Conspiracy Drums Beating Again

Immediately after Bill Clinton became President in 1993, the extreme right wing militia movement, along with certain radio talk show hosts, stepped up what was already simmering as a paranoid conspiracy rant. The claim was that there were certain bad types in positions of authority (tending to be Democrats, of course) who were plotting for a one-world government that was anti-religious, totalitarian and even aiming to severely depopulate the planet. Concentration camps were supposedly being built in various locations, and the evil black helicopters were continually being sighted hovering around doing something insidiously evil (or threatening to). All of this craziness culminated in the tragic terror bombing of the Federal Building in Oklahoma City on April 19, 1995, exactly 14 years ago. The perpetrators of this foul act were militia sympathizers with the typical nutcase conspiracy beliefs. After that, the conspiracy mood dissipated somewhat but resurfaced after 9/11. But that time the Republicans were in the White House and the loony accusations generally came from the fringe left.

Now Democrat Barack Obama is in office and here we go again. New concentration camps are supposedly being built to hold future dissidents. Socialists are supposedly plotting to take over the country. Obama is supposedly going to turn U.S. national sovereignty over to international organizations. But the problem I have the most with this new wave of nonsense is that much of it seems to be coming from the mainstream in the Republican Party, not just fringe societal elements.

So let me get this straight: a solid majority of voters put the Democratic Party into power in 2006 and 2008, creating the scenario where they control the Presidency, Congress, and most state Governorships. All by the elective process. How is that a conspiracy? It seems to me that any conspiracy charges should be laid at the feet of those who would subvert the election results by contesting already-decided elections (like the Minnesota U.S. Senate seat won by Al Franken) and stonewalling legislation and presidential nominees through procedural tactics.

NBA Playoffs Approaching

We've once again arrived at that time of the year when the National Basketball Association determines its champion through the playoffs, comprising the top eight teams in each of the two conferences. My favorite team, the Phoenix Suns, narrowly missed the playoffs this year, although had they been in the Eastern Conference their regular season record would have been good enough for them to be seeded fifth out of eight teams.

So I'm left with picking out other teams to root for. In the East, I have four favorites: the Florida teams Orlando Magic and Miami Heat (their lousy "conceptual" nicknames notwithstanding), the Atlanta Hawks (with former UF Gator Al Horford), and the Chicago Bulls (with former UF Gator Joakim Noah). In the West, I like the Houston Rockets (with Yao Ming and Ron Artest) and the Utah Jazz. I think Jazz guard Deron Williams is one of the great clutch players in the game. If those two go down in the playoffs, I'll probably end up rooting for the aging San Antonio Spurs to try to get one more great playoff season in.

All of my playoff preferences notwithstanding, I expect the NBA final championship series to be between either the Boston Celtics or the Cleveland Cavaliers in the East and the Los Angeles Lakers in the West. With the incredibly talented Kobe Bryant leading his Lakers to the championship.

On a side note, although I'm not specifically rooting for either of them, I plan to watch a little of two teams in the playoffs: the Detroit Pistons and the Denver Nuggets. Why? Because they feature players who tend to whine and complain a lot at the officials (and draw technical fouls). Especially when they're losing. I get a perverse pleasure watching the clownish act these crybabies put on!

Skydiving Accident

I just read how a 59-year old Ohio skydiver was killed during a jump when his parachute wouldn't open (and the reserve chute was opened too close to impact to avert fatal injuries). Apparently, the diver spent too much time with the first chute before resorting to the backup. And this sort of incident is the one thing keeping me from "taking the plunge" myself.

But why should it? Fatalities from skydiving accidents always get played up heavily in the press, but I doubt that the hazards associated with this activity are really any worse than getting in one's car and driving a few blocks down the road to the grocery store. Or riding a bicycle around the block. Or running on a treadmill for a few minutes. Or simply getting up out of bed in the morning. Or staying in bed!

