Bush cover-ups and unaccountability continue – Blackwater given immunity by Bush Justice Department. 

 

            Our government’s allegiance to big business on the backs of those of more modest means is exemplified by: the Postal Rate Committee rejecting the U.S. Postal Service’s own proposed balanced rate plan, which would have raised mailing costs for all periodicals fairly. Instead, in July, small magazines were saddled with a hugely disproportionate bill. Meanwhile, rates for mega-publishers like Time, People and Sports Illustrated rose only slightly or even decreased.  This is not a liberal or conservative issue.  This change in regulation will squash the voice of smaller publications and limit your magazine content to that which the biggest publishers want you to read.  There are Congressional hearings on the issue today.  Considering the declaration by all of Conservatism that the media has a liberal bias I would hope that conservatives in congress will set aside their obstructionist ways.

Happy Halloween Red Hog Readers...Things are busy at Red Hog Headquarters...I'll have more for ya tomorrow!

 

           

           Sometimes things just get to be too much.  Clayton and I were kind of thinking that way so we decided that we just needed to take a day to hang.  We started our day with breakfast in the Amana's and then toured the backroads of East Central Iowa.  We had no where to be and nothing to do and we loved it. 

            There is something special about harvest time in Iowa.  The beautiful fall day was not wasted.  The autumn colors are by now muted to earthy browns and rust colors offset by the deep shadowy green of native pines and in its own way I find this time of autumn more beautiful than the time that exhibits a full explosion of reds and golds. The transformation of corn fields from their normal corridor creating presence along Iowa roadways have given way to the wide open look and feel of the great plain states.  Once the crop has been cut down at its base you can see normally hidden farmsteads dotting the Iowa countryside from horizon to horizon.  We discovered some shoreline that offered a new to us scenic escape.  We saw some interesting architecture along the way and met a wonderful fellow named Gomez who is in need of a home.  Much to SWMBO's chagrin, when you have two guys out wandering around with nothing to do, there is the slight possibility that they will start talking about dogs.  That happened to us and I'm not really sure how it happened that we were filling out adoption papers before we fully considered the ramifications of letting SWMBO in on our days adventures.

 

            So...without further ado... SWMBO, the Cedar Valley Humane Society has about a three day waiting period before actually placing a dog in an adoptive home.  This guy, the one sitting with your son, is planning on moving in with us!  How can you say no to this scene?  Somehow it is hard to imagine that there is anything more heartwarming than a picture of a boy and his dog.  Um, at least I'm hoping you feel that way.  Look at the smile on your boy's face...sorry, this is dirty pool to spring this on you in this fashion but I know ya...and I know after seeing the picture below that you won't be able to tell us no... I am so sleeping on the couch tonight...aren't I?

            All in all Clayton and I had a perfectly unproductive day just enjoying each others company away from all the normal trappings of life as we know it.  I kind of think we ought to do this on purpose from time to time.  I think we should stay clear of the animal shelters though.  And Clayton, let this be a lesson to you.  If you find yourself, as a married man, about to adopt a pet, you should always, and I mean ALWAYS, check with your spouse first!

Attention Director of Programming ABC TV:

            I am writing you to express my displeasure with a particular program you air on Sunday evenings.  Typically on Sunday evening my family and I enjoy a meal together and then gather in our family room to watch the weekly episode of 60 Minutes on CBS.  Sorry, I thought you should know.  It has also become a tradition that we remain together and switch to your network for the 7:00 prime-time airing of Extreme Makeover: Home Edition.  And it is with this program, Extreme Makeover: Home Edition, that I have a problem.  I object to the undermining of family which is resultant in your airing of such programming.  Everybody knows that for a family to be a family it has to have a strong unemotional man as head of household.  For a family to work and for our country to remain first and foremost the best at everything we must maintain these strictly defined roles within the family unit.

            As the dominant male of my domicile I have an image to maintain and I am doing my best to teach my 19 year old son “how to be a man” as well.  Part of this image includes rock steady control of our manly emotions.  This is somewhat difficult to do when you bring heartbreaking stories into our home week after week. 

