House and seeking life/death
Now Playing: Janita
Topic: Mysteries of Life

  Sitting here listening to a bit of Tannahill Weavers from the Cullen Bay album, some lovely Jane Monheit, some similar jazzy female vocals by the Finnish singer Janita and flipping through some old Archies from the first vinyl record I have some memory of listening to while living in Maine and while under the age of five. It's remarkable the things you remember and a true blessing of many of the things you forget. Funny, I remember being alone in my room, five years old, listening to Hot Dog and Sugar, Sugar and looking at the cartoon Archies on the cover. The creeping realization that the world was not quite right, that cartoon characters weren't real and couldn't sing in an album and also wondering which female voice was Betty and which one was Veronica.

Having watched the recent new episode of House I'm reminded just how great that show is. You're not left with comfortable unremarkable characters and quaint answers to the questions of life. Oh no, you are pulled out of your comfort zone and have to look at yourself and see your own faults reflected back at you through the thoughts and actions of those on screen. No perfect human beings, all flawed and often uncomfortable to watch them in their destructive behaviors. This episode didn't have a happy ending for the patient of the week or the House proxy patient who reflects a part of House's character and ideas taken to the extreme. Both patients died, the long suffering young man with the degenerative disease whose life was reduced to suffering and pain who was willing to see an end to the pain and it's left open as to whether he tossed his own medicine or not. The other patient had been in a car accident and had 'died' for a minute and a half and found in that period of time the total 'bliss' he had always sought through an Abby Hoffman like search through recreational drugs. Both patients, proxies for House and by extension proxies for the rest of us, were left looking at the big questions of life. Pain and bliss, one seeking the absence of pain and one seeking that bliss of the other side. Death was the answer in both cases but House wasn't interested as much in the answer that the man seeking death sought in death. He couldn't and doesn't understand the giving up the fight despite the pain. His own life is about pain, loneliness and putting one foot in front of the other, being needed by everyone but scorning their praise and company and preferring the certainty of his pain as his grasp on reality while at the same time obliterating it through medication. The other guy was as convinced of the answer he found and put a knife in a light socket to reach that ecstatic place he found at the moment of death. The second guy intrigued House with his certainty enough that the seeker and questioner in House finally put a knife in a wall socket looking for that Bliss. House didn't find that magical place and didn't expect to but for him the infinitesimal chance needed to be refuted so the rest of his life could continue based on the logical assumptions he had reasoned through already. House told the corpse of the wall socket guy that he was wrong. As House has said many a time, there's no Bliss in the end, no 70 odd virgins, there is nothing there, there is only here. I agree with House but I also agree with the Wilson character who said that if some folks feel some comfort wrapping themselves in other believes then it's not right to rip that comfort from them. Wilson being the Greek Chorus who often times expresses the arguments of the audience to House.

We all bring our own filters to the game and like the car accident guy in the show, I've been clinically dead. I've been down that path a few times instead of the one time as the character experienced. I can't say that I experienced any visions of Valhalla or Heaven or any unforgettable bliss although one time I did think I heard the voice of an angel calling me back. But then, we bring our own hopes and desires to any experiences like that. From seeing the masked faces of doctors all around and above me fading from my sight to waking up alone, strapped down and able to see my own chest bloody, red and disfigured with black glossy stitches all along the wounds looking and feeling like legs and antenna of angry carnivorous beetles fighting to get out. The clear feelings of mindless terror followed not by soothing comforting words but by the circuit breaker of my mind simply shutting any further memories down. Hearing the Bliss seeking character relating his car accident as a slow motion nightmare and remembering the two times I've spun a car while going down dark and snowy mountain roads alone on the road. One time fighting to catch the car on a railing and succeeding with a few feet to spare, getting out of the car and looking down the side of a mountain I had almost plunged down. The other time completely loosing control and spinning like a top as time also slowed time and my calm resignation wondering how much it was going to hurt before amazingly hitting a snow filled snow bank sideways. Moments, which like the Slaughterhouse Five novel by Kurt Vonnegut, seem to come back to me in random order and just as vivid as they are happening all over again. Interesting.  

