Kerry Defines Himself- And other Convention observations
Sorry about the lack of posts the last couple of days, I will try to catch up with my thoughts on the convention now.
Day Two- If you could fault the networks for anything, and there is a lot you can, its that they didn't show anything of the second night. Listening and watching Obama's speech, the Chicago stations cut away to show the speech, I sensed that I was watching the first black president of the United States, or at the very least, a man capable of holding a part on the political stage for an incredibly long time. He had something, by espousing the conservative sounding values of self-reliance, by using the details of his own life to highlight the stories of those he was telling about others and the rhetoric about the one America, not a liberal/conservative red/ blue state one. The line that really grabbed me was the "We worship an awesome God in the Blue States" line. This was a fabulous appeal to show that the Democrats are not just some atheistic, secularist party. I believe its also a line that a guy like Obama could deliver. Clinton projects empathy when he speaks, Obama has real force and conviction behind what he says.
I was impressed by Ron Reagan. I'm sure that he couldn't go out and endorse John Kerry, Nancy almost assuredly would not have let him go if that had been the case, but what he was implying was clear. I was very disappointed by the response of the people on FOX afterwards, as they kept talking about how disgusted they were with Reagan for doing this. Teresa was ok, I didn't think she came across as the asset she can be. I think a lot of women, particularly single women, probably the most important demographic for the Democrats this year, will be drawn to her intelligence, sophistication, and independence. I do agree with the criticism, though, that she didn't talk enough about her husband.
DAY 3- The immediate thing that stood out to me about the coverage was the way that Al Sharpton's speech was treated. On MSNBC, Matthews, Howard Fineman and Doris Kearns-Goodwin seemed to be turning it into Pat Buchanan '92 redux, that middle America would be rushing out to buy their Bush/Cheney foam hands because of Sharpton's rhetoric and style. Sharpton did riff, for about 15 minutes past his allotted time, but what he was saying can help to bring out the African American vote. By all indications, turning out the African American vote, especially in the swing states, will be crucial. To win Michigan, for example, the Democrats need to have a majority of about 350,000 votes, which is achievable, coming out of Metro Detroit, in order to counter-act the Republican majority on the Westside of the state and Oakland County. The only way to do that, as Jim Blanchard will tell you, is to get out the African American vote. Sharpton was simply reminding everyone that Democrats have been good to and for African Americans. People were more upset about it because it seemed to go against the tone of the rest of the convention. They talked so much about Sharpton, that I missed Granholm, who seemed to acquit herself nicely, though The Daily Show did a nice riff on her speaking style, and her former job as a tour guide last night.
John Edwards' daughter, I have to say, is very attractive.
Elizabeth is an asset, and a big one, for two reasons. She is incredibly articulate and smart. And she looks like America. What Teresa perhaps doesn't have is a connection to Middle American women, Elizabeth thinks like they do, talks like they do, and yes, looks like they do. The fact that she is heavier only adds to this appeal.
I found Edwards a bit disappointing, though the speech worked overall. I felt like the expectations were so high, he couldn't possibly deliver on everything. People make him out to be the modern descendant of Cicero and Demonsthenes, he's not, but he still is effective. The speech worked for me, and I think, for Americans in general. I can imagine Edwards as President and it doesn't strike the same fear in my heart as a Cheney presidency. I didn't feel like Edwards "Two Americas" theme developed enough in this speech as it did on the stump. By the way, he's also attractive, not that that matters...
last night, especially the introduction of Kerry was masterful. His daughters humanized him as a father, and spoke extremely eloquently, the gauntlet has now been thrown down the Jenna and Barbara. Having Andre Heinz out also worked, because it underscores the human qualities of Kerry and Teresa, that they have successfully managed to put together a blended family that seems to care about each other. The "Band of Brothers" and the film, were excellent touches, though it may have been better to use the film to immediately introduce Kerry. Cleland was good, he's become sort of the patron saint of the campaign. People in the party are upset because of the way Saxby Chambliss questioned the patriotism of a man who left three limbs in Vietnam, and they should be.
I felt Kerry did a great job of showing strength last night. The earlier speakers, his family, the Green Beret he rescued, did a wonderful job of humanizing him. He looked and sounded Presidential last night, which is not something that always happens. Dukakis didn't look presidential, Mondale didn't. I didn't really dig the salute, but I understand why he did it. This is a man who views the world, perhaps justifiably, through the prism of Vietnam. It is, and probably remains, the defining time in his life. That came through in the speech, the kind of sense of duty he projected. That was good. The middle portion of the speech seemed to get bogged down a bit more than I would have liked, but he needed to put out policies, and that seemed to be an effective way to do it. The one thing I didn't feel like he did, was to make specific proposals for what he would do in Iraq. The generalities were there, but he has to develop specific, or the Republicans could eat him alive at the end of the month.
I saw Bush's address at SMS this morning. I don't think the speech and message are incredibly effective. He's going after Kerry for not having enough big accomplishments in the senate, and truth be told, there are not a ton of bills that bear his name. What he has done, it seems, has been to be a tireless investigator, which is a perfectly legitimate role to play in the senate. Not everyone can be on every bill, sometimes you have to fill other niches, and Kerry, the ex-prosecutor fills the role of investigator. Also, to make light of Kerry's lack of focus on his Senate record is to potentially invite focus on Bush's lost years. I saw another blogger talk about the potential danger in saying that Kerry hasn't accomplished anything when he's spent most of his adult life in public service, while Bush was, well, we don't know what Bush was doing, other than operating unsuccessful business ventures and "partying".
Oh well.
Good luck tonight John.
Friday, July 30, 2004
Tuesday, July 27, 2004
Night 1
I did a presentation yesterday on political blogging, and it went very well. I've spent a lot of today looking at opinions about what happened last night, and how it might effect things. I didn't see any of Gore's or Carter's speeches, beyond the highlights later, and I heard snippets on CNN and MSNBC's Radio channels.
I did, however, get to see most of Bill Clinton's speech. He remains the master. His speech, I heard Russert say, and I agree, was more old-fashioned oratory than anything else. He said George Bush was a good man, a good man who happened to be wrong about a lot of things. Clinton did a fabulous job, probably a better one than the "valedictory" speech he made in Los Angeles four years ago, in getting people to look at the new guy as the one to lead us. He didn't do a great job of doing that for Al Gore. He did an excellent job of it for John Kerry. He took self-effacing jabs at himself, and his connections with the administration, on taxes and in comparing John Kerry's war record to that of the Republican ticket and himself. He was vintage Bill, going after every side, Moderate conservatives, liberals, moderates. I don't know how often we will see Bill again at these things. Carter's appearance last night was the first time he had done anything at a convention in a while. Unless Hillary gets nominated, and I strongly doubt that she will, in the next two election cycles, we may not see Bill again for a while. If, however, this was a swansong, he had a beautiful one.
Gore was self-effacing, and he needed to be. If he went crazy criticizing Bush, the Republicans would have painted him as the left's Nikita Kruschev, barely sane, banging his shoe on the podium. He was restrained. He reminded people of 2000 without whining, as he has a right to do. He made soft-peddled appeals to Nader voters. Gore may become an effective campaigner if the Democrats want to use him. I would use him in states like Florida, Oregon or Minnesota, battleground states that might be tipped by Nader voters. He can be a living reminder of what happens when you throw your vote away.
Tonight won't be televised nationally by the broadcast networks. If you have Cable, or live in Chicago, watch Obama's keynote, as it might be the official beginning of a spectacular career. Theresa Heinz-Kerry will speak tonight, as will the old Lion himself, the senior Senator from Massachusetts, Edward Kennedy.
Kerry's people have done a good job of keeping people restrained, of muzzling the anti-Bush rhetoric. Both Dean and Kucinich, and Dean speaks tonight, have promised to keep the rhetoric toned down, because we have to win. We have to. For those of you who want red-meat, understand that this isn't your time. This is Kerry's time to introduce himself to all those people out there who don't know who he is. This is John Kerry's time, not the anti-Bush time. We know that George Bush isn't the one we want, we know he isn't the right man for the job. But lecturing undecideds about it, and being full of vitriol in doing it is not the way to win hearts and minds. Bush is, if nothing else, a decent man. People want to like him. People just need to understand that we need a man of intellectual substance now, one who realizes, as the 42nd POTUS said last night "That Strength and Wisdom are not opposing virtues"
I did a presentation yesterday on political blogging, and it went very well. I've spent a lot of today looking at opinions about what happened last night, and how it might effect things. I didn't see any of Gore's or Carter's speeches, beyond the highlights later, and I heard snippets on CNN and MSNBC's Radio channels.
I did, however, get to see most of Bill Clinton's speech. He remains the master. His speech, I heard Russert say, and I agree, was more old-fashioned oratory than anything else. He said George Bush was a good man, a good man who happened to be wrong about a lot of things. Clinton did a fabulous job, probably a better one than the "valedictory" speech he made in Los Angeles four years ago, in getting people to look at the new guy as the one to lead us. He didn't do a great job of doing that for Al Gore. He did an excellent job of it for John Kerry. He took self-effacing jabs at himself, and his connections with the administration, on taxes and in comparing John Kerry's war record to that of the Republican ticket and himself. He was vintage Bill, going after every side, Moderate conservatives, liberals, moderates. I don't know how often we will see Bill again at these things. Carter's appearance last night was the first time he had done anything at a convention in a while. Unless Hillary gets nominated, and I strongly doubt that she will, in the next two election cycles, we may not see Bill again for a while. If, however, this was a swansong, he had a beautiful one.
Gore was self-effacing, and he needed to be. If he went crazy criticizing Bush, the Republicans would have painted him as the left's Nikita Kruschev, barely sane, banging his shoe on the podium. He was restrained. He reminded people of 2000 without whining, as he has a right to do. He made soft-peddled appeals to Nader voters. Gore may become an effective campaigner if the Democrats want to use him. I would use him in states like Florida, Oregon or Minnesota, battleground states that might be tipped by Nader voters. He can be a living reminder of what happens when you throw your vote away.
Tonight won't be televised nationally by the broadcast networks. If you have Cable, or live in Chicago, watch Obama's keynote, as it might be the official beginning of a spectacular career. Theresa Heinz-Kerry will speak tonight, as will the old Lion himself, the senior Senator from Massachusetts, Edward Kennedy.
Kerry's people have done a good job of keeping people restrained, of muzzling the anti-Bush rhetoric. Both Dean and Kucinich, and Dean speaks tonight, have promised to keep the rhetoric toned down, because we have to win. We have to. For those of you who want red-meat, understand that this isn't your time. This is Kerry's time to introduce himself to all those people out there who don't know who he is. This is John Kerry's time, not the anti-Bush time. We know that George Bush isn't the one we want, we know he isn't the right man for the job. But lecturing undecideds about it, and being full of vitriol in doing it is not the way to win hearts and minds. Bush is, if nothing else, a decent man. People want to like him. People just need to understand that we need a man of intellectual substance now, one who realizes, as the 42nd POTUS said last night "That Strength and Wisdom are not opposing virtues"
Friday, July 23, 2004
Goings On...
The Sandy Berger story is completely ridiculous. The chances of actual criminal charges being filed are slim to none, so why exactly are we seeing this covered so hard, especially by conservatives?
Two reasons...1. Sandy Berger is a Clinton guy, and therefore inescapably evil. Even if he did something accidentally, he had to "know" on some level what he was doing. The commission itself has said that nothing of value was taken, that in fact, they had seen the relevant documents already. John Kerry, as a member of the intelligence committee had the security clearances to view the documents himself, so Berger wasn't taking stuff to show him. Conservatives believe there has to be a coverup. He's a messy guy, idiots, people forget things, people are disorganized. His office is probably stacked high with papers and notes, if the Clinton's did something, believe me, we would know by now. 2. The report that came out yesterday may have been though to be more damning than it actually is, and so the Bushies thought they needed political cover.
The Administration is apparently looking for Catholics in Pennsylvania, and presumably elsewhere, to provide them with Parish directories so they know who to target. This is silly. We, speaking for all Catholics, do NOT vote as a bloc, we vote as we want to vote, individually. Most f us are ok with a constitutional right to privacy, meaning a right to choose and the right to get contraception. We believe this at about the same rate as the population as a whole. We are what we are, ourselves, islands. We aren't dictated to by the Pope, and not even by our own Bishops as to how we want to vote. We are more free thinking than that. Mostly.
The Sandy Berger story is completely ridiculous. The chances of actual criminal charges being filed are slim to none, so why exactly are we seeing this covered so hard, especially by conservatives?
Two reasons...1. Sandy Berger is a Clinton guy, and therefore inescapably evil. Even if he did something accidentally, he had to "know" on some level what he was doing. The commission itself has said that nothing of value was taken, that in fact, they had seen the relevant documents already. John Kerry, as a member of the intelligence committee had the security clearances to view the documents himself, so Berger wasn't taking stuff to show him. Conservatives believe there has to be a coverup. He's a messy guy, idiots, people forget things, people are disorganized. His office is probably stacked high with papers and notes, if the Clinton's did something, believe me, we would know by now. 2. The report that came out yesterday may have been though to be more damning than it actually is, and so the Bushies thought they needed political cover.
The Administration is apparently looking for Catholics in Pennsylvania, and presumably elsewhere, to provide them with Parish directories so they know who to target. This is silly. We, speaking for all Catholics, do NOT vote as a bloc, we vote as we want to vote, individually. Most f us are ok with a constitutional right to privacy, meaning a right to choose and the right to get contraception. We believe this at about the same rate as the population as a whole. We are what we are, ourselves, islands. We aren't dictated to by the Pope, and not even by our own Bishops as to how we want to vote. We are more free thinking than that. Mostly.
Thursday, July 22, 2004
Weird, Wild Stuff
I'm the only one in my office right now, and I mean the only one. Everyone else seems to have gone home. It got incredibly dark around 2:30 or 3, it looked like it was 5 or six hours later, but it is lighter out now. I had real trouble getting to sleep last night, mainly because of the heat. I only have an oscillating fan, and it was damn near impossible to get comfortable last night, plus I had a lot on my mind.
I got good news on the internship front, I have an interview next Friday at Ann Arbor's own WTKA. I grew up listening to the station, and it would be a ton of fun to work there. Plus, I could try to get stringing work at the A2 News as well as do my stuff at Roosevelt. I got notice yesterday that my room is going to be shown now, because I am not renewing my lease, funny how fast things go by when you think about them.
I received to bits of mail from my old High School yesterday. Well, actually I "received" them a while ago, but they were sent home, not to me in Chicago. They sort of pull me in two directions in terms of how I look back on my high school life. One was the invitation to my first class reunion, the big Cinco. I'm not that Jim Shilander anymore. I'm not sure how I'm going to react seeing all of these people again, all of these people who made me feel, often through no fault of their own, so insignificant and mediocre. Are there people who might be there who I would like to see, yes. I went to school with a large percentage of them for 12 years, and we picked up people along the way. I always felt like, having graduated with 67 kids, I got to know a lot of those people perhaps more intimately than I would have liked. There are those who I'd like to see if only out of some sense of scientific curiosity, to see what happened to them. And then, there are those who I really do not care about, largely because it was obvious they never cared at all about me or anyone but themselves. I realize that high school and adolescence in general is a time for self-centeredness, and I was as guilty of it as anyone, but still, the people who haven't changed, the people who's college or post-high school lives have not given them perspective on their actions? Those people I don't need to see. I may just go to antagonize as many Opus Dei folk as I can, we'll see.
I also got a letter about the benefit performances of Les Miserables being performed by the Drama Club and various Drama Club alumni. I would have liked to have done it, but 5 hours each way driving time makes it difficult. Robert is doing it, and he has a pretty good part, though he is admittedly not the strongest singer. The Drama Club was sort of my refuge while I wasn';t playing football in the fall. I did eleven out of a possible 12 shows in high school, and I loved every second of it. I feel that as someone who does have self-image issues, who is introverted, that theatre gave me the opportunity to explore. I was often more comfortable as someone else than I was as myself. Ms. Anne Kolaczkowski-Magee has run the program since she's been there, and when she left for two years to get recertified, it was taken over by the very capable and talented Glenn Bugala. Ms. K-M is one of my heroes. I don't think anyone at that school works harder for her students and cares more about their lives. She really does love her craft. Glenn Bugala was the same way, though he was put in a very difficult position because a lot of people didn't want to accept that Ms. K-M had left. The benefit is for a new theatre that they are building at the new school. For the last 15 years, the school has either had to rent out space from Ann Arbor Civic Theatre or find a space for a show. Now they'll have their own shop, their own stage, and their own storage. Ms. K-M joked in the letter about making it the K-M theatre, but frankly, that's what it should be. I can't think of anyone else to name it after (especially cause no one at Richard knows who Bob AuFrance is). There is no one more deserving. I will be there, guaranteed.
I'm the only one in my office right now, and I mean the only one. Everyone else seems to have gone home. It got incredibly dark around 2:30 or 3, it looked like it was 5 or six hours later, but it is lighter out now. I had real trouble getting to sleep last night, mainly because of the heat. I only have an oscillating fan, and it was damn near impossible to get comfortable last night, plus I had a lot on my mind.
I got good news on the internship front, I have an interview next Friday at Ann Arbor's own WTKA. I grew up listening to the station, and it would be a ton of fun to work there. Plus, I could try to get stringing work at the A2 News as well as do my stuff at Roosevelt. I got notice yesterday that my room is going to be shown now, because I am not renewing my lease, funny how fast things go by when you think about them.
I received to bits of mail from my old High School yesterday. Well, actually I "received" them a while ago, but they were sent home, not to me in Chicago. They sort of pull me in two directions in terms of how I look back on my high school life. One was the invitation to my first class reunion, the big Cinco. I'm not that Jim Shilander anymore. I'm not sure how I'm going to react seeing all of these people again, all of these people who made me feel, often through no fault of their own, so insignificant and mediocre. Are there people who might be there who I would like to see, yes. I went to school with a large percentage of them for 12 years, and we picked up people along the way. I always felt like, having graduated with 67 kids, I got to know a lot of those people perhaps more intimately than I would have liked. There are those who I'd like to see if only out of some sense of scientific curiosity, to see what happened to them. And then, there are those who I really do not care about, largely because it was obvious they never cared at all about me or anyone but themselves. I realize that high school and adolescence in general is a time for self-centeredness, and I was as guilty of it as anyone, but still, the people who haven't changed, the people who's college or post-high school lives have not given them perspective on their actions? Those people I don't need to see. I may just go to antagonize as many Opus Dei folk as I can, we'll see.