In the beginning of each episode of Extreme Home Makeover we are exposed to families who remain strong in spite of insurmountable difficulties and witness their heartfelt expressions of genuine concern for each other above themselves.  We must confront the indomitable spirit of man in the face of adversity while those less fortunate than ourselves demonstrate personal integrity that seems harder and harder to find these days. 

In the middle of each program we are forced to witness the giving nature of communities who rally around their neighbors in times of need.  Selfless servants working in arduous conditions rally to complete nearly impossible jobs on an even more impossible schedule.  These generous souls work through pain and fatigue to enrich the lives of others.  The example they set is very difficult to recreate in the lives of your audience.

And then comes that darn scene that marks the end of each episode where the family is situated behind a big bus with the house on one side and the entire community behind the family in a show of support on the other.  After chanting, in unison, “MOVE THAT BUS!  MOVE THAT BUS!” your cameras zoom in on the faces of the humble families who have faced so much hardship in their lives.  The joyous tears which flow in appreciation and disbelief of their good fortune is cause for tears every week by each member of my family.  And if that were not enough you then force us to watch each family member enter the house where they can see that the home has been built with special consideration to the needs in their lives. 

So I am writing to ask you to cancel this show.  I am tired of the emotional rollercoaster it launches my family upon week after week.  The constant bombardment of altruistic values and personal fortitude are a source of great personal guilt for not participating in such endeavors in my hometown.  Furthermore, it makes it difficult for me to lead my family with the John Wayne-esque bravado that I seek to emulate.

            Please vote "thumbs up" on Joe's question about Net Neutrality—so this important issue is finally addressed by a presidential candidate? Then, pass it to your friends!  

            If you have your own blog would you please imbed this video on your site?  Call me cynical but I don't trust Verizon, AT&T or any other multi-billion dollar tele-com to maintain the open exchange of ideas on the web once they have the opportunity to sell bandwidth and search rankings.

 

            Hey Red Hog Readers.  I hope you enjoy today's post.  It was a little tongue in cheek that originated out of a stand-up bit that I think might have some potential...of course that isn't obvious from reading the post!  But I digress.  I've decided to roll back the Red Hog Diary from a daily to a 6 day a week endeavor.  I'm going to start taking Sunday's off.  Well, in my world that means Saturday night but you get the idea.  I'm sure we will all get along just fine with this minor change.  I invite you to visit my friends on my blogroll for your Sunday amusements.  In particular, Please visit Lori at HahnAtHome and click on the "thumbs-up" link at the top of her page.  She is hoping to actually win some cash in a contest and has plans to donate that cash to a very worthy charity.

            There have recently been some articles in the mainstream media regarding the challenges of overweight people and career advancement.  Closely related to that topic are articles about dressing sharp if you want to get ahead at the office.  I am so screwed.  It seems there have been numerous surveys that confirm companies and organizations are less likely to hire and promote overweight people.  Ditto for the fashion challenged.  I suppose that is all common sense but it still pisses me off that these facts remain true in spite of demonstrated performance. 

            What maybe bothers me so much about seeing that in print is that it adds legitimacy to extremely myopic thinking in the workplace.  It totally disregards the pleasures to be gained by sitting your butt down on the couch with a box full of bonbons or the sheer ecstasy of wearing loose fitting clothing to work so you can remain comfortable in the event that you are assigned mind numbing tasks from preppy junior vice-presidents who were promoted over you.  Additionally it fails to consider the anal retentiveness of those who would deny the hot-beef –drowning-in-mashed-potato’s-and brown-gravy special at the local diner in favor of a salad.  You will never see someone order a salad at lunch with enthusiasm in their eyes.

            And I don’t really care if I drip some of that savory gravy on my loose fitting or maybe stretched out polo because most likely I am going to have to sit in a meeting that afternoon where the retard frat boy uses worn out business cliché’s like “synergy” and “out of the box.”  There really is no way to reconcile the fact that someone makes more money than you when you hear something like, “At the end of the day we must maximize our leverage in the marketplace by employing best practices that will result from inducing a cultural change agent to take advantage of the synergistic paradigm shift needed to become the leading provider of value added customer service in our industry.”  When I hear crap like that I want to stand up and say, “Those deliverables you’re bringing to the table in an attempt to present your seamless end-to-end solution better include an action plan that includes donuts!” 