I feel sorry for the man who died in this skydiving tragedy, as well as for his family and friends. But these sorts of incidents need to be analyzed: did the accident occur because of some endemic reason, or was it avoidable? Like many things, people can cut their odds of calamity down drastically by stringently following safety procedures. I don't plan to give up the idea of getting involved with skydiving at some future date. You can't go about your daily life totally consumed about avoiding accidents. Even if you just stayed at home, something bad could happen. Case in point: the man who died when his home in Binghampton, New York was hit by a crashing plane.

River Flood Threat

If it isn't one thing, it's another. As I have discussed in earlier articles, northern central Florida has had a problem in recent years with very dry weather and resulting widespread forest fires. This year, it looked for a while as if this would happen again. And it still might, but right now we're experiencing a hazard on the opposite end: the Santa Fe and Suwannee Rivers are rising to flood state, due to recent storms and torrential rains. And more rain is expected.

Although, from this I could conclude that our environment is "out of whack", it could simply be a case of what's really the norm for our area: alternating periods of flooding with dry spells and their concomitant fires. That this doesn't seamlessly fit in with the agendas of humans and human society doesn't necessarily mean that, environmentally speaking, this is such a bad thing. But it still is distressing.

I suppose that this sort of thing occurs just about any place that people set foot on and decide to stay a while. They may at first like the weather, but that's never the same. I remember the ending of Mosquito Coast (starring Harrison Ford and River Phoenix), when the fanatical father (played by Ford) decides that his family will live on an apparently idyllic-looking stretch of tropical beach. Only problem was that heavy storms, typical for that area, came in during the night and wiped out their new home, nearly wiping them out in the process.

I don't think there's any place on Earth immune from some sort of natural hazard or another. The temptation would be to assign a general cause for environmental disasters (air pollution, ozone layer depletion, acid rain, global warming). And sometimes this may be true. But sometimes "bad" things happen as a normality, not as an aberration.

Waldo and Lawtey: Speed Traps?

Recently, I've had the occasion to drive back and forth between Gainesville and Jacksonville a few times. On the way to Jacksonville, I hit US-301 in Waldo (a few miles northeast of Gainesville) and drive to I-10, which takes me into Jacksonville. Along US-301 there are two towns, Waldo and Lawtey, that have been designated as "speed traps" by the American Automobile Association. There are even billboards outside each city warning motorists that they are speed traps. But are they really?

Both Waldo and Lawtey are small, sleepy towns (especially Lawtey) that have that one major federal highway running through them. US-301 is a major road connecting Jacksonville with central Florida. Large semi-trucks continually thunder down it. It is normal for the speed limit in the countryside to be 65 mph. But within the city, it's necessary to bring it down (in Waldo to 35 mph and in Lawtey to 45 mph). Gainesville certainly does this with US-441, with a 30 mph speed limit in the University of Florida area. The only problem with Waldo and Lawtey is that drivers tend to ignore the reduced speed limit signs and speed through these towns, which are only trying to protect their own people.

Lawtey and Waldo have statistically handed out more tickets for their population than have surrounding communities. But a Waldo policeman, recently interviewed, stated that they don't pull drivers over unless they are driving more than 10 mph over the speed limit. And there are a series of signs on each side of both Lawtey and Waldo clearly warning of the coming reduced speed limit, as well as a clear statement: "speed limit strictly enforced".

Critics of these two towns argue that they are taking advantage of their strategic location along US-301 to nab passing motorists for the purpose of increasing their own revenue. And while the result make accomplish this aim, I believe that they are completely justified in enforcing their speed limit laws.

It is very frustrating to me, as a driver, to decelerate upon entering small towns along major highways while cars around me plow on through at the same speed, as if they were on the Interstate Highway System. It is even more than frustration when I witness drivers of large trucks doing this. If I were a citizen of Lawtey or Waldo, I would stand up in applause for their policies. Instead of them lightening up on their enforcement of speed laws within their boundaries, other cities in the area should emulate them and also strictly enforce speed limits. Not if someone is going just a little over the limit. But those cases when drivers hurtle through, not respecting the importance of slowing down through populated municipalities, should be enforced. Regardless of whatever the AAA says (or however many billboards opponents put up). Perhaps if this were the norm instead of the exception, we would see a reduction in traffic accidents and fatalities.