Robert Jordan Dead
Mood:  sad
I read this over at reddit.com and the wikipedia article about Robert Jordan shows him to have died today at his home with his family around him. Very sad news if it is true and there is no reason to believe it isn't true. I saw him at Books and Company in Dayton when he was touring with his latest Wheel of Time book and I got that book signed. As you can see from the picture here to my eyes he looked sick. And then of course it was shortly after when he went to the hospital and was diagnosed with a particularly nasty type of cancer. I've been rereading his books right now. A great author whose imagination and vision brought a generation of new readers to fantasy books. Damn. He died with one book left unwritten in the twelve book series but you know, that hardly matters now and whether his widow can finish his book up is of less importance than the fact that he passed on. Rand, Mat, Perrin, Egwene, Faile and the whole cast of characters were brought to life by Robert Jordan and they have brought a certain immortality to Robert Jordan. He will be missed.

Now Comes the Hot War
Now Playing: Brooklyn Bridge - Requiem , Blessed is the Rain
Topic: Politics
 

Senator Craig of Idaho has confounded his colleagues and the Republican Party by deciding that he was too quickly shoved out of the door and thrown under the bus. Upon reflection and realizing how his 'good friends' neither came to his defense or offered a single word of support the Senator rightly felt a bit put out and while the Republican Party was congratulating itself on how quickly and easily they bum rushed their fellow out of the Congress he said not so fast. On second thought, Senator Craig thought “I've been bum rushed a lot lately and will hire a good lawyer and try to get that previous guilty plea thrown out and might not resign from the Senate after all”. Basically a screw you guys attitude on his part and an attempt to not go quietly into the night. Well you know, as I've previously mused upon, the chances of forgiveness for him by the usual crowd he runs with are slim to none and slinking away only serves everyone else, not him. So it's time to try to fight. As Craig is a Conservative Republican you can only nod and say that his Karma has caught up with him and the intolerant folks he identifies with only reflect the same amount of mercy he would have given anyone other than himself. Still and all, I shed no tears for the Republican folks who coldly turned their backs on him. There is plenty enough Karma to go around it seems.

The upcoming World War has taken a few more steps closer to a more active conflict. Israeli jets flying over Syria and being shot at. Iran offering assistance and help to Syria against Israel. They always talk about how there is 'increased chatter' with regards to the faceless and unknown sleeper terrorist cells when they (Bush administration) wants to gin up the fear of the American people. The principle is a valid one, more talk the same way the two groups of monkeys in the movie 2001 'talked' and screamed and fake charged at each other before the actual conflict began. We are the same, as nations, we talk and bluster and pose and threaten before we fight. The war chatter is escalating, reports of the US planning a three day bombing of Iran, Iran changing the leadership of the Republican Guard in preparation for war, Iranian rejection of nuclear inspections and bragging about how many centrifuges they have a jittery fluctuation stock market – oh and perhaps knowing that there are four carrier groups in the area. Tons of other bits of evidence stacking up and future historians will look and wonder how come nobody saw the signs. Personally I thought this particular stage of the war would have already happened. I thought that the signs pointed to this part of the war happening six months ago. I would say that the major hold up has been the Bush administration having lost the Congress in the last election, the pressure on the failures in Iraq needing to be addressed and the non victory of Israel over Hamas and the Gaza mess. In all instances the conclusions by Israel and the US are that their problems will not get better as long as Iran is left with their present capabilities and or present government. And if everybody is convinced that war is coming then everybody will try to position themselves in the best way to win that conflict. Syria may well believe that it's best bet is to strike first and will of course see any attempt by Israel to calm the waters now as clear evidence that Israel wants to attack at it's own time and perversely decide it needs to attack first. And all Syria has to do is to send a column of tanks toward Golan and for Israel to say it must be go time and we need to hit those tanks before they come over the border and kaboom – it's on. And if Iran sends so much as a box of Kleenex to Syria, the United States will see it's opening and say 'boom, it's go time' and the bombing campaign will start. Iran starts to blow up tankers in the Straights of Hormuz and the ensuing price panic could entice Russia to decide it's a good time to take care of that pesky Georgia and their tanks can start rolling. China might see that and say that it seems like the best chance to deal with Taiwan. And we aren't even talking about what could happen if a giant sized terrorist attack actually hits in the US. Not likely now that all these dinky ones in Germany and Denmark are being rooted out and if those are evidence of the best they Islamofascists can come up with then we're in good shape in that department, even if Osama bin Boogeyman actually is alive and shows up in a 'video' for the September 11^th Anniversary.

