something wrong with that?

There was one instance during the life of Jesus on Earth when an armed conflict was taking place around him and he had a chance to weigh in on it: the very time he was being arrested by the Roman soldiers. His disciple Peter reportedly instantly went into a state of intense combat, in the process lopping off the ear of one of his adversaries. The reaction of Jesus to this was not to encourage and praise Peter in the spirit we nowadays go about "supporting our troops": on the contrary, the Lord of the Christian faith rebuked Peter and ordered him to stop fighting. And then he healed the soldier's ear. H-m-m...

There is still a minority of Christian thought that still holds true to the pacifist teachings of Jesus, but they are just that: a minority. Most Christians, especially within the evangelical churches, hold on to this strange two-pronged, mutually-incompatible worldview: on one hand, they invest so much time and resources to take the Gospel in missions projects throughout the world in order to save as many souls as possible. On the other hand, they have no qualms about non-Christians dying in war at the hands of their believing sons and daughters.

I just don't get it...

Back to Double-Digit Running

Today marked an unexpected triumph in my attempt to return to last year's endurance level in running. Well...maybe not completely to last year's level: I was then training to last a 26.2 mile marathon run. This year, I just want to be able to run in various half-marathon events that interest me. I did well in one in November, even setting a personal time record, finishing under two hours. However, I missed the Jacksonville race I had planned to run on December 18. Next month's Ocala Half-Marathon is something that I have been looking forward to running in for a long time: last year I completed the Ocala Marathon but due to a leg injury had to walk for the race's final seven miles. I want a more pleasant running experience down there among the rolling hills and horse farms. Then, in February I want to run the Gainesville FivePoints Half-Marathon again.

With the intention of getting used to running up and down hills for that upcoming Ocala race, on Christmas Eve I embarked on a different training course that involved some easy hills, instead of just my flat neighborhood streets. I ran 3 miles then and felt pretty good. Christmas, my "off-day" regarding running, saw me run a couple of laps around my block. Then, this afternoon, after gorging myself on food (and many carbohydrates) the day before, I set out on a more ambitious run that combined my neighborhood course with the hilly NW 53rd Avenue path. The end result was that I ran 10.21 miles in a typical time (for me) of 1:35:27. At the end of the run I felt like I could have gone further, but stuck to my recent "rule" of letting the half-marathon races themselves be the tests of my distance endurance. The temperature throughout the run hovered around 70 degrees with the humidity around 50% (very close, in fact, to the conditions during my memorable 20 mile Christmas run in 2010).

My initial goal for today's run was to succeed in running 7 miles. But carb loading is a pretty awesome thing: I felt crummy and short on confidence at the beginning of the run. But as it wore on, incredibly I seemed to have more energy, and the confidence surged. So I tacked on those extra miles at the end. I feel ready to run that Ocala race, although I'll have to wait until January 22.

Merry Christmas

I hope all of you are enjoying your Christmas Day this year. I am currently in the middle of a three-day stretch of being off from work. I think I've pretty much generally taken the time off from a lot of other stuff as well, including writing blog articles! But things are good, and I'll pick back up in a day or two...

Unseasonably Hot December Weather

Last year, on Christmas Day 2010, I was a bit bummed out at the unseasonably warm weather: 70 degrees in mid-afternoon with high humidity. Today, a couple of days from Christmas, it's mid-afternoon (at this writing) and 80! The really sad thing is that this has been the typical weather pattern here in northern Florida during December so far: cooler temperatures have been the glaring exception. Maybe in some mythical place like South Park, Colorado, where even Al Gore is distracted from his pet issue of global warning in favor of another pursuit, the weather is bearable. But not around here, no-sir-ee...

The deciduous trees around my neighborhood have shed their leaves and gone into their own "flora" state of hibernation for the winter. If they only knew...meanwhile, weeds are sprouting up everywhere and growing with reckless abandon. My seasonal allergies are beginning to resurface as well. The grass in my yard has been growing, making an unplanned (and undesired) lawn mowing session necessary in the near future. And there seems to be no relief in immediate sight to the heat...

Melissa mentioned to me that she heard the weather in January and February will be much colder. I would just like chilly, moderately cold temperatures. But instead I'm either suffocating in the warmth or freezing, similar to that old classic Twilight Zone episode The Midnight Sun.

Still, I guess I shouldn't complain. After all, hot as it is, I am still getting a kind of reprieve from the stifling summer weather. Or should I more accurately say, from the stifling spring, summer and fall weather...

Where's Al Gore in the midst of all this? Dude, don't leave us in our hour of need! Stop chasing after that dangblasted ManBearPig, get off that cartoon show, and get back to cooling our planet back down!!!

Wish Thinking Was Like Changing Channels

Sometimes I wish my mind operated more like a television...well, in at least one important way, that is. It's all in the way that one channel switches to another, something that I have always taken for granted since my literally infantile days of TV watching in the late 1950's.

When I am engaging in a bout of channel surfing and, say, I change from South Park on one channel to an old James Bond movie on another, I'm not still seeing Stan standing there next to Sean Connery. Goldfinger isn't getting his heavy, Oddjob, to throw his razor-edged hat at poor, unlucky Kenny. And conniving Cartman isn't on the golf course switching golfballs to play a trick on Goldfinger. The change from channel to channel is abrupt and complete, with the old show completely obliterated on my screen in favor of its replacement. And that's how I wish my mind worked as well...

...with the one caveat that I am still consciously aware of the real world around me and able to react to urgent situations, I wish that I had more control over my train of thought. And maybe other people already do: NO, I'm sure they do, because...

A few months ago, my wife got hold of a questionnaire that supposedly enabled the respondent to determine whether or not he or she had adult attention deficit disorder. The scoring was such that the highest (most extremely attention deficit) number was "20". If you received "15" or higher, the advice was to get to your doctor as quickly as possible (why, to get drugged?). I answered the questions with unswerving honesty and got a "17". Wow, that was a bummer...

I have a great memory, but that isn't exactly the same thing as being able to keep my thoughts on track without wondering off in other directions. I am too easily distracted, and even when I purpose to think about a particular subject, it is often difficult to put other thoughts out of my mind. And I am completely averse to drug treatment, even if it is prescribed as the result of an official diagnosis by a respected and licensed physician. Who knows, maybe that's a mistake on my part. So, I suppose at least for a while, my thoughts are going to continue to be a bit like South Park superimposed on Goldfinger!

List Madness: The Police Songs Rated From Top to Bottom

The Police was a trio comprised of the British musicians Stewart Copeland (drums), Andy Summers (lead guitar), and Sting (bass guitar, keyboard, lead vocals, main songwriter). Their specialty was a seminal form of alternative rock based largely on an ingenious blend of reggae, punk, new wave, and jazz. They recorded and released five studio albums from 1978 to 1983 and then called it quits, with Sting enjoying a very successful solo career to this day.

From my perspective as someone who then listened primarily to single hits on the radio, the Police was a good band with some interesting songs. But after the release of their fourth album Ghost in the Machine in 1982, I finally took notice of them. But the album I first purchased was their third, Zenyatta Mondatta (on vinyl, with all of the cool pictures and cover art, so sadly lacking nowadays). I then realized the depth of this act's quality music and eventually acquired all five albums. To this day I regard them highly, and one of their songs, the apocalyptic Invisible Sun (which I discussed in this 2007 article), remains as one of my top all-time favorites.

Lately I have been listening to my Police collection on my mp3 player in shuffle mode while running and at work. It didn't take long to refamiliarize myself with the 54 tracks. Eventually as has been my custom with other artists I like, I decided to rate them from top to bottom according to my personal preferences. The list is below: no doubt you probably disagree with some of the rankings, but that's part of the fun of doing lists like this.

I didn't include the extra songs that the Police recorded. They had a few B-sides to their singles not appearing on their albums, and I have never heard them. I also omitted alternative versions of their original hits, such as the entirely different Roxanne recording. After each song, its album is indicated through the following code: Outlandos d'Amour [OA], Reggatta de Blanc [RB], Zenyatta Mondatta [ZM], Ghost in the Machine [GM], and Synchronicity [S].

Well, here goes...

