Dad Reaches the Big Six

Pictured above is my mom, sister, and dad in 2003, when my sister, Melissa, graduated from Emory University (B.A. in Psychology). There was another photo of my dad that I wanted to post, but it's not saved on disk (someday, I'll digitize all my photos), so this will do.

My dad is 60 years old today. I remember when I thought 30 was ancient, but of course I don't believe that now. So, in honour of his 60th birthday, I wanted to write a tribute to him.

My dad is the second of five boys. Born in St. Joseph, Missouri and raised in Atchison, Kansas from the age of 2 until 18. He joined the Air Force so he wouldn't get drafted in the Army during Vietnam. It turned out to be a wise decision, because the USAF sent him to Thailand in 1968 or 1969. That's where he met my mom. She was a housekeeper. To hear them tell it, the romance sounded fated. Made in heaven, in other words. Or in my spiritual belief system, a pre-mortal existence agreement to meet at a certain time and place on earth. Mom was pursued by quite a few guys, including officers (and the ladies in Thailand knew all about the pay differentials between the two distinctive groups)...but she fell for the enlisted man.

They married in a Thai courtroom in December 1969, even though my dad's chain of command was against the marriage. His own father wrote him a letter (the first ever letter he wrote to his son) telling him not to marry. He didn't like Asian people because "the Japs killed my cousin." That logic made as much sense to me as, "I hate Italian food because Germans spit in my water." It took a year before the American government granted a marriage license, and in that time, my brother was born. I arrived fourteen months later. My dad was stationed in Taipei, Taiwan at the time. We moved to Eglin AFB, Florida then to the Philippines, where my earliest memories are from. After eight years in the military, my dad got out and attended school at the University of Kansas. I started school in Lawrence. Once my dad graduated and received his commission as an officer in the USAF, we moved to State College, Pennsylvania so my dad could get an additional year of school at Penn State University.

I consider my dad's decision to make a career out of the Air Force a blessing in my life. Had he remained in civilian life, I would've lived probably my whole life in Lawrence (and even gone to college there). Instead, I got to see a lot of the country thanks to my parents love of travel. It seems like he picked different regions on purpose: Pennsylvania so we could travel the northeast and New England; Utah so we could travel out west; Nebraska so we could visit the upper Midwest; Germany so we could see all over Europe; and Georgia so we could travel around the South. However, the one place I wanted to live the most was California and my dad never wanted to live there.

I'm proud to be an "Air Force Brat" and an officer's kid. Expectations were higher for officer children than they are for enlisted children. Supposedly (or so I was taught), my behaviour could affect my dad's career. Not that I was unruly. Being an officer's kid might've had an affect on how I was viewed when I was an enlisted man in Italy and other people thought I was an officer when they saw me in civilian clothes.

Because of the choices that my dad made in his life and because he has four brothers, I can see the huge difference between what I experienced and what my cousins experienced. They grew up in poverty, stuck in a dying Midwest town and no desire to travel. I've probably seen more of the world than anyone in my family and I got a head start in life because of my dad. By the time I graduated high school, I had been to 44 states. Twelve years after that, I finally added state #50, beating my dad (he's been to 49 now).

As a kid, I remember being worried if anything would happen to my parents, because I didn't like the brother he selected to be our legal guardian in the case of death. Out of all of his brothers, my dad values education the most. He loves school so much that he sometimes jokes that he would love to be a permanent student. He retired from the Air Force in 1993 and when he retires from his current job (RN), I wouldn't be surprised if he went back to school for a doctorate in something.

Though I inherited my love of books from my dad as well as my journal keeping, love of travel, and love of maps, I'm not like him in "playing it safe" in terms of career. Job security is important for my dad and he has done well financially, especially in comparison to his brothers. Me, on the other hand, I still haven't landed my dream career where I'd want to work until retirement. I didn't see the military as a career option. I'm too much about freedom and not being tied down. My mother told me that when I was a little boy, I was "unhuggable" because every time she tried to hug me (or anyone else), I would always try to break loose. I think it's interesting that I always had that tendency, for I think it reveals the true essence of my soul (the strong dislike of being trapped). Though I hug people now, it's not something I particularly enjoy and is almost always initiated by the other person (and I feel it rude to reject).

Because I have witnessed first hand how my father's life differed from his brothers, I can see the difference education made. Seeing my cousins get pregnant or getting girls pregnant when they were fresh out of high school and the struggle they have just trying to live in towns without good wage jobs, with dependent mouths to be responsible for feeding, it has made marriage and children a scary prospect for me, particularly when I'm still trying to break out of my own low wage nightmare. My dad was 22 when I was born. When I reflect on that, I shake my head because I remember what I was like at 22. I couldn't imagine being a dad at that point in life. I loved being 22...for it was the year that I went to South Africa for my vacation and the year that I bought my first car.

Often, I think and wonder how my parents were able to raise two boys at a young age. The sacrifices they made. I'm so spoiled...yet, I do desire my own family some day. I didn't count on the tragic detour my life has been on since losing my dream jobs in my dream city of D.C. in 2000. Though my parents don't say it to my face, I have heard them tell other people how much they want grandchildren. I'm disappointed in myself that I haven't been able to give that to them. Had I known college wouldn't lead me to the promise land of good paying jobs, I never would've done it. I would've followed my dad's example and made the Navy a career. Not a great option, but a safe one. Just recently, I saw a pay scale and was shocked to see that had I stayed in and made it to E-8, I would be making DOUBLE what I make now!!! That can't be right, can it?

But, it's all about choices. My dad made smart ones and was able to support a family of five. A life of moves to different locations and of vacations aplenty. I have no complaints. Some day soon, my ship will come in and I might be too travelled out to give my future children the kind of travel experiences my dad gave me. Hopefully, they won't hold it against me. I'll just say, "I lived life before you came into the world! Now I'm ready to focus on parenting." But, there won't be any marriage and children so long as I work in the place that I work, with the poverty wages, no chance for advancement, and the hypocritical claim that it's all about the family.

Here's to my dad on his 60th birthday! I wish I was as smart as you and I still hope that one day, I can give you a grandson (I want a son named Patrick) and give my sister a nice sister-in-law. But first things, first...landing a satisfying career.

Flashback Friday: Monte Negro

In honour of President Obama and the ten Inaugural Balls he and the First Lady attended on the first night of his presidency, I decided to write this week's Flashback Friday on one of my favourite foreign albums of all time, Bailando Con El Presidente by Monte Negro, a band I know little about other than that they are most likely from Spain. The album came out in 1990, but I didn't discover it until a 1992 trip to Madrid when I wanted to buy a cassette tape of one Spanish rock group for my international music collection. I'm glad that I pick well!

Basically, I went by cover design and I liked their's the best (I can't find a photo of it in my Google search. The best I could come up with is a photo from one of the singles from that album, seen above, which is similar). I like wearing vests and when I lived in the Mediterranean world as a young man, I was pleased to see that wearing vests was quite popular in Spain, Italy and Greece. Seeing a Spanish band with the lead singer in a vest and T-shirt and black hat just looked like a cool style to me, so that's how I made my superficial choice.

You know the cliche "never judge a book by its cover"? I can understand it to a point, but sometimes you have to make those kind of judgments when you are indecisive about buying a book or a CD without knowledge. However, I did judge this Spanish band by the cover of it's album and was shocked when I listened to it. It wasn't just likeable or good, it was FANTASTIC! It was a gamble that paid off. I bought the cassette tape and have searched for years for the CD version. It's hard to find. From what little info I did find out, they only had two albums in the early 1990s and then disappeared. It's kind of bad that they named their band "Monte Negro", which is also a breakaway province of the former Yugoslavia. That means any Google search is going to turn up too much irrelevant information about the band.

When I listen to foreign bands and tell my friends about them, I try to give an American or British band equivalent in terms of sound so they can get the idea. However, after all these years, Monte Negro defies my attempts to compare them to any band you might be familiar with. I almost want to say that if you like early 1990s REM or Maroon 5's first album, you'll probably like Monte Negro...but good luck finding any cassettes, CDs, or record albums out there. You won't find it in the Latin music section. For some reason, bands from Spain seem hard to find in the Latin section, which is dominated by music from south of the border.

The songs on this album are pretty catchy. I have no idea what they are singing about and this always caused arguments when I was in the Navy. Too many guys were paranoid about foreign language music because they always claimed that the band could be singing anti-American things. I had two responses to that: (1) So, the whole point of a foreign band is to sing in their native tongue so they can make fun of America? And dumb Americans will buy it and they sure fooled us, eh? That's the xenophobic mindset I had to deal with in the Navy...guys so concerned over the possibility of anti-Americanism in any foreign phrase, song, or movie. (2) If they did sing anti-American songs, so what? My favourite foreign band is Indochine, from France. I know a bit more French than Spanish, and it is true that some of their songs are critical of the U.S. But their music is so damn good, it's like, who cares? Everyone's entitled to an opinion. Some Friday or Monday this year, I'll feature Indochine because they ranked in my Top Five Bands of All Time. I consider them a cross between Depeche Mode, Duran Duran, and the Cure.

As for Monte Negro, they have two of the most beautiful ballads I've ever heard: "Tiempo Perdido" and "El Adios" ("Lost Time" and "The Goodbye", respectfully). When a song's melody can bring me to tears, it's truly powerful. I'm talking BEAUTIFUL! And there aren't a whole lot of songs that I would call "beautiful." It all comes down to the melody for me and how it's sung. Even if the lyrics are not good, when I listen to these two songs, I'm in awe. It's discovery like this that always makes me wonder what great music exists out there that I'm not having access to right now. When American radio stations play the same set list every day, I can't help but wonder if that contributes to the narrow mindedness of most Americans. There is so much great music out there and I wish I had enough money to operate my own radio station that plays the most diverse set list...stuff you have to search on several channels of Satellite Radio to find. The only difference is that I'd play songs with catchy rhythms or ballads that will make your heart melt it's so gorgeously beautiful.

I wish Monte Negro had greater success and was still around today. If I'm ever in Spain again (which is unlikely, as I did not have a good experience in Madrid or Cartagena), I will be searching record stores for their two cds. Until that day, I'll be wearing out this cassette tape on my walkman (yes, I still have one) until I figure out how to transfer songs on cassette to digital format.

What Makes a Great Year?

I've been thinking a lot lately about the years of my life that I count in the "GREAT" column as well as those I put down in the "Not So Great" column. In my desire to make 2009 one of the best years of my life, I'm re-reading a book I bought two years ago: Debbie Ford's The Best Year of Your Life. I read it two years ago, meant to read it last year, but am commiting to reading it and absorbing the lessons for this coming year.

In my own life, I would rank my ten best years as such (and the reason why):

1) 1991

I was in a great two-fer with the years 1991-1992 and its hard to put one over the other, but for me, what's notable about 1991 was that I made my first solo roadtrip (via Greyhound) to visit my best friend in Omaha in January, along with my grandparents in Kansas. The Gulf War started while I was on this vacation and a snowstorm caused me to delay returning home for a couple days. When I returned to Atlanta, I knew I was psychologically and physically ready for the challenges of Basic Training, so I had my training moved up two months, shipping out in March instead of May. Basic Training turned out to be a wonderful surprise and still holds as the single greatest experience of my life (hard to believe, I know...it even slightly beats out my Washington Seminar experience). I still reminisce about those days and listen to the music that I listened to during that time. Though I thought "A" school in Mississippi was a joke, it was still a good experience and I got to pick my dream assignment: Sardinia, Italy. By September, I was back in Europe and loving it. Before the year was out, I got to see Rome, Naples, Ibiza and Cagliari (capital of Sardinia). And, on my 20th birthday, I toured my first submarine, USS Atlanta, with a fellow Yeoman assigned to it as my guide. How sweet was that?

2) 1992

This year continued my emotional high because the most significant event of the year involved the French. As a teenager, I had wanted to be an exchange student with a French family, but it never happened for whatever reason. However, the universe does recognize one's desires and strives to fulfill it, so this was the year of fulfilment, as I met two different French families (one that lives in a suburb outside of Paris, where the girl was a couple years younger than me and my penpal; the other was a French submarine sailor I had met and become friends with, who lived with his family in Brittany). They invited me to stay with them and showed me glimpses of the French way of life. It was truly a dream come true for me and still one of the great blessings of my life. Other events this year included: trips to Naples, Florence, Sicily, Toulon, Nice, Madrid, Corfu (Greece), Alexandria (Egypt), and my first Eurail trip to visit Venice, Vienna, Budapest, Fulda Germany (where I lived as a teenager), Paris, and Brittany. I also saw Corsica. And of course, I was blissfully ecstatic when Clinton won the election and that the Senate saw the election of four more women (two in California, one in Washington state, and one in Illinois).

3) 1994

This was my last year in Sardinia, and I strove to enjoy it, even though I was in a nightmarish job of "babysitting" drunk sailors off duty watching bad videos and complaining about how much life sucks "on the rock." I never understood why enlisted guys hated living in Sardinia, because I always thought of it as an incredibly lucky break. I often asked myself, "how did I get so lucky in my first duty station?" Even though I did not like working at the Palau Community Center, I did get to travel to a few places...a trip to Fulda, Germany once again to see the base I lived on as a teenager in its last months before closure. I also got to travel to South Africa in a trip of a lifetime, still the best vacation I've ever been on. The wisest money I ever spent. Beyond that, I got to see Sting in concert in Sassari, Sardinia, and I transferred back to the U.S. in October, with a final Eurail trip to my friends in Brittany, then to visit the D-Day beaches of Normandy before visiting the family in Paris and a flight home to see my family for the first time in three years. I also met my other best friend, Nathan and bought my first car this year. The year also saw fulfilment of another dream come true. I had joined the Navy to be stationed on an Aircraft Carrier, and for my final year in the Navy, I experienced life aboard the most exciting ship you could ever be stationed on...the carrier USS George Washington.

4) 1997

This year has the unique distinction for being the year that I've been through 12 timezones...from Berlin in June to Hawai'i in December. I spanned half the globe in six months, probably the widest distance I've ever traveled in a single year. This was the year that I also started college, moving west to Utah to attend BYU. In addition to Berlin, I also visited Paris and Brittany; and then in my travels out west, I saw Santa Fe and San Francisco. But the year was capped for me with a Christmas vacation on the island of Oahu, visiting with best friend Nathan and church members I knew, the Ishikawas.

5) 1988

Last year, I was often nostalgic for this year for some odd reason. What was it about the year? For me, it was the music, it was that I had finally found my stride in a great group of friends during my sophomore year (and final year in Germany). In the summer, my dad took me on a trip to Paris (our second time there) and then we moved back to the U.S. in August, with a vacation in Charleston, South Carolina and Jekyll Island, Georgia. I started a new school and had to go through the whole process of loneliness once again. This year, I also acted in two plays. This year was the highlight of my teenage years and it helped that I loved the music from this year a lot.

6) 1999

I was taking mostly upper level political science classes and loving it. I also got over my year long loneliness of 1998 because I finally saw the light at the end of the tunnel. I was making plans for a new life in D.C., so I decided to enjoy BYU and college as much as possible. This year also has a unique distinction in that I had been to or through 25 states in a single year! I did a lot of travel this year...with my spring roadtrip to visit Nathan at his base in Bremerton, Washington (where I made sure to visit Victoria and Vancouver BC, Seattle, Olympia, Cannon Beach, Salem, Portland, Boise, and Shoshone Falls). On the journey up, I got to press the pedal to the metal and see how fast my Saturn SL1 could go in Montana (which had no speed limits on its Interstates) and I had the most beautiful vision of Coeur d'Alene ID as I drove through right at sunset. I knew I wanted to be back there again someday, and in 2008, I fulfilled that wish not once, but twice! Also in 1999, I returned home to see my sister graduate from high school and I visited my relatives in Minnesota. As I left Utah for home at year's end, I spent Christmas at a church member's house in Scofield, Utah before hitting the road and spending one night in Santa Fe and another night near Dallas, and then a lunch break in Meridian, Mississippi, where I had attended "A" school 8 years earlier.

7 ) 2000

Though the year didn't go as planned, the Washington Seminar experience was truly one of the greatest experiences of my life and it helped buoy an otherwise disappointing year. Besides the internship, I got to be best man at Nathan's wedding and I attended my ten year high school reunion in the fall, and also met up with a good friend from my senior year to see how he ended up in life (quite successful). I was also thrilled that best friend Nicholas moved to my home state of Georgia, so we could spend some time together over the years before he transferred elsewhere. It wasn't a bad year, and the good far outweighed the bad.

8) 1984

This was the year that I started 7th grade and had a great group of friends, including meeting the guy who would eventually become my best friend, Nicholas. I hated elementary school, so I was never intimidated about junior high. It was an exciting change for me and I remember feeling truly grown up for the first time. Other notable events were the Los Angeles Olympic Games and a family vacation to Lamoni, Iowa and Nauvoo, Illinois (church history sites). And of course, I was all about the Ghostbusters this year.

9) 2006

The year I decided to quit my job in Atlanta, cash in my savings, and take the risk in moving to the city that was my post-college Plan B. I enjoyed a three month sabbatical at my parents home as I went through my belongings as well as finish the Biology course so I could finally get my college degree. In retrospect, if I knew what lay in store for me (finding a job that pays far less than what I was making in Atlanta as well as being a far worse working environment), I probably would have not moved to Portland. Had I known that Nicholas would be stationed in D.C., I would most likely have considered moving back to the D.C. area to pursue a job in my chosen field. But, I said I wasn't going to regret my decisions, and I don't. Sometimes, it's better that we don't know the outcomes, because we might not take it otherwise, and if anything, I've learned a lot through my disappointments in Portland. At any rate, I also got to see many beautiful things, and taking the cross-country train journey from Atlanta to Portland was truly one of the best rail journeys I've ever taken anywhere.

10) 1985

This was the year that my family moved to Germany. I was sad to leave behind my group of friends and start over again, but I was very excited to live in Germany (something I had dreamed about since the 1970s when one of my uncles was stationed in Germany and my dad told me about it). What also stands out about this year is a lesson that I learned about girls. I had a crush on a girl that many guys had a crush on (she was a Madonna "wannabe") and asked her to dance with me at the last dance of the year. I had to work up my nerves to ask her to dance and one girl (who I later learned had a crush on me) was especially helpful in getting me to ask the other girl to dance. When the popular girl danced with me, she wouldn't even look at me and spent the whole ordeal talking with her best friend. I thought it was rude and even put a nasty note in her locker the following Monday (which I heard had made her go into the restroom to cry). But the lesson I learned was that I was chasing after a girl who wasn't interested in me and didn't pay attention to the cute girl who had a crush on me. STUPID, STUPID, STUPID!!! School was near the end at the point and had it occurred earlier, I would've definitely had a girlfriend in the girl who had a crush on me. I'm reminded of her every time I watch the James Bond movie The Living Daylights, because this girl looked so much like my favourite Bond girl Kara Milovy (Maryam d'Abo). What can I say? I was a stupid teenager, especially when it came to girls. I always want what I can never have.

The other notable thing about this year were the number of pop rock stars who had theme songs for movies: Huey Lewis and the News, Cyndi Lauper, Madonna, Tina Turner, Duran Duran, Pat Benatar, to name a few off hand. It was another great year in music for me.

Now, in my search for patterns, I naturally looked at my ten best years on record to see the common demoninator and what I found was that each of those years had CHANGE and/or TRAVEL in common. This fits with my natural desires in terms of what makes me happy. I'm someone who requires constant change, whether jobs, location, or experiences. Being stagnant or stuck is the characteristic of my worst years. I hate the feeling of being stuck or trapped. And this is certainly true, as I've been in some situations where I was dependent upon someone else for something (such as a ride) and I actually felt an anxiety about it because I do not like to depend on other people for anything. I like being independent and free. When I'm in a situation, I'm always looking for potential escape routes, just in case I feel a need to bolt. Thus why I feel such a great despair over being "trapped" in a job that I hate with no exit signs. It's the worst case scenario for me.

So, what would make this year truly great for me? A huge change. What better change for me than a change of jobs? If I had the money, a change of locations would be great as well. Working in the Obama Administration, even if it means manning an office at the U.S. Embassy in Baghdad would suit me just fine. Just get me the hell out of here! I do not like the feeling of being trapped. It's funny that most people fear change. I'm the opposite. I fear being stagnant and stuck. I thrive on change. For that, I blame a life of moving once every two or three years. But I shouldn't say "blame" because I wouldn't want a life any other way. I get bored by routine.

What would make 2009 a great year for me? A NEW JOB!!! Winning the lottery would be nice. A possible move (in connection with a dream job). A literary agent accepting representation of my novel and getting big publishers to have a bidding war for a nice advance and a lot of publicity (the themes in the novel have a great possibility to cause controversy). A vacation to Australia. Meeting the woman I want to marry who feels the same way. So...if any or all of these come true this year, as great as it would make my year, it would still be hard to top my three best years (1991, 1992, and 1994). But, I'll take a great year in any form it comes.

The Real Reason Conservatives Obsess Over Abortion

The news is reporting that Obama's "honeymoon" with conservatives is over. The Pope and religious conservatives have now supposedly "turned against" President Obama because he lifted the gag rule on abortion, proving which side he comes down on (as if there were any doubt).

Each year in January, anti-abortionists hold a rally in Washington, D.C. in front of the Supreme Court to protest the controversial 1973 ruling in Roe v. Wade, which made abortion legal. Ever since then, the decision has rallied groups of outraged religiously conservative people around a cause they view as just. Some go so far as to claim that abortion is a new "holocaust."

Whoa. Wait a minute, there. Now, I'm no fan of abortion. But I'm tired of the never ending argument and name-calling by anti-abortionists. You can't have an intelligent conversation with these people because they are so fanatically devoted to the cause of making abortion illegal that they can't answer a few questions that need to be asked.

Before abortion was legalized, women risked their lives going to back-alley butchers or they used coat hangers to end the pregnancy. If abortion is made illegal again, how do we prevent a black market of people willing to provide abortions in unsafe conditions? And will we ban coat hangers because it could be used by women to end their pregnancy?

Another idea to consider is the global population. Can our world truly sustain many more millions of people? I don't know how many abortions occur every year, but what we're seeing in our world crisis is the result of over population. The Pentagon predicts that wars of the near future will be fought over water, which will make our current wars over oil and other natural resources child's play. It doesn't take a genius to know that most people can live without oil, but if water supplies are dwindling and unable to sustain the six+ billion people on earth, you know that a lot of people are going to die. What are these anti-abortionists going to do about it?

I remember hearing the outrage by the conservative evangelical Christians over Terri Schiavo, the comatose lady who was kept alive for a couple decades by a machine until her husband decided it was time to pull the plug. The husband was accused of being a murderer and these people raised a sanctimonious uproar. Over a comatose woman kept alive by a machine! When Hurricane Katrina hit New Orleans, conservatives weren't so charitable about their view of the people who couldn't leave the danger zone due to chronic poverty. These two incidents illustrate that conservative evangelical Christians don't really care about "right to life" issues. Not when they value the life of the unborn and a comatose woman connected to a machine over the lives of living people stranded and threatened by rising waters in one of America's blackest cities.

This is what I think about whenever I hear them protest abortion. They seem angry about women who might go into an abortion clinic, as though it was a personal affront to them what someone else decides to do with her body. Yet, for every outrage over an aborted pregnancy or stem cell research, there are many more children living in poverty, being born into poverty and/or abusive families, babies abandoned in trash dumps, children in custody and foster care. Why not devote their obvious passion for the children who are living in less than ideal circumstances? Why not adopt a pregnant teenage mother and help her raise the child as a kind of "godparent"? I don't know the reasons why a woman seeks an abortion, but instead of condemning them outright or seeking to make it illegal, why not help make the need for it rare? Making it illegal won't prevent back-alley abortion "clinics" from popping up or from coat hangers being used.

Here's my theory on why conservative evangelical Christians are so passionately against abortion. It's a deeply rooted existential issue. Evangelical Christians believe that human life begins at conception. Before that moment, we don't exist. That's a scary thought if you truly think about it...what if you never existed? So, they think they are saving people that way. Saving them from not existing. That's why they refer to abortion as a "holocaust", because the numbers of fetuses that have been aborted since 1973 is in the tens of millions or more. That's millions of souls that have never been born, in their view. These souls are non-existent because someone aborted them before they had a chance to live.

I'd tell them, get a grip! Of course, in my belief system, abortion isn't the end of the world. I don't believe life begins at conception. I believe in a pre-mortal existence, where we were souls in the spiritual realm BEFORE we came into being on the earthly plane. So, a woman who aborts a fetus that a soul was "assigned" to isn't snuffing out an existence forever. All she's doing is ending that particular life experience for the soul. Yes, that's a sad tragedy that has spiritual consequences in itself, but that's a lot different from the view that abortion ends a newly created soul any chance at existence.

However, any discussion of spiritual ideas is pointless to argue about because we really don't know what is the eternal truth. Conservative Evangelical Christians KNOW that their beliefs are true and they feel a special mission from God to save the existence of all these newly created souls. From my perspective, I believe our souls existed way before Mr. Sperm met Ms. Egg. Why would God entrust something as important as existence to imperfect humans? Non-existence before birth is not something to worry about. Yet these conservative Evangelical Christians don't seem to care about the reckless way we treat our environment or the problems overpopulation will cause our planet in coming years. It seems silly that they're worried about saving the lives of the unborn while many millions of lives on earth right now are suffering malnutrition, starvation, disease, and lack of access to potable water (if you want a scary preview of the future, read about the situation in Bolivia where water rights are owned by a corporation that can charge however much they want for it--despite the chronic poverty many residents live in). It's time they stop looking in the wrong direction and start doing something for the people who are living in dire circumstances.

