NFL Teams Give Up, Soiling Game's Integrity

We're approaching the halfway point in the National Football League regular season, and already some teams seem to have thrown in the towel and given up after disappointing starts. The Indianapolis Colts, with their franchise quarterback Peyton Manning out of action recovering from neck surgery for possibly the entire season, and the Miami Dolphins, full of excuses for their typically substandard play, are the last two winless teams left in the league. The prize for being the absolutely worst team at season's end? Only possibly the best quarterback to come out of college since Manning, namely Stanford's Andrew Luck. So instead of trying to recover some dignity for themselves and doing what they can to salvage a few wins in the season's second half, I see these two franchises essentially giving up and looking for next year to change. And to me as a fan, I consider that to be a monumental rip-off, as well as a challenge to the integrity of the game. In each game, the two sides should ALWAYS play to win to their utmost ability. But this isn't the only scenario where the game's integrity has been soiled...

A couple of years ago, the Indianapolis Colts seemed destined for NFL history as the first team since the 1972 Miami Dolphins to run through the whole season undefeated. They were within reach of an unblemished regular season when they played the New York Jets in one of the last games. The game was close in the first half, but the Colts' coach decided to bench Manning to "save" him for the playoffs. This gave the Jets the opportunity to come back and win the game. If you're a Colts fan, you're angry at the lost opportunity for a perfect season. If you're a Jets fan, you're angry because their victory was cheapened with Manning's absence. And if you're a fan in general, you're angry because that year the Jets backed into the playoffs over other teams, simply by dint of that "gift" victory.

Sometimes, if a team feels it is still in the running for the playoffs and they need a player at a certain position, they make trades to strengthen themselves. Thus the Oakland Raiders recently picked up quarterback Carson Palmer from Cincinnati to fill in a void created by an injury. But teams like Indianapolis and Miami, after a few losses put them behind in the standings, have apparently decided to sit on their hands for the remainder of the season and do very little to improve themselves. As a Dolphins fan, I feel cheated and offended. Why should I follow them at all??!!

Unit 2 Arabic Vocabulary

This list consists of words introduced in Unit 2 of Teach Yourself Arabic by Jack Smart and Frances Altorfer (Hooder and Stoughton Ltd., 2003). Page numbers are indicated by the numbers appearing on the right of some terms.

سحنا...Hasanan.....well, right, O.K., 41
من...min.....from
في...fii.....in
اﻻسكندرية...al-iskandariyyah.....Alexandria
مصر...miSr.....Egypt, 42
جميلة...jamiilah.....very
جدا...jiddan.....very
القاهرة...al-qaahirah.....Cairo
مدينة...madiinah.....city
كبيرة...kabiirah.....big
و...wa.....and
قديمة...qadiimah....old (of things only) [fem.]
متحف...matHaf.....museum
ميدان...maydaan....square
قريب من...qariib min.....near
فندق...funduq.....hotel
هناك...hunaaka.....there is/are
مطعم...maT:am.....restaurant
ممتاز...mumtaaz.....excellent
طبعا...Tab:an.....naturally, of course
ما اسمك؟...maa ismak/ismik (masc/fem).....What is your name?, 43
اسمي...ism-i.....My name is...
أمريكا...amriika.....America, 44
اليابان...al-yaabaan.....Japan
روسيا...ruusiya.....Russia
واحد...waaHid.....one, 45
اثنين...ithnain.....two
ثلاثة...thalaathah.....three
أربعة...arba:ah.....four
خمسة...khamsah.....five
ستة...sittah.....six
سبعة...sab:ah.....seven
ثمانية...thamaanyah.....eight
تسعة...tis:ah.....nine
اعشرة...:ashrah.....ten
صفر...Sifr.....zero
أنا...ana.....I, 47
أنت...anta.....you (masc)
أنت...anti.....you (fem)
هو...huwa.....he
هي...hiya.....she
نحن...naHnu.....we
أنتم...antum.....you (masc pl)
أنتن...antunna.....you (fem pl)
هم...hum.....they (masc pl)
هن...hunna.....they (fem pl)
مشغول...mashghuul.....busy, 48
هل...hal.....question word
أ...'a.....question word
يبرد...yabrud.....to be, to become cold (verb), 50
بارد...baarid.....cold (adj, not used for people)
عادل...:aadil.....just, upright
لازم...laazim.....necessary
ناشف...naashif.....dry
كامل...kaamil.....complete, perfect
نافع...naafi:.....useful
صالح...SaaliH.....doing right
سالم...saalim.....safe, sound
يتكلم...yatakallam.....he speaks, 51
عربي...:arabi.....Arab, Arabic
هنا...huna.....here

My Health "Crisis" Downgraded to "Condition"

Feeling that I was hurtling head-on into a major personal health crisis, complete with the prospects for major surgery, a slow recovery, and extreme limitations on my lifestyle thereafter, I left my consultation with the University of Florida Shands Hospital specialist/physician/surgeon in "my" area this past Tuesday in a completely different state of mind: my affliction was most likely a natural, life-long product of a condition that I was born with. And with my current age (55), it was normal for signs to begin to surface during routine medical examinations. Well, the prognosis is that I am free to continue living just as I have been (just avoid lifting very heavy objects, not something I wanted to do anyway), albeit with the newly established mandate to monitor my "condition" with prescribed testing every few months. This explicitly means that I am completely free to resume my distance running; so Wednesday, the day after seeing that doctor, I did just that, going out for a leisurely, pleasant 6.26 mile run around my neighborhood. The following day I followed it up with a 5 mile run, and have been running daily since. All with the good doctor's blessings. I am also once again considering running in some upcoming half-marathon races, although my intention is to run at my own pace and simply enjoy the "parade"...

As I get older, I'm sure that as I undergo other routine medical exams, other items will come up and I'll have to integrate whatever treatment is recommended into my life. There is the possibility with my current state of affairs that surgery will still be needed in a few years, but that isn't certain. But even if I do need to undergo an operation, I still face good prospects for a quick recovery and a resumption of my lifestyle (including running, if I'm still interested). As of now, though, the treatment for my condition is...nothing: no medicines, no lifestyle changes. I think I can live with that, thank you...