1 Invisible Sun [GM]
2 Darkness [GM]
3 Synchronicity I [S]
4 Can't Stand Losing You [OA]
5 The Bed’s Too Big Without You [RB]
6 Canary in a Coalmine [ZM]
7 Synchronicity II [S]
8 It's Alright for You [RB]
9 Don't Stand So Close to Me [ZM]
10 Miss Gradenko [S]
11 When the World is Running Down You Make the Best of What’s Still Around [ZM]
12 Masoko Tanga [OA]
13 Spirits in the Material World [GM]
14 Too Much Information [GM]
15 De Do Do Do De Da Da Da [ZM]
16 Hungry for You (J’aurais toujours faim de toi) [GM]
17 Omegaman [GM]
18 Secret Journey [GM]
19 King of Pain [S]
20 No Time This Time [RB]
21 O My God [S]
22 Driven to Tears [ZM]
23 Roxanne [OA]
24 Peanuts [OA]
25 The Other Way of Stopping [ZM]
26 Regatta de Blanc [RB]
27 Next to You [OA]
28 Walking on the Moon [RB]
29 Bring on the Night [RB]
30 Man in a Suitcase [ZM]
31 Every Little Thing She Does is Magic [GM]
32 Truth Hits Everybody [OA]
33 Voices in My Head [ZM]
34 On Any Other Day [RB]
35 Hole in My Life [OA]
36 Death Wish [RB]
37 Message in a Bottle [RB]
38 So Lonely [OA]
39 Demolition Man [GM]
40 Bombs Away [ZM]
41 Be My Girl/Sally [OA]
42 Wrapped Around Your Finger [S]
43 Does Everyone Stare [RB]
44 Rehumanize Yourself [GM]
45 Walking in Your Footsteps [S]
46 Murder by Numbers [S]
47 One World (Not Three) [GM]
48 Every Breath You Take [S]
49 Contact [RB]
50 Shadows in the Rain [ZM]
51 Born in the 50s [OA]
52 Tea in the Sahara [S]
53 Behind My Camel [ZM]
54 Mother [S]

Quarter Infomercial Follow-Up

As a follow-up to my "Commercial Dream Seepage" article a few days ago, I happened to tune in to that same infomercial, in which an obnoxious man was hawking a couple of albums full of American commemorative quarters. In my original article, I dreamed (yes, dreamed) that the asking price was $99: in full consciousness, I observed that the price was TWO payments of $99. However, there were a lot of quarters in this TV offer, and according to the annoying gentleman, they constituted a complete set of all the variants produced not only in the "American States" series, but also the "America the Beautiful" series in the second album. So it finally made sense boasting that the image of Smokey Bear would be on the album cover: it was for that latter album featuring beautiful American scenic places engraved on the quarters.

Watching this, although convincing me that it wasn't really a monumental rip-off after all, gave me pause for reflection. This offer was ostensibly targeted for coin collecting enthusiasts, but was it really so in the final analysis? After all, the fun in any collecting hobby is in the gradual amassing of the "stuff" that the hobby constitutes. That includes starting small, noting the items that are wanted, and investigating various ways to add them to the collection. And a great part of the enjoyment in going over one's collection is recalling how the various items were acquired. This goes for collecting cards, stamps, coins, or anything else. I was an avid card collector as a kid. I envied others who had a larger collection than me and wanted to build up my collection to their level. But if someone just handed me a series' complete collection, then I would get no real satisfaction from possessing it. So that leads me to the probable "real" target of this infomercial.

Investment, pure and simple. People are looking for ways to invest their money into hard, tangible commodities that will appreciate in value over the years. It matters not whether the buyer of these quarter sets is a numismatic enthusiast: collecting coins is (very) secondary to the goal of investment for future financial gain, at least the way I see it...

Blog Entries a Little Sparce Lately

It has been a little difficult getting out blog entries lately. Hopefully, as the week progresses, I will have more time, energy, and mental focus to devote myself to more writing. As of this moment, though, I am tired and just want to rest...

NFL Ramblings

Regarding National Football League quarterbacks, I am not a big Tim Tebow fan. Actually, I tend to like his predecessor at Denver, Kyle Orton, more. It was pleasing to see him have such a good game with his new team, the Kansas City Chiefs, as they further endeared me to them by beating the Green Bay Packers 19-14. You see, I am a longtime Miami Dolphins fan and see any team that goes late into the season unbeaten as a threat to the unique legacy left by the 1972 Dolphins team, which won the Super Bowl that year and lost not a single game. The Pack fell on its back, so to speak, and I largely credit Mr. Orton's deft performance for it. Way to go, Kyle...

As for Tebow, I'm still a little miffed at his late heroics in a game earlier this year, leading the Denver Broncos to an improbable comeback win against my Dolphins, just as they were finally on the verge of winning their first game. I don't care one way or another about his open expression of his Christian faith: what bothers me is that a huge swath of the population is behind him for that reason alone (and then again, there are those who oppose him for that same reason). But one thing about his success which pleases me is how he is making fools out of the sports talk show "experts" who said that he was completely lacking in the skills needed to be a competent pro quarterback. I already knew of Tebow's versatility from his years here in Gainesville as the Florida QB. And he does a great job encouraging his teammates to play as a unit and to their best individual abilities, and to feel that victory is always possible (well, almost always).

Speaking of the Dolphins, they actually climbed out of last place in the AFC East Division by beating Buffalo 30-23 today. The two teams both sport 5-9 records, but Miami has the edge by having beaten the Bills twice. They have good prospects for next year. I hope the new "permanent" coach they get is a wise choice.

I'm trying to figure out which teams I'm going to support in the playoffs this year. It hasn't been fun for the state of Florida, with all three NFL franchises having pretty lousy, losing seasons. I like Green Bay (now that they've lost a game) and New Orleans in the NFC. I wish the New York Giants were doing better: their play is so inconsistent that they don't look to make the playoffs (unless everything goes their way in the last two weeks of the regular season). NFC teams that I absolutely dislike? The San Francisco 49ers for their arrogant head coach and the Detroit Lions for their dirty play. In the AFC, the "enemies" are more traditional: New England and Pittsburgh. I clearly like Baltimore more than any of the others, but after them I don't see a whole lot to like, sorry to say. Denver is an interesting (albeit way overhyped) team, but I think that should the New York Jets make the playoffs, I would prefer them. I would like to see San Diego make it, but like the Giants in the NFC, they are practically out of the playoff picture with their mediocre record. Of all the teams technically remaining in the running, I like the New York Giants the most, but like I said, their prospects don't look too good right now. So, assuming they don't get into the playoffs, I am now picking my two favorites to make it to the Super Bowl: the Baltimore Ravens and the Green Bay Packers. With the Ravens prevailing in the end.

Actually, that "wish list" stands a pretty reasonable chance of coming true, from where things stand right now...

I Will Miss Jax Half-Marathon

I probably should have known how this would go down, but I thought it was a good idea to at least set forth the goal: to run a half-marathon race each month through February. The weak link in this plan is the month of December because (1) working at the post office, I am heavily engaged in the holiday parcel processing season and (2) this is the month I would have to travel a good distance out of town to find a half-marathon race. The closest one will happen this coming Sunday morning in Jacksonville, but I will have worked late into the night before. I just don't think it will work out for me this time around.

Right now, it is enough for me to concentrate on keeping myself rested each day for work as the load and intensity increases. Some time next week, it will lighten up. But at least, while passing up on a half-marathon this month, I can continue to run a reasonable amount of miles with the idea of resuming the racing next month.

Commercial Dream Seepage

Last night, after an especially grueling shift of work processing Christmas season parcels and working overtime, I fell asleep in front of my television. For some reason, it was on H2 (formerly History Channel International) when I dozed off. I can't remember: did they really have a show on about history, for a change? But anyway, it couldn't have been all that exciting: apparently, before I knew it, I had fallen sound asleep.

I found myself having one of those interesting geographical dreams. I approached a place that had some kind of roller coaster ride going on. In my dream, I thought that it was familiar, but later couldn't place it: it was most likely just a composite of other rides I had experienced over the years. Anyway, I went into the little building where the ride's entrance was. A friendly, elderly gentleman (who seemed to be the ride's operator) greeted me as did a younger man. The younger man then suddenly began to go on babbling incessantly about some great deal he was offering, selling those old U.S. quarters from the 50 states. I calculated within my dream that $.25 X 50 = $12.50 (I wonder how many people can do that while asleep), so the deal had better be comparable. I was surprised when he instead asked for 99 bucks! But the dude was making clear that, not only was he selling every single version of these quarters, but was also putting them in a album with the official "Smokey Bear" logo on it. This began to seep into my mind as a confirmation that I was having a wacky dream. Moreover, this son-of-a-gun was not only bothering me with his heavy-handed, aggressive speaking reminiscent of some of those obnoxious fire-and-brimstone preachers (like John Hagee, ugh), but he was also keeping me from my ride! So I managed to arise out of my slumber. Only to find myself facing a TV infomercial (on H2, of course) featuring a different son-of-a-gun spewing out the same sales pitch, with the same overbearing manner, about the same coin album offer. With Smokey Bear on the cover. Surreal.

Still wondering whether I was still dreaming, I managed to get up and flick off that TV. In the process, I flicked off that salesman as well...

Dolphins Owner Fires Coach Sparano

The Miami Dolphins, headed for their third consecutive losing season under head coach Tony Sparano, after enjoying an improbable turnaround from a dismal 1-15 record in 2007 to a division-winning 11-5 in his first season after being hiring by Bill Parcells, have just fired Sparano. Apparently, this coach, who showed plenty of sideline enthusiasm, just couldn't keep his team together as a tight unit throughout games and over the course of a season. I thought the move was correct: there was no sign that the Dolphins' fortunes stood to change with Sparano in there. But the owner Stephen Ross, with the firing, stated that he wanted a young "Don Shula-type" to coach the team. Well, duh, doesn't everybody? After all, Shula is one of a kind: the all-time winningest coach in NFL history, with only 2 losing seasons in 26 while coaching Miami from 1970 through 1995. From 1996 through 2003, Shula's successors Jimmy Johnson and Dave Wannstedt (at least until 2004), managed to produce moderately successful seasons, none of them with a losing record. But in the last 8 years, Miami has suffered through 6 losing seasons. Enough is enough.