What all these sanctimonious anti-abortionists need to realize is...screaming about abortion while living mouths cry out in hunger is ass-backward moral blindness. Let's work to improve the lives of the living before we outlaw abortion. Education and liveable wages is but a first step towards lessening the need for women to seek an abortion.

In Observance of Holocaust Remembrance Day...

According to my calendar, today is Holocaust Remembrance Day. Since I haven't written on this topic, I decided to once again pre-empt a post long written to observe this day with my thoughts about it, as well as my thoughts about the best film made about the Holocaust: Schindler's List. I will be spending Tuesday evening after work watching Steven Spielberg's masterpiece for the first time in years. The first time I watched it was in 1994, at a movie theater in Fulda, Germany. It played in the German language and I happened to be visiting Fulda (where I had lived for three years as a teenager) in the last months of the U.S. Army base's existence. They held a Farewell Volksmarch (a German tradition of walking 10k through woods and countryside to get a souvenir medal or goblet or mug) and I went up for the occasion.

When I saw that Schindler's List was playing in a German theater, it was just too much to resist. An American made movie about Nazis and the Holocaust, dubbed in German, with a German audience?!? How could I resist? This was the first time I saw a movie in a German theater and I realized one thing I didn't like. Smoking was allowed. However, when I noticed people smoking in the movie, I thought it was okay this time because it made for a multi-sensory experience.

I don't know German besides a year and a half of high school German. I just let the visuals of the black and white film speak with powerful force. Sure, there were dialogue that I missed out on, but by film's end, I understood it. The film was powerful. Also, I noticed that after the movie finished, people didn't hurry up and leave. The audience remained in their seats. I wondered what it must feel like to know that your country did that, a generation ago. That your parents or grandparents did nothing to stop it. That they were partially responsible for allowing a far right political party come to power and propagandize everything. A heavy burden, indeed!

When the film played at the Italian theater in La Maddalena, I decided to see it in the dubbed Italian language, just for the sheer oddity of it. A shipmate also went to the theater, but he understood more Italian than I did and after the movie, told me about the gist of an important conversation in the film between Oskar Schindler and Amon Goethe.

Finally, I watched the film at the American theater on the Navy base at La Maddalena when it arrived in the summer of 1994. This is not the kind of movie I'd see that many times in a theater, but I did...in three languages. It's powerful no matter what language you happen to see it in.

When I lived in Utah in 1997-1999, a network (ABC?) decided to air it unedited nation-wide, as per Spielberg's instructions. This caused some controversy in Utah because of the whole censorship issue. It wasn't certain if it would even air in Utah, but I watched the TV channel just to see if they did, and then watched the film to see if it would be edited. During the sex scene, the screen got noticeably dark. I thought that was curious. During the scenes of people being gassed or killed, there wasn't any darkening of the screen. Just as I thought. Squeemish about sex, but okay with violence. That's conservatives for you.

During the Washington Seminar, I wanted to visit the Holocaust Museum. I had asked a fellow BYU student about what it was like. I can't remember who it was, but he told me that if I did see it, I shouldn't plan to do anything else the rest of the day. "Why?" I asked. "Did it take that long to go through?"

"No," he said. "You'll feel like crap that you won't want to do anything else."

Well, since you put it that way...

I decided that it was one of those things that I needed to "psyche" myself up for, and since I had planned to live in D.C. for the next decade, I wasn't in a rush.

Big mistake! I left D.C. in July 2000 without having seen it (though I did force myself to visit the Smithsonian's American history museum before I left). So, if I make it out to D.C. this October, I will make a point to visit this museum. Psyched or not. I'll be ready.

During the internship, it was a great honour to meet Holocaust survivors Tom and Annette Lantos, who are Hungarian Jews. Tom Lantos was a Congressman representing the people around San Mateo, California. His wife Annette was a colourful character, a true "dah-link" (as she'd pronounce it) who converted to the LDS Church. Lantos remained Jewish through his death (last year, or the year before?). During one class lecture, Tom shared a little about his experience with the Holocaust and how it shaped him to become a passionate advocate of human rights.

Later on, months later as a matter of fact, the roommate I didn't like very much just started ripping on Lantos for even talking about the Holocaust. My jaw dropped when he actually said: "It's great and all that he had this Holocaust experience, but I don't want to hear about it."

I truly don't understand people like that. Why be ignorant of history's most unpleasant events? That's the problem with people who deny that the Holocaust even happened. They claim that there's no "evidence" or that it's simply not possible to mass execute that many people in such a short amount of time. Yet it does happen. It happened again in Bosnia, Rwanda, and Cambodia. What's so hard to believe about it? My guess is that they are either in denial or they truly are ignorant or even sympathizers for that particularly ideology.

Because of the dangers of denying that the Holocaust occurred, there was a flood of movies, books, documentaries, and museums in the 1990s to preserve the memory of this tragedy in human history. While I generally don't make a point to see Holocaust-related movies, I believe that there is only one that really needs to be seen and that's the Oscar-winning Schindler's List.

The tagline was "He who saves one life, saves the world entire." In case you've never seen this excellent film, it is about a German industrialist named Oskar Schindler who doesn't see saving Jews from the Nazi party policy of forced removals as a human right. For him, it's about protecting the workers in his factory, who happen to be Jewish. He doesn't support the war effort and manages to sell bad ammunition to the German military without their suspicions.

Amon Goethe is one of the most villainous characters you'll see on screen. He's about as homicidal as one could get and his name alone should send chills down anyone's spine. He belongs on the list of bad Nazis: Hitler, Himmler, Goebbels, Goering, and a few others I can't think of right now. One of my favourite lines in the film is when Schindler tells Goethe that "forgiveness is power." Goethe struggles with it, but ultimately, his thirst to kill is more important than seeing a Jewish person's humanity.

The film is not easy to watch, and Spielberg employs tricks to get your attention (though it's black and white, a young girl wears a red coat, and a candle's flame burns in colour). The concentration camp scenes are hard to watch. You see the horror of not knowing what will happen to you when Nazi guards divide you into separate lines. Even children aren't spared. As they find places to hide, the one that brings the most sympathy is the young boy pictured below, who jumps into the cesspool of human waste. That scene always makes me cry. I'm not sure I would want to jump into an outhouse, but that only shows how desperate for survival the situation calls for.

So, on Holocaust Remembrance Day, it is important to remember what human beings are capable of committing. We have seen humanity at it's best last week, when people endured the cold and crowds to watch the Inauguration of President Obama. Good will seemed to prevail and most everyone felt prouder and walked taller than they have in years (Rush and company excluded). On the flip side, we have to remember how dangerous humans can be when true believers are willing to kill other human beings in service of their ideological blindness.

Let's honour this day and remember with prayers the six million Jews who perished in the 1930s and 1940s because of religious and cultural bigotry. May it never happen again on our watch.

Music Video Monday: Australia Day

Today is Australia Day, a big day of celebration down under. If I'm not mistaken, it marks the anniversary of Australia's founding as a penal colony at Botany Bay. Since Australia is a commonwealth of the British Empire and never demanded independence from England, they remain part of a group of nations that have Queen Elizabeth II as the official "head of state", just as she is for Canada, New Zealand, Gibraltar, Fiji and the United Kingdom (and a few other places I can't recall off hand).

A few years back, there was talk about Australia becoming a republic, but many Australians were apparently worried that they'd become more like the USA. Since I'm not an Australian, I have no idea on the ins and outs of being a republic versus remaining part of the British commonwealth. One thing I'm adamant about, though...they have one of the coolest looking flags and I'd hate to see it changed (unless a new flag featured the shape of the continent on the flag--out of all the countries and continents, Australia has the coolest looking shape).

In honour of this country that remains at the top of my list of countries I hope to see before I transpire to the spiritual realm, I am featuring two music videos by Australian rock groups that pay tribute to their nation.



The first music video is Midnight Oil's beautiful tribute to their native land. The song is "One Country" from their 1990 album Blue Sky Mining. The video shows the beauty and diversity that is Australia and it makes such a great tourist advertisement.



The second music video is Icehouse's "Great Southern Land", which I believe should be the official rock anthem of Australia. This video also shows the beauty of the land down under. It's from the 1980s Australian hit film Young Einstein. You can tell just how 80s this video is by the lead singer's horribly bad mullet. Gawd, I can't believe that I actually thought mullets looked cool back in 1987. I'm so glad I never got one!

Get Some Generation Kill (Oooh Rah!)

A couple weeks ago, I finally finished watching the excellent HBO miniseries Generation Kill. I had read the book of the same name by Journalist Evan Wright in 2005 (when the film Jarhead came out). I was glad that Hollywood decided to make the book into a miniseries (rather than a movie for a theatrical release). What you end up with is seven excellent hours instead of two or possibly three. This gives time to develop the characters (in seven "one hour" episodes) as they prepare for combat through the initial invasion of Iraq. The book and the miniseries focuses on an elite group of USMC recon unit who had already experienced a tour in Afghanistan together. Now they are what was referred to as "the point of the spear", leading the invasion in the rush to Baghdad.

When the miniseries originally aired last summer, it stirred some controversy because of the language used by the men in combat. Another example of "political correctness" run amuck! I'm certain that easily offended feminists were behind the whole uproar, because based on my experience with a few radical feminists, they don't want to believe that men are really like the way they're portrayed in military movies...and if they are, they need to be "civilized." If anyone watched this miniseries and actually got offended by it, they truly are too "precious" for reality. I'd tell them...go back to your fairy tales.

From a male perspective, especially one who served on two male-only ships...watching this miniseries truly brought me back to my Navy experience. Granted, I did not serve in a war zone and the Marines are pretty hard core compared to the Navy, but guys are pretty much the same no matter which branch you find yourself in. I'm not saying that ALL men behave this way, for the miniseries does show the diversity of the men who make up this cool fighting force.

There's Brad Colbert, the sergeant who often observes his surroundings without speaking. He'll show traces that he cares, such as when he recommends a new way to stop cars at roadblocks instead of firing warning shots, after his men went gun happy on innocent travelers. He also influences a cynical Marine to give a couple MREs (the infamous packaged food rations military members eat) to shy Iraqi girls. When a trigger happy Marine wastes some camels, and they later discover that he had shot an Iraqi kid on the camel, Colbert takes responsibility for it. He is the true heart and soul of the series, and before you accuse him of being a bleeding heart liberal, he yelled to an Iraqi bystander who thanked them for going after Saddam, "Vote Republican!"

Colbert is played by Alexander Skarsgard, who is an actor to watch. He can convey a lot from his facial expressions without uttering a single word. That's acting at its best. He looked so familiar that I had to Google search him and thus I was shocked that he is a Swedish actor who hasn't made anything I ever heard of. He speaks with no foreign accent and he has what some might call an "All-American look" rather than a European one.

The driver of the main humvee is a wise cracking Marine named Ray Person. He offers his opinions on all kinds of topics. He'll even break out into song. He's a good match for the more quiet Colbert, who sometimes tells him to shut up. Ray is basically the witty clown who provides much of the comic relief in this series (such as the line "they think we're cool because we're so good at blowing shit up!" when Iraqi kids approach a truck they had blasted away). In the first episode, I knew I'd love this show when Ray tears into the "Dear Any Soldier" letters that the unit received. He starts ripping on the people who write the letters and another Marine looks at a photo of an elementary school girl and makes some sexual comments. I can understand if some people might find this to be offensive and think that it goes too far...but, the reason why I love the scene is because it is SOOOOOOOOOO TRUE!!!

When I was in the Navy in Italy, a church member who taught the fifth grade decided to surprise me for Christmas 1992 by sending me a box of letters from her students. I loved it and felt like a celebrity. She had asked me if I could get my buddies to help write letters to her students. That proved more difficult than I thought. When I went around asking for volunteers, the question I always got was about how old the girls were and if any pictures were enclosed. It was harder to get them to volunteer to write to a boy. This was FIFTH GRADERS, I'd remind them. One sailor wrote a letter to a girl and then after he wrote it, he tore it up because he realized that he was writing as though she was 18 because he had closed with a phrase about possibly meeting! I couldn't believe it. I did get a few guys to write a couple letters, but mostly, I had to write the bulk of the letters. It proved to be a big hit on the other end, because I wrote personal letters, answering each kid's specific questions. I didn't write a form letter, and they appreciated it.

On my last ship, the Postal Clerk left a box of "Dear Any Sailor" letters on the mess decks for anyone to pick up. I watched in shock as guys opened envelopes, looking for pictures and if finding none of an attractive lady, they'd leave the opened letter on the table for someone else to take. Later, I checked, and what was left behind were letters from old ladies and young boys. You couldn't find a letter from a lady when sailors got done with it. I always think of this whenever I hear conservative people talk about "supporting the troops" by sending "Dear Any Soldier" letters hoping for a penpal in the military. If you're not a single young lady, forget it! I hate to break it to you, but guys in the military aren't the noble heroes that conservatives like to portray them as. They are young men, fresh out of high school, horny, immature, love to fight. This doesn't make them bad, but I get tired of hearing conservatives worship people in the military as though they were saintly gods. They're not. Maybe that's why this miniseries received some controversy...because conservatives were shocked that our military members might not fit their "saintly" image of them.

If you want to test the theory out...send a letter to any soldier where you write as a young lady and include a nice picture of someone you know in their 20s. Then write a letter to any soldier as a man, a young boy, or as an older lady and see which one gets a response. I'd bet Dick Cheney's millions that the letter with a young lady's picture will get a response while you'll be left wondering if anyone got the other letters.

Before I get accused of stereotyping, which I never understand why I do when I share my experience of what I've seen, not all guys are like that. I noticed a difference between the behaviour of officers and enlisted men. I always thought it was amusing that when people saw me in civilian clothes first, and later saw me in uniform, they were shocked because they thought I was an officer, based on the way I carried myself. I did have more in common with officers than enlisted men when I was in the Navy, but because of the rules of fraternization, we really couldn't hang out or be friends.

Anyhow, that scene in the series might offend sensitive viewers who believe that military guys are noble heroes. It always irritates me that people put military members on pedestals, thinking that anyone who joins is doing it for a deep desire to serve the country. When I was in, and the bullshit rationale stopped, the real reasons people join the military are numerous: it's a job, there's job security (no matter how bad you mess up, you can't get fired and find yourself unemployed...until your enlistment is up), they want to escape a small town, they got a girlfriend pregnant, they're running away from family problems, they want money for college, they want to see the world...whatever it is, it's just like any other job. Its not a noble thing or a bad thing. Its just a career option with plus and minuses like any other organization you find yourself in.

Also in the unit is the "psycho" who can't wait to make his first kill. Every war movie I've seen seems to have this archetype character. No one seems to take him seriously.

What makes the miniseries great is the camaraderie among the men. This is what "guy culture" is all about. The constant ribbing and insults. I know that some women have expressed shock when my Navy buddies and I ribbed one another with insults. Women seem to think it's "mean", but again...it's a guy thing. The camaraderie I experienced in the Navy has not been replicated in the civilian world and I sincerely miss it. The constant ribbing does keep your mind sharp. It's not easy to come up with wit that gets everyone laughing, and the ability to make your buddies laugh is considered an asset.

An example of male ribbing is shown in the character of Rudy Reyes, who is a married, well-built Marine that cares a little too much about the way he looks, earning him ridicule for being gay. He takes it in stride. He has a cool, California Zen vibe, and makes comments about karma, treating your body like a temple, and even confessing to wearing clothes that are "body conscious" (which, of course, set him up for further ridicule). In a brilliance of casting, the real Rudy Reyes plays himself.

Lieutenant Nathaniel Fick is also a major character in the miniseries. He leads the men through the invasion of Iraq and has to balance following orders that he thinks are idiotic with protecting the unit he's tasked to lead. After the war, he wrote a book (One Bullet Away) that won Barnes and Noble's "Discover Great New Writers" Nonfiction Book of the Year for 2006. It's a perfect companion piece to Generation Kill, featuring the same characters from a different perspective. Generation Kill was written by an embedded journalist for Rolling Stone magazine. Of course, when he's introduced to the unit, he's immediately under suspicion for being part of the liberal media. He has to earn their trust. His presence also encourages the Marines to play up their personas for the sake of his magazine articles.

Pictured above and below are the actors who play Nathaniel Fick and Brad Colbert.

For most war movies, I have to psyche myself up to see them because I have a hard time watching violence (in 1998, I almost passed out watching the opening scenes of Saving Private Ryan). But I have a distinct criteria between what I consider "realism violence" as portrayed in war movies and "gratuitous violence", which I won't see (the Saw movies for example). I don't have a problem watching war movies because it reflects what's going on in our world. It amazed me when I met war supporters who refuse to watch war movies. Its like they don't want to know what we're sending our young men to do on our behalf. Such denial is disturbing to me. Why be a flag waving, rah-rah-rah cheerleading, yellow ribbon bumper magnet displaying, "support the troops" kind of person if you refuse to watch war movies?

I didn't need to psyche myself up to watch Generation Kill because I was already psyched to see it. Yes, there are some scenes of violence and injuries, but this is first and foremost a male camaraderie movie. It is absolutely perfect in that regard. People who question it don't have a clue and probably haven't experienced the military themselves. One of the criticisms about the miniseries was that some people don't believe that our military servicemembers would joke around the way they are seen doing throughout the series. But in one of the special features, someone explained that often the best humour comes from the forbidden. When you're surrounded by death and bombs and bullets and you see buddies getting shot or innocent people dying, humour might be the only healing balm you have in that moment. And yeah, you might laugh about things that would shock civilians back home.

When I was in the Navy, during stressful moments at sea, I would always find a laugh a day with my buddies, just to keep us sane. For instance, in the shock of the O.J. Simpson verdict in 1995, I shared my frustrations with a shipmate about how outrageous that he got away with murder. He responded with, "we could always do justice the old fashion way." "How?" I asked. "Hang him from a tree," he said. I laughed when he said it, not because I think lynching is funny, but it was such an unexpected response for the situation we were discussing. Yeah, the Navy is where I got my gallows humour...and I find that a lot of civilians simply don't get it. Too sacriligious.

Speaking of sacriligioius, one of my favourite scenes in the miniseries was when the Chaplain comes by to give the men a short service before they roll out to battle. Most men avoid him and then talk bad about him out of earshot. Brad Colbert shares his views about the pointlessness of having chaplains in the military. Its one more thing that these evangelical Christians who love our noble military members don't seem to understand about the mind of a young man in the military. Guy culture can be boiled down to sex, sports and guns. The last thing they want is a chaplain talking about religion as they are mentally preparing to "kill the hajjis." The code of the military is "protect your buddies." Religion is seen as weak.

By the final episode, I didn't want it to be over and the way they ended it seems kind of lame. A "forced ending" (the guys are watching a movie that a fellow Marine had made on his own video camera and edited, and one by one, the guys peel away while the movie is still being shown on the TV). Truthfully, though, I didn't want it to end. This miniseries is absolutely brilliant. They got the concept of male camaraderie exactly right. As I pondered the journey the men went on, it reminded me of the reason why I am against women serving in combat units. As I learned on my one ship (the USS Simon Lake) where 30% of the crewmembers were female, male camaraderie breaks down when women are present. In one aspect, raunchy humour is often targeted by easily offended people (if a guy finds "offense" at something, he's ridiculed for being such a girl, if a female finds "offense," guys run the risk of a sexual harassment accusation), without realizing the purpose it serves in "guy culture."

In another aspect, what I witnessed in the Navy was that female sailors who were pretty and feminine were fought over for dating and relationships, but not accepted as being "one of the guys." They were valued in sexual terms. Women who were "masculine" or plain looking found greater acceptance as being "one of the guys", but they rarely got asked out on dates. We ignore gender differences at our peril. I am all for women serving in the military in supporting roles, but why they push to serve in combat is baffling to me. Women should cherish their natural inclination towards "building relationships" and community. It's not relegating women to second-tier status by not allowing them to serve on submarines or in combat. Killing and war is not a "right" women should be fighting for in the quest for complete equality. Guy culture is naturally suited for war. Training women for combat would be like forcing men to shop in department stores all day. Neither concept taps into the respective gender's inclinations. It's in our genetic code from the caveman days...the men hunt and grunt, the women grab and gab.

So, ladies, if you want to understand true male camaraderie...watch all of this miniseries without getting offended. I'm testifying that what is presented is true to my experience in the Navy on all male ships. If you want to think of me as being sexist for pointing out obvious gender differences, I suggest taking courses in psychology, anthropology, and gender studies. I'm not the only one who notices that gender differences are inherent (not cultural, as radical feminists claim that it is). For guys, you'll love this miniseries. Now go "Get some!"

Andrew Young's Visit to Portland

On Thursday evening, I went to nearby Portland State University to attend their Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. program, which included a couple short speeches from the university president and a host of local radio show "Thinking Out Loud", a couple songs by a jazz band, an awesome hand slapping and tap dancing quartet of African American fraternity brothers, and the key lecture by Civil Rights icon, Andrew Young. He's considered one of Dr. King's "Lieutenants" in the Civil Rights movement. He was present on the day Dr. King was assassinated at the Lorraine Motel in Memphis, TN. In the forty years since the tragedy, Andrew Young has been elected to Congress from Georgia and selected by President Jimmy Carter to be the Ambassador to the United Nations. He later resigned due to some controversy about his position on Palestinians (can't remember the details off hand). That was just the 1970s. From 1982 through 1989, he served as Mayor of Atlanta.

He was the mayor when my family moved to the Atlanta metro area in 1988. After his term ended, he served on the Atlanta Olympic Committee and was instrumental in wooing the votes of African members of the International Olympic Committee. In 1990, Atlanta was bestowed the honour of hosting the 1996 Olympic games. After the Olympics were over and the Olympic stadium was being retrofitted into a baseball stadium, there was debate over what to name the stadium. I thought it should be called "Young-Payne Stadium" (in honour of Andrew Young and Billy Payne, the president of the Atlanta Olympic Committee). It had a cool ring to it, doesn't it? However, the stadium was named after the owner of the Atlanta Braves: Ted Turner. Locals affectionately call it "the Ted."

Andrew Young ran in the Democratic primary for the 1990 Governor's race. He was the first politician I was eligible to vote for and I had hopes back in 1990 that he would win and serve as governor for eight years and then run for president in 2000. As a teenager, I thought Andrew Young had the best chance to become the first black president. However, he had to win the governorship and Georgia still had a racist mindset (in 1988, Forsyth County, which is the next county north of Fulton County--where Atlanta is located--still had a "white residents only" policy. This was 1988, people!). Young didn't win the primary. Zell Miller did. I didn't like Miller because he was such a "good ole boy" with a face that looks like a prune. Most Americans probably remember him best as that ranting Democrat at the 2004 Republican National Convention where he looked like he was going to erupt he was so angry. Yeah...the great Civil Rights hero Andrew Young lost the governor's race to a ranting lunatic. But back in the 1990s, Zig Zag Zell was a "Friend of Bill" Clinton.


When I was robbed in Johannesburg, South Africa in 1994, I no longer had cash on me and my glasses were even stolen. I had no way of getting back to my hotel, if not for a good samaritan, an African lawyer named Patrice Motsepe, who drove a BMW. He took me to the police station to fill out a report and then drove me back to the hotel. In our conversation, when I told him that I was from Atlanta, he mentioned having once worked for Andrew Young. I was impressed. I felt a connection already. Though I hadn't met Young at that point, I might have if I had volunteered on his campaign for governor, but after he lost the primary, there was no fall campaign.

At a booksigning in 1997, I finally met Andrew Young. He signed my copy of "An Easy Burden" (great memoir, if you enjoy reading about the experiences of our Civil Rights leaders). Of course, I had to ask him if he knew Patrice Motsepe, and he did. He told me a little about the guy and asked how I knew him, so I told him about my story. What a small world.

When I noticed a sign that Andrew Young would be speaking at Portland State University on Thursday, January 22nd, I knew what I was going to do that night. Even though I had a headache after I left work and on any other night would've gone straight to bed, I'm glad that I went. I had forgotten how funny Andrew Young was. He had everyone in stitches! He opened up with an unknown story about Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. He said that he often gets asked to share something about Dr. King that only he knows. The anecdote he offered was King's first trip to Amsterdam in the 1960s. Since Young had been there previously with his wife, King had asked him to come along. Young wanted to show King "the Red Light District" as a joke, but Dr. King said that too many people knew who he was that it might prove to be embarrassing. Young managed to talk him into a quick tour during the day, and a Dutch man approached them in the District and said, "I'm glad to meet you, Dr. Martin Luther King!"

In Young's speech, he went off on a tangent to talk about the current economic crisis and how it relates to Bretton Woods and why taking the dollar off the gold standard was a foolish thing to do. It got a little too economical to me and I kept looking at my program which indicated that this speech was supposed to be about "Living the Legacy" of Dr. King. However, it was all build up and Young was quite brilliant.

