Freckles, Cuddles, and Taffy

Two summers ago, we adopted Freckles (above), a mixed-breed puppy, for my daughter as a advance-birthday present that year. Gainesville has a non-profit organization called Puppy Hill Farms that takes in abandoned animals, cares for them, and puts them up for adoption. Freckles was already spayed when we got her from them. We weren't too sure how big she would grow, but she finally slowed her growth down to where she is about 55 pounds. Freckles is a very high-spirited, lively dog who loves to play with tennis balls or sticks, as well as having her belly rubbed. At the beginning, we took her to obedience classes, where she learned a few commands. Freckles apparently had some traumas before Puppy Hills Farms took her in, because she becomes petrified at the sight of any truck or the sound of any running machinery. Freckles has an older "sister" in Cuddles, another mixed-breed dog that we've had since 1997 (as my son's dog). While Freckles seems to have some greyhound and Aussie shepherd in her, Cuddles is more like a dachshund/basset hound combo and is stocky and close to the ground (but very fast when she wants to be). We adore our dogs. A year ago, Taffy, our miniature poodle, passed on after nineteen happy years with us. I love dogs, and I am not particular about breeds, either. If you live in a place that allows pets, I recommend adopting a mixed breed dog from one of the adoption agencies. Our lives have been enormously enriched by ours! Last month, our veterinarian picked Freckles as the pet of the month (entitling her to a free bath and nail-clipping)! Here are pictures of Cuddles (left) and a very young Taffy (with me, right):

Foreign Languages on the Eights: 5/13

For the past eight weeks, studying foreign languages has taken a back seat to other things in my life. But I still had plenty of opportunities to take a few minutes aside daily to study some. Oh well, that's the past and it's behind me: the question is what am I going to do now. As I mentioned a while back on this blog, I decided to narrow my concentrated study of foreign languages to those that I had the best chance of approaching effective mastery of: Spanish, German, Russian, French, and Chinese. It is very easy nowadays, by means of the Internet, to both read material in each of these languages as well as hear daily webcasts in them. I also have study material at home to study with. So I just have to lay a little time aside, as well as set up a study plan. The main push should be for me to rapidly build up my passive (reading and listening) vocabulary in each of these languages to the point where I can follow the gist of anything I read or hear in them. But that aside, I also need to practice being in "the flow" of each tongue as well. So in the next few days I will work out more details. And hopefully, this time around I'll actually begin to accomplish something more substantial in this area of self-improvement!

Monday Newsbreak: 5/12

--In the aftermath of the tragic cyclone hitting southern Burma, it does sadly seem that this country's military government is only interested in holding on to power and cares very little for the welfare of its people. Its intransigence in allowing relief aid to enter the country, along with widespread accusations that it refused to give preventative warnings to the people about the cyclone's impending strike, says all that I need to know about the moral bankruptcy of this regime.

--After last Tuesday's North Carolina and Indiana primaries in which Barack Obama convincingly defeated Hillary Clinton in the former and essentially broke even with her in the latter, the momentum has sharply shifted over to Obama. The tide of superdelegate support is overwhelmingly going in the direction of the charismatic young Illinois senator. I agree with the pundits I've read who state that Hillary's behavior over the next few weeks will determine her political future within the Democratic Party on a national level. A lot more tact and a lot less sideswiping would appear to be the right course of action for the New York senator.

--The local news is full of the woes of the University of Florida as it tries to figure out a way to implement a $47 million budget cut. Not only will faculty and staff be severely cut, but degree programs will also be affected with some eliminated, leaving some students stranded in the middle of targeted programs. I agree with one of the letters to the Gainesville Sun's editor, which raised the question: since the UF administrators knew for a while about the impending cuts, why didn't they take earlier actions to both warn people as well as to look for alternative private sources of funding?! UF President Bernie Machen, with his multimillion dollar salary, comes out of this appearing totally incompetent and insensitive.

--The first Walmart Supercenter in Gainesville opened this week, so naturally it looked as if this store was the "place to be" this weekend. I went there and liked how the grocery store looked. However, judging by the chronically sloppy appearance of the other Walmarts in town, I think I'll wait a while after the initial hoopla has settled before rendering any kind of judgement about the new store. Only that, with the deliberate placement of the store in sparsely populated eastern Gainesville far away from everything, coupled with the skyrocketing cost of gasoline, I don't see myself making the crosstown trip very often to save money on merchandise.

