Way out West

"Let the Dominoes Fall" Shines with Effortless Genius

2009-06-29T11:54:00.000-07:00

The uber-talented rockers return after a five year layoff with a varied and superb work--that transcends their punk rock veneer.

My wife has never been a fan of punk rock. Her main critique of the genre is that, "It all sounds the same--a repetition of the same three major chords." Aficionados may find fault with this analysis, but Punk's history is littered with bands that emphasized energy above technique. Additionally, the genre has also been hampered by its fiercely indy roots... thus, it suffers from a strange elitism that decries "Sellouts" and demands listeners adhere to the mantra if, "If it's not punk, it's shit."

This means that the only Punk Rock most people ever hear is the Pop-Punk garbage of Blink-182, or Green Day. The best and the brightest in the genre are often hidden away like some arcane secret... this brings me to Rancid.

Rancid has never quite fit into a neat and marketable label. Musically there are elements of West Coast and Bay Area Punk, and more particularly Social Distortion and The Clash. The track, "New Orleans" best illustrates this. The song plays out like a love song to New Orleans, but skirts all the cliche and ham-handed tributes that came out in the wake of Katrina. Instead of cliche, Rancid delivers a song that celebrates the city...and with melancholy acceptance the band intones the songs end, "It rained all night--in New Orleans" which in the context of the song sounds more redemptive and cleansing than ominous.

Mix that with Ska back beats and syncopation, and the steel drums and organs of reggae. The title track, "Let the Dominoes Fall" is probably the best integration of this sound into Rancid's unique style.

For Rancid fans the previous two tracks will come as no surprise, they are classic Rancid and true to the bands roots, but like all good bands Rancid hasn't stopped growing. With Let the Dominoes Fall they have introduced a new style... brace yourselves Punk Rock fans. Rancid has gone country.

Before you stroke out don't forget that classic country (Johnny Cash, Merle Haggard) and good modern country (The Dixie Chicks, Dwight Yoakum) aren't all that far idealistically from classic punk, where Rancid is firmly rooted. Both genres have their roots in folk, and pub music-- and deal with the timeless themes of social oppression/injustice and love. Incidentally, for those of you who don't buy Rancid as love ballad crooners I'll refer you to "She's Automatic" and "Red Hot Moon" from the band's 2003 Indestructible album.

The country track may be the album's standout track. That's right, the country track. Written by Tim Armstrong it deals with his brother's return from a tour in Iraq. Rancid, though a socially aware, has always been strongly blue collar group and patriotic... as "Civilian Ways" beautifully demonstrates.

Had anyone other than a pillar of Modern Punk Rock written this it would be rocketing up the Country Single Charts and would serve as transition music for Sean Hannity... thank God Rancid wrote it.

With the album's release Rancid arranged acoustic versions of a lot of the tracks. Initially I was concerned with how the transition would work, but it works brilliantly. In fact I find myself returning to the acoustic version of these songs more often than the originals, the acoustic addition is a must buy. Many of the tracks come off like fabulous Irish Pub Songs, like "East Bay Night."

"Disconnected" is another example of Rancid's sorrowful Patriotism. The song is an extended metaphor, and more proof that Rancid can write a clever and multi-layered song that serves as both a love song and song of social protest.

After a five year absence I'm glad Rancid has returned to the music scene.

Let the Dominoes Fall is without question worth the $14.99 the Enhanced Edition will cost. The core Punk Rock album is not as strong as 2003's Indestructible, that being said the variety and more than ten acoustic tracks make this an essential album for anyone who loves Rock and Roll, Folk or even Country Music.

G.I. Joe a Formerly American Hero

2009-05-06T19:58:00.001-07:00

GI Joe the Rise of Cobra the title says crappy cliffhanger and the action indicates a Michael Bay approach to film making... hectic action sequences, explosions and absolutely no substance.

I am a fan. I love G.I. Joe.

For me and millions like me G.I. Joe is more than a comic book, animated series, or host of action figures. The Joe team helped build the lore of my youth. Hollywood has struck again and this summer promises to deliver yet another utterly soulless and strangely politically correct action movie. The politically conscious action movie is still an odd thing to me.

Beachhead is my favorite Joe of all time. Smart, determined and disciplined enough not to shower for weeks at a time as a way to better blend in with his natural surroundings. Yo Joe!

I knew that this movie was going to be a travesty when I discovered that G.I. Joe would no longer be a "Real American Heroes."

In another example of Hollywood's disdain for any semblance of patriotism, G.I. Joe would now be an acronym for "Global Integrated Joint Operating Entity." So rather than using the obvious storyline of G.I. Joe as an American anti-terrorism unit which it was originally... for fuck sake GI Joe was established "to protect human freedom against COBRA. A ruthless terrorist organization determined to rule the world." How much more timely and perfect could that be? Timely, smart, and true to franchise roots would make sense--so clearly Hollywood would go a different direction, and in an utterly unfathomable choice they create an homage to the UN with the absurd "Global Integrated Joint Operating Entity."

It's difficult for me to explain how much I hate this name, in fact my response isn't even a cognitive one--it's visceral. My blood boils a little hotter each time hear something about this mishmashed debacle of a movie. To help you understand my reaction, and to come to understand it better myself I'll breakdown the new name.

A quick aside before I break down the name, frankly I'm surprised "The Joe's" (a clearly male name) haven't been renamed the GI Jane's/Joe's/JaneJoes/and various sentient non-human beings deserving of civil rights. Anyone with a passing knowledge of the Joe Team knows that there were men and women on the team as well as various pets. Spirit had a pet eagle named Freedom, Snake-Eyes had his wolf Timber... but because the writers and director of the Joe script are talentless hacks without even a passing knowledge of GI Joe they probably get a pass for being so insensitive as to retain such a clearly gender biased name.

Sexists and Speciesist name aside the Joe's are the good guys--I know this if for no other reason than that in a five word acronym fully three imply unity and togetherness... and we all know whenever people work in groups good things happen.

Global=Togetherness

Integrated=Togetherness

Joint=Togetherness

I'm guessing this will be a team of some sorts.

Operating=Doing stuff...probably cool stuff as it's a summer movie.

Entity=Undefined thing.

Entity is a really interesting addition and probably how Hollywood gets a pass on the masculine bias in the original Joe name--Entity could be male, female, transgender, or other than human. Nice work Hollywood, nice work.

So by stripping the "Real American Hero" from G.I. Joe and coming up with an asinine acronym Hollywood has begun the process of defiling yet another iconic American symbol all in the name of a misguided sense of guilt/national loathing/boredom--mixed with a sprinkling of greed. I can't see G.I. Joe this summer, it would be more traumatizing to my memories of childhood than seeing a geriatric Indian Jones confront ET.