He started talking about President Obama and saying that he saw the hand of God in Obama's meteoric rise. Before the audience could roll their eyes or groan (this is secular Portland, after all), he pleaded for us to hear him out. He gave a brief life history of Barack Obama as only Young can, and it was so hilarious that I'm not going to be able to do him justice. Basically, he said that first, God selected a bright and ambitious African young man and sent him to Hawaii, so he could meet and impregnate a young woman from Kansas. Young, went on, explaining that this young woman from Kansas was affected by an experience she had as a young girl in Texas, when she was the only white girl to play with her black schoolmates. When whites threw rocks at them, her father decided that he didn't want to raise his daughter in a racist state, so he moved to Hawaii.

Young said that Barack Obama Sr. was typical of African males in that they don't stick around. He was off to Harvard when Barack Obama Jr. was two. Later, his mother married a man from Indonesia and moved there, where Obama got a half-sister with Chinese-Indonesian heritage. Young then explained the significance of this and why he believes that God purposefully created a man like Barack Obama to become our president at this time. He said that because Obama has Kenyan blood in him, along with caucasian blood, and that he was raised in the world's largest Muslim country...his background is exactly what is needed in the world at this time. Young said that it was hit home for him when he watched the Inauguration on TV and saw images from Kenya and Indonesia. In both countries, the people proudly claim Obama as one of their own. And with a middle name like "Hussein", it only helps Obama's stature in the Arab countries.

Young then mentioned about Obama's experience as a community organizer. Since he had a similar experience, he said that community organizing is some of the hardest work around and he did his with Dr. King. He believes this helped Obama, because had he used his brilliance to get a nice paying job on Wall Street, we probably would've never heard of this guy. What got the biggest laughs was when Young claimed that he even believes that God placed Bush in the White House to mess things up so badly that Obama could come in and do His bidding in bettering our world. The statement that got the biggest laughs was along the lines of: "you see, things have to get really bad before a black man could become president, because who else would does Americans expect to clean up the mess?"

I agree that Obama's unique heritage seems perfect for what our world needs right now. That so many people around the world want to claim him as being one of them will go a long way in helping to rebuild our American image abroad. I read an article the other day that there are hundreds of thousands of African-Iraqis, most of whom live in southern Iraq around Basra. One African-Iraqi man has the last name of Hussein and said that he admired President Obama, because he also dealt with race issues in Iraq.

I'm glad I'm not the only one who sees some kind of spiritual destiny with Obama's meteoric rise to be the right man for the job at the most vital period of our nation's history. I agree that we probably would've never heard of him if we had been living in President Gore's America these past eight years. In that alternative universe, Hillary Clinton would've been the Democratic nominee in 2008. Speaking of Hillary, Young admitted that he supported Hillary in the campaign because he has known her since she was a senior in college (through some family members). I had wondered about that when I was surprised to learn some time last year that he had endorsed her over Obama. At this lecture, Young admitted that he was slow to see Obama's unique gifts and sense of destiny. He had tickets to the Inauguration but gave them away because it sounded like he was afraid of something terrible happening (the pains of 1968 are probably hard to wash away for someone like him). Now, he says that there are just too many odd coincidences that lead him to believe that Obama has God's blessing because of how Obama's life experiences and racial / cultural heritages made him the right person for this job.

Young ended his lecture by telling us that "coincidences are God's way of remaining anonymous." He got a standing ovation. I made my way over to meet him, and what I told him was that "I'm from Stone Mountain, Georgia, and your governor's race was the first election I was eligible to vote in. I wish you were elected governor." He shook my hand and thanked me before turning his attention to the other people who wanted to talk with him.

I'm glad that I went. I had debated not going because it cost $10 and I had a headache. But somewhere early in the program, my headache went away and during Young's lecture, he had me laughing and on the verge of tears (when he spoke of spiritual destiny and how God operates in our world). When I walked back to my apartment, all I kept thinking was: "I want to be a part of the Obama Administration!"

With my own racial diversity and a life lived in several countries, along with my passion for international issues, with my International Politics degree I so want to put to good use, I truly hope that someone in the Administration notices the online application I filled out a few months ago. I want to help Obama's administration be one of the best in our nation's history. Especially after hearing that Rush Limbaugh has said on his show that he hopes Obama fails (what kind of jealous crap is that? Why does he hate America so much? Is he mad that Bush was such a disaster? Does he truly think a President Palin has the ability to make our country better?). I'm fully on board with the Obama Administration and I think I'd make a great staff member. What can I say...but I'm still ecstatic about our new president and the direction he will be taking our country (No more Gitmo, no more Gitmo, hey hey hey, goodbye!).

Flashback Friday: The Nelson Mandela Inauguration

Fourteen years before Barack Obama was inaugurated as the first black president of the United States of America, the world saw another truly miraculous event. 1994 was the year. South Africa was the country. On an eventful day in May, leaders from around the world gathered to witness one of the greatest days in human history. The day when the world's most famous political prisoner was inaugurated to lead a nation that had racial segregation only a few years earlier. I watched the event on CNN International from my barracks room in La Maddalena, Sardinia. I even taped it to watch and re-watch. I rarely felt that ecstatically blissful in my life. It was a true historical moment.

To my surprise, my co-workers couldn't care less about it. It was like we were speaking different languages. For me, I considered the inauguration to be the greatest event in my short lifetime of 22 years. To them, it was just some foreign thing that had no bearing on their lives spent drinking and complaining about life "on the rock."

What made this a great event for me was not just seeing a former political prisoner get his karmic justice after 27 years of false imprisonment, but it was the sheer number of world leaders attending his Inauguration. Castro was there, as well as Mobutu. Al Gore led the U.S. delegation that included Hillary Clinton and Jesse Jackson (Tipper Gore captured my favourite photo of all time: Hillary Clinton and Winnie Mandela face to face with Jesse Jackson facing the camera with his hand out, beckoning Tipper to put down the camera and join the conversation). There were kings, queens, presidents, prime ministers, and dictators present. For one single day, everyone put aside their political differences and honoured a man being bestowed with the responsibilities of leadership in a nation that ended its apartheid laws only a few years earlier. The political prisoner-turned-president had won an overwhelming mandate to lead the new South Africa into the new century.

Gone was the flag that paid tribute to South Africa's English and Dutch heritage. The new flag was brilliantly designed, featuring the colours of its European ancestry (red, white, and blue) as well as the colours of Africa (green, yellow, and black). What's truly remarkable about the flag was the green stripe, forming a triangle and merging into one. It was to symbolize the different heritages merging into one. The flag quickly became my favourite national flag (bumping the Australia flag into second place).

Along with a change in the flag, South Africa also made official 14 different languages, a big jump from the previous two (English and Afrikaans) for most of its modern history. And they added a second national anthem ("Nkosi Sikelel'iAfrika") to their first ("Die Stem van Suid Afrika"). It was touching to see white people singing the African anthem and the Africans singing the Afrikaans anthem. Also in the inauguration, Mandela had diverse clergy to offer prayers, which included a Muslim cleric and a Jewish rabbi...something our country for all its supposed advancement has yet to do.

South Africa under Mandela proclaimed itself the true rainbow nation and the new constitution even surpassed the American one in terms of human rights guarantees. It was amazing to see how one nation could do such an abrupt swing in a mere couple of years. America has had gradual change, but South Africa was a complete makeover.

Though Afrikaners grumbled about the flag being changed, the new flag was far more inclusive. I often thought about how important a flag design could be, because South Africans did this in 1994. In the lead-up to the Atlanta Olympics, there were people in Georgia working to change the state flag because of the Confederate stars and bars on 3/4ths of the flag. Too many good ole boys, however, saw any change to the state flag as an insult to their Confederate ancestors, even though the flag was changed in 1956 to protest desegregation laws of the federal government. It wasn't until 2001 that the flag finally changed, and 2003 when it changed again (I like the new flag and was glad to see the idiotic Barnes flag of 2001-2003 replaced).

Back in 1994, when I watched Nelson Mandela take the oath of office in South Africa, I wondered when America might have its own black president. If someone had told me that we would elect one just 14 years later, I would've thought they were naively optimistic. I didn't expect to see one for maybe 26 years or more. And I thought for certain that we would have a woman president before then.

Though Obama pales in comparison to Mandela, I often thought during the campaign, if he doesn't win the presidency, who will? Granted, he came out of nowhere pretty quickly. Back in 2000, I truly thought Harold Ford, Jr. of Tennessee had the best shot at becoming our nation's first black president. However, he lost a brutal Senate race in 2006 due to the ugly racist stereotypes Southern whites still like to protray to scared white voters (that black men will steal your white women).

With the election of Obama, I heard on many newscasts where African Americans are interviewed and was surprised to hear many say that with Obama's election, they tell their children that they too can now become president. It's a nice sentiment, but not really true. We've only had 44 presidents in our 232 year history. I'm 37 and have lived under 7 presidents. We are a nation of 300 million people, selecting one individual to lead us for four to eight years. Not everyone can become president. It takes the right kind of charisma, looks, personality, experience, education, connections, and even luck (being in the right place at the right time, as Obama was). Gore was groomed to be president since childhood by his ambitious Senator father, but he didn't become president. McCain had the kind of biography you expect in a president, but he couldn't become one either. Then there's George, with his limited intellect and incuriosity, not to mention his long stated disinterest in ever being president.

Back to Mandela. He had a remarkable life and serves as a role model for leadership. After an unjust imprisonment during 27 of the most vital years of a man's life, he didn't get bitter and seek revenge. Instead, he forgave, he showed grace even towards his prison guards, and its no surprise that his karmic bank account accrued to the point where he did get to lead his nation during the last half of the last decade of the last century. After a single five-year term as president, he retired. One of his biggest challenges as president was to prevent a massive "white flight" of South Africans to the U.K., the USA, Canada, and Australia for fear of an increase in crime.

When I visited Johannesburg in August 1994, I heard many call it "the most violent city in the most violent country on earth." It remains as the only place where I was victimized in a violent crime, but I survived without injury and learned an important lesson in forgiveness, myself. The situation didn't ruin my vacation, for I met too many wonderful people, saw many eye-opening things that made it a dream vacation. South Africa is a country I hope to return to because I never got to see Cape Town, which many compare to San Francisco, nor Kruger National Park (for a full-fledged Safari).

What my experience in South Africa showed me was how similar our two countries are. Out of all the countries in the world, I believe that no nation on earth shares a similar experience to our own than South Africa. Many think Australia and the U.S. are similar, and of course, Canada and the U.S. are pretty similar...but when you look at history, there's no denying that South Africa and the U.S. share a special bond. For example, the U.S. was founded by a trading company at Jamestown in 1607. South Africa was founded by a trading company at Cape Town in 1652. The Afrikaner pioneers (voortrekkers) moved from the Cape Province into the interior of Transvaal when the British forced them out of the Cape. Their history of "persecution" and exile reminded me of the Mormon experience and migration to the interior of the intermountain west. In the early part of the 20th century, when the Afrikaners gained political power, they created segregation laws, which they called "apartheid." America had its own segregation laws in the aftermath of the Civil War, after slaves were freed. What's interesting is that the numbers are reversed. In South Africa, it's 70% African with the whites making up the minority (along with the other races of Indians and "coloureds"--those who were of mixed race). In the U.S.A., whites make up 70% of the population, with African Americans and hispanics making up the minority.

The Civil Rights era in the U.S. began in the 1950s with the bus boycott in Montgomery, Alabama, led by a young preacher who was inspired by Mohandas Gandhi of India. Gandhi had lived in South Africa as a young man after being educated in England. His experience of mistreatment for not being white planted the seed of his commitment to justice and racial equality. Nelson Mandela (who was born in 1918, whereas Dr. King was born in 1929) began as a young lawyer who joined the African National Congress and wanted to commit himself to nonviolent civil disobedience until the brutal massacres committed by the white government made him realize that only strategic strikes against government targets would work. This also started in the 1950s and 1960s. Though America finally passed the Civil Rights Act in the mid 1960s and gradually came to accept integration, South Africa still had states of emergencies throughout the 1970s and 1980s until an international boycott finally put the squeeze on the livelihoods and living standards of white South Africans.

I don't think its any surprise that the death of apartheid happened alongside the death of communism. One of the biggest fears of white South Africans was the communist infiltration of African liberation movements. The Cold War helped to prolong the conflict, as white South Africans shared many of the same fears that white Americans did: that communism would creep into their countries and take over their governments. With the communist threat subsided in 1989, the apartheid government realized that it had to do something about it's unpopular political system. So began the negotiations that led to a newly democratic nation.

I think it's remarkable that the first time that Mandela could vote in his life was when he could vote for himself to become president of a country that had imprisoned him for nearly three decades. Talk about karmic justice! I love that photo above because it shows the power of commitment to your ideals and beliefs, and that no matter how long it might take, you can get what you work hard for.

Nelson Mandela is one remarkable human being. I would love to see a Mandela Monument somewhere on the National Mall in Washington, D.C. Though he's not an American, I think he still deserves an honoured monument in our nation's capital. If I had one question to ask him, I would most like to ask him what he thinks of Obama's historic election and if he thought he would live to see that day when America, too, finally elects a black man to lead it in the new century.

With President Obama, the histories of our two nations are even more closely tied. I hope South Africa and the United States will always be friends and allies, appreciating our shared experience as we cope with racial diversity through an often ugly history. They gave the world Nelson Mandela, Stephen Biko and Desmond Tutu. We gave the world Martin Luther King, Jr., Malcolm X, and Barack Obama. Halleluia! "Nkosi Sikelel'iAfrika" and "Nkosi Sikelel'iAmerika" ("God Bless Africa" and "God Bless America").

Celebrating the Dawn of the Obama Epoch

Yesterday was one of the greatest days in American history. I say this not as a Democrat, but as a person who loves history, redemption stories, spiritual renewal, and divine deliverance. On a day like yesterday, I couldn't help but think of that old Sam Cooke classic, "A Change is Gonna Come," for it's "been a long time coming." I was too excited yesterday that I couldn't fall asleep the night before, so I stayed up all night. Since I live in the Pacific Time Zone, the Inaugural coverage began at 4 a.m. and I didn't want to miss a single moment. Unfortunately, though, I fell asleep sometime during the luncheon and the parade, so I missed out on most of the parade. I was dozing in and out of sleep at that point. But I saw the most important part of the ceremony (the swearing in and Inaugural speech).

I watched the Neighbourhood Ball on ABC. Portland had a few Inaugural balls going on, but President and Mrs. Obama weren't going to appear at any of them. Besides, a political scandal broke in Portland on Monday that would guarantee people wouldn't only be talking about Obama. The other post of today highlights that growing local scandal.

I actually kept my emotions in check through most of the day and didn't feel emotions of this historic moment hit me until Beyonce sang the classic, "At Last." That was the most perfect song of this occasion and like everything, she does it so beautifully! I know that this phrase probably got used a lot yesterday. For African Americans, this election and Inauguration represents the fulfillment of America's promise of the Declaration of Independence that "all men are created equal." It's also the fulfillment of Lincoln's Emancipation Proclamation, when slaves were freed from captivity. Of course, this moment also fulfills the Dream of Dr. King. After a campaign of right-wing smear tactics and fear mongering, the American voters proved once again that issues matter, and bestowed the honour, privilege and title of the presidency on the candidate who inspired our best hopes and dreams.

For me, "At Last" symbolizes the end of the eight year long nightmare of what I always viewed as an illegitimate presidency. I never forgave Bush and the Republicans for stealing the election from the legitimate winner of the 2000 election. Now, I can finally put that injustice in the closure bin and celebrate this moment of another Democrat as president. As much as I admire Gore and believe he would have been a great president, I also realize that had he been our president these past eight years, we might have never heard of Barack Obama.

The sweetness of last year's election season and victory wouldn't have been nearly as sweet if Americans had only grown more complacent and disinterested under a President Gore. In spiritual books I've read that explain why our earth is the way it is (and why we shouldn't obsess over it's lack of heavenly perfection), how can we know true joy if we've never tasted sorrow and defeat? Truly, would we be so filled with a rapturous joy if not for the disaster of Bush's presidency? Perhaps we might, considering the historic nature of this Inaugural, but as I watched events of the past weekend, it truly is hard to separate out the joy, because it's all mixed in: joy that an African American became president in my lifetime; joy that I survived the hardship of the Bush years; joy that the pretender is finally gone from the people's house on Pennsylvania Avenue.

Beyonce's version of "At Last" just brought out my tears of joy, a perfect cap to a brilliantly beautiful day.

The Obamas on their walk down Pennsylvania Avenue to the Parade Grandstand across the street from their new home.

Senator Ted Kennedy made it to the Inauguration, but had a seizure attack during the luncheon that followed. Will he make it, or are these his last days? My prayers are with him, for I know his dream is to see the passage of Universal Health Care.

Anyone else think that Cheney looks like one of those sleazy private investigators? Or a Mafia goon?

Bidding farewell to the mess they're leaving behind for the black man to clean up. In an incredible gesture, Michelle Obama gave the Bushes a nicely wrapped gift when they met for coffee before the Inauguration festivities. News commentators said that this was a first time they've ever seen it done and I think Diane Sawyer said something like, "what could the Obamas possibly give the departing First Couple?" I thought it was an incredible gesture, and further proof of how classy the Obamas are. We haven't seen class of this kind since the Kennedys occupied the White House. Michelle Obama might possibly be the most classy First Lady since Jacqueline Bouvier Kennedy.

I admit, I loved seeing the most evil man in the world in a wheel chair and looking unhappy through the whole ordeal. There's speculation on the DailyKos that the excuse (that he hurt his back lifting boxes) is a lie. Bloggers think the real reason is far more embarrassing. Whatever the reason, it's just a perfect way to end their administration. I had personally hoped that he would croak on the final day, but I'll gladly accept this image as a consolation prize. I truly did laugh out loud whenever I saw him on the television. Good riddance and I hope he burns in hell someday with his buddy Saddam Hussein.

What truly made my weekend was reading an article that an inflatable George W. Bush was set just outside the White House for people to throw shoes at him. Many people did. Even more amazing, the guards at the White House allowed people to toss shoes at the White House without arrest. Some guards even joked not to hit them. Wow...is this like that scene from The Wizard of Oz, when the guards cheered the demise of the Wicked Witch of the West or what? I know it's somewhat silly, but I was so happy to read that there were many people who felt the same sentiment as me, desiring to throw their shoes at Bush or a likeness of him to express their frustrations of the past eight years. It is my sincerest hope that someday soon, Bush will desire to look objectively at his own administration and ask himself the question, "why do so many people hate me?" I don't think he will progress spiritually until he does some soul searching.

I think its a perfect end to his presidency, which began with his limousine being pelted with eggs and protestors with signs like "Hail to the Thief!" during his Inaugural parade. From that first moment to the shoe toss outside the White House on the last full day of his Administration, I hope historians will remember that no other president deserves the distinctive title of Worst President Ever. Even more sweet was reading that people outside the White House sang "Na na na na, Na na na na, Hey hey hey, Goodbye!" My sentiments exactly.

The Bush pinocchio finally succumbed to being assaulted with too many shoes. A fitting end to a disasterous presidency! What a way to go out in American memory. This is why I love our country. As Bush said it himself: "Fool me once, shame on...shame on...fool me twice...you can't get fooled again!" Amen!

President Barack Obama, At Last!

Finally, the moment has arrived and now passed. We have a new president to bring new energy into our government. I watched the Inauguration with great excitement. As great as this moment was, I still think Nelson Mandela's Inauguration in 1994 was far better. The one thing that truly surprised me about Obama's Inauguration was the lack of world leaders. Were any invited? If not, why not? Mandela had leaders from all over the world attend his. I thought for sure that Obama's Inauguration would be filled with an international guest list. Instead, I saw American celebrities like Oprah Winfrey and Muhammed Ali. And American politicians. So, that was a bit disappointing to an international guy like me.

I wasn't too impressed with Rick Warren's prayer. I don't have much of an opinion of him and I wasn't one of those liberals who had a hissy fit about his being asked by Obama to give the invocation. Based on his invocation, though, he's definitely not a Billy Graham or a Robert Schuller. Much better was the Reverend Joseph Lowery. I especially liked his bit of poetry in the end about the racial colours. In 1989 or 1990, the Reverend Lowery spoke at my high school in Clarkston, Georgia and I still remember his comments to this day. He had told us teenagers that God simply baked some people too long in the oven and others not long enough.

I didn't care for the poem very much. But, I can still remember lines from Maya Angelou's poem at Clinton's Inauguration in 1993. The poem for Obama's Inauguration is forgettable.

Chief Justice Roberts messed up the order of the oath of office, which threw off Obama. I wonder if it was deliberate...or a sign of Roberts being incompetent. As the news commentary stated, both Obama and Biden had voted against the appointment of Roberts to the Supreme Court, which they said was the first time it happened in history (how do they know these things?).

Barbara Bush was looking mighty fine! And I don't mean the former President's mother.

I laughed my ass off seeing Dick Cheney in a wheelchair. I think its karmic justice that he strained his back packing up his boxes. He didn't look too happy...probably because he knew how bad it would make him look to the world.

Obama's speech was truly bold. I kept wanting to see cutaways to Bush for a facial reaction shot each time Obama said things in his speech that criticized his predecessor's policies. Though the speech lacked a memorable and quotable soundbyte, I truly liked the theme he presented about not allowing storms to keep us from forging through. He reminded all of us of the challenges faced by soldiers in the Revolutionary war, with General Washington offering visionary leadership. I also liked his line from the Bible about putting away childish things, which was his challenge to those who seek to divide us with fear and other distractions. Ooh rah!

According to early estimations, the media is reporting that 1.4 million people filled the National Mall...covering the distance from the west end of the U.S. Capitol all the way down to the Washington Monument. The average attendance at recent inaugurations has been 400,000 people. They had big screens for people too far away to see the stage. Temperatures were in the 20s. If I lived in D.C., I definitely would have gone, just to be part of moment and to feel the positive energy flowing. Good vibes. An amazing day. Now the work begins.

The End of an Error (Finally! Halleluia!)

Finally! After an eight year long nightmare that never seemed to end, we are finally rid of the illegitimate pretender and his incompetent, ignorant, greedy, cruel, disasterous mediocrity. Could today look any more beautiful? It truly is Morning in America!!! We have awakened from the worst nightmare of our lives into a beautiful new day and era.

I don't think I've hated anyone more in my life than I hated George W. Bush. And it's not so much that I hate him, but the things he has done and the phoniness by which he has played his religiously conservative sheep for fools. Bush is the biggest phony we've ever had as president and he proves the adage that I believe Lincoln once said: "you can fool all of the people some of the time, some of the people all of the time, but you can't fool all of the people all of the time." That is so true. Bush fooled nearly all of the people on 9/11 and in the months following; and he fooled some of the people (religious conservatives) all of the time, but he never managed to fool ALL Americans ALL of the time. Thank God for that!

Rather than reiterate how much I loathe this person and wish that he will get some depth and reflect on his presidency and the damage he has caused, I will express my gratitude for the one thing he truly did for our country that was great. You see...before he came into office, too many Americans were complacent. They were so turned off by politics, most people didn't want to talk about it. I know because I always wanted to talk about politics, and according to some friends of mine who were honest with me, my political talk really turned a lot of people off. Most wanted to talk about trivial things like TV, movies, celebrities, the weather, shopping, sports, etc. To talk of politics, religion and international events was a no-no. My theory is that most people don't want to talk about those things because they don't want to reveal how ignorant they are (among Europeans, talking about politics and religion is a given while talking about jobs and family is more of a taboo). How can you talk politics with people if you have no clue about it?

Bush gave them a clue. People started waking up from their comas. In the 90s, we had O.J. Simpson, Amy Fisher, JonBenet Ramsey, Monica Lewinsky, and David Koresh to keep us busy in trivial fluff. Most Americans were so clueless politically that many thought there wasn't a dime's bit of difference between Gore and Bush (even comedian Bill Maher referred to the duo as "Gush and Bore"). I even read a theory online that some people are so insecure with their limited intellect that they purposefully vote for the candidate "most like them" for president so they won't be reminded of their mediocrity every time they watch the news. Thus why the village idiot managed to sneak into the White House. Bush was seen as the guy they'd most like to have a beer with, because talking with him would not make these voters feel lacking in intellect. It shouldn't surprise anyone that many of these same voters took a liking to Sarah Palin for the same reason. She's so like them in terms of being ignorant about the scary world outside our borders, and so busy raising five children that she doesn't have time to sit down and read a newspaper.

However, enough Americans have been horrified by the continual disaster of the Bush presidency to wake up and realize that competence and intelligence matters. Even Papa Bush, for all his flaws of being detached and lacking a "vision", had run a competent presidency (not to mention keeping the neo-conservatives "locked up in the White House basement"). By every measure...economics, foreign policy, domestic policy, education, health care, military, and war...this Baby Boomer Bush has failed. Not only failed, but refused to see what everyone else can see. When your results don't match your rhetoric, it shows. Bush is exactly like the Communist Party apparatchiks of the Soviet Union in the late 1980s. They were so blind to the belief that communism works that they couldn't see what the average Soviet citizen could. Thus, starting in 1989 when the system began to crumble, they still couldn't believe it. It's what happens when you entrust a blind ideologue to run a government in a bubble.