I also got a letter about the benefit performances of Les Miserables being performed by the Drama Club and various Drama Club alumni. I would have liked to have done it, but 5 hours each way driving time makes it difficult. Robert is doing it, and he has a pretty good part, though he is admittedly not the strongest singer. The Drama Club was sort of my refuge while I wasn';t playing football in the fall. I did eleven out of a possible 12 shows in high school, and I loved every second of it. I feel that as someone who does have self-image issues, who is introverted, that theatre gave me the opportunity to explore. I was often more comfortable as someone else than I was as myself. Ms. Anne Kolaczkowski-Magee has run the program since she's been there, and when she left for two years to get recertified, it was taken over by the very capable and talented Glenn Bugala. Ms. K-M is one of my heroes. I don't think anyone at that school works harder for her students and cares more about their lives. She really does love her craft. Glenn Bugala was the same way, though he was put in a very difficult position because a lot of people didn't want to accept that Ms. K-M had left. The benefit is for a new theatre that they are building at the new school. For the last 15 years, the school has either had to rent out space from Ann Arbor Civic Theatre or find a space for a show. Now they'll have their own shop, their own stage, and their own storage. Ms. K-M joked in the letter about making it the K-M theatre, but frankly, that's what it should be. I can't think of anyone else to name it after (especially cause no one at Richard knows who Bob AuFrance is). There is no one more deserving. I will be there, guaranteed.
Tuesday, July 20, 2004
Fun Times, and well...
I picked up NCAA 2005 on Thursday, so needless to say, I've been playing it quite a lot lately and enjoying it. I started a successful dynasty as Michigan and am presently beginning my third year as head coach at Connecticut, where I just finished #2 in the country. The new features are very cool. For John, the X-Box version is equipped with X-Box Live capability, but since I have a PS2, I don't care. They've added some interesting little tweaks to last years game. EA added a measure of players "composure", for example freshmen are easily rattled while Seniors aren't. Homefield advantage is real, the controller shakes when you have the ball and the crowd is loud, and you can pump up the home crowd on defense. My favorite changes, though, are smaller tweaks. Discipline is now in the game, so if players commit infraction you can choose whether and for how long kids are suspended. Before the recruiting process starts, players can transfer from and away from your school, and you convince those who want to leave to stay. In recruiting, you can now recruit "ATH" or athletes, who have not set position. My favorite tweak of all, though, is the ability to switch player's positions. If I have too many linebackers, I can shift people to End to get them on the field and give myself a more athletic team. This is a really fun feature that I have enjoyed tremendously. Still, all of this is fake.
Obviously my congratulations to Jean and Kelly. I wish you both the very best.
I walked down to millennium Park on Saturday, just to check it out, and to make the walk, its 3 miles each way so its good exercise, no matter how much cheesecake I buy at the Cheesecake Factory. It really is a fabulous place, just this amazingly idyllic spot in the middle of downtown. Cloud Gate was a huge attraction, because apparently people can't get enough of seeing themselves in highly polished metal. I really loved the fountains they have. It's a different take on the fountain, video images of people come up on these large screens built ito the structures with are probably 20' high. Water goes around the sides of the structure when the images are on. Then the faces look like they're spewing water, and they do, because the "fountain" is built into where the mouths are. Then water comes down the front, soaking the kids underneath it. I really loved it, seeing all the kids and their families enjoying themselves at this really amazing and fun place, a place that's open to everyone.
I don't know if anyone saw this from last week's gay marriage debate, I caught it from Andrew Sullivan and Wonkette, but there was a rally of different "celebrities" to promote the amedment. Pat Boone was there, wearing an incredibly fluorescent jacket that made him look like he was the chairman of the Orange Bowl committee, and former Redskins corner Darrell Green was there as well. Most ironically, Dean Jones was there. For those of you saying "Who the F*** is Dean Jones?", well he was the star of the Love Bug Movies and played the evil vet in "Beethoven". The weird, and sort of ironic part is, as few people, other than Sondheim and Alexis Snyder, know Dean Jones was the original 'Robert' in "Company" on Broadway. Obviously, and Alex, Chelsea Sadler and Rob Murdock will attest to this, Robert coming out for discriminating against gay people is just weird.
Still Trying.......
I picked up NCAA 2005 on Thursday, so needless to say, I've been playing it quite a lot lately and enjoying it. I started a successful dynasty as Michigan and am presently beginning my third year as head coach at Connecticut, where I just finished #2 in the country. The new features are very cool. For John, the X-Box version is equipped with X-Box Live capability, but since I have a PS2, I don't care. They've added some interesting little tweaks to last years game. EA added a measure of players "composure", for example freshmen are easily rattled while Seniors aren't. Homefield advantage is real, the controller shakes when you have the ball and the crowd is loud, and you can pump up the home crowd on defense. My favorite changes, though, are smaller tweaks. Discipline is now in the game, so if players commit infraction you can choose whether and for how long kids are suspended. Before the recruiting process starts, players can transfer from and away from your school, and you convince those who want to leave to stay. In recruiting, you can now recruit "ATH" or athletes, who have not set position. My favorite tweak of all, though, is the ability to switch player's positions. If I have too many linebackers, I can shift people to End to get them on the field and give myself a more athletic team. This is a really fun feature that I have enjoyed tremendously. Still, all of this is fake.
Obviously my congratulations to Jean and Kelly. I wish you both the very best.
I walked down to millennium Park on Saturday, just to check it out, and to make the walk, its 3 miles each way so its good exercise, no matter how much cheesecake I buy at the Cheesecake Factory. It really is a fabulous place, just this amazingly idyllic spot in the middle of downtown. Cloud Gate was a huge attraction, because apparently people can't get enough of seeing themselves in highly polished metal. I really loved the fountains they have. It's a different take on the fountain, video images of people come up on these large screens built ito the structures with are probably 20' high. Water goes around the sides of the structure when the images are on. Then the faces look like they're spewing water, and they do, because the "fountain" is built into where the mouths are. Then water comes down the front, soaking the kids underneath it. I really loved it, seeing all the kids and their families enjoying themselves at this really amazing and fun place, a place that's open to everyone.
I don't know if anyone saw this from last week's gay marriage debate, I caught it from Andrew Sullivan and Wonkette, but there was a rally of different "celebrities" to promote the amedment. Pat Boone was there, wearing an incredibly fluorescent jacket that made him look like he was the chairman of the Orange Bowl committee, and former Redskins corner Darrell Green was there as well. Most ironically, Dean Jones was there. For those of you saying "Who the F*** is Dean Jones?", well he was the star of the Love Bug Movies and played the evil vet in "Beethoven". The weird, and sort of ironic part is, as few people, other than Sondheim and Alexis Snyder, know Dean Jones was the original 'Robert' in "Company" on Broadway. Obviously, and Alex, Chelsea Sadler and Rob Murdock will attest to this, Robert coming out for discriminating against gay people is just weird.
Still Trying.......
Wednesday, July 14, 2004
Catharsis
My session today was ok, I think it helped me deal with some issues, but I still don't know how to rectify them.
Congratulations to all of you who called and emailed you members about voting against the FMA. It couldn't even get a simple majority, let alone the 60 it would take to put it to a direct vote on the Senate floor. Obviously, thank you to all of the Republicans who crossed the leadership and voted with the Democrats.
The Ditka thing is actually possible. This doesn't shock me, as after Ditka the only viable candidate is Jim Oberweis who finished second in the Republican primary while running an anti-immigrant platform, which played terribly, because it showed him to be a hate monger and demagogue. I think Ditka would be a disaster for the party here, as his politics seem very far out on the right. Republicans win here by attracting moderates. Ditka won't be able to do that all that well, and Obama will beat him, but at least it doesn't "cost" anyone in the party organization politically if an outsider runs and gets beat.
Speaking of Obama, he will be delivering the keynote address at the Democratic Convention later this month. This really could make him a huge star if he plays this right and delivers a great speech. A Cuomo like moment would not only assure him of winning here, but frankly put him on the fast track towards a brighter future, like a spot on a ticket in 2012. 2008, if Kerry loses, would probably be too early, but he does have an extremely bright future ahead of him.
The Shaq thing also happened today. Personally, this is more like Wilt going to the Lakers than Kareem going there, two comparisons that have been made often. Wilt was nearing the end of his career, as Shaq is. Still, he makes Miami an absolutely huge force to be reckoned with next year, especially if they are able to go out and get someone to fill some of the slots vacated by the guys traded for him. I am also getting the funny feeling that Kobe might sign with the Clippers.
Watched the ASG last night. It was amazing to see Ali, as it always is, particularly when he sprang to life as he did, with the Ali shuffle and playing with Jeter and A-Rod. Bob Feller made some idiotic comments about how Ali was a traitor to his country because he refused induction, you know, more than 30 years ago,but he's basically a sad old man at this point. The game itself was disappointing, though I do find the allusions to Bull Durham, with regards to the Piazza/Clemens battery, to be interesting. Carlos Guillen was the only All-Star who didn't play, and I'm not that surprised because Torre took 4 Shortstops and played Jeter for like 5 innings, meaning that Young, Tejada and Guillen would be splitting the final four, which meant two would just get an inning apiece. Guillen didn't sound bitter, and I wouldn't expect him to, though he can get revenge starting Thursday, when the Tigers and Yankees start a series.
My session today was ok, I think it helped me deal with some issues, but I still don't know how to rectify them.
Congratulations to all of you who called and emailed you members about voting against the FMA. It couldn't even get a simple majority, let alone the 60 it would take to put it to a direct vote on the Senate floor. Obviously, thank you to all of the Republicans who crossed the leadership and voted with the Democrats.
The Ditka thing is actually possible. This doesn't shock me, as after Ditka the only viable candidate is Jim Oberweis who finished second in the Republican primary while running an anti-immigrant platform, which played terribly, because it showed him to be a hate monger and demagogue. I think Ditka would be a disaster for the party here, as his politics seem very far out on the right. Republicans win here by attracting moderates. Ditka won't be able to do that all that well, and Obama will beat him, but at least it doesn't "cost" anyone in the party organization politically if an outsider runs and gets beat.
Speaking of Obama, he will be delivering the keynote address at the Democratic Convention later this month. This really could make him a huge star if he plays this right and delivers a great speech. A Cuomo like moment would not only assure him of winning here, but frankly put him on the fast track towards a brighter future, like a spot on a ticket in 2012. 2008, if Kerry loses, would probably be too early, but he does have an extremely bright future ahead of him.
The Shaq thing also happened today. Personally, this is more like Wilt going to the Lakers than Kareem going there, two comparisons that have been made often. Wilt was nearing the end of his career, as Shaq is. Still, he makes Miami an absolutely huge force to be reckoned with next year, especially if they are able to go out and get someone to fill some of the slots vacated by the guys traded for him. I am also getting the funny feeling that Kobe might sign with the Clippers.
Watched the ASG last night. It was amazing to see Ali, as it always is, particularly when he sprang to life as he did, with the Ali shuffle and playing with Jeter and A-Rod. Bob Feller made some idiotic comments about how Ali was a traitor to his country because he refused induction, you know, more than 30 years ago,but he's basically a sad old man at this point. The game itself was disappointing, though I do find the allusions to Bull Durham, with regards to the Piazza/Clemens battery, to be interesting. Carlos Guillen was the only All-Star who didn't play, and I'm not that surprised because Torre took 4 Shortstops and played Jeter for like 5 innings, meaning that Young, Tejada and Guillen would be splitting the final four, which meant two would just get an inning apiece. Guillen didn't sound bitter, and I wouldn't expect him to, though he can get revenge starting Thursday, when the Tigers and Yankees start a series.
Tuesday, July 13, 2004
23
I had a pretty good weekend, my family (parents, Robert and Grandma Graham) came down Saturday. It forced me to clean up my apartment, which was most assuredly needed. We also did some much needed work on my internship, which I hopefully will be hearing about soon. Saw Anchorman on Sunday with John, which was a lot of fun, and extremely funny. Still, I couldn't escape the melancholy thoughts I've been falling into over the past few weeks. I have to do something for my therapy tomorrow that is drudging up a lot of feelings and frankly, they are hard to confront. Decisions hat have been made, choices of mine over the past five months need to be looked at, and sometimes these feelings and actions are hard to think about. I hope it helps, because I have had a very hard time the last few days, and its rough to keep feeling like this.
ESPN's ratings of the most tortured sports cities ended today with the one logical candidate, Cleveland. The Ten worst sports moments included Jordan's shot on Ehlo at #5, so you know there are pretty bad things on the way. The Drive and the fumble are there, as is moving the Browns. #1 is pretty obvious though, and from personal experience, I know how painful it was.
I want to thank my parents for going above and beyond in their desire to help me with my internship, thank you both so very much for being willing to help and working so tirelessly for me while I go through this difficult time.
A quick couple of things. Salon has a look at John Edwards' career as a trial lawyer, and finds that he didn't go out of his way to try and destroy the American way of life, but that he represented real people who were wronged by negligent businesses. Second Rob Pelinka, who is carols Boozer's agent, is apparently resigning as Boozer's representative. I grew up watching Pelinka play as a member of Michigan's basketball team. He was on the second unit, the one referred to as the "forgotten five" Eric Riley, James Voskuhl, Pelinka, Freddie Hunter and Michael Talley. They had been expected to start and play the year the fab five got there. They formed a fantastic bench and saved the teams bacon at several points in the season. Pelinka hit a bunch of threes that WON a game against Michigan State in East Lansing. I knew he wanted to be a lawyer. He showed up on ESPN's "The Season" a couple of years ago, as he was representing some players on the Clippers, who were the subject of the show. Now he has Boozer and Kobe. Kobe, who may well end up with the Clippers is less interesting right now than Boozer. From the reports that have come out, it seems that Pelinka wanted to honor the deal Boozer had with the Cavs, but Boozer took Utah's offer of more money. This isn't Utah's fault. They may well be a top contender next year given their newly improved frontcourt and bench. I obviously can't blame Pelinka. The Cavs kind of screwed themselves, and Boozer screwed them. I can't say either was wrong or right, but that's what happened.
I had a pretty good weekend, my family (parents, Robert and Grandma Graham) came down Saturday. It forced me to clean up my apartment, which was most assuredly needed. We also did some much needed work on my internship, which I hopefully will be hearing about soon. Saw Anchorman on Sunday with John, which was a lot of fun, and extremely funny. Still, I couldn't escape the melancholy thoughts I've been falling into over the past few weeks. I have to do something for my therapy tomorrow that is drudging up a lot of feelings and frankly, they are hard to confront. Decisions hat have been made, choices of mine over the past five months need to be looked at, and sometimes these feelings and actions are hard to think about. I hope it helps, because I have had a very hard time the last few days, and its rough to keep feeling like this.
ESPN's ratings of the most tortured sports cities ended today with the one logical candidate, Cleveland. The Ten worst sports moments included Jordan's shot on Ehlo at #5, so you know there are pretty bad things on the way. The Drive and the fumble are there, as is moving the Browns. #1 is pretty obvious though, and from personal experience, I know how painful it was.
I want to thank my parents for going above and beyond in their desire to help me with my internship, thank you both so very much for being willing to help and working so tirelessly for me while I go through this difficult time.
A quick couple of things. Salon has a look at John Edwards' career as a trial lawyer, and finds that he didn't go out of his way to try and destroy the American way of life, but that he represented real people who were wronged by negligent businesses. Second Rob Pelinka, who is carols Boozer's agent, is apparently resigning as Boozer's representative. I grew up watching Pelinka play as a member of Michigan's basketball team. He was on the second unit, the one referred to as the "forgotten five" Eric Riley, James Voskuhl, Pelinka, Freddie Hunter and Michael Talley. They had been expected to start and play the year the fab five got there. They formed a fantastic bench and saved the teams bacon at several points in the season. Pelinka hit a bunch of threes that WON a game against Michigan State in East Lansing. I knew he wanted to be a lawyer. He showed up on ESPN's "The Season" a couple of years ago, as he was representing some players on the Clippers, who were the subject of the show. Now he has Boozer and Kobe. Kobe, who may well end up with the Clippers is less interesting right now than Boozer. From the reports that have come out, it seems that Pelinka wanted to honor the deal Boozer had with the Cavs, but Boozer took Utah's offer of more money. This isn't Utah's fault. They may well be a top contender next year given their newly improved frontcourt and bench. I obviously can't blame Pelinka. The Cavs kind of screwed themselves, and Boozer screwed them. I can't say either was wrong or right, but that's what happened.
Friday, July 09, 2004
Stuff
I frankly don't have much to say today, basically because not much has happened in the last 18 hours. The only thing I find sort of interesting is that people are talking about running Mike Ditka for the Republican senate seat that was vacated by Jack Ryan. My only thought is, "Who wants to watch that train wreck of a debate?" You have Ditka, head foota=ball coach and never the most intellectual guy, facing the former head of the Harvard Law Review and State Senator Barack Obama. Does anyone think Ditka would have anything, and I mean anything remotely interesting to say that would be what he wanted to say, not someone telling him? Does he know anything about any issue? This just might be the answer however for anyone who was hoping for more "Superfans" sketches on SNL or who wanted to know what Senator Ditka would sound like.
My family is still coming down tomorrow. My grandpa Shilander suffered a small stroke earlier this week, but seems to be recovering nicely, he should go home in a couple of weeks, after therapy. He will be 80 later this year. We're putting together and sending out my resumes this weekend, so wish us luck, and wish me luck in cleaning my apartment for when they get there.
I frankly don't have much to say today, basically because not much has happened in the last 18 hours. The only thing I find sort of interesting is that people are talking about running Mike Ditka for the Republican senate seat that was vacated by Jack Ryan. My only thought is, "Who wants to watch that train wreck of a debate?" You have Ditka, head foota=ball coach and never the most intellectual guy, facing the former head of the Harvard Law Review and State Senator Barack Obama. Does anyone think Ditka would have anything, and I mean anything remotely interesting to say that would be what he wanted to say, not someone telling him? Does he know anything about any issue? This just might be the answer however for anyone who was hoping for more "Superfans" sketches on SNL or who wanted to know what Senator Ditka would sound like.
My family is still coming down tomorrow. My grandpa Shilander suffered a small stroke earlier this week, but seems to be recovering nicely, he should go home in a couple of weeks, after therapy. He will be 80 later this year. We're putting together and sending out my resumes this weekend, so wish us luck, and wish me luck in cleaning my apartment for when they get there.
Thursday, July 08, 2004
One long day, for me and Kenny Boy
Today has been really weird, just drawn out and long. For some reason I'm having a real hard time focusing one one particular thing right now, maybe its end of the week stuff. My resume and everythign looks good, me and my family will work on sending stuff out tomorrow, and one of my professor's will look at it tomorrow to see that its ok. Then my family will come down Saturday, we'll get stuff to gether and go out, and then they'll leave sometime early Sunday. It'll be quick, but hopefully we'll get a lot done, grocery shopping, putting out resumes and taking stuff home chief among the priorities. Last night's first class was just a bit off for some reason, hopefully it will get better next week when we get into our real room.
I hope, I think like the rest of America, that Ken Lay goes down and goes down hard. I don't think he believes he's done anything illegal, perhaps just unethical. But I don't know that any jury isn't going to convict. A judge might not, but the grand jury took its time on the indictment, so they should get it right. One potential problem for the White House will be if Lay suddenly feels like talking, about the Energy commission, about Saudi oil money, about giving hundreds of thousands of dollars in money and services to Bush, we'll know soon enough what exactly their reationship was like.