Paying For Public Legitimacy

I'm curious about whether I'm the only one in the world who notices this, so I'll just put it out here on my blog. But over the years, I've come to an unsettling conclusion. If I am out in public, and not actually travelling about, then I need to be somewhere in the act of spending money (or at least presenting the appearance of intending to spend money)! Now if I am at home, then that's all right. But other than being at a public library, I feel that the idea has been hammered into me that I am something less than human if I am not paying for the "privilege" of making myself visible in the public. Does that sound a bit farfetched to you? One of the things that police look for on their patrols are people who don't seem to be doing anything in particular (translate: either not spending money or not moving). This is commonly known as "loitering", and the "offenders" are often referred to as vagrants and either told to move on or are thrown in jail (remember Sylvester Stallone's Rambo character in that small Oregon town in his First Blood movie?). If I am sitting in a Starbucks as a paying customer, then that's supposedly legitimate. But just sitting out somewhere doing the same thing, but not shelling out money, is liable to get some bad reactions from people. Now it's possible to spend a good deal of time in public without handing over money to others. But it has to be done furtively, with masked intentions. So I could window-shop, or browse around stores without ever making purchases. Or sit in a parking lot in my car without getting out. But even with these scenarios, I could come under scrutiny and suspicion for illegitimate behavior.

Just what is it that I'm asking, anyway? Only that I can truly feel like a free human being to the point that my presence anywhere (in public) is legitimate and doesn't depend on what others choose to discern about my intentions or whether I have "bought" a legitimate spot out in public.

Many years ago, the late great science-fiction writer Arthur C. Clarke wrote a famous short story titled Pedestrian, where he took my premise to its logical extreme and depicted a future society where just going out to take a walk is viewed as aberrant behavior worthy of incarceration. So I'm not the only one who's discerned this developing social phenomenon. And by all accounts, it's gotten progressively worse over the past few years! What I fear is that we are, like sheep, allowing ourselves to submissively be herded into a police state.

Well, I for one don't want to live in such a society, so I'm going to do something about it. Each week, I am going to make a major effort to spend time out in public, not spending money or doing something like jogging or dog-walking. No, I'll just go to a park and do my studying there with some fresh-brewed coffee from home! At least doing this should help to dispel a little of the creeping paranoia that I'm beginning to feel about this society becoming more oppressive. But even here, I'm still paying up (through my taxes, supporting the city park)!

Piano on the Eights: 5/10

For the past eight (plus) weeks, my piano practices have been progressing a bit more sluggishly than I would have liked. And one of the problems that I see is that I haven't defined my short-term and long-term goals well enough regarding what I want to accomplish with piano. Ultimately, I want to be able to play any music that I have a memory of, and that comprises thousands of songs. Also, I would like to be able to play music readily and accurately from sheet music, though not necessarily the extremely demanding pieces. In conjunction with these two goals, I would like to deepen my training in music theory, understanding better how chords are constructed as well as why music is sometimes written the way it is. In the short-term, I need to more assiduously practice my lesson pieces while going ahead on my own learning to play in other keys. And I need also to begin practicing plunking out tunes from memory as well. Also, if I am going to ever be able to play competently, then I need to be better with my timing and rhythm.

Maps

I have always felt a deep affinity for maps of all kinds. World atlases, road atlases, fold-up maps, fantasy-book (like Tolkien's Middle Earth) maps, and star maps all hold great interest for me. When I was around four or five years old, my sister and I used to play a game in our yard we called "Mapland", in which we would imagine different sections of the yard to be exciting, exotic lands, full of adventure, of course. I remember playing a lot of "imagination" games like this as a child, and I wonder whether today's children aren't being deprived of an important growth experience with their video games that provide ready-made images and narratives for them. Once, also when I was a kid, I began to etch, for no particular reason at all, some lined grooves on the seat of an old wooden chair of ours. Soon the idea took hold that I was drawing a map of sorts, and I began to imagine a city corresponding to the roads I was etching. There were schools, stores, the library, my "home", and friends' homes on this street or that. Soon I had covered the entire seat of this chair with a strange, web-like etching. I think it's still there at my old home. I don't think anyone in my family ever knew what that was all about. No one ever asked me and I never told them!

Also, around that time, I caught "collector's fever" and began to collect all sorts of different things. Naturally, road maps became one of my collector's items. On Saturdays, I would leave my house and make the rounds, walking to different gas stations (some pretty far away for a little kid to walk to) and asking the attendants whether they had some road maps (all of which were free then). So I soon amassed a pretty sizable collection of fold-up road maps, although they were mostly either of Miami, Florida, or the Southeastern US. For some reason, even though Broward County (lying directly north of Miami's Dade County) had a very large population, I never could get road maps of Hollywood or Fort Lauderdale back then. It was as if only Miami counted for anything in South Florida!