(For Another brilliant example of Hollywood's loathing for the very society that provides them the freedom to be openly hate it, see Superman Returns and the change of Superman's motto from "Truth, justice and the American way" to "Truth, justice and all that stuff." I've included a link so that my wife will believe me that Brian Singer did actually change Superman's motto to "and all that stuff").

Now that my cultural critique is out of the way it's on to the important Fanboy work.

I will say that I like the costume design for the Baroness, Snake-Eyes and Stormshadow. I'll give them credit for that... I don't know about the casting for Destro though, yeah the guy is Scottish but Destro is supposed to be a physically imposing figure. I get more accountant nerd from that actor than imposing arms dealer and international rogue.

The most heinous part of this shit movie trailer is undoubtedly the revelation that the G.I. Joe will basically be a little team of Iron Men. HORRIBLE. Not content with a standard action movie clearly Paramount needs to juice up the Joe Team with bullshit super armor so they can make really good use of their CG budget.

The cool part about G.I. Joe was that they were just really good committed soldiers... they weren't de facto meta-humans. Could any of the Joes take a rocket to the chest, dive through trains or push past cars like mini-twirling Transformers? No, no they couldn't.

In fact let's look at too Joe standard bearers and look at their original super powers and battle suit augmentations.

Shipwreck's superpower was his beard and his ability to use a prehistoric blunderbuss effectively in combat. His augmented suit was his parrot.

Roadblock's superpowers included speaking in awesomely bad rhyming couplets and his killer Cajun cooking. His augmented suit was his tank top. Tank top man, now that's tough.

No super suits here... just awesome.

Now you know why you should boycott GI Joe the Rise of Cobra... and knowing is half the battle.

YO JOE!

Going Brunette, Kismet, and Ode to L.A

2009-05-04T20:37:00.001-07:00

Ode to Los Angeles (for the scientificators)

Oh, L.A. , no more will I hear of your horrors,

Your traffic, your mini-Cooper's and idiot kids.

We will never forget Josh's trip into the field with his science class:

Those scared urban college kids,

Afraid of biker dentists, and diners in the desert.

"Gosh, people probably have GUNS here....let's get outta here, stat!"

And Julie, are you Atilla the Hun of the Laboratory?

(Being pro-death penalty is so not oh-kay.)

On Going Brunette:

So, I decided I needed a change...so obviously, the best way to achieve any meaningful change in one's life is to alter your hairstyle.I opted for the "let's not dye it, but let's "gloss" it brunette. It is so subtle not many people even notice. Meh.

I am a Lucky Woman....

I was just hired by one of the BEST schools in the state, in arguably the best district in the state. The certified salary is better than/comparable to Jackson Hole...Not only that, I will teach again. Gone are the days of pseudo-administration, data crunching, and education research. I long to be back with students. It has been an HONOR to have the position I have, but I need to work with students.

More Bragging:

Every room has a smartboard, a projector, and the school has a staff exercise facility.

Backyard Birds

2009-04-30T17:33:00.001-07:00

I've made our backayrd into a bird feeding zone. Josh, Jules names those birds!

Obama, Truth and Emerson

2009-04-04T19:45:00.000-07:00

Poet, Philosopher and Political Pundit

Some authors speak to a year, a decade, an era... others are timeless. Ralph Waldo Emerson speaks more faithfully to my soul than any essayist, poet or philosopher. His belief in the beauty of the individual's soul, and the individual's ability to touch on the divine truth within us is more edifying for me than any Psalm. As people see the world through the lens they hold most dear, I thought it would be interesting to look at the Obama Administration through an Emersonian Lens.

For my first piece I've taken an excerpt from Nature and used Emerson's commentary on language and truth to look at some of the more disconcerting trends in the President's young administration.

The excerpt, which I'll be breaking down, reads:

A man's power to connect his thought with its proper symbol, and so to utter it, depends on...his love of truth and his desire to communicate it without loss. The corruption of man is followed by the corruption of language. When simplicity of character and the sovereignty of ideas is broken up by the prevalence of secondary desires,--the desire of riches, of pleasure of power and of praise,--the duplicity and falsehood take (the) place of simplicity and truth. Old words are perverted to stand for things which (they) are not; (like) a paper currency being employed, when there is no bullion in the vaults. In due time the fraud is manifest, and words lose all power to stimulate the understanding or the affections--Nature

-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

A man's power to connect his thought with its proper symbol, and so to utter it, depends on...his love of truth and his desire to communicate it without loss--Nature

Emerson is saying the individual's ability to share their ideas clearly and honestly depends on how faithfully one is committed to speaking the truth.

This notion could apply to any politician, lawyer, teacher, police officer--any man or woman. Our choice of words and the way in which we present our ideas shifts depending on our audience and subject. This is only natural. However, there are those who through their position, must love Truth more than most, must stand and speak for Truth even if it is unpopular, or difficult. President Obama has such an obligation, particularly given the host of foreign and domestic threats our Nation is facing: Financial uncertainty, record job losses, a Congress that is out of touch and largely complicit with the financial industry, a newly emboldened collection of global villains and despots, nuclear armed North Korea's brazen launch of a ballistic missile capable of hitting both Hawaii and Alaska, Mexico in chaos due to cartel violence, the very real possibility of an Iranian/Israeli war, Iraq, Afghanistan--Obama's challenges are legion.

Clarity of thought, purpose and language is desperately needed--more it is essential to effectively dealing with these challenges. Let's look at what Emerson had to say about language and how President Obama is doing according to Emerson's standard.

The corruption of man is followed by the corruption of language. When simplicity of character and the sovereignty of ideas is broken up by the prevalence of secondary desires,--the desire of riches, of pleasure of power and of praise,--the duplicity and falsehood take (the) place of simplicity and truth--Nature

Emerson notes here that the prime threat to clarity, honesty, and Truth in language is secondary desire. Secondary desire can take the form of greed, power seeking, and love of praise. All politicians tend to allow the secondary desire of getting elected infect their rhetoric. My worry for President Obama is that I have yet to see him make the transition from flowery rhetoric rife with lawyerly equivocations, which shield him from actually being held to an idea, belief or policy.

A President must put aside the perpetual campaign in times of crisis. A President must also be willing to forgo praise for Truth. Both of these are going to be serious challenges for President Obama. From the perspective of armchair psychiatrist, President Obama has always played the role of "Coolest Kid on the Block," his campaign and a fawning media provided him with accolades that must have been intoxicating. The accolades almost always began with gushing praise of his eloquence. Sadly, Obama's devotees and the media have led him to believe that his smooth speaking style is a substitute for substance.

Style is not policy. Style will not move Putin, employ a single autoworker, or wrench financial sector lobbyists from the halls of power.