One voting bloc seems to be underestimated by a lot of people, particularly Republicans. That is the voting bloc controlled (potentially) by Howard Stern. There are a lot of young men out there, in their mid to late 20's, and politically disengaged, that will do essentially anything Howard tells them. Since September 11th, Stern has been behind Bush, reflecting the general mood of the country. Since the FCC Crackdown started, however, the tide has turned in Stern's mind. He's been going hard against Bush, and he's been adding affiliates across the country (on Infinity) to make up for the loss of the ones Clear Channel owned, that dumped him. The FCC and Clear Channel are both big Bush supporters, though the FCC just sort of carries out his wishes and can't contribute any money the way CC does. If Stern tells his listeners, especially in places like Florida, Michigan and Ohio to go and vote, and vote for Kerry, they will. They don't know the issues and aren't particularly informed, but they have reason to dislike Bush, Howard said so. That may be enough to pick up some crucial states. Now, if we could just get Single women to vote more, we'd be all set.
Today has been really weird, just drawn out and long. For some reason I'm having a real hard time focusing one one particular thing right now, maybe its end of the week stuff. My resume and everythign looks good, me and my family will work on sending stuff out tomorrow, and one of my professor's will look at it tomorrow to see that its ok. Then my family will come down Saturday, we'll get stuff to gether and go out, and then they'll leave sometime early Sunday. It'll be quick, but hopefully we'll get a lot done, grocery shopping, putting out resumes and taking stuff home chief among the priorities. Last night's first class was just a bit off for some reason, hopefully it will get better next week when we get into our real room.
I hope, I think like the rest of America, that Ken Lay goes down and goes down hard. I don't think he believes he's done anything illegal, perhaps just unethical. But I don't know that any jury isn't going to convict. A judge might not, but the grand jury took its time on the indictment, so they should get it right. One potential problem for the White House will be if Lay suddenly feels like talking, about the Energy commission, about Saudi oil money, about giving hundreds of thousands of dollars in money and services to Bush, we'll know soon enough what exactly their reationship was like.
One voting bloc seems to be underestimated by a lot of people, particularly Republicans. That is the voting bloc controlled (potentially) by Howard Stern. There are a lot of young men out there, in their mid to late 20's, and politically disengaged, that will do essentially anything Howard tells them. Since September 11th, Stern has been behind Bush, reflecting the general mood of the country. Since the FCC Crackdown started, however, the tide has turned in Stern's mind. He's been going hard against Bush, and he's been adding affiliates across the country (on Infinity) to make up for the loss of the ones Clear Channel owned, that dumped him. The FCC and Clear Channel are both big Bush supporters, though the FCC just sort of carries out his wishes and can't contribute any money the way CC does. If Stern tells his listeners, especially in places like Florida, Michigan and Ohio to go and vote, and vote for Kerry, they will. They don't know the issues and aren't particularly informed, but they have reason to dislike Bush, Howard said so. That may be enough to pick up some crucial states. Now, if we could just get Single women to vote more, we'd be all set.
One long day, for me and Kenny Boy
Today has been really weird, just drawn out and long. For some reason I'm having a real hard time focusing one one particular thing right now, maybe its end of the week stuff. My resume and everythign looks good, me and my family will work on sending stuff out tomorrow, and one of my professor's will look at it tomorrow to see that its ok. Then my family will come down Saturday, we'll get stuff to gether and go out, and then they'll leave sometime early Sunday. It'll be quick, but hopefully we'll get a lot done, grocery shopping, putting out resumes and taking stuff home chief among the priorities. Last night's first class was just a bit off for some reason, hopefully it will get better next week when we get into our real room.
I hope, I think like the rest of America, that Ken Lay goes down and goes down hard. I don't think he believes he's done anything illegal, perhaps just unethical. But I don't know that any jury isn't going to convict. A judge might not, but the grand jury took its time on the indictment, so they should get it right. One potential problem for the White House will be if Lay suddenly feels like talking, about the Energy commission, about Saudi oil money, about giving hundreds of thousands of dollars in money and services to Bush, we'll know soon enough what exactly their reationship was like.
One voting bloc seems to be underestimated by a lot of people, particularly Republicans. That is the voting bloc controlled (potentially) by Howard Stern. There are a lot of young men out there, in their mid to late 20's, and politically disengaged, that will do essentially anything Howard tells them. Since September 11th, Stern has been behind Bush, reflecting the general mood of the country. Since the FCC Crackdown started, however, the tide has turned in Stern's mind. He's been going hard against Bush, and he's been adding affiliates across the country (on Infinity) to make up for the loss of the ones Clear Channel owned, that dumped him. The FCC and Clear Channel are both big Bush supporters, though the FCC just sort of carries out his wishes and can't contribute any money the way CC does. If Stern tells his listeners, especially in places like Florida, Michigan and Ohio to go and vote, and vote for Kerry, they will. They don't know the issues and aren't particularly informed, but they have reason to dislike Bush, Howard said so. That may be enough to pick up some crucial states. Now, if we could just get Single women to vote more, we'd be all set.
Today has been really weird, just drawn out and long. For some reason I'm having a real hard time focusing one one particular thing right now, maybe its end of the week stuff. My resume and everythign looks good, me and my family will work on sending stuff out tomorrow, and one of my professor's will look at it tomorrow to see that its ok. Then my family will come down Saturday, we'll get stuff to gether and go out, and then they'll leave sometime early Sunday. It'll be quick, but hopefully we'll get a lot done, grocery shopping, putting out resumes and taking stuff home chief among the priorities. Last night's first class was just a bit off for some reason, hopefully it will get better next week when we get into our real room.
I hope, I think like the rest of America, that Ken Lay goes down and goes down hard. I don't think he believes he's done anything illegal, perhaps just unethical. But I don't know that any jury isn't going to convict. A judge might not, but the grand jury took its time on the indictment, so they should get it right. One potential problem for the White House will be if Lay suddenly feels like talking, about the Energy commission, about Saudi oil money, about giving hundreds of thousands of dollars in money and services to Bush, we'll know soon enough what exactly their reationship was like.
One voting bloc seems to be underestimated by a lot of people, particularly Republicans. That is the voting bloc controlled (potentially) by Howard Stern. There are a lot of young men out there, in their mid to late 20's, and politically disengaged, that will do essentially anything Howard tells them. Since September 11th, Stern has been behind Bush, reflecting the general mood of the country. Since the FCC Crackdown started, however, the tide has turned in Stern's mind. He's been going hard against Bush, and he's been adding affiliates across the country (on Infinity) to make up for the loss of the ones Clear Channel owned, that dumped him. The FCC and Clear Channel are both big Bush supporters, though the FCC just sort of carries out his wishes and can't contribute any money the way CC does. If Stern tells his listeners, especially in places like Florida, Michigan and Ohio to go and vote, and vote for Kerry, they will. They don't know the issues and aren't particularly informed, but they have reason to dislike Bush, Howard said so. That may be enough to pick up some crucial states. Now, if we could just get Single women to vote more, we'd be all set.
Wednesday, July 07, 2004
Just some quick thoughts going through my head
I just wanted to post one thing really quick. Collegefootballnews.com's (Its linked on the sidebar) preview of Duke mentioned how it would never win an ACC title. Never is a long time, I think they are probably wrong, one year will come when maybe Miami or FSU is down, and Duke will have a bunch of Seniors, and they'll win some games. I've wanted to post what I'm going to now for a while, and now its on my mind, so I will:
Top Ten Football Programs (In terms of how their limited success surprises me)that should be better than they are:
10. Kansas- Seriously, if Nebraska can be a great program, and Kansas State can sell itself as a football school despite being one of the worst programs ever, the school in Lawrence can do better than they are doing.
9. Boston College- I know they've had some success, but its been limited. There is no great football school in the northeast. They can be that. Perhaps, given their move to the ACC and their isolation from everyone else in the conference, they will be able to capture the minds of players in New England and elsewhere in the Northeast.
8. Minnesota- They once were great. Now, without a campus facility, they lack any sort of pull to make kids want to go there. They are trying to build a stadium on campus, which would be the newest stadium in the Big Ten in forever, so they have that selling point.
7. Hawaii- Come on, I realize you play your games at 1 AM eastern time, but you get to play in Hawaii. They are building something now with June Jones.
6. Rutgers- They are the only D-1 school in a talent rich state, and have easy access to eastern Pennsylvania, given that Temple is terrible. But they stink. Lou Holtz said a long time ago that they should change their name to "The University of New Jersey" rather than have their off-putting, faux-Ivy League name. He may be right.
5. North Carolina- They don't need to worry about Duke. Wake is an afterthought for the kids in state. NC State will always be thought of as second rate. Chapel Hill has everything you might want, it has academics, and a good area. They've produced some good players (LT, Dre' Bly). It just has to be put together, maybe by a guy wearing a visor perhaps?
4. Missouri- (Sorry Kaiman) Two great football cities on either side of the state. Talent in the suburbs of those cities, as well as easy access in the rest of the state and southern Illinois. But they never take advantage. They have a solid history as a program, but it seems thatsince the Big XII was formed they have never put it all together other than working with one great player (Brad Smith). (Speaking of that, Virginia Tech is headed down this road. Since Vick left, they have done nothing but underachieve, entering the new ACC, they can't afford to do that any more, speaking of which...)
3. Virginia- They should own the mid-Atlantic. There is no reason that they and Maryland, and even Virginia Tech, can't be good at the same time. Charlottesville is a beautiful area, not as backwater as Blacksburg is. Virginia has fertile recruiting ground the the Newport News/Norfolk area, and they should get more kids form DC. UVa stands for something academically, but they also underachieve from where they could be athletically, this will sound familiar later.
2. Illinois- Growing up in Big Ten country, at a time when Ohio State was down a bit, Michigan/Illinois was the big game every year. Michigan won, but everyone knew that Illinois would usually be their top competition. Then Jeff George and John Mackovic left, and its all gone to hell. They won the Big Ten title a few years ago, but that was with a big group of seniors who'd been through a lot together. Last year, they failed to win a game against a D-1A opponent (they beat Illinois State, the fighting Starkos). They have an incredible base of talent in Chicago and the suburbs. They have downstate virtually to themselves, they should get more people than they get, and the coaching should be better than it is.
1. The University of California, Berkeley- Every time I see Cal play, I wonder why they have to be a sort of one hit wonder. They do well every few years but they do not stay good over a long period. There is not a public university this side of Penn that can provide the educational advantages Berkeley can, and the Bay Area is a great place to live. They aren't going to be USC, they don't have that tradition, but there is no reason they cannot reach the same level, and surpass, the athletic prowess of the private school they hate so much in Palo Alto. Stanford has the best athletic program in the country. Football is not one of its best sports. Cal could, and if they can keep Jeff Tedford for a while they just might, become dominant in Northern California and start to effectively wage battle with USC for recruits. That would make them a national power in the same way Florida or Florida State has been
I just wanted to post one thing really quick. Collegefootballnews.com's (Its linked on the sidebar) preview of Duke mentioned how it would never win an ACC title. Never is a long time, I think they are probably wrong, one year will come when maybe Miami or FSU is down, and Duke will have a bunch of Seniors, and they'll win some games. I've wanted to post what I'm going to now for a while, and now its on my mind, so I will:
Top Ten Football Programs (In terms of how their limited success surprises me)that should be better than they are:
10. Kansas- Seriously, if Nebraska can be a great program, and Kansas State can sell itself as a football school despite being one of the worst programs ever, the school in Lawrence can do better than they are doing.
9. Boston College- I know they've had some success, but its been limited. There is no great football school in the northeast. They can be that. Perhaps, given their move to the ACC and their isolation from everyone else in the conference, they will be able to capture the minds of players in New England and elsewhere in the Northeast.
8. Minnesota- They once were great. Now, without a campus facility, they lack any sort of pull to make kids want to go there. They are trying to build a stadium on campus, which would be the newest stadium in the Big Ten in forever, so they have that selling point.
7. Hawaii- Come on, I realize you play your games at 1 AM eastern time, but you get to play in Hawaii. They are building something now with June Jones.
6. Rutgers- They are the only D-1 school in a talent rich state, and have easy access to eastern Pennsylvania, given that Temple is terrible. But they stink. Lou Holtz said a long time ago that they should change their name to "The University of New Jersey" rather than have their off-putting, faux-Ivy League name. He may be right.
5. North Carolina- They don't need to worry about Duke. Wake is an afterthought for the kids in state. NC State will always be thought of as second rate. Chapel Hill has everything you might want, it has academics, and a good area. They've produced some good players (LT, Dre' Bly). It just has to be put together, maybe by a guy wearing a visor perhaps?
4. Missouri- (Sorry Kaiman) Two great football cities on either side of the state. Talent in the suburbs of those cities, as well as easy access in the rest of the state and southern Illinois. But they never take advantage. They have a solid history as a program, but it seems thatsince the Big XII was formed they have never put it all together other than working with one great player (Brad Smith). (Speaking of that, Virginia Tech is headed down this road. Since Vick left, they have done nothing but underachieve, entering the new ACC, they can't afford to do that any more, speaking of which...)
3. Virginia- They should own the mid-Atlantic. There is no reason that they and Maryland, and even Virginia Tech, can't be good at the same time. Charlottesville is a beautiful area, not as backwater as Blacksburg is. Virginia has fertile recruiting ground the the Newport News/Norfolk area, and they should get more kids form DC. UVa stands for something academically, but they also underachieve from where they could be athletically, this will sound familiar later.
2. Illinois- Growing up in Big Ten country, at a time when Ohio State was down a bit, Michigan/Illinois was the big game every year. Michigan won, but everyone knew that Illinois would usually be their top competition. Then Jeff George and John Mackovic left, and its all gone to hell. They won the Big Ten title a few years ago, but that was with a big group of seniors who'd been through a lot together. Last year, they failed to win a game against a D-1A opponent (they beat Illinois State, the fighting Starkos). They have an incredible base of talent in Chicago and the suburbs. They have downstate virtually to themselves, they should get more people than they get, and the coaching should be better than it is.
1. The University of California, Berkeley- Every time I see Cal play, I wonder why they have to be a sort of one hit wonder. They do well every few years but they do not stay good over a long period. There is not a public university this side of Penn that can provide the educational advantages Berkeley can, and the Bay Area is a great place to live. They aren't going to be USC, they don't have that tradition, but there is no reason they cannot reach the same level, and surpass, the athletic prowess of the private school they hate so much in Palo Alto. Stanford has the best athletic program in the country. Football is not one of its best sports. Cal could, and if they can keep Jeff Tedford for a while they just might, become dominant in Northern California and start to effectively wage battle with USC for recruits. That would make them a national power in the same way Florida or Florida State has been
Wednesday???
The long weekend has really thrown me for a loop as far as knowing what day it is. I had worked myself into a nice steady routine the last few weeks, and now that's gone, because my class shifted days and venue. Not that I mind, I'd rather come downtown than drive to Schaumburg, but its just going to take some getting used to (the new routine). Ilost my keys on the bus yesterday, luckily I realized it before I got very far. I called the CTA and found out where I needed to go to pick them up. For anyone unfamiliar with it, the Blue Line takes this very weird path, for a rail car, it goes from O'Hare to downtown, meaning it comes east, then it goes under the loop and heads west again. I was really disoriented by the time I got the the Kedzie stop, so it took me longer then I wanted, but still, everything worked out fine.
Looking at the various media reports of the Edwards choice, Nightline and the local station's coverage, the various websites I frequent, Slate, Salon, TPM, Sullivan, MSNBC, and CNN, most feel like Kerry made the right choice, but temper that by parroting back the RNC's talking points that they put out minutes after Kerry made his choice. The "Is he too inexperienced?" and "Can he handle Foreign Policy?" lines were trotted out extremely fast. Salon focused on the contrast the Vice-Presidential debate will be presumably, as there have been some thought that Cheney may be dumped if its clear he's a drain on the ticket, probably replaced by Giuliani or someone like that, with Edwards' charm and prosecutorial debating style against Cheney's scowl and reserved nature. I would echo some concerns voiced by those close to Cheney, however. He can be effective as sort of a straight talking CEO type, as he is straight talking, and was a CEO, and people might respond to that. He beat Lieberman because Lieberman refused to go after him, or he Lieberman. It did seem, though, that Cheney was better prepared and won the debate. Edwards, who by all accounts, is well liked by colleagues of both parties, will have to be an attorney, he will have to present the case as to why Bush/Cheney has failed, then grill Cheney like a defendant.
Edwards is Bill Clinton's equal when it comes to campaigning, and it doesn't seem like he has the drawbacks Clinton did. The personal story, son of a millworker, first in family to go to college, millionaire trial lawyer. His story about losing his oldest son makes him real, especially as a reason to get into politics. His optimism balances the ticket (Can one be a pessimist and be president? I would hope so), because Kerry can come off as dour. What Edwards needs to do is be engaging, to talk to the people in rural Ohio, Missouri, North Carolina (which is in play now), Pennsylvania and even Michigan, and convince them that no matter how much they want to vote for Bush because he's like them, they can't afford too, literally. He, and Kerry too, need to show that Bush's economy isn't helping them, and that he is sending off our, and their, sons and daughters to die for reasons that don't add up or to settle some personal score. Bush is not "their guy" no matter how many times he mispronounces "nuclear" or spouts off simplistic answers and solutions to incredibly complex problems and issues. He's the right guy to do it.
Thank you for the kind words Ms. Kraly and Mr. Sellers.
Talk to you again tomorrow.
The long weekend has really thrown me for a loop as far as knowing what day it is. I had worked myself into a nice steady routine the last few weeks, and now that's gone, because my class shifted days and venue. Not that I mind, I'd rather come downtown than drive to Schaumburg, but its just going to take some getting used to (the new routine). Ilost my keys on the bus yesterday, luckily I realized it before I got very far. I called the CTA and found out where I needed to go to pick them up. For anyone unfamiliar with it, the Blue Line takes this very weird path, for a rail car, it goes from O'Hare to downtown, meaning it comes east, then it goes under the loop and heads west again. I was really disoriented by the time I got the the Kedzie stop, so it took me longer then I wanted, but still, everything worked out fine.
Looking at the various media reports of the Edwards choice, Nightline and the local station's coverage, the various websites I frequent, Slate, Salon, TPM, Sullivan, MSNBC, and CNN, most feel like Kerry made the right choice, but temper that by parroting back the RNC's talking points that they put out minutes after Kerry made his choice. The "Is he too inexperienced?" and "Can he handle Foreign Policy?" lines were trotted out extremely fast. Salon focused on the contrast the Vice-Presidential debate will be presumably, as there have been some thought that Cheney may be dumped if its clear he's a drain on the ticket, probably replaced by Giuliani or someone like that, with Edwards' charm and prosecutorial debating style against Cheney's scowl and reserved nature. I would echo some concerns voiced by those close to Cheney, however. He can be effective as sort of a straight talking CEO type, as he is straight talking, and was a CEO, and people might respond to that. He beat Lieberman because Lieberman refused to go after him, or he Lieberman. It did seem, though, that Cheney was better prepared and won the debate. Edwards, who by all accounts, is well liked by colleagues of both parties, will have to be an attorney, he will have to present the case as to why Bush/Cheney has failed, then grill Cheney like a defendant.