There are plenty of good coaching prospects out there, and Miami is an attractive place in which to work. Hopefully, the new coach, who will start his job after the end of the season, will fulfill owner Ross's vision at least to the point of establishing a more long-term, consistently winning team. But another Don Shula? Forget it!

About Three Dates

First, let's look at May 29 and October 9.

If I told you the "death days" for the famous people whose birthdays the above two dates represent, you might say, oh yeah... really? But instead, we remember November 22 instead of May 29 and December 8 instead of October 9 to remember the lives of John F. Kennedy and John Lennon. How come?

After all, these individuals were respected and even loved, not reviled, so their dying days were sad and tragic occasions. Why not remember their birthdays instead? After all, we celebrate Martin Luther King Jr.'s birthday as a national holiday on January 15...or the nearest Monday to it. Why not mark May 29 and October 9 as well for some positive celebration?

I think the reason is pretty self-evident, actually. We weren't around JFK or the former Beatle great when either were born, but their deaths were a kind of shared event among us: most people remember where they were and what they were doing when the tragic news was heard (presuming that they were old enough at the time, of course). So although their births weren't all that personal for us, their deaths certainly were...and unforgettable. But I think that there is still room enough on the calendar to give a little more attention to the birthdays too, don't you?

On an almost completely unrelated note, connected only because it's about dates, I remember the first time I ever followed the New Years Day college football bowl games. I was out with my father in some shop somewhere on US 441 in Hollywood, Florida in the afternoon on January 1, 1968. They had a television there tuned in to the Cotton Bowl game in Dallas, that year pitting Texas A&M against Alabama (the Cotton Bowl actually meant something back then). Just because I thought that "A&M" was an intriguing part of a college's name, I began to root for them. And they won, beginning the process luring me in as a habitual televised football spectator. In subsequent years, I looked forward to New Years Day with its major bowl games. As time passed by, the number of bowls proliferated. Finally, one, and then more of them began to be moved to the days immediately following in January. Still, I always knew that there would be some good college football to watch on New Years Day. Right?

Wrong! This coming New Years Day features ZERO bowl games! But don't despair, football junkies: it's on a Sunday that just happens to be the final regular season day for the NFL. I guess the television networks pretty much control the scheduling for football nowadays. Still, I miss that New Year's college bowl tradition...

An Exquisitely Gloomy Weather Day

Today has been one of those special weather days here in Gainesville, with the sky completely overcast, the temperatures hovering around 60, a strong wind circulating around, and the impression that it is always on the verge of raining without ever doing so. In other words, my kind of day!

No, I am not a "bright sunshine" kind of guy. I like the kind of brooding, dark weather that often befits my personality. So today rocked! It also reminded me of last Christmas, which experienced the same outside gloom the entire day with the cloud cover so thick that the night began to befall the area in mid-afternoon. I would know, since I was out running 20 miles in it! The main difference between then and now is that on Christmas it did finally let loose and rain (right at the end of my run).

Alas today, with its exquisite weather, would not see me performing a long run: I did that yesterday and now space them at least two days apart. I did run 1.34 miles, though (two laps around my block). Afterward, I just had to stand out in the backyard for a spell and let the weather overcome me, it was so wonderful...

Maybe tomorrow will see more of the same. But my experience tells me that this sort of weather pattern is fleeting. We'll probably either get rain or the clouds will abate. Right now, though, it's a little after nine at night and the weather is still the same as it has been all day...

British Online Spy Contest

A couple of days ago, I was watching CNN and saw a news story that I had some trouble believing. But no, it had to be true: British intelligence was holding an online contest to see who could decipher a difficult code on their website. Those with winning solutions received a prize: a job interview to become a career spy for the Crown!

So let's suppose that I am from any nation on Earth besides Great Britain. That most likely means that my country has its own intelligence/spy network at work and would love to infiltrate Britain's network, even if we were allies. So my country, most probably with more advanced technology and methods of cracking codes than do ordinary, individual citizens, solves the puzzle and has one of its agents stationed within Britain submit the winning solution. Presto, a mole served to order!

But wait, maybe that's what the smart guys in British intelligence are thinking and they are using this "contest" to filter out potential double agents. But...

Maybe those countries who would use this contest to plant moles see through this and will deliberately use people who can give misinformation to the British. But then again...

Maybe the British know that those countries will do this and they want to throw them off the trail of their real intelligence schemes...

Well, I suppose this could go on indefinitely. But I think I've already cracked their online code. You see, I have my own source of code deciphering material, delivered by a mysterious short, bespectacled operator going by the tag "Ralphie".

The solution is: "Be sure to drink your Ovaltine!"

O.K. Brits, I'm ready: sign me up!

Weis Leaves UF, No Big Loss

Florida offensive coordinator Charlie Weis, whose much-heralded presence in his first year on the job produced one of the worst offensive seasons that Gator fans have seen in recent decades, has decided to leave UF to become head coach at Kansas after stating just a few days earlier that he would stay at Florida for several years. Apparently, that school's athletic director decided that he wanted what Mr. Weis brought to Florida: a completely uninspired, lackluster offense and a leader whose words they can't believe. Good luck, if that's what they want out there; it's just one more item I can add to my long list of reasons I never want to move to an already lackluster state. On the other hand, my current governor, teabagger and suspected space alien Rick Scott (who has yet to produce any official, stamped, signed, and dated document specifically stating that he was born within our Solar System), is doing all that he can to make Florida as equally unattractive to live in...

Florida is now looking for a replacement for offensive coordinator. They need someone who will be able to salvage the ongoing recruiting season, which doesn't seem to be going very well at the moment with highly-sought-after prospects signing on with other schools. But then again, the current Gator team is largely made up of what sports analysts had regarded in the past as some of the nation's top recruiting classes. Still, they'd better hurry up, hire someone, and get the new o.c. on the road to add some more Gators! Oh, and how about adding a little razzle-dazzle to Florida's offense for a change?

And by the way, let's do something about getting ourselves some size and talent on the offensive line! It was downright embarrassing to see the Gators being pushed around on the line of scrimmage this year, game after game after game, sometimes against just average opponents...

Twelve Eight...Then and Now

Today marks the anniversary of the shooting death of John Lennon in 1980 at the hands of a lunatic at the entrance to the former Beatles' home, the Dakota Apartments in Manhattan just across from Central Park. He was only forty and had just begun to renew his musical career with a double album release, a team effort with his wife Yoko Ono. The assassin, whose name does not merit mention, supposedly believed that he was compelled to shoot Lennon for being an impostor of sorts, in conflict with his own inner mental model that he somehow took for real. And that's all I have to say about that.

I had just come back from having a pleasant meal at IHOP in south Gainesville and quickly tuned my tiny black and white TV on to ABC to watch the tail end of the Monday Night Football game featuring "my" Miami Dolphins, struggling through a rebuilding year and trying to ruin the playoff hopes of their divisional rival New England. Which they accomplished, booting the game-winning field goal at the tail end of the game, to loud cheers from the home Miami crowd. But I quickly learned with that good news that something very bad had happened: John Lennon had just been shot. It wasn't long before his death was reported, and soon after the game (then) ABC correspondent Geraldo Rivera was given free rein to discuss the matter, especially in the context of the friendship he had developed with the Lennons.

When someone dies, like Lennon in 1980, there is no next year, no 1981. For him, the universe has been extinguished while, from the viewpoint of the rest of the universe, the converse is true. The question I have may sound a bit silly, but I think it is pertinent nevertheless: is there such a thing as 1980? That year (well, most of it) contained within it the life essence of John Lennon, walking and breathing on Earth. Yes, that sweeping line of the "now" that separates past from future is currently 31 years down the road. But does that "now" determine reality in and of itself?

What do you think?

Twelve Seven

Seventy years ago, on the morning of Sunday, December 7, 1941, the Imperial Japanese Navy launched a surprise aerial attack on the American fleet stationed at Pearl Harbor, Hawaii, precipitating the U.S. entrance into World War II. This conflict had been going on for two years in the West, with Nazi Germany and fascist Italy pitted against the Allies (the national composition of which kept changing due to invasion and occupation). But truth be told, for all practical purposes, this horrible conflict that took so many lives began in 1931 with Japan's invasion of China.

For ten years before the Pearl Harbor attack, Japan, then ruled by a totalitarian military dictatorship that imposed the harsh Bushido nationalist doctrine on its population, brutalized the Chinese people as it enacted its own "Lebensraum" policy long before Hitler invaded Eastern Europe. In fact, the brutality of the Nanking occupation was so severe that the Nazi German officials stationed there were reportedly horrified enough to allow fleeing Chinese sanctuary in their embassy. But I'm not trying to rip on the Japanese here...

The fact is that countries like Japan and Germany epitomize high civilization for me. As does my good ol' U.S.A....and that has me worrying a bit.