And it should be a law that any executive who says “irregardless” must resign in shame or take a beating from staff.  Sorry, that’s just a pet peeve of mine and I feel pretty strongly about it.  The same rule should apply when supposably is used for supposedly, physical when meaning fiscal, nucular instead of nuclear or the expressions “for all intensive purposes” instead of “for all intents and purposes,” and “I would just assume” when used in the context that requires “I would just as soon.”  Oh wait, I was ranting about discrimination of the vertically and fashion challenged in the workplace. 

I’m pretty much convinced that overweight people and sloppy dressers don’t really have all that much to worry about.  If you are being passed over for promotions based on your relative eye appeal in spite of superior performance you will most likely become fed up with it and find a better employer eventually.  Or maybe you will tough it out.  The leadership of a company, organization or government that would base hiring decisions based on style over substance is quite possibly being run by idiots and won’t be around forever anyway.  You might as well skip that trip to the gym and see what’s on TV tonight.

 

THIS JUST IN!  OMG!  Check this out!  I opened my browser to upload my post and the Yahoo headline read, Miss England Told To Fatten Up.  There truly is a God!

 

            So there I was all poised at my laptop, enthusiastically gathering information about the staged FEMA press conference where FEMA employees pretended to be reporters and then asked agency friendly questions only.  I was going to rant about the long list of lapses of integrity by Bush appointees and I caught a pop up that mail had arrived in my mailbox.  And yet again I was slammed with the reality of how integrity is really measured.  A man who I know through work, who I only had occasion to speak with monthly at best and visit with in person only annually has unexpectedly passed away.  In spite of our limited opportunities to talk this man had earned the respected title of admired friend.  At too young of an age a man whom I knew to be devoted to his family, his church and his profession has left this world.  And while I am sad for myself and his co-workers and mostly for his family I can not be sad for him.  Because if there is a glorious afterlife by any measure this man most surely is reaping its reward. 

            You know, I think most of us do the best we can in this life and I’m pretty sure most of us think we are doing a fairly decent job of things.  But once in a while you run into a person that you admire as having it together, of being where you want to be.  That is how I thought of this friend and even if our contacts were infrequent he will be greatly missed.  His passing is another reminder of how precious life is and it causes me to think that ideological ranting is a rather silly endeavor in comparison with that which is truly important: family, friends and brotherhood.  My friend left behind a wife, two adult children, and two young teenage twins.  He was also a grandfather.  Rest in peace BG. Rest in Peace.

 

Updated October 25. 2007 11:35PM

Man found in public bathroom with blow-up doll gets arrested

The Gazette

A Cedar Rapids man was arrested Wednesday afternoon after police said he was found in a compromising position with an inflatable doll in a public restroom.

At 12:47 p.m., Craig S. McCullough, 47, 828 Eighth Ave. SW, was found lying on the floor in a bathroom inside the Hach building, 401 First St. Se, by a U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement agent, according to the official complaint filed against him.

According to the criminal complaint, the man had his pants down "lying next to an anatomically correct inflatable doll."

The U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement agency has an office in the Hach Building. Special Agent David Hoagland, who found McCullough, could not comment on the incident.

McCullough remained in the Linn County Jail Thursday afternoon on a misdemeanor charge of indecent exposure.

McCullough was convicted in 2004 of burglarizing Just For Me bridal boutique, 709 Third Ave. SE. Officers found him in a nearby alley carrying a mannequin wearing a bridal dress shortly after the burglary occurred.

            TGIF Red Hog Readers!  There won’t be much of a post today, just enjoy your Friday.  Clayton and I returned home from Amateur night at Penguins late.  The show was great.  In fact it may have been one of the best Amateur nights in a long while.  The house was packed and everybody seemed to be on their A game.  Which in a way sucked for me because I was feeling the pressure!  Maybe what was especially great about the night for me was that I had a lot of friends in the audience last night.  Friends from work, friends from SWMBO’s work, neighbors, Harley friends, and much to my surprise, a group of homies drove down from my hometown to catch the show.  Gotta give a shout out to Tom and Kathy, Krech, Dickie, LeRoy and Jay and Dorr’s friend – Little Pink.  Thanks for making the trip.  I hope I didn’t let ya down. 

