Tennessee Deserves Better than Kiffin

I have been to Knoxville, Tennessee a few times and thoroughly love the place and its friendly people. As a state university city, its reminds me a lot of my Gainesville. But it also has another, industrial element to it, giving it more of a big-city image. For most of the country, Knoxville is known for being the location of the University of Tennessee, right off the banks of the Tennessee River. And the University of Tennessee is probably most known for its football team and its fans' utter, undying fanaticism.

For decades, Tennessee head football coach Phillip Fulmer has delivered to those fans with strong, competitive Volunteer teams. His long tenure was spotlighted by the unforgettable teams of Peyton Manning in the mid-1990s and a national championship in 1998. They had a great rivalry going with my University of Florida Gators as well, with the seasons of each school often hinging on who won the early-season matchup. In 2007, although the Gators beat Tennessee early on, the Vols still managed to win the Southeastern Conference East Division, quite an accomplishment. But the following year, they had only the second losing season in Fulmer's 17 year stint there and he lost his job. Pretty shabby treatment for someone who was locally so revered that he had a street named after him!

To succeed Fulmer, UT hired Lane Kiffin, whose chief assets were that he was defensive coach Monte Kiffin's son and that he was an assistant coach at USC a few years ago when they won two national championships. But his only head coaching experience had been with the NFL's Oakland Raiders, where he compiled a horrendous 5-15 record before being angrily sacked by that team's owner Al Davis in an infamous press conference.

But Tennessee treated Kiffin as a savior, much in the same manner that Florida had done with Urban Meyer and Alabama with Nick Saban. Football fans can be funny that way; all you need is for "Coach Fix-It" to sign on the dotted line and you're supposed to be good for a string of conference titles and national championships!

Tennessee was so taken by the brash, verbally combative new head coach that, during his first (and it turns out his only) season, they tended to treat close losses as victories. This never happened under Fulmer. Tennessee finished the season at 7-6 and Kiffin was regarded as a great success who turned around their football program. Huh? (Or, in more vulgar terms: WTF?)

As a UF fan, I would have been content to have Lane Kiffin stay with Tennessee and pilot the Vols to more "close" losses to the Gators (while claiming moral victories). But alas, his dream job of coaching his old haunt USC came up and that premier college football school hired him, with his lifetime head coaching record of 12-21 and a trail of angry people trashing him! The job switch happened in a span of hours, and Kiffin naturally took along with him his assistant coaching staff as well (including his father). Tennessee fans deservedly feel betrayed.

But I say to the good folks in Knoxville and beyond who follow the Vols, you deserve better than Lane Kiffin. What you need is a good old-fashioned Phillip Fulmer/Bobby Bowden type who will stay around, be a mentor to his players, and make you proud. And Tennessee football will rebound, let there be no mistaking that. I look forward to the days when the Tennessee/Florida rivalry will once again heat up, with the schools trading victories from year to year.

Haiti's Devastation

A devastating earthquake of magnitude 7.0 struck Haiti, with as many as 28 aftershocks averaging 5.0. It seems that the horrors that have been inflicted on this impoverished nearby little Caribbean nation are being revealed almost exponentially as the media gains greater access to the focus of the catastrophe. Different estimates of fatalities have been given, from as many as 100,000 to even a half million. In a country encompassing only nine million people!

Haiti is so poor that 80% of its GDP is in the form of foreign aid bestowed upon it, according to a Public Radio segment I recently heard. The same source, however, goes on to say that this may be misleading as a moneyless barter system tends to account for much of their domestic economy. But for Haiti to ever climb out of their despair, they need to have a stable, available currency that can enable them to develop the infrastructure necessary for them to exist as a viable country that is friendly to small business development and trade, both domestic and international.

"1-12" probably won't go down in history with the same instant, emotionally arousing effect that "9-11" did. To be sure, "9-11" was the wake-up call that mobilized us to the real, dire threats that terrorism posed to us if left unchecked; earthquakes are, on the other hand, naturally and (seemingly) randomly occurring events that sometimes tragically affect heavily populated areas. Especially heavily populated areas devoid of effective building standards, as is now the case with Haiti.

When I was a little kid in the early 1960s, I would hear references to places like Jamaica and Haiti as vacation paradises. One could travel there, be in exotic surroundings, and be pampered while lounging around on the beautiful beaches. Jamaica still enjoys a vibrant tourism industry, which contributes greatly to its economy. But Haiti has gone down a different path, with corrupt dictators and its military sapping the country's wealth and repelling visitors instead of luring them. Well, for a few years Haiti has enjoyed a very fragile democracy of sorts. This, though, is only a tiny step in the right direction. Things will have to change there on a grand scale in order to turn the country around. But short of a long term international takeover, I don't see this happening.

The 2004 "Christmas" tsunami that killed so many in southeast Asia seemed so far away, on the other side of the world. This earthquake, though, was too close. Especially when you consider that when a hurricane brushes by Haiti, people in south Florida begin to board up their homes and businesses. Yet Haiti and Florida, in spite of their proximity to each other, are in vastly different geologic zones. Or are they really?

Crossword Lite

I am a notoriously bad crossword puzzle enthusiast. Not bad in the late Michael Jackson's sense of "good", but bad in the sense of "really crappy"! Usually, I can whip through those "easy" crossword puzzle books I buy from time to time, giving me a false sense of expertise with this genre of diversion. But then I'll come across a Sunday New York Times puzzle and I'm instantly and hopelessly lost, desperately looking for at least ONE clue that I can solve on it. When I was much younger and actually followed prime time television, I could fill out much of the weekly TV-based crossword in TV Guide magazine. But nowadays, forget it!

But all is not lost; help is on the way. In the (incidentally free) Independent Florida Alligator is published the Los Angeles Times daily crossword puzzle. Which I guess is about halfway between the difficulty of the Sunday NY Times and the "easy" puzzles. Then I discovered that the weekday New York Times crossword puzzle, included in the (not free) Gainesville Sun is also much simpler than their Sunday monstrosity.

I am not one of those strange people who look up the answers to the clues that they can't figure out. If I can't solve 42-down, then I'll try to solve the horizontal clues that overlap it. And not completely finishing a puzzle is no big deal, either. I just enjoy the process of "backward thinking" that deriving a term from its oft cleverly constructed description entails. How about you?

I dig crosswords because I can just rip them out of the paper and carry them around with me, working on them during "down" moments when I am waiting in line or during a break in my routine.

When I was a kid, we used to have cruddy crossword puzzles to do at school or in those cheap children's magazines. By "cruddy", I mean crosswords that had squares that weren't covered by both vertical and horizontal words. In these inferior puzzles, one had to just "know" the answer with the minimal help of having only a few vertical/horizontal overlaps. Of course, mitigating against this glaring flaw was the tendency for the puzzles to be mind-bogglingly simple to solve!

My parents were both avid and expert crossword puzzle enthusiasts, having become so adept at the game that they ended up concentrating on the much more difficult "diagramless" puzzles. As a matter of fact it was while looking over their diagramless puzzles as a kid when I first realized that my parents were pretty damned smart!

Not that being a lousy crossword "puzzler" conversely means I'm stupid (or so I try to convince myself). For me, diagramless is "off the table" for now. Weekday newspaper puzzles rule!

Curse of Conspicuous Consumption

Normally, I like to claim that I am modest...so modest, in fact, that I can usually admit to having just about every personality fault in the world to some extent, if only minor. Of course, you could argue that this is really false modesty, for in doing so, that gives me leverage to talk about the subject as if I were somehow a big expert on it. But there is one "flaw" that I had in early childhood but since early adolescence have pretty much obliterated from my life: conspicuous consumption (or the deliberate flaunting of one's material possessions in front of others).

Originally, I learned about the term "conspicuous consumption" from U.S. history class, in which it was revealed that the nouveau riche of America's 19th century industrial boom (e.g. Andrew Carnegie, Cornelius Vanderbilt) would build opulent estates, hold lavish parties, and indulge in just about anything (jewelry, clothes, transportation, furnishing, travel) that they could use to publicly delineate how successful they were and "different" from the hoi polloi. But that trait doesn't just apply to the long-dead super-rich. I see it in people running small businesses, who feel the need to drive a BMW or Mercedes to distinguish themselves from their employees. I see it in coworkers who, finally having a decent source of income in their lives, buy the latest miniature phone/MP3/Internet gadgetry to show off. I see it in yuppie couples who buy expensive homes that they can't afford in order to keep up with their friends, who also tend to live in unaffordable homes. But I see it in children most of all. And that breaks my heart.

Kids don't necessarily intend to be mean about showing off their possessions to others (although some are truly dirt-dog mean to the core). But deriving a sense of pride from owning and displaying one's material possessions can lead to some unintended consequences. One, it creates a sense of inferiority and envy in kids who are not so fortunate with their possessions, possibly even leading to dishonest behavior (lying and even theft) on their part to try to "keep up". Two, it skews values to the point where owning things is more important than accomplishing things. This is never more apparent than during the annual Greedfest (aka "Christmas"), when children (and sadly too many adults) just let their fantasies of material greed run rampant as they throw them out, hoping that someone (typically a parent) will "catch" them and dish them back out to them on Greedfest morning. Hey, I admit to having some greed as well (see, this is where my false modesty kicks in), having asked for and received some very nice presents (thank you Melissa, Will, Rebecca, Dad, Anita, Jim, Jerry, Keith, Krista, James, Amy, etc). But you know, I didn't then turn around and show them off to others, some of whom may not have been so abundantly fortunate.

