From time to time I struggle with the notion of what it is to live life to the fullest and what it means to really live life in the moment.  I’m not sure if it is discontent, guilt, ambition or some spiritual deficiency which percolates those feelings to the top of my consciousness from time to time.  About every time I seem to get comfortable in life those thoughts seem to pop into my head.  I just asked SWMBO if she ever indulges in such introspection and she assures me she thinks those thoughts fall within the normal range of personal considerations so I’m finding some relief in those thoughts that have my mind reeling at the moment.  Last evening, after fighting a winter bug all week, I finally made my way out of the house for the first time in three days to go to an informal small group gathering with some friends of ours at church. 

            Our church had recently held three showings of the movie “Facing the Giants” and we were anxious to talk about the film.  Imagine my surprise when we settled in for our discussion and it turned to wholeheartedness.  In particular the clip shared in today’s post formed the basis for our discussion.  The scene epitomizes what it means to “do your best,” “live in the moment,” to “live your life to its fullest.”  It may be an understatement to say that Brock, the crab-walking football player, had to approach his challenge with wholeheartedness.  And yet that sort of tenacity is maybe what we should employ in the trials and routines of our daily lives.  When we are asked to perform duties at work that we feel are beneath us, when a child asks for our attention and our interest is deployed elsewhere or when we see somebody who could benefit from our help and we don’t seem to think we can afford the time maybe we should think of Brock.  By doing what needed to be done Brock was able to believe he could succeed in challenges that would he would later face.  

. 

We are fighting a bout with the flu in the home of the Red Hog Diary…well, I am anyway.  Just a quick thought on Flori-duh and yesterdays delegate-free Democratic primary.  I am going to take comfort in the understanding that Floridians had no opportunity to hear the campaigns speak to them directly.  All Democratic candidates took a pledge not to campaign in Florida and yet the Hillary campaign held two closed fundraisers and a rally in Florida over the last several days.  The rally was announced early and was held as polls were closing as some sort of a publicity stunt to show the world how victorious she aspires to be.  While the Clinton campaign made no direct breech of their pledge in campaigning by using closed events it smelled of Washington politics as usual.  By relying on fine print and narrow definitions of the rules to secure a desired end Hillary has shown that she will say and do anything to obtain the office she seeks.  That isn’t politics of change.  That is politics as usual and exactly what I oppose in any candidate seeking the oval office.

            I found it interesting that the main stream media is making it a big talking point that Hispanics won’t vote for a black candidate.  Being an active Hispanic Obama supporter I question the validity of such commentary.  The notion has been supported and advanced by the Clinton campaign and Hillary herself when she replied to a direct question about it saying, “Historically this has proven true.”  I’m a little torn here if I should be outraged at the messengers or if maybe I don’t want to start using this space to advocate tougher immigration laws!  Okay, just kidding on that part.  But then again, if they aren’t going to vote right…

            Congratulations to the John McCain and Mitt Romney supporters out there in Red Hog Diary land.  It seems that the Republican side of the ticket is starting to narrow down a little more with each primary.  Huckabee will need to have a spectacular showing on Tsunami Tuesday if his campaign is to remain viable. 

            That's all for today folks.  I need to continue with my plenty of bed rest routine so I can hopefully get back to work on Thursday.  I have a show at Penguins Comedy Club Thursday night too if I can shake this bug.  If you think you might want to attend shoot me an email on Thursday and I will let you know if I am going to make it.  Until then - Blue Sky's and Green Lights!

 

            What’s new pussy cat?  Listening to the final State of The Union Address by George W. Bush I’d have to say, “Nothing.”  It would be nice to see a State of The Union Address that resonated a message for all Americans.  Yet once again the “spring butts” of Congress rose and sat extolling their support or rejection of partisan issues as the lame duck president continued to ride roughshod over Congress pushing the unpopular initiatives that will be his legacy.  In the Address there was a promise to veto bills which come to the president’s desk with earmark spending.  I wish he would have done made that promise 7 years ago.  It seems that this president is only concerned with spending if it is the idea of Democrats.  This Congress did cut ear marks from the record levels of the Republican Congress in Bush’s first six years.  I believe the Democrats can do better and have confidence they will when it comes to earmarks.  Full disclosure and open debate of all spending bills is something I believe all tax payers would support.

