6th Post: Things I Hope to Teach my Son

1) Nobody pays a pitcher to hit. The DH is good for the game.

2) Always hold open a door for ladies, people with their hands full and me...of course.

3) Prayer is THE necessity.

4) Read for pleasure. Read for pain. Read for escapism. Just READ!

5) The Godfather trilogy must be watched annually and the life-lessons contained therein are to be valued. Chief of which is to never go alone in a fishing boat into the middle of huge lake with a hitman, especially after you've tried to kill your brother...who - coincidentally - is the boss of said hitman. #youbrokemyheartFredo.

6) When driving always look for the seam. If you have to hit your breaks for anything other than an accident or a red light, you have failed.

7) There is more to Nascar than 'Speed up, turn left. Speed up, turn left'...I just don't know what it is.

8) Duke = Puke (this one is from Mommy)

9) A firm handshake, solid eye-contact, and repeating the name of the person you just met will do more for a first impression that whatever you are wearing at the time.

10) Should you ever enter an enclosed space with FAU Prof Simon Glynn PhD, say that you do not know me and that your last name is just a horrible coincidence and perhaps he will let you live...perhaps.

11) Should you ever enter an enclosed space with Mike Keenan and Mike Yormark, kick them both in the kneecaps and say it is from me (and the rest of the Panther nation).

12) The best food/drink combo to watch any game with is your Mom's chicken nachos and coke with lime.

13) Your Mom is always right...even when she's wrong (which is never).

14) College basketball is the game at its finest. The NBA is a joke.

15) There is nothing wrong with walking away from a fight, as long as you've left the other person unconscious.

16) Do not take yourself so seriously that no one else will.

17) 'Politics' is not a dirty word, but 'Politician' is.

18) Proper grammar, spelling and punctuation are priceless. Nothing screams 'I'm a moron' louder than: 'your welcom', 'I lik it two', 'there boat iz sweet!', 'UR awsum', or my personal favorite, 'U need 2 C there nu hows its sik'. #likenailsonachalkboard

19) Authors to appreciate: Cormac McCarthy, Ursula K. Le Guin, J.K. Rowling, David McCullough, Kurt Vonnegut, Dave Barry and Ray Bradbury.

20) Literature/Novels to love: 'Starship Troopers' - Robert Heinlein, 'The Lottery' - Shirley Jackson, 'Ender's Game' - Orson Scott Card, 'Slaughterhouse 5' - Kurt Vonnegut, 'The Goblet of Fire' - J.K. Rowling, 'Young Goodman Brown' - Nathaniel Hawthorne, 'The Things They Carried' - Tim O'Brien, 'The Raven' - Edgar Allan Poe, 'A Canticle for Leibowitz' - Walter M. Miller Jr., 'The Count of Monte Cristo' - Alexandre Dumas, 'Blood Meridian' and 'The Road' - Cormac McCarthy, 'Blackhawk Down' - Mark Bowden, 'Heart of Darkness' - Joseph Conrad, and basically anything by Ray Bradbury.

21) Movies to enjoy: Amadeus, The Prestige, Band of Brothers, Patton, Dirty Rotten Scoundrels, Fantasia, Master and Commander, Casablanca, Eastern Promises, Open Range, Gladiator, Monty Python and the Holy Grail, Napoleon Dynamite, Unforgiven, The Untouchables, Forrest Gump, and the first 20 minutes of Full Metal Jacket.

22) Bands to follow: Weezer, Jimmy Eat World, Denison Marrs, AFI, Coldplay, Plankeye, and The Smashing Pumpkins.

23) Albums to own: 'Kind of Blue' - Miles Davis, 'Pinkerton' and 'The Blue Album' - Weezer, 'Siamese Dream' - Smashing Pumpkins, 'Holding Hands @ 35,000 ft' - Denison Marrs, 'Time Out' - Dave Brubeck, 'X&Y' - Coldplay, 'Invented' - Jimmy Eat World, 'Commonwealth' and 'The Spark' - Plankeye, 'Beneath Medicine Tree' - Copeland, 'Sing the Sorrow' - AFI, and '3eB' - Third Eye Blind.