Let's not confuse conspicuous consumption with responsible maintenance and cleaning, either. People who want their property to look clean and well-maintained, be it a home, car, or anything else, are simply reflecting their responsible behavior in how they take care of their possessions, which can run the range from simple to extravagant. Doesn't walking into a well-kept, modest house impress you more than walking into one that is larger and more ornate, but untidy and possibly dirty? If you agree, then you are on my "wavelength". Comments of affirmation are most certainly welcome! And if you think that your possessions define you, than please explain how and why. I just might be missing something here (another false modesty ploy of mine, I'm afraid).

Nevada's Questionable Senators

Democrat Harry Reid and Republican John Ensign are about two of the most diametrically opposed senators that even served the same state at the same time, in terms both of their projected images and of their political orientation. Reid is a pugnacious ex-boxer with a heart for working people and a problem with speaking coherently. Ensign is the quintessential corporate hack politician, with a suave manner that would seem to make him more befitting of a stage act in Las Vegas. Yet the two have reportedly gotten along quite well with each other over the years, with each refusing to campaign against the other's reelection bids. And I kind of respect each of them in their own way, for the strengths that they project. But...

John Ensign has been one of those senators who has used his religious faith (right-wing Christian evangelist) as a tool to further his political ambitions. He was, though, recently exposed as having an extramarital affair, while some his GOP colleagues "in the faith" and "in the ideology" have been quick to forgive and forget. So to me, Ensign comes across as a walking, talking self-righteous (but very glib) hypocrite. I have no doubt of his reelection in the future.

Harry Reid, on the other hand, keeps his Mormon religious faith close to his vest. He is personally pro-life, but has respected the Supreme Court's 1973 Roe vs. Wade decision regarding abortion and has opposed efforts to overturn that ruling by placing hardships on poor women seeking abortions (restrictions which Ensign has supported). Unlike Ensign, Reid seems to have a bit of trouble enunciating his ideas into clear, coherent speech. Which makes me wonder why, of all the people in the Senate that the Democrats could draw upon, he was the one chosen to be the Majority Leader!

It has come out in the news recently that, during the 2008 presidential campaign, Reid had made an idiotic statement to someone about how candidate Barack Obama's relatively light skin color for an African-American, coupled with his lack of a "Negro dialect" (unless he wanted to use one) would help him in the election. A really stupid thing to say, I'll admit. But the furor being raised over this revelation, chiefly by the Republicans, is overblown. Reid wasn't making a racist comment per se; he was giving his opinion, albeit very poorly expressed, as to how others in the electorate perceive race and make voting choices from those perceptions. But, like I said earlier, there seems to be some sort of disconnect between what Harry Reid's mind produces and what ultimately comes out of his mouth!

Ever since Tom Daschle was defeated for reelection in 2004 and Reid became the leader of the Senate Democrats, I have opposed him in this post. I think his heart is in the right place, but he has neither the political skills to negotiate across the aisle nor the ability to effectively express and promote his party's position on various issues. And I am sick to death of hearing him getting up on the Senate floor and sounding personally offended because, lo and behold, the opposition party was behaving like an opposition party!

I would like to see someone like Dick Durbin (Illinois) or Chuck Schumer (New York) step up to the post of Majority Leader. Either would be an vast improvement over what we have had to endure with Reid. Not only are these two much better speakers, but they also represent states that are more likely to reelect them even in the aftermath of a difficult-but-necessary legislative session.

Of course, after the 2010 election, this all may be a moot point anyway. Not that the Democrats will lose enough seats to relinquish their majority status in the Senate. But Harry Reid, at least according to current Nevada public opinion polls, is very unpopular and may be headed for defeat.

Oh, If They Would Only Heed Me

I would advise those Democratic politicians in Congress to stop looking ahead to the next election and instead focus on doing what they were sent to Washington to do. Which is to represent their constituents and the broader interests of the country. They were elected as Democrats, and as such their electors already knew that this party was the "liberal" party and would pursue legislation that had a liberal/leftist imprint on it. It never ceases to confound me how people are suddenly "waking up" to discover that we have liberals in power! Considering how they elected them in the first place, I can only assume that a very large segment of our voting population either is extremely ignorant or suffers from memory impairment. Or perhaps they just sway to and fro, according to what they perceive as the prevailing political mood being portrayed in the media. In any event, it is frustrating that, regardless whether a politician is conservation or liberal, they have to cater to this overly malleable group of voters to win an election. Especially when it concerns the Presidency or politically divided districts and states!

So to my elected officials, be you Republicans or Democrats, just center yourselves in the present and delegate the matters concerning your reelection campaigns to others in your staffs. Your votes are crucial in the year to come, and they need to be cast by responsible representatives and senators, not hack politicians!

People Waving Around Books

Where I work, we have a union and a collective bargaining agreement with management. To this I say, "Great, hooray for collective bargaining"! Once, after I had been working here for a few years, my union local's leadership decided to promote a campaign whereby every member was given a copy of the national collective bargaining agreement, in the form of a small paperback book. The language contained therein was simple to read and understand. There were certain rules in the contract that management and workers were compelled to follow or else they would be in violation of the agreement. For a lay worker using the contract agreement book to monitor management compliance, though, it was an exercise in futility. For no matter how clear the language in the agreement was on any particular item, what really ruled the day was the long trail of "letters of understanding", based on real cases that formally interpreted the rules and ultimately governed their implementation. And these "letters", extraneous to the actual collective bargaining agreement, were only readily available to union officers and stewards, not the rank and file.

Similarly, I often see representatives and senators openly flaunting a little book containing the United States Constitution, as if by doing this it gives them a moral edge over their colleagues. Senator Robert Byrd (D, WV) has been the most notorious for doing this. But, as with the collective bargaining agreement, the Constitution's language may be simple and clear while its interpretation and ultimate application is murky and strewn with a mind-boggling trail of court interpretations. My personal experience with a Constitutional history course at UF introduced me to how murky and muddy the waters of interpretation can be.

And then there is the Bible (or Koran, etc.). I can't begin to count the number of times I've seen a preacher waving this book around on stage, claiming its absolute literal truth and urging listeners to read it for spiritual enlightenment. But such a preacher would in reality be horrified if people were to simply read the Bible, apply the message they personally derived from it, and then go forth with their lives. After all, that would put him (or her) out of a job, for the task of the clergy is to "interpret" scripture in such a way that furthers the church's (and preacher's) agenda. So it's apparently not enough to read the Bible/Torah/Koran/etc. and arrive at our own conclusions; it has to be interpreted for us by the "experts" for us to be enlightened as to its "true" meaning.

I am personally sick of people waving around books like the Constitution, the Bible, or even my collective bargaining agreement. On one hand, they are doing this to gain an edge over others by appearing to be more principled. On the other hand, these documents, albeit important, are only the starting points, not the final products that are reflected in real world application. They are important as foundations in their respective areas, but it is deceptive to pretend that their interpretations are anything but complex, inconsistent, and convoluted. And sometimes motivated by special interest agendas.

Alabama 37, Texas 21

Ooops!!!

My NCAA Title Game Prediction

Here is my prediction for tonight's NCAA National Championship football game:

Texas 27, Alabama 16.

I know this runs against the prevailing "wisdom" of the sports media talking heads, who seem to only pay attention to what happened most recently with these teams. Texas squeaked by Nebraska in the Big 12 championship game, its vaunted offense looking rather unimpressive. And Alabama overpowered favored Florida in the SEC title match. But Nebraska may have had the best defense in the country this year and Florida was missing one of its vital defensive starters due to a suspension. The two contending teams need to be evaluated over the course of the season as a whole, not just by their most recent games. Especially when those games occurred a month ago! Texas has usually completely dominated their opponents this year while Alabama has slogged through several close contests.

Hopefully, you don't bet on sports and will take my prediction with a grain of salt. But my NFL predictions for this year were largely on-target, with me correctly predicting divisional titles for New England, Indianapolis, San Diego, Dallas, New Orleans, Minnesota, and Arizona. The only division I missed, the AFC North, was unexpectedly won by Cincinnati by only one game over my pick, Baltimore (which still finished "in the playoffs"). For what it's worth, I'm still sticking with my prediction of a Baltimore win over Minnesota in the Super Bowl.

One factor that I believe is skewing the opinion of others toward Alabama is the notion that the Southeastern Conference is pretty much invincible now. After all, it has won the last three national championships, splitting the titles between LSU and Florida. But past seasons, like most recent games, are not the best indicators about Alabama and Texas. Rather look at their current season records and judge for yourself.

Could I be wrong? Of course I could. But I am more likely to believe that Texas could blow out Alabama by an even larger margin than lose to them. Well, let's see what happens tonight!

Colts and Bengals Incur My Wrath

I am more than a little dismayed at how the New York Jets managed to get into the NFL playoffs this season. Not that it's any of their fault, mind you. The reason I usually root against NY is simply because they are divisional rivals of "my" team, the Miami Dolphins. Of course, if they end up playing the Dolphins' other "good" divisional rival, the New England Patriots, later in the playoffs, I'll be a big Jets fan (for the duration of that hypothetical game, that is).

No, for the last two games of the regular season, the New York Jets just went out and played some good old solid, spirited football. Their fans should be proud of them. It's just that their opponents for those two games, the Indianapolis Colts and the Cincinnati Bengals, essentially conceded victory to the Jets by resting their first stringers, and especially their star players, for the upcoming playoffs.

I am especially down on the Colts, who at 14-0, had a chance to go undefeated, but who instead chose to bench star quarterback Peyton Manning early in the third quarter of a close contest against New York. The Jets, playing against a substitute Colt lineup, took over the game and never looked back.

The following week, Cincinnati, having just clinched their division, decided to rest their starters as well. And who should they be playing, but the Jets! And those Jets coasted into the playoffs with a too-easy 37-0 win.