Gators Try to Bounce Back Against Georgia

There are a lot of doubters about the strength of this year's University of Florida football team going into this Saturday's big rivalry match-up with Georgia. After all, following a big buildup when they easily won their first four games, the Gators have stumbled with three straight losses. Admittedly, they were expected to lose to Alabama and then LSU, the top two ranked teams in the country. But then Florida played Auburn, known for their extremely porous defense, and could only score six points against them. It appeared to me that after being stomped by 'Bama and LSU, many Gator players had lost their confidence, playing more tentatively then with the boldness that epitomized their earlier efforts.

That having been said, first-string quarterback John Brantley, out since the first half of the Alabama game on October 1, will be back, as will explosive speedster running back Jeff Demps. Hopefully, with Demps back, Chris Rainey will go back to his high-yardage efforts. Although Florida isn't known for its wide receivers, I don't think that they are really all that necessary as Brantley is good with the short passes to his tight ends and running backs, who know how to turn short receptions into long gains.

The defense has taken some heat lately, but that is primarily due to the fact that they were outmatched during those two games against obviously more talented and larger teams. Although UF lost to Auburn, its defense actually did a pretty good job containing this team known for its explosive offense and high scoring. Their main problem, as I see it, is their pass defense and their tendency to pile up a lot of penalties.

Although the odds-makers have Florida as a three point underdog to Georgia, I believe that they have a very good chance to reestablish much of that earlier confidence and good feeling about themselves with a victory Saturday. Then again, Georgia hasn't been all that predictable so far this year either, making the game's outcome dependent, I suppose, on which team decides to show up (and play to win)...

Old Office Clerk Job

When I was in my late teens from 1973 to 1975, I worked part-time with my father at a traffic management firm in Miami Shores, just north of Miami. Our jobs were purely clerical in nature, involving sorting papers, revising binders and updating the tariff library. The tariffs were books that indicated permissible shipping rates, as dictated by the Interstate Commerce Commission. The rules governing the rates that various shippers could charge clients to transport their goods from one point to another were all-encompassing and very specific as to the type of commodity being shipped, the starting and end points, and the means of transportation. In this very cumbersome process, it was inevitable that shippers would inadvertently overcharge companies for their services. Some of these companies were clients of the company we worked for. It employed many auditors who would comb over bundles of freight bills in search of any overcharges. If any were found, the auditor would receive a percentage commission for the discovery. This job involved having a great deal of knowledge concerning the very complicated (and continually changing) system of regulated shipping rates, necessitating a complete and updated tariff library. So our little clerical jobs were very important. Then.

Fast forward to now and I wonder, with the instant, vast amount of information available on computers and their ability to manipulate that information according to complex algorithms and mathematical formulas, whether there is even any kind of demand for the type of traffic management company I worked for, much less for my menial clerical paper-pushing job or even those freight auditors. My memories of working there seem now to belong to a completely different era. In contrast, had my part-time job back then been working at a fast-food restaurant or as a stock-worker at a grocery or department store (or as a construction or farm worker), there would have been a continuity of these lines of employment to the present.

It seems that the great push for technological improvement nowadays is to cut expenses by eliminating the need to employ people at a living wage. Ultimately, I see the development of two possible trends, or perhaps a combination of them: one, a society composed of an elite class of the independently wealthy, served by another which performs the menial, low-paying work that supports and serves them. The other possibility is a more socialist society that uses labor-saving innovation for the good of all and ensures that masses of people are not cut off from a decent living just for the sake of the ones with a socioeconomic advantage. It is this conflict between these two very different scenarios that I believe is currently unfolding in our society. I also believe that the people out there need to decide which course represents their own best interests. And then act accordingly, especially at the ballot box, without succumbing to the demagoguery and relatively trivial side issues that permeate and lower political campaigns.

Deer Here

After they had finished their play rehearsal for the evening, I was driving my daughter and her classmate home from their school. He lives in the subdivision of Northwood Oaks, adjacent to my Northwood Pines. For all practical purposes, though, it's all the same suburban neighborhood, here in far northern Gainesville. I also have gotten to know the streets here quite well, as I have ran many, many miles up and down them over the last couple of years. But I wasn't prepared for what I saw as I turned down a street in "Oaks".

It was about 10:30 pm and the fog was beginning to settle down on everything. I drove down a street that crossed over a long drainage ditch. Suddenly, three large deer crossed the street in front of me from the west and disappeared into the mist along the ditch. I had never imagined that deer would be living here right in the middle of my city neighborhood! I don't live out in the country: this is suburban sprawl if anything. Then I wondered where they could have come from, because I had thought that the western border of Northwood Oaks had been completely fenced off. Hmmm, maybe they just leaped over the fences...

This sort of experience makes me want to run more at night. But the humidity is almost always too high then, I'm not too sure of the surface ahead of me, and I'm not at all sure that I am visible enough for the motorized traffic I encounter. I do run around my block sometimes late at night just to get a run in for the day, but that's quite different from charting a lengthy course.

One of the Better TV Channels on History

For the last few days, I have become something of a couch potato history buff, enjoying some good TV shows about various topics. My chief source has been The Military Channel, which has recently become one of my favorite channels. Yesterday they featured shows about famous tank battles. I was especially interested in the Battle of Kursk in July, 1943 during World War II. Taking place on the plains of south-central Russia and pitting Nazi Germany against the Soviets under Stalin, this was easily the largest tank battle in history, hopefully something that will never be surpassed. And today they had a show detailing the extraordinary Doolittle Raid on Japan by the U.S. in April, 1942.

I wish I could rely on The History Channel and History Channel International (recently renamed "H2") for history programming, but they have long lost their primary vision, resorting now to more "present reality" based shows or programming about spurious topics like ancient astronauts. Still, from time to time they'll come up with something pertinent.

I hadn't expected anything historic on the Sci-Fi Channel, but the other day they showed a dramatized movie about the life for true historical figure Prince Vlad of Romania, who was the basis for Bram Stoker's Dracula character. These dramatized movies bother me, though, for I often have difficulty sorting out fact from fiction in them.

