A Wicked Belated Father's Day

Since going to Mexico for my sister's wedding, it has been a mad scramble to catch up on various things needing doing, so it was no surprise when Father's Day came and went with no celebration. It didn't help that we are impecunious at the moment, so no Airfest this year.

Evading the heat and humidity the past few days has meant being in the living room, where we've temporarally installed an air conditioner, as my room is still out of commission. Being tired, reading was no longer working for my dad and me, so a quick look through the Netflix DVDs revealed nothing but serious and attention requiring movies. It was time to look through the family DVD library, especially the recent acquisitions.

One jumped out at me, one I'd gotten last month but hadn't had time to watch, an old movie from my youth. Lately I've been on a Ray Bradbury kick and had gotten the movie from an Amazon.com sale around the time I also purchased The Ray Bradbury Theater complete series set. The movie is Something Wicked This Way Comes, a flick that bombed in its 1983 theatrical release, but one I'd loved anyway. Known for being too intense and scary for younger children, it is no surprise it didn't find an audience, as it fell into a no-man's land between kid movies and the explicit slasher & horror movies of the era.

The film is set in a midwestern small town in the 1920s, during that magical time of the year that happens in October. Two boys, Will and Jim, are best friends and blood brothers living in the sleepy town, doing the things boys do when a mysterious carnival comes to town: Dark's Pandemonium. Harrowing encounters with Dark and his minions follow, with the lives of the townsfolk on the line, if not their very souls.

For me, it was a good movie that became even better once I saw it as an adult. The protagonists are two young boys, but the story is more about the fathers: one older then usual and filled with regrets, the other having run off is still a presence by his very absence. Both boys are deeply affected by their respective fathers and this is really the core of the film. Jason Robards shines as Will's father, the town librarian feeling his age and weighed down by a bad heart. Jonathan Pryce is hypnotically evil as Dark, every movement filled with the potential of explosive rage barely restrained.

I won't spoil the film for those who haven't seen it, but it turned out to be a wonderful belated Father's Day film to watch with my Dad. It is very much about the love that can only be held between father and son.

Iran Burns

We are seeing an uprising of the people versus a tyrannical dictatorship posing as a democratically elected government. That is something that we saw happen after the fall of the Berlin Wall in Eastern Europe but it is now happening in Iran. The clashes are violent, with students and protesters being gunned down (WARNING: very graphic), yet President Obama refuses to do anything in words or deeds. His apologists claim it is to protect the protesters, but that is a naive belief, whether held by Obama or by people making excuses for him. Voting present is simply not an option when you are President of the United States of America.

His silence and carefully moderated remarks have emboldened the ruling elite, Supreme Leader Khamenei led chants of "Death to America!" in his Friday prayers, while their state run TV has purportedly run "confessions" from college students that they were trained and funded by the USA to start this. So much for not choosing sides.

Pray for the Iranian people as they fight and die for their freedom.

The First Dance

or Why We Went to Tulum in Mexico:



Congratulations to Ann and Jeff, may your marriage be long and happy!

Adventures with Al, Part 2

Traveling with Al Ulven could get interesting at times, as a previous post showed. Reaching back into the murky depths of my childhood memories, there was one time that I wish I remembered more about. That was the mid-1970's expedition to the upper peninsula of Michigan to visit my half-brother Jud and his first wife, Therese. They lived up in the Houghton-Hancock area and for some reason Al decided to go with us. Perhaps he wanted to see the mining ranges up there, as he always had a curiosity about anything involving trade history around the Great Lakes. Curiosity has been said to kill the proverbial cat and Al was filled with curiosity about many things. In this case, it wasn't fatal but it certainly led him into a little trouble.

Somewhere just across the border into Michigan, a decision was made to take a short cut involving a back road that was parallel with the main highway. I do not know who made the decision, but with my father and Al being the only drivers, my suspicions lie with one or both. Back roads can be very inviting, offering scenery and local color you otherwise zoom past. Al loved back roads and my father's shortcuts were a subject of family legend. My late mother would have remembered whom to blame, no doubt.

While back roads can be enjoyable in good weather, taking them after major storms can get tricky. We got far enough to be in the middle of nowhere when the car ceased all forward movement. I'd say this is my first memory of mud so deep it sucked shoes off and stopped a car in its deep, deep tracks. The four of us piled out of the car and surveyed the muck after multiple failed attempts to get free. It was not taking us anywhere.