What is the most disturbing about all this is that there were other teams, like Houston, Pittsburgh, and Denver, who were in the thick of the playoff hunt as well. They were cheated out of an opportunity to compete on the same level as New York, which was essentially forfeited the last two games. This badly tarnishes the integrity of the sport.

I was rooting for the Miami Dolphins, which once had a 7-6 record (including two wins over those Jets) but lost their final three games of the season. So my gripe has nothing to do with them being cheated out of anything. They blew their playoff chances on their own, injury excuses notwithstanding (but forthcoming).

As long as the Colts or the Bengals have the coaches that they presently have, I will no longer root for them. Even if New England is the scheduled opponent (that's how bad I feel about them)! As a matter of fact, the Jets are scheduled to once again play against Cincinnati this weekend in the first round of the playoffs. Go Jets!

18-22-26-18-17-23

So reads the string of forecast low temperatures for this week at the top of the front page of today's Gainesville Sun. We have already been experiencing sub-freezing mornings here for three days or so, and I'm getting used to it. In fact, it is amazing how quickly I adapt to changes in temperature. As long as they stick around for a while, that is. Had the temperatures climbed right back up, I would have had a much more difficult time handling this. In any event, we are talking about record lows for this time of year (the average low is around 42 degrees).

Which brings me to a conjecture about where one should live. If I had a personal attachment to snow, then I would want to live in an area that had a guaranteed snowfall (which lasted) every year. If not, then I would want to stay in a place like here in northern Florida, where it can occasionally get cold, but is usually very dry on those occasions (it hasn't snowed in Gainesville since 1989). The reason is simple, actually. The worst time with cold weather, as I see it, is when the rain is falling and freezing on the road (and car windshields). Any snow that does falls is very temporary, sloshy (is that a word?) and dirty. The kind of idyllic winter wonderland you see on Christmas cards, with horse-drawn sleighs and country scenes, only exists either at a certain altitude level or at a certain latitude.

So, by this reasoning, (and presuming I don't live in the temperate Pacific coastal areas) if I didn't live in northern Florida (or the southernmost parts of the Deep South), I think I would rather live in a place like New England or Michigan than--say--Atlanta, Nashville, or Charlotte. In those cities, it seems to me that I would get all of the worst effects of winter weather with few of the benefits. Then again, I never had to endure a snow blizzard.

But, back to this article's title, I don't recall ever having experienced such a long chain of substantially sub-freezing mornings in Gainesville. Usually, this time of the year it occasionally dips down deep for two or three days, climbs back up for a couple more, and then dips back down as the next cold front passes through. Not this time, though. But it is dry here---oh so dry!

Day and Night Running

Lately, I have been trying my hand at some night running, with some interesting observations.

For one, although I am near-sighted, I don't wear glasses while running. In the day, I can still easily see distant objects, with the color-sensing cells of my eyes (are they the rods or the cones, I forget) compensating for my difficulty in far vision. I know this must be true, for at night the distant view becomes much more blurry for me. Maybe I just need to start wearing glasses then!

On November 29, I had just driven back into Gainesville from Jacksonville. It was already well into the evening, but I wanted to run. So I ended up going over to the University of Florida and running an improvised course through its campus. My running pace was slower than usual. I attribute that to being more careful about where I placed my feet in the relative darkness. But this past December 29, I ran pretty much the same course in broad daylight and, although I ran it faster, the extreme hilliness of the terrain strongly affected me. But I didn't seem to care much about this the month before, in the dark!

Running at night is a vastly different experience from running in the daytime. Of course, if you're going to run around a well-lit track at night, that is more like daytime running. But I'm talking about road running. In the day, it is more of an assault on my senses, with the lighting and sounds (and somehow even the sloping road) having more of an impact on my mind. In the night, though, sounds are more muffled and the view is dimmer and blurrier. In a way, this frees me to enjoy the experience more. Besides, nights are cooler and more pleasant. Will my speed pick up at night? Eventually, once I am more confident about the courses I run on. In any event, I intend to pursue night running more, with the UF campus being my main focus. Watch out Gators, here I come!

Philip K. Dick's Puttering About in a Small Land

One of science fiction writing legend Philip K. Dick's relatively obscure realism novels, Puttering About in a Small Land, gave me an idea as to why these realism novels of his were so difficult to get published (many of them didn't until after his death). And the reason is really quite simple: they don't have any "hooks".

These novels, including Puttering, are more than anything a combination of very compelling character portrayals with some brutal social commentary woven in. All, so far, deal with people in the middle-to-lower class struggling to make ends meet while trying to hold on to their individual dreams and carrying on mostly dysfunctional relationships with one another. But there are no attractive backdrops to the stories that would draw the reader's interest to pick up the book, or at least to convince a publisher that it would stand a fighting chance on a store's bookshelf. Dick's sci-fi works, on the other hand, always have these hooks, or gimmicks if you will, that intrigue the reader.

Puttering About in a Small Land is about two California couples going about their mundane existences while trying in various ways to "break through" into more meaningful lives. And each of them has his/her own, distinct vision of what a "meaningful life" is. For Roger Lindahl, the novel's main focus, it is freedom and excitement. For his wife Virginia, it is security and control over all of the facets of her existence. The other couple, the Bonners, also have their own personally-held ideals. How these people put their visions into play, along with the consequences of their actions, determines the plot line of the novel. But truth be told, I wasn't particularly sympathetic to any of the characters, although the author did a masterful job at revealing and exploring them. What happened to them by the end of the story was of little consequence to me, so it made reading it a pretty drawn-out exercise of tedium. I suppose the main "lesson" I picked up from this story (more of an affirmation of what I already feel) is how much people create narratives of their past (usually casting themselves as victims) to justify their present behavior.

Maybe, for the sake of "completism", I will continue reading Philip K. Dick's other realism novels. But I greatly prefer his science fiction. Good news: The next novel I'm reading is his award-winning sci-fi story The Man in the High Castle.

.....And yes, I'm aware of the ambiguity of this article's title!

New Year Greetings

I'd like to wish everyone a happy New Year. May you enjoy health, prosperity and an interesting (but not too interesting) life. I have my own little set of personal goals I'm working on for the year ahead. Most of them deal with me changing bad habits into good ones. Good luck to me!

2010 Forecast: Heavy Smug and Smirks

So now we have reached not only the end of another year, but also the end of another decade. Forget the technical argument of the century changing at 2001, not 2000; I'm referring to the traditional way of classifying decades, starting with 2000 and ending with 2009. In a recent column, Paul Krugman referred to the passing ten years as the "naughties". However one refers to it, the last decade merits review and analysis. Which I will naturally do in future posts.

What I would instead like to do on this last day of the year is look ahead to 2010 and what might happen. After 2001, though, I must proclaim that I am released from science fiction writer Arthur C. Clarke's timetable of future events. Unlike his movie (and novel) 2010, the United States and the Soviet Union will not, I repeat will not be on the verge of nuclear war due to proxy skirmishes in Central America (the fact that the Soviet Union no longer exists helps to convince me of this). Jupiter will not explode into a second star, causing everyone back home to embrace each other and forgo war. And the Chicago Cubs won't win the World Series (wait, Clarke didn't predict them winning; he wasn't that unrealistic). Instead, life will continue pretty much as it has been this past year. Some more politicians and celebrities will flush their reputations down the toilet with disreputable behavior. The media will exploit this and make a lot of money doing so. There will be more terrorism attempts at home and successful ones abroad. Congress will tackle new projects, in particular immigration reform, that the GOP and the media will say are political "Waterloos" (or something similar) and will bring on the downfall of the Democrats and Obama. Again. They'll say that again. And then the 2010 midterm elections will arrive and the voters will cast their ballots according to how they see the economy moving. Which by all accounts should be in full-blown recovery by then. The Democrats will win some and lose some, coming out of the process still firmly in the majority, albeit not necessarily with a 60 vote supermajority in the Senate.

Smugly smirking Fox News Channel hosts will continue to have as guests smug smirkers knocking the Obama administration, while MSNBC's Keith Olbermann, Ed Schultz, and Rachel Maddow will continue to offer up their own opinions smugly, accompanied by their own lineups of smugly smirking head-nodders. Ho-hum, why don't I just turn off the TV and do something else the whole year?

Big Business, the Government, & the Two Parties

I have noticed an interesting trend when following floor speeches in the US Senate and House of Representatives. The conservatives, mainly on the Republican side, rail against the threat of expanding big government and its concomitant abuses, with the hopes for our future depending on benevolent big business. While the liberals, mainly on the Democratic side, rail against the threat and abuses of big corporations, and how the government stands in the way of them completely overrunning the people. But where do small businesses stand in this?

Both sides claim to be the advocate of small business. I think there is a kind of mentality that small business operators have (not just those under 5') whereby they tend to identify themselves as smaller, aspiring versions of the big corporations, and hence a tendency to affiliate themselves with the conservatives and the GOP. But although every once and a while a small business will expand and grow into a large one, the overwhelming number of them will remain small and very, very different in design and scope from the "big boys". In fact it could be argued that the greatest threat to small businesses comes not from overburdening government regulation, but rather from inequitable competition with these major corporations. When a "super" Target or Wal-Mart sets up shop in town, especially a small town, you can almost hear a collective shudder running through the surrounding small business community.

From the standpoint of an individual such as myself, both major corporations and government are gargantuan powers which have to be checked in some way in order to prevent them from completely engulfing my life and freedoms. So it's slightly comforting to see the two main political parties tee off against one another, in effect checking the power of one institution with the other. The only problem with this is when big government teams up with big business to the detriment of the people. To me, this may be happening with the health care reform bill recently approved by the Senate and sent to conference. And was sadly the case in Iraq where the government awarded no-bid contracts with various corporations, most notably Dick Cheney's Halliburton.