We cannot afford "duplicity and falsehood" to reign any longer. The Bush Administration led from behind fortified walls from which they'd lob the occasional set of talking points. They'd rewrite history but never allow us to question anyone other than their poor Press Secretary. One week we'd get, "Four legs good, two legs bad" the next "Four legs good, two legs better" and the media would be left to shout impotently at the silent walls.

To this point, President Obama has given me no more faith that things will be any different. The duplicity and falsehood is still there, though it's out in the open. There's no need to dig a moat, when the raiders want you in power. So now the press releases are the same, but rather than Jon Stewart mocking them, he and Anderson Cooper smile at one another on Monday and say, "East Asia has always been at war with Oceania" and on Tuesday, "Isn't it lovely that East Asia and Oceania have always been such close allies?"

In order to save the Nation, and continue the positive human gains made since the fall of the Soviet Union, President Obama must stop the slow decay of truth, end the open duplicity and lead.

Old words are perverted to stand for things which (they) are not; (like) a paper currency being employed, when there is no bullion in the vaults--Nature

It is an extraordinary coincidence that Emerson would use a financial metaphor, particularly one referring to the Gold Standard. Here Emerson is explaining that the language of the corrupt man, though it be filled with old truths, and words that carry power--these words are as worthless as paper money tied to nothing of substance. The secondary desire of power, greed, praise or a thousand other human failings makes any co-opted word no matter how noble... meaningless.

President Obama during his campaign certainly co-opted "Yes we can" among other powerful phrases and words... many of which seemed hollow even then. As of yet he hasn't supported these phrases, he hasn't added substance to the played out rhetoric.

In due time the fraud is manifest, and words lose all power to stimulate the understanding or the affections--Nature

It is my sincere hope that President Obama will take the opportunity history has provided him, and show that my worries were premature, show that he's not a fraud built upon the sand foundation of meaningless rhetoric, media fanaticism, and a increasingly segmented and gullible electorate.

He has challenges, but he has opportunities too. The American People are rightfully livid that more than 3 trillion dollars have been promised in stimulus/bailouts and aid... while at the same time the very people who have defrauded millions of our fellows are enriching themselves, receiving bonuses, retaining their jobs and engaging in a staggering cover up intended to keep the wealthy and privileged in their proper place, while the untouchables like UAW pensioners are expected to renegotiate their benefits despite having contract. As we all know, according to the AIG CEO, we're a Nation of laws and all contracts must be fulfilled... well if the contract gives an AIG charlatan a multimillion dollar bonus that is.

Obama should have no fear that Geitner will discover that he's a fraud... apparently, he was never a regulator.

President Obama could seize upon this or any of a hundred other injustices to live up to his origin mythos of community organizer and friend of the downtrodden. Sadly I believe we're seeing the cracks in the Obama facade.

The "fraud is manifest" and daily his words lose more substance.

El doctor es muy malo! Verdad?

2009-03-30T18:28:00.000-07:00

House, where are you when I need you?

I've got a problem. Not a big one, not a bad one, but a seriously uncomfortable and painful one that may require minor surgery. That's not the point of this blog though, the point of this blog is that too many doctors, particularly "specialists," are total bastards.

I saw one such specialist today and explained my painful, obviously swollen and life impeding problem. After the doctor's quick recommendation of surgery, which is a minimum of 2-3 weeks away I honestly expressed my need for help dealing with the pain and discomfort. Having been raised Catholic (Alter Boy and all) I was always taught that honesty was the best policy so I say to the man, "Okay, I see how surgery is a good plan, but what about the 2-3 weeks before I can get in for surgery? What can you do to help for the pain?"

The following is an unfiltered, unembellished account of our exchange.

The bastard's response was, "You need to try ibuprofen."

"Umm, doctor I'm severely allergic to ibuprofen."

"Really, what happens?"

"I have an anaphalatic reaction... I've been hospitalized twice because of it. So that's not something I'll take."

"Well what about Aleve?"

"Uh, isn't that in the same drug family as ibuprofen?"

"Yes it is."

"So, isn't it risky for me to take that? I have anaphalactic responses to ibuprofen, that's not something I really want to mess with. I tend to enjoy breathing."

"Okay, well. So we'll schedule your appointment for 2-3 weeks from now."

"Doctor, as I said, this is very painful and can you do anything to help with the pain?"

"Nope."

"Really? My general practitioner prescribed a mild vicodin that worked well for the pain and didn't make me feel all weird."

"Narcotics won't cure the problem, so they'd just mask the symptoms."

Now basically the conversation ended there. I was so shocked that I didn't respond how I should have. I should have told him that pain killers were refined and used just for that purpose (to control symptoms), and that additionally people who abuse them aren't actually in pain and don't have an OBVIOUS physical problem to treat. A quick lesson... if you're in pain, pain killers don't get you high--rather they make you not want to die.

Oh I forgot, the rat fuck did offer me antibiotics for the pain... Sipro to be exact, an antibiotic that frequently causes tendon and ligament tears. I asked him what the side effects of Sipro were and he did tell me that it causes joint damage, so I asked if my Tae Kwon Do studies would be a problem given the drugs side effects and he gave me another antibiotic. So basically, the Specialist was willing to give me an antibiotic that could blow out my knee and cripple me for life rather than giving me a mild pain prescription. How fucked up is that?

I understand the doctor's predicament in broad terms, they get drug seeking patients all the time so they have to be careful--but take this into account. I have an OBVIOUS problem, a clearly painful problem and even though it's not cancer or the clap it doesn't mean that I don't deserve to have a descent quality of life between now and three weeks from now when I have my surgery.

I'll be getting a second opinion... basically, I've told that doctor to fuck off. Any doctor who treats a patient like I was treated is no one I want cutting into my tender bits.

Cheers to my good Doctors: Mena and Langfelder

Boo to the clowns who treat patiets like cattle.

Wildlife Drive

2009-03-21T19:50:00.001-07:00

Is this a Joke?

2009-03-19T18:07:00.000-07:00

President Obama is going on The Late Show tonight to.... to .... I don't know.

I guess to talk face to face with the recently laid off American worker? Or to calm the fears of the uninsured who literally are an illness away from bankruptcy?

Does it seem our new President has that longing look in his eye for a calmer, more celebrity like time? Like those days before January 20th, 2009?

I love humor, and I am the first to try and lighten things up by cracking a few jokes, but I am not the leader of the free world. I am a little surprised by our new President going on a late night variety show during the worst economic crisis since the Depression...
and don't forget those wars we have going on too...

Irony Sucks

2009-03-09T11:43:00.000-07:00

Every group has its symbol... the "Pissing Calvin" says I like to hurt small animals, and my Mom is also my Aunt.