23) Sports teams to CHEER!: Miami Dolphins, Florida Panthers, Florida Marlins, Fulham FC (soccer), FSU football, UNC basketball, USA Men's National Soccer Team, Rory McIlroy, and whoever drives the National Guard car.

24) Sports teams to BOO!: New England Patriots, New York Jets, every NBA team (except maybe Miami), Florida Gators, Miami Hurricanes, New Jersey Devils (YOU ALMOST KILLED THE GAME!!), and Tiger Woods (I hated on him before anyone else did).

25) Do not - under any circumstances - spit into the wind.

What I'm reading now:
You Can Change - Tim Chester (devotional)
Think - John Piper
How to Read and Why - Harold Bloom

5th Post: Yet More Random Thoughts...

- Move over Walter "Sweetness" Peyton, there is a new best nickname in all of sports: Cliff "The Adverb" Lee. Anyone NOT an English major get that?

- Is it just me or has Google become that annoying guy/gal you work/hang with who finishes your thoughts before you even finish your first word? Example:
Me: "You know Google, I really like P..."
Google: "Pandora Radio. I know, me too."
Me: "Uh...no. I was saying I really like Pa..."
Google: "Pandora Jewelry. So very fetch."
Me: "NO! I really like Panda Bears!!! OH MY GOSH!!!!!"
Google: "Oh...well that was going to be my 2,346,029,762,396,923rd guess. Pandorajewelry17%offbuynow."

- Donald Trump needs to figure it out already. Is President Obama a qualified President of the USA or not? Trump goes from this:  http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RfoCrZJ8dQY   to this:  http://www.ny1.com/content/top_stories/88778/-i-ny1-exclusive---i--donald-trump-slams--evil--bush--praises-obama/  in a weeks time. Pick one already, John Ker...I mean, Donald Trump.

- "Interview With The Vampire" > "Twilight". Period. The End.

- I am more than a little concerned with this: http://finance.yahoo.com/news/BRICS-demand-global-monetary-rb-217782600.html?x=0&.v=3. Or...I would be if South Africa weren't involved. They created the vuvuzela, no one can ever take them seriously after that...except maybe deaf people.

- Try as I may...I still cannot see the purpose of putting braille on the DIGITAL SCREEN IMAGES of a DRIVE-THRU ATM. I'm looking at you Bank of America. #doublefail

- Hash tags are the epitaph of modern thought. #toodeepforyou

4th Post: Random Thoughts...and a Marxist or two

Some assorted musings from the danky depths of my mind...be careful, madness is catchy.

- I have seen Paradise, and it is in deep blue eyes of Rowan Elisabeth Purchase. Simply gorgeous!

- Hockey season is almost over...at least as far as my beloved - and beleaguered - Florida Panthers are concerned. Now comes my favorite game, "Pick out another - actually decent - team to root for in the Playoffs." I'm feeling the Washington Capitals.

- You can call it whatever you want (my wife says it's a lack of taste), but I really like the following bands and will buy their albums (not just the singles on I-tunes) whenever they release them: Jimmy Eat World, Coldplay, and Weezer (they tease me always with their 2-or-3-amazing-songs-surrounded-by-crummy-filler, but I cannot stop myself...the laughably terrible 'Raditude' notwithstanding).

- I just finished reading the play 'Death of a Salesman' by Arthur Miller and I must say, I found it heartbreaking. It was written - and most assuredly succeeds - as a critique of the American Dream. If you have not read it, please do. To the christian reader, it is a stark portrayal of a life lived apart from God. In fact, I don't believe 'God' is mentioned at all unless attached to a certain 4-letter word. In it, you see a wife who feels her only hope against the inevitable is to put on a brave face. You see two sons, each embodying a separate fatal flaw bestowed (even nurtured) by their fatally flawed father. You see a man so lost in his own failings, that he must constantly re-live the past because he cannot bear to witness his future. A man who gauges his life's worth solely in how it is reflected in the eyes of other men. As I was reading it, I wanted to grab Willy Loman (the main protagonist) and embrace him and hand him a Bible and say, 'Read this! Your life's worth is to be found here!' Alas, I could not...