            The president demanded that the Congress renew FISA by February because he is adamantly concerned that it provides our intelligence agencies the tools they need to protect our nation.  The Democratic majority is willing to do that but without amnesty for the telecoms who provided records to the government outside of the law.  The presidents concern for our national security ends if that amnesty is not included.  He has promised to veto any renewal of FISA which does not provide amnesty for the big telecoms. 

            There was another reference to the nuclear weapon ambitions of Iran in spite of the fact that our best intelligence has learned Iran abandoned.  There was another claim that everything is rosy in Iraq, the same words we have heard in every State of The Union Address since we invaded Iraq.  There was once again talk of our need to “win” in Iraq and yet no hint as to what that might mean.  How will it be measured, how will we know when we have won?  And as the United Nations authority for our presence in Iraq comes close to expiration the president wants to make a commitment to a long term presence in Iraq without Congressional Input.  The Constitution requires that the Senate ratify all treaties so the president has chosen to simply not call his future commitment to Iraq by another name.  All in all the president offered little new in a time when our country is facing many urgent problems. 

            That all being said, I thoroughly enjoyed last nights presidential speech; not for its content, not because it inspired the hope of maybe say Bill Clintons 1998 State of the Union Address but because it was Bush’s last.  This country is hungry for leadership that will work for all of America not just half of America.  Whether that be Barack Obama, or John McCain, or Hillary Clinton or Willard Romney a new dawn awaits us.  Whoever the next president is I would hope that we can unite behind them and move this country forward. 

 

            On one of the frigid days we had last week I had picked up Carter (my 8 year old son) from school and on our way home we saw a car in the ditch.  I glanced at the car as we went by but didn’t see anybody in it and continued on.  Carter immediately asked me if I didn’t think we should stop and offer assistance and I said I would have but didn’t see anybody in the car.  Carter told me that he had seen a driver and said we should go back and help.  After a long day of work, consideration of the 3 degree temperature and the fact that I hadn’t seen anyone in the car I became a little impatient with him and told him we were just going to continue on towards home.  At that point the little booger became rather insistent that he had seen a driver sitting in the car and told me he was worried because it was so cold.  I sighed and asked him if he was sure.  He was.  I asked him if he was really sure.  He was.  I then told him I was tired and wanted to go home but was willing to turn around if he was 100 percent certain.  And I’m ashamed to admit that I told him I would be upset with him if we turned around and got back to the vehicle and found nobody there.  Carter remained steadfast so I pulled into a farm yard driveway and we went back to the stranded vehicle. 

            When we pulled up alongside the stranded car the driver rolled down his window and explained that he was having trouble getting ahold of anybody who could help.  I carry a tow strap in my Yukon and told the young man we would have him out in a jiffy.  The Yukon had little trouble pulling the car out of the ditch and the driver was very appreciative.  Carter and I jumped back in the truck and as we turned around to continue home he told me I was a hero.  “No, Carter, I’m not the hero.  You are.”  I told him how proud of him I was for insisting on doing the right thing in spite of my “father of the year” exhortation I would be upset with him if we turned around and got back to the vehicle and found nobody there.  Carter grinned the rest of the way home and burst through the door telling his mom and brother of our heroic deed.  While pulling someone out of the ditch is much more about doing the right thing and not so much heroic I was very proud of the little guy. 

            Two days later, on that morning where it was -23 degrees, I was taking Carter to school and we saw a motorist standing beside their car with the hood up.  It was ironic that this car was in almost the exact same spot that we had performed our rescue only two days earlier.  It took no coaxing from Carter this time and we pulled into the first lane available and went back and gave the driver a needed jump start.  Again we received gracious appreciation for stopping and the driver had told us that he had watched car after car drive by for nearly 20 minutes before we pulled over to help.  There was no talk of heroism on that day but when I looked over at Carter as we pulled away to resume our trip to school he had such a profound look of satisfaction on his face that it touched me deeply. 