People these days are way too impatient in most everything they do. They are in a big, big, hurry to get from Point A to Point B. Not that they won't completely waste their time once they get to Point B! But God help anybody who slows them down one iota!

Presumption of Private Property

Since I like to run, I tend to look around my city and try to find feasible routes that I could train on. One very promising route takes me from straight from my house around a three mile loop and back. I wouldn't be running past house after house (which can be a liability over time, with ferocious dogs occasionally getting loose from their back yards), except for a small stretch of the run. No, most of the course has me running on sidewalks, asphalt or grass along main roads. But there is one small stretch of this route that involves me running behind two subdivisions and possibly crossing over into private property for about 100 yards. I've looked it over on GoogleEarth; there seems to be a pathway that I could run on, although there is also a clump of trees standing in my way as well. Should I just go ahead and see what happens if I run that stretch? I have never seen any "Private: No Trespassing" signs anywhere. Or is there automatically some kind of presumption of private property that I must make?

When I was a junior in high school, I was on the track team as a two-mile runner. Part of our practice involved long cross-country runs, some exceeding ten miles in length. We would run down all sorts of country dirt paths behind our school, which was (then) located in a rural area. Sometimes we would later be notified by our coach that certain areas were off-limits, since they were private property (with complaining occupants). But here too, there weren't any signs around to let us know this. My main concern back then (which is still a concern of mine nowadays) is that some of the folks whose land we were running through might have had some mean, biting dogs running around loose. And that wouldn't be a pleasant prospect at all.

So here I am, trying to decide whether or not to see if I can "complete my loop" by running this backstretch of possibly verboten land. Oh well, you only go around once in life, go for it!

The "Old Country"

I am currently sitting (at this writing) outside a new Dunkin' Donuts here in Gainesville near the intersection of Archer Road and SW 34 Street, a few minutes before I go in to work, about a mile down the road. Even on a relatively light traffic day as this, it is heavily congested in this part of town. The irony is that, back in 1980, I moved to this section of Gainesville because then it was so peaceful and quiet (and very close to my workplace)!

I still refer to this part of town as "The Old Country". I lived and worked here for six years and, if you include my present job, have worked here for eighteen more. I also met my wife here. The area began to drastically change in 1987, when a large field adjacent to my apartment became the site of a Wal-Mart/Lowes shopping center. Then restaurants were built lining up and down Archer Road. And finally, an expansive network of shopping centers were built further west, almost reaching Interstate-75. If I were to be transported in time from 1984 25 years into the future to 2009, I wouldn't recognize the place. But thanks to DD, it's a convenient, pleasant place to stop off at on the way to work!

Still, I prefer to hang out at the Magnolia Parke Starbucks on NW 39 Avenue, away from this incredible (for me) congestion. I honestly don't know what I'd do if I had to be in a big city like Chicago or New York for any substantial period of time.

Submission

In religious circles the concept of submission is often bandied about. One must submit to God, the church (or whatever the religious establishment is called), one's elders, one's spouse, the particular religion's scriptures, and so on. Sometimes people who have experienced this demand for submission within a religious body will rebel and abandon it, possibly even renouncing that religion (and any others) altogether. And I sympathize with these people, considering the enormous potential and temptation there is within religions for manipulation and abuse. But is submission in itself a dirty word?

Naturally, as social creatures, we all have to submit to laws and social norms in order to effectively function in our daily lives. That is a reasonable application of submission. But also, in order to accomplish anything worth accomplishing, we also must foster a habit of self-discipline. And that involves defining for ourselves our own standards, to which we then submit ourselves. This can be a most difficult form of submission, since there is ample opportunity for self-deception and backsliding without immediate social consequences. But I hold that it is ultimately the most important form of submission there is.

Some people interpret the concept of freedom as being freedom from submission. But in order to be a viable, responsible adult, one must have the self-discipline to submit him/herself to standards that ultimately enhance freedom by opening up opportunities and enabling positive social feedback from achievements. But one also needs to develop the wisdom to distinguish that from manipulation on the part of others who seem to have issues with control and power.