 

The fires continue to blaze in California, the man in charge of billions of dollars of contracts with private security contractors resigned and devastating news about most Americans largest single investment, their homes, dominated the airwaves yesterday.  While many would consider this an appropriate time for strong and assuring leadership our President was off nation building…again. 

            Richard Griffin, Assistant Secretary, Bureau of Diplomatic Security and Director of the Office of Foreign Missions resigned from his position at the State Department yesterday.  Military officials in Iraq and some diplomats there complained that Blackwater guards, in particular, were undermining the American effort by being quick to use their weapons and running Iraqi civilians off the roads.  While no mention of Blackwater or any of the other private security firms were mentioned in his resignation letter it seems apparent that recent reports of inadequate oversight and accountability under his control were instrumental in his resignation.  Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice is scheduled to appear before the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee, which has been investigating problems with Blackwater and other security contractors in Iraq. 

            The median price of houses fell for the 13th time out of the last 14 months and The National Association of Realtors reported Wednesday that sales of existing homes fell 8 percent in September. It was the largest single month decline to show up in records dating to 1999. The seasonally adjusted annual sales rate of 5.04 million existing homes was the slowest pace in history.  This is particularly troublesome to middle class homeowners who happen to be one paycheck or one serious illness away from falling behind on their mortgage. 

            And yet President Bush gave a speech at the State Department yesterday where he likened himself to JFK standing up to the tyranny in Cuba.  In the speech Bush mocked the recent Cuban elections by calling them “cynical exercises that give dictatorships a legitimacy they do not deserve.”  Now why did that concept seem eerily familiar to me when I read it?  In the same speech the president commented on “great success stories” of economic and political freedom across Latin America.  I am assuming he attributes those success stories to the leftward movement of the governments of Venezuela, Bolivia, Argentina, Mexico and Peru. 

            And then the president went on to give examples of terror and trauma in Cuba today.   He said, “The socialist paradise is a tropical gulag. The quest for justice that once inspired the Cuban people has now become a grab for power. And as with all totalitarian systems, Cuba's regime no doubt has other horrors still unknown to the rest of the world. Once revealed, they will shock the conscience of humanity. “And this is where I had to double check the text of the Bush speech that I was reading.  Was he talking about Cuba or the results of his presidency on the United States?  Really, go back and read that again…no wait, I’ll put it out her for ya with some slight alteration.  “The rightwing paradise is a tropical gulag. The quest for justice that once inspired the American people has now become a grab for power. And as with all totalitarian systems, the Bush-Cheney regime no doubt has other horrors still unknown to the rest of the world. Once revealed, they will shock the conscience of humanity.” 

            Don’t get me wrong, Cuba is no paradise but it doesn’t take much imagination to consider that the US embargo against Cuba is as responsible for poverty and oppression as is their dictatorial government.  So then the President went over the edge.  I believe all true conservatives and libertarians will be with me on that when they see he said, “In that spirit, today I also am announcing a new initiative to develop an international multibillion dollar Freedom Fund for Cuba. This fund would help the Cuban people rebuild their economy and make the transition to democracy.  And here's how the fund will work: The Cuban government must demonstrate that it has adopted, in word and deed, fundamental freedoms. These include the freedom of speech, freedom of association, freedom of press, freedom to form political parties, and the freedom to change the government through periodic, multiparty elections.”  Yep, you read that right.  He said his initiative was to spend multi-billions of your tax dollars to change the government in Cuba.  Um, excuse me Mr. President.  Who made you god that you could impose our way of government through bribery and warfare around the planet?  How about if you first fund “No Child Left Behind” like you promised you would?

            And then for the coup de gras:  “Some of you are members of the Cuban military, or the police, or officials in the government. You may have once believed in the revolution. Now you can see its failure. When Cubans rise up to demand their liberty, they _ they _ the liberty they deserve, you've got to make a choice. Will you defend a disgraced and dying order by using force against your own people? Or will you embrace your people's desire for change? There is a place for you in the free Cuba.”  Can you imagine the outcry if a global super power were telling our police and military such things?  Was this a call for armed insurrection in a neighboring sovereign nation? 