After some literal head scratching, Al and my dad tried to push it out. That did nothing but give everyone muddy pants legs, adding to the growing misery. Didn't seem to phase Al one bit though. There is an image in my mind of him sitting on the car, smiling despite the heat and dire predicament.

Hours went by, long hours. At some point, a decision was reached and a search began along the roadside. Some distance down the road, some old boards from a broken down fence were found and quickly brought back to the embedded car. After a few tries, the car finally found its caked wheels meeting dry road and we continued on. Al's laughter as we finally got going still lingers, for he'd won one of his small victories in life. It was something I'd get used to over the years.

Fair tax at the Tea Day Tax Party in Rochester

April 15th wasn't your average income tax day, a truly grassroots movement sprouted up across the country fueled by anger at Democrats and Republicans who have been spending like drunken sailors and now want even more of the public's money. My father and I attended the Rochester, Minnesota event on the behalf of the Fairtax and I was to speak. When we got there early, the crowd was already around the reported 300 and continued to swell. By the time I spoke, it was easily over 500 and I would guess around 800. It was hard to tell, as there was a lot of churn over and people wedging themselves in wherever they could. They were a very well behaved lot, made up of people from various center-right factions and the atmosphere was festive.

The following is my speech as prepared, it ended up being altered due time restraints and a very vocally involved audience -- something I'm not used to:

So what is the Fairtax and why is this guy talking about a new tax on a day of protesting tax increases?

The Fairtax is a revolutionary replacement (not reform) of the federal tax system. Why is it revolutionary? Well, it requires the repeal of the 16^th Amendment that established the income tax and the abolishment of the I.R.S. Does that sound good to you? How does replacing all the other federal taxes such as Social Security, Medicare, estate (or death tax), and corporate taxes sound?

The Fairtax replaces them with one national sales tax of 23% that is only collected at the point of retail sale. What that means is that you only pay a federal tax when you buy something for personal consumption and it will be collected at the cash register. No more filling out 1040’s! Right now, it is estimated that $265 billion a year is spent on tax preparation. How insane is that we have to pay out of our pockets for the privilege of giving more of our money to the government?

There are hidden imbedded taxes at multiple points along the supply chain for anything we buy at local stores that we are oblivious to, but cause a lot of headaches for business and are eventually passed down to us consumers. Getting rid of them simplifies everything and we will get to see what we are really paying. For the small business owner, it means that you don’t pay taxes on payroll, stock, and equipment needed for the business.

Not only does the Fairtax bring true transparency to taxation, it will supercharge our economy, leading to growth – something we aren’t seeing anymore. Right now, we are seeing corporations flee the country due to increasing taxes that make it incredibly hard to operate in the United States. If enacted, the Fairtax will cause the GDP (Gross Domestic Product) to increase by a staggering 10.5 percent in the first year alone! What does that mean? It means more jobs (4%), more production (12%), and a real increase in wages (8%).

Our country is in crisis. We are looking at a staggering amount of debt in the new federal budget. Newt Gingrich wrote this little nugget of information today:

“• If you’re a 50-year old-with a college degree, you will pay approximately $81,000 over your working life just to pay the interest on the debt in the Obama budget.
• If you’re a 40-year-old, you’ll pay $132,000.
• And if you’re a 20-year-old, just starting out after college, you will pay a whopping $114,000 just to service the interest on the debt created by the Obama budget.”

It is true the Fairtax won’t do anything about out of control government spending, but it is start of bringing sanity back to an insane situation. In 2008, $3.42 billion was spent on lobbying in Washington, D.C. – that equals $6.84 million per legislator. What was over half of this lobby money aimed at procuring? Tax breaks. This is how federal legislators dispensing favors and exercise personal power, by selectively choosing who gets to pay less in taxes. And people wonder why our government has gotten corrupt! Think of all the time wasted on it, time that should be spent on actually getting things done and listening to the people instead of lobbyists. The Fairtax will take away that abuse of privilege and time by transferring the power of when we are taxed back to the people. It will be the greatest transfer of power from a government to the people since the Revolution.

Everyone will pay under the Fairtax, there won’t be any exemptions. There won’t be any tax dodging like there is now. Everyone pays their fair share. This isn’t a merciless system, the poor and elderly won’t be penalized, as there is going to be a “prebate” (rebate that comes in advance) that is calculated to cover the taxes on needed items such as food and shelter. This is based on the number of people in the family; for example a family of four would get between $406 and $537 each month, depending on its makeup. It doesn’t matter how much they make, this applies to everyone. Those who have more money will spend more and that spending will be what is taxed. Combine that with used goods not being taxed and you have a fair system that will enable the poor to work their way up and out of poverty. This is a country founded on the idea that we can make better lives for ourselves and the Fairtax will not change that, but enhance it.