Forgivenss
Now Playing: Me on the guitar
Topic: Mysteries of Life

You can't help but be struck by the theme of the news lately. No, I'm not talking about the obsessive breathless reporting about every mass of swirling clouds near Africa that might or might not turn into the “Ultimate Hurricane” capable of destroying the eastern seaboard or a wide swath of Texas, Louisiana, Mississippi or Florida that is hoped for and dreamed of by every cable news network ready to turn their studio into an emergency command post where empty headed teleprompter readers get to practice their faces of grim expectancy as they prattle on bravely in the face of doomsday and every once in a while throwing it to some expendable dolt wearing a logo laden slicker and standing in the path of death and destruction. No not that trend, as abominable as that particular aspect of yellow journalism is and evidence of the continued decline of civilization as we dream it might have been in the halcyon days of our imagined past. No not that trend. I'm thinking about the parade of disgraced and fallen public officials, entertainers and sports figures. Your basic Senator Craig, Michael Vick and NBA referee Tim Donaghy just to name three convicted fallen folk.

Senator Craig, by all the evidence is a religious, conservative Republican who by the evidence, is a fellow with homosexual tendencies. Well you know, if you have to have a chart of this sort of thing you'd pull out the New Jersey former Governor McGreevey who was a closeted gay and who wasn't trying to suppress it and in fact was getting himself in trouble by using his position as Governor to get a job for a lover and allegedly sexually harassing males. Pretty far on the heinous side there I'd say. He was run out of office and is now humorously enough studying to become an Episcopal priest. After him I'd put the Colorado Pastor and former leader of the New Life Church in Colorado Springs who also didn't suppress his homosexual tendencies to include a long term affair with a Denver male escort. He was pretty bad as a human being since he was preaching about the evils of those evil homosexual types while he was one. That would be hypocritical indeed on many levels. He of course went to some sort of 'Christian' camp to have the gay demons removed from himself, he proclaimed his miraculous deliverance from the evil gayness and is busy asking his former church for money as he and his wife go to school to learn something else to cheat people doing. At least McGreevey raised his hands when he was caught and said 'yup, I'm as gay as the day is long' and he is now living out of the closet, divorced his long suffering wife and is getting on with it. Now I'm looking at soon to be former Senator Craig and hearing him proclaim himself to be not gay. Well, okay. The evidence is of him trolling around bathrooms looking for that gay sex. So far no gay escorts are stepping forward to say they've been his longtime squeeze so perhaps this fellow is that type who has lied and denied to himself while still living that secret life he has compartmentalized and separated from the part of him that denounces gays and gay marriage and the like. Perhaps. All very interesting. Sad and interesting. All these folks, according to the reaction of the society in general, have committed unforgivable sins. More or less, no rehabilitation will be sufficient for any of them to reach the levels they were at. This is a given, this is fact. Forgiveness and a chance to make amends is not available to these folks. Of the three, McGreevey is the liberal fellow and has a book out about his life and the community he came from will accept him back after a fashion. Not so for the folks of the moral center and the religious Christians of the right. These guys eat their wounded and both are expected to crawl under rocks and die quietly.

The referee who found himself having committed the unforgivable crimes of gambling and perhaps game fixing is the most normal of the three and quickly and fairly quietly he's given up the fight with the authorities. He has said he is guilty and he will give over evidence and cooperate in the search of others who are up the food chain in game fixing of NBA games. Well, he is the least of the public public figures and while he has committed considerable damage to the NBA, there is no question of him being forgiven Indeed, that isn't even part of any discussion. What will he do when he has gone to jail and come out the other end? Nobody knows and nobody cares. It just doesn't matter as a point of interest. Society expects him to crawl off and die as well.