 

 

Saber rattling, always with the saber rattling.  The president was out in the public today, well okay, he was addressing the National Defense University, and he was trying to justify his plans for a new missile defense system in Europe.  You know the system, the missile defense system the president wants to hire his friends to build and put in Poland of which Russia, among many other nations, has been quite outspoken in their objections.  Bush claims these new missiles are urgently needed to counter the emerging threat of attack by Iran!  He claimed, “Intelligence estimates show that Iran could have the capability to strike the United States and many European allies by 2015.”  Now don’t get me wrong here but I think we have all questioned the president’s intelligence before, have we not?  True to my new fairer and more balanced self I’m not going to be critical of this project but I am curious.

I wonder what kind of relations we could have with Iran by investing in diplomacy instead of weapon systems until 2015.  I wonder what the rest of the world is thinking of us.  I loathe imagining that the children of the world see us as that bully on the playground who is always threatening to kick someone’s ass.  This missile defense system is going to cost hundreds of millions of dollars to defend Europe from an improbable attack.  Can’t that money be used more beneficially here at home?  Can’t Europe and Israel accept responsibility for negotiating peace on their own or short of that defend themselves?  I mean, all of this seems so contradictory to the conservative values of self reliance.  Couldn’t we just this once not take the posture of “Its our way or the highway?” 

            The president complained about the Congress cutting funding for missile defense.  Perhaps no more accurate statement has come out of the president’s mouth than when he said, “It’s a vital tool for proliferation.”  Yeah, okay that was way out of context but maybe the guy should consider his words more carefully.  The full context of his statement was, "Missile defense is a vital tool for our security. It's a vital tool for deterrence and it's a vital tool for proliferation. Yet despite all these benefits, the United States Congress is cutting funding for missile defense."  The cuts the president was talking about are sums measured in hundreds of millions of dollars.  Hmm, we sure could buy a lot of SCHIP coverage with that kind of money.

            The President’s missile defense plan has Russian President Vladimir Putin spittin’ mad.  Bush told him not to worry because we weren’t going to be pointin’ no missiles at Russia.  And then he went on further to say, Russia has thousands and thousands of war heads.  What we are talking about installing in Poland is not designed to defend against that type of assault, just do the math, it ain’t rocket science.  Nice. 

            This proposed missile system is a tool of proliferation and it seems to me that a country that has as many problems at home as we do maybe doesn’t need to be going out and buying the latest and greatest weapons all of the time.  I mean really, how much is enough?  We already have the capability to render the planet lifeless numerous times.  Isn’t there deterrence in that?  This smacks of being about the money, about being a payback for defense contractor campaign contributions and I would hope we are all growing very tired of that.  Spread the wealth a little could we?  How about investing hundreds of millions in education, healthcare and food programs?  How about rebuilding our highway infrastructure and upgrading our air traffic control towers with something more modern than the 1940’s technology they currently rely upon.  How about free or low cost wireless internet for crying out loud?  I’d be up for that one!  Instead of selling the public airwaves to huge telecoms maybe the FCC could reserve a little of that bandwidth that is coming available as television migrates to digital signals for wireless signals. 

 

            The Pentagon has reported that 60,000 Turkish soldiers equipped with heavy artillery have been deployed to the Northern Iraqi border.  Kurdish guerrillas killed a dozen Turkish soldiers and captured numerous others over the weekend.  The United States is scrambling to open diplomatic channels to avoid additional turmoil in Iraq.  It sure would be nice if that region were not so destabilized.  You have to wonder if maybe we could have negotiated with the Saudi’s, the Turk’s, the Afghani’s and the Palestinians to help come to diplomatic solutions with Saddam Hussein rather than take the course we did in Iraq.  What’s done is done and I’m not questioning if the region is better off without Saddam.  We do, however, have an election coming up and questioning what might have been might be useful when you compare candidates who are running on a hawkish platform vs. those who are espousing a preference for diplomacy.

            At a White House press conference last Wednesday, Bush said that he had told world leaders "if you're interested in avoiding World War III, it seems like you ought to be interested in preventing them (the Iranians) from having the knowledge necessary to make a nuclear weapon. And Vice President Dick Cheney was running around to all the news outlets who would listen warning of "serious consequences" for Iran.  I wonder if we might still negotiate with Iran and avoid war and the additional unrest from the large Lebanese and Bahrainian Shiite populations that might want to have a say in that war? 