Of course, there are times when conservatives like to evoke and exalt the power of the state. In social issues like abortion or gay rights, conservatives have no qualms at all with using big government to impose their social mores on everyone else. And also, they are very gung ho with taxpayers' money regarding the military and the prosecution of wars. Unfortunately, this adulation of the military often fades away when addressing the concerns of veterans.

Back to small business, if the Democrats with this health care bill can ease the enormous burdens that they are incurring with rising costs and preexisting condition exclusions, then we might just see a political realignment occurring in a few years. I for one never thought that employers should ever have been saddled with the obligation to provide health insurance for their employees anyway, the whole process having evolved from businesses using it as a benefit inventive to prospective hires.

Football Commentary

As the year's end draws near, we have reached a crucial point in the football season. Two main news stories come to mind. One is the resignation and subsequent reversal thereof regarding University of Florida head coach Urban Meyer. The other is the late-season collapse of the Miami Dolphins.

Urban Meyer has, for the past five years, coached UF with a single-minded ferocity that, at times, bothered me quite a bit. The man seemed devoid of humor and carried on with his job as if it were some sort of divine mission, with critics somehow standing on the wrong side of an absolute moral standard. The fact that his star player Tim Tebow would consistently "stick up" for him in the face of any criticism only made the situation worse, in my opinion. Now that Meyer has revealed that he has health problems, possibly concerning his heart, it may be advisable to tone down that supposed "mission" into a fun, fulfilling job and pick up an ability to kid around somewhere along the way. He has taken a leave of absence, beginning after the Sugar Bowl game on January 1, and will resuming coaching the Gators sometime before next year's season begins. I wish him the best, both in terms of physical health and job enjoyment.

At season's end, the NFL Miami Dolphins are pretty much in the standings where I had predicted them to be at the season's start. But things have changed on the team. Original starting QB Chad Pennington suffered an early season-ending injury, clearing the way for Chad Henne to take over the helm. And he has shown much promise, despite his many mistakes. Henne reminds me of a young John Elway, who also had a strong passing arm but made a lot of bad throws early on in his career. Henne could well lead the Dolphins to "playoff glory" in the future. RB Ronnie Brown, who was crucial to the team's effective wildcat formation, also was injured and taken out for the season, leaving the running game one-dimensional. Ricky Williams has had a great season, but Brown's absence has made his job more difficult as well. But the Dolphins have simply been too inconsistent with their play, from game to game, to be able to make a realistic run to qualify for the playoffs. Also, their schedule has been very tough. Still, I admire how they fought through their games, win or lose.

Before this season, I expressed an interest in following the Pacific Ten Conference in college football. Unfortunately, I was unable to follow many of the games on television as I had hoped. Also, the calibre of play was not as high as I had expected, with Pac-10 teams generally faring poorly in games with non-conference opponents. To top it off, nobody emerged as the premier team in the conference. Sure, the Oregon Ducks ended up winning the conference title and will face Iowa in the Rose Bowl. Well, maybe they will do well then and give me something to look forward to next year.

Blog Still Truckin' On

I haven't given up on this blog; I have lately been in a period of "distraction" when other things going on in my life (mostly great) have taken up my time. But I do love to go out (perhaps to a Starbucks) and just sit, think, and type out whatever comes to mind. Eventually, things will settle down again and I'll be writing more. So bear with me, blog resumption is coming! More ridiculous articles ahead to amuse yourselves with, loyal readers!

Xmas Season Postal OT

Being a postal worker involved in processing mail that I am, December is by far the most intense, busiest time of the year. Contract provisions governing the other eleven months regarding double overtime and other matters are waived for December due to the heavy amount of holiday mailings. This past week has been the busiest for my shift, which is for processing outgoing mail in the late afternoon and evening. I have a job sorting Priority parcels on a machine that classifies and moves them out according to destination as I, along with the rest of my team, key the correct sorting codes on keypads that directs the parcels down a conveyor belt to be dropped in the appropriate containers for later dispatch and transport.

Because I have been working considerably longer hours during this past week, I haven't had the opportunity to do other things that I would normally due. Including writing on this blog. Hence the most recent gaps in daily entries.

I had intended to set up a regular time, early in the afternoon before going to work, to write my entries out. But since that time has been co-opted by me having to report to work early every day, I'll have to wait until business has settled back down. After Christmas, that is. BAH HUMBUG!

Weird, Disturbing Kindergarten News

Oooh, I can sense another South Park episode coming on. Having just read Chuck Shepherd's weekly News of the Weird in my local newspaper, I have a new candidate for a spoof. For many New York City parents are now sending their children to expensive test-preparation courses for...kindergarten!

According to the article, New York City's public school system has a high-achiever kindergarten program, but applicants have to be in the 90th percentile on two different tests. And the age of the applicants? Three, four years old!

It's true that some kids are precocious, learning to read at a very early age or demonstrating other special talents. The late Isaac Asimov and my friend in New York are examples. For myself, I was a pretty bright little kid who may or may not have qualified on the "admissions" exams for an advanced kindergarten program, whatever that program may constitute. I do know that if this program is run the in same manner that the "high-achiever" public school I attended from fourth through twelfth grade was, I would rather just as soon pass up on the offer, thank you. Of course, it's the parents who ultimately make these decisions, not the poor kids, who have to live with the consequences for the rest of their lives.

It might be argued that having such a high-achiever kindergarten program in the NYC public school system gives an otherwise unavailable opportunity for kids in depressed, blighted areas to rise above their surroundings and enjoy a more positive, constructive learning environment. But these test preparation courses not only unfairly skew the admissions test scores; their expensive nature (as much as $1,000 or even more) also ensures that those admitted to the program will tend to be from the more affluent families. It may be a great idea for a private school, but hardly something that should be part of the taxpayer-funded public school system.

Philip K. Dick's The Cosmic Puppets

Many years ago, there was a TV movie starring Martin Landau titled Welcome Home, Johnny Bristol. In it, a weary Vietnam ex-POW decides to go back to the beloved little town in Vermont where he grew up, see some of the old faces, and see how much things had changed (or hadn't). The only problem is that he can find no trace of this town's existence, either in the present or the past. Ultimately, this mystery is resolved with a pretty ordinary explanation. Philip K. Dick's relatively short novel The Cosmic Puppets creates a similar scenario. Only here, the town is in a remote Virginian valley and the story's resolution is quite cosmic in nature.

The protagonist is Ted Barton, recently married and passing on through to visit his childhood town of Millgate, Virginia. When he reaches it, he discovers that everything has changed, even retroactively, with a completely different history. The people are all different, the streets are all different, and all the town's buildings and landmarks are different. Barton decides to stay in town for a few days in order to sort out this mystery. And discovers two children who seem to be engaged in a life-and-death struggle against each other, using bees, rats, spiders snakes, and even animated clay models (called "golems" here) as surrogate spies and soldiers. Barton becomes entangled in their conflict. Which turns out to be anything but local.

The Cosmic Puppets was an early science fiction novel of Philip K. Dick, written in 1953. Only 143 pages in length, I read it by just stopping by at a local bookstore and reading a few pages at a time (it wasn't available at my local public library). Another writer such as Stephen King probably could have taken this story's premise and expanded it into an 800-page novel. Which he did with other ideas in novels like Desperation, The Regulators, and Insomnia (another "cosmic" thriller). But as I have said before, part of Philip K. Dick's appeal to me is the relative terseness of his writings. And The Cosmic Puppets is about as terse as they come! A worthwhile read, even if you have to shell out some money for it.

The next novel of Philip K. Dick that I am reading is another of his "reality" stories, titled Puttering About in a Small Land. So far, it seems to me to be his best work of this genre, and I am looking forward to reviewing it in the near future.

Health Care Reform Slogs On

So it looks as if the Senate version of health care reform will come down soon to a showdown vote to end debate and have a final up-or-down vote on passage. With the more progressive features like the public option and its substitute of Medicare extension to age 55 cut out, the bill's fate still confronts anti-choice Democratic Senator Ben Nelson, who is determined to add more restrictions on abortions to the bill before giving it his approval. Considering that former DNC chairman Howard Dean has already come out in strong opposition to the bill as it currently stands, too much of a concession to Nelson could tear away the support of some of the most ardently pro-choice senators.

I've already stated on this blog (and have been affirmed in this opinion by Dean and others) that it is disturbing to have the following scenario facing us if this bill is passed:

--Legally-imposed mandate that everyone purchase health insurance from private health insurance companies, which are not subject to federal antitrust laws; fines levied on those in violation.

--No public option available to keep companies honest and competitive with their prices.

The combination of the above two, at best, is corporate welfare at its worst. And there can be a strong argument made that this is an underhanded way of establishing a fascist type of society, without the overt ideology. For what is fascism anyway, but the partnership between the state and the big money interests and corporations to the detriment of the general population? Yes, I think that there is definitely something wrong having the government, with its police powers, shaking down already financially-struggling people to help further enrich the fatcats in the private health insurance industry!

Maybe, though, I have it all wrong. Maybe, if this bill is enacted, the pool of choices (albeit all private) may drive prices down and make health insurance more affordable, even without a public option. As might the idea that having more participants (albeit forced by law to participate) would keep prices down. But the Senate bill, even if finally passed, still has to be reconciled with the more liberal House version in conference. With the final product subject to up/down votes in both houses. No done deal, I say. Ironically, the President seems so mellow on this extremely divisive and passion-stirring subject that he is likely to sign a final passed bill into law regardless what garbage it contains!