            Those two simple acts which maybe took a total of 15 minutes out of my “busy life” will hopefully live long in Carter’s memory.  I know that his insistence that we investigate a little further as in the first example told to you today will live long in my memory. 

 

            The boys and I went to a movie last night.  I stumbled across a true gem when trying to find a show time for “Enchanted” which has (fortunately/unfortunately) left our market.  In a last attempt to meet Carter’s hopes of seeing the popular new Disney film I scoured the movie listings of the “cheap theatre.”  Enchanted hasn’t made it to that theatre yet but I came across a movie I had not heard a word about.  I hadn’t seen a preview while attending other movies.  None of my friends or co-workers had talked about it.  TV or radio had not made mention of it that I had heard.  And that is unfortunate. 

            The movie is August Rush and all three of us, my 8 year old son, my 19 year old son and I a “something-year-old”, each agreed that it was the best movie we had seen in a long long time.  We left the theatre feeling as if we had been given a gift.  I literally said a prayer during the movie thanking God for the experience of sharing this movie with my boys.  My oldest son and I were able, through the power of humor, to get by the fact that we were full aware that we had thoroughly enjoyed a movie many people would consider a “chick-flick.”  I am still not entirely sure if it was the story, the blow-you-away soundtrack, or the enticing New York City filmography that put this movie over the top for us.  Watch the trailer.  The trailer was intriguing enough to assume the movie would be a good alternative to “Enchanted” but ended up being so very much more.

            If you can find the movie playing in your town you should go and see it.  I tell you this fully expecting you to leave the theatre with a sense that, by my recommendation, you have received a gift from the Red Hog Diary. 

 

Thanks Naomi.

 

            They lied!  Okay, maybe lied is too strong of word.  One of our local weather teams forecasted temperatures of -15 degrees Wednesday evening and a high of 8 degrees on Thursday.  When I took SWMBO to the airport at 6:30 AM yesterday morning the outside temperature showing on my rearview mirror said -23 degrees and the sign in front of my office today never registered a temperature above 2 degrees.  Temperatures are supposed to become a little more seasonal over the weekend.  If the local weatherman can be trusted I could warm up to that. 

            But while I am in the mode of discussing public misstatements, misrepresentations of fact or lies, if you will, a very interesting database has been put together that outlines false statements made by President Bush and seven of his top officials about the national security threat posed by Saddam Hussein in the years leading up to the war in Iraq.  Yeah, yeah, I know.  The Democrats voted for the war too.  They did so, enough of them but not all, because they bought a bill of goods and were too lazy, too afraid or too incompetent to verify the information that was presented by them.  The database was put together by the Center for Public Integrity and is available for your review with full disclosure of the methodology used in compiling the list of 935 “misrepresentations of fact.”  What I found particularly interesting or perhaps disturbing is a better word, about the report is that the frequency of false statements dramatically spiked at politically opportune times.  The greatest liberty with truth centered around the dates of August 2002 as Congress considered the war resolution, escalated during midterm elections of that year and then hit a high point in January 2003 as America watched our troops being sent to war.  Would it make sense that those who wanted to go to war would speak about it most adamantly at those times?  Absolutely.  Would the desire to gain public support for a war effort ever justify misleading the American public?  Absolutely not!

           

Here are some examples you will find on the links in this post:

 

• On August 26, 2002, in an address to the national convention of the Veteran of Foreign Wars, Cheney flatly declared: "Simply stated, there is no doubt that Saddam Hussein now has weapons of mass destruction. There is no doubt he is amassing them to use against our friends, against our allies, and against us." 
• In the closing days of September 2002, with a congressional vote fast approaching on authorizing the use of military force in Iraq, Bush told the nation in his weekly radio address: "The Iraqi regime possesses biological and chemical weapons, is rebuilding the facilities to make more and, according to the British government, could launch a biological or chemical attack in as little as 45 minutes after the order is given. 
• In July 2002, Rumsfeld had a one-word answer for reporters who asked whether Iraq had relationships with Al Qaeda terrorists: "Sure." In fact, an assessment issued that same month by the Defense Intelligence Agency (and confirmed weeks later by CIA Director Tenet) found an absence of "compelling evidence demonstrating direct cooperation between the government of Iraq and Al Qaeda." 
• On May 29, 2003, in an interview with Polish TV, President Bush declared: "We found the weapons of mass destruction. We found biological laboratories." But as journalist Bob Woodward reported in State of Denial, days earlier a team of civilian experts dispatched to examine the two mobile labs found in Iraq had concluded in a field report that the labs were not for biological weapons. The team's final report, completed the following month, concluded that the labs had probably been used to manufacture hydrogen for weather balloons.