Here you go Jen, the infamous "Pissing Calvin." On a list of things I hate that too would be WAY up on the list. This is actually a particularly heinous example of the Calvin in that it's a self-righteous want to be ironic adaptation of the symbol. As Anthony Bordaine succinctly put it... "Irony sucks."

Josh and Squirrels, sitting in a tree...

2009-03-04T21:24:00.000-08:00

Everything is Amazing, and No one is Happy PLUS Things that Irritate me!

2009-03-04T16:23:00.001-08:00

Never was there a truer clip from a comedian!
Louis CK puts to words what I often think when people whine about their flight problems. Hey, I got news for those folks: shut up! You could be on a 10 day drive across the Great Plains with your family.

Now do you appreciate your super fast flight in the air? Ah, probably not, (and I bet the four second delay on your IPOD is giving you severe anxiety, right?) I rate hearing about someone's flight up there with hearing someone's boring dream...

Things That Drive Me Nuts:

1. Invitations to cooking utensil and jewelry parties
2. The sound of other people chewing
3. Staying in hotels
4. Having guests for more than three days
5. Billy Joel
6. Jane Austen
7. Facebook applications
8. Icons on websites that dance super fast beside "lower your mortgage now" ads
9. Foodstuff approaching its expiration date
10. Uptight people
11.Pissing Calvins
12.Posh Spice hair cuts
13. atheist and religious zealots
14. bumper sticker wisdom
15. Kurt Vonnegut

Bats: Maybe some Puddin' Would Help

2009-02-23T09:07:00.000-08:00

Paul and Josh will recognize this as the opening to Fox's superb Batman Animated Series, later rebroadcast on the WB. It featured some of the best voice work in animation. Kevin Conroy anchored the series with a gritty, but not flat Batman, and Mark Hamil gives his nerd coup de gras with his hysterical Joker. Oh and wasn't it in this series that Harley came to love her Puddin'?

Does that opening make anyone else think of Gershwin?

Maybe it's the whole Gotham, art deco association that makes me think of "Rhapsody in Blue"... God what a great series. Greatest Cartoon Superhero Series Ever... so sayeth the Book of Nerd.

Insert abrupt change of thought...

Time for a discussion on scientific ethics involving bats. Clumsy segwey I know, lo siento.

The article I'd like to discuss is posted in italics below my commentary. If you don't want to read it here's a quick synopsis... there's a fungal infection that is spreading through bat populations. The fungal infection is causing bats to burn through their fat stores too quickly and thus the bats are waking from hibernation early. As if sleep deprived bats isn't bad enough, these poor little critters are waking in the middle of winter, and thus there are no bugs for them to eat. No bugs means the bats starve.

Certainly it's sad that the bats are starving, but something else troubled me about the article bat scientists are working hard to "save" the bats rather than "understand" the situation.

Forgive a quick aside, these Bat Scientists shouldn't be confused with their rodent studying cousins the Joshicus Rodentius, though as we all know the Joshicus didn't fly, they lumbered. Their primary habitat was a bizarre combination of marine and subterranean. The Joshicus preforms its locomotor duties via webbed flagella in a marine setting, and via over developed pectorals dedicated to digging duty in a sub-terrainian niche. How it switched so seamlessly between the two remains a mystery.

Back to the Bats... so it's certainly possible that in order to save the bats one would need to understand the situation, one would follow the other. The question to my mind is, do the bats need to be saved? I'm not sure what the ethicist say in this regard, I'll defer to our resident scientists for an explanation.

My fear is that like the classic Jurassic Park exchange says, sometimes people get so excited about what they can do, they don't stop to think if they should do it. Maybe we can save these bats, but should we?

People have displayed a propensity for extraordinary ham-handedness when it comes to "managing" the natural world. This reminds me of a Yakov Shmirnov joke, "In Soviet Russia humans don't manage Nature... they just fuck it up."

I may have the punchline wrong, but you get the idea.

So help me out... do we save the bats? Let them fade away? Hope they get better on their own? What's best?

I feel like everything we try to fix just turns into a gigantic pile of coprolite.

I think he meant to say "guano." I know it's juvenile but I snicker every time I watch this clip.

Bat-killing syndrome spreads in Northeast

Scientists are trying to keep the disorder from decimating bat populations
The Associated Press
updated 7:45 p.m. MT, Tues., Feb. 3, 2009

ROSENDALE, N.Y. - A mysterious and deadly bat disorder discovered just two winters ago in a few New York caves has now spread to at least six northeastern states, and scientists are scrambling to find solutions before it spreads across the country.

White-nose syndrome poses no health threat to people, but some scientists say that if bat populations diminish too much, the insects and crop pests they eat could flourish. Researchers recently identified the fungus that creates the syndrome's distinctive white smudges on the noses and wings of hibernating bats, but they don't yet know how to stop the disorder from killing off caves full of the ecologically important animals.

"The cause for concern is that this is going to race across the country faster than we can come up with a solution," said Alan Hicks, a wildlife biologist with New York state's Department of Environmental Conservation.

"Now that is entirely possible."

Many die in search for food
Bats with white-nose burn through their fat stores before spring, driving some to rouse early from hibernation in a futile search for food. Many die as they hunt fruitlessly for insects.

White-nose syndrome spread fast last winter to dozens of caves in New York and southern New England, within a roughly 150-mile radius of the caves west of Albany, N.Y., where it was first found. Early observations show it has reached farther still this winter, even before cave inspections and bat counts begin in earnest this month.

Bats with white-nose syndrome were found recently in northern New Jersey's Morris County and in an old iron mine in Shindle, Pa., more than 200 miles away from the outbreak's epicenter. In addition, the Pennsylvania Game Commission on Tuesday said that hundreds of little brown bats, a species devastated by white-nose syndrome, were found dead from the disorder outside two mines in the northeastern part of the state.

The syndrome may have spread as far as 450 miles from the epicenter, to the John Guilday Caves Nature Preserve in West Virginia. The National Speleological Society has temporarily shut down the preserve as a possible white-nose sighting is investigated.

So far, there are 40 confirmed white-nose sites in the Northeast, said Jeremy Coleman, who is tracking the disorder for the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service office in Cortland, N.Y.

Death tolls for the tiny creatures are hard to pinpoint, but some estimates run into the hundreds of thousands.

Number of bats are down
The news was grim on a recent day when more than a dozen researchers lowered themselves by rope into a sprawling old limestone mine in New York's Hudson Valley, about 80 miles north of New York City.

Bat counter Ryan von Linden's headlamp swept across isolated clusters of the mammals hanging off the rock ceiling. A chorus of squeaks echoed in the blackness.

"There are not as many as there are supposed to be," von Linden whispered. "Not even close."