In their great wisdom, our founding fathers created a constitution that understood our rights were self apparent, God given and inalienable, not something granted by the whims of the government currently in power. Real power lies in the hands of the people, but the people have to make their voices heard. There is a reason the 1^st Amendment to the Constitution is the first in the Bill of Rights. Without free speech, the D.C. establishment would be able to completely ignore the people. What we see here today and across our great country is only a beginning. You must make your voice heard and continue to be heard!

I just want to thank all of you for coming out and exercising your Constitutional rights to be heard and seen. We have to exercise our rights to keep them. Thank you for being good Americans.

The Fairtax is a grass roots movement, those at the top won’t make this kind of reform unless, we the people, demand it. We need your help to make this happen. Please visit our table or our website www.fairtaxmn.org for more information and to volunteer.

Adventures with Al, Part 1

Knowing Al Ulven was a unique experience, I think many will agree on that. For me, this was mainly due to his way of turning little chores into somewhat epic quests on many an occasion. This always was accompanied by an absolute cheerful optimism that everything would work out the way he planned it, even if it didn't.

Some of my earliest memories of Al revolve around Ulven Drugs, his drugstore in Spring Grove, Minnesota. For a little kid in the early single digits of life, it was a place of wonder. We lived in a rented house out in the countryside and didn't have a lot, so going to town was a big deal. Being the early 1970's, Al's pharmacy wasn't just there to dispense medicines, it was partly a general store. It had one of the most impressive arrays of candy I'd ever encountered in my short life, toys, greeting cards, office supplies, and best of all -- comic books!

Al was a cheerful presence there, always knowing everyone's name and story, making what was normally a chore seem like entertainment. One thing that defined him was his ability to make his own fun, no matter the circumstances. The best part of it was that Al shared the fun with those around him.

One such occasion was a night time trip around Christmas, where we were taken to the mysterious and previously unseen bowels of the drug store. In other words, the basement where he kept merchandise. The shelves towered over me and were quite amazing, it was hard to imagine so much stuff in one place.

To my surprise and delight, Al informed my family that I could choose a toy from those on the shelves. I don't remember what it was that I chose, other than it was a pull toy of some kind (yes I was that young). There was a kind of joyful magic to all of this and that is what stuck in my head, not the toy itself.

It is my earliest concrete memory of Al, little did I know there would be more memorable moments involving the small town pharmacist.

Our Pal Al

My father and I went out tonight to eat, gather in some groceries, and possibly visit an ailing friend. When we got to the nursing home, I spotted a gurney being prepared next to a van/hearse. It was then that I knew we were too late and sure enough our friend Ellsworth "Al" Ulven had passed away a matter of minutes before.

Al befriended our family in the early 1970's and our families did a lot together over the years. As time went by he became a bachelor again and my parents continued to play three handed Spades with him. When I got older, I found myself roped into different misadventures with him at the beginning of the decade onward.

One memorable misadventure was assisting Al in retrieving the trailer to his beloved boat that he acquired after retirement. This little escapade involved sneaking the trailer through back roads, as he decided to pull the empty monstrosity with his battered old station wagon. While it had a hitch, there was no provision for wiring the lights, which meant it shouldn't be on the road. That meant sneaking around on back roads, mostly gravel, in a station wagon that acted like it was going to die at any moment.

Compounding the problem was that it was a 95 degree day, with humidity around 98 percent. As the exhausted car pulled the heavy trailer, it became too much for the engine and it began to overheat in a very serious way. That did not deter Al, for very little could once he decided to do something. At first, we pulled over and turned the car off to cool the engine, then started uphill again. The overheating came back with a vengeance.

So I recommended lowering the windows and cranking the heater all the way up, an old car trick I'd learned from a TV show on restoring autos. That helped somewhat, but it wasn't comfortable. Then the rain began. Only so much water was allowed in before we had to raise the windows and only so much suffocating heat could be tolerated before we had to lower them again. This went on for an agonizing hour, as we could only make about 20 mph at best in the hills. Often we were creeping at a much slower pace.

None of this phased Al in the slightest.

Eventually, a real thunderstorm passed through that forced us to the side of the road. We waited it out and after it had passed, the temperature had dropped radically, giving the car cool enough air that it could labor home.