Now, Americans are coming out of a coma. We will once again be able to sigh in relief and breathe as competent leaders return to our government. We had so forgotten what competence looks like that Obama should have a longer than average honeymoon. And when the dust of history settles, even though Clinton's Administration was bookended by George Bush presidencies, George W. Bush will be bookended by two supremely competent presidents. Let's hope that Americans will never forget the lesson in all of this (especially when Jeb Bush strives to run for president in 2016). Competence matters. We're awake now. Let's hope Americans don't fall back into a popular culture obsession-induced coma just because we have a competent government once again. As much as I like Obama and his team, I think it's a mistake to fall asleep. Citizens must make demands on our government. The media might be the fourth estate, which our Founding Fathers envisioned to keep a watchful eye on the government, but in modern times, they've all too willingly played the role of propaganda disseminator. Bloggers, independent online media groups, and citizen activists are the new watchers of the government. Let's keep it that way.

So, thank you, George W. Bush for waking Americans up from their slumber. It's the one unintended consequence of your disasterous reign of errors. Now, good riddance. May the White House gate hit you on the ass on your final exit. Please disappear into obscurity. I never want to see your smirking face again, unless there are bars in front of it and a hulking, sloppy inmate behind you howling about "fresh meat!"

Above illustrates the alphabet, according to the Bush regime.

Reaching the Promised Land

In honour of the Martin Luther King, Jr. holiday, I wanted to write about one of his most famous quotes from the last speech he gave. To me, it's a sign that he was a true prophet of God. In the past, I've argued with both Mormons and Evangelical Christians about what makes someone a "true prophet." I've disagreed with Mormons, because they view the current leader of their church as being God's one and only living prophet on the earth. There's nothing wrong with viewing one's church leader as a prophet if they wish, for that is the role he holds for that church organization. To appeal to those who don't belong to the religion, though, a leader has to go far beyond the constraints of his own religion. He (or she) has to speak to a universal spirituality that many people recognize.

However admirable these church leaders might be, when I was at BYU, I never understood the awe and esteem so many held for Gordon B. Hinckley, who was "the prophet, seer, and revelator" at the time. When I heard him speak, he mostly spoke about morality issues that we hear from any number of conservative religious leaders. There was little to distinguish what he spoke about from what a Dr. James Dobson spoke about, or a Pat Robertson. Yet Mormons and Evangelicals embrace such men as being the prophets ALL people should recognize and obey. That might be fine for Mormons or for evangelical Christians, but for me, a true sign of a prophet is a person with a vision of our highest ideals, with a kind of universal appeal that transcends religion, race, or nationality.

To me, that person is Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. He was a true prophet of God. It doesn't matter what race you are, what nationality you were born into, or what religion you belong to. If you read his words, you can see the universal appeal to his ideals. In 1994, when I was in South Africa, I was touched to see cab drivers in Johannesburg with flags bearing the images of Dr. King and of Malcolm X in their windows. The reason I was touched was because this was a country that gave the world Nelson Mandela and Desmond Tutu, yet black South Africans also saw a kinship in American icons like King and Malcolm. That's what universalism is. If you travel around the world, most people probably never even heard of Pat Robertson or James Dobson. Conservative, nationalistic ministers rarely translate well beyond their borders. But most people probably heard of the Dalai Lama.

In the last speech Dr. King gave, at a church in Memphis, Tennessee in April 1968, he said the following words that I consider quite prophetic:

Well, I don't know what will happen now. We've got some difficult days ahead. But it doesn't matter with me now. Because I've been to the mountaintop. And I don't mind. Like anybody, I would like to live a long life. Longevity has its place. But I'm not concerned about that now. I just want to do God's will. And He's allowed me to go up to the mountain. And I've looked over. And I've seen the promised land. I may not get there with you. But I want you to know tonight, that we, as a people will get to the promised land. And I'm happy, tonight. I'm not worried about anything. I'm not fearing any man. Mine eyes have seen the glory of the coming of the Lord.

Those were the concluding remarks to an outstanding speech that all Americans should read, especially on a day like today. It makes you wonder what he would think of the election of the first African American president forty years after his assassination. I've seen on the news that many African Americans who lived through the Civil Rights struggle of the 1950s and 1960s thought they wouldn't live to see this day. One man in his 70s said on the news that after the Inauguration, he could happily die. I was shocked by his honest sentiments, but I can understand.

Though I'm not part of that racial heritage, as a person of mixed-race lineage myself who experienced as a youth other people's racism towards anyone with "Southeast Asian heritage" (in the wake of the defeat in Vietnam), I take special pride in the election of a president with a mixed race background. I believe in a multi-racial America and believe that it is where the future is headed. I'm tired of race being an issue and I'm especially tired of forms that ask you to identify your racial category. Can we finally get beyond that?

Though Dr. King didn't get to live long after that speech (he was assassinated the very next day), the election of Barack Obama has shown that we have come a long way. However, I'm under no delusions that we have reached the promised land. This is only one of the many steps along the way. This is what some might call, "the first down payment on the Dream." There is much work to be done if we truly hope to realize Dr. King's dream of a nation of racial equality.

Tomorrow, Obama will make history again when he becomes our 44th president and then through the next four to eight years, he'll have a lot of hard work ahead of him. I truly hope that he will become one of our greatest presidents...ranking up there with Lincoln and FDR. Someday in the future, I hope that he will even have a monument on the National Mall in Washington, D.C., taking his place near the Lincoln Memorial and the current work-in-progress of the Dr. King Monument.

This past weekend, I read an article that compared Obama to Lincoln and some of the similarities are interesting. For instance, both men had limited government experience when they became president. Both rose to national prominence through memorable speeches (Lincoln's "A house divided cannot stand..." and Obama's "There isn't a red America and a blue America, but a United States of America"). Both come into office during a time of deep divisions and an ongoing crisis. They also have the state of Illinois in common (though both men were born in other states). And Lincoln freed the slaves with his Emancipation Proclamation. Though Obama has no slave ancestry, his wife does and tomorrow, they will take up residence in a house made by slave labour.

To me, the whole thing feels like destiny. The ironic thing is that Obama has a deep sense of history and recognizes the roles played by Lincoln, Kennedy, and King that paved the way for his historic election. Bush, on the other hand, was a history major who didn't seem to care about the lessons of history. He avoided fighting in Vietnam (a war he had supported as a young man) and got our nation into another never-ending quagmire, repeating many of the same mistakes as an earlier president from Texas.

Obama stands on the shoulders of giants. In the new era about to dawn at noon tomorrow, we would all do well to read the words of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. A true prophet of God. A visionary who saw that this day would come. That victory would eventually occur. Education, experience, and enlightenment would lead the way out of regressive ignorance. We're taking our first step into the promised land. Let's keep walking, hand in hand, to live out the dream of racial equality and religious tolerance.

Music Video Monday: Arrested Development

Back in May, when Obama held a rally on the waterfront in downtown Portland, over 72,000 people showed up...with thousands more, waiting in a line that snaked around the streets in the downtown area. As we waited for him to appear on the stand, inflatable balls were bouncing around as music played. One of the songs was "People Everyday" by Arrested Development. I hadn't heard that song in years and as I looked around, I noticed people moving to the funky beat of that song. Now that's some old school classic and I had forgotten how good it was. The song reminded me of the rap/hip-hop group I hadn't listened to in years, whose debut album (3 Years, 5 Months, and 2 Days in the Life of Arrested Development) is among my favourites of all time. They were the third rap group that I truly liked (the Beastie Boys were the first, DJ Jazzy Jeff and the Fresh Prince were the second). They weren't about ganstas, ho's and bitches, and materialism. They were about raising social awareness and finding pride in black history.

Some of their memorable lyrics include: "Walked the roads my forefathers walked / climbed the trees my forefathers hung from" ("Tennessee") and "Uncivilized we call him / But I just saw him eat off the food we waste / Civilization / Are we really civilized, yes or no? / who are we to judge?" ("Mr. Wendal", which is my favourite song by them. It's about a homeless man).

Two other memorable songs from that genius debut album include "Give a Man a Fish" (you know the phrase..."and he'll eat for a day, teach him how to fish and he'll eat forever") and "Fishin' 4 Religion" (about how religion manipulates believers into complacency).

In honour of Martin Luther King, Jr's holiday and the inauguration of the first African American president of the United States of America, this week's Music Video is by Arrested Development. Enjoy!

How We Should Remember Bush

For today's post, I have two video clips that I think perfectly sums up the Bush presidency. One of them is of Bush at the annual correspondent's dinner where the president is expected to play the role of a comedian. Usually, the tradition is to poke fun at themselves, as Clinton was known for in a few memorable videos (one, in which he and his wife act in a campaign commercial as a couple reviewing the Clintons health plan and realize hundreds of pages into it that they would die eventually; the other was how Clinton occupied himself in his last months in the White House).

However, Bush's sense of humour reveals the underlying cruelty at the center of his being. Watch and see. It's unbelievable that he actually thought his comments were funny, considering how many military servicemembers died because of his lying rational for going to war. Joking about not finding WMDs reveals how inappropriately immature he truly is. The frat boy in him lives on. Even more disturbing, though, are the laughs from the audience of media elites. You don't hear any gasps from the audience, which only shows just what these rich elites truly think about the people serving in our military: saps and buffoons.

The other video is of Keith Olbermann summing up the eight years of Bush in eight minutes. He covers all the scandals. He makes it sound like poetry. Its brilliant. Put that in the time capsule!

Bush's Darko Moment

For Bush's final address to the American people, I was actually surprised that on the news and the commentary, it took a back seat to the "Miracle on the Hudson" that occurred earlier in the day when a USAirways jet filled with 150 passengers flew in the path of some migrating Canadian geese just minutes after taking off from LaGuardia. The experienced pilot treated the river like a runway and brought the plane down safely, and boats along the Hudson rushed over to rescue passengers in the freezing waters.

You know what this reminds me of? The movie Donnie Darko. I can't help but see some kind of metaphor in this event happening on the day Bush was scheduled to give his final speech as (p)resident. According to director Richard Kelly (just a few years younger than I am), he envisioned a plane's engine falling out of the sky as being a metaphor for the end of the Reagan era. He set his movie in 1988, in the midst of the presidential election between Papa Bush and Dukakis. Though the movie lacks a coherent sense of logic, its the original premise that gets me. The film's plot rests on the airplane engine falling on Donnie Darko's bedroom. That the director views it somehow as the end of the Reagan years, what the heck does it mean? The cool thing about the film is that Donnie Darko makes the choice to go back in time to sacrifice his life to save that of his mother and sister (through some weird timeline), who were on the plane that lost an engine. If only Bush would volunteer to go back in time and give up the presidency to Gore in 2000 for the betterment of our country (and his own salvation).

The movie bombed in theaters because it had the unfortunate release date of October 2001, when no American wanted to see any dark movie, especially one featuring a crashing airplane (even though the film was looking for a distributor since the Sundance Film Festival earlier in the year). Had it been released in July or August, it might have done better in theaters (who knew 9/11 would happen, though?), but my guess is that the distributors didn't know how to market the movie and since it takes place around Halloween, they thought of it as a Halloween type of release. Wrong!

So, what would the metaphor be with the airline crash? Maybe the plane represents our country. It crashed during Bush's last week in office. It's sinking, but Americans safely bailed out and did so in an orderly fashion. Others came to their aid. It's America at its best (no selfishness there, no rich person demanding to be rescued first in a yacht, no situation like the Titanic where poor passengers were locked from escaping the sinking ship). When I see pictures of the plane sinking in water, I just keep thinking of Bush's failed presidency. He has been our pilot these past eight years. However, the plane was brought down by innocent birds that didn't get out of the flight path, not an incompetent pilot. But it does bring to mind a certain idea. Why do Americans want competent pilots and doctors? The answer is pretty obvious, right? It's in our self-interest. No rational person would board a plane if they knew the pilot was drunk off his ass or flying on his very first flight.

Yet, when it comes to politics, why doesn't competence matter as much? In 2000...in the Republican primary, voters had a choice between an experienced politician with a war hero record and a six-year governor who was the son of a former president. Then in the fall election, Americans had a choice between a man who had eight years experience as an understudy to the president and 24 years in government service overall, versus one who only got into politics six years earlier. Weird. Americans want competence when it comes to choosing a doctor or flying a plane, but when it comes to the most powerful job in the world with the greatest responsibilities, there are enough people who vote for the person they most want to drink a beer with. And last year, many millions of people supposedly voted for McCain because they loved Palin and thought she was "just like them!"

It's amazing that a plane crash got more attention than Bush's farewell address. Even his Vice President was caught dozing during parts of his speech! However, I want to dissect his speech because I was shocked that he brought up 9/11 one more time. I don't understand why a person would continue to highlight the biggest failure of his administration and almost brag about it. But that wasn't the only outrageous claim of his speech. I will highlight the points he made and refute them here.

Fellow citizens: For eight years, it has been my honor to serve as your President. The first decade of this new century has been a period of consequence -- a time set apart. Tonight, with a thankful heart, I have asked for a final opportunity to share some thoughts on the journey that we have traveled together, and the future of our nation.

"Has been a period of consequence"?!? I guess if you think of 9/11 as karmic payback for 50 years of American foreign policy of funding terrorist groups to undermine governments of other countries that don't agree with us...yeah. It has been a period of consequence. If you consider his reckless pursuit of terrorism as a military action rather than a police and intelligence services action, then yes, his period as leader of the free world will have huge consequences for decades.

Five days from now, the world will witness the vitality of American democracy. In a tradition dating back to our founding, the presidency will pass to a successor chosen by you, the American people. Standing on the steps of the Capitol will be a man whose history reflects the enduring promise of our land. This is a moment of hope and pride for our whole nation. And I join all Americans in offering best wishes to President-Elect Obama, his wife Michelle, and their two beautiful girls.

Wow, he was actually gracious here. More than he was towards Gore, the man who was chosen by the majority of the American people to lead our nation in the first decade of the new century and millennium.

Tonight I am filled with gratitude -- to Vice President Cheney and members of my administration; to Laura, who brought joy to this house and love to my life; to our wonderful daughters, Barbara and Jenna; to my parents, whose examples have provided strength for a lifetime. And above all, I thank the American people for the trust you have given me. I thank you for the prayers that have lifted my spirits. And I thank you for the countless acts of courage, generosity, and grace that I have witnessed these past eight years.

I never gave any trust to you because you didn't deserve any. And the only prayers that I prayed on your behalf is that the American people would wake up to your lies and that you'll be held accountable for your crimes against the country and world. If Americans are courageous, generous, and graceful, it was in defiance of you and your policy of encouraging fear, greed, and political pettiness.

This evening, my thoughts return to the first night I addressed you from this house -- September the 11th, 2001. That morning, terrorists took nearly 3,000 lives in the worst attack on America since Pearl Harbor. I remember standing in the rubble of the World Trade Center three days later, surrounded by rescuers who had been working around the clock. I remember talking to brave souls who charged through smoke-filled corridors at the Pentagon, and to husbands and wives whose loved ones became heroes aboard Flight 93. I remember Arlene Howard, who gave me her fallen son's police shield as a reminder of all that was lost. And I still carry his badge.

I can't believe that you brought up your biggest failure as president one last time. What is with your obsession with 9/11? Clinton never talked ad nauseum about the Oklahoma City bombing, or the Branch Davidian Complex disaster in Waco, or even the 1993 bombing of the World Trade Center each time he gave a speech. What kind of twisted person wants to remind everyone of his biggest failure? Maybe a person who has little accomplishments to speak of because he's deluded in thinking that 9/11 was his finest hour.

As the years passed, most Americans were able to return to life much as it had been before 9/11. But I never did. Every morning, I received a briefing on the threats to our nation. I vowed to do everything in my power to keep us safe.

So, why didn't you do that on day one of your presidency? Why did you ignore the CIA's PDB on August 6th? Why did you ignore the departing Clinton Administration's insistence that terrorism would be your biggest focus? Why did you marginalize Richard Clarke everytime he had something important to say about al-Qaeda? Why did you sit in that classroom for 7 minutes after being told we were under attack? Why did it take you three days to appear in public after 9/11?

Over the past seven years, a new Department of Homeland Security has been created. The military, the intelligence community, and the FBI have been transformed. Our nation is equipped with new tools to monitor the terrorists' movements, freeze their finances, and break up their plots. And with strong allies at our side, we have taken the fight to the terrorists and those who support them. Afghanistan has gone from a nation where the Taliban harbored al Qaeda and stoned women in the streets to a young democracy that is fighting terror and encouraging girls to go to school. Iraq has gone from a brutal dictatorship and a sworn enemy of America to an Arab democracy at the heart of the Middle East and a friend of the United States.

Iraq an Arab democracy and friend of the United States? Then why are many government officials in the post-Saddam Iraq closely tied to the Iranian government?

There is legitimate debate about many of these decisions. But there can be little debate about the results. America has gone more than seven years without another terrorist attack on our soil. This is a tribute to those who toil night and day to keep us safe -- law enforcement officers, intelligence analysts, homeland security and diplomatic personnel, and the men and women of the United States Armed Forces.

Little debate about the results? America's more hated abroad than when you took office eight years ago. America went without a terrorist attack eight years BEFORE 9/11. Some time ago, the media revealed that terrorists had planned several attacks in the U.S. for the Millennium New Year's celebrations in Seattle, Los Angeles, and Washington, D.C. Seems like the Clinton Administration did a good job thwarting such attacks. It's what a president is expected to do. Claiming that no attack happened on your watch is like claiming that no aliens invaded our country during your presidency. You can claim all kinds of things that never happened as a sign of "doing your job."

Our nation is blessed to have citizens who volunteer to defend us in this time of danger. I have cherished meeting these selfless patriots and their families. And America owes you a debt of gratitude. And to all our men and women in uniform listening tonight: There has been no higher honor than serving as your Commander-in-Chief.

For a coward who avoided war as a young man--a war you believed in--you ought to feel small and humbled by the young Americans you committed to the slaughterhouse of Iraq. Your debt to them for fighting an illegal war you ordered is truly astronomical and I hope you will donate your wealth to all those who are suffering from their injuries.

The battles waged by our troops are part of a broader struggle between two dramatically different systems. Under one, a small band of fanatics demands total obedience to an oppressive ideology, condemns women to subservience, and marks unbelievers for murder. The other system is based on the conviction that freedom is the universal gift of Almighty God, and that liberty and justice light the path to peace.

When you said "a small band of fanatics demands total obedience to an oppressive ideology," I actually laughed because I thought you were finally admitting what your administration truly is. Maybe that's the case...your administration on one hand, the American people on the other hand. I'm glad that I never joined your side these past eight years. It was great to oppose you and your illegitimate presidency for eight years.

This is the belief that gave birth to our nation. And in the long run, advancing this belief is the only practical way to protect our citizens. When people live in freedom, they do not willingly choose leaders who pursue campaigns of terror. When people have hope in the future, they will not cede their lives to violence and extremism. So around the world, America is promoting human liberty, human rights, and human dignity. We're standing with dissidents and young democracies, providing AIDS medicine to dying patients -- to bring dying patients back to life, and sparing mothers and babies from malaria. And this great republic born alone in liberty is leading the world toward a new age when freedom belongs to all nations.

I was struck by your phrase: "when people live in freedom, they do not willingly choose leaders who pursue campaigns of terror." You got that right! The majority of Americans did not choose you to lead us in the new century, but you waged your campaigns of terror anyway.

You're standing with dissidents? You don't even like dissidents in this country. You had protestors limited to "free speech zones" out of your eyesight, you wouldn't allow anyone who wasn't a card-carrying member of the Republican party to attend your campaign events in 2004, you tried to blacklist people who disagreed with you and your policies.

For eight years, we've also strived to expand opportunity and hope here at home. Across our country, students are rising to meet higher standards in public schools. A new Medicare prescription drug benefit is bringing peace of mind to seniors and the disabled. Every taxpayer pays lower income taxes. The addicted and suffering are finding new hope through faith-based programs. Vulnerable human life is better protected. Funding for our veterans has nearly doubled. America's air and water and lands are measurably cleaner. And the federal bench includes wise new members like Justice Sam Alito and Chief Justice John Roberts.

If Americans pay less in income taxes, we pay more in other fees, taxes, and cost of living...even as salaries have stagnated. Honestly, I was better off financially in the Clinton years.

Funding for veterans was more the doing of the Democratic Congress than you. Faith-based programs have a tendency to place conditions on those they helped (such as: after you listen to our message about Jesus, we will happily help you). Having big corporations re-write our laws for air quality, water, and land is hardly making these resources cleaner. And appointing regressive ideologues to the Supreme Court is hardly a sign that they are at all wise.

When challenges to our prosperity emerged, we rose to meet them. Facing the prospect of a financial collapse, we took decisive measures to safeguard our economy. These are very tough times for hardworking families, but the toll would be far worse if we had not acted. All Americans are in this together. And together, with determination and hard work, we will restore our economy to the path of growth. We will show the world once again the resilience of America's free enterprise system.

All Americans are not in this together. Why do the CEOs get a golden parachute and not have to pay for their crimes of greed and incompetence? Where's my bailout? I'm saddled with college loan debt, stuck in a job that pays the same salary I made when I didn't have a degree or college loan debt. I've searched for a better paying job throughout your term in office and all I've found are low wage jobs that don't pay shit. The times are tough for hardworking families because you acted to benefit your rich supporters in the biggest kleptocratic looting our nation has ever seen. And your buddies who did this aren't going to pay for it either.

Like all who have held this office before me, I have experienced setbacks. There are things I would do differently if given the chance. Yet I've always acted with the best interests of our country in mind. I have followed my conscience and done what I thought was right. You may not agree with some of the tough decisions I have made. But I hope you can agree that I was willing to make the tough decisions.

Most of the setbacks you experienced were actually karmic payback because you were dishonest when you came into office and proceeded to act in a greedy and dishonest manner. Of course everything would come crashing down. I'm glad it happened before you left office, so Americans could see the fraud that you are.

You've never acted with the best interests of the country in mind. You were a corporate whore who did what you had to do for your criminal class of wealthy elites. I don't believe you have a conscience at all, and you have proved it with every interview you gave these past few months where you can't think of any major mistakes or offer any apology for those you mistreated along the way. Yes, I don't agree with your "tough decisions" because what you lacked was making wise decisions. It's not easy to be president, I'm not refuting you there. Most decisions are tough decisions...but when your decisions favour deceit over honesty, the wealthy over the poor and middle class, violence instead of diplomacy, ideology instead of pragmatism...you were incapable of making any decision that went against the narrow ideology of neo-conservativism.

The decades ahead will bring more hard choices for our country, and there are some guiding principles that should shape our course. While our nation is safer than it was seven years ago, the gravest threat to our people remains another terrorist attack. Our enemies are patient, and determined to strike again. America did nothing to seek or deserve this conflict. But we have been given solemn responsibilities, and we must meet them. We must resist complacency. We must keep our resolve. And we must never let down our guard.

You lied here when you said that "America did nothing to seek or deserve this conflict." Come on, Mr. History Major. Surely you had to have learned that our foreign policy of supporting terrorist groups during the Cold War to undermine the Soviet Empire has resulted in what the CIA termed "blowback." Many of the people we funded over the years (Noriega, Osama Bin Laden, Saddam Hussein) had turned against us. Do unto others as you would have them do unto you. Jesus (your favourite political philosopher) even preached this principle. Your war on terrorism in which you have arrested and tortured possible innocent people will only turn them into terrorists with vengeance on their minds.

Your whole presidency has been complacent, particularly in the months leading up to 9/11.

At the same time, we must continue to engage the world with confidence and clear purpose. In the face of threats from abroad, it can be tempting to seek comfort by turning inward. But we must reject isolationism and its companion, protectionism. Retreating behind our borders would only invite danger. In the 21st century, security and prosperity at home depend on the expansion of liberty abroad. If America does not lead the cause of freedom, that cause will not be led.

I hope this was a message to the isolationist wing of your party. This is the only part of your speech that I agree with. But I can't help but think of the contrast it had from your view as expressed in the 2000 debates when you criticized the Clinton Administration for its "nation-building" activities, and you vowed a "more humble" foreign policy. Why is an international cooperative effort to end genocide or massacres wrong, but pre-emptively invading oil rich countries just?

As we address these challenges -- and others we cannot foresee tonight -- America must maintain our moral clarity. I've often spoken to you about good and evil, and this has made some uncomfortable. But good and evil are present in this world, and between the two of them there can be no compromise. Murdering the innocent to advance an ideology is wrong every time, everywhere. Freeing people from oppression and despair is eternally right. This nation must continue to speak out for justice and truth. We must always be willing to act in their defense -- and to advance the cause of peace.

The reason why "good and evil" makes me uncomfortable is because you have a simple-minded and immature view of it. Don't you realize that when Osama Bin Laden looks in the mirror, he doesn't see an evil man looking back at him? He views you as evil. He views our foreign policy as evil. I believe the world is more complex than mere good and evil. To me, evil is characterized by dishonesty, greed, cruelty, the love of violence. In my mind, your administration is EVIL. You said it yourself: "murdering the innocent to advance an ideology is wrong every time, every where." How many innocent Iraqi and Pashtun blood are on your hands? You've been advancing your own warped ideology, regardless of the consequences and your thirst for control of oil is nothing, if not greedy and evil. Evil because you have shown time and again, that a material item is worth more than a human life.

If freeing people from oppression and despair is always eternally right, then why have you done nothing about Darfur or Burma? Why is your liberation based on countries that have oil or important geography for an oil pipeline?

President Thomas Jefferson once wrote, "I like the dreams of the future better than the history of the past." As I leave the house he occupied two centuries ago, I share that optimism. America is a young country, full of vitality, constantly growing and renewing itself. And even in the toughest times, we lift our eyes to the broad horizon ahead.