All in all, though, The Military Channel is, in my opinion, by far the best choice from programming about history. Hopefully, they will stay focused and not stray as did other channels, for their shows are quite informative and interesting. On the other hand, even this channel is showing some ominous signs of "decay": tonight they featured shows about UFO sightings, Area 51, and "Nazi UFO's"...

Tebowgame

Yesterday afternoon I was driving down University Avenue in Gainesville, just east of the University of Florida. Passing by one of the locally-owned eateries, I noticed what was on the sign out front: Tebowgame Here. I hadn't heard it referred to like that, but I liked it. Tebowgame.

The Miami Dolphins owner and management had decided weeks ago to schedule a tribute to Florida's college national championship team of 2008. Former coach Urban Meyer was invited along with players and staff from that great season. The special ceremonies took place at halftime, and Meyer stood together with the team owner during the game. Of course, the Gator star quarterback from that year was Tim Tebow, who incidentally received his first starting assignment this year as Denver Broncos quarterback for their game today against the Dolphins. Hence the name "Tebowgame".

It was mentioned on the TV broadcast of the game that with the Dolphins organization honoring the Gators, bitter rivals of the home college team the University of Miami, this probably didn't sit too well with UM's most ardent fans, especially with the ceremonies taking place in their own home stadium. But my beef was different: I didn't particularly like the idea of Tebow being in there trying to beat the one sports team that I have consistently rooted for since my childhood in the 1960's.

Tebow, albeit showing some flashes of promise, was generally ineffective for almost the entire Denver-Miami game...and then it got to be late in the fourth quarter with Miami dominating 15-0. Suddenly, "Tebowgame" cranked up into high gear, with the local hero throwing two touchdown passes, scrambling for running yards, avoiding sacks, and then running in himself the two-point conversion that tied the game with 17 seconds to go and sent it into overtime. Then, after Denver recovered a Miami fumble, Tebow kept the ball on the ground with hand-offs that set up their winning field goal. Final score: Tebow's Denver Broncos 18, (sadly) my Miami Dolphins 15.

Denver's win kept them with some slim hopes for reaching the playoffs this year, while Miami dropped to 0-6. I'd like to say that this Dolphins loss was a heartbreaker, but after seeing the game myself I have to say that they pretty much handed the game over to Denver with their own mistakes and deserved the loss.

Maybe Denver can ride the momentum of this win for the coming weeks and end up with a decent season. Miami, on the other hand, is clearly a very sloppy and undisciplined team, quite the opposite of how I thought it would turn out when Bill Parcells was hired in 2008 to turn around the team's misfortunes after a disastrous 1-15 season (after Nick Saban had suddenly deserted the team in mid-contract to pursue his University of Alabama dream coaching job). Well, Parcells has been gone for a while and it looks as if they need another almost complete overhaul. I say "almost" because quarterback Matt Moore, who is standing in for injured starter Chad Henne, was actually quite good (although he was responsible for that game-turning fumble in overtime)...

Gadhafi's End, Libya's Future

Moammar Gadhafi is dead, ignominiously suffering his demise at the hand of rebels in his own home town of Sirte, Libya, paraded wounded though the city and then shot to death in the head. Not exactly what I would call due process, although in a way I understand the statement of utter finality that the rebels were trying to make: this tyrant will never be returned to power.

And make no mistake about it: he would have tried to at least instigate trouble in this land that needs no more trouble than it already has. I believe also that Gadhafi authorized the Lockerbie jet bombing that killed several hundred over Scotland in 1988. Unfortunately, there was no way that "due process" was ever going to convict him of this, but 23 years later, at least we have one less mass murderer in the world to contend with. Let's hope though, that the brutal and barbaric manner of Gadhafi's end doesn't signify the renewal of a cycle of despotic cruelty that is sadly too common in this part of the world.

After all, we really have no idea whatsoever as to which direction Libya will now take now with its "revolution". Sometimes after this type of insurrection, it is difficult for the leaders of the revolt to collectively cool down and change their outlook into one oriented toward a peaceful, civil society. If these leaders begin to see each other as enemies instead of partners with whom to forge a new future for their country, then Libya is in for some dire times ahead. But it doesn't have to go down like that...

The "Who Cares" World Series

I heard that there was an exciting baseball game going on last night. And it was this year's World Series opener, no less. The score was tied 2-2 going into the bottom of the 6th inning when the home team took a 3-2 lead and then held it with near-flawless relief pitching. Let's see, did I leave anything out? ....Oh yeah, the teams were the Texas Rangers and the St. Louis Cardinals. Incidentally, it was the latter who won the game, if anyone cares (I sure don't).

I couldn't think of a duller scenario for a World Series than these two teams. Especially when the regular season clearly demonstrated that the best teams were the Philadelphia Phillies and the New York Yankees. But what we got instead is of minuscule interest, unless of course you happen to either live in or be from the St. Louis or Dallas/Ft. Worth area. I do have one co-worker who is a Cardinals fan, so I guess I'm happy for him.

I predict lousy TV ratings for this series as well as a general descent of collective amnesia upon the public as to who the eventual winner is, as they look back on the 2011 season from the future. In years to come, this may only be memorable as the ultimate "who cares" World Series. Now please excuse me while I stew in my boredom...

Weather Cooling Down Again

Well, once again the weather is shifting a little toward the cooler side: this time it may endure longer. It is currently mid-afternoon as I write this, and the temperatures are currently in the lower seventies, a vast improvement from the heat we've been experiencing over the last couple of weeks. It is also supposed to dip down in the night to the upper forties, much more to my liking.

Unfortunately, my current health concerns are overshadowing the little pleasantries of life that I usually revel in. Maybe the weather change will help me to feel better...

My Health Suffering Lately

For the past couple of months, I have been experiencing some pretty annoying health problems, and one of them is a bit scary. I'm not going to list them here, but please just accept it when I say that it's been an enormous drag on my life for the last few weeks. And, unfortunately, I see no positive resolutions soon to some of the problems (including the scary one).