             I am often taken to task in the comment section on the Red Hog Diary to present facts about the criticisms I make about this administrations taking our country to war.  I have always linked my sources and tried my best to justify my position.  It will be interesting to see what they have to say about this.

            I watched the Republican debate from Boca Raton last night.  I wish I could report that they scared the bejesus out of me.  Funny, when the stakes are high, as high as can be when they are in a state with as many delegates as Florida, they all seemed very much more moderate.  Question now is, can we believe them?  Romney, McCain and Huckabee all seemed to do a pretty good job.  Rudy and Dr. Paul seemed a little creepy.  The big three acknowledged global warming (shock!) and presented some acceptable responses to how they would deal with it.  Their positions that we can’t leave Iraq in a vacuum seemed reasonable enough although they did seem tempted to bring out the “we have to fight al-Qaida over there so we don’t have to fight them over here” a bit too much for my blood.  They were a bit heavy on the voodoo economics but for the first time I heard them addressing the concerns of Americans of modest means.  None of them could really give a good answer about why America should trust a Republican administration in light of the ethics challenges, economic woes, out of control spending, failure to address immigration concerns or the disappointing handling of the war in Iraq under Republican leadership over the last 7 years.  But all in all they did a good job of convincing me that worse things could happen than seeing one of them sitting in the White House a year from now.  …so long as we have a super majority of Democrats in the Congress.

 

Baby its cold outside!  The temperature hasn’t risen above 10 degrees all week and we have had snow and wind to go along with it every day.  There is all kinds of talk in the local media about the wind chill factor in tomorrows forecast.  I don’t take much stock in all that talk about wind chill.  As I write this the TV is warning that should you expose bare skin to the elements for as few as 20 minutes tomorrow frostbite is a very real possibility.  In my way of thinking, once the temperature gets down into the single digits it seems rather redundant to talk about wind chill.  When you live in Iowa weather like this doesn’t keep you from doing what needs to be done but after a while it seems to wear on you a bit.  I found myself thinking of warmer weather today, wondering how many days I might need to wait to throw my leg over the Harley for that first ride of the year.  With that in mind I thought this would be a good time to revisit a favorite old post that first appeared on the Red Hog Diary February 25^th of 2006. 

The winter season is long in the tooth and the average temperatures of the coming month support the notion that it is now safe to make plans for enjoying some outdoor recreation.  Last night, in anticipation of glorious adventures in the sun, I decided to visit my Harley.  I flipped the light switch to illuminate the blue black darkness of our attached garage and was instantly rewarded with the twinkling brilliance of polished chrome.  There sat my ride, poised and patiently waiting to practice its primary function. 

I began to feel a little guilty for not having paid much attention to my bike over the winter.  I missed the feel of the throttle in my grip.  I missed the rumble of the twin cam power plant, the cackle of the dual exhaust.  I missed being held snuggly by the leather saddle.  I missed the wind in my hair and the sun on my back.      

It was still too cold to go for a ride but I longed for the simple pleasures of running my bike through the gears.  At that moment in time an idea floated into my head.  It was one of those ideas that, in retrospect, I should have let float right out of my head.  I just wasn’t in that space at that moment however and now, now I must live with what I have done.