Edwards is Bill Clinton's equal when it comes to campaigning, and it doesn't seem like he has the drawbacks Clinton did. The personal story, son of a millworker, first in family to go to college, millionaire trial lawyer. His story about losing his oldest son makes him real, especially as a reason to get into politics. His optimism balances the ticket (Can one be a pessimist and be president? I would hope so), because Kerry can come off as dour. What Edwards needs to do is be engaging, to talk to the people in rural Ohio, Missouri, North Carolina (which is in play now), Pennsylvania and even Michigan, and convince them that no matter how much they want to vote for Bush because he's like them, they can't afford too, literally. He, and Kerry too, need to show that Bush's economy isn't helping them, and that he is sending off our, and their, sons and daughters to die for reasons that don't add up or to settle some personal score. Bush is not "their guy" no matter how many times he mispronounces "nuclear" or spouts off simplistic answers and solutions to incredibly complex problems and issues. He's the right guy to do it.
Thank you for the kind words Ms. Kraly and Mr. Sellers.
Talk to you again tomorrow.
Tuesday, July 06, 2004
The Veep and the Weekend
Sorry about the length between posts. I wasn't able to post last Thursday or Friday because I was frantically trying to finish papers, and I was tired Friday night and just went home after class. My first summer session is now over, and now I have a huge relief on my time related stress. Now I get the stress of looking for an internship, but I have experience with that from DC, which hopefully should pay off. My class this session is downtown, which will allow me to exercise, walking to campus is about 3.5 miles, as well as walk directly from work. It also meets twice a week, but I'm more used to that downtown from my previous sessions, plus the money I'll save on gas will be nice.
Edwards was the best choice. Previously I argued for John Lewis, but I knew this to be a sort of "outside the box" pick that might not fly with the leadership. Edwards helps Kerry in a lot of ways. He is relentlessly optimistic, his smiling face will be a sharp contrast to the dour visage of Cheney in their debate. He gives the campaign a very human story, he's not the son of privilege the top President and Kerry are, and he worked his way up to riches and political success. The Republicans are already coming out saying that Edwards is the second choice, and that he lacks experience. Its true, Kerry initially wanted McCain, but that's like saying that when an hockey GM hires a great coach but was rebuffed by Scotty Bowman, he had to settle. Kerry-McCain would have been an unstoppable ticket, but it was never likely. The Panthers probably called Scotty Bowman when their opening came up, but he wasn't going to take it. That doesn't mean Jacques Martin is someone they wouldn't have otherwise wanted. By the way Bush's father was also "the second choice". Reagan initially offered the Veep slot to Gerald Ford, which would have been unbeatable and brought America's first "Co-Presidency" with Ford basically operating as the nations COO.
Second, Edwards has just as much experience in government, six years, as Bush did when he ran for President 4 years ago. If Republicans make this argument, and it is incredibly transparent, the Democrats should just reply that Edwards has national experience, which Bush did not 4 years ago.
I saw Fahrenheit 9/11 Sunday. I enjoyed it immensely, the mother from Flint and her encounter with the protestor in front of the White House, and the woman who came after both of them, was heartbreaking, as was her whole story. I never got the feeling the Moore was using her, as he did the "Rabbit lady" in Roger and Me, for comic relief, she brings the war home for anyone who doesn't have anyone over there. I'll write more about it tomorrow.
I saw John on Saturday. I was walking home from Spiderman 2, my congratulations to Karen Green on her performance by the way, and I saw him, Andrea and another guy on a stoop and I stopped to talk. He's been real busy, setting up two new stores as well as having the Writing 5 show, Jean's wedding, and other stuff to deal with. It was still good to see him, though. We haven't seen as much of each other this summer as I thought we might, but we both have our own lives, I guess I just didn't realize how busy his would get. Plus I have put him in a lot of awkward situations lately, so I know I might have been not the funnest person to be with.
Anyone know when Ms. Kraly's birthday is?
I hope everyone had a good long weekend, I'll probably be able to post more often now, so hurrah.
Sorry about the length between posts. I wasn't able to post last Thursday or Friday because I was frantically trying to finish papers, and I was tired Friday night and just went home after class. My first summer session is now over, and now I have a huge relief on my time related stress. Now I get the stress of looking for an internship, but I have experience with that from DC, which hopefully should pay off. My class this session is downtown, which will allow me to exercise, walking to campus is about 3.5 miles, as well as walk directly from work. It also meets twice a week, but I'm more used to that downtown from my previous sessions, plus the money I'll save on gas will be nice.
Edwards was the best choice. Previously I argued for John Lewis, but I knew this to be a sort of "outside the box" pick that might not fly with the leadership. Edwards helps Kerry in a lot of ways. He is relentlessly optimistic, his smiling face will be a sharp contrast to the dour visage of Cheney in their debate. He gives the campaign a very human story, he's not the son of privilege the top President and Kerry are, and he worked his way up to riches and political success. The Republicans are already coming out saying that Edwards is the second choice, and that he lacks experience. Its true, Kerry initially wanted McCain, but that's like saying that when an hockey GM hires a great coach but was rebuffed by Scotty Bowman, he had to settle. Kerry-McCain would have been an unstoppable ticket, but it was never likely. The Panthers probably called Scotty Bowman when their opening came up, but he wasn't going to take it. That doesn't mean Jacques Martin is someone they wouldn't have otherwise wanted. By the way Bush's father was also "the second choice". Reagan initially offered the Veep slot to Gerald Ford, which would have been unbeatable and brought America's first "Co-Presidency" with Ford basically operating as the nations COO.
Second, Edwards has just as much experience in government, six years, as Bush did when he ran for President 4 years ago. If Republicans make this argument, and it is incredibly transparent, the Democrats should just reply that Edwards has national experience, which Bush did not 4 years ago.
I saw Fahrenheit 9/11 Sunday. I enjoyed it immensely, the mother from Flint and her encounter with the protestor in front of the White House, and the woman who came after both of them, was heartbreaking, as was her whole story. I never got the feeling the Moore was using her, as he did the "Rabbit lady" in Roger and Me, for comic relief, she brings the war home for anyone who doesn't have anyone over there. I'll write more about it tomorrow.
I saw John on Saturday. I was walking home from Spiderman 2, my congratulations to Karen Green on her performance by the way, and I saw him, Andrea and another guy on a stoop and I stopped to talk. He's been real busy, setting up two new stores as well as having the Writing 5 show, Jean's wedding, and other stuff to deal with. It was still good to see him, though. We haven't seen as much of each other this summer as I thought we might, but we both have our own lives, I guess I just didn't realize how busy his would get. Plus I have put him in a lot of awkward situations lately, so I know I might have been not the funnest person to be with.
Anyone know when Ms. Kraly's birthday is?
I hope everyone had a good long weekend, I'll probably be able to post more often now, so hurrah.
Wednesday, June 30, 2004
The Democratic Response, or, I hope I don't piss John off too much
My presentation went well last night. I do well with PowerPoint because the slides keep me focused on points, but I can also be free to talk about other things that aren't on the slides as well. Now comes the hard part, writing the paper.
The title of this post has to do with John's friend Ken's post on the subject of Fahrenheit 9/11 and his reaction to it. I will lay this on the line: I've never met Ken in my life. When he was here last fall I believe I was probably at work, or looking for work, or in Kalamazoo. I know of Ken, only through what John, Karen, Jean and Rhea have said. I know we believe vastly different things politically. I read Ken's blog every now and then, as it's linked from John's. I do not know if he reads mine, as he has never met me. Presumably he disagrees with a lot of what I say if he does, and obviously that is his right. Unlike Ken, I have not served this country in uniform. I thank and admire Ken for doing so, because I likely wouldn't go myself. If that makes me a coward, fine, then I'm a coward.
I don't have problems with what Ken says about the film itself, I haven't seen it, and thus cannot speak to its merits. I know that unlike Ken I can't give you my experiences about what life was like on the front during the war.
Michael Moore is what he is, a documentarian. He admits freely that this film is more of a filmed version of an op-ed piece than straight documentary. He has his points to make and he makes them. Can he seem condescending? Yes, but then nearly every documentary is. Michael Moore has spent the last twenty five years living and writing about politics. He founded one of Michigan's first alternative newspapers, he edited one of the leading liberal magazines, Mother Jones. He has gone after the corporation that literally built and then destroyed the city of his birth. His weekly TV series that used to air on Fox made being a muckracker and a gadfly cool. Not many people would have the DC Gay men's chorus show up at Jesse Helms' door. Moore made one of the funniest black comedies of the post-Cold War era, Canadian Bacon. He's published books, campaigned for Ralph Nader, done a ton of work to investigate the fascination our country has with guns, attack both parties and, of course, go after GWB. Can Michael Moore talk down to his audience? Yes. Does he often make his subjects, particularly those of lower social classes, subjects of humor? Yes. These are his failings as a film maker, not as a person.
Michael Moore is well within his rights to paint George Bush any way he wants to, so long as he doesn't say anything libelous. Bill Clinton has nothing to do with George Bush and his presidency. Everyone knows Bill Clinton lied, its been well established. George Bush promised to restore honor and dignity to the White House. He is himself, I will admit, very likely an honorable and decent man. His journey from Prince Hal to Henry V is incredibly interesting. But on the left, we will still see him as a man governed too much by a seemingly Apocalyptic Christian worldview, one that doesn't allow him to see the world in shades of grey. Steadfastness and doggedness are admirable qualities in a leader, but so is the ability to admit mistakes and change course if poliy isn't working. Bush has not shown the ability to do this. His obsession with his own ideological purity doesn't give the opportunity for nuanced poicies or compromise, the very bedrocks of our government.
Moore uses Craig Unger's book "House of Bush, House of Saud" to source his claims about the link between the Bin Laden family (which disowns Osama), the Saudi royal family and the Bush family. As far as I know, the only people who believe truly that 9/11 was staged are those in the Muslim world, who believe it was done by Mossad, Israel's intelligence agency. Getting Bush out of the classroom wouldn't have necessarily meant projecting his own cowardice or panic. If he had left, it would have said to the nation that the commander and chief is ready to get back to DC and do his job. The Bush team had to know that once the planes hit, the coverage would be from New York, not his appearance in Florida. The networks literally would have said what the President was doing, that he was at a school, he heard about what happened, and that he and the Secret Service left immediately, to try to get back to DC, or the bunker. If Bush had left, it wouldn't have said anything negative about him at all.
Iraq had never been a threat to attack the US. Saddam's plan to kill Bush's father was to be sprung when he visited Kuwait, after Bush had been out of office for a year. He wasn't trying to kill the sitting president of the United States, that obviously would have been cause to attack, and killing a former president would have been as well. Assassination plots are hatched daily and never get off the ground, or are foiled, these aren't direct attacks on the United States.
Was Saddam an awful man who did incomprehensibly terrible things to his opponents? Ye she did. The Iraqi people suffered terribly under his rule, especially during the sanctions, when Saddam took the aid given to the nation and built palaces for himself and his sons. There are terrible men like this all over the world. But we didn't go to war with them. Were Saddam's crimes, as terrible as they were, justification for invasion. Yes, they are, but only now. This is the only time we have preemptively invaded a country on the basis of liberating its people from suffering under tyrannical leadership. We didn't go after Japan and Germany until after being directly attacked and Germany declaring war on us. We didn't go after Mao, after Stalin, after Pol Pot, or Idi Amin (Who Ate People). I find, and for 99% of our history, our country has found,preemptive war to be a moral evil. Republicans opposed operations in Bosnia and Kosovo for these reasons. The church condemns it as such. The Pope condemned this war because of it. We are currently allies with a military dictator who seized power in a coup (Pakistan), a man who tortures political opponents and is rapidly becoming a despot (Uzbekistan), and others who commit terrible acts. It typically has taken a lot to get us to go to war, and no matter how terrible Saddam was, his brutality against his own people would not have justified war in past generations.
I do not believe the administration lied about what they saw as Iraq's capabilities as far as WMD's. What I do believe is that those in power at the Pentagon, the civilians at DoD, not the Joint Chiefs, selectively took the intelligence they wanted, and used it to justify war. WMD's, in general, is a more compelling case to present to Mr. and Mrs. John Q. Public than Iraqi atrocities. Had the UN been able to complete the inspections process, perhaps hundreds of American lives, and thousands of Iraqi lives would have been saved, because the idea of Saddam as an imminent threat would have been extinguished. I simply believe that we rushed into war without exhausting all diplomatic opportunities. The neocons at the Pentagon operate under a dangerous worldview that the projection of American power abroad can only be made via force. They believe, I firmly think, in the idea of an American empire. This is an anathema to everything our foreign policy, and our country, has stood for for 228 years. They are the danger. The troops are heroes. The military acted bravely and brilliantly. Lives have been lost in Iraq because the civilian leadership in Arlington didn't do its job, because "men go to Baghdad, Real men go to Tehran" is the way they think. The Powell doctrine of overwhelming force has been cast aside. Perhaps its use would have saved many lives.
It generally is liberals who point out the undemocratic way the military is structured. In an all-volunteer army, the underclasses are more likely to go because in a lot of places, its the only opportunity to get out, to get a college education, to see the world. Children of privilege, on both the left and the right, I doubt too many children of Fortune 500 CEO's, Heritage Foundation board members, or kids getting sent to Hillsdale are in the military, have more opportunity. The military becomes like the priesthood for many of these people, a calling only to be undertaken by only those truly called, not the doorway to a future career or education. We on the left don't want to see anyone fight, and if they have to only at an instance of last resort. We love the troops, well most of us anyway, the Chomskyites generally are pushed to the periphery anyway. It's he people at Heritage, at the National Review, in the Pentagon who don't do the troops the service they need. They put them in harms way, needlessly.
I hope I haven't made anyone upset, especially John or Ken. I've tried to be even handed. If you feel I've attacked you, I'm sorry, I haven't gone out of my way to do that, I've only stated my own opinions.
Regarding the state of conservatism today, Mr William F. Buckley (Founder of the National Review) said there was an ongoing debate about the war in Iraq which clashed with the traditional view of the right that American foreign policy should only seek to protect its vital interests. "With the benefit of hindsight, Saddam Hussein was not the kind of extra-territorial menace that was assumed by the administration one year ago," he said. "If I knew then what I know now ... I would have opposed the war."
My presentation went well last night. I do well with PowerPoint because the slides keep me focused on points, but I can also be free to talk about other things that aren't on the slides as well. Now comes the hard part, writing the paper.
The title of this post has to do with John's friend Ken's post on the subject of Fahrenheit 9/11 and his reaction to it. I will lay this on the line: I've never met Ken in my life. When he was here last fall I believe I was probably at work, or looking for work, or in Kalamazoo. I know of Ken, only through what John, Karen, Jean and Rhea have said. I know we believe vastly different things politically. I read Ken's blog every now and then, as it's linked from John's. I do not know if he reads mine, as he has never met me. Presumably he disagrees with a lot of what I say if he does, and obviously that is his right. Unlike Ken, I have not served this country in uniform. I thank and admire Ken for doing so, because I likely wouldn't go myself. If that makes me a coward, fine, then I'm a coward.
I don't have problems with what Ken says about the film itself, I haven't seen it, and thus cannot speak to its merits. I know that unlike Ken I can't give you my experiences about what life was like on the front during the war.
Michael Moore is what he is, a documentarian. He admits freely that this film is more of a filmed version of an op-ed piece than straight documentary. He has his points to make and he makes them. Can he seem condescending? Yes, but then nearly every documentary is. Michael Moore has spent the last twenty five years living and writing about politics. He founded one of Michigan's first alternative newspapers, he edited one of the leading liberal magazines, Mother Jones. He has gone after the corporation that literally built and then destroyed the city of his birth. His weekly TV series that used to air on Fox made being a muckracker and a gadfly cool. Not many people would have the DC Gay men's chorus show up at Jesse Helms' door. Moore made one of the funniest black comedies of the post-Cold War era, Canadian Bacon. He's published books, campaigned for Ralph Nader, done a ton of work to investigate the fascination our country has with guns, attack both parties and, of course, go after GWB. Can Michael Moore talk down to his audience? Yes. Does he often make his subjects, particularly those of lower social classes, subjects of humor? Yes. These are his failings as a film maker, not as a person.
Michael Moore is well within his rights to paint George Bush any way he wants to, so long as he doesn't say anything libelous. Bill Clinton has nothing to do with George Bush and his presidency. Everyone knows Bill Clinton lied, its been well established. George Bush promised to restore honor and dignity to the White House. He is himself, I will admit, very likely an honorable and decent man. His journey from Prince Hal to Henry V is incredibly interesting. But on the left, we will still see him as a man governed too much by a seemingly Apocalyptic Christian worldview, one that doesn't allow him to see the world in shades of grey. Steadfastness and doggedness are admirable qualities in a leader, but so is the ability to admit mistakes and change course if poliy isn't working. Bush has not shown the ability to do this. His obsession with his own ideological purity doesn't give the opportunity for nuanced poicies or compromise, the very bedrocks of our government.
Moore uses Craig Unger's book "House of Bush, House of Saud" to source his claims about the link between the Bin Laden family (which disowns Osama), the Saudi royal family and the Bush family. As far as I know, the only people who believe truly that 9/11 was staged are those in the Muslim world, who believe it was done by Mossad, Israel's intelligence agency. Getting Bush out of the classroom wouldn't have necessarily meant projecting his own cowardice or panic. If he had left, it would have said to the nation that the commander and chief is ready to get back to DC and do his job. The Bush team had to know that once the planes hit, the coverage would be from New York, not his appearance in Florida. The networks literally would have said what the President was doing, that he was at a school, he heard about what happened, and that he and the Secret Service left immediately, to try to get back to DC, or the bunker. If Bush had left, it wouldn't have said anything negative about him at all.
Iraq had never been a threat to attack the US. Saddam's plan to kill Bush's father was to be sprung when he visited Kuwait, after Bush had been out of office for a year. He wasn't trying to kill the sitting president of the United States, that obviously would have been cause to attack, and killing a former president would have been as well. Assassination plots are hatched daily and never get off the ground, or are foiled, these aren't direct attacks on the United States.