As for this blog, it has also been more difficult putting out a consistent daily article. For example, I spent most of this morning in bed feeling bad and sleeping, instead of my usual studying/reading/writing time. I'd like to continue with daily entries, but I'll just have to see where the future steers me on this.

So far, I am functioning through my travails, doing what I can to keep up my work and various other responsibilities. But it hasn't been fun, and today was a really lousy one with regard to how I physically felt. Maybe tomorrow will be better...

Much of ABC News is Fluff

I have Sunday and Monday nights off, so the rest of the week I am at work during the 6:30 pm network news shows. Today I decided to watch the ABC News with Diane Sawyer, expecting a synopsis of the major news stories in the country and around the world for today. But instead, I got mostly a news magazine show.

The news began correctly as a news show, with the initial story being the sad news about the tragic death of an auto racer during a race yesterday in Nevada. But as the program wore on, I began to wonder just who was making the decisions as to which stories to run. After a segment about how phone companies are now to be more tightly regulated in order to avoid "shock billing" (a legitimate news story belonging on the evening news), the show deteriorated a little more than halfway through with light, human interest stories more appropriate to topically-based shows like 60 Minutes or 20/20. There was a segment about the Lakota Indian children of South Dakota and how they are struggling, in the midst of their poverty and their society's pervasive alcoholism, to carve out a future for themselves. Very compelling, I thought, but not exactly what I would call a major news story. Then Ms. Sawyer told us that the Earth was about to reach the milestone of seven billion people. She tried to put this into historical perspective, first pointing out that in 1960 the figure was estimated to be only three billion. She then went further back in time, even to the eras of Jesus and Cleopatra. During the days of Jesus, the world's population supposedly stood at around 220 million while even further back during Cleopatra's time it was only 15 million. Uh, wait a minute...wasn't Cleopatra a contemporary of Octavian, who was still the emperor of Rome when Jesus was born? So Cleopatra and Jesus were only a few decades apart, but the population went from 15 million to 220 million in the same time span? Really, Diane?

The final segment of the "news" was devoted to how some kids in some dying backwoods town set up a non-profit store that helped to supply some of the needs of its largely elderly residents. Another feel-good story, but does it really merit the evening news?

I think that I'll just stick to other sources for my news from now on.

Vampires and Zombies as Allegory

No longer do I have to concentrate on TV channels devoted to horror and science fiction in order to find shows about vampires and zombies (not that I have any particular interest in doing so). They seem to be all over the place now, and they tend to target the adolescent viewing audience. There seems to be several shows involving this supernatural element of "humanity" on the minor networks, while MTV has its own popular comedy Death Valley police show parody of the phenomenon. And we have the enormous popularity of Stephenie Meyer's Twilight series and its adaptation to film. So are there really vampires and zombies?

No, at least not in the literal sense, or at least not as they are portrayed on TV or the big screen. But the idea of being bitten by a vampire and becoming transformed into a completely different type of being is a clear allegory for "coming of age" with sexuality in adolescence. This accounts for much of the great interest for vampire shows among the young. But apart from this, I see some other connections between vampires, zombies, and "real" people like you and me.

Zombies are the "walking dead" that can infect people and "convert" them over by a single bite, much in the same way that vampires can recruit others into their ranks. The allegorical idea here is that carnal feelings trump rationality in determining people's personal philosophies and ideology. When someone gets "bitten" and becomes an ideologue continually spewing out another's talking points without showing any independent thinking, that person really does seem, in a sense, like a zombie, one of the walking "mentally dead". It matters not which ends of different political and religious spectrums we're talking about either. For such a character, it is no use to try to reason with them anymore: they have passed over to the "other side" and already regard me as an enemy of sorts (unless they can succeed in "biting" me over, that is). Vampires can also be used with this analogy.

Another type of analogy is that, as time seems to wear on these days in the 21st century, there also seems to be something wrong with people. There is a disconnect here as more and more become removed from their immediate environment, instead being tuned in to their cell phones and Internet connections. I have experienced several occasions over the past couple of years when I heard someone speaking as if they were addressing me. I would turn around, greeting them in return, only to find that they were hooked into their cell phone. And one of my more recent "creepy" experiences happened the last time I went to one of the University of Florida libraries. Instead of seeing students reading books, writing papers, and engaged in discussions, I saw table after table after table, full of students with their laptop computers, cut off from their surroundings and staring at the screens like... well, zombies!

The final analogy I'll make is that it seems gross and horrible for these creatures to be feasting on people. But, really, it is people who are feasting on other sentient beings when they eat meat. If you want to react with ecstatic horror to vampires and zombies while stuffing a bloody medium-rare steak into your mouth, then maybe you're just identifying with the subject matter you're watching...

A Couple of Upcoming Football Games

On the college side of football, it is now at about the halfway point in the season. For the University of Florida team, it is also a crucial time, with their road game later today against Auburn serving as a test determining how good (or bad) this year's Gators really are. Their first four games hinted of potential greatness, but in the last two against top-ranked schools, they wilted in just about every aspect of the game. Now Auburn is definitely better than UF's first four opponents and inferior to LSU and Alabama, the teams that flattened the Gators. So it should prove quite illuminating to see how this game turns out. Should Florida prevail, there is still some hope of them winning their East Division in the Southeastern Conference. Otherwise, they will probably label this season as a "rebuilding" year earlier than planned and shoot for a minor bowl.

On the pro side, in the National Football League, Tim Tebow will finally get his chance to start a game for the Denver Broncos when they play Miami on October 23 after a bye week. The way I see it is that something has to give: the Dolphins are still winless and will probably continue that trend against the New York Jets (at New York, or should I say New Jersey). Either they finally win a game, with Tebow and his Broncos as their hapless victims, or Tebow heroically leads his team to a victory over Miami. I suppose there is also a third option: Tebow screws up early and another Bronco quarterback comes into the game to lead Denver to victory. In any event, I wonder whether it is too late for Miami to pick up Denver's (former) first-string quarterback Kyle Orton. I'm still an Orton supporter, even if nobody in Denver is. It would be the perfect irony: the Dolphins already have former Bronco wide receiver Brandon Marshall, so upon arriving in Miami Orton would instantly have someone to whom he is well-attuned to throw the long pass. Not that either team, with one victory to share between them after five weeks of the season so far, has enough sense to do anything sensible like this with their personnel. Instead, expect continuing dissension and controversy in Denver about who gets to play quarterback while Miami continues without an effective quarterback. Well, with the upcoming game against each other, Miami and Denver will share at least one more victory this year (unless they tie)...