It all started innocently enough as I cracked open the garage door and proceeded to start the bike.  Oh she sounded so good!  As I twisted the throttle back and forth she sang to me, “rrrrrooooowwwwwpaaaaw, rrrrrooooowwwwwpaaaaw, rrrrrooooowwwwwpaaaaw.  Her melody was so sweet.  Truly this was my American Idol.  Revving the twin cam 88 cubic inch motor was sweet but to truly appreciate the sound of a Harley you have to hear it scale through the gears.  That is when I spotted, in a dark corner of the garage, the two milk cartons which acted as a repository for an assortment of balls, Frisbees and the now illegal and potentially deadly lawn darts of my youth.  I quickly emptied the cartons of their contents and set one on each side of the back tire of my Harley.  Using my floor jack I lifted the back wheel off the floor just high enough that I could slip a carton under the rear wheel axel on each side of the bike.  Then, ever so gently, I released the hydraulic cylinder until my bike sat steadily propped on the crates with the rear tire about one inch above the concrete floor. 

This could work; I thought proudly to myself as I threw a leg over and climbed aboard.  I fired off the ignition and dropped the bike into first gear.  The fond and familiar clank of the gears meshing beneath me had me very excited at this point.  I rapped the bike out and reached for the clutch, lifted the shifter with my toe and hit second gear.  I was in heaven!  Third gear brought a slight feeling of instability as the free spinning back wheel began to provide some gyroscopic properties which I recognized but remained confident that all was within known laws of the physical universe.  Fourth gear?  Why not?  My Road King will do about 90 miles per hour in fourth gear with the wheel on the ground, mine and the bikes weight and the wind resistance in front of us.  Spinning freely, I have no idea what the revolutions per minute beneath me would translate into as miles per hour had we been sailing down the highway. 

Shortly after shifting to fifth gear I became totally lost in my fantasy.  I closed my eyes and envisioned the center lines of the highway flashing before me as I powered down a sun drenched highway on my way to a distant event.  Even in my dream state I was aware that I must have hit a small bump in the road.  After that I never really had time to consider what was dream and what was real.  It seemed that my girth and that of my steel horse were too much for the plastic cartons and when they gave way the rear tire of the Road King caught traction on the concrete floor and launched me completely through the back of the garage and into my kitchen! 

I thank God that my wife was not at home doing dishes at the time I came crashing through the wall stopping just feet from her new refrigerator.  Pulling chunks of drywall from my hair and spitting dust I began to survey the damage.  I’m fairly certain I can make all the necessary repairs before my wife returns from Washington DC.  Does anybody know a good dry wall contractor?

 

            The main stream media declared Hillary the winner of the Nevada Caucus last week in spite of the fact that Obama won more delegates which is what all of this nomination activity has as its purpose.  No sense in letting fact get in the way of a good story I suppose.  The Hillary campaign has been interesting to watch as they discredited the millions of dollars and thousands of hours they spent in Iowa after they finished in second place.  After narrowly losing to Obama in Iowa the Clinton campaign was quick to tell her supporters that the Hawkeye state has an imperfect record in nominating the actual winner in presidential elections.  Since that Iowa loss the race has remained pretty even but the Clinton political machine has ramped up to full power in their desire to discredit Obama’s message of hope.

            In Monday’s South Carolina debate Hillary charged that Obama was guilty of praising Republican ideas.  (the horror!)  In actuality Obama had said that Republicans under Reagan had been effective as a party of ideas and he said that Democrats should be the party of ideas.  Hillary boisterously spit out the charge alluding to Obama’s traitorous Republican praise as if she were not quoted in Tom Brokaw’s new book, Boom, saying, “Reagan played the balance and music beautifully.”   Hillary later went on to charge Obama with representing Resco, a Chicago-land slumlord while she was busy fighting Reagan policy.  Setting aside the idea that she was the first lady of Arkansas while Reagan was in office; the charge is blatantly untrue.  As a young legal associate Obama worked for a community housing group that had partnered with Resco to build some low income housing.  All in all the Obama campaign claims five hours of service was devoted to the project.  Good try Hillary.

            This isn’t to suggest that the Obama campaign has a perfect record when it comes to remaining above the fray of negative politics.  I can only imagine things will get worse after Super Tuesday but I think these early confrontations speak volumes of the divisiveness that will continue to grip America should Hillary win the Democratic nomination.  I don’t have too much to complain about when it comes to Hillary’s policies although I clearly support Obama’s positions more fully.  What I do object to is Clinton’s style.  The old school mud that has polarized this nation seems to be personified in the Clinton campaign.  Sigh.