A totalitarian society practices strict control of its population through a secret police network, informants, and harsh punishment of any perceived "deviants" from the state's line. But history has shown us in a frightening way how the perception of economic prosperity as well as the notion that outside enemies are threatening the country can lead its people not only to rationalize the plight they are experiencing under their ever-diminishing liberties, but also to fully embrace their oppressive government's policies, even if they lead to war and genocide.

So here we are in America, worrying about our precious economy. We see all these enemies out there trying to undermine us and we think that we need a strong leader who will lay the law down to those other countries. And what about the moral decay that is weakening us within? We need the government to pass laws which restrict immoral behavior among the population so that we can be internally stronger. And let's also fully support the state and whatever police tactics it employs to squelch constitutionally-protected peaceful dissent, because we all know how those good-for-nothing protesters are just trying to undermine us. Well, at least SOME of us want that, judging by the crowd reactions at some of these debates that have been going on lately.

I think that the lesson most commonly taught about Pearl Harbor is to not let your guard down about your enemies. But while taking care not to let that happen, let's make sure that we don't become the enemy ourselves. Prosperity is the great justifier: be careful not to relinquish your precious rights to the state for its sake, and don't rationalize the state's behavior based on your own economic well-being: your great civilized country could turn into something very ugly...

Lord of the Rings: Added Scenes

The other day I was watching Lord of the Rings: Return of the King on one of the Encore channels. I expected a repeat viewing of a movie I have seen so many times that I can predict what the characters are about to say. But this time around, things were different: they had added many new scenes to the movie.

The part where, at Isengard, the hobbits Merry and Pippin are reunited with the rest of the "fellowship" (sans Frodo, Sam, and Boromir) is rather puzzling in the original movie. After dominating Gandalf and terrorizing the surrounding people in the first two movies with his massive army of orcs, the wizard Saruman is reduced to residing hidden in his tower, without any real power left. That is, according to a terse statement that Gandalf makes. Then, mysteriously and without explanation, after safely in Saruman's possession within the tower for the first two movies, the black palantir (a magical psychic transmission ball) appears to Pippin at the bottom of the water just outside. I found this sequence frustrating and unsatisfactory in the original movie. But the revised version I saw the other night tied up all the loose ends and nicely cleaned up the story. I wondered to myself why they didn't include this in the original.

Other scenes were added as well: some were clearly superfluous to the story, such as the drinking contest between Legolas and Gimli. Others were important, such as what happened right after Aragorn made his enlistment pitch to the army of the dead. Or the time that Frodo and Sam were in Mordor and were forced to march for a time with Sauron's orc army. These scenes were exciting, making me wonder why they were left out of the movie.

I bought the DVD set for Lord of the Rings a few years ago and now feel a bit ripped off, knowing that I am missing all of those extra scenes. But this reinsertion of scenes into established movies has been going on for quite some time. The Good, the Bad, and the Ugly, The Godfather, and the Harry Potter flicks have all undergone this process, making their presentation on TV always a question of whether it's the old movie or the "new, improved" version.

What is interesting to me is that the extra scene in Return of the King with Saruman, while making the story more sensible, actually makes a complete break with J.R.R. Tolkien's writing. In the book, Saruman and Grima escape to foment trouble in the Shire, which the four returning hobbits have to deal with near the ending. In the movie, the Shire residents are blissfully ignorant of all the tumultuous events that had just transpired around them, regarding the returning hobbit heroes with apathy, even a little disdain.

I welcome the new scenes: actually, I'd like to see a whole lot more...

Recovery Day

Today was one of those days that my tired body just took over and told me to step back and take it easy. Fortunately, I was off from work and could afford to do this. After dropping off my daughter at school in the morning and then sitting at the nearby Starbucks in a near-stupor for about an hour, I went home to prepare for a good, long run. Only that never happened: I went back to bed and slept a few more hours. When I awoke, I realized that this was just going to be a "recovery" day for me.

With an expected intense day of work tomorrow due to the holiday season rush, I am glad I am taking this time to rest. Who knows, I may even take it easier on my running for another day...

December Mail Rush Upon Me Again

Well, the year has once again come around full circle and here I am in early December, a postal processing employee during the intensely busy Christmas season. I expect a very busy three weeks ahead of me as we are inundated with a seemingly endless amount of parcels to sort and send to their appropriate destinations. For I operate one of the parcel sorting machines at my local plant, along with my crew of eight other workers and a supporting cast of help from other parts of the facility.

Unfortunately, with the (what I consider very ill-advised) decision by upper-level postal management to move outgoing mail processing from Gainesville to Jacksonville after December, this is probably the last great Christmas mail rush I will be working. Unless, of course, I become one of those who end up excessed to Jacksonville or Tampa a few months from now as ALL of Gainesville's mail processing operations are transferred to those two cities.

There is a lot of uncertainty regarding where I will be working in the future, and what I will be doing. But whatever happens, I will still be a proud employee of a quality organization: the United States Postal Service, as well as an even prouder member, in my 25th year, of the best labor union in the nation: the American Postal Workers Union.

Since I may be working a lot of overtime (and sleeping overtime the following day), this blog may suffer a bit in the form of gaps. But rest assured, "constant reader" (with a tip of my hat to the great Stephen King), I'm keepin' the faith here: just you keep reading my drivel, O.K.?

Even if you just hit my blog and casually read it, go ahead and anonymously leave a comment (as long as it's not spam), especially if you have a criticism...

LSU-Alabama Title Pairing Not Right

Now that LSU has beaten Georgia for the Southeastern Conference championship this year in college football, that leaves, in all probability, two SEC schools to play for the national championship: LSU and Alabama. These two teams already played each other just a month ago, with LSU prevailing 9-6 in overtime. But one might say that, just because they were from the same conference (even the same division within that conference) and already played each other, that doesn't matter since they are the two best teams in the country (according to the determining BCS ranking system). So these two, from a six-team division within a conference, have been determined to be the best two teams in the country. Why?

The Southeastern Conference has distinguished itself in the previous six years by winning every one of those national championships. But the deciding championship game that each of the SEC teams won in those years was against a school from another part of the country. The fact that the other SEC schools, apart from chiefly small colleges, dominated the schedules of LSU and Alabama, means that there is not, in my opinion, a sufficiently strong enough point of reference to automatically lift the SEC high above all of the other conferences in stature and give Alabama, the team that lost to LSU, a shot at the title.

I would much rather see a team like Oklahoma State play LSU than Alabama. The BCS system in college football is an abysmal failure. It needs not just reform: it needs to be completely overturned in favor of a nationwide playoff system.

Stealth Spam Comments

Since you are obviously currently reading this blog, you are probably doing everything you can right now to keep yourself from becoming completely overcome by its dazzling, profound wit and wisdom. Seriously though, to be perfectly truthful about it, I don't promote this blog on the Internet and not that many people read it. Maybe they like it, maybe they don't: I don't know since few of them leave comments. Of the ones that do, though, I appreciate those comments whether they agree or disagree with me. Well....except for one type of "comment", that is...

Blogger, the Google blog publisher under which I write this blog, has a spam comment feature that keeps a lot of that unwelcome stuff from ever bothering me. Unfortunately, some of those out there promoting their own little businesses on the Internet have recognized that their free-advertising-via-comments is being cut down by spam-filters, so they adapted to this by actually leaving terse, bland, and unspecific pseudo-comments. With their business websites accessible through their "names" they used as submitters. Such was the case, among way too many I have been getting, with the phony comment for my "Two Bumper Stickers" article the other day. The writer wrote a broken tweet-length sentence saying that my bumper sticker article was nice and thanks for sharing it. Just enough to pass through a spam filter. No way am I going to publish it as a comment. And his name referred back to a business, naturally.

Once again, I strongly welcome comments. As a rule of thumb, though, just make sure that (1) you address specific things I wrote within the article and (2) don't advertise your business through your comment.

I don't think that's asking too much.

Unit 3 Arabic Vocabulary

Once again, this is from Teach Yourself Arabic by Jack Smart and Frances Altorfer. The pages where the new words are mark after each initial word for a new page.