Not Keeping Up Well With Innovations

For a birthday present this year, I received a new Dell laptop computer. This is actually the first laptop I have ever owned, although my wife Melissa has had one for several years and won a notebook in a raffle drawing a couple of years ago. For many years, I have been writing blog articles out on my relatively much-more-primitive AlphaSmart portable work processor (which runs for months on end on three AA batteries, so maybe being primitive has its advantages). But I can only see four short lines of writing at a time on it, and I wanted to write with a full page in front of me. Plus, I wanted more ready access to the Internet. Hence, the new laptop. Still, in a world of notebooks, tablet computers, Kindles/Nooks/Etc., iPhones and Androids, I am far, far behind in "keeping up". Shoot, I still use a Blackberry phone, for crying out loud, although my patience with it has worn quite thin.

No, the simple fact of the matter is that, when it comes to technological innovations of the kind currently sweeping our society, I am far behind others. Still, I manage to keep some contact with the trends. It's important to always keep in mind, though, that many people have NO personal computers or Internet access at their disposal and are completely cut off from this now-pervasive aspect of our society. Among them is my 85-year old father, who has bitterly complained to me on a number of occasions how he will be watching a news story on an interesting topic, only to be cut off when the announcer says to go their website for further information. Or how about all those commercials that presume the viewers have computers readily at their disposal..

Herbert Cain and 9-9-9

Herbert Cain, who seems to be the latest candidate that the GOP far right is putting up against their party's begrudged front-runner Mitt Romney, has proposed a complete revamping of our national tax code. He would replace it with something he calls "9-9-9": a business flat tax of 9%, an individual flat income tax of 9%, and a national sales tax of 9%. I feel that this is an abysmally pro-wealthy, anti-poor and anti-middle class plan, epitomizing true class warfare, albeit against the needy on behalf of the rich. Businesses and the wealthy would pay even less than they already do, while the working poor would be doubly taxed: first, their already very low income and secondly, an oppressive sales tax. So I don't like Mr. Cain's proposal. But still...

In the last debate pitting the Republican candidates against each other, Cain received a large part of criticism from the others for his 9-9-9 tax plan. A couple, namely Jon Huntsman and Michele Bachmann, even had preplanned snide jokes to make about it (Huntsman compared "9-9-9" to a pizza promotion one might expect from Cain's company Godfather's Pizza, while Bachmann, in typical Michele Bachmann fashion, turned the numbers over and got the "evil" 666). Nobody but Cain liked his plan, naturally. But from where I am standing, at least this guy came up with SOMETHING oriented to generating revenue to help the federal government balance its budget. Everyone else gives me the impression of being too chicken to address taxation on an honest level.

I don't think our current tax code needs more regression. No, let's make it more progressive, not less, and make the very rich pay a reasonable (but not oppressively large) share of the burden. But Cain and his circle of fellow aspirants to the presidency have decided to tune out the hurting masses in favor of those who are already greatly prospering in the middle of these relatively lean economic times. The difference between Herbert Cain and the others in the pack, as I see it, is that the others are content with just attacking President Obama as he tries to help people and the economy while Cain actually came up with a specific counterproposal. Good for him, although I sincerely hope he never gets elected!

Occupy This

In 2009, establishment conservative Texas Republican Dick Armey, whom I had previously admired for his record of standing up to extremist elements within his own party, nevertheless invented the tea party movement in order to contrive a popular opposition movement to Barack Obama's fledgling presidency before it even got off the ground. It involved a lot of unruly behavior, with angry, shouting crowds sabotaging Democratic politicians as they tried to explain and discuss the new administration's plans for the country. But instead of punishing these disruptors, the puzzling American electorate turned around and gave them more power in the 2010 elections, handing control of the U.S. House to the Republicans, narrowing Democratic control of the Senate, and sweeping Republicans into governorships of most states (including my Florida). So naturally...

Naturally, we now have a counter-movement to the tea party movement: the "occupy whatever" movement. And to me, on the surface it seems just as ridiculous as the tea party movement. But maybe it'll work in 2012 and energize people to go vote. At least I think that's what a lot of people are hoping for...

Maybe I'm wrong, but unlike with the teabaggers, I don't think some special party think-tank headed by an ideological retired politician created the idea of people rising up by the thousands (and then possibly millions) and staging protests, first on Wall Street and then eventually nationwide, publicizing their perception that this country is quickly turning into a deeply entrenched plutocracy: rule by the (very) rich.

I happen to generally agree with this assessment of our country's current situation, and to the extent that the protests conform with the principles of non-violent public dissent that Gandhi and King espoused and lived, I support them. But eventually, these amorphous clouds of dissenters need to coalesce and organize into a force that can effectively bring change via next year's elections, both on a national and a local level.

Still, I think it's a sad commentary on the American electorate that people need to have special visual stimulants like the tea party or the "occupy" movements in order to motivate them to go and perform the crucial patriotic duty of voting. In 2008, a lot of disheartened conservatives stayed home and helped liberals get elected. Two years later, many liberals apathetically stayed home and conservatives got elected. What, we need to have others put on a show for us and entertain us before we'll get up off our collective butts and live up to our responsibilities as American citizens at the voting booth??!! What kind of a people have we become...

Spare Me the Bonos, Please

I get the hype about Chaz Bono. I really do. As far as I'm concerned, transgenders are cool, and I accept those who have that self-identification, along with the choices that they make in accordance with it. They could use a lot more support in our society than they get. But that doesn't make Mr. Bono a good dancer.