            And Bill, always presidential Bill, claims to have personally overheard of voter suppression by the Culinary Workers Union officials.  It seems that the former president and his daughter were walking through a casino, with all of the bells and chimes and ambient noise that is common to such venues, and while surrounded by a wall of secret service agents, a throng of supporters and an army of reporters, overheard two Hispanic maids off to the side saying they were told they could not take time off work to caucus unless they promised to vote for Obama.  If voter suppression occurred it should be rooted out and those responsible should be held accountable.  I’m just not buying Bills version of it.  Las Vegas news reporters have found no examples of voter suppression that the Clintons have described.  A union official reported that workers did not need to clear their time off with the union but rather their respective managers.  Good try Bill.

 

I opened a proverbial can of worms the other day by posting Congressman Wexler’s call for the impeachment of Vice President Dick Cheney.  It seems unlikely we would ever see the required 2/3 majority of this Congress voting for impeachment.  I question the Republican Congress voting outside party interests regardless of what might be presented as grounds for impeachment.  I also question the Democratic Congress showing the leadership required to conduct this investigation in an election year.  The Democrats seem to be paralyzed with considerations of how it would look politically if they suffer defeat in their initiatives. 

Impeachment is the first of two stages in a specific process for a legislative body to remove a government official without that official's agreement. The second stage is conviction.  Impeachment is only the legal statement of charges and must be invoked to circumvent executive privilege that has been a staple of the Bush administration in avoiding oversight in questionable activities.  Rep. Robert Wexler was supported by Rep. Tammy Baldwin and Rep. Luis Gutierrez in asking the congress to conduct hearings on a resolution of impeachment on December 14^th.  They called for the resolution to establish the facts and prove whether or not the Bush administration was guilty of:

• Directing senior members of the administration to ignore subpoenas in contempt of Congress;
• Outing Valerie Plame Wilson as a covert agent of the CIA and then intentionally obstructing justice by disseminating false information through the White House press office;
• Ordering U.S. attorneys to pursue politically-motivated prosecutions in violation of the law;
• Refusal to provide subpoenaed emails and other documentation;
• Purposefully manipulating intelligence to deceive American citizens and the Congress;
• Fabricating a threat of Iraqi weapons of mass destruction to justify the war in Iraq.
• Alleging, despite all evidence to the contrary, a relationship between Iraq and al-Qaida, to justify the war in Iraq;
• Manipulating and exaggerating evidence of Iran's nuclear weapons capabilities;
• Undermining national security by openly threatening aggression against Iran, despite no evidence that Iran has the intention or capability of attacking the U.S.;
• Suspending habeas corpus by claiming the power to declare any person an "enemy combatant" - ignoring the Geneva Convention protections that the U.S. helped create;
• Endorsing torture and rendition of prisoners in violation of international law and stated American policy and values, and destroyed videotaped evidence of such torture;
• Awarding unlawful no-bid contracts to political friends at home and abroad; and
• Skirting legal consequences by employing paid mercenaries to act as bodyguards for American diplomats in Iraq.

             Congressional oversight is a key element of constitutionally prescribed checks and balances.  I don’t want impeachment for the sake of impeachment but rather answers to those allegations bulleted above.  In all attempts to hold the Bush administration accountable to the will of the people or for its actions the administration has resorted to using signing statements to circumvent the law, vetoes, threat of vetoes, the destruction of evidence or disregard of subpoenas.  Consider this, of the missing emails recently reported as having been over written in a routine back-up tape rotation by the White House AP News found missing emails specifically in question:

• Oct. 1, 2003, the day the push by congressional Democrats for Attorney General John Ashcroft to step aside and appoint an independent prosecutor to investigate the White House role in outing Valarie Plame..
• Four days in early October 2004, at the time a federal probe began looking into the leak of Valarie Plame’s CIA identity. 
• Five days beginning January 29, 2004 when the White House was dealing with the possibility of an election year probe by Congress into Iraq Intelligence failures. 
• Feb. 2, 2004 -- the day President Bush took a big step in averting what could have been a politically troublesome congressional inquiry. He ordered an independent investigation into intelligence failures in Iraq. The president conferred that day with former chief weapons inspector David Kay, declaring, "I want to know all the facts."  And now all of the emails from the President are missing from that day. The commission named by Bush reached a harsh verdict about the U.S. intelligence community's performance, but the panel stopped short of addressing the White House's use of the intelligence data to support the idea of war with Iraq.