After we backed the trailer into his yard, Al turned to me and cheerfully said, "Pat, my boy, we made it!" followed by one of his satisfied chuckles.

That was Al.

All Things Come to an End

It struck me as strange but appropriate to read about the cancellation of the daytime soap opera "Guiding Light" a few days after the anniversary of my mother's death in 2003. My late mother was a devoted fan of the soap, having followed it from radio to television and I remember her watching it every day. In fact, it was such a fixture in her life that I watched when I was sick, unable to attend school. After her death, I only caught a glimpse of it once in a waiting room at a clinic, recognizing only one actor and marveling how much it had gone downhill. Apparently, budgets became minuscule as ratings declined and they were using digital cameras.

I suspect the growth of "reality" television eroded the salacious appeal of the daytime soaps, now viewers can watch real people exhibit scandalous behavior in narcissistic bids for fame and fortune. How could fictional characters compete with sad madness and dissolution of actual people? Of course, the change to the culture of women working, even if married, had a lot to do with the declining ratings.

Personally, I think soap operas did great damage to the fabric of our society, with the constant infidelity, lying, scheming, and torn apart families. This was a very bad influence, especially on the teenage girls who watched it. So I'm not mourning the passing of the show.

The Horror, the Horror...

Well, I'm on Facebook now, look for Patrick D. Boone in the La Crosse, WI network. Got roped into by some younger folk I know so that I could keep in contact. That officially makes me part of the "Web 2.0" thing and I can't say I'm impressed as of yet.

Something Incredibly Cool

Always been fond of Tesla coils, but never expected to see them used for this!

Doctor Who Theme:



Star Wars Imperial March:

Not a Good Day

While preparing for a funeral that I didn't get to attend, I smelled something strange and left my room to investigate. When I returned, water was coming down the light fixture and pouring onto my computer chair. The floor was soaked, my chair was, my bed, and multiple belongings. Which is why I didn't attend the funeral, it turned into an emergency that had to be handled immediately.

The cause? The same thing that had happened once last year, when my father forgot to turn off the faucet in the upstairs bathroom and flooded it. For some reason, the lavatory overflow drain doesn't work up there. This time the results were worse, because what had been weakened before cracked and broke, namely my ceiling. So I have to dismantle my room so it can be repaired, pretty much killing all my plans for the next week (or until it gets done).

Meanwhile, the pellet stove began shooting sparks out where it should only be pushing hot air, a hole may developed in the heat exchanger. If this cannot be fixed, we have to buy a new one, along with a new lavatory. As I type, I'm trying to get the smoke out of the house.

Trying to recover from bronchitis mixed with a severe sinus infection is not being made easier by these events, I'm finding out. It would be nice if something went right today!

UPDATE:

Trying to see if the pellet stove is just badly clogged, hoping that more thorough cleaning will help the stove limp through until summer. We've beaten this stove up well past it's expiration date, the thing is so old that parts aren't made for it anymore.

Merry Christmas

For God so loved the world, that he gave his only begotten Son, that whosever believeth in him should not perish, but have everlasting life. -- John 3:16

Is is the time of year we celebrate the birth of Christ, yet it seems that it has become more and more about an arbitrary holiday, one that is about reindeer, elves, eggnog, mistletoe, tree decorating, and frantic shopping for gifts (many to be returned) at the last moment. As I grow older, I care less and less about the trappings and more about faith, hope, and charity -- with a deep gratitude for forgiveness.

At the core, the celebrations should be about healing, the kind of healing that happens from forgiving others and hopefully being forgiven in turn. Whether it be with family, friends, co-workers, or complete strangers, we should be appreciating the good things we have and letting go of the hurts of the world. That is the only way that love can be felt and this holiday is one about the love of God for His children on Earth.

So while I don't feel the "Christmas spirit" this year (or the last few years), I am focusing on what really matters: family, friends, and faith. Those things run deeper than any amount of candy canes or presents can and aren't as easily forgotten.

Silencing the Critics

The video I linked to before has been pulled down supposedly due to copyright infringements, but the reality is more political than that as protein wisdom posits. Then there are the "truth squads" formed by prosecutors and sheriffs in Missouri threatening TV stations that air "lies" about Obama in paid ads. Given the left's variable belief in what constitutes truth, that is a clear attack on the 1st Amendment right of free speech. With the media and press so deeply in the tank for Obama this year, it is getting even more difficult to get opposing views and facts out. If it weren't for talk radio (which I'm not a huge fan of) and Fox News willing to show both sides, none of it would get out. Yes, I'm omitting the Internet, for there are huge swaths of people still not connected and many of them vote.