Get Off Tiger’s Back

The latest feel-good news story for those Nancy Grace types whose self-image is so low that they can only derive a sense of self-worth by putting down others who are in a personal crisis is the recent Tiger Woods saga. Woods had an auto accident near his home in Orlando and defied police efforts to interview him at his home afterwards. That is the only problem I have with Woods regarding this story. But the predatory gossip press has expanded on the famous pro golfer’s misfortune and intruded into his marital life, emphasizing extramarital affairs, insinuating spousal abuse, and even interviewing former lovers and adorning their pictures on the covers of gossip magazines. But I personally sense that there is more to this story than people deriving some sick vicarious pleasure at the downfall of a celebrity.

Tiger Woods has a multiracial background, if you want to believe that there actually is such a thing as race. And apparently it is too much of a temptation to emphasize his marriage to a woman of Swedish background. So that old, stinking racism against interracial marriages, which still runs high across demographic boundaries, has found a vehicle for expression. Only you don’t hear anyone actually explicitly coming out against Tiger’s “interracial” marriage per se. But his blond light-skinned wife has become something of a caricature in the press, and I have seen many drawings of her that would never have been published had she, say, an African-American background. I would have thought that by the year 2009 we all would have lifted ourselves out of this sort of slimy bigotry.

Which leads me to wonder aloud why all of these big corporations are dropping Tiger Woods from sponsorships. After all, celebrities goof up all the time, but that doesn’t mean that they don’t merit respect for what they have accomplished in their respective professions. This notion that Woods has “fallen”, so he doesn’t deserve the title of “role model”, is pure bull. I am sick of the nonsense that someone who has become a success in a particular area suddenly has to project a saint-like image in order to have any chance of economically capitalizing on that success.

Yes, I wonder whether the unspoken unforgivable “sin” that Tiger Woods has committed wasn’t his accident or adultery, but rather his marriage to his “white” wife! Could I be wrong about this? Maybe, but I seriously doubt it. Beyond the matter with the police I have previously mentioned, this is all none of anyone else’s business. Every time I hear some editorial take on this story or a new “scoop”, I get angrier. Butt out, jerks!

As the World Turns Canceled

CBC [see comments below] has just announced its plans to cancel the soap opera As the World Turns, which began its incredibly long run in 1956 (my birthyear). I generally have a strong feeling of disdain for soap operas, or novelas as they are called on Spanish-language television. Even from early childhood, I could see no point in watching programs where grownups stood around arguing with each other all the time. (Correction: sometimes they sat around arguing with each other.) Frankly, when I was a kid, soap operas painted for me an image of adults as just being a foolish, contentious bunch of dumbasses. Hmm--come to think of it, they may have had something there after all!

My beloved mother, alas, was a big fan of the genre, though. And As the World Turns, with its evil lead character Lisa running around messing up everyone's lives, was by far her favorite in the late 1950s and early 1960s. When I was three or four, I lived in an apartment in Opa-Locka, Florida. Our TV set worked O.K. ... except, that is, for the slight problem that it couldn't pick up channel four (which was CBS for the Miami area). So on weekday afternoons, my mother and I would walk down to the other end of the apartment complex to visit her friend Betty and watch the show. And I would hang around, drink "cossee" (coffee), and play with the kids around there. So As the World Turns occupies a special place in my memory, although it's a pretty ancient, dilapidated place!

I'm trying to think of any soap operas that I actually watched and enjoyed. The only one I could come up with was the gothic series Dark Shadows around 1969. And that was only for a stretch of a few weeks. Many years ago I would sit in on episodes of Days of Our Lives and General Hospital, but that was when my wife enjoyed those shows and I watched them with her as part of sharing her company. But as a personal choice, I guess I just don't dig this genre, pure and simple.

I Change My Mind (Horror of Horrors)

I change my mind, from time to time. For example, my favorites in music vary over the months and years, and sometimes pretty dramatically. My political notions undergo some revisions as well as I follow the issues, how they are presented by their advocates, and how I conclude how much those advocates are motivated by the public welfare and how much by ulterior motives such as power or secret ideological agendas. I change my own personal self-improvement goals as well quite a bit. Earlier in this blog, I used to express them much more often (and my progress or lack thereof), using the reasoning that expressing my goals publicly would sharpen my focus in striving for them. I'm thinking of reviving that, as a matter of fact.

I have not always been center-left in my political leanings. When I was growing up, I was more centrist-right, reflecting the views of my parents. They opposed anyone whom they perceived as being too extreme in one direction or the other. Hence they were against both Republican Barry Goldwater in 1964 and Democrat George McGovern in 1972. By 1976, though, I had come of voting age and had early on jumped on board with upstart Georgian Jimmy Carter's candidacy. In 1980, I missed out on that election although I felt then, as did many others, that the country was quickly going to hell in a hand basket and that Carter needed to turn the reins of power over to someone else. I think that the turning point that made me reject Carter was his cynical ploy of "staying in the White House" in the early months of the Iran Hostage Crisis to avoid campaigning head-on against challenger Ted Kennedy. Not that I supported Kennedy: he should have supported Carter instead of dividing his party.

By 1984, I was back with the Democrats and gamely supported them in the next three presidential elections, finally winning with Clinton in '92. Then, from 1994-2001, I shifted over to a more center-right orientation. After watching C-Span and C-Span2 in the spring of 2001, though, I discovered that the Democrats had better ideas and a better grasp of the issues, while the Republicans, albeit with some good arguments from time to time, tended to be hollow in their intentions. So I switched back to being a Democrat and have supported them ever since. But, hey, my leanings aren't set in stone and they could change in the future. But not if folks like Sarah Palin, Jim DeMint, Mitch McConnell, Rush Limbaugh, and Glenn Beck continue to determine the GOP's direction.

Miami Dolphins and the "Perfect" NFL Teams

As a follow-up to my article the other day on the "curse of perfection", specifically regarding football teams, let me direct my attention to the professional sector. In the NFL, there are an unprecedented two teams, the Indianapolis Colts and the New Orleans Saints, which still have perfect regular season records of 12-0 with four more games to go before the playoffs. I say good for them, but the team I am following, the Miami Dolphins, is 6-6 and can make the playoffs as well if they finish the season strong. And if they make the playoffs, then who knows what could happen?

As far as I'm concerned, Miami made a success out of its season last Sunday by knocking off its archrival New England 22-21. Now that is a team whose fans have had to come to grips with the "curse of perfection" after the NY Giants, with five regular season losses, deprived them of the championship two years ago, despite the Patriots having won all of their previous games, with a 17-14 Super Bowl win. The Dolphins may well do the same thing this year against the "perfect" Colts or Saints in the playoffs.

But what would be even sweeter than that would be for Miami to pass New England in the standings, win the division again, and deprive the Patriots of a playoff spot for the second year in a row. And this time without the excuse of their MVP quarterback Tom Brady being injured. Or the Dolphins could just as well screw up and lose their final games. Oh well, I can dream, can't I?

Philip K. Dick's Time Out of Joint

I have a theory about some of the blockbuster movies and television series that have come out over the past few decades. It is that those responsible for creating some of these successes lifted, possibly unconsciously, the premises for them from earlier, relatively unknown stories. Stories by authors like Philip K. Dick. Take his 1959 science fiction novel Time Out of Joint, which I recently read, as an example.

Like Dick's realism novel Voices From the Street, which I had earlier reviewed, Time Out of Joint reminds me vividly of a television series and a movie: The Prisoner (again) and The Truman Show, respectively. The story's protagonist is Ragle Gumm, a single, deliberately unemployed middle-aged man who resides in a small town with his sister and her husband and makes a small fortune posting consistently winning entries in an ongoing nationwide newspaper game. Originally content with his lifestyle, circumstances begin to unravel and Gumm decides to leave town and begin his life afresh. But he soon finds out that everyone out of town knows him by name and appearance and is working to bring him back "home". He even intercepts radio broadcasts mentioning him by his name and location. So Gumm realizes that he is living a life of illusion: a very important life, evidently, from the perspective of others. But a fake one, nevertheless, in a contrived location around contrived people and family. Why? Having probably already revealed too much of the plot, I'll leave it at that. But you should be able to make the connection I made with The Prisoner (the original series) and The Truman Show. Time Out of Joint also has the feel of a very well-written Twilight Zone episode, creating an atmosphere of mystery and intrigue while ending with a relatively mundane explanation.

As I read through this novel, I began to identify more with Ragle Gumm. Is this because I may have paranoid or narcissistic tendencies, believing that in some hidden way I am the center and reason for everything going on around me, or is it more that I believe that there is something very significant underlying my life of which I am as yet unaware? The former choice is unhealthy from a psychological standpoint, but the latter view is that of a "seeker", i.e. one who believes that there is more to life than everyday existence. A seeker strikes out to find answers. And then to find the appropriate questions for those answers!

Time Out of Joint, so far, is my favorite Philip K. Dick novel. It really helps to be able to strike up some empathy for the protagonist, not always the case for me with some of his other works. I am currently reading another science fiction novel of his titled The Cosmic Puppets, which more closely resembles something that Stephen King might have written (like his The Regulators, published under "alter ego" pseudonym Richard Bachman).

Passing the Torch (or Curse)

Conversation overheard the other morning at the Clock Restaurant while I was eating breakfast:

Customer: Go Gators!
Waitress: Go Gators! (sigh) Doggone it!

I have a slightly different take on Florida's convincing 32-13 drubbing at the hands of now "perfect" Alabama for the SEC football championship. The situation reminds me of a Twilight Zone episode titled A Game of Pool. In it, a pool fanatic played by Jack Klugman is a general loser at life, except for pool: he practices and plays it day and night. And only wants one thing in life: to be the best pool player ever. The only problem is that the man who was the recognized best, played by Jonathan Winters, had just died, depriving Klugman of his opportunity to dethrone the champ. So this talented man was turning into a very bitter man over this. Then one day, what should happen but the ghost of Winters shows up and challenges Klugman to a match. The stakes: if Klugman wins, then he is recognized as the greatest ever. But if he loses, then he forfeits his life. In the end, Klugman "wins", but as a result is cursed with the responsibility, after his eventual death later on, of replacing Winters in heaven with the job of defending his "title" against future wannabes on Earth.