Nowadays, sometimes I have fun playing around with GoogleEarth on my computer. It really is quite an amazing feature, and seems to be continually undergoing updates and improvements. I remember reading somewhere that foreign governments, such as the Soviet Union, once would deliberately insert errors into their own maps, in hopes of making military conquest by others more difficult. Well, nowadays you can just forget that! What I would like to see in the future with GoogleEarth is a regularly-refreshed view of the Earth, or at least have them update their pictures more often.

Favorite Songs of 1975

1975, a year full of great songs, began for me with a flashback from the past. For some reason, local Miami radio began playing David Bowie's old hit Changes regularly at the beginning of the year. As a result, I'll always associate that great tune with 1975. Donny and Marie Osmond had one of their rare songs I liked with a collaboration, Morning Side of the Mountain. One of the Doobie Brothers' best-ever, Black Water, also came out at 75's start, as did Linda Ronstadt's forceful, angry You're No Good and Minnie Ripperton's sweet, intimate Loving You. As the year went on, other songs came to the fore. Michael Murphey's painful story of a girl and her horse, Wildfire, received a lot of radio play. War became more mainstream with two big single hits: Low Rider and Why Can't We Be Friends. C.W. McCall had a big country/CB radio/trucker hit with his hilarious Convoy. Alice Cooper had a rare subdued, emotional piece in Only Women. The group America's inspiring Lonely People was my all-time favorite of theirs. The Hustle, by Van McCoy, was the best disco song of the year as well as a regular fixture on CBS NFL Football that fall. K.C. and the Sunshine Band had another good dance tune with their Get Down Tonight. John Denver sang the pretty, romantic Fly Away as a duet with Olivia Newton-John. Olivia earlier in the year had a very pleasant singles hit with Have You Never Been Mellow. Love Rollercoaster, by the Ohio Players, was one of my favorite "soul" songs of '75. The German group Silver Convention had another good disco song: the very repetitive Fly Robin Fly. The Scottish group Pilot sounded an awful lot like the Beatles with their Magic. Bob Dylan raged against social injustice in his classic Hurricane, a song about a boxer whom he felt had wrongly been convicted of murder (and who was ultimately exonerated). My #3 song of 1975 was by the Spinners: their philosophical They Just Can't Stop It (Games People Play). The British group Queen had their first stateside hit (and my #2 song of the year) with their wild Killer Queen. And Elton John continued his march to greater and greater superstardom. His Philadelphia Freedom, a tribute to his friend Billie Jean King and her tennis team, was a pleasant, upbeat tune. But my top favorite song of 1975 was Elton's exciting two-part epic Funeral For a Friend/Love Lies Bleeding, still my all-time favorite piece of his.

Weight Loss and Maintenance on the Eights: 5/7

I have been keeping my weight pretty much at the same level (low to mid-160s) for the past eight weeks. Unfortunately, I've been slipping a bit into binge eating from time to time, although at the same time I've picked up my exercising intensity (mostly by running). I would like to get my weight down to around to 145-150 lbs, which I believe is the optimum level for me to be effective with my running. And then stay there, not dipping below 140. But I'm going to have to watch my caloric intake to accomplish this. One thing that has helped me is that I have begun to drink more water, which helps to take the edge off my "compulsion" to raid the icebox! Also, I need to resume regular weighings, but in general, my weight has stabilized between 163-165 lbs.

Reverend Wright Revisited

If you've been reading this blog, you may have come across a rather rosy piece a few days ago generally praising Reverend Jeremiah Wright (within limits). Well, I wrote that piece just after his interview with Bill Moyers and before his speeches to the NAACP and the National Press Club. In those speeches, Wright tended to revert back to the old aggressive "preaching" style that had brought on so much criticism. The result was that Barack Obama finally had to publicly disassociate himself from his former pastor.

I have to admit that I do not appreciate the way that Wright ridicules other people to make a point. To me, this sort of rhetoric reminds me more of characters like Archie Bunker and George Jefferson. Maybe Wright is still rooted in the 70s and believes that this sort of talk is still generally acceptable. Well, it isn't! I believe that someone can make a point, even one very critical of others, and still be dignified and respectful about it. Adding a tinge of ridicule and cruelty only serves to make the target of criticism seem to be an unfair victim of the speaker's vitriol. In the Moyer interview, Wright restrained himself and, as a result, was much more compelling. But he now seems bent on making as much noise as possible and attracting as much media attention as possible to himself. But why should that necessarily have anything to do with Barack Obama?