How dare you quote Jefferson! You have no stature at all and you don't know the first thing about Jefferson. The quote is convenient though. Of course you want Americans to focus on the future and to forgive the crimes of your presidency. Anyone who robs another person would want the victim to forgive and forget. They don't want to be held accountable for their past. Its the flaw of Christianity. That's why the law of karmic justice takes care of that. You can't escape your past. Every action has consequences.

I have confidence in the promise of America because I know the character of our people. This is a nation that inspires immigrants to risk everything for the dream of freedom. This is a nation where citizens show calm in times of danger, and compassion in the face of suffering. We see examples of America's character all around us. And Laura and I have invited some of them to join us in the White House this evening...

...In citizens like these, we see the best of our country - resilient and hopeful, caring and strong. These virtues give me an unshakable faith in America. We have faced danger and trial, and there's more ahead. But with the courage of our people and confidence in our ideals, this great nation will never tire, never falter, and never fail.

Shameless, how you continue to highlight the very people who were victimized by your incompetence. Yes, these people might be the best of our country but you have no moral standing to even be compared with any of them. They are courageous where you cower in your fears. America is great in spite of you and everything you stand for.

It has been the privilege of a lifetime to serve as your President. There have been good days and tough days. But every day I have been inspired by the greatness of our country, and uplifted by the goodness of our people. I have been blessed to represent this nation we love. And I will always be honored to carry a title that means more to me than any other - citizen of the United States of America. And so, my fellow Americans, for the final time: Good night. May God bless this house and our next President. And may God bless you and our wonderful country. Thank you.

You might have been "blessed" but you screwed us royally. You squandered a privilege of a lifetime and dishonored the office that many honorable men have occupied with grace, courage, ethics and moral clarity. You are the worst person to ever hold that office and I thank God everyday that your disasterous presidency is finished. America can now be great again as we reverse and clean up your damaging presidency. I hope you disappear into obscurity, never to be heard from again unless its to face a war crimes tribunal or that you have died. Good riddance. And I hope the door does hit you on the way out.

Flashback Friday: The Bush Years

On the last Friday of the Bush Administration, I'm devoting this entry to some memorable photos of our worst president ever, as well as list some of the music, books, and movies that capture the essence of this era.

The closer we get to Inauguration, the happier I feel I'm becoming. I know that happiness depends on me. I can always choose to be happy, even when I'm in a miserable situation. I believe that happiness is a choice we make. Sometimes, in my moments of pondering my life's trajectory, I wonder if I subconsciously manifested the worst job of my life (along with the two other mediocre jobs I had during Bush's reign of error) so that I would never be nostalgic about this period of our nation's history. The Bush years have been the worst years of my life. I've experienced too many losses and seem further from my dream life than I was nine years ago. So, I'm happy to see an end to this disasterous presidency and if anything, having Obama in the White House will definitely change my mental state because I am ecstatically happy when I think about my party and candidate of choice in the White House.

I'm actually shocked how short these eight years have been. I feel like I did a whole lot more during the eight years of the Clinton Era: Navy, college, and internship. I lived in five places (instead of two in the Bush years). The quality of my life was certainly better during the Clinton years than the Bush years. A lot of people used to think that it didn't matter who was president, for a president doesn't have that kind of power to affect lives.

However, when your dream career was to be a political aide in a Democratic administration and you finish college when your candidate is expected to win, and then the other guy gets in and completely breaks with tradition by politicizing government to the point where only loyal, Bush-voting Republicans are hired for government jobs, that's a long time to be in exile. I'm hoping that my karma account accrued in the past eight years to the point where I will get into the career I was destined to be in as soon as Obama is sworn in as our new president. It's a new era and I'm so happy to see this day finally arrive.

But first, a look back at some of the memorable moments of the past eight years...

The photo that I hope he will be most remembered for: proclaiming "Mission Accomplished" on May 1st after six weeks of launching the invasion of Iraq. We'll still be in Iraq on May 1, 2013--the tenth anniversary. Bush considers the sign "a mistake", but not the war. Tell that to the families of the 5,000 American servicemembers who died.

My second favourite Bush photo, taken on September 11, 2001 after the second plane hit the World Trade Center. He sat there for longer than 7 minutes after Andrew Card informed him that "we are under attack." He wasn't paying attention to the book ("My Pet Goat"), the teacher or the children. He just kind of sat there with a dazed look in his eye. I'd love to know the thoughts that were going through his mind at the time. It's probably the biggest "oh shit!" moment of his entire life. And that's probably exactly what he did, too.

There's a saying that events tend to repeat themselves twice...first as tragedy, second as a farce. This photo showed that Bush was still as clueless as ever. Nearly four years after 9/11, Bush was seen strumming a guitar for fundraisers in San Diego while New Orleans was drowning from the broken levees in the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina. It took him several days before he went to the area to survey the damage himself. He had to be given a specially made DVD (what? He didn't have the Fox Propaganda Network at his ranch?) by aide Dan Bartlett and urged to watch it before he did anything. Exactly the kind of go-getter we want as president!

The other photo that I hope the Bush regime will be remembered for: that degrading photo of an Iraqi being made to stand on a block while wires were attached (apparently, it was not connected to a real bomb). But it's the black hood that truly creeps you out the most. It's like, who the fuck came up with that kind of shit? Truly someone demented. It's like a scene out of the Saw movies or something (though I've never seen the Saw movies).

God should've sent hurricane-force winds to blow this couple right out of the White House permanently.

"Sock it to me!"

Bush always has that frat-boy smirk that indicates something deviant and cruel beneath his good ole boy persona.

Poor Barney doesn't look pleased to be manhandled that way.

Evangelical Christians forwarded this photo a lot in emails during the Bush reign of error. They loved the halo effect (Bush was in front of a flag with a state or presidential seal), as though it was proof that Divine favour was bestowed on a president who couldn't even win the popular vote in 2000. Evangelicals, surprisingly, seem totally okay with authoritarian tyrants who aren't held accountable by oaths, laws, or the people.

I love the photos of his pouting. Why so mad, George? You didn't even want to be president, remember? It's too much hard work.

Some measure of accountability finally arrived in November 2006 when Democrats regained control of Congress with Nancy Pelosi as the first female Speaker of the House and milquetoasty Mormon Harry Reid as Senate Majority Leader. If anything, I believe that Democrats regaining control of Congress prevented the neo-con dream of invading Iran before Bush's term was up.

I love this photo because Bush actually looks sincerely sad here. Plus, he has aged A LOT in eight years. The stresses of the presidency has left its mark all over his frat-boy face.

You can really see the pain on his face, like he's about to cry about something.

But, there were also lovey-dovey moments with Condoleezza Rice (the only member of the Administration I like). Although liberals seemed to be against her being named as Secretary of State in Bush's second term, I thought it was a good move, partly because she was a lousy National Security Advisor and she seemed better suited towards diplomacy, which I credit her for moving the administration away from its dream war with Iran. I would've been okay with her remaining as Secretary of State for President Obama, but I look forward to seeing what she's going to do next. Her memoirs will be the only one I'll buy from this administration.

Bush in one of his more likeable moments, dancing like the goofball that he is as he waited for a late-running Senator McCain to arrive at the White House for a formal endorsement.

The infamous wink that infuriates so many people. And he did it again in his final farewell address to the American people last night! I always thought it was interesting when he winks because he's always saying something untrue when the wink occurs. Its a dead-giveaway (the body often betrays a person's true feelings). To me, the wink always seem to say: "I can't believe I'm getting away with this bullshit!" Yeah, to his loyal legion of supporters, they believed his every utterance, but the wink revealed the truth.

Is he playing "giggly-winks" with Sarah Palin?

Poor Barney! I love Bush's expression in this photo.

Bush looking tired. Eight years of hard work will do that to you.

Endorsing his old rival McCain as his Republican successor.

Checking out the Beach Volleyball Babes of the Summer Olympics. You know Clinton envies him for this one!

The Best Song to remember the Bush years by is the Black Eyed Peas, "Where is the Love?" Bush came into office promising to be a "compassionate conservative" but his record over the past eight years has been anything but. Would a compassionate conservative sign off on torture? I don't think its any coincidence that the Saw movies were made in the Bush years. And the show 24 was a hit during his presidency. It's great that a hip-hop band wanted to remind Americans, "where is the love, y'all?" It's the best protest song you can get these days.

This was Green Day's eighth album and it completely shocked music critics because its rare that any band releases a masterpiece after six previous mediocre albums that followed a hit debut, which featured songs about dookie and masturbation. Inspired by Bush's presidency, Green Day recorded a true "rock opera" with an actual storyline and characters, multi-part songs with varying melodies, and all with substantial lyrics set to catchy rhythms. It's true brilliance and the best they'll ever get.

My favourite bit of lyrics comes from the song "Holiday":

"Hear the drum pounding out of time

Another protestor has crossed the line

to find the money's on the other side

Can I get another amen?

There's a flag wrapped around a score of men

a gag

a plastic bag on a monument

The representative of California has the floor

Sieg heil to the President Gasman

Bombs away is your punishment

Pulverize the Eiffel Towers

who criticize your government..."

And:

"I beg to dream and differ

from the hollow lies

this is the dawning of the rest of our lives."

I especially love the song "Wake Me Up When September Ends." The whole album covers the trajectory of a young life in the Bush years...from a dead-end job to joining the military and fighting in an overseas war while a president lies and a media complies. You won't find a more brilliant critique of the Bush years than this. It truly is the masterpiece of the decade.

Now I get to the four books that are absolute necessities for understanding the Bush administration. The Greatest Story Ever Sold covers the propaganda aspect of his term from 9/11 through Katrina. It's quite readable and captures all the things that have outraged me about his administration.

Dead Certain is considered "the first historical draft" of the Bush Administration. I just recently bought the paperback of this book (for $3.99), so I'm not sure when I'll get around to reading it. It seems to be the most objective of Bush books (unlike the full-on Bush-bashing ones out there, nor the propaganda glowing crap from the likes of Karen Hughes).

Cruel and Unusual is worth reading because it recounts the hypocrisy of Bush, matching his statements (particularly his criticisms of Clinton) to his deeds. What we find is a huge disconnect. A lot of his (and conservatives in general) statements against Clinton more accurately describe him and his actions. Though a full psychological profile of Bush can be found in Bush on the Couch, Cruel and Unusual is a vital read to see just how cruel the man truly is and how it shaped his presidency.

Maureen Dowd became a favourite of mine in the Bush era as I read her wonderfully witty columns. She has a great way with words and quips and creating unique terms to explain the world Bush lives in. This book is a collection of her wonderful essays. Quite a few are laugh out loud funny.

As for movies, I have selected the three absolute must see films that I'd put in a historical time capsule for Americans in the far future to unearth if they wish to learn about the awful president. First on the list is the incendiary "documentary" by Michael Moore, Fahrenheit 9/11. This film was controversial because of Moore's reputation for skewing some of the facts in ways to push viewers into the anti-Bush camp. There are also a few "cheap shots" (such as the scene of Wolfowitz licking his comb before running it through his hair, or Ashcroft singing horribly a badly patriotic song that he wrote), but they deserved it. Ridicule of elites is the tool of the masses, which Moore is quite good at.

The main point of his documentary is to show that the Iraq War was a fraud, committed by people who didn't serve in military, who send good young people lacking job opportunities into battle while they reap the financial rewards. The closing statement, where Moore quotes from Orwell's novel 1984 was chillingly brilliant. Say what you want about this film, but it made over $100 million in the summer of 2004. The best review I read was of a young man in Iran, who said that America was truly an amazing country where a man could get rich making a movie criticizing the leader of the country. See...the film wasn't "anti-American" as conservatives claimed. It's success and popularity reminded the world what they loved about our country. That's what freedom is all about. Though it didn't cost Bush reelection, I believe that it served as the first crack in the fawning media portrayal of Bush. Making the film was a courageous act at a time when Republicans accused any criticism of the president as being "unpatriotic" and borderline treason (even though they had no such view when Clinton was president).

Oliver Stone's bio-pic attempts to explain the basic psychology of Bush so people can understand how this man became such a failed president. Basically, it boils down to the idea that Bush lived an unmotivated life where he didn't know who he truly was and strove to follow in his father's footsteps, failing in every endeavor, and not being held accountable for any of his failures. Josh Brolin plays him sympathetic and after the film, I left the theater truly liking the Bush I saw on screen.

I admit that Bush might be a likeable oaf in real life, but the damage his decisions have cost many millions of people in our country, not to mention around the world...it's hard to sympathize with the man in his pity party of late. He should've seen a therapist to work out his psychological problems with daddy, rather than pull the whole world into his family drama. Before you think I'm being unfair to Bush, I was equally livid about Clinton in 1998. My view then was that Clinton should've taken care of his sexual addiction before he sought the presidency, saving our country and the world from the dramas of his life. A president isn't perfect, but if one can't behave like an adult for a term or two, they have no business running for the most powerful office in the world.

Finally, the third film I'd recommend watching to understand the Bush years is Recount, the excellent HBO-produced drama about the 36 days after the 2000 election when we truly did not know who won Florida, and thus the presidency. The film shows the major arguments and both points of view regarding the debacle.

In all the media's talk about how Bush's presidency might rate to future Americans, I didn't hear the most important detail...Bush lost the popular vote in 2000 by half a million votes. Even if historians of the future want to re-assess Bush's presidency through rose-coloured lenses because Iraq and Afghanistan end up as functioning democracies (which I seriously doubt, because democracy has to be developed by the people themselves, and both countries are too tribal and accustomed to strong, tyrannical leaders), how can his presidency rank higher than last place when he is one of three or four presidents who became president even though they didn't win the popular vote. Granted, the others were only one term and the popular vote winner became the next president, 2004 defied history to disasterous results.

A president should be judged in total, from the condition of the country when he assumed office to how he leaves it to his successor. By the promises made versus the promises kept. By matching words with deed. Bush promised to be a "compassionate conservative" who is a "uniter, not a divider" and would have a more "humble" foreign policy that did not engage our military in "nation-building" operations. Not a single promise was true.

Good riddance to the President Gasbag. May karmic justice catch him quickly in his retirement years. I'm glad his era is over. The past eight years have been some of the worst years of my life, so I have no doubt that life will be better under President Obama. Let the festivities begin!

Osama Versus Obama

Just a few nights ago, I was wondering if Bush would manage to leave office with Osama Bin Laden still on the loose. Then, I saw the headline on the Huffington Post yesterday that Bin Laden has supposedly released a new videotape, acknowledging the new president-elect (though not by name) and once again calling for Muslims all over the world to join the jihad to open up a new front in the war against America. He took a taunting turn, boasting that America was in a difficult situation, because if we withdraw from Iraq, it will be viewed as a military defeat, but if we stay, we will continue to increase our debt as the costly occupation leads our nation to a complete economic collapse. It's a smart strategy, because Osama learned in the long running war against the Soviet Union. Historians believe that the Soviet invasion and occupation of Afghanistan was one of several factors that ultimately led to the collapse of communism. Capitalism is the next ideology set to collapse, because capitalism is simply not sustainable in the long run.

When I heard this bit of news, it only reminded me of the failure of Bush's presidency. A co-worker at my last job in Atlanta would get irate every time I mentioned that Osama Bin Laden was still out there somewhere. She then turned it against Clinton and blamed him for "failing" to get Bin Laden after the 1998 embassy bombings in Tanzania and Kenya. Well...considering that Clinton was under investigation with a hostile Republican Congress questioning his motives each time he acted in foreign policy, it's understandable how he would be too distracted to focus full attention on it. Bush has had his ENTIRE presidency to capture Bin Laden and bring him into custody. It's just one more failure to tack up on his resume.

However, to be fair, I believe that Bush let Bin Laden escape when he was cornered in a part of Afghanistan where our troops were closing in on him. Why would he do a thing like that? Well...there is the family connection between the Bush and Bin Laden families. But even more...the whole thing smacked of Star Wars to me. You know. Star Wars! When I saw it in theaters as a 5 year old, I remember asking my dad, "why didn't they get Darth Vader?" My dad responded, "so they can make a sequel." "What's a sequel, dad?" He then explained to me what a sequel was and I was thrilled with the idea that there would be more Star Wars films to come. What's this have to do with Bush? Well...it's kind of obvious, from the way they packaged 9/11 as a fear tactic. It was the most bizarre aspect of his presidency. He would always remind Americans of 9/11...the biggest security failure of our entire history. Why would he do such a thing? It would be like a boss at work, highlighting his or her biggest failure at every staff meeting. Smacks of complete lunacy! Unless...(that's right...I believe 9/11 was an inside job, so what else is new).

Bush played the fear card from 9/11 through the 2004 election. After Katrina hit New Orleans, the tactic no longer worked, as Americans realized that mother nature could be far more deadly than any terrorist act. Incompetent leadership is incompetent leadership...whether its reading "My Pet Goat" to elementary school kids as the second plane hit the World Trade Center, or strumming a guitar for McCain's birthday at a Republican fundraiser while New Orleans drowns. Bush played Bin Laden as the boogie man to scare Americans into voting against their own economic self-interest and to keep his corrupt party in power (because they can't win a fair election).

So, Bush leaves office with Bin Laden still out there, able to influence unemployed young men in the Middle East who are tired of seeing loved ones die in Afghanistan, Iraq, Lebanon, the West Bank, and the Gaza Strip. What's a jihadi to do?

I thought it was interesting that Bin Laden is hinting at opening a new front in the jihad against America. Where might that be? I can think of two places off the bat: Somalia and Pakistan. Do you think the increase in piracy off the shores of Somalia is some random act by a group of people inspired by the Disney theme park ride movies? Come on! Bin Laden supposedly shows the film Black Hawk Down as part of the training for al-Qaeda operatives. Our fiasco of a foreign policy mission in Somalia shows the weak underbelly of the world's most powerful military. Somalia might have been an early Clinton failure, but let's not forget that it was Bush's father who committed troops to that rogue state. You can bet that Bin Laden would love to see a repeat of American failure in Somalia.

Pakistan is an even greater concern, because they have nuclear weapons and many high level government officials are sympathetic to the Taliban and al-Qaeda. If jihadis take control of the government, they'll have a nuclear weapon that will make 9/11 look like a practice drill. Beyond that, I read one psychic's prediction for this year and one of the global events forseen is a terrorist strike in Dubai, which is a big possibility. Dubai has become something of a Las Vegas in the Middle East and these religious fanatics might view that city as growing in decadence and needing to be warned. I'm worried that any attack might happen early, to test the new president's reaction, much like a two year old often tests the boundaries with parents.

It will be a showdown between Osama and Obama...but it didn't have to happen if Bush had done his job and not let Bin Laden flee. It's just one more failure that I hope will permanently etch Bush's presidency in the history books as the worst. Never to be surpassed (our country can't afford an even worse president...um, you know...someone like Palin!).

I haven't written much on Iraq or Afghanistan, because my feelings are still mixed on them both. Since Obama is committing to continue the fight in Afghanistan, he has hinted that he'll begin the phase out of troops from Iraq. However, I believe this will be a colossal mistake. That's the whole irony of my viewpoint...because I was adamantly opposed to the war against Iraq from the start. However, the Iraqi government is rumoured to be embedded with Iranian agents or influence, which means that if we leave Iraq, Iran becomes much more powerful. You can't ignore Iran. They fought a brutal eight year war with Iraq in the 1980s and had many of their citizens gassed by Saddam Hussein (using chemical weapons sold by the U.S.). Do you think Iran is going to let Iraq alone and risk another Saddam-like dictator to come to power? No way, Jose! They will control the Iraqi government, not to mention the oil beneath the sand, and they will be a lot closer to their sworn enemy Israel. Can you see what I'm getting at?!?

I hate to say it, but America is obligated to stay in Iraq for the indefinite future. Pulling out has too much risk involved if we care about the future. Iran is a country that is hard to trust because they want to be the power in the region and to see the complete annihilation of Israel. I'm no fan of the Likud party and other assorted Jewish neo-conservatives who control the Israeli government, nor do I like their treatment of Palestinians, but even I can see a serious threat to Israel's existence if the U.S. withdraws troops from Iraq, leaving only enough troops to protect military bases.

Before you go thinking that I've been drinking Bush's Kool-Aid (since he has reasons for wanting troops to stay in Iraq for his own legacy and inability to admit to making a serious strategical error), my position is one I don't see advocated by many people. I was against the invasion in 2003 and I'm against withdrawal in 2009 or 2010. The only logical solution I can see in the immediate future is the necessity...ABSOLUTE NECESSITY...to bring the architects of the war to face war crimes tribunals and treason trials. Bush, Cheney, Rumsfeld, Wolfowitz, Perle, Feith, Bremer, Rove, Ashcroft, and Gonzalez should all be arrested and put on trial for their active involvement in planning and engaging our country in illegal warfare, propaganda against American citizens, and the restriction of freedoms and abuse of surveillance authority. Once convicted and sentenced, we should then ask for Europe's help in commiting troops and finances in order to protect Iraq from Iranian control. That's the only solution I see. It's absolutely vital that we hold the architects of the war accountable because their decision to pre-emptively invade a nation on false pretenses has caused grave damage to our national treasury, assets (including the lives of our young servicemembers), reputation and credibility.

So, thanks Bush, once again. You really know how to destroy everything you touch. Hopefully your marriage will be the next thing to crumble since you have nothing left to run into the ground. Tuesday can't get here soon enough.

Nine Years Since the Washington Seminar Experience

The Old Executive Office Building (renamed in 2000 as the Dwight D. Eisenhower Building, though not as fun to say as "OEOB") is where most of the presidential administration staff work. The building actually dwarfs the White House next door and all the offices have high ceilings, making it a difficult place to keep warm in the winter months.

On January 11th marked an important anniversary date for me. For nine years ago on that date, my White House internship began. For regular readers, I may have repeated this experience ad nauseum, and I apologize for it in advance. Before you go thinking that this is another post where I lament the tragic trajectory of my life, I assure you that it is not. It has now become part of my "tradition" (between my birthday on December 30th and the internship anniversary date of January 11th) to review my life in relation to where I feel I should be, and as I stated before, I do feel that I'm far off track from where I believe I ought to be at this moment in life. In the past year, I have done a lot of thinking about the exact point when my life went off track, which tends to lead to a lot of regret.

Then I got to thinking about it, and realized how silly it must be to think this way. How did I even begin thinking this way? The reason is because, for most of my life...at least through 1996, I always felt that I was exactly where I needed to be and I never wanted to change any part of my life because that would have meant not meeting the people who became my friends. I've amassed quite a group of friends over the course of a lifetime. I realize this every year when I'm shocked by how large my Christmas card list is (I pared it down to around 50 or so this year, but at its peak in Christmas 2000, I sent over 80 cards that year). When you think about how expensive it costs to buy that many cards ($15 for a box of 18 cards) and postage...well, I like to think that friendships are worth more than that, so it's the price I'll gladly pay to remember friends during the holidays.

Anyhow, that was my viewpoint in life...where I lived without regret because of the people I met along the way. I realized that if I made other choices, I wouldn't have met these people and felt that my life would be lacking in some regard, even though I probably would have met other people who I would also think I couldn't live life without having met. So, where does the regret start creeping in?

The first regret I remember having was moving back to Georgia after I got out of the Navy. A part of me wanted to stay in Norfolk, Virginia because I wanted to go to college at the University of Virginia or the College of William and Mary (after doing two years at Old Dominion University in Norfolk). Instead, I listened to my dad and his offer to allow me to live at home rent free while I attended college. He later went back on that promise and started charging me rent, and I felt duped. That first year out of the Navy proved difficult when I took a low paying job that turned into a nightmare (uh-oh...seems like I still haven't learned that lesson!) and quit a month or so later. Then I had two car accidents in a four month period. I didn't get to go on my post-Navy trip to Australia like I had planned. And I didn't even start college that year like I had been dreaming about in my last two years in the Navy.

Facing my 25th birthday, I prayed for direction and got an answer soon after to apply to BYU. It threw me for a loop, because the answer I wanted was to move back to Virginia. But, I applied to BYU and got accepted, then in 1997, I moved out there to start college. No regrets. BYU led me back to Virginia, where I was part of an internship program with a great group of people. Those four months of the internship were absolutely perfect. I was truly at the top of my game. I was stunned by how easily I could manifest my desires. I wanted to see certain Senators in the hallway. Boom, I would within minutes of thinking it. I wanted to meet the Vice President. Boom, I did several times. I attended an event where I saw people in love all around me, and desired to meet an interesting woman that I clicked with. Boom, I met her the following Sunday. I wanted friends I had political views in common with. Boom...exactly that. Those months during the Washington Seminar were truly the most magical days of my life. The best life could be. Intuition seemed to work amazingly well. When I arrived in D.C. on January 5th or 6th and went shopping for groceries the first night, I remember walking around the store feeling ecstatically blissful with the overwhelming sense that I had finally "arrived" in life. I was 28 and finally living a dream that I envisioned back in 1992 and 1993 (back then, I knew that I wanted to work for Gore someday). How did I manage to manifest the best case scenario for myself?