On Second Thought...

I had written up an article for yesterday on this blog and was about to publish it when I read it over one last time. And then concluded that I had written stuff that I didn't really believe. It concerned a distant memory, more than thirty years past, and the behavior of an individual within that memory. In my article, I had sugar-coated that behavior, which in reality had badly offended me. So I'm going to have to rewrite that article and probably use a different example to make my point. It's hard for me to forgive certain people in my past, especially since they themselves couldn't care less. They may also be in a position, like that particular individual, where they are unable to care less, due the fact that they are dead.

This tendency to distort one's memories of childhood is highlighted in the very disturbing hour-long Twilight Zone episode titled The Incredible World of Horace Ford. In it, a grown man has created an alternative memory of his own childhood that he eventually must come to grips with in order to survive in the present, real world. Being a kid isn't all fun and games. And some of the negative experiences can have a scarring effect throughout one's life. I think that, as an adult, it is important to be honest with myself about those experiences while recognizing that my reality is in the present, not my distant past.

The Useful Enemy

President Barack Obama had better be careful with his attempts to bring down Al-Qaeda, solve the Afghanistan War by engaging with the Taliban, improve relations with adversaries Iran, Cuba, and North Korea, and have more cooperative relationships with other nations. He may be left without a "useful enemy" against which he can rally his country around him. After all, that is what his predecessor, George W. Bush, was a master at. But, perhaps our new president has his own ideas about who (or what) our enemies should be.

I believe that Barack Obama is a true idealist (as opposed to W., a cynic) in that he sees the challenges ahead as not fighting enemies, but solving problems. He sees this country's abandonment of its manufacturing base, the diminishing and politicizing of our science, our overdependence on foreign sources of energy, the state of health care and its debilitating effect, both economically and psychologically, on the people, and the growing threats to our environment. And of course, terrorism. He believes that the U.S. should reach out and engage in cooperative efforts with other nations to tackle these challenges.

Still, President Obama may find that fighting concepts may not carry the same political clout as fighting tangible, named targets. I wonder whether, in a year or two, we'll have a new set of "enemies" to get all worked up over.

In this vein, I also wonder who in Obama's staff will emerge to shape and manipulate this concept of who and what our adversaries are. You can be assured of one thing: we will always have our enemies, if for no other reason than that our leaders need them for us to feel that we need our leaders to protect us from them.

2009 Major League Baseball Starts

The start to the 2009 Major League Baseball season began Sunday, with the Atlanta Braves defeating defending World Series champion Philadelphia 4-1. One game down, only 161 more to go! How can anyone get interested in individual games that mean so little? The only redeeming factor would be if the actual games were interesting to watch. But to me, baseball is so-o-o boring!

I should be tickled that my home state Tampa Bay Rays won the American League pennant last year. But I was only mildly happy about it. They're probably going to settle down this year to a respectable third-place finish in their division behind Boston and New York. I generally root for the Yankees anyway, so that doesn't bother me.

In the National League, it is time for the Florida Marlins to peak during their six-year cycle and win it all. They won the World Series in 1997 and 2003, and here we are in 2009. Ironically, even with two championships behind them, they've never won their own division! But it doesn't matter. Even if the Marlins have a lousy spring season, they'll surge in late summer and make the playoffs. Assuming they conform to the "pattern" (I hope). I guess by this you can conclude that I'm not exactly very scientific in my baseball analysis.

I've given up trying to pick the different divisional winners. One team can do really lousy one year and, with little change to their lineup, will burn up the league the next season. Or the reverse.

I suppose that, as in previous years, I will continue to make the Atlanta Braves my traditional team of choice to root for. But I don't even know most of their players, and I don't see myself setting aside time to watch their games. Oh well, it's spring. Maybe by July or August I'll see things differently.

Most Wanted?