Now Michael Vick is another matter. The questions of forgiveness and redemption for him are ones that burn up the airways and discussion boards and conversation. His crime of the three is the crime that has had the biggest emotional reaction from the public. It's fair to say that Michael Vick is the most hated man in the United States outside of the President of the United States. His crimes of gambling and running a dog fighting enterprise have struck a chord with the public and have roused anger and calls for his punishment. Of the three people discussed who have admitted to some portion of their crimes, his crime is the one that cries out the loudest for lack of forgiveness. Curiously enough, the future of Michael Vick is the one most worried about. The discussion has revolved around how he could possibly plead guilty, get sent to prison, do his time, do his suspension and get back to the NFL. I've heard folks characterize their concern as being worried about the future of a young man who has done nothing wrong otherwise and who now realizes the errors of his ways and will be a good fellow from now on. All three have lost their positions, their dignity and position in society like many many other people who have gone through the criminal system. Redemption, forgiveness - these are just words that don't apply to people who have in some fashion gone through the criminal justice system. Unless somebody else can make money off of you as in the case of Michael Vick, nobody cares and it's of no consequence that your life is over.

Senator Craig in the end had no friends and nobody stood up with him or for him. Obviously a flawed fellow who doesn't garner much sympathy from folks but I wonder what he's thinking. A few days ago he had all sorts of friends and people who were happy to see him and to talk to him. Now nobody calls him, nobody takes his calls and there is no forgiveness for him. Everyone who has ever known him would be most happy if he faded away, crawled up under a rock and was never heard from again. The NBA official of course has no friends now, and probably has nobody saying he is a good person. Michael Vick of course still has friends as long as his money holds out and as long as he has the chance of returning to the NFL after his time is served. It's funny in a sad way. I wonder what all the friends and acquaintances who have abandoned their friends in trouble think of themselves now.

Climb a mountain, look better

The immigration bill is currently about to make a return to the stage as the supporters of it make one last gasp effort to pass the legislation before the elections get them all closer to Jesus and voter accountability. The concept of voters actually remembering how you voted on anything is something Congressmen and women don't normally have to deal with. So the closer to the elections, the smaller is the chance that those who have an interest in seeing an amnesty comes to pass will get their way. For Republicans who support the bill it's a free 'get out of Congress' card and the wrath of their voters will send them off to the arms of their lobbyist friends. Congress has a voter approval rating of less than 20 percent and the voters are angry. Candidate McCain, the war hero, the former prisoner of war, is about to be run out of the Republican nomination process because of his support for this bill. It's bad news all around and it's an answer in search of a problem. The main worry of people in the country is border security and there are laws and fences that have been authorized that are not being enforced and fences that are not being built. It's simple, when somebody breaks into your house, you don't start discussing whether or not the burgler has had a harder life than you have had, you don't ask if he is a minority who has been kept down by the man, you get him the hell out of your house. You make sure your doors are locked and your windows are secure. To think that the flood of illegal immigrants is any different is woefully ignorant and genuinely anti-American. It's that simple.

But the thing that I find the most interesting is the charge of racism I've encountered whenever I make my opinions known. I'm some kind of Nazi, hillbilly, trailerpark living white trash because I think that the laws should be enforced and the borders secured. Funny thing about that, my mother was Hispanic and my father Welch/English. In law school I was the President of the Hispanic Law Students Association and I kept organization viable when there weren't many Hispanic students at the school. I think I did a number of things that were good while I was there and one thing I kept in mind was that the Hispanics were a part of the greater community and we worked in concert with the Asian Law Student Association and every other organization for that matter. The point is that we tried to build bridges and while celebrating our differences we were still all Americans with the same ideals. That is not the case in this whole illegal immigration debate and reality. In this debate I am a racist and ignorant because I don't support the enormous breakdown of law and illegal behavior done in the name of social justice and with the excuse of entrenched 'white racism'. No, that's not acceptable.

 We have laws designed to bring in immigrants in a way that enhances and makes America better. Laws passed and in fact there is a history of legal ways to come to America. For skilled workers there is an issue of how many and how that impacts American workers. With lower wage workers there are quotas and work permits have limits and numbers and targets. In all cases people have issues with the numbers. Some farmers say they need more, and of course the way to deal with that is to petition Congress for a change. If you perceive a problem the way to address it is not to encourage law breaking and to break the law itself by employing people you know aren't legal. It's simple yet tragically, the rule of law and the belief in the law continues to break down in the face of this illegal invasion.