After the internship ended, it was like the Cinderella story, where everything reverted back to the way it was. The magic was gone. My fellow interns left D.C. I had interviews for a few dream jobs and waited and waited for a decision while money in my account kept dwindling and dwindling each time I had to buy groceries. One lady suggested that I go with a certain temp agency that she had success at, but I didn't want to be committed to a temp job when the call came in for my dream job. I wanted to be available to start working as soon as an offer was made. No such offer came. After my deadline of Memorial Day passed, my hopes of finding work diminished and I had committed to stay in D.C. until after one of my best friend's wedding up in Williamsport, Pennsylvania. I even said to the universe..."I will stay in D.C. if I get a job offer from Vice President Gore or Senator Bayh's office."

When I returned from the wedding, I had a message on my answering machine from Senator Bayh's office about two positions! I immediately called for an interview and then waited and waited for a decision. I kept getting the runaround and losing hope, until I went to the office in person to get an answer. I didn't get the job, but it only offered $20,000, which wasn't enough to live on in D.C. At least, not the life I imagined (my own apartment). With that news, I was ready to leave D.C., even though Jenet at church tried to persuade me not to leave. I was down to my last $50 and that $50 wasn't even mine. It was given to me by a church member to pay for gas and lunch on the drive home to Georgia. The day I left D.C. (July 24, 2000), it rained all the way from D.C. to the North Carolina border. I saw the rain as tears from heaven...the angels were crying along with me about a dream failing to come true.

As I think about the following years and all that unfolded, who knows how my life would've turned out if I stayed in D.C., took a temp job, and just lived with church members for awhile until I found my dream career? That's exactly what Jenet did. She worked in a watch store at a mall until she landed a job in the State Department where her interest in Eastern Europe came in handy. In the ensuing years, I've been in three jobs I never truly had a passion for, wondering if I'll ever find my dream career.

Do I have regrets? To be honest, yes. But life is what it is. To get back to my old frame of mind, where I regretted nothing because of the people I met and became friends with, I have to realize that I may not have made the best choices in terms of following my chosen career path, but I did get to meet some people I would never have gotten to meet. For instance, in Atlanta, I truly felt honoured to work for a great and funny person like Rich Bowerman. He was the prime reason why I stayed as long as I did at my last job in Atlanta. After he left in 2005, I knew it was only a matter of time when I would leave. I'm also glad to have met a lady named Madeline Flores, who also worked for a short time at the same office. The tragedy of her son's suicide affected her deeply and I watched an evangelical-leaning lady become a new spiritual person in the aftermath. Because I was one of the few who was open to her expressions of grief, doubts about faith, and a growing interest in Near Death Experiences, spirit communications, and other ideas some might consider "New Agey", I've gained an important friend.

There are others, as well, that I'm very glad to have met and know and maintain friendship with. When I decided to move to Portland over San Francisco in 2006, throughout 2007 I questioned my decision and thought that I might've made the wrong choice. In 2008, however, I no longer questioned it because of the experiences I had in Portland, the people I've met, and the honour it was to work on a campaign like Lewis' and Adams', as well as becoming a member of the Writer's Dojo. At work, as well, there are a few people I intend to keep in contact for years to come. The job may not be to my liking, but even then, I had an epiphany last weekend regarding the co-worker I have so much trouble with. I've prayed to God for some kind of understanding because I truly want it. I've read enough spiritual books that say whenever you meet someone who completely tests your tolerance to the breaking point, PAY ATTENTION!!! They are your teachers, so there's a lesson in there somewhere.

The lesson I've learned is that I don't want to be like this lady at all. Maybe there's a small part of me that identifies with some aspect of her and it's something worth paying attention to. In fact, it may have cost me a job or two over the years. What I most dislike about her is her tendency to spout off opinions on everything, correcting people if they get certain facts wrong. She comes across as a "know-it-all", even though she often looks foolish (once, she had insisted that my mom had called me, when I knew for certain that my mother would only call me on my cell phone, never to my work number). Now, I like having political discussions, but perhaps haven't been more discrete about when and where I engage in it. I love having deep dialogue with anyone and everyone, without regard to whether or not the other person is truly into it or not. Truth is, I get bored at work so I have to have something to keep me intellectually engaged. Why not get to know how my co-workers think and how they view life?

But maybe that's the wrong approach. Maybe I should just keep my mouth closed, my comments to myself, and just treat the place with the cold, professional demeanor it deserves. The last person I wish to be viewed as is my co-worker who mouths her opinions on every topic whether people want to hear it or not. For me, that's the only logical reason why the universe managed to bring us together in this working environment from hell. I need more discretion in my life and why not show me the most extreme example you can so I can finally get a clue? After all, in the Navy, I was a bit homophobic until I saw the extent of another person's homophobia (where it led them to want to seek out homosexuals or the transgendered to beat up). I tend to be a person who needs to see another person's ugly side to make sure I don't have what they have. I want to be better than the other person. Perhaps God puts me in the path of people I don't aspire to be to force me to look deep within and make the necessary changes I need in order to make it to the next level.

So, on the ninth anniversary of my White House internship, I can honestly say that I no longer regret the path of life I have taken since that moment when I decided to leave D.C. with $50 to my name. It has been a difficult nine years of some intense soul searching as I sought a better job, but if given the alternative, it would mean that I wouldn't have met all the wonderful people I've met over the years...people like C.J., Merral, Donna, Rich, Madeline, Jay and Angela, John, Jeffrey, Charles, Christine, Rachel, Jarom, Sean, Erik, Vanessa, Andy, Calicoe, Coral, Sherry, Gail, Scotland, Wendy, Patricia, and the list goes on.

I can say, finally, that the peace of God is upon me. Finally. Hallelujah. And Amen!

Bush's Weird Final Press Conference

I saw excerpts of Bush's final press conference and I didn't think it was possible after eight years of one jaw-dropping scandal after another that he would once again cause my jaw to drop in what I call "un-fucking-believably weird." It was downright bizarre. Gone was the macho swaggering over-confidence and arrogance of past utterances ("shock and awe", "smoke 'em out of their holes," "bring 'em on,"). Now, he's just a whiny wimp trying to spin history by faking contrition like a serial killer on his death bed.

Yeah, he may have finally admitted to some mistakes. The point is, so?!? I think the damage is far too severe to let him off the hook just because he might've seen a ghost in his bedroom the previous night (the ghost of Ken Lay, playing Jacob Marley to Bush's Ebenezer Scrooge?), scaring him with the spectre of an eternity in the fires of hell. The whole press conference was just weird, weird, weird! Granted, he looked tired and defeated. He looked old and ready to leave behind the hardest job in the world. For a man who has never done an honest day's work in his entire life, there's no doubt that he'll leave public office shortly after Obama's inauguration a week from today and not overstay his term like some conspiracists imagine.

He's ready to go, and before we say good riddance, I still believe that we are doing him no favours by letting him off the hook for his reckless presidency. If we care about the damage done, if we care about the future of our republic, we must, as a people, demand that he and his administration be held accountable for their actions of the past eight years. I want to see War Crimes Tribunals, Treason trials, convictions, prison terms, and even possible execution by firing squad if found guilty of treason. It's the least we can do for future Americans, especially the young children today who will be paying the costs of Bush's war and financial schemes for generations to come.

The weirdest aspect of the press conference came when he played the role of a whiny, self-pitying fool as he said, "why did the economy have to tank on my watch?" Granted, it was a joke to show that he's not the whiny person he's portraying. He's still a bad actor, though, because in the privacy of his office, without cameras around, I can easily imagine him doing exactly that.

I've read enough spin by Republican propagandists who still believe that the economy tanking in Bush's final year in office is the result of Clinton's economic policies, not Bush's! Can you imagine that?!? But, I'm not surprised, because when the economy boomed in Clinton's last two years in office, Republicans claimed that it was the effect of Reaganomics. They would have us believe that the economy is slow moving to change that presidents who enact policies will be out of office before the changes can be felt. That's obvious bullshit, because if we remember our lessons of history, Clinton came into office with our country under record deficits due to Reaganomics. It took Clinton six years to turn it around through some fiscal discipline and our government saw a surplus for the first time in decades. Clinton left office with record surpluses. What did Bush do when he came into office? Two tax cuts and two expensive wars, which wiped out the surplus and gave us even larger debt than Reagan/Bush did in their twelve years.

Now, he wants to pretend whine about the economy tanking on his watch?!? Of course it would tank on his watch. This shows everyone that his economic policies are to blame, not Clinton's. We didn't have to be in this position if he hadn't squandered the surplus on a tax cut, then a second one, then engaging in expensive wars that his administration claimed could be fought on the cheap. Anyone who knows anything about history at all (and Bush majored in History at Yale), knows that wars are notoriously unpredictable and far more expensive than projected.

I believe that it is justice that the economy tanked on Bush's watch. Since he was the one who wrecked it, it serves him right. Had the economy tanked on Obama's watch, Republicans would have surely blamed Obama's inexperience and try to turn him into a second coming of Jimmy Carter. However, Carter's economic woes were inherited from the Nixon/Ford years. Our country would be in a far stronger position today if we had continued with Carter's energy conservation policies.

In numerology, everything works in nine year cycles. The idea is that the intentions you set for your life in Year One will ultimately come to fruition by Year Nine, though you may even see things occur in Year Eight. I believe this applies to presidencies as well. Bush came into office under bad karma (a stolen election, vindictiveness against the majority who voted for his opponent, and setting to have the most radically far right government our nation has ever seen), so it's no surprise that his presidency is an abject failure. He and his administration violated many spiritual laws as they sought to have the most ideologically extreme government in an attempt to secure a "permanent Republican majority" for a generation.

The Greeks had mythological stories about the dangers of hubris, but the arrogance of Bush and his cronies thought they were above all that. They thought that they were somehow great as gods who could remake the world in their own image, in defiance of every spiritual law. That's why their failure has been such a welcome boon for the opposition. I admit that schadenfreude is somewhat wrong, but these people deserve the failure they brought upon themselves. They remind me of Samson, who used his own strength to collapse a building upon himself. When your adversary insists on hanging themselves, give them plenty of rope.

What's even more amazing about this final press conference is that Bush finally...finally!...admitted that the "Mission Accomplished" banner on the USS Abraham Lincoln was his administration's doing, not the Navy's as previously stated. Interesting that he's backtracking now, like the pathological liar that he is. I remember being outraged when Bush blamed the Navy for the banner, because I was in the Navy. The Navy never would have done such a thing without the president's order. For one thing, a ship's print shop doesn't have the resources to make a huge banner like that. The banner was obviously specially made for the occasion. You can blame the Navy for a lot of things, but to be an active part of a propaganda ploy for an administration is not one of them.

The other thing that he was whiny on, though, was his defense of the Katrina disaster relief. He claimed that he was in a damned if he did, damned if he didn't situation, which is obvious bullshit. It's not about his landing Air Force One somewhere and "inconveniencing" relief aid workers, as he claims it would have done...it was that he was on vacation on his ranch, oblivious to the incoming hurricane, then flying to San Diego to fundraise and play a guitar for John McCain's birthday, then having to be given a specially made DVD of the disaster in New Orleans before he went to see for himself. When he did, it was in a fly-over on Air Force One, looking down from the sky at the disaster like he was some kind of god (and using photos of that to send to his big time donors). When he finally did observe the damage on the ground, he told a family that lost everything that he would one day drink a beer on the porch of Senator Trent Lott's rebuilt home. He also reminisced about his fun drinking days in the French Quarter as a young man. And he told FEMA Director Michael Brown that he was doing "a heckuva job!"

There's no escaping the verdict of history. Try as he might, he can't rewrite history. It's in all the newspapers of record. Bush was absent in the aftermath of Katrina. His poll ratings sank below 40% and never recovered in the last three years of his presidency. Katrina was the watershed event that finally convinced the majority of Americans that we had an incompetent president. Nothing he says can ever redeem him in the eyes of history. He is the Worst President Ever. I hope he lets that title sink into him every day of his retirement.

At his final address to the American people on Thursday night, I hope he will say the following: "I'm sorry, my fellow Americans, for stealing the 2000 election from an honourable and more experienced candidate. I never wanted to be president, but in 1998, when Dick Cheney came to visit me at the state office in Austin, he told me that with me as president, we had a chance to rewrite the ending of my father's Gulf War. That's the true reason why I sought the presidency and now I have the blood of nearly 5,000 Americans and hundreds of thousands of Iraqi lives on my hands. Living with this knowledge is a burden that I will carry for the rest of my life and to the judgment of God. If there is anything I can do to make up for my disaster of a presidency, for all the lives I've ruined, for the jobs I've cost, for the debts people have fallen into...please let me spend the rest of my life working to erase my terrible record as president. I'll do whatever you ask of me. May God have mercy on my soul."

Man, I'd love to hear him as the blubbering idiot he is in his final address to the American people. It's the only way he might gain my respect. Any hint of a smirk or arrogance, and I swear, I'll toss a shoe right at that TV screen. All I can say is...Good Riddance! I hope your soul never finds peace until you work to undo the damage of your incompetent leadership. All I want is for him to be held accountable for his crimes against humanity...from war crimes, to electoral theft, to financial fraud...he is a man who does not deserve one iota of compassion until he shows true remorse, the kind that comes from action: working to undo the damage.

Music Video Monday: Black Eyed Peas

This hip hop song by the Black Eyed Peas is my choice for Music Video Monday this week. YAPS/MAYAs played this song at the Vancouver BC Community of Christ last January during our special Young Adult service (replacing the riskier Everlast's "What It's Like"--due to profanity). Turns out, the change fit better with our service theme, particularly the non-verbal acting sequences showing three scenarios of how to act towards a homosexual, a child soldier, and a woman giving abortion. It was truly one of the best church services I've ever been a part of and one that I wish Young Adults in congregations throughout the U.S. and Canada would do.

The song is the rare hip-hop song that isn't about materialism, gangsterism, and "hoes" and "bee-yatches". This one is probably the best rebuke of the Bush presidency ever released. I especially loved that they compared the CIA to the Bloods and the Crips and other terrorist groups. The message is simple...if we had more love in society and on our planet, there wouldn't be as much violence or wars. I vote for this song to be the unofficial song of the Bush era. The 60s had all kinds of protest music to mark the decade, but during the Bush years, good protest music has been hard to find. This is about the best it ever got.

Enjoy!

Evolving From Selfish to Selfless

On Mike's blog, I kind of got into it with a guy who is a Libertarian and thinks ALL Democrats are EVIL and want to take away guns and institute a socialist government. Instead of debating our differences, the guy offered to send me a copy of Ayn Rand's book (The Fountainhead, I presume). I respectfully declined. Though I wouldn't mind reading that book, I have HUNDREDS of books on my reading list that I want to get to and Ayn Rand is someone I can wait to read when I have more time in the spiritual realm.

Besides, I know enough about Ayn Rand, through her loyal acolytes, to take a pass. She's a favourite of Libertarians, atheists, and capitalists...three types of people who are philosophically far from where I am. Nothing wrong with that, but it's just not my thing. In high school, a friend of mine was a Democratic-leaning person until she went towards Libertarianism and quasi-anarchy. However, that's rare, I think, as most Libertarians defected from the Republican Party over the years. What they share with Republicans is a belief in limited government. At least when it comes to guns. They have more in common with Democrats when it comes to their consistent view of government also not interfering in bedroom and other privacy issues that Republicans tend to be obsessed with.

However, despite sharing the same view as liberals regarding no governmental interference in bedroom and privacy issues, the reason why many Democrats don't get along with Libertarians is because most Democrats are okay with governmental social programs to help the poor and middle class. Democrats see no problem with FDR-style activist government that regulates big business and offering a New Deal or Great Society type programs (Medicare, Medicaid, welfare, social security, community service programs, Peace Corps, guaranteed housing loans, student loans, etc). Libertarians want a nation with no safety net, little to no taxes, and everyone is left to fend for themselves. Selfishness is considered a virtue, not a sin. Ayn Rand promoted selfishness as the human ideal with her self-made architect hero of The Fountainhead.

When I was in the Navy (during my "atheist phase"), I became friends with a fellow atheist sailor. We would have many interesting intelligent conversations (which was actually hard to find among enlisted sailors)...until I learned that he was a bigtime Rush Limbaugh fan, a Libertarian, and an Ayn Rand reader. He explained to me about why selfishness was a virtue, but I simply couldn't fathom how society could be any good if everyone was selfish and only acted in their own self-interest. As I learned more about atheism and their natural fondness for selfishness, it probably had a lot to do with pushing me back towards a spiritual worldview because I still believed in community, fairness, and an activist government that regulated big business and provided a safety net against poverty. Government isn't evil nor even a "necessary evil." It's an institution by which citizens could act to improve peoples' lives and our society as a whole. If government is evil, it's because we allowed it to become such. To view the desire to eradicate poverty and help people improve their lives as an evil is a viewpoint I simply do not understand at all.

That's why I have a hard time being friends with people who are die-hard Ayn Rand enthusiasts and members of the Libertarian party. Their worldview is so foreign to my own. To them, selfishness is a virtue and the highest ideal to which humans should aspire to. In my spiritual view, selfishness is one step above animals, and on the beginning end of spiritual evolution. Because I believe in evolution and reincarnation, I see the whole point of life as moving from selfish self-preservation (which is inherent among animals) towards the kind of selflessness that Jesus embodied (where one is willing to give up one's own life and self interest for the community at large). This is the trajectory of spiritual evolution and what we are working towards. So, anyone who promotes a selfish existence is really arguing from an inferior and spiritually undeveloped point of view. There's truly no debate here. For which figures in history are admired the most? Gandhi, Dr. King, Albert Einstein, Mother Teresa, Lady Diana, our Founding Fathers...all of them were known for service to humanity in some way. Selfishness is little more than narcissism, and the Greeks had a story about Narcissus (the boy who loved his reflection in a pool of water).

So, that's why I could never be a Libertarian or an enthusiast of Ayn Rand. We have seen the result of unregulated selfishness with the financial disaster of Wall Street and the Madoff ponzi scheme. That anyone could still believe selfishness is a virtue that all should aspire to is incredible. I don't know a single person who enjoys being friends with someone they believe is selfish. Why would you want to? You run the risk of being used and then ignored when you're no longer needed. I've read and heard stories about what life is like in a tribe or village, where people belong to a community. Most of us in America don't know what its like, and we have a lot of problems that don't exist in tribes and villages because of it.

I would challenge any Ayn Rand advocate to give community a try. There is no better feeling than giving to others and participating in a community. Rather than looking down on poor people for making wrong choices, why not work to improve life for them or vote for candidates who advocate quality of life issues rather than those who claim that government is evil. It's the only way our country will get better because if the Bush era taught us anything, it's that promoting a code of selfishness leads only to ruin. As Ben Franklin said..."we must all hang together, or most assuredly, we will hang separately."

People of the world, drop your Fountainhead. You have nothing to lose but your selfishness and a whole world to gain!

The Male Obsession With Sports

When Florida beat Oklahoma to win the College Bowl Series, I maintained second place in my office's pool. We didn't bet any money, but the top two guys in my organization put up the money (winner gets $100, and each person who scored higher than the two guys fronting the money gets a dollar). The way the pool works is that there are 34 college bowl games. You select the college team you think will win in each game and assign a certain number to each game, based on your level of confidence. Each number can be used once. 34 points should be assigned to the team you have the most confidence will win and 1 point to the team you have the least confidence will win. Then you hope for the best, winning your big point games and minimizing your losses with the less confident teams. The cumulative total points you can win (if you get all teams correct) is 595.

Some guys are truly into it. They'll read several websites, compare stats, and even base their decisions on what talking heads say about certain injuries and illnesses of various players that could affect the team's performance on game day.

I spent less than TEN minutes on mine! I selected mine totally on a whim. I'm not even into sports. I rarely watch a game and am pretty much satisfied with watching only the Superbowl for my "football fix." A few years ago, a friend invited me to an Atlanta Falcons game, which I truly enjoyed because it was my first time to a professional football game. I don't mind watching the occasional game, but for the most part, I don't spend a lot of thought on it. I truly couldn't care less who ranked what. So, that was my attitude going into the office pool. I only entered for the chance to win $100. Last year, I ranked near the bottom of the list. This year, I'm completely stunned that I ranked SECOND out of 52 players. I scored 435 points. The winner got 458 points and the financial prize. All I'll get is $2 (bus fare). The third place finisher ended up with 405 points. Had Oklahoma won over Florida, he would have beat me (414 to 412) for second place. No one could catch the top finisher since the Kentucky game.

I'll admit that I wasn't completely blind in how I determined who had a shot at winning. I put the most points on USC winning the Rose Bowl. That seems a given. What's the USC without winning? I also picked teams that had reputations for winning (Nebraska, Michigan, Texas, Florida). I lost points picking Air Force, BYU, and one other team I can't recall right now. But I never expected to rank as high as SECOND place. What this proves to me is that using intuition to make my picks paid off. Okay, so I didn't exactly win a Ben Franklin, but I am quite happy beating the rest of the sports fanatical bunch. Me, the non-sports obsessed person beating out all those who actually watch games, read the sports section, and fill their brains with mindless statistics...what an awesome victory.

One of my dad's complaints about the men his age at the church congregation he attends is that none of them share his love of sports. I'm certain that his big disappointment in me is that I couldn't care less about sports. I always thought it was weird how much it mattered to him. Why should he care that I don't care to watch sports (save for the Olympic Games, my only sports-watching indulgence)? All of my friendships with other guys, none of them are big sports watchers or followers either. I didn't really think about it much until a few years ago when I was trying to find a common thread with all of my friends...when it hit me that none of us are the stereotypically obsessed with watching every game every single weekend and during the Thanksgiving and Christmas/New Year's periods. I don't want to offend anyone by saying this, but I'll say it anyway. I kind of had the belief that obsessive sports watching indicated a life without imagination. It was passive and maybe a bit psychological in which men project whatever internal disappointments they have about life into their favourite teams. Honestly, why should I feel euphoric because my city's team won some game?

In a New Agey newspaper that comes out six times a year, I found an interesting article written by Matthew Fox (no, not that Matthew Fox--of the Lost series), who wrote the book below. I'll quote an excerpt from the article that said exactly what I've been thinking for years.

As long as men are bogged down in superficialities--many of which our consumer-driven economic culture strives to addict us to--we will not be our real selves, our best selves, our most beautiful selves. We get into a locked squirrel cage of work, work, work and spend, spend, spend and have no time for asking, "Why am I here? What can I contribute? How do I give back my love and gratitude and wisdom?"

We are foolish to think that we are on earth to watch an infinite number of games of other men (not us!) playing their hearts out to put balls in a hoop, pitches in the strike zone, footballs over the goal line or a golf ball in a hole. Sports have their place, both personal and vicarious, but only a place. Not the space that our souls should be occupying. Not the space that should be communicating with the younger generation, so many of whom need relationships with elders and adults, males modeling how to live, love, relate, celebrate, care, learn and grow.

In the past, on the unofficial church webboard that I left last year because of ongoing disagreements with radical feminists, one of the arguments that got me into trouble for years was my use of "generalities." It is my belief that there are distinct characteristics between male and female. This is not indicative of all people in each gender, but a general characteristic that is biological and psychological in nature that probably goes back to our origins as a species when humans lived in caves. I believe that "masculine energy" is obsessed with QUANTITY (seen most obviously in many men's desire for multiple sexual partners) while "feminine energy" is obsessed with QUALITY (seen most obviously in many women's desire to have a home and all the comforts that go along with it).

That doesn't mean that ALL men are obsessed with quantity (as I am not) nor ALL women obsessed with quality. It's just a general characteristic. There's more to my theory than just the argument over quantity versus quality, but for this post, I'm just saying that I believe that one of the purposes for men and women to marry is to better the other half and smooth out the undesireable traits. Its what happens when you mix colours...a new colour emerges.

What's this have to do with sports? Well...when I hear many men argue sports statistics (as I did in the Navy), I often thought, "what a waste of brain power!" Sports statistics are irrelevant in the grand scheme of things. But I also believe that the male obsession with statistics in general and with quantity is the reason why our capitalist system is failing. We want more and more and more, without realizing that we can't have more and more and more. Capitalism may have defeated feudalism (through it's earlier stage of merchantilism), fascism, and communism...but it can't compete with mother nature, which has a tendency to smack down anything approaching unsustainability.

Getting back to gloating about my second place finish...here's my parting message: I don't obsess over sporting statistics and didn't spend more than 10 minutes picking teams and points allocated for each game, yet I made it to second place. Intuitive hunch? You bet. I will remember this "victory" as a sign that I am focusing on the right thing: to become more intuitive and spiritual, and to spend little thought on trivialities that too many people obsess over. Remember: your focus determines your reality.

Flashback Friday: Short Circuit

This week's Flashback Friday focuses on the 1986 movie, Short Circuit. When I saw this film in theaters, I remember choking because I thought it was so funny. Number Five's "malfunction" was simply hilarious and he's certainly one of cinema's most memorable characters (a mechanical "E.T.").

In case you've never seen it, it's about a company (NOVA) that made robots for governmental use as a powerful weapon. Model Number 5 got struck by lightning and "short circuited." It disobeyed orders, went off on its own, and manages to leave the company's property and end up at an animal lover's house. The lady, Stephanie, thinks she's visited by an alien from space and proceeds to teach Number 5 about everything he needs to know to function on our planet. Number 5 soaks up "input" with remarkable speed, but soon, Stephanie discovers that he's merely a robot and gets angry. They learn that something remarkable happened to Number 5...he's no mere robot. Number 5...is alive!