            The wildfires in Southern California have engulfed over 200,000 acres and a quarter million residents have had to flee their homes.  Gov. Schwarzenegger has deployed all of the National Guard troops he can muster to help fight the deadly flames.  Wouldn’t it be nice if he had a full contingent of Guard and Reservists to help protect those American homes?  To the president’s credit he called Schwarzenegger and offered assistance.  I don’t suppose it entered the president’s mind that it wouldn’t do to have the Republican Governor of one of the largest states in the union have to ask for help because all of his ready reserve is off in Iraq. 

            I’m not wondering these things as I write this to re-hash the reasons given or the reasons we actually went to war.  I’m not even saying this war is the reason California is in dire need of outside help…Oh wait, yes I am.  But the point of my saying that is to get you to consider the possibilities of being lead by a president who had the patience and courage to utilize the clout of the United States to bring diplomatic solutions to problems around the globe before sending out the troops.  For now the old expression, “it is what it is” will have to do.  Come next November “what ever will be, will be.”  And now that I am quoting Doris Day to conclude a post giving only a few examples of how we would be better off without this war, or the next one.  I think it is time that I go work on my comedy. 

            Comedy is so much more fun than this stuff anyway.  Have a great Tuesday Red Hog Readers.

 

            My friend Mike sent me a funny story that bears I thought you might enjoy to start your Monday.  One Sunday morning, the pastor noticed little Alex standing in the foyer of the church staring up at a large plaque. It was covered with names with small American flags mounted on either side of it. The seven year old had been staring at the plaque for some time, so the pastor walked up, stood beside the little boy, and said quietly, “Good morning Alex”.  

“Good morning Pastor,” he replied, still focused on the plaque.

"Pastor, what is this?” he asked.

The pastor said, “Well, son, it’s a memorial to all the young men and women who died in the service.”

Soberly, they just stood together, staring at the large plaque. Finally, little Alex’s voice, barely audible and trembling with fear, asked, “Which service, the 8:30 or the 10:45?"

 

            I was kind of thinking I had died in church services Sunday morning.  It really reminded me how much we are prone to hear what we want to hear.  The sermon was going something like this; how much more effective would we be in sharing our faith if we were curious rather than judgmental?  The pastor challenged us to recognize that God is working in our lives and those we encounter and suggested that if we sought to seek out what that plan might be we might get see more opportunities to share our spirituality. 

            An example was given where a man came face to face with a group of Goth kids.  A typical response might be to yield to the group dressed in black with chain adornments on their wardrobe.  Or maybe we would cast a disapproving glare there way or whisper a rude comment to someone nearby who “looked more like us.”  This man chose to engage the kids in conversation.  After their initial reaction of disbelief that this man was talking with them they had a conversation that left the man believing that these kids were maybe not all that much different than his own kids.

            It was about this point that I got what the pastor was trying to tell us.  He was admonishing all of those in the congregation that would see a group of black Americans, or Muslims, or Gays or long haired kids and rather than reach out would pass judgment.  Rather than show anything resembling Christian love or the positive result of walking with God many of those people sitting in the pews most likely scoffed, accused or turned their backs.  I’ve written about those sorts on these pages many times; those who promoted tax cuts over poverty relief, military spending over health-care or corporate deregulation over personal freedom.  The pastor was taking the “moral majority’ thinking members of the congregation to task and I LIKED IT!

            And then it hit me like a ton of bricks.  The pastor was talking to me.  Where I am quick to condemn those who seem intolerant of any number of groups of people I rarely, if ever, try to engage them with the more positive aspects of my beliefs.  I opt to feel sanctified when I condemn those who espouse Christian values and yet fall short of my interpretation of those values.  I am also quick to cast a disapproving eye upon those who flaunt wealth or obviously put a great amount of time into their physical appearance.  I assume they are shallow and self-centered and not worth my time. 