With a precise total pending, Hicks estimated the cave's count of Indiana bats, an endangered species, was down 15 to 35 percent from last year's roughly 19,000. Researchers said the number of little brown bats also appeared to be down, although they didn't have enough specifics from prior years to measure the drop exactly.

Hoping to glean more information on the syndrome, the researchers plucked 14 groggy little brown bats from the rock, weighed them, measured them, snipped a bit of their hair and stuck tiny radio transmitters to them to track their activity levels.

Bats' nocturnal habits and some species' ability to carry rabies can give the flying mammals a fearsome image. But they can pollinate plants and play an important role in checking the populations of mosquitoes and insects that can damage wheat, apples and dozens of other crops.

Looking at ways to combat fungus
Researchers at the U.S. Geological Survey's Wildlife Health Center this fall established that the sugary smudges on infected bats are a previously undescribed fungus that thrives in the refrigerator-like cold of winter caves. The center is still working to determine whether the fungus causes the disorder, but biologists are already focusing on potential ways to combat the fungus.

Since the fungus grows in the cold and damp, they could try to lower humidity levels in at least some crucial caves, though that could create other problems for those ecosystems.

Researchers also are looking at the possibility of a fungicide or even fungus-killing bacteria that could spread from bat to bat. Ward Stone, New York state's wildlife pathologist, said he has been able to culture bacteria that live on big brown bats and kill the white-nose fungus in a lab.

Tests need to be performed to see whether any of the options are realistic. And time is "our biggest enemy," said David Blehert, head of microbiology at the USGS center in Madison, Wis.

Copyright 2009 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.
URL: http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/29005011/

Nerdery Abounds

2009-02-21T23:11:00.000-08:00

Well most of you know I've got a weekly column/editorial going on IGN's Warhammer Vault Site. My first column went up last week, and my first editorial has gone up tonight. Kara's officially the proud owner of a huge nerd and I hope she wouldn't have it any other way.

You can check out the nerdery here.

http://warhammervault.ign.com/View.php?view=Columns.list&category_select_id=33

The following link will take you to the land of the geeky spaz where I'll get flamed for relentlessly.

http://vnboards.ign.com/forums/b1/110315693

Cheers all.

Friday the 13th...I'm taking the next one off.

2009-02-15T20:11:00.000-08:00

This is actually a pretty accurate representation of my Friday the 13th...though you'd have to replace the snake with a deranged steel chair wielding 17 year old.

My Friday started like any other. I've got a couple of 9th Grade English Classes that I love, then my Newspaper Class which I love even more. So my morning was looking good. In addition to my normal duties, I'm a Junior Class sponsor so I helped them organize a fundraiser for their Prom. As it was the day before Valentine's Day the kids wanted to sell cookies with V-Day messages.

Sounds easy enough right.

Everything was going along perfectly until I got word that 7 students had checked out of school with "permission" from me to deliver cookies to the middle school. We had a total of 7 cookies to deliver to the school... placing the cookies at a lovely 1 to 1 ratio. Only three girls had permission to go, but as Kara, Julie and Jolynn can attest where three girls go four boys are bound to follow. The delivery also took two and a half hours... anger building, fury rising.

I was, and am, irate. Long story short, the boys lied about "thinking" they had permission. "One of the girls said we could go." So lame--what kind of boys try to throw their peers, let alone girls under the proverbial bus. Lame. Lame. Lame.

So my morning was already wasted with lies and ridiculous teenage garbage.

This was just the warm-up.

As any teacher will tell you every school has a handful of deeply disturbed and violent students. My school is no different, we have a truly disturbed and violent student. He's 17 and a fairly big kid. Last year he cold-cocked a teacher when the teacher tried to keep him from going after another student. He also has the habit of improvising weapons and threatening teachers and students. Two weeks ago he threatened a teacher and student with a heavy wooden rolling pin used to roll clay in art class--this led to him being suspended.

His weapon of choice though are old heavy folding chairs that are kept throughout the school. These aren't the flimsy ones, we're talking those old school steel brown painted chairs. Josh and Paul know what I'm talking about, the ones every church in Jerome had. The enemies of our weekend basketball games.

The one pictured here is weak sauce, this kid is a chair conseuior. For him it's vintage or nothing. If you clubbed someone with the chairs he loves they wouldn't get back up.

So why is a kid like this still in school? Basically, the system has few if any tools for dealing with dysfunction on his level. He was also given an IEP when he was in middle school which makes him virtually impossible to expel. Friday, after the cookie frustration, I had to attend meeting to decide what was going to happen to this student. I had to tread the fine line between being the teacher representative in the meeting, and an advocate for the student. Also in attendance were: the student, his BAT SHIT CRAZY mother, the school psych, school lawyer, principal, two special education teachers who work with the boy. So the meeting progresses and it's clear that because of the boy's most recent outburst he was facing a minimum of 1 year expulsion. The mother was threatening all sorts of things, involving the press, legal action, etc... but to be perfectly honest she's not cogent enough to understand that her son could use a rolling pin as a weapon. We honestly spent several minutes trying to explain to her how:

A rolling pin is a weapon.

Why we let students have so many things that they would be tempted to use as weapons in school. She said, "Well you can use almost anything as a weapon, why would you leave all these tempting weapons just lying around. When I was in high school I stabbed a girl with a pencil because she said I was f*cking my dad, I wasn't trying to use a weapon I just had it."

I literally wasted several minutes of my life trying to explain to this woman how, as a classroom teacher, it would be difficult to run my class without pens and pencils. That's time I'll never get back. She just couldn't comprehend that steel chairs, rolling pins and pencils weren't the problem... her son is.

As I said it was clear that the meeting wasn't going the way the student and his mom wanted, so the kid gets up and storms out (I say kid but he's a pretty scrappy 6'1" and probably 200 lbs). The school psyche tells us all to wait and he'll bring the kid back. About a minute later the psyche comes back and tells us he can't find him. So I get up as does the principal to go help. The psyche and I go to the commons area, and the principal goes to check the cameras.

When I went into the commons I saw two staff standing in the hall yelling at the student but not moving toward him. I couldn't see him at this point, so I walked where my collegeau was standing and saw a flash as the boy ran around the corner down the hall (which is like a big loop) so I took off the other way to head him off. That's when I heard BAM! BAM! I rounded the corner and he saw me and headed the other direction... in his hands the heavy steel chair I mentioned before. The school at this point still wasn't on lockdown, probably because where we were there weren't any cameras so the principal couldn't tell he was armed. Now at this point I'm chasing the kid toward my classroom (where Kara is covering my classes) so I hurry to get close to him and I closed to about 10 feet and the kid went right by my class and back into the wide common area. The other teachers had vanished (presumabbly to go call for a lockdown), so it was just me and this kid. I followed him into this narrow back hallway that led to the Art Room... the room he got kicked out of, the room where the teacher he hates most is, the teacher is a friend of ours, and a lot of my favorite students are in that room so I wasn't going to let him out of that hall. In the narrow hall I knew he couldn't use the chair, and I knew I had to get him under-control before he got to the Art Room.