Was Saddam an awful man who did incomprehensibly terrible things to his opponents? Ye she did. The Iraqi people suffered terribly under his rule, especially during the sanctions, when Saddam took the aid given to the nation and built palaces for himself and his sons. There are terrible men like this all over the world. But we didn't go to war with them. Were Saddam's crimes, as terrible as they were, justification for invasion. Yes, they are, but only now. This is the only time we have preemptively invaded a country on the basis of liberating its people from suffering under tyrannical leadership. We didn't go after Japan and Germany until after being directly attacked and Germany declaring war on us. We didn't go after Mao, after Stalin, after Pol Pot, or Idi Amin (Who Ate People). I find, and for 99% of our history, our country has found,preemptive war to be a moral evil. Republicans opposed operations in Bosnia and Kosovo for these reasons. The church condemns it as such. The Pope condemned this war because of it. We are currently allies with a military dictator who seized power in a coup (Pakistan), a man who tortures political opponents and is rapidly becoming a despot (Uzbekistan), and others who commit terrible acts. It typically has taken a lot to get us to go to war, and no matter how terrible Saddam was, his brutality against his own people would not have justified war in past generations.
I do not believe the administration lied about what they saw as Iraq's capabilities as far as WMD's. What I do believe is that those in power at the Pentagon, the civilians at DoD, not the Joint Chiefs, selectively took the intelligence they wanted, and used it to justify war. WMD's, in general, is a more compelling case to present to Mr. and Mrs. John Q. Public than Iraqi atrocities. Had the UN been able to complete the inspections process, perhaps hundreds of American lives, and thousands of Iraqi lives would have been saved, because the idea of Saddam as an imminent threat would have been extinguished. I simply believe that we rushed into war without exhausting all diplomatic opportunities. The neocons at the Pentagon operate under a dangerous worldview that the projection of American power abroad can only be made via force. They believe, I firmly think, in the idea of an American empire. This is an anathema to everything our foreign policy, and our country, has stood for for 228 years. They are the danger. The troops are heroes. The military acted bravely and brilliantly. Lives have been lost in Iraq because the civilian leadership in Arlington didn't do its job, because "men go to Baghdad, Real men go to Tehran" is the way they think. The Powell doctrine of overwhelming force has been cast aside. Perhaps its use would have saved many lives.
It generally is liberals who point out the undemocratic way the military is structured. In an all-volunteer army, the underclasses are more likely to go because in a lot of places, its the only opportunity to get out, to get a college education, to see the world. Children of privilege, on both the left and the right, I doubt too many children of Fortune 500 CEO's, Heritage Foundation board members, or kids getting sent to Hillsdale are in the military, have more opportunity. The military becomes like the priesthood for many of these people, a calling only to be undertaken by only those truly called, not the doorway to a future career or education. We on the left don't want to see anyone fight, and if they have to only at an instance of last resort. We love the troops, well most of us anyway, the Chomskyites generally are pushed to the periphery anyway. It's he people at Heritage, at the National Review, in the Pentagon who don't do the troops the service they need. They put them in harms way, needlessly.
I hope I haven't made anyone upset, especially John or Ken. I've tried to be even handed. If you feel I've attacked you, I'm sorry, I haven't gone out of my way to do that, I've only stated my own opinions.
Regarding the state of conservatism today, Mr William F. Buckley (Founder of the National Review) said there was an ongoing debate about the war in Iraq which clashed with the traditional view of the right that American foreign policy should only seek to protect its vital interests. "With the benefit of hindsight, Saddam Hussein was not the kind of extra-territorial menace that was assumed by the administration one year ago," he said. "If I knew then what I know now ... I would have opposed the war."
Monday, June 28, 2004
Starting the long week, by talking about the weekend
This week will probably be my toughest, academically, since last fall. Both my classes this session are ending, and so stuff is coming due. I have a 12 page paper due Thursday, and a presentation tomorrow. I also need to write some reviews, including one that will force me to go out to eat Wednesday night, or I suppose, Thursday afternoon.
I was kind of split on the weekend. On the one hand, I got to spend more time with my Grandma Graham, I hadn't seen her since the funeral. She seems to be doing well, but my aunt Mary and her daughter Grace stayed for more than a month after my grandpa died, and so now she has to face waking up alone everyday. She talked about doing little things, turning the radio on when she gets up, to avoid silence, as well as treating herself to things, in her case half and half as opposed to skim milk in her coffee. On the other, we were at a family reunion, and therefore there were people I have seen maybe once in my life, and yet we're family so I don't really know what to do. The Scofields are a bit different from our family, and there were lots, and I do mean lots, of kids running around all over. One interesting thing though, as a means of keeping the kids busy, as well as a means of getting to know one another, the Ferlito's (My dad's sister Annie, my uncle Kenny, and their kids Dominic, Jodi and Ricky) came up with this idea to play "bingo" where people would initial little bits of info about themselves on a board. Every 5 in a row got them a "Ferlito Dollar" which could be given to the kids in exchange for them doing a chore. The kids then got to buy toys and other things with the money later. My brother and my cousin Ben, through what means I don't know, came into possession of a large cache of Ferlito dollars, and made the kids do things like feed them grapes (Robert) or cut up their food into bite size pieces (Ben).
The administration really must have been scared about handing over sovereignty on the 30th. They've effectively wasted potentially great PR by handing over sovereignty when they did, this morning at about 2:30 Eastern time. This means that it happened while all of us werea sleep, we could only hear about it this morning, not watch it. It was not the "event" I'm sure the Bushies wanted it to be. Instead, Bremer's on his way back, almost looking like he's trying to get back as fast as he can because who knows what happens now.
I did not get a chance to see Fahrenheit 9/11, but obviously the fact that it was #1 at the box office, with only about two weeks of promotion, and being that it is a documentary and such a controversial film, it really was surprising. Hopefully, enough of the audience will be people who are undecided about whether they will vote for Bush or Kerry that it will make a difference, particularly in Ohio, or in Pennsylvania or Florida, states that might tip the balance come November. Great job by the right-wing in promoting the film by talking about it ceaselessly,giving Moore all of the free press he needed.
This week will probably be my toughest, academically, since last fall. Both my classes this session are ending, and so stuff is coming due. I have a 12 page paper due Thursday, and a presentation tomorrow. I also need to write some reviews, including one that will force me to go out to eat Wednesday night, or I suppose, Thursday afternoon.
I was kind of split on the weekend. On the one hand, I got to spend more time with my Grandma Graham, I hadn't seen her since the funeral. She seems to be doing well, but my aunt Mary and her daughter Grace stayed for more than a month after my grandpa died, and so now she has to face waking up alone everyday. She talked about doing little things, turning the radio on when she gets up, to avoid silence, as well as treating herself to things, in her case half and half as opposed to skim milk in her coffee. On the other, we were at a family reunion, and therefore there were people I have seen maybe once in my life, and yet we're family so I don't really know what to do. The Scofields are a bit different from our family, and there were lots, and I do mean lots, of kids running around all over. One interesting thing though, as a means of keeping the kids busy, as well as a means of getting to know one another, the Ferlito's (My dad's sister Annie, my uncle Kenny, and their kids Dominic, Jodi and Ricky) came up with this idea to play "bingo" where people would initial little bits of info about themselves on a board. Every 5 in a row got them a "Ferlito Dollar" which could be given to the kids in exchange for them doing a chore. The kids then got to buy toys and other things with the money later. My brother and my cousin Ben, through what means I don't know, came into possession of a large cache of Ferlito dollars, and made the kids do things like feed them grapes (Robert) or cut up their food into bite size pieces (Ben).
The administration really must have been scared about handing over sovereignty on the 30th. They've effectively wasted potentially great PR by handing over sovereignty when they did, this morning at about 2:30 Eastern time. This means that it happened while all of us werea sleep, we could only hear about it this morning, not watch it. It was not the "event" I'm sure the Bushies wanted it to be. Instead, Bremer's on his way back, almost looking like he's trying to get back as fast as he can because who knows what happens now.
I did not get a chance to see Fahrenheit 9/11, but obviously the fact that it was #1 at the box office, with only about two weeks of promotion, and being that it is a documentary and such a controversial film, it really was surprising. Hopefully, enough of the audience will be people who are undecided about whether they will vote for Bush or Kerry that it will make a difference, particularly in Ohio, or in Pennsylvania or Florida, states that might tip the balance come November. Great job by the right-wing in promoting the film by talking about it ceaselessly,giving Moore all of the free press he needed.
Thursday, June 24, 2004
Two Pictures, and other things
First which picture would you rather look at, this, which has Alex looking like he's thinking hard and about to say something, or this because it has PTM in a ridiculous hat?
Email your responses to jimshilander@yahoo.com or just comment below by hitting the comment dealie.
I got hit on while walking back from my car tuesday night by some young women in a Ford Explorer, I believe they were inbibing alcoholic beverages at the time, so it was the equivalant of construction workers hooting at passing women, I just thought I'd share this information.
I went to a concert at Metro, which is kind of a club/small concert venue near Wrigley last night, to do my music review for class tommorow. I saw The Streets which is this hip hop/ dance group from Birmingham, UK. I really didn't know how to describe them at first, my initial impression was kind of a British Everlast, but now I'm thinking more like a Multi-racial and British version of Jurassic 5. I enjoyed the show, even if it did start an hour and 40 minutes after its scheduled start, I guess they had a lot of late arrivals or something. Good show, I may by their CD or ask for it for my birthday coming up, or I'll just recommend it to you good people.
I also worked on my rewrite of my theatre review, and I called the play "a beached whale of a show. Like the sea mammal on land, the script flails about for something to swim in, but instead dies a slow, agonizing death." I figure that is about as mean as I will get, but frankly it deserves worse.
Draft is tonight, the 'Stones don't pick until the second round, where I figure they'll either take a Euro and leave him over there for a year or two, or maybe a senior like Arthur Johnson, or Bernard Robinson, Jr. who went to a fine institution for his basketball and academic career. I would take Okafor #1, but I'm suere the Bobcats would be pleased to get him at two, because he'll be a solid player for the 12 years or so, someone that gives the franchise a good start.
Indiana and the Bulls are said to be nearing a deal to get the Seventh pick to Indiana for Al Harrington, and Indiana would take Luke Jackson from Oregon. Last time the Bulls made a deal with the Pacers they traded away Ron Artest, Ron Mercer, Brad Miller and other stuff for Jalen Rose and Travis Best. That worked out really well didn't it.
I really don't have a ton to talk about today, which is why I am kind of blathering on. I will try to blog tommorow, I will be going to Cleveland for a family reunion this weekend, I'll be back sometime Sunday. Then I have a really busy week next week including a 12 page paper, two reviews and a presentation, plus stuff for work and therapy, and I will be ratcheting up my search for an internship for the Fall. Of course after next week I won't have to drive again for probably a month, which is a huge bonus, plus I get the day off Monday, sweet.
I'll blog again Monday for sure, maybe tommorow. Have a good night, I hope everything is going well for all of you and give me a call sometime.
First which picture would you rather look at, this, which has Alex looking like he's thinking hard and about to say something, or this because it has PTM in a ridiculous hat?
Email your responses to jimshilander@yahoo.com or just comment below by hitting the comment dealie.
I got hit on while walking back from my car tuesday night by some young women in a Ford Explorer, I believe they were inbibing alcoholic beverages at the time, so it was the equivalant of construction workers hooting at passing women, I just thought I'd share this information.
I went to a concert at Metro, which is kind of a club/small concert venue near Wrigley last night, to do my music review for class tommorow. I saw The Streets which is this hip hop/ dance group from Birmingham, UK. I really didn't know how to describe them at first, my initial impression was kind of a British Everlast, but now I'm thinking more like a Multi-racial and British version of Jurassic 5. I enjoyed the show, even if it did start an hour and 40 minutes after its scheduled start, I guess they had a lot of late arrivals or something. Good show, I may by their CD or ask for it for my birthday coming up, or I'll just recommend it to you good people.
I also worked on my rewrite of my theatre review, and I called the play "a beached whale of a show. Like the sea mammal on land, the script flails about for something to swim in, but instead dies a slow, agonizing death." I figure that is about as mean as I will get, but frankly it deserves worse.
Draft is tonight, the 'Stones don't pick until the second round, where I figure they'll either take a Euro and leave him over there for a year or two, or maybe a senior like Arthur Johnson, or Bernard Robinson, Jr. who went to a fine institution for his basketball and academic career. I would take Okafor #1, but I'm suere the Bobcats would be pleased to get him at two, because he'll be a solid player for the 12 years or so, someone that gives the franchise a good start.
Indiana and the Bulls are said to be nearing a deal to get the Seventh pick to Indiana for Al Harrington, and Indiana would take Luke Jackson from Oregon. Last time the Bulls made a deal with the Pacers they traded away Ron Artest, Ron Mercer, Brad Miller and other stuff for Jalen Rose and Travis Best. That worked out really well didn't it.
I really don't have a ton to talk about today, which is why I am kind of blathering on. I will try to blog tommorow, I will be going to Cleveland for a family reunion this weekend, I'll be back sometime Sunday. Then I have a really busy week next week including a 12 page paper, two reviews and a presentation, plus stuff for work and therapy, and I will be ratcheting up my search for an internship for the Fall. Of course after next week I won't have to drive again for probably a month, which is a huge bonus, plus I get the day off Monday, sweet.
I'll blog again Monday for sure, maybe tommorow. Have a good night, I hope everything is going well for all of you and give me a call sometime.
Tuesday, June 22, 2004
I Alienate my Entire Sex, and Rant about What Coaches Stink and who Should go to School
I had my counseling session downtown today, we're starting to talk about why I am so hard on myself, meaning, why I say or think things about myself that I don't other people. In this vein, I need to tell a story about my ride home last night:
I got on the 156 and sat near the back, the two women sitting ahead of me either were friends or worked together, or obviously, both, and were talking about their relationships. One of the women talked about how she just assumed, unless the man she dated told her that he wanted to date exclusively, that she would just assume he was dating several women, and so she didn't feel bad about seeing several men. Both women, one was 22, the other 29, seemed to be in agreement on this point and both seemed extremely cynical about men and the kind of men who still dates like that.
Now I realize that I am not exactly the poster child for dating experience, and that I have been called a traitor to my gender on occasion. But seriously, why is it that we as a gender are such bastards when it comes to monogamy? I don't condemn these women for what they do, they are just doing the same thing men have done for time immemoriam. There's nothing, after all, to condemn, I don't know them, I don't know who goes into their beds at night, nor is it my business, nor do I care. But why is it that seemingly the vast majority of us (men) don't seem to understand that monogamy really is not that hard or understand that the women we love aren't toys to be used for our amusement. The men in these women's, and in suspect in many women's,lives let down the rest of us. They let us down because they gave proof that we're not good people as a gender, that our entire sex is hard-wired for relationships that we don't take seriously and that we don't care about the person inside the dress, just about getting on our bedroom floor. Seriously, the situation is getting so bad that all men may need to be taken into a room A Clockwork Orange style and have their minds warped to not hurt women and to be sensitive to their feelings, I don't know how, maybe show some movie with a one night stand and that makes you violently ill or something.
Ok, now the long promised rant on Butch Davis: While walking last night I came to the conclusion that there are simply a lot of coaches perfect for college and some perfect for the pros's, they can't do the other. Pete Carroll, for one, he was terrible in stints with the Jets and the Patriots, but he has almost single-handedly brought USC (the real USC, the other one is just South Carolina) back from the dead. Butch Davis was the one who did this at Miami. The recruiting scandals that put Miami on probation nearly destroyed the program, it was Davis' emphasis on character and finding guys who "got it" that brought them back. Then he was hired in Cleveland and it just hasn't worked. A college coach is his own GM, he goes out personally and gets the people to fit his system. In the NFL, this isn't necessarily true. There are people above you who do that. Butch Davis doesn't like this. He drove out Dwight Clark, he drove out Carmen Policy, he drove out Ron Wolf, the man who built the Packers, because Policy brought him in, and he only brought him in a few months ago. He released all of the starting linebackers from the playoff team of two years ago and replaced them with rookies or Eagles castoff Barry Gardner. The cap is still too high, and the Brown can't maneuver to get what they really need, an offensive line that will keep the quarterback, whoever it is, vertical. It was assumed Davis would be a great pro coach because he comes from the Jimmy Johnson Cowboys staff, but then again, so did Norv Turner, Dave Wansttedt and Dave Campo. Look at all of the success they've had and tell me this wasn't a brilliant idea the Lerners had to hire Davis.
The caveat to my Pro/College comment is this: there are certain guys in the NFL right now who I think would be great college coaches, chief among them, John Gruden (sorry John) and Jim Haslett. Both are fanatically hardworking, Gruden famously gets to the office at about 4:30 am every morning during the season, and so would likely never be outworked in recruiting or in getting players to play the way they want them to. Gruden in particular would bring instant credibility to a program, like say North Carolina or Syracuse, or keep a great program great over a long period. Plus, by the time players might tune you out, which they are less likely to do, college coaches are one step below gods to a lot of players, they'll be ready to leave, and you keep bringing in fresh blood. I really think this would work. Haslett has been mentioned as a possible successor to Paterno when he leaves Penn State, so I'm not alone in that feeling.
I had my counseling session downtown today, we're starting to talk about why I am so hard on myself, meaning, why I say or think things about myself that I don't other people. In this vein, I need to tell a story about my ride home last night:
I got on the 156 and sat near the back, the two women sitting ahead of me either were friends or worked together, or obviously, both, and were talking about their relationships. One of the women talked about how she just assumed, unless the man she dated told her that he wanted to date exclusively, that she would just assume he was dating several women, and so she didn't feel bad about seeing several men. Both women, one was 22, the other 29, seemed to be in agreement on this point and both seemed extremely cynical about men and the kind of men who still dates like that.
Now I realize that I am not exactly the poster child for dating experience, and that I have been called a traitor to my gender on occasion. But seriously, why is it that we as a gender are such bastards when it comes to monogamy? I don't condemn these women for what they do, they are just doing the same thing men have done for time immemoriam. There's nothing, after all, to condemn, I don't know them, I don't know who goes into their beds at night, nor is it my business, nor do I care. But why is it that seemingly the vast majority of us (men) don't seem to understand that monogamy really is not that hard or understand that the women we love aren't toys to be used for our amusement. The men in these women's, and in suspect in many women's,lives let down the rest of us. They let us down because they gave proof that we're not good people as a gender, that our entire sex is hard-wired for relationships that we don't take seriously and that we don't care about the person inside the dress, just about getting on our bedroom floor. Seriously, the situation is getting so bad that all men may need to be taken into a room A Clockwork Orange style and have their minds warped to not hurt women and to be sensitive to their feelings, I don't know how, maybe show some movie with a one night stand and that makes you violently ill or something.