Adventure and comedy continue with NOVA people coming after their pricey, malfunctioning robot, and Newton (played by Steve Guttenberg), along with his sidekick with a hilarious Indian accent, are caught in the middle. NOVA wants to destroy Number 5, Newton wants to fix the malfunction, and Stepanie and Number 5 want to prove that he is alive.

I remember when I first saw the film in the 1980s, I thought the scenery was awesome and wanted to live in the area where it was filmed. I actually didn't know that it was filmed in and around Astoria, Oregon until recently. After my family's drive along the Oregon coast and to Astoria last October, I watched the film to see if I recognized any of it. Sure enough, the scenes in Astoria brought a sort of deja vu. "Hey! We were just there!" That was pretty cool. Astoria has also been seen in films like The Goonies and Kindergarten Cop. It's a town of about 10,000 to 12,000 residents, with Victorian homes on steep hills. It's nicknamed "the San Francisco of the North." The town is located at the mouth of the Columbia River and has an awesome bridge to Washington.

Short Circuit is one of the rare comedies that can always elicit a laugh from me, no matter how many times I've seen it. One of the interesting things about the film is the idea that Number 5 finally convinces Newton that he's alive by laughing at a joke. Newton, always the scientist, wasn't convinced until that point. Number 5 was nothing more than a computer program that does what the programmer tells it to. When Number 5 turns three of the other models into a Three Stooges parody, Newton is the only one who found it funny. Maybe the film is on to something...where a sense of humour is seen as a mark of intelligence.

In 1988, the sequel came out and it was a major disappointment. Gone were Newton and Stephanie (supposedly living life in Montana, as hinted at the end of the original film). Instead, Number Five (self named "Johnny 5") hangs out in New York with the sidekick character, played by Fisher Stevens. It was unmemorable and unnecessary. And it bombed at the box office. Proof that lightning doesn't strike twice for some stories.

I've seen online some comparisons between the robot in Short Circuit and the one in Wall-E. The similarities are a bit too curiously similar, that it makes you wonder if Number 5 served as the inspirational model. Anyhow, after this film came out in the 80s, I wanted a robot of my own someday. Now, however, I've read enough about "artificial intelligence" where I don't think I would want one (see I, Robot if you still think robots are harmless and cool). I'll stick with the Hollywood fantasy version of a robot.

The Song of Roland (and Other Political Tales)

Too much drama in the Senate! First, Governor Blagojevich threw a political grenade at Democrats by appointing a 71 year old Illinois state public servant, Roland Burris, to replace Barack Obama in the Senate even after Democrats warned him not to. This selection is so cynical, you have to wonder about the Governor's decision. He seemed to be daring Democrats to not seat Burris in the Senate...lest they be accused of racism. But charges of racism flew anyway towards Senator Harry Reid, who supposedly wouldn't accept Jesse Jackson, Jr. as a Senate replacement for Obama either. From an article I read online somewhere, Reid supposedly thinks an African-American replacement would be harder to hold the seat in the next election. If this is true, it only shows how clueless the hapless and milquetoasty Senator Reid truly is. Illinois is the only state that sent not just one, but the only two African American senators to Congress: Carole Moseley Braun in 1992 and Barack Obama in 2004.

Burris should have known he was being used by Blagojevich in a cynical ploy and refused to take part. He has to know that he's little more than a "placeholder" until the voters of Illinois pick someone else to represent them. He'll have an indistinguished term in office.

This reminds me of something else that annoyed me. When Congressman Rahm Emmanuel accepted Obama's offer to be Chief of Staff, there were reports that he wanted a "placeholder" selected to keep his Congressional seat warm for the next four to eight years, so he can once again resume representing the district he is giving up. What kind of bullshit is that? It just tells people that these politicians view political office as their property and not an honour given by voters of a district.

That's not the only "placeholder" in play. Senator Joseph Biden had the governor of Delaware appoint an indistinguished public servant to fill his seat in the Senate until his son Beau can run in the next election. Beau Biden is currently the Attorney General of Delaware and serving in Iraq with his unit. Political pundits expect him to easily win his father's Senate seat in 2010.

In other dynastic news...former President George Herbert Walker Bush gushed in an interview that he would love to see his son Jeb Bush run for Senate in Florida and then to run for President! Is he for real?!? After pulling strings to help his ne'er-do-well slacker of a son to become president and see the damage done, he wants to screw America over again?!? Yeah, Jeb might be the smarter brother, but enough is enough. Two horrible Bush presidencies is too much. The best gift they can give to the American people is to disappear. Forever!

Jeb, fortunately, has decided against running for the Senate seat in 2010. The news of his announcement occurred on the same day thousands of shoes were dumped on the Palmetto Expressway in Miami that tied up traffic for hours. News didn't know if the shoes were a result of an accident or a prank (or maybe Imelda Marcos was in town?). Sounds to me like it was a message sent and delivered. As the Bush family probably understands: mission accomplished! Perhaps Jeb got the hint. He is supposedly "the smart one" after all!

If anyone can prove the importance of voting, Senator-elect Al Franken can. Minnesota has finally revealed that Franken won by a mere 225 votes over Senator Norm Coleman (a friend of Bush). The whole close election vote count had shades of 2000 all over it, but this time, it's sweet that the good guy won. Of course, Coleman is a whiner who won't give up power without pursuing legal action (exactly the strategy Bush had in place if he had won the popular vote but lost the electoral vote in 2000). This story isn't over yet, and Republicans in the Senate are refusing to allow Franken to assume his seat until the legal matter is settled (by the Minnesota Supreme Court?).

I read a funny comment on the DailyKos, in which someone had pointed out that Coleman had lost against Jesse Ventura in the 1998 Governor's race. So, in ten years, he lost elections against a professional wrestler and a comedian. That won't look good on any resume! However, Coleman was elected to the great progressive Senator Paul Wellstone's seat in 2002. There is a lot of speculation that Wellstone's plane accident a month before the election was the result of foul play (it had too much in common with Missouri's Senate candidate Mel Carnahan's plane crash close to an election in 2000). Senator Wellstone was the most outspoken politician about Bush's push towards war and people believed that Wellstone was likely to run for president in 2004 (Howard Dean filled his void). The outspoken funeral (which Al Franken was a part of) outraged some for its political message and poor Walter Mondale was pulled out of retirement to lose yet another election. I felt bad for him. Wasn't losing in the '84 Reagan landslide humiliating enough?

I'm glad that Wellstone's Senate seat is back in the hands of a progressive Democrat. A lot of Republicans seem to hate Franken, especially Bill O'Reilly. I've even heard conservatives claim that liberals shouldn't complain about Rush Limbaugh since we have our own in Franken. Not true. Rush is a lying propagandist while Franken is actually funny, fair, and satirical. I know it may seem like bias, but I've read his Lies and the Lying Liars Who Tell Them, and he backs up his critiques of Limbaugh, O'Reilly, and Coulter with references. Besides, there's a huge difference between a man of the people tearing down people in powerful positions with satire and ridicule taken from truthful statements or events versus a powerful person who belittles common people or anyone who runs against the interest of the powerful. Rush and company are spokespersons for the powerful, little more than propagandists sprouting lies to ignorant people to get them to focus their anger over declining wages and lack of health care and job opportunities on minorities and other scapegoats rather than the politicians who can make a difference.

Go Franken!

Another recent controversy only reminds me of the racism inherent in the Republican party when the person who hopes to be the next Republican National Committee Chairman had sent a CD of song spoofs to voting members in the hopes that he'd get a leg up on his opponent. The CD included a song called "Barack the Magic Negro" (a rightwing parody of "Puff the Magic Dragon"). This song was taken from Rush Limbaugh's radio show. It just isn't very shocking to me, because I believe that the Republican Party is like a Country Club, which is a modern day "White Citizens Councilors" sort of organization. Republicans capitalized on the white backlash against the Civil Rights movement (with the integration of schools, neighbourhoods, and public facilities). Country Clubs have the notorious reputation for excluding minorities from membership. The Republican Party has operated much like an exclusive Country Club in their disdain for minorities (as one could see from the McCain and Palin rallies last fall). So, anyone who gets shocked by a Republican's racism becoming public needs to open their eyes. The 2000 Republican National Convention in Philadelphia was the biggest minstrel show of all time. All the African Americans were on stage, performing before a white audience.

The joke is on the Republicans though. They still live like it's 1959 rather than 2009. America is multi-cultural and looking for a change from the reactionary disaster that the Bush brand represents. So, I say...let the Republicans play their stupid parodies. Maybe someday soon, they'll be wearing white sheets in a pathetic attempt to get attention. I doubt most Americans are interested in anything that party has to offer. They wrecked our country and the best thing we can all do is treat them like they don't matter or don't even exist. Just keep on focusing on what the American people want. Republicans can stew in their jealousies for all I care.

Obama met with the four remaining ex-presidents for a special lunch. The news said this is the first time all presidents met together since 1981. Unlike when Clinton met with his predecessors (Nixon, Ford, Carter, Bush) early in his term, I think it's great that Democratic presidents outnumber the Republican ones for once. Hopefully Bush will be the last Republican president in history. Which reminds me of a joke. Why don't Republicans believe in evolution? Because they started with Lincoln and ended up with Bush.

Obama continues to surprise in some of his selections...such as Leon Panetta to head the CIA. I've read, though, that this is a sign of desiring to change the way the CIA operates because of the whole distasteful torture policy. If Panetta is confirmed by the Senate and heads that organization, I hope he will bring some much needed changes. However, I read that Panetta had supposedly told friends that he wouldn't mind being Commerce Secretary. Now that Richardson has removed himself from being confirmed, I think it might be a wise move. Honestly, I'm glad Richardson backed out. I thought he was wrong for Commerce Secretary. He was a natural for Secretary of State, but Hillary Clinton might do an effective job.

Sounds like the Governor of New York is leaning towards appointing Caroline Kennedy as Senator. I've read a few articles and think that Kennedy might better serve in a more diplomatic role than a Senatorial one. She'd make a great Ambassador to the United Kingdom (is it still called "The Court of St. James"?). Or even Ireland. Does she have what it takes to be Senator? Though I'm a big fan of the Kennedy family, I'm still leery about all these "legacy appointments" to public office. We've become a country obsessed with "brand names." Our government should be free of it. Competence and experience should always matter more than name recognition.

One more thing about Obama's cabinet appointments. I'm disappointed that I haven't heard anything about Atlanta Mayor Shirley Franklin being named to a position (I think she'd be great for Secretary of Housing and Urban Development). I'm also disappointed that Obama didn't select Oregon Congressman Earl Blumenauer for Secretary of Transportation. He so wanted it and had he been selected, it would've created a vacancy to be filled, which might cause a change reaction elsewhere (had City Commissioner Randy Leonard been appointed to fill Blumenauer's seat, that would leave a vacancy on City Council, by which Charles Lewis might be able to run again and win this time, since he has the highest name recognition among all the also-ran city council candidates). Oh well. I'm just ready for the new president to assume office. This feels like the longest transition ever. I just want Bush to go already, never to be heard from again (unless it's to face a War Crimes Tribunal).

Remembering My Crazy Aunt Marie

On New Year's Eve, my cellphone rang while I was at work and when I saw that my dad was calling, I knew it wasn't good news. He generally calls me late at night...so when its during the daytime, I know to brace myself. Will it be my grandfather, my Great Uncle Jim (my favourite relative), or someone shocking?

Just as I guessed, my dad was calling to let me know about a death in the family. However, it's my Aunt Marie. My CRAZY Aunt Marie. You can see her picture above, taken at our family reunion in May 2005 (the camera date stamp is wrong). My feelings are mixed because I never knew what to think of her. And honestly, I worry about the state of her soul.

Here's a background. My father is the second of five boys. His older brother, Ron, is the most similar to him. They are 13 months apart and many thought they were twins growing up. When I was growing up, Uncle Ron was my favourite uncle. His personality and mannerisms are a lot like Clark Kent (Christopher Reeve's version), so I thought he was the real Superman when I was a kid. When my dad was stationed in Thailand and Taiwan in the late 60s and early 70s, his brother Ron lived in Japan. Both were in the Air Force. Ron loves Japan, learned Japanese, and once had a Japanese girlfriend that my dad thought he was going to marry until their dad talked him out of it. I guess my grandfather couldn't tolerate two of his sons marrying Asian women. It's a shame. It would have been great to have mixed-race cousins the same age as me. My dad and his brother Ron are the same intelligence level and I remember hearing them talk about a wide range of topics when I was just 4 and 5.

In the early 1980s, Uncle Ron met a divorced lady (Marie) with at least 6 children. I only met the four youngest, and the youngest one (Jeff) was the same age as me. The kids were wild! I had a crush on Marie's daughter Pamela, who was a couple years older than me. She looked a lot like actress Elisabeth Shue in The Karate Kid and after that movie came out, I teased her about it. To this day, I can't watch that film without thinking of Pamela, because they looked and acted so much alike (everyone supposedy has a body double...or two, Pamela's happens to somewhat famous).

Marie took a lot of getting used to. She had a Jekyll and Hyde personality. She could be extremely thoughtful, funny and pleasant while showing flashes of what I called "the witch." Once, when my sister (who was about 3 or 4 at the time) was eating breakfast, Marie would scream at her for no reason. She liked startling people. And embarrassing them. She would tell the most inappropriate sexual jokes...with her husband as the butt of many of them. On more than a few occasions, while we were visiting a tourist site, she would go up to a pretty girl at the cash register and ask her to go out on a date with me! You'll never see me blush that red again!

My uncle's marriage to Marie brought a lot of drama into our relatively drama-free family. My grandmother would often mention the latest outrages and controversies in letters to us while we lived in Germany. I became pretty close to cousin Pamela. While I often wondered what my uncle saw in this woman, I wasn't like some of my relatives who wished that he never married her because I was happy to know Pamela, whom I wouldn't have met otherwise.

The reason why I worry about the state of her soul is because out of the six or more children she had, all of them ended up in foster care at some point or another in their teenage years. Most of them refused to have any contact with Marie in their adult years...except for Jeff. Cousin Jeff was in the Navy at the same time I was and we happened to be in Norfolk, Virginia around the same time. We hung out a few times, getting to know each other as adults but I ended the friendship when he kept using the word "nigger" in my presence after I repeatedly asked him not to. He claimed to use that word on police officers, not black people...but I didn't want to be walking around while he casually used that word. The incident reminded me that we weren't truly cousins. He had too much of his mother's personality in him. Out of all of her children, he was the only one who maintained a close relationship with her to the very end.

Where will her soul end up? Heaven or hell? Her poor track record as a mother is a huge black mark on her life...but as I learned when I visited Pamela in 2003, she thinks her mother was bi-polar or something. I don't know if that's the case, for bi-polar people don't have abrupt swings, from my understanding. Jekyll and Hyde is more accurate. Its like a switch is turned quickly. We see flashes of evil and good...not manic periods followed by depressive crashes. With Marie, you just never knew when she might jump at you and scream in your face. Then offer to buy you an ice cream sundae and crochet one of her cool items (house slippers, hats, scarves, gloves, and my favourite: a carrot stick stocking to hold Easter candy).

When I was in the Navy, Marie was one of my best penpals. I wrote letters to her and loved getting letters from her. She was so funny on paper. She could make me laugh out loud all the time with her letters. She would send me goodie boxes which proved popular with my shipmates. Its funny how I actually like her best on paper and I cherish her letters (if I still have them...I know I saved the best ones).

That's why I'm left with mixed feelings. I hate that she drove all of her children towards drugs and/or foster homes. Pamela once asked me if she thought my parents would adopt her, because she wanted parents like mine. I would've loved to have her for an older sister.

When my dad told me the news, I didn't tell him what I wanted to. My dad had said that he felt like he lost a brother when Ron married Marie. None of Ron's brothers like Marie. Only my grandmother, mother, and sometimes I would talk to her. What I wanted to tell my dad but didn't was: "now you'll have your brother back." It was difficult to visit or talk to Ron with Marie around because she wanted all the attention. In fact, at my grandmother's funeral, she came in to the funeral home chapel after the funeral had already begun. She did it again at another family funeral. My Uncle John believes that she does it deliberately to get attention. My father worried that she would try that stunt at my sister's wedding in May. Now we don't have to worry about it.

Wherever Marie's soul is, I'm praying that she finds her way into the heavenly realm. She might not like her life review in regards to her children, but when it comes to me, all I can say is that she was a character. Though I was terrified of her as a teenager, I learned to appreciate her as an adult and am grateful that she was a great penpal. Overall, she was incredibly kind to me and I do miss her. As you can see from the photo above, she made me laugh about something. I think she was trying to swipe a finger across my ice cream and I was pushing it away, and then she tried the flirtation technique, but I was having none of it. I tend to recoil when certain people try to touch me. I'm not a touchy or huggy guy, so my natural reaction when certain people touch me is to recoil. Marie is one of those who causes that reaction in me.

She was secretive about her age, so we never knew how old she was. She was probably at least a decade older than Ron and at the 2005 family reunion, I was shocked how much older than grandmother she looked. My mom said its probably the result of hatred and holding grudges. My grandmother was happy and loving until her death in October 2005. You could still see the love in her to the very end. Aunt Marie held grudges and harbored hatreds until she became nothing but a bag of bones. I loved hearing Great Uncle Jim's comments to Marie (the only family member who could out-quip, outwit Marie) at the last family reunion.

She has already been cremated and her memorial service is in Omaha on Friday. I wish I could attend, simply because I would want to share the best part of what I knew about her (her funny letters, her giving nature, and for being a unique individual who taught me a lot about getting to know the complete person and not hold grudges). I'm also interested to see who might show up at her memorial service and what people might say. I remember about a decade ago, Aunt Marie had complained about not getting a priesthood calling and wanted to leave the RLDS Church...but the rest of our family is relieved that she didn't get such a calling.

The Hagmans (Nathan's parents) also know Marie and the last time they saw her at a World Conference several years back, apparently, Marie had choice words to say about me for whatever grievance she had (I stopped writing to her after I got out of the Navy, but I didn't write to most people after the Navy, especially when I switched to e-mail, and now with a Blog, I don't feel a need to write letters, because if my friends want to hear how I'm doing, all they have to do is check my blog and start reading). I know true spiritual people and to hear Wanda Hagman describe my crazy Aunt proves to me how authentically spiritual and kind Wanda is. She calls Marie "an interesting character" and leaves it at that.

I hope my Uncle Ron finds life without her to be liberating and that he and my dad can once again be close as they were in their 20s. I know I look forward to having a conversation with him without being interrupted by Marie's constant need to be at the center of attention. God bless Marie, though, and may she find forgiveness from her children.

Two Years of Blogging

Two years ago on this day, I started this blog. Oddly enough, I wanted to start a blog a couple years earlier after hearing about them during the 2004 election season, but I didn't know how to start one. I actually thought it would cost money like a website. When a couple friends of mine sent me their blog links, it inspired me to start my own.

But what to write about? Occasionally, I read various blogs and generally click on their very first post just to see how they started it. Most of the ones I've read began with an introduction. I never had one. My first blog post was a movie review (for Blood Diamond) and then I didn't write another post for about two weeks. At the time, I didn't know what to write about (I know it sounds hard to believe now, right?) and thought it might just end up being a movie review blog. But, hey, I'm a guy with an opinion and once I found my stride, I have rarely been stumped about what to write. Last year, I broke my own record, as my goal was to write 30 posts a month. I actually had more posts than days in the year for 2008 (Sarah Palin had a lot to do with that in the month of September and October).

Also for 2008, I added a statistical counter to see who was reading my blog, how they found it, and which posts were the most hit. To my shock, the post I wrote in honour of Madonna's 49th birthday (in August 2007) is consistently the #1 post week after week. And that post is so far ahead of the others. It might get 30 hits a week or so, while the second most popular post gets half of that. I've written a few other posts on Madonna, but none have had the lasting power as the one I wrote about her 49th birthday. Go figure.

The most popular Music Video Monday post is France Gall's "Ella, Elle l'a." However, my Music Video Monday selection of Eartha Kitt's "Santa Baby" got over 33 hits in the 24 hours of Christmas and the day after when the news announced her death.

Other popular posts include one in which I wrote about my hope that Marine Lieutenant Seth Moulton (who was one of the subjects interviewed in the excellent documentary, No End in Sight) will run for public office someday and become our generation's first president (in 2020).

Since I didn't start with an introduction in my first blog post, how about if I do one now?

Hello. My name is Nicholas. My last name is not Sansego. That word is one that I "created" back in 2000 or 2001 when I was looking for a word to describe my personal philosophy. Back when I was a student at BYU, I learned in one class that the word "Mormon" was taken from two words in different ancient languages, which combined together supposedly means "more good." At the time I heard the professor make that claim, I thought it was obvious bullshit to make Mormons feel better about themselves when other people refused to call them Latter Day Saints because they were used to calling them "Mormons." Sure...why not? "Mor"="more"; "mon"="good." Whatever.

The idea stayed with me. My favourite language is French. It's beautiful in the way it sounds and in the way its written. With English being the language I speak and French being the language I wish I was fluent in, why not create a word using both languages (like "Mormon" supposedly does)? It was easy to come up with a word because I thought back to my vacation to Berlin in 1997. I went on a tour of Potsdam and saw the Sanssouci Palace. The word "sanssouci" means "without worry." So, I decided to use the French "sans" and marry it to the English word "ego", as I often had debates with one of my best friends about the role ego plays in our religious views even though some aren't aware of it. So, it was just one of those things that came together for me in my "Dark Night of the Soul" period between August 2000 and August 2001. "SANSEGO" = "without ego." For the record, though, I pronounce it "SAHN-say-go" (not "SAHN-see-go").

This doesn't mean that I'm necessarily "without ego," but I strive to be since ego is perhaps the source cause of all strife in the world. I believe ego is part of the human body, so we'll never be entirely rid of it...we just have to learn when ego is trying to overrule our spiritual nature or to know when it's our ego talking rather than our soul.

I didn't know about Google back in 2001, otherwise, I would've checked that word to see what came up. I had never heard of an island in Croatia that goes by the name Sansego (the Italian word). The actual island's name is Susak. A lot of people do Google searches on Sansego and I'm very proud of the fact that my blog is the first one that comes up. I was even surprised to see that somewhere in New Jersey is a "St. Nicholas Society of Sansego." Wow...what an interesting coincidence? Perhaps a sign that I'm meant to have and use that word! In fact, if I'm ever known by anything after I'm gone from this earth, I truly hope that the word "Sansego" is attributed to me along with the definition "without ego."

As for the new blogging year...what can you expect from my blog? Well, dear readers...I will be continuing my Music Video Monday because there are still many videos I wish to showcase on my blog. I will also continue with the Flashback Friday, which will include one album, one movie, and one event or year each month. This year, I will flashback to the years 1979, 1989, and 1999 at various points during the year in special posts.

I am also planning to feature the four sermons I gave in 1998-1999 on some Sundays later on this year. I think they make interesting reading. I will also not only do a "Best of 2009" at year's end, but a "Best of the Zeroes Decade" as well (2000-2009). Yeah, yeah, I know. Officially, a decade would be 2001-2010, but everyone else does it the other way (1990-1999 rather than 1991-2000), so that's the way I prefer.

Political commentary probably won't be as frequent as it was in 2008. It's easy to be the critic and just rip an administration and a political party to shreds. Now that my party is in power, I don't feel a need to harp on them as much as I do on the Republicans...unless something truly outrages me (had there been blogging back in the Clinton years, the Monica Lewinsky scandal would have seen my constant commentary). This is not an indication that I'm too biased towards Democrats, because I have written critical posts about Spitzer, Edwards, Clinton, and Blagojevich this year. My backing away from politics is an indication that I want to focus on a more personal nature for 2009. This year is all about finding a fulfilling career, getting back into the dating game, and most of all...working on writing projects I've put off for three years now. I may even feature a few excerpts from what I'm working on. My goal is to finish one screenplay by May Day. I'd love to have written two screenplays, a short story, and a novel by year's end. We'll see how that goes.

Most of all, this blog will continue along the lines of what I wanted it to be: writing about the inspiring movies I saw, books I've read, music I've discovered, as well as tributes and memorials to the people who have passed into the spiritual realms (not always the people I admire, but also when villainous people die, such as the post I did for Jerry Falwell). I like to keep it open and evolving. Hope you will enjoy reading whatever appears, and leave comments as you wish. Here's to another great blogging year!

Music Video Monday: U2

This is one of my favourite songs by U2. It's "Walk On", inspired by and dedicated to Burmese dissident, 1991 Nobel Peace Prize laureate, and winner of the popular vote in the 1990 elections in Burma: Aung San Suu Kyi. The title of the song comes from the incident that made her a household name in Burma. In 1989, she was at a mass demonstration where the military had set up a roadblock and threatened to kill anyone who walked past a certain point. Guns were pointed at her as threats were made. She continued walking and people who witnessed the event said that she had such a calming, graceful presence that the young soldiers who were ordered to shoot anyone disobeying their orders...they continued to let her walk. That incident transformed her into what she's now known as: a leader with spiritual presence. This moment made it into a scene in the film Beyond Rangoon, which came out in 1995 and starts Patricia Arquette as an American who got caught up in the uprising of 1988-1989.