أين...ayna.....where, 55
عن إذنك...:an idhn-ik.....excuse me (to a woman), 56
إنجلترا...ingiltarra.....England
عمان...:ammaan.....Amman
أردني...urduni.....Jordanian
إنجليزي...ingliizi.....English
مع الأسف...ma:a l-asaf.....I'm sorry
لا...laa.....not
فقط...faqaT.....only
العلربية...al-:arabiyyah.....Arabic, the Arabic language, 57
بطلاقة...bi-Talaaqah.....fluently
قليلة...qaliilah.....a little, few (fem.)
ما عملك؟...maa :amal-ik.....what do you do? (to a woman)
جامعة لندن...jaami:at landan.....University of London
طبيب...Tabiib.....doctor
طالب...Taalib.....student, 58
مدرس...mudarris.....teacher
مهندس...muhandis.....engineer
مدير...mudiir.....manager
رئيس...ra'iis.....boss
متحف, متاحف...matHaf, mataaHif.....museum, 59
كثيرة...kathiirah.....many, much (fem.)
جسر, جسور...jisr, jusuur.....bridge
محل, محلات...maHall, maHallaat.....shop, store
جامعة...jaami:ah.....university
وسط...wasT.....middle
غرفة...ghurfah.....room, 63
أتكلم...atakallam.....I speak
تتكلم...tatakallam.....you speak (masc.)
تتكلمين...tatakallamiin.....you speak (fem.)
يتكلم...yatakallam.....he speaks
تتكلم...tatakallam.....she speaks
مكتوم...maktuum.....concealed, 64
مكتوب...maktuub.....written
مسموح...masmuuH.....permitted
ممنوع...mamnuu:.....forbidden
مبصوط...mabSuuT.....contented, happy
مفروض...mafruuDH.....necessary, obligatory
أية...ayya.....which (fem.), 66
قليلا...qaliilan.....slightly, a bit
مشهور...mashhuur.....famous, 67
صيدلية, ات...Saydaliyyah, -aat.....pharmacy
سعيد...sa:iid.....happy, joyful

Urban Meyer Takes On Ohio State Coaching Job

At the close of his valiant and pressure-packed attempt at the national title for the 2009 college football season, University of Florida head coach Urban Meyer suddenly announced his resignation, for undisclosed medical reasons. A little while later, he changed his mind: he would return for 2010, but allow an assistant coach to temporarily take over the head coaching role until the fall. But still, a few months later, Meyer couldn't hold himself back and once again took charge of spring practice. The following 2010 season, though, saw him play a much more passive, seemingly detached role on the sidelines; the Gators also suffered through a lackluster, disappointing season. Coincidence? Maybe, but Meyer resigned for good at the end of that season.

Now, after a year away from coaching, and working as a very good and respected ESPN football analyst, Urban Meyer is once again diving head first into a challenging, high-stress coaching position, this time taking over scandal-riddled Ohio State. Meyer is from Ohio and once served as an assistant coach at Ohio State. Still, I have heard some unhappy rumblings around me here in Gainesville from UF fans who think that he somehow betrayed the Gators by going over to Ohio State. I beg to disagree, but am still a little worried, although not at all surprised, by our esteemed former coach's decision.

I don't have the slightest doubt that Urban Meyer suffered some sort of serious medical condition aggravated by his Type-A "alpha male" personality that seeks out stressful situations as challenges to be conquered. The fact that he first resigned late in 2009, then decided to came back to coach in the fall, and then couldn't wait to do that before jumping back into the fray during the spring, shows me that he is suffering from an inner conflict between his competitive nature and his better health interests. And now he has done it again: since the Florida job is taken by Will Muschamp, Meyer can't go back. Besides, he saw the unexpected opportunity to coach in his old place in his old home state and took it. When Meyer finally did resign from Florida for good, there was no hint that the Ohio State program was running headlong into a scandal and that its longtime coach would be terminated. So this is no "Nick Saban" scenario: unlike Saban, who deserted one team after only two years (without accomplishing anything for it and leaving it in complete disarray) for another the next year, Meyer gave the University of Florida two national championships and a close run for a third while serving for six years. His departure was for health reasons, which is why I'm a little worried about his new job.

The fans in Columbus are just as rabid for their Buckeyes as is the Gator "Nation" for their team. Urban Meyer is once again jumping into a situation with this Ohio State job, this time for six years, that may well tear him apart. Maybe I'm wrong and that the pressure won't get to him and destroy his health. I hope so, but for his sake (and that of his family) I wish he had stayed in broadcasting. As far as the University of Florida is concerned, though, he has absolutely nothing to apologize for.

I wish Urban Meyer the best in his new job and his life. Not that I intend to start rooting for Ohio State anytime soon..

The Precious Rings and Cellphones

One of the Encore channels was showing the Lord of the Rings trilogy the other day. I've seen it many times before, but always enjoy repeat viewings. Tolkien's story is full of insights and lessons about human nature and society, and I usually pick up something new each time I watch it. This time was no exception.

The whole premise of Lord of the Rings is that, in the distant past on Middle Earth, different sets of rings were forged and presented as gifts of power to the leaders of the men, elves, and dwarfs. Unknown to them in their utter attachment to these rings, which they wore and treasured, was the fact that the dark lord Sauron had forged a separate ring that bound all who wore the others under his power and control. The result was the ascendency of Sauron to power and war against the peoples of Middle Earth.

I can't help thinking that, with today's increasingly compact and Internet-fast cellphones, something similar is going on. Like Tolkien's rings, their possessors tend to be almost fanatically attached to them; they really represent in some ways their "precious". And it does seem that these little gadgets provide their owners with a lot of power, don't they? But...

It seems that, with each new advent in information technology comes a corresponding decrease in personal privacy. For not only is it much easier to pick up signals from portable devices and hack personal information from them, but simply transacting any kind of business on them seems to be fed into various data banks that build up dossiers on the users. But there is something, in my opinion, even more foreboding than this...

My particular phone has a feature whereby all of the individual phone locations within my plan (with me there are four) can be pinpointed and revealed through GPS (presumably as long as the phone is "on"). This phone-locating service is supposedly a purely elective option available only to the subscriber, but my suspicious nature just can't keep me from wondering whether other parties have access to this information besides me. You can see, can't you, how much concentrated power could arise if some one party knew the exact whereabouts of everyone? Especially if the people didn't know this? Coupled with the increasing ability to launch precision remote-control military attacks, this could make that party almost invulnerable and all-powerful. Remind you yet of Sauron?

So please forgive me this near-paranoid rant. After all, this is America and something like that could never happen here, only in some made-up fantasy land like Middle Earth...or could it?

Change WRUF-FM's Format

Chuck Woods, a University of Florida journalism graduate and retired faculty member, has written an article appearing in today's Gainesville Sun editorial section. In it, he decries the decision that the School of Journalism made last year to switch UF's powerful 100,000 watt radio station, WRUF-FM, from a rock format to country and western music. The intention was to increase the station's ratings, but as Woods points out, there is more to this than ratings: the community's interests should have been taken into account.

Gainesville is a college town, with a high demand among its population for fine arts programming. Indeed, Woods reports that in Tallahassee and Tampa, the state universities there that own two FM stations (like UF) devote one to Public Radio news/talk and the other to fine arts. But not here in Gainesville!

It's bad enough that I am stuck with a U.S. representative, based in Ocala, who is an arch-conservative and consistently votes against the interests and desires of most of the Gainesville residents who were gerrymandered into his district by a Republican-dominated state legislature a few years ago. Now my local Gainesville radio station has been "gerrymandered" as well to serve a particular cultural demand that is already being met by two powerful Ocala stations.

As a matter of fact, as Chuck Woods reports, the predicted boost in ratings didn't happen, instead going down from #7 to #10 in the area market. So it turns out that NOTHING positive came out of this programming switch.

I agree with the writer that WRUF-FM is in dire need of a format change, and his suggestion that it be to fine arts is something that, if implemented, might well herald my return to listening to broadcast radio on a regular basis.

Two Bumper Stickers

The other day I was behind two different cars with interesting bumper stickers on them. One featured a stereotypical image of Jesus looking kind of hippie-ish on the left, with the accompanying message declaring, "Change you can believe in". The other's words were pretty blunt, too: "I'm in the NRA...and I vote". So why would I think these two bumper stickers are interesting?

Well, we all know (that is, those few remaining of us with attention spans worth mentioning) that Barack Obama ran under a banner of "change" throughout his successful 2008 presidential campaign. And most of the evangelical right-wing Christian community fervently voted against him in that election. So the "Jesus" bumper sticker was a nifty blending of politics and religion, implying not-so-subtly that Obama, that Democrat, is a false "changer". This dovetails nicely with the Republican Rich People's Party's strategy, which aims to add to its base support group of 1% of the population by pushing hot-button issues among the electorate. The proud possessor of this bumper sticker most likely believes that it's the Republican Jesus Party. As for the other sticker...

I'm not exactly sure whom that pro-NRA message was for, unless its owner thinks that politicians are always driving close behind. But truth be told, I am NOT an National Rifle Association member...and I vote, too! What this gun-o-phile probably is saying with this message is that he or she places this issue way above all others as far as a motivating voting issue. Once again, no doubt this individual would see the GOP as something different from its core agenda, which is to further the interests of the already very wealthy and powerful at the expense of everyone else. But you know, instead, it's the Republican Gun Party, as far as this person is concerned.

I have heard the various arguments for the pro-gun viewpoint, and they always come back to the U.S. Constitution's Second Amendment as the end to all discussions on the subject, with the inexorable conclusion that gun ownership should be universally available and unrestricted. Only one problem, though...I have read the Second Amendment many times: what exactly is it that these people don't understand about the words "well-regulated"?

It wouldn't surprise me if the GOP didn't play a role in putting out either or both of these bumper stickers. That's because the only way that they can survive as a viable, popular party is to push issues that arouse fear and suspicion among the population. The Democrats are thus portrayed as the party of anti-Christian values and will take away your guns, so vote for the Republican {Rich People's} Jesus Gun Party...

Entering Jax Half-Marathon in December

This year, starting with my recent Tom Walker Memorial race, I decided to try and run in a half-marathon race each month, from November to February. November's race is behind me, January will have me entering the Ocala Half-Marathon, February I'll enter the FivePoints Half-Marathon in Gainesville, and December...what about December, anyway?