Ok, now the long promised rant on Butch Davis: While walking last night I came to the conclusion that there are simply a lot of coaches perfect for college and some perfect for the pros's, they can't do the other. Pete Carroll, for one, he was terrible in stints with the Jets and the Patriots, but he has almost single-handedly brought USC (the real USC, the other one is just South Carolina) back from the dead. Butch Davis was the one who did this at Miami. The recruiting scandals that put Miami on probation nearly destroyed the program, it was Davis' emphasis on character and finding guys who "got it" that brought them back. Then he was hired in Cleveland and it just hasn't worked. A college coach is his own GM, he goes out personally and gets the people to fit his system. In the NFL, this isn't necessarily true. There are people above you who do that. Butch Davis doesn't like this. He drove out Dwight Clark, he drove out Carmen Policy, he drove out Ron Wolf, the man who built the Packers, because Policy brought him in, and he only brought him in a few months ago. He released all of the starting linebackers from the playoff team of two years ago and replaced them with rookies or Eagles castoff Barry Gardner. The cap is still too high, and the Brown can't maneuver to get what they really need, an offensive line that will keep the quarterback, whoever it is, vertical. It was assumed Davis would be a great pro coach because he comes from the Jimmy Johnson Cowboys staff, but then again, so did Norv Turner, Dave Wansttedt and Dave Campo. Look at all of the success they've had and tell me this wasn't a brilliant idea the Lerners had to hire Davis.
The caveat to my Pro/College comment is this: there are certain guys in the NFL right now who I think would be great college coaches, chief among them, John Gruden (sorry John) and Jim Haslett. Both are fanatically hardworking, Gruden famously gets to the office at about 4:30 am every morning during the season, and so would likely never be outworked in recruiting or in getting players to play the way they want them to. Gruden in particular would bring instant credibility to a program, like say North Carolina or Syracuse, or keep a great program great over a long period. Plus, by the time players might tune you out, which they are less likely to do, college coaches are one step below gods to a lot of players, they'll be ready to leave, and you keep bringing in fresh blood. I really think this would work. Haslett has been mentioned as a possible successor to Paterno when he leaves Penn State, so I'm not alone in that feeling.
Monday, June 21, 2004
Self-Awareness and Making Amends
Not that busy a day here, nor weekend for that matter. I got to see Saved! which I eill be reviewing for my class on Friday. It was very good and I'd really recommend it to anyone frustrated by the right-wing's use of religion as a weapon. I also did a lot of walking and thinking, about life, my current situation, a lot of things.
I know that I've had a relatively easy life, and that the "hardships" I've endured have not been anything too demanding or troubling. I've only lost one grandparent, and that loss has been made easier because of the way my grandfather lived his life, he lived a happy one, surrounded by friends and family. I know that I am not not loved in the same way my grandfather was. I know that in many ways, I'm not a terribly lovable person. I am almost painfully introverted in most social situations, enough so that if I'm in a large group of people I don't know, I either shut dowm, go into a mild panic attack or immediately retreat to be on my own. I've even done that, in high school mind you, with groups of people I knew well. I know that I can be painfully slow on the uptake when it comes to the normal social rules of society. I know I can be scatter brained and difficult to deal with or get a handle on. I know that I shrink from any confrontation like a mouse, because I have this irrational fear of confrontation. I don't look out for my own needs at all, because, very often, I don't even know what they are. I just want to believe that for some people, my being in their life has had a positive effect, that my thoughts, feelings and actions have left their mark on the people I love with all of my heart, my friends and family. I don't want anyone to get the wrong idea about what I'm writing, this is not a suicide note or anything like that. I know that I have been Incredibly self-absorbed over these past few months since the breakup, and I just want to apologize to everyone. I have had to confront a lot of things, some of which I still don't understand or haven't made peace with. That being said...
To Laura, Susan, Amber, Andy, Steph, Audrey, Karen Green, Alison, Amy, Nick, etc.,
I'm sorry about being so wrapped up in myself the last few months. I care about all of you a great deal, and I'm sorry if my inability to deal with my own situation frustrated you or made you think less of me. You are all incredible people, not just for who you are and the friends you are, but because of your compassion, your grace, your belief in me and everyone around you. I can never thank you enough for all you've done to help me in this time.
To John,
I'm sorry about the clearly untenable situation I've put you in so often lately. I know that I've been too needy, too clinging, because, well, you've had to be my confidant when you didn't want to be. I'm sorry about asking so often, about not being a real friend when you have a life too. Thank you so much for the way you have helped me through this time, and I'm sorry I didn't do this til now.
To my family,
I'm sorry about being so distant, about not working on the things I should have been because I've been too wrapped up in myself. Obviously its been difficult the last few months with everything, and my feeling sorry for myself has not helped anything. I will do my best to be a better son, brother, grandchild and whatever else from now on.
Most importantly,
To Karen Marie Steeno,
I'm sorry about the way I've treated you these last few months. I have been scared, frustrated and confused, emotions that have hurt my bid to recover and move on, so that we can try to be friends again. I have have fouled up time and time again and I've done you wrong, because you shouldn't be having to worry about me right now. I am doing my best to work on the things I was lacking, the maturity, the life skills, the self-awareness. Thank you for being the most wonderful person to ever be in my life, for changing my heart, for being good to me. You did what you felt you had to do, and I'm sorry if I've made you feel guilty about doing what was best for yourself. I hope that someday soon, we can have our friendship again, and that I will grow to be the man you thought I could be.
Thank you for sitting through that, the Butch Davis rant will come tomorrow, in case you really care.
Not that busy a day here, nor weekend for that matter. I got to see Saved! which I eill be reviewing for my class on Friday. It was very good and I'd really recommend it to anyone frustrated by the right-wing's use of religion as a weapon. I also did a lot of walking and thinking, about life, my current situation, a lot of things.
I know that I've had a relatively easy life, and that the "hardships" I've endured have not been anything too demanding or troubling. I've only lost one grandparent, and that loss has been made easier because of the way my grandfather lived his life, he lived a happy one, surrounded by friends and family. I know that I am not not loved in the same way my grandfather was. I know that in many ways, I'm not a terribly lovable person. I am almost painfully introverted in most social situations, enough so that if I'm in a large group of people I don't know, I either shut dowm, go into a mild panic attack or immediately retreat to be on my own. I've even done that, in high school mind you, with groups of people I knew well. I know that I can be painfully slow on the uptake when it comes to the normal social rules of society. I know I can be scatter brained and difficult to deal with or get a handle on. I know that I shrink from any confrontation like a mouse, because I have this irrational fear of confrontation. I don't look out for my own needs at all, because, very often, I don't even know what they are. I just want to believe that for some people, my being in their life has had a positive effect, that my thoughts, feelings and actions have left their mark on the people I love with all of my heart, my friends and family. I don't want anyone to get the wrong idea about what I'm writing, this is not a suicide note or anything like that. I know that I have been Incredibly self-absorbed over these past few months since the breakup, and I just want to apologize to everyone. I have had to confront a lot of things, some of which I still don't understand or haven't made peace with. That being said...
To Laura, Susan, Amber, Andy, Steph, Audrey, Karen Green, Alison, Amy, Nick, etc.,
I'm sorry about being so wrapped up in myself the last few months. I care about all of you a great deal, and I'm sorry if my inability to deal with my own situation frustrated you or made you think less of me. You are all incredible people, not just for who you are and the friends you are, but because of your compassion, your grace, your belief in me and everyone around you. I can never thank you enough for all you've done to help me in this time.
To John,
I'm sorry about the clearly untenable situation I've put you in so often lately. I know that I've been too needy, too clinging, because, well, you've had to be my confidant when you didn't want to be. I'm sorry about asking so often, about not being a real friend when you have a life too. Thank you so much for the way you have helped me through this time, and I'm sorry I didn't do this til now.
To my family,
I'm sorry about being so distant, about not working on the things I should have been because I've been too wrapped up in myself. Obviously its been difficult the last few months with everything, and my feeling sorry for myself has not helped anything. I will do my best to be a better son, brother, grandchild and whatever else from now on.
Most importantly,
To Karen Marie Steeno,
I'm sorry about the way I've treated you these last few months. I have been scared, frustrated and confused, emotions that have hurt my bid to recover and move on, so that we can try to be friends again. I have have fouled up time and time again and I've done you wrong, because you shouldn't be having to worry about me right now. I am doing my best to work on the things I was lacking, the maturity, the life skills, the self-awareness. Thank you for being the most wonderful person to ever be in my life, for changing my heart, for being good to me. You did what you felt you had to do, and I'm sorry if I've made you feel guilty about doing what was best for yourself. I hope that someday soon, we can have our friendship again, and that I will grow to be the man you thought I could be.
Thank you for sitting through that, the Butch Davis rant will come tomorrow, in case you really care.
Friday, June 18, 2004
Listening...and Why the Browns stink
I just finished my reviewing the arts class. We got our theater reviews back, I didn't do as well as I thought, but I will be able to work on it to go for a better grade, not that anyone really cares, I just thought I'd actually tell you, dear readers, what happened.
We did an exercise where we just sat and listened to the sounds that surrounded us. We all did this individually during our lunchbreak. I hadn't really listened like this in a while, especially the last few months, I've been busy and too self-absorbed to really stop and listen to the sounds of the city. It was really interesting to hear the way the cars cut through the air, the way the brakes squealed, that sort of thing.
As most people who know me well realize, my NFL fanness (I know I just made that word up) is divided between the Lions and the Browns. John already gave his take on the Packers getting Couch, so here's my feelings from the other side. The Browns, when they were originally constructed were in a difficultposition. Obviously, the city of Cleveland had been hungering for football ever since Modell moved the team, and in the intervening non-football years, both Carolina and Jacksonville's expansion teams had done extremely well very quickly. The Browns brought in Carmen Policy and Dwight Clark, who had experience building the 49er's dynasty, and so we thought everything would be ok. However, after that every move they made has just seemed to be a mistake. They hired Chris Palmer, who had been a coordiantor with the Jaguars as their first head coach. Frankly, for everyone who watched and commented on how lousy Marty Morninwheg was with the Lions, Palmer was basically just as bad. They had no line and when the front office put together the team, they failed to take advantage of the natural advantages they had, as far as free agency, the Browns didn't get one player in either FA or the expansion draft that made people say "wow". Still, the biggest mistake was the decision to take Tim Couch with the #1 pick in the 1999 draft. Compounding this mistake was that the debate in the Browns front office was vbetween Couch and Akili Smith, who had one good season at Oregon before becoming one of the worst busts ever as a pro. Couch had a lot of the things that make you wary of taking a quarterback high, but the Browns did anyway. He was a "system" quarterback, Kentucky threw all the time and threw short passes that relied on recievers to make long runs to gain yardage, this is a system that doesn't usually translate into producing NFL QB's (see Ware, Andre, Klingler, David, and Kingsbury, Kliff). The second quarterback chosen that year was not Smith, instead it was the one out of Syracuse, Donovan F. McNabb, who has appeared in three NFC title games and made some of the more amazing plays of the last few years made by quarterbacks.
Then came the hiring of Butch Davis...but I'll get to that monday
Have a good weekend everyone
I just finished my reviewing the arts class. We got our theater reviews back, I didn't do as well as I thought, but I will be able to work on it to go for a better grade, not that anyone really cares, I just thought I'd actually tell you, dear readers, what happened.
We did an exercise where we just sat and listened to the sounds that surrounded us. We all did this individually during our lunchbreak. I hadn't really listened like this in a while, especially the last few months, I've been busy and too self-absorbed to really stop and listen to the sounds of the city. It was really interesting to hear the way the cars cut through the air, the way the brakes squealed, that sort of thing.
As most people who know me well realize, my NFL fanness (I know I just made that word up) is divided between the Lions and the Browns. John already gave his take on the Packers getting Couch, so here's my feelings from the other side. The Browns, when they were originally constructed were in a difficultposition. Obviously, the city of Cleveland had been hungering for football ever since Modell moved the team, and in the intervening non-football years, both Carolina and Jacksonville's expansion teams had done extremely well very quickly. The Browns brought in Carmen Policy and Dwight Clark, who had experience building the 49er's dynasty, and so we thought everything would be ok. However, after that every move they made has just seemed to be a mistake. They hired Chris Palmer, who had been a coordiantor with the Jaguars as their first head coach. Frankly, for everyone who watched and commented on how lousy Marty Morninwheg was with the Lions, Palmer was basically just as bad. They had no line and when the front office put together the team, they failed to take advantage of the natural advantages they had, as far as free agency, the Browns didn't get one player in either FA or the expansion draft that made people say "wow". Still, the biggest mistake was the decision to take Tim Couch with the #1 pick in the 1999 draft. Compounding this mistake was that the debate in the Browns front office was vbetween Couch and Akili Smith, who had one good season at Oregon before becoming one of the worst busts ever as a pro. Couch had a lot of the things that make you wary of taking a quarterback high, but the Browns did anyway. He was a "system" quarterback, Kentucky threw all the time and threw short passes that relied on recievers to make long runs to gain yardage, this is a system that doesn't usually translate into producing NFL QB's (see Ware, Andre, Klingler, David, and Kingsbury, Kliff). The second quarterback chosen that year was not Smith, instead it was the one out of Syracuse, Donovan F. McNabb, who has appeared in three NFC title games and made some of the more amazing plays of the last few years made by quarterbacks.
Then came the hiring of Butch Davis...but I'll get to that monday
Have a good weekend everyone
Thursday, June 17, 2004
The 'Stones, Saddam, and the use of torture
I just had my fourth, I think fourth, session. I'm going to have to change times soon, because my class in the B session, which goes from the start of July to mid-August, was cancelled, and I've been placed in a similar class downtown. This means I won't have to drive after the 4th, except for when I'm going home. In my session we talked a lot about my family, and about my abhorrence for confrontation.
A lot of people have been talking about where the Pistons go from here, or where they rank. I feel like they will probably be the New Jersey Devils of the NBA, they will always be there, and they will probably will a few titles, but probably not be considered a Dynasty. If you look at the Pistons, the easy comparisons are to the teams that won titles in the 70's, sort of cvollections of talented but underrated players who play together. Will they be the greatest dynasty ever? No, but that doesn't matter. The team, and the title are still incredibly special, especially when you consider the state the franchise was in only a few years ago.
I remember about a year ago, when we couldn't find the WMD's, that some thought that e had found them, but that the announcement would wait until before the election. Obviously, this has proven not to be the case. Now the administration is doing something similar with the Saddam/Bin Laden link. They are now saying there were contacts, which the 9/11 commission says there were, but not nearly the kind of contacts that they said existed. They implied the Saddam was one of the principal backers of Al-Qaeda and that the two were almost married to each other. Obviously, if anyone knows the facts about the two, this is not the case. Bin Laden saw Iraq, a secular state and enemy of theocratic Iran, as a bad thing, the kind of government that would be toppled when Radical Islam took hold across the Mid East. Saddam feared Al Qaeda, in fact the meetings that operatives had didn't lead anywhere because the two sides could not get along.
The memo stories are just getting worse. It's obvious that higher-up's were trying to find ways to get around international treaties banning torture, this is really making me, and should make everyone who cares about our standing in the world, sick.
John is off to BR for the weekend, I hope you have a good time John, and say hi to everyone for me.
I'll post again tomorrow, promise.
I just had my fourth, I think fourth, session. I'm going to have to change times soon, because my class in the B session, which goes from the start of July to mid-August, was cancelled, and I've been placed in a similar class downtown. This means I won't have to drive after the 4th, except for when I'm going home. In my session we talked a lot about my family, and about my abhorrence for confrontation.
A lot of people have been talking about where the Pistons go from here, or where they rank. I feel like they will probably be the New Jersey Devils of the NBA, they will always be there, and they will probably will a few titles, but probably not be considered a Dynasty. If you look at the Pistons, the easy comparisons are to the teams that won titles in the 70's, sort of cvollections of talented but underrated players who play together. Will they be the greatest dynasty ever? No, but that doesn't matter. The team, and the title are still incredibly special, especially when you consider the state the franchise was in only a few years ago.
I remember about a year ago, when we couldn't find the WMD's, that some thought that e had found them, but that the announcement would wait until before the election. Obviously, this has proven not to be the case. Now the administration is doing something similar with the Saddam/Bin Laden link. They are now saying there were contacts, which the 9/11 commission says there were, but not nearly the kind of contacts that they said existed. They implied the Saddam was one of the principal backers of Al-Qaeda and that the two were almost married to each other. Obviously, if anyone knows the facts about the two, this is not the case. Bin Laden saw Iraq, a secular state and enemy of theocratic Iran, as a bad thing, the kind of government that would be toppled when Radical Islam took hold across the Mid East. Saddam feared Al Qaeda, in fact the meetings that operatives had didn't lead anywhere because the two sides could not get along.
The memo stories are just getting worse. It's obvious that higher-up's were trying to find ways to get around international treaties banning torture, this is really making me, and should make everyone who cares about our standing in the world, sick.
John is off to BR for the weekend, I hope you have a good time John, and say hi to everyone for me.
I'll post again tomorrow, promise.
Tuesday, June 15, 2004
First, we lost a true giant of sports writing a couple of days ago when Ralph Wiley passed away at 52. Check out the tribute to him at ESPN.com's Page 2(it's linked on this page at "the mothership". In addition to the way he wrote and how he inspired a generation of black journalists including Wilbon, Jason Whitlock, Stephen A. Smith and others, Wiley's writings taught me a lot about basketball, boxing and the craft of writing itself. If you read some of his work, like this, where he understands a week and a half before the finals started, what would happen between the Lakers and Detroit. May his family, friends and peers be comforted in this time.
Did anyone catch the glowing things GWB said about Bill Clinton yesterday at the unveiling of Clinton's portrait? I wonder, seriously, if this might damage him with some of the fringe members of the Clinton-loathing right, enough, perhaps to cost him a few hundred or thousand votes in states like Arkansas, Missouri or Florida.
Obviously tonight's game is big. We'll see what happens, the first quarter should tell us how the game will go. If there is a big Laker run, we may still have a series, if it is close, like last game, look for the third quarter to decide it, and if the Pistons get up early...
I need to point out a couple more things, one, Colin Cowherd, the guy ESPN Radio got to replace Kornheiser when he decided to stop doing radio, is a hack. He admits to openly rooting for the Lakers, making him about the only national radio figure to be doing so, judging by the shows I hear at night, and has continually ripped on the Pistons since before the series began. He has said the Pistons would roll over, that they played a "greco-roman" style of basketball, that they're winning would put an end to basketball as a beautiful game. Lately, with the Pistons in command, he has set about calling them the "worst NBA champion of the last 25 years". Obviously, he is a putz, not as clahssic as Mr. Tony and basically just one step above Jim Rome.