I'm not sure whether to just laugh or to express my gratitude at the "apparently" diminishing rate of serious crime in my home county. For at the bottom of page ten in Monday's Independent Florida Alligator newspaper is a "Most Wanted" ad, showing a mug shot of a 32 year-old man. The horrible crimes for which he is wanted and the ad and his picture posted? "Resisting Officer Without Violence, False ID Given To Law Enforcement Officer and Driving While License Suspended 2nd Offense." A phone number is given at the bottom of the posting for any snitch inclined to turn the poor loser in.

Now I have a theory concerning the police and our society's level of criminal activity. I believe that, regardless of how "criminally" people are behaving, the police are going to get in their quota of citations and arrests. If the community were suddenly to stop all felonious crimes, and even desist from serious misdemeanors, the police would be handcuffing people and hauling them in for jaywalking or loitering. Wait, come to think of it, they may already be doing this for loitering. Night after night, on my way home from work, I see a number of police cars parked at one of my local public parks (which has no closing times). I wonder what would happen if, some night, I were just to pull in to the park, park my car, get out, and just go sit on a park bench to gather my thoughts. I wonder how long before they slapped the 'cuffs on me! Or if I escaped their grasp, would my picture grace the next day's paper? What's really sad is that, a few years ago, I would have regarded this as a paranoid rant if I heard it coming from someone else's mouth. Now I'm not so sure. I know in my heart that the police are protecting me from criminals who would do me harm. But I also feel that many of our police regard me (and others in general), not as a citizen under their charge to protect, but rather as a prospective arrest to be plucked "out of the crowd". This makes them seem more like predators than protectors. The fact that police testimony during trials is usually accepted without question by juries just increases my disquiet.

Me Studying Chinese

Having decided a little while ago to concentrate my foreign language study on learning Chinese, I have begun to set aside time in the day to accomplish this. I am in the process of writing out the characters I am learning that will make my total at about 3,500 (from 1,700). This should enable me to more effectively follow the text in Chinese newspapers and give me a more fighting chance at understanding spoken Chinese. I did have a bit of a setback on the Internet: I can't seem to get the VOA Mandarin Chinese webcasts, which I had been planning to download on to my MP3 to listen to at work . However, as I reported in yesterday's article, I did find some podcasts from the BBC and Australia in Chinese that I was able to download. Also, I have a Chinese reader that I study from time to time. But I find myself disappointed for not having spent enough time studying Chinese.

So, in summation my strategy with Chinese for now is to learn the new characters, find some way to download webcasts onto my MP3, listen for long stretches to those webcasts, read Chinese text off the Internet, and continue to study my graded Chinese readers. I don't have someone with whom I am have regular contact to practice speaking Chinese with. Should that change, I'll have another dimension added to my study.

Exploring and Downloading Podcasts

I've just discovered the enormous quantity and variety of podcasts available for free downloading. I am currently using the site Podcast Alley to find various types of podcasts which suit my interests. So far, I've downloaded Dan Carlin's Hardcore History (about history, of course), Dump Runners Club (a Colorado-based runner gives some pretty good running tips), and Chess is Cool with Chess Grandmaster Alexandra Kosteniuk (ranked #5 worldwide for women). And I've only begun to explore what's out there. At first, I had wanted to get some political podcasts, but the ones I found, both pro-left and pro-right, were so crude and hate-filled that I decided to defer that for a while. But there are many other categories to explore. And I can listen for long stretches of time at work on my MP3 player. Much better than the radio!

I also discovered sites that enable free, legal downloads of music that (some) artists provide to promote themselves. The best one I've been using is BetterPropaganda. You're not going to get the Beatles or Rolling Stones, but some of the more obscure acts can be quite generous in providing some free samples of their works.

I've also discovered that certain radio stations, such as BBC and Radio Australia, have downloadable podcasts in Chinese, the language I am currently learning. So I can also listen to those podcasts at work, as well.

One "down" side to this is that, since I've been devoting so much time to listening to my MP3 player, I haven't been keeping up with the news as much. So a lot of what's going on has been passing me by. Maybe I should just set aside a certain time each day to just catch up with the news. But I can accomplish this by perusing my daily newspaper and click on a couple of news websites (like CNN.com). I don't need to keep up-to-date on what the professional spin-doctors are doing.