Sure, Obama named his book The Audacity of Hope as a sort of tribute to his former pastor, and cited Wright as an inspiration and a source of counsel. But Obama is Obama and Wright is Wright. Neither speaks for the other. How would you like it if some friend of yours made a public spectacle of him/herself and everyone automatically put you down as a result, just because of your past association with that person?

But I recognize the politics of this situation as well. For the sake of argument, let me generalize a little. If all the McCain and Clinton supporters want Obama's campaign to fail, then at this time about three fourths of the people out there are currently "against" the Democratic front-runner. And so the "buzz" is going to be heavily weighted in trying to magnify anything that could remotely be used against him. I expect the situation to change after the Democratic Convention, but I'm sure we'll still have to endure television ads linking Obama and Wright during the general campaign.

Finally, my problems with Jeremiah Wright's beliefs and speaking style notwithstanding, I also believe that he has every right in the world to respond to the severe public attacks and insults aimed at him during the past few weeks. Of course, he's totally wrong in saying that it had nothing to do with Barack Obama, when Obama's success is the only reason anyone bothered to dig up Wright's old sermons in the first place.

Monday Newsbreak: 5/5

--A terrible cyclone swept into Burma causing deaths in the hundreds and possibly the thousands. Quickly, reports came out of the public's dissatisfaction with the military government's slow response to the disaster. Which makes me wonder how much of this sort of thing is real news and how much is contrived to serve an end (in this case, the end of Burma's military dictatorship and return to democracy).

--Tomorrow, for the Democrats, here we go again: another "crucial" primary that's supposed to have a critical effect on who gets the nomination. This time it's North Carolina and Indiana. There has been a problem dogging the Democrats, which is that since the Republicans already have decided on their nominee, many Republican voters are crossing over to vote (usually for Clinton) in the Democratic primaries. Hopefully, this won't happen next election season if party rules are made stricter, to eliminate this cynical manipulation (supported by Rush Limbaugh) of the nominating process.

--Both John McCain and Hillary Clinton have supported a summertime lifting of the 18-cent/gallon federal gas excise tax as an election-year ploy to attract more voter support. Barack Obama, to his credit, doesn't support this tactic. Instead of encouraging consumption, we should be investing in alternative, clean, and renewable sources of energy. Otherwise, we're going to be talking more than five dollars per gallon! All that temporarily lifting the gas tax will do is increase demand, which will in turn increase the price of gas right back up!

--I am enjoying the National Basketball Association playoffs, but I have to admit to quite a bit of disappointment at seeing my Phoenix Suns bowing out so early, losing to San Antonio four games to one. Now I'm on to other teams, and I am very impressed with the New Orleans Hornets this year. And in the East, although I live relatively close to Orlando, I can't help rooting for the scrappy, feisty Detroit Pistons!

Observers of People

About fifteen to sixteen years ago, I attended, at a different church, a Sunday school class run by a middle-aged couple there. This couple was keen on helping younger couples get through the first years of marriage by giving advice and using Biblical precepts. I liked both of them and appreciate their efforts to help others. The woman (to whom I will give the fictional name Doris) one day described herself as an “observer of people”, and explained this through the use of an example. It seems one day that she was eating out in a restaurant somewhere and a pretty young woman happened to walk by. Doris, being the observer of people that she was, set about noticing the reactions of the males around her. And lo and behold, just about all of them looked up at the pretty woman as she passed them. Doris was trying to make the point that men tend to be visually oriented regarding women. But wasn’t she also playing around with her eyes, too? And she had nothing to say about what the women around her were looking at, either.

Many years ago, I was watching one of those ten o’clock prime time TV network newsmagazine shows such as 20/20 or the like. Featured was a segment about an angry woman who videotaped men sitting out in public, obviously on their lunch breaks from work, looking at a pretty woman as she walked by. She would then confront any “offenders” she “caught” on tape and then proceed to yell at them, making a public nuisance as well as a fool out of herself in the process. And the woman passerby? A setup, sent by the embittered, disturbed woman herself to provoke the desired looks from the targeted men. So who stepped over the line here with their eyes?

When I go into a place like a coffee shop, diner, library, etc., invariably I will cast my own eyes around at the people there. It’s not a male thing or a female thing. It’s a normal, human thing. And just as often as not, I’ll notice women sitting around looking at me and others. Sure, men probably tend to rely on visual stimulation regarding the opposite sex more than the reverse. But looking at people doesn’t have to mean anything. Now just staring someone down, that’s an entirely different matter! But neither was happening with the men observed by “Doris” or the video crusader!