In recent weeks on Dancing With the Stars, viewers have been treated...or should I say "subjected"...to performances by Chaz Bono in which he basically stands in one spot like a rooted tree and waves his arms and gyrates his torso while managing to hold on to his much more mobile and adept partner. And every week he survives to the next while much more talented entrants are asked to exit. His "mommy dearest" Cher, ever so protective, has made it clear that any negative reaction to her little baby's dancing skills is due to intolerance and bigotry about his sexuality. She is on a one-woman campaign to ensure victory for her kid: she even promised (and delivered) to her fans an appearance on the show in support of Chaz. The only problem I see with this is, if you're not already a Cher fan, then so what?

So what does this have to do with dancing? I remember the old Sonny and Cher show, which wasn't all that good to begin with, evoking very few memories. But one thing I do remember about it was how the show's stars would drag their little girl Chastity out on the stage with them at the closing of each show, essentially using their daughter as a prop to show the world what a wonderful, family-oriented couple they were. Even as a teenager, I felt then that the poor kid was being used to further her parents' careers. And now, I suppose, the dues for this manipulation are being paid, and with more manipulation. Now Chaz's mother is lending herself as a stage prop to further his career, once again at the public's viewing expense.

Maybe this is just another example of something that I should step back from and let go. After all, the mass media is full of people, be they activists with their high and holy causes or just fading, washed-up celebrities, tweaking the system however they can to bring that much-craved attention to themselves...and then demanding the very privacy and dignity that they so eagerly relinquished in exchange for it.

Alabama Farms Go Unharvested

I have lately been following in the news how Alabama farmers are losing a lot of money because their ripe fields have too few willing to harvest them. Why is this happening? Apparently, a new Alabama state law is coming down very hard on undocumented immigrants and they are moving out of the state en masse. Many of these had been providing the migrant farm labor these farm owners had been using for many years to work their crops. And they can't find enough "real" Americans willing to perform the low-wage, difficult work that the mostly-Mexican migrant workers consistently did.

After hearing this news, I had two different reactions...

The first is the "obvious" one that the news presenters may have wanted me to have. Which is that Americans are too soft and whiny about their "poor" economic situation. After all, when there are jobs out there, they don't want to do them. Of course, with regard to the Alabama farm worker situation, that's nonsense: we're talking about illegal, under-the-table sub-minimum wage labor, aren't we?

My second reaction is to wonder how many of these "unfortunate" Alabama farmers, with the prospects of failed crops spoiling in their fields, passionately went to the polls and voted for the very same people that passed these restrictive and punitive laws that drove away their labor pool. I think that, once again, we see an example of a segment of the electorate being swayed on emotional hot-button issues to vote for one party against their own better interests. When, if ever, are the people going to awake and realize how they are letting themselves be manipulated??!!

Florida Gators "Settling" Into Season

Now that the University of Florida football team, as expected, have lost their last two football games to conference powerhouses Alabama and LSU, they can reassess their prospects for this season. And incredibly, the fact remains that, even with two consecutive Southeastern Conference losses, the Gators have, as the old cliche goes, "control over their own destiny" regarding their annual goal: winning the SEC championship. Of course, that notion would completely go up in smoke with their next loss, as early as their next game against defending (but much weaker this year) national champion Auburn. Still, most Gator followers will probably be content if they can just win their own division.

This annual process of continual evaluation of the Florida season is interesting to me. After all, optimism abounds at the beginning of the season, even in those years (like this one) in which the team isn't expected to do all that well. The first couple of games are traditionally scheduled against "softy" smaller colleges, so by the time in week #3 when Florida actually plays Tennessee, their first major college opponent, Gator statistics are usually pretty impressive, both offensively and defensively. And lately, Tennessee hasn't had that good of a team either. And the next opponent, which often is Kentucky, usually represents relative mediocrity within this very competitive conference (although on a national level, they're often quite good). So even with only an average squad, the Gators can often start out impressively with a 4-0 record, usually accompanied by high national rankings. This year they did just that, climbing to #12 before being jarred back into reality by their next two opponents.

So what kinds of seasons do Gator fans generally get from their team? Here are some categories:

--Highest expectations: national championship or bust. This happened in 1996, 2008, and 2009, with the last being the "bust" season.

--High expectations, with a national championship or "very close" being the result. 1995 and 2006 were examples of these seasons.

--High expectations, generally met but with disappointing rivalry losses and season endings. This has been the general trend with Florida's seasons, especially since 1990 when Steve Spurrier began as coach. I regard 2001, Spurrier's last season as Florida coach, with Rex Grossman as quarterback, as the consummate season of this type.

--High expectations, average seasons. This is probably what will happen this year, but I think it is the high expectations that are open to criticism, if anything. I think every Gator coach has experienced these types of seasons. During Ron Zook's three-year tenure from 2002-2004, that's all we got.

--High expectations, poor seasons: Many of Doug Dickey's teams, especially that horrendous 1978 season that finally put an end to his coaching stint at UF.

--Low expectations, awful season: Charley Pell's inaugural 1979 season, when UF went 0-10-1.

So let's just enjoy each game this year as they come and appreciate that we have such a strong football winning tradition here without setting too high a standard for a brand new coach and his staff to be able to meet in his first season.

السلام عليكم

The introduction of new foreign language vocabulary may or may not become a regular part of this blog, depending on how useful this exercise is to me. Sometimes, with a language such as Arabic and its exotic script, I'm doing a little more than just listing words and their meanings: I'm also familiarizing myself with how to type out a new script using a new template. The text I'm using to study Arabic is Teach Yourself Arabic by Jack Smart and Frances Altorfer (Hodder & Stoughton Ltd., 2003). In the list below, each line consists of the Arabic writing, the transliteration, and then the meaning. A new page where vocabulary appears is indicated by a number at the end of the line.