            So when the pastor suggested that we become curious rather than judgmental it seems as if he were talking to me.  Maybe I need to do a better job of explaining why I fell the way I do about matters that are important to me.  Rather than condemn others for not sharing my beliefs maybe I should engage them in conversation with the hope of mutual understanding that might lead to more open dialogue and less inflammatory rhetoric.  Rather than seek out news programming and radio shows that confirm what I already believe to be the truth I should tune into more objective programming.  That doesn’t mean I will tune into Limbaugh, Hannity or Bill O’Reilly at any point in the near future.  I said “objective programming” not distorted reality programming.  I’m already too worried enough about hell in the afterlife to believe I should endure it here on earth.

 

On Saturday SWMBO and I had the opportunity to attend the concluding ceremonies of the World Food Prize Youth Institute.  People usually say we are supposed to inspire our children and yet I think there are few parents who would argue that there are no prouder moments in life than when those roles are reversed.  As a part of each years World Food Prize Youth Institute closing ceremony last years Borlaug-Ruan International Internship winners present a summary of their experience to the attendees of the Institute, distinguished visitors and past World Food Prize Laureates.  There is a downloadable video of my daughter Courtney’s presentation linked above.  Courtney’s presentation was last and after proper reference to the limitations of my objectivity I must tell you it was a damn fine performance.  Judging by the accolades bestowed upon both SWMBO and I after her presentation and the level of applause after her presentation I might conclude that others share in my opinion. 

But here’s the deal. Any parent would be button busting proud to see their son or daughter give a presentation in front of attentive World Food Prize laureates, Nobel Prize winners, and in the case of Dr. Norman Borlaug, Congressional Gold Medal winners.  Any parent would be proud to have their son or daughter associated with a world recognized organization that holds as its mission “improving the quality, quantity or availability of food in the world.”  But take away all of the nobility, honor and pageantry of this event and it was what these interns came away with from their experience that had the greatest impact upon me that day. 

Each of the ten interns reported that they had directly participated in high level scientific research that was obviously related to significant improvements in feeding the worlds hungry.  Each of the interns reported that the opportunity to travel abroad, independently for the first time in their lives, to exotic countries was the experience of a lifetime.  Every intern commented on the friends they made and how life changing their experience was.  But what was most profound to me was that each and every intern made it a point of their presentation that the revelation they experienced while immersing themselves in dramatically different cultures was not so much of the differences that existed between the cultures but how similar we all are. 

In the new appreciation of their attitudes about those cultures all of the interns concluded that people are people.  Whether the intern spent time in China, as my daughter did, or Ethiopia, or Kenya, or the Philippines, or Egypt, Peru, Taiwan or India they all concluded in one way or another that political differences seem rather myopic when they considered the reality of shared work meals, laughter, or the joy of spending time with new friends thousands of miles away from home.  One young man mentioned that political differences seemed insignificant to the important work of meeting fundamental human needs.  And perhaps my favorite comment of the day came from a young man named Santiago who told us about walking to the top of Mr. Sinai.  Upon reaching the summit he saw that there was both a mosque and a chapel.  There was no tension there were just people.  There was nothing political about his comment.  It was an observation that he had made which had not escaped his attention. 

We could learn a lot from these kids if we would be willing to listen.

 

 

Each year select students from around the world are invited to participate the three day World Food Prize Symposium and WFP Youth Institute.  Originally the Youth Institute drew mainly from Iowa schools but this years event saw students from many states around the country as well as students from Latin America and Africa.   The symposium  drew more than 700 leading policymakers, industry executives, and agricultural and food science experts from over 65 countries.  The symposium explored the international impact that biorenewable energy will have in the coming decades. 

            Dr. Philip E. Nelson of Purdue University was named winner of this years $250,000 World Food Prize for his innovative breakthrough technologies which have revolutionized the food industry, particularly in the area of large-scale storage and transportation of fresh fruit and vegetables using bulk aseptic food processing.  Dr. Nelson’s food science research has significantly reduced post-harvest waste and spoilage and greatly increased the availability and accessibility of nutritious food worldwide, particularly in emergency situations. 

       

It’s a guest post Saturday.  Here’s how that went down.  “SWMBO, would you please write my post for Saturday’s edition of the Red Hog Diary?”  “No.”   And then I proceeded to taunt, then beg, and resort to a feeble attempt at a guilt trip.  Finally, out of pity, SWMBO agreed that she would write a post for me.  By that point I was feeling guilty and to be honest I was skeptical about the quality of post she might deliver seeing as how it originated out of pity and all.  I shouldn’t have worried. 