Discussing a Religion With Its Believers

I will come right out and admit that, with most of the world's religions, I don't know very much. I know a little about Islam and Judaism. Christianity is the religion that I have the best grasp of, in terms of its doctrine, scriptures, and history. But there is something that I find rather interesting about religions which may be applicable to all of them.

Adherents of a particular religion often point out that if an unbeliever reads their scriptures, then they are likely to get a completely different meaning from them than if they were "in the faith". In other words, the act of reading itself is different between believers and unbelievers. The unbeliever will tend to read a scripture analytically, first trying to understand the passages and then attempting to reconcile the message with his/her own knowledge of how things really are. On the other hand, the believer will uncritically and reverently read the same scriptures, using analysis not to ascertain the truth value of the scripture, but rather for its application to interpreting the real world in the context of the expressed doctrine.

I remember two different items regarding Islam. I remember reading, around the 1980 Iranian hostage crisis, something to the effect that Iran's Ayatollah Khomeini once exhorted Muslims, that if they ever saw an unbeliever reading the Holy Qu'ran, then they were to rip the book out of his hands! But then, after 9/11, I also heard that the North Carolina state university system, for a brief period, required its incoming students to read the Qu'ran (apparently to understand Islam better in order to mitigate anti-Muslim paranoia). But if the message rings differently, depending on whether one reads from within or without the faith, I don't see how that would have done much good.

When a believer and an unbeliever of a particular religion sit together to discuss the content and meaning of its scriptures, it needs to be understood and respected by each side that the other side is looking at things from a vastly different perspective. The believer, focusing on the faith's doctrines, has already crossed over from questioning the scripture's truth, while the unbeliever will often dwell on his/her doubts regarding its validity. This can make for a situation where two people are basically sitting together talking past each other. Which doesn't really accomplish a whole lot, does it?

Favorite Steel Roller Coasters

What is my favorite steel roller coaster ride? Busch Garden Tampa’s bottomless roller coaster Montu. I call it the “Cadillac” of roller coasters because of its incredible smoothness. I’ve experienced some really jerky rides on other steel coasters elsewhere, most notably with Dollywood’s Tennessee Tornado and Wild Adventure’s Hangman, Boomerang, and Swamp Thing. Cypress Gardens has the best, in my opinion, “kiddie’s” steel coaster with their Okeechobee Rampage. Disney World’s MGM Studios has a pleasant coaster in Rock N’ Roll with Aerosmith, but my problem with that one is that it is enclosed, with my view very limited. And seeing how high up in the sky I am is one of the fun parts of riding a coaster (as well as seeing the world turn upside-down during loops)! Magic Kingdom’s Space Mountain is also indoors, and is too jerky as well. Universal’s Islands of Adventures contains two good coasters: The Incredible Hulk and Dueling Dragons Fire (or Ice). The Hulk shoots the passengers out like a rocket at its start, while I prefer a slow gradual rise. And with Dueling Dragons, another bottomless coaster, there is a slow initial rise before the dramatics. But then, that ride is a bit too short for me. Shortness is also a problem with Busch Garden’s much-hyped Sheikra. Their Python coaster is too rough and extremely short. I do like Busch’s Scorpion, though, which though short is very well-designed. I guess my second-favorite steel coaster ride would be Busch Garden’s Kumba. I think that I could spend all day at that park just alternating between Kumba and Montu (with occasional forays over to their great double wooden roller coaster Gwazi). Oh, by the way, another thing making my roller coaster experiences at Busch Garden more enjoyable is that I usually don’t have to wait very long in line to ride them!