Padmasambhava statue demolished in Tibet
Topic: Politics

A report from the Buddhist Channel states The Tibetan Centre for Human Rights and Democracy (TCHRD) received confirmed information from reliable sources that, in mid May 2007 Chinese People's Armed Police (PAP) demolished a colossal statue of Guru Padmasambava popularly known as Guru Rinpoche of the Samye Monastery and that rubble from the statue's destruction is being transported to unknown location according to reports emanating from the area.

Typical thuggish behavior by a nation state born of thuggish brutism. No concept of human rights or freedom of religion for an invaded people who at some point in the distant past were part of some previous thuggish Chinese dynastic empire and so in the eyes of the Chinese government becomes forever a part of the rightful Chinese Empire. This gives them, in their eyes the right to kill and destroy the native culture of Tibet and to try to take over the Tibetian Buddhist religion by picking their own puppet religious leaders. The Chinese Olympics should be boycotted and China treated as the moral pariah they are. And of course, successive US administrations from Nixon on forward have failed to appreciate the mortal danger that the Chinese ambitions are to the West as a whole. The Clinton administration let them get ballistic missile technology that they didn't have and allows their spies access to anywhere in the country so that by dint of espionage they are able to level themselves up to the technology advantage that the West has enjoyed. Totally criminal and completely swept under the rug.

But I would remind the Chinese that the last government that did destroy Buddist statues once resided in Afghanistan. The Taliban, or the remnants of the Taliban are hiding in caves and no longer enjoying a leadership position. Karma does eventually catch up to you.  

Into the tunnel
Topic: Politics

Well, just thought I'd put a graphic here, the next President of the United States unless something big and unusual happens. I'm actually okay with it, the possibility of someone who might be competent is a good thing regardless of Party affiliation. If she stumbles  then Gore is poised to jump in and take the nomination by acclimation. Obama, or as I've heard, "Obama the Magic Negro" - loses his luster as he speaks and I don't see his turn as the Savior of the Country to last long. Edwards is a place holder who wishes he never heard of Obama and should be gone before the primaries churn through. The rest, ah, you won't remember them after next February if not before. No, I think this nomination was won a long time ago as Hillary has turned the political wheels for some time and been running for some time. It's all over but the crying. 

On the Republican side I was interested to see that Hagel is already running into trouble back home. Attorney General Jon Bruning ran a poll that shows he is ahead of Hagel amoung likely Republican voters in the state. As I mentioned earlier he is heading into the kind of backlash that DeWine of Ohio ran into and was sent packing because of.  Maverick Republicans cannot exist very well in Republican minded states. The media driven talk of him running for President is like the media talk of Gore running on the Democratic side except that Gore has a real chance of pulling it off and Hagel doesn't. It looks like he'll be looking for that lobbyist job in 08. Essay ,  Poll

Writing a bit more, I've run myself into some carpal tunnel in the wrists and so I'm spending little time practicing with the guitar. More time with those wrist things on.  Time to replace the frozen t-bone steak with a fresh one. 

Amnesty Bill Cloture Traitors
Now Playing: Pandora - Fred Astaire
Topic: Politics

 

I'm looking at the Rhino's in the bunch - Hagel (Republican) from Nebraska leads the pack of fake Republicans, followed closely by Voinovich (Republican) of Ohio and of course McCain, who embraced this piece of backroom betrayal of the American people. Voinovich didn't take note of the fate of the last Ohio Republican DeWine who crossed the line to stand with the Democrats to cut the legs out from under the President on a war issue - his reelection came up and he was shown the door. Voinovich as a past state Governor perhaps feels himself a bit more immune or perhaps he's already made his plans for a fat corner office at some lobbying firm after this term. Hagel of course is still sitting in the back and making his decisions based on positioning himself for some delusion based Bloomberg/Hagel Independent ticket or perhaps equally implausible - a Hillary Clinton/Hagel 'Unity' ticket. I can't think of any possible place for him on a actual Republican ticket but there's no telling how far his own delusions stretch.

I'm looking at Spector from Pennsylvania, another Republican in name only who more often than not votes with Democrats, he's already seeing the future without a Republican President or Congress and is doing his best to blend in with the Democrats. The two Florida Senators, the Republican Martinez has taken his cloak off and there's a big fat L for liberal on his chest. The Conservative voters of Florida have long memories and this vote will definitely star in many a attack commercials when he tries to run for reelection.  Lugar and Graham are also standing with the Democrats on this. 