I feel kind of like that about following a team that, like Florida recently, has come to be expected to be perfect and better than everyone else. This year they haven't been annihilating their opponents with the extremely lopsided scores that their fans have been used to. And quarterback Tim Tebow has also been much more closely scrutinized regarding his performance than ever before. But they kept on winning, until last Saturday that is. Once the shock of their defeat has settled in, they can now go back to just being a very good and entertaining team. And the curse of perfection has been successfully transferred to the University of Alabama. Good luck, guys! Now Gators, just go out and have some fun in the Sugar Bowl against Cincinnati!

President Obama's New Afghan Policy

President Obama has delivered his decision on Afghanistan in a speech Tuesday evening. The President will send 30,000 more American troops to this civil war-ravaged, historically multi-factioned and warlord-dominated country in order, apparently, to eventually speed up their withdrawal. This seems to be somewhat like the "surge doctrine" used in Iraq during the last two years of the Bush presidency, when a more more aggressive military posture was employed to overcome insurgents there, particularly in Sunni areas.

In Iraq, however, whatever successes the surge had were based on the foundation of area tribal chiefs and leaders switching their allegiances from the insurgency to the government. In Afghanistan, the Taliban is not just some covert insurgency, but rather a very organized shadow government, not necessarily dependent on local chiefs for its survival. I may be misinformed, but I don't believe that the same scenario for success exists in Afghanistan (especially the southern region where the Taliban is the strongest) that existed in Iraq.

The additional U.S. troops will fill in the void of security in areas that the Afghan government does not control. Which of course means that these areas are, for all practical purposes, Taliban territory. With popular support rooted in those areas. When our soldiers go into these areas, they will once again be confronted by the specter of having to regard the local civilian population as the enemy unless proven otherwise, inviting possibly tragic misunderstandings and even atrocities.

But then again, I could have it all wrong. Maybe, as in Iraq, the groundwork for some success has clandestinely been laid with more moderate Taliban supporters being persuaded to support a temporary American presence in return for political recognition or autonomy of some sort. Who knows? Perhaps our elected leaders, with their access to classified intelligence, know something that I or my fellow lay citizens don't. But then again, this same reasoning was put over on us by the previous Bush administration to justify invading Iraq in 2003("trust us, we have access to special intelligence and know better than you").

Come what will, I believe that continually ostracizing the Taliban in this area is not a formula for success. Our focus should be to separate them from Al-Qaeda, not eliminate them. There will always be a harsh, Islamic fundamentalist presence in Afghanistan and Pakistan. Those following it are in the minority in both countries, but they are devoted and willing to sacrifice themselves and others to achieve legitimacy. Ultimately, the solution for peace will come through negotiation and some sort of political equilibrium with these groups. And there will always be a degree of tension between the fundamentalist interests and those who want a more secular, albeit still Islamic, society in their countries.

Anyway, the way I see it, our main problem over there isn't Afghanistan, but rather Pakistan, a country with nuclear weapons that is directly threatened by extremist forces and in which Al-Qaeda is currently based. And where American troops are not welcome by the presiding official government. Good luck on sorting that mess out, Mr. President! I just hope our additional troops don't just succeed in driving the Taliban completely over the border into Pakistan, further destabilizing that already too-unstable nation.

Assorted Rants, Reader Beware

--In a radio interview with conservative talk show host Rusty Humphries, former Alaska governor Sarah Palin, who abandoned her position of responsibility to "go rogue", openly approved of those who were continuing to question Barack Obama's status as a native-born American citizen. Palin reminds me of people who win the lottery before they learn how to manage money. So they squander their prize with reckless spending. With Palin, the lottery win was McCain selecting her as his running mate in 2008. Her lack of expertise is in managing political capital, not money. And she is squandering it all with reckless speech. Well, maybe not all: she'll always have the conspiratorial nutcase wing of the political right at her beck and call. Do I see a Sarah Palin/Ron Paul ticket in the works?

--Recently, some Republican lawmakers have tried to use a recent misguided government study that was skeptical of women having mammograms for early breast cancer detection before age 50. They cried that this is an example of government health care rationing and is what we can expect if the Democrats' health care reform bill is enacted. But the study was just that: a study, nothing more. And as Connecticut Senator Chris Dodd recently pointed out on the Senate floor, our health care is now already constantly being rationed in minute detail, not by the government, but rather by the private health insurance companies. Which, by the way, enjoy protection as monopolies with their exemption from federal anti-trust laws.

--Regarding the Tiger Woods incident where he had an auto accident and seems to be covering up some personal meanderings, I couldn't care less about the personal business. But I AM concerned about the fact that he was able to get away with repeatedly refusing to talk to police officers following the accident without any legal consequences. Suppose you or I tried the same thing: how long would the police have waited before we were dragged out of our homes, possibly Tasered, and pushed into a squad car and driven off to jail, with charges of resisting the police being levied against us? This is another case of the law being applied differently, depending on how powerful and wealthy one is. Scary.

--The buzz around Gainesville is naturally about the upcoming Southeastern Conference championship game between the Florida Gators and the Alabama Crimson Tide on Saturday in Atlanta. In football. American football. You know, that weird sport where big people in astronaut-like gear and tight pants form lines opposite each other and then abruptly collide en masse, falling down all over the place and then getting up to repeat the process? And somewhere along the line, some points mysteriously get added to one side or another? With funny little guys in striped outfits running around, throwing flags, blowing whistles and wildly gesticulating with their arms? Yeh, that sport. I'm pulling for UF, but I am no fanatic, either. As Billy Preston once so eloquently put it, "Let the bad guy win every once in a while." Maybe I'll begin to care more who wins when someone shows me how that is going to make even a rat's @$$ of a difference in my life. [Note previous day's article and how irrationally I root for the Miami Dolphins.]

Dolphins Still In It (Barely)

It's too bad that this year's edition of the Miami Dolphins has experienced some problems, both in terms of their place in the standings and with season-ending injuries to key players. But I'm still with them and admire the gritty, determined manner in which they tackle each game (although they suffered a collective fourth-quarter meltdown against Buffalo last week).

The injuries didn't begin at the beginning of the season, but Miami still couldn't buy a victory, incurring several close losses. Then quarterback Chad Pennington, running back Ronnie Brown, and defensive tackle Jason Ferguson suffered injuries putting them out of action until next year. Backup quarterback Chad Henne, although erratic at times with his accuracy, has generally done quite well replacing Pennington, who in all probability won't be with the Dolphins after this season. Ricky Williams, likewise, has worked very hard, with varying degrees of success, to cover for Brown's absence. One of the big problems with this is that Miami's once-vaunted wildcat offense has thus become much easier to predict and contain with only one star running back in there to cover at a time instead of the great Brown/Williams combo.

These problems notwithstanding, Miami is still, after eleven games, only one game out of wild card playoff contention with a 5-6 record. But they would have to hold off three teams with their same record and pass ahead of three others with 6-5 marks. And next week they play New England, a pretty steep hurdle to cross in itself. Another loss by the Dolphins will pretty much eliminate them from playoff contention, as I see it. Better, I think, to appreciate them from week to week and hope for a .500 season.

Night Run Through UF

After driving back from Jacksonville this past Sunday, I thought it would be interesting to see whether the outdoor track on the University of Florida campus was available for me to run on at night. When I pulled my car into the adjacent parking lot and got out, the gates at first glance seemed to be locked up. And I didn't see anyone running on the track, so I assumed that it was closed. However, already ready to go on a jog, I decided to do just that. Across the UF campus, instead.

I was a little skittish at the prospect of running at night through the University of Florida because I knew that their night lighting was somewhat dim and might fail to properly illuminate obstacles and holes in my running path, causing me a possibly injurious spill. But I quickly became accustomed to the low level of lighting and gamely "chugged" on through, passing landmarks like the O'Connell Center, Ben Hill Griffin Stadium, Weil Hall, Turlington Hall, Marston Science Library, Century Tower, Music building, Little Hall, Tigert Hall, various dorms, Reitz Union, more dorms, and finally Fraternity Row, before completing my 2.7 mile loop in the darkness back just outside the track.

It was just then, at the end of my jaunt through UF, that I noticed someone running around the track. So I examined the gates more closely and found an opening. And entered the track, running another half mile. Cool!

So night running apparently does work at UF, after all. But like Charlie Daniels, I think I'm gonna reroute my trip (at least the final part) in the future (only slightly, not going via Omaha): I'll forsake Fraternity Road, which has no sidewalk or bike path, and go a little further west down Village Drive, which has both. And this small change will also give me a running route exactly five kilometers in length. Doubly cool!

Philip K. Dick's The World Jones Made

The World Jones Made, a science fiction novel by Philip K. Dick written in 1954, explores the "future" world of 2002. And, like other typical works of science fiction produced in this era, mankind is deep into outer space, colonizing the moon, Venus, the outer planets, and even exploring nearby star systems. Seven years ago, so it would seem. So where have we gone wrong in our real world?

After giving it a little thought, I hold that we're right on track with our space exploration. The impetus given to human space exploration in the fifties and sixties was motivated in large part by the Cold War rivalry between the United States and the Soviet Union, along with the desire to develop and test long-range missiles capable of accurately delivering nuclear warheads to enemy targets in the event of a nuclear war. As the threat of nuclear war diminished with arms control agreements and easing of relations, so diminished the military's influence on space exploration policy. I believe that many today are wary that a new effort to send men and women into deep space will encourage its militarization and eventually threaten life on Earth. And noting how, in the last century and a half, technological innovations have quickly been converted to instruments of war and death, I would sadly have to concur with them.