Favorite Songs of 1976

During 1976, I grew to enjoy German pioneer techno-rock band Kraftwerk's Autobahn and Radioaktivität, which had come out previously. The same can be said for Elton John's hit Someone Saved My Life Tonight, a long, slow, emotion-laden piece. Al Stewart hit the big time with the release of his Year of the Cat album, which contained several good tracks, notably Lord Grenville, On the Border, Broadway Hotel, and One Stage Before. But earlier in the year, his historical epic Roads to Moscow introduced me to this talented, creative musician with frequent album-rock station airplay. Michael Murphey's Carolina in the Pines was, to me, a better song than his previous release Wildfire. The Canadian band Heart had my favorite of theirs with Crazy on You. The Dutch band George Baker Selection had a pleasant, upbeat summer hit with their Paloma Blanca. The Steve Miller Band went "far out" in terms of imagery and consciousness-raising with their Fly Like an Eagle. Andrea True Connection's More More More was my favorite disco song of the year. Right behind on the dance music scene was Vicky Sue Robinson's boisterous Turn the Beat Around. Judy Collin's Send in the Clowns, another slow, emotional piece, has continued to grow on me through the years. Even more so has George Harrison's sweet, compelling You, becoming one of my all-time top favorite songs now. Emerging superstar Billy Joel, with his Turnstiles album, had two very good songs in 1976: Summer Highland Falls and my #3 favorite song of the year (as I lived through it), his refreshing and exciting piano show-off piece Angry Young Man. John Miles, who briefly had some small fame on the album rock stations, had his best song (and my #2 favorite of the year) with Music, a long "epic", orchestrated piece that more than anything simply expresses the artist's love for his craft. Electric Light Orchestra's Strange Magic was a pleasant diversion early in the year, but they made a big impact on me later on with the release of their New World Record album, and from it, the beautiful single Livin' Thing (my top favorite song of 1976).

Backroads Between Davie and Hollywood

When I attended Broward Community College (in Davie, Florida) during the mid-1970s, I would often commute between home and classes (about five miles apart) by riding my bicycle through backroads. In spite of it being South Florida (a pretty urban community), the route I took definitely had a country feel to it, especially the further north (into Davie) I got. Between Griffin and Stirling Road, there are a series of parallel roads connecting the two. I always avoided the busiest, Davie Road, and usually went down the second road to the east. Making this trip did a lot to instill a peace of mind within me, both before and after school. It was also good physical exercise, although at this time I was also running quite a bit (between three and six miles per day). The land was so flat that I used a simple one-speed bicycle with coaster brakes, something that I quickly changed upon moving to Gainesville (with its hills and slopes) a few years later! I had begun this “tradition” of eschewing motor transportation during my senior year of high school, when one morning I just got up and decided to walk the five miles to school (which was next to Broward Community College). Now looking back, I wish I had begun my bike-to-school habit back in high school!

One late afternoon in 1974, while bicycling homeward out in the semi-country between Griffin and Stirling Roads, I came across a tiny baby bird sitting by itself in the middle of the then-deserted road. I got off my bicycle and looked around for traffic and the bird’s mother. Seeing nothing, I carefully picked up the pitiful little creature, which seemed unhurt except for the fact that it was unable to fly (or walk, for that matter). I walked over a few yards off the side of the road and carefully placed it in the shadows of a tree. I realized then that the little wild bird probably wouldn’t survive its plight, but I didn’t think there was much I could have done. And I went on my way.

In like manner, sometimes I feel that we here in America feel toward others as if we have to “fix” everything in the world, and if we don’t, then we’re somehow being negligent. But there is a limit to how much we can help, and sometimes what we do with good intentions can backfire and actually be counterproductive. Sometimes, with some places, its better to just leave and let things be. To admit that there are some areas that we as a nation are necessarily limited in implies neither weakness, moral deficiency, nor lack of patriotism (are you reading this, President Bush?).

My pleasant habit of bicycling back and forth to school continued into the mid-nineties, when I would often bicycle back and forth to work (nine miles from home, with several hills). I’d like to get back into bicycling, albeit not on the same scale as before. I want to buy one of those mileage devices you can attach to the bike that lets you measure off distances. I'd like to develop my own off-the-road running courses, and using my bicycle to measure how long a course is seems to be a pretty good idea.

Running on the Eights: 4/29

Actually, this is more like "running on the tens", because I inadvertently slipped up and let ten weeks go by instead of the planned eight before writing another installment about my running activities. My running has picked up quite a bit, although I am still concentrating my running on the treadmill. Anyway, here is my running record. It all took place on the treadmill unless indicated otherwise.