            It just seems all too coincidental at first glance.  If the White House will not be forthcoming to the oversight responsibilities of the Congress it would seem that an impeachment investigation is warranted.  But I’m not going to hold my breath waiting for Nancy Pelosi to initiate the investigation.  Just like the Republicans will not risk political capital by voting in America’s best interests outside of party loyalty, Pelosi will not risk political capital by authorizing an investigation into alleged high crimes and misdemeanors that could result in a highly visible political loss.  This is no way to run a country.  Perhaps our founding fathers said it best when signing the Declaration of Independence they said, "let facts be submitted to a candid world."

 

|

            Okay you better sit down.  Um, I’m not sure how many of you read the RHD standing up but I wanted to offer fair warning. 

 

Dear Bob and Keith and all other “right” leaning readers,

            I’m sorry.  I’m starting to feel a little neurotic with my back and forth ranting about the evils of the Bush administration and then playing the broker for non-partisanship.  I am guilty of wanting us all to get along so long as you see things from my perspective.  I seem to be able to get along for a time expressing thoughts of our all being in this together and needing to find solutions to problems that face our nation.  Then I will get swept up in one outrage or another and rebuild walls of hostility. 

            Take Saturday for example; I put up a You Tube video of Congressman Robert Wexler calling for the impeachment of Dick Cheney.  I posted that not so much to advocate that I thought it was time to impeach but rather because I was curious how such a seemingly newsworthy address in the halls of Congress could be ignored by the mainstream media.  It didn’t take long for comments to appear suggesting that proof was lacking and until such proof is in hand talk of impeachment was inappropriate.  For one reason or another that infuriated me.  My biggest problem with suggestions that proof is lacking lies in the continual reports of the Bush administration destroying evidence and ignoring Congressional subpoenas.  Rather than express that frustration in an ongoing dialogue I got mad and resorted to belittling replies and name-calling.  For that and all the times I have done that before I apologize. 

 

            So Sunday morning we arrived late for church and there was no place to sit except for the front row.  As our church goes through a five week program on unity the seating in the Sanctuary has been arranged into a round configuration.  The result of our late arrival and the seating arrangement left me feeling a little exposed to the entire congregation and our pastor and as the sermon progressed I began to feel more and more uncomfortable.  The unity program in our church revolves around the idea that the church has doubled in size in the last couple of years and where once everybody knew one another and had a shared history now it was quite possible that you would be sitting beside a complete stranger.  And with that growth has come a divergent dynamic of philosophies, backgrounds, experiences and beliefs.  The result is that our little church is struggling to define its identity, our shared core values. 

            This all got me to thinking that as a nation we face a very similar situation.  Where once we were all comfortable in our neighborhoods and communities the world has exploded with divergent voices made audible by the information age.  Cable TV, the internet, and email have dramatically increased the number and variety of voices we hear in a given day.  It is a stark contrast in the way we received information from when many of us grew up.  I for one don’t seem to be adjusting to that very well.  As a part of Sunday’s church service our pastor had us each take a stone and place it on a pile in the center of the round as a remembrance of our commitment to remember what is at the center of our faith.  The pastor challenged us to utilize the image of that pile of stones as the day we renounced building walls of hostility and rather embraced each other as a family united in the glorious warmth of God’s grace.  Amen to that!