But there is an even more obvious reason why we "real folks" haven't lived up to the standards of space exploration set by those sci-fi writers of decades long gone. And it's pretty simple, actually. To make a story more appealing to its readers, many of them in their youth, the writer may find it attractive to paint a picture of colonized planets and star exploration within the projected life spans of those readers. Which gives the story an added dimension of personal involvement on the part of the reader. I remember, in my own youth, reading an Alan Nourse novel titled Rocket to Limbo, in which an expedition to Alpha Centauri takes off in 2008. It had a great impact on me, and putting a date within my own reach no doubt contributed to that. And who can argue against the appeal of Arthur C. Clarke's 2001: A Space Odyssey and its sequel 2010?

Philip K. Dick was no scientist, but he knew just enough to be able to enable readers to visualize the future. Dick's greatest strength as a writer was to capture and convey the essence of human nature in all of its forms, good or bad, foolish or wise, weak or strong, through his stories' characters. And The World Jones Made does not disappoint in this respect.

The story's protagonist is a security officer named Cussick who is protecting a worldwide government based on the philosophy of Hoff's Relativism, which criminalizes absolutism, even in ordinary conversation. His foil is a character named Jones, who has the paranormal ability to experience his own life exactly one year into the future. Dick takes this ability and explores all of its ramifications, which become more fascinating as the novel progresses.

There is a subplot to The World Jones Made that involves humans who have been genetically manipulated to adapt to an environment not normally found on Earth. To say more about this would be giving away the story, and I am recommending that you read it. So I'll just let it go at that, except to say that Dick uses this to create a perfect symmetry between the novel's beginning and conclusion.

The World Jones Made, although obviously outdated and technically very flawed, is still very good, entertaining reading. Philip K. Dick explored the nature of personality cults as well as his own favorite topic: the nature of subjectivity versus objectivity. And of course, it's always fun to go back and see what some people thought today's world in the early 21st century might be like.

Health Care For All

Here I am, sitting off in a corner of a Starbucks next to the Oaks Mall here in Gainesville, across the street from the North Florida Regional medical offices where I am currently between appointments for routine medical tests and consultations. For which my excellent health insurance, provided by my employer, USPS, gives coverage with a very reasonable premium. This is the same general type of coverage that our lawmakers in Washington enjoy. And many of them, Republicans for the most part but also several Democrats, evidently think that they are so superior to the American people that they would deprive the rest of the country's population of the same benefits that they enjoy themselves. By opposing health care reform.

As far as the public option that we have heard so much about over the past few months is concerned, it doesn't explicitly exist in the pool of choices I have for health insurance. Instead, insurance companies and FHOs have negotiated special policies with the government to cover federal employees, with their prices being relatively low. So, in a sense, there is already a degree of "public" in the available private options, at least for federal employees.

I have been opposed to efforts put forth by a few Democrats (and Independent Joe Lieberman) to pass a bill without a public option. I can handle that, provided that any mandated health insurance is not beyond the means of the people to pay for. Especially poor people. The only problem is that there is no guarantee that this won't happen, and I am strongly opposed to creating a new class of criminals, based on a new unreasonable mandate to carry health insurance. If there are provisions within the bill to lessen the load on the poor (and I've heard that there are), then those poor Americans should not have to jump through any bureaucratic hoops to obtain that relief and avoid fines or prosecution. After all, there are many living in poverty right now who don't receive available public assistance simply because they are averse to the red tape involved in it or are simply ignorant of their options.

Blog Entering Patchy Period

I am anticipating a period of a few days in which my blog entries may be sporadic. Or relatively short. Things should pick up, though, sooner or later.

Dip Into Thirties, Finally

This morning the local temperatures here in Gainesville dipped down into the thirties for the first time since early April. Although meteorologists have predicted a wet and cold winter due to the El Niño effect, we have been experiencing a rather warm, dry autumn so far. Lows in the upper thirties, highs in the fifties: that is "my" optimum weather!

Philip K. Dick's In Milton Lumky Territory

In Milton Lumky Territory is a realism novel by Philip K. Dick (1928-82), known primarily for his science fiction. The setting is the American Pacific Northwest, mostly in the state of Idaho. The three main characters, Bruce Stevens, Susan Faine, and Milton Lumky, are struggling with their jobs and businesses in the area. Bruce joins Susan's typewriter/office services business and tries to improve on it by concentrating on selling higher-quality typewriters. To accomplish this, he searches the Pacific area from San Francisco to Seattle for a supplier of a certain Japanese electric typewriter that he feels will sell well and turn the business around. Lumky, on the other hand, is a travelling office paper salesman who knew Susan from earlier and is getting to know Bruce. He reveals a supplier who has a large stock of the typewriters in question. There is a clash of personalities and values between Lumky and Stevens, as the former accuses the latter of lacking in spirituality and concern for others. Lumky asks Stevens if he believed in God, and Stevens can only laugh back uncontrollably in response. Lumky becomes angry at him, not only for his atheism but for the fact that Stevens, unlike himself, thrives being on long road trips.

This novel, not one of my favorites of Dick's, does examine closely how people think and relate to one another. It paints no favorable picture of anyone, as all of the story's main characters are really pretty disagreeable and miserable people. Which makes reading through it a somewhat depressing experience.

The bleak, ugly description of Idaho that Dick lays out is also rather depressing. The roads are bad, the weather is miserable, and there are these nasty flying, biting bugs that get in your face and clog up your car's radiator.

I suppose that if you are a glutton for punishment, you may want to read In Milton Lumky's Territory. I for one didn't particularly enjoy it, although it did provide some insight into what motivates some people to behave in a petty manner regarding money. And like other Philip K. Dick realism novels such as Humpty Dumpty in Oakland and Voices From the Street, it exposes the mindset of people running small businesses, at least as Dick sees it. And a not-so-favorable portrayal at that.

I am currently reading a science fiction novel of Dick: The World Jones Made. Much, much more enjoyable and interesting (I'm about two thirds of the way through it). I think Philip K. Dick's strength was definitely in the genre of science fiction! The fact that many of his realism novels, including In Milton Lumky's Territory, were repeatedly rejected by publishers during his lifetime and were only published posthumously is just an affirmation of my own opinion.

Urban Meyer and Notre Dame

With Notre Dame once again having a mediocre season at 6-5, talk is heating up about an impending head football coach vacancy up there in South Bend, with Charlie Weis on the way out after a string of disappointing seasons. And talk is also heating up about the possibility that Florida head coach Urban Meyer will step in to replace Weis.

Before coming to UF, Meyer has described coaching at Notre Dame, where he was previously an assistant coach for five years, as his "dream job". But he has become very comfortable here in Gainesville and has accomplished everything he would have wanted to at Notre Dame, particularly two national championships in four seasons and possibly a third this year. He can recruit more easily in the high schools of Florida and the South at large, and he doesn't have to overcome the stringent academic standards that Notre Dame has to bring in players who may have had enough difficulty just passing high school. Meyer is almost idolized in the Gainesville area, something that I have already written disturbs me to no end. If he went to Notre Dame, then winning the national championship occasionally and competing for it every season would be the minimum expectation among their fans. Of course, give Meyer a string of three or four seasons with three or four losses per season at UF and see much longer he would remain idolized here in Gainesville.

Urban Meyer has consistently and firmly denied rumors that he would be interested in coaching at Notre Dame, and has reiterated that he is very happy at the University of Florida. The only problem with that is that Alabama head coach Nick Saban was saying the same things while coaching the Miami Dolphins when the Alabama job became available. And once Alabama made him an "offer he couldn't refuse", Saban reneged on his commitment to the Dolphins and jumped over to Alabama. Meyer has "jumped ship" before, most recently leaving Utah for Florida following only his second season of coaching for them, after recruiting players there who believed that he would be with them for their college careers.

For me, I think Urban Meyer is a good coach with essentially no sense of humor, at least as far as it relates to him or his team. This whole mindset around here that it is somehow offensive to criticize Meyer, Tim Tebow, or any other UF player or coach is offensive in itself to me. I would rather have a less successful coach and a team to follow that had moderately successful seasons than a coach and team that are EXPECTED to win every game they play (and by large point margins at that). So Meyer is welcome to jump ship, as far as I'm concerned. Whether he does or not, I'll still root for the Gators. But it wouldn't hurt my feelings if he left, either. After all, Nick Saban has already conditioned me in this area!

Health Care Reform Bill, Prospects

Well, the health care reform bill has finally gotten into debate in the US Senate with the bare sixty votes needed. All of the Democrats (included the two Independents caucusing with them) voted for starting debate while all Republicans voted against it. This was to be expected. Now I'll predict what will happen next.

Now that debate on this bill, completely opposed by the GOP, has begun, several amendments will be put forth by Republican senators who have no intention whatsoever to vote for the bill, regardless whether or not their amendments are approved. And some of these amendments will be accepted. The task of the Democrats will be to alter the bill enough to give political cover to Independent Senator Joe Lieberman and more conservative Democrats Mary Landrieu, Blanche Lincoln, and Ben Nelson. This will be done by reinstating the "trigger" gimmick that would activate the public option should prices stay too high. But they'll call it something else and make it slightly different. In the end, cloture on the bill will pass with 60 or 61 votes, Maine Republican Olympia Snowe possibly returning with her support of it. And it will easily pass in this form in the final Senate vote.

The next step will see this legislation brought to conference, where the House and Senate versions will have to be reconciled into something of a compromise between them. Once that final version is produced, the two bodies will have to approve it. And if there is not a public option after conference, then there is a real danger of it not being approved in the House of Representatives, where support for a public option is stronger and more insistent.