DATE...MILES..TIME
2-17...... 0.75......5:27
2-22...... 1.75....14:04
2-23...... 1.00..... 7:18
2-25 ......2.25....16:59
2-27.......1.50....10:57
2-28.......0.50.....3:28
2-29.......1.75....12:34
3-1.........0.50......3:25
3-3.........1.75.....12:32
3-4.........0.75.......5:12
3-5.........2.50.....18:17
3-6.........0.75.......5:29
3-7.........1.00.......7:09
3-8.........1.75......12:53
3-9.........1.00.......6:52
3-12.......2.00.....14:13
3-13.......2.00.....13:55
3-14.......2.75......19:06
3-16.......1.50.....10:22
3-17.......1.00.......7:28
3-18.......1.50.....10:22
3-19.......2.00.....13:36
3-21.......2.00.....13:28
3-23.......1.00.......7:35 (asphalt track)
3-24.......2.00.....13:39
3-26.......2.00.....13:58
3-27.......1.00.......6:48
3-28.......2.00.....13:35
3-30.......3.50.....25.40
4-01.......1.50.....10:27
4-02.......2.00.....13:40
4-03.......2.00.....14:19
4-04.......1.00.......6:47
4-05.......1.00.......6:41
4-07.......3.00.....20:54
4-09.......1.50........9:55
4-11........2.50.....17:55
4-13........1.50.....10:05
4-14........1.00.......6:52
4-15........1.50.....10:05
4-17........2.50.....17:39
4-18........1.00.......6:54
4-21........3.50.....25:37
4-22........1.50.....10:09
4-23........4.00.....32:37
4-24........1.50........9:52
4-25........2.00.....14:18
4-26........1.00.......6:54
4-28........0.50.......3:43

Monday Newsbreak: 4/28

--The report is out that our Florida state government is having to make major cutbacks in its budget that will cause reduction in some services, layoffs of some employees, and increases in fees (like college tuition). Unlike our federal government, Florida must balance its budget each year and doesn't have the luxury of incurring a debt, so its representatives have a more sobering (and realistic) task to perform than our sometimes "head-in-the-clouds" national leaders in Washington.

--Reverend Jeremiah Wright is now making speeches and delivering sermons at other churches. This is noteworthy news, but it certainly doesn't merit the excessive, continuing headline coverage that the cable networks are giving it. There's no doubt to me that Reverend Wright is this election year's version of the 2004 "Swiftboat" movement contrived to defame John Kerry enough to prevent his election.

--In the NBA playoffs, the Denver Nuggets are looking like the most entertaining team to me. Not that they're doing well: they're probably going to be swept by the vastly improved Los Angeles Lakers. No, I just like to watch the show that a couple of their prima donna stars put on late in the game by arguing with the referees and incurring technical fouls. It's kind of like watching John McEnroe's antics in the good old days of tennis. Good circus!

--It looks as if Robert Mugabe is finally going to be out of power in the southern African nation of Zimbabwe, which he ruled since 1981. I believe that, for many years, Mugabe got a "free ticket" from international criticism because he had originally been the first democratically elected leader there upon the relinquishing of power by the (very) minority whites, who had controlled the country (then called Rhodesia) since 1965. I think some were afraid of criticizing him for fear of sounding as if they were racist in some way. This in spite of the fact that many who had allied themselves with Mugabe to bring down white-ruled Rhodesia were in bitter opposition to his regime, often from exile.

Jeremiah Wright's Interview

Last week, I saw Bill Moyer’s interview of Reverend Jeremiah Wright, Barack Obama’s former pastor at Trinity United Church in Chicago. The interview did much to reverse Wright’s image as an anti-American firebrand. One of the things I noticed was that, in normal conversation, he is very soft-spoken and nuanced in his choice of words. And the short clips of him ranting from the podium like a madman? I’ve seen this style of sermonizing before (John Hagee is one its biggest practitioners). Wright’s “fury” isn’t present through his whole sermon: it only comes out at the culmination of a long chain of building arguments. Only at the end does he add the “flavor” of emotion and rage. This style never has sat well with me, and judging by the nationwide negative reaction to him, it doesn’t come across very well with people in general.

One theme that Wright stressed in his interview was the notion that oppressed peoples would necessarily read the Bible through a more similar perspective to its writers, the Jews (they themselves having been repeatedly persecuted), than those in society who have had it easier in life. Wright believes that it's not enough to just dwell upon the spiritual and heaven: God is very concerned with social justice, as His Word reveals (according to the Reverend).

Reverend Wright explained his critical comments about America by pointing out that the great Old Testament prophets, such as Jeremiah, also had very critical things to say to and about their homeland. The words spoken then were a rebuke and a warning, not condemnation. And Wright believes that at least those governing the U.S. employ a double standard when it comes to valuing human life and dignity, depending on whether the concerned humans reside within our borders or on another nation’s territory.