So I put my Jeet Kune Do to work. We learned this wrist-control throw where you basically get a hold of your opponents wrist and the opposite shoulder and you then if they struggle you can throw them backwards while maintaining wrist control. I came up behind him and locked onto his right wrist with my right hand and his left shoulder with my left hand. At first he tried to lift the chair but I held his arm down so he couldn't lift his arm. Then we walked, we just walked. I kept his wrist pinned and he just kept walking without a word. I walked him past the Art Room, Commons and into the gym. It was there that we picked up an entourage of male teachers and finally a cop. I kept a hold of him while they wrenched the chair out of his hands. The whole while he didn't say a word.

Then we started our tour again. I walked him, with our entourage in tow to an empty room where I finally let him go. Oh the room they chose... totally full of folding chairs. FUCK, fuckity, fuck, fuck. The kid was done though, he didn't go for them he sat down and spoke for the first time.

"No one knows what I'm capable of." He repeated this several times without emotion. Followed by, "I'm driven by anger."

It's late and I've got to sleep, but Josh there's a Friday the 13th in March so if you'd like to play Warhammer I'll be free all day. I'm taking it off.

Cheers

Zombies Attack Austin!

2009-02-09T10:12:00.001-08:00

Fox News was the first to break this important story. Follow this link for more information. http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,484326,00.html

It's happened friends, the Zombie Apocalypse is upon us. I didn't read the full Fox News article (I usually just browse the headlines that's all you need on Fox News), but apparently some good Samaritans are using road signs to get out the word of a growing global crisis. I would guess that all regular news sources are down due to Zombie attack.

Only a few photos of the conflict have actually made it past the ravenous horde laying siege to Austin... this grainy cellphone photo is one of these pictures. We can only pray this woman escaped.

Unless you're at the epicenter of the outbreak you've got some time to prepare. Time to arm yourself and stock up. Here are your must haves in order.

Priorities:

1) Resilient Blunt Weapon (Metal Baseball Bat is ideal, hammers are fine, but require you to get too close).

2) Guns and lots and lots of ammo. Go for shotguns. Zombies aren't stopped by blasts to the torso, so you'll need to immobilize them and a good shotty will be much more effective than a pistol or rifle.

3) Canned goods.

4) Adopt a dog now! Time to go caveman everyone, people kept dogs in prehistoric times to protect them from predators and as early warning tools.

5) Matches.

6) Bottled water.

7) Radio and batteries.

8) Xbox 360 and a copy of Left 4 Dead. This is a virtual training simulator that will help you prepare for the zombie clashes to come. Though mindless it's important to note that zombies still display a feral cunning. Left 4 Dead will go a long way toward preparing you for these conflicts. Thankfully, Josh and I have already spent hours of time preparing to protect our beloved wives from just such a scenario. I'm sure they'll thank us for our obsessive gaming now. You're welcome dear.

Left 4 Dead will be an essential training tool. Train often and train early.

Why has our government gone to such extremes to deny the existence of Zombies? Their arrogance has threatened us all. More updates to come...

60 Days to Revisionist History: "Why come Obama so Socialist?"

2009-02-05T10:16:00.000-08:00

Oh my Music Bot, how do I love thee? Let me count the ways: you shield me from the brainless blather of my fellows, you protect my naivete, through you I can believe that the World is populated with kind and thoughtful beings.

Last night as I was waiting for my Tae Kwon Do class to begin I realized that I left my beloved Sony Music Bot at home--so my only option was to eavesdrop on my classmates. Most of the chatter was uninteresting, but two men's conversation caught my interest. They were talking about their fear of the administration's "Big Government" and all the tax dollars that he was going to "start" spending.

"I don't like Obama because he's not going to let the market self-correct. *Dramatic Pause so his buddy could appreciate his economics acumen* Why didn't we just let the Soviets take over? They were Communists, which is the same thing as the Socialist we elected. He's planning on getting the government in on all this private sector stuff."

I listened for quite a while and I can assure you they hadn't come up with any of their material themselves. I wouldn't call them dumb but to put it in their vernacular, "They couldn't pour piss out of a boot if the instructions were on the heel." These two were simply parroting talking points, it was a painful one up competition, "You think you can preach to the choir, check this out (insert talking point here)."

My concern isn't some much that our Nation has its share of dunderheads, that I knew. My worry is that our cultural and political memories are so stunningly short that we're forgetting what happened not two months ago. Okay, it also bothers me that they have double my voting power... maybe Kara and I should have kids.

Had Dee and Dumb actually forgotten that the previous administration spent more money less responsibly than any administration in history? Had they forgotten that the Bush Administration went to extraordinary lengths to strengthen the Executive Branch at the expense of our Constitution Protections (i.e. Separation of Powers)? Had they forgotten that the Bush Administration indebted our Great-Grandchildren to bailout a staggeringly corrupt financial sector? President Bush did more to socialize our nation than anyone since FDR (I don't even think Socialism is necessarily a bad thing). Bush linked our Government's stability to "Too Big to Fail" companies and ironically this was accomplished through an Administration led campaign to encourage liaise faire economic and regulatory practices. The irony is just too amazing... or maybe the idea is that when Government moves out of the way of business they should make sure to leave their checkbooks behind.

These men weren't bad, they were simply victims of the bad wing of the GOP. These guys are pros (or as my gaming cohorts would say uber-l33t) at gaining political advantage through attacking a Democratic President, and rebranding Pro-Populist ideologies into politically lethal one word epithets.

See the following as an instance of their success: the GOP attacks on the Clinton Administration led in part to the Republican Revolution. This of course gave the first 6 years of the GW Bush's Administration carte blanche courtesy a GOP Congress.

M-e-m-o-r-y fading... How'd that work out for the Nation?

If President Obama isn't careful, then the GOP will take this opportunity to rewrite history--if in under 60 days the GOP noise machine has succeeded in wiping their drone's minds clean anything that happened over the last year, then how much will they be able to accomplish in two years? Four years? Six years? I'm afraid.

They're also uber-l33t rebranders. The bad GOPs take Pro-Populist ideologies and turn them into potent one word epithets, that turn nominally sane voters into mini-Manchurian Candidates. As the power word is dropped the GOP cleanse any hope of reasoned discourse through potent application of abrasive vitriol and fear mongering.