            And so I went out and bought me an image of a pile of stones to place on the Red Hog Diary in remembrance of the day I have committed to end my ways of building walls of hostility here on this site.  The image of the pile of stones will remain at the top of my page forever linked to this post and I would ask you readers to remind me to refer to this post if ever you sense that I have forgotten this message.  This isn’t to suggest that I will not continue to advocate for what I see as a better way forward for our country nor does it imply that I will not speak out against the wrongs that I perceive that threaten our way of life.  It does represent my pledge to you that I will seek points we can agree upon in recognizing that the only way things will get better is if we all work together to make our world a better place.  I ask for your prayers or good wishes in this endeavor.

 

This was sent to me from my friend Rick.  As part of my continuing effort to post helpful advice on the Red Hog Diary I am sharing it with you here.

 

Retirement Planning. 
  
If you had purchased $1000.00 of Nortel stock one year ago, it would now be worth $49.00.
With Enron, you would have had $16.50 left of the original $1000.00.
With WorldCom, you would have had less than $5.00 left.
If you had purchased $1000 of Delta Air Lines stock  you would have $49.00 left.
If you had purchased United Airlines you would have nothing left.
But, if you had purchased $1,000.00 worth of beer one year ago, drank all the beer, then turned in the cans for the aluminum recycling REFUND, You would have had $214.00.
Based on the above, the best current investment advice is to drink heavily and recycle. 

 It's called the 401-Keg Plan. 

I came across this on Brother Tim's Blog of Revelation.  You should watch it.

 

            I received “the email” again today.  You know “the one.”  “The one” that I have gone off about several times on this blog.  “The one” that says Obama is a Muslim terrorist and that he took the Senate oath on the Koran etc. etc. etc.  The copy I received had been forwarded to several hundred people.  I guess I figured it was my civic duty or something because I proceeded to cut and paste all of the recipients into my “to” box and replied "to all" advising them what I thought of “this particular” email.  Receiving this email doesn’t make you stupid, (or at least I hope not!) but I have reservations about the intellectual capacity honesty, of anybody who would forward it.  And so I replied to “all” and here is how that went with one particular recipient:

 

-----Original Message-----
From: From: lkmces89

To: lauren yawn > (And at least 50 other disclosed recipients.)

Subject: Meet Barak ::: Very Important, please read this...

           

(And then the body of “the email” was here)

Chris Wilcox wrote:

This has been floating around the internet for over a year and it has been repeatedly denounced as a lie.  Whoever originally sent this to you is hoping that you would buy into ignorant fears.  I know you are all smarter than to let that be true.  Do the world a favor and delete this and then spend some time reading the paper or watching the news.  People who have a candidate who can not stand on their own merit create this type of stuff so their candidate won't look so bad.

 

lauren yawn > wrote:

who is this?

 

Chris Wilcox wrote:

You don't know me Lauren, at least I don't think so.  I'm pretty sure I don't know you.  I was just copied on this email and was a little offended about it so I did a "reply to all" So much of that email has been exposed as wrong and a hoax and yet it remains in circulation.  I just wanted to challenge people to consider the source and motive.  That's all.  Have a great weekend.

 

If you want to see verification that the email is inaccurate go here: http://www.snopes.com/politics/obama/muslim.asp

 

lauren yawn > wrote:

ok...well if i dont know you how do you have my email address???

 

Chris Wilcox wrote:

When people forward stuff like this to you and do not hide your address it shows for the whole world to see.  If you scroll down a little bit you will see what I mean.  You may wish to notify whoever sent this email to you in the first place to send future emails to you bcc (blind carbon copy.)  That way your address will not be broadcast around the world.  The more times this gets forwarded the more your email address will be out there.  This is how we end up with so much of that nasty spam in our inboxes. 

 

lauren yawn > wrote:

ok...i know most of the people you sent that to...but dont send me anything else

 

Chris Wilcox > wrote:

ditto

            I guess this means that Lauren and I are not going to be friends.  Or maybe Lauren is just one of those people who would never want facts to get in the way of what she wants to believe.  Oh well.  There’s a bit of sweet justice knowing that from now on, when ever somebody Goggles the name Lauren Yawn, she will live in progressive blog infamy.

 

Defense Secretary Robert Gates was interviewed on NPR’s Morning Edition Thursday morning.