 

Okay, I was browsing the Washington Post chats tonight, and found this in part of Dennis Kucinich' response to a question.  Part of his response (from Thursday I think, which struck me as very smart and rung with me, is set forth below:  (Please keep in mind that I don't often discuss politics, with anyone, and that my reference to the quote set forth below should not be construed as an endorsement of anyone for anything -- okay, but I do think that those people that believe that God gives higher marks to Republicans are just plain wrong.)  So, here's the quote:

 

“I want it known that I don't speak to any interest group about matters of faith. I also want you to understand that unlike others, I believe in separation of church and state. At the same time, I do not believe that when our founders crafted a government that provided for separation of church and state that they meant to exclude spiritual principles from the governance of the United States. In the Declaration of Independence, with the words "we hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness," that's not just a document of statecraft. There's a profound spiritual awareness there of the equality of all people, of a sense of transcendence, of the sanctity of life and liberty and of the importance of individual freedom.

So there is a place for spiritual values in the governance of our nation. Peace is a spiritual value.

Health care and education for all are spiritual values. In Matthew 25 we see that we are encouraged to perform temporal acts of compassion and mercy. There is a constant intermingling of the spiritual and the material worlds in all expressions of government, and there should be -- you need look no further than the dollar bill, and the inscription "in God we trust,"

and the obverse side of the seal of the United States, with the eye of providence looking over the U.S.

Anyone who is deeply spiritual understands that spiritual principles must not be decoupled from the purpose of our nation, and at the same time we can and must protect the cardinal principle of separation of church and state. There is no contradiction in this.

It may seem a paradox but within the paradox there is great truth.”

 

I agree completely with these words.  God is not a Republican.  God is not a Democrat.  God is God and I am not.  I do not believe that my spiritual values as a Christian detract from my conviction that the separation of church and state is entirely proper.  If I had an opportunity to share my beliefs with you, I would be happy to do that.   I will do my best to respect your beliefs (or lack thereof) too.  While I know in the deepest part of my soul that God exists and that he loves you, my certain knowledge of that fact will not change how I treat you if you don't know what I know.  

Well, that's all I know for now.  See ya!

 

 

            WOW!  Polls showing up to 81% of Americans were in favor of the bi-partisan SCHIP bill and Congress decided that partisanship was more important than the will of the people.  Talk about the tail wagging the dog.  As a native Iowan I’m a little embarrassed by the behavior and vote of one of our representatives.  You should know that Steve King (R-IA) is not representative of where I live.  And you should also know that Steve King was the only member of the Iowa Congressional delegation to vote (click on "vote" to see how your Rep. voted) against H.R. 976 which was to over ride Bush’s veto of the SCHIP bill.  Steve King put a sign on the floor of the House chamber which said: "SCHIP: Socialized Clinton-style Hillarycare for Illegals and their Parents."  What a dumbass!  King must not have taken time to read the bill because proven citizenship is a requirement for the benefit and the rest of his references were just dumb. 

Of course, I don’t want to disappoint my friends on the right, I should point out comments from the left were nearly as inane. Rep. Pete Stark (D-CA) said, from the floor, "You (Republicans) don't have money to fund the war or children. But you're going to spend it to blow up innocent people if we can get enough kids to grow old enough for you to send to Iraq to get their heads blown off for the president's amusement."  That type of comment is only inflammatory and should be reserved for crass bloggers.  Ya do have to give Stark credit for one point; however, Congress has had to borrow money to fund all of its programs since 2001.  Hopefully calmer heads will prevail and some compromise that reflects the will of the people will be forthcoming.

 

REMINDER: I would love to see you at Penguins Comedy Club this coming Thursday, October 25^th at 7:30 PM.  Admission is only 5 bucks!  Scroll down just a little bit if you want to see my September performance.  I have all new material and I promise...nah I hope... that I won’t suck!  TGIF, have a great weekend!

 

            Is it Friday yet?  No ranting or accusing or sneering from the Red Hog today.  It’s comedy day!  I have a copy of my last Penguins performance for your viewing pleasure today.  …well I hope you find it amusing anyway.  If it makes you laugh, even a little, then my work here today is done.  Have a great day.