Take their most successful rebrand "Liberal." It wasn't always a term that turned mini-Manchurians into frothing death machines. Over the last decade if that "Liberal" bell was rung a huge swath of the electorate would begin to see babies, being chased by chainsaw wielding doctors... or if babies weren't their link then it would be images of Hillary castrating them while maniacally emptying their gun cases and replacing their beloved collection of firearms with "Will and Grace" boxsets.

It took perhaps the most inept President in modern history, two wars, Hurricane Katrina, and the worst economic crisis since the Great Depression-- to give President Obama enough of a Teflon sheen to let the "Most Liberal member of Congress" slide off.

Can Democrats be so "lucky" in their catastrophes ever again?

During the next Congressional Election the term will be "Socialist," and the Nation's economic woes will be blamed on "out of control Democratic spending." The only chance we'll have, so the GOP will say, will be a return to our core values of "pay as you go" ideas that "have always" been championed by the GOP.

"We've always been the party of fiscal responsibility" Newt, Hannity or Rush will scream. "Oh and Oceania has always been at war with Eastasia."

Until we're able to remember deeper into history than the news cycle allows then... um then... hey American Idol is on.

WoW is Good thus WAR stinks: How 300k monthly subscribers became a failure.

2009-02-04T20:38:00.001-08:00

With Chuck Norris on Blizzard's side why did Mythic even try?

Today Mythic announced that it was cutting jobs, as a normal part of development. This is probably somewhat true--there's no doubt however that a weakening national economy and a drop in subscriptions is also to blame for the deep cuts in staff.

All that gloomy news aside is WAR in trouble of going the way of Tabula Rasa and Vanguard before it?

I didn't play either of those games, but from what I read they were both broken at launch and plagued with deep and fundamental stability issues. I've only been playing WAR for a couple of weeks now, but I have to say my experience thus far has been excellent. The game is stable, exciting and basically well balanced.

No doubt there are complaints and anyone who has been around MMOs or really any online game knows that at one point or another... a portion of the game population will rant about imbalances, broken this and thats, and the desperate need to nerf something.

I haven't played either of the previously mentioned failed MMOs, but I did play WoW for two. The gold standard of MMOs, and though the game is lionized (and rightly so) any WoW player will tell you that there was never a more angry, ugly and petty community in existence than those who inhabited the WoW boards. God I felt sorry for those poor mods.

WAR isn't in trouble because it's a bad game. In fact, I'd call it a GREAT game. WAR is suffering from a perception problem, not necessarily even among gamers, but among corporate sponsors. EA wants what Vivendi/Universal has... they want a license to print money. WoW gives it's parent company an extraordinary revenue stream, which is a fabulous thing. Great for them I like it when companies make money off of a good product (hey, I've got a 401k). WoW didn't get to that point over night though, WoW got to it's 10...11...12 million subscribers gradually.

I hope EA is patient enough with WAR to let it grow. 300k subscribers clearly is not on par with WoW, but if WoW is the only model for market success then no one should bother developing an MMO.

Dearest Michael, I'm sorry I ever cheered against you, your referees, David Stern and the Bulls.

Sincerely,

90's NBA Fan

It's like saying, unless you can play like Michael Jordan you shouldn't even try playing basketball. Sorry Charles, Pat, and Karl you shouldn't even have tried. Suns, Knicks, Jazz fans you can be Bulls fans, or you can go play baseball.

This is in response to: What now?

2009-02-02T12:30:00.000-08:00

6 more weeks of winter

What NOW?

2009-02-01T19:44:00.001-08:00

Texas, Why did you let us down?

2009-01-31T22:56:00.000-08:00

(Brief Background: The murdered child's mother and stepfather tortured her, beating her if she failed to say "yes sir" and "yes mam". She was two. "Grace" pleaded with her mom by saying "I love you" during the torture to her, looking to the one person in the world who should have protected her with her life. Control freaks should not reproduce.)

Texas, what is the deal?

There are things in life that are sure things: death, taxes, and the death penalty in Texas.

One of these three recently failed us--and it sure wasn't taxes.

It was Texas.

When I recently read up on the "Baby Grace" case, I took comfort in knowing that the beasts that murdered this poor child were being tried in Texas.

I thought, "Well, those monsters will die fairly soon because its Texas...at least this didn't happen in California."

I was wrong.

Texas is not seeking the death penalty against the scum who tortured and killed a two year old child. Apparently the two monsters who are being tried for this crime do not meet Texas criteria for seeking the death penalty.

They aren't seen as "future violators."

Really?

Come on Texas. You do executions so well. Why drop the ball now? This is a child we are talking about here.

By the way, spare me the anti-death penalty nonsense. I grew up hearing it from my mom and I "get it." I just don't buy it. I need no reason to want to remove bad humans from the race. If you kill a two year old, you should be killed. It's very simple.

I would go so far as to say if you rape or torture someone, especially a child, you should be publicly stoned. On local access TV no less.

Have You Heard the Word?

2009-01-28T21:15:00.000-08:00

This was a fascinating interview. Ted Haggard is of course the disgraced minister who for most of President Bush's time in office would conduct weekly prayer sessions via phone with the President. I say this not to take a cheap shot at the former President (or even the former pastor for that matter), rather just as a note as to his former level of influence, power and esteem in the evangelical community.

I've embedded the first two videos which I would highly recommend you watch, there is a third section though as of this posting it wasn't available yet. I apologize and don't necessarily agree with any commentary added by the Youtube poster. Now that I've got all that business out of the way...

I found this fascinating from a very human perspective. If you're able to set aside the homophobic swill that this man peddled for most of his adult life, if you're able to look past the early part of the interview where he makes, what to my mind, is a veiled attempt to link his "homosexual tendencies" to sexual abuse, and assuming you're able to ignore the distortion of Gospels into self-aggrandizing moralistic vitriol by far too many like Haggard, then I think you'll see a tragic and almost pathologically self-loathing human being.

Early in the interview Oprah asks him the proverbial $64,000 question, "Are you gay?" to which he responds, "No."

He goes on to explain that his sexuality doesn't fit neatly into a category of gay or straight...this was a nuanced and interesting answer and for a moment I thought the man might actually accept his homosexuality, but he didn't and doesn't. The truly interesting thing about this exchange is that it is repeated when his wife joins Oprah and Haggard. The tension is palpable and though Ted continues to come right up to the line of admitting he's gay... his wife invariably chimes in with the tired and patently absurd notion that Ted's sexuality is his choice, and his urges something to be controlled.

How many of us have chosen our sexuality? At no point in my life did I think... "You know I haven't given the whole gay thing a fair shake. I'd best look into that before I settle on this hetero gig."

The poor woman is desperate and I feel for her. Both she and Haggard repeatedly emphasize how fabulous their sex lives were, or are, or whatever--insert your own jokes here.