Unit 1 Vocabulary in Teach Yourself Arabic

السلام عليكم...as-salaamu :alay-kum.....hello, 24
و عليكم السلام...wa- :alay-kum as-salaam.....hello (in reply)
صباح الخير...SabaaH al-khayr.....good morning, 25
صباح النور...SabaaH an-nur.....good morning (in reply)
مساء الخير...masaa' al-khayr.....good afternoon/evening, 26
مساء النور...masaa' an-nuur.....good afternoon/evening (in reply)
كيف حالك؟...kayfa Haal-ak.....how are you? (to a man), 27
كيف حالك؟...kayfa Haal-ik.....how are you? (to a woman)
الحمد لله...al-Hamdu lil-laah.....(response to above)
أهلا وسهلا...ahlan wa-sahlan.....welcome
أهلا بك...ahlan bi-k.....(reply to a man)
أهلا بك...ahlan bi-ki.....(reply to a woman)
وأنت...wa anta/anti.....and you? (sing. masc/fem)
بخير...bi-khayr.....well
من فضلك...min faDl-ak.....please, 30
تفضل...tafaDDal..... here you are, welcome
شكرا...shukran.....thank you
نعم...na:am.....yes, 31
أو...aw.....or
ﻻ...laa.....no
ب...bi-.....with
بدوب...bi-duun.....without
بكم هذا؟...bi-kam haadha?.....how much is this
الأهرام...al-ahraam.....the pyramids
شمس...shams.....sun, 32
نور...nuur.....light
قمر...qamar.....moon, 33
بيت, بيوت...bayt, buyuut.....house, 34
صغير...Saghiir.....young (person), small (thing)
ولد, أوﻻد...walad, awlaad.....boy
طويل...Tawiil.....tall (person), long (thing)
كتاب, كتب...kitaab, kutub.....book
كبير...kabiir.....big
جميل...jamiil (fem. jamiilah).....beautiful
هرم...haram.....pyramid, 35
قهوة...qahwah.....coffee, 36
بعيد...ba:iid.....far, distant, 39
قريب...qariib.....near
جديد...jadiid.....new
قديم...qadiim.....old (things)
لطيف...laTiif.....pleasant, nice
كريم...kariim.....noble, generous
صحيح...SaHiiH.....correct, right

Starting On Goodkind's Sword of Truth Series

Sometimes I find myself pulling into the parking lot of my preferred Books-a-Million on Newberry Road (as opposed to the NW 13th Street location) to check out the books there. I tend to browse throughout the store, but often focus on the science fiction/fantasy section. One author who has intrigued me by his enormous amount of material displayed there is the fantasy writer Terry Goodkind. Among his works is the twelve (lengthy) volume series The Sword of Truth, which he published over a span from 1994 to 2007. Goodkind, according to the Wikipedia article I read about him, is a fan of Ayn Rand and her objectivist philosophy. He has apparently incorporated this into the Sword of Truth series. I find the idea of placing objectivism into a fantasy setting, full of magic and the supernatural, pretty intriguing and want to discover how he pulls this off (or whether he actually does pull it off).

I have begun reading Terry Goodkind's Sword series with the first book Wizard's First Rule. Just to be on the safe side, though, I saved my money (for now) and just checked it out from my library. After the first chapter, though, it is clear to me that Goodkind is a good writer who at least knows how to begin a long work by spurring the reader's interest from the very beginning. Let's just hope that he can sustain that interest for me! Ultimately, though, I need to feel some sort of bonding with the characters he presents. They don't necessarily have to be likable (as is the case with Lev Grossman's Magician series protagonist Quentin Clearwater, quite an unlikable dude). But they do have to be believable and show some complexity.

I understand that this series of Goodkind had been adapted to a short television series titled Legend of the Seeker. "Short" because it was unceremoniously cancelled after a couple of seasons, apparently from general disinterest. Hopefully, I won't later feel the need to "cancel" my reading of the books from disinterest, too...

Apple's Steve Jobs Will Be Missed

Computer innovator and entrepreneur Steve Jobs has died at age 56, presumably from complications arising from his pancreatic cancer of several years. Being an original founder of Apple Computer and seeing the introduction of the graphics-friendly, user-friendly Macintosh personal computer in the early 1980's, he then left the company in 1985 after a conflict with others in high management. Later he returned in the late 1990's and revitalized the then-floundering company, introducing the "i" line of products with which we are so familiar today.

Many today are paying tribute to how Jobs changed the information and communications industry. Others see him as a shining example of a creative entrepreneur, someone on whom Americans and others worldwide can model themselves to create their own new companies and products that that can, in turn, revitalize the flagging economies we see all around us today.

Steve Jobs will be sorely missed, but his example will endure for a long, long time...

Controversial Drone Attack on American

With the drone attack on American-born Al Qaeda terrorist leader Anwar al-Awlaki in Yemen has arisen a stirring debate about the propriety of the U.S. action. After all, al-Awlaki was an American citizen and hadn't been legally charged with any crime (at least by the U.S.). Didn't that mean he had a more privileged status than non-nationals who are deemed to be a national threat?

Sometimes it is very hard for me to trust my own government when it claims to have special intelligence that implicates a specific party as being a threat to our nation, especially in light of the misguided justification for the 2003 invasion of Iraq. Al-Awlaki had been implicated as being a spiritual adviser for two of the 9/11 hijackers, encouraged and praised the Ft. Hood shooter, and abetted if not planned recent terrorist plots in the U.S., including the failed May 2010 attempt to set off a van bomb just outside Times Square, New York City. Yemen had itself issued a "wanted dead or alive" announcement against al-Awlaki for alleged terrorist activities against that country and its people. But shouldn't our government have pursued a judicial course before acting as it did?

The way I see it is this: If the police see someone walking down the street shooting off an automatic weapon randomly at people, they are not going to wait to obtain a arrest warrant before subduing the individual, very likely with deadly force of arms. That's because the police, an arm of our executive branch of government, are mandated to protect the public from harm. In like manner, on a national level it is the executive, not judicial, branch that is empowered to protect the nation from its enemies. And as for the task of identifying which parties constitute our enemies, judges play no role.

Now in that context, if those entrusted with our national defense concluded that al-Awlaki constituted an imminent threat to national security and was a danger to Americans while making himself personally unapproachable for capture, then they would be in a very similar situation to that police/gunner scenario earlier alluded to.