The willingness of Obama to send the lawyers after anybody who dares to accurately report his record is chilling. Like all demagogues, he uses others to insulate himself from the dirty work, all the while approving of it. If he is elected, we'll see freedom of speech eroded, especially since he'll have both houses of Congress behind him. The tools of suppression will be lawsuits and legislation, very carefully aimed at anyone who opposes his policies. It will be done in a way that won't raise alarms in everyday people and by the time they begin to feel uneasy about it, it will have been too late to stop.

It is times like this that I wonder where all the great leaders have gone and why we don't have anyone stepping up to lead. But given how spoiled and corrupt our culture has gotten, I shouldn't wonder -- the Democrat voters decided that they wanted someone to project all their hopes and desires upon, rather than one with substance. If the country chooses Barack Obama, the pain that will come will be of the kind self inflicted by ignorance. So much for ignorance being bliss, eh?

There in lies the problem of making decisions by feelings, rather than cold, hard facts. Facts aren't touchy feely, they are rather abstract and complicated. They need to be actively considered and mulled over. Facts require research, paying attention: in a word, work. People claim they don't have time for it come election year, but they manage to watch their favorite TV shows, go to parties, and a myriad of other distractions. Yet they won't devote the time to check out who they are voting for (or against), instead being apathetic or waiting until the last minute to decide. Then it becomes a purely emotional decision and like most decisions in life, it is the highly charged snap decisions that bring us the most woes. Carefully selecting our leaders should be high on our priority lists.

I'm probably beating a dead horse, but at least the writer's block I've had for over a week is gone.

A Must See Video on the Banking Crisis

Watch this video all the way through to understand what has just hit us and the real culprits that caused it:



Then pass the video on to everyone you can.

Internet Socializing and Loss of Community

Be warned, rambling be ahead.

Much has been made about the rise of the Web 2.0, focusing on the changeover to emphasizing social networking over knowledge or commerce in content. The rise of MySpace, Facebook, Twitter, and other sites has garnered a great deal of virtual print. Most kids have adopted living on the Net and so have young adults, but where does this take us as a society?

Back when AOL ruled the roost and Compuserve was still around, the World Wide Web was just getting going, with a little program called Mosaic being the first widely used web browser. It was followed by the dominant Netscape, which was then destroyed by Microsoft's late and desperate entry into the Web, Internet Explorer. Heady times, I remember when Yahoo first appeared and challenged my use of WebCrawler for a search engine. It was amazing, there were thousands of websites out there to search through. Seems silly to those used to tens of thousands of hits to a search these days, but at the time it was like looking at a newly opened frontier that was ready and waiting to be explored.

There was a fear that the newly popular form of communication, email, would turn us into anti-social shut-ins, never seeing the light of day for fear of bursting into flames. Then came a few studies that said people were communicating with each other more than ever thanks to the Web, families were being brought together, far off friends re-connected and we breathed a sigh of relief. Soon we had ICQ, then AIM, then YM and eventually MSM filling our quota of acronyms as the rise of instant messaging began to displace email. Writing emails became passe and the art of composition was sacrificed for LOL, BFF, IMHO and the other LOLspeak abbreviations and acronyms. Apparently the quota hadn't been fully met after all.

This still wasn't enough. No, we needed embarrassing pictures for future employers to see, connected to hordes of people across the globe on your very own personal networking sites. After all, reality television showed that we should all aspire to fame or infamy, attention is all that matters in life. Now everyone has their chance to be seen by an adoring world. Forget Warhol's fifteen minutes of fame, fifteen seconds on YouTube is where it is at. So the Web 2.0 is born, with people living their lives out there for everyone to see. Well, except for those hopelessly stone age parents who aren't hip enough to find out what their kids are doing online.

Is this a great advancement for humanity, with all this unprecedented connectivity between people from all around the globe? I have to wonder.

My experiences on the Net over the years have taken me from thinking it would civilize humanity more to the suspicion that it is achieving the opposite. While we have instances of atrocities being better documented in totalitarian states despite a mad scramble to censor and control information access, we are also witnessing the rise of the rude and uncompromising in every day discourse. The flame wars on message boards of the past have given way to deliberate segregation into cliques on the social networking sites. That way you don't have to worry about dealing with people with opposing viewpoints, don't have to practice manners. Not that people on message boards were much better about it, but now no attempt has to be made.