Owing to my work situation (December is the busiest month of the year at the post office, with plenty of overtime to deal with), I can't exactly plan on going anywhere far from home to run a half-marathon race. And since I won't be able to get Saturdays off for the duration of the month, I am limited to Sunday races relatively close to home. So after looking at my options, I have decided to run in the December 18th Jacksonville Bank Half-Marathon. It isn't too far away, and although I will have worked the night before, I don't anticipate having to stay late at work on Saturday.

Still, I will be facing a bit of driving after not very much sleep, and then a 13.1 mile run starting early in the morning. And who knows what the weather will be like...

Well, nobody said it would always be easy!

Being Offended

A few weeks ago, while playing Tim Tebow's Denver Broncos, a Detroit Lions defensive player sacked the popular quarterback. Immediately following this play, the Lion knelt down on one knee facing Tebow, still on the ground, mocking his habit of doing this as a short prayer on the sideline. Tebow reacted later to what I consider to have been very offensive behavior by saying that they were just having some fun and that it wasn't any big deal. On the other hand, Tebow has shown a knee-jerk tendency in the past to act offended at the treatment of his coaches or teammates by someone in the press. So there always seems to be something that will set somebody off, although it may not be the most apparent.

I myself can relate to Tebow taking up offense on behalf of others, most recently regarding what I see as egregiously hateful and racist treatment of my president and, worse, his wife and children. The other day, acting as First Lady, Michelle Obama was introduced at a NASCAR event and was roundly booed by many in the crowd. Why? For being the spouse of someone they politically opposed? Rush Limbaugh then seized upon this story and said on his radio show that the NASCAR fans had it right: they were booing Michelle for being too "uppity". Racism if I ever heard it.

Personally, though, there is one thing above all others that truly offends me. I know that others may rudely and even crudely express something derogatory about my appearance, behavior, or opinions. To me, I try not to take it too personally, although I have been accused in the past of being a little bit too touchy about such things. But there is one thing that I will take up the banner of personal offense in a heartbeat and not let it go: when someone denies my own reality.

When I tell someone that I saw something with my own eyes and they refuse to believe me, I am offended. When someone at work says that I am missing a certain placard, I respond to them that not only do I have it, but I just posted it, and they look at me like I'm crazy, I am offended. And when I tell a friend that not only did I hear on the radio a specific story of common interest, but that I also read it in the newspaper...and he refuses to believe me until he consults with someone else...I am offended. And sadly, I suppose, these offenses tend to stick with me.

No, I don't get offended like all of those pious, self-righteous religious people who take to the streets and riot if any of their religious symbols are improperly presented in the media ANYWHERE in the world (or even on the Moon or Mars, I suppose) according to THEIR dictates. But denying my own stated experience (which includes my own very personal, vivid childhood memories) probably stirs up as much anger within me as does any offense that another decides to take up for any other reason...

And you know what, I have absolutely no inclination to change: if someone doesn't believe what I say I DIRECTLY EXPERIENCED, then they need to discretely keep it to themselves...and out of my face!

Football, Food, Movie Marathons

So being the homebody couch potato that I tend to personify on my days off, here I am at home on this Thanksgiving holiday, musing about what lies ahead for me on this day. And giving thanks, of course, that today I am off from work!

The house is currently permeated by the heavenly aromatic mixture of cooking foods, with serving time set around 1:30 this afternoon. Among the many items I am anticipating are turkey, stuffing (an all-time favorite), and pumpkin pie. Oh, and there are few things that surpass Melissa's home-made macaroni and cheese. And after the meal, a prolonged period of sleepiness, I am sure, highlighted by falling into a snooze in front of the television.

Television will be featuring the usual complement of football games and movie marathons. The Dallas Cowboys will be playing their traditional Thanksgiving afternoon game, and today it will be special: a rematch of the incredible 1993 turkey-day battle against the Miami Dolphins, which the latter won by virtue of a freak play at the very end. This year Miami, although pretty much out of the playoff running, has been surging of late. As has Dallas, so this game promises to be very entertaining (especially if you follow either team). Still, should things turn boring here, there are also a couple of interesting (to me) movie marathons going on as well.

The Sci-Fi Channel is running James Bond movies all day long while AMC is showing The Godfather Parts I and II (and not that disappointing Part III). Not that I plan to just sit there glued to my chair: my family is planning a trip to the movie theater, although we haven't yet finalized what we will watch there.

Before all of this, though, in just a few minutes, I will be going out on a neighborhood run. The weather is finally cooperating, with the humidity below 60% and the temperature in the mid-sixties.

Well, I guess I'll be off and running: Happy Thanksgiving!

Heat and Humidity Still Impedes Running

The last few days have seen me either curtailing my road running distance in my training sessions or fleeing to the air-conditioned sanctuary of my YMCA treadmill, all due to the unseasonably hot and humid weather we have been suffering through here in Gainesville. Supposedly, after the "cold" front passes through later today, it will get a bit cooler, possibly even dipping down into the upper forties with daytime highs in the mid-to-upper seventies. Still, that's better than what I have been experiencing recently. Sunday's conditions forced me to the treadmill, on which I ran 9.3 miles. Monday I ran a couple of laps around my block (1.34 miles) and was sweating profusely in the 87% humidity. Yesterday, initially intending to run seven miles, I felt the need to shorten it to five because of the stifling moisture permeating the air. And today I only made it once around the block (.67 mile), hoping for better conditions tomorrow.

We'll see how things go tomorrow on Thanksgiving. I expect a good, relatively lengthy run, with the only serious limiting factor being the danger of stuffing myself with too much food beforehand. Still, since I'm off from work tomorrow, I can wait for a while to do my running after what promises to be a very large meal...

Eleven Twenty-Two

Today marks one of those sadly-increasing dates, like 4/4, 9/11, 12/7, and 12/8, that represent tragic events. Of course, today is the 48th anniversary of John F. Kennedy's assassination in Dallas, Texas. Many people think of this as a pivotal moment in our history: too many important things happened differently under the subsequent Johnson administration, some good and some very, very bad. The worst of the bad was the massive military escalation in Vietnam even after intelligence reports clearly indicated that this strategy wouldn't work. I can't imagine Kennedy making the same stubborn, bone-headed and callous decisions that LBJ did: it just wasn't a part of his character. Also, I wonder whether we would have abandoned our Apollo/Moon landing program prematurely had JFK stayed in office for two whole terms, as he was clearly headed for an easy reelection in 1964. With no Vietnam to burden a second term, the political resurrection of Richard Nixon in 1968 becomes a major question as well. And although Johnson was lukewarm to Apollo, Nixon was outright hostile to it, being the one who was instrumental in curtailing the missions and leaving us in low-Earth-orbit ever since (actually, we've now regressed so badly that we can't even do that anymore).

On the bright side (if you can imagine a bright side to a horrible act of cruel violence like an assassination), Lyndon Johnson, with his experience twisting arms as Senate Majority Leader, was able to get a torrent of progressive legislation quickly passed upon entering office. This included landmark bills like the Civil Rights Act, the Voting Rights Act, and Medicare. Had Kennedy been able to stay in as president, this legislation probably would have dragged on for years, being impeded in large part by boll-weevil southern conservative Democrats sitting on the bills while sitting as committee chairmen. On the other hand, perhaps the racial unrest that rose up under Johnson wouldn't have materialized under Kennedy; at least JFK may have been able to handle it better, who knows...

The feeling that history turned in a big way on Kennedy's murder has inspired Stephen King to write a novel about it, soon to be released. I may not be able to wait for the library this time to check it out: to the bookstore I say!

Goodkind Driving Me Nuts With Boring Novel

I wonder how many people picked up the first of Terry Goodkind's 12-volume Sword of Truth fantasy series with the firm determination to read through the entire series, only to become so frustrated in the first few chapters that they put it down, never to pick it up again. I know that's how I am feeling right now, about halfway through the first book, titled Wizard's First Rule.

One of my major gripes about Christopher Paolini and his Eragon fantasy series, besides the suspicion that he ripped off just about every major (and minor) idea of his from other writers, is that he tediously goes on for page after page exploring the innermost thoughts of his characters. Maybe you're the kind of reader who digs this, but I find it to be a literary cop-out, a short-cut around using the unraveling story as a way to better get to know the characters and their personalities. But at least I thought that, well, at least here Paolini is writing with some originality (very boring originality, that is). Ooops, maybe he wasn't after all...

No, I don't know whether Paolini read Goodkind or not. But I would be surprised if he hadn't at least begun to read the first book even if he, like me, later laid it down in frustration. Because Goodkind, who began writing his Sword of Truth series several years before Paolini, is eerily similar to the latter with his endless excursions into the thoughts, sub-thoughts, and micro-sub-thoughts of his characters. No wonder that this series is so damned long! Ironically, though, Goodkind has (at least so far) spared the suffering reader with this torture regarding the antagonist, Darken Raul (doesn't that sound a lot like Star Wars?). With Raul, Goodkind lets his actions speak for what kind of person he is. And although those actions are dastardly and nasty, at least I know when I come across a chapter featuring the "bad guy", I will enjoy a kind of reprieve from the mental tedium pervading the "good guy" narrative. The result is that I am unwittingly beginning to root for the antagonist to vanquish those god-awful-boring heroes!