Of course, since it didn't go well for the Bill the Democrats are calling it Bush's bill and you can see how important it was to him since he had it brought up when he was at the G-8 meeting trying to start up another Cold War. As he stumbles through the meetings with the other major leaders of the world further shaming our Country, his bill dies for a few months and then the snakes will take a look at the lay of the land and try to ressurrect this thing once again, hoping to sneak it under the radar as they have done with countless other bills. Of course, the closer it gets to an actual election the less likelihood the Amnesty Bill has of passing since at that time the "Representatives" will be that much closer to accountability from their voters.  It's a sad thing when the only thing stopping our Representatives from selling the Country down the river is  a nearby election. 

Debate Impressions
Topic: Politics

Well the first question in the Republican debate from New Hampshire went to the ghost of Ronald Reagan's hair worn like a holy relic by Mitt Romney. He spouted on incomprehensibly for a long time while not answering the question. A good start. After another answer like that I stopped trying to listen to anything that flip flopping douchebag had to say. You know, some folks are good, some folks are bad and some folks are like Romney- a finger in the wind, mind changing douche politician. I hate that kind. He has a lot of Mormon money funding him right now and is already running the Ronald Reagan type 'Morning in America' ads where he's trying to evoke the winning formula of Reagan. Lot of money, money talks and we'll see how it goes with him.

Other big loser in this debate was the original loser, John McCain. He's been in the

Amnesty for illegal immigrants camp and best buddies with Ted Kennedy for a while now and his position in the Republican race for the nomination has continued to slip as a result. He had a touching moment with a young lady who asked a question about Iraq and whose brother had died there. Pundits make a big thing of it because it's good tv and McCain is their best liberal in the Republican Party on Amnesty buddy. And of course, he knows better than you do about the immigration problems so you must listen to him. Another dictator in waiting like Bush.

Well, Rudy did well, first one to stand up and walk out to walk to the audience to answer the questions, which created a stampede of 'me to' candidates standing up after him. Point is, he led, they followed. His answers were direct, they hit him as they always do with the abortion questions which he didn't duck. The abortion questions are not as important in these days as are the security questions and Rudy is still the candidate with the most experience and the best likelihood of being competent in that regard. I dub thee winner of the debate. 

Immigration is Good, Illegal Immigration is Bad
Topic: Politics
Wrote my Congressmen and Senators about my feelings on the new immigration bill and have had zero replies from any of the three. Not surprising since I don't like it and they support it.  They appear to be following the lead of Bush with their 'you're an evil bigot if you don't support this bill' attitude. I agree with Peggy Noonan's article on the Bush reaction to the universal dislike for this bill.  Bush is slapping the crap out of his so called base. Republicans and conservatives (not the same thing) find this Immigration Amnesty to be nothing short of a betrayal of the American people. I would agree on that but then Bush and most of the Congressmen and Senators are not there for you or for me but for their real masters, business both industrial and agricultural. By undercutting wages to American workers it allows industry and agriculture to bring wages down across the board. It's equivalent to picking up the business and moving it to Mexico except that they don't have to move the industry, don't have to pay medical, social security and other taxes and those needs the illegals have are picked up by the government - you and me. Sweet deal, no wonder they work so hard owning our representatives to make the world to their liking. You and I are just roadkill to them and if we get too uppity and complain they have their left leaning friends call us racists and xenophobes and the like. See, you can't object to illegal immigration unless you really want to be labeled as a racist bastard. Since I've been called worse I think I can freely speak my mind. And of course, uselessly write my Congressmen. That's okay, I'll be there working against them at their reelection time even if they have a good number of years until it happens. I never forget or forgive and I always remember.

Such a girl
I've hated Gilmore Girls for pretty much the last two seasons and I haven't watched more than a few minutes of it in that time, but some instinct, some murmur through the pipes got me peaking at it today, and then watching the last fifteen minutes of it. Probably flipping through the channels and seeing Loreli and Luke actually talking to each other did it. Anyways, watching the Karokee singing part where she is starting to sing to her daughter the Dolly Parton song "I Will Always Love You" and then Luke walks in. The face acting, the awkwardness of singing in front of all the people and as hokey as it could be, it was sweet. She ernestly and with feeling seemed to be singing the song to Luke. A sweet, bittersweet bit there. With me being the girl I am sometimes and welling up over it, connecting with pretend characters in a pretend television show and all. It's a shame they killed the show for two whole seasons with crap, it could have been that nice place to visit once a week for all that time. AH well. 