I especially love the end of the video, when Suu Kyi is on TV saying: "This is not yet the end. We have a long way to go and the way might be very hard, so please stand by." I always laugh when I hear her say that because she has an interesting smile and delivery of that statement. Her sense of humour is just the kind that I know I would love being in her presence and having an in depth conversation with her. To me, Suu Kyi is the woman I admire most in our world. She has all the qualities that I hope to find in a wife someday: intelligent, graceful, spiritual, funny, warm and beautiful.

One of the lines in the song that I love is: "You're packing a suitcase for a place none of us has been / a place that has to be believed to be seen." U2 takes a well known phrase "it has to be seen to be believed" and turns it around into a very spiritual idea. That's truly what heaven is: a place that has to be believed before we can see it. The entire song is great like that...and I love the video because it was filmed in Rio de Janeiro, which is on my list of the top five places I want to see before I leave this life. I love that they ended the video at Cristo Redentor (Christ the Redeemer statue). My novel's opening prologue sequence ends at the Cristo Redentor. It's perhaps one of my favourite structures I've seen in books, which I hope to see in person eventually.

One of the things I'm excited about this year is a new album by U2. It will be released in March. Supposedly, it was scheduled to be released last November, but there was a rumour floating around the Internet that the delay had less to do with Bono's extracurricular activities of trying to be Superman in saving the world, and more to do with an interesting fact: each time U2 releases an album in a U.S. presidential election year, a Republican wins (1980's Boy, 1984's The Unforgettable Fire, 1988's Rattle and Hum, 2000's All That You Can't Leave Behind, and 2004's How To Dismantle an Atomic Bomb). The years they released an album before or after a presidential election (1991's Achtung Baby, 1993's Zooropa, 1997's Pop), a Democrat wins. Interesting theory. If Bono did delay its release in the hopes of not jinxing Obama, then the four month delay is worth it. I truly hope it will be a great album, but All That You Can't Leave Behind is definitely a hard album to top. It's ranked at #3 on my All-Time Favourite Albums.

I'm just glad that they are ending the decade with a new album. They will most likely be "The Band of the Decade" (the way Johnny Clegg and Savuka / Juluka was for me in the 1990s and Huey Lewis and the News was in the 1980s). All those Boomer questions about the Beatles or the Rolling Stones? They can have them both. U2 blows them both away. Almost three decades old and still going strong. When was the last time the Rolling Stones released a great album? Not since the late 70s or early 80s, that's for sure.

So, enjoy this U2 video and always remember the strength it takes to "walk on."

Back to the 80s

For New Year's Eve, I planned an 80s themed party where we got to party like it was 1989 rather than 2009. Vanessa was the host in her wonderfully large apartment. I didn't tell her how to decorate because it was a last minute change from Rachel's apartment. But when I arrived, I was very pleased to see that she decorated with Pac-Man, the ghosts, and dots up on her walls. That was along the lines of what I was thinking.

My idea was basically...wear 80s-style clothing, bring your favourite snack from the 80s, and I would bring my best of the 80s CDs to play continuously. I also planned an 80s trivia contest, featuring questions I found online somewhere (I got rid of the harder ones and kept the ones from the most popular movies, television shows, music, world events, and pop culture). Appropriately enough, there were 80 questions. The person who answered the most (that would be Andy, getting over 21 questions correct) received a prize. We had three prizes, all wrapped or in a gift bag. Andy selected the DVD, which was Ferris Bueller's Day Off. Some had mentioned that it should've been a VHS copy, but that would be hard to find and I think most people have moved away from videotape. Why buy an outdated format? It's like buying an 8-track when a CD is available.

The second prize went for best costume, which we voted on (Survivor-style). Rachel did the honors in tallying the vote and there was no surprise. Christine won in a landslide (I believe she won 7 of the 9 votes cast). She was dressed in a style reminiscent of those Madonna wannabes you probably saw in malls in 1984. Her prize was a CD featuring about 17 hit songs of the 80s.

The final contest was a dance-off to Michael Jackson's "Beat It." I was the judge and went through a process of elimination until it was down to Jarom and Ross, both of whom did an excellent job in "recreating" the dance sequences from the music video. It was hard to decide between the two until Ross went all out and out-danced Jarom. Christine tapped me on the shoulder and indicated that she thinks Ross should get the honours. I was happy to second that opinion. What did he win? A Rubik's Cube!

Vanessa devoted a corner of her living room to preserving our 80s memories with a photo. She tacked up various coloured shapes of scrap paper for background and we laughed because it's just "so 80s!" I remember various album covers with that kind of look (such as Steve Taylor's "On the Fritz" album and Johnny Clegg's 80s albums, "Third World Child" and "Shadow Man"). The photo is of me with someone's Kangaroo brand shoes (I had forgotten about those!). Good thing Bush wasn't in the room or on the television because I would have flung that thing so fast, he wouldn't have had time to duck.

My jean jacket is authentic. I've had that since 1988. The parachute pants aren't so authentic...for I bought it this decade. I never had parachute pants even though I wanted them badly. My dad refused to buy me a pair back in 1984. He knew how faddish it was...so when I saw a pair on sale sometime this decade, I just had to buy it. I've worn it quite a few times...including the snow holiday in Vancouver BC in January 2007.

Those 2009 glasses were given to me by my supervisor at work for my birthday. She said that she wanted me to have a better vision for 2009, to which I replied, "but these aren't even rose-coloured!" The office manager overheard me say that, laughed, and said, "Oh, Nicholas!" I was happy to get those glasses...though the year I really wanted was 2000 and 2002. I never knew where to get them, so I always ended up missing out on them and this is the last year they'll have them until the year 3000 comes around (however, I don't intend to be around then. I hope my reincarnation days will be over long before then!).

At our New Year's party, some watched a movie (Real Genius, from 1985) while others played Apples to Apples (okay, so that game didn't exist in the 80s...we "cheated" a bit!). After the movie, Andy broke out his vintage Atari and people took turns playing Atari's version of Pac-Man (which I hated as a kid because it was a cheap knock off of the arcade game). I played my favourite, Space Invaders (I always loved the music and how nervous I'd get when the aliens sped up near the end). Rachel played Missile Command. All the games Andy had were ones that my family used to own. Man, it brought back memories. I know that computer games have gotten so high tech, realistic, and almost virtual reality (such as Wii, which I haven't played yet)...however, why does a primitive Atari system have such a nostalgic sway over me?

After the countdown, with Dick Clark and Ryan Seacrest leading the way on ABC's Rockin' Eve, we toasted in 2009 with sparkling cider and good wishes. Then we got all serious, as I passed out a Chartres-version Labyrinthe for everyone to use a pen to draw a line to the center as they focused on centering their thoughts on spiritual calmness. Once everyone finished, I had shamefully forgotten my Michael Jackson CD so I could play a reflection song: "Man in the Mirror" before we discussed our year or our hopes for 2009.

Christine gave a heartfelt personal story that truly impressed me by how far she's come and I appreciated her personal advice to me about how to view my current trials at work and with the job search. Of course, Jarom and I both brought up Star Wars references to relate to our experiences. It's great that Star Wars (or actually, Empire Strikes Back) has such a powerful influence on someone else, besides me. I don't feel like such a geek when others include Star Wars references.

It was a fun evening...a great way to welcome in the New Year. After a few hours "reliving the 80s", it was time to "Barack to the Future." With the new year celebration over, the next big thing to look forward to is the Martin Luther King Jr. holiday weekend and the most historic inauguration our country has ever seen. I kind of want to throw a special Inauguration Day lunch at my apartment, but because of the time difference, the swearing in happens at 9 a.m. our time. Not sure when the parade begins, but I'm definitely taking the day off to watch the festivities.

As you can see from the photo, the Pac-Man wall decor was perfect. Vanessa did good. Andy wants a 90s themed New Year's party for next year...but the ball's in his court if he wants to organize it. I just don't feel like the 90s have any "decade-specific" characteristics the way previous decades do. When someone says "1980s" or "1970s" or "1960s" or "1950s", you can visualize clothing style and music from each of those decades. In the 90s, "grunge" music was popular for only a few years, but so was hip-hop and 80s-style pop (without the synthesizers). It was the decade where people really got individualistic to the point that there isn't any true stereotypical clothing style anyone can remember (other than flannel during the short-lived grunge era).

For me, the 90s was about self-discovery as I experienced the Navy and college. I wouldn't even know how to organize a 90s party and I don't think enough time has passed to make it nostalgic just yet. If MAYAs wants a theme party for next year, I'm more in favour of a space-theme (because of the film "2010: The Year We Make Contact"). But, it's a year off and who knows where any of us will be in life? All I hope is for a great year for all of us and for our Young Adult group.

The Best of 2008

Like other people, I love doing "Best of" lists to mark the year that was. It's a way of keeping track of what got my attention, what I loved, what made me think or laugh or just made the year unique from all the others. Hope you enjoy reading what made my "Best of 2008" list.

Best Show on Television

The Palin Family (August -- November)

Okay...so it's not really a television show. For that, Brothers and Sisters would make my list for the second year in a row. For pure family drama, you can't get better than that. However, in a strange year in politics, it was hard to beat the daily stories of dysfunction, hypocrisy, lies, and outrageousness as the family of Todd and Sarah Palin. From naming their kids "hippie" names (Track, Trig, Piper, Bristol, and I forget the other one) to the stories of shooting wolves from a helicopter to eating mooseburgers to $185,000 shopping sprees at Neiman Marcus at Republican donor expense...they truly put the drama in our fall election season. Every single day, you simply could not get better drama than reading the latest controversy about Governor Palin. She beat any soap opera, primetime drama show, and my own supervisor at work.

But in the end, it's the kind of show I'm all too glad to see canceled after a season. There's no way I'd want to endure that drama for the next four to eight years! As if they were addicted to the spotlight, daughter Bristol recently gave birth to a son she named "Tripp." What is with this family and their strange names? Glad that he was born the day before my birthday. Would hate to share a birthday with the poor little guy (whose father, Levi Johnston, had posted on his Myspace or Facebook page that he's a freakin' redneck who doesn't want no kids).

I hope in 2012, the American public will view Palin like a Love Boat reunion show: unwelcome and unnecessary.

Best Music Video

"Crush on Obama" by Obama Girl

How can it be anything but? That video is hilarious and she is totally hot. She brought sexy back to the election (as if our presidential elections have ever been sexy). How true is the video, though? I heard that she's not even the real singer. She's a Milli Vanilli...but the song is a parody that became a huge hit on YouTube. She helped make this election the most fascinating in our lifetime.

Song of the Year

"Don't You Evah," Spoon

When I heard this song play during an opening scene in one episode of Brothers and Sisters, I was hooked and riveted. The sound is awesome. I can't get enough of the unique sound. It is absolutely one of the most aurally pleasing music my ears have ever had the pleasure to hear. This song manages to edge out two other songs I really loved this year: "Into the Ocean" by Blue October and "Forever" by Chris Brown. Any one of the three could have been my choice for Song of the Year, but I have to give the edge to Spoon because the sound is just incredible to me.

Album of the Year

Detours by Sheryl Crow

Sheryl managed to create "the perfect album" with this one. Half of it was inspired by the disasterous wars and post-Katrina fiasco of our incompetent president, the other half was inspired by her painful breakup with Tour de France champion Lance Armstrong. The songs are not only lyrically deep and moving, but the melodies are catchy and this is one album I'd definitely listen to on a road trip (oh, to own a car again someday!). It's fun to blast and sing along to while rolling on the highway (I tried it on my June trip to Northern Idaho).

Best Actress in a Supporting Role

Cate Blanchett, Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull

Though the movie was more hype than anything else, Cate Blanchett as a Soviet agent was a welcome new character. Of course, I have a thing for women in the kind of hairstyle she sports in this film. But, in every movie, Cate brings her unique intensity to the role and owns it outright. When she goes on about waging psychic warfare during the Cold War, it does make you wonder how much of it is based in truth. She is absolutely chilling in this film.

Best Actor in a Supporting Role

Heath Ledger, The Dark Knight

His final role and what a role! Absolutely chilling in his portrayal of an insane and homicidal madman with no point to his violence than just to wage it. This dark portrayal of the clown prince of insanity may or may not have contributed to his early death, but one thing is for certain. He made you forget about Jack Nicholson's role as Joker twenty years earlier. If the two Jokers were to meet up, there's no question that Ledger's Joker would kick Nicholson's Joker's ass. Perhaps the biggest surprise is that this film became the highest grossing film of the year, earning double what Tim Burton's 1989 Batman made ($251 million). In fact, only Titanic has grossed more at the box office. How much of the repeat business was due to Ledger's performance? Though I liked the film, I still thought Batman Begins was far superior to this one, thus why I was surprised that this one made as much as it did. It's sad to know that we'll never see what other roles the talented Ledger would have played with brilliant intensity. And I admit, when I first heard that Ledger was selected to play the Joker, my first thought was: "they must be joking!" No joke, he was that good.

Best Actress in a Lead Role

Katherine Nelson, Emma Smith: My Story

Chances are, you haven't seen this film...especially if you aren't a member of one of the churches that claim some lineage or link to the founding prophet Joseph Smith. This film was funded by a Mormon historical group devoted to preserving the legacy of Joseph and Emma Smith, even though Emma refused to follow Brigham Young west to Utah after the martyrdom of the founding prophet, her husband Joseph. In fact, she was crucial in the formation of the Reorganized Church (now known as the Community of Christ) and holds a special place in the hearts of fellow church members. In all the paintings I've seen of her and from what I've read about her, what struck me about this film is how much Katherine Nelson fits the image I had in my mind of this "elect lady" of the Latter Day Saints movement. I've never heard of her before, but she carries this movie and does so extremely well. The actor who plays Joseph is not nearly as convincing, unfortunately. However, I love bio-pics and this one is about as good as it could be, despite three instances of a Mormon-bias that I believe isn't historically true. But, it's not like my church can afford to make a high quality motion picture about the founding prophet's wife.

Best Actor in a Lead Role

Sean Penn, Milk

What can I say? I love bio-pics! Sean Penn (my Best Director choice for Into the Wild in 2007) simply disappears into the role of Harvey Milk. I forgot that I was watching Sean Penn, he's that good (Tom Cruise isn't nearly so good when he plays a historical character). Though I knew very little about San Francisco's City Councilman other than that he was the first openly gay person to win elected office in the U.S. (back in 1977) and was assassinated after less than a year in office, it was nice to learn that he was a man who truly cared about politics and issues to improve the city we all view as the most liberal and open minded city in America. It wasn't always the case, as I was shocked to learn. Most important, though, he shows what happens when you persist and never give up. Though it took him four defeats, he finally won elected office. Only a few bullets from a mentally disturbed colleague's gun put an end to what he might have accomplished.

Best Director

Gus Van Sant, Milk

I have to give my props to Portland-resident Gus Van Sant for making a surprisingly well-done political bio-pic. I'm not a fan of most of his work (I only like Good Will Hunting and Finding Forrester) but it's hard to ignore his achievement here. He took on a film project that Oliver Stone had once been attached to, and after more than a decade of being talked about in Hollywood, a young screenwriter wrote the script Van Sant felt best represented Harvey Milk's life and set about making the film. By some strange sense of timing, in the film, Milk is fighting against Proposition 6 in California in 1978 which sought to ban homosexuals from teaching and holding other jobs. Thirty years later, as the film was released, California had just endured Proposition 8, which calls for a Constitutional Amendment to ban gay marriages. I don't know what you can say about such serendipitous timing, other than the possibility that Harvey Milk was influencing events from the spiritual realm. No other director this year deserves the "Best Director" honour more than Van Sant.

Best Motion Picture

Priceless

I was torn about this category, between W., Recount, Milk and Priceless. I had hoped for a decisive awe factor with Valkyrie and Australia, but neither rose to the occasion. It's hard for me to say what makes for an outstanding movie that deserves the honour of "Best of the Year." Unlike previous years when there is a clear standout or two, this one fails to have a big picture worthy of such an honour. Though I am making this choice without having seen Frost/Nixon, Doubt, The Curious Case of Benjamin Button or Revolutionary Road, based on reviews, I'm thinking that none of those four have what it takes to overtake my top four favourites. So, I have to go through a process of elimination. While I love W. for the compassionate job it does in portraying the motivations of George W. Bush, I saw the film in October and struggle to remember any clear standout scenes that leaves a lasting impression. Does it deserve the top spot? I'm deciding against it (though I plan to own a copy on DVD).

Recount was another awesome political film this year, but it was made by HBO for airing on cable, rather than in theaters. It features excellent acting by A list actors and does a fantastic job simplifying the complexity of the arguments of both sides in the 2000 election debacle. A couple years ago, the critique about The Queen being among the Academy Awards Best Picture nominees is that it was at best a cable movie rather than a theater-worthy release. That may or may not be a fair critique, but it did garner a Best Actress statue for Helen Mirren. Recount is similar to The Queen in that it could've been released in theaters, though I think the producers wisely saw it as a big HBO release. It probably would've bombed in theaters, due to Americans tendency to not want to revisit that election. It's a great film and that's why I put it on my Best of list, though it doesn't take the top honour.

Milk was a surprisingly well made movie. My complaint is that there were a few scenes that I could've done without. It doesn't take away from my admiration for this movie and the inspirational story it tells, but if I'm going to go with "Best of", I want a film that I can say without a doubt was the Best film I saw in 2008. And that film is undoubtedly Priceless, a French film that was the hit of the Portland International Film Festival in February. I failed to get in, so I had to wait until it made it to regular theaters in the spring.

Out of all the films I've seen this year, Priceless is the only one that has stood out in my mind, not only because I absolutely love Audrey Tautou, but because this film was sheer brilliance. Early on in the film, I felt myself getting bored because it was going in a direction that I found predictable. However, once the twist happens at the end of act one, I was so struck by it that it held my interest to the very end. It was brilliantly done and completely unexpected.

Audrey plays a gold-digger on the French Riviera who prefers her men old (you know...prone to heart-attacks and other old age inflictions) and wealthy. When she meets a dashing young man, he tries to charm her. Trouble is, he's just a waiter at the restaurant of the five star hotel, so he uses up his savings to trick her into thinking that he's rich enough to afford her expensive tastes. I can't really reveal more without spoiling the movie, but it's absolutely charming and worthy of being my selection for the Best Motion Picture of 2008.

Best Moment of the Year

Barack Obama's Rally in Portland on May 18, 2008

Above is a photo I found in a Google search of the rally back in May in which more than 72,000 people showed up to hear Barack Obama speak, two days before the Oregon primary. Since Oregon was one of the last states to vote in the primary, we didn't think we'd get any of the candidates' attention. Pundits all predicted that the nominee would emerge after the Tsunami Tuesday primary in early February when 22 states held primaries and caucuses. Because of the constant back and forth between Obama and Hillary, I was glad that the campaign continued through the Oregon primary. Because of that, I got to meet Chelsea and Bill Clinton, and to participate in one of the most amazing and largest crowds I've ever seen. It was witnessing history in the making. To see all those people from the air, and then to think that pundits are predicting an unprecedented 2 to 4 million people to descend on D.C. for Inauguration Day is just phenomenal. What does 4 million people look like from the air?

Best Quote of the Year

"I can see Russia from my house!" Tina Fey as Sarah Palin

Sarah Palin never said those words, and yet it's almost karmic justice that she'll be remembered for it (the way Gore is remembered for words he never actually said: "I invented the Internet"). No other quote captured Palin in a nutshell. It is probably the most wickedly delicious "you've been served!" moments of the entire campaign. That simple quote boiled down the embarrassingly bad first interview with Charles Gibson in which Palin had the audacity to claim foreign policy experience just for the fact that she's governor of a state that shares a long maritime border with Russia on one side and a border with Canada on the other. Even more startling, she claimed that when Vladimir Putin plans to invade the USA, he would fly over Alaska (I haven't checked, but I'm thinking that Moscow is closest to Washington, D.C. via Europe and the Atlantic Ocean). Her interview confirmed that maybe the winter nights are entirely too long in Alaska, and it interferes with logic and reason.

Tina Fey definitely deserves a lot of credit in helping to bring down Sarah Palin from the poll-boosting introduction and big post-convention bounce McCain experienced. Tina Fey nailed the mannerisms and ignorance of Palin in ways that probably resonated with many people who wondered about this young, inexperienced governor from Alaska. No one could have done it any better.

Other favourite quotes of the year belong to McCain ("The fundamentals of the economy are strong", which he said on a Monday before the market crashed a few days later) and Obama ("Yes we can!").

So, that wraps up an interesting year that was 2008. I'm hoping 2009 will be a little more low key. 2008 was just too exciting with the historical campaigns and dramas. Now, the real work will begin for a tough year as we clean out the mess left by those stinking red elephants.

Welcome to My Year

2008 has been a mixed bag for me. I had fully hoped to have found a new job before the year ended. It was my single goal for the past two years, and yet, as another year ends, I find myself having failed for the second year in a row to find another and better job. Instead, I've had to endure in a job that seems to get worse by the day as co-workers stress out for stupid reasons that I'm certain one day in heaven, they'll realize was absolutely spiritually wrong to stress out over...especially in verbally abusing co-workers and blaming them for their own incompetence.

What can I say...I've had about a dozen jobs since the age of 14 and none of them came near the dysfunction I work with every day. I've only had three jobs that I've hated, but the other two were limited to one year. This nightmare has gone on for more than two years. I have set the intention to the universe since January 2007 that I wanted a new job, yet here I still am. Dare I make a resolution to find another job in 2009? Or is that just taunting the universe to deny what I most desperately want?

Back in August 2007, I was offered a job to work in the North Slope of Alaska for three weeks of every month. I was tempted to take it, but had asked for the weekend to think about it. Because I didn't accept right away, they withdrew the offer. My hesitation was because I had a vision for 2008 that I would work on a political campaign as a volunteer and then land a job in government. I also didn't want to miss out on Young Adult activities during the year. Did I make the right decision? I'm still in a job I dislike and my volunteering didn't get me anywhere, while the Young Adult group with my church had less activities this year than the previous year.

However, I don't regret the decision. Because I made a choice to stay in Portland full time (rather than go with the 3 weeks on/1 week off work rotation between Prudhoe Bay, Alaska and Portland, Oregon), I can count among my blessings this year:

• My two trips to Spokane and Coeur d'Alene.
• Another trip to Vancouver BC, with one of the best church services I've ever participated in
• The Spring Young Adult Retreat at the Lewis River Community of Christ campground
• Joining the Writer's Dojo and meeting the cool founder, who is the same age as me
• Volunteering on two campaigns: Sam Adams and Charles Lewis
• Meeting a great candidate who is the same age as me, but with impressive accomplishments, likeable and ethical personality, and the hope that he will be elected to public office eventually
• Visiting one of my best friends, Nathan and his family in San Diego
• The Amtrak journey from San Diego to Portland
• The week back home in Atlanta to visit family, friends, and former co-workers; meeting my future brother-in-law; and reducing a lot of things I no longer want
• Seeing my dream house in Portland
• Getting to know a few cool looking neighbourhoods by canvassing on the Lewis campaign
• Participating on my third Young Adult Retreat at Samish Island, particularly the hilarious dinner theater I was a part of
• Enjoying my parents visit to Oregon for a week as we saw half the Pacific coast of Oregon and most memorable was the beautiful sunset from the top of the hill at Astoria
• Meeting famous people like Chelsea and Bill Clinton, Shirley Franklin, Joseph Wilson
• Seeing the Retrofits in concert
• Attending the amazingly awesome Obama rally on May 18th with 72,000 other people
• Spending election night at the Lewis campaign headquarters
• Getting hit with several requests from old classmates to join Facebook
  
  

These are the blessings of my year for 2008. The moments I will always be grateful. They are small blessings and for 2009, I really hope for bigger blessings. None will make me happier than a new job with intelligent co-workers who believe in the same ideals or values as me. I want to work in a place that values cooperation over competition, quality over quantity.

What's my resolution for 2009?

I have a few. This year, I will commit to a regular exercise and meditation routine. I have also decided not to buy a digital converter box for my TV, even though I'll miss seeing a few of my favourite shows (Brothers and Sisters, Nightline, the Charlie Rose Show). I figure that now is a good time to cut out television because I want to go to bed earlier and wake up earlier. I also plan to pursue my first love, now that politics will take a back seat. I've been postponing my next writing project for three years now, so I feel an urge once again to write creatively. I have two screenplay ideas and one novel to work on. I will also continue to submit queries to agents on the novel I finished writing in 2004.

I will also focus on keeping a more faithful journal. And as usual, I will continue my diverse reading schedule. There are five biographies on Jesus that I wanted to read in 2008 but will in 2009.

As for travel, all I have planned is to attend my sister's wedding in May. If I have a better paying job, then I'd like to visit both San Francisco and Washington, D.C. later on this year. If I'm still working where I'm currently working by the time my sister's wedding rolls around, then I will start the process for getting a private contractor job in Iraq or Afghanistan. My preference is to remain in Portland...but only if it means a new job. We shall see how the year unfolds.

I'm optimistic, as I usually am at the start of the new year. I truly hope that the dark years are behind me. I can tell you one thing I've learned in the last two years. Dark Nights of the Soul are hell to go through, but it's a spiritual process designed to make you a better person. I truly hope that my trials at work have made me a better person. But I'll let God be the judge of that.

Have a great new year! Hopefully, you have picked some good resolutions with the intention of keeping them. I fully intend to make this last year of the decade a win. After a decade of loss, it's time for a year of abundance, manifestation, and dreams coming true.