- LADIES AND GENTLEMEN: There is a United States Pirate Party. FOR REAL!!! Who wants to join it with me? Maybe they give out free eye-patches and parrots.
Here is their logo:

How cute: The flag makes a 'P'. Now I really want to join.

Oh...wait a minute...nevermind. It's just a political party to promote the abolition of copyright laws and Digital Rights Management (DRM). Nerds, they ruin everything.

SPEAKING OF POLITICAL PARTIES:

- I met two 'Marxists' today in the Non-fiction section of a newly discovered used bookstore called 'The Book Rack' (on Commercial east of US-1 but before the bridge on the North side). I was looking through a book titled 'Soviet Polity in the Modern Era' (I mean, who wouldn't?) and this guy and his friend come up to me (me, mind you) and asked if I was a member of the CPUSA ( http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Communist_Party_USA ).

I didn't answer right away (big mistake) and they started asking me my opinions on 'Lenin' this and 'China' that. I looked right at them and asked if they were - in fact - serious. They said they were, and I asked them if they were - in fact - aware that Communism was a global failure. They didn't take too kindly to that and pointed out that China owned the USA up to its ears. I pointed out that sure, China is pretty nifty, if you like to ignore little things like gross disregard for human rights, massive levels of starvation/poverty, blatant seizures of land to build the world's largest this and the world's biggest that, the utter and total abolition of a free press, and all that jazz (which - in point of fact - was also banned in China until the late 1980s). The two of them had clearly heard these arguments before and were prepared, "Well, at least they don't own slaves!" "Buddy," I replied, "Their entire population are slaves." This started a huge rant (which I promptly forgot) on American Capitalist Slave culture and how the US was based on a land/slave owner philosophy. My reply, "Funny how we still manage to function, now that slavery has been abolished for over 100 years."

They were not to be deterred. "Look at Cuba," They said, "Best health care system and scientific research stations in the Western Hemisphere!" My reply, "Yeah, you can tell they really appreciate it there...that's why tens of thousands have risked life and limb to cross 90 miles of ocean in the dead of night on inner-tubes and hallowed out tree trunks to join our Capitalist-slave-holding country." They didn't like that either. Then I dropped the bomb, "How old are you two anyways?" One said he was old enough to see through the lies of the establishment (translation: 17-19) and the other mumbled something about being old enough to burn his selective service card (translation: 18-19). I then asked them, "Have either of you ever been outside of the US?" One said not yet and the other said he had been outside the US. I said then that being on a cruise didn't really count. He muttered something I can't repeat here and I said that I had seen up-close and personal the effects of Soviet Communism and that it isn't pretty. "Where were you?" The 'Burner' asked. "Afghanistan and Kyrgyzstan." I said. He squinted at me and frowned, "Whatever."

I then told them that Communism removes the 'humanity' out of governance. I told them that in a Communistic society, the 'essence of the individual' is sacrificed upon the alter of the state. The 'Cruiser' interrupted me right there and said (this is an actual quote, I will never forget it), "Yeah, America really cares about the individual. NOT! So what if America doesn't allow for slavery ON THESE SHORES! They just get their slaves in other countries like Mexico and Thailand and El Salvador and China." I cut him off right there (rude, I know) and said, "I thought you said China 'owned the US'?" He ignored me and said, "They send the slave-type jobs overseas and make a mint!" I conceded that point. Truth be told, I do think American corporations send out for a lot of cheap labor that is only sparsely regulated; jobs that could keep America from the double-digit unemployment it currently has.