ID Check

One of the problems I've heard that our national intelligence services have in infiltrating terrorist cells is that they are usually very small and intimate, as well as cut off from each other. The members don't protect the security of the cells by wearing identification badges on their shirts; they simply recognize each other by sight and voice. But for domestic U.S. citizens, going about on their daily work business, we've gone "ID Crazy". Just take where I work.

I suppose that, if there were any place in which security measures are justified, then the U.S. Postal Service would be high on the list. It has suffered from highly-publicized attacks of violence in the past, as well as the anthrax terrorist attack in 2001 that killed some of its employees. So I'm all in favor of security. But the way they are trying to accomplish this leaves me a little confused. Take the identification check, for example.

On a regular basis, floor supervisors are required to walk around the workroom floor and check to make sure that all employees under their authority are sporting their own official (with picture) ID badge. The supervisors go around with a clipboard and check off names as they do this. This is supposed to be a security-enhancing procedure. But how? In doing this, the supervisor is only checking people that (s)he already recognizes as being legitimate employees, not suspicious outsiders. And the different floor supervisors and managers all have a pretty basic understanding about who is supposed to be there and who isn't. By recognition, not by badges. When a "stranger" (such as an outside auditor) does make an appearance on the workroom floor, heads turns everywhere, and a "buzz" goes around, through employees and their supervisors, regarding the "strange" presence. There is nothing official about this; rather, it is the same type of security sense that those subversive cells use to keep out intruders. It is much, much more sophisticated and difficult to crack than the crude official methods that management concocts.

Conversely, if a person who was unfamiliar to anyone did happen to show up wearing an "official" badge, this would in itself do little to alleviate concern about his/her presence there. That individual would stick out like a sore thumb!

There is also a segment to this argument regarding the actual security of entrances, and how restricted the access to the building's interior really is. But discretion tells me that perhaps this blog isn't a very appropriate forum in which to discuss it. That is regrettable, because actual entry to the facilities is much more important within the discussion of security than inane ID badge checks.

Sufjan Stevens

A few weeks ago, I was listening to AOL Radio, on their "Indie Rock" channel. I lucked out, getting a string of great songs (later on I found out that this wasn't the norm). In the middle of it was a song titled Chicago by someone called Sufjan Stevens. It was the best of the lot, and I investigated this artist on the Internet.

Sufjan Stevens is an independent/alternative popular musician who grew up in Michigan, lived in Chicago, and now resides in New York. He has made several albums since since his debut A Sun Came in 2001. Stevens put out an electronica album titled Enjoy Your Rabbit, based on each of the signs of the Chinese Zodiac (Year of the Monkey, Year of the Tiger, etc.). He has released five Christmas albums as well as an album of original Christian-themed folk songs (Seven Swans). But his best works, in my opinion, are his "fifty-state project" albums.

Around 2003, Sufjan Stevens released an album titled Michigan, which then examined various aspects and locales of that state. A couple of years later, he repeated the process with his Illinois (technically titled Sufjan Stevens Invites You to Come On Feel the Illinoise). Illinois received much critical praise and several awards in 2005, but didn't break through to the general radio airwaves. It contains 15 full songs, each of which I regard as excellent. And the themes are, naturally, Illinois-based: cities like Chicago, Decatur, and Jacksonville; the holiday Casimir Pulaski Day; the Palisades; the Sear's Tower (transformed by Stevens into The Seer's Tower); the depraved serial killer John Wayne Gacy, Jr.; and the nineteenth century Black Hawk War, to name a few topics. By the way, if you count the or's, The Black Hawk War, a two-minute wordless-but-sung track, is the longest title that I have ever encountered: The Black Hawk War, or, How to Demolish an Entire Civilization and Still Feel Good About Yourself in the Morning, or, We Apologize for the Inconvenience but You're Going to Have to Leave Now, or, 'I Have Fought the Big Knives and Will Continue to Fight Them Until They Are Off Our Lands!' .