George Bush went to Rome last week, and met with the Pope. While there, he seems to have approached some of the top officials at the Vatican, if not the Pope himself, about the American bishops " complained that the U.S. bishops were not being vocal enough in supporting [Bush] on social issues like gay marriage, and abortion," a Vatican official privy to the discussion said. (CNN) Ok, I unerstand the Karl Rove thinks he can woo Catholic voters by pressing the differences between John Kerry and the church on issues like, and probably almost exclusively, abortion. We have had Catholics of both parties run for office and support abortion. Jennifer Granholm did, though her home parish, our Lady of Good Counsel in Plymouth, was picketed by the usual anti-abortion folks, and shescewered by the Monaghan people for taking communion. But that was a state campaign, and relatively few people cared about it. Now, with bishops publicly saying they would deny Kerry communion, as well as groups like the rainbow sash people in Chicago, being denied communion because of their disagreement with the church on issues, we face the real possibility as a church of becoming intertwined with politics. I have always believed that my Catholicism made me a liberal, that Christ's concerns about social justice and the needs of the poor pointed naturally to concern for them and their issues. Others, including many of my high school classmates and their families, see it differently. But that is a point to be debated. For the hierarchy of the Catholic church, who have about the same moral authority as the guy in the trenchcoat in the back row of a movie theatre right now, to make judgements about whether the average American Catholic, who does disagree with church teaching on abortion, contraception and the ordination of women, let alone politicians is absurd. The righties are really opening up a can of worms because they don't understand the Catholic electorate. We do NOT act as a unified group, we tend to vote the way everyone else does. But by targeting Kerry, by making political statements and turning the most sacred act of faith, the transubstantiation of the Eucharist and the act of communion, into a political issue will only drive more Catholics, fed up with the Church leadership, to John Kerry, as it should.
As the Bush crowd worked shamelessly last week to wrap their man in the holy shroud of Ronald Reagan, the dead president's son, Ron Reagan, delivered an eloquent eulogy that discreetly signaled his conviction that Bush is no Reagan. "Dad was ... a deeply, unabashedly religious man. But he never made the fatal mistake of so many politicians wearing his faith on his sleeve to gain political advantage," said Reagan at the burial service for his father on Friday, and there was no mistaking the meaning of his words.
Did anyone catch the glowing things GWB said about Bill Clinton yesterday at the unveiling of Clinton's portrait? I wonder, seriously, if this might damage him with some of the fringe members of the Clinton-loathing right, enough, perhaps to cost him a few hundred or thousand votes in states like Arkansas, Missouri or Florida.
Obviously tonight's game is big. We'll see what happens, the first quarter should tell us how the game will go. If there is a big Laker run, we may still have a series, if it is close, like last game, look for the third quarter to decide it, and if the Pistons get up early...
I need to point out a couple more things, one, Colin Cowherd, the guy ESPN Radio got to replace Kornheiser when he decided to stop doing radio, is a hack. He admits to openly rooting for the Lakers, making him about the only national radio figure to be doing so, judging by the shows I hear at night, and has continually ripped on the Pistons since before the series began. He has said the Pistons would roll over, that they played a "greco-roman" style of basketball, that they're winning would put an end to basketball as a beautiful game. Lately, with the Pistons in command, he has set about calling them the "worst NBA champion of the last 25 years". Obviously, he is a putz, not as clahssic as Mr. Tony and basically just one step above Jim Rome.
George Bush went to Rome last week, and met with the Pope. While there, he seems to have approached some of the top officials at the Vatican, if not the Pope himself, about the American bishops " complained that the U.S. bishops were not being vocal enough in supporting [Bush] on social issues like gay marriage, and abortion," a Vatican official privy to the discussion said. (CNN) Ok, I unerstand the Karl Rove thinks he can woo Catholic voters by pressing the differences between John Kerry and the church on issues like, and probably almost exclusively, abortion. We have had Catholics of both parties run for office and support abortion. Jennifer Granholm did, though her home parish, our Lady of Good Counsel in Plymouth, was picketed by the usual anti-abortion folks, and shescewered by the Monaghan people for taking communion. But that was a state campaign, and relatively few people cared about it. Now, with bishops publicly saying they would deny Kerry communion, as well as groups like the rainbow sash people in Chicago, being denied communion because of their disagreement with the church on issues, we face the real possibility as a church of becoming intertwined with politics. I have always believed that my Catholicism made me a liberal, that Christ's concerns about social justice and the needs of the poor pointed naturally to concern for them and their issues. Others, including many of my high school classmates and their families, see it differently. But that is a point to be debated. For the hierarchy of the Catholic church, who have about the same moral authority as the guy in the trenchcoat in the back row of a movie theatre right now, to make judgements about whether the average American Catholic, who does disagree with church teaching on abortion, contraception and the ordination of women, let alone politicians is absurd. The righties are really opening up a can of worms because they don't understand the Catholic electorate. We do NOT act as a unified group, we tend to vote the way everyone else does. But by targeting Kerry, by making political statements and turning the most sacred act of faith, the transubstantiation of the Eucharist and the act of communion, into a political issue will only drive more Catholics, fed up with the Church leadership, to John Kerry, as it should.
As the Bush crowd worked shamelessly last week to wrap their man in the holy shroud of Ronald Reagan, the dead president's son, Ron Reagan, delivered an eloquent eulogy that discreetly signaled his conviction that Bush is no Reagan. "Dad was ... a deeply, unabashedly religious man. But he never made the fatal mistake of so many politicians wearing his faith on his sleeve to gain political advantage," said Reagan at the burial service for his father on Friday, and there was no mistaking the meaning of his words.
Monday, June 14, 2004
Sorry about the length between posts, but I don't have the internet on weekends and thursday and friday were a little crazy for me.
Couple of things... Obviously the Pistons have completely destroyed any semblance of Laker invincibility and inevitability with the way they have frustrated the Lakers, especially Kobe Bryant. Bill Plaschke made the point in the LA Times today that the fact that Shaq did not have 50 last night cost the Lakers the game, and the person most responsible for that was Bryant. Credit Larry Brown for single covering Shaq, he is dominant, and you can't help that. But Shaq is a very good passer from the post, and if he's facing constant double teams, he can find people open very easily. But Shaq becomes more dominant if you think he's going to dominate, and you make special efforts to curtail that dominance, which you can't prevent anyway. What the Pistons have done is make Kobe a volume shooter, forcing him to take as many, or more shots, as he has points. Kobe is selfish and stubborn, and therefore just keeps putting up shots, while Shaq just sits down low, waiting to score. The Pistons offense was something I don't think anyone was prepared for, especially with the scores of the Eastern conference finals. But the East and West play different styles, and so the Pistons offense is far freer facing a Western team than it was facing Eastern ones. The reason the Nets were slaughtered the last two years is that they played Western style basketball, and the Western teams were ready for it.
The Reagan stuff. Ok, I realize every liberal has had their say as to why he is undeserving of the kind of canonization RWR has been receiving lately. I will boil it down to two reasons why I feel he isn't, AIDS and South Africa. Obviously, much ink has been spilled on ho Reagan ignored the AIDS crisis and did not publicly acknowledge it for several years after it was a known illness. In the meantime, thousands died and millions were infected. Reagan prominently supported the white government of South Africa in the 80's when much of the world was condemning apartheid. Reagan advocated tha we lift sanctions, vetoing a Senate bill that would have placed sanctions on the nation. The veto was overturned. Understand it takes 2/3, 67 senators to do this, it never happens, except here.
The dollar issue: Reagan shouldn't be on any currency. I realize that people are pushing for people to put him on the ten, but come on, did he really do more for the nation than Alexander Hamilton did? If you must put him on something, put him on the 2, its rarely used, Jefferson already has the Nickel, and the R's can have their prize and Democrats save face. This does however lead me to one complaint, that Chief Justice John Marshall, the man the made the Supreme Court the powerful entity that it is, is not on any currency. Perhaps the next dollar coin should have Marshall, with the Supreme court of the reverse side. I feel this would pay tribute to a man long ignored for his contributions to American government.
Couple of things... Obviously the Pistons have completely destroyed any semblance of Laker invincibility and inevitability with the way they have frustrated the Lakers, especially Kobe Bryant. Bill Plaschke made the point in the LA Times today that the fact that Shaq did not have 50 last night cost the Lakers the game, and the person most responsible for that was Bryant. Credit Larry Brown for single covering Shaq, he is dominant, and you can't help that. But Shaq is a very good passer from the post, and if he's facing constant double teams, he can find people open very easily. But Shaq becomes more dominant if you think he's going to dominate, and you make special efforts to curtail that dominance, which you can't prevent anyway. What the Pistons have done is make Kobe a volume shooter, forcing him to take as many, or more shots, as he has points. Kobe is selfish and stubborn, and therefore just keeps putting up shots, while Shaq just sits down low, waiting to score. The Pistons offense was something I don't think anyone was prepared for, especially with the scores of the Eastern conference finals. But the East and West play different styles, and so the Pistons offense is far freer facing a Western team than it was facing Eastern ones. The reason the Nets were slaughtered the last two years is that they played Western style basketball, and the Western teams were ready for it.
The Reagan stuff. Ok, I realize every liberal has had their say as to why he is undeserving of the kind of canonization RWR has been receiving lately. I will boil it down to two reasons why I feel he isn't, AIDS and South Africa. Obviously, much ink has been spilled on ho Reagan ignored the AIDS crisis and did not publicly acknowledge it for several years after it was a known illness. In the meantime, thousands died and millions were infected. Reagan prominently supported the white government of South Africa in the 80's when much of the world was condemning apartheid. Reagan advocated tha we lift sanctions, vetoing a Senate bill that would have placed sanctions on the nation. The veto was overturned. Understand it takes 2/3, 67 senators to do this, it never happens, except here.
The dollar issue: Reagan shouldn't be on any currency. I realize that people are pushing for people to put him on the ten, but come on, did he really do more for the nation than Alexander Hamilton did? If you must put him on something, put him on the 2, its rarely used, Jefferson already has the Nickel, and the R's can have their prize and Democrats save face. This does however lead me to one complaint, that Chief Justice John Marshall, the man the made the Supreme Court the powerful entity that it is, is not on any currency. Perhaps the next dollar coin should have Marshall, with the Supreme court of the reverse side. I feel this would pay tribute to a man long ignored for his contributions to American government.
Wednesday, June 09, 2004
Ok, here's the thing about what happened last night. I felt like I was hit in the gut, I seriously knew the minute Bryant got the ball that he was going to make the shot. I was surprised that the Pistons couldn't get anything better with more than 2 seconds left on the clock. There are just certain teams I hate, and this Laker team has always been one of them, dating back to when Shaq and Kobe first got there and there seemed to be this sense of entitlement about them. By the way, does anyone who actually calls a game remember that Bryant is potentially going to be on trial for rape, and has admitted adultery? I realize that I'm old fashioned in this regard, but I find adulterers to be one step above rapists and child molesters on the scale of who the worst type's of people are. I realize that there are degrees of adultery, ie, your wife has terminal cancer and is a vegetable is not as bad, as say, Scott Peterson cheating on his pregnant wife, but still its wrong. Its why I rarely have sympathy for those who cheat on their bf/gf and then breakup, they deserved to get caught, they violated a trust. If are a spouse, you made a contract before God, or the state, that this would be the person you would devote your life to. That's a thing not to be trifled with, let alone tossed off like an empty liquor bottle when it suits you.
Sorry, I really don't know where that came from.
Anyone who reads this and is interested in politics/gossip should click on the link I added yesterday for Wonkette. Its a really dishy political gossip site that's fun to read.
Anyone with suggestions for a play can email, and please do, I'm not sure what to write about so any help would be appreciated, just don't do anything silly like this guy.
I just wanted to post some thoughts on who Kerry's Veep choice SHOULD be, since the campaign has been not at the top of the news cycle this week with RWR's passing. I know a lot of people are saying it looks good for Edwards, because Kerry has him going around raising money right now, and I saw in the Sun-Times today that Tom Vilsack, the governor of Iowa is being considered. Both have obvious appeals, Edwards because he's an optimistic character and potentially would look good contrasted with Dick Cheney, and Vilsack because Iowa is an important swing state. Gephardt would bring union votes, but probably not Missouri. Let me argue hard for someone else, however. John Lewis is a congressman from Georgia who worked with the SCLC and Dr. King in the 60's. He's a veteran of the civil rights era who has gone on to serve hi constituents in Congress. Josh Marshall makes a good point about the way the black vote is an automatic for the Democrats. My opinion is, if you look at the people maddest at Bush, you have the intellectual Left, the anti-war people, unions, military families, obvious groups that will turn out heavily in November. I would argue that putting a real hero like Rep. Lewis on the ticket would turn out millions of new voters, including Hispanics to the Democratic side, and that could mean the difference in states like Ohio, Michigan, Nevada, Missouri, Florida or Georgia. Contrasted with the Bush team, Lewis has real accomplishments and has spent a lifetime fighting discrimination and intolerance, just the message the Dems need against the ticket that wants to write discrimination into the Constitution.
Sorry, I really don't know where that came from.
Anyone who reads this and is interested in politics/gossip should click on the link I added yesterday for Wonkette. Its a really dishy political gossip site that's fun to read.
Anyone with suggestions for a play can email, and please do, I'm not sure what to write about so any help would be appreciated, just don't do anything silly like this guy.
I just wanted to post some thoughts on who Kerry's Veep choice SHOULD be, since the campaign has been not at the top of the news cycle this week with RWR's passing. I know a lot of people are saying it looks good for Edwards, because Kerry has him going around raising money right now, and I saw in the Sun-Times today that Tom Vilsack, the governor of Iowa is being considered. Both have obvious appeals, Edwards because he's an optimistic character and potentially would look good contrasted with Dick Cheney, and Vilsack because Iowa is an important swing state. Gephardt would bring union votes, but probably not Missouri. Let me argue hard for someone else, however. John Lewis is a congressman from Georgia who worked with the SCLC and Dr. King in the 60's. He's a veteran of the civil rights era who has gone on to serve hi constituents in Congress. Josh Marshall makes a good point about the way the black vote is an automatic for the Democrats. My opinion is, if you look at the people maddest at Bush, you have the intellectual Left, the anti-war people, unions, military families, obvious groups that will turn out heavily in November. I would argue that putting a real hero like Rep. Lewis on the ticket would turn out millions of new voters, including Hispanics to the Democratic side, and that could mean the difference in states like Ohio, Michigan, Nevada, Missouri, Florida or Georgia. Contrasted with the Bush team, Lewis has real accomplishments and has spent a lifetime fighting discrimination and intolerance, just the message the Dems need against the ticket that wants to write discrimination into the Constitution.
Monday, June 07, 2004
Obviously the big story of the weekend was the death of Ronald Reagan. We've heard a lot over the past two days about how Reagan made the country feel good about itself again and how he changed American politics. It's difficult for me, or anyone of a similar age to mine to judge the former, simply because we didn't live through it. Obviously, the cumulative effects of the long defeat in Vietnam, the embarrassment and corruption of Watergate and the Nixon administration (remember, Gerald Ford was appointed VP because Spiro Agnew was a common grafter, and was as Vice-President, never trust Maryland politicians), and then having the joy of the bicentennial counteracted by oil shortages and the taking of hostages in Iran had America down. Reagan's brand of conservatism, equal parts Goldwater's western libertarianism, John Birch Society type anti-communism, and an appeal to evangelical Southern Christians did seem rosier and genuinely more appealing than the malaise of Jimmy Carter or the depressing style liberalism of Walter Mondale. The "It's Morning in America" Spot is still one of the great ads ever done. Obviously, Reagan was the Great Communicator" and most people genuinely thought him a good man, on both sides of the aisle.
On the other hand, Reagan brought to Washington a new kind of conservative. The kind of conservatives who worship Reagan today because he did everything they would love to do, project American power through bombings and invasions (Libya and Grenada), lower taxes AND increase spending on defense, and cut sopcial welfare programs. George Bush has onsciously tried to emulate Reagan more than his father. Bush 41 was never trusted by conservatives, he was from the northeast, went to Yale, seemed a member of the eastern establishment they so hated. When Bush failed to do what the conservatives wanted, they simply stayed home in 1992, or voted for Perot. Bush 43 has done nothing but appeal to the religious right, perhaps alienating many Republicans more concerned with fiscal discipline than the end times.
Reagan was a good man, and probably history will remember him as a good, but not great president. He will be credited, unjustly, with winning the Cold War, though he only continued a policy begun with Truman and pursued by every president afterwards. He created huge deficits. But he did inject a sense of optimism into the country when it needed it.
The Pistons win last night was surprising, especially because of the way they did it in the second half. The Lakers have won their series by winning the third quarter, either taking teams out or erasing leads and taking them in the fourth. Larry Brown brilliantly realized that Kobe and Shaq will score, and its very difficult to stop that What they can do is make Kobe a volume-scorer, force him to put up as many shots as he gets points, and stopping everyone else. No other Laker scored more than 5 last night, and the other Lakers had a total of 16 points, that is insanely good defense on everyone else. They have no answer for Shaq, but that's probably ok, so long as the supporting cast is kept in check.
I saw a rather odd play yesterday for my reviewing the Arts class. It featured lots of very short scenes in this young Chicago man's apartment, and the various people in his life. The problem was that none of the characters weren't very well developed because of the style of the show, and because we only saw the main character against all these other characters, we ended up not really caring about him very much.
I will leave you with the following thoughts:
"Von Braun developed the V-2 during World War II for Hitler, emigrated to the USA to create rockets for NASA, and became something of national hero in the space agency's heyday of the 1960s. Mort Sahl once quipped that von Braun's autobiography 'I Aimed For the Stars' should have been subtitled "but Sometimes I Hit London."
Rank
Team
Win
Loss
Tie Games Pct. PF
PA
Delta
1
Michigan
833
274
38
1145
0.744
27898
11774
16124
2
Notre Dame (IN)
796
258
41
1095
0.746
27391
12631
14760
On the other hand, Reagan brought to Washington a new kind of conservative. The kind of conservatives who worship Reagan today because he did everything they would love to do, project American power through bombings and invasions (Libya and Grenada), lower taxes AND increase spending on defense, and cut sopcial welfare programs. George Bush has onsciously tried to emulate Reagan more than his father. Bush 41 was never trusted by conservatives, he was from the northeast, went to Yale, seemed a member of the eastern establishment they so hated. When Bush failed to do what the conservatives wanted, they simply stayed home in 1992, or voted for Perot. Bush 43 has done nothing but appeal to the religious right, perhaps alienating many Republicans more concerned with fiscal discipline than the end times.
Reagan was a good man, and probably history will remember him as a good, but not great president. He will be credited, unjustly, with winning the Cold War, though he only continued a policy begun with Truman and pursued by every president afterwards. He created huge deficits. But he did inject a sense of optimism into the country when it needed it.
The Pistons win last night was surprising, especially because of the way they did it in the second half. The Lakers have won their series by winning the third quarter, either taking teams out or erasing leads and taking them in the fourth. Larry Brown brilliantly realized that Kobe and Shaq will score, and its very difficult to stop that What they can do is make Kobe a volume-scorer, force him to put up as many shots as he gets points, and stopping everyone else. No other Laker scored more than 5 last night, and the other Lakers had a total of 16 points, that is insanely good defense on everyone else. They have no answer for Shaq, but that's probably ok, so long as the supporting cast is kept in check.