Once they saw that they had - in fact - made an actual point, they decided to retire as champions and bade me farewell. Which was a pity, because I so wanted to ask them how they liked being hypocrites for wearing Nike sneakers (made in China) and Quicksilver T-shirts (made in Mexico). However, poetic justice was to be had after all. They went to the clerk to buy the books they had picked out, and proceeded to balk that the store did not take credit/debit cards (the total was a measly 17 dollars...apparently communists don't carry cash), they settled for one book and left...IN A MERCEDES BENZ. Go figure...

What I am reading now:
You Can Change - Tim Chester (devotional)
The Call - Os Guiness
No Country for Old Men - Cormac McCarthy
Marxism for Dummies and Un-Washed Benz-Driving Hipsters: - No, not really

3rd Post: Dare I hope?

"You could have a situation where you achieve the military goal and not achieve the political goal [of Libyan regime change]." - US Defense Secretary Robert Gates

In the article posted here ( http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2011/04/01/defense-secretary-robert-gates-opposed-arming-rebels_n_843428.html ) it is made clear that Secretary Gates is a man of - in DC at least - un-common sense. He does not believe it will be prudent to arm the Libyan rebels. In this I concur. Now, those of you who know me, know that I am very much pro-military and - being a combat veteran - fully support the US military's endeavors abroad. However, peace-keeping and rebel-arming are two seemingly intrinsic, but in reality, two diametrically opposed actions; actions that have historically created nightmares for the USA. Examples:

-Iran 1953: The Popularly elected Prime Minister Mohammad Mosaddeq nationalized the Anglo-Iranian Oil Company and the British reached out to the fledgling CIA to assist in the overthrow. They did so and put the Shah in power. (Ironically, in 1978 the US did nothing as the Ayatollah took over the country and turned it into its current incarnation).

-Iraq 1959: The CIA paid Saddam Hussein to assassinate Prime Minister Abd al-Karim Qasim (who initiated the Coup 'detat to overthrow the Iraqi Monarchy in '58)...as you will see in the article below...it all went swimmingly.
http://www.informationclearinghouse.info/article2849.htm

-Chile 1970: The CIA supported a Coup that led to the assassination of the popularly elected President Salvador Allende. Who was put into power as a result? General Augusto Pinochet

-Afghanistan 1980: House Rep Charlie Wilson (D) almost single-handedly drug the US/CIA into the middle of the Soviet/Afghan conflict. Getting hundreds of millions of dollars and weapons (missiles, etc.) into the hands of Afghan rebels (and Gulbuddin Hekmatyar now a noted Taliban leader). The logic behind it was to create a 'Vietnam' for the Soviets, the way the Soviets turned Vietnam into 'Vietnam' for us. Needless to say...the long-term ramifications of those kinds of weapons/training in the hands of Radical Imam controlled fighters were not considered.

Those are just four examples, but I have long said that the greatest enemy of the United States today is the United States of 40 years ago. A policy of forced capitulation (in the case of Chile, to stop the nationalization of American-owned copper mines and the ATT Corp; In the case of Iran, to stop the nationalization of the oil), and/or one of 'Stop Communism at all costs' has caused today's USA nothing but problems.

This particular article gives me hope that a page has been turned.

"Gates and [Admiral Mike] Mullen said that if the rebels are to get arms and training, countries other than the U.S. should provide that assistance. And they stressed that the U.S. still does not have enough good information about who the disparate opposition forces are."

Brilliant. As in the aforementioned examples, there appeared to be no long-term understanding of what these Coups would perpetrate. It was all contingent upon what would benefit the US at that particular time. Now, at least there seems to be some malice of forethought.

"I know that I am preoccupied with avoiding mission creep [definition: slow down the process and cause things to creep along] and avoiding having an open-ended, very large scale American commitment in this," said Gates. "We are in serious budget trouble."

Again, this is music to my ears! The Department of Defense is counting their pennies. Now, I firmly believe that when America is threatened there should be no ledger kept. I mean, who is going to count the dollars when we're all using Yen/Won? In this particular case, a close-kept eye on Defense resources will enable saved funds to continue on to troops/missions in Iraq and Afghanistan.