Love Heroes
Topic: Mysteries of Life

One of the few shows I wait for and enjoy watching, Heroes. It appeals to the kid in me with it's superhero characters, it's well acted and well written so far, just a joy to anticipate and get to watch when it comes on. Good stuff. 

Trying to learn how to get css style to work and getting there slowly. The usual mistakes I remember making with html, namely putting the images in the right folders and having the css style sheet refer properly to the images. I load it up then wonder where the pictures are, where the style sheet is. Why it isn't doing anything I want. Of course I finally figure it out after looking at it for a good long time. Duh.

Watching the fun after the first Democratic debate, no big punches thrown, no good knockdowns, but it's early and they are all still getting ready for the whole thing. This week the media heads have been talking up the Republican Debate this Thursday a bit as they anticipate a bit more slugging and slapping around. I'm thinking Rudi is getting a slap or three in the yapper. Of course, the media heads and their wet dream of Hagel getting in are getting a tiny bit of play. I've heard his name mentioned and how in the crowded field it could use a liberal approved anti war  Republican. It's still Fred Thompson who is the knight in shining armor waiting in the wings, there is no need for him to enter now and no need for him to stand in the pit yet and if he wants the nomination he can get it. I don't anticipate any of the other candidates on the Republican side to being able to pull out a large lead anytime soon. So the Republican debate will be or could be a good indicator as to how they might start to settle out. Ah, politics, good times. 

Playing with CSS
Topic: Mysteries of Life
The site is under renovation right now. The front page in it's new design shows up just fine in Explorer but looks like text in Firefox. I've only got the index page and the Buddhism page part way done. The CSS style sheet thingee works for one but not for the other. Looks like a long period of trial and error involved for me not including the time spent doing all the pages over again in the new style and fitting in with the new look of the site. Much cleaner, easy on the eyes but right now a bit of a bear with the Firefox. My most unfavorite thing, playing with code and all of the line by line work involved understanding it to fix it.

Violence and Madness
Topic: Mysteries of Life

When the first 'breaking news' bulletin hit the cable news networks on Monday morning it was the story of two people shot in a dorm room. An almost normal level of violence that was given the dutiful frown of concern before going back to the breathtaking news of it raining in New Jersey and the East Coast in general. The ordinary crazed boyfriend kills ex girlfriend, current girlfriend or some variation of that story. They didn't know anything more about it so it was back to the rain crisis they had already spun up for. The giant story the cable outlets were in position to over dramatize complete with colorized, spinning versions of the menacing nor'easter storm. I had already been overly fed up with breathless stories of how parts of cities were being flooded, I knew the parts that were being flooded were the idiots who had built in flood plains. Pictures of bridges over water and water going under them. My personal favorite, reporters in raincoats standing out in the rain, telling you it's raining.

And then the full horror of the shooting began to emerge. It was already over by the time the cameras made their way to visual range. Talking heads talking to each other about how many dead there might be, how many shots someone could get off in a short period of time. Just stupid stuff, three days later the “Breaking News” tag is everywhere. There's no damn breaking news, crazy, mentally ill person goes into school and kills 33 people and wounds a bunch more. He's dead. Grief and funerals and memorials to follow and everyone using this to push their own agendas. Violence in movies, violence in games, gun control, no conceal and carry, identifying troubled children and warning signs thereof. I'm sure there are more people bringing up their causes, I hear that the Scientologists are even down at Virginia Tech trolling for recruits and that SOB who pickets the funerals of Iraq war casualties is going to be there to picket the funerals of those kids. And probably the bikers that stop them will be there as well. Life is a circus and all the clowns and Carnies, starting with the Network anchors, descend upon tragedy like so many junkies looking for a fix.