So I don't think I'm going to make it through the first book, much less the whole series. But that may be just as well: I saw Stephen King give a speech and Q & A on C-Span and he is soon coming out with two very interesting stories.

Now what will I ever do if THE KING retires from writing??!!

Gainesville Sun Ignores Local Running Races

Last week's Tom Walker Memorial Half-Marathon race in Gainesville represented a major sporting event in this community of mine. Promoted in advance in the local papers, nevertheless NO coverage was provided of this event's results. No, not even a flimsy article anywhere indicating the very top finishers. Yet, especially in the Gainesville Sun, we get an endless stream of yawn-inducing drivel about various aspects of the Gators football team. Reality check, Gainesville Sun: there's more to sports than your precious NCAA football and the grossly underachieving and overindulged Florida Gators!

It could well be just that the sports editor has some kind of grudge against the sport of running. Maybe he was a nonathletic or out-of-shape little kid and the other kids laughed at his meager attempts to run back then. Yeah, I bet he hated that aspect of physical education class. Maybe at least with football, he was good at just standing there on the line and blocking. Or maybe he WAS a good runner once and was slighted at some time in the past, holding onto a grudge all these years. Or maybe he just can't get along with the Florida Track Club, the organizer and promoter of this event. No, that can't be it: the Gainesville Sun is an equal-opportunity ignorer of all local running races (unless they are officially affiliated with colleges or high schools).

Then again, it might not be the sports editor at all.

Maybe it's just that my hometown Gainesville Sun sucks, pure and simple. But no, that can't be it either: sometimes they do come out with some interesting articles. So then what is it they have against running?

Running is very popular here in Gainesville, with many people engaging in the activity on many levels. It's a shame that those "running" my local newspaper, which does have some positive features, seem to think that this sport isn't important enough to report...

Florida Eases Into a Bowl It Doesn't Deserve

The University of Florida football team has a good thing going for themselves in spite of this year's mediocre edition. They are currently 5-5 and will probably lose next week's regular season finale against a superior Florida State team. And why do I emphasize the words "regular season"? Because, in spite of their difficulties and probable humbling 6-6 finish, they will still be eligible to play in a post-season bowl game, full of its pomp and glory (and financial reward). This is due to a rule allowing schools with non-losing records to participate in bowls and likewise prohibiting the "losers" from "disgracing" these games with their presence. But Florida?

The Gators aren't the only major college school that pads their schedule with easy opponents, but they may well be the worst offender. They opened their season against two pushover small colleges, giving the world (and sadly even themselves) in doing so the false impression that they were a much better team than they actually were. Add to this the fact that their next two conference opponents were having dismal seasons and you had a 4-0 team pushing to be included in the Top Ten. Then, the bottom fell out of their season as they played against several highly ranked teams and went 1-5 (and barely pulling out their one victory during this stretch). So UF is 5-5 with the Seminoles to play next week. So how do they get to go to a bowl?

For some reason I cannot fathom, a few years ago the bigshots who set the rules for college football decreed an extra game in the regular season, making it twelve games. Florida reacted by scheduling a powder-puff pushover college late in each season. This year they are playing Furman, a team that hasn't exactly sparkled, even against other schools in their level of play. That game, which the Gators could win blindfolded, is going to begin here in Gainesville less than two hours from now. This "victory", hollow as it will be, will nevertheless be the one that gives them a pass into a bowl game, one that I think they don't deserve at all.

What's really sad about this Furman game today will be the feigned excitement expressed by the play-by-play radio announcers whenever Florida pulls off a successful play against their grossly (and deliberately) outmatched opponent.

Bicycling in My Life

When I was a kid, I hardly ever rode a bicycle. In fact, it wasn't until I was sixteen that I even owned one. The only reason that I instantly could ride it from the time I set it out in the parking lot was that, many years before when I was about eight, there was an old beat-up bicycle in our storage room at home that I would repeatedly get up on and try to balance myself in our backyard. But once I actually began riding one on the street in 1973, I fell in love with this activity. Yet I never did fall for the trappings and expense of "serious" bicycling. To me, that would have detracted from the utter simplicity and freedom of being so mobile with a vehicle that ran on no fuel, could be parked just about anywhere, had very cheap maintenance, and cost me only about a hundred bucks.

I continued my fervent bicycling for about 22 years, finally cooling off in late 1995 when I changed my work schedule to a shift when bicycling conflicted too much with the local traffic. You see, although I lived about eight miles from my workplace, I would often ride my bicycle to work and back. This also meant riding up some pretty steep (for Florida) hills. So I kept myself in pretty good shape with this activity.

Since that time, my bicycling tapered off considerably. Along with that went my physical fitness as well, and at times I got quite overweight. A few years ago I began to exercise at my YMCA's workout room. Then, a local Starbucks manager, Marty Bower, told me that with his suggestion Gainesville had started to hold an annual marathon/half-marathon in February (put on by LifeSouth). I told him that I wanted to run in it, but tarried in getting back to running. Finally, in 2007 I began to run in earnest, first on the treadmill, then in the vicinity of Gainesville's Westside Park, and finally settling down to designing and running lengthy courses up and down my neighborhood roads. So my fitness level improved again with the running, but I never did get back to bicycling very much. And I did manage to run and complete the 2010 LifeSouth Half-Marathon, but unfortunately Marty had left Starbucks by then and I couldn't brag to him about it.

During my "heyday" of bicycling, I felt relatively safe on the road. Sadly, I can no longer confidently state that. Motorists today seem very impatient and are too easily distracted with their assorted "toys", the worst being their cellphones. They tend to drift off the road too much into the bike lines that are reserved for me, not them. No, I have to admit it: I'm a little bit scared to undertake bicycle riding again to any appreciable degree.

Not that, from time to time, I won't just get on my bicycle and ride around for a little bit. My days of "extreme" bicycling are probably over, but I'll always cherish the memories of my journeys in the now-receding past...

Atlas of Middle Earth and Its Appeal

Every now and then I get into a whimsical mood and check out a peculiar spin-off book from my local library: The Atlas of Middle Earth by Karen Wynn Fonstad. It is based on the works of J.R.R. Tolkien, known best for The Hobbit and the Lord of the Rings trilogy. This book goes into meticulous detail about the various stages of change in Middle Earth, a thoroughly fictional place, through the different "ages" as Tolkien laid out in his often cumbersome tales.

Fonstad is herself a geographer with cartographic experience. It shows in this excellent book, although as I study its pages I get the disturbing feeling that my time would be better served looking over maps of real places. And yet, because I have enjoyed an affinity with maps since early childhood and feel quite comfortable around them, I keep coming back to this book.

As for the Third Age, the era in which The Hobbit and Lord of the Rings transpires, I am pretty familiar with the geography of this completely non-existent world. As for the earlier ages, there were a lot of cataclysmic upheavals that occurred with Middle Earth, raising and sinking islands and parts of continents, making one place move to another realm, and even changing the shape of Middle Earth itself. Definitely pure fantasy, not science fiction!

Since Atlas of Middle Earth is based on stories and illustrates where events took place involving those stories' characters, how about a personal "Atlas of Real Earth" compiled in a comparable manner? Let's say, for example, that I want such an atlas for my family and friends. The maps would feature migration routes as we moved from southern Georgia in my infancy to Alexandria, Virginia, and then to Opa-Locka and later Hollywood in southeastern Florida. Then in my adulthood to Gainesville, Leesburg for a seven-month respite, and then back to Gainesville. There would be a special page showing the various places in Gainesville I've lived as well. Not to mention the vacation excursions and other travel I've undergone. And of course, friends and other members of my family would have their own tales and "trails" featured on the maps.

I think that would be a pretty cool idea for a business: make and sell a highly stylized atlas, patterned after Tolkien's maps, depicting your own life's events and journeys just as if you were the one living out some fantasy adventure!

Unseasonably Hot and Humid Weather

I am beside myself at the sorry weather we're experiencing here in the middle of November in north-central Florida. After the cold morning (32 degrees) on Saturday when I suffered at the beginning of my half-marathon race, the temperatures rapidly surged upward until we are now left with lows in the 60's and highs in the 80's. And the humidity? Earlier today around 11 am, the humidity, normally dissipated by that time of the morning, still stood at an oppressive 87%. So instead of running outdoors, I felt the need to run inside on the treadmill. And tonight while driving home, I marveled at the combination of the warmth and a very, very thick fog.

I don't see any relief in sight from this horrible weather. I guess the only way it's going to get cold again is for me to sign up for another running race...

Anthropology and Race

Former University of Florida Anthropology Department chairman and professor emeritus John Hartwell Moore has written an important opinion piece in last Sunday's Gainesville Sun concerning the need to emphasize the field of anthropology in our university curriculum, our extreme right-wing governor Rick Scott's loudly-expressed opinions on the matter to the contrary.