Alas...it would seem there are still bad habits to avoid:

The defense leaders also made it clear to Congress that there will be no U.S. military ground forces in Libya. They would not comment on reports that the CIA has small teams working with the Libyan rebels.

Uh-oh...in my aforementioned examples...how many included the CIA? This could not end well. But wait, it gets better:

Separately, the State Department said the U.S. was not involved in the defection of Gadhafi's top diplomat, Moussa Koussa, although a U.S. diplomat had talked with Koussa. "He's obviously been a part of the Gadhafi regime for many, many years," State Department spokesman Mark Toner said. "I obviously don't want to talk about what conversations we may be having with him and what kind of intelligence we may be able to gather from him, but he certainly has a wealth of information to share, should he decide to."

This brings to mind a certain fellow by the name of Rafid Ahmed Alwan al-Janabi and this article will sum him up nicely ( http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2011/feb/15/curveball-iraqi-fantasist-cia-saddam ).

As well as this bloke, Former Iraqi Foreign Minister Naji Sabri and these two articles sum him up nicely - do please read both in order. ( http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2006/03/22/AR2006032202103.html ) and ( http://www.salon.com/news/opinion/blumenthal/2007/09/06/bush_wmd/ )

So, we have one man who just wanted to see Iraq free from Saddam and lied to do it, and another who was so tantalizingly close with his assessments, but not close enough to warrant a push for Iraq/US aggression so they had to 'play it up' a bit. Let us hope that whatever Moussa 'My Mother Obviously Hated Me" Koussa tells the CIA, no nose growth shows (eh, eh? Anyone?) and that they give briefings using his statements verbatim (Definition: word for word).

I could insert the old adage about 'those who ignore history...' blah blah blah. I instead shall turn to a (globally speaking) lesser-known proverb, "Like a dog returns to his vomit is a fool who repeats his folly." Proverbs 26:11

I hope I am making my point. Here the US stands on a similar precipice. Rarely does one get to see history re-lived so soon. I do not think that American troops should go to Libya. Sending American air-craft/bombers is acceptable to me because it is obvious to all what they are trying to accomplish (the prevention of potential civilian massacres). However, once you place uniformed troops into another country one of two things tends to happen: 1) The opposition stops fighting - or at least stops fighting hard. They let the Americans take on the tougher elements and subsequently sit back and plan their factional power-grabs (A la Sunnis, Shiites and the Kurds) while American troops absorb all of the casualties. OR 2) They fight along-side the Americans but, obviously, the American forces have greater and greater victories thus highlighting the ineptitude of the freedom fighters/rebels  and muting their accomplishments and - ultimately - decreasing their status in the eyes of the general population (A la the current Iraqi government). Thus, when the American’s pull out, it appears there are weak people in power propped up only by Amercian hands and they become targets themselves either to outside forces (Iran) OR inside factions (Al Queda Iraq).

I am drawing a lot of unfavorable lines back to the Iraq invasion, so let me be clear. I support my brothers and sisters-in-arms there now, there then and there soon. Their mission is good and their goals admirable. I believe we did not go there for oil (as evidenced by the fact we have received no significant deal on Iraqi oil so far...its oil export is still governed by OPEC) and I believe that Saddam would have used WMDs on the US or Israel if he could have.

WITH THAT SAID!!!

If George H.W. Bush had given even token support to the Iraqi people post Gulf War, Saddam would most likely have been ousted and - perhaps - a more stable people-led government would be in place today. Which takes me back to my long-time phrase ('the US of 40 years ago v. US today'). Saddam in power led to the New Iraq War. I hope Libya plays out differently and I will leave you with this quote: 'Freedom won is freedom earned and freedom earned is freedom appreciated and freedom appreciated is freedom well deserved.' - Anonymous

DISCLAIMER: I wrote this intermittently throughout the day (there were many interruptions)...so, if it does not seem to be gelling...well, then it's your fault.

Thoughts?

FIN