Stevens is an accomplished musician in several instruments and sings with a soft, soothing voice. But his lyrics are often very cutting, and his clear vocal delivery gives the listener little opportunity to miss anything he has to say. He also recorded his albums with multiple tracks. On Illinois, he separated the lengthy instrumental endings of some of its songs by calling them separate pieces. That gave two alternative endings for some of the songs.

Various rumors have floated around as to whether Sufjan Stevens will follow through on his expressed plan to record albums about all fifty states. He is a bit of a prankster, so who knows. But Illinois came out about four years ago, so he needs to "get cranking" if he wants to accomplish this before the "Star Trek Era" commences around 2060 (my way of saying "before hell freezes over")! I personally doubt that he will continue his "states" theme much longer, seeing that his first two, Michigan and Illinois, have strong autobiographical themes to them. I expect much of the same in any later works as well.

Here are my favorite Sufjan Stevens songs so far (with their albums in parentheses):

1: Casimir Pulaski Day (Illinois)
2: Jacksonville (Illinois)
3: Chicago (Illinois)
4: Concerning the UFO Sighting Near Highland, Illinois (Illinois)
5: Come On Feel the Illinoise (Illinois)
6: In the Devil's Territory (Seven Swans)
7: All Good Naysayers, Speak Up! Or Forever Hold Your Peace! (Michigan)
8: Decatur (Illinois)
9: The Henney Buggy Band (The Avalanche)
10: Jason (A Sun Came)

But We Need the Rain

North central Florida, today, tomorrow, and Friday. Flood watch until then. Take THAT, you pesky forest fires!

Contrived Editorial Letter Page

I've noticed, from time to time, that a newspaper's editorial page will pick up a letters-to-the-editor viewpoint about an issue that doesn't really merit discussion and bat it around for weeks at a time. I've experienced an example of this recently in my hometown "newspaper" The Gainesville Sun, whose editor seems determined to bring its standards down to the level of a high school newspaper. A few days ago, a letter was printed decrying the local PBS radio station, 89.1/WUFT. The writer complained about listening to slave-trading dead white men's music. And what was he referring to? Classical music!

The inflammatory (and asinine) tone of this letter revealed, by its printing, an ulterior motive by The Sun's editor: whip up a torrent of responding letters to artificially create an issue that heretofore didn't exist. And for several days thereafter, just I suspected, the newspaper printed letter after letter taking sides on whether or not WUFT should play classical music. The original letter complained that by playing classical music, WUFT wasn't being "diverse" enough, when the truth is that they have long stretches of programming where they play jazz and the blues. Not to mention the incredible variety of other music that they broadcast, along with informative news shows. And the editor knew this "no-brainer", of course.

I don't mind a real issue being discussed. But putting the local PBS station under scrutiny, especially when considering the relative homogeneity of commercial broadcasting across the radio dial, is ridiculous.

Let me give another example. From time to time, a motorist will write (and get printed) an editorial letter complaining about bicyclists who disobey traffic laws. Or a bicyclist will write complaining about motorists who don't respect their presence on the road. And this goes back and forth for a while.

Or how about the tried-and-true (and tired and old) argument about evolution vs. creationism? That's always good for a few days at a time on the editorial page. As if public opinion should decide what is "science" and what isn't, based on twitter-length editorial letters!

Sometimes I think that my local newspaper's editorial page isn't much better than those exploitative television talk show hosts like Maury Povich and Jerry Springer, who create a divisive topic in advance, invite people involved in that topic as guests on the show, and then "objectively" sit back and watch them heatedly argue with each other, with the "concerned" studio audience weighing in. All of which is phony and contrived! Can't we do better than that with our journalism?

Late Night Television

I usually get home from work at about 12:20 AM. Sometimes I turn on the television to see if there is anything worthwhile to watch. Unfortunately, the vast majority of channels are thoroughly worthless to me. But there are a few that suit my peculiar tastes.