Essentially, what I have witnessed is things getting cruder, ruder, and more narcissistic with each passing year. People band together only with like minded thinkers and with the ability to filter out those who don't hold the same beliefs, basic discourse of the past is vanishing. Often politics has been criticized for becoming groups of people shouting past each other. That applies now to almost every facet of Net socializing, whether it be about politics, hobbies, sports, or movies.

Enabling one another, those who share a viewpoint begin to ignore or demonize those that disagree in a most high school manner. There is no need to interact with those that don't agree with you and soon you inhabit a nice little echo chamber, divorced from the rest of the world. At the same time, I'm witnessing this happen in real life as people are becoming less community minded and the decay of organizations such as the Knights of Columbus and various lodges comes to mind. Those were places where people from various incomes and walks of life could get together as equals, something valuable for any healthy society.

So we have these sites dedicated to creating "communities", but are they helping to build a sense of community? Or are they falsely encouraging a sense of elitism and entitlement? My suspicion is that they are assisting the break down in society by allowing people to escape the social obligations of dealing with the "other" in real life. After all, nobody likes being disagreed with and everyone who has a differing opinion is an idiot.

But it is dealing with those that we don't agree with, don't get along with, or don't usually run into that helps us mature into adults. A big part of adulthood is realizing that we can't get our way all the time (usually most of the time) and that the world is a much bigger place than what goes on inside our heads. That means cultivating manners and the ability to interact with people unlike us are necessary to keep the wheels of civilization turning, not to mention survive. Perpetual adolescence with its accompanying self absorbed personality and short fused temper is not desirable. It invariably leads to conflict and friction. Too much friction and the gears bind, followed by watching the wheels come off as you veer over a cliff.

There are other forces at work, of course. Western culture is increasingly adolescent for a variety of reasons, but I've rambled on enough as it is. Perhaps that will be a topic for another day.

Meanderings on a Monday

It is a tired Monday, the norm after a busy Sunday at church. Without any terribly coherent idea for a post, I decided to post a few observations on this and that.

Russia was stood up to diplomatically by most of the West, to my surprise. It looks like there are enough people left who remember the Cold War, thankfully. The forth coming arms race looks to be guaranteed, with Poland signing a deal to base US missile interceptors in exchange for Patriot surface-to-air missiles. I expect Ukraine and Georgia to end up in NATO eventually, if the Russian troops do withdraw completely. That is suspect, as their word means nothing at all. The Bear wants territory and control, with nukes being their big stick of late.

I recently received an email from ebaY titled "Dumb and poor? Here's a simple way to make MONEY!" This may be the most amusing piece of spam I've ever gotten. From capitalizing the wrong letter in eBay to insulting the recipient's intellectual capacity, it would appear to be the most ineffective come on in history. They failed to use at least three exclamation points, perhaps in a bid to look classy. But there will be thousands who will click on the thing, spam really does work, sadly.

I've been misidentifying a local woodchuck as a gopher of late and wish to apologize to the rodent. I had no intention of slandering your species and meant no ill will.

The Chicago Cubs are 30 games above .500 in a season when I've forgotten to seriously follow them. This clearly shows that they are better off without me.

Joe Biden as Democratic Party VP nominee is a gift to the Republican Party. Obama could have only done worse if he'd selected Cindy Sheehan. Watch for a lot of Hillary supporters to vote for McCain.

Democrats bashing teachers unions?! Along with the Cubs winning, this may be a sign of the end of times. Both are very unnatural.

Still don't miss satellite TV, having gone cold turkey beginning in February. Too many movies, old TV series and documentaries to catch up on at Netflix. Hopefully, I'll be able to start freeing up time for more reading. Okay, any reading.

Georgia on My Mind

Well, the Bear is back, Russia having invaded Georgia's break away provinces earlier this weekend, then rolling toward Tbilisi, the Georgian capitol today. Starting with a classic case of false provocation, Putin and his minions claimed they had to invade to protect Russian citizens in South Ossetia. South Ossetian seperatists had conducted escalating attacks, which finally resulted in Georgia sending their troops in. Since Russia funds and controls those seperatists, it is pretty clear that the Georgians stepped right into a classic Russian trap. It gave them the thinnest of excuses to invade and put President Saakashvili in his place for standing up to them.