Moore's main argument is compelling: before the advent of modern anthropology during just the last century, academic discussion about diversity among humanity was based on an orthodoxy dividing people into distinct "races", each one with its own particular traits of intelligence and personality. Even though this racial eugenics-based theory was used to justify slavery and discrimination in America and persecution of Jews in Europe, encyclopedias and texts continued to display articles about the three main "races" in the world and how other groups were "mixes" of these "races".

Professor Moore named a group called "Southern Physicians" who used racist theory as "science" to try to justify racial segregation. Modern anthropology, on the other hand, does not recognize "race" as a legitimate scientific concept with an applicable meaning.

As a child, I remember looking in my home encyclopedia at pictures of different racial types throughout the world, classified under the banners of "Caucasoid", "Negroid", or "Mongoloid". This implied that there was such a thing as "racial purity", a very dangerous concept as history has tragically borne out. Children born of parents of differing "races" were deemed as "mixed race". We still (regrettably) generally adhere to these notions today, modern anthropology notwithstanding.

Since there is no such thing as "race" there is also no such thing as "mixed race". Race is a matter of subjective perception, not objective reality. On those annoying questionnaires I get from time to time, I am just as entitled to bubble in next to "black" or "African American" for my racial/ethnic affiliation as I am to fill in for "white" or "European". But I actually just see myself an almost universally human "brown", thank you. Funny that they never offer THAT choice on a questionnaire of this type...

I agree with John H. Moore's conclusions: anthropology needs to be emphasized more in schools, not less. After all, in a world full of misinformation, widely-believed conspiracy theories of all sorts, the closet-racist "birther" movement about President Obama, and denial of solidly established facts like the Jewish Holocaust and evolution, the last thing we need is to retreat from science and reason in our educational system. If anthropology fades, then something more insidious and false will surely replace it as a model of humanity's diversity. And then I'm afraid we'd be in for more trouble...

Too Many Presidential Debates

I am wondering whether anyone else is picking up on the same thing: aren't there way too many Republican presidential debates? I'm not saying this because I am anti-Republican: I thought the same about the Democratic campaign against Bush in 2003-2004. To me, all these debates seem to accomplish is give the other party (this time it's the Democrats) ammunition to use in the general election whenever a candidate commits a gaffe (which sometimes happens several times in a single debate). Also, if the Republicans are really serious about regaining the White House in the 2012 election, then these debates are also counterproductive in that they force the candidates to play up to the more extreme conservative elements in the party. Instead, the candidates should be demonstrating to the nation that they are reasonable leaders with the country's greater interests at heart, not just towing some narrow ideological line that has little broad appeal to the electorate.

Perhaps the reason we are currently experiencing so many debates is something that I have alluded to in some previous articles: Americans seem to have some serious issues with their attention spans and memories. Or at least enough of them do to potentially effect the outcome of close elections. Maybe the GOP organizers see this, too, and feel that only with these continuing debates can they keep the campaign (and their candidates) in the public eye before that public quickly forgets about them!

My Half-Marathon Race Earlier Today

Earlier this morning, I ran the Tom Walker Memorial Half-Marathon as planned. And as has usually been the case with me, the temperatures spiked severely downward. It was 32 degrees at the race's start (about 8:10) with 100% humidity. Not fun at all for me. I spent most of the pre-race waiting in the car with the heater going. But eventually I shivered my way somehow to the starting line, once again deliberately behind as many entrants as I could get.

This race is basically along a single paved trail (with a slight divergence at the beginning), with the second half of the race a retracing of the path back to the beginning (or close thereto). One thing that I noticed this time around above 2010's run was that the first three miles (and the last three) of the race had a lot of hills and valleys. It was more difficult for me this year since I have only been either training around my immediate, very flat neighborhood or on the treadmill. Last year I incorporated a path that had some small hills into my training, so the race course's hills weren't such a big deal then.

In spite of the hills, I felt pretty strong throughout the run and once again decided to run the race through from beginning to end without walking breaks. Still, I was certain that my time would be much slower than last year. Imagine my surprise when I came to the finish line with a new personal half-marathon record, turning in a time of 1:59:38.

After the race, my legs were sore. But that was pretty much it for the recovery, which has gone quite well. I am very encouraged by my successful run today. After all, I hadn't covered a half-marathon distance in a run since this past January 23's Ocala Marathon. My training strategy instead consisted of alternating long runs with short ones on successive days, with the long runs varying from 7 to 10 miles. Apparently, this is the way to go for me with half-marathon training. After all, it is hard for me to argue with the results!

My Half-Marathon Tomorrow Morning

Tomorrow morning I will be running in Gainesville's Tom Walker Memorial Half Marathon for the second consecutive year. Last year I ran without employing my customary run-walk method, going nonstop for the 13.1 mile distance. I was also training for a marathon race then, so this race was a "way-stop" for me, so to speak. Now, it's a little bit different. For one, the half-marathon is my chosen full-length race for the present and future. For another, I fully plan to do my usual "run six minutes, walk one minute" routine throughout the run. But like last year, I am going about it will little concern for my time and finish. My practice pace is my race pace, pure and simple.

In training for it, for more than the past two weeks I have been alternating my days between long runs and very short ones. Today, though, I deliberately broke my string of 16-straight running days to rest my body for tomorrow.

It looks as if the weather will be dipping down to almost unbearable cold, just for my race. This is the fourth straight race of half-marathon length or more that it has done this for (or to) me. So far the prognosticators have the temperature dropping to around 37. Let's see how low it really goes.

Well, I had better post this, sign off, and review the location of the park where the race begins and ends. I haven't been there since the last one..

Penn State Students Borderline Psycho Over Paterno

And I thought it was bad enough here in Gainesville during the Urban Meyer/Tim Tebow era, with any criticism of the two local football demigod/heroes met with angry rebuffs. But we're quite reasonable here in comparison to the lunacy currently transpiring at Penn State University, which last night fired its long-time head football coach Joe Paterno.

You see, in 2002 Paterno received direct information from an eyewitness who saw his former assistant defensive coach Jerry Sandusky RAPING a little boy in an athletic-area shower on campus. All Paterno did was to perfunctorily refer the matter to his "superior", athletic director Tim Curley. Curley essentially sat on his hands and not only covered up this atrocity without contacting the police, but also continued to allow Sandusky on campus, although he was under "university" orders not to bring any of "his boys" with him (that rule in itself was incredibly bizarre: the suspected serial rapist can appear on campus, but his victims can't). I have no doubt that Paterno must have encountered his old colleague on numerous occasions during that time, but he apparently decided that the welfare of little children was trivial in comparison to his good-old-boy relationships, even if one of the good-old-boys happened to be a sexual predator. In response to Paterno's apathy and inaction, the board at Penn State in charge of firing people did just that last night: they fired Paterno. So what was the reaction around Penn State?

I'd like to think that people around campus felt a little shame and a lot of letdown that their revered authority figures allowed something this horrible to go on for so long (the 40-count indictment against Sandusky spans 15 years, from 1994 to 2009). Unfortunately, this isn't the case. Instead, students are taking to the streets and angrily demonstrating, not for the young victims, but rather for Paterno, who helped to enable this to continue by conveniently looking the other way. And I heard snippets of the press conference there last night when the firing was announced. The local reporters there were just as irrational as the students, angrily telling the college official there that Paterno was being treated unfairly (once again without expressing any concern for the little boys who suffered these crimes).

When I think of the shame that supposedly responsible people at this once highly respected university have brought down upon it, I then look at its student body and local media. Don't they see that they are magnifying their disgrace to the world?

Penn State? No, how about Psycho State!!!

GOP Needs to Wise Up About Cain, Romney

Look, I'll admit it: at this time in my life, I tend to vote more in line with Democrats than Republicans. And I think that many of President Obama's difficulties so far are due in large part to the absolute and even hateful opposition of the Republicans as a bloc in Congress. When Ronald Reagan was president, he was able to engage in some give and take with enough Democrats to get a modified version of his agenda passed, and in a timely manner. But with Obama, the Senate minority Republicans, under reactionary leader Mitch McConnell, have openly expressed that their primary objective is to make our president a failure, with the nation's interests lagging behind in their priorities.

Having said that, just so you know where I'm coming from, I have to admit to some disappointment with the motley group of GOP presidential candidates so far, above and beyond my ideological differences. The latest letdown has been with current frontrunner Herbert Cain, who is suffering allegations that he sexually harassed women a few years ago. About these allegations, I suspend judgement. No, what bothers me about Cain is his extreme arrogance with the press, ordering them in fact to only address topics that he wants to discuss. The way he argues in such a nasty, mean manner with reporters even scares me a bit. Do you want someone like that leading our country?

The only candidate I see showing any hint of presidential stature is Mitt Romney. Not that I intend to support him should the Republican Party finally wise up and nominate the one candidate in the field with a real chance to beat Obama. It is just that the others in the field (well-meaning-but-incompetent-campaigner Jon Huntsman excepted) seem to be climbing over each other to spread messages of intolerance, if not bigotry, while collectively bending over backwards to promote a class warfare situation benefiting the very rich over the rest of us.