Wright is also a strong believer in the ongoing narrative of class oppression. He sees himself as someone who understands all of the terrible oppression that blacks and other groups have to endure. The only problem I see with this is that, although I’m sure that there is still racism and discrimination going on around us, most of the problems people experience in their day-to-day living are rooted in their own bad habits and attitudes. And one of these self-defeating attitudes is to carry around within oneself a narrative that everything bad that happens to them is because they belong to an oppressed group. Wright shouldn’t play up to that mindset as he has. To his credit, however, his church has been very active in its community helping the needy and ministering to those in prison.

I appreciate Bill Moyers for having given Reverend Jeremiah Wright the opportunity to react to the publicity he’s received for the past few weeks and to explain his philosophy. I believe that those short clippings of his were taken out of context by Barack Obama’s political opponents in order to defame Obama by association. And Wright is a thoughtful, caring man whom I would feel honored to have as a friend. But having said that, I still believe, as I have written in an earlier blog entry, that the Reverend has allowed himself to be part of a feedback loop that accepts affirming information and rejects contradictory information. The result is, in my opinion, a rather skewed and overcritical perspective on the United States, its history, and its role in the world. But then again, it’s perfectly human to seek out and value more those agreeing with one’s idiosyncratic views and conversely, to block out and reject dissenting opinions. After all, it’s conservatives who to tend to tune in to Rush Limbaugh and liberals who tend to tune in to Keith Olbermann.

Drinking Water

What is the most important food to consume? Some may say carbohydrates; other protein. It’s true that we all need a certain proportion of carbohydrates, protein, and fat in our diets, but there is one item that, although not generally regarded as food, is actually more crucial than the more commonly-mentioned food types: water. Both in the immediate now and over long periods of time, consuming enough water is necessary for life itself, not just for optimum health. The question is how much of it we need to drink over the course of a day.

Although I’ve heard anything from four to eight full glasses of water as a good daily intake, I don’t necessarily see that this is so. What’s the scientific backing for those exhortations, after all? When I’ve stepped up my water intake in the past, it just seems that I spend more time having to run to the bathroom. Although I do believe that we need to drink more water, I have a simpler remedy.

Whenever I feel tired or hungry, I should first ask myself whether I am also thirsty. And then drink a glass of water. Not tea or cola or fruit juice or coffee or milk. Just plain water. From the tap. Nothing fancy, no counting daily glasses. I just respond to what my body tells me and no more.

I also believe that some of the overeating that has been going on is due to people not drinking enough water. One of the things that tells us whether we are hungry is how full our stomachs are. If we drink water at the first feelings of hunger, I believe that the compulsion to raid the fridge for junk food can be forestalled. And then a more healthful meal can then be prepared.

There’s such a thing as drinking too much water, so I don’t want to get rigid about pouring a high number of glasses down my throat. But the main problem is that people don’t drink enough, not the reverse. But water is so readily available and is free if you don’t have some kind of hang-up about drinking it from a tap or fountain.

Rationales for Evil Behavior

In the move The Godfather (Parts One and Two), both Vito Corleone and his son Michael explicitly and repeatedly laid out the rationale for their criminal behavior: anything goes, as long as it is for the sake of their family. And yet, despite this, they only succeeded in destroying their family! In Cuba, the rationale for the Communist revolution there has always been to protect their people from economic exploitation from capitalists. And yet, until just recently, Cubans were prohibited by law from even buying and selling simple appliances!

In most instances of people openly doing bad things to others, the perpetrators rationalize their actions by either portraying themselves as victims (entitled to redress) or protectors of some other supposedly victimized party. Look at the actions of Al-Qaeda under Bin-Laden over the past few years as they “protect” Muslims from Western nations and culture. And who have been their chief victims? Muslims!

Speaking of current events, our current President has kept our country mired in a prohibitively expensive conflict in Iraq for the past five years, with no end in sight. Done ostensibly to protect us within the context of the “War on Terror”, the Iraq War, besides causing more than 4000 American deaths and many more injuries, has caused our government to borrow money at interest from other nations (some who do not have our interests in their hearts) to fund itself and the war. And it distracted us from going after the root cause of 9/11: Al-Qaeda under Bin-Laden. Was President Bush evil when he launched the war in 2003? No, but his overeagerness for the war back then, along with his stubborn refusal to ever admit to a mistake, has put us in this sorry state of affairs today.

In the previous examples (fictional or real), those responsible for rationalizing their aggressive behavior toward others had a great deal of support by many at the beginning. But over time, people gradually came to see each of them for what they were: cynical exploiters who cared little, if at all, for those on whose behalf they were pretending to act. As a matter of fact, in each of these examples, the “leaders” without exception regarded themselves as being in a socially-superior class, far above those whom they purported to serve.