It is clear that Putin and his puppet, Medvedev, intend to make an example of the former Soviet possession. My suspicion is that they intend to take the country, then install a puppet regime so that they can can achieve several goals. The most obvious is control of the oil pipeline that goes through Georgia to Turkey, giving Russia further control of fossil fuels in Europe; they control half the natural gas and a quarter of the oil already. The second is sending a message to the U.S. and Europe that they are in charge of Eastern Europe and to keep out. But the biggest reason is the most dangerous reason: the desire to subjugate former Soviet territories and rebuild the Soviet Union. This doesn't necessarilly mean a return to communism, it is about Russian power and pride, ie: nationalism.

If the West permits Georgia to fall (and I think we will), it will be only the beginning. Russia will wish to extend their power and other nations will start equipping for war. An arms race is probable, with Ukraine, Poland, and the Baltics leading the way, determined to not be slave states again. Unlike oil rich Russia, they will be more dependant on foreign aid, which we had better provide.

In the meantime, I'm wondering how long Georgia can hold out if Russia besieges the capital. Currently, the Russian Air Force owns the air, which gives them an immense advantage in addition to their larger ground forces. I hate watching a democratic country fall to a dictatorship and wonder if this is how people felt watching Hitler annex the Sudetenland in 1938, knowing that appeasement would only feed the nationalists.

Lanesboro Flooding

Some pictures of flooding in Lanesboro from Doug Baker.

Flooding, Redux

Once again our county is a disaster area, though not as bad as last August. The rains came more steadily and widespread, with already saturated soil refusing to absorb the 5 to 10" of water pouring from the sky. The South Fork of the Root River runs behind our property and we spent Sunday watching it rise slowly until it finally crested its banks over night. Water had pooled up in the adjacent field giving the illusion of flooding, but it took until today to become reality.

August was not that long ago and earlier this year the water had threatened briefly, so I'm well tired of the flooding. Eight years ago, we had the flood of the century, or so we thought. That appeared to be a once in a lifetime flood in the valley, but here we are -- again. Fortunately, the damage has not been as severe as last year in the immediate area. Over in Wisconsin, it is looking worse as Gays Mill, Viola, and Soldiers Grove are facing record flooding.

I'm counting my blessings and hoping the forecast rains this week turn out to be light, or we'll be seeing mudslides again. Some more pictures from our neck of the woods follow:

Walking Away from the Media Madness

On February 1st of this year, the satellite TV service was disconnected at our request. My father and I had found the multitude of channels to have steadily eroded in quality, finally crossing that line of not being worth paying for. Even the theoretically high brow channels of the past, The History Channel, The Discovery Channel, and The Learning Channel had all turned into the rare poorly researched documentary sandwiched between a cacophony of so-called reality shows. Though we were sacrificing a small handful of drama's we enjoyed, the decision was made to double our Internet DSL speed and still save money in the process. After all, we were getting our news from off of the Net more than from the shallow talking heads on TV. So how has it worked out in the intervening months?

I love not having the television set on all the time as background noise. Truly a blissful silence is a welcome thing. After several months, we did hook up the antenna on the roof, after experimenting with a Gray-Hoverlock antenna built from scratch (didn't see a difference, but we haven't gone digital yet) we do have local ABC, PBS, and Fox. Local news can be picked up, but I find it to be less than shallow and have stepped into mud puddles with more depth. That is the nature of the industry and reflects a national trend, I'm afraid. So we aren't completely without TV, just don't have much we want to watch.

So do I miss the satellite service? No. I thought I'd suffer withdrawal and instead have experienced relief - no longer do I end up muttering at documentaries that have the facts and events wrong, which I consider a torment for a history buff. The shouting talking heads and sound bite reporting were a nuisance at best, no matter if I agreed with them or not. Impossible to miss it.

We live in a culture of mass distraction and I am enjoying having less distractions. It is one of those roads once taken that one can't go back from, I'm finding. Watching TV at a waiting room is now painful, now that I've been away from the din, I see even more clearly what dreck modern broadcasting has become.

Attention Thomas!

Cough up the dough or the gnome gets it!

Requiem for a Heavyweight

One of the joys of using the Netflix DVD rental service is the vast library of titles to choose from. Many years ago as a boy, I caught part of a film on TV that stuck in my head and never saw it again. Wandering around the Net, I found a reference to a 1956 Rod Serling teleplay that was remade into a 1962 movie, Requiem for a Heavyweight. A lightbulb clicked on above my head and I knew that was the film I'd seen, the images of Jackie Gleason being chased around a ring and worked over being what had made an impression. So I put it in my queue and eventually got to see it in its entirety a few weeks ago.