On our digital TV service here in Gainesville, we can pick up the various Encore movie channels. Quite often, I'll find at least one movie on them that's good. On BBC-America, which recently had a marathon of James Bond movies, I can also watch episodes from the old, hilarious Monty Python's Flying Circus series. Bravo and AMC (American Movie Classics) are other good movie channels carrying some good films. And the Sci-Fi Channel and Spike occasionally show something interesting.

Besides movies, I like watching old series. Especially cartoon series. Niktoons currently shows old SpongeBob SquarePants episodes late at night. Also, I've grown somewhat attached to their cute My Life As a Teenage Robot series as well. But my current cartoon favorite is the side-splitting South Park, a series that I only discovered less than a year ago. My favorite episodes so far? Something Wall-Mart This Way Comes, obviously a satire on the negative reaction many have to Wal-Mart stores opening in their towns, and Manbearpig, which parodied Al Gore. My favorite South Park character? Who else but the villainous brat Eric Cartmen! I can pick up South Park on two different stations, as well as the Web.

Sometimes C-Span has an interesting replay of an interview or hearing (but usually not). Sometimes I can watch the end of a west-coast basketball game, or just a recap of the day's sports news. But sometimes the programming is pretty dried up for me. It is then that I flick over to MSNBC and watch the replays of their three "liberal" shows: Hardball (with Chris Matthews), Countdown (with Keith Olbermann), and Rachel Maddow. It's too bad that I can't receive this type of liberal commentary programming on my radio, which has been taken over by right-wing talk shows . And (like most other working human beings), I'm not allowed to watch TV on my job. However, I've recently discovered the many choices I have with downloadable podcasts, ranging the entire political spectrum, and to which I can listen almost anywhere on my MP3 player.

Finally, if the worst happens and all late-night programming stinks (or if I'm just in the mood), I turn my cable channels to the music stations they offer. My preferences? Alternative Rock, Soundscapes (new age music), Classical, and Retro Alternative.

Of course, the ultimate option in the absence of anything good on TV is to just turn it off and go on to bed!

But, wait! I've just discovered the ultimate soothing late-night channel: PBS's Sprout, which is aimed at pre-school audiences and is simple and sweet throughout its programming. It's obviously not very intellectually stimulating, but it has a very positive tone which is very relaxing to me.

NCCA Men's Basketball Down to Four Teams

Now we're down to the Final Four in the NCAA men's basketball tournament for 2009. North Carolina, one of my favorites, has done well to advance. They will play Villanova in the semifinals, while Connecticut will play Michigan State. I predict a North Carolina-Connecticut final. It's too bad that none of the teams from the Southeastern Conference advanced far into the tournament.

When all is said and done, the Southeastern Conference really didn't do all that well this year in men's college basketball. None of the three SEC teams in the NCAA tournament made the "Sweet Sixteen" and none of their four teams in the National Invitation Tournament (including two number one seeds, Florida being one of them) made the "Final Four". Pretty sorry year for the conference! Why was this?

I can only speak about the UF Gators when I say that this was a very young team, with only one starting senior (Walter Hodge) and no starting juniors. The acknowledged "star", if you can use that term with this team, is sophomore guard Nick Calathes. Other returning starters for next year are Dan Werner, Alex Tyus, and Chandler Parsons. Erving Walker also was a factor in what success the Florida had this year, and he will be returning as well. So the Gators promise to be much improved next year. But unlike the national championship squads of 2006 and 2007, they seem to get stressed out in close games and don't play together as a close-knit team whose members fully understand each other and their strengths and limitations (in my amateur opinion). They seemed to keep repeating the same mistakes during play without learning from them. Coach Billy Donovan has a lot of work ahead of him if he wants the 2010 edition of the University of Florida men's basketball team to get back to making the NCAA tournament instead of once again being relegated to the "runner up" NIT.

One final note: one of the factors that the NCAA tournament selection committee held against Florida (and some other SEC schools) was the extremely soft non-conference schedule they played, effectively padding their win-loss record to make them look better than they really were. The message is clear: UF and other schools need to schedule more competitive games in December if they want more serious consideration in March!