I saw a rather odd play yesterday for my reviewing the Arts class. It featured lots of very short scenes in this young Chicago man's apartment, and the various people in his life. The problem was that none of the characters weren't very well developed because of the style of the show, and because we only saw the main character against all these other characters, we ended up not really caring about him very much.
I will leave you with the following thoughts:
"Von Braun developed the V-2 during World War II for Hitler, emigrated to the USA to create rockets for NASA, and became something of national hero in the space agency's heyday of the 1960s. Mort Sahl once quipped that von Braun's autobiography 'I Aimed For the Stars' should have been subtitled "but Sometimes I Hit London."
Rank
Team
Win
Loss
Tie Games Pct. PF
PA
Delta
1
Michigan
833
274
38
1145
0.744
27898
11774
16124
2
Notre Dame (IN)
796
258
41
1095
0.746
27391
12631
14760
Thursday, June 03, 2004
Just finished my second session, I talked a lot about myself and my own insecurities and how they've made me the man I am today. Afterwards, I heard the always bright tones of the voice of Mrs. Susan Southard, which as always, brought a smile to my face.
George Tenet resigned today, as I am sure you are all aware, citing personal reasons. I do know that Al Gore called for his resignation a week ago at his speech that has been taken way out of context by the right wing and their media outlets. The speech was for the most part very calm and cerebral. I don't mind Al Gore being upset and shouting, I don't question his sanity as the right wing does in an attempt to marginalize his views. Do I think he's bitter about 2000? Yes, but then he likely has a right to be. He knows that with him as President, we likely would still have had September 11th, but the response, and the way we have used the good will of the world, would have been far more tempered and even handed. I've seen other speech makers do far worse.
The PBS station in Chicago has a wonderful nightly program called "Chicago Tonight" which runs for an hour at 7. Every PBS station in the country that can afford to should consider doing something like this, because a long form show like this can really explore issues that the commercial stations won't discuss. Last night the show featured a panel discussing the senate campaign in Illinois. It featured a higher up from both the Ryan and Obama camps, as well as a veteran journalist, all being interviewed by Phil Ponce, who does a very good job moderating these discussions. I don't know how many of you from not Illinois saw this, but the Jack Ryan campaign has a man who follows Obama's every public step, up to the men's bathroom. The Ryan campaign is hoping to get inconsistencies from Obama in terms of what he says "in Springfield and in Chicago". The aide has a small digital camera, its really quite weird. Obama has taken to asking people if they would like to meet his stalker.
I'm telling you about this to illustrate one thing. This is really stupid. Jack Ryan has a bunch of things going right for him, he's young, good looking, has a good story (he left his investment firm to teach at a South Side High School), and is very rich. But he also has some things going against him. He has mysteriously sealed divorce records from his marriage to Jeri Ryan (by the way...YOU WERE MARRIED TO MARRY TO JERI RYAN AND GOT DIVORCED? HOW F****** STUPID ARE YOU?)George Ryan was the last governor and has been indicted on charges of patronage, and the last name might make people wary in a statewide race. More than anything though, Ryan is very conservative in an increasingly Democratic state. The senator that Barack Obama and Ryan are running to replace, Peter Fitzgerald, is a Republican, but he's more liberal on a lot of issues that the standard Senate Republican. I don't believe a conservative like Ryan can win in Illinois. Even if he gets 75% of the vote downstate, he still will lose huge in Chicago, just because of the R next to his name. The Tribune poll last night had a figure of 52% to 30% for Obama with the rest undecided. That means that if all the undecideds went to Ryan, he still would not win. The defense the Ryan man made was that it was early, and maybe the support for Obama was soft. But...both candidates had to face primary battles. Each are known to a lot of people because they saw them on TV early. Obama got more votes in the Democratic primary than all the Republicans put together got in their's. Ryan is a desperate man doing desperate things. I really think he has a bright future, just not here. Obama has too much star power, to much appeal to blow it. And Jack Ryan being an idiot doesn't help him at all.
George Tenet resigned today, as I am sure you are all aware, citing personal reasons. I do know that Al Gore called for his resignation a week ago at his speech that has been taken way out of context by the right wing and their media outlets. The speech was for the most part very calm and cerebral. I don't mind Al Gore being upset and shouting, I don't question his sanity as the right wing does in an attempt to marginalize his views. Do I think he's bitter about 2000? Yes, but then he likely has a right to be. He knows that with him as President, we likely would still have had September 11th, but the response, and the way we have used the good will of the world, would have been far more tempered and even handed. I've seen other speech makers do far worse.
The PBS station in Chicago has a wonderful nightly program called "Chicago Tonight" which runs for an hour at 7. Every PBS station in the country that can afford to should consider doing something like this, because a long form show like this can really explore issues that the commercial stations won't discuss. Last night the show featured a panel discussing the senate campaign in Illinois. It featured a higher up from both the Ryan and Obama camps, as well as a veteran journalist, all being interviewed by Phil Ponce, who does a very good job moderating these discussions. I don't know how many of you from not Illinois saw this, but the Jack Ryan campaign has a man who follows Obama's every public step, up to the men's bathroom. The Ryan campaign is hoping to get inconsistencies from Obama in terms of what he says "in Springfield and in Chicago". The aide has a small digital camera, its really quite weird. Obama has taken to asking people if they would like to meet his stalker.
I'm telling you about this to illustrate one thing. This is really stupid. Jack Ryan has a bunch of things going right for him, he's young, good looking, has a good story (he left his investment firm to teach at a South Side High School), and is very rich. But he also has some things going against him. He has mysteriously sealed divorce records from his marriage to Jeri Ryan (by the way...YOU WERE MARRIED TO MARRY TO JERI RYAN AND GOT DIVORCED? HOW F****** STUPID ARE YOU?)George Ryan was the last governor and has been indicted on charges of patronage, and the last name might make people wary in a statewide race. More than anything though, Ryan is very conservative in an increasingly Democratic state. The senator that Barack Obama and Ryan are running to replace, Peter Fitzgerald, is a Republican, but he's more liberal on a lot of issues that the standard Senate Republican. I don't believe a conservative like Ryan can win in Illinois. Even if he gets 75% of the vote downstate, he still will lose huge in Chicago, just because of the R next to his name. The Tribune poll last night had a figure of 52% to 30% for Obama with the rest undecided. That means that if all the undecideds went to Ryan, he still would not win. The defense the Ryan man made was that it was early, and maybe the support for Obama was soft. But...both candidates had to face primary battles. Each are known to a lot of people because they saw them on TV early. Obama got more votes in the Democratic primary than all the Republicans put together got in their's. Ryan is a desperate man doing desperate things. I really think he has a bright future, just not here. Obama has too much star power, to much appeal to blow it. And Jack Ryan being an idiot doesn't help him at all.
Wednesday, June 02, 2004
Ok, so the Pistons won last night, getting back to the finals for the first time since beating Portland in 1990. Was it ugly? Good lord yes. The fact that neither team reached 70 makes it very easy for pundits and others nationwide to dismiss the Pistons chances against the Lakers. While I don't think they will win the series, many people are predicting an easy sweep or a quick five game series. Frankly, I don't see it. The two teams played two relatively tight games in the regular season, both when the Lakers had the big 4 at the same time. Here's how I see the series breaking down:
The key for the Pistons to have any shot at winning the series is Chauncey Billups. In both games against the Lakers this year, he was the leading scorer, and his is the only matchup that the Pistons potentially have a big advantage. Small forward is essentially a wash between Tayshaun Prince and Devean George. The other matchups, especially if you combine the two "big" positions into a sort of mish-mash the way the Pistons do, go the Lakers way. They need to try and contain Shaq, and if necessary, either employ the Hack-a-Shaq or offer little resistance to him to score most times he gets the ball down near the basket and a shot can't be contested, disrupting the other player's offensive flow. Billups needs to take advantage of Payton's declining defense, assuming that he is being Guarded by Payton. Rip has to stay within 10-8 points of Kobe's total, hoping that Rip's style of play will tire Kobe in the 4th quarter. The Pistons should be able to limit the contributions of the Lakers role players offensively, and I am including Malone and Payton in that group. The team needs Billups to come up big, to be an offensive option that will open up the floor for Rasheed and Rip. He needs to hit his shots. Prince needs to outplay Devean George, and I think he is capable of doing so. But I still think the star power of the Lakers will be difficult to overcome.
Hopefully may problem with the Haloscan comments will be fixed soon. If you want to comment on a post just click the Comments that are already there and follow the instructions.
That's it, hopefully another good drive tomorrow. I have my second counseling session, and I will try to get more sleep after being exhausted last week.
I'll post again tomorrow, everybody be good to each other
The key for the Pistons to have any shot at winning the series is Chauncey Billups. In both games against the Lakers this year, he was the leading scorer, and his is the only matchup that the Pistons potentially have a big advantage. Small forward is essentially a wash between Tayshaun Prince and Devean George. The other matchups, especially if you combine the two "big" positions into a sort of mish-mash the way the Pistons do, go the Lakers way. They need to try and contain Shaq, and if necessary, either employ the Hack-a-Shaq or offer little resistance to him to score most times he gets the ball down near the basket and a shot can't be contested, disrupting the other player's offensive flow. Billups needs to take advantage of Payton's declining defense, assuming that he is being Guarded by Payton. Rip has to stay within 10-8 points of Kobe's total, hoping that Rip's style of play will tire Kobe in the 4th quarter. The Pistons should be able to limit the contributions of the Lakers role players offensively, and I am including Malone and Payton in that group. The team needs Billups to come up big, to be an offensive option that will open up the floor for Rasheed and Rip. He needs to hit his shots. Prince needs to outplay Devean George, and I think he is capable of doing so. But I still think the star power of the Lakers will be difficult to overcome.
Hopefully may problem with the Haloscan comments will be fixed soon. If you want to comment on a post just click the Comments that are already there and follow the instructions.
That's it, hopefully another good drive tomorrow. I have my second counseling session, and I will try to get more sleep after being exhausted last week.
I'll post again tomorrow, everybody be good to each other
Tuesday, June 01, 2004
There really hasn't been a lot to discuss about the weekend, I went back to my family's house Friday, making incredible time by the way, and then just sort of sitting artound until Sunday when we went to my Granparent's house in Cleveland. We stayed there the night, and ate breakfast in the morning, and I came back last night. That's pretty much it. I didn't have a chance to watch the Sunday morning shows, though I was able to keep up my Buffy and Angel fixes. One significant thing today that seems to have gone underreported is that a court over turned the ban on Partial birth abortion, which leads me to my rant.
My old High school, frankly, has gone insane. While I was there things seemed pretty normal. A catholic high school is a catholic High school, and while we were obviously stricter on things like dress code or language then say Community High just down the street, we were for all intents and purposes, a normal high school. Only in my senior year did things start to get a little weird. We had drug testing put in, on a sort of, "if we suspect you we'll test you basis" which seemed a bit fascist, but I guess understandable. I objected at the time, and still do, but I do understand the reasoning. After I left, and I heard my brother's stories about how almost a third of his class was either kicked out or asked not to come back after a school year, it got me to thinking that Richard may be going a bit to far. Then came two events that really set things in motion as far as the wrong people being out in front: the principal, Richard Bayhan, resigned after the diocese refused to back him after he suspended a student for giving a shaving kit to a female teacher, and the new school was built, on land donated by Tom Monaghan and kitty corner from Christ the King Parish.
I'm sure most of you know who Tom Monaghan is. He founded Domino's and later bought the Tigers. Well, he has always been a religious man. He founded missions in other countries, he built Catholic schools. And he funded Operation Rescue, the radical anti-abortion group in California. This earned him a boycott from many liberals, who refused to order from Domino's. About a decade ago, he sold Domino's, and the company that bought it, in addition the the hundreds of millions they gave him for the company, paid him an additional hundred million NOT to start another pizza chain. Needless to say, Tom Monoghan is a very rich man. And a man of deep faith. And he lives in Ann Arbor. This is not a good combination. The schools he has set up tend to be from a stricter model of Catholic education, which is different, but I suppose he knew there were people who wanted it. The troubling part comes later, when he began setting up the following things Ave Maria University, a four year school now located in Florida, Ave Maria School of Law, which is a very conservative law school set up because he believed law shools at places like Notre Dame and BC weren't "Catholic enough", and scariest of all, the Thomas More Law Center, set up to be the "Catholic" answer to the ACLU. Monaghan also gave Richard the land to build the new school on the Domino's Farms property. This was before he proposed to build the crucifix that would be taller than the statue of Liberty on the property.
Christ the King Parish is a part of Opus Dei, the conservative Catholic movement that uses evangelical worship techniques anmd holds the Bible and strict adherence to church law to be sacred cows. The kids I went to school with who attended Christ the King were always a bit more hardcore about their faith, but could also be like Mandy Moore in "Saved" the kind of Christian who uses their faith as a bludgeoning device. Well, not suprisingly, after my class left, and especially after Bayhan left in 2001, the school seemed to be virtually controlled by the Opus Dei people. They seemed, and still seem to have, a grip on the school that seems unchecked. They have the power to review what songs come on at dances, what dances are danced at dances. They have the power to see that their views are the only ones seriously taught in theology classes, and social behavior in and outside of school is regulated. This brings me to the heart of why I am ranting here.
A recent school newsletter contained a note from the Chaplain, Fr. Richard Lobert, who started at Richard the same year I did. It talked about how, with Prom season coming, parents needed to raise "their alert levels" about sexual activity by their children. They equated this alert to the one the Dept. of Homeland Security raises about terrorism. Only then did I find out about the people behind the alert being issued, the SIC (Sexual Integrity Committee), made up of mothers and other people involved in the school. They had brought in Chastity lecturers, sent home notices about other things. The group was headed by the mother of one of my high school crushes, the one that I wrote about in the play that was performed at workshops, and from which my blog now takes its name, junior year. The idea of a committee like this is scary to me for one reason: the possibility, and probability, that it would create a "Crucible" type of atmosphere around sex, and make life especially difficult for kids who might be gay. I can imagine them outing people is what I am trying to say.
This is something no one should want, obviously. I have seen what my friends have gone through, especially when it comes to mixing their sexuality and religion. I know that one person in particular had a very difficult time trying to attend and perform at chapel at Albion because certain close minded individuals did not want them to be able to. I don't want this to happen in high school. I don't want a group of religious zealots branding students with the Scarlet letter 'G' or 'W' or anything like that. I want the teens of Richard to be taught about their sexuality, to talk about it openly with their teachers and parents. They can be taught about saving it for marriage, and the great gift from God that it is, but also to understand what is going on physically, and to understand that you don't go to hell because of who you are or mistakes you have made. That isn't happening know. The board, the faculty, the PTG, it all seems overrun with zealots. I just hope this might help some of them come to their senses and breathe.
Sorry to bore you.
Jim
My old High school, frankly, has gone insane. While I was there things seemed pretty normal. A catholic high school is a catholic High school, and while we were obviously stricter on things like dress code or language then say Community High just down the street, we were for all intents and purposes, a normal high school. Only in my senior year did things start to get a little weird. We had drug testing put in, on a sort of, "if we suspect you we'll test you basis" which seemed a bit fascist, but I guess understandable. I objected at the time, and still do, but I do understand the reasoning. After I left, and I heard my brother's stories about how almost a third of his class was either kicked out or asked not to come back after a school year, it got me to thinking that Richard may be going a bit to far. Then came two events that really set things in motion as far as the wrong people being out in front: the principal, Richard Bayhan, resigned after the diocese refused to back him after he suspended a student for giving a shaving kit to a female teacher, and the new school was built, on land donated by Tom Monaghan and kitty corner from Christ the King Parish.
I'm sure most of you know who Tom Monaghan is. He founded Domino's and later bought the Tigers. Well, he has always been a religious man. He founded missions in other countries, he built Catholic schools. And he funded Operation Rescue, the radical anti-abortion group in California. This earned him a boycott from many liberals, who refused to order from Domino's. About a decade ago, he sold Domino's, and the company that bought it, in addition the the hundreds of millions they gave him for the company, paid him an additional hundred million NOT to start another pizza chain. Needless to say, Tom Monoghan is a very rich man. And a man of deep faith. And he lives in Ann Arbor. This is not a good combination. The schools he has set up tend to be from a stricter model of Catholic education, which is different, but I suppose he knew there were people who wanted it. The troubling part comes later, when he began setting up the following things Ave Maria University, a four year school now located in Florida, Ave Maria School of Law, which is a very conservative law school set up because he believed law shools at places like Notre Dame and BC weren't "Catholic enough", and scariest of all, the Thomas More Law Center, set up to be the "Catholic" answer to the ACLU. Monaghan also gave Richard the land to build the new school on the Domino's Farms property. This was before he proposed to build the crucifix that would be taller than the statue of Liberty on the property.
Christ the King Parish is a part of Opus Dei, the conservative Catholic movement that uses evangelical worship techniques anmd holds the Bible and strict adherence to church law to be sacred cows. The kids I went to school with who attended Christ the King were always a bit more hardcore about their faith, but could also be like Mandy Moore in "Saved" the kind of Christian who uses their faith as a bludgeoning device. Well, not suprisingly, after my class left, and especially after Bayhan left in 2001, the school seemed to be virtually controlled by the Opus Dei people. They seemed, and still seem to have, a grip on the school that seems unchecked. They have the power to review what songs come on at dances, what dances are danced at dances. They have the power to see that their views are the only ones seriously taught in theology classes, and social behavior in and outside of school is regulated. This brings me to the heart of why I am ranting here.
A recent school newsletter contained a note from the Chaplain, Fr. Richard Lobert, who started at Richard the same year I did. It talked about how, with Prom season coming, parents needed to raise "their alert levels" about sexual activity by their children. They equated this alert to the one the Dept. of Homeland Security raises about terrorism. Only then did I find out about the people behind the alert being issued, the SIC (Sexual Integrity Committee), made up of mothers and other people involved in the school. They had brought in Chastity lecturers, sent home notices about other things. The group was headed by the mother of one of my high school crushes, the one that I wrote about in the play that was performed at workshops, and from which my blog now takes its name, junior year. The idea of a committee like this is scary to me for one reason: the possibility, and probability, that it would create a "Crucible" type of atmosphere around sex, and make life especially difficult for kids who might be gay. I can imagine them outing people is what I am trying to say.
This is something no one should want, obviously. I have seen what my friends have gone through, especially when it comes to mixing their sexuality and religion. I know that one person in particular had a very difficult time trying to attend and perform at chapel at Albion because certain close minded individuals did not want them to be able to. I don't want this to happen in high school. I don't want a group of religious zealots branding students with the Scarlet letter 'G' or 'W' or anything like that. I want the teens of Richard to be taught about their sexuality, to talk about it openly with their teachers and parents. They can be taught about saving it for marriage, and the great gift from God that it is, but also to understand what is going on physically, and to understand that you don't go to hell because of who you are or mistakes you have made. That isn't happening know. The board, the faculty, the PTG, it all seems overrun with zealots. I just hope this might help some of them come to their senses and breathe.
Sorry to bore you.
Jim
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