Now I understand why the film haunted me so much, it is a film that remains with you for days afterward and one that dares to be something very un-Hollywood. The story starts with the brutal loss of a match by Mountain Rivera to a young Cassius Clay (Muhammad Ali's original name) and the sobering news that he can't fight again or he'll go blind. The aforementioned Gleason plays the best performance of his career as Mountain's mangaer, Maish. Maish is a reprehensible person and has gotten himself in trouble with a female gangster, Ma Greeny, owing a considerable sum of money.

What follows is a wonderful character study in B&W and is a truly adult film. By that, I mean that it follows the very realistic consequences of the actions of flawed adults in a tough world. There are scenes in this film that will make you cringe, as you come to care for the obviously brain damaged boxer. The budding romance with a social worker played by Julie Harris leads to some sweet moments, but also the ones that make you cringe the most. Mountain is trying to make a new life while maintaining his sense of honor and dignity, but is acutely aware of his shortcomings. The scheming of Maish interferes and eventually leads to an ending I don't think I'll ever forget.

People think fondly of Rod Serling due to the immense success of the Twilight Zone television series, but few realize what a brilliant writer he was. The human condition and authentic characters were always hallmarks of the series and Requiem for a Heavyweight was his best work. No fantasy, no science fiction, but a realistic look at people operating at the lower end of society. This is an older film that modern directors and writers should be studying.

Verdict
Highly recommended to adults, children won’t understand it and may find some of it disturbing.

Thomas S. Monson New Head of the Latter-day Saints

Today it was announced that Thomas S. Monson is the new president of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. This came as no surprise, as the tradition of the longest serving apostle being selected meant that he was next in line. What was interesting to me wasn't that Henry B. Eyering was chosen to be 1st Counselor, but that Dieter F. Uchtdorf was named 2nd Counselor. Though one really shouldn't play favorites by choosing a favorite amongst the Quorum of the Twelve, I took a shine to him as soon as he was made an apostle and always look forward to his talks. So I was very happy to see him be brought into the First Presidency of the Church and brought a smile to my face.

While President Hinckley will be missed, the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints goes on as does the work. I had no worries or qualms about the succession, for I knew the Church was in good hands. Tension about leadership changes may be good for politics, but it isn't good for religious organizations and once again our system has shown itself to be inspired.

President Gordon B. Hinckley Has Passed Away

I was called by Thomas Odenwalder who had been text messaged by his sister in Utah that President Gordon B. Hinckley, head of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints passed away. Details can be found here.

I know I will see President Hinckley again, but in the mean time I will miss him greatly. There is no question that he will go down in history as one of the greatest Prophets of the Church. His legacy of temple building, his soft words, his great and loving heart marked his stewardship of the LDS faith. A gentle man and a gentleman who presided over the greatest growth of the Church, he was 97 years old.

I'm glad he is back with his wife, whom he missed greatly.


Updated: Identified the friend who called (Sorry Thomas) and bring the post in line with the English language (as it now stands)

Running on Empty

The title covers two subjects today, the first being how alternately I've been busy or sick, hence the lack of posting. I've managed to miss three holidays in the interim, but plan to do more writing. The second thing that running on empty applies to is the Fred Thompson campaign. Much to my disappointment, it is clear that he will be unable to get the endorsement.

I find it fascinating that when given a candidate who does everything people say they want candidates to do, they end up rejecting them. Constantly heard is the desire for a candidate who isn't after the job for power, but out of a sense of duty. Yet Fred was blasted for not acting like he wanted the job more than anything else in the world. We hear how a straight shooter who will tell us things we don't want to hear is needed, yet Fred has been ignored on the issues of social security and medicare benefits. Candidates should run a clean campaign, that's what we want say the voters, yet Fred took heat for not being aggressive enough. In fact, the only uptick he saw was when he pointed out how Huckabee is essentially a Democrat in the South Carolina debate. The issues, only if the candidates would stick to the issues is a cry heard often, but nobody paid attention to the white papers or long, thoughtul videos Thompson put out. Finally, it has been said we are waiting for another Reagan, a true conservative who believes in smaller government, protecting the Constitution, and who is also a social conservative. Well, the voters have been clear, they want the GOP to go to the political left, with the primary winning candidates all being center or center-left.

Simply put, what the voters in the Republican Party say they want and what they really want are two completely different things. I suspect the general electorate are no different.