The real question we have here is how far we are willing to trust those with executive power to accurately identify enemies and their threats to us, and to then act appropriately to deal with them in an effective, timely manner for the national good. Ron Paul, who sees conspiracies of power everywhere he looks, naturally was bitterly opposed to the drone attack. But like it or not, I want my government to protect me from those who mean to harm me and my family. After all, the Times Square attempt occurred at the exact spot where we were staying less than a month earlier. Our visit there came too close to being part of this ordeal.

Hopefully, at some time in the near future, we will get some information that further clarifies the drone attack and which explains it more compellingly in terms of protecting us from terrorism. In the meantime, we need to recognize that depending on our judicial system alone in matters concerning national defense and international (and domestic) terrorism would be disastrous. Yes, the judiciary does need to come into play and have an appropriate role. But it cannot tie up those whom we are entrusting with our defense, either.

Hank Williams, Jr. and His Remark

Hank William, Jr. has a carefully-crafted reputation as being the "bad boy " of country music. As such, perhaps he felt that the public would pretty much hand him free rein over everything he said. And, to be perfectly honest, he IS an American and entitled to the protection of the First Amendment regarding his speech and opinions. But he was also making money representing a private media company (ESPN) with his weekly opening appearance on the Monday Night Football program. So his recent equation of President Obama with genocidal mass-murdering tyrant Adolf Hitler, while constitutionally-protected as free speech, still went way over the edge in regard to its propriety. Thank you, ESPN, for immediately dumping him. Had you not, though, I was preparing to launch my own personal boycott campaign against your company and sponsors...

One aspect to Junior's unfortunate diatribe that I haven't yet heard discussed was the fact that he made it while a guest on Fox News' Fox and Friends show. Evidently, ol' Hank felt real brave and cocky sitting around a bunch of like-minded right-wingers when he let loose his slime bomb. But didn't the dude realize that EVERYONE was going to hear him, not just his little insulated bubble of political "friends" who just sat there emptily grinning at him?

I've seen the same going on in political campaigning as well. In 2008, a surging Mike Huckabee, while trying to ingratiate himself with Christian fundamentalists in South Carolina who wanted nothing less than a Christian theocracy (with THEIR doctrine, of course), espoused to a sympathetic crowd that he wanted to change the United States Constitution to conform more closely with the Bible. Yes, he won points with that crowd, but his words went nationwide, scaring the hell out of millions and effectively torpedoing his presidential aspirations. Other examples of candidates saying objectionable and/or controversial things in ostensibly sympathetic settings... without regard to the fact that in today's instant-mass-communication age, EVERYONE is the real setting...abound without anyone seeming to understand what they are doing at the time they make their ill-chosen remarks.

Politicians and celebrities can no longer play to their extremist bases with inflammatory rhetoric and then turn around and claim to be more reasonable in other settings. Because, well, it's all out there now for everyone to see and hear!

Today's Eight-Mile Gorillaz Run

Today I had a breakthrough with my running, easily covering 8.05 miles in 1:13:28. Two factors contributed to my success: (1) I had eaten a lot the previous day, including a big pasta entree at Olive Garden, and (2) the humidity (as well as the temperature) was low. At the start of the run, it was 70 degrees with 41% humidity. By the end, the temperature had climbed to 79 but the humidity had plummeted to a heavenly 26%.

At the start of my run (which I accomplished as usual going up and down my neighborhood streets), I felt stiff and tired. If I had gone on my feelings alone then, I wouldn't have tried to reach 8 miles. But I knew I had energy reserves and, for once, the weather was actually on my side. So I kept plugging away. I never tired, and my running became smoother as I stretched my distance. By the end, I knew I could go further, but decided to give myself another chance at a (hopefully soon) future date to accomplish that on another run. During my post-workout recovery, due to the relative dryness of the air, I wasn't even sweating at all. Quite a contrast from that earlier near-disastrous 4-mile run I stumbled through a couple of months ago in Hollywood, Florida, when the temperature was comparable but the humidity was an unbearable 80-plus percent...

Throughout today's run, I listened exclusively to the alternative group Gorillaz in shuffle mode on my MP3. This act's sound worked perfectly with my running to make it a truly pleasurable experience.

Frodo, Quests, and Me

I an currently in the middle of a number of long-term self-improvement endeavors, some of which may pay financial dividends in the future. This is good, seeing that regardless what happens at my current place of employment (the post office), I am also approaching retirement anyway. And there's no way I want to spend it idly sitting around or doing some menial work for pocket change. So in my various quests, looking for an edge into a paying marketplace is definitely in my mind. But having said that, it is important to note and emphasize the value of the journey itself.

The quest of Frodo Baggins to dispose of the Ring of Power in Tolkien's Lord of the Rings resonates with me as I go about my own quests. As with the deep uncertainty about Frodo being able to ultimately accomplish his crucial deed, my goals also leave a lot of room for self-doubt. It would be easy to become very discouraged and give up, especially if I look too far ahead and become obsessed with how far I still need to go. But as was the case with Frodo, I am focusing more on taking on my quests one step at a time, with me firmly established in the present, putting one foot in front of the other in the directions I need to go. There will be times of great progress; there will also be times of stagnation, even crisis. But that's just part of the journey...

I look around me at other people in my life and discover that many are just drifting along from one day to the next, completely mired in the small details of their daily existence and without any consistent theme to where they want to take their lives. For better or for worse, I am not like them and hope that I never will be. And like Frodo the Ringbearer, this sometimes sadly means that I will often find myself alone in my journey...

Weather More Pleasant

Today's weather has been so remarkably autumn-like that I have to write about it. The humidity is very low and the temperatures might not even reach 80. For Florida this is an unusual treat, even for October. Especially on the first day of October!

To mark the occasion I dragged out my my jacket and sweater to take with me for the nighttime, when it's supposed to plummet to around 50.

I went running for a couple of miles around noon today. I could have gone on much longer, but today was a "low mileage" day (I have been alternating how long I run for about three weeks). Good news, though: tomorrow's forecast is for more of the same wonderful weather. Let's see how far I can run then!