The particular form that Cho's madness took will be examined by idiots without clues who enjoy hearing themselves talk for days and months to come. He blamed the world for his failings, bullies created him, he was egocentric and couldn't connect with other human beings, his shield against the world became a prison, his fantasies of revenge absorbed him until he wasn't there any longer and all that existed was those revenge fantasies. Perhaps the increasingly violent nature of the world is starting to spill to the US, perhaps another of the legacies of the violent suicide bombers that continue in unending waves will be an elevated level of violence, of rage attacks by people who consider themselves unheard or unrevenged by life and by the people in their lives. You could go down the list and every single hypothesis would be correct. His shooting the girl and the advisor made sense in a way, a tragedy but it made sense since violence like that is common. The purposefully going into a school and shooting people makes no sense and therefore is more terrifying to everyone. It demands a reason and the reason or reasons will be supplied by the talking heads. Who knows.

What is known is that stories for the next few weeks will include young men being hauled away to jail for saying it was a good thing (already happened) or expelling those who make jokes of it. People will have different attitudes and different reactions about perceived threats. That quite guy will be looked at a little more closely. Perhaps bullies will bully less for a while. Perhaps those who have wronged somebody will be a little more nervous than usual and will be looking over their shoulders more often. Undoubtedly there will be a copycat within the month. But after a while lessons learned, precautions taken will fade. And it doesn't matter in any event. If someone is determined and willing to die himself, he or she will be able to kill many people. And the world is getting more violent and these sort of things will happen more often until it'll get just a frown from the talking head on the cable news network.

Diamond Al Sharpton - Political Opportunist
Topic: Politics

Yes, the good Reverend Al Sharpton, the poster child for two faced political opportunists all over the United States has become the chief spokesman for the 'lynch Don Imus' gang. Shockingly, a man who does a three hour live broadcast over the radio and over MSNBC has misspoken and said a bad bad thing. He said 'nappy headed ho's' oh my goodness, hide the children. Let's see, Nappy isn't the bad word cause you know there's a movie in the works with the title 'Nappily Ever After' starring the beautiful Hally Berry. It can't be the word 'ho' cause you know, head over to BET and hear that word all day long. Hear acclaimed rappers rap their way around the word 'ho' 'bitches' and even more derogatory words. Head over to Comedy Central and hear that word and worse all the time in reruns of The Dave Chappell Show and The Carlos Mensena show and on anything shown after ten o'clock. None of that matters here, sure Don Imus is a going on 30 years shock jock whose stock in trade is saying things on the edge and over the edge. That's what the term means. 

But Sharpton is his own kind of hypocrite with his older, make believe, distinguished face acting like the sage old veteran of countless good causes. Well you know, I don't begrudge Sharpton his rehabilitation. I happen to think that rehabilitation is a good thing even if society rarely allows it to any but the most brazen like Sharpton.  Sharpton of the Tawana Brawley infamy. Yes indeed, yet another circumstance where political opportunism reared it's lovely head and Sharpton ran over to attach himself to it. The girl, supposedly raped and left naked in a bag of feces accused law enforcement officers with rape. Now, the case fell over like a house of made up hoax cards but that didn't stop Sharpton from raging on and leveling baseless and ultimately slanderous allegations against various people involved. Sharpton was taken to court and lost a 395 million dollar lawsuit by those he slandered. He had accused the prosecutor and other officials of having raped this girl. He lost in court and has never taken responsibility for it.

But you know, it's supposedly racist remarks that Sharpton is on about. Sharpton himself, that paragon of virtue. The completely racist Sharpton, inflamed and contributed to the riots in Crown Heights after an accident where a young black boy was killed by a Hasidic jewish driver. The driver didn't leave the scene and a private ambulance from a  Hasidic hospital was first on scene.  The police on the scene, an ugly scene there, a dangerous scene there, and had the Hasidic ambulance take the Hasidic jew to the Hasidic hospital. The other ambulance came later and the child died. Well, the good peace loving Reverend, never missing an opportunity to lead the mob, used anti jewish code words to help inflame the black population he wants to be the leader of. Saying the 'Diamond Merchants' were shedding the blood of the innocents. Well you know, I don't think the family of the  rabbinical student from Australia by the name of Yankel Rosenbaum ever got an apology from Sharpton. He was killed in the riots that Sharpton helped foment. 

Yes indeed. It's entirely correct and proper that in the bizarro world we live in that Al Sharpton gets to lead the lynching against Don Imus and continually calling for his head for the unforgivable sin of saying some politically incorrect words. What a bunch of crap.