Let's see how well I do with my prediction. I seem to be doing pretty well with my football prognosticating this year (well, the Ravens aren't doing as well I thought they would); maybe it will carry over into politics!

My Running and Weight Training

During the past few days, I have decided to change my running regimen by alternating my running with weight training, done at my local YMCA workout room. I had noticed that running every day seemed to put more wear on my feet and ankles, but skipping a day gave them a better chance to recover and strengthen. I also want to develop my upper body strength anyway.

The weight training technology that is available nowadays is, in my opinion, vastly superior and safer than the old barbells and bars (still available at the "Y" for those masochists who prefer them). In the mid to late 1950s, my father developed an interest in weightlifting and purchased a complete set of Joe Weider weights. When I was twelve (and emaciated-looking, ribs prominently poking out of my chest), he gradually and cautiously introduced me to weight training. But it wasn't until I turned fifteen that my interest took off. By that time, I did all of my training on my own, which wasn't actually the safest thing to do. When you're bench-pressing heavy weights, there is a danger that you'll lose control of the bar and it could fall on top of you, possibly fatally. But since I am not "ghost writing" this, I obviously survived that sometimes foolhardy period. But it would have been more prudent to have a partner during workouts.

And now I'm making good use of the weight room. It's actually a lot of fun and adds a touch of variety to my exercising. I still do most of my running around my neighborhood, usually covering 3.4-3.6 miles each time. I like this distance because it doesn't take up too much time to accomplish while still keeping me accustomed to running a span of more than 5K (3.11 miles). After all, I may just get up one Saturday morning and decide to run one of those numerous 5K races held in town this time of year!

Paul Is Dead and JFK Plot Theories

In writing about various conspiracy theories that have been spun over the years, I could replicate the information that is readily available on the Internet. But seeing that those who read my blog are already either pretty intelligent and well-informed about performing searches or have found my blog through a search (proving that they are capable in this area), I decided to instead focus on my own circumstances and reflections regarding those "theories".

With conspiracies in general, I believe that human nature, along with the concept of chaos when as few as three variables come into play, make elaborate conspiracy/cover-up theories like the JFK assassination plot, the moon hoax, the 9/11 "inside job", and the "Paul is dead" cover-up preposterous. But it's still fun to "play" the game for a while, just as I may enjoy watching a far-fetched James Bond or science fiction movie or read a Stephen King or Philip K. Dick novel. And then return to the real world, none the worse for wear. Unfortunately, this return to reality after exposure to some of this stuff is beyond the means of some people.

Although John F. Kennedy was murdered on 1963, for me the first true immersion into conspiracy theories was of the contrived story that Beatles co-leader Paul McCartney had been killed in an automobile accident in 1966, occurring either on September 11 or November 9 (depending on how one interprets the "clues"). I first heard about this in the spring of 1970 at school in the eighth grade during morning televised announcements. Apparently, some upperclassman had picked up on the rumors begun the previous year by a pair of Detroit radio DJs and had put together a pretty compelling presentation at the end of the announcement show that morning. A couple of years later, a classmate friend of mind decided to make this his term paper topic. I began to listen to "clues" on Beatles songs and examine the albums. Why the other Beatles would go to all the trouble to bring in a replacement "look-alike" Paul to permit the band's continuity in the public eye and then furtively place these clues on their material never occurred to me, or to many others, apparently. But it was fun. It also made me wonder whether I could manufacture my own conspiracy/cover-up by first taking incidental lyrics and album design features and then constructing a secret "narrative" to fit them. This is, after all, what those DJs did with McCartney's premature demise.

Speaking of Kennedy's assassination, as I child in the 1960s I never heard of Jim Garrison's campaign to promote his view of it as a complex conspiracy involving right-wing extremists and secret agents (as shown in Oliver Stone's movie JFK). It was only in the 1970s when I caught wind of the notion that others beside Lee Harvey Oswald may have been in on the assassination. Three of the arguments promoting the idea of a conspiracy were (1) witnesses in the area reporting hearing more than the officially-established number of shots, (2) the single-bullet theory accounting for both the first bullet going through the President and then hitting Texas governor John Connally was too outlandish to believe, and (3) the real killers shot JFK from a hidden spot on a grassy knoll as he was passing by. But (1) I travelled to Dallas in 1994 and drove through the same area, past the places immortalized in those tragic scenes. And I noticed that in real life, everything is much more closed in, with tall buildings everywhere. Giving the idea that witnesses heard echoes instead of extra shots more credence. (2) The Discovery Channel investigated the single-bullet theory by meticulously recreating the parameters of the assassination, using the same type weapon that Oswald had, shooting from the same height, angle, and distance. They closely mimicked the bone structure of the victims by having models made with "skeletons". They placed the victims (models) in positions as close as possible to filmed records. And then shot the models and analyzed the results. By this, the one-bullet theory was CONFIRMED, not refuted. (3) One doesn't have to be a marksman to know that, in order to hit a moving target, you would need to reduce the effects of that motion on your aim. The way to do this is to align yourself with the direction of the motion, as Oswald did from his position at the Texas Schoolbook Depository in order to keep the angular change at a minimum. Those supposed assassins at the grassy knoll would have been shooting from the worst possible angle, perpendicular to the President's car as it passed by. Why would anyone plan it this way?!

In December 2000, I heard a late-night radio interview with the late muckraking journalist Jack Anderson. In it, Anderson laid out his own conspiracy theory about JFK's death. And like those who created the "Paul is dead" narrative, he constructed it from contributory circumstances. The narrative: in the 1960 presidential election, JFK's father, with the help of the Chicago mob, bought the vote and the state of Illinois, giving him the election in 1960 (although in reality Kennedy didn't need Illinois in the final count). So the mob expected good treatment from JFK as president in return. But JFK made his brother Robert attorney general and RFK went after the mob, creating a feeling of betrayal among the gangsters. Also feeling threatened was Cuba's Fidel Castro, whom the CIA was trying to kill using the mob. Well, according to Anderson, both the mob and Castro "saw the light", got together, and conspired to kill Kennedy. Huh? Oh well, when you're a true believer in something, you accept the contributing "evidence" and ignore anything that would contradict it.

Should Conservatives Support Palin for President?

The Republican Party needs someone knowledgeable about the issues to lead them as an opposition party, not someone like drama-queen/attention-seeker/quitter ex-governor Sarah Palin. As I had written before, Palin is much like the late Richard Nixon in that she never forgets a slight and doggedly hangs on to her grudges, striking back repeatedly and openly against anyone who she feels “did her wrong”. This includes anyone in the media who ever asked her a question she didn’t like, as well as practically the entire John McCain campaign organization. Her newly released book Going Rogue, rather than mending fences to move forward with her political and/or media ambitions, is employing a different metaphor: burning bridges.

The GOP has plenty of articulate (and even sometimes charismatic) individuals whom their members could follow all the way through to victories in 2010 and 2012, possibly even winning back the White House in 2012; Mike Huckabee, Jeb Bush, and Mitt Romney are experienced, conservative ex-governors who, besides having extensive campaign experience, served out their terms in office to their completion responsibly and with the view that while in office, they represented their entire states, not just those who voted for them. As opposition leaders, they are now naturally more ideological in their rhetoric. But although a future Huckabee, Jeb, or Romney administration would definitely have a much more conservative flavor than the present Obama presidency, I am confident that they would display the kind of pragmatism that they showed as governors. I can’t say the same for Sarah Palin.

On the other hand, George W. Bush, as governor of Texas, enjoyed wide popularity even among Democrats. Upon assuming the presidency, though, he reverted to being more of an ideologue. So who knows, except that I can easily tell that Mike Huckabee, Jeb Bush and Mitt Romney, my differences with them aside, strike me as being much more intelligent and confident in their abilities to lead (instead of passively sitting back and letting their staff and VP do the job for them as Dubya did).

And if people are just looking for someone in the media to represent their conservative views, may I suggest folks like George Will or Charles Krauthammer instead of Palin. Actually, though, even a bomb-thrower like Ann Coulter, who can be quite funny sometimes and has a self-deprecating and wicked sense of humor, is a better “leader” than vindictive, take-it-all-personally Sarah Palin. C’mon, conservatives, wise up!

I think that the McCain campaign made a huge mistake in the summer of 2008 regarding the role that Sarah Palin was to take in the campaign. She initially enjoyed huge, widespread popularity and had a compelling personal rags-to-glory story that ordinary people could relate to. The problems began when she concentrated on attacking Obama and the Democrats instead of focusing on her life and positive values. The Republicans wasted Palin’s initial popularity by relegating her to the role of being the “attacker”. That having been said, it must also be said that Governor Palin seemed to relish this role quite a lot. But that set the Democratic attack machine squarely against her, and in a matter of days she began the object of ridicule, not admiration. And a liability to the McCain campaign.

Sarah Palin has often cited Ronald Reagan as a sort of political role model, but she hasn’t followed his path. But another ex-governor has: Mike Huckabee, who has his own entertaining Sunday night prime time show on Fox News. Like Reagan before him in the late 1970’s, Huckabee has successfully kept himself in the media without whipping up hostility, as Palin has. If you identify yourself as a political conservative, you may admire and agree with Sarah Palin. But you should be concerned if she were to run for president and lead in the Republican primaries. Because there's no way she's going to garner enough support to win a national election!

As a side note, I noticed in a recent nationwide opinion poll (I believe it was ABC/Washington Post) that 53% of respondents said that they would not vote for Sarah Palin for president. But in the same poll, 60% said that she was unqualified for being president. Leaving the implication that at least 7% would consider voting for her, even acknowledging that she was unqualified. Scary!