What I came away with was an almost humbling sense of the power of denial, and the astonishing lengths that people will go to in order to cling to a transparently absurd moralism.

Haggard, and far too many like him (probably half the GOP Congressmen, and at least one Senator from a state I lived in for nearly 20 years), are willing to lash out at a community their too afraid to join. I guess the surest way to prove that you're not something is to talk ceaselessly about how much you hate it. How it's sinful, abominable, deplorable... maybe if you can convince others that gays are demons you'll be able to kill your own.

I'm reminded of Emerson here:

Absolve you to yourself, and you shall have the suffrage of the World. I remember an answer, which when quite young I was prompted to make to a valued advisor who was wont to importune me with the dear old doctrines of the Church. On my say, "What have I to do with the sacredness of traditions? If I live wholly from within." My friend suggested--"But these impulses may be from Below and not Above." I replied, "They do not seem to me to be such, but if I am the Devil's child, I will live then from the Devil." No Law can be sacred to me but my Nature.
--Self Reliance

The Wisdom in Emerson is the wisdom to recognize that our inner-voice is our guide. Our Nature is NOT one of Original Sin and immorality, but of Beauty to be revelled in. Guilt, sin, doubt, shame--should never be attached to our Nature.

The poor man, and his poor wife. I pity them.

At one point in the interview Ted describes asking his wife for a divorce and then with some feigned pride (or to my estimation feigned) he describes how she refused to divorce him.

Doesn't this seem like a classic case of someone caught up in self-destructive behavior that they are hoping they'll get caught in... hoping because their only out, in their mind, is to tear down completely the fantasy that they've built. Fantasy seems to describe Haggard's wife and Haggard--truly the most poignant moments of the interview come when Haggard's adult children talk about what a distant and self-righteous man he was and the relief that they felt in finally being able to have a conversation with their father.

The sad irony is that "sin" made him a better father... and less of a self-righteous ass. How tragic is this?

Finally, Ted's story of self-denial is a story that we can all relate with on some level. Certainly his was public, and utterly humiliating for him and his family--but how far is Haggard's story from all of ours? We all cling to lies, and half-truths somewhere in our lives because we hate something from our past, or in our being. Therein lies the human tragedy in this man.

If only Ted could have followed the example set by the Kids in the Hall.

It is in me now

2009-01-27T22:36:00.001-08:00

Something has shifted in me--I liked Wyoming before, save the stress of moving, and the pangs of regret I'd feel when I missed people.
But now, I am completely bitten by the Wyoming bug: this is God's country. There is a freedom, an unspoiled openness that lets the mind, for better or worse, run untethered and feel boundless. There were open spaces in Idaho too which calmed me, but this place is, well, much different: more western, less on the grid.

I can look east, and see the Big Horn's--I look north, and there are the Absaroka's, and west is, of course, Yellowstone.

The austere openness of the basin floor takes my breath away. The rock formations, the arid mountains (did you all know the Rockies are super dry? That is a fact--we expect mountains to be lush wet places...not the case) has gotten into my bones.

In the summer, here is me:
Somewhere, looking for old Indian rock art, or just sitting by the lake, fishing or not. Maybe I'll spend a few days at Red Lodge, explore "America's Most Scenic Drive" aka Beartooth Highway.

I love it here. I am home.

Gone Baby Gone... What would you do?

2009-01-24T12:47:00.000-08:00

If you haven't seen this yet you should, Ben Affleck directs a really fine cast and he works with a great and morally ambiguous script.

Won't Get Fooled Again

2009-01-22T09:54:00.001-08:00

Kara and I have debated extensively whether or not we should blog about this, the concern is that it by some magic of the intra-nets and the mystical trucks that drive on those tubes the post would get back to the party I'm about to throttle.

I have to post on this because it was so bizarre.

Here's the scenario, though the facts have been changed just enough to give me series of tubes comfort.

Kara had a stomach bug and was quite sick, vomiting and the like. An acquaintance found out about this and began a rather intrusive conversation with Kara about having children. As you all know, Kara is one of... no the most private person I've ever known. She's also very proper, not stuffy and lame--she just likes to hang on a certain level of decorum. I really appreciate this about my wife.

A few days later, on Inauguration Day as a matter of fact, the acquaintance mentioned to Kara that their previous conversation had been bouncing around in said person's vacant head and they needed to share another reason that Kara and I should have kids... apparently, according to this (insert your choice of narrow minded/ignorant/absurd/horrid epithet here) said we should have children, "...for the white race."

Remember the context, Kara and I had just watched President Obama's swearing in. We'd seen the beautiful transition of power that is one of the most liberty affirming testaments to our Nation's greatness. We'd seen the first multi-racial President accept the reigns of our Republic's highest office and though I continue to have my doubts about just how well President Obama will preform--I was nonetheless feeling very positive about the race relations in our country.

Against this canvass, "Do it for the white race" was tossed. It was like someone throwing a urine filled water balloon at the Mona Lisa and seeing nothing wrong with it. Kara was stunned, she responded by saying, "You're kidding right?" The sad human responded that a pastor had informed them that, "In forty years the white race would be obsolete." Apparently, like Beta Max, Laser Discs and 8-Tracks all "white folks" are going to be shoved in some dusty forgotten corner to be replaced by... well, who knows. Before Kara could shake off her shock, horror and swallow the vomit that had filled her mouth, I walked in the room and the person excused themselves. I had no idea what had transpired but there was a palpable tension in the room, I was about to ask Kara about it when the one who shall remain nameless poked back in the room and said, "Do it for the white race!"

I didn't even know what to say.

Kara put her face in her hands and shook her head, I said, "Did I hear her right? Did she mean white rice?" I was hoping she was trying to give Kara a recipe.

Kara recounted the story and my day of Hopey Change was turned back--like the Who song "Won't get fooled again" my faith in humanity was turned back. Not only are the new bosses just like the old bosses, the new populous is like the old one. Ignorant, small and pathetic.

A Melancholy Cheers All

Cardinals versus Steelers: Can this marriage survive?

2009-01-19T08:02:00.000-08:00

It is decided: the Steelers will meet the Cardinals for the Super Bowl.
I knew we would be going back this year: who could beat us? When the Steelers are playing their slow and steady offense, doubled with the most hard hitting destructive defense in the league, well, there isn't much to worry about.
Acey is rooting for the Cardinals. He was born in Arizona and always pulls for Arizona teams, the exception being Notre Dame.

I am not laughing at the Cardinals, or the NFC. As Acey said, the Cards have struggled for a long, long time. Good for them for becoming a good team.

I know Acey can rise above this marital disagreement, I just don't know if I can.
Smart men never argue with their wives. Do they root against their wife's favorite team? I guess so.